help?

[hikasagi]

okay, so i had to reinstall the sims recently and now for some reason, sometimes, after i press the play button,either i get a black screen with "sims 3 has stopped working, windows is looking for a solution" or something like that or the game loads in properly but the .package files i have installed dont appear in the game whatsoever, ive looked around for answers, but nothing has helped me.

ive also used delphy's dashboard to remove duplicated files, most corrupt files etc. which helped me a bit but it still doesnt work. Ive also installed the framework for the mods folder such as the overrides folder, the packages folder, and the resource.cfg thingy. also, im not sure if knowing what eps i have installed is important or not so here> i only have the base game and university life.

i miss playing it so much so if anyone knows any answer to this, thank you very much :>

[Emma]

It sounds like you're starting the game through the launcher. The launcher is extremely unreliable. and half the time I try to use it to start the game, nothing happens when I press the play button.

Instead, don't even bother with that glitchy mess of a launcher. Navigate to where Steam is installed and then go to the folder:
Steam\steamapps\common\The Sims 3\Game\Bin
And then find the file called TS3W.exe
Right click it and go to "send to" and then "desktop (create shortcut)".
Go to the desktop and to this shortcut and rename it "The Sims 3" and then just use this shortcut to launch the game from now on instead opening the launcher through Steam. If there's already a shortcut for the game made my Steam on your desktop, delete it in favor of this one.

One other tip I can provide you right now is to change the way you install your mods. The traditional mod framework is unreliable and often fails for no discrinable reason.
Get this program, CC Magic instead:
http://modthesims.info/d/461888
Download it and install it, Then move your currently installed mods to the "Downloads" folder and then run this program and press the "rebuild" button. This program will automatically remove any mods that are corrupted or meant for another game and it'll load the ones you have in a way that is far less glitchy and that loads into the game better.

Keep in mind that mod load order can cause game load crashes if they're loaded in the wrong order. Normally it's extremely difficult to change that when installing them manually, but it's very easy in CC Magic. Mods higher up in the list will load first. Try to look for mods that might be interacting and move them higher up. Organize your mods into groups and put high priority mods like script mods and body mods low in the list so they load later after other mods that could break them. You can easily use CC Magic to test your game without mods. If it loads fine without them but crashes with them, you have mods conflicting and you need to change your load order.


If you still have a problem after this, there's some trouble shooting you can do. I'm sure our good friend will provide that soon enough if you still are having issues. But try creating this shortcut to bypass the launcher, and switching to CC Magic first. It fixes this issue for me.

[hikasagi]

Originally posted by Frozen Nord:

It sounds like you're starting the game through the launcher. The launcher is extremely unreliable. and half the time I try to use it to start the game, nothing happens when I press the play button.

Instead, don't even bother with that glitchy mess of a launcher. Navigate to where Steam is installed and then go to the folder:
Steam\steamapps\common\The Sims 3\Game\Bin
And then find the file called TS3W.exe
Right click it and go to "send to" and then "desktop (create shortcut)".
Go to the desktop and to this shortcut and rename it "The Sims 3" and then just use this shortcut to launch the game from now on instead opening the launcher through Steam. If there's already a shortcut for the game made my Steam on your desktop, delete it in favor of this one.

One other tip I can provide you right now is to change the way you install your mods. The traditional mod framework is unreliable and often fails for no discrinable reason.
Get this program, CC Magic instead:
http://modthesims.info/d/461888
Download it and install it, Then move your currently installed mods to the "Downloads" folder and then run this program and press the "rebuild" button. This program will automatically remove any mods that are corrupted or meant for another game and it'll load the ones you have in a way that is far less glitchy and that loads into the game better.

Keep in mind that mod load order can cause game load crashes if they're loaded in the wrong order. Normally it's extremely difficult to change that when installing them manually, but it's very easy in CC Magic. Mods higher up in the list will load first. Try to look for mods that might be interacting and move them higher up. Organize your mods into groups and put high priority mods like script mods and body mods low in the list so they load later after other mods that could break them. You can easily use CC Magic to test your game without mods. If it loads fine without them but crashes with them, you have mods conflicting and you need to change your load order.


If you still have a problem after this, there's some trouble shooting you can do. I'm sure our good friend will provide that soon enough if you still are having issues. But try creating this shortcut to bypass the launcher, and switching to CC Magic first. It fixes this issue for me.

Thanks for the reply :> but with cc magic, i think it deleted all my .packages and sims3packs when i pressed the rebuild button because i cant find them anywhere now in the sims3 files or cc magic files? Also with the ts3w.exe, i sent it to my desktop but when i attempted to use it a pop up appeared saying something, i cant remember it sorry but after cc magic 'deleted' all my cc, it works fine? I apologise if im being problematic >.<

[Emma]

CC Magic saves your mod files here:

C:\Users\[USERNAME]\Documents\Electronic Arts\CC Magic\Content

In a subfolder for each type of file:

• Archives
  
• Corrupt
  
• Packages
  
• Sims3Packs
  
• Store Sims3Packs

Corrupt files automatically get filtered into that folder by that name. Sims3Pack files from the store are encrypted so they get moved to their own folder. And then ordinary packages and Sims3Packs get moved to their folders. You manage all these mods in the CC Magic program itself.

They are in folders in the root Electronic Arts folder instead of The Sims 3 folder so that there's no way that the game tries to read any of these files. You don't want it to. You want it to only read the Package files that CC Magic makes, or Sims3Packs from the store, which CC Magic can also manage anyway as I said.

[hikasagi]

Originally posted by Frozen Nord:

CC Magic saves your mod files here:

C:\Users\[USERNAME]\Documents\Electronic Arts\CC Magic\Content

In a subfolder for each type of file:

• Archives
  
• Corrupt
  
• Packages
  
• Sims3Packs
  
• Store Sims3Packs

Corrupt files automatically get filtered into that folder by that name. Sims3Pack files from the store are encrypted so they get moved to their own folder. And then ordinary packages and Sims3Packs get moved to their folders. You manage all these mods in the CC Magic program itself.

They are in folders in the root Electronic Arts folder instead of The Sims 3 folder so that there's no way that the game tries to read any of these files. You don't want it to. You want it to only read the Package files that CC Magic makes, or Sims3Packs from the store, which CC Magic can also manage anyway as I said.

Oh okay, I just went through those folders mentioned and every folder said "this folder is empty" did something happen that it wasnt supposed to do ?

[Emma]

Did you move your mods to the Downloads folder? That's where it looks for mods to install. It shouldn't move mods that are already in the packages folder and it'll instead organize all mods installed the old way in a "set" in CC Magic called "legacy." Look for this set in the program and the mods should still be there. You can manually drag them to the "Default" set or new sets you create yourself. New sets are disabled by default and have to be turned on in the configurations tab.

[hikasagi]

I might have put it in the wrong downloads folder as I initally thought you was talking about the electronic arts/the sims 3/downloads folder and used cc magic to rebuild.

[Emma]

That's the downloads folder you want. CC Magic uses that folder to look for mods to install. You don't even have to unpack archives. Just save them there.

[hikasagi]

So, I put them in the right folder, and idk where I went wrong

[Emma]

They wouldn't just disappear. They'd be in one of those folders. But what's important is what set they are in. If you click on the set named "Default" they should be in there.

[hikasagi]

Ive looked through every subfolder in the cc magic folder and in the default and legacy tabs in cc magic itself but nothing seems to be there?

[ajillonahill]

DO WHATEVER THEY SAY BECUZ IM TOO LAZY TO GO ON GOOGLE BUT STILL I DECIDED TO COME HERE :)

[hikasagi]

Originally posted by tigergirl101:

DO WHATEVER THEY SAY BECUZ IM TOO LAZY TO GO ON GOOGLE BUT STILL I DECIDED TO COME HERE :)

Ive tried.

[Emma]

Could you redownload the mods you had? If you get them again and put them into the Downloads folder they should work fine.

[hikasagi]

I did note down most of the websites i used but i guess i could be patient after taking a few weeks last time