Dumb newbie questions...

[Madrona]

Hi everyone. I play Sims3 with my 5 year old daughter and we're having a blast together. We have just the "Sims3+Pets" game; no additional EPs. After playing a week or so, I have a few questions I hope someone will be able to answer.

1) Why does the game save my password but not my email address when logging in?

2) I'd like to move my sims to a new lot, but I can't figure out what size the lot I currently have is versus the size I'd like to move into. Is there a way to get info on the various lots before I plunk down cash for them?

3) When downloading items, I sometimes get this "There has been an error and you should restart your game" type message. Does this mean I have downloaded something that requires an EP that I don't have?

4) What does "No CC" mean that I see on peoples items?

Thank you in advance for answers. :)

[sierrakusterbeck]

2) You can go to the ..., then to Edit Town, and click on any lot and check the lot size or select Build/Buy to look inside the house.
4) It means there's no custom content in whatever they made.
xxx

[Madrona]

Thanks Sierra. :)

[lisfyre]

Hello Madrona and welcome to the world of The Sims :)

Sierra answered 2 & 4.

#1, do you log into the launcher when you play because you don't need to do that unless you shop in the store while you play. I never play logged into EA/Origin and I never shop at the store via the game. I do shop at the store but out of the game. IMHO there's no reason to be logged into EA/Origin while you're playing but that's your call.

I don't know the answer to #3 because I've never run into that problem. Maybe someone else can help you out with that.

Whatever you decide, have fun and happy simming!!

[Madrona]

Thanks Lisfyre! I've downloaded all the free stuff from the EA store so I don't imagine I will need to sign in there to play... so I'll just let that one go.

I've decided to stick with EA downloads for now until I can figure out how to 'quarantine' items I've downloaded to make sure they're okay as I add them.

[Tasselcat]

3) That isn't the error I got the one time I attempted to download a lot with EP content I didn't have, but it's probably related. Were you downloading in-game or through the Launcher? Is your game fully patched?

You're right to be cautious about CC, but I'm not sure how effective 'quarantine' will be - if it's got a virus attached, it's already in your system the second you download.
As it so happens, you're pretty safe with content from here, The Sims Resource, and other reputable TS3 content blogs like Nraas Industries, Custom Sims 3, and Simpossible. I've never had a problem, or even an alert from my AVG about sims downloads.

[Whiterudder]

3 is usually caused by the hapless player forgetting to close their Mods/Packages or Downloads folder before starting the game. Because the fact that having any Sims 3 folder open when you start the game would cause problems is totally obvious and logical - right?!?

You really can't get viruses from .package files, .sims or .sims3packs - the only potential danger is if you download a .rar or .zip file, and then find out that there's something other than .packages, .sims and .sims3packs in there. On MTS, you can click the little magnifying glass next to the file name before downloading to check (we check that before we approve stuff, but it never hurts to double-check).

Really, though, as long as you have a decent antivirus program (aka NOT NORTON) installed and running all the time, you're not at much real risk. :)

[goteampink]

Hi everyone. I play Sims3 with my 5 year old daughter and we're having a blast together. We have just the "Sims3+Pets" game; no additional EPs. After playing a week or so, I have a few questions I hope someone will be able to answer.

Way to get her started early ;) I can't wait until I can play something with my kids!

[zigersimmer]

3 is usually caused by the hapless player forgetting to close their Mods/Packages or Downloads folder before starting the game. Because the fact that having any Sims 3 folder open when you start the game would cause problems is totally obvious and logical - right?!?

You really can't get viruses from .package files, .sims or .sims3packs - the only potential danger is if you download a .rar or .zip file, and then find out that there's something other than .packages, .sims and .sims3packs in there. On MTS, you can click the little magnifying glass next to the file name before downloading to check (we check that before we approve stuff, but it never hurts to double-check).

Really, though, as long as you have a decent antivirus program (aka NOT NORTON) installed and running all the time, you're not at much real risk. :)

Leaving subdirectories open in windows exploder has never caused a problem for me.

[Zokugai]

This is the fourth or so place I've heard reports of it lately, though.

[Madrona]

Interesting. I probably did have windows open. I played TS1/TS2 back in the day (and remember MTS and TSR from back then) and had a metric ton of downloads without issue. Now that Sims3 has CAS, I'm hoping not to need quite so many other downloads... but of course there are never enough doors and windows. Or clothes.

Anyway yep - virus catchers are up to date.

TeamPink - My daughter is really having fun with it. We made a Mama sim and a Daddy sim and had them move into a house together. Soon Mama sim was pregnant and had a baby -- we named the baby my daughter's name. She thinks it's so awesome. Mostly she sits next to me and says things like, "I want to change mama's clothes" and "Daddy needs to clean up those dirty dishes!" and such. She likes to buy things for their houses so we are perpetually broke. :D

[Zokugai]

Hey, at least she understands the concept of cleaning the dishes. >_>

Come to think of it, if you avoided the woohoo, the Sims would be a pretty effective teaching device for kids. Budgeting skills, chores, proper time management...heck, add in a journal-type site and you've got the basics of writing and photography.

Suddenly I know what game my future kids will be playing.

[DigitalSympathies]

I play the first game with my boyfriend's three-year-old son all the time, and he loves it. The third game, the way I play it, is a bit too mature for him (my main sim is a mixologist with many romances), and the second is a bit too wordy for him, but TS1 is simple enough for him to understand even sometimes by himself. He loves playing it.

[Whiterudder]

Leaving subdirectories open in windows exploder has never caused a problem for me.Yeah, I've heard that reaction before :p . I don't fully understand the process of this bug; it's reproducable in that in almost every case where the error has occurred, files or folders have been open, either in exploder or another program; and in that when the error occurs, closing the files/folders and using various tricks to nuke stuck exploder handles fixes it. However, it does not occur every time the game is started under these conditions, and some people never seem to experience it at all. There must be other variables involved, but I really don't know enough about Windows file management to guess at what they may be.

[Zokugai]

Perhaps it's particular folders that cause it. It'd be interesting to see the pattern of just what subfolder those people had open, because maybe the Mods folder doesn't cause it but the Saves folder does (for instance).

[Whiterudder]

All I know is that Mods can, and Screenshots can - I don't believe I've ever started the game with any others open :p .