Re: Time freezing & Resetting

Thanks for the update SimGuruJanitor, I had a feeling it was more than just one element to the whole issue.

If there's any other information or detail you need from us...logs, screen captures, videos, anything, please let us know so we can provide them.

I just want to see the game handle itself really well, and anything we can do to help, I'm sure everyone would agree they'd like to do.

- B

Thank you for the update, but somehow it's worse that your team is aware of it and yet it's been over a year without a fix. Meanwhile I'm being bombarded with advertisements for EPs, SPs, and GPs. I'm sure you can see how this would cause frustration when I can hardly play the game as it is.

So, I just had another (big) freeze in a different save. A relatively new save, I think I played about two Sim weeks - my Sim's inventory had less than 10 items in it. This save never had a freeze before.

Now I had a good look at what was going on before I forcefully exited the game (I had to, it didn't respond, may have something to do with me trying to exit the game as the freeze was occuring). This time the auto save didn't take, so I can't send in save files.

• My Sim was having a (house) party on her home lot (sandtrap flat in OS).
• There were 10 Sims on my lot, including my own Sim, excluding any Sims roaming the neighbourhood (I know that in a technical sense they are on you lot as well).
• Music was playing from the stereo (two Sims dancing), the tv was switched on (one Sim watching), no one was using the computer at that time, there were some Sims standing by the fridge trying to grab food or a drink.
• There were a lot of empty glasses and several emtpy plates standing around.
• Two of my Sim's moodlets were expiring at that point, one of them expiring would change her mood from (very) playful to happy.

I saved my game prior to the party, so I can go back in and see if it occurs again (although I'm a bit anxious). Next time I will wait for the freeze to pass before I try to exit my game.

It's that I am aware of this bug that I pay much attention to what is happening, as well as not tend to save my game when it has happened (maybe that is just some silly superstition, but I hope I can keep my game free from it - but seem to be heading in the wrong direction, this is the second time this week :/). I'll also try to remember to take a screenshot or make a video next time.

i feel like it never (or rarely) happens if you are at normal speed. i've changed the View Distance to low and it makes zero difference. the only that does seem to make a difference is playing on 1 (speed). since i always play on 3 i find this to me equally infuriating.

I said I would go back into my game and see what happened. As I said, I saved before the party and didn't save when the freeze happened, so I loaded the save from before the party.

My Sim threw the same type of party, with the same guest (I think) but of course different party goals, I had no influence on that. Anyway, my game didn't freeze! 🙂 I have played, I think, another Sim week or so and everything went smoothly. So, I kind of feel like I have found a sort of work around that works for my game/my computer (I am nevertheless knocking on wood).

I can't say it will work for everyone (it probably won't), since I remember my old computer reacting somewhat differently. Maybe someone has already mentioned this, I haven't read the entire thread, I've only been actively monitoring this bug since it started happening on my new computer. I also don't know if it will work in the long run, but for now the following has worked for me:

• Start a new save game, save often, like, at least every Sim day so you won't lose too much progress. Be sure to "Save as..." the first time!
• The moment the freeze occurs for the first time, try to sit it out (I haven't tried this yet (and hope I won't need to), not sure if it actually crashes my game by default or if it were my actions that caused it to crash).
• Then exit the entire game without saving.
• Repair the game in Origin.
• Write about your exact experiences in this thread (that's what I've done anyway, not an obligatory step of course), or submit a video, screenshot or the autosave (if that has saved the game after the bug occured).
• Restart the game, load your original save, not the autosave!
• Continue playing and save often.

No idea if this works for others, it has worked for me in one instance. If anyone wants me to, I could test it with the other save game that I didn't save when it froze earlier this week.

I think, and I am speculating here, the key is to keep your game "freeze-free", so never save once it occurs, and always repair the game before going back in. I think that once you've had a freeze and saved, it will keep happening.

On a side note, my computer has pretty high specs, well above the recommended specs. I can't imagine this working on my old laptop which was just above minimum specs. I see a noticable difference between the two - on my current pc a freeze hits and it hits hard; on my old laptop it sort of seeped in, tiny (barely noticable) freezes at first which later on become bigger and more frequent - I think it is a lot harder to keep good track of them in that situation. But that's just my experience so far.

I really hope this helps people - I know it's far from ideal, but if it keeps your game freeze-free for some time, I think it may be worth the effort.

Diana, what you're suggesting is nice, but it requires babysitting my game, monitoring it very closely, and making extra efforts just to make sure it doesn't constantly freeze on me. Honestly, it's not worth the effort. The Sims shouldn't be a chore.

I'm glad EA are aware of the problem.  But it worries me that it is taking so long for them to work out what they've done wrong.   I've never had a Sims game that has had a problem for this long.  They've always managed to bring out a patch that has sorted out the problems we've had.  This has gone on for way too long.  It's making me not even want to play, which has never happened to me.  I doubt I'll be buying the new expansion because what would be the point if the game gets stuck constantly?   It's frustrating to say the least.  At least I know it's not my computer (which is only 12 months old anyway..)   I would be good if EA could put out a post letting us know where they are at with working out what's going on.  I'd be less angry about it all if I got some sort of acknowledgement and some confirmation that they are actually working on it, and not just "tweaking" their new additions to the game.  Sorry EA but after all these years of Simming,  I feel pretty let down by you on this one...

@Kraslev I don't expect it to work for everyone, it does work for me and I think it can also work for others if the freezing in their game works similar to the way it does in mine. I've had the issue on two different computers and I know that what I suggested wouldn't work on one of them (where the freezes are short and frequent), I actually said as much. It does work on the other, where freezes are rare and big/obvious, if they happen at all. Besides, I tend to monitor my game quite closely anyway, so that may also be of influence.

Anyway, I tested my other save and was unable to replicate the actions I did before (because I really don't remember, I lost quite a bit of progress in that one). At a certain point, the game froze, under circumstances very similar to the freeze that occured previously. My Sim was again at the Hermit's house and tried to place her tent near the tree by the Hermit's house at around 10 or 11 PM. So I waited for the freeze to pass, was able to exit the game normally, then repaired the game and rebooted. I did one thing differently (aside from saving the game a couple times more) and that was place the tent in the same spot but during the day. Nothing happened, my Sim was able to go fishing, befriend the Hermit, eventually sleep in her tent, put her tent back in her inventory in the morning etc. etc. I don't know why the specific combination of placing a tent there at night causes a freeze, but changing things slightly kept the game running smoothly. I played a bit more and there were no freezes.

I did make a video, but forgot to switch on recording the UI in videos, so it's not particularly useful. I did make a backup of the save files involved (the original before the freeze and the autosave after the freeze) I can submit those if neccessary. I'll report back if anything interesting happens in my game.