Hey folks, Some know me as Dante, and some know me as DarkCloud... either way I can confirm that most mods (non-core) are not part of the problem with the Sims suddenly being stuck in place/object. I have really ripped open all my mods and re-written them including the mods submitted for use by others. Mind you however... I don't use core mods... quite simply I like to play the 'actual game' not a heavily modded version... however I don't like watching my Sims read skill books for ages or have to bounce back and forth for simple things like fish.
However... both with mods active and with mods removed (I can't believe I actually managed to try that)... the problem continued. I've even tried re-routing some of the Sims movement capability in ways displayed in my studio (Bonzai Lounge elevator getting stuck).
My view on what I've seen code wise of this error is it mainly involves the lack of time-out functions. For instance... if you have a Sim do a particular action such as wash dishes and then suddenly get said Sim stuck... it times out and the Sim moves to the next objective which is to put that plate down. This thought process wasn't brought into a time-out code for other actions such as trying to get into an elevator or many other actions in Late Night (I've heard it happening outside of Late Night also but this may be related). Because of this... Sims constantly attempt to do certain actions that are within the boundaries whatever level of freedom you have enabled. Not only will the Sim constantly try to do this... without a time-out functionality... it will continuously try and others will also and a build up of code begins to emerge.
This build up causes extensive lag and also ends up being such a conflict that it keeps other code from going through. Even for things that do have time-outs at that point... it gets to the point where the next action simply can't be enabled because the game code is too flooded. This also may be causing crashing in lower end systems, freezing, etc. This can also cause memory leaks and that leads to other errors such as the dreaded memory leak error that keeps you from saving. This error can be fixed in SOME ways by modders... however this problem was created by a general lack of forethought by EA. The other main issue is that their game testers will test the game to an extent... but this set of problems takes time to build.
Just some thought from a fellow game modder/architect.
Oh and P.S., your Sims require a code that tells your game whether or not to display them... ever notice how you can't see your Sim in a rabbit hole? Well if codes are being flooded or the system is attempting to do so much that it can't get to the next codes... this can cause your (our) inviso Sims.
