Into the Future Real Estate Glitch

I'm having an issue in Oasis Landing with opening up the real estate tab. Whenever I try to "Check Real Estate" using the cell phone or computer in Oasis Landing, the action is cancelled after my sim tries, and the sim is reset to his previous position. This issue does not occur in present time, I have sent my sim back to the present to double check, and the real estate tab comes up with a list of purchased and purchasable properties.

Also, my sim is able to purchase properties by going directly to them. He owns a future home and also owns the robot coliseum.

I have already tried the following steps:

Restarting the game.
Restarting the computer.
Deleting the cache files. 

Also, my game is up to date with the latest 1.63 patch.

Any ideas on how to fix this issue?

EDIT: Running Windows 7 Ultimate and no Mods or CC.

Hello,

Did you check the same thing with other save game files? Maybe your current save file is corrupted somehow.

If you haven't check it yet, please check it and let us the result.

Hello Phoebe,

Thank you for the suggestion, you are indeed correct. I just started a fresh game and sent another sim to the future, and sure enough the menu pops up as it should. I also tried giving them the "future sim" lifetime reward, thinking it could be the new phone that causes the issue, but it was not.

Now for a final question... I have spent months on my sim game that has become corrupted, is there any way to resolve this issue? I don't have any prior saves that are close to his current state. Do you think moving him to a new town, or reverting the future could fix the problem?


EDIT: I have tried even my distant saves on this sim game, and they all have the same issue.

Hello,

To be honest, I've never heard of a save file corrupting itself.  Have you ever installed Mods previously (or have any on your game now)?  Any custom content (CC)?  

I urge you to try these steps from a list of ten steps I've made.  It clears your cache for the most part and un-sticks your game (plus it gets rid of unnecessary crap that can slow/weight your game down!).



5. Go to: /My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Screenshots.
If there is nothing in here, no worries!  If there are photos here, drag and drop them on to either your desktop or somewhere else, just out of this Sims 3 folder!  
Tip 1: The photos in here can be from 100kb upwards to 2-6mb each.  If you aren't using them, delete them!  If you're a storyteller, get them outta' there!  All they do is bog down your game.

6. Go to: /My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Mods.
Delete ANY mods or Custom Content you DO NOT use or need!  Talk about a load off!  We can all be .package hoarders but remember that every file has a file-size and the more unnecessary files you have, the less acceptable your game performance will be.
Tip 1: My main suggestion with any mods OR custom content is to ORGANIZE them by CATEGORY!  Example: One folder is for 'hair' the other is for 'game mods', so on and so forth.
Organize your hoards.  You will thank me later.

7. Go to: /My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/DCBackup.
Delete everything in here EXCEPT the ccmerged.package!  These files are basically backup files of all your Custom Content.  These files are not necessary for a fully functional game, thus slowing it down.  Depending on your downloading habits, you may or may not have a lot of files here.  Some people have over 1000+ files in this folder.  Interesting fact:  I had 715 files and I'd only been playing my game for FOUR DAYS.
> Sub. 7. The ccmerged.package is NOT a cache file.  This file is required for the game to run and read premium content as it is the EA's hub for XML data. It wouldn't blow up your game if you accidentally deleted it - you may just mess up your save data/s and/or make your installations unstable.  
Okay yes, deleting this file sort of does blow your game up.  Don't do it if you can help it.

8. Go to: /My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/FeaturedItems.
Congratulations!  You've found the most annoying files contained within the most annoying folder!  Delete everything in this folder.  EA places pictures of every Featured Item here and it is completely unnecessary for you to have!  
Tip 1:  You can actually make this folder totally inaccessible to EA (in other words, they won't be able to place anymore junk in this folder!)
[Right-click on the FeaturedItems folder.  Choose Properties.  Go to the 'Security' tab. Click 'edit' - you might be prompted with administrator approval.  Click on the account YOU play The Sims 3 on.  Look lower for 'Write' and click on the first check box under 'Deny'.  All boxes should check themselves, then click 'Apply'.  Poof, no more invasive file dumping!]

9. Install these two mods:  Overwatch  and  MasterController.
Link 1: http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Overwatch
Link 2: http://nraas.wikispaces.com/MasterController
The easiest way to use the Master Controller is to load up a family (perhaps even a family/save game that is acting slow or laggy), zooming out to 'Town View' and find your Town Hall. 
Click on it and select the option 'NRass' then 'Master Controller'.  A whole menu should pop up for you.  At that point, click 'Town' and then 'Reset Everything'.  Let the mod and the game do its thing, as this may take a minute.  I suggest doing this every 12 hours (basically every day you play the game).  You can do this even after making a new family or save file!


Let us know if there is any progress.  Good luck.

Thank you both for your replies! ^_^

Mods and CC are not the issue in this case as I do not have any installed. It's only the expansions + stuff packs installed.

1. Already deleted featured items, Cache files, Screenshots, and TravelDB.package.

I have no idea what could have caused the corruption in the saves, however I did find a way around it.

For those having a similar issue, I copied my sim to the library, copied his present and future home and then moved him out to a new lot. After that I moved the copy in to his house again, traveled to the future, purchased his future house again, and tried to "check real estate" And it worked! So I guess the trick is to just place a copy and play the copied sim. I didn't even need to place the copied lots.

Thanks especially to Phoebe, without that suggestion I still wouldn't know what was causing the issue!

Carlos G. wrote:

Sephymuffins wrote:Hello,

To be honest, I've never heard of a save file corrupting itself. (...)

Just a small sidenote: it is possible that savefiles can get corrupted, without any specific "interaction" of the player (= due to in-game glitches). While I don't know how widespread this is, it's still possible.

In that case you need to make a new savegame and/or even new sims, because the sims themselves might get corrupted too.

What I was basically getting at is:  there has to be a reason behind a save file becoming corrupted.  I never said that save files cannot be corrupt in general!  One of the ways it can, without specific interaction from the player like you mentioned, is if you're saving and your game crashes - this will almost ALWAYS mess your game up and more than likely corrupt the save file.  Other than that, I haven't heard of any other instances of a save file corrupting on its own (especially from time. i.e., you've had your save file for 5 years). 

I firmly believe that running outdated mods in your game can seriously mess your sims/save file up.  Many, if not all, old tuning mods will not work with 1.63 so that ups the possibility that save game corruption can be caused by mods (core mods, too). Patch 1.63 was literally released less than two weeks ago so, obviously the time-line is short and most/very few authors have had a chance to update or test anything they've made. Conflicting CC is also a huge culprit, especially if no tool is used to properly diagnose them or install them.

My point being, save file corruption is normally achieved by the actual player!  The steps I listed do help to fix some of that corruption, as there are different levels of it.  Lack of common sense when downloading en masse can render a save file virtually unusable, while sometimes it just takes a little "roughening up" to get it working again.