Had this issue after I made the decision to merge all my CC into package files, including ones originally as Sims3packs. I've heard that the game loads package files better and faster as long as there isn't much and that even if the file size is big, the game would only lag if there was a lot of them.

I've merged all my clothing, hair styles, accessories+make up, patterns and objects into separate package files (as someone mentioned to me that the merged files shouldn't go over 100 or 200 items in each one), leading to at least 2-3 packages per each of these categories. Only things I didn't merge were skin tones, mods, and store stuff (since those can't be merged at all).

Thing is now, my game won't even start. After 5 minutes on a black screen it stops responding and if doesn't, it just sits there not loading and if I click on the window it says not responding.

I've done a clean run and it runs fine. I've only run with skin tones, mods, and store stuff, and it works fine. I'm not sure what to do and I'd hate to go back to having a lot of downloads mainly in my launcher.

I was under the impression that merged files should never be more than 200 MB each or so, regardless of how many packages it takes to comprise them. Maybe I'm not remembering correctly, but could that be what's clogging things up?

Maybe you could try adding your merged packages one at a time, start the game, and see if it loads then? This sounds tedious, but you could then find if it's due to one particular merged package?

If you can isolate one merged package, see if you only have this package in your Mods folder, your game starts? If not, maybe something went wrong in the merging process?
If your game does load with the isolated merge package, maybe it's conflicting with another of your mods?

With Delphy's Dashboard, you might be able to find the conflicting files. I'd move the unmerged packages contained in the isolated merged package in the Mods folder and see if anything comes up?

*The game imposes a limit of 200MB on its own merged packages (dbc), however a package can be anysize, and the only limitation is processing time (larger takes longer) and filesystem limits.* - Quote from here

*Like I mentioned above, I try to keep the size of each merged file around 250~300MB. I found that if too many packages are merged in the same package, some of them go missing* Quote from here ...Very helpful, great ideas.

Pretty much depends on your computer's specs it seems, though I'd agree on the missing CC after merging too many together, I had this too...then again, my computer have very poor specs!

I kinda tried that with a package set I though could've been causing the problem (I knew there was a few items that conflicted, but they were all from the same creator and the minor thing was that they just share the same resources and show up just fine). I'll try the rest and see what happens.



Hrm...

Package Files:
Patterns Package: 20.1 MB
Clothing Package Sets 1,2,3, and 4: 209 MB, 190 MB, 179 MB, 269 MB
Accessories + Make up Package: 57.9 MB
Hair Package Sets 1,2, and 3: 429 MB, 318 MB, 549 MB
Objects Package Sets 1,2, and 3: 34.9 MB, 35.7 MB, 103 MB

Looks like I have some separating and remerging to do...

Personally, I would create at least 2 more hair package sets. But then again, in your case it might just be conflicted packages.

Well, someone's gotta say it...

I believe you may have a hair clog!

So I remerged all my cc hairs and got the following sizes for 6 packages:

272, 165, 157, 160, 174, and 367 MB. Surprisingly the game actually loaded after this, but it took like roughly 10 minutes for the loading screen to pass and show my save files.
I'll probably have to really figure out how to lower package 1 and 6's MB (and how many packages should be set into each exactly), and maybe make more packages for the others or something so it loads faster...

Oh if you had any idea how tedious that was to achieve...lol
No but seriously, I did this and yes, it improves loading time
I have 4 hair packages, ranging from 149MB to 190MB, and it was some workz to end up with, and so worth it .

Remerged my hair and clothes packages to roughly 9 packages each, all under 200 MB.
Game didn't load after 10 minutes. Not sure what to do, I could just revert to the files that let the game load, but 10 minutes isn't worth it....

It seems the game just doesn't like my packaged hairs at all, whether they're merged or not. It also doesn't like the store items I turned into package files either, and I can't merge them.

It didn't have this issue before. It just now refuses to load at if its there.

You CAN merge store content (even premium), but some store items are known to conflict with each other (missing accessories, mostly) because EA couldn't be arsed to check compatibility. There's a fixed ccmerged file on MATY that takes care of this. And if you haven't already done it, you need to run the .sims3pack of the store item/set through S3RC before converting it to .package in order to avoid missing text strings and other important bits.

@Fulishagirl - abnormally slow loading times might mean that you either have too much CC for your computer to handle, or there's a bad file in there somewhere. Try testing your unmerged .package files with Process Monitor and see if any files are accessed way too many times. Game files are OK, it's the CC you have to watch out for.

So far I haven't had any issues with missing CC, except with some script mods not working (I ended up leaving those unmerged).

Don't those downloads from MATY cause shops and the university to have an empty list?

So what do I do if a file is accessed too many times?

I've never had that issue. What "list" do you mean? No sims? No books in inventory?
If you see a CC file that's accessed too many times (in the tens of thousands), remove it from your game.

Edit: I haven't tried, but you may be able to also see .sims3packs if you view by extension. The option should be there.

By that, I mean when you shop at the Bot shop in the Future for example, there is literally nothing to buy. And the University schedule for your sim would also have no classes either.

If I remove the over accessed file, I'll have to download it fresh again, right?