Stuck loading when travel abroad

[Ayamjago56]

I had an issue where i make my sims travel abroad to France (i think) and the loading bar was stuck. Are there solutions on how to fix this thing?? I’ve waited for around half an hour and it looks like it kees getting stuck.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@Ayamjago56  First of all, you'll need to force-close the game since it's not likely to resolve itself at this point.  (Even if it did, I'd worry about a play session with such an abnormally long loading screen.)  Once you've closed the game, go into Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\CurrentGame and delete all the files inside.  This folder should always be empty unless you're actually playing.  Delete the five cache files as well:

• CASPartCache.package
• compositorCache.package
• scriptCache.package
• simCompositorCache.package
• socialCache.package

For your next attempt at traveling, if you use mods or are willing to try a few, NRaas Traveler, along with ErrorTrap and Overwatch, can help in situations like this.  You can find more info about them here:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/Sims-3-Common-Game-Fixing-Mods-Hero-Approved/m-p/98388...

If you're not interested in using mods, the only thing you can do is lower the stress on the game engine as much as possible:

• Empty out your sims' inventories as much as is reasonable.  Having a few items is fine, but not much more.
• Save the game immediately before you want your sims to travel.
• Exit to the Main Menu and lower all the graphics settings to the minimum.  Turn off the in-game shopping experience and the interactive loading screens as well, then quit to desktop.
• Delete the five cache files in your user folder (listed above) again.
• Take your computer completely offline.  If you play through Origin, you can sign in and put Origin in offline mode before disconnecting your computer and launching the game.  If you do use Origin, disable the Origin in-game overlay as well.
• Load the game, and once the clock has run for a few sim-minutes, send your sims traveling right away.
• Once they arrive in their destination, use "save as" to rename the save, then quit.  If you want, you can first exit to the Main Menu and raise the graphics settings again, but be sure to quit to desktop before reloading the save.

Regardless of how you proceed, it's a good idea to use "save as" to rename the save before traveling, so you have the original as backup should you need it again.  There's always a chance your sims get stuck in France, with the game refusing to load the homeworld just as it's refusing to load France now.  So this way, you can revert to the backup if necessary, and all you'll lose is the time you spent playing through the vacation.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@Ayamjago56  First of all, you'll need to force-close the game since it's not likely to resolve itself at this point.  (Even if it did, I'd worry about a play session with such an abnormally long loading screen.)  Once you've closed the game, go into Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\CurrentGame and delete all the files inside.  This folder should always be empty unless you're actually playing.  Delete the five cache files as well:

• CASPartCache.package
• compositorCache.package
• scriptCache.package
• simCompositorCache.package
• socialCache.package

For your next attempt at traveling, if you use mods or are willing to try a few, NRaas Traveler, along with ErrorTrap and Overwatch, can help in situations like this.  You can find more info about them here:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/Sims-3-Common-Game-Fixing-Mods-Hero-Approved/m-p/98388...

If you're not interested in using mods, the only thing you can do is lower the stress on the game engine as much as possible:

• Empty out your sims' inventories as much as is reasonable.  Having a few items is fine, but not much more.
• Save the game immediately before you want your sims to travel.
• Exit to the Main Menu and lower all the graphics settings to the minimum.  Turn off the in-game shopping experience and the interactive loading screens as well, then quit to desktop.
• Delete the five cache files in your user folder (listed above) again.
• Take your computer completely offline.  If you play through Origin, you can sign in and put Origin in offline mode before disconnecting your computer and launching the game.  If you do use Origin, disable the Origin in-game overlay as well.
• Load the game, and once the clock has run for a few sim-minutes, send your sims traveling right away.
• Once they arrive in their destination, use "save as" to rename the save, then quit.  If you want, you can first exit to the Main Menu and raise the graphics settings again, but be sure to quit to desktop before reloading the save.

Regardless of how you proceed, it's a good idea to use "save as" to rename the save before traveling, so you have the original as backup should you need it again.  There's always a chance your sims get stuck in France, with the game refusing to load the homeworld just as it's refusing to load France now.  So this way, you can revert to the backup if necessary, and all you'll lose is the time you spent playing through the vacation.

[Ayamjago56]

@puzzlezaddict How to lower the graphic settings in the game? Do you mean i should lower all the detail settings to 0?

[Ayamjago56]

@puzzlezaddict I’ve tried the 1st and 3rd attempt. But it doesnt work. Does that mean I have no choice but to downloads travelermod for the game?? 

[puzzlezaddict]

@Ayamjago56  You can access the graphics settings at the Main Menu by clicking on the three dots in the lower-left corner, choosing Options, and clicking on the first header (if it doesn't open by default).  And yes, I meant drag all the sliders all the way to the left, plus disable Advanced Rendering, so everything's on the minimum setting.

I'd definitely recommend trying the mods I mentioned, but if you don't want to add them yet, there's another step you can try first. Just to make sure this isn't a different issue, please start a new save in Sunset Valley, pick a random household, and send the sims to France.  You don't have to play for very long; the point is to see whether you can travel there at all.  If you can't, then the problem is different.  In that case, please let me know what antivirus you use, if any, and whether OneDrive is running.  Even if you don't use it, OneDrive can interfere with the contents of Documents.

The other question is whether the sims in your current save have ever been to France before, and if so, if there's anything you want to save about the world as you've played it.  For example, are there any relationships you'd like to preserve, or a vacation home?  If not, it might be worth forcing the game to load a fresh instance of France by deleting the current one from your save.  I wouldn't play like this without ErrorTrap and Overwatch present, but you can certainly try it as an experiment.

Inside Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Saves, there's a folder for each save, and inside those folders, there's an .nhd file for each world that the save has simulated.  So you could delete the .nhd file for France and the one that ends in ExportDB.package and then see whether the world loads.  If you're going to do this, use a copy of your save, as in, use "save as" to rename the save, then experiment on the new copy.

[Ayamjago56]

@puzzlezaddicthey puzzle sorry for the late response, Anyways, I did a test on a new game using a premade sim available. And the result seems fine, as my game has successfully loaded with the sims arriving at France. However, adjusting the graphic settings to a minimum didnt work. But I did download the travelersmod and the mod works. But could the issue be due to plenty of bought store content items and library downloads in my folder?

[puzzlezaddict]

@Ayamjago56  Having store content shouldn't affect the travel transition at all, and having a number of items in your library absolutely won't.  However, if those downloaded lots came with custom content, that might have an effect: bad cc can cause all sorts of problems.

As it stands now, can you get through the travel transition in your existing save with Traveler installed?  I'd still recommend installing ErrorTrap and Overwatch as well for the full effect.  These two mods do a lot of cleanup in the background, resolving errors and removing stray data that could otherwise corrupt your save.

[Ayamjago56]

@puzzlezaddict yes its all good for now thanks to the mod