There's a memory limit in Sims3.ini in C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin.  That might be the hard coding you mean, although I still have never seen in task manager the TS3 process use more than 2 GB of the 3 GB of RAM that I have.

As I wrote before, I'm not certain it helps, but it doesn't break anything and might help some.

Things are closer to normal now.  I even can play the town I had been playing before (I think and hope I got rid of all the blue-lot producing CC).  It still loads very slowly, and the way it loads lots is strange; but the game play itself is working its way back to normal (unfortunately, just as before, normal includes Error 12/13, but at least I'm only having the problems I used to have....)

I never used the compressorizer on CC (thank God, because finding where I downloaded everything from would be a horror; most was from MTS, but some key stuff is from sites I found from a link here or a link on MTS or a link on Crazy Town, etc.)

The only time I used the compressorizer was when Pescado recommended a couple of months ago that those of us with huge save files try using it on our save files.  I tried that, with the same result others got:  The file got significantly smaller, but the first save after was back to being just as huge as before.

Since then (way before 1.7.9), I haven't used the compressorizer.  I never had even thought of using it on CC.

That's interesting, at the very least.  Perhaps someone more awesome than I am can figure out why the end result was a less laggy game (after going through a very laggy period), because right now it's really, really sucking as it is.

I'm finding that the in-game lag is horrendous in areas other than loading the game.  I just tried to move a sim fambly into Sunset Valley and the "processing" screen was on for 10 minutes, long enough that I just shut it down from the task manager.

TS3 was using only 7% of my CPU and not even 1 GB of my 3 GB's of RAM.  My video card is ATI Radeon 4800 (Pentium Dual Core E5200 CPU at 2.5 MHz for anyone wondering about my processor); and more importantly, there were no real pre-patch speed problems outside of the common long saves-- and my save times, which at one point had been 10 minutes, had long since been 2 minutes, so even they weren't horribly slow. 

I had Error 12/13 crap and the occasional crash, but no major speed problems, which I think shows my computer should run the game and that the patch, or the interaction with it, is the problem.

Actually, I think there is.  I'm trying to find if the patch reset mine, but somewhere I picked up that one can use something called "CFF Explorer" to change the limits on the program.  I don't remember where the parameter is set, but I do remember changing it from 2 GB to something higher.

I'm looking with CFF Explorer to find the right key right now, but regardless, I did it before the patch and my game didn't blow up or anything, so I don't think it's that risky at the worst.

Edited to add:  Found it, and my setting had been overridden by the patch.  The thread is here:  http://www.modthesims.info/archive/index.php/t-375907.html.  It could turn out to be a placebo, but again, at the worst it didn't seem to hurt anything.

I don't view that as a solution, though, as the game isn't (to me) worth playing with no CC.

Actually, there's no huge risk if you minimize the risk by using "Save As" and changing the file name.  That way, if it doesn't save properly, you can always go back to your previous save-- which is what you'd have to do anyway if you just quit after failing to save it.

I'd had lag problems with the loading after the patch (those being the least of my problems, with the blue lots being much more important), so I decided to take the advice of others to throw up my hands and start a new game.

But now it's still taking forever to load the startup town.

I'd had very slow saves, but only post-patch have I had very slow loads.  Is everyone having these or does it mean something is still wrong?

Edited to add:  I thought it would certainly load during the time it took me to write the message, but it didn't.  This is just default, beginning Sunset Valley.  Still wondering, is this normal?

I'm fine on that count, as I don't have the new EP or the new patch yet.

I probably won't get them until my mods (mainly AM, as most-- including CC, of which I have a lot-- of the rest likely will be compatible, although some tuning mods-- most of which I made for myself-- may have to be updated as the files they override mayl have been) are compatible with them.

As of my recent attempt to play, deleting that file seems really not to have made a difference.  Error 12 was still there.

Thanks.  I think I had deleted that file (the sunsetvalletobjectcache one) and then restored it later from my CD because of some sort of problem, but I just moved it to my secondary drive (so I can easily restore it if I have to) and I'll see if it works to fix the save problems.

I can't easily find the WorldCaches folder, but I haven't searched as hard as I could.  It would be great if something like this turned out to be the answer.  Once I find that folder, can anyone give a reason I shouldn't delete the files in it?

The problem there is that if I play a sim at all, I want to be the one to spend those points.

I switch from one household to another a lot.  It's true that there are sims I never play that don't get to spend those points, but even then if I don't plan to play a sim I use the "lifetimehappiness" cheat right after creation to give him or her 50,000 and then spend it as I feel is appropriate for the character.

That's an "inappropriate" maid.  There's an XML that controls the chances of an inappropriate maid (with the inappropriate trait) showing up.  Such a maid will periodically do something inappropriate.

It's interesting, though, that the inappropriate part activates in yours but, from what you say, the cleaning while not being inappropriate doesn't activate.

One thing that seems to help with the do-nothing maid problem, I found through trying it, is to make an XML mod that has maids arrive no earlier than 10 am (after the big rush to work and school is over).  It seems that regular sims are just prioritized over maids (which is reasonable) such that if the resources are being eaten up by their going to school and work the maid doesn't get properly initialized.

I always try to sidestep it, and made it through months of gameplay without failing to sidestep an Error 13.  I had also recently sidestepped a number of Error 12's (although I always had periods where Error 12's meant "this game isn't going to save no matter what you do" as well).

That's crucial to saving one's progress, and it's crucial to game enjoyment to be able to save your progress, IMO.

Something I learned was the only way to be okay after sidestepping an error was that, once it saved, I had to quit the game (by the in-game quit button) and clearing out the caches.  I swear if there were a mod that allowed caches to be cleared from inside the game it would fix a lot of the save error problem.  If I kept playing after that, then I'd get an error I couldn't sidestep.

Just recently I'm getting errors that won't let me sidestep them and that will even crash while saving if I try too hard, and it's becoming infuriating, but that's in a cluster.  I've also had nice clusters where I'd go a couple weeks without any errors I couldn't sidestep; so I don't think sidestepping errors is a bad thing.

I only came to try so hard because I was accused of being a pedo, and got involved mostly because others get so labeled as well, when people don't even know what they're talking about.  I really have no illusions that anything would change Pescado's mind about the mod's treatment of the issue, but unlike most here I'm not going to watch people get dismembered for disagreeing and say nothing.

I'll admit you have a good point about some people only being attracted to older women, and I already said that I accepted that many people don't find anyone in TS3 attractive as they are just pixels.

"Because most late adolescents have physical characteristics near (or in other cases, identical) to that of full-grown adults, some level of sexual attraction to persons in the age group is common among adults of all sexual orientations." (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephebophilia)

So, if you're telling me that you can be turned on by TS3 pixels but only the ones that look 20+ and never the ones that look 16, I don't believe you.  Pedos would aroused by "child" models, something we'd likely both find sick and creepy, and that's why they are seen in the way they are.

Well, (a) I didn't; that was hypothetical, (b) At my current age, it might be creepy with a 16 year old, but it wouldn't be at 18 or 20 or 22, and at around 20 I knew a girl who was 16 who was pretty important to me (although we never did anything sexual), and if you look at the article I linked it isn't abnormal.  I think it's kind of nutty to take the "12" definition into real life (even more so than applying it in TS3 to teens that look 16ish).

I will say, though, that to the extent I can be aroused by a group of pixels, I can just as easily be aroused by TS3 teens I create as TS3 YA's I create, and anyone who claims they are aroused by some TS3 adults but never by TS3 teens, I don't believe.  I'd believe someone who said they weren't ever at all aroused by a TS3 character as they're cartoons, but not by someone who said they were aroused by TS3 YA's but not TS3 teens.

The game recognizes "compliment personality" as flirting.  So if I, a straight YA male, told a 16 year old girl, "You are one of the most fun people I've ever talked to!  You're smart, personable, and have a great sense of humor!  I'd love to spend more time with you!" then I'd be labeled a pedo?  For one thing, if  even if I were specifically attracted to 16 year old girls, I'd have ephebophilia rather than pedophilia in the clinical sense, and psychiatrists don't even consider ephebophilia a disorder (that's in the article I linked to), while they obviously consider pedophilia one.

The big issue is whether TS3 teens are more "12" or 16.  If they're 12, then even my example "compliment personality" would seem very creepy from an adult (though still not criminal unless you replace "spend more time" with "have sex").  Given that they look 16ish, go to high school, act with as much maturity as real-life 16 year olds, and drive cars, I consider them 16.

And if they looked and acted 12 in the game, then no one who isn't a pedo would find them attractive.  As it is and I quoted, even many normal (non-ephebophilia) adults find teens in late puberty somewhat arousing-- and they're too old for real pedos.  Real pedos, as sick as this is, will find the child models in the game more arousing than the young adults or the teens.

You're kind of sick if that's really that hard of a choice for you (I easily prefer AM despite the silly restrictions), but I agree with you that "the rule of 6" is BS.

TS3 teens look and act like people around 16 and should be treated that way by the mod.  And 16 is legal in many states, and treated as less than pedophilia by just about everyone. 

If someone is into 16 year olds, it's ephebohilia (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephebophilia) and in fact, "because most late adolescents have physical characteristics near (or in other cases, identical) to that of full-grown adults, some level of sexual attraction to persons in the age group is common among adults of all sexual orientations."

I also remember plenty of pretty female high schoolers flirting with male teachers in high school in hopes of improving their grades.

Those who like what Pescado did with it just like something to feel self-righteous about, and we all can agree that adults have no business having sex with, or even being attracted to, 12 year olds.  But these are pixels, and the pixels don't look or act like 12 year olds.

Another Supreme Commander request:  Given that for many of us maids won't function as maids, I took advice from another thread and for a household I play a lot created a sim with the "Neat" trait, the MakesNoMesses "trait", and the Speedy Cleaner perk (with cheated lifetime happiness points).

Now, what would be needed would be an "act as maid" setting that would have her, except for filling motives and going to her part time job, make cleaning up that sim's first priority as it would be with a maid.

Yes, my stuck maids go home when their scheduled time is up.

I started with a clean town of all but the community/job buildings, so the Riddler only struck the art museum for me.

I found it pretty easy to just bulldoze the art museum and build another.  It's a pretty easy thing to build; all you need are lights and decorative objects.  People don't go upstairs in the museum anymore even though I put the best art upstairs, but that's pretty minor.

If you have fambly homes being infested by the Riddler, as apparently happens with default Sunset Valley, doing the same would be somewhat more tedious (assuming you're like me and dislike building homes you don't intend to play much), but I expect it to be a permanent fix.

I found several threads where this was mentioned (but no solution was given), but when I went to reply I was advised by the system that thread necromancy is bad and I should start a new thread instead, so I'm doing just that.

For quite a while hired maids in my game have just stood outside the house and done nothing.  I've tried setting "moveobjects on" and moving them inside the house where the dirty stuff is, and they still do nothing.

I don't know how I caused it, but I had a short period of time where the problem went away and maids were being maids again; but now I'm back to having them just standing there.  It isn't the pause, where people do things after waiting too long or very slowly; it's maids doing nothing at all.

I found a somewhat-difficult workaround, but I'd have to do it every Sim-day:  Adding the maid to the household, thereby making her selectable, and giving her orders to clean house; and then when she's done removing her from the household.  I'd like a better solution very much, though.

Click on the picture of the dragon.