Sims freeze, but animations continue.[SOLVED]

As the title suggests, this is quite an interesting predicament. I am unable to click any controls, bring up the command interface, or even click the options button, yet the game seems to be continuing (I can still see the droplets of rain outside my window and hear music and a television in the background).

I looked into this a bit further and found out this was apparently a common issue. Has anyone else encountered this, or a possible way to fix it?
For a more descriptive outlook on the subject:
Here
And here

I do NOT have any mods or custom items installed from out-of-game. Also, I'm 100% positive that I not only meet every requirement to play this, but I surpass them quite greatly. With the base game, I've had NO issues with this whatsoever, so I don't see why I'd be having them now unless it's a recent patch issue (however, I've also noticed people having this SAME problem from years back,as you will notice in the links above).

I also have tried a new world and did not get the issue for awhile (as mentioned in the second link), yet the problem seemed to follow me here, as well.

EDIT: I have also tried resetSim * but have still gotten no luck..

This sounds like a performance problem. It happens to everyone, eventually. It's caused by the number of objects loaded in memory at a given time - typically anyway. The longer you've played a particular sim, the more objects are loaded and eventually it causes a minor performance hit. There are some mods that help with this (Overwatch is one that comes to mind, I think), though even with those mods it will still happen eventually.

hexorcist wrote:This sounds like a performance problem. It happens to everyone, eventually. It's caused by the number of objects loaded in memory at a given time - typically anyway. The longer you've played a particular sim, the more objects are loaded and eventually it causes a minor performance hit. There are some mods that help with this (Overwatch is one that comes to mind, I think), though even with those mods it will still happen eventually.

Can that be possible twenty minutes into a game even? I understand this persisting after hours and hours being put onto one save, but this is becoming ridiculous. It should be noted that I have not attempted to add it to the "DEP exception list" given that, well, I don't know how. I'll also look into that Overwatch mod.

It can be possible seconds into the game. Once an object has been seen in game it is in memory as long as you're in that world - including right after opening a saved game. [Note: this isn't 100% correct, but essentially it's correct and the easiest way to explain it]

Edit: Something else you can try is using "Save As" when saving. I typically Save As after every major achievement (ie: professional level up, maxing a skill, upgrading to a bigger/better house, etc).

This happened to me some times. About 2 days ago it stayed like that for 1 or 2 minutes, so I saved as soon as I got the chance. But since then my PC is crashing when I play for some time. I tried reinstalling the game one expansion after the other, with gameplay in between.
The sims 3 + 3EP+lucky palms= crash

Off topic question, but I'm kinda confused about something with this Overwatch mod. I've never installed mods before, but following these instructions, should I have the .package file saved to BOTH the "Mods" and "Packages" folder, or just the latter?
This informs me to copy/cut while it's in the "Mods folder", but when I cut the file, it removes it from the Mods folder, the former has the .package file in both.

Just in the Packages folder, which should be in the Mods folder -- so as a directory structure it'd be: My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Mods\Packages

hexorcist wrote:Just in the Packages folder, which should be in the Mods folder -- so as a directory structure it'd be: My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Mods\Packages

Thanks for the help! It's greatly appreciated.

Edit: So far no issues after this mod has been installed. I'm not 100% certain if it is resolved yet, but it may have possibly fixed it. I should probably refer to another topic, but if you don't mind answering one more question, will I be able to install other mods along with this current one, or will I have to remove it? I'm not sure how to tell if it's a base mod, or what.

UPDATE: It seems this mod has fixed my issue all together. I've done everything that would normally cause this issue at least twenty times and I haven't had any 'lag spikes' at all. Again, thanks a lot for this!

Overwatch is the best. You can install other mods without taking this one out. I've had it ever since it came out (with updates of course) and it has solved all my lag issues; which apparently were all due to stuck sims due to EA's routing problems, as well as too many 'abandoned' cars.

The only rules when "installing" mods is that you can only have one that is labeled a "Core Mod" - having two will force one to not work. Other than that stipulation, most mods should be fairly compatible with each other -- of course, there are some exceptions. For example, if you get two mods that do the same thing, they're going to collide and cause issues.

Awesome. Not only did this fix my problem, now I have a new doorway to change my gameplay. Thanks everyone!