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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 11th May 2018 at 6:32 PM Last edited by Hoiyt : 19th Oct 2018 at 10:38 PM.

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 3, World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Showtime, Supernatural, Seasons, University Life, Island Paradise, Into the Future
Serious Error returning to hometown from University (SOLVED)
When my sim's term ends in University and he's returning home, a warning pops up saying a serious error occurred with my hometown file (from before he went to University) and it cannot be loaded. The weirdest part is that when I try to directly open that file in the game, it loads normally, but somehow when I try to go to it when returning from college the game can no longer load it. Does someone know what I can do to fix this?

I would really dread to lose it all and play the term all over again because I already altered so many sims and lots while at it that it would be really a lot of work to redo.
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Test Subject
Original Poster
#2 Old 11th May 2018 at 6:35 PM
I would post a photo of the error message here but I don't know how to do it, but it says "A serious error has occurred while loading 'hoyt14.sims3:MoonlightFalls_0x09b61110'. It is strongly recommended you restart the application"

I
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#3 Old 11th May 2018 at 9:01 PM
1. Pray.
2. Install Error Trap and Traveler from NRAAS http://nraas.wikispaces.com/ (And yes, wikispaces is closing. NRAAS is in the process of moving. )
3. Pray again
4. Try it now.

Remember that while Traveler is in, you MUST completely exit the game before either starting a new game or loading another save. Otherwise you will corrupt your world.
And it is always a good idea to have several saves for the same game. I generally keep 4 saves from the homeworld, 2 - 4 saves in a vacation world, depending on how long the vacation is, and then a save from just before traveling. It makes it far less painful if I have to revert to an earlier save.

I am Ghost. My husband is sidneydoj. I post, he downloads, and I wanted to keep my post count.
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Mad Poster
#4 Old 11th May 2018 at 9:57 PM Last edited by igazor : 12th May 2018 at 12:09 AM.
Can't really argue with any of the above helpful advice. But I will add that pretty often the "Serious Error Has Occurred" thing is caused by a required file being locked or in use when it's required to load. Sometimes even just having elements of our TS3 user game folder (in Documents) open in Windows Explorer can trigger one of these and sometimes a simple computer reboot and don't open any user game folders until the loadup or travel transition is complete clears it. Usually we see them reported when a saved game loads up, but a travel transition is very similar to that.

Or it could mean you are far too low on drive space on where you have the game and its user folder installed.

Or yes, there could be something wrong with either world in your save that Traveler and ErrorTrap might be able to help you get through.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#5 Old 11th May 2018 at 11:41 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Ghost sdoj
1. Pray.
2. Install Error Trap and Traveler from NRAAS http://nraas.wikispaces.com/ (And yes, wikispaces is closing. NRAAS is in the process of moving. )
3. Pray again
4. Try it now.

Remember that while Traveler is in, you MUST completely exit the game before either starting a new game or loading another save. Otherwise you will corrupt your world.
And it is always a good idea to have several saves for the same game. I generally keep 4 saves from the homeworld, 2 - 4 saves in a vacation world, depending on how long the vacation is, and then a save from just before traveling. It makes it far less painful if I have to revert to an earlier save.


I already had 'em both when the error first showed up so that didn't seem to help
Test Subject
Original Poster
#7 Old 12th May 2018 at 3:01 PM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
save all the altered lots into the household bin. so even if you cannot recover the save, at least you can save your lots. technically you can save the sims too.


I might try that actually, it's just my concern is that if I do that and play through college all over again, what guarantee do I have that in the end this won't happen all over again and I'll lose it all again?

It's just sooo frustrating. I literally can't play for like two days straight without having some new bug come and ruin my day Don't I hate EA at the moment lol
Test Subject
Original Poster
#8 Old 12th May 2018 at 3:05 PM
Quote: Originally posted by igazor
Can't really argue with any of the above helpful advice. But I will add that pretty often the "Serious Error Has Occurred" thing is caused by a required file being locked or in use when it's required to load. Sometimes even just having elements of our TS3 user game folder (in Documents) open in Windows Explorer can trigger one of these and sometimes a simple computer reboot and don't open any user game folders until the loadup or travel transition is complete clears it. Usually we see them reported when a saved game loads up, but a travel transition is very similar to that.

Or it could mean you are far too low on drive space on where you have the game and its user folder installed.

Or yes, there could be something wrong with either world in your save that Traveler and ErrorTrap might be able to help you get through.


Hey, thank you for your reply. I made sure I have no folders open when I launch the game and opened up lots of storage but the error won't go away. If something was wrong with either world then how come I can load 'em up normally whenever I'm not traveling between them? (like when I load up the latest saves in those worlds)
Mad Poster
#9 Old 12th May 2018 at 8:09 PM
Let's assume for the moment that it's not the world you are traveling from (Uni) when the error appears since, as you said, you could load up the world to play that last bit of Uni in the first place.

But the destination, your sims' homeworld, needs to be reconciled with the TravelDB so that when your sims land back in it, their progress while away gets accounted for in the world's nhd file. I guess that sounds like a bunch of technical jargon and isn't really helpful, but the point is that the world you are trying to land in needs to change a bit now. It's not exactly the same one you can load up from before the term took place.

There are a couple of other sources of this error that we can understand, such as save file and nhd names too long or invalid characters being used in the names of either; is that colon included above in between sims3 and MoonlightFalls really part of the save name or the nhd file name or just a part of the error message?
"hoyt14.sims3:MoonlightFalls_0x09b61110"

I tend to jump all over the files in use issue first because it's the most common cause.
http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title...or_Has_Occurred
Test Subject
Original Poster
#10 Old 12th May 2018 at 11:50 PM Last edited by Hoiyt : 13th May 2018 at 1:59 AM.
Okay so I was able to solve it without having to replay it all. Based on what solution worked, I'm assuming the problem was that the .nhd and .package files from my hometown that were saved inside my university save folder were corrupted. So I replaced it and it worked fine. If anyone reading this is going thwough the same problem, here is a way to get out of it without losing progress.

1. Make sure you have a saved game from when your sim was still in his hometown, right before he/she went to college. If you don't have one or if you saved over it, then I can't help you.

2. Open that file and send your sim(s) to college just like you had done before.

3. Once you get to the University, save your game under a new name. Then quit the game.

4. Find your saves files with the folder broswer (In mine it's C:\Users\User\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Saves ), open the folder of the save you just created and copy both files ending with .nhd and .package of you home town. In my case it was Moonlight Falls_0x09b61110.nhd and Moonlight Falls_0x09b61110ExportDB.package

5. Go to the file of the save that you're trying to debug, paste these .nhd and .package files hence replacing the corrupt ones that are already there. Now play this game normally and if your problem was the same as mine, you should be able to send your sim back home just fine.

Hope it helps somebody !
Test Subject
Original Poster
#12 Old 13th May 2018 at 2:04 AM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
This technique (replacing the nhd) is not without problems of its own. It is not recommended that you do this b/c it creates other issues such as duplicacity and dysynchronization between the sims in the nhd file and the travel package file.

If you have to recover your savegame by doing this, it is recommended that you delete all travel/export package files (so they are blank) and also in NRAAS MC, go to sims --> advanced --> total annihilation --> homeworld... and choose ALL the homeworlds other than your hometown (which you are in) and delete them. All this does is delete all and any relationships you have with those sims from other worlds b/c they might be dysynched due to using a previously older nhd homeworld replacement. (So it doesn't actually delete the sims in those homeworld, don't worry)

Prolong usage of nhd replacement will eventually completely crap out your game. I'm speaking from experience.

but other than that, yes it is always recommended to save before traveling anywhere and then save again under a new name when you reach your destination. make sure you are running error trap as well.


Hey, interesting to hear that. Since the hometown stays frozen while my sim is in college and since I picked the nhd file from right before he went to college, the two should coincide timewise. So I'm assuming I won't see any of these desynchronization problems. Everything's worked without any problems so far, but I'll keep an eye open. Thank you
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