I was excited about CAW until I caught this thread. I had no idea the in-game store thing was going to be linked to CAW. EA can kiss my ass. I'm not touching CAW until I read here that it's been made safe and phone-home-proof.

I'm also getting the 0/whatever vacation countdown, but I like it. Everything seems to work normally when they've just got the basic 3-day visa, but as soon as they're able to book a vacation for 5 or more days the bar gets stuck at 0. I can still return home whenever I like via the cell phone, and so far I haven't noticed anything messed up when I get home. I also retain the cherries, pomegranates, plums, exotic bugs, etc. I pick up in foreign lands. I haven't really gotten into nectar making, fortune cookie baking or deep relationships with the locals, so I can't comment on whether those stats are getting screwed up for me. What I haven't tried yet, is having my Sim permanently remain in one of the vacation hoods. I'd love the option to have a Sim actually move there, not just staying on via a glitch. But maybe the game engine couldn't handle that.

Anyway, aside from that the only bug I've noticed at this point is that the damn game doesn't reset the already-explored areas for new Sims. It doesn't matter whether the Sim is from the same household or even if they have no relationship at all. This happened both before and after Awesomemod so it must be another EA bug, big surprise. I have absolutely no other hacks or mods and the only CC I've installed at this point is a few EA store items. Until all the borks are resolved, I'm not interested in getting all that involved in TS3. I'm just playing it for a diversion from my TS2 game. TS2 still, IMO, gives the best bang for the buck.

UPDATE: Thanks to tickleonthetum in another thread for these links:


If your WA version is for region 2, then that's why the patch ending in 001 won't work. I got the
second one  and it installed like a charm. AM is working fine, no more crashes or save errors so far (knock wood).

Problem solved until the next patch.

Okay, this is friggin' ridiculous. I cannot get my game to update from 2.0.86. I have just completely, and I mean completely, uninstalled both TS3 and TS3 WA, including every scrap of registry information related to those two games, using Revo Uninstaller to make sure. I then reinstalled TS3 (arred) and patched progressively up to 1.7.9. Then I installed WA (arred), which took the game to 2.0.86. WA is for region 2 and I can't install it for any other region. I had to change the SKU for the base game to region 2 to install WA. Then I tried once again to install the 2.2.8 patch, and I get the damned "Invalid File Found" error message again. When I try to install an update via the Launcher, it says the game is already up to date. I have changed the SKUs for both TS3 and TS3 WA back to region 1 and tried again, with identical results. I have also changed the game version number to 2.0.86.002001 in the WA skuversion.txt. The game remains at version 2.0.86.002002 and throws the Invalid File Found error every single time I try to update.

This is with NO custom content, NO hacks, NO custom files of any kind. What's more, I used Delphy's Patch Log Viewer and it shows a clean bill of health, no invalid files anywhere.

I can't use AM with this game as is since I'm unable to patch it to 2.2.8. I am desperate for any help, PLEASE!

I haven't experienced any crashes at all, so I'm sorry but I can't offer any help on that score.

I did, at one point in China, experience the dreaded "error 16" on saving, which I thought patch 1.7.9 was supposed to eliminate. The game didn't crash, though, it just let me continue without saving. My Sim was asleep in her tent at the time. When she woke up, I took her outside and tried saving again, and this time it saved with no problem and I haven't had the "error 16" issue since, knock wood.

In fact, aside from not being able to use AM, I'm not seeing any issues at all with the game still unpatched at the basic WA version 2.0.86 level.

I have an arred base game for region 1 and arred WA for region 2. I did a fresh reinstall of the base game and did progressive patches up to 1.7.9.002001 Then I had to change the SKU to region 2 to get WA to install. I installed WA with no problem, then changed the SKUs for both games back to region 1. I tried updating from the launcher and it said my game was already up to date, so I searched the Web for a patch to download (Sims3_2.2.8.002001_from_2.0.86.002001), but every time I run it, it goes all through the process and then throws up an error message:  Update Error: Invalid File Found.

I've replaced all the original files, removed all CC and I still get the same error. The game runs fine without the update but of course, I can't use AM because I get this: "Warning: Non-critical core mismatch!" which from reading posts I understand means the game's not patched to 2.2.8.

I'm at a loss. Any ideas?