The Plague: A Detailed Study

[dizzy]

I've played sims with static motives that are constantly maxed (and therefore do nothing except go to work) get sick from work, so it is definitely possible.

Would a workout machine be considered sitting? I could see a sick sim maybe getting worse from working out (especially the radio workout).

[seelindarun]

But the

Would a workout machine be considered sitting? I could see a sick sim maybe getting worse from working out (especially the radio workout).

The problem with that is that you have to keep comfort in the red for days in order for the sim to die of disease, and in that state they won't do anything but complain.  They absolutely won't obey your commands to work out or anything else for that matter.  Further, even if you deprive them of chairs, they will gain a marginal degree of comfort from autonomously gazing out of windows!

I've managed to kill 3 or 4 sims from disease to get the green ghosts, and none of mine died in less than 3 days, even when I had them confined in a window-less, door-less, quarantine room with nothing to sit on but the cheapest toilet.  I've never had them recover either though, so if you're determined you can definitely kill them this way. 

Throwing up seems to send comfort down a good bit.  Not coincidentally, my fastest sim death (by disease) was a low-logic sim who contracted the biotech virus, and then was fed a steady diet of spoiled food, all while confined to quarantine.  During normal game play though, I can't see how any of my sims would die by disease.

[J. M. Pescado]

I've managed to kill 3 or 4 sims from disease to get the green ghosts, and none of mine died in less than 3 days, even when I had them confined in a window-less, door-less, quarantine room with nothing to sit on but the cheapest toilet.  I've never had them recover either though, so if you're determined you can definitely kill them this way.

Sitting on the terlet is still sitting, which is +6 recovery, giving a net of +2 even with the -4 for bad comfort.

Throwing up seems to send comfort down a good bit.  Not coincidentally, my fastest sim death (by disease) was a low-logic sim who contracted the biotech virus, and then was fed a steady diet of spoiled food, all while confined to quarantine.  During normal game play though, I can't see how any of my sims would die by disease.

I don't really see it happening either, unless you had -energy and -comfort symptoms, and thus managed to net -8 recovery from comfort and energy, for a rather slow -2 while sitting. Unless the gap between initial severity and lethal severity is small, the fact that you will go to +8 when the sim finally runs out of power and passes out or goes to sleep will offset the -2 drain...which won't persist long, if he runs out of energy. Probably the only way you're going to achieve a kill is if you meditate with < 50% comfort/energy, which I think still qualifies as sitting, thus allowing you to keep the -2 drain going indefinitely...maybe.

[rohina]

So, it would seem that emailers confined by a fence rather than a wall, with a bush rather than a toilet, would have a quicker mortality rate.

[J. M. Pescado]

Well, fences and walls make no difference to the plague.

[rohina]

I was following up on the suggestion that looking out the window raises comfort. Fences tend not to have windows.

[seelindarun]

I don't really see it happening either, unless you had -energy and -comfort symptoms, and thus managed to net -8 recovery from comfort and energy, for a rather slow -2 while sitting. Unless the gap between initial severity and lethal severity is small, the fact that you will go to +8 when the sim finally runs out of power and passes out or goes to sleep will offset the -2 drain...which won't persist long, if he runs out of energy. Probably the only way you're going to achieve a kill is if you meditate with < 50% comfort/energy, which I think still qualifies as sitting, thus allowing you to keep the -2 drain going indefinitely...maybe.

The biotech viruses must be very lethal for a low-logic sim, because as I posted _every_ sim I have quarantined without a chair nor a bed, died from it. 

Some take longer than others, but once their comfort is in the red, sitting on the toilet once a day isn't enough for them to recover.  Further, passing out doesn't even get their energy into the yellow.  Unlike pregnant sims who occasionally pass out while eating, these sims wake sooner, essentially when energy gets slightly less urgent than comfort.  Keeping both energy and comfort well below 10%, after the first day is trivial. 

I haven't timed how much time they spend awake and complaining vs. passed out, but possibly putting speakers (or something else which can't be turned off) in the death cell could speed their demise by keeping their sleep intervals as short as possible.

The difficult issue is having these sims in the household to spread the virus around.  There are so many actions which can increase comfort, that they require more micromanagement than I can tolerate to keep them sick.

[Ellatrue]

I think they also get comfort from watching the clouds...

[Avalikia]

It's a wonder that anyone can get a sim to die of disease at all.

[jsalemi]

I think they also get comfort from watching the clouds...

Yea, but they can also get squished that way, too

[Ancient Sim]

I'm wondering if you perhaps had 'move objects on' when you put the new flowers out after manually deleting them?

Yes, I did - the flowerbeds can't be deleted unless it's on and I know I never bothered to turn it back off.  Oddly enough, exactly the same thing happened today on another lot and I had to burinate again.  There were hidden rubbish piles and smell emitters on that lot as well.  I noticed that one of the Sims went over to one of the new flowerbeds and picked-up a rubbish bag to throw out, even though there had been no rubbish to be seen, just a new flowerbed.  I've no idea why it works like this and it never used to, because I always used to get rid of dead flowerbeds like that. 

[Magicmoon]

Maybe Maxis added that way in so we have to make our sims clean up the dead flowers rather than deleting them.

[rohina]

That sounds stupid enough to be true. 

[cwykes]

I've had a lot of problems with sickness in my favourite 'hood.  Couldn't eliminate the epidemic.  Sims came home from work sick, they met sick people on community lots and got sick, they invited over visitors and got sick, they invited over visitors who I knew were not sick (having just gone to the visitor's lot and made them well again!) and got sick again and finally some sims just wouldn't get well no matter what I did!  I went all round the 'hood curing sims and kept finding them turning up sick again! This was base game only    Since installing OFB and changing my save habits (I used  to save with visitors on lots pretty regularly - didn't know it was a bad thing).  I've been round the 'hood again and managed to get rid of it - I think.  DK which helped, the new improved SAVE habit or if OFB made it easier.

Messages about sickness also caused me grief.  When you load a lot, you don't always get messages about sick sims.  You get a message that A and B are sick, but not that C is sick when you can see them coughing and sneezing. (may be base game problem - not sure if it still happens with OFB)

Couple of questions...
If a sim goes to work sick - are other sims in that career track at risk?
If a sim goes to school sick - are other kids going to get sick?
Can you ID these plague tiles?  Are they the various squares the sim stood and sneezed on? (I'm wondering if I had one on a portal square so all the visitors got sick as they arrived!)
Does the emitter sometimes keep broadcasting after the sim is well again? (might explain why I couldn't seem to cure a sim - he got sick again immediately I cured him!)
When do you get messages about "sim is well again"? I've thought before that Sims were well long before the message popped up and, if the health check is done every hour, it sounds like a lag must be built in.

Pleased to hear sick sims on community lots don't spread disease any more!  Not realistic though - if you want it harder, unfix that.

I had this in a notepad file - I don't know where I cut and pasted it from, but I guess it's Prima Guide

Cold
Symptoms = Coughing, Sneezing 
Source = 1% chance of catching a cold anytime Sim goes to work or school.
   (It seems a higher chance to me?)
Contagious? = Highly 
Potentially Fatal? = No, if left untreated becomes Pneumonia.

Flu 
Symptoms = Coughing, Diarrhea 
Source = Up to 5% chance if near roaches.
Contagious? = Highly
Potentially Fatal? = Yes

Pneumonia
Symptoms = Coughing, Fatigue 
Source = Untreated Cold
Contagious? = Slightly
Potentially Fatal? = Yes

Food Poisoning
Symptoms = Vomiting, Nausea
Source = 5% chance when eating spoiled food 
Non contagious but fatal if left untreated.

Virus 
Symptoms = 2 random symptoms
Source = Mishandling of Virus created with Biotech Station with severity determined by Logic skill and manifested by darkness of the colour of the vial.
Contagious?= Highly
Potentially Fatal? = Yes.

Edited for questions already answered- rtfm

[trudy]

actualy the stuff spreads realy fast in my game, and i´ve had a teen die because he kept playing drums wen sick.
And they seem to recover best when at work. is that because they sit at work?

[Magicmoon]

Yesterday I had a child bring home another child from school. While the visiting child was on the lot, she caught the cold that the family had. The visiting girl is one of my playables on another lot.

The next day the little girl called my child. I left them talking on the phone for awhile. Then I got a popup saying that several of my sims were now well. I also got a popup saying the visitor girl on the phone was now well!

So I was wondering if I could note all the sick sims and call them to get them well? I've had a cold plague going around the neighborhood for quite some time now.

Anyone else had a similar experience?

[Ancient Sim]

Maybe things would spread more if NPC's weren't immune.  I have a feeling that if you remove their immunity in SimPE, the game puts it back, but I'm not sure.  I particularly don't see why the nannies should be immune, it would serve them all right to be hacking all over the place at the same time as peeing their pants.

[cwykes]

The next day the little girl called my child. I left them talking on the phone for awhile. Then I got a popup saying that several of my sims were now well. I also got a popup saying the visitor girl on the phone was now well!

So I was wondering if I could note all the sick sims and call them to get them well? I've had a cold plague going around the neighborhood for quite some time now.

It treats the girl at the other end of the phone as a resident of the lot doesn't it.  Just like them getting stuck on the lot if the phone conversation doesn't end properly.  aaarrgh
Definitely worth exploiting if you are trying to get rid of a plague!

Awful thought -If you can cure them by phone, maybe you can spread them by phone too! 
Calling all their friends is one of the things I let them do if they are sick!  Have to stop doing that I think!

[rohina]

Maybe things would spread more if NPC's weren't immune.  I have a feeling that if you remove their immunity in SimPE, the game puts it back, but I'm not sure.  I particularly don't see why the nannies should be immune, it would serve them all right to be hacking all over the place at the same time as peeing their pants.

Oh, god! Typhoid Nanny. Now that would make the game interesting, considering the number of households one nanny can be working in.

[Magicmoon]

Awful thought -If you can cure them by phone, maybe you can spread them by phone too! 
Calling all their friends is one of the things I let them do if they are sick!  Have to stop doing that I think!

I don't think it spreads by phone. I think the reason the girl on the phone was cured was because it treated her like she was there timewise, therefore enough time had passed for her to get well. I think they have to walk near a spot where a sick person was to get sick, but I'm not 100% positive.

[KittKitt]

Yeah, sims on the phone are a weird case.

In some ways, the game considers them "on the lot", but not for most things.  So magicmoon is probably correct in that it simply took her recovery rate and time passage into consideration and cured her, but that actually transmitting a virus to her via the phone is likely impossible.

-Kitt

[BastDawn]

What's the point of sims getting sick if they're so unlikely to die from it?     Maxis might as well have left it out entirely -- starving a sim sounds easier.

[jsalemi]

From what I've read, it was easier for sims to die from sickness in the base game, and maybe in Uni.  But since NL (and definitely since OFB), the chances of death from sickness have gone way down. Maybe they figure there are enough other ways for a sim to die, or maybe it's a potential problem if a sick sim dies on an owned business lot (which seems more likely to me).

[Avalikia]

Well, if it's the latter, we know JMP can fix that.

[cwykes]

Also, is it really possible for a Sim to come home sick from work?  I've only ever seen a sim get sick from the biotech station, food poisoning or roaches, and even then it's really rare, not to mention that any of those scenarios are pretty unlikely unless you're incredibly careless or trying for them.

Happened to my sims regularly in base game only.   Haven't got Uni or NL.  Haven't noticed in OFB.
Of course if there was a plague tile at the portal, that could have been co-incidence!