Complex save data

[TurdFerguson666]

The most recent version of WW (176c) and Sims 4 version 1.98.158.1020 have been consistently generating a WW error about the complex save data failing to load. I have been having this issue since last weekend. This is the first time I've ever had this problem (it was also in the last version of WW when I noticed the problem, and updating WW evidently did not resolve the issue either).

There was, however, a lull in which I avoided this problem, but only for a couple runs. I confirmed that with no other mods running, using WW and MCCC alone will still continue to generate this error. So it is not in any conflict with any mods I had, it appears. I would note, no exception log is generated to produce the info on the error, only the WW log.

I not only have this error appear in the notification panel, but the save I was trying to run in fact was not the current save. It reverted to what may be the last working save instead of the save I was intentionally trying to load. I don't know if that is a significant indicator, but this is what I keep seeing when it happens. This would generally be problematic and gamebreaking for the fact that progression is lost.

I have never gotten into the habit of saving via world save, FTR. Only during gameplay. When I load, I use the resume button from the main menu screen to ensure I should be loading directly to the sim I'm playing. However, even loading earlier saves manually as part of my troubleshooting attempts will also still generate this error anyway.

I once had a short-lived experience in a couple of runs when I didn't have the issue. But once again it persisted so I don't know how or what keeps causing it. Initially, I had the idea of running a new game, then loading the original save. The first time around it seemed to work. The second time I encountered the issue, I repeated the same experiment, and the results weren't repeatable.

All in all, I'm at a loss as to how/what is causing the error and results to appear, but it's making me frustrated.

[justintyme985]

16 minutes ago, TurdFerguson666 said:

The most recent version of WW (176c) and Sims 4 version 1.98.158.1020 have been consistently generating a WW error about the complex save data failing to load. I have been having this issue since last weekend. This is the first time I've ever had this problem (it was also in the last version of WW when I noticed the problem, and updating WW evidently did not resolve the issue either).

There was, however, a lull in which I avoided this problem, but only for a couple runs. I confirmed that with no other mods running, using WW and MCCC alone will still continue to generate this error. So it is not in any conflict with any mods I had, it appears. I would note, no exception log is generated to produce the info on the error, only the WW log.

I not only have this error appear in the notification panel, but the save I was trying to run in fact was not the current save. It reverted to what may be the last working save instead of the save I was intentionally trying to load. I don't know if that is a significant indicator, but this is what I keep seeing when it happens. This would generally be problematic and gamebreaking for the fact that progression is lost.

I have never gotten into the habit of saving via world save, FTR. Only during gameplay. When I load, I use the resume button from the main menu screen to ensure I should be loading directly to the sim I'm playing. However, even loading earlier saves manually as part of my troubleshooting attempts will also still generate this error anyway.

I once had a short-lived experience in a couple of runs when I didn't have the issue. But once again it persisted so I don't know how or what keeps causing it. Initially, I had the idea of running a new game, then loading the original save. The first time around it seemed to work. The second time I encountered the issue, I repeated the same experiment, and the results weren't repeatable.

All in all, I'm at a loss as to how/what is causing the error and results to appear, but it's making me frustrated.

It almost sounds like your data got corrupted. Have you tried to delete the WickedWhimsMod folder in your save folder and loading into your game to see if the error persists?

[TurdFerguson666]

13 hours ago, justintyme985 said:

It almost sounds like your data got corrupted. Have you tried to delete the WickedWhimsMod folder in your save folder and loading into your game to see if the error persists?

The folder that is NOT supposed to have files and folders deleted?

That would be a conundrum.

[mcromance]

24 minutes ago, TurdFerguson666 said:

The folder that is NOT supposed to have files and folders deleted?

That would be a conundrum.

 

If you delete the whole folder WW will generate new one with default settings as it never existed in game before.

If you only delete one or more files inside the folder and then play game it would mess up WW settings and cause issues.

[justintyme985]

4 hours ago, TurdFerguson666 said:

The folder that is NOT supposed to have files and folders deleted?

That would be a conundrum.

The one in your SAVES folder, not your MODS folder.

 

WW will generate a new one if you delete the whole folder.

Edited June 18, 2023 by justintyme985

[TurdFerguson666]

31 minutes ago, justintyme985 said:

The one in your SAVES folder, not your MODS folder.

 

WW will generate a new one if you delete the whole folder.

I never implied nor mentioned the mods folder, which would be an absurd assumption here as that would delete the mod itself. They were already pretty clear.

I'm pointing out that particular folder has a blank extension file, entitled: "_DO_NOT_DELETE_FOLDER_OR_FILES_".

It has instructions readable in any text editor as if the title weren't enough, "Do not delete this folder or any files/folders in this folder." Hence the conundrum of the suggestion.

[justintyme985]

1 hour ago, TurdFerguson666 said:

I never implied nor mentioned the mods folder, which would be an absurd assumption here as that would delete the mod itself. They were already pretty clear.

I'm pointing out that particular folder has a blank extension file, entitled: "_DO_NOT_DELETE_FOLDER_OR_FILES_".

It has instructions readable in any text editor as if the title weren't enough, "Do not delete this folder or any files/folders in this folder." Hence the conundrum of the suggestion.

LOL.. yeah it wasn't you, but I've helped some people that you have to be EXTREMELY clear like that..  so I just kind of do it out of habit. Did deleting the folder and letting WW rebuild it fix your issue?

[TurdFerguson666]

1 hour ago, justintyme985 said:

LOL.. yeah it wasn't you, but I've helped some people that you have to be EXTREMELY clear like that..  so I just kind of do it out of habit. Did deleting the folder and letting WW rebuild it fix your issue?

It was pretty clear the first time around. It didn't reproduce the error message, but at the moment the save itself has been getting some overlap.

The same overlap I initially noticed earlier when a sim died and it produced duplicate headstones. Babies given birth in between that are also produced, but data is lost so they are orphaned despite being in the household they were born in with their own parents. The way the game is designed is difficult and cumbersome to correct/delete them while this pattern is emerging and expanding households to bigger sizes, among other things. I'm not having a good time.

[TurdFerguson666]

Urrrrgh

Even though that removed the error message for now, there's a consistency with failing to load the proper point in time that I last saved the game and I'm still using live mode for it. No error message is generated when I load. That was happening at the same time as the complex save error and I keep getting an overlap with orphaned sims and so on. Yet I have no problem saving individual households while using world edit. What is this madness?

[TurdFerguson666]

I do want to add, this is not a stable, permanent solution. I actually came across the same bug using a new save. I'm suspecting it has to do with it reacting to the current build items bug that kept cropping up, and I think it is conflicting with my save bug. Not having a good time.

[thellama99]

On 6/17/2023 at 4:50 PM, TurdFerguson666 said:

The most recent version of WW (176c) and Sims 4 version 1.98.158.1020 have been consistently generating a WW error about the complex save data failing to load. I have been having this issue since last weekend. This is the first time I've ever had this problem (it was also in the last version of WW when I noticed the problem, and updating WW evidently did not resolve the issue either).

There was, however, a lull in which I avoided this problem, but only for a couple runs. I confirmed that with no other mods running, using WW and MCCC alone will still continue to generate this error. So it is not in any conflict with any mods I had, it appears. I would note, no exception log is generated to produce the info on the error, only the WW log.

I not only have this error appear in the notification panel, but the save I was trying to run in fact was not the current save. It reverted to what may be the last working save instead of the save I was intentionally trying to load. I don't know if that is a significant indicator, but this is what I keep seeing when it happens. This would generally be problematic and gamebreaking for the fact that progression is lost.

I have never gotten into the habit of saving via world save, FTR. Only during gameplay. When I load, I use the resume button from the main menu screen to ensure I should be loading directly to the sim I'm playing. However, even loading earlier saves manually as part of my troubleshooting attempts will also still generate this error anyway.

I once had a short-lived experience in a couple of runs when I didn't have the issue. But once again it persisted so I don't know how or what keeps causing it. Initially, I had the idea of running a new game, then loading the original save. The first time around it seemed to work. The second time I encountered the issue, I repeated the same experiment, and the results weren't repeatable.

All in all, I'm at a loss as to how/what is causing the error and results to appear, but it's making me frustrated.

 

I get these a lot because I am messy as hell with the way that I save because of my play-testing and over-all fear of losing progress so I have so many backups lol.

 

This has always worked for me: 

you just tried going into Live Mode with any household, and then click Save As, and making a new save file under a different name? I do it all the time and it causes the error to go away?? 

 

I'll save on the world menu or during editing, close my game because I find a mod or CC I want to add or delete - and ill get the error when I log back in and I just load a household and save the game as a new name. I'm at like "Llamaverse 1580" at this point from all my re-saving. 

 

 

[TurdFerguson666]

5 hours ago, thellama99 said:

This has always worked for me: 

you just tried going into Live Mode with any household, and then click Save As, and making a new save file under a different name? I do it all the time and it causes the error to go away?? 

 

I'll save on the world menu or during editing, close my game because I find a mod or CC I want to add or delete - and ill get the error when I log back in and I just load a household and save the game as a new name. I'm at like "Llamaverse 1580" at this point from all my re-saving. 

 

 

*Ahem*
 

Quote

I have never gotten into the habit of saving via world save, FTR. Only during gameplay.

I have a new one on top of this save issue: I had just begun making a habit of saving my original game as a new game instead of overwriting the same slot. Every new slot recently has been named "SCRATCH" now, no matter what I name it. It wasn't like this after a few saves in this process when I thought I could bear with it and temporarily it worked fine a couple times I've loaded it. This time today, it happened again, not only loading what is apparently the latest "scratch" save I had saved recently, but I'm again rubberbanded back in wherever I was in whatever time it was in the last save instead of loading what should be the correct conditions when I saved this game last. The complex save data warning of course struck again as well. I have little doubt the save was corrupt upon saving.

Again, I have already used a new, fresh install of the game. It affects new, unmodded saves. And given the latest development, even if I think my original save is "clean" then modded saves as well. There is nothing else I can ascertain that WW is causing the issue, given it appears to be purely an issue with the way my games are saved through Sims 4. I have no doubt now that it's the save data that is getting corrupt when saving and when I load it, it gets read that way to a point that it raises alarms (apart from not loading under the conditions of my last save as if that were not obvious). This shouldn't be so painful.

[thellama99]

2 hours ago, TurdFerguson666 said:

*Ahem*
 

I have a new one on top of this save issue: I had just begun making a habit of saving my original game as a new game instead of overwriting the same slot. Every new slot recently has been named "SCRATCH" now, no matter what I name it. It wasn't like this after a few saves in this process when I thought I could bear with it and temporarily it worked fine a couple times I've loaded it. This time today, it happened again, not only loading what is apparently the latest "scratch" save I had saved recently, but I'm again rubberbanded back in wherever I was in whatever time it was in the last save instead of loading what should be the correct conditions when I saved this game last. The complex save data warning of course struck again as well. I have little doubt the save was corrupt upon saving.

Again, I have already used a new, fresh install of the game. It affects new, unmodded saves. And given the latest development, even if I think my original save is "clean" then modded saves as well. There is nothing else I can ascertain that WW is causing the issue, given it appears to be purely an issue with the way my games are saved through Sims 4. I have no doubt now that it's the save data that is getting corrupt when saving and when I load it, it gets read that way to a point that it raises alarms (apart from not loading under the conditions of my last save as if that were not obvious). This shouldn't be so painful.

Are you using OneDrive on your computer? It could be caused by OneDrive syncing and replacing your save games. When I had it - it made a HUGE mess of my gameplay and removing it was so helpful.

 

Are you using the latest version of the game? There have been bugs in older versions that caused this behavior.

 

This article about resetting and repairing your game may be helpful (just make sure you backup your saves and tray files etc first) - https://answers.ea.com/t5/Game-and-Mod-CC-Issues/Mod-Related-Game-doesn-t-save-Time-reset-on-transition-Part/m-p/11676887/highlight/true#M23219

[TurdFerguson666]

7 minutes ago, thellama99 said:

Are you using OneDrive on your computer? It could be caused by OneDrive syncing and replacing your save games. When I had it - it made a HUGE mess of my gameplay and removing it was so helpful.

 

Are you using the latest version of the game? There have been bugs in older versions that caused this behavior.

 

This article about resetting and repairing your game may be helpful (just make sure you backup your saves and tray files etc first) - https://answers.ea.com/t5/Game-and-Mod-CC-Issues/Mod-Related-Game-doesn-t-save-Time-reset-on-transition-Part/m-p/11676887/highlight/true#M23219

I have never used OneDrive. I have no files in it newer than 2020 and it has not even been used this whole time.

I have already posted the game version as of the post above. That version is the latest version, and this has been creeping up since the version before it since it wasn't resolved. I even updated WW and the bug still persists.

I have already explained in the posts above I have already tried to re-install a clean install of the game. Every boilerplate advice - no joy. With everything reset, my saves are still affected by however the game is saving the data and ends up being corrupted into groundhog day-like conditions.

I can tell you, that every condition I have experimented it upon was in multiple combinations with and without mods and repeated multiple times. Regardless of mods, I know that any save is vulnerable to the build item bug. The only time I can see the complex save data bug is when I'm loading a save which apparently is corrupt, whether or not the save was previously run with mods before - and for that WW has to be installed. Which means the pattern here is firstly, the save has to be corrupted somehow, and the only way I've been saving was using Save As during live play. I have almost never used the world building screen to do it and I avoid it to a point to avoid this very problem, which is now apparently unavoidable. I've also tried hard to even create a whole new save slot for it, and even tried to delete the last save to avoid any kind of residual to no avail.

With that being said, there's evidence the game itself is not able to save my saves properly somehow, independent from mods. So when I load this save that I don't know is corrupt until I load it, having WW installed clues me in that it's corrupt by saying there's complex save data issues, regardless of the condition my game is installed or whether I deleted the WW folder from the saves folder. I'm now more certain there isn't much, if at all, to be done on the WW side. I had already made a report about having save issues but I don't have any solutions from EA's side that I haven't already tried before.
 

[thellama99]

9 minutes ago, TurdFerguson666 said:

I have never used OneDrive. I have no files in it newer than 2020 and it has not even been used this whole time.

I have already posted the game version as of the post above. That version is the latest version, and this has been creeping up since the version before it since it wasn't resolved. I even updated WW and the bug still persists.

I have already explained in the posts above I have already tried to re-install a clean install of the game. Every boilerplate advice - no joy. With everything reset, my saves are still affected by however the game is saving the data and ends up being corrupted into groundhog day-like conditions.

I can tell you, that every condition I have experimented it upon was in multiple combinations with and without mods and repeated multiple times. Regardless of mods, I know that any save is vulnerable to the build item bug. The only time I can see the complex save data bug is when I'm loading a save which apparently is corrupt, whether or not the save was previously run with mods before - and for that WW has to be installed. Which means the pattern here is firstly, the save has to be corrupted somehow, and the only way I've been saving was using Save As during live play. I have almost never used the world building screen to do it and I avoid it to a point to avoid this very problem, which is now apparently unavoidable. I've also tried hard to even create a whole new save slot for it, and even tried to delete the last save to avoid any kind of residual to no avail.

With that being said, there's evidence the game itself is not able to save my saves properly somehow, independent from mods. So when I load this save that I don't know is corrupt until I load it, having WW installed clues me in that it's corrupt by saying there's complex save data issues, regardless of the condition my game is installed or whether I deleted the WW folder from the saves folder. I'm now more certain there isn't much, if at all, to be done on the WW side. I had already made a report about having save issues but I don't have any solutions from EA's side that I haven't already tried before.
 

Have you looked at your Last Exception file? https://lastexception.com/ - this is for the actual games lastexception, not the WW one. It may identify a bug.

 

Also, even though it can happen without mods - this may help: Better Exceptions by TwistedMexi - https://www.patreon.com/posts/77461329

 

It will look at your game and scan it, it's found lots of random stuff causing weird stuff in my games before (though it's generally for finding broken mods, you never know what it may find) 

 

If it were me - I would reinstall the game into a totally new location and file structure... Incase there are some residual files somewhere. I'm not expert though. There is a Sims 4 Support discord and they are very helpful and knowledgeable and you may find more help there than from EA: https://www.patreon.com/posts/sims-after-dark-50013065

 

 

 

 

[thellama99]

4 hours ago, TurdFerguson666 said:

*Ahem*
 

I have a new one on top of this save issue: I had just begun making a habit of saving my original game as a new game instead of overwriting the same slot. Every new slot recently has been named "SCRATCH" now, no matter what I name it. It wasn't like this after a few saves in this process when I thought I could bear with it and temporarily it worked fine a couple times I've loaded it. This time today, it happened again, not only loading what is apparently the latest "scratch" save I had saved recently, but I'm again rubberbanded back in wherever I was in whatever time it was in the last save instead of loading what should be the correct conditions when I saved this game last. The complex save data warning of course struck again as well. I have little doubt the save was corrupt upon saving.

Again, I have already used a new, fresh install of the game. It affects new, unmodded saves. And given the latest development, even if I think my original save is "clean" then modded saves as well. There is nothing else I can ascertain that WW is causing the issue, given it appears to be purely an issue with the way my games are saved through Sims 4. I have no doubt now that it's the save data that is getting corrupt when saving and when I load it, it gets read that way to a point that it raises alarms (apart from not loading under the conditions of my last save as if that were not obvious). This shouldn't be so painful.

I noticed that I also have a Scratch folder - so I googled it - and it's a temporary folder that holds game save data while you play and deletes itself when you close the game.

 

If your game is saving your files into there - it's going to also delete them. I did some looking around about Scratch issues and saw people commenting they were having "Groundhog Day" which is what you described.

 

Some people said they needed to run Sims 4 Studio and do a batch fix for the Trendi tag. Some people said that they would save their game and then use ctrl+alt+del to exit the game and never let it properly close through esc->exit

 

I'd look further into this but I have to go. Maybe you can find something that is helpful.

[TurdFerguson666]

51 minutes ago, thellama99 said:

If it were me - I would reinstall the game into a totally new location and file structure... Incase there are some residual files somewhere. I'm not expert though. There is a Sims 4 Support discord and they are very helpful and knowledgeable and you may find more help there than from EA: https://www.patreon.com/posts/sims-after-dark-50013065

 

I just mentioned that up above. Tried and tested. It does not work.

I treated the old install as the backup and made the EA App produce a new install so it has no residuals other than logging me in. I plugged in old saves and used newly created ones without mods and I can tell by far that when I use WW, it clearly tells me in both cases that there are complex save data errors, as well as the build item bug which are likely related.

Since everyone else has the build item bug as well, I'm convinced that it has to do with the save issue that isn't noticeable by itself unless you know where to look or use WW. That is telling me the game is buggy and has nothing to do with mods and such. Even if I had to install the "better exceptions" mod here, that's certainly not gonna change what EA doesn't already know about with the build item bug either, since it's the hot topic at this time.

[TurdFerguson666]

13 minutes ago, thellama99 said:

I noticed that I also have a Scratch folder - so I googled it - and it's a temporary folder that holds game save data while you play and deletes itself when you close the game.

 

If your game is saving your files into there - it's going to also delete them. I did some looking around about Scratch issues and saw people commenting they were having "Groundhog Day" which is what you described.

 

Some people said they needed to run Sims 4 Studio and do a batch fix for the Trendi tag. Some people said that they would save their game and then use ctrl+alt+del to exit the game and never let it properly close through esc->exit

 

I'd look further into this but I have to go. Maybe you can find something that is helpful.

Not scratch folder. My save was named "Scratch" as if it was the default name instead of what I named it.

It's not being saved in any folder. I have loaded and unloaded saves from the only part of the folder Sims 4 reads. Even if I moved the saves in a subfolder there that has no bearing or effect. The game does not read saves anywhere else.

Trendi was supposed to be patched soon after that problem came up, but that was years ago. I do not guarantee that it is even that, and rather something else.

[TurdFerguson666]

Just to follow up on this after a while: I've still seen the complex save data error appearing persistently even with the latest version of WW. I'm pretty sure also separately, the original save I've been running also runs into issues with saves that I have no explanation for. Again, the issue is with the fact that it's not saving under the exact conditions I last saved it, coupled with the annoying complex save data error (that EA devs fixed the weird item error during that time was apparently a totally separate thing, or it just didn't fix the original issue I have). To recap, basically every time I load the original save, it loads at a point from before I last saved it, not the point where I wanted to end up, and therefore lost progress since the timeline sets me back in the past. It's not been fun, but I still don't exactly know the cause of all this.

As for the complex save data issue itself, I am not sure if there is a relationship with the saving issue, but I can remedy the error itself. Albeit, there is no permanent solution to this. The idea is that I can just load and run the save after simply deleting the complex save data file that is attached to the save. That will not trigger the error simply because that file doesn't exist to be retrieved, so no error.

The stipulation I've observed is that this particular file is created each time I save the session. That sets into motion the conundrum for the next time. I am not sure if it's because the way WW creates that file causes the save file itself to be corrupt somehow, but I know both are produced upon saving. I'm not sure how critical that file is, but by deleting it and not having it loaded, I've observed no effect. Yet with it in existence for every time I load the save as is, problems arise.

Overall, it doesn't solve the whole timeline issue that I'm suffering with, but at least I know there is some issue with the complex save data file which at least produces this weird error and can manage that.

Again, I'd reiterate as mentioned previously that I had performed experiments earlier where I could produce that error on new saves (with no other CCs but WW and MCCC), so the problem is not isolated to the original save I'm running, and certainly not in conflict with any other CC. With my experience with the complex save data error, that part seems more of a WW issue. Again, I'm still at a loss how even the game has issues with saving my sessions properly, as it was a hit and miss over time (before I discovered the complex save data temporary fix). Again, I never save in any other manner but through live play. I barely touch CAS if at all, and the only time I go through the world screen is for traveling (unless that is a part of that issue somehow, which would be weird). I don't have to bother editing anything with those features for me to have the issue. Overall, this happens with no other CC but WW and MCCC, so there isn't much that could corrupt my saves unless it's those two CCs and/or the main game (the latter of which I still don't have an answer for even after refreshing my install of the game) so maybe it's something within that.

I could just keep playing new saves in the interim, but I'd be running the risk of having the same problem over time.

Edited September 13, 2023 by TurdFerguson666

[Michelangelo1]

in my case it was mc command center's settings, most likely the time speed which came in conflict with ww (idk how). so i deleted cfg files in the mods folder belonging to cmd center, then continued with the old save, played there for 10 min, saved, restarted, only to be surprised to see things finally working, the save file was updated. loaded it, everything looked like it was the last time was saved. took weeks to figure this out (!!!). i know this might unlikely solve your issue, as i understand you get this problem even without mccc. but probably smth with the speed of time, stupid guess - change the age span in the in-game menu gameplay settings, only bc it is time-related one way or another .

[TurdFerguson666]

18 hours ago, Michelangelo1 said:

in my case it was mc command center's settings, most likely the time speed which came in conflict with ww (idk how). so i deleted cfg files in the mods folder belonging to cmd center, then continued with the old save, played there for 10 min, saved, restarted, only to be surprised to see things finally working, the save file was updated. loaded it, everything looked like it was the last time was saved. took weeks to figure this out (!!!). i know this might unlikely solve your issue, as i understand you get this problem even without mccc. but probably smth with the speed of time, stupid guess - change the age span in the in-game menu gameplay settings, only bc it is time-related one way or another .

It would be nice to know the deets about that conflict.

Because I'm partial to my sims, I disable aging (through either the game options or MCCC, I'm not sure if that was through both, but I know it was set through the game options last time I checked) and I slow down time as close to real time as possible, just so it's a little more realistic. Been that way for years. Coincidentally at this time, a new version of MCCC just dropped and addresses an age span issue, which by now may factor if I update it and address that. Might as well try it anyway.

EDIT: I just tried that. Appears to make the problem worse. The complex save error thing still came up even after I deleted the file prior to loading on both times after deleting those cfg files and loading it with the refreshed one. It did seem like something that made sense at the time of suggestion, but now I'm not so sure it's related to MCCC.

Edited September 16, 2023 by TurdFerguson666