^Don't be silly. The rich use marble.

I had something like this happen once. My Sim was outside a night club he had just left and all of a sudden townies started appearing all along the street, blocking him from going anywhere. I tried to get him to interact with a number of them, but no luck. Soon they all started puking and peeing all over the place and stressing out. It was hilarious for a while, but it was an endless nonsensical thing that became annoying. I quit without saving and that stopped it. It hasn't happened again, but I suppose AwesomeMod or one of the patches fixed it.

Nvidia GTX 560 Ti works fine. All settings are on high.

I think she's already stoned.

Put up a few windmills godammit. It'll help the cute solar panels.

Besides, for a house this size, you need panels on every square inch of roof surface to do anything at all, and the enormous cost of those panels will never be actualized in saving the current generation any money. Here in Florida it costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $35,000.00 to fit solar panels on a modest sized home. The roof will be covered with them. They will power everything EXCEPT air conditioning, which is needed at least 6 months a year. During the winter, the home will be completely off the grid and the power company is required to pay back the energy that they then use for others. Grid based power consumption is reduced, not eliminated.

Keep the wood burning stove. There are dark days during and after hurricanes when no sun is to be seen and no power to be had. Strictly biased by location, of course. Or you could just use an outdoor grill like I do.

Speaking of which (!) Is there any way to make grills more versatile with recipes? I learned to cook just about anything over an open fire during several hurricanes, from breakfast to soups and full dinners. 

I'll do the basics here, but because of the rules about shilling you'll have to PM me for details. I did include the chip, OS and graphics card specs because I've seen those listed elsewhere on the board with no ill consequences.

i7 2600k, 3.40 GHz CPU, unlocked.
Motherboard with a compatible socket (1155) and newer EFI BIOS.
Cooler with 2 fans
Full-size tower with 5 fans
1 TB hard drive
8 GB DDR3 RAM
After market Nvidia Geforce GTX 560 Ti
Card reader
Fancy sound card
Fancy speakers
24x DVDRW SATA
Windows Professional 64 bit.
850 watt power supply

Pretty much instantly. The only time there is a short wait is when I do a "change outfit" on a Sim. Then it takes about a second or two for the thumbs to load. I've never had to wait in CAS, build or buy modes. Everything is there as soon as they open. I do want to qualify my insane computer. I do some video and photo editing for work and play, and it helps to have a high performance computer. Otherwise, too much time is spent on load screens. It just also happens to be very convenient for playing Sims 3.

My last computer played the game pretty well until it started aging and burning itself out. It was a Gateway FX series Quad Core, 2.4 GHz. The new one is 3.40 GHz. I do think this game is a burden on many computers, and puts additional wear on them. I can hear the fans crank up as I play on the new computer to keep itself cool, and if I check the processor, it is clearly using some hefty power that would not otherwise be needed. I haven't used the new one for a video yet, so I've yet to compare the power usage.

FPS limiter should help prevent card burnout, but the game itself a power sucker.

I'm pretty much convinced you almost need a super computer to run the game well. I just built a computer after having fried two decent graphics cards in the old one. The computer itself was running at unacceptably high temps (82 degrees C) during the game. At other times, doing more normal computer work, it ran just fine. I was getting BSOD, CTD, and a laggy, jerky game experience. It should have run fine according to the requirement specs, but even a modest amount of CC chopped it up. The Sims 3 is a hardware eater. It seems like it could be used as a benchmark for graphics/performance.

The new computer is ridiculously fast and smooth and runs at around 32 degrees C in game. It has an Intel i7 2600k processor, a fast, huge HDD and a shiny graphics card. It also has five fans and a cooler inside a big case to keep it cool. Everything is set on max resolution. I must say, it is a real pleasure to see the game run as it should without all the stuttering drama and crashes.

*BUT* It was expensive to build. I sure wouldn't want to have to replace it any time soon.

Virus protection nearly killed my game. I hated it. Even when turned off, it wouldn't go completely off. It was terrible.

I switched, after a lot of research on various ones, and the one I'm using now is smooth as butter, lightweight, and effective. I can't mention it here due to the "NO SHILLING" rule, because it's not free. I can tell you that you will not find it in a store, so start googling. I don't turn it off during play.

I have a Quad Core, 2.4 GHZ, 3GB RAM, running 32 bit Vista. The graphics card is an NVidia GE Force 9600 with 512 MB Ram. Sims 3 works fine, with only the occasional judder, which almost goes away when I remember to dump the cache files. I have a pretty fair amount of CC, including AwesomeMod. I use high graphics settings in the game.

Follow Pescado's advice to turn off the crap running in the background. It doesn't need to be running and just bogs down the game and strains the computer for no reason. Reset your start-up menu.

I just put up $25.00, though I wish it could have been more. I'm happy to have AwesomeMod, TYVM.

Everybody knows what it is about France that causes lag. It's the wine.

Yes, my game issues were minor and I got lucky with the Dashboard. I don't have huge amounts of CC.

I have a quad core with 3 RAMZ. It was very laggy, choppy, and horrible to try and play, but the Dashboard Tool cleaned it all up. I didn't have to use the process monitor. It runs very smoothly now. *Keeps fingers crossed*

Install WA. Install Awesomemod.

You're making this much more complicated and dangerous-seeming than it is. I've had WA since it came out, play the other worlds from time to time and have never had a mummy invade the home world. Also, it takes a rather long time of playing WA to even see a mummy, and they are no big deal. I had one adventurer Sim who collected a ton of stuff from the tombs and excavation sites and put it back together at home. Voila! Instant woohoo and sleeping quarters in the sarcophagi. Plus you can sell that stuff for income, or as Zazazu says, use it for some nice decoration.

Do you have the special glasses?

The Good: I like Twinbrook in general. I tend to play a few lots that are grungy anyway, with questionable Sims, and Twinbrook comes loaded with them. I also like the new jobs that you can follow and direct your Sims either to fuck up completely or advance to the highest level pretty quickly.

The Bad: I've only played a few hours so far, but I've noticed the running bug others have talked about, with mixed feelings. I only have one Sim that does it, so It's not overwhelming, but really, what's the point of it? I also haven't yet figured out why my firefighter Sim can't cook at the firehouse. All he can do is have a quick meal. There was a large house fire that my Sim worked on, but one person was in the garage that he initially didn't convince to run, and by the time I noticed her he had put the fire out. She wasn't anywhere near the blaze, but he got a D on his performance. He was near energy failure and all he would do was look at the family's artwork. He absolutely would not ask the woman to leave. He only asked her to pose, then wouldn't take a picture. It was funny until it became annoying.

The Ugly: Many of the new pre-made Sims.

Without AwesomeMod installed yet, it's only a matter of time until I get bored, but I wanted to test the EP on its own for a while. I'm going to try out some other careers, then install AwesomeMod to preserve my sanity.

I've got one Sim who runs everywhere. He started running when his athletic skill increased. He's now at level 8. He's a firefighter at level 9 of his career. None of my other Sims does this. I don't have AwesomeMod installed yet, and no other mods, so it appears to be a "feature" of the game. None of my Sims has played tag.

I had a male Sim stuck peeing for ages. I had tried to get him away from the toilet by using moveobjects, but that really fucked him up. He disappeared and got stuck between the first and second floors of his house, carrying endless plates of food. I could catch a quick glimpse of him from time to time. He wasn't able to eat, though. He was beginning to starve and stink by the time I went back to a previous save and did the resetsim. That fixed him.

Moar bettar is Kofistan. Donate I will.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/NorthAmericanBusySignal.ogg

The framework is on the Awesomemod page. if I weren't in a mellow mood from the holidaze I would have just said SEARCH MOAR! Don't ask dumb questions either.

God, that's hilarz! Wipes tears from eyes...

If it were possible, that would be a wonderful addition to the game. EA has gotten far too serious with the Sims 3.

I got my bill already. It says "cheezserver". LULZ

I slipped in a bit toward the cheezeserver, but I forgot to ask for a title, so you can give me one. I have always wanted to be called Empress of the Universe, but it wasn't one of the ones in the list. If I can't be Empress, then whatever you come up with will do. I'm sure it will be delightful.

ETA: I support a tard-free zone. I will hold a placard and go door-to-door.

Take out all your previous installs of the monkey and AwesomeMod. Start over.

Just go back to MTS and read the instructions regarding the Monkey Install Helper. There are two files, one for XP, one for Vista. If you have Vista, duh, use the one for Vista. You don't have to go and fuck up your computer by changing the settings for your UAC, particularly since you don't seem to know how to read and follow instructions very well, if at all. Once you have done this you can install the newest version of AwesomeMod and it should work if you have properly FOLLOWED THE INSTRUCTIONS. Don't forget to get the configuration tool as well.

I use Vista, and the game and the mod work fine. As Jordi says, there are risks involved in disabling the UAC, so be aware before you take that step. It certainly isn't necessary to do that to play the game or install the mod. Now go away.