Grim Reaper Question

[Kyna]

My daughter has a problem with the Grim Reaper, and she's worried that she may be looking forward to her game turning into a big fiery ball visible from space.

She's visiting me from interstate, and having seen the hacks I use, has gone nuts with hacks and tried game-breaking in ways that never occurred to me.

She moved the Reaper in to one of her lots using the Tombstone of L & D and then couldn't get rid of him from the lot.  She used Inge's teleporterplus shrub to send him to the Townie pool.   Her sims are rolling wants to be friends with him, they can call him on the phone (although this causes the sim making the call to freeze until she resets the sim with boolprop tce), and she doesn't know what will happen when the Grim Reaper will be required in his professional capacity, as no sims have died since the event.

She wants to know :
1. Is her neighbourhood totally screwed?  How big a fireball can she expect?
2. How can she fix it?  She's been playing this neighbourhood on my son's computer, which doesn't have SimPE installed yet, but she'll download it (if necessary) and tell her brother after the fact.

[Ancient Sim]

Aside from the fact that you should never mess with the Grim Reaper (which is why I never understood the hack on MTS2 to make him 'sociable' so he could be moved in and so on), the only thing I can think of is to remove him from the townie household, which will necessitate downloading SimPE.  As far as I know, he should then work normally.  The easiest way to check that would be to kill someone off and see if he comes, then exit without saving. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

Hope you sort something out!  The Grim Reaper is not the only NPC you shouldn't mess with!

[RainbowTigress]

You shouldn't mess with the RC car either, or the therapist, or any of those types of NPCs.  I think her neighborhood is probably fubar'd. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

I tend to think so too, although reinstalling just might correct things.

fubar'd?

[RainbowTigress]

fubar: adj. Slang   
Utterly botched or confused. 
(WWII military slang) Fucked up beyond all recognition (or repair).

[ZephyrZodiac]

Right!  Never having been in the military, I didn't know!!!!!  But it certainly describes the situation!

[Kitiara]

Yeah, fubar is a great military phrase that describes many Sim situations quite well. Snafu (Situation normal: all fucked up)  works well too.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I knew the second one!!!  Must have read it somewhere, or maybe the British military se it too!

[Kyna]

My daughter downloaded SIMPE and used that to fix the situation.  She then had 2 deaths (old age and fright) to test it, and Grimmy turned up to perform his duties both times.

As well as this neighbourhood on my son's computer, she also has a different neighbourhood on mine.  While she's staying here away from her own computer, she uses whichever computer is available to play.  She has been warned not to fubar my installation of the Sims.

From her: Thanks for your help

BTW, although I knew the general meaning of fubar I never knew that it was an acronym.  Being a collector of useless trivia, I'd like to say thanks from me for that info.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I'm glad your daughter got it sorted, and hope she heeds your warning!

[RainbowTigress]

I have never been in the military either, but I remember seeing it several places, so I looked it up.  The same with "snafu."  I thought that one was funny, situation normal.   It's interesting how many of our words turn out to be acronyms.

[ZephyrZodiac]

True!  I remember years ago when I was teaching, reading an article in a teachers' magazine titled Alice in Acronym Land, and the number of acronyms it quoted in use by my profession was astounding!  And it's all very well to put it down to the laziness of modern speech, but some have been around for a long time!

Situation normal!  Surely a reference to the general disorganisation in most miliitary units!  Especially those belonging to democracies!

[Brynne]

I have a stupid question. Why is the remote-controlled car considerend an npc? I've been scratching my head over that since I got this game.

[Katze]

I have a stupid question. Why is the remote-controlled car considerend an npc? I've been scratching my head over that since I got this game.

No Idea wonder that myself, anyone have any idea?

[ZephyrZodiac]

Presumably has something to do with the way it's programmed.

[RainbowTigress]

This was discussed in a thread over on VS - http://www.variousimmers.net/vsimforum/showthread.php?t=1636
Apparently, the car turns into an NPC when it is used, but when not in use, it is just an identical object.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Odd!  I know there are one or two animals, like cats or dogs or something, that have been based on the car, but I don't think I'll be trying them out!  I'll just wait in hopes we get an Unleashed type EP!

[RainbowTigress]

Well, I wanted them at first, but I fear they will be just as buggy.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, I expect they will, but I still want the pets and the veggies!

[Oddysey]

I would guess that it's because it moves. The base code from Sims 1 wouldn't (hypothetically) have anything that would allow an object to move from place to place on its own. So the simplest solution (but perhaps not the best) is to make it an NPC, a sim with a unique mesh and animation system.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, cars and buses move, but in a straight line so I think it's probably a) the fact that they move in a lot of different directions and b) they are sort of controllable (by the sim playing with them).  But making them an NPC was just not a good idea! 

[Oddysey]

Ah. Things that move in a way that is not predetermined. Cars and other movable portals (alien spaceships?) have a pre-programmed animation sequence.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, I suppose they'd have to have!