Put your own gnome back!

[ZephyrZodiac]

No, before I patched the option in macrotastics didn't appear until about 11.0 pm, but it's definitely earlier now.  Maybe though they only get the option when they NEED the gnome!

[ElviraGoth]

Ha!  I didn't think of that!  It would explain why they went and stole it back while the thief was still on the lot!

I'm divided on which way is better, though - inventory vs. putting it back themselves.  They would always put it in a place that was in their way the next morning.  At least it seemed so.  Middle of the sidewalk, on their usual path to work/school.  Stomp, whine.  So I had to put it back where it was supposed to be anyway.

And early on I watched that kids' channel show that shows the gnomes fighting back.  So I wondered if I put a bunch of gnomes on each side of the walk, would they attack the kicker/thief?  (The answer is no, unless you need a lot more that I had!  )

[ZephyrZodiac]

Would be funny, though!  Like if you have a cat who's a voracious bird-kller, and one day they kill a baby starling, and all the starlings line up on the fences all around the garden and divebomb the cat and scream at it!  Happened to a cat we had when I was a kid, and you never saw a cat run into the house so fast!

I suppose if they keep blocking their path with the gnomes, the inventory is better, but since I usually add new objects or build a bit while the sims are asleep, it wouldn't take a second to move them .  But as soon as my sims can afford it, I fence off a little bit of garden and put a lockable gate on it!  Don't bother to make it invisible though.

[ElviraGoth]

ROFL, ZZ!  I can just picture that poor cat!

Yeah, I wondered if there were any hidden clues in any of the shows they watched, like maybe hints on the best way to play the game or little "Easter egg" things that you wouldn't know otherwise.  Never found anything.  And what a shame - that would have been a cool thing to do!

The only doors I have that get locked are the dorm doors.  And I never used to have my sims lock those, but somewhere along the line the dormies went from no interest in my sims' rooms to sleeping in their beds.  So I lock those, now.  I'm debating about putting locked doors on my houses, since I have sims walking in on their own more now than they used to, as well.

Where I come from, the only people who walk into a house without knocking/ringing the doorbell are family and close friends.  Not some guy you just met and barely know.  Unless he's a thief!

And why don't the burglars steal the gnomes?  Why do family friends/acquaintances?  I don't think anyone I know would steal one of my gnomes if I had any!

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, it's a teen thing on a par with kicking trashcans in real life, I would think!  Or kids out trick-or-treating here in the UK where most people still don't accept it - it's not one of our customs, after all - and the kids steal something - but usually they put it in someone else's front garden!

I wonder why dormies would sleep in your sims beds when they never sleep in their own?  I stopped having dormies a long time ago, they just annoyed me so much, they'd always decide they needed to pee just as you clicked on your sim to go and do so!  And if you sent your sim to eat, they'd get there first!  some dormies seem to eat about 20 times a sim day!

[J. M. Pescado]

Where I come from, the only people who walk into a house without knocking/ringing the doorbell are family and close friends.  Not some guy you just met and barely know.  Unless he's a thief!

Where I come from, not even RESIDENT family will walk into a house without proper authentication protocol to indicate you are entering freely of your own volition. This allows us to make sure that you are, in fact, YOU, and not a hostile intruder, and not being coerced by hostile forces. There is a set of specific responses you give to authentication challenges when that occurs so that the defenders will be warned. Failure to properly identify yourself before approaching the gate can get you shot!

And why don't the burglars steal the gnomes?  Why do family friends/acquaintances?  I don't think anyone I know would steal one of my gnomes if I had any!

My guess? Because gnome-theft is some manner of Maxian in-joke prank. Burglars are not interested in them because gnomes have very little in the way of monetary value and therefore are not exactly worth stealing for profit.

[jsalemi]

My current favorite anti-gnome stealing method is the sentry bot -- it's fun to see sims getting zapped if they're even THINKING about stealing the gnome.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Good to know the sentry-bot is useful for something!

[jsalemi]

And with Monique's computer, your well-off sims can buy one without having to craft them, or your having to have a sim open a robot store.

[ElviraGoth]

It's probably because I have JM's nodormieprotect.  They sleep wherever they can find a bed. (or floor!)  I usually put a bed somewhere outside the dorm (and close to something that produces noise - like a jukebox or musical instruments) just to torment them.  I'm not mean - really! - but they have been so annoying for so long I'm just getting even.  You know the old saying - "Don't get mad, get even."

I don't usually have many dormies, but I haven't gotten rid of them completely yet, as they provide some amusement with this mod installed.  Now, they wet themselves, fall asleep in their food and die if they don't take care of themselves.  In fact, I made my first (and only) zombies from two dead YAs.

Trick or Treating here usually involves stealing the Jack O'Lantern on your front step and smashing it in the middle of the street.  And it's not aimed at anyone in particular - if it's there, they will smash it!

Sentry bots are great for trash can kickers, too.  And newspaper thieves!

[ZephyrZodiac]

I actually have a sim with an electrical store and he and his wife can both make robots of all kinds - they spent their college years learning useful stuff - but after the one they had in the house disintegrated when it went wrong, the munchie bot went haywire and the gardening one watered everything but the plants, I rather gave up on them!  But Jimmy's father's robot, Roberta, still wanders the neighbourhood looking for love!

[ElviraGoth]

I don't have any shops, because that aspect of OFB doesn't interest me.  I actually got it for some of the stuff it offered - like the crafting benches.  I think they should earn mechanical with them like they did in TS1, though.

So that's usually what I have my elders do - make stuff with the benches.  I only have one who's gotten far enough to make the sentry bots.  And none yet who can make a Servo, though I think this sim might make it before he dies of old age!

And JM - I had a burglar once who stole a toddler's toy!  It was probably the only thing in the house he could take at the time, though (no paintings or anything else of value).  That was a long time ago, so I don't remember if I had a burglar alarm or not.  But even with the burglar alarm in place, those burglars still grab something sometimes!

And now that I've put in yet ANOTHER patch, I'll probably get a new round of burglaries.  I only get them when I add a new EP or patch.  And then everysim gets them!

[ZephyrZodiac]

Mine don't!

[jsalemi]

...but after the one they had in the house disintegrated when it went wrong, the munchie bot went haywire and the gardening one watered everything but the plants, I rather gave up on them! 

I got Crammy's  'robots break less' patch here -- it helps quite a bit with that issue.

[J. M. Pescado]

So that's usually what I have my elders do - make stuff with the benches.  I only have one who's gotten far enough to make the sentry bots.  And none yet who can make a Servo, though I think this sim might make it before he dies of old age!

I don't generally use Elders for benchwork. As it turns out, it's much easier to exploit townie-labor. Why bother training someone for 3 days just to get a gold badge so he can die with it, when you can just use some townie slave to produce it for you? Plus, as it turns out, craftbadges are by far the least useful badges. While there's a huge market for the easily acquired sales badges, and the variably-difficult cashier badges, there's basically no demand for craft badges, since one crafter can produce a prodigious amount of output that far exceeds the demand of nearly the entire neighborhood. Indeed, making a business out of it is arguably the entire point of the expansion pack.

[ZephyrZodiac]

...but after the one they had in the house disintegrated when it went wrong, the munchie bot went haywire and the gardening one watered everything but the plants, I rather gave up on them! 

I got Crammy's  'robots break less' patch here -- it helps quite a bit with that issue.

I've got it somewhere, I think, just haven't used it, but I might just give it a try.  I've quite a few hacks that I got and I'd sort of put a few in my game each time I load, but then came the patch and everything had to be take out and put back in or not, so not everything has actually been put in yet.

Elvira:

If you want to get a sim really really keen on robot building, use a romance sim!  They get the want for each level, and then when the time comes to make the servo, they'll work like crazy to get it finished!

[ElviraGoth]

Indeed, making a business out of it is arguably the entire point of the expansion pack.

Which is why I wasn't going to buy it in the first place!  Or NL, for that matter, since neither of them intersted me in the slightest.  It was the inventory thing that made me get NL and the idea of getting Servo (and the improved graphics for better cards) that made me get OFB.  I've only sent sims to the NL places a handful of times and I didn't even add Bluewater Village to my hoods.

I figure at some point I'll get bored with the way I play and get into the idea of starting a sim business, but having been there-done that in real life with a software company, it doesn't hold any great appeal for me.

And I think Maxis should reinstate the hacker career.  I had quite a few sims doing that in TS1.

ZZ:

Hadn't noticed that about romance sims, but I do have some knowledge sims who want to get that next badge as soon as they've achieved the one they were working for.  Will have to check that out!

[J. M. Pescado]

All sims tend to want to reach the next badge level, regardless of aspiration.

[ElviraGoth]

I have some who really just don't give a flying...  but I think they're probably too lazy to care!

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, the romance sim in question was a Gemini!  But he moved out to live with Brandi and left the poor servo all alone!  (But she's quite a wealthy robot!)

[ElviraGoth]

So is she (the servo) romance aspiration or fortune?

[ZephyrZodiac]

Romance, poor thing, she's still walking about looking for love!

[jsalemi]

So is she (the servo) romance aspiration or fortune?

Servo's take the aspiration and most (if not all) of the personality of the person who activates them. Fortunately, you can use the Renu-u orb to change that later on, just like any other playable sim.

[ElviraGoth]

That was what I thought, that she'd have to be romance.  You'll have to change her to fortune, ZZ, with all the money she has!

[ZephyrZodiac]

I don't know that she has a lot of money, can't remember, but the house is worth a fair bit, so she'd be a good catch for a fortune sim (or servo), which begs the question - can servos marry sims?