# Sims 3



## n-ster (May 30, 2009)

Well, as many of you know, it has been leaked on the net since a while... legal copies can be bought at many stores because one just put it on their shelves when they received it and everyone followed...

In your opinion will this hurt EA? Also, for those of you who did play... How did you find it  I'm loving it!


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## DreamSeller (May 30, 2009)

quiet interesting i just watch my little brother playing it all day :shadedshu


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## n-ster (May 30, 2009)

lol . They have changed the characteristics system (example neat, outgoing etc) for a traits system... which works much better surprisingly... I thought it would be fail at first but it's amazing


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## kid41212003 (May 30, 2009)

It won't hurt EA, 'cause:

99% of pirates are not from US, 90% of the pirates are from Asian, and only 1% of the pirates could afford to buy the game when they can't pirate it. So, in reality EA only lose 1%.

Anyway, what do you play in this game?


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## n-ster (May 30, 2009)

kid41212003 said:


> Anyway, what do you play in this game?



You never played Sims???????????????////


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## kid41212003 (May 30, 2009)

It was a sarcasm, lol. I did saw someone play it before.
Seriously, aren't we all big kids? But life simulation game is not good for kids  anyway (dolls are alright though).


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## n-ster (May 30, 2009)

lol now you making me feel too young  but I'm not really that much of a kid anymore... I mean I am 16


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## Darknova (May 30, 2009)

It shows how much bad blood there is with EA that is was released to torrents so early. That's what you get for pissing off the consumers!

I am definitely interested in Sims 3, I found the others interesting, but the Sims were far too high maintenance ("i need the toilet!" "go to the toilet then!" "where is it?" "ITS YOUR HOUSE!" :shadedshu )

So when I heard this one was going to have "smarter" Sims, I thought why not?


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## 1Kurgan1 (May 30, 2009)

I don't think it's on shelves here, and I am not going to call Gamestop and check, my gf has been going crazy waiting for this. She has 3 days off of work after the release and already warned me when I'm home the kid is all mine :/


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## n-ster (May 30, 2009)

You can always get it from where it has been leaked and then get it in real when in does come


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## 1Kurgan1 (May 31, 2009)

I could have done that days ago, she heard about the leaks and I think was hinting about it, but if I do that she will play it 24/7 now, I'll let her wait a bit, lol.


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## ShadowFold (May 31, 2009)

Walmart had it on the shelves last week for me. I grabbed a copy.. Haven't played much, been busy with the TF2 update(Cloak and Dagger is AWESOME).


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## FordGT90Concept (May 31, 2009)

It won't hurt EA.  Piracy never hurts.  They just want to think it does so they got something to blame for their crappy products.


It's a major improvement from The Sims and The Sims 2 namely in making the neighborhood near seamless with your household.  It allows exploring, collection, and other features the previous games lacked.

I have had major problems with save times though.  I've had to ctrl+alt+del to terminate it because it didn't manage to close down after 5 minutes of waiting.  Making ridiculously huge mansions, therefore, aren't very feasible (it was a 5 story mansion valued at 400,000 I think).


So, they added a lot of stuff that really helps the series out in terms of replay value but there seems to be more bugs in The Sims 3 than The Sims and The Sims 2 combined at release.


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## mlee49 (May 31, 2009)

I cant wait to play Sims3. I'm seriously going to binge for like 20 hours straight. I got strung out on Sims2 with all the expansion packs.  I seriously get cracked out on these games


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## ShadowFold (May 31, 2009)

It is very good, I'd give it a 9.6/10.

I love how you can go to town and walk around, honestly the biggest improvement. I like the new character creation and all the new aspiration stuff..


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## DrPepper (May 31, 2009)

Yep sims 3 is very good compared to sims 2.


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## Triprift (May 31, 2009)

I played the original but gave the second one a big miss sounds like 3 might be worth trying hmmmmmmm.


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## Conti027 (May 31, 2009)

My GF loves it and I like to play it time to time. Any time you have have a  kleptomania sim or person or something is aweosme. whats funnier then a klepto sim? maybe a klepto chicken?


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## DrPepper (May 31, 2009)

Conti027 said:


> My GF loves it and I like to play it time to time. Any time you have have a  kleptomania sim or person or something is aweosme. whats funnier then a klepto sim? maybe a klepto chicken?



I wanted to kill my klepto wife in it


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## Triprift (May 31, 2009)

What the hells klepto? i suppose ill find out soon.


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## ShadowFold (May 31, 2009)

Triprift said:


> What the hells klepto? i suppose ill find out soon.



Kleptomaniac is a perk, it means that they like to steal stuff(on accident.. I think). Someone broke into my house while I was sleeping and stole my shower, two nights in a row... 800$ down the drain(literally )


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## Triprift (May 31, 2009)

Steal your shower bloody nora and your sim didnt here that lol.


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## Chryonn (May 31, 2009)

well i'm glad so many in here are actually liking this. i thought being "hardcore" gamers we'd be turning our noses at this game. as far as i know this game isn't released yet in the UK (5th June?). i'll probably end up getting the Collector's Edition (as usual). i think it's the megalomaniac in me that likes controlling things that makes the Sims games appealing to me.


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## n-ster (May 31, 2009)

omg I forgot to put an alarm system, and both my sims were heavy sleepers (I did random for the heck of it)... The next day, I had maried this guy (cause both sims were girls) and he moved in... At night, while cooking and both were sleeping, a fire took  I wasn;t watching and when I came back, I was like... NO! and I did ctrl alt delete and went to my ps3 to finish my NHL game...


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## Triprift (May 31, 2009)

Someone should make a thread were you post and comment on your sims.


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## n-ster (May 31, 2009)

LOL... I'm not sure there are enough TS3 players for that


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## Triprift (May 31, 2009)

Theres already more here then what i expected honestly was expecting all the hardcore gamers to just egnore the game completly.


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## n-ster (May 31, 2009)

I was surprised my crappy laptop could handle it  One of the main reasons I play is that I can't play much else


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## Triprift (May 31, 2009)

Whats specs ya lappy got?


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## CrackerJack (May 31, 2009)

the quality of the games looks really good, i'm not a sims fan. my wife loves them all. she likes sim 2 better. lol she hasn't played 3 in almost 2 weeks lmao


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## n-ster (May 31, 2009)

Triprift said:


> Whats specs ya lappy got?



1.66 dual core (core duo, not even core 2 )... 1gb DDR2 ... integrated GMA 945 chipset or something


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## Triprift (May 31, 2009)

Ok cool so mine would run it no probs.


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## A Cheese Danish (May 31, 2009)

Mine might be able to run it lol Not a huge Sims 3 fan, but I may have to try this one out!


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## n-ster (May 31, 2009)

Oh, and I can play at my max res too! (1280x800)


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## A Cheese Danish (May 31, 2009)

Well on that note, I SHOULD be able to play it max...?


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## ShadowFold (May 31, 2009)

My HD 3300 handles it at 1680x1050 high/med settings very well. It's CPU intensive too.


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## n-ster (May 31, 2009)

but I am at lowest settings


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## steelkane (May 31, 2009)

I dont play, but my Daughters play all day, The game seems to load faster then Sims2 & they said the saves are better. they play it 1680x1050


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## n-ster (May 31, 2009)

The saving seems to take more time for me and loading is equal... but I had all expansion packs with TS2


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## t77snapshot (May 31, 2009)

I never got into the Sims....but I have a friend who just dropped  like $1700 into a gaming rig (i7, GTX260, 8gb ram etc.) just to play the SIMS:shadedshu!


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## FordGT90Concept (May 31, 2009)

This is the house that killed my neighborhood save/load times:
http://img.techpowerup.org/090531/king_of_the_hill.jpg

I had to move my Sim out of it. 


And no, that house wasn't built with cheats.  The Sim that used to live there now has 900,000 cash (owns all the businesses in the town). XD


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## Darknova (May 31, 2009)

I am seriously impressed with Sims 3. It's more realistic, and your Sims are a lot less needy. 

They don't need you to tell them to go to the toilet, or to go to bed before they pass out, or that there is someone here to pick them up to go to work. 

They just do it for themselves, so I spend most of my time working out what I'm going to get them to do next IE social gatherings, going exploring etc.

So far he's worked up enough money to replace all the crappy appliances in the kitchen, he's had a new bathroom fitted, a new TV, HiFi and Computer, a garage built and a car bought.

He's not doing to bad  No urge to close him in with an open fire and lots of wood yet.


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## FordGT90Concept (May 31, 2009)

They don't pass out at all anymore.  They will just refuse to do just about anything until they go to bed.

I disabled the AI so I don't have to keep canceling tasks. I walked away while it was running on slow.  It was 2 days later gametime when I came back and my Sim was still standing but very, very pissed. XD


Only two gameplay issues I see is 1) I haven't found a way to cancel the delievery of newspapers (it's a daily chore to throw it away) and 2) there really isn't much variety of stuff to put in houses yet so, for instance, that giant mansion is 90% empty.


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## reverze (May 31, 2009)

Mine won't run for some reason. It just goes blank and I hear a noise and nothing else happens.

Having a feeling it has to do with Win 7 x64..


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## FordGT90Concept (May 31, 2009)

Probably an incompatibility with your audio driver.


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## Darknova (May 31, 2009)

I don't know about you guys, but if I use Edge Smoothing, the trees go all screwy. They look like blocks, makes everything look worse.


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## DrPepper (May 31, 2009)

Darknova said:


> I don't know about you guys, but if I use Edge Smoothing, the trees go all screwy. They look like blocks, makes everything look worse.



My friends 4870X2 does the same thing.


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## Mussels (May 31, 2009)

i keep getting code 13 errors, where the game refuses to save.

its rather frustating, i've made master thief twice now, and lost two massive sets of renovations i saved up for.

the worst part is you never know when it will happen, so you save... and save... and save... and... Fck. another hour of my life wasted. :shadedshu


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## FordGT90Concept (May 31, 2009)

I do wish it had an autosave.  I haven't encountered any fatal errors yet but it really is just a matter of time before I do. 

I'd reinstall.


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## reverze (May 31, 2009)

What OS is everyone running on?


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## DrPepper (May 31, 2009)

Mussels said:


> i keep getting code 13 errors, where the game refuses to save.
> 
> its rather frustating, i've made master thief twice now, and lost two massive sets of renovations i saved up for.
> 
> the worst part is you never know when it will happen, so you save... and save... and save... and... Fck. another hour of my life wasted. :shadedshu



Happens to me all the time.


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## FordGT90Concept (May 31, 2009)

reverze said:


> What OS is everyone running on?


Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

No crashes yet, just really long closing down time.


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## DrPepper (May 31, 2009)

win 7 x64 here.


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## DavyGT (May 31, 2009)

Mussels said:


> i keep getting code 13 errors, where the game refuses to save.
> 
> its rather frustating, i've made master thief twice now, and lost two massive sets of renovations i saved up for.
> 
> the worst part is you never know when it will happen, so you save... and save... and save... and... Fck. another hour of my life wasted. :shadedshu



Only happened to me once, however, I get the random crash to desktop more often then error 13. Can't say I am surprised, seeing it is made by EA. 

The hot tub is missing from the game or have I not searched throughly enough?

They still have the 8 sim limit to a lot.


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## DrPepper (May 31, 2009)

DavyGT said:


> Only happened to me once, however, I get the random crash to desktop more often then error 13. Can't say I am surprised, seeing it is made by EA.
> 
> The hot tub is missing from the game or have I not searched throughly enough?
> 
> They still have the 8 sim limit to a lot.



Haven't seen a hot tub myself. Also 8 sim limit will be changed when the modding community gets in gear.


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## FordGT90Concept (May 31, 2009)

The 2x2 tub is gone.  The 1x2 tub+shower combo is still there.  I could be wrong but I think the 2x2 tub wasn't there since The Sims.

If you're talking the hot tub for fun, yeah, it's gone.  No idea why they removed it.  They probably weren't given enough time to add it to meet release deadlines.


The 8 sim/lot limit has been there since The Sims.


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## DrPepper (May 31, 2009)

Anymore than 8 sims and it becomes a clusterfuck.


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## DavyGT (May 31, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> The 2x2 tub is gone.  The 1x2 tub+shower combo is still there.  I could be wrong but I think the 2x2 tub wasn't there since The Sims.
> 
> If you're talking the hot tub for fun, yeah, it's gone.  No idea why they removed it.  They probably weren't given enough time to add it to meet release deadlines.
> 
> ...



But they delayed the game from February to June! Surely they could have added it in during that time. I guess I would have to wait until someone in the community releases as custom content. 

The 8 sim/lot limit is getting a bit dated with today's hardware no? What if I wanted to create a giant mansion to house the whole extended family? The mansion to too big for 8, so more sims would be desirable.


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## FordGT90Concept (May 31, 2009)

It'll probably be in an expansion.


Like DrPepper said, when you have 8 sims/lot, the micromanagement of all those sims goes from entertaining to annoying.  The 8 sim/lot is more to prevent from stressing out the player than hardware/software limitations.


Mind you, I've never played Apartment Life expansion on The Sims 2.  Maybe that changed it up.  I have it somewhere in a box but never bothered to install/play it.


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## Polarman (May 31, 2009)

I remember my wife bugging me to get the Sims 2 game. When she got it, she got bored within a week. She went directly to the cheat codes to give herself a zillion bucks, constructed a palace and hanged around for a while. I told her that cheating would ruin the game.


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## Mussels (May 31, 2009)

as to the code 13 error: make sure you run the game as administrator! seems to have solved it for me. Of course, i can no longer run it through steam now  i find it handy to add non-steam games so i can still chat while gaming.

7x 64 here, game works fine as long as its in admin mode.


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## DrPepper (May 31, 2009)

Thanks man of mussels


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## Mussels (May 31, 2009)

DrPepper said:


> Thanks man of mussels



i used to last 3, maybe 4 saves before it would code 13 me - both times i've ran admin mode i've had at least 5 saves with no problems.


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## DrPepper (May 31, 2009)

Mussels said:


> i used to last 3, maybe 4 saves before it would code 13 me - both times i've ran admin mode i've had at least 5 saves with no problems.



I tried saving as and creating a new save and it never worked I hope this does I hated making a massive renovation then it not saving.


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## Mussels (May 31, 2009)

i just made master thief and maxed out the handiman skill, cooking and logic. now i'm working on charisma.


got $300k in the bank, about to make my house a whole lot bigger... then find my (female) sim a  (female) housemate, adopt heaps of babies and make a female only brady bunch.


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## DrPepper (May 31, 2009)

Mussels said:


> i just made master thief and maxed out the handiman skill, cooking and logic. now i'm working on charisma.
> 
> 
> got $300k in the bank, about to make my house a whole lot bigger... then find my (female) sim a  (female) housemate, adopt heaps of babies and make a female only brady bunch.



How long have you set sim life ? I set mine to epic. Also I maxed out the CEO of a business and bought over all the businesses.


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## Mussels (May 31, 2009)

DrPepper said:


> How long have you set sim life ? I set mine to epic. Also I maxed out the CEO of a business and bought over all the businesses.



yeah i maxed out sim lifespan. i never liked them dying of old age before they'd become godlike.







check out how much i get paid 


edit: oh that random dude in the kitchen is a weird replacement for the maid. on days the maid doesnt turn up, this guy does... all he seems to do is eat my food and leave, then charge me $125.


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## DrPepper (May 31, 2009)

Yeah same here  Usually my sim is neat and always cleans up so no need for a maid but i've got the money  I get about £525 and hour but just go to meetings on my spare days then pick up profits on monday so I make alot but I've got pretty much nothing because i've invested it on businesses.


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## Mussels (May 31, 2009)

blew my money on a party  (and a room to have the party in!)

if you look to the left, you can see some guys face lining up with a puddle. thats where my sim pissed herself, greeting guests. that was epic, right as they all entered.
If you look to the right, you can see two guys dirty dancing together.

This game is fun


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## kid41212003 (May 31, 2009)

The game already released in AU?


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## ShadowFold (May 31, 2009)

How do you have so much money.. Maybe I shouldn't have gone for the musician career lol..

I want a new computer, I still have the cheapest one, can't seem to save any money up


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## Mussels (May 31, 2009)

ShadowFold said:


> How do you have so much money.. Maybe I shouldn't have gone for the musician career lol..
> 
> I want a new computer, I still have the cheapest one, can't seem to save any money up



thief. she steals stuff at work, and then once my walls got full i just started selling it all 

just work work work at getting promoted!


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## ShadowFold (May 31, 2009)

I can stay up really late and hack the government for money, just like in real life!


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## Mussels (May 31, 2009)

i did the hacking for a while, til i realised how low profit it was.

my first overclocking attempt was a screwdriver to the floppy, the computer exploding and catching me on fire. i managed to get into the shower before dying to put myself out.. (and then the game crashed)

They have a few kinks to work out here, we need patches!


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## Conti027 (May 31, 2009)

Darknova said:


> I don't know about you guys, but if I use Edge Smoothing, the trees go all screwy. They look like blocks, makes everything look worse.



yeah my lappy with a 8600mGT does it


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## reverze (May 31, 2009)

Damnit. Why won't this run.

Guess I know its not Win7x64 anymore atleast. Hmm


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## n-ster (May 31, 2009)

Romantic novels = great for writers 

I chose the exact house mussels  now I want to waste my life again to play it :shadedshu


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## FordGT90Concept (May 31, 2009)

Masterpeices take days to write but net 8,000+ a week for 6 weeks.  I wrote two masterpeices that were at 10,800 or so so a total of 64,800 each.


I've done five careers already (Athletic, Culinary, Science, Medical, and Military).  Of all those, Medical paid the best ($698/hr) and Military the worst ($381/hr).  Not to mention, the miltary career, you only work one day a week (Sunday, I think) from 7AM to 1AM.


My current house (7 bedroom, 6.5 bathroom):
Floor 1: http://img.techpowerup.org/090531/floor1.jpg
Floor 2: http://img.techpowerup.org/090531/floor2.jpg
Exterior: http://img.techpowerup.org/090531/exterior.jpg

963,000 in the bank and nothing to spend it on.


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## DrPepper (Jun 1, 2009)

Did you buy out all the business' ford ?


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## locoty (Jun 1, 2009)

reverze said:


> Mine won't run for some reason. It just goes blank and I hear a noise and nothing else happens.
> 
> Having a feeling it has to do with Win 7 x64..




i use win 7 x64, 

the sims runs fine

and the most shocking things, the dead sims can be revived using AUTO-Ghostron lol. And the amazing things, the revived sims is in ghost mode, it can go to work, it can have a relationship, it can eat, bath, just one thing i haven't tried yet, WooHoo LOL


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## n-ster (Jun 1, 2009)

I didn't know this thread would grow really  and we're already coming close to 100 posts


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 1, 2009)

DrPepper said:


> Did you buy out all the business' ford ?


Yup.  I own the diner, the restaurant, stadium, science facility, hospital, warehouse, corporation, spa, grocery store, theater, and bookstore.  I think that's all you can buy.  I'd buy city hall if I could. XD

So far, the most profitable thing I ever did was paint 15 pictures for city hall (I did 5 small, 5 medium, and 5 large).  That netted me about $170,000.


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## Mussels (Jun 1, 2009)

most profitable thing i did was steal the golden llama from town hall.


$100K on the spot, $200 a an hour raise.

I'll break $1K an hour soon as a thief... even after you reach the max job level, you can keep getting "promoted" and earning raises.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 1, 2009)

Yeah, I had several promotions on the medical career before I decided to explore the rest of the careers.  I don't have a favorite yet.  Maybe culinary or science.


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## DrPepper (Jun 1, 2009)

Wow even with a wife I can't catch up with you guys  Started spending my whole day just going to meetings over and over getting about 3k a day when im not working and just meetings.


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## Mussels (Jun 1, 2009)

i'm starting to get bored. my sim has a BF and a GF, and i've now got a second story built onto the house. you think i should adopt a heap of kids or something? i bet i'd rake in the money if they all worked part time.


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## ShadowFold (Jun 1, 2009)

Can a guy+guy even have kids in the game.. If so that's pretty f'd up lol


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 1, 2009)

I decided to save that huge house and build something else in of it.  I'm thinking 10 stall garage (parking for 20 total)...


But damn thing is stuck "processing..."  I'm going to have to terminate it again.


Any house my Sim moves to, music never works. 

A burglar just got stuck on my lot.  The cops came from the house alarm.  I went to work, came back, called the police again, and the burglar finally left.  That female cop that keeps showing up is useless.  She only won the fight once out of at least a dozen times.  I'm "Good" so I can't beat the snot out of the bugular myself.


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## Mussels (Jun 1, 2009)

ShadowFold said:


> Can a guy+guy even have kids in the game.. If so that's pretty f'd up lol



they adopt. my sims female anyway  girl on girl baby, yeah!

i've never been robbed  being the boss of the criminal underworld has its perks.

Also sad i cant break into sims houses and steal things.


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## n-ster (Jun 1, 2009)

CTRL+SHIFT+C  testingcheatsenabled true

DO NOT DO THAT IT RUINS THE GAME


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## Polarman (Jun 2, 2009)

To buy, or not to buy: That is the question:

I had to read about those Simpoints... :shadedshu EA


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## mlee49 (Jun 2, 2009)

I'm thinking about ordering this as a download through BestBuy(have a $30 gift card).  Anyone dealt with BB on game downloads?  Should I just go and buy the hard copy?

EDIT: Preorder only, real download at 6/2  Tonight if I stay up


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## n-ster (Jun 2, 2009)

download with a program that has a weird u on it  That'll solve your problems!


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 2, 2009)

mlee49 said:


> I'm thinking about ordering this as a download through BestBuy(have a $30 gift card).  Anyone dealt with BB on game downloads?  Should I just go and buy the hard copy?


I always buy hard copy.  If the shit hits the fan, I at least have a box to throw at them.


I got the framework for my house with a 12 car garage laid.  Now I have to divvy up the innards.  I gotta watch the Conan premier in half an hour though...


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## Mussels (Jun 2, 2009)

i had a huge party, got engaged, got married, made 2 housemates, added another 2 bedrooms to the house... and then it crashed while saving.

this game MAKES ME RAGE.


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## ShadowFold (Jun 2, 2009)

All while I still live alone trying to move up in the world


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## n-ster (Jun 2, 2009)

ShadowFold said:


> All while I still live alone trying to move up in the world



Why didn't you make another sim to accompany the other


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## Darknova (Jun 2, 2009)

I've never had the game crash yet...

Yesterday I spent all day remodelling the house. It now has 2 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a massive open-plan living area. A separate garage, a deck and a swimming pool.

I had to get the house moved to a bigger plot just so I could do all that. Some poor Sims had to move that house brick by brick 2 blocks down the road and put it back in the exact same way 

I dated and married my co-worker and found out that it has NO idea which household she came from. I could have moved an entirely different family into my house lol.


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## n-ster (Jun 2, 2009)

I never had a crash either  worst thing is I have a crappy laptop


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## Mussels (Jun 2, 2009)

it may be 7 or crossfire related with the crashes, cause i know the systems stable (no crashes in L4D, KF, or CoH, and its linpack stable)


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## mlee49 (Jun 2, 2009)

How does everyone play?  

I play with just one character and micromanage the hell out of them.  I dont like setting up a house of 4-5 sims and letting free reign go.  I guess that would be pretty fun to stop in over an entire city and just make sh*t happen, like sell everything but the kitchen sink for the rich people and then buy a bunch of crap for the trailer park.  Maybe I'll try to play it like that, might be an interesting way to play...


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## n-ster (Jun 2, 2009)

100th reply in the Sims 3 thread I made  Yea I think it may be just that... has anyone tried disabling Multi-GPUs? because I don't think you need more than 1 GPU to max out Sims 3

I micromanage as well... and put some annoying stuff as traits to challenge yourself  for example, clumsy, or something like that


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## mlee49 (Jun 2, 2009)

Yeah I'm thinking Sims3 isn't that gpu intensive, no need for CF/SLI  unless your running dual 2900's or 8600's


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## n-ster (Jun 2, 2009)

I'm on the crappiest integrated graphics (has hard time with anything 3D  needed emulation to make Civilization IV work like COMMON ) and I'm on 12800x800 lowest settings with very playable framerates... sometimes it dips for 3 secs or so but that's all


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## Mussels (Jun 2, 2009)

disabling crossfire is a no no for me, cause i have to reboot between enabling and disabling, or else i get corruption in a few of the games i play. (L4D, CoH, and anything DX10)


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## n-ster (Jun 2, 2009)

lol That sucks... but rebooting isn't THAT bad


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## Mussels (Jun 2, 2009)

n-ster said:


> lol That sucks... but rebooting isn't THAT bad



reboots are bad. they take away gaming time.

when people invite you to a game of L4D or CoH, you dont say "sure give me 3 minutes to reboot, resign in to steam and make sure everythings working" - give it 30 seconds and you've already lost your spot to someone else.


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## mlee49 (Jun 2, 2009)

Is there any mass play online for Sims3?  Would be awesome to have a TPU community in Sims world.


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## Mussels (Jun 2, 2009)

mlee49 said:


> Is there any mass play online for Sims3?  Would be awesome to have a TPU community in Sims world.



no online or multiplayer at all. the sims games are very singleplayer, excluding the sims online. (did that ever even make it for sale? i recall reading a preview of it, but never SAW the game anywhere)


----------



## mlee49 (Jun 2, 2009)

I want TPUland! X)


----------



## Mussels (Jun 2, 2009)

mlee49 said:


> I want TPUland! X)



build it out of lego. dont forget a few trolls. w1zzard must also have a castle, with a bigass spam-cannon on top.

Make sure you get some moderators with their bansticks too.


----------



## Black Panther (Jun 2, 2009)

Hey, is anyone getting image tearing issues on TS3?

I am... on both pc's... 

The game's got no vsync option.

I forced vsync in the Nvidia CP but I'm still getting fps over 100 and ugly tearing - so vsync isn't working!

Tried enabling triple buffering, increasing images rendered from default 3 up to 8, searched all the related ini files for possible tweaking options to clamp my fps to 60... duh zilch nothing doing...


----------



## Mussels (Jun 2, 2009)

thats odd, i could have sworn it had Vsync options.


----------



## Deleted member 24505 (Jun 2, 2009)

No offense,but i always thought the sims was a girls game.I grabbed it for my step daughter who's 16,and had no inclination to play it,all her girlie mates play it.I dont know any guys at all that play it.


----------



## Mussels (Jun 2, 2009)

tigger said:


> No offense,but i always thought the sims was a girls game.I grabbed it for my step daughter who's 16,and had no inclination to play it,all her girlie mates play it.I dont know any guys at all that play it.



one word.

"Boredom"


----------



## n-ster (Jun 2, 2009)

Because time flies by 

did I mention I could barely play any other games?


----------



## Black Panther (Jun 2, 2009)

Mussels said:


> thats odd, i could have sworn it had Vsync options.



Maybe I'm missing them out?
You seen them?

Tigger - the sims is much more than a "playing families & babies" game.
I love to explore the construction side of it, the genetics side, occasionally I don't even play the game but just create sims physically similar to people I know.

I don't think one can ever classify a pc game to be girls' or boys'.
That the type of gameplay one uses might depend on gender yes, but Sims definitely isn't a 'girlie' game.

Unless you also mean that I shouldn't play Crysis, Cryostasis, Left 4 Dead and the COD series because they're..  uhh...."boys'" games? 

Edit:

Lol aren't mine a funny couple!


----------



## n-ster (Jun 2, 2009)

nonono... a Girly game is barbie  There are no real girly game after like 13 yrs old... it's for everyone


----------



## Conti027 (Jun 2, 2009)

so no online at all??  that stinks.


----------



## Mussels (Jun 2, 2009)

Conti027 said:


> so no online at all??  that stinks.



its a single player game!


----------



## Black Panther (Jun 2, 2009)

Forcing an insane amount of AA (x16Q) isn't reducing the fps below 100. My guess is that it isn't working either?

I'm still getting tearing.


----------



## Mussels (Jun 2, 2009)

Black Panther said:


> Forcing an insane amount of AA (x16Q) isn't reducing the fps below 100. My guess is that it isn't working either?
> 
> I'm still getting tearing.



i recall reading that the game doesn't like forced AA, and needs to be done with hte games internal settings.

Maybe try different drivers?


----------



## Darknova (Jun 2, 2009)

Girly game? If it is I plead guilty.

I spent today (yet again) remodelling the house. It now has a second floor, 2 massive open plan areas 1 on each floor. 3 Bedrooms, 3 Bathrooms, a humongous pool. A deck area with barbecue, seating area and a fire pit.

It has multiple bars, a gym area, a kitchen a professional chef would be proud of. A double garage, and the house is walled off at the front with a massive hedgerow at the back overlooking the sea.

All this on the last 60x60 plot available (without kicking others out).

Oh, and my sims are expecting their first child...


----------



## Black Panther (Jun 2, 2009)

I solved the tearing!

A guy on another forum told me to install nhancer... I had it but had removed it lol!

Forcing vsync through nhancer works just perfectly!

 No more tearing!

Edit: Darknova.... I bet you cheated some simoleons to do that!


----------



## Mussels (Jun 2, 2009)

Black Panther said:


> I solved the tearing!
> 
> A guy on another forum told me to install nhancer... I had it but had removed it lol!
> 
> ...



with my sim raking in 3k+ a day, the $imoleons piled up. if you had 3 people in a house working like that, the moolah would be awesomesome. Only real problem with an awesome house is paying the bills.

i've paid them 30 seconds too late, the guy took the bills money AND one of my 8 HDTV's


----------



## Black Panther (Jun 2, 2009)

Mussels said:


> with my sim raking in 3k+ a day, the $imoleons piled up.



Care to share your job choices? I need them to get my sims out of the ghetto they're living in...


----------



## Mussels (Jun 2, 2009)

Black Panther said:


> Care to share your job choices? I need them to get my sims out of the ghetto they're living in...



thief. its a pretty easy one, as you need athletic (which has no requirements other than working out) and friends with the coworkers (which choosing "conspire" as the option when working) will fill out own its own.

Its lucrative because you steal works of art and get to put em around your house, or sell them. its money or mood, as you see fit.


----------



## Darknova (Jun 2, 2009)

Black Panther said:


> Edit: Darknova.... I bet you cheated some simoleons to do that!



:O lies! I never! Although I only ever have enough money to cover the bills each day now


----------



## Black Panther (Jun 2, 2009)

Meh lol the skinny girl in my screenshot is a thief. She worked 5 days... had a baby... and as soon as she went back to work she got sent to jail.

Never brought anything home.
Are you thief full time or part time?


----------



## Mussels (Jun 2, 2009)

Darknova said:


> :O lies! I never! Although I only ever have enough money to cover the bills each day now



the keylogger i installed on your system shows the following.


Motherlode
Ctrl-C
Ctrl-V
Ctrl-V
Ctrl-V
Ctrl-V
Ctrl-V
Ctrl-V
Ctrl-V

bad boy


----------



## Darknova (Jun 2, 2009)

I wondered what that was....lol

Nah, my Sim just spends whatever time he's not as work hacking. In he pulls in an average of 3K a night now, as well as 500 per day in his music career, although I'm expecting that to stay steady, he never gets the time to perform in public so I doubt he'll ever advance again.


----------



## Black Panther (Jun 2, 2009)

Lol @ Mussels

The keylogger I installed on Darknova's system appears to be overriding yours... Mine keeps showing:

Ctrl-Shift-C
Ctrl-Shift-C
Ctrl-Shift-C
Ctrl-Shift-C
Ctrl-Shift-C


Cheating apart, I gotta some really hot sims ready... 







+cookies
+cheesecake
+spaghetti
+prettymucheverythingelse...

=


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jun 3, 2009)

If you want to rake in the money, save I think 35,000 and buy the Stadium.  You'll get 15,000 every week from it which you can spend on other businesses.

I currently have about 1.66 million in the bank a total value exceeding 2 million.  I'm currently working on the music career.

I think the only careers I have left to do is Law Enforcement, Criminal, and Political.  Corporate career is probably the worst I did so far (you have to hold meetings and the need to hold meetings deteriorates faster than you can hold meetings so everyone is angry).


Another way to fast cash is painting.  My sim can paint 3-4 large paintings a day which nets at least $1500 to $4000 each.

We can't forget writing masterpeices either.  My best selling master peice got 10,800 simoleons for six weeks.  They take about three days to write but not many singular tasks will net 60k+.

Gardening isn't very profitable.  Nor is bug collecting.  When smelting ore, however, I see two deposits: one small (the ingot) and one large (ingots the smelter sold?).  I'm not sure where that second desposit comes from but I've seen it as high as 15,000.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jun 3, 2009)

Hopefully, "SimPoints" will mean no "Stuff" packs this time around, just expansion packs.

Anyone got Riverview?


Heh, I've been inviting obese people to my house in the morning then training them until they give up on the treadmill.  I then cure them of whatever they stopped for and continue to train them on the weight machine.  They come in obese and 12-16 hours later they leave athletic.  Too bad they don't pay me for it...not like I need the money.  I'm sitting north of 2 million and I haven't collected the funds from my properties in a long time.

As you can tell, I've run out of things to do between work.  My Sim has everything mastered and like 60 friends.  Maybe I should start my garden up again...

Several careers have two paths to take.

Currently, my money trees more than pay for the bills (trees = 14,000-15,000; bills = 4,000-5,000).


----------



## Mussels (Jun 3, 2009)

money trees?


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jun 3, 2009)

Yeah, you got to find the seeds around town.  They're actually pretty easy to find.  They are "special" seeds but not all special seeds are money trees.  You just got to stick 'em in the ground, take care of them, and see what they turn in to. 

The three orangeish trees on the left of this picture are money trees:
http://img.techpowerup.org/090531/exterior.jpg

I think I have nine Perfect Quality money trees and the tenth is still growing (Normal Quality).  There's about three bags per tree valued at about 475 each when harvesting all at once.


----------



## Triprift (Jun 3, 2009)

Dammit the games out tomorrow and im gonna be flat out no time to go to the shops.


----------



## n-ster (Jun 3, 2009)

as I said... there is a program with a U on it for that


----------



## mlee49 (Jun 3, 2009)

Just started playing today.  I'm going into Forensic Science career.  I'll update with characteristics, pics, and other fun stuff.

I'm going to be hooked for like the next 90 hours


----------



## n-ster (Jun 4, 2009)

yea it takes up too much of my time -_- I will put pics if I feel like it too! or if I have time for it actually... maybe this weekend... started new family and set a budget of like 30k for the beginning... built a house ground up and 30k was a perfect budget, since I am left with practically nothing  I am one sim day in for now... will take pics of that too!


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jun 4, 2009)

I got my "Humble Abode" done.  I'm not going to move into it just yet.  It has 5 bedrooms, 7 full bathrooms, three half bathrooms, 4 floors, 12 indoor parking places, and 12 outdoor parking places for guests.  It is currently valued at 550,000 simoleons (will be close to 750,000 after I move in).

Pics...
Exterior
Exterior Front
Exterior Rear
Floor 1: Entrance/Great Room
Floor 1: Art Gallery
Floor 1: Kitchen/Dining Room
Floor 2: Master Bedroom/Entertainment
Floor 3: Bedrooms
Floor 4: Study


----------



## Darknova (Jun 4, 2009)

Wow....and I thought mine used a lot of glass :|


----------



## Triprift (Jun 4, 2009)

n-ster said:


> as I said... there is a program with a U on it for that



Yeah i got the proggy with the u on it but normally not for games.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jun 4, 2009)

Darknova said:


> Wow....and I thought mine used a lot of glass :|


The house I destroyed to make that one had more glass--just not 3 wide panes like that:
http://img.techpowerup.org/090531/king_of_the_hill.jpg

There had to be well over 100 windows in that one.  This one probably has around 50.


I decided to move my Sim to that house once I finish the criminal career (only one promotion away now).  My account is sitting just below 2.9 million simoleons now.  So far, I think Master Thief has the highest pay rate (525/hour).  I need to double check medical though.


----------



## entropy13 (Jun 4, 2009)

I have the program with a u on it, but the speed of the D is quite erratic, not enough S I think.


----------



## Darknova (Jun 4, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> The house I destroyed to make that one had more glass--just not 3 wide panes like that:
> http://img.techpowerup.org/090531/king_of_the_hill.jpg
> 
> There had to be well over 100 windows in that one.  This one probably has around 50.
> ...



That's the same plot where my house is 

I'll get some pics of it later.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jun 4, 2009)

Those three lots up there get a "Beautiful Vista" (or something like that) mood boost.  I was suprised that the property just below the waterfall didn't have any mood boost at all which is one of the reasons I'm moving back. XD


----------



## Darknova (Jun 4, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> Those three lots up there get a "Beautiful Vista" (or something like that) mood boost.  I was suprised that the property just below the waterfall didn't have any mood boost at all which is one of the reasons I'm moving back. XD



That's weird lol. I would have thought having a waterfall would have been even more of a mood boost.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jun 4, 2009)

That's what I thought.  I mean, I'm like 5 minutes sim-time from fish. 


Edit: I just moved into that mansion and what'd ya know, the value of the furnished house is now $752,256.  I was off by just $2,256 (0.2%) on my estimate.  Damn I'm good. 

That garage looks much better with a cop car sitting in it.


----------



## mlee49 (Jun 4, 2009)

FordGT whats your career? 
I'm a DNA Forensic Scientist path, lvl 10 Police career.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jun 4, 2009)

I've done them all except political, the other police career (already did forensic path), and the symphony music career (working on that now--already did the rock star path).

Before I moved my income looked something like this on a weekly basis:
Owning Properties: $60,000 (Research = 15k, Stadium = 13k, Hospital = 12k, don't remember the rest)
Money Trees: $30,000 (2 x harvests 14,000-17,000 each)
Paintings/Named Stars: $15,000-$25,000
Career: $5,000 (mostly from promotions)
Misc. (Playing for Tips, Book Royalties, Opportunities, etc.): $1,000-$200,000

Those are estimates.  The Sims 3 doesn't have that handy dandy budget like The Sims did.  Most of the paintings I've done over the past few days, I've kept to decorate the house.  I probably have about $100,000 to $150,000 in paintings.  Remember, the longer you hold on to a painting, the more valuable it becomes.  I have some that were originally worth under $4,000 that are now worth over $6,000.

I have all the lifetime happiness rewards except the Body Sculpture (it's useless--doesn't do anything a day of exercise or a day of eating can't do).


My new house has no room for a garden so no more money trees although I did bring one seed to start a money tree farm.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jun 5, 2009)

I just had a crash to desktop with no error message.  I didn't save recently either.


----------



## DrPepper (Jun 5, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> I just had a crash to desktop with no error message.  I didn't save recently either.



Same here  Makes me sad when that happens.


----------



## ShadowFold (Jun 5, 2009)

DrPepper said:


> Same here  Makes me sad when that happens.



Back to FPS is what I say. Gave my sims 3 copy to my friend, crashes too much and it doesn't keep my thirst for blood satisfied.


----------



## Mussels (Jun 5, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> I just had a crash to desktop with no error message.  I didn't save recently either.



i stopped playing cause of that crap. i mean sure, an overclocked system on a beta OS is not the best environment. but no other games or apps (linpack cough) crash, so i dont like it.


----------



## DrPepper (Jun 5, 2009)

Mussels said:


> i stopped playing cause of that crap. i mean sure, an overclocked system on a beta OS is not the best environment. but no other games or apps (linpack cough) crash, so i dont like it.



Yeah I want to give vista x64 a try again so I can see if thats the issue.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jun 5, 2009)

Well, it was running for the last 14 hours or so so I wouldn't be surprised if it hit the 32-bit memory wall.  This was my first crash.

They really need to add an autosave.  None of The Sims games had that feature.  Then again, they rarely ever crashed.


----------



## DrPepper (Jun 5, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> Well, it was running for the last 14 hours or so so I wouldn't be surprised if it hit the 32-bit memory wall.  This was my first crash.
> 
> They really need to add an autosave.  None of The Sims games had that feature.  Then again, they rarely ever crashed.



Yeah autosave every 1/5/10/15 minute saves or something like that.


----------



## Mussels (Jun 5, 2009)

autosave every 15 would solve most of it.

I think i'm hitting the 2GB appication wall way faster than some, simply cause i got it at 1080P with every last setting maxed out.

I wonder if we can mod it to be 2GB+ aware, like we could with stalker and supreme commander. i cant remember the program used to do it tho.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jun 5, 2009)

I had all the challenges done except three:
-Guitar Star (apparently is broken/unattainable)
-Metal Collector (haven't found the last metal type)
-Bug Collector (haven't found the last bug type)


Try running at a lower res to see if it takes much longer to crash.  If that is the cause for most of the crashes, EA will have an incentive to get a x86-64 version out.


----------



## DrPepper (Jun 5, 2009)

Mussels said:


> autosave every 15 would solve most of it.
> 
> I think i'm hitting the 2GB appication wall way faster than some, simply cause i got it at 1080P with every last setting maxed out.
> 
> I wonder if we can mod it to be 2GB+ aware, like we could with stalker and supreme commander. i cant remember the program used to do it tho.



Running at 1080p as well and I hope we can get it modded or there is a fix.


----------



## Mussels (Jun 5, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> I had all the challenges done except three:
> -Guitar Star (apparently is broken/unattainable)
> -Metal Collector (haven't found the last metal type)
> -Bug Collector (haven't found the last bug type)
> ...



i am so not running a lower res. blurry games go to hell when they crash.

making it 2GB+ aware (god if i could remember the right term, i could find the program to mod the exe) lets it use as much ram as you have. it was the unofficial fix for crashing in several games back in the day.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jun 5, 2009)

It's usually a 3GiB swich like /3gb or something of the sort.

Well, you could just turn the AI on and it overnight.  If it is still running when you wake up, the lower res probably (temporarily) fixed it.


----------



## Mussels (Jun 5, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> It's usually a 3GiB swich like /3gb or something of the sort.
> 
> Well, you could just turn the AI on and it overnight.  If it is still running when you wake up, the lower res probably (temporarily) fixed it.



no it was a program that modified the .exe.

I found the term, its "large address aware"
You modified a flag in the exe, once i find it i'll post it here.


edit: here we go

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/246060-31-memory-leak-vista

you'll notice they mention supreme commander, since it was made to patch that. its 3am here and i'm backing up a dying HDD, so i cant test it yet. but i will tomorrow 


another one
http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/99609816/m/851006839831?r=523004249831

http://thenexusforums.com/lofiversion/index.php/t124057.html
another one for FO3.


----------



## DrPepper (Jun 5, 2009)

Hmm can't download it


----------



## Mussels (Jun 5, 2009)

i never tested the links, but at least i found what i was looking for  when i'm sober and its not 4am, i'll work on it.


----------



## DrPepper (Jun 5, 2009)

Mussels said:


> i never tested the links, but at least i found what i was looking for  when i'm sober and its not 4am, i'll work on it.



I don't blame you  I just won't trust tired drunken aussies to do my bidding.


----------



## n-ster (Jun 5, 2009)

weiiiiiirrddddddddddddd I never crashed or anything...

btw, my FPS is a 15~20 (10 minimum on more intensive stuff) at 1280x800 lowest settings WOOOOO I POWN YOU ALL WITH MY 1GB OF RAM!!! oh did I mention my onboard GPU uses my RAM as Graphics RAM?


----------



## reverze (Jun 5, 2009)

Installing.

Hope it works this time.

EDIT: I give up. When I run the game and click "Play" my computer completely shuts off.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jun 6, 2009)

reverze said:


> EDIT: I give up. When I run the game and click "Play" my computer completely shuts off.




First, disable automatically restart on error.

Second, if your computer is overclocked, return the clocks to stock.

Third, try again.


----------



## reverze (Jun 6, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> First, disable automatically restart on error.



Not sure I've ever heard of this..

Where does this reside. BIOS?

Also I tried w/ no O/C.. Didn't work either.


----------



## douglatins (Jun 6, 2009)

n-ster said:


> Well, as many of you know, it has been leaked on the net since a while... legal copies can be bought at many stores because one just put it on their shelves when they received it and everyone followed...
> 
> In your opinion will this hurt EA? Also, for those of you who did play... How did you find it  I'm loving it!



I just bought a copy for my sister, since shes all into the game, seems to be enjoying


----------



## reverze (Jun 6, 2009)

Why am I the only one having a problem with this.


----------



## mlee49 (Jun 6, 2009)

I bluescreened a few times with this game.  I chalked it up to Vista w/o SP1 so I've been updating and no problems so far.

I do save like every 10 minutes I'm a genius who learns things faster than others.


----------



## KainXS (Jun 6, 2009)

man wth, I didn't save and it crashed,

nothin popped up



awwwwwww maaaaannnnn


EDIT
will this happen again


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jun 6, 2009)

reverze said:


> Not sure I've ever heard of this..
> 
> Where does this reside. BIOS?
> 
> Also I tried w/ no O/C.. Didn't work either.


On XP, it is at

System Properties -> Advanced tab -> Settings button under "Startup and Recovery" -> uncheck "Automatically restart" under "System failure."

You can get to System Properties via Control Panel or right-click on My Computer -> Properties.


Now, instead of insta-restart, you'll see a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).  The stop code and the text before it is the most important to figuring out what caused it.





KainXS said:


> man wth, I didn't save and it crashed,
> 
> nothin popped up
> 
> ...


It only happened to me once after like 10 days of playing it but, if it can happen once, it can happen again and again and again until a patch fixes it.


----------



## reverze (Jun 6, 2009)

Thanks.. 

I'll see what the error is here in a bit once I'm done downloading a few things..


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jun 6, 2009)

I just loaded my last save.  I was at level 9 in the Political career and now I'm down to 3.  I didn't lose too much but still sucks.


----------



## reverze (Jun 6, 2009)

What's the deal with all of these crashes?


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jun 6, 2009)

I think mine is connected to how long I was playing it (it might have hit the 2 GiB RAM limit and crashed).

One person said running it on Gold Vista had lots of crashes which were resolved by installing Vista SP1.

Others are getting crashes with their system overclocked.

The Sims 3 is probably the least stable The Sims title ever released.  That's sad but, IMO, it's still worth it.


Edit: Oh, and when people come over to party, they don't use any of the parking places.   I'm going to have to redo my front yard to add a garden and maybe a pond.  I haven't noticed the "Beatuiful Vista" moodlet since I moved back either.  Maybe that moodlet is gained by having a pond the property?


----------



## reverze (Jun 6, 2009)

Eh.. Guess it is EA..

Would be nice to get it working though.


----------



## mlee49 (Jun 6, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> I just loaded my last save.  I was at level 9 in the Political career and now I'm down to 3.  I didn't lose too much but still sucks.


Damn, that sucks! 



reverze said:


> What's the deal with all of these crashes?



I know, I guess EA pushed this out a bit quick huh.


----------



## Mussels (Jun 6, 2009)

the only people without crashes are the ones running low settings. i really think its the 2GB limit here.

Edit: oh yeah. 300MB at the splash screen. 800MB once loaded.

Within 5 minutes of sitting at 3 speed, its at 1.25GB - it just keeps climbing, 50MB a second or so. This game has a memory leak, big time.
Oh it was also using 90% of MY CPU :S it dips when i hit print screen.


Edit:







When you add in video card address space too, i'm sure its not far off that 2GB limit.


----------



## wojo (Jun 6, 2009)

I just picked up my copy of sims 3 today and was wondering who bought the collectors edition?

Also did anyone have trouble getting there free $10 worth of sim points?
Bob


----------



## reverze (Jun 6, 2009)

I have the CE as well.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jun 6, 2009)

Mussels said:


> the only people without crashes are the ones running low settings. i really think its the 2GB limit here.
> 
> Edit: oh yeah. 300MB at the splash screen. 800MB once loaded.
> 
> ...


I'm sitting at 900 MiB now. Yesterday, I know it got over 1 GiB but that was hours prior to the crash.  It could have easily climbed to the limit.  I have most of the settings at default.


It looks like it is only using 100% of one core and about 33% of another.  I also noticed WCG ain't doing anything. 


Edit: At 1.07 GiB now.  I really haven't been playing it like I did yesterday.  Regardless, the memory usage is slowly climbing...


Edit: 1.18 GiB

Edit: 1.33 GiB before I closed it.  I just now got to level 9 again so I really haven't been playing it much today (running minimized) compared to yesterday.  Seeing how it creeps up, I don't doubt it could eventually crash.


----------



## Mussels (Jun 6, 2009)

well i found a download link that worked for the tool, and ran it on the sims 3.

here is a rapidshare link

I havent tested it yet, but it should make the game use 3GB of address space and not 2GB, thus alleviating the crashes.


edit: i've had it at 1,500MB of ram usage and no crash. i just dont really feel like sitting there for a few hours to test it...


----------



## n-ster (Jun 6, 2009)

I only have 1gig of RAM... so wouldn't it fill my RAM super fast? I have no video RAM either, and I am playing at 1280x800 

This sucks... I can't concentrate myself on one game... Either it is Sims 3 or NHL 09 or maplestory (lol i know, but its just too addicting) or.... well yea... So I'm medium in all games >.<


----------



## Mussels (Jun 6, 2009)

n-ster said:


> I only have 1gig of RAM... so wouldn't it fill my RAM super fast? I have no video RAM either, and I am playing at 1280x800
> 
> This sucks... I can't concentrate myself on one game... Either it is Sims 3 or NHL 09 or maplestory (lol i know, but its just too addicting) or.... well yea... So I'm medium in all games >.<



its not filling ram thats the issue, its filling address space. for non 2GB+ aware apps (which means every shitly coded 32 bit game), once 2GB address space is filled they crash.

Address space is system ram AND video ram. - your total doesnt reach 2GB, so you'll lag  but you'll never crash. Me? 1.5GB of ram for the game and 1GB of video ram - i'm welllll within the realm of crashing, should it use 512MB of my viddie ram. at 1080P with AA, thats rather possible.


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## n-ster (Jun 6, 2009)

http://www.simprograms.com/misc-sims-3-news-and-estimated-system-requirements/



> When launching the game, some Microsoft Vista users may receive a warning about running out of address space along with a link to the Microsoft Knowledge Base. If you see this message, it is recommended that you follow the instructions and go to the website listed in the message to update your system.


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## Mussels (Jun 6, 2009)

n-ster said:


> http://www.simprograms.com/misc-sims-3-news-and-estimated-system-requirements/



yeah. that update has been in vista since before SP1. seems stupid, i mean i just patched the exe myself to fix the problem.

i havent crashed since i did that btw - feel free to try it.


----------



## n-ster (Jun 6, 2009)

> For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, the game requires at least:
> 
> Intel Integrated Chipset, 945GM or above.
> 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent.
> 768 MB RAM



I have that chipset, 1gb of RAM, and a 1.66ghz core duo (not core 2)

I have less than minimum system reqs


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 6, 2009)

n-ster said:


> I have less than minimum system reqs


Then it is supposed to crash.


----------



## n-ster (Jun 6, 2009)

I didn't even have one crash  and my save times arent bad


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## Mussels (Jun 6, 2009)

i really think somethings weird with the game. i get 80% CPU sage. on a 4GHz xeon ffs.


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## n-ster (Jun 6, 2009)

probably uses only 1 core


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## reverze (Jun 6, 2009)

very dissapointing..


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## n-ster (Jun 6, 2009)

Mussels said:


> n-ster said:
> 
> 
> > http://www.simprograms.com/misc-sims-3-news-and-estimated-system-requirements/
> ...



try this ^^


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## Mussels (Jun 6, 2009)

n-ster said:


> probably uses only 1 core



nope. it definately uses two. i'm getting 90% CPU usage, which means its using 100% of one, and 80% of the second.


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## DrPepper (Jun 6, 2009)

n-ster said:


> probably uses only 1 core



Can't use only one core if it's at 80%


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 7, 2009)

The "Guitar Star" and "Beetle Collector" challenges are unattainable. 


This is by far the most broken The Sims game to date.  I mean, yeah the patches for The Sims and The Sims 2 fixed a lot of stuff but in both games, I never actually encountered a problm.  In The Sims 3, there's many, many problems I have encountered (from radios not working to broken challenges to CTDs). 


Edit: *GASP* I just got Guitar Star.  Apparently, only completing guitar challenges count towards that.  There is no counter to show you how many you completed so, if you want it, just keep accepting and completing the dialogs that pop up with the guitar pictured.  You'll eventually get it.


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## n-ster (Jun 7, 2009)

you have been prove wrong!


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 7, 2009)

They really need to add a counter specific for that challenge.  The counter that is there for "performances" is misleading.

I still haven't found the last beetle.


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## n-ster (Jun 7, 2009)

lol...... sims 3 just take so much of ur time


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## DrPepper (Jun 7, 2009)

Wow that fix mussels provided works  Played it all day yesterday (for testing purposes) and never crashed once.


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## Mussels (Jun 7, 2009)

DrPepper said:


> Wow that fix mussels provided works  Played it all day yesterday (for testing purposes) and never crashed once.



on a 32 bit OS it wont change anything without the /3GB switch, but on a 64 bit OS i think it raises the address space to infinity and beyond.

Any other takers?


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## grunt_408 (Jun 7, 2009)

So in total how big is the game?


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## Polarman (Jun 7, 2009)

Got the game. I was'nt sure to buy it but my wife wanted it. Played around with it. It as improved graphics wise but the core game is pretty much the same.

Why does it still take an hour+ to take a bath?

How can i have a Woohoo in bed with "best friend" but while standing up, i don't even have the basic "Kiss" option. Is this a bug? Does it have to do something with being a co-worker (Boss)?


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## ShadowFold (Jun 7, 2009)

Even the uninstaller is bugged.. It kept trying to launch the game when I went to uninstall it from add/remove programs...


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## Mussels (Jun 7, 2009)

Polarman said:


> Got the game. I was'nt sure to buy it but my wife wanted it. Played around with it. It as improved graphics wise but the core game is pretty much the same.
> 
> Why does it still take an hour+ to take a bath?
> 
> How can i have a Woohoo in bed with "best friend" but while standing up, i don't even have the basic "Kiss" option. Is this a bug? Does it have to do something with being a co-worker (Boss)?



you need to get romatic first, flirt etc.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 8, 2009)

Mussels said:


> Any other takers?


I will if/when it crashes again.




Craigleberry said:


> So in total how big is the game?


Not very.  Like 6 GiB or so.




Polarman said:


> Why does it still take an hour+ to take a bath?


Because a second is a minute in game time.  I never particularly liked that but it has always been that way.


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## reverze (Jun 8, 2009)

ShadowFold said:


> Even the uninstaller is bugged.. It kept trying to launch the game when I went to uninstall it from add/remove programs...



Pitiful.. :shadedshu


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## DrPepper (Jun 8, 2009)

Again about 12 hours later and no crashes with mussels' fix.


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## JordanS (Jun 8, 2009)

I bought 2 copies of Sims 3 (one for my wife, and one for myself) on Friday and we spend all weekend trying our hardest to play through constant and unrelenting crashing. Sometimes a soft crash back to the desktop, other times a hard crash/infinate audio loop hang.

Mussels, I'd very much like to try your fix as I have noticed that the game sucks down an immense amount of memory and think perhaps this is why its crashing.

I'm using a 1GB GTX280 and 4GB of ram... my wifes computer is 512MB/2GB respectively but seems to experience the same issues although less frequently.

I was wondering if you could reupload it, as rapidshare says the download limit has been reached... alternatively I'd be happy to give it a perminent hosting location on my server so the rapid share nonsense need not be dealth with! 

Thanks!


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## n-ster (Jun 8, 2009)

maybe try : http://www.filesend.net/download.php?f=590231ea2d05e6b2a128edd39d230b5b

It apparently works or helps at least and it is a no-cd patch at the same time


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## Mussels (Jun 8, 2009)

my one also works as a no-cd, cough.

Gimme somewhere else to upload it too, and i will.


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## JordanS (Jun 8, 2009)

How large is the file Mussels? I can accept attachments up to 10MB at my profile email (...)


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## Mussels (Jun 8, 2009)

sending it to your email.

If anyone reuploads this file, make sure it says my name and has a link to TPU.


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## JordanS (Jun 8, 2009)

Thanks , I'm at work now but as soon as I get home I'll get it uploaded and PM you the link. Really appreciate it!

Shame there are a bunch of users running around trying to find/make a fix for a game like this... a quick Google search reveals this is a wide spread issue... I wonder how it made it past the bug testers?

I crashed/rebooted my computer more times this past weekend than I have year to date!


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## Mussels (Jun 8, 2009)

its such a common problem, its just idiotic game developers. if this was brought up, the response would be "oh it doesnt matter on a 32 bit PC, and thats the majority" so it would never get done. end result? crashing game, but hey if 70% of people cant get a fix, screw the other 30% who run x64.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 8, 2009)

JordanS said:


> Shame there are a bunch of users running around trying to find/make a fix for a game like this... a quick Google search reveals this is a wide spread issue... I wonder how it made it past the bug testers?


I think The Sims 3 is the first of The Sims franchise to be rushed to the stamper.  EA said it is going to be relased on this date and it will be released on this date even if it is barely playable.  Prior to The Sims 3, they did a good job at dodging premature releases.


Whenever there's a lock up with an audio loop repeating, 9/10, the audio device isn't compatible with the game/bad audio driver.  I've been playing with an Audigy 2 ZS without many problems (only one crash to desktop).


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## farlex85 (Jun 8, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> I think The Sims 3 is the first of The Sims franchise to be rushed to the stamper.  EA said it is going to be relased on this date and it will be released on this date even if it is barely playable.  Prior to The Sims 3, they did a good job at dodging premature releases.
> 
> 
> Whenever there's a lock up with an audio loop repeating, 9/10, the audio device isn't compatible with the game/bad audio driver.  I've been playing with an Audigy 2 ZS without many problems (only one crash to desktop).



It was delayed 5 months too. If it's that bad I can't imagine what it would have been like if it was released in February like originally planned. I'll give it a few more months in the oven before having a taste. I like my Sims fully cooked.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 8, 2009)

I mean, FFS, The Sims 3 doesn't even have the hot tub anymore.  That was a staple item in The Sims and The Sims 2.  That's how rushed this thing was.  I'm guessing they ran into more issues with a single continuous neighborhood than they bargained for.

But yeah, the game definitely needs some patching before they bloat it with expansions.


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## n-ster (Jun 8, 2009)

nonetheless, it is a great game IMO


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## MilkyWay (Jun 8, 2009)

well i just got a random problem game exited to desktop, went blank and then desktop appeared

well i think mussels thing is worth a try


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## n-ster (Jun 8, 2009)

maybe that is why mine never crashed... the no-cd patches are the fix of the problem!


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## JordanS (Jun 9, 2009)

Well after initially installing Mussels patch I played for nearly an hour straight without a single hiccup. I then took a break (save and quit) to eat, and when I sat back down to play it was business as usual.. crash after crash after crash. At best I manage 15mins between hard crashes followed by a requisite reboot as the system hangs indefinitely. The game just freezes and the music keeps going.

I've nearly had it with this crap game...

My system plays ANYTHING with all settings maxed out and it never skips a beat, killer frame rates, 100% reliable... never had it crash on me, let alone like this.

I even tried pulling the case cover off and blowing out all the dust for good measure... then leaving the cover off for added cooling... nope... still crashes just as much.

I can play COD5 for hours on end without a problem, run all the stress test tools without a single error... but Sims 3 brings my system to its knees....

I even tried playing with the graphics settings turned down to more modest (and lousy looking) settings, and the crash frequency seemed unaffected.

For the record:

XP SP3
E8400 @ 3.0GHZ (not OC'd right now)
GTX280, 1GB
4GB DDR2 Crutial Balistix RAM


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## n-ster (Jun 9, 2009)

WEIRD crashes man


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## Mussels (Jun 9, 2009)

JordanS said:


> Well after initially installing Mussels patch I played for nearly an hour straight without a single hiccup. I then took a break (save and quit) to eat, and when I sat back down to play it was business as usual.. crash after crash after crash. At best I manage 15mins between hard crashes followed by a requisite reboot as the system hangs indefinitely. The game just freezes and the music keeps going.
> 
> I've nearly had it with this crap game...
> 
> ...



can you run OCCT's linpack test for an hour? its more stressful than other testers, making it more accurate.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 9, 2009)

JordanS said:


> Well after initially installing Mussels patch I played for nearly an hour straight without a single hiccup. I then took a break (save and quit) to eat, and when I sat back down to play it was business as usual.. crash after crash after crash. At best I manage 15mins between hard crashes followed by a requisite reboot as the system hangs indefinitely. The game just freezes and the music keeps going.
> 
> ...


And have you turned off automatic restart (instructions are on page 8).


I definitely think you have a bad audio driver.  Stress tests never/rarely test audio device stability but can lead to games crashing like no tomorrow.  Get the most recent audio driver from the motherboard manufacturer's site.  Uninstall the old and install the new.


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## Mussels (Jun 9, 2009)

jordanS uploaded the fix and gave me a link.

http://oldmary.lqhome.com/~jordansarette/Sims3.2GBfix.rar


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## n-ster (Jun 9, 2009)

sims 7 will probably still work at that rig lol


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## JordanS (Jun 9, 2009)

Mussels said:


> can you run OCCT's linpack test for an hour? its more stressful than other testers, making it more accurate.


Never tried to run that one.



FordGT90Concept said:


> And have you turned off automatic restart (instructions are on page 8).


Yes, before that the indefinate hangs resulted in an insta-reboot.



FordGT90Concept said:


> I definitely think you have a bad audio driver.


Its just RealTEK onboard audio, nothing special there.

At this point I'm ready to do a format and fresh install. Startups after these reboots have been painfully loooong. Its been over a year, and I usually like to do it anually.

Now the question is.. reinstall XP, or try the Windows7 64bit RC?


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## n-ster (Jun 9, 2009)

IMO windows 7 RC


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 9, 2009)

JordanS said:


> Its just RealTEK onboard audio, nothing special there.


It might be worth getting a cheap audio card.  I've encountered lots of games that run like crap on Realtek audio.  Try updating the driver first, if that doesn't fix it, invest in a decent audio card.


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## JordanS (Jun 9, 2009)

I have an Audigy 2 ZS sitting in the closet spare parts bin, I just never put it in the new PC as the GTX280 runs right up against the only empty PCI slot, and the car would pretty much touch the plastic card case... I think it would be just fine but eh...

I'm going to download the 64bit Windows7 RC and when I format I'll toss that sound card in... can't hurt, and the speakers could use a better signal (Creative THX Gigaworks 5.1)


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## Black Panther (Jun 9, 2009)

n-ster said:


> I have that chipset, 1gb of RAM, and a 1.66ghz core duo (not core 2)
> 
> I have less than minimum system reqs



I did some testing on TS3 - might be interesting. 

I installed the game initially for testing purposes on my daughter's computer (using XP Home as operating system) just to see what errors I might get - her computer is quite below minimum requirements let alone the recommended ones.

Everything is below minimum system requirements for TS3 --- CPU, graphics card and RAM.

The game's minimum requirements are:



> FOR WINDOWS XP
> * 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent _(tested pc is a P4 equivalent @ 1.7Ghz)_
> * 1 GB RAM _(tested pc has 768MB RAM ie 2/3 of the minimum requirement of 1000MB)_
> * A 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 _(the FX5500 has 256MB but it doesn't have the necessary bandwidth to utilise it. An ATI 9800 Pro 128MB will give a better result. It does support shader 2.0 though)_
> ...



Specs of tested machine:



> Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1900+, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.7GHz
> Memory: 768MB RAM
> Card name: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500 256MB AGP



The game 'runs' @ 1280x800, giving a better performance @ 800x600.
All graphic settings on low.
No crashes.
It looks quite ugly compared to maxed graphics but lol at least my daughter can play it!

Btw - these aren't screenshots - I took them with my camera.
































And to compare it with laptop in system specs exceeding recommended requirements (just so no one thinks this game is so ugly!) .....


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 9, 2009)

JordanS said:


> I have an Audigy 2 ZS sitting in the closet spare parts bin, I just never put it in the new PC as the GTX280 runs right up against the only empty PCI slot, and the car would pretty much touch the plastic card case... I think it would be just fine but eh...


Put it in!  That's what I'm using and have encountered only one crash over probably about 100 hours of gameplay.


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## Black Panther (Jun 9, 2009)

Has anyone compared CAS (create a sim) screenshots with ingame screenshots?

Take a close-up of a sim, in CAS (you can go to a mirror ingame and press C) and another close-up ingame generally.

The colours go berserk... bye-bye neat faces.

My comparison:






I'm playing with all settings maxed out, in both pc's in system specs (which exceed by far the recommended requirements for TS3)


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 9, 2009)

If you use the in-game screenshot function (little camera in the corner) it looks fine.  If you use the Print Screen key, it makes everything darker.

This was taken with the camera button:
http://img.techpowerup.org/090603/humble_abode_exterior_front.jpg

This was taken with print screen, pasted into MS Paint, saved, and uploaded:
http://img.techpowerup.org/090603/humble_abode_exterior.jpg

Compare the glass.  You can see through the glass easily with print screen but it's all glazed over with in game screenshot.


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## Black Panther (Jun 9, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> If you use the in-game screenshot function (little camera in the corner) it looks fine.  If you use the Print Screen key, it makes everything darker.




I used the ingame screenshot above, not PrntScrn. I pressed "C" in both cases in the same game for the screenshot, then I just pasted both shots into one pic for viewing convenience.

Edit: I have to say Ford - WOW what a home! I tend to make mine compact for practicality - lol my residences are studio apartments compared to yours!


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## mlee49 (Jun 9, 2009)

Black Panther said:


> Has anyone compared CAS (create a sim) screenshots with ingame screenshots?
> Take a close-up of a sim, in CAS (you can go to a mirror ingame and press C) and another close-up ingame generally.The colours go berserk... bye-bye neat faces.
> My comparison:
> http://img.techpowerup.org/090609/inCASoutCAS.jpg
> I'm playing with all settings maxed out, in both pc's in system specs (which exceed by far the recommended requirements for TS3)



So much for make-up huh?!


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 9, 2009)

Black Panther said:


> I used the ingame screenshot above, not PrntScrn. I pressed "C" in both cases in the same game for the screenshot, then I just pasted both shots into one pic for viewing convenience.


I think there's two methods built in to the game for taking pictures and the game is inconsistent in which method is used.  Since you're in-game screenshot looked like my print screen, I have no idea what triggers which method is used.




Black Panther said:


> Edit: I have to say Ford - WOW what a home! I tend to make mine compact for practicality - lol my residences are studio apartments compared to yours!


Look at the account in those pictures.  I prefer smaller houses too (just a single floor at that) but what else am I going to do with $3 million?  

I wish I could donate a million at a time and get a mood boost for a month. XD


The thought crossed my mind to just get 24 of  those $105,000 sports cars.  Kind of pointless for only one person.  Even the parties don't fill 1/3 of the first floor.  I'm glad I didn't continue with my first house (pics of it are earlier in this thread) that had probably three or four times the floorspace of this house.


Edit: I should take another screenshot.  I redid the front lawn because no one ever used any of the 12 exterior parking places.  It now has a garden and I started growing my money trees again.


----------



## JordanS (Jun 10, 2009)

I got the Windows7 64bit RC installed last night. Initial impressions are good... and all my hardware was recognized and working after installing the OS, no new drivers required except the "game port" (firewire port?) on the back of the Audigy 2 ZS.

I played Sims 3 after getting it installed for about 2 hours without any crashes, so far so good. It also runs MUCH better than it did in XP. Higher frame rates and much smoother camera movement. Not sure why this would be other than having DirectX 11?

I'll report back if it seems to be crash free after a few days.


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## Mussels (Jun 10, 2009)

JordanS said:


> I got the Windows7 64bit RC installed last night. Initial impressions are good... and all my hardware was recognized and working after installing the OS, no new drivers required except the "game port" (firewire port?) on the back of the Audigy 2 ZS.
> 
> I played Sims 3 after getting it installed for about 2 hours without any crashes, so far so good. It also runs MUCH better than it did in XP. Higher frame rates and much smoother camera movement. Not sure why this would be other than having DirectX 11?
> 
> I'll report back if it seems to be crash free after a few days.



game port is the old joystick/gamepad port used before they moved to USB.

XP is an outdated OS designed for pentium 3's. there is no huge surprise that moving up to vista or 7, that the OS would use the hardware better, and perform better.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 10, 2009)

Just getting off of Realtek probably fixed most of the problems with The Sims 3.  The Windows 7 driver for Realtek might also have the bug fixed that is present in Windows XP.


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## JordanS (Jun 10, 2009)

Mussels said:


> game port is the old joystick/gamepad port used before they moved to USB.


No, its not one of the old actual game port connectors that looked like a dsub connector but wider. The couple old SB Live! cards I have in the closet have that.

The Audigy 2 ZS has what looks like a firewire port in place of it, and windows is calling it a "game port" and lacks out of the box driver support on it. I don't really care as I've never/will never use it. Just worth mentioning as there is an exclimation point in my device manager and that sort of thing generally bothers people 

See:
http://www.tocpmarin.es/pcjuan/audigy2zs.jpg


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 10, 2009)

Gameport looks like a serial port (I think it has 12 pins instead of 7).  My Audigy 2 ZS has a gameport via bracket and a firewire (IEEE1394) port integrated on to the card.


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## Mussels (Jun 10, 2009)

JordanS said:


> No, its not one of the old actual game port connectors that looked like a dsub connector but wider. The couple old SB Live! cards I have in the closet have that.
> 
> The Audigy 2 ZS has what looks like a firewire port in place of it, and windows is calling it a "game port" and lacks out of the box driver support on it. I don't really care as I've never/will never use it. Just worth mentioning as there is an exclimation point in my device manager and that sort of thing generally bothers people
> 
> ...



the audigy has a firewire port, its not a game port.

You could get an adaptor which added the gameport back, much like the USB brackets you get with motherboards.

edit: ford beat me to it.


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## JordanS (Jun 12, 2009)

It's been solid as a rock since installing Windows 7.

Unfortunately its still crashing every few minutes on my wifes computer so now I have to upgrade hers and slap the 7 RC on there too.... oh well!


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## n-ster (Jun 12, 2009)

I hate coming back to this thread because it makes me wanna play Sims 3 again... which sucks, cuz it makes me feel like I'm wasting so much time... Why you might ask? because I AM wasting so much time lol


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## Easy Rhino (Jun 12, 2009)

i dont think i will play sims 3. when i played sims 2 i would spend hours at a time on it. then, when i was done for the day i would go about my business AS IF i were a sim. if i got hungry, i would imagine a red bar over my head. very disturbing.


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## Black Panther (Jun 12, 2009)

*The only thing I hate in Sims 3:*

I'm hooked on TS3 more than I've ever been hooked on any other game so far, not even TS2 and TS1.

But the only thing I hate is...

...that you have to click _a lot _to change your active family.

For some reason the 'seamless neighbourhood promo' gave me the impression that you can just zoom out of the neighbourhood, find the house you want, click and make it the active one instead of the one you were playing before. 

It isn't like that however. Before you start playing your next family, you have to:

1) press the button with the three dots "..."
2) then select edit town,
3) then save your game,
4) click the 'house symbol' to change active household
5) click the 'very-good symbol' to confirm you really want to change active household
6) click another 'very-good symbol' to confirm that you're sure you know about the loss of active wishes etc when you leave your household...
7) click "choose household" from the menu bottom left
8) click the icon of the house you want to play.........
9) click on the 'select' popup.....
10) click on the "very-good" symbol on the 'ready-to-play' popup...



Now this is just... outrageous and leaves one breathless to say the least.

*10 whole* mouse clicks just to change active household???
Plus you have to read before you click so you don't do anything wrong?:shadedshu

Why not just zoom out of the map with mouse scroll wheel, click on another house, zoom in, and continue playing?

Hardly a seam-less neighbourhood I might say... but full of seams and stitches...


----------



## n-ster (Jun 12, 2009)

Easy Rhino said:


> i dont think i will play sims 3. when i played sims 2 i would spend hours at a time on it. then, when i was done for the day i would go about my business AS IF i were a sim. if i got hungry, i would imagine a red bar over my head. very disturbing.



You scare me


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## Mussels (Jun 13, 2009)

n-ster said:


> You scare me



i thought the same thing a few times "damn, my bladder bar is filling...."


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## RadeonX2 (Jun 13, 2009)

I have finally succeeded my career as a Master Thief that was my lifetime wish. So I bought lifetime rewards one of them is steel bladder, I noticed now that the bladder bar would not go down anymore is this a bug? with the lifetime rewards my sim can last longer without eating and taking a bath for days but the bladder is bugging me out as it will no longer go down. BUG?


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## n-ster (Jun 13, 2009)

isn't that what steel bladder is supposed to do?


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## RadeonX2 (Jun 13, 2009)

n-ster said:


> isn't that what steel bladder is supposed to do?



so that makes the game unrealistic. no more peeing and sh*ting for my sims entire life. Time to sell the toilet!


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## n-ster (Jun 13, 2009)

lifetime rewards are rarely realistic...

I wouldn't sell the toilet, the people who come over still have to go you know


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## RadeonX2 (Jun 13, 2009)

sadly my sim doesn't have friends due to retiring  I rarely interact with my neighbors too. so thats make my sim loner. well atleast he has computer could use a little chatting to boost social


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## n-ster (Jun 13, 2009)

that must be boring  Start yourself a newq family with the hardest traits ever  Now that is fun


----------



## r9 (Jun 13, 2009)

I have never played sims but my GF is big fan. I had watch her play and all he did was decorate the house 90% of time she was playing game while paused until she spend all of the money .


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## Easy Rhino (Jun 13, 2009)

let me know when you can get those sims naked


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## DrPepper (Jun 13, 2009)

RadeonX2 said:


> so that makes the game unrealistic. no more peeing and sh*ting for my sims entire life. Time to sell the toilet!



Hmm I got steel bladder and nothing changed at all on mine.


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## RadeonX2 (Jun 13, 2009)

DrPepper said:


> Hmm I got steel bladder and nothing changed at all on mine.



mine is at full bar all the time with steel bladder lifetime reward.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 13, 2009)

Yup, "Steel Bladder" means never urinating again.  I wouldn't be surprised if they change it in a patch to at least match hygiene with the "Dirt Defiler" reward.


----------



## n-ster (Jun 13, 2009)

Easy Rhino said:


> let me know when you can get those sims naked



you can on sims 2... sims 3 should be there by next month


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## RadeonX2 (Jun 13, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> Yup, "Steel Bladder" means never urinating again.  I wouldn't be surprised if they change it in a patch to at least match hygiene with the "Dirt Defiler" reward.



I thought it was a bug. They should've atleast make the bladder go down within a few days not forever


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## n-ster (Jun 13, 2009)

I agree... they probably will in the next patches


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## DrPepper (Jun 13, 2009)

RadeonX2 said:


> mine is at full bar all the time with steel bladder lifetime reward.



I'l switch with you then


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## Mussels (Jun 13, 2009)

Easy Rhino said:


> let me know when you can get those sims naked



had that since i got the game.

*whistles innocently*


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## RadeonX2 (Jun 13, 2009)

ya the nude patch for sims 3 is out  I haven't tried it yet tho


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## n-ster (Jun 13, 2009)

haven't looked for it... WHY did you have to bring that subject up lol


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## BababooeyHTJ (Jun 18, 2009)

JordanS said:


> Well after initially installing Mussels patch I played for nearly an hour straight without a single hiccup. I then took a break (save and quit) to eat, and when I sat back down to play it was business as usual.. crash after crash after crash. At best I manage 15mins between hard crashes followed by a requisite reboot as the system hangs indefinitely. The game just freezes and the music keeps going.
> 
> I've nearly had it with this crap game...
> 
> ...



That sounds like mch instability, thats very similar to what was happening to me when I installed 8gb of ram. You might want to run Prime x64 set to custom and for Min. FFT enter 128, for Max FFT set 1024 and enter all of your available ram. I was Passing Linpack, prime small fft, blend, and memtest but failed this in a couple of minutes.

I'm running Vista x64 and have not had this game so much as crash to desktop yet. I'm running all of the settings maxed out with some post processing in Nvidia control panel with no issues.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jul 1, 2009)

Anyone know where I can get the 1.2.7 patch without installing EA Download Manager?  I tried Fileshack and GamersHell and both gave a region error. 

Edit: 1.0.631.00001 installed.

Edit 2: Here we go:
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/46632.page


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## WhiteNoise (Jul 1, 2009)

I received this as a gift. I have no 'F'ing clue why anyone would buy me this sort of game; though I think it could have been a joke come to think of it. 

I decided to load it up and see what all the hype is. I just don't get it tbh. I just don't see the point. I have plenty to deal with in my very own real life. So I have given this game two thumbs down and will stick to my first person shooters and adventure games.


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## Chryonn (Jul 2, 2009)

Fair enough, this game isn't for everybody. what game is?


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## FordGT90Concept (Jul 2, 2009)

Solitaire, the most played game year after year.


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## Chryonn (Jul 2, 2009)

meh, Solitaire, i don't play it, it's not for me


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## n-ster (Jul 2, 2009)

I hate solitaire...


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## FordGT90Concept (Jul 2, 2009)

How about the game of life?  Everyone is a player there (not that most want to...).


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## MilkyWay (Jul 2, 2009)

what is the appeal of this type of game well you get to customise and develop a character

i will get bored of it eventually having done most of everythign you can do in the game


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## FordGT90Concept (Jul 2, 2009)

Specifically?  It's the stuff you can do on the side like collect meteorites and other rocks, insects, and fish.  Also, the careers are based on an hourly wage with the potential for promotions and demotions.  We also can't forget those opportunities that spring up rather frequently and the perks you get for reaching the top of certain careers (like autograph sessions in front of a businesses).  Oh, and the varied neighborhoods add a lot of variety that was missing from the previous two games.

In the end, either you like it or you don't like most games.  Every game reaches that point of doing everything you can.


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## Easy Rhino (Jul 2, 2009)

people have been badgering me to play this game so i am trying it out. i made one of my traits a computer whiz and i can overclock my computer in the game and even hack accounts to get money


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## Mussels (Jul 3, 2009)

Easy Rhino said:


> people have been badgering me to play this game so i am trying it out. i made one of my traits a computer whiz and i can overclock my computer in the game and even hack accounts to get money



my guy overclocked by sticking a screwdriver in the floppy. it caught fire for good reason.


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## Frizz (Jul 24, 2009)

Hmmm thanks to Mussels, instead of crashing I get soft-locks! But its not as bad as crashing and losing everything, I minimize the game and re-maximize it to 1080p and its working again! So technically haven't crashed yet since the fix. But seriously, who could've thought 8 gb's of ram could be so useless at a time like this =[, I was googling it out for hours then decided to turn to TPU and found Mussel's solution, much better than updating drivers, reinstalling the game and or dealing with it til the next patch.

My person is a rockstar now, money is pretty annoying to make compared to max level business lol, I must admit this game is pretty damn addictive. Me and my GF play it together haha.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jul 24, 2009)

I think x64 games will start coming out soon.  At least I'd hope so.  We're almost to the third generation of x64 operating systems.


Business was my least favorite because you had to hold board meetings all the time in order to get a promotion.  I agree that rock star wasn't very good either.  I think Science was the easiest once you reach the top but athletic was the most entertaining (3 day game schedule).


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## n-ster (Jul 24, 2009)

OMFG WHY DID YOU REVIVE THIS THREAD? You know why I'm angry? Because of this Imana start playing again


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## Cheeseball (Jul 25, 2009)

Easy Rhino said:


> people have been badgering me to play this game so i am trying it out. i made one of my traits a computer whiz and i can overclock my computer in the game and even hack accounts to get money



Wait... in Sims 3 you can make a character that is a computer tech AND OVERCLOCK COMPUTERS IN THE GAME?

Holy shit.


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## n-ster (Jul 26, 2009)

They Hardware mod to OC lol


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## Frizz (Jul 26, 2009)

Yeah you can OC laptop GPU lol.


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## dr emulator (madmax) (Jul 31, 2009)

WhiteNoise said:


> I received this as a gift. I have no 'F'ing clue why anyone would buy me this sort of game; though I think it could have been a joke come to think of it.
> 
> I decided to load it up and see what all the hype is. I just don't get it tbh. I just don't see the point. I have plenty to deal with in my very own real life. So I have given this game two thumbs down and will stick to my first person shooters and adventure games.


well if you don't want it you could always donate it to the doctor


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## dr emulator (madmax) (Jul 31, 2009)

Mussels said:


> i keep getting code 13 errors, where the game refuses to save.
> 
> its rather frustating, i've made master thief twice now, and lost two massive sets of renovations i saved up for.
> 
> the worst part is you never know when it will happen, so you save... and save... and save... and... F***. another hour of my life wasted. :shadedshu


ahh the joys of games ey



Black Panther said:


> Maybe I'm missing them out?
> You seen them?
> 
> Tigger - the sims is much more than a "playing families & babies" game.
> ...


yes reminds me of me 


FordGT90Concept said:


> I just had a crash to desktop with no error message.  I didn't save recently either.


 i have that with max payne and the elder scrolls ( i fixed max payne by downloading it from a dodgy site) well i own it so i can have a copy of it as far as i know) going to get the elder scrolls another week to see if i have another dead sector disc it'll be the third eek: all games were bought new no naughty copys


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## Triprift (Aug 4, 2009)

Just noticed this first expansion pack coming in November.


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## FordGT90Concept (Aug 4, 2009)

Triprift said:


> Just noticed this first expansion pack coming in November.


URL is bad.


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## Triprift (Aug 4, 2009)

Link fixed sorry.


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## FordGT90Concept (Aug 4, 2009)

Now for my initial reaction laugh: Not again.


At least this looks unique from all the expansions in the past.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 13, 2010)

I need test subjects that have The Sims 3 (the more expansions/stuff packs the better) and their version is not current.

I made an app which intelligently gets you the downloads you need to make the game current without using EA Download Manager (hate Adobe Air).  You don't have to finish the downloads, just verify it is doing its job without error (finding all The Sims 3 products, detecting the versions, and offering the downloads).


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## sneekypeet (Jun 13, 2010)

wait does this work for the game updates as well?

My girl hasnt been able to update on Window7 due to a faulty EADownloader. (also like 3 expansions:shadedshu)
If so consider me a tester!


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 13, 2010)

It should take theoretically any version of The Sims 3 up to current:

The Sims 3: 1.12.70
World Adventures: 2.7.7
High-End Loft Stuff: 3.3.11
Ambitions: null (no updates yet)


The main purpose for writing it is for backup sake.  I download updates once and stash them on my server so I don't download again unless they were updated.  If EADM doesn't work for you, it should certainly help simplify getting the updates. 


I still got some more code to write yet but it should be available for download later today...


Edit: It should work on x64/x86 and all Windows 98 SE - Windows 7 (any version of Windows that can support .NET Framework).


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## sneekypeet (Jun 13, 2010)

shoot me a PM when you get it finished, please?


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 13, 2010)

If I can remember. XD


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## sneekypeet (Jun 13, 2010)

Oh I will end up checking back.....if anything the next time she asks me to try installing it for like the 50th attempt, as if anything from EA would have changed


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 14, 2010)

The beta is ready.  I attached it to this post.  Just download, extract, and run on the system that has The Sims 3 installed.  If there are updates available for you, they will appear at the bottom.  Either select them in the list and click "Download Selected" or click on "Download All (sequentially)."  The server apparently prevents you from downloading more than one at a time so the application mirrors that limitation.


This is not the final release.


Remember, this only downloads the installers.  You still have to run the installer manually to apply the patch.


Beta 2 has the permanent server location in it rather than my pokey internets.


Download removed.  Application and discussion moved to:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=124490


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## sneekypeet (Jun 14, 2010)

bout to give her a whirl as soon as I get the game in again.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 14, 2010)

From a clean install, that's about 250 MiB (TS3 = 140 MiB, WA = 40 MiB, HELS = 50 MiB) of updates worth. XD


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## sneekypeet (Jun 14, 2010)

I got time Hell she has had it disfunctional for about 6 months


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 14, 2010)

sneekypeet said:


> I got time Hell she has had it disfunctional for about 6 months


Wow, that sucks!  The game is quite addicting.  I'm not liking the architecture profession though in Ambitions.  Too much work. 

Oh, FYI, all the expansions update the base Sims 3 install.  If you wait to update until after everything is installed, it will save you from getting that 140 MiB download.


*Edit: I updated the download attached on the previous post.  It has a permanent URL.  The old one will continue to work for a day or two.*  Redownload at your earliest convenience.


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## sneekypeet (Jun 14, 2010)

The original worked like a dream, couldnt be more pleased, nor can she.

Now I just gotta figure out who is gonna do the housework now that I lost her to SIMS again


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 14, 2010)

LMAO!  Think I should prepare a non-beta version?  Anything I should change?


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## sneekypeet (Jun 14, 2010)

It worked flawlessly and was very intuative, I see no need for changes unless the grey box is boring


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## n-ster (Jun 15, 2010)

perhaps make the installers run automatically one after the other in the right order? I haven't tried your program yet, but I will once I received the last few parts of my comp


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 15, 2010)

I'm working on that.  Check a box and it will install them as it finishes downloading them.


Edit: The problem is, I have no way to test it.  The installers will naturally error because my install is already current. 


Edit2: That feature is added but not fully tested (should work, theoretically).  You can get it and details over there:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=124490


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## DreamSeller (Jun 15, 2010)

hee Sims 3 still on first pages hows Ambitions ?? didn't have time to play yet ^_^


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## FordGT90Concept (Jun 15, 2010)

It's pretty good.  I WooHoo'd with a robot. XD

As far as carreers are concerned, they actually involve the player now so some of them can be quite challenging (like architecture).  I really haven't grasped all it had to offer yet because I keep getting distracted...

...basically, if you like The Sims 3, you'll like Ambitions.


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