types of gemstones?

[phnxflyng]

I searched the forums and had no luck finding out if anyone had posted about gemstones... I have a sim who tried to "collect'em all" up until the day he died of old age (and he was actually very long-lived: 227 days, using the Long Life version). Anyway, I never found two types. Let me see if I can enumerate the ones I did find:
1. blue topaz
2. yellow sapphire
3. smoky quartz
4. ruby
5. emerald
6. luminorious (?) gem
7. tanzanite
8. diamond

So based on the fact that his skill sheet reported that he'd found 80%, I'm assuming there are two more I never found. And I had the collection helper thingy... I spent ages zooming in and out and had to click on every one of the rocks and queue it to be picked up so I could see what color it was. The collection helper thingy makes collectibles shoot out so much light you can't tell if it's a gemstone of a lump of iron.

Has anyone found all ten stones? Is there some secret place you find two of them?

[Simius]

Awesomemod has an auto-rock-collecting feature in it (it is one of the functions under Supreme Commander).  You might want to try that.

I don't bother with collecting gems so I'm not much help.  Off the top of my head though... maybe the other two gems are only found in meteoroids and you need to examine them to get the gem type.  I dunno. 

[Kyna]

There's a pink diamond and a rainbow gem.  I have most luck finding pink diamonds when my sims go dumpster diving, which is used in the law enforcement and journalism careers.

[bloodredtoe]

http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Collecting_(The_Sims_3)

I found pink diamond somewhere behind the stadium. It only appeared there once, though. It's totally random. Presumably if you search for long enough you will find it.

[IgnorantBliss]

I had a sim collect a ton of gem stones and find everything else but the pink one. I even used the map that suggests the places the pink stones are supposed to appear at, but I never had luck finding any. According to the guide, I think the pink gem stone is the most valuable one, so it makes sense it's also the hardest one to find.

[Budgie]

There's a map in the Prima guide showing what types of gems can be found at specific spawn sites, but since the guide is unreliable at best, I'm not sure how accurate/useful it would be.

[J. M. Pescado]

Macro Collect Rocks. You'll find tons of the damn things.

[bloodredtoe]

I had a sim collect a ton of gem stones and find everything else but the pink one. I even used the map that suggests the places the pink stones are supposed to appear at, but I never had luck finding any. According to the guide, I think the pink gem stone is the most valuable one, so it makes sense it's also the hardest one to find.

I got two pink, one was next to a grave when I got the burial ground challenge, another as I mentioned - somewhere behind the stadium. It only spawned there once, though, and I go on collector route every couple of days. No luck with rainbow so far.

[vikitty]

I found my very first rainbow one yesterday. Tis sparkly. Prima guide is useless and calls the Luminorious one "Special". Idiots.

[IgnorantBliss]

I had a sim collect a ton of gem stones and find everything else but the pink one. I even used the map that suggests the places the pink stones are supposed to appear at, but I never had luck finding any. According to the guide, I think the pink gem stone is the most valuable one, so it makes sense it's also the hardest one to find.

I got two pink, one was next to a grave when I got the burial ground challenge, another as I mentioned - somewhere behind the stadium. It only spawned there once, though, and I go on collector route every couple of days. No luck with rainbow so far.

I'm curious, what's the burial ground challenge?

[phnxflyng]

Thanks to all who answered.

There's a pink diamond and a rainbow gem.  I have most luck finding pink diamonds when my sims go dumpster diving, which is used in the law enforcement and journalism careers.

The rainbow one is different from the "luminorious" gem? Or is there yet another gem, because I've collected the luminorious one. Am I even spelling luminorious right? I guess if it's a made up word anyway, it shouldn't matter...

[sewinglady]

looks made-up to me...as words go, that is.

[LVRugger]

I have my astronaut sim do gem collecting a couple of days each week. In about 100 total days (so about 20 collecting days) he has only found 1 pink diamond. It was on the hill above the stadium, only time I've ever seen a gem there at all. The only rainbow gem he's found was by dumpster diving. He's found well over 200 space rocks, over 300 metals, and about 200 gems. I keep selling off the low-cost gems and cheap metals. I've kept the better gems after being cut and the metals after being smelted in the family inventory for future needs.

By the way, if you are looking for the last metal, I first found plutonium in the valley between simhenge and the Goth's house.

And having him jog between collecting sites was a nice, easy way to improve his athletic skill.

[phnxflyng]

Yeah, my gem-collector became a marathon runner as a result of his searches.
Currently having CTD issues (unrelated to gem-hunting) and taking a break from the game, though. 

[awrevell]

I'm curious, what's the burial ground challenge?

The burial ground challenge sometimes pops up when you move a sim into a new house.  A pop-up appears that tells you that your house was built on a burial ground.  If you accept the challenge when it loads the lot it creates 3 tombstones with ghosts.  Next to each tombstone will be a gem of some sort, you can collect these.  A few minutes after you first load the lot a repoman will appear and ask if you want your ghosts busted.  If you say yes he will repo the tombstones and your ghosts will be gone, if you say no you have 3 npc ghosts who will haunt your lot till you get rid of them some other way.

[Silverdrake]

Forgive me for sounding like a noob, but what do you do with the collected and cut stones? Just display them? Can they be sold?

[chaos]

Yes, they can be sold. The easiest way is to, from inventory, drag a gem to the "sell item" (or whatever it's called) icon at left of the inventory box.

[geekgirl]

I use them as fences  - you can place them on the ground, sims will not step over them, and I can see around them (unlike the fences). Other than that I guess they're pretty useless, especially if you already decorate your lots to get the Beautifully Decorated mood.

[IgnorantBliss]

The rainbow one is different from the "luminorious" gem? Or is there yet another gem, because I've collected the luminorious one. Am I even spelling luminorious right? I guess if it's a made up word anyway, it shouldn't matter...

Yeah, the rainbow is different from the luminorious one, even if they are quite similar. The rainbow stone, while multi-colored like the other one, is overall lighter in color (after being cut).

By the way, if you are looking for the last metal, I first found plutonium in the valley between simhenge and the Goth's house.

The only way I've managed to find plutonium so far is have a sim explore the catacombs at the cemetary.

[bloodredtoe]

If you say yes he will repo the tombstones and your ghosts will be gone, if you say no you have 3 npc ghosts who will haunt your lot till you get rid of them some other way.

I remember reading the ghostbuster is borked and causes th game to crash - no? I'm quite ok with my ghosts, one taught my sim 4 receipies so far. It's only a problem that they eat from your fridge and sleep in your bed

I found rainbow gem along the road near Crumplebottom house the other day so now I have them all

[Faizah]

I once found plutonium when I had an insane Mad Scientist sim rummage through her own rubbish.

[fatkitty]

What is the criteria for being able to rummage through the trash bin?  I cannot seem to get either of my sims to do it.

[Faizah]

My sims that have been able to rummage through their own bins have all had the insane trait (there may be other traits that also allow this) but I've been able to send all sims (12 and up, haven't tried with 6s) to rummage in the neighbours' bins.

[fatkitty]

I wonder then, if certain traits make it impossible to rummage at all.  I have a sim with the neatness trait (the only trait she has that I could imagine would make a difference) and I can't get any options on the trash bin at all for her. 

[Emma]

The only time any sim other than slob or insane can rummage in trash (in my game anyway) is when they are in the Journalism career path. They have to rummage to get 'dirt' on their neighbours and friends and then write articles on them. I've never had a sim without those traits be able to rummage in bins for no apparent reason.