You can always save it to your bin by clicking on it in your neighborhood. If you still want to upload to the exchange, there is a guide HERE.

Thank you. I don't know if saving it to the bin saves it physically anywhere on the computer where i can go and take it and put it on a flash drive or anything. I think I saved it to the bin, but I still couldn't find it anywhere in the sims 3 folder.

Select the lot in Edit Town mode, and click "Share". You will be prompted to enter a name and description. Click the check mark. The lot will now be saved as a sims3pack in Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Exports.

Can you use Custard on this? The cleaner for lots?

Uploading it to the exchange should work, but if you do decide to do that, you have to be careful because I think that after a certain amount of time, files uploaded to the exchange will be deleted if they don't have a certain amount of downloads or recommendations. It's easily worked around though, I used to store stuff on the exchange, and all it needs is one recommendation so you just have to recommend it yourself (it's kinda weird that you can even do that really, but never mind) and then it won't be deleted!

Or you can just click "share" and then go into the Exports folder in My Documents/... and save your Sims3pack without having to send it to the Exchange.

Thank you all for all your help.

Where do I find my saved hair colours?

I have an old game file from the My Documents setting and have the one I use now. I had a few saved hair colours I really liked and would like to have back. Are they in a particular file or is it not possible to get them without starting up that game file again and exporting them then loading them again?

Copy your userPresets.package in Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/ folder, that's where all your recolors for everything (hair, clothing, patterns) are saved.

Thank you :D

I noticed something when I was looking at other people's sims pictures. Alot of pictures are taken in CAS. Is there a way to save in CAS? Letting me go back and work on a sim instead of using cheats later on to do it?

You can save a copy of a sim in CAS by clicking on the '...' by their portrait (at the bottom) when in CAS and choosing 'save copy to library'. To access saved sims you click on the icon of the silhoutted heads. Is that what you meant or have I misread?

That is exactly what I meant. I never noticed that on my sims when they were in CAS and I am always finetuning them. thank you very much.

I had an old Sims 3 save thing, back in April? Well anyway I had to uninstall so, I kind of lost everything when I came back (until I figured out how to save my neighborhoods) But I want the families that used to be in my library. I had so many Also is there a way to place sims from a corrupted neighborhood into the library? (just the sims)?

what is the difference between packages and simpacks?

.package files have to be placed manually in a mods folder with the correct setup for the game to read them.
.sims3packs automatically install themselves through the Launcher when you double click on them.

i have a stupid question... i only just bought the sims 3 a few weeks ago so i guess i'm just new to the gameplay after playing sims 2 for so many years. my question is, how do you *play* another family in your town after creating one in CASt? i already know that i can use the bin library to store other sims and use the edit option to place them in my town but after placing them in a house they are forgotten about. do they end up just like NPCs or can i actually select them and play them?

i am such a newb at this, my bad if my question has already been asked.

I think you need to go to Edit Town, and select "Switch active family", or something like that. I never switch like that, though, because I use Awesomemod, and with Awesomemod, you can just CTRL+click on a different house or Sim, and make them selectable without having to go to Edit Town. Twallan's mods make that sort of thing possible, too. No clue why EA designed it so you need to go to Edit Town and all that jazz, I remember being very annoyed with that before it was changed with mods.

Options Menu (F5) --> Edit Town --> Change Active Household (icon that has two houses at the bottom left side of the screen)

Is there a way to uninstall the latest STORE CONTENT patch that was released just before pets came out? I am experiencing suddenly slow renderings of meshes in my game, and when I click a Sim, the game freezes for a full 4 or 5 seconds before a menu appears. It's CC related - as without CC, the menu is snappy enough, (though the rendering is still mysteriously, suddenly awful...*sigh*). All the CC I'm using did not cause this issue before I installed that store content patch, so I'm hoping there is some way to revert it until I upgrade to the Pets patch, which I'm still putting off.

thanks for the answers! will try that out in-game.

coltraz, as far as I know patches can only be uninstalled by completely uninstalling the entire game and then leave out the Store patch when you reinstall again.
Probably best to wait for an answer from someone more knowledgable about this than myself though before you do anything.

Besides what Menaceman said:

A Sims3Pack is a package file with a wrapper around it that includes some additional data, like the icon you see in the launcher. When you install a Sims3Pack, the .package data is extracted and merged with the contents of your other Sims3Packs in the DCCache folder. Because Sims3Packs are automatically merged, if you have a LOT of CC (starting at about 80 files), you might get somewhat better performance with Sims3Packs; on the other hand, because you place .package files manually, you can organize them in subfolders and manage them more easily. Package files can also be merged to get the performance improvment, either manually or by using Granthes's Launcher ( http://www.modthesims.info/d/408296 , or the beta of Version 2 which has a lot more CC management options: http://sims3.the-prof.net/forums/index.php?board=9.0 ).



I assume the Store patch just patches Store objects, so you wouldn't need to uninstall and reinstall the game -- just the Store objects you have. Since I haven't installed it, however, I can't swear to that.

Since patches actually modify data files, though, yeah, no way to remove them without uninstalling and reinstalling.

Curious. I was prompted to install the store patch, and the only Sims3pack I had installed with the launcher was a world. I thought that maybe the patch changed the way the game handled items originally from the store, since they are what is causing the menu lag, though they are all in .package form. Curious, I say! Any ideas?

Heyas - I really want to get the base game and pets - would there be any problems in not having any other expansion packs?

Store items in .package form? So these are ripped from sims3packs and placed in Mods\Packages? Maybe when the Store Patch installs, it's searching in the Downloads folder, or it's searching specifically for sims3pack files or something and ignores your .package files; causing the weirdness you're seeing.

I know nothing about this whatsoever, it's just an idea.

There shouldn't be. You don't NEED to have all EPs. As far as I know EA have actually released a version of the game that is just Sims 3 base and Pets combined on one disk.

Is this true? Architectural Upgrade.

I dunno. I've never played the console version.

I have a question of my own though.
Does junk mail exist in the game? I've read several mentions of it but never seen any in my own game. Could this be because I use AM?

Junk mail is in the game but it's disabled for everyone, since the game was new. I enabled it once just to look at it and it's useless, worthless (maybe this should have been obvious). Sim takes it out of the mailbox and into his inventory, but can't read it IIRC, or do anything with it except throw it in the trash. If it is actually possible to read it, then it was such that my sim read it but there were no notices up in the right corner telling me anything, as there is with the newspaper. So I decided it was useless to actually make this as a mod and make it available to others.

My sim made gourmet pet food and then immediately put it in her inventory where it became stuck (couldn't remove it and no options when clicking on it except Nraas). Has anyone else had this happen? Or am I missing something about how the homemade pet food works.

Edit: Never mind - found answer.

Does the downloads still go in the same place before the patch, or does it go in the collection file. I am not sure on how this collection thing works. Is there a link to someplace where I can learn how it works and what I am suppose to do? When I downloaded the patch, there is a bunch of stuff already in the collection folder, and I don't have any cc in my game yet. (I just reinstalled it.) How do I tell what it is? Thanks.

the stuff in the collections folder is collections

So if I download, say the steampunk set from the store, that goes in the collections? But if I download a mod that would go in the, mod/package folder? I am so sorry for sounding stupid, but the thread is called stupid questions.

btw these are NOT stupid questions. they're helping me so much :-) thanks guys!

rosieposiepudnpie, the Collections folder doesn't contain actual objects. It contains files that tell the game what objects belong together. You can make your own in game. The ones that already exists have all of the China items together, all the France items together, all the Egypt items together, etc. and some themes.
So if you download Store sets or any CC they install exactly as they always have.

Thank you.

I have another question. I am trying to get my game to even work. I have uninstalled and installed, but that didn't work, so now I am trying to follow the instructions on how to unistall from the Wikki. It says something about deleting and not installing something called the EADM, untill the end. I don't understand what it is.

You need to have a pet food bowl and the option for it will be "Fill with gourmet pet food". That is the only way to use it (exept for horse granola which you feed the horse under Affection...Feed Produce).

About custom hoods:

This is probably really obvious, but I wanted to just check and be sure -

Will I need to update my favorite custom hoods with pet spawners?

It's not clear if they are randomly added to a neighborhood or not.

No, you don't need to. Strays and small animals will spawn automatically in any neighborhood.
It was originally said that they wouldn't spawn in cities, but people who plays cities have also found strays and small animals in their worlds.

I thought they said that wild horses and deer wouldn't spawn in cities. Not small animals and strays.




EADM is the Electronic Arts Download Manager which the game uses to download patches.
I think this altered with the Pets expansion so that Origin will now used to download patches.

Much appreciated, thank you

Well both of those have been spawning in cities, so yeah. :p

Just wanted to inform everyone that I fixed my issue of CTD with sims.

I just simply needed to decrapify them.

Yay! for finally being able to use the sims I've had since the game started.

Thank you. Geez, someday I will get my game to work. I am so dense when it comes to the sims 3. I never had this many issues in the sims 2. Thanks again.

its not called EADM anymore, its called origin. and make sure that is fullu updated before trying to install or patch your game.
good luck

I've recently built a new PC with improved graphics capabilities. The game looks much better, but edge smoothing doesn't seem to do anything in CAS. I could have sworn I read something in these forums, quite a while ago, about edge smoothing not working in Windows 7, or only working in Windows 7 if you have something set up a certain way, or...something, I don't know. I have updated drivers and I can run with everything set to high with no problems except for the jagged edges in Create-A-Sim (they are not noticeable in game, as far as I recall, and I can't load up my game ATM to varify). I've tried searching for "edge smoothing," "anti-aliasing" etc but haven't been able to stumble across it. I figured since there's already a thread for stupid questions, I'd just toss it out there and see if someone has the information that I *think* I read at some point.

tl;dr edge smoothing not working wat do?

I have Pets installed and I just noticed my 4th time setting "Ultra Speed Through Current Action" pauses the game when said action is complete. Before it just reverted the time setting to regular. Now it pauses. Anyone know what that's about/how to fix it?

If it's freezing and the game stops responding, try getting ellacharm3d's fixed maps (there isn't one for Hidden Springs or Appaloosa Plains yet, but Twinbrook, Sunset Valley, Bridgeport, China, France and Egypt have all been fixed). There's an issue on many EA maps where routable areas are in the middle of unroutable areas which makes Sims get stuck and chew up processor time trying to route out of there.

If not...I have no idea.

How do you stop pets from going through gates? Is it Lock > Pets?
Also, is there any way to give a Sim the hidden culture traits?

AwesomeMod feature. You can adjust it in your config settings. Do you WANT to "fix" it, though? The 4th setting wasn't very useful before, since the game would run away anyway, without waiting for you to queue up new orders. If you didn't care that the sim would run amok afterwards, why would you need to slow down after the action? The purpose of that setting was somewhat mysterious and unclear. I made it useful.

Ah, well thanks for making it configurable. I found the feature quite useful as it was, with time returning to default after the current action. If I don't want to wait while my Sim makes supper or has a shower, I can ultra speed it, then when the action is done time goes back to normal. I can then pause if I choose to, or load up the Sim's next action, OR have the Sim do the next action I have already set for it, but at normal speed. I have not experienced the game "running away", except if I use setting 3 and don't notice the Sim end its current action and go start on something else before I can pause/revert to the regular time setting.

I did not know that. I agree, that makes that setting very useful and will henceforth be abused in my game abundantly. Thank you.

I know the only thing that is keeping me from using it more often is because of how deeply engrained the 3~ dance has become.

If I have the lifespan on 'brief' will all the sims I'm not playing grow up at that rate too?

Yep. The age setting is world-wide.

How do you lock pets out of certain areas?

Also, are there any guides as to what jumping obstacles can be used at what jumping skill for horses? I have a horse with skill level 5 in jumping and it still won't jump the Boxer's Oxer.

Lock the gate/door for pets only, they won't be able to come and go, click the gate/door and choose lock/pets. Now about the horses I haven't played too much with them but they will eventually jump over all of the obstacles, you just need to give it time, my horse did eventually jump the boxer's oxer after a few tries. Horses can also practice jumping with no rider, so whenever your horse has some free time have him run the jumping course.

Which seat can I take?

You realize that your download folder is horribly out of control and it would be easier to restart than sort it. You remove the mods and packages from your game saving only a few. You destory the cache folders. What else should I do? If I understand correctly, the mods somehow hide it your game even if you remove them.

If you have CC that a sim is wearing and the sim is saved to the bin, that CC is saved with the sim, even if you remove the s3pack/package the clothes came in.

As for gameplay mods, some of them have specific procedures you have to follow if you want to remove them... and not following those procedures can break your game saves. (This applies specifically to script injection type mods, I believe.)

Simple question because I thought I should ask this before I spend hours building a house with pet-related items on the seconds level. Can dogs/cats use stairs?

Dogs and cats, yes. Puppies and kittens, no. So, either move them downstairs if you're into puppies and kittens, or age them up and leave everything upstairs.

Hm. Okay, thanks eskie.
Similar to with Sims, how only Child and above can use them, I guess.

I can't figure out how to switch between playable households.

At first I played with the Martinez family, the first family in Sim Bin (or what is it called now?) Then I saved the town, somehow started a new game in the same neighborhood and played Roomies. Now I want to play the Martinez family again, yet I can't found them. All I can do is to start a new game in the same town where the Martinez couple is still in the Sim Bin..

When you load up the game the screen will list all of the save games you have as well as give you the option to start a new game.
If you start a game and save it and then start a new game and save it with the same name it will overwrite the first save. Each file, even if they are set in the same world, must have different save names.
Once you are in a game and you want to change the family you are playing you need to go to Options> Edit Town. There should then be a little button on the HUD/UI that looks like a little white house and a little blue house with an arrow between them. Clicking that will let you select a new lot to play.

Is it possible to get stray/random animals wandering any EA world other than Appaloosa plains? For example, will I ever see a unicorn wandering throughout the middle of the city in Bridgeport?

Yeah, strays & wild animals will spawn in all other worlds automatically. You probably won't see a unicorn wandering through the middle of the city, lol, but there will be one somewhere in the world at times.

Does this mean I can't have several playable households within one town? Like I play first one family, then switch to another in the same town? I understand that the first family will be aging up while I play the second one. Or I'm missing something out?
And it seems I overwrote the first game indeed without even knowing it..

You can have more than one playable family in a town on the same save but you must be willing to allow story progression to do what it will with your other families while you are not playing them. If you are not willing to do that, then making a new save game for each family is the best option. I highly recommend getting a story progression mod - like Awesomemod or Twallan's Story Progression because those at least make it so the story progression makes some kind of sense rather than it being completely EA-Random. And they will also allow a little more control over what is allowed to happen while you are away. For example, you're okay with them getting promoted in their job but not okay with them changing jobs or quitting, you can have control over that.

thank to all of you guys....!

You can play as many households as you like in a single save. That's what the little button with the houses and the arrow that I mentioned is for. Click that and it lets you switch which family you are playing while your other family continues their life without you. You can switch back to them using the same button whenever you like, or to another different family if you like.

Yay, I finally figured it out, with help, of course. Thank you everybody^^

wickedblue - I keep hearing about Awesomemod, but I don't know which version I need with having only a Base game at this moment and the latest patch installed.

Is there a way to alter a family tree? I just realised that I forgot to make the toddler the child of the couple - she's now a child and I've obviously done a lot since making them so I don't want to recreate the entire family. Is there a cheat I can use to do it?

You can use Twallan's Master Controller from http://www.the-isz.com/nraas/ .



AFAIK, there is only ever one version of Awesomemod. If you have the latest patch, you should be OK. You MUST keep your game patched to the latest version to use it though.

That's normally so, but Pescado kept around his 1.24 version for those who did not want to install Pets/patch.

Yeah, that's what I mean - which version I should install if I have my Base game patched with 1.26 patch? I don't know which version I want, I just want it to work

Then you will want the CURRENT VERSION in the first post on this thread. That is the latest one, and so is compatible with 1.26.

Thank you! I will install it all now and see what happens.

Edit: puzzled already - where to unzip the framework files (Game, Mods folders and Resource.cfg)? It says these go to TS3 install directory but I already have Game folder there :/

Do you have any other .package CC functioning in your game right now? If so, drop the awesomemod file in with them, in your Mods/Packages directory.

If not, read this:
http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php...Setup_and_Files

I have had that happen a number of times, but only with my gay sims. (Granted, I mostly play gay sims, ).

I'm stupid. With "install directory" I thought they meant the one in Program Files, but it's actually in My Documents.

Frameworks in the tutorial you linked me to didn't have Game folder and Resource.cfg file. I followed the directions there and everything is good. Now to configure the Awesomemod to my liking.

Thank you for the help

Those instructions were written back when the program files method was the actual way to do things. He is probably making the assumption that now that installation is simply a matter of dropping a file into a folder you are probably smart enough to be able to find that out and handle it without needing to have everything explained.

Can dogs in the Pets EP hump a sim's leg?

How is Mortimer (as in Mortimer Goth) pronounced?

I always thought it was like "More-tim-er"... But I was talking to my friend the other day and she said that she thinks it's "More-time-er". Have I been wrong all these years?!

.


Hmmmmm good question, I think I'd go with More-tim-er ..... that's how I say it anyway!!

Names are words, and you can look them up in the dictionary Here: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mortimer

More-tim-er is right.

How to transform formal clothes into everyday clothes?

This tool allows you to make clothing category changes.

If a tree falls in the forest and no sim is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

Only if it has been programmed to do so. :P

Best answer.

If my sims's neighbour plays the stereo so loud that my sim can clearly hear it inside her house (my sim is oblivious to it, but it's bugging me), will she get in trouble if she befriends the neighbour in order to get access into the house so she could blow up said stereo?

A faster way might be to just open the house with Twallan's Master Controller. Click on the house, choose open, then you can turn off the stereo or even delete it.

Edit: Or even just make them your active household for 5 minutes, that would work too.

If a sim's stereo is playing too loud and the player's speakers are off...does it make a sound?

Maybe its just me, but why cant I lead my horse through a very simple gate? Not even 2 gates... and why do I have to delete my fence arch in order to ride my house off the property? But build it back in in order to keep the horse fenced in? annoying.

None of my children on any of my maps will go into the school. I downloaded Riverview again and installed it yesterday and it says its already done. I use TWallens Story Progression now, but have the same problem either way. I dont mind a spoiler, and I do not have anything beyond Late Night because I just dont. What did I do wrong?

Post deleted by me.

Hello, I have a quick one.

Does anybody know what would EA default story progression do if there were no available houses to move Sims in; in fact if the only house were the one I was currently playing? Would it move Sims into empty lots or?

(The reason why I'm asking - currently have only base game installed, doing a remodeling of Sunset Valley. I've evicted all the Sims, placed them in the library, bulldozed all the houses, and now I want to start building a home for let's say, Hart family. I have a story set for them, so I'm wondering will I get random fat Sims on empty lots for those 10 minutes I go into live mode while I chose jobs for the Harts.)

As far as I know, Sims can't move into lots that don't actually have at least a fridge, bed and toilet.
You could always turn Story Progression off while you sort your family though, that way you shouldn't have to worry about Sims trying to move in.