Invisible Sims re-occuring every third day

[Lautrec]

Hello!!!

I need help with an issue I am having. I think it is a bug and any suggestions would be helpful.

My sims and the townies become invisible after the third day of game play.

This issue first started when I was editing the townhouse in Latenight. I unhid the rooms and made it into a house. After that the game I was playing wouldn't switch from edit town to play mode. I had to cancel the game but after that whenever I tried to start a family they become invisible. At this time I also downloaded sims from the exchange but I have deleted most of the items and the sims.

Yes the first household to become invisible was after the adults went on that free vaca offer. The teenager and her friends became invisible during a party. The adults never came back from vaca they went into a grey limbo.

I have all the games except showtime because I don't want to buy it if this can't be resolved. I have the newest patch downloaded the other day. I am using mods but not the story progression mod.

I hope this is enough info. If anyone has any ideas please let me know.

Thank you,
Lautrec


--- eta ---
1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base game, world adventures, ambitions, latenight, generations, pets, plus most of the stuff packs

2. What game version/patch level?
10.0.96.015001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
Any new family I make go invisible after the third day. Every person in the family. I have also noticed that the townies start to become invisible first.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
At first they have an icon but that disappears after a few minutes.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
I have no clue what UI means.

6. Were the sims traveling?
the first time yes but not since

7. How many traveling?
4 adults it was the free two day trip but they didn't come home. THe teen that was left at home went invisible first.

8. How are all travellers related?
no

9. Which country are the sims in?
I don't really know

10. How many days?
infinite.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
never turned

12. Returning together or separate?
as above

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
I have overwatch installed, I couldn't find supercomputer

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA Story Progression, Twallan's crashed my game (I am thinking it took too much space.).

15. When did the issue start?
This issue first started when I was editing the townhouse in Latenight. I unhid the rooms and made it into a house. After that the game I was playing wouldn't switch from edit town to play mode. I had to cancel the game but after that whenever I tried to start a family they disappear. I don't want to open any of my old families in fear they will disappear also. At this time I also downloaded sims from the exchange but I have deleted most of the items and the sims.

16. What were your sims doing?
The teen was having a party in her house while the adults were on a free vaca.

17. What things have you tried?
I installed Twallan's Overwatch and debugging. I also have deleted any game and any sim that has become invisible. I am currently playing a household in which the sims were made over a year ago but are placed in a newer town. I did notice two townies my sims passed were invisible.

18. What worked?
Any sim that becomes invisible has never been seen again.

19. What didn't work?
Everything.

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
I guess the simple fact is I must have a bug and I need to find a way to fix it. I can't play because as soon as I start really playing the game my household becomes invisible. It always happens by the third day. I have lost 5 different households in the last 4 weeks and it is very tiring.

[ellacharmed]

I've copied over your answers from the sticky as you've started this thread, so as to save some time going back and forth.

Some follow-up questions:

5. UI refers to User Interface - the blue panel.

9. Country refers to the WA worlds (when manually traveling, not the games' free vacation feature to allow the Teens to misbehave). But it could also apply to the home game world. What home world/town is the save based on? Bridgeport? Does it occur in others (SunsetValley, Twinbrook, etc) or just Bridgeport?

14. Mods take up only kilobytes of space, not a lot really. It is really not recommended to play with EA's StoryProgression. It has a lot of issues. If it cause crashes when you load a Save, try on New games.

16. Does this issue occur when the Sims travel to a WA destination (and subsequent return home) triggered by you?

17. How did you delete Sims from the world? This probably make things worse.

19. Can I clarify that all the suggestions in the Game Help:UI and Sim Issues under "Already Have the Issue?" section did not help? Both DebugEnabler's "Fix Invisible Sims" and "resetsim *" cheat has no effect? There's also MasterController's "ResetLot" - see the post by twallan in http://my.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=455905&goto=lastpost

20. This all occur in pre-patched Saves from long ago? Have you ever tried on a brand new game with all your other CC intact + all the mods recommended in the wiki? Plus another scenario of a brand new game, with no other CC apart from the mods mentioned in the wiki? Try for both games, free vacation and WA vacation travel.

[Lautrec]

5. UI refers to User Interface - the blue panel.
I have had no issues with the blue panel, although when the sim has become invisible for a few minutes and I still carry on the game the sim disappears from the panel.

9. Country refers to the WA worlds (when manually traveling, not the games' free vacation feature to allow the Teens to misbehave). But it could also apply to the home game world. What home world/town is the save based on? Bridgeport? Does it occur in others (SunsetValley, Twinbrook, etc) or just Bridgeport?

Bridgeport is the town where the sims are becoming invisible but I downloaded Pyronium3's Setra and my sims became invisible there also. The townies also have become invisible, I know this cause the little clouds floating around town.

14. Mods take up only kilobytes of space, not a lot really. It is really not recommended to play with EA's StoryProgression. It has a lot of issues. If it cause crashes when you load a Save, try on New games.
When I installed Twallan's Story Progression the game kept crashing on load. I was able to load to the main menu but when I tried to load a game, it crashed saying Sims 3 has stopped working. After researching this issue, some posts said to unload mods. Once I did that the game begun to load. I am playing on a laptop, Windows 7, this might be my issue with this. I will retry to install Twallan's Story Porgression and see if the same issues occur.

16. Does this issue occur when the Sims travel to a WA destination (and subsequent return home) triggered by you?
I have never had issues sending sims on vaca. I also have never left a sim at home while sending other sims. One issue I have with sending sims on vaca was a pause on game play every few minutes but after I used "resetsim *" the issue stopped.


17. How did you delete Sims from the world? This probably make things worse.
Yes, I know this was probably a bad thing but I get so frustrated. When this first started I would delete the whole town because the whole town would become invisible. But this last time, I just evicted the family from the house in edit town and started to play with an old sim. This is currently the longest game I have played. The sim is going on day 4.

19. Can I clarify that all the suggestions in the Game Help:UI and Sim Issueswiki under "[b]Already Have the Issue?[b]" section did not help? Both DebugEnabler's "Fix Invisible Sims" and "resetsim *" cheat has no effect? There's also MasterController's "ResetLot" - see the post by twallan in http://my.modthesims.info/showthrea...5&goto=lastpost
I am going to try this as soon as I log in today.

20. This all occur in pre-patched Saves from long ago? Have you ever tried on a brand new game with all your other CC intact + all the mods recommended in the wiki? Plus another scenario of a brand new game, with no other CC apart from the mods mentioned in the wiki? Try for both games, free vacation and WA vacation travel.

This all occur in pre-patched Saves from long ago?
No. This started about three weeks ago, maybe four weeks. But since this started, I have not opened any of my old games.

Have you ever tried on a brand new game with all your other CC intact + all the mods recommended in the wiki?
Invisible sims has only happened on new games with all mods but Twallan's Story Progression.

Plus another scenario of a brand new game, with no other CC apart from the mods mentioned in the wiki? Try for both games, free vacation and WA vacation travel.
I have yet to try this but I will be doing some experiments with this and MasterController's "ResetLot" when I log in.

[ellacharmed]

The invisibility corruption occurs in stages and the longer left unfixed, the more borked the Save game is going to be. Until it affects Relationships and Careers...It starts with Invisible Sims, then the invisibility affects the UI, and so on.
If you have crashing, then you should see if there are suggestions in Game_Help:Sims 3 Crashing Checklist that you have not tried.

If you add a mod and get crashes, and other people are not complaining of the same issue, means there's some setting that is off in your configuration or you may need another mod to resolve that first. Be sure to read the requirements for the mod - in terms of compatibility with game versions and potential conflicts with other mods that touches on the same game feature. We have a guide on all this in DFDD's "Understand the requirements" (see my siggy) section, if you have not read it.

[Lautrec]

I have downloaded Twallan's basic story progression without the add-ons and his debugger. WA doesn't seem to cause any issues with my sims, none become invisible. I have a sim couple that has lasted and are not invisible. I think it has something to do with when I add a lot to Bridgeport and build a house, although that doesn't seem to explain why the townies in Setra have started to disappear. Should I just delete the whole thing and re-install? Would that help or cause more issues?

[ellacharmed]

Sims 3 - Installing / Patching / Uninstalling
Whether you are Installing for the first time or Reinstalling, be sure to read the Game Help:Install FAQ.
-
This Game_Help:TS3_Uninstall link has the step-by-step instructions to guide you through uninstalling The Sims 3,
and its (EP/SP) packs. As well as removing any leftovers after uninstalling.
-
The Game_Help:TS3_Patching Guide provides information on:
Tips Before You Begin
Patching Common Errors
Manual Patch Downloads
Invalid File Errors and more



Before we resort to a full uninstall,
- a new game (fresh user folders and no CC framework, no files in DCcache), ie with no cc at all - still crashing? Not even on a custom world, choose a default EA world. No CC means no CC, we need to test where the crashing starts.
- a new game (fresh user folders and redo the CC framework) with no other cc than Twallan's SP + MC + Overwatch still crashing?

If you chose a default EA household with Teens, the invisible Sims still occur with the free vacation on both the above scenarios? Then if yes, next step is a FULL Uninstall.

If after a FULL Uninstall and clean REinstall, crashing still occur, I need to see hardware. Please post specs. Game Help:System Specs

[Lautrec]

well my game isn't crashing. well it does but very infrequently. I can't seem to get my sims to become invisible. I am not fixed but I just can't seem to recreate what was happening when I posted this link which is a good thing and I guess it is kinda fixed except for the townies becoming invisible.