Stop! It's 12:59 a.m.!

[rescu911]

I know that between 5:00 and 5:15 the gardens do their growing things, and I expect some slight choppiness between those times. But I have recently noticed the clock "hangs," starting at exactly 12:59 every day and lasting until 1:03 a.m.

It lasts for about 3 to 5 minutes real time. Does anyone know the possible reason as far as what exactly cycles in the game at this point? I do have awesomemod and several other mods that run like a charm, and the hanging clock is only a slight annoyance. I'm just curious as to why.

[Sidheed]

I am not sure exactly what happens. It could be that there start to be changes in the sky. But this could also be when a number of the Story Event happen. When babies magically appear with families etc.

Hope that helps!

[Gangreless]

That's when all the events in town happen.

[J. M. Pescado]

The reason this happens is that this is when Story Progression performs its magic. However, in some cases, it seems to get into some very peculiar ruts of repeatedly doing the same computationally intensive actions over and over, which is why it lags. We are looking into stomping on this stupidity, but the main issue at hand is that Story Progression is defective by design, and it seems that trying to do anything to keep it from being stupid makes it thrash and scream like a toddler denied treats.

[rescu911]

. . . . We are looking into stomping on this stupidity, but the main issue at hand is that Story Progression is defective by design, and it seems that trying to do anything to keep it from being stupid makes it thrash and scream like a toddler denied treats.

LMAO! Thanks, Your Awesomeness, for the laugh and the out-friggin-standing fun you've added to this game.

I appreciate the info, everyone!

[Bethyi]

I see so much about this, posts on story progression and so on, but it's weird because I have nothing like it in my game.

My clock never stops or lags and I never have families randomly up and leave, and I don't have any mods or hacks.

[Shikonah]

I see so much about this, posts on story progression and so on, but it's weird because I have nothing like it in my game.

My clock never stops or lags and I never have families randomly up and leave, and I don't have any mods or hacks.

You have it, as you do with any game and any glitch that a patch is supposed to be fixing. The deal is, you probably just aren't paying attention, or it hasn't become something that affects you. So hope it stays that way, and don't jinx yourself, or it'll go FUBAR on you in three seconds.

[Sidheed]

Lots of people only ever noticed this as the awesome mod users would occasionally crash at that magical time. Which is why we all carry our Gris Gris bags and witching wands!

[SugaFairy]

I noticed that, too, and it bugs me to no end. Just as the stupid waiting (sometimes 2 Sim-hours!) before actions.

[Adaadami]

My friend who recently got TS3 had been complaining about a hang up at 12:59. his was rather severe, hanging up for 3 to 4 minuets at a time and doing it until around 1:30 in game

I'd warned him that it was likely due to story mode running things in the background. sure enough he called me the night after and said a new pond had appeared in his games park. Apparently its not just story mode progression its full on town altering!

[Anthoric]

I've never gotten this hang, or never noticed it....

[madmardy]

nope never seen a lag either, goes passed 1am with no problems

[Joefish]

I used to have this problem when I had the awesomod installed, but since i've switched over to the Indie Stone Mod I have absolutely no time hanging problems at all

[Simar0o]

I never paid attention to the time things occur. I never have any slowdowns or lag at all. I guess if I play long enough I would start seeing what you-all see.

[MystiTsu]

I have had and removed awesome mod. I have never had this issue. At first I thought it was having to do with the configurations of peoples machines but perhaps not. After I read this thread I watched for the hang and I get nothing. I even ran the game (I usually run it while I do other things anyway) and watched as the time rolled over while I was on this thread and still nothing. Just to experiment i put awesome mod back in and still no hang. I do not have the patch for the game. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I think it has more to do with the configuration of ones machine.

[AyaJulia]

I've put this in the wiki FAQ for how often it gets brought up. :)

It depends. I've had my own game hang at 5:00 AM for the garden one week, then the next time I start it up, no such hang happens. It seems to come and go, and may have something to do with how long you leave your game running at once? Who knows.

But it's definitely story progression at 1 AM and gardening at 5 AM. :)

[whoachica5]

I just innstalled Awesome mod today and just started noticing this today. It slows the time down very much. Mine went slow like that the first time when it hit 12:59 am and lasted until about 2:30 am. After that I played for probably 3 more sim days and only noticed it one other time, and it wasn't as severe as the first.

I noticed after the first overnight lag that in the paper about 15 (may be exaggerating, but it seemed like that or more!) households moved and 2 people had died. The next day the paper only mentioned a birth and a death. So I wonder if my story progression was playing catch-up due to the recent install of Awsomemod.

[2rki3i]

My game stopped every in game minute from 12:00 -> 12:45
Then the next Sim Day 12:00 ->12:15
Then 12:00 -> 12:04
And finally I don't even notice it. Maybe it get's better the more it happens

[Dafoe2029]

I have found that if you turn off Story progression the 1am freezing goes away.

[Richard Cunningham]

The lag is caused by awesomemod.
If Indiemod had the ctrl click on a sim or house to switch households without inventory loss I'd switch in a heartbeat.

[Gangreless]

It's not caused by awesomemod. I had the lag before I installed it. The lag is caused by story progression, because this is when all the events happen in town. That's why turning story progression off stops the lag.

[AyaJulia]

Look, think of it like this.

Without Awesomemod:
TS3: This neighborhood needs a new baby!
TS3: How about... Bachelor A!
*game generates clone of Bachelor A, minor lag ensues*

With Awesomemod:
TS3: This neighborhood needs a new baby!
AM: k.
TS3: How about... Bachelor A!
AM: That's stupid. Single bachelors don't magically get kids.
TS3: Oh. Ok, how about... Bachelor B!
AM: You really aren't listening, are you?
TS3: What about married couple C?
AM: That's fine.
*TS3 starts to clone the mother*
AM: What the hell are you doing? We don't clone, we have PARENTS.
TS3: Fine... *TS3 makes an actual baby with two parents' genetics*

Awesomemod amplifies the lag that is already there, sometimes by orders of magnitude, depending on how stupid the game is being about story progression. The lag is there, minimally, regardless of whether any mods are installed. It might drop you from 60 fps to 40 fps for a second, or it might slow your game down considerably, but whatever happens, Awesomemod amplifies it. So yes, it's caused by story progression and can be present without mods. And yes, any mod that puts checks and balances on story progression will make it worse.

[gothicvampirefr]

This is strange.. I was reading this thread, then I went into my game and made my sim upgrade her food replicator. At ~12:30 she stopped and started the interaction again which completely reset the percentage complete bar. Could this be related >_>?

[BeetleJuice]

ive never had story progression on ever and have had 1am, 3am freezing to the point my only choice is ctrl+alt+del out of the game... i've also had it where my game clock at around 7:30am until anywhere between 8:30am and on up until 10am has locked, but the game still plays, just the clock locked during those times in the mornings... both with and without mods installed that is..