Sims 3 64-bit can't remove lot [ Edited ]

[ashbymcdonald]

@puzzlezaddict I am hoping you can help me with this. I have a consignment store lot that is not showing up in the map view or the edit town view. I want to bulldoze it and put it somewhere else, but I can't even do that.  I have tried deleting all objects on the lot - does not work. I have tried having my sim buy the lot and then sell it - does not work.  I have tried simply placing another lot on top of it, but it tells me "cannot place on lots".  So the game recognizes that there's something there.  Here is what it looks like in the map view:

Any ideas on how to get rid of it?  

edited title after splitting thread.  -puzzlezaddict

[igazor · Accepted solution]

Hi there. @puzzlezaddict reached out to me on another channel, so to speak, for suggestions and shared your game save with me so I could poke at it for a bit. I can see why you want to preserve this ongoing game, it's quite well progressed. Here is what we worked out to zap the misbehaving consignment store that seems to not be on a lot when it really is.

This is on a game folder with the current versions of the following NRaas mods. They may not all be required, but we were working with a minimal set so as not to add things to the mix that you likely do not have in play:

MasterController, MC Cheats, Overwatch, ErrorTrap, StoryProgression, SP Money, DebugEnabler (this one holds the key for resolution).

1 - Start up the game, let the game clock run forward smoothly so that the mods are finished loading.

2 - On the ground of the consignment store lot or the building, hit NRaas > DebugEnabler > Options: (empty lot name, so it will just say "Options:") >  DEBUG: Bulldoze This Lot. The building will disappear and any sims on the lot will be transported home safely.

3 - Let the game clock move forward a bit more until your active household gets a refund credit for the lot having been destroyed. One of the things that seemed to be gumming up the works here is that they owned this lot as an investment.

4 - Enter Edit Town. It will at first look like the now empty lot that is not really a lot is still stuck.

5 - Hit the World Editor button as if you were going to add a new lot footprint or a rock or something and zoom all the way in on the now empty lot. The lot footprint should then unlock when you click on it. If you zoom back out again to regular Edit Town, the lot should now have a tag and you should be able to bulldoze the lot footprint normally or place a different building on it.

We tested this first on 1.67/TS3 for Windows then 1.70/TS3 for Mac 64-bit and it worked exactly the same in both environments.

Unfortunately I can't send back the saved game now because I have at least 2 EPs in play that you didn't and your CC including sims' skins aren't in my game so that's not going to work out well. But hopefully with DebugEnabler you can follow these steps on your own game and rid of the weird lot. I didn't see other lots with the same problem right away, but maybe this procedure would work on those as well if you do know of others.

[puzzlezaddict]

@ashbymcdonald  I split your post into its own thread because the other thread is about a different issue.

It looks like the consignment store is showing correctly in map view—it usually has that dark flat roof—but doesn't have a tag.  Out of curiosity, does the tag show up if you build something on the lot?  It can just be a couple of walls.

And what happens when you try to bulldoze the lot: do you get an error, does the game freeze or hang, etc.?  When you say that deleting the objects doesn't help, do you get the same error when you then try to bulldoze?  Does the lot work normally, as in, can your sims consign or buy items, and does your household have any consigned items waiting to be sold?

Please also remind me whether you use mods.

[ashbymcdonald]

@puzzlezaddict 

Thank you for starting a new thread.  

There is no tag, even after I place a few objects in it and build a couple of new walls. The symbol does not show up in edit town, nor does it show up in map view:.

When I try to bulldoze, nothing happens.  

It is acting almost like a world editor object, but when I try to place a world editor object (tree, rock), I get an error message saying I can't place it on a lot.  So it knows there is a lot there.  But when I hover the bulldozer of the lot, it does not light up like it does when I move it over any other lot.  

It DOES work -- my sims can sell stuff there, draw stuff on the drafting board, etc.  

I do use the Twallan mods (SP, MC, Overwatch, etc).  Never had a problem up until now. 

[puzzlezaddict]

@ashbymcdonald  Have you tried resetting the lot with MasterController?  Click on the ground of the lot or on the building itself and select NRaas > MC > Reset Lot.

Does adding NRaas Tagger make a difference?  Among other things, it manages the map tags for buildings.  Even if you don't want to play with Tagger moving forward, I'd be curious to know whether this helped.

If not, I could start generating a list of some other suggestions, or if you prefer, I could try it out in my game and see whether I can find a way to get rid of it.  If you want, upload the save somewhere (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) and either post the link here or send it to me via private message.

[ashbymcdonald]

@puzzlezaddict 

I appreciate the help. Neither Reset Lot nor Tagger seem to work.

I also noticed that one of the houses has the same problem. I may just have to blow it up and start over. I'll see about sending you the file to try out.

[igazor · Accepted solution]

Hi there. @puzzlezaddict reached out to me on another channel, so to speak, for suggestions and shared your game save with me so I could poke at it for a bit. I can see why you want to preserve this ongoing game, it's quite well progressed. Here is what we worked out to zap the misbehaving consignment store that seems to not be on a lot when it really is.

This is on a game folder with the current versions of the following NRaas mods. They may not all be required, but we were working with a minimal set so as not to add things to the mix that you likely do not have in play:

MasterController, MC Cheats, Overwatch, ErrorTrap, StoryProgression, SP Money, DebugEnabler (this one holds the key for resolution).

1 - Start up the game, let the game clock run forward smoothly so that the mods are finished loading.

2 - On the ground of the consignment store lot or the building, hit NRaas > DebugEnabler > Options: (empty lot name, so it will just say "Options:") >  DEBUG: Bulldoze This Lot. The building will disappear and any sims on the lot will be transported home safely.

3 - Let the game clock move forward a bit more until your active household gets a refund credit for the lot having been destroyed. One of the things that seemed to be gumming up the works here is that they owned this lot as an investment.

4 - Enter Edit Town. It will at first look like the now empty lot that is not really a lot is still stuck.

5 - Hit the World Editor button as if you were going to add a new lot footprint or a rock or something and zoom all the way in on the now empty lot. The lot footprint should then unlock when you click on it. If you zoom back out again to regular Edit Town, the lot should now have a tag and you should be able to bulldoze the lot footprint normally or place a different building on it.

We tested this first on 1.67/TS3 for Windows then 1.70/TS3 for Mac 64-bit and it worked exactly the same in both environments.

Unfortunately I can't send back the saved game now because I have at least 2 EPs in play that you didn't and your CC including sims' skins aren't in my game so that's not going to work out well. But hopefully with DebugEnabler you can follow these steps on your own game and rid of the weird lot. I didn't see other lots with the same problem right away, but maybe this procedure would work on those as well if you do know of others.

[ashbymcdonald]

@igazor 

"...it's quite well progressed."   That's code for "holy crap you've spent a lot of time on this game!!!"  

I know you are really busy working on the mods that will fix all the bugs in the new 64bit version, so I really appreciate you taking the time out to help me with this.  It worked like a charm!  

Thank you very much!  

[igazor]

No, that was code for at first glance it looks like you have been enjoying this game and would like to continue doing so. I didn't really poke around that much for details.

And sorry to have to say this because it may be disappointing, but we don't have any 1.70 specific mods in the works (and I'm not a mod developer anyway, more like support staff although I would happily test anything an NRaas developer produces).  NRaas mods already work fine on that version. I have come across a theory expressed elsewhere about why 1.70 behaves the way it does, it has more to do with the way the original C++ code of the game engine might have been prepped for conversion. It's just a theory as the one proposing it freely admits, but if there is any validity to it then it may not be possible to address all of the resulting issues with mods. Maybe someday some of them, one issue at a time.

But you're welcome and hope you can play this game save forward for at least as long as you would like to.