Finally a Patch!

They finally released a patch.  This 1.8/2.3 update is explained here http://www.thesims3.com/game/patches/516943451  There is no specific mention of error code 12, although there is mention of “improved stability” for longer game-play sessions (which may have been a contributing factor to error code 12, but I’m just guessing).  They also claim to have fixed the memory leak issue.  There’s no mention of fixing the long stream of bugs that can arise from travelling, such as losing family tree data, etc.  But I hope all of those issues were connected to the memory leak or extended game-play issues.

I will be waiting a little while to try out this patch, as I’m pretty nervous about it.  If you’ve tried it, please share your experiences with me   Thanks!!

P.S. The Create-A-World tool is out too, but I’ll also wait for other people to try it first.  LOL

I do really hate EA

So tonight, I got Dorian and Tristan back from Egypt–which was an important aspect of the storyline I’d been planning for MONTHS, and the whole reason I put off playing my Legacy until WA was released (so Dorian could go to Egypt).  When they returned home, only Tristan has a family tree.  All family members who stayed home and Dorian as well no longer had a family tree.  I AM PISSED.  I will have to back up to the save from before they went to Egypt, and simply stay in Sunset Valley.  No travels for my sims, as I do not want all the troubles and glitches and errors that come along with that.  Hopefully the buydebug wont cause too much trouble, because it’s the only way my sims will be able to learn the new skills.  It really doesn’t look like we’ll get a proper patch that wont include additional game-breaking features, so if I can avoid some of the problems by keeping my sims home, at least that’s something… sort of…

My LOLSims

Hopefully these will make you giggle. 

The Money-Grubbing Pigs at EA Make Me SICK!

I woke up this morning to see a very distressing “News” post on the Sims 3 website.  There has been a bit of an uproar about it on their forums, and it only took them a few hours to take this news update down from the site.  I have it saved though, and I would like to share it with you, in case you missed it.

“We wanted to let you know that a new Game Update for The Sims 3 and the release of The Sims™ 3 Create a World Tool – BETA will be coming this month. Updates are the primary way for us to offer new features for your games, address any issues, and keep you up-to-date on the latest information to support online features. The upcoming December update will include several items, but we’d like to tell you today about one new feature specifically that we’re really excited about.

Introducing – Shop Mode! You heard right folks. The December update will introduce a button that will allow you to shop from The Sims 3 Store from inside your game. This new feature will enhance your shopping experience at The Sims 3 Store and allow you to access The Sims 3 Store via Shop Mode from the main menu, build or buy mode or during Create-a-Sim. As you purchase new items, they will be added to your catalog, while your game is running. You can browse the full Store catalog directly from your game and purchase furniture, décor, hair, clothing – without ever closing your game. This is a really exciting new experience for The Sims series, and we look forward to sharing with you!

Create your own worlds for The Sims 3 this December!

Create and share unique new worlds that you design with The Sims 3 Create a World Tool – BETA. Download for free and step into the shoes of The Sims 3 development team by using the same tools the team uses to create worlds and towns for The Sims 3.

Stay tuned for specific details on the Game Update coming in December including everything it will provide and more news around Create a World Tool – BETA.”

I sincerely hope these fuckers took the news down because everyone was screaming about how they do not want any additional game-breaking features, and they can fuck themselves all day long with their money grubbing disgusting ways!!!!  [EDIT: This news item was replaced a day later, unfortunately they didn't change their minds ]

If you don’t believe me, that’s fine.  You can read more about it on the Sims 3 forum in this thread (unless it gets deleted) as well as in quite a few others…  But this thread was dedicated to this particular issue.  http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/140704.page

And in case it gets deleted one of these days, I will quote myself…

“enkeli63 wrote:
My thoughts on the upcoming update… are very severely self censored, just so you know

I was already profoundly angry at EA over the WA mess. If these snazzy new game-breaking features are not separate, I am certainly not downloading it. No thank you.

I am already sorry to everyone who currently has a working game because many of them are about to lose that

P.S. EA, you can be as “really excited” about my money as you want you wont be seeing it.”

:(

I just want to play this game and it makes me fucking sad   Testing it isn’t any fun.  I just keep finding out how much it isn’t working.  Today I’m in a lot of pain and I’m scared about stuff and I wish I could just play my game

Oh… WEIRD!

Okay, I’ve been testing on patch 1.6 and I will continue testing for a few more days before I attempt my Lords family–but so far *knock on wood* no error code 12.

I had confirmed that the food was spoiling rapidly (within 8 hours usually) in the fridge and the ages reset if I had sims change their appearance with the mirror or dresser.  Then I discovered another weird issue two days ago.  I had bulldozed the Wolffe house in Sunset Valley and put one of my own houses in that location.  From map view it showed the Wolffe house, and when I zoomed in, it would show the Wolffe house for a split second before morphing into the proper house.  I took some video of that to show what I meant, but I can’t upload it to the sims 3 site for some reason.  Anyways, the cache files seemed a bit slow to respond also, because it took a second or two for the house and its objects to show up when I would zoom in on it.

I inquired about the cache files on the Sims 3 site.  The files I’m talking about are found in the Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/ folder and they are called

compositorCache.package
simCompositorCache.package
scriptCache.package
CASPartCache.package

I did not know which one might be involved in the map view weirdness, and I needed to double check that it would be safe to delete these.  I was assured that it was safe, and I decided to move the files to my desktop in case my game did not regenerate these cache files.  It did regenerate the cache files, but the map view continued to show the Wolffe house instead of the proper house.  And then I just threw my hands in the air and said “Fine then!” and kept on playing.  LOL  I mean, what can you do when you’ve tried everything, right?

Okay, so about 3 hours of gameplay go by and then the map view half fixes itself.  It showed the proper house in map view except the house had no walls or roof.  Again, I took some video of that, and then ignored it.

Shortly after that happened, I discovered that either the fridge has magically repaired itself or shawarma (special meal from Egypt) does not spoil in the fridge.  My sim served shawarma for everyone because she was the only one who knew the recipe.  I have done nothing to attempt to correct the fridge.  The shawarma lasted for 2 and a half days in the fridge–until my sims had eaten it all.  I don’t know if it would have eventually spoiled when it should. 

So about two more hours of gameplay passed and then map view actually showed the proper house, walls and roof and everything!  Whoooohooo!  (not that kind, lol)  I again took some video.  Then I sent my sims to China to see if the house would still be okay when they got home.  It was!!  I had my sim make pancakes and put them in the fridge, so I can test the fridge again.  I was out of time for testing though, so I had to go to bed.

If deleting the cache files had any effect on the fridge and map view, it was certainly a VERY DELAYED effect.  But there was absolutely nothing else I did that could have possibly fixed these issues.  I’ll keep testing and let you know what happens.

EDIT TO ADD: I just loaded up my game and… the map view issue is back!  grrr…  I’ve got half-Wolffe-house in map view.  You can see my house’s chimney and outdoor plants and woodpile, but everything else is the Wolffe house.  All I can say is “WHAT THE FUCK, EA?!  Seriously!  What the fuck?!”

No Fake Foreigners… Nevermind, it’s Cloning Glitch #2

I just wanted to let you all know NOT to bother trying to make a “fake foreigner,” at least not the way I did.  (Made her in CAS, then pulled up France in Edit Town mode and placed her there.  Maybe it would work if you use CAS when you have pulled up the location in Edit Town mode, but I don’t know yet.)

She didn’t know the French songs, which was my first clue that it didn’t work.  Then my sim couldn’t get her to move in the friendly way, so he married her to move her in.  But although she had his last name and they could tell others about their wedding, they weren’t actually married and couldn’t get married for real.  Some weird glitch going on there.  I took these screenshots to show you what I mean.

(You might have to click those to see them at full size.)

You’ll see that although Malak has the moodlet of being “Just Married” the game says they are only Romantic Interests.  Weird!  I reloaded and tried again but the same thing happened.  Don’t worry–I tested with a “real French” sim a while ago and this doesn’t happen with the real foreign sims.  It’s my fault for trying something weird, but hey–you don’t learn anything if you don’t try it, eh?

Now back to testing my game…

UPDATE: Thanks to my friend who writes Blaze’s Blog now I know this wasn’t because I tried to make a fake foreigner… *sigh*  Yet another bug!!  Oh gee, thanks so much, EA, all of this buggy mess is really truly so much fun. [/sarcasm]

Potential Hope on the Horizon

I meant to write a short update last night but I was testing my game until bed time!  LOL 

So first, I want to say to to bucher, thank you is not really a strong enough phrase to show my gratitude.  You surprised me and reminded me of how wonderful other people in this world can be, which is a priceless gift.  Priceless.  I would like to hug you!  But I guess cyber hugs will have to do.  I am really glad that you liked my Legacy story–I sure had fun with it!  I really hope I can pick it up again.  I might end up having to do the “Noah’s Arc” solution of putting them and their house in the bin and moving them to a new neighborhood.  They will forget all about other family members and all that stuff, but if I have to I will do it that way!

Okay, so now an update.  I found some information on the Sims 3 website yesterday about how to download the patches manually instead of using the EADM to get them.  I download all the previous patches for the Sims 3 and then I uninstalled my game again, did a Clean Disk and defrag, then reinstalled Sims 3 and used my downloaded patches to patch the game all the way up to the 1.6 patch (for me, that complete number is 1.6.6.002002  Then I installed World Adventures again and did not take the newest patch.

I had not been able to play very much with just the 1.6 patch in place before I got WA and took the newest patch, so I don’t know if my game would’ve been so buggy with just 1.6 or if the 1.7 nightmare is the whole problem.  When I read about how to go back to 1.6, I just thought to myself “I have nothing to lose by trying!”

So if you are in the same position as me and would like to try this, here is the thread on the Sims 3 site where I learned how to do this.  http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/137655.page  I don’t yet know if it works, but if you also have nothing to lose because your game is broken and you can’t play anyways, then this might possibly hopefully work!

I haven’t put any old saves back in.  If I can play without any error 12 issues, I will be brave and see if I can resurrect my Legacy.  In the meanwhile, I decided to use my saved copy of Malak from my library.  He had died naturally a long time ago, but I missed him and he was awful fun to play, so I thought he’ll be my testing sim.  I also got attached to Claudia, the sim I’d made to test things and got her married to the French guy, etc.  She was such a lovely and fun sim, so I thought, “let’s bring her back too and see if she and Malak like each other.”

First I tested to see if Malak could have fun dancing.  (Other players have reported that their sims get no fun dancing anymore.)  Malak had a great time dancing.  I will test again today to see if he can still have fun dancing after going on a trip. 

Then I had him change appearance with the dresser (just added some extra outfits for him) to check if his age would be reset to the beginning of Young Adult stage.  It was, so the aging bug definitely exists in either the 1.6 patch or the WA game itself.

Next I bought him a car because if your sim leaves for a vacation using a taxi, the taxi will get stuck in front of the house forevermore and no one likes a derelict taxi (or a few of them) in front of their house!  I would test to see if this bug exists in the 1.6 patch or WA itself, but it takes some time to go on your trip and come back to see if the taxi is there.  And for the moment, I do not want to need to deal with reloading old saves and losing progress.

I went in Edit Town mode and put Claudia in France.  Then I sent Malak to France to find her.  She was a merchant!  lol  She was working at the cafe, but I soon learned that just putting her in France didn’t make her a “French Sim” because Malak could not learn the French songs from Claudia.  Perhaps you can make a foreign sim if you Edit Town, load the location, AND THEN make a sim in CAS?  I don’t know but I’ll test that a little later.  It would be nice to know if we can make our own truly foreign sims.

Anyways, Malak did not do any adventures except for collecting Titanium (because he could grab the extra pieces shown on the map and have a little money, he was too broke to even take a photo of Claudia!  lol)  He introduced himself to Claudia and they chatted a little bit.  I guided him to flirt with her once and then sat back and watched what they did.  Well, they flirted and complimented each other and all of that.  They just both kept the romantic interactions going all on their own!  It was fun to watch.  I guided him to let her know a bit more about him by talking about music and sharing some of his evil plots.  She was not at all interested in hearing about those things.  Maybe later when her infatuation has worn off.  LOL

After she told him to shut up about that stuff and she started romancing him again, he told her he was attracted to her and now they are romantically involved.  He dreamed about her all night.

By the way–I didn’t get to see any sims dreaming with the 1.7 patch and I had been really looking forward to that.  Seeing what my sims dreamed about in the Sims 2 always helped me to plan what experiences they should have.  It also just makes them feel a little more real to me.  If they have dreams and feelings, my imagination gets engaged a lot more.  I just cannot tell you how happy I am that my sims are dreaming now!

The vacation ended pretty soon and I had to go to bed after getting Malak back home.  But he did arrive safe and sound, and nothing was lost or duplicated in his inventory, and the nectar machine was in the family inventory.  Malak still had all his new contacts from France in his relationship panel.

So far I have run into far fewer bugs!!!!  Like, just one so far.  But he didn’t use the fridge, so I can’t say if the food spoils too fast.  I’m going to keep on testing, it’ll take a while to know if error 12 returns.  Sometimes it would come along after playing error-free for several days.  So I wont jump for joy just yet, but there is certainly hope!

The Results…

Well, uninstalling and reinstalling only works temporarily.  Starting a whole new game in a new neighborhood with new sims also only works temporarily.  I’ve contacted EA customer service, and while the representatives I’ve spoken to have all be really nice, they were unable to do anything for me.  I’ve already tried everything they were able to suggest.

I am demanding a full refund from them.  I bought my game from a store in my town but I can’t return it to them because it’s opened.  There’s a slight possibility that EA may be able to send me a new disk, which I can take to the store for my refund.  But that’s unknown at this point because I’m not located in the US.  So they’re looking into that.

I will never again purchase another product by EA.  NEVER.

On a side note, I did play with the Lords family again in order to test when/if the error code 12 returns.  It did of course return.  Anyhow, before that I figured I might as well just do what I feel like, even if it’s against the Legacy rules.  I made that decision the second Dorian got the “Oh My Ghost” opportunity to resurrect a loved one.  I had felt so guilty about killing Candy, and how terribly upset Dorian was over all of that.  He never really recovered.  So I let him bring her back as a living ghost–and I was glad I did!  That was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.  He was completely overjoyed every time he saw her!  It was just so sweet and beautiful.

I don’t know if it had to do with having a living ghost or not, but after bringing Candy back, I couldn’t get any ghosts to come out of their graves in Sunset Valley at all.  There were ghosts in Egypt, but I could never get any in Sunset Valley.

My game is completely fucked up and broken, because EA cannot manage to produce a quality product.  And they have no motivation to do so as long as addicted sims players continue to buy their shit and be patient hoping for it to be fixed.  I will no longer contribute to the problem.  I will never again purchase a product by EA.  I may pirate everything they make just to help put them out of business, because I really don’t want them to have enough money to buy out other studios and completely ruin other games out there.  I personally don’t enjoy any other game, but I know people who do, and I’d sure hate to see EA ruin their fun too!

EA sucks.  That’s an understatement.

(P.S. I was just ranting and whining when I said I’d pirate their stuff.  lol  I’m not going to do that for real!!  Just plain not spending money on them is all it takes to make my point.)

FUCK YOU EA!!!!

FOR FUCK’S SAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, I really needed to curse right now and this is my blog.

Anyways, I am now reinstalling the base game and World Adventures and hoping that I’ll at least be able to play a new game.  Maybe someday I can resurrect an old back-up of my Legacy before any of this shit happened, but it’s starting to look like the Lords Family is doomed.  I have not found any real answers regarding what causes error code 12 but multi-generational neighborhoods are the most afflicted–which pretty much rules out ever playing a Legacy.  Also large lots with a great deal of items and customization also is a suspect–and also rules out playing the Legacy Challenge by the actual rules.  Although Pinstar is just a normal guy who likes to play the Sims, not one of the fucktards at EA that doesn’t give a shit if their product fucking works well enough to manage a fucking Legacy…

So yeah… forget multiple generations… forget actually collecting collectibles or writing novels… and forget your sims actually DOING SOMETHING that might write data to the save files which will eventually get so bloated that you’ll get error 12 every fucking time you turn around.  In short, don’t plan on really playing The Sims 3.  You can open it up, fuck around for a few days, and probably have fun.  But don’t count on being able to really play it the way you were actually hoping to when you spent your hard earned money on this fucking shit!!!!!!!!!