Thank you SO much for the reply.
Three questions, Rumbutter --
which bottle spawner did you use?
how many bottles had you picked up when you got credit?
did you learn scuba on the character who got the badge?
I'm game to try anything at this point.
For example, on the uncharted islands badge, I completed it the "long way" twice -- and playing in IP is dodgy enough with how laggy it is, only to have it fail both times. The first time I had a 3 sim household I was working on a lot of badges simultaneously (the aforementioned 40+ remaining) -- and I realized oops I bet it won't work. The next time I went with a solitary sim, and it just didn't give me the badge even though I played through opening all of them. I figured some weirdness might be going on because of all of the other mechanics that happen at the same time an island is "unlocked." And I even tried the "perfect student" trick (going with the lifetime wish) in case it was a hidden requirement. No luck.
So I had stumbled on the cheat code in my research about that badge, and I did a third game, started it, just entered the cheat code, Voila. Finished the badge. I didn't feel badly cheating since I'd earned it two times over and just wanted credit.
I had a similar issue with the 6 diplomas one, I earned them all the hard way (going to uni) on one sim, no badge. So I started up a game, gave myself some LTH, and then bought the diplomas. I'm well aware of how finicky things can be. I don't mind that I had to write 200+ books for the author one, and I even managed to *finally* get gratified gifter.
Just never had to make *so many* attempts on a badge before. (Over 10 now, and still at it. I just don't want to be trying to do something if it's literally broken.)
On this one, the messages in bottles, I have some hundreds of bottles across so many games. I did in fact try placing bottles in lots in other games. I had read that they *had* to be in the water. I had previously collected more than ten from a land-placed spawner but again that variation had more than one sim in the game.
I will give your way a try. I spent all day so far trying to get installed someone else's rebuilt IP. Fingers crossed, first time it crashed. This time it seems stable, maybe I missed a hidden cache file. Going from a 'fresh' game folder this time. (At least with Origin it's so super fast to reinstall if I have to.)
It's not a platinum badge so it can't be something arcane like 10 of the rare map/island unlocking ones, or map pieces etc. I suspect it's just plain old bottles and I'm just having some weird problem.
And last night when I was showing 265/265 badges but 11/12 IP badges? Now it's weirder. After letting all my data rebuild, it's saying:
266/266 badges (heh)
45/71 The Sims 3 (but all are shown as acquired)
75/72 Career
18/12 Island Paradise (but the bottle one is still shown as not acquired)
42/47 Showtime
4/2 Family
24/20 Platinum
94/91 Silver
10/7 Social
39/37 Daily Life
Now I KNOW I had all of the badges up to the time University was released, and I know they had removed some, I just don't know what (like that strange crowd going to a park on brooms one perhaps, not sure, but I've picked up bits in trying to find clues on how to finish this one that some have been removed).
I just find this really peculiar.
Anyways, thanks so much both of you for the responses here. I guess most people who care about it already finished with this stuff long ago on the officials.
