Sim won't paint...

[SotiCoto]

I hope this doesn't persist... but my sim is a painter. She has gone to University to get a Fine Arts degree... and all her current desires relate to painting.
BUT every time I try to get her to paint, the icon just vanishes instantly. She doesn't react at all. Anything I try to make her do with an easel anywhere on the University map, she just doesn't.

There was no trouble with this back home in Moonlight Falls, and it is the first time I've seen the issue.

I've got most of the NRAAS mods, and I have tried resetting her, though that didn't fix it.
So... any other ideas?

[Ava]

I had something like this happen once but it was my own stupidity. I had placed the object down where technically they couldn't reach it. I moved it and presto, they could learn on it again. You could try just setting down an easel in like the middle of a room and see if the sim can't reach it.

[SotiCoto]

Originally posted by Ava:

I had something like this happen once but it was my own stupidity. I had placed the object down where technically they couldn't reach it. I moved it and presto, they could learn on it again. You could try just setting down an easel in like the middle of a room and see if the sim can't reach it.

Reference below self-quote.

Anything I try to make her do with an easel anywhere on the University map, she just doesn't.

i.e. I started with the default easel that the game had placed in the top corner room in the residence she was staying in. Didn't work. I tried moving it because I thought it might be inaccessible. No change. I moved it out into the middle of the hall outside. No change. I tried different easels placed along different parts of walls and in the middle of rooms. No change. I started going into cheat-build mode on the University campus and placing painting easels down in various places around various buildings all over the place. None of them worked.
I also checked other actions. She had no issue dancing. No trouble with any of the exercise machines. No problem using computers nor the television. She could cook just fine. She could take out the trash. She could use the science machines in the student union. It was ONLY the painting easels she couldn't use.

Incidentally... rebooting the game entirely did seem to fix it. But I'd rather not run into this issue again, so I'd really like to get to the bottom of why it happened.

[HiFive]

I'm curious if you explored the possibility of a bugged save. Bugs can often be introduced when travelling to other maps that require loading screens. I keep at least 10 older, sequentially-numbered saves for when bugs show up. When I get a major bug like this, I backtrack through the old saves until I find one from before when the bug occurred.

[SotiCoto]

Originally posted by HiFive:

I'm curious if you explored the possibility of a bugged save. Bugs can often be introduced when travelling to other maps that require loading screens. I keep at least 10 older, sequentially-numbered saves for when bugs show up. When I get a major bug like this, I backtrack through the old saves until I find one from before when the bug occurred.

I'm guessing that can't be it if reloading the save fixed it.
Still, now I'm having another issue where the Autocollect thing won't work in my sim's home town. Probably unrelated though...

[HiFive]

Originally posted by SotiCoto:

Originally posted by HiFive:

I'm curious if you explored the possibility of a bugged save. Bugs can often be introduced when travelling to other maps that require loading screens. I keep at least 10 older, sequentially-numbered saves for when bugs show up. When I get a major bug like this, I backtrack through the old saves until I find one from before when the bug occurred.

I'm guessing that can't be it if reloading the save fixed it.

I would agree with you for any other game, but Sims 3 is quirckier than any of my other games, so that's why I mentioned it. It's just something to check, if you feel like it.

[SotiCoto]

Originally posted by HiFive:

I would agree with you for any other game, but Sims 3 is quirckier than any of my other games, so that's why I mentioned it. It's just something to check, if you feel like it.

And how would I check it?

[HiFive]

Originally posted by SotiCoto:

Originally posted by HiFive:

I would agree with you for any other game, but Sims 3 is quirckier than any of my other games, so that's why I mentioned it. It's just something to check, if you feel like it.

And how would I check it?

Ummm - are you using the "Save" button or the "Save As" button? It's recommended that you never use the "Save" button because it overwrites the previous save and bugs are often introduced that way. If you use the "Save As" button, you should be making sequentially-numbered saves. You can either use the same 12 or so names, in sequence, or you can go through the old saves every once in a while and delete the excess ones. Anyway, if you have these numbered saves, you can just load up older and older saves until you get one that isn't bugged.

Forgive me if I misunderstood your question and you are already doing this, but that is what I meant by saying you could check it.

[SotiCoto]

Originally posted by HiFive:

Ummm - are you using the "Save" button or the "Save As" button? It's recommended that you never use the "Save" button because it overwrites the previous save and bugs are often introduced that way.

Ah. So like I used to do in Morrowind. Make new saves, delete the old ones, don't overwrite...
Hmm... would definitely need to delete the old ones. I've already got an absolute excess of old files I'm definitely not ever going to play again... and I should probably clear them out.
Anyhow, I've mostly been keeping 2 or 3 saves per playthrough for backups... Using "Save As", but saving over the same 3 numbers repeatedly.

[HiFive]

Originally posted by SotiCoto:

Anyhow, I've mostly been keeping 2 or 3 saves per playthrough for backups... Using "Save As", but saving over the same 3 numbers repeatedly.

You might like to increase that number to 10 or 12 old saves. Saving frequently also helps to reduce the number of bugs that pop up. Saving before travelling is recommended, as well. With only 2 earlier saves you could still wind up not finding a cleaner save without whatever bug has been acquired.

[SotiCoto]

Originally posted by HiFive:

You might like to increase that number to 10 or 12 old saves. Saving frequently also helps to reduce the number of bugs that pop up. Saving before travelling is recommended, as well. With only 2 earlier saves you could still wind up not finding a cleaner save without whatever bug has been acquired.

I have taken your advice into account and started making more saves to avoid bugs.

Still, the number of things that deactivate, go missing or otherwise stop functioning is something I'd like to figure out. A lot of them do seem to be related to mods though. I mean besides the painting issue, which was problematic... I've also had the autocollect randomly vanish from the options... as well as the option to equip the gun for the gun mods I use.