SIMS 3 World Adventure

[BabyzStarLight]

I'm having an issue in World Adventure were my Sims information disappears and when I restart the game, the information comes back up but I can't switch Sims or see the adventure that my Sims are on.  I sent them home once thinking it mightve just been a loading glitch but I've gone back again and it's still doing it. Is there a way to fix this?

[DonroaAkashu]

@BabyzStarLight  It sounds like a number of different issues. Not being able to switch between sims is usually remedied by exiting the game to desktop;  then starting it again. Make sure you delete the caches in Sims 3 folder in between. You find them in: Documents>Electronic Arts>The Sims 3. They are called:

CASPartCache.package
compositorCache.package
scriptCache.package
simCompositorCache.package
socialCache.package (optional)

(The ".package" part is only there if your operative system is set to show extensions).

The cashes fill up with old data and it is good to delete them every time you exit the game. Fresh ones will regenerate every time you start the game.

More info on the issue is found here: https://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2011/10/bug-multi-selected-portraits.html

The other issue could be the travel transition. When you say you cannot see your sim's information - do you mean the sim's portrait icon is green? Or that the sim itself is invisible? Or something else? It would help if you explained more.

[BabyzStarLight]

I've existed to desktop and restarted several times and deleted the caches but both didn't seem to do anything.

The Sims aren't invisible, I can see them and their icon is green like their needs are full, and I can only see the face of their originally selected sim and a white rim around the icons appears once selected, but I can't enter the side bar with the inventory and needs and such when I load into the vacation world but appear after I've restarted the game, than that's the only thing that works, and the adventure information isn't there, the bar next to the Sims head is there for the adventure but is blank. But i have none of these problems returning home. 

[DonroaAkashu]

@BabyzStarLight   Thank you. I am not sure I recognize this description; but the transition when using the World Adventure travelling seems instable and can cause lots of very odd things to happen. To be sure I understand: do your sims have no issues when in their home world? And do you have a save from before going traveling?

If your sims have no issues in home world, and if you have an older save from before traveling, I suggest you make a new test-save from that point:

Load your save, then save your game using option Save As. Name your new save "test" or something like it. Exit the game, delete the caches, load your test save. Cancel all opportunities and adventures (right-click on them). Go Into Edit Town, evict your household to the clipboard, copy your house to the library, bulldoze the house on the lot, place the copy of the house on the lot, place back your household in the house - all in the same Edit Town session. Report back and I will write out a description on how to ease the travel transition.

If your sims still have issues in their home world let me know and I will give advise on what you could do.

If you don't have any previous saves let me know, and I will give advise on what to do to recover a backup-save.

[BabyzStarLight]

I think i have it fixed, I wasn't sure how to access previous saves so I kinda took a stab in the dark and sent my Sims home and made a new save, waited than sent them back on vacation in the new save and have seen no problems so far. Thanks for your help, hoping the problem doesn't occur again. 😊

[DonroaAkashu]

@BabyzStarLight     I'm glad to hear that!

Your saves would be in the Saves folder in Sims 3 folder; and are accessible through Main Menu when starting the game. If you only have used the option Save (and not Save As), there will still be a backup save made by the game, from the next to last time you saved. It is in the Saves folder with the same name as your save, but with the extension ".backup". I higly recommend using the option Save As and not just saving; so you will always have backups of your own to go back to if anything goes wrong. Name them in a way it's easy to remember what they are.

Here are some tips to ease the travel transition, you can choose to do all or a couple of them:

Empty out the sims personal inventories, and the household inventory. A few items are okay to have in there, the rest I put on the home lot, or a different lot owned by the household. My sims never wear any special outfits; but everyday clothes, during the travel transition.

If my household have more than one sim travelling together, I make sure they have at least relationship: Friends, before.

Always Save As just before traveling, exit the game and delete the caches. Empty out everything in the folder: FeaturedItems as well. (Let me know and I will write out a description on how to prevent the thumbnails to reappear in there). Only travel first thing when loading up a save. Always delete caches before loading the save. Always Save As under a new name when first arriving at the WA destination.

In Options menu:
General Settings: choose Disable Memories, uncheck the Enable Shop Mode and the Enable Interactive Loading Screens. I uncheck all weather options (Seasons EP), and Set to Single Lunar Phase as well; not full moon, then you can't travel (Supernatural EP).
In the Graphics tab: check Enable Object Hiding and all settings to medium/low (this depends on your graphics card). You can turn the rest of the graphics settings up again after reaching the World Adventure destination. The option High Detail Lot should always be on 1 or 2 for best gameplay performance; not just during travels.

Play offline: don't log into the launcher or game; turn Origin to Offline Mode if you use that client; pull your ethernet cord/turn off your wifi.

An old homeworld that has been played for a long time, with lots of things added and changed to; or a large world, or one with a lot of routing errors, might contribute to any issues with the loading when travelling. The same goes for the WA destination world.

It also helps of course to have good hardware, especially enough RAM (at least 8 GB). An SSD is good for in-game loading as well as the initial loading, but that is a bit much to get just for a game trip