Suddenly, there is something invisible in the way.

[Snacky]

My sims keep having the issue of suddenly being blocked off from certain places by an invisible obstruction. There isn't anything there, but they keep stomping their feet and waving their hands and when the thought bubble pops up it only shows squiggly black lines.

Usually, this only happens in the homes that come with the game and also in the houses you can rent in college. Large swaths of floor will be suddenly inaccessible. I can't place items in those spaces either, without using cheats. But those items are unusable anyway.

Please help? This is a very frustrating problem, and I would love to learn how to make it go away.

I did go through the Game Help FAQ thing that goes through the long list of checks and tests for seeing what could be wrong with your game, up to deleting my cache files. Though that was for a different problem, and this problem persisted through that.

Oh, and I don't know if it is relevant information, but I have all the Expansion packs, and Celebration stuff, H&M Fashion stuff, Teen Style stuff, and Kitchen and Bath Interior Design stuff.

[sablevarg]

I had that problem too, it came with AL. As near as I can figure it's some kind of 'neighbor making noise' object that doesn't clear out. At least that what it seemed like to me (mine always occurred at the outer walls of my apartment.

The first time it happened, I enabled the 'MOVEOBJECTS ON' cheat, fished around, found it & deleted it. The second time, I just had to move (it was blocking the door out).

hope that helps.

[music2ologist]

I think the bat box, or lot debugger (J. M. Pescado & Doctor Boris), has an option to clear blocked tiles. You could also try dropping a stuck object remover (yellow box, J. M. Pescado) on the blocked tiles, but move anything precious out of the way first. The SOR is likely to delete the floor tiles and the fridge, or anything else close by. I always approach these two tools with great caution.

I have heard that thought bubbles with squiggly lines are a sign of neighborhood corruption. Bad Luck!

[Peni Griffin]

Squiggly lines only mean corruption in certain circumstances. Mostly they mean "there's no icon for what I'm thinking about."

Sometimes the way is blocked by doors. Turn the door around, so that it opens in the other direction, and the obstruction disappears. Otherwise, deleting the invisible object with "move objects' has always worked for me, but I never had such a pervasive problem, either.

[Snacky]

Wow! Thank you all for the wonderful suggestions! I'm just glad that someone else is having the same problem, and it's not just me! ^o^
I have not tried hunting around for it and simply removing it. I didn't think I could! But I shall definitely try that and see if it helps at all. Thank you all again for the suggestions!

[MOOKIEBLAYLOCK]

Stuff that the game generates but doesn't later clear out (stuck jump ropes , kicky bags etc) have been the usual offenders for me. You can't see them after they are used , but they can remain and frequently block stuff. The stuck object remover (mentioned by music2ologist) has always worked for me in those cases.