new EA app uninstalled Origin

I have been happily playing TS3 for about a month now. I went to play this morning and got Origin saying I need to update the EA app. I've been playing thru the Sims3 desktop app and it bypassed EA  and Origin. Now it won't work at all

@indycutie  As it turns out, some people can't go back to Origin anymore.  I don't know why, or who exactly is affected, only that it's the unfortunate reality.

For the EA App not loading, do you see an error message on-screen?  Do you see anything at all when you try to launch the App?

@indycutie If you have been using the EA app beta you need to unnistall - download the EA app again and install the EA app (yea - don't ask). If you were using Origin you were redirected to the EA app. The sims 3 EA app has been fixed (or so I thought) and now everything is working (well it was last night). Well it was working last night. My store items got nuked - AGAIN! At this point I really don't know what to tell you except I've uninstalled, reinstalled, repaired how many times I lost count. This has been going on for about 3 weeks now and I'm back were I started - wthl a game that doesn't work!

@indycutie  We can try to troubleshoot the EA App issues if you want, but as long as you can play through Origin, I'd stick with that instead.  Since the App is still getting updated, it's always possible that your particular issue will be resolved by the time you're forced to switch for good.

@indycutie  The first question is whether Sims 3 is running slowly in any save, or just this one.  Please start a new save for comparison and let me know how it runs.

Please also describe what you mean by lag and slow play in more detail.  Some symptoms may seem similar but can have different root causes.

@indycutie  Please try playing while your computer is offline.  You can sign into Origin and put it in offline mode, then disable wifi and/or disconnect the ethernet cable before pressing Play.

If that doesn't help, I'd like to see a new dxdiag.

@indycutie  Click Reply (not Quick Reply), and below the text field, find the Browse button (next to a paper clip) icon.  Click that and select your dxdiag, and the file should attach to a post.

Hopefully this file is here, I'm not sure

@indycutie  I see the dxdiag, and I also see why Sims 3 might be lagging: your computer is quite underpowered for the game.  That doesn't mean you can't play, obviously, but it does mean that you'll need to lower the overall load on your computer as much as possible.  So that means not running anything else alongside Sims 3, not even a browser.  Playing while offline can also be helpful, so please try that if you haven't already.

And unfortunately, any issues with the game will be exacerbated when you're running a well-progressed save, which will take more resources to run than a new one, or playing in a world that has its own issues, or even playing in a full or overstuffed household.  Running NRaas StoryProgression also increases the game's resource use.

There are a number of tips here that can help:

https://www.nraas.net/community/TIPS-FOR-BETTER-GAME-PERFORMANCE

I don't think there's really much you can do beyond the above, at least not with your current computer.  But even small changes on the margins may make the game playable again.

@indycutie  An overloaded save can definitely exacerbate lag and other performance issues, as the game engine has more data to keep track of and more sims to push around.  The comfortable maximum varies from one world to another and depending on which expansions you have installed, but regardless of where you play, more resident sims means more demands on the game engine and by extension on a system that's already struggling to keep up.

I don't know how many sims make up these 50 households, but 150 sims overall would be close to the limit in any world, and over it in some.  Well-made worlds like Sunset Valley and Riverview seem to handle larger populations better than others.

@indycutie  Overloaded personal inventories can certainly impact game performance.  I try to keep my sims' inventories reasonably close to empty and dump everything in the fridge or in World Adventures treasure chests.  There might be a delay in opening the fridge or one of the chests, but much better that than constant lag.  It's less common for the household inventory to be the issue though.

Still, you could try selling everything (and I do mean everything) in all inventories and reloading the save to see whether it helps.  Use "save as" and rename the save so you can revert to the original after the test.  If performance is better, you can go back and be more selective in what you sell.

Without mods, Sims 3 will generate immigrants for pretty much no reason at all.  The main mod that stops this immigration is NRaas StoryProgression, but as mentioned, it's a heavy mod and might make things worse overall.  I think there might be a standalone mod that stops immigration, but I can't remember exactly where I read that.  If you're interested and can't find one, let me know, and I'll look around.

In the interim, the easiest way to stop sims from moving into a house is to remove the fridge.  This will stop resident sims from moving in as well, but you could manually move families around in Edit Town instead, putting back the fridge immediately beforehand.