Having no save files is a normal state.  Is having save files but no cache files a normal state at any point?

It's obviously extremely bad practice to store data that should have been in a save game in a file designated as cache instead.  But it only takes one indication that this has happened to mean that they do it all the time.  Just because no programmer in his right mind would do such a thing doesn't mean that EA programmers never did it.

If you have an obviously corrupted cache file, then any possible harm done by deleting it is overridden because the file is already causing problems.  In that case you delete the file.  Deleting a cache file when there are no problems is putting a lot of faith in EA using proper engineering practices.

Hook

The only time I've ever moved a sim out and abandoned the old house leaving the parents behind, the moving sim took the entire family funds.  There may be limits on how much they'll take but it was more than the 16K.

Hook

If this hadn't been my self sim and I had been playing more than one family in the neighborhood I might not have noticed.  Where's the coincidence when the age dropped back to what it was supposed to be after replacing the cache file?

Hook

If you were already having CTD problems then do whatever the modders advise.  Just don't delete the cache files as a normal step in updating unless you're using a mod that requires it for whatever reason.

Hook

A Gold Digger doesn't have to kill her husband.  Anna Nicole Smith comes to mind.  Marry a rich old guy and wait.

My sims didn't kill their rich spouses.  They just had deathbed marriages.  Not my fault they died within 12 hours of the wedding.  Yeah, this game has made me surprisingly mercenary.

Hook

Every time I see this I cringe.

There are millions of users out there who never heard of these cache files and the only thing they did to update the game is click on the "yes" button.  They didn't delete any caches, they didn't remove any custom content (mostly downloaded from the Store). They just clicked the button.  The updates have to work for all of them.  If an update needs a cache file deleted, it will delete the file itself.

The errors you see from TS3.exe are exceptions thrown when the program encounters a problem.  ACCESS_VIOLATION means the program tried to read some memory address it wasn't supposed to, possibly because it was passed a pointer to that invalid address.  INT_DIVIDE_BY_ZERO would be a divide by zero, likely happening because some value wasn't properly initialized to a number.  Both of these are good candidates for data that should have been in the cache files that no longer exist.

It may be necessary to delete one or more cache files if you're using a core mod.  It's up to the creators of these mods to either tell you exactly what to delete, or to include code in the mod to fix the cache.  If you end up deleting the wrong cache files, you may see problems.  In your case, you didn't have any core mods according to your description.

I removed a cache file to my desktop once on advice from someone and lost the ambrosia effect on my sim.  Age went back to 100+ days.  After putting the cache file back the age was back to about 80 days.  Perhaps removing all the cache files would have worked, but that's really irrelevant because it's obvious that some data is being stored in cache files instead of your save files.

Do what you wish, but I won't be deleting any cache files again, nor do I expect to be using any core mods.  My updated game runs without problems with the few mods I do have.

Hook

I have a repairwoman with Handy, Clumsy and Loves the Outdoors.  I have a maid with Flirty, Neat, Brave and Kleptomaniac.  It looks like they have different traits.  So far, all the maids, babysitters and mailcarriers have had the Klepto trait.  Firemen have had different numbers of traits from one to four but no Klepto so far.  I saw a policeman once with only one trait: Clumsy.

Grim had Evil, Insane, Brave and Good Sense of Humor.

Hook

Gotta love the No Sense of Humor trait.

I haven't had a sim with that LTW but I have had a couple of sims marry rich sims who were about to croak.  We make money the old fashioned way:  we marry into it.

Sim Hook made friends with the Bagley woman who was a career criminal with a house loaded with loot.  When I got the notification that she didn't have long to live I rushed over the next day and married her.  She obligingly died early that evening.  Yeah, Sim Hook had bad moodlets, but it's amazing how easy it was to deal with them when you're filthy rich.

I kept the remains in the bedroom and the ghost would come out occasionally. The only bad thing was once the ghost came out right as Sim Hook was starting to woohoo his new young wife.  The ghost was not pleased.

Hook

Basic Information:
Name at forum:  Hook
Sim name:  Hook eLecher
Real name:  Larry Hookins
Real gender:  M
Sim gender:  M
Real age group: Elder
Sim age group: YA
Real preferences:  I am attracted to: F
My Sim is attracted to:  F

Elder Sim Hook should have a beard and be heavier.

Traits:
Flirty
Charismatic
Bookworm
Friendly
Computer whiz
Others as you desire to get Sim Hook to act like you think he should.

Lifetime wish:
Heartbreaker
A business career would be good.

Favorites:
Peanut butter and jelly
Classical
Green

Voice:
Voice 2, mid range

Given the sorry state of game manuals these days, the Prima Guide serves as the manual for the game.  I'm surprised more people aren't bitching about having to buy a manual separately, but then what percentage of the game buyers ever read their manuals?

Anyone remember the days when games came with nice thick manuals?  Those manuals had no more errors in them than the Prima Guides do today.

Condemning the Prima Guides for an error is like condemning a shop manual for your car because an illustration showed a screw in a different place, especially when that screw wasn't important.  Do you trust the info in the Guide 100%?  No.  Do you trust it more than a bunch of random people posting on the Internet?  Hell yes.  

Yeah.  I'll buy the Prima Guides (already did, actually).  But thanks for the heads-up on the Wal*Mart mini version.  That sucks.

Hook

ALRIGHT!  NOBODY MOVE OR THE DICK GETS IT!

===

After a couple of hours of play I have to report being surprised that the game isn't as bad as I was expecting from some of the early reports here.  The camera controls were better than I expected, but not as responsive to the mouse as in TS2.  Severe pudding face was not noticed.  

I got the impression from the game tips that changing houses was intended to be permanent.  I mean, we know how it works but it says it's "irreversable" (I think that's the word they used;  I've slept since then).  No wonder they move away while you're playing another house.

I played through a couple of days and while the time doesn't pass as quickly in speed 3 when your Sim is sleeping or working, it does pass somewhat quicker than normal.  It ain't great, but it ain't all that bad, either.

Note:  don't be misled by what's on the box.  The Collector's Edition does not come with a Prima Guide.  It's got a 4 page hint pamphlet.  The plumbob keychain USB drive is reasonably cool, and has some stuff on it but nothing really useful.  Somewhere I got the idea that I'd be getting a map of the town.  I got the wrong idea.  

I'll report later if the game is fun.  I haven't decided yet.

Hook

PS.  Yeah.  All caps.  The guy is yelling.

Does nobody realize that there is ALREADY a Sims-like game on the market?  It's even online.  You can start playing tomorrow instead of waiting several years for one to be made.  As far as I know, EA hasn't given them any legal hassles.

Just watch out for the Furries.

Hook

Heh!!  Who said this game wasn't fun?

Hook

Maximillian, if she's just standing there, she's unlikely to trigger death by flies.  In Sims 2 it was triggered by Sims stepping OVER trash on the floor.  Make her walk back and forth.  If she never steps over something, I'm betting death by flies won't happen.  If she does, then just keep going.

I don't know if plates of food would trigger death by flies in TS2. I was only able to get it with trash piles.

Hook

Except that it appears to be night.

Hook

Perez, have you never heard of Klingon style?  That's the only style Pescado knows.  None of this wimpy stuff.  Sex is a battle which may be won or lost.  I know more details, but you don't want to hear them.

Hook

She's cute.  Good eyes and no dough face.

Hook

I never messed much with the counter islands.  I doubt it would work without a controller.  I was never happy with the way they worked.

One problem with going to another floor to eat... I seem to remember that distances were counted as if everything was on the same floor.  If you wanted to put a table on another floor, it had to be far away from the others or it could get chosen in preference to a table on the same floor with the Sim.

Hook

This is the house layout I published on the BBS:

http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e375/lhookins/SimsPics/Kitchenlayout.jpg

One kitchen, a formal dining room and a breakfast area.  If the distances were correct, they'd always use the closest spot.  When cooking food, the closest counter to the stove was the closest to the dining room, and that's where they'd put the serving platter.  The prep area was closer to the breakfast area than to the dining room, and that's where they'd leave the serving platters for food that didn't require cooking.  I never had a problem with Sims eating in the wrong place.

Other houses had the "breakfast area" on the back porch, right off the kitchen.  As long as the serving counters were closer to the tables you wanted them to use, they'd use the right tables.  In one case the serving counter for the main dining room was IN the dining room.  I never thought to coordinate the comfort of of the chairs involved, so I don't know if that made any difference.

I never had problems with grills, but I don't remember exactly how I solved that.  I may have had a kitchen counter somewhere between the grill and the outdoor tables, or they'd use the closest kitchen counter for the serving platter.  On community lots where there were no kitchen counters, I would always put an empty table next to the grill, and after putting out individual plates on tables with chairs the serving platter would usually end up on the table next to the grill.

One thing I always did for the beds was have identical beds as much as possible.  The kids' beds didn't have more comfort than the parents' beds if the beds were different.  While Sims would relax in the closest bed, they'd seek out their own bed to sleep... as long as someone else wasn't already relaxing there.  If that happened, you usually had to retrain them on which bed to use.  Sometimes that got a little wonky.  I suspect that if the comfort was different, Sims would seek out the highest comfort bed first.

Nice of them to fix the beds in TS3.  Will they still relax on the closest bed, or do they use their own?

Hook

Lurker:  Very interesting post.  You mentioned a lot of things I didn't know existed for Sims 2.  I was surprised at a few of them.  Here are my observations from the Sims 2 base game.

Sims always slept in their assigned bed in my game unless someone else was already relaxing there.  I was always amazed when people said Sims never slept in their own bed.  I wonder if it was because they kept their Sims busy until they dropped from exhaustion and they'd end up using the closest bed instead.  After you'd sent them to the same bed a couple of times, they'd always use that one.

I even saw evidence that in a house with several toilets that Sims had a preferred toilet they'd use.  I finally got some confirmation of this when I had a ghost complain because I'd sold the original toilet.  That was what finally convinced people that Sims did indeed have a bed preference:  how else would a ghost know that you'd sold their bed?

I never ever had problems getting Sims to eat at a particular table.  I had posts on the BBS showing how to set up a house so that cooked food was eaten in the formal dining room while uncooked food (cereal, sandwiches) was eaten in a breakfast area.  I had several different house setups where this worked without problems.  This was all in the base game.

If you sent a Sim to water some flowers, he would continue watering other flowers that needed it.  If not all flowers needed watering, he'd stop before watering them all.  There may be something like that going on here.

When we first had gyms, Sims would use all the exercise equipment and even take showers.  At some point that was broken, and Sims only used certain exercise stuff and never showered.  I forget exactly when that happened, but it annoyed me considerably.

Sims would go to the fridge and fix food if they were hungry.  There were no leftovers at the time.

I ran a dozen or so totally autonomous households, three adults each, through about 27 days.  After getting it set up and everyone had jobs, it was totally hands off.  The only hack I used was Pay-At-Box so we didn't have a repo man coming.  My Sims not only survived, they thrived.  A few got fairly high in their careers.  No one ever died.  I don't even remember anyone peeing on the floor.  It did take setting up enough fridges so they wouldn't run out of food, and putting two stoves in each house in case one got glitched.  Broken showers and toilets gave them plenty of opportunities  to skill up in cleaning; a swimming pool built body, two easels each with paintings already started built creativity, a telescope (set up inside) built logic, they'd cook autonomously.  Oh yes... they usually slept in the same bed the whole time.

It will be interesting to see how much of this carried over to TS3.   I'm waiting for the retail game.

Hook

Exactly.  Thanks.  Do people actually do that?

Hook (who has been signing his online posts since before most of you were born)

Hm, sounds like numerology to me.  I assume you mean "paternal" rather than "fraternal"... that one confused me a bit at first.

Perhaps you can supply pics of said differences.  I can't visualize them from your descriptions.

Hook

It turns out it WAS a fuck up, and a glorious one at that.  Complaining about starting a sentence with a conjunction while starting that very same complaint with a conjunction.  How good does it get? I mean, NO one fucks up THAT badly.

Hook

Aw, man... I figured you did it intentionally.  You should have taken the ball and run with it.  Still, no one seems to have noticed, or they'd have given you shit for it.

Hook

Edited twice to fix my leet quoting skills.

Did someone miss that mickeyjr started that sentence with a conjunction?  On purpose?

Gotta love it!

Hook