Being able to simply run the game doesn't necessarily mean your system won't choke under pressure in certain circumstances.

I would say try turning InformOnStoryAction on see if it pops up what it's doing when that freeze hits. Try letting it sit for a while if you can.

If you do that and nothing comes up then turn off Awesome Story and see if you are still getting it.

If it's not AwesomeStory than it's likely something EAXian in nature. If it is AwesomeStory, you could possibly try posting a save game shortly before midnight, but if you problem is system and/or resource (or lack thereof) specific it may be hard to diagnose.

Also, are you running the game versions based on the latest patch from EA and have you been updating awesomemod regularly?

In a nutshell, officially EA now wants you to put packages in My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims3/Mods/Packages (yes you do have to create the Mods/Packages directories yourself). You also need to get an updated resource.cfg as the paths have changed and place it in the Mods folder.

Unofficially, the old way in Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Mods/Packages still works.

It has been discussed many times here already. If you need more detailed instructions than that and are unable to find it here or don't feel like looking I suggest going to Mod The Sims as they have extensive help information that is kept up to date on setting up your game so mods work correctly.

The patcher utility Pescado is probably referring to is here: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=409829

It will automatically detect if a patch is available for each version and region of the game you have installed, but it's a lot more transparent than the EA launcher in that you can see what it is doing and it won't download or install anything unless you tell it to.

According to EA, you must uninstall the old version first, then install the new version the OP linked. Don't try to install it over top of the old version.

If you did that then check the file Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Create a World Tool\worldbuilder.ini the last line should read WBVersion = 1.9.14.007037

If it does check to see if the versions for each of the installations (Base/WA/HELS/AMB) are as follows:

Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin\skuversion.txt   GameVersion = 1.14.11.007002
Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 World Adventures\Game\Bin\skuversion.txt    GameVersion = 2.9.10.007002
Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 High-End Loft Stuff\Game\Bin\skuversion.txt  GameVersion = 3.5.8.007001
Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Ambitions\Game\Bin\skuversion.txt   GameVersion = 4.2.32.007001

Or just get the patch downloader utility from MTS and it will automatically check for you and let you download the appropriate patches.

D'OH! I should have thought of that. Thanks for posting it though.

If you noobtards would care to SEARCH MOAR you would know that there are ways to get rid of the CD check without those crappy gamecopyworld file replacement cracks.

Instead you and your 'friends' will run off and grab those, then not bother to back up the damned original files you overwrite and whine and bitch again the next time a patch comes out and you get invalid file found.

Oh and Freckles, do you always refer to your 'friends' in first person?

No it still works. I just tried it. Also the just updated for the patch version of Awesomemod works to remove the CD check too.

However you can't launch the game from the launcher. This includes from the default desktop icon the game makes which calls the launcher first.

You have to run directly from the game executable, which would be TS3.exe if you only have the basegame, TS3EP01.exe if World Adventures is the most recent expansion/stuffpack your have, TS3SP01.exe if HELS is the most recent expansion/stuff pack you have or TS3EP02.exe if you have Ambitions.

Maybe you should stop messing with those NoCD cracks that replace the game files or at least remember to back the originals up before you overwrite them.

Two things. First what the hell does this have to do with this thread?

Second, did you actually read through those links you were given for the Exchange threads and check to see if you had some of the problem custom content known to cause this? Don't assume because you haven't installed any custom content in a while that it can't be it. The problems some content creates do not always show immediately.

Also logic dictates that if no one else is complaining about this on Twallan's board surrounding his mods and a lot of people are complaining about this being caused by custom content on the Exchange that it's most likely custom content. Don't think you know better and argue with people or bug people on another forum that isn't even Twallan's about a problem you think is caused by Twallan's mods. Just check your custom content.

As usual, the obvious first thing everyone should be doing when having a serious problem they don't know the source of is to take all mods and custom content out temporarily (move the Mods, DCCache and DCBackup folders out of My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 temporarily) and try loading the game to see if the problem is still there. Don't save the game, just see what happens. If the problem does not show this eliminates that your game files themselves are hosed and points that it is indeed something you downloaded.

Next put the mods/packages/hacks folder back in (don't put custom content package files under Mods/Packages/Objects or Clothes etc in yet, just hacks) and try it. If you still don't get the problem it is a piece of custom content.

If you had dug through the Exchange thread your were linked over at Twallan's forum and the further links it gives you would have seen that the known problem files to cause the weird baby issue are as follows:

top-nkd
bottom-nkd
Metallica Magnets logo t-shirt
toddler_tee (with 'milk' written on it)
collectionblondes (has a picture of a woman with a black bikini top and bottom)
New CAS Project
Nightime, Daytime, Everytime shoes
Shymoo

And while you are at it, lookout for "Girl Doll Dressed" the infamous viral doll.

These are things that (should have) gotten installed via the launcher so look for them there and uninstall them if you have them. It doesn't matter if you never downloaded them because they can embed themselves in other sim3packs and sneak in.

And I assume you went back to the source of all of these and made sure to verify they are compatible with Ambitions as well as to download the updated versions?

Also, you really should do a quick test of the game with zero hacks or custom content just to make sure your game files aren't corrupt somehow.

I don't think it's something you need to regularly do. My understanding, and someone correct me if I am wrong here, was that it was mainly just a one time thing when the decrapify process started so that any references to the old un-decrapified store hair, clothing and objects in the save would be aligned with the decrapified versions.

Even if you did run an undecrapified save with decrapified objects as far as I know the worst that will happen is some stuff just doesn't show. I loaded an old save from last year recently and the only problems were one sim I had put store hair on ended up bald and some furniture in a couple of houses was substituted for base game versions, but nothing blew up and it was easy enough just to re-add those things.

Anyway, if your save was decrapified once way back and and you are regularly decrapifying store items and lots prior to installing them via the launcher I don't see any reason why you should need to keep decrapifying your save file. The save shouldn't have any way to reference un-decrapified files if you are doing that.

Patching isn't really an option for anyone who wants to continue to use mods and custom content. Creators will always create for the latest version of the game and you'll be left behind.

If someone's game won't patch there's something wrong. Probably the modified or overwrote one of the important game files such as with a NOCD crack etc. Ideally if you backed up your original unchanged files before you modified them you can just put them back. The error log in the patcher will tell you which files it's erroring out on and aren't the correct version it's looking for.

If you still can't get it to patch then you really should just reinstall from scratch. You can backup your saved game and custom content so you don't have to lose anything.

Seriously, anyone trying to do a song and a dance to get things to work without patching don't. You need to get that patch situation taken care of first. If all else fails, reinstall, start over and don't use those damned nocd cracks that come with the torrents!. Awesomemod already included NOCD functionality and if that doesn't work Twallan has a stand alone NOCD mod in the form of a package that does not require you to replace any important files. I don't have the link off hand so just do a search for it.

If your card and drivers are allowing that resolution, it should be selectable in the game. I know some cards don't have it in their drivers by default as a standard resolution even though the card supports it. In that case you'd probably have to fiddle with the drivers or ini files prior to driver install. There are ways to add a resolution to your video cards set of available standard resolutions, but it's rather beyond the scope of this site.

I'd suggest checking out either ATI or Nvidia fan forums, depending upon which card you have, and search around with regard to adding custom resolutions.

Also NoVanillaPudding seems to employ a Walmart algorithm giving a quite high percentage of obese sims.

So yeah, basically randomizing will always suck and giving odd or less than ideal results that require fine tuning or a lot ignoring.

Technically it only theoretically accepts same-sex pollination in the ScienceWorks since Awesomemod itself does not enable the action to actually do such pollinating. It only allows for it if an additional mod is in place that enables it and to my knowledge no such mod has been created.

However, there are mods such as Twallan's pollinator that bypass Awesomemod's ban on same sex pollination outside of the ScienceWorks and provide a workaround to still allow it to take place even with Awesomemod running.

For me with EAxis story, almost nothing happens but then sometimes something really bizarre happens like someone dies or just disappears forever. With Awesome story nothing happens. And with Twallan story a lot happens, unless you scale it back via configuration.

Personally I like things to happen. I don't want to control the whole town, I want them to just go off and do things on their own and live their own lives (or give me the appearance that they are living their own lives) without me having to interfere, except when my sims interact with other sims.

If all of that is too much for someone, Twallan story is completely configurable. Almost too much so. You can configure and turn on or off literally ever aspect of it so it's really just as active or non-active as you want it to be.

As far as being able to see the actions being done, I don't care. It's done off screen to me so it doesn't make a difference one way or another if I can observe it.

I can see though where Awesome story would appeal more to those who are playing the town as a whole, and not just one family, and really anal 'detail oriented' types like cwurts who simply must micromanage everything.

Personally, a like a story, I like things to happen without me having to initiate them. I like some randomness. Sometimes shit just happens.

A little bit of unpredictability, as long as it doesn't go overboard, keeps things fresh and interesting for me. It's especially important for me in this game because I find I often get to the point where it just feels like same old same old like a hamster running in place on a wheel so I get bored and stop playing.

I also like that Twallan story is completely configurable. Awesomestory is basically just on or off. If a certain option annoys you (like the damned cribs ugh!) you can turn it off with Twallan story but not with Awesome story.

Education is a new career that came with Ambitions. Oddly, unlike all the other careers that came with Ambitions, this one is not playable. Instead it's an old style career that runs via a rabbithole.

How many fucking times do people need to tell you if you bought the shit from EA and paid them for it but it's not working you need to take it up with them?

If you want to give up installing it the correct way as a legitimate purchase, waste your money, consider it a donation to EA and just start all over and pirate the files that is your business. If that is the case then get off your ass, do a fucking search and don't expect anyone to spoon feed you.

For starters, you're in the wrong section of the board.

I believe it was probably Delphy's CAS Texture Unitool.

I've heard the TSR tool may have this functionality as well, but I've no intention of installing it to find out.

This.

Plus, if his goal were to get this sort of formula used when the game spawns sims I could maybe understand, though it's misguided for the reasons above regarding the frequency of uncommon skin to hair/eye combinations. However, in the original post he mentions wanting it to be made into a randomize button in the CAS. Uh, is it really that hard to take a second to move the cursor on a color wheel to change a hair color you don't like?

It's on the last page (10) of the store items thread.

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,15100.225.html

All of the files Panama Crew posts are in package format.

And yes as jeromycraig noted, you can also quite easily convert sims3packs to package format with various tools such as Delphy's Sims3Pack Multi Extractor at Mod the Sims. I suggest you look into such tools in the future to avoid bugging people to do it for you and post it.

I thought you said you blocked Same Sex Try for a Baby but then allowed for it in the Science Lab. 

Well call me confused. Anyway, if that's the case Twoftmama's Same Sex Pregnancy mods should work too, though she's been noting they don't work with Awesomemod.

I haven't tried Twallan's computer, but his Pollinator does indeed bypass Pescado's draconian ban on same sex pregnancy on the back end. I imagine the computer would work similarly.

Yes.

It might be, oh I don't know, in the thread called "TS3 Store, DOWNLOADS ONLY". And seeing as these are new files, gee, maybe it might be on the last page among the most recent posts? 

Next time SEARCH MOAR!

When asking from Store files you should check both the download thread and here first before posting.

Well if Pescado would actually enable (without a mod) same sex Try for a Baby in the Science Lab then people wouldn't need to jump through such hoops. Or better yet, some sort of DNA combining, instant offspring method since I kind of hate the male pregnancy thing. I'll deal with it though if the only other alternatives are the above shenanigans or fugly EAxis DNA rugrats.

Bodysnatch, while a nice feature to have, I kind of avoid since if you want to give a sim 'surgery' or else have them look different than anyone currently in town it requires creating a superfluous sim.

I miss having (TS2) SimPE since it was easy to just copy the facial structure of any sim, even bin ones, and move it over to another sim in town. It's probably doable with S3PE actually, just less user friendly. I'll have to look into it.