Hello! I'm kinda-but-not-really new here, as I've visited this forum/site before and I'm pretty familiar with it, but I only registered an account just now to (hopefully) find a solution to a problem or two that I've been having. I decided to mark this post as "game performance", so hopefully that's right.

First problem: Basically, quitting the game will (sometimes) cause it to freeze on a black screen, eventually closing on it's own. After that, the game will (sometimes, usually after a hefty gaming session) generate a crash dump and a crash log to go along with it. I know it's a mod/custom content issue, as it's not a problen when playing unmodded. At first I thought it might be a mod conflict so I resolved as many as I can, but it really didn't do anything. I don't feel like doing any 50/50's with my mods as it's a small issue and it doesn't impact gameplay (I think?), I've tried to overlook it, but it REALLY started to bother me recently. I guess it's the only way to be sure though...

My second issue is just random invalid license/cipher errors happening when I try to start the game despite owning it digitally on the most well de-bugged video gaming platform ever, aka: the EA app. Once, I was even asked to log in to my EA account and then it showed the error. Love it. Usually only happens the first time I start the game after installing (and fiddling around with the game files to make the game run and look decent).

I unfortunately don't possess the crash dumps/logs mentioned in the first issue, as I've developed a habit of nuking them as soon as I see them, and I'm currently re-installing the game for the billionth time, making it unable to get my hands on more... Anyway, that's pretty much all. I hope that my first post isn't that bad or too much of a formatting eyesore!

pepsilover post_id=100821 time=1712780883 user_id=27270 wrote:sometimes, usually after a hefty gaming session

The first crash note is mostly because you run out of memory. As sims 3 is an old 32 bit game, we all encounter this now and then. Also your PC specs are relevant, how big the world is, how many Sims, mods, CC....
Max 3,7 GB during gamehplay - often even less, so

Save "as" often with nrass Saver, so you won't loose too much of progress

What do you mean with "hefty" in time?

The crash while quitting the game used to be the 'norm' for when I used to play on a laptop, requiring a Task Manager kill to quickly get out of the fullscreen lock. Most likely a performance issue, as there isn't really anything a specific conflict or bad piece of CC is going to be doing on game exit.
Possibly related to number of .package files, as they all get released out of memory? That was also a time before I knew good CC management and had hundreds of loose files.

For the license error, I'd suggest asking on EA's own Answers HQ (or look for existing threads about it) for an outright software issue like that if nobody here recognises it- but some of the same volunteers frequent both sites so you could get lucky

C-Dark wrote: ↑

April 11th, 2024, 2:15 pm

What do you mean with "hefty" in time?

Hefty, as in a few real time hours... Two hours maybe? Yesterday, after reinstalling I played for only an hour and nothing what I've described before happened. The game quit nicely and quickly and there were no crash dumps to be found in my Documents folder! These issues are very random, though, so there's not much telling. As for my PC specs, they are decent for today's standards and definitely over the top for Sims 3's times. Around 620 packages in my mods folder as of now, worlds don't seem to matter here. They all play mostly the same.

CardinalSims wrote: ↑

April 11th, 2024, 9:47 pm

Possibly related to number of .package files, as they all get released out of memory?

You know, I actually thought the exact same thing, and for now it just seems like the most logical answer here. After I've played the game for a while it just starts having trouble releasing packages from the memory, so it starts freezing and crashing during quitting, and so it creates a crash dump/log that pretty much fully blames mods/cc. As I've said this doesn't impact gameplay in any way(?), the game saves completely fine, and it loads my saves fine. It just freezes and crashes when I try to quit, something that just bothers me lately. Although I have been experiencing random crashes here and there, while editing a sim in CAS. Specifically a sim who just aged up. The game will just freeze and close mid-edit. The log after such crash is identical (at least I think it is) to the one when the game crashes upon quitting.

CardinalSims wrote: ↑

April 11th, 2024, 9:47 pm

For the license error, I'd suggest asking on EA's own Answers HQ

I did actually look on EA's Answer HQ for other people having this issue before I started this thread, but I've only found a thread from 2014 that was happening to someone in a different game, and people just recommended repairing the game in Origin (rest in pieces), but I've experienced this error right after a fresh install so I don't think that would help... This whole thing has made me wonder whether the Steam version is more/less buggy, or if both versions are equally as buggy. I'll just try to enjoy the game for now.

pepsilover wrote: ↑

April 10th, 2024, 4:28 pm

invalid license/cipher errors happening when I try to start the game

Exactly what does the error say it could just be a matter of missing required files like d3dx9_31.dll or a Visual C++ Redistributable or an outdated one.

sittingbear wrote: ↑

April 12th, 2024, 11:44 am

Exactly what does the error say

"Invalid License. Reason Code=Invalid Cipher (0x0006)" It will say exactly that, then kick me back into the EA app, and won't appear again (at least for a while). Just another thing that doesn't really affect anything but simply bugs me because of how strange it is.

pepsilover wrote: ↑

April 12th, 2024, 2:38 pm

sittingbear wrote: ↑

April 12th, 2024, 11:44 am

Exactly what does the error say

"Invalid License. Reason Code=Invalid Cipher (0x0006)" It will say exactly that, then kick me back into the EA app, and won't appear again (at least for a while). Just another thing that doesn't really affect anything but simply bugs me because of how strange it is.

Right click on the Ea App desktop icon and Run as administrator, once logged in go to your game library click on the Manage button on the Sims 3 icon and select repair.
That usually helps most people as it's best to run as an administrator when doing a game repair.

pepsilover wrote: ↑

April 12th, 2024, 11:07 am

Around 620 packages in my mods folder as of now, worlds don't seem to matter here.

That many loose packages will definitely not be doing your game any favours, beyond the quit-crash

When the game is loading .packages, it cares little for the size of the data but it does have to parse every individual file-name. Which means every single .package adds incrementally to loading screen times, as well as even the names of those packages. I always aim for < 100, but it's really just a matter of going as low as you can reasonably go.

Depending on your preferences, there are a few ways to safely merge packages.
CCMagic will merge them per-category of your creation, though it has a small learning curve to use.
Sims 3 Mod Organizer will merge everything into a single package per 1GB of content.
It can also be done manually with S3PE.

You can also keep certain things in their original form- I like to have the NRaas mods loose in their own folder, plus a folder for things I'm currently testing or newly introduced. I currently have 62 packages mostly from that, but one like CC_CAS.package is a merge of over a thousand CAS items into one file.

CardinalSims wrote: ↑

April 12th, 2024, 7:23 pm

there are a few ways to safely merge packages

I might just have to try doing that later. I'll definitely merge all my CC! I don't feel very confident in merging my mods, though.