So in a bizarre roundabout way I wound up solving the problem (for the moment anyway). I hadn't touched it since I'd had no real problems before, but apparently something in my cc folder has gone corrupt and that was the issue. I'm currently reinstalling all my store content (since that disappeared in all the reinstalls), so I can't go deep into the game just yet, but I'll keep you apprised as to how it all goes. For now though you've been a tremendous help and I can't thank you enough for your time and patience in sticking with me through this. I'll post here to confirm our success.
@Iluin I'm surprised that bad cc would stop the game from loading only after you'd been using it for a while. Bad cc often stops the game from loading as soon as it's present, and it can cause crashing while playing a save only once it's been used, but this particular outcome is odd. Are you absolutely sure the cc didn't install alongside something else, like a household or lot? It's not uncommon for cc to stick to an upload.
At any rate, if you know the answer is your cc, and the game works now that you've removed it, that's the important part. Please do let me know how things go from here.
Will do. I agree that it is rather odd. I would have understood broken mods doing something like this, but this was an issue even before the new patch and persisted even after I'd cleared out other mods like NRAAS and No Intro. I do have tools like Delphy's Dashboard which check CC Integrity and I'll probably use that to check the folder for corrupt and broken CC. The only other mods I hadn't tested before removing the mod folder were a ladder fix and a mod addressing inconsistencies with the zodiac signs assigned to sims at birth. I will say the EA App and the game didn't recognize my old store content at first, so I had to redownload all that and purchase a world bundle on the EA app to make sure I could still have it in my game. I also rebooted my pc to make sure I resolved any issues (which does make me wonder if my efforts were pointless and that's what I should have done from the get-go but oh well, live and learn). For right now though the game appears to be working fine and the only residual issue I have is the same one I've always had of the game tanking when I play at x3 and x4 in game for prolonged periods. I'm told that's not uncommon though and honestly that's probably what I get for being an impatient simmer. Like I said, I'll keep you abreast of any future issues or weirdnesses. Thanks for all your help.
@Iluin You're welcome, and let me know if you need more help with this. You're right that performance can be bad on x3 or x4 speed because of all the processing that needs to be done. The Smooth Patch (not the .package file, just the files that go in Bin) helps somewhat, and it's probaly fine to add the Bin files back at this point, at least if your game is stable otherwise.
