Same issues here. Downloaded Lazy Duchess' Sims 3 Launcher with the hope to bypass the launcher altogether however this doesn't work, the EIG still opens as if I had clicked play on the launcher and doesn't close correctly either. I don't believe they will fix this unless enough people shout about it. I was watching several YouTube create a world series and wondered why none have updated in the last few months - now I understand why - nobody can use a critical function of the game... A whole community once again having their fingers crossed for a talented modder to create a patch and clean up EA's mess.
@SimPoppy If you're still here, a few of us have posted workarounds. As of March 2023, I can say that they work. They are:
1. Download older version of Origin, turn off automatic updates, go offline, then add one line of code to local.xml file.
This is the quickest and cheapest way to keep using CAW and EIG. The only issue is that it's anyone's guess how long players can keep doing this, since there may come a day when they switch the servers off so it's unusable.
2. Uninstall your game and switch to all discs and patch to 1.67.
Cheap if you or someone else you know already has the discs, not so cheap if you don't. (It will mean bumming copies off of eBay).
3. Switch to Steam and use registry hack to get CAW to work there.
Again, cheap and easy if you already own a Steam copy of TS3, but expensive if you don't, as you'll have to rebuy everything.
I'm not re-downloading the older platform and adding code for it to work today, when tomorrow it might not as you say. I've already spent over £300 for all the games on Origin so I don't feel like spending anymore money or my time hunting on eBay for discs. Neither do I feel like giving EA another £120 for the same games just on another platform - I hope nobody has given EA more money because of this broken feature that clearly a lot of people care about.
Fortunately I have got EIG to work without spending anymore money, unfortunately I can't say much more here.
Thank you for the workarounds!
I have this problem too, tried to used modded launcher too, or game without any mods, but nothing worked.
From my perspective the problem has really trivial cause. After clicking "Edit in game" button, Create a World Tool tries to open the game directly, by skipping the launcher. Origin had added that program to exceptions and allowed it to open the game by itself. EA app doesn't have this program in exceptions and doesn't allow it. When I try to use Edit in Game mode, CAW tries to open the game and skip the launcher, by then EA app interrupts it, stops the process, and then launch the game by it's own basis just regularly opening the launcher. So the right process which was supposed to happen, was just broken in meanwhile.
I don't know if adding this program to exceptions in EA app resolve all the problems, but it's worth to try at first place. Don't know how if EA app and Origin are similar in coding, or are on competely different engines, but developers should check out how it was resolver in case of Create a World Tool. Cause Origin allowed to use it and launch the game with it's own method.
CAW is located usually in:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Create a World Tool
but for odd reason, folders are named in different way for each language version. For example, for polish language version the path looks like this:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\Narzędzie The Sims 3 Stwórz świat
...
But the thing that doesn't change, is inside of these folders. Create a World Tool is simply called "CAW.exe" and as I said, it's located in these path above. Maybe players playing in other language versions will paste the exact location in their case too. What I try to say, is that it's worth to start here and add "CAW.exe" to exeptions, so EA app would allow it to open the game on it's own way (without the launcher), to simply edit the worlds and let simmers end their long term projects in game.
Hope I can mention there EA's employees @EA_Cade
I happen to have bought all my The Sime 3 stuff via Steam. (So, I am not sure why the Origin app is even being used... maybe because I registered over there or something.)
Anyway, I am tempted to installing from Steam again (32 GB to download!) and using your "registry hack" idea. However, I do not know what that is. Could you please elaborate on that process?
I appreciate your and everyone else's time on this. Clearly, the The Sims 3 fanbase is a live and well.
Thank you!
Snootch
@SnootchDog I believe this is what the other player meant:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=277022926
This is the standard way to make CAW work in a Steam install.
