This has been going on for as long as I've had Into The Future. No matter what I try, my sims lie down on the dream pods then are immediately teleported to standing beside the bed. They can't sleep in the beds at all, either on home lot or in the future base camp. What happened and why does it do this?

My first idea involves an outdated mod or bad piece of CC. Have you tried it with your CC temporarily removed (And your save backed up in case you accidentally save while something is missing that should be there.)

No I haven't. That sounds very difficult though.

I had started to type this all out, and then I remembered that it's already typed out for me in the Game Problem FAQ so I'm posting the link for it.

http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title..._3_Game_Problem

If you discover that it's working properly with the CC out, one of those files is probably the cause. http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title..._Custom_Content will help you track it down. (The only thing I would add to that is that when you get down to the point where you are testing the files by putting half of them in at one time, put all your most important files into the first group (as long as you can still divide your files into two approximately equal groups.) And remember that some mods have other files that are required, so make sure that those all stay together. If it works with the important files all in, then whatever you are going to have to take out won't be as painful. If not, you're getting the bad news early. And once you've tested all the files that you would rather not have to live without, you have more freedom to just get rid of everything else if you're tired of testing.)

Edit: As long as I'm finding links in the wiki, I decided to find the one for making a backup. http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title...lp:TS3_Back_Ups This is how to make a complete backup, although you in your case you probably only need to do the saves folder.

Ok so...I'm going to be perfectly honest. I read it and I still have no idea what to do. Is there a video of it? I learn a lot better watching than just reading.

I don't think there is a video. Sorry.

Ok, we will just skip to the most drastic step that you can take short of completely reinstalling the game (which might not help anyway.) I'm going to try to break it down into really easy steps.

First, run Delphy's Dashboard, found here: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=387006
If it finds Sims 2 files, those are genuine problems. And they are slowing down your game. Remove or disable them.
If it finds duplicate files, you can disable one of them.
If it finds conflicts, some of those are normal and some are problems. http://www.simlogical.com/ContentUp...e/uploads/1551/ is a tutorial on how to interpret "Conflict" messages, although it's also written. Basically, if you have something that is either using the same cloned object or which is deliberately modifying how something else works (like Awesome Config with Awesome Mod) the conflict is minor. It won't detect script conflicts, but it is a good place to start. (And you can use it to clear caches with just a couple of clicks.)
If it gives a bad compression error, you have a Sims 4 package in there. It wasn't designed to identify them, so it looks at the file and then freaks out.
If a world has packages inside packages, that tends to be normal for a world. Not so much with other things.

Obviously the Dashboard is not going to find everything that might be a problem, but it does sometimes narrow things down.

Now:

1. Browse to your Documents/Electronic Arts/Sims 3 folder (which I hope you know how to find, since that's where your CC is installed)
2. Right click on the folder, and select Rename
3. Change the name to Sims 3 Old

4. Start the game. It will take longer to start because it's creating a brand new Sims 3 folder, just as if you had reinstalled the game. If you changed any settings, they will be back at the default. None of your saves will be there, nor will any of your CC. This is normal, and nothing to worry about. Once you get to the main menu, you can change your options back to the way you want them and start a test game. Pick an EA family in an EA world, cheat if necessary to buy a dream pod, and try to sleep in the dream pod. Then exit. (Preferably without saving. You aren't planning to keep this.)

If it works, then your game files are ok, and it's something in your Sims 3 Old folder. If not, you're going to need to repair your install, or possibly reinstall the game.

5. Once you have exited the game, open Sims 3 Old. and browse to Sims 3 Old/Saves
6. Open that folder, find the saved game that you want to use for testing, and Copy it.
7. Browse to your brand new Sims 3 folder and open Sims 3/Saves
8. Paste your copied saved game into that folder. (This has a handy side effect of making sure that you have a backed up copy of your save in the Sims 3 Old folder.)

(oops. 8 part B: clear the caches. Again.)

9. Run the game again. It will still be missing all of your CC and most of your saves, but now it should have the one save you copied over. And your options should be back to the way you set them when you opened the game the first time. (If you made any changes.) Go into your saved game and test. If you had any Custom Content in use it will be missing, so your sims and lots may look kind of weird. Try not to save while the CC is gone, although you do have a backup to restore if habit gets the better of you. Does it still work?

If it does, then your save is fine, and it's still something in Sims 3 Old. If not, your save is broken. (Since it worked in a vanilla test game and is not working now.)

10. Copy the Mods folder from Sims 3 Old.
11. Browse to your new Sims 3 folder, and notice that it does not have a Mods folder. Paste the copied Mods folder into the Sims 3 folder.It should wind up looking exactly as it does in the Sims 3 Old folder.
12. Clear the caches again, especially the script cache. (The game will regenerate them every time you load it.)
13. Load the game and Test again.

Hopefully, this will be where it stops working. That means that it's something in the Mods folder. I'm going to assume that this is where the problem is, because that's where it is most likely to be.

14. Make several new folders on your desktop. You will probably want at least 8. Name one folder "Suspects", and name another folder "Good for now." The Good for now folder is for setting aside any CC that has been tested and was good, such as the probable skins, walls, etc.

15. Open your Mods folder in the new Sims 3 folder, and find anything that is a script, object, tuning, or core mod. (The likely suspects) Put all of that into your Suspects folder, then clear the caches (again) and test.

If it works, then one of your likely suspects is actually causing the problem. If not, something that is still in the game is a problem and all of that is also a likely suspect. Either way, remove the CC that is in the game now and either set it aside for the moment (in the Good for now folder) if it's good or consider them all to be likely suspects if it wasn't. If the skins, hairs, etc. are suspects, clear the caches and test the scripts to see if they are good. If they are, they can go in the Good so far folder. If not, they join the others in the suspects folder.

Now go through all of your likely suspects (which may or may not also include your skins, walls, etc.) and divide it into two relatively equal groups. If any mod has another mod as a requirement, be sure to keep them both in the same group. The first group should contain anything that you cannot (or would prefer not) to live without. The first group goes into one folder, and the second group goes into another folder.

Clear your caches, and test the first group. If it's good it goes into a third folder for CC that was just tested as good. If not, it goes into one of the other folders.

Then remove the first group and test the second group. (Remembering to clear the caches.) If the second group is also good, you have a problematic conflict. Put the first group back in and test half of the second group. Otherwise, just keep dividing your CC in half and testing until you get down to one file which causes the problem even when it's the only CC in the game.

At this point, I'm hoping that the flowchart in http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title..._Custom_Content is visual enough for you to follow. If not, this has turned into such a huge wall of text that it would probably be better to stop anyway. If you still need me to walk you through it, let me know and I will do my best.

Oy...

My computer refuses to open .rar files even when I load programs that are supposed to do so. So I can't get the dashboard to begin with.

That's...weird. I know I had a few programs specifically to run .rar and none of them worked but now they are. Go figure! My computer never thought to suggest WinRAR itself!

Ok so I ran it and I'm still confused. The only conflicting mods were with things like plant lifespan and cooking.

Can I use the function to disable some custom content while still leaving it in place?

Yes. If you select "Disable" it auto-changes the extension to ".Package.Disabled" The game won't read those, so they can stay where they are. When you want them back, you can remove the ".Disabled" part of the extension and they will go back to being .Packages. The warning that the program gives is because it's not set up to automatically remove that part of the extension itself. You have to do it manually.

Ok! That makes it a LOT easier than moving things to other folders!

Moving things to other folders might still be needed. But the Dashboard is a helpful tool.

Aaaand they did that on their own for no apparent reason. My .sims3 files converted to .rar and moved themselves to my Packages folder instead of my Mods folder. I have another thread about that.

I saw that thread, and I've been trying to figure out how you could have accidentally archived all your sims3packs. The good news with that is that if they are rar files, all you need to do to get them back is to extract them again and put them where they belong. But that doesn't answer the question of how it happened in the first place. Did you still have WinRAR open while you were scanning your folder with Dashboard?

I don't remember.

Wait why is he scanning sims3packs with dashboard? That only scans package files. He will need to get custard for the sims3packs

All I know is I ran a scan that showed me where conflicts were, and then I ran another scan to look for bugs, and then suddenly my files had moved on their own.

That's the weirdest thing that I've ever read so far. Did anyone else use the computer, by any chance? Or did the files get accidentally moved, somehow?

The only scenario I could come up with that might possibly explain it would be an instance of WinRAR open in the background which somehow got some input that it interpreted as a command to compress all the sims3packs and put them in Packages. It's not terribly likely, but I can't come up with any other potential explanation.

Anyway, have you tested to see if the dream beds are usable?

Not yet because I haven't opened a game yet. It makes me uneasy to do so before this gets ironed out.

And nobody else used the computer. I'm the only human in this house so unless my parakeets are using my computer while I'm asleep...

I'm not sure if we are ever going to figure out how all of your Sims3packs decided to rar themselves and move to Packages. It's not something that normally happens. It's not something that they are normally able to do, and not something that Dashboard is able to do. If you're going to wait until we figure out how it happened before you open your game again, you may be waiting a long time.