Hey everybody,
sorry that is has been so quiet on my end. Classes started again and, comparing to the last semesters, my schedule is pretty tight. Nevertheless I managed to squeeze in some Sims time!
Unfortunately I have been facing some issues that don't seem to go away. Due to a number of glitches I have been experiencing, I moved my family (=Julia) to a new version of Appaloosa Plains, including new families and erasing the old ones for obvious reasons. Everything seemed just fine. BUT. It wasn't. Ever since I moved, the job performance won't go up. First I thought this was due to Julia still having her old job, but it happens to other (active!) Sims, too. If they miss a day, the performance goes way down (yeah, because that's fair), but it won't go up. No matter what I do. And now this has started happening to school children, as well.
DragonWife, I know this happened to you, too (at least similar to this) - I checked your blog, but couldn't find your solution to that. How did you make Zeke's job performance go up again?
In addition to that, is there anything I could do? Usually I would "just" de-install and re-install the Sims, but since my CD drive (right translation? The thing where you put your CDs in, e.g. in order to start the Sims) doesn't really work anymore, I couldn't re-install it. This would leave me without any Sims at all - not an option!!!
HELP! :(
ARGH!! If it's not one of us, it's another!
AntwortenLöschenOK, I don't know about this particular glitch, but I think you CAN reinstall through EA's download service (Origin?) if you have a legitimately purchased game -- if you're running on Windows. It shouldn't matter if the games you bought were on CD or not. Also assuming that service works in every country. I did this when I was running on WIndows, and it was amazingly smooth. So I can talk you through that if you're interested and nothing else helps.
Well, somehow the game considers itself in desperate need of making our life hell every now and then. Sigh.
LöschenThat sounds like a good thing! I will try for a few more days, but if it still doesn't work then, I'll have to follow that suggestion.
Surprisingly, the school performance went up one day (!), but then chose to stay there, no matter what I do. Below the actual scale it now says "school trip" every single day. It didn't say that before, but one day I checked, the scale had gone about halfway up. The work performance unfortunately stays at zero and only goes down when my sim misses work. This sucks so much, especially since some of the lifetime wishes depend on promotions and reaching a certain job level.
If I did de- and re-install the Sims, where would my families go? I probably would have to save them somehow, wouldn't I?
OK, I'm pretty sure I read something about sims being stuck on a school trip. Let me look that up.
LöschenIf you reinstall your game, you can back up your saved game and just copy it back without making any changes. Your saves are in My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Saves. You can just copy that entire folder someplace else, uninstall and reinstall everything, and then copy the folder back.
However, that assumes that the glitch isn't in the save game :-p.
I'll look for the stuck school trip glitch.
Do you have Twallan's Overwatch installed? It has some fixes for glitches like this.
Löschen(Sorry it took me so long to answer) Yes, I have the Overwatch to prevent me from every sim having dozens of cars in his or her inventory, but I didn't find any option as to the job performance.
LöschenI'll just try and re-install the game, AFTER I figured out where to get an non-disc version of my games. Searching at Origin is a good tip, I will try that. As soon as that is done, I will de- and re-install and then see if the glitch disappeared.
Wish me luck :(
OK, I checked, and EA Origin is available in Germany. I guess you probably knew that, but can never assume what has been rolled out in what country.
LöschenI believe all you need to do is uninstall the game, run the Origin application (which I think is installed automatically if you have Windows? If not, I'm sure EA would be delighted to provide you a link to download it someplace), go to the purchase history menu option, and start clicking your game and expansion links. Since EA should have a record of your registration keys (provided you registered them at theSims3.com), you don't have to do anything other than click the links and let the installers run.
Just to check -- I did a couple of Google searches (though I'm sure you know how to search :-p). I see several complaints of this behavior, but not a lot of coherent responses. Several people say that their sims never make it to work/school. Their status on their career tab is always, "Going to work/school," which is why their performance never changes. I've had that kind of trouble at school in Avalon before added Twallan's Careers School mod, which adds around 5 other specialty schools to the game and removes the crowd in front of the schoolhouse that keeps anyone from getting into the school.
If it's a job, then I'm sure it's not caused by a crowd in front of a rabbithole, You could test whether the rabbithole is glitched by adding another copy of the rabbithole someplace in town and sending your sim to that one rather than letting her take the carpool. Somebody said that she fixed a problem with her sim not making it to work by changing her career outfit at the dresser, which makes somewhat logical sense because I've heard of trouble changing outfits leaving sims inactive for a long time.
I already downloaded Origin to get everything started. Then I got scared and decided to wait for your post before doing anything. ;)
LöschenWhile waiting, I also googled a little and found some people having similar problems to mine, just like you did. Mostly they were about that school trip stuff, and they suggested to use the Master Controller to reset everyone in the family or to choose an option like "repair everything" - neither the one nor the other worked.
Okay, so I'm all set. I registered my games and am ready to de-install. A few deep breaths... Let's go.
I had the same feeling when I did all those reinstalls that didn't even help my problem. Just a reminder to copy your saves folder to your desktop before you uninstall! (I can't help it! I work in tech support!)
LöschenYup, I did that. In fact, I checked twice to make sure I did that. Thank you =)
LöschenI will keep you posted!
Well, this can't be good... I de-installed everything and have so far installed The Sims and started doing the same with Ambitions. As soon as my computer finished downloading Ambitions, it told me that the installation of The Sims didn't work out completely, because there was an error somewhere. It now didn't continue installing Ambitions.
LöschenCrap.
Dur.... You're right. That's not good.
LöschenOk, some possibilities. The first three (I think) expansions have individual patches. After that, EA wised up and made all patches for the base game. You can get into weird states trying to install the unpatched versions of the game.
So, if you didn't do it before, uninstall everything, then JUST install the base game. Then open the launcher and let it install 2-3 long patches. Now install World Adventures if you have it and do the same thing. Then install Ambitions and do the same thing. See if that helps. I think you might have to do that through Late Night.
Okay, I will try that first thing tomorrow. For now I will turn off the computer and get some quality sleeping time... hopefully your tip will work out then! :)
LöschenThanks for your great pieces of advice so far!!
I am really sending positive thoughts!!
LöschenThose must have gotten lost on the way... I did everything as you told me and am now finished installing all the games. Whenever I try starting Pets, my computer tells me that something is severely wrong and that I should re-install the basis game.
LöschenQUESTION: I had to move all the folders from my one hard drive to the other, because for some odd reasons they didn't all fit on the main one. Could that be part of the reason? And how do I get the games installed on the second hard drive right away? That one has much more space than the other.
Arrrgh. If positive thoughts aren't helping, I'll just send sympathy. Sigh.
LöschenSo it refuses to install Pets at all? If it seems to install, it's worth finding out if the game runs. I've had install errors pop up that turned out to be nothing.
If you're trying to install the game on something other than the C drive? Honestly, I think it might be safer to find something ELSE to move to the bigger drive to open up the space on your C drive.
However, don't you get the opportunity to pick your install location when you install the base game? Doesn't it default to Program Files but give you a file browser button to pick something else? You'd have to uninstall everything and start with the base game in the new location.
Something just knocked on my window... it was the sympathy. Thanks ;) ;)
LöschenIt installed everything just fine, but then decided not to start Pets. Since I didn't try to start a game before, I have no idea whether this problem had been there all the time. I now uninstalled everything again (sigh) and started by putting the base game down on D drive. (It took me ages, but I finally found that option on Origin where I could choose the folder for downloaded games!) Then I installed the patches and started the game, just to see if it was running. So far everything was good, which is why I then ended it again and installed Ambitions. Right now the according patch is on its way. (Two minutes later: patch is finished and the game started. Wheee!)
While I was waiting for the games to install themselves, I thought that maybe I will start again from scratch. The family annoys me most of the time and I just don't feel like I would be happy carrying them on for a couple of generations. Maybe this is due to the glitches I had to deal with, keeping me on my toes for weeks, if not months. Now would be the perfect time. Nevertheless I haven't decided yet, and I should probably keep quiet until everything is up and running anyway. That's just a heads-up.
I hear you. I am madly in love with the Samples, but I also have an itch to do something else. And since I put myself down for 10 generations, I'm not sure what I'll do.
LöschenI'm madly in love with Julia, but of couse that's really the way you write her. Has she not turned out to be much fun to play?
That's it! Something else. I read so many great legacies and keep thinking "I want to do that... I want to try this... why don't I start something like that?". Considering that I still would have five generations to go as well, I'm not sure I will keep the motivation.
LöschenJulia actually is a sweet and fun character, but somehow her family and her don't go that well. I'm already fed up with them... writing about their lives is not as exciting, either. I have 1800 (!!!) screenshots taken that I have yet to write about, because I don't really want to. A part of me wants to keep playing with her, but another part wants to get rid of everything that happened within the last thirteen months..
Wait, I thought we decided that Wishacies are for 7 generations. We're on the same generation, but you're a lot closer to the end than I am.
LöschenI'm loving each generation of the Samples more than the last, and I feel like cutting them short would be mean to them. That's silly. They're my game! And since i mixed them up with the fantasy elves, I gotta go at least a few generations :). Really, I think my problem is burnout from that endless stream of technical glitches.
We're supposed to be having fun. If the stuff you haven't written about is boring you, then I say skip it. Maybe tell a little summary and move on. You'll have the perfect context with this move. Would moving to a totally new town help?
Alternately, call the Wishacy done with Julia and come up with something else to do. I just hope you blog about it!
I'm having trouble because I played far enough ahead that I'm feeling disconnected from Gen 5 as kids. They're now well into their teens, and since moving to Avalon they've become a lot more interesting. But I'm so frustratingly detail-oriented, and there's important stuff I want to say. I'm trying to back off and say that EVERY event doesn't have to be in the story, dang it.
Seven, really? I figured we had to do ten... well, that's a little better. I have just started the fifth generation, which would mean there are two and a half to go? Huh. Technically I could..huh. Or maybe if I..huh.
LöschenA great part of these thoughts definitely come from frustration about glitches and bugs. Playing Sims was so much more fun when it actually revolved around the characters and not around missing out certain actions because they wouldn't work anyway. For example, the action of reading something to the kids when they are in bed - never worked. They read to them, but the kids never fell asleep. Or watching the stars together - they just stood next to each other awkwardly for a few moments and that was it.
I'm not sure whether it would help to move to a new town. Usually I am so used to my 1-2 favourite towns (which are Sunset Valley and Appaloosa Plains), that I try to refrain from that most of the time. And it wouldn't change my sims... Still it's a possibility, but I would probably use it to start with a new founder as well.
Finishing with Julia is a good idea, I could actually do that! I have all the pictures here yet, so all I would have to do is writewritewrite. And I bet that's a lot easier when there is an end in sight.
Disconnection from the characters is something I am very familiar with. Like I said, I have 1800 pictures and in my game, Julia has already aged up into an elder. Her kids are children already, the oldest is even a teen. So technically, I am almost one generation ahead and just don't want to go on anymore... but everytime I AM posting, I don't want to miss anything, either. I understand what you're saying there. ;)
By the way - my Facebook account has just been very smart and suggested you as a friend. (Don't ask me how it felt like there was a connection to my Facebook-email-adress. No idea.) I didn't want to add you straight away, because I didn't want to scare you by appearing as some random German being who came out of nowhere. ;) Your kid is incredibly cute, though! :) (Just had to look at a few photos,sorry.)
It's working, it's working! Squee!!!!
LöschenHee!! I bet this fixes a lot of the glitches you mentioned above! Pretty much all of my interaction glitches were fixed by the reinstall.
LöschenI hope it actually fixes the work performance issue :-p. Have you tested it?
Please friend me on Facebook!! That would be awesome!
So it sounds like part of the problem is that you played WAY ahead didn't fall in love with any of Julia's kids? What if you put up an heir vote with no context at all? Just did a bio blurb and posted pictures and let us say who we like? That's only if you're interested in playing another generation, though.
I didn't test any of the saves yet, just created a new sim who could possibly be a founder at some point :) But I will check out my legacy family tomorrow. I bet, everything works fine, except the job performance stuff...that would be typical for my game :D OR that works, but they can no longer enter the rabbitholes or something.
LöschenI guess you're right - her kids are all kind of sweet, but nothing more. Maybe I will do a vote in the nearer future. As soon as I decided if I go on with the game - which will happen after I checked out what else is now going wrong ;) I will definitely keep you posted!
Invitation sent!
Thank you SO MUCH for helping me through this. I don't know what I would have done without you, seriously.
Sorry I can't be more help. Zeke had a terrible time and didn't get any promotions for the longest time, but I pretty much just played through it without doing anything! I made him "work hard" every day and didn't let him be late for work or anything. I also made him spend his spare time skilling his job requirements. He was really stressed and annoyed, but eventually the promotions started again.
AntwortenLöschenSusan always has great suggestions, though! Good luck!
So the glitch figured itself out somehow? I'm not sure if I got the problem right in the first place - did he just not get any promotions or did the job performance bar stay at "zero" (neither green nor red)?
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