Tips and tricks - Never too late to learn or share

[landess]

 

I recently learned if one uses the cheat 'MoveObjects On' while in build/buy mode - we can delete the bottom part of a Hot Tub so it no longer appears beneath the useable part above with no problems. The bottom part that can block an interior location is purely cosmetic and part of EA's attempt at 'reality'.

[landess]

Be careful when switching households if you are playing a Sim with a Lifetime Wish usually associated with a self employed job as those lifetime wishes will often have a Set Number of Events to complete.

 

Such as Lifeguard: Needing 50 times saving a drowning Sim, which WILL reset if you change households for any reason and these types of events cannot be cheated back.

 

Others would also have similar problems like Fireman, etc. where the player has chosen a lifetime wish attached to that profession.

 

 

[FreakyRufus]

On 4/2/2026 at 6:28 PM, landess said:

Such as Lifeguard: Needing 50 times saving a drowning Sim, which WILL reset if you change households for any reason and these types of events cannot be cheated back.

 

They can be "repaired" with NRaas Master Controller. I've had this happen with a Firefighter sim who needs to rescue 50 sims in fires, and this option in MC works for me:

 

nraas > Master Controller > Sim > Advanced > Lifetime Wish: Change Tally

 

As usual, once you change it, it might take a few minutes for it to show up. I usually unpause, switch sims, then switch back, and it now shows the correct count.

[FreakyRufus]

Too Many Skills in Skill Journal

 

If you play with aging off, or with sims made immortal in one of the many ways to do so, then you might run into a situation where your sim has so many skills that tabs can become hidden.

 

For example, the tab for Cooking is now hidden between Charisma and Gardening.

 

There are two things that can be done about this. The first, and easiest if you know exactly which skill you want to look at, is to go to your sim's skills tab, find the skill from the list, and click on the Journal button next to it.

 

 

This gets you to the tab you wanted, but now, the Charisma tab is hidden.

 

The second thing you can do to get back to a skill journal that is completely usable to view several tabs without closing it, is to go to your sim's skills tab, and click on the journal button next to the very first skill in their list, Athletic, in my sim's case. This will bring up the journal with that tab selected, and ordered so that every skill is visible.

 

 

In order to keep the tabs all accessible, always click on the tab immediately next to the current tab. This will raise the new tab to the top, and will also keep all the tabs visible.

 

Moving to the right

 

And another one

 

And another...

 

[landess]

Depending on the Extra Content/expansion packs/etc. installed - Inactive Sims may take up professions/jobs which get promotions through the selling of their work to reach a certain amount of profit before they can advance (like the player Sim), yet they will never do this on their own.

 

I've mentioned before, the game _saves_ will benefit from the player using NRaas/Basic/Inventory/Sell Item(objects) to lower the demands on the games usage of the players system, but this is also a way to 'help' other Sims advance their self-employment careers - by selling their work for them and then the game can recognize the Inactive Sims contribution to their chosen employment. Self-employed painters will place finished Art into their inventory (although we never see them actually paint) for example. Since these objects will just sit in that Sims inventory - collecting dust and creating _save_ bloat, we have options . . . .

 

Painters, Farmers, Fishermen, Inventors, (Sculpting requires the player to enter their home and 'delete' the overlapping stack of objects on the sculpting station) and other things can be accessed by the player to do 'god's' work for the game.

 

[FreakyRufus]

7 hours ago, landess said:

Painters, Farmers, Fishermen, Inventors, (Sculpting requires the player to enter their home and 'delete' the overlapping stack of objects on the sculpting station) and other things can be accessed by the player to do 'god's' work for the game.

 

Interesting. I use NRaas Register, which allows all kinds of stuff to be sold through the consignment store. I regularly see paintings from Inactives show up there. My sim buys every painting for sale from the consignment store every day, and hangs them on the walls of a basement. When the wall gets full, (I use "moveobjects on" to overstuff it), they will sell off the oldest ones (on consignment) to make room for the new ones. The paintings do increase in value slightly this way, but its not actually enough of a profit to make it worthwhile. However, my sim is also a celebrity, and the occasional celebrity discount, combined with her reputation at the consignment store for selling thousands of items there, do make it profitable.

 

I guess the main point of this rambling post is that I see lots of things from Inactives being sold through the consignment store. In addition to paintings, stuff they've found like animals and gems. I don't think I've seen fish or bugs, though, or sculptures. I occasionally see books written by Inactives.

[landess]

20 hours ago, FreakyRufus said:

I see lots of things from Inactives being sold

 

Have you checked to see if they are indeed getting promotions/leveling up. That was my main concern since so often I see 'inactives' going the self-employed route. Many times I will assign careers and then set levels and skills to complete the attempt at a reality (I'll even set their Bosses so Kinky World 'bribe' has opportunity). Mostly I do this so the Sims create work bonds with each other and my Active Sims as well. 

 

As mentioned this also falls in line with clearing out other sims inventories to help keep save bloat down. Every little bit helps me personally.

[Aouregan]

Some more general things about the Sims 3 that are not necessarily common knowledge and can help you in several regards:

 

• This game is written for 32 Bit, meaning it can never utilize more than 4 GB of physical RAM, no matter how much your machine has (This is a hard restriction, so do not fall for any mod or patch that promises otherwise. The entire game would have to be recoded on 64 Bit in order to bypass that restriction). Obviously it makes sense to not play this on a machine with only 4 GB, however, since your OS and side activities (Browser running in the background, your music app, etc.) will eat up considerable amounts of your physical RAM. Just keep this in mind when using CAW to create a fancy world, or creating overloaded cities, etc. It will very likely end up crashing out eventually for a lot of people, probably including yourself. You can do a lot of things to prevent this from happening, like restricting yourself to 3 or 4 different terrain paints (per world map, not per lot), reusing the same objects rather than 200 different ones, etc. One of the reasons I never add any kind of terrain paint to lots I export for use on other maps or for sharing.
• Delete the FeaturedItems folder in your Sims 3 documents folder and instead create a text file of the same name in the Sims 3 documents folder. Then remove that file's txt extension (You might have to fiddle with your folder view options to be able to do that, as extensions won't be shown by default). This will prevent the game from recreating that folder and filling it back up with store nonsense.
• Make it a habit to never use the launcher for anything, Start the TS3W.exe instead. The launcher piece of crap eats 1 Gig of Ram and does nothing useful. For installing content, rather extract the package file directly from any sims3pack files you have and add them to their respective folders by hand. This also works for worlds.
• Regularly purge your cache files in the Sims 3 documents folder (all package files that are named xyzCache.package). Most importantly regularly delete everything in the WorldCaches folder. Depending on how many different maps you start and drop, etc., that folder can be in the multiple tens of GB. It will speed up your startup.
• Due to the first point I mentioned here, be sparse with whacking 2k or 4k textures on everything. I tend to restrict it on Sims I actively play or interact the most with. If you have 200 sims running around in the world with 4k textures on all their clothing items and whatnot, your game will die eventually. A good way to keep control over this is to make your 4k skins or whatever non-default rather and apply them manually via MC and CAS when needed. I am very careful with using resource-demanding default replacers and those 50 sims I might never interact with in Bridgeport do not need fancy 4k textures on anything,
• Make use of the drag and drop feature for transferring textures and styles between items in both build/buy mode and CAS. It's a godsend. You want that dive bar or the random counters to fit your steampunk kitchen? This is how you will manage in 2 minutes. Want those pants to have the same pattern as your top? Drag and drop.
• Use VKDX, if you can. There is no reason not to (unless it collides with any extra shader tool you might be using).
• Delete everything in your DCBackup folder EXCEPT(!) for the file ccmerged.package. Except for that file (which will destroy your store content, if you delete it) it is all unnecessary bloat.
• Regularly empty your screenshots folder. Over x amount of pictures the game will be forced to index them.

 

EDIT: And add and paint your damn ceilings in each room. Screen shot enthusiasts will thank you.

Edited June 2 by Aouregan

[Aouregan]

On 3/31/2026 at 6:12 AM, landess said:

 

I recently learned if one uses the cheat 'MoveObjects On' while in build/buy mode - we can delete the bottom part of a Hot Tub so it no longer appears beneath the useable part above with no problems. The bottom part that can block an interior location is purely cosmetic and part of EA's attempt at 'reality'.

The same can be done with individual parts of a fireplace chimney. Can delete them separately on each floor, if where it sticks through bothers you in a specific spot. Can even move them about, if you want to keep it, just not in that place. They have zero functionality.
If you fiddle around with a deck to place the hot tub on or so, then remove the bottom part, then move the remaining top part to the floor or on your terrace, you can also have hot tubs in Bridgeport's penthouses, if that is your jam. It sure is mine
AlwaysAllowBuildBuy should allow you for placing hot tubs in restricted areas, too. Has been a while since I tried that, tho.

 

Anywho, open the console and simply type "help" in order to get a list of all commands with explanations. The list is more exhaustive if you enable debug cheats first.

Edited June 2 by Aouregan

[Aouregan]

On 4/3/2026 at 2:28 AM, landess said:

Be careful when switching households if you are playing a Sim with a Lifetime Wish usually associated with a self employed job as those lifetime wishes will often have a Set Number of Events to complete.

 

Such as Lifeguard: Needing 50 times saving a drowning Sim, which WILL reset if you change households for any reason and these types of events cannot be cheated back.

 

Others would also have similar problems like Fireman, etc. where the player has chosen a lifetime wish attached to that profession.

 

 

 

If you have NRAAS master controller AND the cheat module for it, there is the option to adjust the lifetime wish tally.

But yeah, those will reset if you move town or change active family. You can add those numbers back with the MC cheat module.

Believe me, you will want the cheat addon for MC anyway, once you see what you can do with it. Add / remove family members without interfering with the game engine... that thing is your jam, pluys a million other things. I need it when I return a family to a town where one of the family members is an inhabitant, cause the game will more often than not link the family relationship wrong, so simply annihilating that duplicate character will not help. Kids will suddenly be linked to the townie and not your household member, etc. With this addon I can simply reassign parentship relations and whatnot. There is a million things it allows you to do. I can skip going to the bugfest that is sims university, cause this allows me to immediately add one or multiple degrees, etc. I can even set the scores for the degrees. Technically it makes no difference, since time stops in your homeworld anyway during uni attendance.
https://www.nraas.net/community/MasterController-Cheats

Edited June 2 by Aouregan

[landess]

2 hours ago, Aouregan said:

time stops in your homeworld anyway during uni attendance

 

I play with aging off and treat each save like a TV sitcom/drama. This allows me to customize each and every Sim which crosses my path, including role Sims, etc.

 

I used to try that with aging on but with constant aging up and EA's inability to dress a Sim beyond RNG'ing the player's wardrobe options - I gave up on that except for one save only so it isn't a constant abuse of my sensibilities.

 

As far as cheats - I have my fair share and use less and less of them beyond 'setting' up a new save series and occasionally fixing the always present bugs that rear their ugly heads when least expected.

 

 

 

Kill it! Kill it with fire!        EA dressing sims is a nightmare.

 

[Aouregan]

12 minutes ago, landess said:

 

I play with aging off and treat each save like a TV sitcom/drama. This allows me to customize each and every Sim which crosses my path, including role Sims, etc.

 

I used to try that with aging on but with constant aging up and EA's inability to dress a Sim beyond RNG'ing the player's wardrobe options - I gave up on that except for one save only so it isn't a constant abuse of my sensibilities.

 

As far as cheats - I have my fair share and use less and less of them beyond 'setting' up a new save series and occasionally fixing the always present bugs that rear their ugly heads when least expected.

 

 

 

Kill it! Kill it with fire!        EA dressing sims is a nightmare.

 

I dread every aging up, especially with Into the Future active ( I need it for the build pieces).
It is a nightmare to see what happens to them, especially in naked outfits it tends to go just batshit crazy XD
Like, it always wants to add boots. I dunno why, but the game always adds boots to the naked outfits.
But eh. MC CAS is just four mouse clicks away. I swallow it up and do my job.

 

For my usual games I also tend to play aging off or veeery long frames, cause I do not want to deal with an overpopulated Bridgeport. That is hell.
But I do need some kind of aging going. Where else am I gonna get my students for the D'Armand School for Wayward Girls?
Pre-creating teens according to your wishes is fun, for a bit. I like the randomness, tho.

Edited June 2 by Aouregan