Since I don't usually build, I hadn't noticed that missing roof. I would say to definitely report it in Crinrict's thread. EA should be able to fix whatever the conflict is, I would think, and get it to show up again. It has to be there, just no thumbnail.

I haven't run into any routing problems and am having simfests that work correctly. As for hosting, well the only venue I have hosted in is the park. Poor Panic has been the only one helping us with sending sims. It's been a busy day for me but I'm getting ready to play again. I'll send out more hosting requests but I don't aniticipate a problem, if you haven't encountered one. The call to make it final is probably okay. I agree that picture frame issue is so small it isn't woth the hassle of the EIG route.

Rukaya, I want you to know that the first time I used that exclusive venue in MVII, it showed only a black box. After trying several times to put it down and only seeing a black box, I ended up deleting it from the bin and reinstalling. I didn't redownload it, just reinstalled it into the game. After I did that, it showed up correctly.

A few pics I've taken for those looking over the world. DM, do you remember Louie Condon? He is alive and well in my game and the first pic shows him on the bull ride in CC at The Smustling Pony. Since he has the daredevil characteristic, his only choice was the crazy one, LOL.


What does a magician do in her off time? Why sing karaoke with her new husband, of course!


A tender moment for the newlyweds after their karaoke vocal.


Last but not least, Gemmy was really into the dancer at a bachelorette party. She was completely taken with him, LOL.

Gem, panic sent her singer to me for performances at both Big Show and Private Venue, Black Crystal. No luck seeing the show at either venue.

At the Big Show venue, my sim suddenly dropped to a second level far, far from a stage and people that had been in the park area of the lot with him all dropped to. The talked to each other just like they were above ground but if I tried to go up a level, it didn't work.

At the Black Crystal, I ran into the same problem you initially had. Her sim suddenly appeared by the front doors but just stood there the whole time and then poof, vanished.

Do you have Overwatch still set at the same settings I told you that I had? I ask because I checked after the show at the Black Crystal failed and I had not turned clean up concert to false in this game. I've changed it to false now but will have to try to get a sim for a concert tomorrow. I have to wrap up early tonight. If, however, you have it set at true, that shouldn't be the problem and I have no idea why the venues didn't work correctly.

Score now is that park show could be seen, Big Show, CC Event Center, and Private, The Black Crystal, did not work right and I haven't hosted at coffeehouse or live venues yet. They were working for me in Great Bear, I just don't get it.

I've reported the missing roof in both crinricts bug thread and to SimGuru Graham through twitter. Graham told me that they have been messing a bit with roof patterns and that he will ask around to see what happened.

I wanted to keep track of the remaining photoframes because in the scenario that something bigger would come up, that needed fixing, i would fix the photoframes as well. But if nothing else comes up, there is no point on spending an entire evening locating and deleting them in both files and then saving in EIG that takes so long.

Tangie don't worry about it. Most of the testing was done before i even updated the world file, when you, and DD helped me with testing the venues. And the venues was the main thing that needed testing.
After the world file was up for testing , i've been testing it all night again with DD and another friend, to make sure that everything with the venues and the world was ok. And i was even testing through the save file, so i was testing both at the same time.
Plus you've all had a little bit time in the updated files, and reported nothing exept the remaining frames.
I don't think that overstressing over five lots and testing them for weeks is needed. If there was a serious issue with them it would have come up by now.
The only thing that came up is the unicorn issue, that only affected the save file, which doesn't even have to do with the world or the venues, but more like an EA blooper, that was a really easy fix thanks to Twallans MC and MC cheats. It took me more time to load the game, than the time i spend fixing it and testing if it had indeed been fixed.
And i was extremely lucky once more with the testing response i received. In the beginning I was hoping (and actually needing) for 2 testers tops. Then you showed up, DD, Rukaya, Love, xBanan, WR with helpful tips and suggestions and i won't forget panic and even SimGuru Russkii that helped with simporting, and DM that popped in to say that he had no issues with the file either, even if he was referring to the original file.
You might feel that you didn't do much , but to me all this feedback , the help , the simporting, the tips and suggestions and even the reports on the tiniest issues possible , are priceless.
Just think about it. All those people contributing to test the functionality of 5 venues.
If EA had the same amount of help (in percentage) when BETA testing, i don't think we would ever see any bug in the Sims 3 games.

I'll leave it as is for now and if DD doesn't find anything weird I'll get it ready for upload. If you guys want to you can playtest it a bit more until then. I don't think that it's needed though.

Love the pics by the way DD, LOL @ Gemmy. The most fun part is that the guy actually looks a bit like Mike.

My grand mother has several health issues for years now. She is 84. She has developed some extra issues with her bile (no idea if it is the correct word. Blame google if it isn't) this past year, and was operated a few months ago to have stones removed from it. They also added a plastic tube to it. That tube has aparrently been blocked and she will be operated again to change that tube with a metallic one. That issue has caused her high fever, and the high fever has caused her blood pressure to skyrocket to a shocking 23. They managed to get rid of the fever in the hospital and controlled her blood pressure to something that will no longer threaten her life, and she is being operated tomorrow.
She is a psychological wreck atm as she's been crying all day and saying that she is going to die, passing all those happy thoughts and feelings to the rest of the family. She hates hospitals and she was always mortally afraid of doctors and nurses. I just hope she'll get through this and gets back home soon. Thank you all for your wishes.

DOLLDRMS1 wrote:Gem, panic sent her singer to me for performances at both Big Show and Private Venue, Black Crystal. No luck seeing the show at either venue.

At the Big Show venue, my sim suddenly dropped to a second level far, far from a stage and people that had been in the park area of the lot with him all dropped to. The talked to each other just like they were above ground but if I tried to go up a level, it didn't work.

At the Black Crystal, I ran into the same problem you initially had. Her sim suddenly appeared by the front doors but just stood there the whole time and then poof, vanished.

Do you have Overwatch still set at the same settings I told you that I had? I ask because I checked after the show at the Black Crystal failed and I had not turned clean up concert to false in this game. I've changed it to false now but will have to try to get a sim for a concert tomorrow. I have to wrap up early tonight. If, however, you have it set at true, that shouldn't be the problem and I have no idea why the venues didn't work correctly.

Score now is that park show could be seen, Big Show, CC Event Center, and Private, The Black Crystal, did not work right and I haven't hosted at coffeehouse or live venues yet. They were working for me in Great Bear, I just don't get it.

Ok quoting this to make sure i reply to everything.
The Big show venues issue, is something i've never seen or heard before.I haven't touched the interior of the lot so it's most likely a bug or It could be a random glitch, but we'll need to make sure.

Private venue now.This time when i started playing in the save file, and all the venues worked as they should, I had left OW as as it was with the default settings. So we can rule that out, as even when i did change the settings when i had the issue, it didn't fix it for me. Then i thought of error trap, as when i took the mod out, and deleted cashes and started a new game the issue was gone. As far as i know you don't have error trap. So we rule that out too. The venues worked ok in GB,in your previously installed CC, and in my updated version of CC so it's not the venues either and possibly not even the world. So back to what fixed it for me.. deleting cashe files and starting a new/other game. And the fact that in the beggining it did work for you and then broke, looks like a borked save. For now start a new game in CC and we'll test this tomorrow to see if it fixes it.

Gem, I am so sorry your dear grandmother is having so many problems with her gall bladder, hopefully the surgery will be a great help for her. The fact that her B/P is under control is great. I will keep her and your family in my prayers.
I will play some more in CC today and check for things. I will play without the save game and see if there are any differences. I agree that if EA did a thorough job of testing the game would really improve. I enjoy testing worlds that I know don't contain cc. Thank you for creating this beautiful world; it is a lot of fun, and for letting me test it.

Gem, at the end of this post you will see 2 pics. The first shows the drop down in level that occurred at the Big Show CC Event Center. I did nothing, when it would have been time for her show to start, the game did this. I tried to lighten the pic a bit in Photoshop so you could see the stage way in the background with the sims all behaving as if they were all still in the fountain area above the ground. It was bizarre. It stayed this way until her show would have been over and hosted sim would have left the premises.

The second pic simply shows panic's sim standing at the door area. You probably saw this once too often when it was happening in your game.

I have not played the save game, I am only testing the world file. I think you knew that but thought I would clarify. I also started a brand new game. The hh I'm playing is only the second hh I've been to.

I had a hard time turning CC off in my brain last night, LOL. I kept searching for answers by rerunning events in my thoughts. The first thing is that I will also need to test the park venue again. The more I thought about it, the more I think the sim I hosted at the park was done when I had put the Dreamer's Park test lot into CC, rather than the new world file for testing you put up.

Realizing the above, though, something else occurred to me. I wasn't having problems with shows at your custom venues when I placed them in a world. The problem didn't arise until I used the new testing world file. Now I'm wondering if something in exporting a world file from CAW causes something to break, if only slightly, with ST venues.

I think we can test this by having a sim play a venue in my game, should be either Black Crystal or CC Event Center. The Black Crystal is the easier of the two to see a visiting sim arrive and depart from, so that one gets my vote. I will start another new game for this, btw, as well as clearing caches. If the performer fails going to the stage again, I want to rebin the lot and then bulldoze and replace it from the new binned lot, not the one I had for testing. Then we hold another show in the venue and if it works, we'll know that for whatever reason, the lot needed to be reset, so to speak, to function.

The purpose, of course, is to see if there is a problem with being able to see shows to know whether or not a future downloader could bin and replace to fix. I don't think there is anything wrong with your lots. I'm leaning towards something with exporting from CAW causing the issue.

Preferably, we should have another tester who is only using the world file so we can see if the results can be duplicated in another game.

Okay, I'm going to go drop sims in another CC start. I hope that your grandmother is better.

Sorry, I did not install the new world, as I did not come back to the thread until now - but DD I think you are right. Since LN there is a lot of instability adding ep lots in CAW, and it may be why EA makes the game offer to add certain lots "after" a new ep comes out because of what I see as a game shift. It is obvious in just the way painting a lot goes slightly off kilter when you add finished lots to your existing worlds. Every lot I have made, when I add them to a world if I use terrain paint for sidewalks and as dirt under trees and things it moves over - generally to the right of where I originally placed it. The same thing can apply to the fact of adding premade buildings with elevators, the elevator shafts no longer line up properly - just like circular stairs no longer work properly in lots we download as well as lots in CAW worlds. I have went through the elevator and stair and painting issues with every world and lot I have tested since LN came out. It seems these even more unstable Venues are even worse affected than elevators and stairs.

So my guess is you are right. I have a feeling when these items are added in CAW there is like a double shift - one when the Creator makes the world in Eig or even in game elsewhere and adds the world to CAW, then a second shift when the user adds the new world with the already shifted Venues. It also stands to reason the users are going to see a worse scenario than a creator unless the creator downloads and installs the world off the the same file testers are using. There may not be as much a shift if the Creator just exports the file to their game, as I feel one shift happens when the file is uploaded to the media share, and another shift occurs when the user installs that file into their game.

This unstability may also be a point on why the ingame world editor lots are breaking the routing, if they move slightly to the right from where one places them in game originally - but it is just a theory brought on by the coincidence that the WE ingame also got the most unstable with the addition of LN.

But it seems to me if a reset is necessary and seeing the user does not actually fix a world - just the save file - that the game is still going to be on shaky ground if the problem still exists in the world itself. Unfortunately I have more questions and no answers, but I am wondering if it would not just be better for Gem to go back to her original files - not add the new venues, just clear the lots for them, maybe name them each the name of the Venue that needs placing there, and then offer the Venues as a download along with the save file and not in the save file.

If you think of it, EA basically does this, as the game offers to place already made lot files instead of making every new world include these files already in place.

I will be honest here, when beta testing SS - the very first problem I encountered was that thing that placed the lots, placed them all wrong and immediately made the whole of SS unstable until I fixed them all. I suggested to the team to not have the game ask to place them, which they sort of did, by placing them theirselves. I also asked why no LN clubs were added and didn't really get a answer about this at all. They did however suggest not to add any LN venues to SS due to stability issues with the beta. I just assumed it was because of it being a Beta - but later did see issues when I added just the bartender bars to the venues as well. They would work to a degree, but not usually for long. So that is also possibly playing an issue in this world as CC has bars and apts, and I know the ST venues do not seem very compatiable with either.

I think Gem can lessen that issue though a great deal not having the new venues added to this world with CAW. But again it is all theory.

I am sorry I did not come back to the thread after my last post - I just assumed where I didn't have those mods it would be pointless, as I had no intention of using MC or SP ever - so if the world needed those, I was not going to use it anyway, and just keep my old version. I only stopped in here today to see if it had finished testing and how it all worked out - shocked by DD's sims dropping like the landscape. To me the world has become real unstable as the programming should not allow that to happen to the Sims themselves. So this cannot be good and may indicate even more of the instability the Sims team hinted at in worlds with both LN and ST Venues added at CAW level.

I have played Storybook by SR and don't see this happening, but it could be because these venues are not in the CAW world, but downloaded and added to the world. It would also answer why the downloaded ones work fine in GB.

But still just a theory on my part.

I really think the best solution is keep what I have of CC, and just download Gems new Venues and add them myself. As I definitely do not want to add any instability to my game and I don't know how deep that kind of instability could go. Removing cache files might fix it - but it also might not.

thank you for that info WR. It makes me wonder though... I had the not performing issue, before ever touching the CAW file. And when i started testing the updated world with the updated save, I did not have any issues at all.
I also had a huge issue with the binder clips center in SS where it stayed "open" after a performance turning the entire area around it black. Not just the lot itself but the entire area around it. One block away and the whole area was pitch black.
So i don't think I can blame CAW for this yet.
Crinrict had the same issue with sims not performing in the SS original file.
Plus the venues were build and placed at the exact same spots. and the lots were not moved at all, not even half a tile.
I will help DD today with testing , and i'll start a new game too, to check if the world straight from CAW with the venues has that problem. But if it did , wouldn't i have a slightest issue in the save file as well? The save file itself was indeed built on the original world file with no venues and i simply added the venues from the bin. However after that, I did unninstall the original world file and installed the updated one, and i was playing on the "old" updated save file, that was, at this point, under the updated CAW world file, and i had no issues what so ever.
For tonight I'll work with a new game of CC, and i will also take out SP (DD i'd suggest you do the same)as there is a rumor over at Twallans that SP might be messing a bit with the new professions and proprietors , that can cause corrupted Simfests and crashing games. There is a slight chance that that issue might be as well messing with the venues stability in general causing the hosted performers not to perform.
if it ends up that a new game in CC has the same issue with histed performers not performing, i will go back in CAW bouldose and replace the lots as sometimes this fixes issues like that. If still the issue persists I will check if only replacing the lots in game fies it and nothing else. If that is the case, I will simply add a warning on the first page , that if anything goes wrong with the venues bouldosing and replacing will fix them.

Like I said Gem, it is just a theory.

I can not say why Crinrict had a problem in SS - but I have not yet had any problems in SS like that. But like I said I do also have the theory on Twallans OW, MC, and SP being a possible problem in SS in particular and possibly any world. I generally think he makes the best mods out there - especially the most helpful ones and the most stable - in fact for me to actually use a mod - well that's saying a lot. Unfortunately I have not been to Crinricts thread and have no idea if she uses any of those mods, even though I have seen her recommend Twallan's OW at times, so I sort of assume she may be using that one anyway - but I do know I have not had a single venue issue in SS without using any mods at all. So that could be a coincidence. I may not have played the game as thoroughly as some simmers have as I really have not been pushing the simporting receiving or sending - in fact lately I have not even logged on during play lately - so that may be a possibility also why I have yet to have any problems in SS. I only hosted two sims last week, and have not exported any of my sims period. I am just playing all the venues in town without touring. I don't really care about the stage stuff you can earn all that much anyway.

I am also playing epic aging with EA's SP, and everything happens more slowly in my game from kids aging to anything else. Heck not a single elder has expired yet and I have something like almost 6 months of sim's time in SS - I was at 25 sims weeks - so not even a baby has turned toddler yet. Last I knew there were only 3 babies born - no one has died and no one has moved out that I can see. I also notice that SS has a lot more tourists than any world I have ever played. In LN we got cars - in SS we get an overload of tourists. My sim got shooed out of the park last night by tourist who wanted her to stop practicing the guitar and leave the park. She did. I came back to find three tourists sleeping on the ground between the picnic blankets and the stage. That was weird, and something I had never seen tourist do in other worlds. Usually they just vanish off world when they are tired. So that is another change I see associated with this ep.

But I don't have ANY answers, just possibilities and most seem based on observation.

Also are you using a copy of your world that you install just like users would? You know - double click and install through the launcher? You need to do that to get the full impact and to duplicate what a user would see with your world.

But anyway - if I see anything actual I would surely let you know - but like most I am just grasping at straws from reading other posts, as I am honestly not getting the problems I see most people having - but without Twallans mods and without using your new world file or downloads - it is obvious why I won't have the same thing happen.

I am not feeling well enough for a complete uninstall/reinstall - so I am just not experimenting at present - just observing.

I know, fat lot of good that does, right? Sorry. I also flunk at humour lately also. But anyway that is all just a theory, and may mean nothing at all.

No worries WR.. I think i've found what the issue is. There is a chance that at some point that two or more proprietors might appear in a venue. If that happens right before hosting a sim, the venue gets borked and the sim hosted will not perform. It can fix it self, but if it doesn't replacing the lot solves the problem.
Crinrict does use mods in general , but she was testing for a few weeks with no mods installed.
The only issue so far i've found caused be mods is SP messing and corrupting Sim Fests . I'll let Twallan know. I was playing without SP today to test the lots with simfests, and I really missed the drama. Not to mention the Vampires that where overtaking my world.
but that must wait...9am here and i'm literally falling asleep on the keyboard..

WR, you weighing in is always good and I'm sorry to hear you still aren't at your best. I will most likely have more to say but need to get this written to Gem quickly.

Gem, we almost made it. I have only the Black Crystal left to test. All of the other venues worked perfectly, including the last show at the coffeehouse.

Apparently, simport and social went down and by the time I realized what had happened, I had my sim on the way to you for a show. It wouldn't let me cancel and I had to wait for him to get home, then try canceling again, which worked that time. I could then see your msg. to me and answered but you couldn't see it. By the time I got logged off and back in, you were already gone. It's been a marathon testing session, LOL.

I'm beat, too. I sent out a msg. asking if anyone could see it because I was going to try and finish with the Black Crystal but there was only silence. I think everyone gave up as the realization hit that simport was down. I will try again later today. I know you have to get ready for your Easter so don't feel pressured into getting on, if you really can't spare the time. I'm relatively certain that any problems that were encountered in my old save were the fault of simport. Looks like bulldozing and replacing a troubled venue will fix it, along with deleting caches for good measure.

And if there are typos in here, forgive me. I don't have oomph to reread what I wrote

Gem, sorry I wasn't able to test yesterday due to thunderstorms. We even had a small F1 tornado touch down south of us. so had my computer turned off. It looks like we may have similar weather today. Even though we have a back up battery I don't want to chance it.
DD it sounds like you were really busy. I know when I was testing earlier I didn't experience any problems but then I don't do the interactive stuff.
Reg it's good to see you. I hope you will feel better soon.

Gem, fortunately, panic came on and was kind enough to send her singer so that I could test Black Crystal. The venue performed perfectly and I could watch the show.

I'm done testing the world file. I have been most everywhere in town and hosted shows without a hitch with simported sims in all the custom venues. Since CC was thoroughly tested before it was released, if I have missed a club or something like that, it shouldn't be an issue.

The park has lost its props but I can't be sure what causes that and a downloader should be able to buy new ones easily enough, or replace the lot with a binned version of Dreamer's Park. Speaking of the park, there is a chair problem with the table that would be closest to the chess table. One of the chairs isn't close enough to use and another would apparently back up into the space of the other chair's table. Consequently, the proprietor frequently throws route failure bubbles.

Since my recommendation would be for all who plan to use the venues in combination with simporting to immediately bin the ST venues upon loading the town, you probably ought to fix that for a final release. Otherwise, a downloader will have to fix it over and over, unless they just like watching foot stomping and route failure bubbles, LOL. Of course, you could always just say to move that table up a notch and fix the one char before binning. Your call.

I'll also mention since I didn't have a single problem with a performance at a venue in this new game that I did turn the clean up concert feature to false in OW. That's the only difference in settings between the save with venue problems and this new game without any venue problems. There is no way for me to know for sure that changing the setting definitely made the difference but I'm going to leave it that way for now.

WR, I find it hard to believe that EA was originally going to issue SS without the venues already placed. That's just odd. BTW, with finishing up the testing of Gem's custom venues, it is obvious that placing them in CAW worked fine.

I also can't agree with EA's recommendation not to add LN lots to SS. I know this sounds strange but the unbearable lag and freezing issues that I had in SS virtually disappeared when I added the movie lot, a small apt. house and 2 LN clubs. In theory, adding those items should have increased those problems but no, just the opposite occurred.

I've also seen rather odd routing problems in SS. I had a singer unable to do his sing a gram because the target sim kept trying to walk into the flower box thing on the esplanade in the middle of the street. To end the turmoil I had to resetsim that target. I think street decor is probably playing a part in the lag that people are seeing. Tea said it was a good clue, anyway, and was going to start checking some of that street decor out.

Reg, I also loved your "I don't have ANY answers, etc." Isn't that true for all of us? We watch and hope we can improve our games by that observation.

Now that I can rest easy because testing is completed, I've GOT to take care of some RL stuffeths

DD, did you have any Simfests in your park? I was just wondering because my level 2 acrobat had a show in the park and I choose the venues' props when the game asked what I wanted to do. When he was done, he swiped all the props and they disappeared. They're not in his inventory, but they didn't reappear, either. Even the next day.

I sent him back to the park to perform for tips but since I took out Twallan's SP at Gem's suggestion, he only performs for about 10 seconds and then gets his queue interrupted by the "oh noes, a simbot" action. Stupid, stupid game. No wonder I refuse to play this mess without mods.

BTW, the kitten and the horse in the screenshot came to the park with another sim that's not in the picture. The kitten's name was Fred.

Yes, I've had simfests everywhere but the Big Show venue and I don't think the game has them occur in those venues.

I don't use simbots so thankfully haven't had the sim drop for the adverse reaction. I always feel sorry for simbots, LOL.

IIRC, when my sim performed at the park, he did clear the stage at performance end but I'm relatively sure the props were back the next day. I don't think they went missing until the simfest was held there. The way Gem explained it to me is that the performer clears the stage after the show and the game puts the props back after closing time for the venue. Since parks never close, there is nothing to cue the game to replace the props. It does make sense but I find it odd that it happens in some but not everyone's games. Since I've read of this happening in a vanilla game, it makes it hard to blame a mod for it.

I will say that Gem's advice to remove Twallan's SP if you want successful simfests seems to be well founded. I've been using EA SP and haven't had a problem with simfests. In testing, Gem had her first successful simfest after taking SP out. I'm sure Twallan will get it tweaked.

I have one last pic from the test game to post. Since the props disappeared in the park and I was going to host Gem's level 10 singer, Gemmy, I just had to put something on the stage so it wouldn't be bare. This was the first time I had used anything from the Katy Perry stage stuff and it's really cute. LOL, I didn't think about the bare stage until the prompt for venue or custom came up. I'm glad my hosting sim had enough money for me to buy those 3 props anyway.

I will be cheesy enough to add that like Gemmy, CC testing ended on a high note