Can't Return Home [ Solved ( Mostly ) ]

[SilentAegis]

I made my sim go to BridgePort for vacation so he could pick up a sim there. But now I can't return home. When my sim arrives, it'll load in, I play for one minute and then my game freezes with the message "The Sims 3 has stopped working".


I deleted the TravelDB package to no avail. Any ideas?


EDIT: My game has also been crashing a lot. I clean out the system files often. All bin files and cache files, etc. Any idea for a fix?

[Emma]

Do you have the mod from NRAAS called Traveller? It should prevent this kind of problem. The default travel system for the game is infamous for bugs like this.

As for the other crashing, I suggest the other mods from NRAAS like Error Trap, Overwatch, Story Progression, etc. Most of them. They will help a lot with the crashes. If it still crashes a lot. There are other things you can do. Which I'm sure cruinne will suggest and will have a handy resource for. So I won't try to muddle my way through an explanation of it.

[SilentAegis]

Yeah, I have Traveller, Error Trap, Overwatch, etc. Installed them a long time ago.

[Emma]

Then it sounds like you have something corrupted about your Sims that is blocking the travel. It could be a few different things.

Sometimes it could be a corrupt outfit from a mod you have installed. That's been known to cause this problem. If you're getting an error message saved into your Sims directory, it could help. Also you should manage your Sims 3 mods with CC Magic, it'll automatically archive away corrupted mods so they are not loaded.

[SilentAegis]

Sorry for the late reply. What would this error message look like? I went to Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 and found a bunch of files that say ScriptError. Are those it?


I also use CC Magic. Should I just click "Play" when using it so it doesn't load corrupted files?

[Emma]

ScriptError files are generated by NRAAS mods. You might want to periodically move those into a subfolder (personally I start the game with a batch file that automatically deletes the cache files and moves scripterror files to a subfolder). Try playing the game and attempting to move your sim back to your homeworld. When the game crashes, immediately look in that directory for any new script error files or warning files. They may contain information that would help.

For CC Magic, if there are any corrupted files, they're removed during the rebuild process, which it always checks for if you press play from CC Magic. It could be conflicting files. If you haven't changed your mods, there's no reason to do this again until you do. You can just start the game directly.

You can drag around mods, or their groups if you have them organized that way, to change their load order. Lower means it loads later. This is useful for instance with older or more lazily done clothing that modifies the skin, which can conflict with a skin replacement mod. If the replacement is loaded later, it'll take preicdence in any conflicts.

But anyway, I can't guarentee that's the problem. Try sorting all of your clothing mods into groups with only clothes if you haven't done so already, and move them to the top of the list.

As for other things that might be glitching your Sim, you can try Master Controller. Load up your save while you're still stuck in Bridgeport, then go to a computer or the town hall and select it and then go to NRAAS -> Master Controller -> Town -> Reset everything. Wait for the reset to complete. This should fix anything that is glitching your sim, or any other sim in town, on their transition. For extra measure, make sure you have Dresser installed and have it check the outfits of your sim, or the entire town since sometimes other sims get saved too on the transition back. It can automatically make sure they don't have any gltiched non-mod items that are known to cause trouble. After you do that, save your game in a new save. Close the game (important for purging unnecessary data that may cause glitches), and then open it back up and load that new save.

Last ditch effort if nothing else works, you can try loading your game and saving your sims to the library. And then starting a new game and, taking them back from the library. It's not pretty but it can save the sims.

[SilentAegis]

I would organize my mods, but the last time I did that, my game glitched and a couple sims ( about 7 or so ) were removed from my household and put into different towns. I found my main sim in France. He somehow ended up there.


One last question and then I'll try everything you said. If I were to start up a new game, what would I lose exactly?

[Emma]

Relationships with other sims, own or partially owned properties, written books, still unpaid book royalties. Things like that are saved externally to the game world instead of to the individual Sims.
But only do this as a very last resort. Try those other things first.

[SilentAegis]

Alright, so I've issued a town reset and ran Dresser. Then I "saved as" and then closed and reopened the game, opened up the new save and attempted to travel. When my sim arrived, I immediately went to save. First attempt gave me an Error code 12. Second attempt, a crash.

I might just go back a save. To where my sim was home.

[cruinne]

You might already be doing it, but be sure to use "Save as..." instead of Save. You can keep the same file name, but Save (where you just continue with the same save file by appending to it) is pretty glitchy. It's better to "Save as" and generate a whole new file.

That said... Error Code 12 means you ran out of memory while saving the game, so there might not be enough RAM, or some custom content might be eating up a lot of it with oversized textures and the like. It can also mean you're running too many other programs on your computer while trying to play Sims, and they're consuming the RAM your game needs to function properly, so if you haven't already, shut down all extra stuff such as streaming/screen sharing, browsers, &c. &c., and even your AV (just until you get a good save).

But definitely try the "Save as..." technique first because it's often enough to avoid this error since it's making a new save file, not trying to add on to the old, huge save file that already exists.

[Emma]

You might want to consider upgrading your RAM. It's the cheapest, easist thing to upgrade on any computer. Just about any computer can have its RAM upgraded, even any laptop as they all have access pannels for them. You might want to consider getting it. Most computers made within the last 10 years can support an upgrade to 8GB of RAM. I upgraded mine after getting Error Code 12. 4 GB just isn't enough because even running bare minimum over half of that was taken up and Sims wants to use 4 GB itself. Sites for manufacturers like Cruicial have scanners which will link to RAM and hard drive upgrades that are guarenteed compatible with your computer.

You can also downlaod the program called Process Lasso. It's the best RAM managing program out there, and you can use it to trim RAM of programs that don't need it, or force restarting problematic Windows hosts processes (sometimes they suck up RAM out of control and force restarting the process will reset it back to a stable state without needing to restart your whole computer though be careful things can go wrong if you do that). It'll also automatically label any game you set as a gaming process and automatically do what it can to give it priority. This feature will be disabled after a month of use, unless you pay for the full version, but it'll still work in the free version for processes you already designated, you just can't add more through the program (but can manually edit them into the config file). It will also automatically restrict any program that is affecting system performance (processes designated as games, or that you mark to exclude, will not be restrained).

There's some things you can do to stop your save file from bloating too. First of all, always close the game before you load another save. If you don't, extra data will be loaded and will be saved into the save file, increasing bloat. Next, you can disable memories. It's really just an annoying feature and it takes up a lot of space in save files. You can also use this program to clean up junk data in your save files:
http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Kuree's+Save+Cleaner
Just be aware that it can also remove pictures that you've taken with your in-game camera (not screenshots) that your family saves in albums or paints. It does this because it's trying to delete the memory images. And the author of the program abandoned it before figuring out how to avoid that. But it still works great otherwise. Of course, BACK UP the save you try this on just in case. There has been one time I used it where it accidentally corrupted a save. So make sure you back up the specific save you try it on.

[SilentAegis]

Originally posted by cruinne:

You might already be doing it, but be sure to use "Save as..." instead of Save. You can keep the same file name, but Save (where you just continue with the same save file by appending to it) is pretty glitchy. It's better to "Save as" and generate a whole new file.

That said... Error Code 12 means you ran out of memory while saving the game, so there might not be enough RAM, or some custom content might be eating up a lot of it with oversized textures and the like. It can also mean you're running too many other programs on your computer while trying to play Sims, and they're consuming the RAM your game needs to function properly, so if you haven't already, shut down all extra stuff such as streaming/screen sharing, browsers, &c. &c., and even your AV (just until you get a good save).

But definitely try the "Save as..." technique first because it's often enough to avoid this error since it's making a new save file, not trying to add on to the old, huge save file that already exists.

When I arrive and I click Save, it gives me an error code 12. When I do Save As, it gives me "The Sims 3 has stopped working" message.

Originally posted by Frozen Nord:

You might want to consider upgrading your RAM. It's the cheapest, easist thing to upgrade on any computer. Just about any computer can have its RAM upgraded, even any laptop as they all have access pannels for them. You might want to consider getting it. Most computers made within the last 10 years can support an upgrade to 8GB of RAM. I upgraded mine after getting Error Code 12. 4 GB just isn't enough because even running bare minimum over half of that was taken up and Sims wants to use 4 GB itself. Sites for manufacturers like Cruicial have scanners which will link to RAM and hard drive upgrades that are guarenteed compatible with your computer.

You can also downlaod the program called Process Lasso. It's the best RAM managing program out there, and you can use it to trim RAM of programs that don't need it, or force restarting problematic Windows hosts processes (sometimes they suck up RAM out of control and force restarting the process will reset it back to a stable state without needing to restart your whole computer though be careful things can go wrong if you do that). It'll also automatically label any game you set as a gaming process and automatically do what it can to give it priority. This feature will be disabled after a month of use, unless you pay for the full version, but it'll still work in the free version for processes you already designated, you just can't add more through the program (but can manually edit them into the config file). It will also automatically restrict any program that is affecting system performance (processes designated as games, or that you mark to exclude, will not be restrained).

There's some things you can do to stop your save file from bloating too. First of all, always close the game before you load another save. If you don't, extra data will be loaded and will be saved into the save file, increasing bloat. Next, you can disable memories. It's really just an annoying feature and it takes up a lot of space in save files. You can also use this program to clean up junk data in your save files:
http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Kuree's+Save+Cleaner
Just be aware that it can also remove pictures that you've taken with your in-game camera (not screenshots) that your family saves in albums or paints. It does this because it's trying to delete the memory images. And the author of the program abandoned it before figuring out how to avoid that. But it still works great otherwise. Of course, BACK UP the save you try this on just in case. There has been one time I used it where it accidentally corrupted a save. So make sure you back up the specific save you try it on.

I'll consider the upgrading my RAM. And I'll try Process Lasso. Thanks, but I'm already aware of the memories and save cleaner. I've made some interesting progress, though. I took my sim back a save and then attempted to go to France. Every attempted save in France issued either an Error Code 12 or a crash with the message mentioned earlier. Then I decided to instead go to Egypt. I arrived there and saved and made the trip back and saved with no crashing or errors. Maybe there's something in France that's messing up my game? Any ideas? I did exit Steam during this, so maybe Steam was eating up some of my memory the game needed?


Other than that, though, thanks for all the help. It seems I'm making progress in fixing it as I've been playing for an hour with no crashes. Thanks again and hopefully, any of you know why I can't go to France?

[cruinne]

Well, re: upgrading RAM... keep in mind that Sims 3 can't use more than 4 GB because it's a 32-bit game. Now, that's 4 GB beyond whatever your OS and other processes are using, so, since usually 2 GB are recommended for Windows alone, you probably want 6 or 8 or so to run Sims 3. But most computers these days that aren't tiny netbook-type things come with at least 8.

You might find this post on the Sims forums interesting:
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/630178/possible-cause-for-error-code-12-wa-related

One method that some NRaas users recommend to reduce the size of your save files (thus the amount of RAM they need for saves) is to delete SNAP resources:
http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Deleting+SNAP+resources+FAQ

[SilentAegis]

I'll look into that as well. :)