Mod The Sims - [Common] Missing Sims and/or User Interface

werismyki

8th Jul 2010, 05:16 AM

tohome50

8th Jul 2010, 08:04 PM

I have a MacBook, which is completely within and my game has run fine so far (even if it's a little slow) but then my UI when missing in one of my neighborhoods as well as my sims. I've noticed a large number of other people are having the same issue and I hope it will be resolved soon.

1. Which game(s) do you have?
World Adventures

2. What game version/patch level?
2.9.10.007001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
One, but there's only one sim on this game

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No

5. Do you have any UI issues?
It's completely gone (even the pause thing around the screen is gone)

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes, but he got back a day or so ago

7. How many traveling?
Just one

8. How are all travellers related?
N/A

9. Which country are the sims in?
China

10. How many days?
5 days

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
When the vacation was over

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
No

15. When did the issue start?
Yesterday

16. What were your sims doing?
Talking to a ghost at the graveyard

17. What things have you tried
getting rid of all exchange cc (though not sim store stuff), restoring from backup

18. What worked?
Nothing So far

19. What didn't work?
Everything so far

20. Anything else you would like to add?
I've tried a number of different things to get the ui and my sim to appear again but have had little luck so far. Next I will probably try removing cc entirely and see how that goes. Even though my other games (saved files) work, I would hate for all that time to have been wasted. I know my computer is functioning fine and I'm not really sure what else to do.

Any help would be much appreciated :)

Note: I just realized I cannot remove all of my cc as the town that is broken is Riverview and I'm not entirely sure what would happen if you tried to play with a neighborhood that doesn't exist.

aeval99

9th Jul 2010, 01:00 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Sims3/WA/HELS/AMB

2. What game version/patch level?
Updated to AMB 4.0

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
One Sim, on three different occasions.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Not when he is invisible, just thought bubbles and a plumbob.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
NO.

6. Were the sims traveling?
NO

7. How many traveling?
n/a

8. How are all travellers related?
n/a

9. Which country are the sims in?
n/a

10. How many days?
n/a

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
n/a

12. Returning together or separate?
n/a

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
SuperComputer

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
No Story Progression at all.

15. When did the issue start?
After a few Sim weeks of play.

16. What were your sims doing?
Two times he was just invisible after loading a save. One time was directly after using a board breaker on a community lot.

17. What things have you tried?
Twallan's debugger, loading older saves.

18. What worked?
I have retrieved him once via Twallan's debugger, and twice through reverting to older saves after deleting cache files.

19. What didn't work?
Everything else, including using old save files without deleting the cache files first.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
The 4.2 patch released today supposedly has some fixes to this problem.

cobrarep

9th Jul 2010, 06:38 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Sims 3

2. What game version/patch level?
1.0.631.00002

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
All the sims i have downloaded from this site. About 10 or so.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Nothing appears in the CAS premade sims.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
n/a

6. Were the sims traveling?
n/a

7. How many traveling?
n/a

8. How are all travellers related?
n/a

9. Which country are the sims in?
n/a

10. How many days?
n/a

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
n/a

12. Returning together or separate?
n/a

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
AwesomeMod

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
No Story Progression at all.

15. When did the issue start?
Installed them as the helper says into the savedsims folder. Then opened sims 3 to use them and they weren't there.

16. What were your sims doing?
n/a

17. What things have you tried?
updating version/game patch, different mods, installing using monkey installer, reinstalling sims 3

18. What worked?
Nothing.

19. What didn't work?
updating the game version, different mods, using monkey installer, reinstalling sims 3

20. Anything else you would like to add?
I am not too sure what is happening and why but i can't update the game version to the latest update. that could be the problem but i tried reinstalling and nothing works

melanch0lydreams

20th Jul 2010, 08:40 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base Game, World Adventures, Ambitions

2. What game version/patch level?
4.2.32.007001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
One

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Sometimes. It disappears sometimes and reappears sometimes (but I think that is due to SuperComputer attempting to bring the missing sim back.)

5. Do you have any UI issues?
No

6. Were the sims traveling?
The sim has traveled in the past, but there were other sims in her household that traveled more recently, came back, and suddenly she (not they) became invisible.

7. How many traveling?
Of the sims in the household, 4 sims have traveled, including the disappearing/missing sim.

8. How are all travellers related?
The disappearing sim is mother of two travelers and mother-in-law to one of the travelers (her daughter's French husband.)

9. Which country are the sims in?
They live in Sunset Valley, but one of the sims in their household moved in from France.

10. How many days?
They have been at home for some time now. The last vacation lasted for 8 days.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
They returned when the vacation was over.

12. Returning together or separate?
Together.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
I installed SuperComputer AFTER this issue began happening to see if it would help in fixing it, but so far it hasn't.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Twallan's Story Progression

15. When did the issue start?
The issue started after the disappearing sim's two daughters returned from a trip to China.

16. What were your sims doing?
The only thing I can think of besides traveling that could have contributed to this issue was marrying in a French sim but that happened long before this sim started disappearing so I don't know.

17. What things have you tried
ResetSim cheat. SuperComputer. Backup saves. Removing all mods.

18. What worked?
So far nothing has worked. Now, since downloading the latest patch, I can't even load my saved games from this household. The loading screen gets almost completely full and then just freezes and won't load any further.

19. What didn't work?
See all the methods above.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
The most recent patch has apparently made the household with the missing sim completely unplayable. Now my save games won't load at all. Even backups won't load. The most recent patch was supposed to fix this disappearing sim problem so maybe that has something to do with why I can't even load this household anymore.

Susie1Kenny

21st Jul 2010, 05:02 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base, WA, HELS, Ambitions

2. What game version/patch level?
4.2

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
1 - Not the sim himself, just the icons

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yes - it disappears when trying to switch households

6. Were the sims traveling?
No

7. How many traveling?
N/A

8. How are all travellers related?
N/A

9. Which country are the sims in?
N/A

10. How many days?
N/A

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
N/A

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
I use Awesome Mod, though I read somewhere that Twallen's story progression was better, so I switched the SP and the UI still disappears.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Awesome - then switched to Twallans

15. When did the issue start?
I only noticed it after last patch. It could have been going on longer but I was playing a legacy and never switched families until last week.

16. What were your sims doing?
Using Edit Town to move my sims girlfriend and daughter in with him.

17. What things have you tried
Removing all custom content - no help
Deleting cache, thumbnails, etc. - no help
Download Delphy's dashboard - no mod conflicts found
Reinstall Sims over current installation (after backing up of course) - no help
Starting a new game - Worked, but that doesn't really help, honestly.
Going to an older save - that was fun, they wouldn't even LOAD all the way!
I can't honestly think of what else - I've done everything I've read about doing on the net - working on it for two days.

18. What worked?
I didn't have the problem with just starting a new game - but then I lost all the progress on the family I was working on!

19. What didn't work?
Everything in #18

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
The problem I'm experiencing may not be the same one this thread in about. There was no traveling at all. My sims girlfriend got pregnant so I went through all the interactions to ask her to move in - but she went into labor before he actually asked. So they had the baby and he went to her house instead of his, but I couldn't find her or the baby in the house, so he went home. He invited her over and went through everything again, asked her to move in, she did, the menu came up, I chose her, the daughter and her sister (to have a babysitter) and it got stuck in processing. After 20 minutes or so (usually about a 30 second process) I force quit. I restarted and just tried to move her in through edit town, it again got stuck in processing, force quit, tried again but did the 'switch households' thing and moved her with no active family. It took! I then tried to make them my active family and the UI just went away, and I had to force quit. Then I tried to switch to another household, and the Sim never came home from work, tried to switch back to the original household and lost the UI. I think it must be corrupted, however there is not a save that has .bad at the end, there is no .backup either, which I found odd. The work around on the Sims 3 site says to rename the .backup or the .legacy - I don't have either of those.

This has also been all over the sims 3 website, even a supposed 'work around' that didn't work, because I didn't have error messages. I'm also on a Mac, so I could have problems PC users don't have. Also, my sim hasn't disappeared, just his icons, but that was only after reloading the same save a dozen times or so. Also, I haven't uninstalled and reinstalled - that's just the biggest pain, and I've read numerous things stating it didn't help. I may try that tomorrow. Sorry for making this so long, but I wanted you to know how it started and every detail in the way - perhaps her having the baby in the middle of him asking her to move in caused the corruption?

Edit: Typos

Giules

21st Jul 2010, 11:53 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have? Base, World Adventures, Ambitions
2. What game version/patch level? 4.2.32.007001
3. How many sims are missing/invisible? 1
4. Do they have an icon or not? no thumbnail, he went invisible so i deleted him and went back to main menu thinking it would bring him back like in the Sims 2
5. Do you have any UI issues? n/a
6. Were the sims traveling? not this one, had issues with another member of the household who went travelling with his wife but while he came back to the house she wasnt there...still married but not living together and no thumbnail, so i made him break up with her now married with another lady
7. How many traveling? 2
8. How are all travellers related? married
9. Which country are the sims in? they were in La Simhara, egypt
10. How many days? 3
11. Did the sim(s) return 3via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over? when the vacation was over
12. Returning together or separate? they were meant to be together
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod? n/a
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story? not sure
15. When did the issue start? last week
16. What were your sims doing? on holiday the husband was in a tomb, other member of household was celebrating his birthday at home, stuck doing that at least 3 times before i deleted him, plumbob still there but he was invisible, then reappeared but not aged
17. What things have you tried just deleting him, then main menu but not back then splitting household up to see if he'd reappear in edit town but when i did that the screen froze so i had to restart my computer twice, maybe 3 times
18. What worked? nothing
19. What didn't work? he didnt reappear so i had to use another sim with the same name i'd created previously, now his ex wife has a new boyfriend
20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre] i made the first couple (man who returned after travelling and new fiance and daughter) move out and after playing with them i wanted to change active household to play with the 2nd part of the household and when doing that again the screen froze...half loaded on their house then stopped...very confused

thanks

doublezero33

23rd Jul 2010, 06:01 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
base, world adventures

2. What game version/patch level?
2.9.10

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
as many as go traveling, I've replicated the problem many times

4. Do they have an icon or not?
once one went invisible but had the icon and was able to perform tasks, but the real problem im having is they are not traveling to the worlds and are MIA on arrival.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
I basically get stuck in travel, arriving with no sims to control, and only through editing the town can I sneak back into choosing a new household, but the sims from home are gone, and if I use the phone to return home, the new foreign household members return in their place!

6. Were the sims traveling?
yes

7. How many traveling?
1-3 at a time so far

8. How are all travellers related?
family

9. Which country are the sims in?
china, france

10. How many days?
3

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
no, when the trip was over the forgieners returned in place of my traveling home sims.

12. Returning together or separate?
?

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
awesomemod

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Im not sure, my config says awesomemod, but my options menu still has story progression checked.

15. When did the issue start?
just recently, i suspect the new release of awesomemod, but am not sure

19. What didn't work?
I have not found a way around the issue, other than not traveling at all.

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]

crossfade198

23rd Jul 2010, 06:20 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base Game (The Sims 3)

2. What game version/patch level?
1.12

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
None (look At Next Question)

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Their Icons Disapeard

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yes Cant Control SIms, their icons disapeard too

6. Were the sims traveling?
No They Were AT Home

7. How many traveling?
None

8. How are all travellers related?
Not Traveling, But Theyre Family (Grandpa,grandma,dad,mother,son,daughter)

9. Which country are the sims in?
Sunset Valley

10. How many days?
wrent travelling

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Werent Traveling

12. Returning together or separate?
Werent Traveling

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression,
or Awesome Story?
No sotry progression disabled

15. When did the issue start?
After A Few Minutes Of Playing A Newly Created Family

16. What were your sims doing?
Talking, Watching tv

17. What things have you tried
Restarting game

18. What worked?
None

19. What didn't work?
Restarting game

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
have weapons system by desecrate,cars by fresh prince,and other custom content from modthesims

hatosan

26th Jul 2010, 05:06 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Sims3/WA/HELS/AMB

2. What game version/patch level?
AMB 4.0.87

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
So far none n/a

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Yes

5. Do you have any UI issues?
If I player just over 1 hour, in build mode once a blue moon it will turn black and today my house icon from the load game is missing although I still can play the game

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes, occasionally to Shang Simla, I haven't been to Al Simhara and Champs Les Sims

7. How many traveling?
3-4 so far

8. How are all travellers related?
family vacation 1 alone

9. Which country are the sims in?
China but currently in Twinbrook

10. How many days?
1-2 days max

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
via the phone

12. Returning together or separate?
together except if my sims is alone

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
MasterController v3 aka SuperComputer

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA Story Progression, then I tried testing with Awesome just for few minutes and it worked, then switch back to EA and I saw Twallan's SuperComputer. But finally I'm using MasterController since it's AMB compatible. I used more than 2 Twallan's NRAAS mods.

15. When did the issue start?
less than a week as I'm writing down the answer

16. What were your sims doing?
The usual chores and improving their skills

17. What things have you tried
rebuilding cache for the missing thumbnails, and as usual deleting and rebuilding but no luck.

18. What worked?
What worked? hahaha the game worked just for 1 hour before "expire" after an hour playing. A smart one always made a backup just in case he screwed up. It saves me a lot rather than starting back again to day one.

19. What didn't work?
After playing 1 hour or less when I was saving the game, the usual Error Code 12 appeared. Restarting the game does the trick or restarting my PC.Did everything but to no avail and will never prolong above 1 hour playtime. Let see, screwed the library, can't create anything with TSRW 2.0, some error appeared. Missing house thumbnails from the load game menu. Game loads too slow, over 25 minutes (yeesh!) Is that normal? I remembered it took me less than 5-7 mins even with extensive mods installed in Sims 3 and before that I installed basegame and AMB and it loads perfectly. I'm beginning to think that having additional 3 addons might be the culprit. Fishing problem, groceries problem, planting problem, sometimes when invited a sims they got stuck at my sims lot, tried to interact but failed, so use the magic word "resetsim blablabla" Noticed that it will have impact if a simbot was around, and many more you name it. Or perhaps some of the mods might be the cause, IDK.

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
After reading "the missing sims" now I feel "unsafe" to travel elsewhere other than staying in Twinbrook.

Buzzler

28th Jul 2010, 06:02 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base game, WA, Ambitions

2. What game version/patch level?
4.2

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
All active sims. See below.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No icon.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
No.

6. - 12.
The issue was entirely unrelated to travelling. I noticed it when I sent a sim on vacation, though. On arrival there were no active sims and no icons. I've investigated a bit and the entire active household was null, so the sims didn't actually transfer to the vacation world. The TravelData still had the travellers' IDs, but trying to recover them only made the game crash with an access violation. In the affected savegames it's also impossible to access the vacation worlds via the edit town menu. The game will appear to load the vacation world, but then just jump back to the home world.

I can narrow the time when the damage occured down to a time-frame of about 2-3 hours of actual playing. There was no travelling in that time. The savegame was still ok when the sims came back from their last vacation and I did nothing special afterwards.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
Not in that savegame, i.e. not until the damage was already done. I have a couple scripting mods in the game, but since I wrote them I know quite well that they couldn't cause damage like that.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EAxian Story Progression in that savegame.

17. What things have you tried
Resetting all sims, resetting all objects, using a couple of EAxian fixup methods, AwesomeMod's fixall. With no success. Every "investigative" code that supposedly came near the damage made the game crash.

18. What worked?
Deleting townies, residents, service NPCs, basically every sim I could get a grip on, except my active sims. I ran out of patience, but the damage was either in the ties of my active household to an inactive household or one of the inactive households/sims was severely borked. Someone with more patience might have chosen a more delicate approach, i.e. deleting a single or only a few households at a time to figure out which one was actually borked.

columbiany93

31st Jul 2010, 06:58 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
--- Base, WA, Loft
2. What game version/patch level?
--- 3.5.8.007001
3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
--- None
4. Do they have an icon or not?
--- No because the UI is gone
5. Do you have any UI issues?
---Absolutely. It is gone and I cannot retrieve using F10 per readme file
6. Were the sims traveling?
--- The "parents" just got back from a trip to Egypt. They walked into the house and began interacting with the family. I then saved the game and exited.
7. How many traveling?
--- 2
8. How are all travellers related?
--- Married
9. Which country are the sims in?
--- Egypt
10. How many days?
--- 6 but I called and ended the vacation on the 4th day (for both) - too boring!
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
--- Prematurely - together
12. Returning together or separate?
--- Together
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
--- Neither
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
--- Isn't story progression part of the game (unless you choose otherwise)? So I guess I'm using EA's...not using a mod except I've had a mod that changes up the time spent being a child but I've been using it for weeks with no side effects.
15. When did the issue start?
--- Started this evening. I played the game this afternoon...vacation, early departure (parents only), went home, saved game, quit, resumed later in the evening, no family thumbnail then no UI.
16. What were your sims doing?
--- This is something with the launch so I'm guessing my sims weren't doing anything! :-)
17. What things have you tried
--- Tried punching in a bunch of keys, F10 per the readme file didn't work, Alt+Enter to switch to window mode and back didn't change it, restarted computer, testingcheatsenabled true/false...
18. What worked?
--- So far...nothing!
19. What didn't work?
--- So far ... everything!
20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
--- I've not removed CC simply because the problem has occured without there being any change to the game...no updates, no additions or removals, etc. Prior to this neighborhood, I was playing the NH that came with the game and a problem occured with the save and I lost ALL of the sims. However, this doesn't seem to be the same issue.

Charlotte4218

31st Jul 2010, 01:30 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
world adventures, ambitions

2. What game version/patch level?
4.2.32.007001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
one (possibly more since I had another household inactive in the same safegame which I can't access without the UI, obviously)

4. Do they have an icon or not?
no icon

5. Do you have any UI issues?
it's missing

6. Were the sims traveling?
not at that moment

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
neither

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
neither

15. When did the issue start?
when I started the game today; however, the last time I played the sim wouldn't change his clothes anymore (went swimming in his everyday gear) and his face was missing from his thumbnail, just the current mood background colour was visible - it seemed odd so I saved and quit

16. What were your sims doing?
when I quit - meditating

17. What things have you tried
F10, tab, alt+tab, resetSim, relaunch, relaunch, relaunch

18. What worked?
nothing

19. What didn't work?
F10, tab, alt+tab (it did maximize/minimize but could not solve my problem), resetSim, relaunch, installing High End Loft Style, crying and swearing

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
while launching, there was no family icon picture either, just the ea customary one. when I enter the lot of the missing sim, I can't use page up/down to access another floor, I cannot click on any items exept for the lights.

babboo

1st Aug 2010, 12:01 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
WA, Loft, Ambitions

2. What game version/patch level?
4.2.32.....

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
None

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No icon

5. Do you have any UI issues?
No

6. Were the sims traveling?
No

7. How many traveling?
None

8. How are all travellers related?
_

9. Which country are the sims in?
_

10. How many days?
_

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
_

12. Returning together or separate?
_

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
Both

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Twallan's Story Progression

15. When did the issue start?
Happened for the first time weeks ago, so I started a new fresh game in Twinbrook, and then it happened again yesterday

16. What were your sims doing?
One was at work (Twallan's Family career)
the other was drawing an architecture concept
Other situation : Sleeping

17. What things have you tried
quit and remove some hacks then try to load that save again/load an older save

18. What worked?
load an older save and often "save as" (work sometimes but sometimes saves get corrupted again)

19. What didn't work?
hmm...everything

20. Anything else you would like to add?
(it only happens with a particular household, and it happened when I added lifetime rewards to my sims while one was at work and he had a carreer opportunity)

Geralie

2nd Aug 2010, 05:30 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
All2. What game version/patch level?
Latest
3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
One missing from household of two
4. Do they have an icon or not?
No
5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yes, completely disappeared
6. Were the sims traveling?
They had got back from France the night before7. How many traveling?
Two from same household
8. How are all travellers related?
Two elder roomies
9. Which country are the sims in?
Sunset Valley
10. How many days?
8
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over? When the trip was over
12. Returning together or separate? Together
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod? No
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story? Just normal ageing
15. When did the issue start? They went to bed after arriving home from trip, i exited and saved game. The next day when I loaded game the issues were there. The sim that had disappeared wasn't there and her bed was made.16. What were your sims doing? Sleeping
17. What things have you tried Nothing really, the remaining sim i can control and get to do clickable things.
18. What worked?
19. What didn't work?
20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre] When I wanted the disappeared sim to go to bed (before the problems happened) she couldn't get into the bed for some reason and i had to delete the bed and buy a new one. She then went to bed ok and i exited.

Newk

2nd Aug 2010, 07:01 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have? Sims 3 and World Adventures, for Mac

2. What game version/patch level? v. 1.00.004169

3. How many sims are missing/invisible? One sim was temporarily invisible.

4. Do they have an icon or not? Yes, plumbob was visible.

5. Do you have any UI issues? No.

6. Were the sims traveling? Yes.

7. How many traveling? One.

8. How are all travellers related? N/A

9. Which country are the sims in? France

10. How many days? Three (VISA level 0, first trip to France)

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over? Quit game without saving.

12. Returning together or separate? N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod? I have only one mod, the Excavate fix, and only the base game, official content, and World Adventures installed - no downloads from the Exchange, no other mods.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story? No.

15. When did the issue start? Immediately on arrival in France my sim was invisible.

16. What were your sims doing? In "arrival" mode, then started to walk into bookshop.

17. What things have you tried? I immediately quit the game without saving.

18. What worked? That seemed to work, when I reloaded my sim was back home and visible.

19. What didn't work? Didn't try anything else - panicked and quit game.

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre] iMac 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro, OS 10.5.8. I have the graphics settings in the game on the default installation settings.

christmas fear

5th Aug 2010, 08:16 PM

unfortunately, i'm experiencing this problem right now.

1. Which game(s) do you have?
world adventures, ambitions and high end loft stuff.

2. What game version/patch level?
4.2

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
my one sim in my current saved game went missing.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
no.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
all traces of the u.i are completely gone/invisible. the game looks like it does when you press 'tab', although pressing tab again doesn't work.

6. Were the sims traveling?
nope.

7. How many traveling?

8. How are all travellers related?

9. Which country are the sims in?
twinbrook.

10. How many days?

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?

12. Returning together or separate?

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
i'm using naraas master controller.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
ea story progression.

15. When did the issue start?
just right now, actually. my sim was going to work on a vaccination or something at a health clinic in the park (she's a paramedic) but while she was going there i had to quit and save my game because the sound wasn't working. after uninstalling/reinstalling my sound drivers and whatnot, i returned to the game but i noticed before when i was saving it, it took a particularly long time. before i reloaded it i also moved some unmerged packages from my mods folder into another folder on my desktop. i deleted a 'young adult babysitter' mod as well, but i know that it didn't cause the game to mess up because i closed the game and put the package back. it didn't bring the ui back or anything.

16. What were your sims doing?
just on her way to the park to give a vaccination or something. i never experienced health clinics in my game before, so honestly i was a bit excited for that.

17. What things have you tried
removing a package file, but now i think i'm just going to experiment with removing other things and see what happens.

18. What worked?
nothing so far.

19. What didn't work?
removing one package file.

20. Anything else you would like to add?

TheShady

8th Aug 2010, 11:57 PM

1. Base Game, World Adventures, Ambitions.

2. Newest (1.14, 2.0.86, -, 4.2).

3. Entire neighborhood (56 Sims according to the Invisible Sim fix from twallan's DebugEnabler).

4. No icon when clicking on the household in Edit Town. Otherwise don't know.

5. No.

6. Not when it happened and I only traveled (Egypt) once the second time it happened, but saved and switched households and loaded that household again afterwards without any problems. The first time it happened I never traveled in The Sims 3 in my entire life...

7. (1)

8. (-)

9. (Neighborhood is Riverview.)

10. (-)

11. (Returned prematurely.)

12. (-)

13. No.

14. twallan's Story Progression

15. Beginning of this week (02. - 05. Aug. 2010) and again today (08. Aug. 2010).

16. Sleeping, in both cases.

17. Loading up a copy of the same savegame (was also corrupted). twallan's DebugEnabler fix. Deleting cache-files (the 4 regulars and the contents of the WorldCache folder (which caused the saves to be unloadable)). Restarting (also rebooting PC...) and reloading several times. ResetSim. Evicting. Changing household.

18. twallan's DebugEnabler fix (but unsatisfactory to me).

19. Everything else.

20. Well... Seeing as this issue seems to happen quite randomly, I do not want to confuse people with my version of the story... but here goes anyway: It happened in both instances with one Sim in the Stylist profession who happens to be heavily tattooed. After doing a few makeovers, in both instances I did a makeover that crashed to desktop after completion (at the loading screen that gets you back into the game). The first time, upon loading the game up again, it happened, but the second time, after loading after the crash there was no problem. I kept on doing some makeovers, went to bed, saved the game with everything fine, the next day I loaded up (with the Stylist Sim still active) and the entire neighborhood was invisible. I don't know if these crashes have anything to do with it, but I doubt it, as I do not get to save whatever repercussions there might be if I crash to desktop...

Also, I can move the invisible Sims around and have them do stuff, but whenever I try to make them shower or change their outfit (anything that affects their outfit), they stand there, frozen and I can't cancel the action (I can cross it out, but it stays there with the red x over the action).

21. Mods installed: jonha's sliderhack, some sliders, twallan's WrittenWord, Woohooer and StoryProgression, jonha's (possibly outdated) random baby gender mod and Rothchild's Ambitions no mosaic

EDIT
Update: About 2 days of (irregular) gameplay now. With the other two savegames it took me about a day to get the neighborhood invisible. This time no problems. Difference is that I completely stayed away from the Stylist profession and Makeovers so far. (Also didn't travel yet but I don't think that's the issue.)
Update 2: Still nothing, still not doing makeovers and Stylist profession. Playing as usual.

Birgitte Heuschkel

12th Aug 2010, 04:02 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?

Everything up to and including Ambitions.

2. What game version/patch level?

Newest (1.14, 2.0.86, -, 4.2)

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?

Four, but I've also had this happen with just one sim.

4. Do they have an icon or not?

No.

5. Do you have any UI issues?

I have no UI at all, so yes.

6. Were the sims traveling?

Yes.

7. How many traveling?

One on one occasion, four on the other.

8. How are all travellers related?

Mom, dad, and two kids.

9. Which country are the sims in?

I don't remember the first instance. On the second they were travelling from Sunset Valley to Shang Simla.

10. How many days?

Three on the first instance, 12 on the second.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?

No.

12. Returning together or separate?

In both instances they were going out, not home, but I have had glitchy/crashy behaviour when returning home several times (always together).

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?

AwesomeMod.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?

Awesome Story.

15. When did the issue start?

I began playing last week, so -- last week.

16. What were your sims doing?

Travelling.

17. What things have you tried

Deleting cache files, making sure no custom content is in Shang Simla or on the travelling sims, and eliminating all unnecessary mods.

18. What worked?

Nothing. The game still has no UI.

19. What didn't work?

All of it -- I'm not convinced that this issue is custom content or cache related at all, and my computer certainly is capable of running the game (and possibly, the galaxy).

20. Anything else you would like to add?

Thank you for trying to sort this out. I shall be watching this thread like a hawk.

MissKittyKKat

13th Aug 2010, 09:09 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have? world adventures

2. What game version/patch level? 2.09.10.007001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible? 1 was missing.

4. Do they have an icon or not? no

5. Do you have any UI issues? yes but only with one family.

6. Were the sims traveling? yes

7. How many traveling? 4

8. How are all travellers related? mother, father, son, son, son, and some roommate.

9. Which country are the sims in? sunset valley. they visited all of the other worlds earlier.

10. How many days? egypt:3 france:3 china:3 (they traveled to china twice)

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over? once prematurely. the rest once it was over.

12. Returning together or separate? together

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod? no

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story? no

15. When did the issue start? a few days ago

16. What were your sims doing? just standing there. one of them was carrying a baby

17. What things have you tried? resstarting computer, restarting game

18. What worked? nothing. still no ui

19. What didn't work? everything.

20. Anything else you would like to add? i hope u can think of a way to help. thanks for everything.

Birgitte Heuschkel

15th Aug 2010, 12:03 PM

I have a workaround for this problem, or at least some instances of it -- hope it can help track the underlying issue!

1. Save before travelling out.
2. If arriving OK -- enjoy. If the UI is missing, however, quit without saving.
3. Reload game from last save.
4. Play 1 day at home, then travel to -another- destination. I.e., if you were going to China, pick France instead.
5. Enjoy vacation.
6. Return home, wait 48 hours, travel to original destination.

It seems that sometimes, something in the destination files get corrupted, but that if you wait a bit you can overwrite the corrupted file with a new one by visiting another destination in the meantime.

tonicmole

15th Aug 2010, 07:20 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have? Base game
2. What game version/patch level? 1.14
3. How many sims are missing/invisible? 15-20
4. Do they have an icon or not? Some don't
5. Do you have any UI issues? Yes
6. Were the sims traveling? No
7. How many traveling? N/a
8. How are all travellers related? N/a
9. Which country are the sims in? N/A
10. How many days? N/A
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over? N/A
12. Returning together or separate? N/A
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod? No, but I am using the Baxim's Extended Game Core.
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story? No, I am using Nraas's story progression mod and Nrass's Overlord mod.
15. When did the issue start? It happened for the first time two months ago and so I started a new game and it happened again.
16. What were your sims doing? Both times my sims where just at their house. The first time the affected sim was sleeping. The second time the affected sim was just standing still.
17. What things have you tried? Both times it happened after creating a new sim family. The first time I saved my game and when I reloaded I entered my original SIm houshold that had two girls living there and though both where still in the house, one of them was unselectable and stuck in bed. Their icon was missing from the left hand corner, and there was varios graphical glitches with the UI. When I checked the town view I noticed 90% of my sims where gone and their houses empty. Only the Goths, Bunches, the last family I had created, and the two girls where left. I copied my main household and placed them in a new town. That seemed to work for about two months when the same thing happened all over again but this time it was a different family that had three of the five family members unselectable and a messed up UI. Just like before the majority of the other households where gone. This time though I reloaded my backup save which restored all of the missing households, but oddly enough the one household still has unselectable sims.
18. What worked? Reloading a backup save will bring back housholds but not fix the UI, or make unselectable sims selectable.
19. What didn't work? Clearing known caches, starting a new town worked at first, but eventually the same problem occurred.
20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre] The fact that reloading a backup save doesn't 100% fix the problem means that there is a cache somewhere which is corrupted. The cache file would have to be specifically keeping track of housholds. I have tried deleting all of the known caches, with no luck. I am going to try pulling out my saves and saved sims, reinstalling the game and reinserting the saves.

tonicmole

15th Aug 2010, 07:58 PM

There seems to be two seperate issues. One dealing with traveling in world adventures and the other with the base game. The base game glitch causes Sims to become unselectable even though they are still in the household. This glitch also effects the rest of the town causing some or all of the residence to dissappear. Nothing seems to effect this glitch. Unknown if it is a mod conflict, but removing CC has no effect. Could be related to the Dressed Baby Doll virus. Reloading older saves that where originally in good condition only returns missing family's but main household with unselectable sims still borked. This points to a cache file but deleting standard caches has no effect.

UPDATE: Removed game saves and saved sims, unistalled game then reinstalled, updated game and then placed saves back into game. Loaded saves and three of the sims of the five in household are still unselectable, and have missing UI elements (no picture of the sim, no moodlets, and non of the personal tabs like career and so on.

The reason all of this is so odd is that no matter what save of this town I load the glitch is added to it in the exact same way. The save I'm using now, loaded without glitch when I first made it. It then was saved as a backup and I made a new save. This glitch is localized inside of your game save yet some how spreads to any save of that town. Basically this should be impossible. If one save is currupted there is no reason for the game to then put that curruption into other game saves unless it was a cache, which it is not because I reinstalled the game which clears every single cache known to baby jesus. The only remaining possibility is that Maxis designed the save system to access multible saves and insert code even if that save is not being activly used. What ever the glitch is it has some how burrowed into both my current and backup saves at the same time. Though I would like to make clear that other towns I have saved are not effected. Only saves refering to this one town.

Also something to note is the the family can not be moved or evicted but they can be saved and then replanted. the only problem being that the original sims will still be there.

UPDATE: The cause may have been found. Desecrate's weapons system seems to be the linking factor. I'm not saying it is broken or buggy but it may conflict with other things. Both households that bugged out both had just gotten a gun that is used with the mod. I have removed and will see if it resolves the problem. I never put two and two together till now.

NuttySim96

15th Aug 2010, 08:38 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Sims 3 World Adventures
2. What game version/patch level?
The regular one
3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
4.
4. Do they have an icon or not?
Nope
5. Do you have any UI issues?
6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes
7. How many traveling?
4
8. How are all travellers related?
Mom and two teenage kids plus her little sister
9. Which country are the sims in?
Egypt
10. How many days?
6
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Not at all
12. Returning together or separate?
N\A
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
no
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
no
15. When did the issue start?
Last night
16. What were your sims doing?
They arrived in egypt and never really got there.
17. What things have you tried
I tried saving and then restarting the game the next day (reboot)
18. What worked?
nothing
19. What didn't work?
I can no longer view that family.
20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

cyberrico

20th Aug 2010, 03:53 AM

As an overview, it has been happening a lot since 1.14, it happens to me multiple times a day and there is nothing that I can do to recover from it short of start a new game.

1. Which game(s) do you have?

All

2. What game version/patch level?

1.14

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?

Usually all in my family except my main Sim and sometime him too.

4. Do they have an icon or not?

Usually all in my family are missing their icon except my main Sim and sometime him too.

5. Do you have any UI issues?

Zoom from map view won't work with a mouse click on the ground. Sim panel won't pop out by click or hotkey. Usually can't click on self. Just a grey arrow, no balloon indicating I'm not available or anything.

6. Were the sims traveling?

No.

7. How many traveling?

zero

8. How are all travellers related?

n/a

9. Which country are the sims in?

n/a

10. How many days?

n/a

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
12. Returning together or separate?
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?

SC

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?

Twallan

15. When did the issue start?

1.14

16. What were your sims doing?

Something different almost every time. Different actions, different environments, different playstyles.

17. What things have you tried

Cache flush, process of elimination, remove all mods, remove Sim 3 folder, fresh installs.

18. What worked?

Nothing.

19. What didn't work?

Everything.

20. Anything else you would like to add

It is as if most custom content will "infect" my save game. am 99% sure that nothing will fix my game once it hits this state. Avoidance is the only preventative solution and I am convinced that any core modifier will eventually wreck my game. Awesome, MC, tunable core, will all do it. Sliders have been the likely game breaker too. However, note that I suspect that it is very possible that a custom Sim could be the culprit as unlikely as that may seem.

I'm determined to do as many clean reinstalls necessary to figure it out. My next project will be to use minimal Nraas mods and zero custom Sims. No sliders, no makeup, only a few hair styles and very little clothing.

Of course once I figure it out, the next expansion will be here and I will have new train wrecks to clean up. :)

Johbson

22nd Aug 2010, 07:32 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Obviously the original game, along with ambitions and world adventures.

2. What game version/patch level?
4.2.32 is what I could find.

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
None of them.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
In the select family menu, in the start, no.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
The UI is almost completely gone. The only thing that remains are those help popups, or at least the one that tell you when you take a screenshot still works. And the mouse pointer.

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yup, just got back, 6 days from China.

7. How many traveling?
A SimBot, a resurrected ghost, and his adopted son who is not a ghost.

8. How are all travellers related?
The ghost guy ordered the robot before he died with his lifetime points, the son was adopted ages ago, this is not my first vacation with the son, but it is with the robot. And the other guy wasn't dead last him he went either.

9. Which country are the sims in?
Tale..Tell..I don't remember whats it called, its that swampy one that came with Ambitions.

10. How many days?
6.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
They lasted the entire 6 days.

12. Returning together or separate?
Together.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
No? Is the EA thing vanilla? Because if so, yes?

15. When did the issue start?
After I loaded the game.

16. What were your sims doing?
Every single one of them were sleeping.

17. What things have you tried?
Restarting, screaming at computer, pressing tab, pressing F10, more screaming followed by crying followed by screaming.

18. What worked?
Nothing.

19. What didn't work?
I think the screaming helped a bit.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
I noticed I can click and drag objects around, even while the world was unpaused.

celestex

23rd Aug 2010, 03:52 PM

1. I Have the Sinms 3 And The World Adventures
2. 2.9.10.007002 version
3. eerm. round about 8 sims (1 adult and 7 toddlers)
4. The Dont Have Icons But on the Family Tree There is an invisible icon which takes forever to load but eventually does.
5. dont know, sorry
6. No
7. N/a
8. n/a
9. n/a (sunset valley, town)
10. n/a
11. n/a
12. n/a
13. dont know tbh
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, i guess
15. i think it started happening after i, maybe. installed a narr career installer, thing
16. nothing as i was on a different lot. but when i resumed playing the older family their toddlers had dissapeared
17. googe-ling, thats why i cam on here. i dont know what to try.
18. n/a
19. n/a
20. i found out that the sims/toddlers that went missing had a trait in common: can apprehend burglars, which dosnt exist .
hope you can understand that. thanksxx hope i'll get it fixed :')

Maniakos

24th Aug 2010, 05:07 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Sims 3, World Adventures

2. What game version/patch level?
Sims 3 1.14.11.7001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
All four in the household.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yes. The sims do not appear, the panel is there but blank.

6. Were the sims traveling?
No.

7. How many traveling?
N/A

8. How are all travellers related?
N/A

9. Which country are the sims in?
Riverview.

10. How many days?
My main sim was a teen when I started. He now has two teens of his own. I have not time-progressed anyone. Everyone is whatever natural age the game has given them. So, many days.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
N/A

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
Both.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Twallan's Story.

15. When did the issue start?
Three days ago.

16. What were your sims doing?
Two were at the gym, one was home, and the last was visiting friends.

17. What things have you tried
Oy! I've tried the F keys, the "Edit Town" save, the "fixall" and "resetsim" cheat, emptying caches, moving CC, reloading older saves (which cannot be saved again, lest the problem affects them as well), and some choice curse words.

18. What worked?
Nothing.

19. What didn't work?
Everything.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
Please, someone, is there a hero out there that can save this town from total destruction?

jacqpinks

26th Aug 2010, 06:14 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?

TS3, Ambitions, WA, HELs

2. What game version/patch level? 4.2.32.007001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?

None - they have disapeared but I sent them to the mirror to change appearence and changed their hair and colour and they came back. this happpened when I was changing playable families after one family glitched out.

4. Do they have an icon or not?

the family lot is missing from loading interface but the family shows up

5. Do you have any UI issues? no

6. Were the sims traveling? no

7. How many traveling?
8. How are all travellers related?
9. Which country are the sims in?
10. How many days?
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
12. Returning together or separate?
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod? no
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story? none
15. When did the issue start? I am not sure
16. What were your sims doing? not sure
17. What things have you tried I have tried lots of things
18. What worked? changing their house I think the house has an issue
19. What didn't work? deleting holes, time machine
20. Anything else you would like to add?

my game starts to glitch b/c of the time machine when I zoom out of the lot and go to neighbourhood view the house disapears or looks really flat and u can see the sims but no house. the problem comes and goes when I move the time machine.

Beckyk563

29th Aug 2010, 10:41 PM

Just to clarify, this is all occurring only in one town (with older saves from that town as well though)

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base and WA

2. What game version/patch level?
2.9.10.007001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
Actual sim is not invisible, but doesn't show up in UI, is no longer selectable, and is frozen where he stands

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yes - Sims pictures will not show up and part of UI that shows mood bars, etc, doesn't show up

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes, in first instance

7. How many traveling?
2

8. How are all travellers related?
Married

9. Which country are the sims in?
Egypt

10. How many days?
Don't remember, couldn't see that info anymore in save

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Could not phone, so I waited until vacation was over (wife was still running around, though didn't seem to be finishing most of the interactions she autonomously started), they both disappeared and game decided to recognize Egypt as the new home neighborhood (original sims were nowhere to be found)

12. Returning together or separate?
Should have returned together

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA

15. When did the issue start?
Don't remember, it may have started after a windows reinstall, so game reinstalls, patches, and putting backup-ed saves back in. I think the newest patch was part of this new install as well, so that may be a problem? It's been about a month since I've played, so that would put the timeline about right (this save was from 7/14, the slightly older one from 7/9).

16. What were your sims doing?
They had just arrived in Egypt, not doing anything yet

17. What things have you tried
Tried taking out CC, tried older saves (they were at home, husband was selected, same UI problem as before and frozen, wife was selected, UI reappeared and she could be played normally but husband could no longer be selected or interacted with)

18. What worked?
Nothing so far

19. What didn't work?
Taking out CC, trying an older save

20. Anything else you would like to add?
Saves with other sims seem to be fine, so I assumed that I didn't do anything wrong when putting the saves back in...

Also in case there have been issues relating to this, I believe the wife was pregnant (the earliest stages) during vacation (but not during the older save that had problems).

jurocha

3rd Sep 2010, 03:01 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base game, World Adventures and Ambitions.

2. What game version/patch level?
4.2.32

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
One, in a family of 6 (if I count the missing Sim). He was an Al Simhara Sim and had a private wedding with one of my Sims. He's living in the household, but I was never given the option to control him. So he's not invisible at all, he's just unselectable due a lack of UI icon.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
As mentioned above, no, he doesn't.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yes, the missing icon of this particular Al Simhara Sim, who joined my household through the private wedding option with one of my Sims. But apart from it, everything is just fine.

6. Were the sims traveling?
He was a Al Simhara Sim. But the household hasn't traveled after the marriage.

7. How many traveling?
XXXXX

8. How are all travellers related?
XXXXX

9. Which country are the sims in?
XXXXXX

10. How many days?
XXXXXX

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
XXXXXX

12. Returning together or separate?
XXXXXX

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No. I'm using AD85 Extended Mod (http://nene.modthesims.info/download.php?t=381046).

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
No. I'm using AD85 Extended Mod (http://nene.modthesims.info/download.php?t=381046). As well as the following tuning mods: AbortionClinicV2, No Mosaic and Store everything in fridge.

15. When did the issue start?
Just after the marriage. The icon of the Al Simhara Sim never popped up.

16. What were your sims doing?
Everyone was at home, chatting.

17. What things have you tried?
Run the game vanilla. The icon still doesn't show.

18. What worked?
I went back to a previous save and, instead of adding the extra Sim to my household via marriage, I did so using the testingcheatsenabled true and the pie menu that pops up once you Shift Click on a Sim with this cheat enabled. After adding him, got them married and the UI was perfect.

19. What didn't work?
Running the game vanilla didn't solve the problem.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
This post was originally created in June, so I'm wondering if there's a workout for it already or if the newest patch should have somehow fixed it.

EDIT: Found a work around!

Sinead19

12th Sep 2010, 08:57 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Basegame
WA
Ambitions

2. What game version/patch level?
Basegame and WA: 1.15/2.10 for region 2
Ambitions: 4.3.4 for region 1 (i'm from Australia so no region2 patch obviously:))

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
Two sims (icons/sim panel missing, but can still see sims just can't do anything)

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No

5. Do you have any UI issues?
I can only see half of the control panel, ie. i can see the live mode option but instead of build/buy modes been unusuable on vacation i can enter them. I can see the life-time achievement panel but no life-time wish, no money, and the sim needs panel.

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes (only happened when they went travelling, doesn't happen at home).

7. How many traveling?
2 sims

8. How are all travellers related?
sisters

9. Which country are the sims in?
China

10. How many days?
3 day trip

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
no sim panel, thus no option to return home, and cannot click on them and force them to do anything

12. Returning together or separate?
Cannot return at all

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA story progression is enabled in my options

15. When did the issue start?
when my 2 sims arrived in China

16. What were your sims doing?
Travelling to China, they appear at basecamp but they're not playable.

17. What things have you tried
Reloading the saved game. I'm not keen on reinstalling all the games again as i had to do that 3 times to get ambitions to install correctly, but if you guys believe that is the required solution then i will do that :).

18. What worked?
Nothing so far
Update 13.09.2010: Starting a new town and trying a completely different family works. I can see all sim icons and the sim panel and i can control them.
Backup from 2 weeks ago worked, however the data isn't the same as when i saved it and made the backup.
A backup save from earlier that day was also corrupted and not playable.

19. What didn't work?
Trying to travel to China again

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
No, everything else is good besides the memory leaks that come with the game :) lol
Backups seem to become corrupted to if you play them. All the data from the original save seems to transfer into the backup.
Update 13.09.2010: Forgot to mention, but my computer seems to load foreign countries faster than loading a town. In the past when i didn't haveAmbitions installed i can recall than when sims went to travel i could wait up to 10 minutes for the place to load (without CC).

AeliaD

13th Sep 2010, 10:29 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
- TS3, World Adventures & Ambitions

2. What game version/patch level?
- TS3 BG: 1.14.11.007001
- TS3 WA: 2.9.10.007001
- TS3 AMB: 4.2.32.007001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
- One.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
- They have the plumbbob when selected, and a permanent thought bubble coming from knee height.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Not that I noticed.

6. Were the sims traveling?
One other from the lot was traveling, and when they returned (which glitched) the other was invisible.

7. How many traveling?
One (not the invisible one).

8. How are all travelers related?
Yes. The father was traveling. "Daughter" was home.

9. Which country are the sims in?
France

10. How many days?
3

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
When it was over.

12. Returning together or separate?
Err... separate?

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
No.

15. When did the issue start?
When the vacationing sim came home.

16. What were your sims doing?
Invisible sim was... reading, I think??

17. What things have you tried?
Freaking out. Reloading from last save. Restarting game. Taking the same vacation again.

18. What worked?
Nothing.

19. What didn't work?
Anything I tried.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
The vacation the sim was on glitched as well. I don't know that they're related, but it would make sense if they were.

Sulyuki

18th Sep 2010, 11:46 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base, WA, HELS and AMB.

2. What game version/patch level?
4.3.4.008001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
One.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
There was no icon at first, but there is an empty one now after moving the missing Sim to an other house and then back to the playable house.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
No.

6. Were the sims traveling?
They had been travelling recently.

7. How many traveling?
Three.

8. How are all travellers related?
A father and two sons, the younger son is the missing Sim.

9. Which country are the sims in?
Thery were in Egypt.

10. How many days?
Three days.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
They returned when the vacation was over.

12. Returning together or separate?
They returned at the same time, but in two seperate cars.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA Story Progression.

15. When did the issue start?
I noticed the family picture being missing in the main menu yesterday, but I didn't play them then.

16. What were your sims doing?
I don't remember, they might have just returned home.

17. What things have you tried
Move the missing Sim out and back, age him up, move the family to a new neighbourhood, try to change apparance in the mirror.

18. What worked?
Noting.

19. What didn't work?
Everything.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
I have no hacks, custom sliders, CC or anything else that didn't come from the store. When I took the invisible Sim to the mirror it didn't just show hair for teen guys like it should. It showed hair for all ages, both male and female and there was a black head with a store icon. Only one of the travelling Sims has a moodlet for visiting Egypt, there are two days left on it. The family picture is missing when the invisible Sim is there, but was back while he was moved out.

abi_gal7

26th Sep 2010, 11:18 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base, World Adventures

2. What game version/patch level?
2.3.33.003001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
One

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No; not in UI, not in relationship panels, not in the "split family screen"

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Since the Sim was deleted in-game, I have not been able to call up the family tree for any of his immediate family.

6. Were the sims traveling?
No

7. How many traveling?
--

8. How are all travellers related?
--

9. Which country are the sims in?
--

10. How many days?
--

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
--

12. Returning together or separate?
--

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA Story Progression

15. When did the issue start?
Several game-saves ago. I have a neighbourhood full of Sims I play on rotation, so it took me a little while to realise I hadn't seen this Sim in a while. Then I remembered I had deleted him when he got "stuck" between the levels of a house, intending to restore him, only the game had crashed soon after and I forgot what I meant to do.

16. What were your sims doing
He was in the kitchen of a neighbour's home, trying to give a bottle to a toddler. He indicated that he couldn't get to the toddler, even though the toddler was right beside him. His moodlets indicated he was in an undecorated, dark room, the way it does every time Sims get stuck between levels. In the past when sims got stuck I deleted and reset them. I deleted him, and then as I was sending the rest of his family back to their home lot, the game crashed. When I played it later I forgot to reset him.

17. What things have you tried
ResetSim <firstname> <lastname>, split family/move out family/change active family, invite Sim to public lot (Sim icon was not available to invite), call all family members home, delete the current saved game and revert to backup

18. What worked?
Nothing

19. What didn't work?
Everything :P

20. Anything else you would like to add?
I would really like him back, if only for the recovered functionality of the family tree. I can use the tree as long as I start with somebody who was no closer to him than a cousin, but clicking on any of his siblings in the tree causes it to freeze.

I would also like him back just for the sake of having him, though. I have been playing this neighbourhood for over a year now, they have really grown on me. The family I started with is spread out all over the town; he was engaged to be married and now his fiancee doesn't even have him in her relationship panel. Would LOVE to get him back if at all possible, but failing that, I would at least like the family tree to work again.

UPDATE: I was not able to recover my Sim, but I did get the family tree problem fixed, so that is something. I ended up installing twallan's Master Controller, and used a few of the genealogy/invisible sims menu options all together. Not sure which one(s) worked, as I piled them all in together, but now at least the family tree shows up properly.

Bluelfears

2nd Oct 2010, 11:56 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Basegame, World Adventures, HELS, Amibtions and Fast Lane Stuff.

2. What game version/patch level?
Base: 1.15 WA: 2.10 HELS: 3.3 Amb: 4.3 FLS: 5.0

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
One Sim became invisible when they arrived in China.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No

5. Do you have any UI issues?
After saving and exiting, upon restarting the game the UI had disappeared completely.

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes

7. How many traveling?
2

8. How are all travellers related?
Roommates and romantic interests

9. Which country are the sims in?
China

10. How many days?
6 days, one Sim had the Prepared Traveller lifetime reward and the other had the Jetsetter reward.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
I did not return them as the UI disappeared while they were in China, making the game unplayable, so I deleted that save and restored from a backup.

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
AwesomeMod

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Awesome Story

15. When did the issue start?
When they travelled to China

16. What were your sims doing?
Arriving in China on holiday

17. What things have you tried?
I just restored from backup, I have learned that when a save game borks, there's no way to repair it.

18. What worked?
N/A

19. What didn't work?
N/A

20. Anything else you would like to add?
I experienced a similar issue when using desecrate's Weapons Mod, where the Sim's thumbnails and portraits in the UI were invisible as well as the Sim's lot, and the Sim panel was not functional - I could not expand it and their money was 0. However when right clicking on where my Sim's portrait should be in the UI it zoomed in to my Sim, who was visible (and the house then loaded) however I could not direct them to do anything, they were just performing autonomous actions. I could also switch between my Sims using the space bar, but again I could not access the Sim panel. This was preceded by a problem with CAST where I could not transfer patterns or presets to new items (a red cross displayed below my cursor when trying to drag it to a new item). However only my save games that had a Sim with one of desecrate's shootable guns in their inventory were affected, all other save games were fine. I have reported this to him in the mod thread.[/pre]

Simmiller

9th Oct 2010, 02:25 PM

Thank you for having this post. Hopefully we can get some of this sorted out.

1. Which game(s) do you have?

WA, HELS, and Ambitions

2. What game version/patch level?

4.3.4.008.001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?

Almost all of my custom downloaded Sims, including my Dexter who is missing for some other Simmers as noted in the comments on the Dexter Morgan page here on MTS, and a some other Sims downloaded from MTS.

4. Do they have an icon or not?

No

5. Do you have any UI issues?

No

6. Were the sims traveling?

n/a, not able to find them in CAS to load them

------------------------------------------
The following do not apply to my situation:

7. How many traveling?

8. How are all travellers related?

9. Which country are the sims in?

10. How many days?

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?

12. Returning together or separate?
-----------------------------------------------

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?

SC doesn't exist anymore

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?

Using Twallans Story Progression and many other NRaas mods

15. When did the issue start?

Not sure, I haven't seen these Sims for a while now in CAS.

16. What were your sims doing?

n/a

17. What things have you tried?

I have uninstalled and reinstalled both the game and the Sim without success. I have compared my Dexter to a Sim recently created by Arisuka, and have attached the jpeg

18. What worked?

nothing

19. What didn't work?

everything

20. Anything else you would like to add?

Just a jpeg of the parts of the Sims in S3PE, where Arisuka's Sim has one extra part than my Dexter. However, there are other Sims not appearing in CAS that are from other creators as well.

kerryanne13

11th Oct 2010, 12:55 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base, WA, HELS, Ambitions

2. What game version/patch level?
4.3.4.008001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
1

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No Icon

5. Do you have any UI issues?
She's still in the list of friends but other then that she's completely gone, can't call her or find her when I back track through town.

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes, from the park to home.

7. How many traveling?
2

8. How are all travellers related?
Mother and daughter

9. Which country are the sims in?
Sunset Valley, no traveling.

10. How many days?
N/A
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
N/A

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
No

15. When did the issue start?
Few sim weeks into the game, it happened when I had the mother queue up reading the newspaper, it stomped the queue and then the daughter vanished.

16. What were your sims doing?
Riding in a taxi together

17. What things have you tried
Reset "simname"

18. What worked?
Nothing

19. What didn't work?
Reset

20. Anything else you would like to add?
Only other time I've had sims disappear is while using the time machine, this was the first time it's happened even without owning the time machine yet.

chuckles_82

11th Oct 2010, 12:16 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Obviously the original game, along with ambitions and world adventures.

2. What game version/patch level?
4.0.87.006001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
One

4. Do they have an icon or not?
The first thing to go missing was his face on his icon and on the toolbar

5. Do you have any UI issues?
The UI is almost completely gone. The only thing that remains are those help popups, or at least the one that tell you when you take a screenshot still works. And the mouse pointer. No interaction with objects possible

6. Were the sims traveling?
Had been back from France for less than a day

7. How many traveling?
Just the one

8. How are all travellers related?
He has a wife and a baby at home.

9. Which country are the sims in?
Was in France, got home when his icons dissappeared, became invisible in China shortly thereafter

10. How many days?
6.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
He lasted the entire 6 days.

12. Returning together or separate?
Alone. He travelled alone.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Don't think so.

15. When did the issue start?
Sometime within 12 hours of returning from France (first vacation)

16. What were your sims doing?
I think sleeping when the icon disappeared.

17. What things have you tried?
Restarting, pressing tab, resetting sim, waiting til the end of vacation and travelling home (upon which none of UI came back), trying to change appearance and plan outfit (he got stuck before he could plan outfit, then wouldn't move even after resetting. He was invisible in CAS for change appearance.

18. What worked?
Nothing.

19. What didn't work?
Everything

20. Anything else you would like to add?

I think I had testingcheatsenabled active.... yeah... (just easier to remove glitched objects that way)

He was a French tourist before my founder married him. I played him invisible for a while before the UI disappeared. My other saves are fine. I have some CC, but haven't installed anything new recently.

I was playing SV, and had removed all the EA houses, lots and families. I was playing only 10x10 lots (and experiencing a lot of blocked route tantrums). I had moved a few homeless and npcs into houses via moving into family, then moving them out. Some homeless/npcs moved themselves into my empty 10x10 lots with only fridge and bed.

Most I have done recently, that is, the night before, was a defrag, and a registry clean. Of course the game was not running. I used some stuipid free one that only let me fix 15 problems, then got a different registry cleaner that let me remove specific entries (troubles reinstalling sims1). Only entries that were removed were Livin Large entries, so no chance that borked it, and it played fine for 24hrs afterwards anyhow.

cybergrrl

16th Oct 2010, 04:09 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
World Adventures and Ambitions

2. What game version/patch level?
4.0.8.7

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
just one

4. Do they have an icon or not?
no picture, just the mood colour

5. Do you have any UI issues?
I don't know what that is...

6. Were the sims traveling?
Not the invisible sim.

7. How many traveling?
1

8. How are all travellers related?
The travelling Sim was the father in law of the invisible Sim.

9. Which country are the sims in?
China

10. How many days?
3

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
when it was over.

12. Returning together or separate?
n/a

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
no

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
no

15. When did the issue start?
Everything was normal. I saved and quit the game. Nothing special happened. When i re-started my game a bit later, my Sim was invisible.

16. What were your sims doing?
sleeping

17. What things have you tried?
re-start the game, delete all cache files, remove custom content (and delete cache files again), reset the Sim.

18. What worked?
nothing

19. What didn't work?
n/a

20. Anything else you would like to add?
After my Sim returned from the trip i played 2 more days or so at home. In that time his grandbaby was born by the now-invisible Sim. Another grandchild grew from toddler to child. I don't remember to have completed challenges or anything else notable during that time. Also I hadn't installed any new custom content. And there was no error while saving.
My "solution" was somehow painful. I moved the invisible Sim out and then deleted her from my game. My family will have to do without her. But it hurts :cry:

petramarie1124

16th Oct 2010, 09:59 PM

Not sure if my issue is related to missing sims...but I was advised to contribute...read my comment at the bottom..

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Sims 3 WA and Ambitions

2. What game version/patch level?
4.3.4.008017

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
one (but again, not really sure if they are "missing"

4. Do they have an icon or not?
yes

5. Do you have any UI issues?
no

6. Were the sims traveling?
yes

7. How many traveling?
1

8. How are all travellers related?
n/a

9. Which country are the sims in?
china

10. How many days?
3

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
tried both...didnt work

12. Returning together or separate?
n/a

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
no

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA story progression? not sure...not familiar with these..

15. When did the issue start?
this is a new install, I had started playing sims 3 on my laptop, but my desktop has better specs and runs smoother (and has more HDD space) so I reinstalled on that pc...this is my first character, and her first trip...so this just started and I have never had this issue on my laptop, but I also just purchased ambitions, and had not previously played the game with ambitions and some of the custom content I have installed (added on since playing with my laptop)

16. What were your sims doing?
she was in china, my time was up there and I had checked ok to go home

17. What things have you tried
clearing cashed files, removing custom content

18. What worked?
nothing

19. What didn't work?
n/a

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
my issue isnt really that my sim is "missing" just that when I try to return home I get to the progress bar and my pointer is in "processing" mode...the progress bar gets to about 3/4 of the way and then stops...the mouse is still active in processing mode and tips are still scrolling away...but nothing happens after this point and Ive even left the game for about an hr to see if anything would happen....nothing does and I have to end the task to get out of the game.

Amaira

19th Oct 2010, 12:32 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base, WA, AMB

2. What game version/patch level?
4.3.4.008017

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
all 3 I took on vacation

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No

5. Do you have any UI issues?
The UI is completely gone. No icons or anything. The only thing I can do is scroll around and change game speed.

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes

7. How many traveling?
3

8. How are all travellers related?
Mother and her teen twin daughters

9. Which country are the sims in?
China

10. How many days?
It started the second China finished loading. They were scheduled to stay 3 days though.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Wasn't able to return home

12. Returning together or separate?
see above

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
neither

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Twallan's

15. When did the issue start?
The second the load screen for China finished.

16. What were your sims doing?
nothing

17. What things have you tried
Cleared cache and took out all CC and tried resetsim

18. What worked?
nada

19. What didn't work?
everything

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
It seems for me to only be an issue when leaving for vacation right now. For now I will just keep them away from vacations, it still sucks really bad though since it kind of ruins the challenge I am in the middle of. Good luck to you all figuring this thing out.

djfreek80

26th Oct 2010, 07:11 PM

Hello :)
First I am sorry for not answering as per rules to this post but I believe that this could be due to a trainer running OR CC installed. Its NOT within the game itself but from modifications we made to it.
I have thousands of CC in the game and so far the only 2 occasions I was missing sims and partial UI was when going to Vacation with a trainer ON (blush) sorry been playing sims since the out of Sims 1 just got a little tired of progressing slowly :)

SO what I wish to convey is that its most probably if not a 100% only to a mod from the user. Either a hack an object or a trainer as I believe it was in my case.

also when in create a sim after selecting a third sim the game instantly shuts down - very annoying when making a quicky family tree again now without any CC or trainers with ALL games of Sims 3 nothing went wrong. Several pregnancies went fine and a few deaths.

That is from me :) :) :) :) :)

Wish u luck :) will post if something new comes up

luvlyreflections

29th Oct 2010, 07:47 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Sims 3; WA; and Ambitions
2. What game version/patch level?
4.5.6.0090013. How many sims are missing/invisible?
one (but not sure if she's missing house went down to bottom level can't see inside of it at all can only see the base of the house)4. Do they have an icon or not?
don't know
5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yes it is gone
6. Were the sims traveling?
yes , she went to france but was home a few days inviting her french lover (ooh la la) over and spending the night game was fine until next day
7. How many traveling?
1
8. How are all travellers related?
n/a
9. Which country are the sims in?
She's at home now but she was in france before
10. How many days?
3
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
When Vacation Was Over
12. Returning together or separate?
n/a
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
NO
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
NONE
15. When did the issue start?
The issue started after I returned from France was home a few days and invited my sims boyfriend over to stay the night 3 nights in a row, the boyfriend came from France. Also I had NO problems like this before EVER . It was running just fine and has been since Sims 3 came out. I went to bed got up next morning tried to play and NO UI! I could only see the base of the house so I didn't see my sim come in or out of the house so I'm asuming that she's gone too.

16. What were your sims doing?
I saved my game afer she went to bed I believe.
17. What things have you tried
Updating With New Patch ; Removing All Custom Content
18. What worked?
Nothing
19. What didn't work?
Everything
20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
Yes. After I seen the UI gone was the same day Late Night Came Out. So I seen that my game needed to install the new patch so I said yes. After that happened My game kept crashing and WOULD NOT Load AT ALL. So I removed All Cutome Content then My game loaded NO PROBLEM HOWEVER, NO USER INTERFACE So Then I noticed my Download Manager Needed an Update So I thought that Might help so I updated and Still No UI. Don't know if anything is clashing with Custom Content Along With Patch/s For The Download Manager. Something to think about maybe?? Very Frustrated Can't Play Game AT ALL. Never Had This Problem Until OCTOBER 26TH 2010. Hope Someone figures out the cure soon. I Am Thinking That IF I Install LATE NIGHT That it will contain the FIX. I will try and Let everyone know if it works or not. If someone else trys it first let me know please. Thanks luvlyreflections

kl6192

31st Oct 2010, 10:48 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base, WA

2. What game version/patch level?
definitely latest

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
1

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No are completely gone

5. Do you have any UI issues?
The UI is completely gone. No icons or anything. The only thing I can do is scroll around and change game speed.

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes

7. How many traveling?
1

8. How are all travellers related?
Only one travelling

9. Which country are the sims in?
France

10. How many days?
6 days

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Returned home

12. Returning together or separate?
Returned with partner had married out there

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
neither

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Twallan's

15. When did the issue start?
became invisible whilst on, holiday

16. What were your sims doing?
Got married

17. What things have you tried
I did not have any cc installed at the time.

18. What worked?
nothing

19. What didn't work?
everything

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
lone sim went to France, got married to one person, then divorced and married another. Became invisible after first marriage. Went electricuted (by trap) reappeared. Now she has come home, I went out of the game to try and use Twallen's mod for making Sim not invisible, but when I reloaded the game, the main task bar at the bottom was invisible, her new husband is stuck in bed and she is gone. I can right click him and make him active sim (albeit with no ablility to move about, or with main menu bar being available) so I can click on the town hall and use the fix invisible sim option. The box appears in the top right hand of the screen to acknowledge it has 'worked', but 1) invisible sim is still missing, and 2) the menu bar is still missing.

It would be okay if I could get to the 'Edit town' screen and change active households, or just move that family out and delete it (or similar) but because of the missing menu bar, none of this is possible. All i can do is hit Q and quit out of Sims that way.

kl6192

31st Oct 2010, 11:06 AM

Hi

Ok I have managed to solve the problem of the menu disappearing. I enabled twallan's mod which allowed me to make the sim revisible. After selecting that option via the town hall, I then brought up the console command box and used the cheatsenabled true command,, hit Q, saved and exited the game. When I logged back in, the menu was back, and the husband was an active household member. problem is, the wife has completely disappeared from the household, although she still appears in his relationship panel, but just with no social interactions.

Perhaps she is a small sacrifice to pay for getting my neighbourhood back, but I am determined to find her, so if anyway can help me get her back that would be great. PS time had not passed, and as she was a member of my active household she has not 'moved out of neighbourhood' via story progression.

kl6192

31st Oct 2010, 11:40 AM

Success!

Have now solved how to get my Sim back.

After doing all the above, I managed to change the active household to a sim which has the missing sim as a good friend. They then invited her over, and she came! I then invited her to 'move in', which she did. I then promptly moved her and her husband out again into the house they were once in before. Issue resolved.

Hope this helped a few people.

crinrict

31st Oct 2010, 09:28 PM

I found this info at the official forum and found it interesting:

Glitch: Saving game while an active household member is invisible. (this has a few parts list as follow)
*side glitch: household disappears from game completely after loading save
*side glitch: there are no menu buttons
*side glitch: all interactions are cut off (besides using key commands)
*side glitch solution: "alt" + "Q" takes you to main menu
This is a nasty glitch.

serraphinn

2nd Nov 2010, 08:36 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have? Base game, WA, Ambitions, and Late Night.
2. What game version/patch level? 6.0.81.009017
3. How many sims are missing/invisible? Three. Everyone in the family who didn't go on the trip.
4. Do they have an icon or not? No.
5. Do you have any UI issues? Yeah, the whole UI is missing.
6. Were the sims traveling? Yes.
7. How many traveling? Just one.
8. How are all travellers related? N/A
9. Which country are the sims in? France.
10. How many days? 3.
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over? When it was over.
12. Returning together or separate? N/A
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod? No. But I usually use AwesomeMod. I removed it before playing with Late Night though because it hasn't been updated.
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story? EA's.
15. When did the issue start? Upon returning home.
16. What were your sims doing? Returning home from her vacation.
17. What things have you tried? I reopened the game several times. I removed all CC and tried it that way. Then I searched for solutions and found none.
18. What worked? Nothing.
19. What didn't work? Everything?
20. Anything else you would like to add? The sim who traveled was an elder female. When she got home everything loaded properly except for the entire UI. I could scroll around the screen enough to see that she was safe at home, but I couldn't click on anything. Her family was also missing. Her family consists of her husband (also an elder), and her daughter and son (both teens). It was her first time traveling, but her teens have gone to France before and returned with no problem.

Dylanny2

4th Nov 2010, 12:34 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Mase game (Fast Lane, HELS) Late NIght

2. What game version/patch level? 6.0.81.009001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
Have only been playing a couple. Both of them and their butler.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Sometimes

5. Do you have any UI issues?
On other occasions the whole UI vanishes

6. Were the sims traveling?
No

7. How many traveling?
NA

8. How are all travellers related?
NA
9. Which country are the sims in?
NA

10. How many days?
NA

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
NA

12. Returning together or separate? [
NA

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
No

15. When did the issue start?
THree days after installing/playing Late Night

16. What were your sims doing?
One as playing base. One was sitting reading.

17. What things have you tried?
resetSim (a lot), evicting and uninstalling and reinstalling Late Night

18. What worked?
I can get them back sometimes with any of those, but it doesn't last.

19. What didn't work?
See above.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
The freeze, get stuck half in/half out of beds. It seemed to bring them back MOMENTARILY when I left the lot. Chose "go here," to the neighbors lot. I thought it was Bridgeport, so I tried playing Late NIght in Sunset Valley. Seemed oerfect, for a day, then the symptoms returned. ARGH!

crinrict

4th Nov 2010, 01:13 PM

Did anyone try Twallan's new ErrorTrap mod to see if that can correct the problem ?

Dylanny2

6th Nov 2010, 09:50 PM

i can't find "error trap" i tried debug and it seemed to work.... but then after two days it stopped working

djfreek80

7th Nov 2010, 09:41 AM

Hello again :)

After having a million of other favorite EA glitches etc which is usually a normal procedure with all EA games I came down to the following:

(unfortunately you will loose some relationships or family trees but at least will fix the game)

re-install the game following the amazing MTS guides i.e. move all your mods, packages, downloads, saves, installed worlds etc etc etc to a safe location - anywhere else than the folder they are currently.

Uninstall the game properly and reinstall it again.

Downloads is always OK so whatever u put there its fine.
The Mods, Packages one u can check with Delphy's Dashboard - it will list u all the problems with packages so I recommend it.

after all of this enter the game and enjoy it :)

Dont use trainers or at least be careful as they are partially the cause for these problems as well to others - Error Code 12, 13,14,9

If u ask me do the following
In the Packages folder make the following Sub-Folders:

Objects - Tested
Hacks - Tested

Objects- Untested
Hacks - Untested

Newest Untested

and use these folders like this

thus if u get a problem u search ONLY within the these untested as the others are surely to work.

ALSO

Nraas Industries had made the Master Controller which in my personal opinion is by far the best Mod I encountered and the easiest to use - though hacked objects are more visually appealing BUT STILL a too good one to be missed and it solves almost any problem including reset sims, restore all deleted sims or missing sims, reset town - useful when someone somewhere in town has been stuck with an object or walking path.

I wish u all luck :)
Hope this helps you as it did to me

If i can help please feel free to post here or in PM I'd be glad to help out as I love the game and wish to be always able to play it

whiterider

7th Nov 2010, 10:25 AM

Sims3packs can cause all the same issues as package files - you were just lucky that all your sims3pack files were ok.

I've had some success recovering sims with missing icons by using MasterController to make another family active, then adding the offending sims to that family. I've no idea if this would work with missing UI or actual missing sims.

Dylanny2

7th Nov 2010, 04:08 PM

I'm on a mac and Delpy's program is only for PCs

desecrate

7th Nov 2010, 10:03 PM

I tried Twallan's ErrorTrap (http://ts3.tscexchange.com/index.php?topic=4675.0) and it worked fine for me.

Wintermute

9th Nov 2010, 12:25 AM

EDIT: Found the culprit, which was csmacd.package. It was a routing hack by Pescado over at MATY.

I'm beginning to think that I should have waited longer to get Late Night...

Also, I think a good question to ask would be what mods or CC were the latest downloaded before the problems began. Mine were the latest versions of Overwatch, MasterController, StoryProgression, and Awesomemod, as well as a couple of other mods already updated for LN and the latest patch.

1. Which game(s) do you have? WA, HELS, AMB, LN
2. What game version/patch level? Latest for all.
3. How many Sims are missing/invisible? Some are visible, some are not. None have gone missing.
4. Do they have an icon or not? Icons appear in relationship panels. For visible Sims, their heads appear when clicking on an object.
5. Do you have any UI issues? Aside from missing thumbnails, no. All buttons and tabs are working normally.
6. Were the Sims traveling? No.
7. How many traveling?
8. How are all travellers related?
9. Which country are the sims in?
10. How many days?
11. Did the Sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
12. Returning together or separate?
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod? Latest versions of both.
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story? Twallan's Story Progression.
15. When did the issue start? The first time I created Bridgeport after putting all of my custom content back in.
16. What were your Sims doing? They haven't had a chance to do anything, because the neighborhood is fresh.
17. What things have you tried? Taking out mods, skintones, sliders, and defaults. Resetsim.
18. What worked? Taking out csmacd.package.
19. What didn't work? Resetsim.
20. Anything else you would like to add? Clicking on other Sims does not do anything, but clicking on objects shows the normal interactions. I can queue actions, but those actions are never completed. Some of the visible Sims are completely frozen. All Sims' motives are frozen. My default eyes and skintones do not appear on most of the Sims, despite there being no other defaults in my Mods folder.

Vorpal

11th Nov 2010, 04:57 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
WA, AM, LN
2. What game version/patch level?
6.0.81.009017 (with all current patch levels for Base Game, WA, AM, and LN)
3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
Just one: a female child who I can't find anywhere, but the game insists she is still in my active household (she isn't listed on the sidebar anymore and tagging her with AwesomeMod won't find her either).
4. Do they have an icon or not?
Not on the sidebar. Her icon still exists on the family tree and relationships panel, as well as on the load-up screen.
5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yes. The UI is invisible on load-up, but hitting the spacebar to force switch characters brings it back. It will disappear again if I swap households, and that time it won't come back with the spacebar.
6. Were the sims traveling?
No. I haven't done any traveling at all on this save.
7. How many traveling?
N/A
8. How are all travellers related?
N/A
9. Which country are the sims in?
N/A
10. How many days?
N/A
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
N/A
12. Returning together or separate?
N/A
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
Yes, I'm using AwesomeMod.
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Twallan's SP.
15. When did the issue start?
After loading up my Bridgeport save (I know there are a lot of problems with Bridgeport which all appear after about 3 sim weeks of playing. This just happens to be another issue I never encountered until now).
16. What were your sims doing?
They were where I left them. It varies in each save point and I have a feeling that the issue began quite a while back, but only truly manifested itself on load-up.
17. What things have you tried?
Removing my entire mods folder to see if some mod was the cause. I'm going to try the ErrorTrap alone and see if it helps. I'll let you know how that goes.
18. What worked?
** Good news! The ErrorTrap brought back everything as to what it was (hopefully) before! The kid is on the panel again and is actually around, sims aren't stuck, and the UI isn't bugged out! I'll give you an update if anything changes, but for right now it seems to be running as it was before the issue! (If I can make it past Week 3 it will be simply amazing.) Great job, Twallan!

Also, according to the error log, my one active sim had a buggy inventory item. I can't tell what it was, but I think it might have been a custom gun. I don't remember if she had thst pistol or not, but she does still have the sniper rifle. Gun mod is here: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=402950
19. What didn't work?
Removing my mods folder made it worse, which is odd. The UI didn't respond to anything, and several sims were frozen in place and resetsim wouldn't even fix them.
20. Anything else you would like to add?
It seems all of the particular group of saves from that family have this issue, but I didn't notice until I loaded up the game to play today (I have 7 separate saves all with the issue, and they all contain the same family, so I'm assuming they're just borked). I spent a lot of time playing yesterday without closing the game, so I guess it happened sometime then. If it helps, it was Week 3, Day 5. The last issues I've had in Bridgeport all occurred in Week 3 (last two were Week 3, Day 3 and Week 3, Day 7). None of my other saves from separate games (families) have this issue.

Edit: ** See #18. Sims are back and UI isn't FUBARed anymore.

werismyki

13th Nov 2010, 05:28 AM

Glad to hear Error Trap fixed this issue for you, if it proves useful in correcting other's issues we may need to add it to the wiki page. Thanks for posting your results :)

AriesGirl

15th Nov 2010, 09:46 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
All expansions and stuff packs to date. (Up to and including Late Night.)

2. What game version/patch level?
Most recent patch as well, updated via Late Night install.

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
Just the one I'm playing with. Single, no family or friends along for the ride.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Their icon is missing from the control panel.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Can't open Sims information. No needs or wants are loading and no current moodlets are visible. Game also will not quit. I have to choose return to main menu without saving and then quit from there.

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes.

7. How many traveling?
One.

8. How are all travellers related?
NA

9. Which country are the sims in?
To France. Came back from Shang Simla a few days prior. Cut vacation short because Sim had been cursed by the mummy. Curse was rectified with meditation.

10. How many days?
Was to be...6 I think.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Can't return.

12. Returning together or separate?
Alone.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
Nope.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA

15. When did the issue start?
Happened previously. I fixed it though I don't recall how I did. This time, just started.

16. What were your sims doing?
Nothing as they won't load.

17. What things have you tried
Removed mods, deleted less important uploads (designs, clothes, etc.)

18. What worked?
So far, nothing.

19. What didn't work?
Everything.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
This is irritating, but you already know that.

CheddarCheese

15th Nov 2010, 10:43 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
- Base, WA, HELS, Amb., FLS, LN

2. What game version/patch level?
- Latest for all.

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
- Most Sims are missing. Some Sims are visible, but uncontrollable.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
- They do not have an icon. All icons have disappeared.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
- All UI panels and buttons are completely gone. The game appears to be stuck in map view, and no hotkeys bring back the UI. The menu is unaccessible.

6. Were the sims traveling?
- Yes. My Sim was travelling to Egypt, and the game glitched up upon the return.

7. How many traveling?
- One Sim out of a family of four were travelling.

8. How are all travelers related?
- Only one Sim was traveling.

9. Which country are the sims in?
- Egypt.

10. How many days?
- About two.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
- My Sim returned home by phone prematurely.

12. Returning together or separate?
- Only one Sim was travelling.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
- I am using AwesomeMod. Removal of AwsomeMod did not take away the problem.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
- I am using Awesome Story. Removal of AwsomeMod did not take away the problem.

15. When did the issue start?
- A few Sim days after installing Late Night. The UI glitch was accompanied by a novel writing glitch, which prevented my Sim from finishing her novel.

16. What were your sims doing?
- One was painting, one was on the trampoline, and another was playing video games.

17. What things have you tried
- Removing all mods, refreshing cache files, refreshing user files, using Twallan's Error Trap Mod (Which I'm not sure if I used correctly).

18. What worked?
- None of the above.

19. What didn't work?
- All of the above.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
- My traveling Sim is a Ghost. If that makes a difference.

DarkAmaranth

17th Nov 2010, 05:20 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
- Base, WA, HELS, Amb., FLS, LN

2. What game version/patch level?
- Latest for all.

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
- One

4. Do they have an icon or not?
- No Icon

5. Do you have any UI issues?
- No, UI is fine, never have had a UI problem.

6. Were the sims traveling?
- No, he got arrested from the criminal career.

7. How many traveling?
- NA

8. How are all travelers related?
- NA

9. Which country are the sims in?
- NA

10. How many days?
- NA

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
- NA

12. Returning together or separate?
- NA

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
- Master Controller and Overwatcher latests version.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
- No

15. When did the issue start?
- When the Sim left work and got into the police car.

16. What were your sims doing?
-Leaving work and being arrested because he is a criminal.

17. What things have you tried
- Resetsim, exit w/o save.

18. What worked?
- None of the above.

19. What didn't work?
- All of the above.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
- Teens from non played homes also vanish if caught out after cerfew.

crinrict

17th Nov 2010, 06:33 PM

@DarkAmaranth: I think your issue is different. It seems to happen to most sims that have to go to jail.

Did you try using recover missing sims on MC ?

DarkAmaranth

23rd Nov 2010, 06:45 PM

can't because I have no playable sim so click on to get the option to recover them.

crinrict

23rd Nov 2010, 07:09 PM

Try the city hall :) (maybe the option is in Overwatch). I'm confused about what is where.

bettybrant

25th Nov 2010, 05:50 AM

I'm having this invisible sim problem as well, and was directed to come here to post my data, so here goes.

My computer is not great (it is rather old), but it runs the game in a fairly stable fashion. It is a Dell DM061, with an NVidia GeForce 7600 LE Graphics Card and 3070MB of RAM. Often I can play for hours, even up to a day or more, without any problems -- and I have quite a bit of cc, mostly Store Content, stuff from ATS3, and some objects and lots from here -- checked for compatibility with the latest patch. In addition, all of my package files have been checked with the Dashboard regularly, as have my Simspacks with CUSTARD.

I do occasionally get some error 12s in a version of Simsville which is highly populated and with which I have been playing for weeks; I think they are the result of this neighborhood being fairly full and dense with multi-generational families and lots of couples with babies. I have only had to deal with an invisible sim once before, and that time Twallan's Debug Enabler fixed her (this was before adding the latest patch). However, with this latest problem (2 invisible sims) nothing I would do seemed to fix them.

1. Which game(s) do you have?

TS3, World Adventures, HELS, Ambitions, Fast Lane, and the latest patch (Late Night is being given as a Christmas present and won't be installed until the Holidays).

2. What game version/patch level?

The most recent patch level. All EPs and SPs are patched to the latest level, as is the base game.

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?

2 grandmothers in a multi-generational family (made up of 2 sets of grandparents, 1 set of parents and a child); they were both only 2 sim days old -- it was a newly created family.

4. Do they have an icon or not?

Yes, both icons remained visible and normal.

5. Do you have any UI issues?

No. I could see all their character data, moodlets, needs, relationships, skills, job history and everything.

6. Were the sims traveling?

No

7. How many traveling?

N/A

8. How are all travellers related?

N/A

9. Which country are the sims in?

N/A

10. How many days?

N/A

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?

N/A

12. Returning together or separate?

N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?

I am using Awesomemod and Twallan's Master Controller, Story Progression, Overwatch, Register, Debug Enabler, Error Trap

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?

Yes, Twallan's SP; I have also in the past used Awesome Story (though not in this particular Saved Game); I have never used EA's Story Progression.

15. When did the issue start?

2 Sim days after my new family moved into their house in Barnacle Bay

16. What were your sims doing?

Both Grandmothers had gone to work (one in the Culinary Career and one in the Symphonic Music Career) and then both had gone to the Stadium to take an Athletic Class -- this was in Barnacle Bay, by the way -- and when they came out of the Stadium, they were both invisible (they had however both still been visible, in their work clothes, after emerging from their job rabbitholes).

17. What things have you tried?

I tried all the various mods that I have. I started by using Twallan's fix invisible sims option in Debug Enabler -- no effect. I tried his reset Lot, which I have found in the past worked with really stubborn problems -- again, no effect; I tried reset Sim, but that also had no effect. Finally, I tried awesomemod's fixall and reset World, but they had no effect either. Finally, I quit without saving.

I can't really test this particular save against my CC (ie. by removing parts etc) because I didn't save after I couldn't restore my invisible sims.

However, I am fairly confident of my CC since I am extremely careful both with package and Sims3pack files, and have usually tested them before adding them to my game. I also make sure that all my hacks (of which I do not have many) are the most recent, supported versions. I regularly run Process Monitor as well. I constantly use Delphy's Dashboard Tool to check for corrupt or conflicting files both before and after I put the package files in my game on a permanent basis; I also never install a Sims3Pack without running it through Custard. I have even been known to use the Blue Lot Fixer to check certain files (although I know it is largely superseded by the Dashboard Tool).

18. What worked?

Nothing.

19. What didn't work?

Everything I tried.

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]

In case this is relevant, one of the grandfathers had just rolled a want to buy a hot tub before the grandmothers' bout of invisibility; this is of course impossible for me since I do not have LN yet installed; I deleted this want rather than clicking on it. The next thing that happened was that my invisible grandmothers emerged from the Stadium.

Sunstroke

29th Nov 2010, 04:19 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have? Base, WA, AMB, LN
2. What game version/patch level? 6.0.81.009001
3. How many sims are missing/invisible? none missing
4. Do they have an icon or not? NO Icons
5. Do you have any UI issues? UI doesnt open, no sim icons, CAS has no drop downs
6. Were the sims traveling? No

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod? AWESOME!!
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story? Twallan Story Progression
15. When did the issue start? I went into build mode, the game crashed a few times, I finally built what I was building, icons have been gone since then.
16. What were your sims doing? Standing, walking, going to school,
17. What things have you tried?

Gotten rid of recent CC, Change to a different household and back, Twallans ErrorTrap,

18. What worked?

Twallans Error Thing brought back the side icons, however only for 4 members of the family. The last member has disappeared.
EDIT: Upon edit town change household -> pick same household. All members are back as are icons.

19. What didn't work? Changing households did nothing. When I switched back the icons would remain from the other household, if the icons showed up at all.
20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
It seems to be working now. Now I just have to find out hwo to stop CAS from crashing,.....

cafparsons

30th Nov 2010, 01:08 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have? SIMS 3, WORLD ADVENTURES, AMBITIONS
2. What game version/patch level? 4.5.6
3. How many sims are missing/invisible? N/A - STUCK IN MAP VIEW
4. Do they have an icon or not? N/A - STUCK IN MAP VIEW
5. Do you have any UI issues? YES - NO USER INTERFACE AT ALL - STUCK IN MAP VIEW CAN ZOOM IN AND OUT - THATS ALL
6. Were the sims traveling? NO
7. How many traveling? N/A
8. How are all travellers related? N/A
9. Which country are the sims in? N/A
10. How many days? N/A
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over? N/A
12. Returning together or separate? N/A
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod? SUPERCOMPUTER
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story? NO
15. When did the issue start? MAYBE PATCH VERSON OR TWO BEFORE THIS PRESENT ONE? NOT SURE
16. What were your sims doing? CHANGING HOUSEHOLD FROM EDIT TOWN
17. What things have you tried NOTHING AS YET
18. What worked? N/A
19. What didn't work? N/A
20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre] YES - PLEASE HELP!!

Brian89

9th Dec 2010, 09:56 PM

I created an account so I could register the problem I'm having. Hope this helps!
Note: this problem is localized to one file.

1. Which game(s) do you have?
-Base, WA, and Amb.

2. What game version/patch level?
-4.6

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
-One sim is invisible.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
-If by icon you mean the "plumbob", then only one sim (the invisible one) is missing his icon.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
-Yes! The UI is missing entirely. Hitting TAB, ESC, or F10/F11 does not fix it.

6. Were the sims traveling?
-Yes. Three Sims travelled to China.

7. How many traveling?
-Three. An elder, and two young adults.

8. How are all travellers related?
-Aunt --> nephew --> sister-in-law.

9. Which country are the sims in?
-Shang Simla/ China.

10. How many days?
-One week, I believe.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
-Prematurely.

12. Returning together or separate?
-Together.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
-Neither.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
-EA Story Progression.

15. When did the issue start?
-June 6th, 2010. It occurred when the game was resumed, after another user finished playing their seperate file.

16. What were your sims doing?
-Four were sleeping, and one was watching TV.

17. What things have you tried?
-Removing CC; deleting cache files; removing all User Files; complete re-installation (including Sims 3) and re-patching up to 4.6.; striking TAB, Esc., and F10/F11 (forget which).

18. What worked?
-Nothing has worked.

19. What didn't work?
-Everthing failed. However, I was unable to give Twallan's Error Trap a proper chance. Despite downloading several other programmes, I was never able to open up the document.

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
-There may have been a couple omninous signs leading up to the UI problem. In the main menu the picture of the property disappeared, and the extensive family tree was inaccessible. However, these may be just coincidences. In any case, the file is very large; it's the only family I've played since release. Finally, is it reasonable to believe EA will fix this problem? I've had this UI problem since June, and my opinion of EA is less than favourable.

I hope this informations improves our collective understanding of this problem.

tektura

11th Dec 2010, 05:21 AM

. Which game(s) do you have?
- Main, WA, HELS, Amb., FLS, LN

2. What game version/patch level?
- Latest.

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
- Varies. Once it was only one sim missing, another time two, next time all mixologists and bouncers simply evaporated.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
- Usually: yes.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
- After sims have dissapeared (or frozen once or twice) usually it's the next thing that happens. Also, the game often begins to lag terribly, up to the point that the only thing I can do is to reset entire PC.

6. Were the sims traveling?
- Yes. I was in France and came back and that's where problems have started (though I've also downloaded and installed new content before that; the one from the official store).

7. How many traveling?
- One.

8. How are all travelers related?
Just one travel with one sim.

9. Which country are the sims in?
- France.

10. How many days?
- Three or four.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
- My Sim returned home by phone.

12. Returning together or separate?
- Only one Sim was travelling.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
- Nope..

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
- I switch EA Story Progression on and off, although lately it was mostly off.

15. When did the issue start?
- About a day after installing LN.

16. What were your sims doing?
- First time: my sim was about to finish a bubble bath and then suddenly went invisible. Tried it again - same thing (followed by the lagging thing, missing UI and other issues). Second time was really troublesome and occurred after the window came, announcing that I've completed a Super Friendly challenge - my sim (or two) either went invisible or got frozen. Another time I tried enter the club and a minute or so after entering the building (of any club) all bouncers and mixologists have not just gone invisible, but disappeared all together.

17. What things have you tried
- Removing mods, different saves, re-installing all of the game

18. What worked?
- Well... hard to say. What I noticed is that my saves must've become corrupted some time before the missing/other errors occur, so sometimes even saves that seemingly haven't yet gone bad are ones that sadly have to go too.
Although lately I manage to save most, if not all, game progression - but it requires some time, some experimenting and patience.

Out of curiosity, I've been trying to repeat same things I've been doing when the trouble started and it was really weird, but each and every one of them have ended the same during one particular scenario - so no matter what more or less random things are causing each particular problem, it ends the same after the save goes corrupted.

What I've tried and what SEEMS to work is to open files that have been saved before the disappearing occurs and, by any means, avoid what I've been doing that has led to the disappearance.

I can't continue the game as I know that it's bad already and often same or different problems will begin to occur shortly after I continue playing so - instead I go to Edit Town and save the household.

It isn't just to "rescue" what I can from the error or to upload them in place of sims that gone bad - doing so also resets all sim interactions in town, which appears to be a good thing.

Usually then I change active households and try to repeat actions/interactions with them that have led to troubles while playing my proper sims - and if things appear to be working right then the game usually is back on proper track.... up until next problems, of course, as they always occur again, usually after playing long and exhausting my computer.

19. What didn't work?
- Trying to play or fix things after sims have disappeared. If things start to go off, usually there's very little I can do and somehow I don't want to mess with more complicated mods (I have a few, but not of the core mod kind)

20. Anything else you would like to add?
- It is a bother, but I also save often and save FRESH files (not overwriting files over and over again, but creating new files under different names).
Not only I'm not losing as much progress if the error occurred (also to the backup file), but also it seems to me that - at least in my case - constant overwriting might be one of causes of the whole mess.

lissamonie1990

15th Dec 2010, 12:29 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?

World Adventures
Ambitions
Late Night

2. What game version/patch level?

Game Update for 1.18/2.13/3.9/4.6/5.4/6.1

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?

Three

4. Do they have an icon or not?

There picture is sill there, but when I click on things their picture doesn’t pop up.

5. Do you have any UI issues?

Not that I know of, no.

6. Were the sims traveling?

No, only coming back from work and completing an opportunity.

7. How many traveling?
N/A

8. How are all travelers related?
N/A

9. Which country are the sims in?
N/A

10. How many days?
N/A

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
N/A

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
None

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Just EA

15. When did the issue start?
Today 12/14/2010

16. What were your sims doing?
Gardening
Coming from the theater
Playing the xylophone

17. What things have you tried
I couldn’t find anything to fix it.

18. What worked?
N/A

19. What didn't work?
N/A

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]

They’re vampire sims that went invisible.

pollypickle

22nd Dec 2010, 09:43 PM

******EDIT: I fixed the missing Sim icons issue by restoring a saved game backup decribed here: http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Restoring_Backup_Saves

1. Which game(s) do you have? TS3 + WA

2. What game version/patch level? both patched through EADM. WA 2.13.6

3. How many sims are missing/invisible? all 3 of them

4. Do they have an icon or not? no icons

5. Do you have any UI issues? their simoleons say 0, I can't select anything on the user interface.

6. Were the sims traveling? Yes.

7. How many traveling? 3

8. How are all travellers related? Parents and an adult child

9. Which country are the sims in? China

10. How many days? They were on day 17 of a 17 day trip when the icons disappeared. I'm not sure if AwesomeMod affected it but I had Supreme Commander running on one of the Sims when midnight approached on the last day of their trip. Instead of returning home when I clicked OK on the "The Trip is Over!" dialogue box, they stayed in China! I did not save the game, exited and reloaded and that is when all the icons were gone and the UI unavailable.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over? They haven't been able to get home, they are trapped in China and I can't even make them do anything.

12. Returning together or separate?

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod? AwesomeMod

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story? None of the above.

15. When did the issue start? I'm not sure if AwesomeMod affected it but I had Supreme Commander running on one of the Sims when midnight approached on the last day of their trip. Instead of returning home when I clicked OK on the "The Trip is Over!" dialogue box, they stayed in China! I did not save the game, exited and reloaded and that is when all the icons were gone and the UI unavailable.

16. What were your sims doing? Two were fishing and one was running around collecting rocks and gems.

17. What things have you tried? I tried deleting the 4 cache files in the My Documents/Electronic Arts directory, I tried loading without custom content, I tried removing AwesomeMod and running, I tried allowing the game to regenerate the Sims 3 folder on it's own and then replacing only the Saved Games folder. None of this has worked.

18. What worked? Restoring a saved backup as described here worked: http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Restoring_Backup_Saves

19. What didn't work?

20. Anything else you would like to add? I was getting bored with that family anyway so I guess this is a message from the universe to start over....But we just started growing cheese plants!

anonyma

5th Jan 2011, 04:17 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base Game, WA, AMB, LN

2. What game version/patch level?
6.1.11.009001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
varying. They often disappear after or during work/school, get stuck at their work location or school and either stay stuck or become invisible after resetting. Sometimes they work fine again after several resets, but most of the time they don't, or only some of them do.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Yes, but sometimes the game marks icons of two sims (the frame of two icons is white). I'm not sure how to explain this, but after resetting a sim it sometimes happens that I can't use that sim; when I click on his icon, nothing happens, and when I click on another sims icon, the first sims icon stays 'white-framed', while the second sim's icon also gets that white frame indicating I've selected him. The second sims motives are displayed, but not the first sim's.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yes. I had reset a frozen sim using 'resetsim'. This sim turned invisible when I wanted him to continue the action that had caused him to get stuck. When I used resetsim again (twice, because the first time she stayed invisible) the sim appeared again, but the UI had disappered (Strangely, the UI appears for a moment when i press 'F2' or 'F3')

6. Were the sims traveling?
They had returned from China about 2 sim-days ago.

7. How many traveling?
2

8. How are all travellers related?
married

9. Which country are the sims in?
China

10. How many days?
3

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Prematurely, because they couldn't visit locations any more; they went to the locations sent to, but respawned in the 'hotel' they were staying at just before entering any of the locations. Also, I had used resetsim earlier, because one sim had gotten stuck in a wall for some reason, and only when I typed it in about the fifth time, it worked. The first time I wanted them to return via phone it didn't work.

12. Returning together or separate?
together

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
no

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
no
(only Overwatch, not sure if that's relevant)

15. When did the issue start?
-Sims getting stuck/disappearing: About a week ago, but resetsim worked fine at first.
- UI disappeared: today

16. What were your sims doing?
- invisible/stuck: shortly before they return from work/school or just randomly (they get stuck at the entrance to their workplace/school and it says they are missing work/school)
- UI disappeared: 4 sims were at school, 1 at work, 2 at home. One of the sims at home got stuck when writing a book, became invisible when I tried to reset him, then became visible when I reset again, but the UI disappeared.

17. What things have you tried
using resetsim a lot... having my family move to another house, beginning a new save file with the same family.

18. What worked?
starting a new game with the same family worked fine for about 2 sim-days, but sims started getting stuck/invisible before travelling already. Resetsim worked at times, but the longer I play, the more often I have to type it in for it to work.

19. What didn't work?
having my family move to another house

20. Anything else you would like to add?
Sometimes it starts with one sim getting stuck, while all others are fine, but as soon as I reset the stuck sim, another one gets stuck or becomes invisible. Sometimes I have to reset every sim in my family several times. At times resetting causes them to get stuck in each other, and when I make them walk away they walk a few steps and then reappear in the previos position.
I'm thinking about removing the Overwatch-Mod, but I don't think it will help. Even if the sims stop getting stuck/invisible, the game would probably begin to lag again.
I updated my game a few days ago, and since then the bugs seem to have become only worse. I had to try several times to even update successfully!

nicjmartin

9th Jan 2011, 03:46 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have? All of them - WA, HELS, AMB, FL, and LN.
2. What game version/patch level? 1.18.9/2.13.6/3.9.6/4.6.6/5.4.4/6.1.11
3. How many sims are missing/invisible? Two.
4. Do they have an icon or not? Not in the UI, but they do in the relationship panels.
5. Do you have any UI issues? Other than them missing, no.
6. Were the sims traveling? No.
7. How many traveling? N/A.
8. How are all travelers related? N/A
9. Which country are the sims in? N/A
10. How many days? N/A
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over? N/A
12. Returning together or separate? N/A
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod? Twallan's MasterController and AwesomeMod.
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story? Twallan's Story Progression.
15. When did the issue start? Just about an hour ago.
16. What were your sims doing? Traveling home from the hospital.
17. What things have you tried? I tried using the MasterController to add them to the family, AwesomeMod's "Select [Sim Name]" cheat, and calling them. I also tried resetSim.
18. What worked? Nothing. They didn't appear on any of the menus (although in Twallan's MasterController they were counted on the selection screens but didn't appear), and the select cheat did nothing. resetSim didn't do anything either.
19. What didn't work? See above.
20. Anything else you would like to add? There were four people coming home from the hospital, Richie and Stella Striker (from Bridgeport), and their twins, Cooper and Chole. Richie and Chole vanished (he was holding her), but Stella and Cooper didn't. Also, I had Richie selected right before he vanished. In his action queue, right after the "Go Home" action was "HIDDEN: Get Out". Then it suddenly had controlling Stella, and she and Cooper just appeared in the house.

Robwat

10th Jan 2011, 09:27 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base Game, World Adventures, Late Night, Design & High Tec Stuff and Fast Lane Stuff
2. What game version/patch level?
6.1.11.009001
3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
1
4. Do they have an icon or not?
No icon
5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yes UI Missing
6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes
7. How many traveling?
2
8. How are all travellers related?
Couple
9. Which country are the sims in?
China
10. How many days?
5
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Early via phone
12. Returning together or separate?
Together
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
No
15. When did the issue start?
when they arrived in china
16. What were your sims doing?
Just arrived in china
17. What things have you tried
Everything suggested on this site
18. What worked?
Nothing
19. What didn't work?
Everthing
20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]

Chaavik

12th Jan 2011, 02:45 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?

Base, WA, HELS, AMB and LN. I do not have Fast Lane installed.

2. What game version/patch level?

6.1.11.009001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?

Sometimes 1, sometimes 2 or 3, and the invisible Sims are usually in my family. BUT I suspect that there is a possibility that an inactive Sim may have become corrupted somewhere off the lot. But to pinpoint exactly -who- became corrupted off the lot is difficult or pointless considering if the Sim is an NPC and not visible in the world.

4. Do they have an icon or not?

Icon? If you mean the plumbob, then the answer is yes. Their plumbobs are visible.

5. Do you have any UI issues?

Yes, when the Sim becomes invisible, their face disappears but the affected Sim still remains on the family skewer.

6. Were the sims traveling?

No. I don't bother sending them on vacations.

7. How many traveling?

N/A

8. How are all travellers related?

N/A

9. Which country are the sims in?

N/A

10. How many days?

N/A

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?

N/A

12. Returning together or separate?

N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?

Twallan's Master Controller (originally called Super Computer).

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?

Twallan's Story Progression

15. When did the issue start?

Around November 2010. I reported this issue in Twallan's NRAAS Industries Design Discussion section on November 20th. The 'Invisible Sim' bug began affecting my game after I downloaded the patch for Late Night. This patch was released at the end of October 2010, but I waited a few weeks to hear comments about the patch. No negative comments were made about the patch, so I went ahead and downloaded it to patch the game to its current version.

16. What were your sims doing?

It varies really. Just tonight, my Sim hired a babysitter to look after the toddler while her wife went to the hospital to deliver their 2nd child. The babysitter showed up at my couple's house, appearing 'corrupted' (blocky with poor textures). Other times, the Sims in my family becomes corrupted after stepping out of the shower or bath. And sometimes one of my working Sims will come home looking 'corrupted' after a Sim in the same family step out of the shower/bath. So the corruption seemed random among the Sims on my active family's lot.

When I described the Sim looking 'corrupted' (blocky with poor textures), my Sim Detail was set to 'Low'. My game settings were set to 'Recommended Settings' using this guide (http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Games/Guides/sims3performance/10.html) at Neoseeker. However, my Sims do NOT look like blocky Sims with poor textures when they're not corrupted.

*Added Note*

The corruption affected the newborn baby while the corrupted babysitter was at my family's house. She arrived at the family's home before the baby was born.

The couple arrived home with an invisible baby. The parents themselves are not corrupted.

I have never seen this babysitter before, so I am only guessing that the corruption occurred during the -creation- of a new Sim, I.E. the babysitter.

However, the babysitter did look like an adult and sounded like an adult. I do not have a mod that allowed adult babysitters to be created. The babysitters were supposed to be teenagers, meaning that I did not modify or add a mod to modify the babysitters to be adults.

*Added Note*

17. What things have you tried?

I tried 'ResetSim' with no luck. I tried shift+clicking the Sim to bring up the Teleport Here option and force the Sim to teleport somewhere on the lot. I tried 'Fix Invisible Sim' via Debug and via Twallan's Debug Enabler (using the townhall and computer). I even tried Edit Town to get out of the family's lot, switch to another family and then switch back to my active family's lot.

I removed the custom skintones, eyes and faces. I removed HP's vampire tattoo removal mod. I tried everything I could think of that will affect my Sim physically.

18. What worked?

Nothing

19. What didn't work?

Nothing. I tried everything to fix the stupid 'Invisible Sim' bug.

20. Anything else you would like to add?

This 'Invisible Sim' bug goes further back to the base game, not just to WA. But the bug did not become more common until after World Adventures was released. I didn't have this bug then. I don't know if it became much more common after the patch was released for Late Night at the end of October, 2010. I cannot play Sims 3 for more than 2 to 3 Sim days (roughly 1 to 2 hours). The Sims become corrupt on the 2nd or 3rd day. That always happen every time I fire up the game to play my one and only family in Sunset Valley. I updated my ATI Radeon 4300/4500 series drivers to the most recent driver released on December 13th. I still get the 'Invisible Sim' bug no matter what techniques I employed and what other forums suggested to do.

This is an EA bug that EA refused to acknowledge and refused to fix. There are forums everywhere complaining about this bug, but the lack of response on EA's part to address this issue tells me that they are not willing to spend time and money to research the bug and to develop a fix for this bug.

I can only say that I started having the 'Invisible Sim' bug -after- I downloaded the patch from EA's Sims 3 site to update Late Night to its current version. My mods consist mostly of hairs, clothes, furniture, walls and a couple of lots here and there. I have very few XML/tuning mods on top of Twallan's NRAAS mods.

Hopefully this is more than sufficient information to figure out when the 'Invisible Sim' bug started. And if there is a real workaround to actually fix the bug, not work around the bug.

Howabominable

12th Jan 2011, 11:39 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base game, all expansions, no stuff packs.

2. What game version/patch level?
Current patch level.

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
Three sims seem to be affected by this and are intermittently invisible, one seems to be stuck that way and uncontrollable.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Yes, their icons are fine.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
No.

6. Were the sims traveling?
Two of the sims had just gotten back from France when the bug occurred.

7. How many traveling?
Two out of the three.

8. How are all travellers related?
The two who were traveling got married in France.

9. Which country are the sims in?
The bug didn't occur until they arrived back in Bridgeport.

10. How many days?
It was a few hours after arriving in Bridgeport. They had been in France for 11 days.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
When vacation was over.

12. Returning together or separate?
Together.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
I am using Awesomemod.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Awesome Story.

15. When did the issue start?
Today.

16. What were your sims doing?
One was reading a cookbook, and one was working out.

17. What things have you tried
The reset sim cheat, loading a previous save (but the bug occurred anyway), clearing the cache files.

18. What worked?
The reset sim cheat worked temporarily a couple of times, but it isn't working now.

19. What didn't work?
Clearing the cache files. Resetsim, eventually.

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]

Howabominable

13th Jan 2011, 01:10 AM

I don't know if you're already read my post above, so I am posting again because since making it I have found something that appears to have worked.

My sims first experienced the invisibility bug after they arrived home from a vacation in France. As a last-ditch effort I send two of the sims on a trip to Egypt, and so far the bug has completely disappeared and they are behaving normally, whereas in Bridgeport I couldn't go more than a couple of sim hours without experiencing problems. I have also installed the Overwatch mod, but I have no idea if that has anything to do with it.

For those of you with the WA expansion, have you tried sending your bugged sims on vacation? See if that helps.

purplecheatah

13th Jan 2011, 07:33 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have? World Adventures , High End Loft , Ambitions , Fast Lane , Late Night

2. What game version/patch level? 6.1

3. How many sims are missing/invisible? 4 sims on 6 different occasions( when it happened i didn't save i just restarted the game but it keeps happening)

4. Do they have an icon or not? Yes

5. Do you have any UI issues? no

6. Were the sims traveling? no

7. How many traveling?N/A

8. How are all travellers related? N/A

9. Which country are the sims in? N/a

10. How many days?N/A

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over? N/A

12. Returning together or separate?N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?no

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?no

15. When did the issue start? right after i installed late night

16. What were your sims doing?inventing, mixing drinks, reading, and working at cemetery

17. What things have you tried? reset sim, new town, saving the family and putting them in a different house, uninstalling late night

18. What worked? nothing
19. What didn't work?everything,
20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre] If i leave the sims invisible other sims can still see them and wave to them , if i try to teleport a sim whilee they are invisible they will appear for a few seconds and then dissapear again or as soon as they change outfits they get reset and invisible, if i send an invisible sim to the mirror to go into CAS i lose all of my menu buttons, and even after i uninstalled late night and made a completely new town and family they started to go invisible only a few minutes after game play :cry:

TheDogma

15th Jan 2011, 07:42 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?

TS3, WA. HELS, Ambiitons, as well as some additional neighborhoods including Barnacle Bay

2. What game version/patch level?

4.5.6.009001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?

The one sim in the game I was playing

4. Do they have an icon or not?

They have nothing. The regular control interface is there but there is no sim in it. No sim or parts of sim visible in the game. No sim data in the UI.

5. Do you have any UI issues?

I couldn't get the game to simply quit using the Quit command from the F5 options. I clicked Main Menu and refused to save and that bounced me out.

6. Were the sims traveling?

Yes, to France, doing a Painter opportunity. One sim newly created in Barnacle Bay and played for about 3 hours.

7. How many traveling?

One

8. How are all travellers related?

N/A

9. Which country are the sims in?

France, this is the first sim I've taken traveling since my last update and the Barnacle Bay install.

10. How many days?

Happened immediately on arrival. France loaded but without my Sim. I could see the locals, could mouse over and see inhabited versus uninhabited mouse cursor changes. Couldn't see my sim or interact with anything.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?

I let the game sit for 9 game hours with no change, which was a few minutes in real time.

12. Returning together or separate?

No return.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?

Neither

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?

None of the above.

15. When did the issue start?

Not sure what you mean.

16. What were your sims doing?

Traveling, moving from the Barnacle Bay neighborhood to France.

17. What things have you tried

Tried to do a resetSim command twice. Command went through but with no affect. Nothing else but to google for clues.

18. What worked?

Nothing other than what I mentioned above about not being able to quit normally.

19. What didn't work?

I think you've got all the facts now.

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]

Thanks for the thread and the ongoing attention to the problem. Good luck!

Howabominable

16th Jan 2011, 08:47 PM

I just wanted to add that it appears that the solution I listed above worked. Here is a full run-down of when I experienced the bug and how I solved it:

My sims vacationed in France. No bug. They went back home. Almost immediately after they arrived they began to go invisible, stop responding, etc. I tried many solutions such as deleting the cache files, using the resetsim cheat, etc, to no avail.

Finally, as a last-ditch effort I sent them on vacation to Egypt. Upon arriving in Egypt the sims were bug-free. Spent 11 days there, and have returned to Bridgeport, with no reoccurring incidents of the invisibility bug.

SO for those who are experiencing this, try sending your sims on vacation (if possible) and see if that helps. I read on another forum that you should send them some place OTHER than the first area you experienced the bug in - so if your sims bugged out after being in China, go to France or Egypt.

I hope this helps or gives you guys some direction in finding a solution for this bug.

tinkjr608

18th Jan 2011, 12:32 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base game. Ambitions. Late Night.
2. What game version/patch level?
6.1.11.009001
3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
none are invisible
4. Do they have an icon or not?
no icon.
5. Do you have any UI issues?
yes.
6. Were the sims traveling?
no.
7. How many traveling?
not traveling.
8. How are all travellers related?
not traveling.
9. Which country are the sims in?
bridgeport.
10. How many days?
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
12. Returning together or separate?
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
no.
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
no.
15. When did the issue start?
two days ago.
16. What were your sims doing?
playing chess.
17. What things have you tried
restarting the game. removing all my custom content and playing without it.
18. What worked?
nothing.
19. What didn't work?
enerything.
20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
I noticed, that when i switched to a different houshold, i could see them, and everything was fine. So i experimented and saved my bugged sims to the family library, and put them in a different house and it just froze in the map view. I couldnt do anything, so i have to use cntrl-alt-delete and exit out of it.

darkhjustice

18th Jan 2011, 04:18 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have? Sims 3 Deluxe (base + ambitions) and WA
2. What game version/patch level?
base: 1.18.9.009.001
WA: 2.13.6.009.002
ambitions: 4.6.6.009.001
3. How many sims are missing/invisible? just one :(
4. Do they have an icon or not? she had a blank one, then she didn't have an icon, then she had a blank icon again
5. Do you have any UI issues? i did but i fixed it when i played with the backup game.
6. Were the sims traveling? yes
7. How many traveling? it was she and her bf. her bf is normal.
8. How are all travellers related? boyfriend/girlfriend
9. Which country are the sims in? they were in France
10. How many days? 8, but the days didn't pass :s
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over? Prematurely because Chun Yen (the invisible girl) disappeared at the start of the vacation.
12. Returning together or separate? Together.
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod? No.
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story? No.
15. When did the issue start? 01/16/11
16. What were your sims doing? At the beginning of the vacation is when Chun Yen disappeared. Like, as soon as it loaded.
17. What things have you tried? Playing the backup game, patching WA, using Twallan's DebugEnabler, restoring .dll files, deleting the cache files, moving the family around the neighborhood (evict/move in), switching active families, using the resetsim cheat, uninstalling/reinstalling WA, etc. Pretty much everything I can think of.
18. What worked? Using the backup save file restored my UI, at first, Chun Yen wasn't in the family when I did that, like she had no icon or anything. She still had a relationship with her bf so I evicted them and moved them back in and now she's in the household again. I don't know if patching worked, I last checked it at patch 2.6.6 (or whichever that was) and it hadn't worked. Since then, I've patched it again, so I'll check and report back.
19. What didn't work? Once I used Twallan's DebugEnabler, the game would crash. Consistently, to the point that I narrowed down that that was what was causing the game to crash. However, when I used the option "Fix Invisible Sims" that didn't work. She remained invisible even though the game told me her outfit had been restored. After I removed the mod from the game, it continues to crash when I select Chun Yen.
20. Anything else you would like to add? :cry: I've had the game for only two weeks. I got WA on the 14th, and two days later, it started with this. None of this happened before travelling, as I hadn't travelled as soon as I installed WA. Also, have a family in another neighborhood, totally normal there.

EDIT: Patching it didn't fix it :/ and I tried to do Howabominable's method, however, Mr. boyfriend couldn't even make it to the computer to "Travel" before the game crashed again :(

horsemaidsissi

28th Jan 2011, 12:03 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base game, Ambitions, World Adventure, Fast Lane, Late Night

2. What game version/patch level?
6.1.11

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
7-8

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Some do some don't. Those that do don't have their faces showing up in the icons.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Sometimes when I try to switch families it the UI will disappear and I have to restart the game. This problem started first and then the sims began to disappear after a few weeks later.

6. Were the sims traveling?
no

7. How many traveling?
n/a

8. How are all travellers related?
9. Which country are the sims in?
10. How many days?
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
12. Returning together or separate?

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No, but I am using Twallan's Master Controller (The Super Computer upgrade) but I downloaded it after the problem started, hoping something in it might fix the problem.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Twallan's Story Progression but that was installed the same time as the Master Controller.

15. When did the issue start?
About 1 week ago

16. What were your sims doing?
Most were at home, and as far as I can tell this problem only begins when I switch households to check on them, and then they malfunction.

17. What things have you tried?
Installing the Master Controller, restoring the entire Sims 3 folder, resetting the sims, resetting the town, restarting the game, deleting the cache files

18. What worked?
None of it. I'm not sure if restoring the sims 3 file worked or not because I might have saved the game before I noticed the problem.

19. What didn't work?
Pretty much everything else.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
This is super annoying. I have had previous glitches that may have been building up to this one great super annoying glitch (such as the UI disappearing while I am changing houses). Funny enough that first glitch only appeared with certain families and has stopped since the other problems have started.

Also when I tried to delete the cache files when I noticed they were glitchy the sims completely disappeared and their houses were listed as empty. All the sims working correctly were still there.

corapntr

29th Jan 2011, 02:02 AM

Well scratch this idea. My game still borks out even after all the fixes.

I mean, yes you can force your game to work but imo not worth the trouble.
==================
If yours happens when traveling to work on families played prior to LN (I believe LN requires a sim household be "reset" to their expansion-specific needs), here is what I did.

Also note that I only play one active household. Adjust accordingly if you play more than one (saving more, etc. etc.)

First do a lot of saving to different files. This is a necessity unfortunately as corrupt files are totally possible even when the save seems OK. After saving under different file names find out which save is directly before the missing sims/ui issue. Then using that good file I moved the inventory of the known affected sims to a holder sim and then saved it to a new save. Then I downloaded awesomemod's fixall command (CTRL SHIFT C then type fixall) and saved immediately to a new file (I call my files version 1...version 2 or simply v.1...v.2). You may get save or loading issues but try twice. If it doesn't work, repeat the process from right when you moved the inventory and again use fixall. It will eventually work.

The next day at work the sims will still bork out or disappear if you save during or after they come back from work. However, if you switch active households then the sims will miraculously come back intact. Well...minus their inventory. So long as you move their inventory before they reset they should work as well as they can. I also do the double save (saving first before using the fixall procedure) and the errors seem to keep coming back.

I will be testing to see if they still bork out after these fixes. But it seems OK thus far though. Hope this helps someone until EA fixes this issue.

murfee

31st Jan 2011, 08:36 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base game only (questions 6-12 N/A)

2. What game version/patch level?
1.17 patch

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
1, so far

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No icon

5. Do you have any UI issues?
I don't think so?

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
The only mod I used at the time was the NoIntro mod you get when you set up the Mods folder.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Nope.

15. When did the issue start?
A few minutes ago.

16. What were your sims doing?
She was dancing, and I tried to change her outfit. She got stuck and never changed, and then when I came out of Live Mode into Edit Town, and back in, she was Invisible. Now she's walking around doing whatever: Invisible. Eek!

17. What things have you tried
I tried to shift between Modes, like Buy and Build, Live & Edit, and I knew I didn't want to SAVE any of this nonsense so I went into Task Manager and forced the game to shut down.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
On my part, I suspect that the problem was bad CC. That's why I can't stand the FRAKKING LAUNCHER; unlike with Package files, we don't have a glorious tool like the Dashboard that can scan Sims3Packs for faulty items that can bork the game, and I've had some pretty shoddy Sims3Packs crash my game before, so I'm not even surprised that this happened, just upset. :( It wasn't a mod, I think, since my Mods folder is practically EMPTY, and she didn't have any kind of Package CC on her. It was all Sims3Pack stuff. When I click Change Outfit at the Dresser, I don't see any of the preview icons showing the clothes.

18. What worked?
It appears that after I removed the suspect CC from the sim and saved her all over again she's working fine. I was able to change her outfit and she's dancing again. :)

stasisesque

11th Feb 2011, 02:21 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base game, WA, Ambitions, Late Night.
2. What game version/patch level?
Base - 1.19
Late Night - 6.2.4
3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
One.
4. Do they have an icon or not?
Nope.
5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yup, entire UI has completely vanished.
6. Were the sims traveling?
Had been back in Bridgeport for a day following a 3 day vacation.
7. How many traveling?
One.
8. How are all travellers related?
N/A
9. Which country are the sims in?
N/A
10. How many days?
N/A
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Only when vacation over.
12. Returning together or separate?
N/A
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
Nope.
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA Story Progression.
15. When did the issue start?
Today.
16. What were your sims doing?
Eating breakfast.
17. What things have you tried
Everything listed on the help page, aside from uninstalling and reinstalling.
18. What worked?
So far - nothing.
19. What didn't work?
So far - everything.

Edit with new info: Turned off EA story progression, same issue as above (UI gone, Sim gone, just the dotted outline, entire save game borked), then tried using Twallan's story mod - exact same issue as above. Will try again using Awesomemod instead.

Rennt Caelan

11th Feb 2011, 08:04 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Ambitions, WA, High End, Late Night

2. What game version/patch level?
6.2.4

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
Family of 5 (1 SimBot, 4 Sims)

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
It's gone, too.

6. Were the sims traveling?
They had just returned home.

7. How many traveling?
All 5.

8. How are all travellers related?
2 parents, 2 children, and their SimBot.

9. Which country are the sims in?
They had just returned from China.

10. How many days?
They were there for 17 days.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Things got messed up on vacation so I sent them home. I could select the Sim but it always showed the father and his inventory. So I'd click the wife and tell her to use the toilet and she would do that but my UI would still show the father. I could not make that change. I told her to return home, their vacation would have been over the next day.

12. Returning together or separate?
Together.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No mods, no CC at all.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA story progression = yes.

15. When did the issue start?
See above #11. Had problems while on vacation.
They all returned home, but no Sim icons or UI loaded. Nothing is selectable there is no way to change Sims or find my Sims even.

16. What were your sims doing?
See above #11 & #15..

17. What things have you tried
Everything listed in the help section and in this (and other threads).

18. What worked?
Nothing.

19. What didn't work?
Everything.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
I had been having small problems while on vacation since installing LN. Things would slow down drastically and I'd have to Reset all Sims almost nightly. No one can use a tent anymore, or even click on one or it makes that Sim get stuck.

aisthesis

24th Feb 2011, 08:55 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base, World Adventures, Ambitions and Late Night

2. What game version/patch level?
1.19.44.010002/2.0.86.002002/4.0.87.006001/6.2.4.010001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
Just one, Cycl0ne Sw0rd, from Sunset Valley
4. Do they have an icon or not?

The icon dissapeared, but comes back after a while. The sim, however, doesn't.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
The sims clothes menu (Change Outfit) doesn't show any icon. This had happend just a while before with another sim, a custom one, but corrected after I entered plan outfit, made a few changes and applied. This second sim is okay.
Other than that, if I enter Plan Outfit with the invisible sim, apparently the game cannot recognize the sim's age and gender. Every single outfit installed can be chosen, as with hair and etc. Choosing one doesn't have any effect.

6. Were the sims traveling?
No.

7. How many traveling?
8. How are all travellers related?
9. Which country are the sims in?
10. How many days?
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
12. Returning together or separate?
None of the previous questions apply. The sim was at home, never travelled.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
I have Twallan's Master Controller and Overwatch, both the latest, for the patch level mentioned above.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA's.

15. When did the issue start?
When I loaded a game. The previous night, I saved and quit, no problems had occurred (except the clothing icons issue with another sim, above). Everything was fine by then.

16. What were your sims doing?
He was sleeping.

17. What things have you tried
I tried changing his outfit with Plan Outfit. I tried ResetSim. I also tried removing all CC and clearing the caches.
[Edit] Tried Nraas ErrorTrap (See post below).

18. What worked?
Nothing so far.
[Edit] ErrorTrap!

19. What didn't work?
Everything [Edit] other than the ErrorTrap.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
Other mods I had were NRaas Dresser, Register, SleepFreedom, Woohooer and CAF, all on the latest patch, and a bunch of clothing. The register was indeed throwing a few errors when trying to set (automatically) sims to the Tattoo Chair. Also, it was assigning many sims continuously to Tattoo (at a much higher than normal rate). No idea if related.
The sim was also in the middle of Vampire transformation (had the vampire bite moodlet, not yet a vampire).

twallan

24th Feb 2011, 09:08 PM

Other than that, if I enter Plan Outfit with the invisible sim, apparently the game cannot recognize the sim's age and gender. Every single outfit installed can be chosen, as with hair and etc. Choosing one doesn't have any effect.

This particular issue is the result of a broken outfit on the Sim, a common occurrence in many user towns nowadays.

Install ErrorTrap, and the sim will have their outfit rerolled for them (though in the process it will also reroll their genetics, since that was lost as well).

If ErrorTrap is not to your liking, you can also use the "Fix Invisible" in DebugEnabler to manually perform the reroll.

Good Luck. :)

aisthesis

24th Feb 2011, 09:39 PM

Actually, twallan, I love all your mods, so if you say "do this", I will.
And did.
And worked! Like magic!
The genetics were indeed rerolled, but I think I like him a little better now. LOL XD
Skills and relationships are all OK and he is a full Vampire now, I have no problem with that.
The ErrorTrap accused 80(!) errors, many unrelated, I think. 11 ScriptError xml were created, only one had the sim's name on it.

You, sir, are amazing. Thank you so much! :D

ikickmonkies

4th Mar 2011, 03:05 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have? I have all expansions and stuff packs

2. What game version/patch level? 7.0.55.010017

3. How many sims are missing/invisible? Nobody is missing, but my family portrait is missing in the main menu. I click to play the game, and my house & family are there, just my menu is gone and I can't click on anything or control my sims. I've pressed f5,f10, tab and none of this works.

4. Do they have an icon or not?As in a family portrait on the main menu? No, not anymore.

5. Do you have any UI issues? My menu is missing.

6. Were the sims traveling? My 1 sim had just returned from france. I invited his girlfriend to come visit. I went on a date with his girlfriend from bridgeport, but had to leave early because of work. I saved my game because I had to go. When I tried to load the game again, my family portrait was gone, and my menu had gone missing.

7. How many traveling? Nobody was traveling, he had went and returned safely.

8. How are all travellers related? The sim that traveled was the son of my family.

9. Which country are the sims in? Bridgeport

10. How many days? 3 days

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over? The vacation was over.

12. Returning together or separate? Only 1 was traveling.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod? No.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story? No.

15. When did the issue start? Today, about 3 hours ago.

16. What were your sims doing? My sim had got back from france, went on a date which got cut short because of work. The other sims were either at work, at school, or hanging around the house.

17. What things have you tried? Deleting cache, pressing f5, f10, and tab to see if the menu would come back, pressing buttons to try to get menus or into edit town.

18. What worked? Nothing.

19. What didn't work? Everything?

20. Anything else you would like to add? I hope this gets sorted soon, that was my favorite family/house.

azrazae

9th Mar 2011, 10:09 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
World Adventures, Outdoor Living Stuff

2. What game version/patch level?
7.0.55.010001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
1

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Sort of. It's a CAS problem I've been having for a couple of days. The make-up section has been faulty. I'll select something (like an eyeshadow) and it will come up as something else (a face paint mask). If I adjust the opacity, it returns to normal, but I still can't change the color or anything. Other than that, no UI issues.

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes

7. How many traveling?
1

8. How are all travellers related?
Self

9. Which country are the sims in?
Just arrived in Egypt

10. How many days?
6 Day trip

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
She has not yet returned

12. Returning together or separate?
n/a

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA, set at medium

15. When did the issue start?
Well, my sim aged up from Adult to Elder (no birthday party) and her icon never showed up (It may have after a minute or so, can't recall). I dismissed that as nothing and continued on with the game. She immediately wanted to travel to Egypt, so I had her go. Immediately she was invisible, but I assumed she'd show up so I had her start an adventure. She got that far, she started the "Deposit the package into the computer room chest at the MorcuCorp HQ." adventure. She got to the house, was invited in, and has since stopped doing anything at all. As for the CAS issue, that's been going on for about... 3, 4 days? About that.

16. What were your sims doing?
*looks at question 15* yeah that's about it XD

17. What things have you tried?
the "resetsim" cheat, having her teleport from one place to another, going into CAS (she remains invisible in CAS as well), I've tried removing my CC and it hasn't helped.

18. What worked?
Nada, Zip, Zilch, Nothing.

19. What didn't work?
Everything

20. Anything else you would like to add?
Hmm... well, this has never happened before. I've had World Adventures for about two months, Outdoor Living Stuff for about one. The sim is a Maxis-created sim (Pauline Wan). I've been using Ahmad/bella3lek4's face sliders for about a week. Haven't used them in this particular family. EDIT: I saved the game and quit, went back to it later and the whole family was glitched. The main menu picture was the generic picture. The thumbnail of the house was the lot... but the house was gone. Upon clicking it, I was returned to Egypt (where I had saved) and Pauline was still there (for lack of a better word lol), but within ten seconds the game crashed. I restarted again and deleted them (never a huge loss for me, I don't ever get attached to my sim families... I delete and remake them almost every day XD). I'd still love to know what happened (and I still can't figure out my CAS issue... no matter what I do, it's still acting obnoxious.

magnemoe

19th Mar 2011, 10:07 PM

We are collecting information from any user experiencing issues with Sims and/or User Interface that have gone missing or invisible and made the save game corrupt or unplayable.

At the moment, there isn't alot of help, if any, for this situation so any information you can provide will be of help to us as we try to build a database of issues and what users have tried to correct the issue(s).

There is a page in the Wiki now: Game Help:UI and Sim Issues

Copy and Paste the questions below in a New Post and submit to the thread. Leave a blank space between questions so it doesn't get all jumbled up and difficult to read.

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Wold Adventure, Ambisions and Late night

2. What game version/patch level?
1.17.60.009002

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
2 out of 3

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Icon and plumbo

5. Do you have any UI issues?
No, everything work nice except that the sims is invisible, they can still do all sort of stuff, however the sims are not "invisible" but missing as I can not activate them by clicking below the plumbo, the thought bobble for actions shows up at ground floor. In a savegame an invisible sim was reading a book, the book was sideway and on floor as if the sim lie down sideway reading.

6. Were the sims traveling?
7. How many traveling?
8. How are all travellers related?
9. Which country are the sims in?
10. How many days?
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
12. Returning together or separate?
Everybody was at home.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
Supercontroller.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
None of this.

15. When did the issue start?
Today or yesterday, Thursday two days ago I added some new content including a bugged pattern I had to track it down and remove it.
Played yesterday and a little today. Then starting up again I had the bug.

16. What were your sims doing?
Since last reload two days ago who works: mostly gardening, repairing inventing, one of my sims was able to make ambrosia and ate it, she also made it to another sim who is the only one who is visible. Except for this nothing they has not done before.

17. What things have you tried
Removed cache, removed all custum content, resetsim

18. What worked?
Only loading an old game

19. What didn't work?
same as 17

20. Anything else you would like to add?
One interesting thing is that this is not a save game corruption, I made two savegames as I was planning to remove a mod and both has a problem, a backup an hour earlier also have this. Only way it can happen is if I get a game bug who don't affect gameplay but mess up savegames.

For other, save often and use SAVE AS never just save, you can always delete old saves later.

ladytr0uble

12th Apr 2011, 04:03 AM

I had the missing UI issue and deleted my game under C:\Users\[username]\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Saves, then used the backup copy of the game, as per instructions I found online (sorry, can't seem to find the link again).

When I opened my game, I, now, have an UI; however, I was missing a Sim!! He is still part of the household but there was no icon for him, as if he didn't live there!

Since I spent a lot of time on him, desperation made me try the edit town option. I took him out of the house and put him back into the same house. When I went back into game mode, he's back :)

ladytr0uble

12th Apr 2011, 04:29 AM

Daleron_B

7th May 2011, 01:23 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Sims 3, Ambitions, Fast Lane Stuff, High-End Loft Stuff, Late Night, Outdoor Living Stuff, World Adventures

2. What game version/patch level?
Unpatched

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
All five of them

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Yes, I do have their portraits on the left side of the screen, but the sims on the lot are gone.. they reappear when I move them somewhere but quickly disappear again. As for the plumbob, no, they don't have it, nor can I see their thought bubbles. It's like the lot turned to a ghost town.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
No

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes

7. How many traveling?
Gen 3 Male Sim traveled to China where he married a Chinese girl
Gen 4 Female Sim traveled to China where she bought a vacation home
Gen 4 Male Sim (originally from China) traveled to France where he bought a vacation home

8. How are all travellers related?
Family; Gen 3 Male Sim & Female Sim are parents to Gen 4 Female Sim who married a Male Sim from China (the Gen 4 Male Sim above)

9. Which country are the sims in?
Twinbrook

10. How many days?
Week 30 (at least that's what the Nectars said)

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Gen 4 Male Sim returned prematurely because he was stuck between two traps in the Landgraab house in France. Everyone else returned when their vacation was over.

12. Returning together or separate?
Together

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA Story Progression

15. When did the issue start?
First, my Family Tree completely disappeared when the Gen 4 Female Sim moved out to a different lot in Twinbrook. Then she married the Gen 4 Male Sim from China and had three kids; one's a teenager, one's a child and the third one's a baby. The issue appeared in Week 30 on Monday at exactly 20.00. I reloaded the game and the same issue appeared on the very same day, same time.

16. What were your sims doing?
Two of them were watching TV, the baby was being snuggled by dad and the child was in the bathroom.

17. What things have you tried
Googled for issues, didn't find anything... I also tried moving the sims and deleting them using the moveobjects_on cheat.

18. What worked?
Nothing...

19. What didn't work?
-

20. Anything else you would like to add?

candyapplegirl

13th May 2011, 10:09 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
WA, AMB, LN, FLS, HELS, OLS

2. What game version/patch level?
7.0.55.010001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
2

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Yes

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yes

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes

7. How many traveling?
ONE

8. How are all travellers related?
N/A

9. Which country are the sims in?
Al-Simhara, and it's happened after returning from France, too

10. How many days?
THREE

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
YES & NO. I've had it happen both ways.

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
NO

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
NO

15. When did the issue start?
Within 1 Sim-day of returning from vacation.

16. What were your sims doing?
Once, READING. Another time GARDENING.

17. What things have you tried
-I have tried uninstalling all CC and ECM. Deleted all caches. Still had issues upon restarting the game.
- I have uninstalled the game and reinstalled with no CC or Mods. Still had the issue upon returning from vacation.
- I have switched households immediately upon returning from vacation, but then the same issue occurred in the new household I had switched to.
- Copied Twin Brooks and named it something else. When the issue began in Twin Brooks, I started playing my copy file. Within 2 sim-days, the sims in that neighborhood began disappearing as well.

18. What worked?
NOTHING

19. What didn't work?
EVERYTHING ELSE

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
I have uninstalled completely and reinstalled only the Base + WA. I'll let you know if the problem persists.

Edit: The problem persisted with one particular household.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edit 2: Just a quick note... since installing Generations, my game has been working normally again, except for that same "problem" household. Every now and then, one of my Sims will go invisible in that family, but he doesn't "disappear" completely. He's still there, and I can control him. I just can't see him. "ResetSim" doesn't work for that problem anymore. I'm kind of wondering if maybe there's something in that household that's messing things up. Otherwise, all is well again (so far).

soluie

16th May 2011, 01:00 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Only Base Game

2. What game version/patch level?
1.19.44.010001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
2

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yes

6. Were the sims traveling?
No

7. How many traveling?
N/A

8. How are all travellers related?
N/A

9. Which country are the sims in?
N/A

10. How many days?
N/A

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
N/A

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
No

15. When did the issue start?
First time it's ever happened...was working fine last week.

16. What were your sims doing?
General sim-existing until I deleted them with moveobjects on so I could take pictures without their sim-selves in the way.

17. What things have you tried
the debug mod - it didn't work, because i can't click on anything at all. i've spent MONTHS working on this town and I'm terrified to delete the game or reinstall without 100% confidence that the town and all the lot will still be there.

18. What worked?
Nothing

19. What didn't work?
Debug

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
i really, really don't want to lose this town. it's taken me months to rebuild all of the homes and losing it would be heartbreaking.

BlackVinyl

31st May 2011, 12:06 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
TS3, Ambitions

2. What game version/patch level?
Most recent

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
None

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Yes

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yes

6. Were the sims traveling?
No

7. How many traveling?
None

8. How are all travellers related?
THERE ARE NO TRAVELERS!

9. Which country are the sims in?
The very first one in the base game.

10. How many days?
They weren't traveling

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Nope.

12. Returning together or separate?
Not Applicable

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
None of the above or EA Story Progression...

15. When did the issue start?
Today

16. What were your sims doing?
Working, doing her Stylist job.

17. What things have you tried
Clearing Cache

18. What worked?
Not sure yet.

19. What didn't work?
Not sure yet.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
I think it began after I installed custom content...

OhWhatevia

31st May 2011, 02:50 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base game, Ambitions

2. What game version/patch level?
4.7.4.010001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
One at a time, though it has happened to two separate sims on two separate occasions.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Yes.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Usually, no UI issues. One time, one sim went invisible, and both of the family's sims' icons appeared selected.

6. Were the sims traveling?
No, I do not have WA.

7. How many traveling?
N/A

8. How are all travellers related?
No WA, though the two sims are in the same household and are boyfriend/girlfriend.

9. Which country are the sims in?
N/A

10. How many days?
I have exited without saving every time it has happened. I have not played through another full sim day following the bug because I exit.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was
over?
N/A

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
Neither, no mods or CC.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
None. I turned off EA Story Progression and EA aging and I have not installed any mods or CC.

15. When did the issue start?
Yesterday, only a few days after installing the game.

16. What were your sims doing?
It varies. The first time I noticed it, my female sim was putting leftovers away in the fridge and my male sim was walking up the stairs to go sleep. The female sim froze in place, her arm up, and the dish in the air. The male sim became invisible with no plumbbob. Another separate time, the female sim was putting gems to be cut into the mailbox, then going into the carpool for work. While doing one of these or between the actions, she became invisible.

17. What things have you tried?
-resetSim cheat
-changing outfit at dresser
-exiting without saving and playing again with different actions
-deleting cache files

18. What worked?
Nothing so far.

19. What didn't work?
-resetSim has not made the invisible sims reappear. They were already on the lot, so it may have "brought them back", but they were still invisible with no plumbbob. The first time, I could still make my sim perform actions. The other time, the female sim could perform actions at first, but then the UI started acting a little odd and both sims appeared selected, allowing me to only use the non-invisible sim.

-Changing the outfit the first time for the male sim did nothing, haven't tried it on the other occasions.

-Each occasion was after exiting without saving and doing new actions to try to avoid it. Some times I could play through more days and save, but eventually the bug would come back and I would have to revert to the more recent save.

-Deleting all cache files and then starting the game again had no effect, the bug still happened.

20. Anything else you would like to add?

As said, no mods, no CC, not even any lots have been installed. The base game and Ambitions EP have both been patched to current versions since before I started playing with the family. This is the only family I have played with. I have not done the remove CC test step because I have installed nothing at all, only patched. I may try Twallan's mod(s) next.

ChaoKuang

4th Jun 2011, 05:56 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have? All
2. What game version/patch level? Gen/Current
3. How many sims are missing/invisible? 1
4. Do they have an icon or not? No
5. Do you have any UI issues? No
6. Were the sims traveling? Yes
7. How many traveling? 1
8. How are all travellers related?
9. Which country are the sims in? The Asian one
10. How many days? 3
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over? Sims did not reappear
12. Returning together or separate?
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod? No
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story? EA
15. When did the issue start? After loading into the vacation world
16. What were your sims doing?
17. What things have you tried Saving and exiting
18. What worked? No
19. What didn't work?
20. Anything else you would like to add? It caused a strange glitch. When I loaded into the Sims Asian vacation map I had no Sim at all. No portrait, no one selectable. I saved and exited figuring it would fix the problem, but at the main menu, my saved game showed the icon as if no Sim was set as the main. I clicked on it and it loaded me into the vacation map as if I was starting a new household in a regular map. I selected my Sim and was able to purchase an empty lot, and now his main map/home is a vacation map

slykl3

4th Jun 2011, 09:38 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Ambitions/WA/LN

2. What game version/patch level?
1.22.9

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
None -however i was stuck on one character that i had left the game with and couldnt change

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Not that i know of

6. Were the sims traveling?
No

7. How many traveling?
^^^^^^

8. How are all travellers related?
^^^^^^

9. Which country are the sims in?
^^^^^^^^^^^

10. How many days?
^^^^^^^^^^
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
12. Returning together or separate?
^^^^^^^^^^^^

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
Dont think i am

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
No

15. When did the issue start?
When i uploaded Generations

16. What were your sims doing?
Nothing! The time would go but the sims wouldnt, i couldnt click on any other sims because there was no branch, they had no positive or negative moddlets and i couldnt open the motives panel

17. What things have you tried
I re-uploaded all my games. It doesnt do this anymore but now my game doesnt work at all

18. What worked?
Nothin

19. What didn't work?
Everythin

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
I re-uploaded my games, everythin works fine, i can create a family, go around town to choose a house ect. But when i choose a house to play the game goes to load then doesnt. It stops and im stuck on the town view with nothin to click on. Id really love it if someone helped me with that!

ah1

5th Jun 2011, 04:50 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
All current expansions and stuff packs including Generations

2. What game version/patch level?
1.22.9

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
Everyone in the town. They aren't missing. They are living statues, unselectable, but visible. I'm told this is the same bug.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Yes, sometimes. Other times their icon is a blank green square.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yes, if I switch families, when the new family "loads" the game stays zoomed out to map view and the HUD disappears.

6. Were the sims traveling?
No.

7. How many traveling?
N/A

8. How are all travellers related?
N/A

9. Which country are the sims in?
N/A

10. How many days?
N/A

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
N/A

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
Yes, I am using Master Controller (which is SuperComputer's current name)

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Yes, EA's vanilla story progression with no story mods.

15. When did the issue start?
When installing Generatons and updating Twallan's mods, specifically "The Woohooer"

16. What were your sims doing?
Nothing prior to the save, and he became a living statue after the save. I even used the Master Controller to reset the entire town, with the same result.

17. What things have you tried
A) Removed all mods and made a clean save, then reinstalled all mods.
B) Went through all mods one by one until I found which mod was the culprit. Deleted that mod, and redownloaded it to make sure it wasn't a corrupted file due to a download error.
C) Switching families, both using the game's default method and methods added by Master Controller
D) Reset the town using Master Controller
E) Reset the Sim using "resetsim"
F) Changed families, saved, then loaded back up
G) Got rid of all mods, changed families, clean save, load back up.
H) Playing an ancient save file unrelated to this one in a completely different town with completely different sims where no mods were ever present
I) Reran the patch update

18. What worked?
Attempt "B" worked, kind of. Removing the Woohooer (the mod that triggered the problem, but probably isn't the cause) let me play my game as normal. Putting the Woohooer back causes the problem to start again. I redownloaded the Woohooer, and posted on Twallan's forums, but the problem doesn't seem to be the Woohooer, per se, but the game itself. However, as long as the Woohooer is not present, the game does not manifest the issue.

19. What didn't work?
Everything listed other than what I just said above.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
When I have some free time, as the process is quite lengthy, I intend to backup all my mods and saves and reinstall the entire game. I suspect there is a conflict in how the game loads due to either a script lockup or a corrupted file. I'm an experienced modder in many games, and I've seen similar issues in other games with different engines. Obviously, two games with different engines are not the same, but similar problems probably have similar root causes. The Sims is just too complex for me to individually go through each and ever script and file to find the corruption, so I'm going to do a fresh install and see if that works. If the fresh install (including a registry and system cache purge) results in a playable game that then doesn't work after readding my mods, then at least I can logically narrow down the problem to something in whatever files I manually replace and go from there. Assuming I am allowed to edit my post at that time, I will add an update here.

UPDATE: As suspected, it was a script lockup. It was NOT Twallan's Woohooer causing the problem, that was a red herring. The problem was a set of tweaks I had downloaded for Late Night that were conflicting with changes made in Generations. The Woohooer compacted the problem by trying to then manipulate these already incompatible scripts. Problem solved (for me).

robot85

5th Jun 2011, 02:25 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
World Adventures/High-End Loft Stuff/Ambtitions

2. What game version/patch level?
1.22.9

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
None.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Yes, they have icons.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
The panel opened by clicking the arrow (the one with the needs, inventory, etc)

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes.

7. How many traveling?
Three.

8. How are all travellers related?
Family/Blood

9. Which country are the sims in?
China

10. How many days?
Three.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
N/A

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
SuperComputer - though this was happening before I put mods in

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Twallan's Story Progression - though this was happening before I put the mods in

15. When did the issue start?
When I reinstalled the Sims 3 and updated it to patch 1.22.9.

16. What were your sims doing?
Unknown exactly

17. What things have you tried
-Pressing shortcut keys to open the panel
-ResetSim cheat
-Renaming and using the .backup save file
-Renaming and using the .legacy save file
-Going to edit town > edit home town > then return to game

18. What worked?
-Renaming the .legacy file (however it was a very old save)
-Going to edit town > edit home town > then return to game

19. What didn't work?
-Renaming and using the .backup file
-Pressing shortcut keys to open the panel
-ResetSim cheat

20. Anything else you would like to add?
-I fixed the panel problem (which was the only problem) by going to edit town > edit home town > return to game. I think this fixed it because it forced the game to reload everything in each town, therefore reloading the panel too.
-It was also "fixed" by renaming and using the ".legacy" save file. It worked because it was not corrupted like the rest of the save files, but it was a VERY old save. Because of this, I decided to go back to the corrupted one and see if I could fix that. Which I did by using the edit town trick.
-After fixing the corrupted save via the edit town trick, I tried to save. At first it came up with "error code 16" and would not save. I simply tried saving again and it worked fine.
-Now that I fixed it, the save is no longer corrupted. :)

wavebreaker54

6th Jun 2011, 02:52 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base Game, WA, Ambitions, Generations
2. What game version/patch level?
Current
3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
3 - The three children from my family

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No - just blank green squares on the family bar
5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yes - my sims are just gone - except for one who is stuck worrying about something

6. Were the sims traveling?
Not technically - the 2 adults got a free vacation opportunity which I accepted - they disappeared for 2 days. The game started to skip so I decided to let my computer take a break, came back and the 3 kids were missing. And the mom, who had just turned into an adult when she left was an elder...

7. How many traveling?
I suppose 2

8. How are all travellers related?
Husband/Wife

9. Which country are the sims in?
No idea - they were off an an opportunity
10. How many days?
2

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
When it was over I suppose

12. Returning together or separate?
Together

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA but I've NEVER had any problems with it!

15. When did the issue start?
After Saving & Quitting and then coming back

16. What were your sims doing?
The adults I think laundry, one kid was playing with an imaginary friend, I don't know about the other 2

17. What things have you tried?
ResetSim, restarting computer, deleting the 1 sim that was still visible (still with a blank green square in the family bar), other than that I don't know what to do.

18. What worked?
Nothing!!!

19. What didn't work?
Everything I tried!!!

20. Anything else you would like to add?
When I decided to give the game a rest my sims were doing a weird skipping thing - I had one kid at the chemistry set discovering potions and she kept getting reset to the porch to play with the imaginary friend. I just figured the imaginary friend was lonely and that's what happened when it needed attention. But then it happened with my adult sim as well.. one of the ones who just got back from their "vacation" (again, and opportunity, I could not control them while they were gone). The I restarted the game and my adult sim was an elder, my 3 kids were missing, and the other adult was fine! I don't get it! And I'm very sad! I was on generation 3!!

zambixi

7th Jun 2011, 12:14 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have? Base Game & All non-stuff expansions
2. What game version/patch level?:
3. How many sims are missing/invisible?: one
4. Do they have an icon or not?: square box but no face
5. Do you have any UI issues?: no
6. Were the sims traveling?: no
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?: no
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?: no
15. When did the issue start?: when I lasted started the game (so, upon start-up after a perfectly normal game)
16. What were your sims doing?: about to go to sleep in a bunk bed
17. What things have you tried: tried ResetSim, and moveobjects then deleting the sim
18. What worked?: nothing
19. What didn't work?: the things I tried
20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]

TinySarah

7th Jun 2011, 12:43 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?

Base game, expansions, no stuff-packs

2. What game version/patch level?

Recent

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?

None.

4. Do they have an icon or not?

no icon

5. Do you have any UI issues?

frozen in game.

6. Were the sims traveling?

no

7. How many traveling?

8. How are all travellers related?

9. Which country are the sims in?
10. How many days?

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?

12. Returning together or separate?
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
no

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?

no

15. When did the issue start?

after I installed the latest patch.

16. What were your sims doing?

Normal house things. fixing the sink, reading a book.

17. What things have you tried

uninstalling mods

18. What worked?

uninstalling said mods. But they worked before the latest patch perfectly.
19. What didn't work?
20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]

I would love to keep my mods. If there is anything else I can do I am all up for it.

Netza

7th Jun 2011, 07:27 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have? All
2. What game version/patch level? Latest
3. How many sims are missing/invisible? 1
4. Do they have an icon or not? None have
5. Do you have any UI issues? Yes. No portraits. Can't select them at all. No wishes. Funds shows as cero.
6. Were the sims traveling? No. But one of them have been traveling alot.
7. How many traveling? 1
8. How are all travellers related?
9. Which country are the sims in? All.
10. How many days? 5-8
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over? Both
12. Returning together or separate?
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod? No.
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story? EA
15. When did the issue start? Just the other day. Two sims kept resetting so I shut the game down. When I started it up again one of the sims had no portrait and was standing still. Couldn't be selcted or interacted with at all. Shut down. Started up. No portraits for anyone to select including all the other UI-problems I wrote about.
16. What were your sims doing? Just daily stuff.
17. What things have you tried? Resetsim didn't work. Don't know about any other solutions.
18. What worked?
19. What didn't work? Resetsim
20. Anything else you would like to add?

Edit:
The Ui was fixed by pressing space.... -.- The sim that was missing is standing unmovable as before, but can now be selected. Her name is something different though. :S She is missing her portrait and also a kid that was sent to boarding school is missing his portrait.

Edit 2:
The mother moved now and then disappeared and previous sims are back to resetting stage... >_<

Nickstr500

9th Jun 2011, 06:17 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?

Base Game, World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, and Generations.

2. What game version/patch level?

BG: 1.22.9.011001, WA: 2.7.7.006001, A: 4.5.6.009001, LN: 6.2.4.010001, G: 8.0.152.011001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?

Five out of eight are missing/invisible.

4. Do they have an icon or not?

None of the five have icons (only green background).

5. Do you have any UI issues?

None initially, only when I tried to switch active families, then switch back to the one with the missing Sims (I didn't save that version).

6. Were the sims traveling?

They had returned home from a six day vacation in France. They had been home for a full two days with no problems. I saved with a working game. When I opened the save file the next day, five of them were missing.

7. How many traveling?

Five traveled, three of which are included in the five now missing/invisible.

8. How are all travellers related?

Two parents (not invisible), three teenage siblings.

9. Which country are the sims in?

They had returned from France to Sunset Valley.

10. How many days?

Six with no problems.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?

With the phone a few hours before the vacation was supposed to end.

12. Returning together or separate?

Together, although two of them left the taxi to do homework before arriving home. Eventually they all made it home without a problem.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?

Neither or any other mod. I have changed the Graphics Rules file to recognize my processing power for what it is. This has never caused a problem before and I have updated it for Generations taking into account the base game document is the one that needs to be altered not the Generations one.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?

EA Story Progression (high).

15. When did the issue start?

This morning (6/9/11), the day after a save with no missing Sims.

16. What were your sims doing?

Of the missing, one young adult was sleeping, three teenagers were doing homework (two were doing it together), and one child was painting. Of the unaffected Sims, one adult was completing an opportunity in city hall, and one adult was helping the last unaffected teenager (a non-blood related imaginary friend turned human) with his homework.

17. What things have you tried

So far I have tried:

- resetSim [First Name] [Last Name]
- moving the house to a different lot
- changing the active household, then switching back
- forcing interaction by traveling, inviting out, etc.
- deleting with moveObjects on
- making selectable with testingcheatsenabled true
- deleting recommended cache files
- deleting all non-EA store custom content (although there was barely any)

18. What worked?

Nothing so far.

19. What didn't work?

Everything so far.

20. Anything else you would like to add?

I believe the root cause was from a stupid glitched fireman. He was stuck for a whole Sim morning standing in place after a fire that took place at a Birthday party. I didn't know what to do so I used resetSim and he disappeared. I then received the fireman's "Be careful" message and everything was okay. After reloading the saved file, the missing/invisible Sims are the five genetic children of my main family. They are all visible to me (excluding their UI icons) and appear to be continuing with what they were dong before I saved. However, they can't be selected.

trukittn

11th Jun 2011, 06:18 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base Game + Ambitions + Late Night + World Adventures (acquired/installed in that order)

2. What game version/patch level?
1.22.9 | 2.17.2 (WA) | 4.10.1 (A) | 6.5.1 (LN)

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
1

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Upon arriving at travel destination, no.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Upon arriving at travel destination, the UI is blank, with no sim and no sim info.

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes

7. How many traveling?
1

8. How are all travellers related?
Solo traveler.

9. Which country are the sims in?
She lives in Bridgeport.
Was traveling to China
(And also tried traveling to France after reloading)

10. How many days?
6 days planned.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
No sim to return home.

12. Returning together or separate?
No sim to return with. :3

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
I am using MasterController and Overwatch.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
None of the above.

15. When did the issue start?
Who knows? I had a backup save prior to one trip to China that went fine. After staying home for a while and then trying to head back out (saving prior), I got the blank UI. There is nothing different between the two saves except time elapsed and new friendships made in the home city. Whatever happened to my save game seems to of happened upon return from the first trip.

16. What were your sims doing?
During both saves (working backup and borked current) She was on the computer prior to traveling. She also called in the trip from the phone on both saves.

17. What things have you tried
Everything listed Here (http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:UI_and_Sim_Issues) except for a reinstall and the errorcatch mods.
Also tried the method listed here (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2412898/sims_3_world_adventures_my_sim_is_invisible.html?cat=19) Involving moving the sim into China from the bin after getting the blank UI.

18. What worked?
I had partial success with moving the sim in to China and returning home from there, however all of her relationships were erased, and upon returning home, she was invisible (icons present, but no portrait and no sim - only a red plumbob) and had a nasty witnessed death moodlet on her.

Restoring a backup save worked but with all the caveats of restoring a backup. (progress lost, etc)

19. What didn't work?
Resetsim
Reset All (master controller)
Restarting and reloading the game
Most of the other steps in the wiki

Trying to travel to another locale - I got the same blank UI, even though she had never been to that specific vacation place before. So, that tells me its not an issue with the actual location files within the save game folder. (those are created after the vacation so I had hoped it was capable of being pinpointed there. Alas...)

20. Anything else you would like to add?
Going to continue trying to fix the borked save, as it seems pointless to keep playing on the backup if this issue happens after returning home. If there's no way to tell when its actually getting messed up, I could just be saving messed up games even if all appears well until I travel.

Will edit in results if I have any luck.

I'll also note that I experienced the photo-freeze bug (here (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=445018)) once I installed WA. Upon patching, the problem was temporarily fixed, however on the borked save the problem had crept up again before traveling. The working backup has no problems taking photos currently. So maybe the photo freeze bug is related to this issue in some way.

mkweidert

15th Jun 2011, 03:37 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
I have the base game, World Adventures (Digital Download), High End Loft Stuff, Fast Lane Stuff, Late Night, Ambitions, and Generations.

2. What game version/patch level?
I just updated all of my games.
Base game: 1.22.9
Ambitions: 4.10.1
Fastlane: 5.8.1
Generations: 8.0.152
High End Loft: 3.13.1
Late Night: 6.5.1
World Adventures: 2.17.2

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
One Sim is invisible/missing.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
He does, but even though it is still labeled as his, his picture is not in the icon.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
I think so. You know how you can click on a sims picture in the friends list and a list of options like call, invite out or invite over will pop up? Well, when I try to click on my missing sim's icon, nothing pops up. And just before he disappeared, he could not interact with his wife (in other words, with him as the active sim and clicking on his sim-wife, no options would pop up.) But she could still interact with him.

6. Were the sims traveling?
No, they had just laid down to sleep.

7. How many traveling?
N/A

8. How are all travellers related?
N/A

9. Which country are the sims in?
N/A

10. How many days?
N/A

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
N/A

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
Nope.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
I was using EA's story progression (even though I hate it! I have a million vampires in my town now.)

15. When did the issue start?
Well, techinically, I would say it started when my girl sim (Sonia) asked my missing sim (Geoff) to move in. When he moved in, I did not have the option to sell his stuff or take it with him, so he brought $0 with him to the household. Then (and I'm not sure if this is a new feature that came along with Generations or what, but) when they were engaged for a while (a sim week or two, I'm sure) they were automatically married when they were sleeping. I didn't get to have a wedding ceremony or anthing. :( And I've seen many other glitches here and there like the two are unable to take pictures with the cameras from WA without freezing in place and needing to be reset and them buying items in another country that should have wound up in their family inventory but didn't.

But when my sim disappeared, Sonia had just gotten back from a party at Mortimer Goth's when I had the two kiss. I tried to then interact with Sonia with Geoff as the active sim, but found that I couldn't even though Sonia could still interact with Geoff. Shrugging it off, I decided to just send them to bed. But as soon as the Z's started popping up, they immediately were popped out of bed, standing up, Geoff next to the bed, Sonia outside. I thought, "That's weird," and sent them to bed again. It happened again. That's when I realized Geoff's icon next to Sonia's was there but his picture was missing from it. I realized he didn't live there anymore.

I saved under a different save, exited and came back to that save. The problem was still there but this time, Geoff completely disappeared after about 3 seconds. I can not find him anywhere! So I went back to an old save and it's the same deal. Geoff was in the bathroom at the time of the old save. His icon was labeled as his, but his picture was missing and in about three seconds, he disappeared.

16. What were your sims doing?
See above

17. What things have you tried
Exiting and coming back, googling for the issue (did not find anything).

18. What worked?
Nothing.

19. What didn't work?
Both things I tried.

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
The only way that I can think to resolve the issue is to simply go back to a very old save before they had moved in together. But I don't want to!

Willow's Tara

18th Jun 2011, 11:11 AM

I have had this kind of problems with three neighbourhood, then I tested a fourth one to try and find the problem, I have narrowed my problem though.

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base, LN, AMB, WA and Generations, however this problem only rose when I installed WA/AMB/Gen just last week, I had base and LN for months though.

2. What game version/patch level?
That I am not certain, I know for sure I have Base Game latest and LN latest one as well. No patch came up for WA, AMB or Generations (I heard it was supposed to update you with all since Gen though)

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
In this case it can be from 1-8, they aren't missing or invisible though, just can't be interacted with.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
In the last three including a test one (So four) many Sims I played did have an icon but it was blank with only a green background depending on their mood. It was between 1-8 depending on how many, and it seemed random and Sims with no icon could interact and I couldn't make any sims who were there do it. (Hood One had only two Sims who could be seen on the icons. Hood 2 had 3 sims, only one was not interable. Same with the Fourth hood this happened to, 3 hood was all eight sims in the house).

5. Do you have any UI issues?
On three NHs now that can't work and this happened with it will not allow me to change households. I try and it freezes, even without saving, there's no little loading screen either or anything, so I have to manually get out of it.

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes

7. How many traveling?
In NH 1, 8. 2 was 1, third had eight sims and fourth had 3 sims.

8. How are all travellers related?
All by family. 1 and 3 hood was your standard grandparents, parents and children of the parents (Different ages too). 4 had two parents and a child. 2 had 1 sim and her son, but also had a duplicate.

9. Which country are the sims in?
When the situation happened, France.

10. How many days?
3 for most, only one of the families were gone for 5 I believe,

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
All three families came home when the vacation was over. Another sim went by herself to go buy something I forgot to get in France, and then came back about a few Sim hours.

12. Returning together or separate?
All together

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
N/A, I did not have any mods during these glitches and still don;t

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA's story progression

15. When did the issue start?
About a week ago, since installing WA, AMB and then Gen a few days later, but Gen is not the cause as it happened before I installed. Only would start after leaving France.

16. What were your sims doing?
Most of them were just waiting for the time to go home. The last family this happened to the parents were Woohoo in that Landgraab home, the teen was off elsewhere (However it was her icon that was blank going back.

17. What things have you tried
Haven't really tried much yet, I wanted to see if I could find out what was the problem, and it seems something in France is the cause.

18. What worked?
Not sure

19. What didn't work?
Restarting, however with three of the hoods I saved after they came home.

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
Yes, I am most certain this is related to France for sure. All four hoods had a main family go to France, then things got weird coming home as said above. However in the 3rd hood my main family had gone to France together, came home and everything was fine. Only the mother went back again to buy another Necter maker and rack because I could not find it anywhere in any inventory. It was when she returned it got glitched. My other hoods had also gone to the Nectery and bought the same things as she did, but it was only once and it got bugged up. The mother had gotten one of those in the previous trip but I thought a glitch ate it so she went again.

And to be sure I had my Sims in my test go to China twice (Doing Adventures), Might have been three times even, the only problem that happened in China is that after the 2nd or third day the game would freeze every half an hour for some reason. That was the only hood that happened in with China. So I am sure it's France, I just can't figure out why and cannot go there anymore until the issue is fixed.

arriarhapsody8763

19th Jun 2011, 11:19 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base, WA, Ambitions, LN, Generations, High-End Loft, Outdoor Living, and Fast Lane (every expansion and stuff pack that has been released so far)

2. What game version/patch level?

BG: 1.22.9.011001, WA: 2.7.7.006001, A: 4.5.6.009001, LN: 6.2.4.010001, G: 8.0.152.011001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
One sim is for sure gone.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
All family portraits on the control panel are gone, one sim's icon is gone from all relationship panels as well.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
only the portrait controls being gone

6. Were the sims traveling?
no

7. How many traveling?
0

8. How are all travellers related?
n/a

9. Which country are the sims in?
erm...the main sim country..i dont actually know what it's called

10, 11, & 12 are non-applicable

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
no

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
no

15. When did the issue start?
yesterday 6/18/2011

16. What were your sims doing?
i entered a saved game to an 8am morning in my sim world. the mother sim was waiting for the arrival of her daycare kids, the dad was playing piano, and the three children were away at boarding school, one awaiting coming home from being removed.

17. What things have you tried
going through cc, moving family in and out of home, editing the town, removing all cc.

18. What worked?
moving my family worked sort of. it restored the mom/dad portraits but they were stuck in "moving mode" for about 12 hours and i couldnt do anything.

19. What didn't work?
basically everything.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
in my sims game, i had to use reset sim on a parent who came to pick up their child from my sims daycare. he stood in my kitchen for like 4 hours holding his kid and wouldnt leave. after that i had my mother sim go to the family computer and remove her eldest child from boarding school (a teen) and she never came home.

Trophy05

19th Jun 2011, 04:08 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Have all of them -WA,Ambitions,NL and Generations plus all the stuff packs

2. What game version/patch level?
The latest - 1.22

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
2 of them

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No icons, just green or yellow depending on mood

5. Do you have any UI issues?
No

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yea
7. How many traveling?
Only one

8. How are all travellers related?
Two actually travelled, Husband and wife. Only husband is stuck with no icon.
The teen daughter who didn't travel is also stuck.

9. Which country are the sims in?
They went to France

10. How many days?
Only three. First vacation.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Returned when it was officially over.

12. Returning together or separate?
Together

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
SuperComputer (MasterController)

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Twallan

15. When did the issue start?
Had issues after France

16. What were your sims doing?
The husband was sleeping on a community lot. During one game he just disappeared from the bed from the bed and popped up in his house. I think the daughter was either going to shower or go to bed.

17. What things have you tried
Reset sim, Evict and move back in, Move with moveobject true, sped up game

18. What worked?
I kept playing my game but not saving. I did manage to unlock them but I can't remember how. I still continued to have problems so in the end it wasn't successful.

19. What didn't work?
Pretty much everything.

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
Since the husband and wife came back from France my game has been very buggy. Other glitches include wife became pregnant in France but still got "try for baby" option and when they did, heard the chime again. When she gave birth, I got about 4-5 baby boys and decided to quit. I ended pregnancy in another game and she went on to become pregnant and gave birth to one baby. However because I reset * to fix my sims she stayed pregnant (belly, walk, could edit in CAS but only maternity clothes were avaible).

Another weird glitch was my couple becamed cloned and the clones were in their relationship panels. I tried deleting the husband clone but he popped up again. My couple also lost their relationship status and I had to use MC to corect it. I found the wife clone and edited her in CAS, changed name, traits and just randomly selected another sim. Sometimes that sim pops up in her icon and one time she appeared in the CAS. There were more glitches but I decided not to play the family.

scorpiobabe

20th Jun 2011, 08:44 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base; WA; High end Loft; Ambitions; Fast Lane; Late Night; Outdoor Living; Generations

2. What game version/patch level?
8.0.152.011001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
1

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No

5. Do you have any UI issues?
It disappeared

6. Were the sims traveling?
No, but they had just come back from Egypt.

7. How many traveling?
2

8. How are all travellers related?
Married

9. Which country are the sims in?
n/a - they returned from Egypt

10. How many days?
3

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
When vacation ended

12. Returning together or separate?
Together

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA

15. When did the issue start?
After they got back

16. What were your sims doing?
Improving gardening skills

17. What things have you tried
Checked not an F button mistake
Checked not a 'tab' mistake
Tried: restarting game; copying game;
Quit game yet again, deleted all the cache files [http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Sims_3_Delete_Cache_Files]. This did work for a while as I got the UI back, but then the problem happened again. I read somewhere on here that it may be a plot related issue, so haven't used same plot again and the problem has not resurfaced.
The plot I was using: Sunset Valley, 477 Sunnyside Blvd [plot next to beach]

18. What worked?
Deleting cache files ... temporarily.

19. What didn't work?
n/a

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
- the sim that disappeared was one I created, his partner was NPC
- disappearance of sim and UI happened at exactly the same time
- no icons other than the green diamond above remaining sim head
- tried 'space' to move to see if game could 'find' invisible sim, but no response.

Jinyuu

22nd Jun 2011, 10:38 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base, Gen, LN, WA
2. What game version/patch level?
8.0
3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
Two different houses/neighborhoods, "Family One" has 1 missing, In "Family Two" I know where they are, but thumbnails gone and they stay invisible for a long time and sometimes they eventually load
4. Do they have an icon or not?
Family One the missing sim does not have an icon the other does
Family Two Sometimes they do sometimes they dont
5. Do you have any UI issues?
Fam1 I cant select missing sim
fam2 I can select them but no icons and they wont do interactions
6. Were the sims traveling?
Neither was
7. How many traveling?
n/a
8. How are all travellers related?
Girlfriend and girlfriend
9. Which country are the sims in?
Sim City :P
10. How many days?
N/A
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
N/A
12. Returning together or separate?
N/A
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
Neither, using Baxims CORE mod but have it removed untill updated
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA
15. When did the issue start?
Randomly at different times when playing the families
16. What were your sims doing?
Fam1: I moved my sims and forgot to save wen I exited and when i went to play again a while later and after playing other neighborhoods the sim was missing
Fam2: They were going to the park in their car when i saved&quit
17. What things have you tried
Fam1: Reset sim, pressing spacebar to select the missing sim, moving the household, separating household, changing active household
Fam2: Reset sim, spacebar
18. What worked?
Nothing at all :D
19. What didn't work?
EVERYTHING :D:D:D:D:D
20. Anything else you would like to add?
:help:

Oakmaiden

3rd Jul 2011, 09:10 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Sims 3 vanilla

2. What game version/patch level?
1.22.10.011037

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
The whole family (6 sims) and their 2 guests

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Hm. I can still click on their picture at the side of the screen. And there is a still a little picture pointing to ones that are far away. And I can tell them to do things, and they do them. I just can't SEE them.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
???

6. Were the sims traveling?
No

7. How many traveling?
No

8. How are all travellers related?
NA

9. Which country are the sims in?
NA

10. How many days?
NA

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
NA

12. Returning together or separate?
NA

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
Game is completely unmodded and has no extra downloaded material. I purchased via Steam.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Sorry - I don't know what this is

15. When did the issue start?
Today

16. What were your sims doing?
Getting ready for a party

17. What things have you tried
Restarting without saving. Same thing happened at a similar place in the story. Feel that organising the party might be connected??

18. What worked?
Nothing so far.

19. What didn't work?
I came here looking for answers (Via a FAQ type page)!!! I haven't tried much else so far, as I am researching the problem!

20. Anything else you would like to add? Thank you for looking into the problem and I will work through the list on the page I foiund. Most of it doesn't seem relevant to my game though, as I have been playing fairly vanilla (although in Generation 3 of my family)

Purple Snowstorm

5th Jul 2011, 09:03 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
The Sims 3, Sims 3: World Adventures, Sims 3: Ambitions, Sims 3: Late Night, Sims 3: Generations, Sims 3: High-End Loft Stuff, Sims 3: Fast Lane Stuff
2. What game version/patch level?
Version: 8.0.152.011001
Patch: 1.22.9.011001
3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
None are missing, but I can't control any of them.
4. Do they have an icon or not?
None have icons.
5. Do you have any UI issues?
UI issues? Sorry if I sound dense, but I don't know.
6. Were the sims traveling?
One sim just got back.
7. How many traveling?
One out of a four person household just returned.
8. How are all travellers related?
N/A
9. Which country are the sims in?
She was in China, but she returned right when the problem started.
10. How many days?
Three
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
When vacation was over.
12. Returning together or separate?
N/A
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
Not anymore.
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
I have story progression set to be on.
15. When did the issue start?
When my sim returned home from vacation, everything was normal except that the baby's face in the icon/thumbnail was missing, but the baby was still there and the little box on the sidebar was still there. The baby's picture was just missing. So I saved and quit (like the idiot I am), and, when I came back, all of the icons on the sidebar were missing and it said my sim's name was "Florence Crisp", and that's not her name. It also said that no one lived in the house and I couldn't control the sims at all. One sim walked out of the house and into the street and suddenly disappeared. The moodlets had disappeared (though the sim had some) and all of the pictures in the icons for her wishes and what she was doing (though she still had the wishes) had disappeared. It also said that the family had no money, but they had close to 30,000 simoleons on hand.
16. What were your sims doing?
I don't know - one of them had just returned from vacation.
17. What things have you tried
Quitting and going back without saving.
18. What worked?
Nothing.
19. What didn't work?
Restarting the game.
20. Anything else you would like to add?
I just need any suggestions as to how to fix this! :help:

bre001

7th Jul 2011, 04:53 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
All core expansions through Generations -- no stuff packs (outdoor living, fast lane, etc).

2. What game version/patch level?
The base Generations patch (loading the launcher kills my computer).

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
Two in one household.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Nope, but the tile where their icons would be are visible.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
None, in any of my games.

6. Were the sims traveling?
Not those two, but their mother (who is in the same household) was.

7. How many traveling?
One.

8. How are all travellers related?
Mother/daughters.

9. Which country are the sims in?
The mother was in China.

10. How many days?
The upper length for Visa level two -- I think eight days?

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Prematurely on the phone.

12. Returning together or separate?
There was only one returning, and only one went on the trip.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
The standard one that came with the game (So EA, I believe).

15. When did the issue start?
A while after the mother returned from her trip.

16. What were your sims doing?
They were both talking to their parents, and then they slowly fade to invisble and become unselectable/uninteractable.

17. What things have you tried?
Reset sim - I put a lot of work into the family and am cautious to do much more.

18. What worked?
Nothing.

19. What didn't work?
Reset sim.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
Generations has been giving me a crapload of glitches -- from bachelor parties never ending to parents and toddlers getting stuck learning to talk. In the game where the sims went invisible, one of the daughters had returned prematurely from boarding school one day (Boot Camp), and it happened to be the day of prom (Saturday). I thought it might be something that was supposed to happen, but she never went back to boarding school -- in fact, she went to highschool (but the boarding school information was still under her school/job tab). I also couldn't enroll/unenroll her from boarding school. I don't know if that might have contributed to the problem of invisibility or not.

enchantedw0lf

8th Jul 2011, 04:03 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
All EPs & SPs through Generations

2. What game version/patch level?
1.22

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
Have had this to happen twice. Both times was with two sims.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Not normally, no.

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes

7. How many traveling?
02 each time

8. How are all travellers related?
Married

9. Which country are the sims in?
Once to China, Once to France... both times on their honeymoon.

10. How many days?
I think 6, but cannot be completely sure.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
No... each time this occured, it happened on the way TO the destination. When the sims got to china or france (meaning, when the game loaded to the base camps and you would normally see your sims) the game was in play mode but there was no sim icon at all. I could pause, play, fast forward the game, but there were no sims anywhere. It was a completely empty country. When I closed and restarted the game, there was no picture icon for the world (once a custom world, once sunset valley) and when I loaded that world, it went straight to edit town mode in China or France (the destination where the sims vanished).

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA Story Progression was on in both games.

15. When did the issue start?
June 27th while playing a challenge. I had not put in any new downloads or taken anything out. I had played this challenge/household consistantly since June 18th with no bugs or errors.

16. What were your sims doing?
Travelling to their honeymoon.

17. What things have you tried
Quitting without saving, but the game automatically saves when you travel. :(

18. What worked?
Nothing so far.

19. What didn't work?
???

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
I think everything is on here already. :)

ravenkiko

18th Jul 2011, 11:14 AM

1. Base Game, ambitions, generations
2. 1.22? it's the most new.
3. several different invisible/missing problems. Sometimes sim will just turn invisible while interacting with something and then if i continue to play everything else starts to get glitchy. Sometimes just every single relationship will disappear from the relationships tab and my sims can't intereact, then UI disappears if i continue play.
4. Sometimes yes (if invisible) sometimes no (where relationships disappear).
5. Yes, occaisional disappearances or partial disappearance (where half of UI isn't there or won't work)
6. No
7. N/A
8. N/A
9. N/A
10. N/A
11. N/A
12. N/A
13. No
14. No
15. After updating (i think 1.18 or 1.08) then got worse as i tried to fix problem with 'resetsim <sim name>'.
16. Either an interaction with another sim or nothing at all.
17. Reinstall about 7 times, resetsim, CC disable/removal, eviction, removing certain sim that are glitchier than others, F10 UI hotkey, moveobjects on.
18. reinstall is a temp fix, resetsim sometimes works but made my imaginary friends disappear and more glitches occur later, removal of sim helps reduce occurances, F10 allows to save and exit, moveobjects can reset pathway so sim isn't stuck by invisible object.
19. Eviction and CC removal, everything else didn't FIX it only helped.
20. I have had a similar problem(s) recurring over and over in different ways and had to reinstall like 7 times to fix. Problems including invisible sims, missing relationships, broken inventory and family trees, pathway issues, etc. You name it i've probably had it. Also it can be just one sim that glitched which means you'll have to immediately save, exit game, reload game, evict or move sim away from active household, then either move back or if its really glitchy ignore that sim. Like I had Bella Goth all of a sudden glitch out and start causing issues, had to remove her. Then random relatives i would move into my house after a long time away had a higher chance of glitching. To temporarily fix these i moved sim to other house then brought back to main.
My main issue is loss of imaginary friends. I can't use any of the temporary fixes to get tham back so now I'm trying various mods.

Jizabel

23rd Jul 2011, 03:03 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Sims, World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Fast Lane.

2. What game version/patch level?
Version: 8.0.152.011001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
One. Though in other families I have had invisible neighbors before.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No picture, just a blank green square.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Can't control sim, can't click on the icon, can't interact with the baby, and it appears as though the baby doesn't have motives and it doesn't move ever.

6. Were the sims traveling?
No.
7. How many traveling?
N/A

8. How are all travellers related?
N/A

9. Which country are the sims in?
Sunset Valley (I think)

10. How many days?
N/A

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
N/A

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
Neither

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA Story Progression

15. When did the issue start?
Just today. (First time had it happened)

16. What were your sims doing?
Father was working out, mother was discovering potions, the son was at school, and the 'missing'/uncontrollable sim baby was in the crib.

17. What things have you tried
Just the reset sim cheat. I'm afraid to go any further.

18. What worked?
N/A

19. What didn't work?
Reset Sim cheat

20. Anything else you would like to add?
First time had this happen, all was well when I saved it (A few days ago) then tonight I started it up and then yeah, baby was pretty much dead.

xking_kaosx

25th Jul 2011, 05:01 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
the sims 3, late night and generations

2. What game version/patch level?
latest patch

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
entire town including my family.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
no icon

5. Do you have any UI issues?
no UI, UI and SIMS disapeared

6. Were the sims traveling?
no

7. How many traveling?
none

8. How are all travellers related?
NONE

9. Which country are the sims in?
riverview

10. How many days?
2

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
cant access the phone!

12. Returning together or separate?

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
neither

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA story

15. When did the issue start?
few months ago on late night - now on generations

16. What were your sims doing?
at work and at home either sleeping or washing up.

17. What things have you tried
clearing sims cache, starting game without custom content, RESETSIM cheat

18. What worked?
NONE

19. What didn't work?
everything

20. Anything else you would like to add?
happens only when my family exceeds 5 and my household is up to 8 including babies.

Pax

28th Jul 2011, 12:51 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Sims 3
Generations, World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night
High-End Loft Stuff
2. What game version/patch level?
8.0.152.011001
3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
All
4. Do they have an icon or not?
No one has any icons.
5. Do you have any UI issues?
Can't control anything, the entire control panel is gone.
6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes
7. How many traveling?
5
8. How are all travellers related?
Yes
9. Which country are the sims in?
China
10. How many days?
Three
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Yes
12. Returning together or separate?
Together
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA Story Progression
15. When did the issue start?
Last night, I sent them on vacation to China, and after using testingcheatsenabled true and shiftclicking "modify sim in CAS screen" to change an outfit, the modified sim was invisible. It took sending them home to make everyone reappear, and then play was working fine for a while.
16. What were your sims doing?
Just standing around.
17. What things have you tried
Deleting the .bad file
18. What worked?
Nothing
19. What didn't work?
Deleting the .bad file
20. Anything else you would like to add
What happened exactly is this:
Last night, I sent them on vacation to China, and after using testingcheatsenabled true and shiftclicking "modify sim in CAS screen" to change an outfit, the modified sim was invisible. It took sending them home to make everyone reappear, and then play was working fine for a while.
When I saved and quit, then restarted my game (I wanted to download a mod but decided against it and didn't download anything) and there was no control panel. Quit and restarted again, no change. When I bring up the launcher it says there is a software update, and when I click OK, it launches the game instead of installing the update.
Also, I haven't downloaded CC in a long time, so I know it isn't that.

If anyone has advice on how to fix this, that's be much appreciated. I was very attatched to this family and would hate to loose them.

bellatrixclovis

28th Jul 2011, 07:52 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base game + EP's (WA, Amb, LN and Gen)

2. What game version/patch level?
Base game is at level 1.22.9 and EP are all patched up to the same level.
(Note: it's a fresh install (2 weeks old) on a fresh Windows too. I installed all disk in release order, then patched manually in the same order. Between the first and the second occurrence of the bug, I patched to 1.24.3)

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
3 Sims, that's all the members of the household. They disappeared at the very same moment.
Later, while troubleshooting, I found out that Emma Hatch (townie) was invisible too.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Yes for my active Sims, I still have their avatars. No for Emma.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Not when the issue occurred, but after, while troubleshooting, the UI disappeared too.
I can add that the arrow pointer is faulty too, it's stuck on the grab hand version.

6. Were the sims traveling?
No, they were at home in Sunset Valley. This was a newly created game in SV, 5 sims weeks long. No Sims have ever travelled in this save.

7. to 12. (travel related questions): N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No, neither any other mod or cc at this time. Only a few store stuff.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA Story Progression

15. When did the issue start?
For me last night, for my sims, this is a 5-6 sims weeks old save.

16. What were your sims doing?
Nothing special. The father was going to play guitar, the kid was going to bed and the mother was going to paint. There was a pile of dirty clothes on the ground, I grabbed them to drop them in a hamper, and this is when my pointer got stuck in the grab hand form. The 3 Sims disappeared at the very same moment.

Edit: I replayed from an earlier save. The same bug happened again, at the exact same moment (in game time is Week 6 Day 3 10.28 pm). Only the mom vanished from screen. She was reading Ambrosia. At 10.28 pm, she jumped, disappeared and went to play video game. The dad stay visible but froze for some seconds, then jumped to the garden and played with sprinkler. The kid still visible too and riding back home.

17. What things have you tried
Cleared the caches (no result)
Resetsim for the 3 household members
Resetsim *
Reloading several times

18. What worked?
Resetsim (individual and global) to make the Sims of the active household visible again, but not for a very long time. They disappear again and the UI too, in the Sims hours following the reload. Why or how, it seams pretty random to me.
Going back to a previous save (3 sims days before) seams to work. But I'm afraid the corrupted elements are already present, they just haven't "exploded' yet!

19. What didn't work?
Just reloading and clearing cache did nothing.
Resetsim on Emma Hatch did nothing for her.

Edit: the second time, I reset all 3 of them and sent them to bed. They would all randomly jumped out of bed and could not be played normally anymore.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
I usually "save as" 2x/Sim week. Since I have several previous saved points to go back to, I saved as here also, which wasn't that easy with the stupid hand! I'll keep that save to investigate with Master Controller and Awesome mod later. If I find anything relevant, I'll edit this post (See part in Italic).

cutecuppup

28th Jul 2011, 06:52 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
The Sims 3, The Sims 3 World Adventures, The Sims 3 Ambitions, The Sims 3 Late Night.

2. What game version/patch level?
Game version 6.2.4.010001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
One Sim

4. Do they have an icon or not?
They had an empty green icon that I wasn't able to click on, but after I saved, there was no icon.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
I don't think so.

6. Were the sims traveling?
They were returning home from a trip.

7. How many traveling?
All 3 of members of my household were returning.

8. How are all travellers related?
I had a husband, (the missing one) a wife, and the wife's simbot.

9. Which country are the sims in?
They were returning from Al Simhara.

10. How many days?
It was a five day trip.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
They used the phone to return about two hours early.

12. Returning together or separate?
I thought I made them return all together, but it's possible that the husband got left behind.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No...

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
No.

15. When did the issue start? About two days ago for me, for my Sims it was immediately after they were returning from their trip.

16. What were your sims doing?
Nothing.

17. What things have you tried
Saving and reloading the game several times.

18. What worked?
At first I tried to make my sim show up in his empty green box by saving and reloading, but all that did was make his icon go away completely. So pretty much, nothing.

19. What didn't work?
Saving and reloading.

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
I'm not sure if my Sim got left behind in Al Simhara or what, because he's still in my other Sims' relationship panel, but I can't call him to chat, or call him home or anything.

RaniiRainbow

4th Aug 2011, 06:16 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
All: The Sims 3, Ambitions, Barnacle Bay, Fast Lane Stuff, Generations, High-End Loft Stuff, Town Life Stuff, World Adventures
2. What game version/patch level?
1.23.65.012017
3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
My whole family (7sims), my game even says there is no household in my place
4. Do they have an icon or not?
no
5. Do you have any UI issues?
My game freezes sometimes, but I changed my graphics and it's better now
6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes
7. How many traveling?
one person
8. How are all travellers related?
my main sim, without her kid or husband
9. Which country are the sims in?
France
10. How many days?
8 days
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
via phone
12. Returning together or separate?
she was alone, so..
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
Don't know what that is, I suppose no..
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Don't know what that is either so no
15. When did the issue start?
When she returned home, I saved & quited my game, I started it up today and all my sims are gone, but my save game still shows my house & household
16. What were your sims doing?
My main sim was traveling home, the others were eating or talking or so..
17. What things have you tried
I quited my save game 10 times and started it up again
18. What worked?
Nothing
19. What didn't work?
Everything
20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
I'm going to try starting another save game in the same city and see if they are still friends with the other household, if they're not I hope someone can find a solution, because I do not feel like starting all over again with the celebrity points, the visa levels, skills etc...

LonelyMoon

5th Aug 2011, 05:04 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have? all of them, including town life stuff

2. What game version/patch level? manually updated all games to the latest update (1.24.3, 2.17.2, 4.10.1 etc)

3. How many sims are missing/invisible? just one, my one sim household.

4. Do they have an icon or not? The entire household disappeared from the map

5. Do you have any UI issues? none.

6. Were the sims traveling? yes, to egypt.

7. How many traveling? 1

8. How are all travellers related? N/A

9. Which country are the sims in? Egypt then back to Bridgeport

10. How many days? 3

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over? tried both, same results

12. Returning together or separate? N/1

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod? No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story? EA's one

15. When did the issue start? last week

16. What were your sims doing? returning home from vacation

17. What things have you tried:
-ErrorTrap, MasterController, Overwatch,
-Playing as the sim's best friend to see him listed as "foreign friend"
-Editing the apartment and saw it unchanged, with all the stuff i bought

18. What worked? None so far.

19. What didn't work? everything listed above

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]

phantomneko

5th Aug 2011, 11:52 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base/WA/HELS/AMB/FLS/LN/OL/GEN/TLS
2. What game version/patch level?
1.24/2.17/3.13/4.10/5.8/6.2/7.3/8.0/9.0
3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
All
4. Do they have an icon or not?
No
5. Do you have any UI issues?
Invisible
6. Were the sims traveling?
No
7. How many traveling?
8. How are all travellers related?
9. Which country are the sims in?
10. How many days?
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
12. Returning together or separate?
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
SC
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Nraas Storyprog
15. When did the issue start?
As soon as I loaded a previously working save up.
16. What were your sims doing?
Sleeping
17. What things have you tried
Errortrap, resetsim, reset everything, Awesomemod, moving sims in and out, editsim, save as
18. What worked?
Save as, maybe some of the other voodoo
19. What didn't work?
Probably the voodoo

caka1812

14th Aug 2011, 11:17 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base Game, WA, Amb, LN, Gen

2. What game version/patch level?
latest - 1.24

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
2 - child and toddler. They are visible on the screen, but the green box with their avatar is empty

4. Do they have an icon or not?
yes, but it is empty

5. Do you have any UI issues?
No

6. Were the sims traveling?
No

7. How many traveling?
none

8. How are all travellers related?
n/a

9. Which country are the sims in?
They are in their home

10. How many days?
n/a

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
n/a

12. Returning together or separate?
n/a

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
no, I do have Twallan's debugenabler

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
see #13

15. When did the issue start?
about 2 weeks ago

16. What were your sims doing?
Father was holding toddler daughter, Mother was talking to Child son, who just had a birthday

17. What things have you tried
resetsim and reset invisible sim with the debug enabler

18. What worked?
n/a

19. What didn't work?
both of the things I tried

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
I contacted EA. They tried fixing everything they could. They had me uninstall and reinstall Generations. I also wound up having to reinstall my graphic driver and reformat my hard drive. Now that it is all done, I went to load the game, and the sims are still missing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

simsample

14th Aug 2011, 11:33 PM

I contacted EA. They tried fixing everything they could. They had me uninstall and reinstall Generations. I also wound up having to reinstall my graphic driver and reformat my hard drive. Now that it is all done, I went to load the game, and the sims are still missing.
Did EA tell you to reformat your hard drive? :blink:

capricce

23rd Aug 2011, 03:27 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
All EP:s and all SP:s including Town Life.

2. What game version/patch level?
Basegame 1.23.65, recently installed Town Life

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
Four of a household out of seven.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
One of the icons turned green and the rest was not clickable (still grey since they were on vacation).

5. Do you have any UI issues?
No

6. Were the sims traveling?
The sims that went missing were on a holiday they won, on which you can't controll them. The teenagers and a child were left at home.

7. How many traveling?
Four

8. How are all travellers related?
They are parents (elderly) and sons/daughters (young adults)

9. Which country are the sims in?
None, they went on the holiday the game let you win, where your teens stay at home so they can have a party.

10. How many days?
They were to be gone for two days, but a popup said they were coming home one day earlier because the teens misbehaved.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
A popup said they were to return earlier because the teens misbehaved, but they never showed up.

12. Returning together or separate?
A clone (doppbelganger) of one of the young adults showed up. He was in his working clothes (fireman).

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA Story Progression

15. When did the issue start?
Last week

16. What were your sims doing?
They were trying to go to bed but they could not stay in bed all together. One or two could go to bed, but as soon as the third went to bed they all magically flew downstairs to the kitchen again. First I thought it had something to do with the bunk beds but it didn't matter what bed they used. Then the icon of the mother turned green and after that the doppelganger turned up.

17. What things have you tried
First I tried to go back to an earlier save, but that did not help - the same thing happened again. Then I tried to remove all the cc that I'd installed just before this happened but that did not help either. So now I have unistalled and reinstalled everything (except for the the cc, I hava no cc in my game now), patched all EP:s and SP:s manually to the latest patches and installed Twallan's Story Progression.

18. What worked?
Since I did not keep my family I don't know yet. I did the reinstallation just last Sunday and haven't had the time to play that much since.

19. What didn't work?
N/A

20. Anything else you would like to add?
Well, the child had her birthday at the teens' party, when the others were on vacation. I got a popup about the mother (who's icon turned green), that she was happy that the child had become a teen or something. I don't know if that had something to do with it.

DemonBeFriender

31st Aug 2011, 03:33 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
WA, Late night, AMB, Generations

2. What game version/patch level?
8.0

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
my two household sims, and I don't see any other sims in town either.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
none at all.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
it's not appearing. the only thing showing up on the screen is the town and my cursor.

6. Were the sims traveling?
one teen was in boarding school

7. How many traveling?
one

8. How are all travellers related?
the teen was the son of the other two sims in the household.

9. Which country are the sims in?
home, Twinbrook

10. How many days?
7 days

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
no

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
no

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA story progression

15. When did the issue start?
earlier this evening. there was no interface/icons/interactions/sims when I started up the game, so I exited out using 'Q', didn't save, and reloaded. it loaded fine with my sims and everything working normally. I exited out and saved after playing for a while. I just started it up, had the same problem, and reloaded it again. I have tried starting the game a few times and I don't get anything.

16. What were your sims doing?
I had just built a foundation and bought a hot tub. when I exited the game, my sims were cuddling in the hot tub right after woohoo.

17. What things have you tried
like I said, at first restarting the game got my interface back, but that only worked once. I tried ctrl+shift+c and then "resetsim (my sims name)" and "resetsim *" but nothing changed.

18. What worked?
reloading the game, once.

19. What didn't work?
resetsim, and now reloading doesn't help.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
this is a direct screenshot using "prt sc": http://i53.tinypic.com/dysiky.jpg
I cannot look inside my house, it is like a rabbithole, or a neighbor's house (I can't see any furniture inside and it fades when I get too close).
the trees move, so the game is obviously running and isn't frozen. I can control speed with 1, 2 and 3 and pause with 'p'.

EDIT:
I deleted the cache (CASpart, compositor, script, simcompositor) and so far it has worked every time.

sadeo

31st Aug 2011, 11:22 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base game only
2. What game version/patch level?
1.24.3.012001
3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
None are missing or invisible; but their skin has turned entirely black.
4. Do they have an icon or not?
Yes.
5. Do you have any UI issues?
No.
6. Were the sims traveling?
One had just returned from work; the other was at home, cooking and cleaning.
7. How many traveling?
One.
8. How are all travellers related?
N/A
9. Which country are the sims in?
N/A
10. How many days?
N/A
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Returned once work ended.
12. Returning together or separate?
Separate.
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
AwesomeMod.
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA Story Progression.
15. When did the issue start?
A few weeks into Sim play.
16. What were your sims doing?
Once had been returning from work; the other was cleaning and such.
17. What things have you tried?
Resetsim, reloading, deleting the caches, updating drivers, removing CC.
18. What worked?
None.
19. What didn't work?
All of the above efforts.
20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre] No, thank you.

twallan

14th Sep 2011, 07:06 PM

For those of you encountering travel errors, I would suggest installing Traveler mod to see whether it can help you.

The mod is available via the link in my signature.

Good Luck. :)

SheilaK

25th Sep 2011, 04:26 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
base, first 3 EPs, 2 stuff packs

2. What game version/patch level?
6.0.81.009001/1.17.60.009001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
1

4. Do they have an icon or not?
At first yes, it was green. Then dissappeared. After trying some things the icon is there, but the sim was invissible.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
If that means missing menu, then yes. If not, I am not sure what you mean..

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes.

7. How many traveling?
It was the first time, 1 travel to China.

8. How are all travellers related?
They were 2 travelers, a married couple.

9. Which country are the sims in?
They travelled to China, they live in a neighbourhood downloaded from internet (if that mathers).

10. How many days?
3

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
prematurely, via the phone.

12. Returning together or separate?
Separately, each made its own phone call.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
What is that??

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA (if that is what I think it is)

15. When did the issue start?
After returning home from vacation. The icon was green, after re-entering the game it was gone and so the affecting sim.

16. What were your sims doing?
They returned home (green icon), made a baby and then I exited because the green icon was bothering me. After re-entering the game the sim was gone.

17. What things have you tried
- "resetsim" cheat - no success
- change active household - helped me get the icon back to normal and the sim back, but he was invisible
- taking the bath - he became visible again, but i figured he is the clone of the real character and the real one must be still on vacation.
- playing another family for a while - no success, he is still not home
- playing the backup save - unfortunatelly it was made after returning from vacation when the problem already occured.

18. What worked?
as mentioned above, #17

19. What didn't work?
as mentioned above, #17

20. Anything else you would like to add?
fingers crossed that someone finds the solution soon ;)

Weisskreuz

29th Sep 2011, 03:35 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Ambitions

2. What game version/patch level?
Er, the most current...

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
None are invisible or missing.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No icon.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
No?

6. Were the sims traveling?
7. How many traveling?
8. How are all travellers related?
9. Which country are the sims in?
10. How many days?
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
12. Returning together or separate?

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
Both

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Twallan's

15. When did the issue start?
Um, when I switched to the family? I had been playing the neighborhood for a couple of (sim) days before switching to them, so I wouldn't know.

16. What were your sims doing?
The icons never been visible.

17. What things have you tried
Exiting (game, neighborhood, family)

18. What worked?
Nothing.

19. What didn't work?
Everything?

20. Anything else you would like to add?

cenovis

3rd Oct 2011, 12:17 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?

WA, Ambitions, and Generations.

2. What game version/patch level?

8.0.152.011001

I don't normally patch if my game is stable, which is has been for at least a month. This problem happened recently but nothing recently changed as far as patches or CC. I have very little CC to begin with since Sims 3 doesn't seem to need any help crashing and/or bugging out.

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?

Two sims, both adults. They don't go missing unless I accept the free vacation. But even if they never leave (i.e. I decline the free vacation,) or I try to force them to reappear (by getting the neighbors to call the cops on teen party) they always suffer from UI issues described in question 5 after I receive the asking dialog.

4. Do they have an icon or not?

They always have an icon, greyed out (still away on free vacation,) if they go missing. Of the times I've tried to trigger them to return (i.e. throwing a teen party/getting the neighbors to call the cops) the second adult in the list's icon goes missing and only an empty green box remains.

5. Do you have any UI issues?

The adults lose their all of their social interactions. They can still interact with objects. What's more, other sims (their children) can still interact with them.

6. Were the sims traveling?

This happens every time I get the "free vacation" dialog, whether I accept or decline, whether they stay or leave.

7. How many traveling?

Two.

8. How are all travellers related?

Husband and wife.

9. Which country are the sims in?

Sunset Valley to "free vacation" rabbit hole.

10. How many days?

Two.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?

One goes missing if I force them to return using a teen party. If I do not force them to return, they will both reappear as normal except, in either situation, both adults lose the ability to do any social interaction.

12. Returning together or separate?

Together.

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?

I use NRAAS Master Controller.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?

I use NRAAS Story Progression.

15. When did the issue start?

When the dialog for "free vacation" popped up.

16. What were your sims doing?

All variety of things. I've gone through this about 6 times trying to avoid it.

17. What things have you tried

I have tried moving the family off the residential lot, sending them on vacation immediately preceding the dialog, and even playing another household. The latter action seemed to work, but when I returned to my original family, everyone in the family's interactions were bugged. They would start an action, but then suddenly be reset in the middle of it. Actions would suddenly get dropped from their queue's. Sometimes they could complete certain actions, like "walk here" or "silly face" but others they could never complete, like "throw party." Whether you could actually get enough time to complete an action or not before it reset seemed to be random.

All other family's in the neighborhood, as far as I could tell, were normal. Only this one family in particular gets shafted with this bug.

18. What worked?

Edit Oct 3: Figured out a way around it.

I had saved a few sim days before the bug occurred, Tuesday, and the bug always happened on Thursday afternoon. So before the bug could occur, I packaged up the house and family, then evicted the current family and bulldozed the lot, and then placed the packaged family and house in its place. The evicted family I deleted which meant that I did lose relationships with all my relatives/friends in the neighborhood, but this seemed to stop the bug from happening. I still got the dialog to go on a free vacation on Thursday, but when I clicked decline this time, my adult sims did not lose the ability to do social interactions.

19. What didn't work?

Hitting decline on the free vacation dialog box.
ResetSim.
Moving affected adults out, then back in.
Moving the entire family out, destroying the lot, and placing a new one (hangs on the lot placement stage until I have to force close the game.)
Playing a different family when the "free vacation" dialog is scheduled to pop up.
Removing CC.
Forcing them to age transition with Master Controller.

20. Anything else you would like to add?

My computer exceeds the recommended spec, it's definitely nothing to do with that.

Arran

8th Oct 2011, 01:01 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?

World Adventures
Ambitions
Late Night
Generations
High-End Loft Stuff
Fast Lane Stuff
Outdoor Living Stuff
Town Life Stuff

2. What game version/patch level?
1.24 For PC

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?

1 Sim wich i use the most as played Sims thusfar... (My Main Sim)

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Only a green Icon without a face

5. Do you have any UI issues?

No Sim Panel, nor buttons work, cant even quit by using CTRL-Shift-C > quit

6. Were the sims traveling?
YEs, it happens only when i try to travel abroad

7. How many traveling?
Tried several combinations, but allways happens when main sims is present..

8. How are all travellers related?
Only Main Sim is working too a degree in group, rest are unselectable, and even relations/marriage is suddely gone and they are enemies (full red realtion bar)

9. Which country are the sims in?
Happens in France, China and Egypt

10. How many days?
IT starts on arival in any country

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Dont get that far when bug appears

12. Returning together or separate?
see 11

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
Nraas Supercomputer Mods

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA Story Progression at first, tried Twallans, same result..

15. When did the issue start?
As soon i go on my first vacation..

16. What were your sims doing?
At first Daughter was at school, main Sims free from work doing nothing...

17. What things have you tried
Switiching famelies, tried different destinations, Lot Reset, Sim Reset, World Reset, Used Nraas nearly every option.. As long Main sim is coming along it keeps appearing..

18. What worked?
Leaving Main Sim at home, and travel with only the Daughter works just fine, so problem seems with me with only one Sims thusfar (havent really played much further since i discovered the problem..
Any other sim seems too work, new game and travel right away works, problem seems too be on one sims so far.. Havent tested if it spreads out too other sims when i keep playing...

19. What didn't work?
Everything that includes Main Sim, resetting, cheating, Custom SP mods, Removing and adding household from the world, placing them into a other world and back, nothing seems too work as long Main Sim is included...

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
My household consists out of 2 Sims, Father and Teen Daughter, as long i dont travel with them too abroad, the game runs fine everything seems too work..
But as soon i travel with the father(mainsim) he becomes or invisable but playable, or becomes visible but i have no Info Panels, and scrolling is weird like camera is on focus sim..
After Reset Sim when he is invisible, he looses all his traits and clothing and a generic look is created, relations are reset too zero, and household is broken up, panels still missing..
Resetting When he is visible doesnt do anything, problem keeps persistent..
When i let him return home by Phone, things gets back too normal, panels are back...

I havent encountered this before with other households, but i do get often in China that the game keeps freezing for a few seconds then Unfreezes again.
A resetSim * fixes it for a couple of minutes and then it seems too return again, thus i have too keep using ResetSim * too keep China playable...
It doesnt seem too occur in France and Egypt...

Now that i think of it, i have been trying too Impregnate several female Sims with my FatherSim, making the females cheat on their Husbands, but i never was able too ever inpregante any sim with him, not even after his Fertality Reward added.. He allmost seems sterilized..
Even used Nraas cheat too add Fertility on his "victims" so both are very Fertile, but nothing happens, even after 10 attempts in a row to make a baby..
(yes my FatherSim can be very pursuave too the other Sexe ;) ) nothing happens..
While the daughter i have too keep a close eye on, she gets pregnant allmost allready on her first date without me even looking (yes i use the Teen Pregancy Mod, and autonomic Teen Woohoo)..

AnneFrank

9th Oct 2011, 07:02 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
WA, Outdoor, Generations, Ambitions, High End Loft, Late Night
2. What game version/patch level?
1.24 patched.
3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
1
4. Do they have an icon or not?
1
5. Do you have any UI issues?
I don't think so? I can't select him or do anything with him. I can command him until I unclick him. He doesn't do the commands. He just stands there talking to an invisible person for a while.
6. Were the sims traveling?
No
7. How many traveling?
8. How are all travellers related?
9. Which country are the sims in?
10. How many days?
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
12. Returning together or separate?
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No.
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA.
15. When did the issue start?
Maybe today or yesterday. He wasn't even in my active household. I moved him out, played with my active household, never played him, and then stopped being able to communicate with him due to "work" all the time. Changed active household to his, and realized, he's gone. I moved him and then he re-appeared and i had to re-build relationships and etc.

Then I went to theatre to get his band together to perform (to build relationships back up with them) and then he got stuck. Couldn't select anybody, couldn't do anything, and I saved...
16. What were your sims doing?
In front of the threatre having just put his portable Piano back in his inventory (the selection issues started before that.
17. What things have you tried
Reset sim. Moving. Evicting. Splitting household.
18. What worked?
For him going missing, moving helped.

Nothing is fixing this issue with him being stuck.

[Edit]: Praise Jesus (or in this case Twallan.) I downloaded Master Controller and Overwatch and none of the things helped. Downloaded ErrorTrap and Debug Enabler, and it just worked. Didn't do a thing. 9pm in the game, loaded the save file, and all was fixed and heavenly.
19. What didn't work?
Reset Sim. Moveobjects on. Moving. Evicting. Splitting household. Removing all CC/mods. My backup file isn't far off from the incident (1 minute apart real world.) Master Controller & Overwatch.
20. Anything else you would like to add?
Removing all CC/mods basically creates a clone in his place, and when moving him in Build/Buy he's labeled as "Sim" with a black ball as a portrait unlike the rest of the people. He becomes a random NPC with a random name, one was a tattoo artist. I could communicate with him, and the first time I loaded it, he went from the theatre to go to a random empty house and disapear.

Putting the mods back in allows me to have his icon and to attempt to figure things out from there. I was using a Non-Autonomous Romance Mod which allowed same sex Try For Baby. This Sim was created by my Sims through opposite sex Try for Baby along with his Twin (who is functional, same sex children.) That's all I can say really.

[Edit]: It's fine... for now :P

Choiseul7

11th Oct 2011, 01:50 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
All expansions up to Town Life Stuff

2. What game version/patch level?
9.0.73.012017

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
1

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No

5. Do you have any UI issues?
No

6. Were the sims traveling?
No

7. How many traveling?
N/A

8. How are all travellers related?
N/A

9. Which country are the sims in?
N/A

10. How many days?
N/A

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
N/A

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA I think

15. When did the issue start?

16. What were your sims doing?
Don't remember, I merely saved and exited, then reloaded at a later date and the sims was missing

17. What things have you tried
reloading, deleting cache files.

18. What worked?
Nothing yet

19. What didn't work?
N/A

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
The sim appears in the other sims relationships tab, also he still appears on the family photo of the loading menu

quanli

24th Oct 2011, 08:02 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Everything up to Town Life Stuff (no Pets).

2. What game version/patch level?
1.24 (avoiding 1.26 due to possible conflicts with mods)

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
At least 5, probably many more throughout my neighborhood.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
No

5. Do you have any UI issues?
No

6. Were the sims traveling?
N/A

7. How many traveling?
N/A

8. How are all travellers related?
N/A

9. Which country are the sims in?
N/A

10. How many days?
N/A

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
N/A

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
Using both MasterController and AwesomeMod

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
Awesome Story

15. When did the issue start?
I used Twallan's Porter and tried to start fresh in a new town. Played for a few hours, doing Save As 5 times. Next day, I tried loading Save #5, 4, & 3 - they all had invisible Sims. Save #2 had no issues.

16. What were your sims doing?
Pretty much nothing, because before saving, I always did "resetSim *".

17. What things have you tried
DebugEnabler Fix Invisible Sims, fixall, ErrorTrap, Overwatch, deleting cache, travelling

18. What worked?
Travelling worked (Twallan's mods probably helped). However, my 5 Sims had random clothing, hair, and eyebrows; no makeup; some had their body/muscle sliders randomized; one had their genetics completely randomized.

19. What didn't work?
I'm not sure if "Fix Invisible Sims" is supposed to give an immediate result in the current household or not. Whenever I've tried it, I get messages in the upper right saying X number of outfits have been recovered, usually a lot of them (for townies and others in my neighborhood) but it never recovers for my immediate household before my eyes.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
While I'm glad that with the mods I use plus traveling I can get my Sims back, it's becoming very tiresome having to redo all of their clothing, makeup, sliders, and sometimes complete looks over and over again. I may have to give up on this game soon :(

I'm wondering if someone can help with this - is there some way to copy another Sim's appearance into an existing Sim? What I mean is - if I have to live with re-editing my Sims every time I do Fix Invisible Sims, can I at least make that easier by copying what I know my Sims should look like into my randomized Sim?

One thing I noticed is that using the "Edit In Cas" cheat/mod, there is no option to pick from the premade/saved Sims list like there is when creating a brand new Sim. Why is that? That would help with the process above.

Thanks!
Quanli

Thalassicus

5th Nov 2011, 02:38 AM

Base game, Ambitions, Late Night.
1.26
3 sims in my active household disappeared.
They have icons, but no plumbobs.
No travelling.
-
-
-
-
-
-
No mods.
EA story progression.
The problem started on Nov 3 2011.
One sim was playing for tips in the LN subway. The other two sims were gardening at home.
I tried resetsim and reloading.
Changing active households made them visible again.
However, after changing households the unpaid bills in the mail disappeared.
Since the bills disappeared, they could not be paid despite plenty of available funds. A repoman took a digital fishtank.
When I attempted to replace the fishtank, the game froze my computer.
After restarting the computer, the savegame gave an error message when attempting to load.
After clearing the cache I was able to load an older save file.
Reset sim did not work. Reloading a backup gave error messages when trying to load the savefile.

1. Which game(s) do you have?
2. What game version/patch level?
3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
4. Do they have an icon or not?
5. Do you have any UI issues?
6. Were the sims traveling?
7. How many traveling?
8. How are all travellers related?
9. Which country are the sims in?
10. How many days?
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
12. Returning together or separate?
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
15. When did the issue start?
16. What were your sims doing?
17. What things have you tried
18. What worked?
19. What didn't work?
20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]

Krypto16

6th Dec 2011, 11:55 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have? Base Game, World Adventures.
2. What game version/patch level? Patch lvl: 1.24 When problem started. 1.26 currently.
3. How many sims are missing/invisible? One; I have only one.
4. Do they have an icon or not? No.
5. Do you have any UI issues? Yes, its completely gone.
6. Were the sims traveling? Yes.
7. How many traveling? One.
8. How are all travellers related? There was only one.
9. Which country are the sims in? Problem started when my sim arrived in China, then just the icon was missing.
10. How many days? It started on arrival.
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over? I sent my sim home using the cellphone immediately when I first noticed the icon missing, and when I arrived home, everything was fine, but the sims wouldn't change their clothes for activites like going to bed or taking a bath.
12. Returning together or separate? Only have one.
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod? I was using Mastercontroller at the time when the sim icon first disappeared
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story? I believe I'm using EA story progression.
15. When did the issue start? Yesterday, when I arrived in China after having installed Mastercontroller a couple hours before.
16. What were your sims doing? No idea, there was no icon, so I couldn't find my sim.
17. What things have you tried? I have tried deleting Mastercontroller, updating my game, I tried deleting all files modified from the day the problem started and today, but when I did that my sim and house were missing and an error message popped up when I tried loading the file from the world/game selection.
18. What worked? Nothing.
19. What didn't work? Everything.
20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre] When the problem first started yesterday, I had patch 1.24 and I was using Mastercontroller for the first time. I traveled to China with my single sim, and noticed my sim's icon was missing, though I cold still click on things and perform actions. I used my cellphone to go home, and when I arrived, my icon was back and everything worked fine, however I tried making my sim take a bath and they entered the bath with the clothes on that they were already wearing. I saved the game, quit, and went to bed. Today, I opened the game again to the game selection menu, and on the icon where it shows you your sim, there was no one there but a dotted outline of a family, like nothing had been created, but my sim's last name was present next to the icon and my house was also visible. I loaded the game anyway to find my entire user interface gone, along with my sims icon. I couldn't find my sim or change my floor, nor could I click on anything. The cheats menu worked, and I also could get notifications like there was a 30% off sale at the supermarket. I quit without saving and deleted Mastercontroller from the EA folder, as I believe this is what caused the problem, but the game remained unchanged even with Mastercontroller gone.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

kubuntukonquerer

1st Jan 2012, 11:33 AM

1. Base game only.
2. Version: 1.0.615.00107 (old, I know, but I prefer it that way).
3. One Sim is missing.
4. They do not have an icon in the portrait panel.
5. No other 'user interface' issues - some gameplay issues.
6 - 12: No Sims were travelling. (Recall: I don't have World Adventures.)
13 & 14: No mods or custom content is installed.
15. A few days ago (in the real world).

16- 19:

A baby Sim was having a birthday part when the parent holding her died. (Somehow, she caught fire from the cake...) The mother glitched: she stayed in place for a few in-game hours, with the fire animation on and the 'expire' action being added to and canceled from her queue rapidly. Eventually I used resetsim on her. She died normally, but the daughter she was holding became 'invisible'.

Her icon was still in the portrait panel, but blank. Clicking it showed her location as the floor just inside the front door.

I tried the FAQ here, deleted my cache files, made sure I had no mods installed and tried moving houses. None of these worked. Moving made it worse.

Her icon disappeared altogether. She still appears in her family's relationships panel, family tree and portrait when I start the game as a living member of the household. But, she does not appear to be aging. She's still a baby while her twin is a child.

20. Additionally: the dead have been acting weird. I've been getting notices that so-and-so is getting older and won't be around much longer, when so-and-so is already dead.

Uh... help?

simsample

1st Jan 2012, 01:15 PM

kubuntukonquerer, that version is not a retail version. You should buy the discs and then update the game to the latest version.

basswave64

3rd Jan 2012, 02:02 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
sims3 Pets
2. What game version/patch level?
10.0.96.014001
3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
First, only 1. Then I tried evicting household/moving back in, and now 2 sims, and 2 pets are invisible
4. Do they have an icon or not?
For the First, no. Only a green square. Then, no squares/icons at all once other sims were affected
5. Do you have any UI issues?
no
6. Were the sims traveling?
no
7. How many traveling?
no
8. How are all travellers related?
n/a
9. Which country are the sims in?
10. How many days?
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
12. Returning together or separate?

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
no
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
no
15. When did the issue start?
jan 2, 2012. After loading a saved game.
16. What were your sims doing?
sleeping. The first sim just stayed in bed sleeping, but i couldnt select him and no one could interact with him.
17. What things have you tried
resetSim: nothing changed at all
deleted the bed, but the "zzzzz" of sleeping were still there and sim body disappeared
evict/move in, but then no sim could be selected. remaining 1 sim and 2 pets were visible
evict/move in after demolishing lot: same result
quit without saving then reload: no household sims/pets visible. on the "choose a game" screen, there's a dotted outline of a family and a dotted outline of a house, instead of a picture of my sims/house
18. What worked?
nothing. It all got worse after each try
19. What didn't work?
resetSim didnt work.
20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]

curlz22

13th Feb 2012, 09:10 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
ambitions, late night, generations, pets
2. What game version/patch level?
10.0.96.014001
3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
1
4. Do they have an icon or not?
no
5. Do you have any UI issues?
it's gone
6. Were the sims traveling?
no
7. How many traveling?
N/A
8. How are all travellers related?
N/A
9. Which country are the sims in?
N/A
10. How many days?
N/A
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
N/A
12. Returning together or separate?
N/A
13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
awesomemod
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
awesome
15. When did the issue start?
few days ago, only happened once, don't remember doing anything different. I'd played with all my cc and awesome for about a week and it was fine until this and the game suddenly crashed. when i started it back up again the UI was gone and so was my Sim.
16. What were your sims doing?
the mother (who disappeared) was at work and i believe the daughter was just leaving school
17. What things have you tried?
resetsim. keyboard shortcuts. everything from this page: http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Sims_3_Game_Problem . Also Twallan's master controller and debug enabler were ineffective. error trap. I also tried restoring backups.
18. What worked?
nothing, expect error trap brought back my missing sim and then gave many error trap messages then suddenly asked if i wanted to save before continuing and brought me to the edit town, when i reselected my family, I'm to click things now and make my Sims do things. HOWEVER I still have no UI.
19. What didn't work?
^
20. Anything else you would like to add?
I started a new game in a different neighbourhood and there was no problems there. Also,
I've got windows 7 and my processor is 2.20GHz and the recommendation is 2.4, not sure if that's a problem.

If anyone can help that'd be much appreciated.

Lautrec

4th Mar 2012, 01:39 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base game, world adventures, ambitions, latenight, generations, pets, plus most of the stuff packs

2. What game version/patch level?
10.0.96.015001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
Any new family I make go invisible after the third day. Every person in the family. I have also noticed that the townies start to become invisible first.

4. Do they have an icon or not?
At first they have an icon but that disappears after a few minutes.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
I have no clue what UI means.

6. Were the sims traveling?
the first time yes but not since

7. How many traveling?
4 adults it was the free two day trip but they didn't come home. THe teen that was left at home went invisible first.

8. How are all travellers related?
no

9. Which country are the sims in?
I don't really know

10. How many days?
infinite.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
never turned

12. Returning together or separate?
as above

13. Are you using SuperComputer or AwesomeMod?
I have overwatch installed, I couldn't find supercomputer

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA Story Progression, Twallan's crashed my game (I am thinking it took too much space.).

15. When did the issue start?
This issue first started when I was editing the townhouse in Latenight. I unhid the rooms and made it into a house. After that the game I was playing wouldn't switch from edit town to play mode. I had to cancel the game but after that whenever I tried to start a family they disappear. I don't want to open any of my old families in fear they will disappear also. At this time I also downloaded sims from the exchange but I have deleted most of the items and the sims.

16. What were your sims doing?
The teen was having a party in her house while the adults were on a free vaca.

17. What things have you tried?
I installed Twallan's Overwatch and debugging. I also have deleted any game and any sim that has become invisible. I am currently playing a household in which the sims were made over a year ago but are placed in a newer town. I did notice two townies my sims passed were invisible.

18. What worked?
Any sim that becomes invisible has never been seen again.

19. What didn't work?
Everything.

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
I guess the simple fact is I must have a bug and I need to find a way to fix it. I can't play because as soon as I start really playing the game my household becomes invisible. It always happens by the third day. I have lost 5 different households in the last 4 weeks and it is very tiring.

simmysimfreak

9th Mar 2012, 11:15 PM

Which game(s) do you have?
Sims 3 all EPs up until and including pets

2. What game version/patch level?
Version 10.0.96

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
1

4. Do they have an icon or not?
no

5. Do you have any UI issues?
just before the disappearance, like for an entire sim day i couldnt check her scrapbook... it wouldn't open

6. Were the sims traveling?
no

7. How many traveling?
none

8. How are all travellers related?
N/A

9. Which country are the sims in?
Bridgeport

10. How many days?
i dont know... i cant check

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
N/A

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer Twallan's MasterController+Overwatch+DebugEnabler or AwesomeMod?
just master controller

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA story progression

15. When did the issue start?
Yesterday

16. What were your sims doing?
Walking into her apartment from work, holding her dog, about to put him down then go on the computer...

17. What things have you tried
i havent tried anything yet, im still in the research fase... and its not looking good >.<

18. What worked?
N/A

19. What didn't work?
N/A

20. Anything else you would like to add?
originally she wasnt invisible... just her icon.. then when i clicked on her i couldnt use her to do anything... and then i used resetsim and then is when she disappeared, she is currently un-click-cable, un-select-able (whenever i try to select her icon it won't select) and she has disappeared.

ellacharmed

10th Mar 2012, 03:22 PM

2. What game version/patch level?
Version 10.0.96

13. Are you using SuperComputer Twallan's MasterController+Overwatch+DebugEnabler or AwesomeMod?
just master controller

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA story progression2. What about base game version?

13. Then I would suggest getting and using them as shown in the wiki to see if your issue can be solved.

14. And pick an SP mod to replace EA's buggy version.

baneen

26th Mar 2012, 11:29 AM

Helo,

I am very confused, didnt find any solutions tht can help me out. 2 of my sims are invisible i can only c the green box empty. I have installed Mod but in the packages folder the 2 files doesnot have the sims balloon.Wht can i do now to have tht "fix invisible sims" option ? Please help me out . My version is 10.0.96.

Looking forward for a solution Asap. Thnks

ellacharmed

26th Mar 2012, 02:58 PM

You mean you don't see the Nraas menu when you click on any Sim, any computer, the City Hall?

The appearance of the file icons in Windows Explorer is not important. What is important is - is the framework setup properly? Is the Intro video still playing after you've setup the framework? You've never used CC before this?

And we need to know the base game version, not Pets version as Pets won't ever get updated. Game Help:TS3_Patching Find Gameversion
It should start with a 1 (versus a 10 for Pets).

If you need help with setting up framework, perhaps you should create your own Help thread. But before you do, when you do click on that 'New Thread' button, be sure to click on all links provided especially on how to setup the CC Framework properly. If still not working, then post with all the information the FAQs asked for...and pictures.

mmt3363

23rd May 2012, 09:50 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?

All of them excluding Master Suit stuff.

2. What game version/patch level?

12.0.273.015001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?

Any sims that I try and travel to a location with disappears. I have a save file on their home lot, which reloads without issue. anytime I travel to a World Adventures location, they disappear allow with their sim panel.

4. Do they have an icon or not?

No icon. The sim panel is completely blank, like I somehow am playing in China/France/Egypt with no sims.

5. Do you have any UI issues?

They simply do not show up in the panel while in a travel location. Sometimes, the sims will take a minute loading and showing their pictures in the panel, but it seems to correct itself and play perfectly for me as long as I'm in the home world.

6. Were the sims traveling?

Yes. so far, I have only had this issue when traveling to China for the most part. For other locations, usually just reloading my home save and retraveling to the location fixes it and the sims show up. My favorite family, who has a visa level of 3 and own a house in china, can't seem to travel there anymore without their panel's disappearing. Them and the house that I designed in China do not load anymore.

7. How many traveling?

With the before mentioned family, I have tried it with both just the female, just the male, and both of them together. They do not show up in any case.

8. How are all travellers related?

They are married to each other.

9. Which country are the sims in?

China. The world itself loads, but nothing else does. If it's important at all, I had an adventure going when I had been to China with the same family previously that told me to go to France. As soon as I safely got to France without issue, the quest seemed to clear itself. I was trying to return to China to make sure I had completed the quest when, obviously, the revisiting didn't work out too well.

10. How many days?

I don't even get a day. Everything just disappears once I arrive and the edit town option responds as if I choose to edit China from the home world as in, it responds like I do not have an active game or family.

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?

NA

12. Returning together or separate?

NA

13. Are you using SuperComputer Twallan's MasterController+Overwatch+DebugEnabler or AwesomeMod?

No, I'm not. I've been warry of such heavy mods out of fear of it messing up my game, ironically.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?

EA Story Progression.

15. When did the issue start?

Yesterday. Literally, I have never had this issue before. I'm currently running the game on a brand new laptop that I built to run the sims and I never even had this issue when I was running on my old desktop that didn't have the proper RAM for all of the expansions. The only error I had then was error code 12. I have not had any save errors on this new laptop. I'm able to travel several times to a location before the empty sims panel error starts popping up.

16. What were your sims doing?

Simply traveling. Before I choose to travel, I make sure that none of the sims on the lot are doing anything.

17. What things have you tried?

So far, I haven't been able to find much information about how to fix it. I've tried clearing my caches, shuting down the game and restarting my computer and then reloading my home world dave and trying to travel to the location again to no avail.

18. What worked?

Thus far, nothing I've tried.

19. What didn't work?

Thus far, everything I've tried.

TheForsakenDead

19th Jun 2012, 10:51 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base Game and World Adventures

2. What game version/patch level?

2.17.2.016031

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
Any that travel

4. Do they have an icon or not?
Nope

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Sims not shown and unable to access any of the Sims Levels (Hunger/Clean/Etc) Also, once in a new country, I am unable to select "Quit" because it does nothing, I have to use the Task Manager and force the game to shut down

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes

7. How many traveling?
I tried just one and then two

8. How are all travellers related?
Married

9. Which country are the sims in?
I tried all three countries

10. How many days?
I just got the game, 6 was the lowest with just one traveler

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Never got that far

12. Returning together or separate?
Never got to this point

13. Are you using SuperComputer Twallan's MasterController+Overwatch+DebugEnabler or AwesomeMod?
I got DebugEnabler because of the help section

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?

I got Twallan's because of the help section

15. When did the issue start?
Whenever I travel, I just bought the game yesterday (6/18/12)

16. What were your sims doing?
Most were sitting and talking, two were at work.

17. What things have you tried
I tried uninstalling and reinstalling, leaving without saving, rebooting after uninstall and then reinstalling, cleaning out the caches, basically everything but removing custom content.

18. What worked?
Nothing

19. What didn't work?
Everything I tried

20. Anything else you would like to add?
I just want my game to work...it makes me rather sad that I can't even play the new game I got...I got it just so I would find the Sims 3 fun again since the bade game I've played everyone to full career and full every skill, I got bored...

TheForsakenDead

19th Jun 2012, 01:29 PM

17. What things have you tried
I tried uninstalling and reinstalling, leaving without saving, rebooting after uninstall and then reinstalling, cleaning out the caches, basically everything but removing custom content.

Addendum to #17:

I just tried removing all of my custom content, and none of that helped...the stuff I downloaded from the store (EA claims) is patched for the game, they said all of the stuff that downloads in the start up panel thing is good, but I removed all of that as well...I also removed all my .package files (actually I moved them onto a flash drive, but still) and I tried again (decided to do this because I wanted to see if maybe I could look them up and find updated verisons, but all of them said the verison I downloaded had already been patched up to the newest game (not the newest patch thing)) and nothing "Breaks" until I travel, all of the content that is custom works as long as I don't leave the town I'm in. I'm not sure if it's because of where I'm leaving from (Riverview) or anything, but all custom content removed (my sims are now all bald and in default suits) didn't help at all.

HazelEyes90

20th Jun 2012, 09:53 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?

All expansions, last one Showtime

2. What game version/patch level?

Base Game: 1.31.118.0515002
World Adventures: 2.12.8.009002
Ambitions: 4.5.6.009001
Late Night: 6.5.1.011031
Generations: 8.0.152.011001
Pets: 10.0.96.013001
Showtime: 12.0.273.015001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?

It depends on the time

4. Do they have an icon or not?

Yes, always, but I click on the icon and there is no Sim

5. Do you have any UI issues?

A lot: lags and crazy things happening on the game.

6. Were the sims traveling?

In the moment of the problem, no, but they have travelled to China

7. How many traveling?

3 of them, one of them alone the first time, a couple the next time

8. How are all travellers related?

Family

9. Which country are the sims in?

They travelled to China, but they are now in Bridgeport

10. How many days?

2-3 days

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?

The first time they returned earlier

12. Returning together or separate?

Together

13. Are you using SuperComputer Twallan's MasterController+Overwatch+DebugEnabler or AwesomeMod?

No

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?

EA Story Progression

15. When did the issue start?

Today, when my Sims go to the fridge and they are upstairs

16. What were your sims doing?

It happens when my Sims are upstairs and they go to the fridge

17. What things have you tried

Copying the family in edit city and then pasting it on the house again

18. What worked?

That worked

19. What didn't work?

Changing the house didn't workerd. Copying the family worked, but the problem starts again and it's crazy to start over again, since sometimes it's not about the fridge, it's just going downstairs.

20. Anything else you would like to add?

I added some community buildings from other worlds on Bridgeport and deleted some of Bridgeport ones.

TheForsakenDead

8th Jul 2012, 01:28 AM

Hey guys, I don't know if this will help anyone at all, but it helped a good handful of my friends with the same problem with traveling:

If you are trying to travel from Riverview, copy your household and their home and then put them in Sunset Valley.

Apparently, you can't leave from Riverview to travel the world, but since I discovered that and moved my Sims to Sunset Valley, I can travel to all locations with all of my sims without losing them at all.

Hope that helps a few people...If this isn't the thread to post this answer on, let me know, I'll put it else where

Menaceman44

14th Jul 2012, 11:18 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
All except for Sweet Treats and Diesel Stuff

2. What game version/patch level?
1.36.45.017002

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
None

4. Do they have an icon or not?
N/A

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yes! The entire UI is missing.

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes

7. How many traveling?
One

8. How are all travellers related?
One Sim travelling is mother and grandparent to remaining family left in home world.

9. Which country are the sims in?
Egypt

10. How many days?
Three

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
Automatically when the vacation ended.

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using Twallan's MasterController+Overwatch+DebugEnabler or AwesomeMod?
AwesomeMod

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
AwesomeStory

15. When did the issue start?
In the last few days. My Sim returned home at the end of the vacation and when the home world loaded the UI was missing and there was no active household. Time was passing as normal.

16. What were your sims doing?
At the time of the vacation ending, my Sim was exploring a tomb.

17. What things have you tried?
Exiting without saving, then reloading and attempting to return home again.
"Save As" whilst in the vacation world.

18. What worked?
N/A

19. What didn't work?
Reloading the save and "Save As"

20. Anything else you would like to add?
The mouse cursor was acting as though I should be selecting a household to play once I returned to the base world. The only parts of the the UI, other than the mouse, that function are the cheat console and the save dialogue. The save dialogue will appear if I attempt to quick the game from the Windows task bar.

twallan

20th Jul 2012, 10:28 PM

6. Were the sims traveling?
Yes

I gather you were not using [Traveler] mod ?

Quite the risk-taker, vacationing without that mod. :)

Menaceman44

21st Jul 2012, 06:32 PM

I gather you were not using [Traveler] mod ?

Quite the risk-taker, vacationing without that mod. :)

No offence, but I just cannot stand how your mods add an "Nraas" pie option to virtually everything you can click on. If those options only showed up when I had testingcheats turned on then I would be all over them, but as it is, no thank you.

twallan

22nd Jul 2012, 09:22 AM

No offence, but I just cannot stand how your mods add an "Nraas" pie option to virtually everything you can click on. If those options only showed up when I had testingcheats turned on then I would be all over them, but as it is, no thank you.

A single menu added to the City Hall, Base Camp, and Computer, versus being able to successfully travel ?

Hey, it's your call.

Hopefully Pescado will locate the error and correct it in [Awesome] for you. :)

ellacharmed

22nd Jul 2012, 07:01 PM

There's no need to even interact with the menu if you don't want to. Just let it do its corrective work whenever issues crop up and preventive work during its own routine. Just need to remember to turn off all the notifications that you don't want to be bothered about.

The other alternative is to start new games each time games get broken, uninstall WA or simply don't travel to WA destinations. It is all a matter of perspective and what would you rather do...

note to self - remember to update the wiki with [Traveler] mod and questionnaire and archive this old thread.

Menaceman44

22nd Jul 2012, 11:08 PM

I'm sorry, I'm just really OCD when it comes to stuff like this. I like my mods to run silently without any presence unless I want to see it (unless it's meant to be a visual change, obviously). I may try it out though and see if I can ignore the pie menus.
To be honest though, I'm not sure which I would find more irritating; a pie menu for a mod I actively use or a pie menu option that sits there with no intention of me ever clicking on it.
I'll shut up now because I'm way off topic and I feel that my comments are sullying the fine work that you do, twallan.

melissajoy

24th Jul 2012, 01:22 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
All except for World Adventures and Fast Lane, Sweet Treats and Diesel Stuff Packs

2. What game version/patch level?
1.36.45.017001

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
None

4. Do they have an icon or not?
N/A

5. Do you have any UI issues?
Yes, the entire UI is missing.

6. Were the sims traveling?
NO. WA is not installed.

7. How many traveling?
N/A

8. How are all travellers related?
N/A

9. Which country are the sims in?
N/A

10. How many days?
N/A

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
N/A

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using Twallan's MasterController+Overwatch+DebugEnabler or AwesomeMod?
No, I have zero mods installed

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA's base story progression

15. When did the issue start?
In real life, about a week ago.
In game, I had started a new game on a fresh install without WA and had played for about 2 hours. Saved, next time I opened it, UI was gone.

16. What were your sims doing?
I believe she was at work at the hospital (or on her way in a taxi).

17. What things have you tried?
I have tried the F10, Tab, removing all custom content, disabling official EA store content, deleting cache files, resetting all sims in the world using "resetsim *", quit without saving and reloading, quit with saving and reloading, using DebugEnabler to "forceHUD", did a complete uninstall/reinstall with updates

18. What worked?
Nothing.

19. What didn't work?
Everything I listed in #17

20. Anything else you would like to add?
This problem started for me with a legacy I'd just started, probably 20 hours or so into play. I tried everything in 17, and couldn't get it to work. So I completely unistalled everything, and did NOT reinstall WA, as this seemed to be a cause of a lot of problems with this (I was not traveling then, either). Now I have a clean install with no CC, disabled EA store content and no mods, was playing a new game for 2 hours in Starlight Shores, saved, and upon reload the UI won't reappear. Everything I provided above was about this new game file. I can't restore a backup, because I've only saved once - the backup is the same file. Anyway that anybody could help me would be very very appreciated. After a week of trying and failing to fix this, I'm close to just uninstalling it for good. Thanks. :)

twallan

24th Jul 2012, 04:59 PM

17. What things have you tried?
I have tried the F10, Tab, removing all custom content, disabling official EA store content, deleting cache files, resetting all sims in the world using "resetsim *", quit without saving and reloading, quit with saving and reloading, using DebugEnabler to "forceHUD", did a complete uninstall/reinstall with updates

Have you tried installing [ErrorTrap] ? http://nraas.wikispaces.com/ErrorTrap

:)

ellacharmed

24th Jul 2012, 05:17 PM

13. Are you using Twallan's MasterController+Overwatch+DebugEnabler or AwesomeMod?
No, I have zero mods installed

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
EA's base story progression
If you have no mods installed, please, for the love of God, try the suggestions in the Wiki and install the recommended mods!! The questionnaire is intended to help us pinpoint the issue if the mods are in place but yet do not work and the issue remains...

If you would rather not use 3rd-party mods, then I'm afraid you have to live with the issue and keep starting new games whenever the issue recurs and wait for EA.

Those are the options we are left with since EA still has not fix this.

melissajoy

24th Jul 2012, 08:55 PM

Thanks for your quick responses. I have installed MasterController, Overwatch, DebugEnabler and ErrorTrap. My UI is still missing. ErrorTrap shows me the number of errors it's finding, but doesn't do anything. DebugEnabler will allow me to use "forceHUD" now, but it exits into Edit Town and shows the lot my sim was on as unoccupied. She is still in the sim bin, unaltered from when I made her (so without the game progress). Do I need to do yet another clean uninstall/install?

spidergirl79

25th Jul 2012, 07:48 AM

Twallan, I cant begin to thank you enough for all your genius mods. Your mod overwatch saved my game when it kept pausing every 4 flipping seconds. And now its saved my game from the disappearing travelling sim glitch. (Sorry for being off topic but I came here to find help on this problem and found it)

twallan

25th Jul 2012, 04:25 PM

ErrorTrap shows me the number of errors it's finding, but doesn't do anything.

You should follow the instructions regarding [ErrorTrap] and upload the logs to my site for review. :)

melissajoy

25th Jul 2012, 08:29 PM

You should follow the instructions regarding [ErrorTrap] and upload the logs to my site for review. :)

I apologize; I hadn't seen those instructions. I appreciate your patience. I found the logs and will be uploading them ASAP.

Nikkular

30th Jul 2012, 05:18 PM

I managed to fix my issue!

My game is patched up to 1.36 (i believe), I have all the expansions up to Generations.

Now, I was playing two sims in Riverview, brother and sister. Brother has a rabbithole career, but the sister is an adventurer. She has done to China and Egypt twice, and France once already with no issue.

The sister just got home from egypt, and the brother was invisible. Well basically, he was supposed to be at work still, but I couldn't select him, his icon on the side was completely gone, but his picture was still in her relationship tab. I tried resetsim, didn't work. I then downloaded Nraas debugenabler and tried it on city hall to fix invisible sims, but it did nothing. Then I used testingcheatsenabled true, and forceHud. and that did the trick. Once i reselected them as active household, there he was standing on the porch, but i managed to retain all relationships and opportunities. He lost the promised wishes, most likely from resetting him earlier, but it's a small price to pay! I was worried I would have to get the sister to redo ALL those quests in other worlds. Oh, he seemed to have lost the guitar from his inventory too. Oh well, either way, i can play them again!

ellacharmed

31st Jul 2012, 01:08 AM

Yay! Someone who followed suggestions. :)
Thank you for the positive feedback, Nikkular.

If you haven't got the Traveler mod (also by Twallan) yet, next time you can test that before traveling to a WA destination again. Then can compare if it needs a manual intervention after the "Go Home" action, with the "forcehud" command in cheat console, when that mod is in place. Versus before you had it.

JuneJamie

1st Aug 2012, 04:20 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have? All EPs up to Showtime.
2. What game version/patch level? I am patched to 1.36
3. How many sims are missing/invisible? All or none. The interface is missing.
4. Do they have an icon or not? NA
5. Do you have any UI issues? Yes, I load into the save file and the UI is missing. It does not zoom to the family I have been playing and I have no idea if the game clock is running. This problem began after playing for a few hours last night and then the game crashed. When I tried to reload the game, I am in an overhead view of the map and there is no interacting with rabbitholes or my sims' house.
6. Were the sims traveling? No
7. How many traveling? None
8. How are all travellers related? NA
9. Which country are the sims in? NA
10. How many days? NA
11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over? NA
12. Returning together or separate? NA
13. Are you using SuperComputer Twallan's MasterController+Overwatch+DebugEnabler or AwesomeMod? MC and various other Twallan Mods. Just installed ErrorTrap and Overwatch after reading some of the comments in this forum.
14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story? Twallan's story progression
15. When did the issue start? Last night on the next load after the game crashed.
16. What were your sims doing? At the time I was waiting on a performer to show up via SimPort and though it said he would come on Monday he didn't show up that Monday so I was playing through to the next Monday. At the moment the game crashed, I had one of my sims go to visit another family I had placed in the neighborhood. About the time he arrived at that house, it crashed.
17. What things have you tried? I have tried reloading, removing all CC and mods, resetsim, F10, installing overwatch and errortrap
18. What worked? Unsolved problem
19. What didn't work? Everything, as far as I can tell.
20. Anything else you would like to add?

JuneJamie

1st Aug 2012, 05:48 AM

JuneJamie

1st Aug 2012, 06:29 AM

Another problem has seemed to crop up. My floor up and down buttons don't work properly and neither does pushing page up/page down. Sometimes it skips tot he highest or lowest floor or goes more than one floor at a time. Sometimes they don't work at all. I noticed this problem before, but it seemed minor and sometimes when my mouse batteries get low it start to multiple click. the keyboard buttons not acting properly is new though.

MonkeyS

9th Aug 2012, 12:33 PM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
I have World Adventures, Late Night, Ambitions, Generations, Pets and Showtime and most Stuff Packs

2. What game version/patch level?
I have the Sims 3 Standard Edition. I have no patches. I do not know which one is best and how it works

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
Several of the town's Sims would be missing

4. Do they have an icon or not?
-

5. Do you have any UI issues?
No

6. Were the sims traveling?
I have tried every adventure location

7. How many traveling?
One

8. How are all travellers related?
-

9. Which country are the sims in?
My sim can go home after an adventure, e.g Egypt, but cannot go back to Egypt a second time. The game goes into Egypt, to the last place I was before returning home, but the sim would not appear.

10. How many days?
I have tried three and five (I think)

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
When the vacation was over

12. Returning together or separate?
-

13. Are you using SuperComputer Twallan's MasterController+Overwatch+DebugEnabler or AwesomeMod?
None of the above.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
None of the above.

15. When did the issue start?
It started after I installed Pets.

16. What were your sims doing?
My sim does not disappear, the town's sims would disappear with their house.

17. What things have you tried
I have un-installed and then re-installed all the games a couple of times. Re-installed Windows.

18. What worked?
Nothing, as the same problem would start again.

19. What didn't work?
They same problem re-occurs over and over again.

20. Anything else you would like to add?[/pre]
The town's houses and shop and bars, library etc. would disappear as well

Menaceman44

9th Aug 2012, 01:08 PM

MonkeyS, you say you have never patched the game? How long have you had the game? Are the lots that are disappearing just becoming empty or are they turning into blue patches where the lots should be?
I would highly recommend patching your game. Open the launcher and then go to the Updates tab at the bottom. This should provide you with the patch you need to get your game up to date.

shadedgrey63

8th Sep 2012, 04:04 AM

1. Which game(s) do you have?
Base game, World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, and just installed Showtime

2. What game version/patch level?
1.38

3. How many sims are missing/invisible?
1 - somewhat, only her icon in map view is missing, as is/was her work outfit. It was awkward. =P

4. Do they have an icon or not?
At the beginning, no, but resetting the lot fixed that for the most part - now it's only
that circle above your sim in map view that's blank.

5. Do you have any UI issues?
I get them a lot unless I clear the cache every time and/or reset the town often.

6. Were the sims traveling?
No

7. How many traveling?
N/A

8. How are all travellers related?
N/A

9. Which country are the sims in?
N/A

10. How many days?
N/A

11. Did the sim(s) return via the phone prematurely or only when the vacation was over?
N/A

12. Returning together or separate?
N/A

13. Are you using SuperComputer Twallan's MasterController+Overwatch+DebugEnabler or AwesomeMod?
I am trying Twallan's DebugEnabler tonight, but I've be using MasterController and Overwatch for some time now.

14. Are you using EA Story Progression, Twallan's Story Progression, or Awesome Story?
I was using EA's Story Progression, but I just switched to Twallan's last night to try and fix my issues.

15. When did the issue start?
I've been getting some annoying issues for months, but it just got much worse a couple nights ago.

16. What were your sims doing?
She hopped out of the shower, completely nude in her missing work outfit. I stupidly saved and exited the game. The next day when I started the save, I had UI issues galore.

17. What things have you tried
Error Trap mod: other users have reported this has helped them if they let the game run past its auto-cleanup time at 3am Sim Time, and
Overwatch mod: proven effective with removing items during gameplay which can cause lag and other issues.
Refresh/Delete the Cache File
Traveler mod: to help prevent missing Sims upon Arrival or missing UI issues.
Master Controller mod: click on a Sim, Nraas > MasterController > Household > ResetLot
Debug Enabler mod:
click on a Sim (or City Hall), Nraas > DebugEnabler > Option:Sim (if Sim is clicked) > Fix Invisible Sims
open cheat console (Ctrl+Shift+C) and enter "forceHud" (requires "testingcheatsenabled true" first)

18. What worked?
All helped - but Debug Enabler's forceHud, while seeming to be a fix, changed every hair/makeup/outfit combo I gave her - the career category was no longer there, which upset me so I exited without saving.

19. What didn't work?
All helped - but fix invisible sims and forceHud, while seeming to fix everything, caused more problems.

20. Anything else you would like to add?
My powerhouse computer had lately been BSODing quite frequently, so I wonder if that somehow is related to my game problems. For the life of me, I can't seem to find the cause of the BSODs.