Sim randomly disappearing from household?

[Rescue 51]

First off, I tried looking this up on Google and it showed nothing related, so I figured I'd ask here, since I've asked things here before ^_^

I don't know how else to describe it, other than telling what happened step by step.
First time loading the town, it wouldn't get past the loading screen (where you find the items to get the lifetime points), so I had to control alt delete the game and reload. I just figured since the game is super glitchy anyways, I don't need that extra 500 points anyways and just to let it sit, which I did, and it loaded.
Then, maybe 15 seconds into the game, one of my sims, is coming home from work, carpooling (Science career if that adds to anything, I've never really played it before), and her driver stops in front of the house, then does a couple of donuts, then proceeds to drive straight up the porch steps, and into the front door. Then my sim, the driver, and the car disappear. (And the house is a fair distance away from the road)

My sim is removed from the household, but my other sims still has her as a contact, and she's still related (mother and brother) to the other sims.
I tried reloading it a second time, for it just to do the same thing, which is kind of annoying since I've grown super attached to these sims. I have a screenshot of the car at the steps, but I don't know how to share that.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix it, or what's going on? The town (Appaloosa Plains) has always been super glitchy, with five daughters in a row, and even though I had the mother eat 10 apples while pregnant, she still had a girl. I do have some CC, but it's only some hair, some clothes, and maybe like, 4 pieces of furniture, and a house which I was using for the family. And I do have some mods, ErrorTrap, Overwatch, MasterController, and NRaas Story Progression, but I've had those for a few months with no problems.

If anyone is able to help whatsoever, I'd be very grateful! <3

[cruinne]

So, first thing - is her portrait gone from the left-hand side?

If not, try resetting her: open the console (control + shift + c) then type in: resetSim firstname lastname, where you use her name. Example: resetSim Shifty McGone

If so, I'd try getting the game backup out. Go into Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > Saves, and locate the save for the file. If you left the default save name, this would be Appaloosa Plains.sims3. Give it another name, such as "Appaloosa Plains.broken". There will be a backup with the same name - example: "Appaloosa Plains.sims3.backup". Rename it to remove the ".backup" from the name.

I'd also suggest using the ErrorTrap mod, as it can help broken saves recover: nraas.wikispaces.com/ErrorTrap

Then start your game and see if you can load the backup copy that now looks like the real save.

[marstinson]

I wasn't aware that there were any LTR points for finding the items on the loading screens; I though it was just for entertainment since there is an option to turn it off.

For the missing Sim, the story is unusual, but the game kicks out some really weird stuff on occasion, so it's not surprising. If you're bound and determined to continue with the same family, restore the most recent backup save. To do this, open Explorer and go to \Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Saves and delete the folder that has the same filename as the one with the .backup extension and then remove that .backup extension. The last modified date should be a few days prior to your most recent save unless you've been clicking "Save" or "Save and Quit" rather than "Save As" and manually quitting. If that's the case, you might be well and truly hozed.

But anyway, removing that .backup extension makes the save loadable. Hopefully it will be enough to put everything back the way that it was.

Now go to nraas.wikispaces.com and download/install the Overwatch and ErrorTrap mods (follow their installation instructions; it's just making three folders and dropping one file into the first one - no biggie, and they even have a copy of the file you need). Those two will help with general bugginess and help avoid corrupted save files, and ALWAYS use "Save As" when you're saving, even if you give it the same filename. If there was a mod to remove the "Save" and "Save and Quit" functions from the game menu, I'd be recommending that, too, because relying on "Save" is just asking for trouble down the road.

[Rescue 51]

Thank you very much for your replies. c:
I reloaded a third time and got her out of the car just in time before she arrived back home, and thankfully everything turned out all right ^_^

It'll probably happen again, so I'll definitely do your suggestions anyways. c:
I save every like, 3 minutes because of random crashing, and I never realized just the "save" button caused problems, I only knew of save and quit causing them. I've been using only save for years..

Thank you both again <3