Apparently, My Sims Can't Drown in the Ocean (Image Laden)

[B]

So, I finally got a chance to mess around with the game a bit, and decided to answer the question that's on everyone's minds: What happens when a sim dies on vacation?  To do this, I used the premade Traveller [sic] family, and sent them off to the beach resort for a three day vacation.  Upon arriving at the hotel, they checked in, and the wife immediately hopped in the water since death by drowning in the ocean seemed too cool to miss:



I turned down the graphics a bit in order to make the 3x time fly by.  It still looks pretty decent, although the reflections could be nicer.  Anyway, as day turned to night the woman was starting to feel the burn on several fronts.  I anticipated death before dawn:



While I waited, I sent the daughter in to the water for bladder relief.  You can kind of see the blue pee surrounding her, although a better picture is lower down:



When I clicked back over to the mother a bit later, I knew she would be about to d...What's this?!  How is she recovering energy?!  Damn EA!



Now I got kind of upset, and so I sent everyone in the water:



At this point, I wondered if Yellow Pee will need to be modified.  This was on Wednesday (the second day of my vacation).  Jump ahead to Thursday:



Now the daughter gets another chance to pee, and we check in on the dad's needs.  He is apparently not doing so well.  Thus, it comes as no surprise when noon rolls around and the mom goes to check out the family:



Her face (and all the red need bars) clearly say, "I am not amused."  So off the Travellers go, back to their home.  Upon arrival, mom runs off to use the bathroom, while dad and the kid decide to take a nap:



The End!

So now my question: Has anyone been able to kill a sim in the ocean (or on vacation in general)?  Just for completeness, let it be known that I am running all EPs and SPs with all patches and no custom content (including hacks).  The entire family was in energy aspiration failure for about 36 hours each, and all motives (aside from bladder and environment) were fully red for about a day.

I just want to drown some premade sims, is that too much to ask?

[Emma]

I just want to drown some premade sims, is that too much to ask?

Obviously, yes

They should be dead! If only 3 of the bars go down to full red (or just the hunger bar) then Grim comes a-calling. This is not fair.

[sloppyhousewife]

Perhaps Grimmy's on vacation, too

[B]

They should be dead! If only 3 of the bars go down to full red (or just the hunger bar) then Grim comes a-calling. This is not fair.

That was my understanding as well.  It seems like the game forces sims to stay alive while in the ocean by little boosts to the various needs.  I'm wondering if this same manipulation occurs on all vacation lots.  I also seem to remember seeing a promo vid where a sim dies in the ocean, which doubles my confusion.  Clearly, more experimentation is required.   

[J. M. Pescado]

This is a normal feature of all community-style lots: Sims cannot run out of energy on community lots. I'm not sure you can even make them pass out. Just drag their energy down in debug mode, it's much faster than actually waiting, and they still won't pass out. It's not vacation-specific, and it IS at least theoretically possible to die on a vacation...just not by energy failure, apparently.

[ApatiaMax]

i wonder what happen with the numenor's "sleep in community lot" hack installed 
 

[B]

This is a normal feature of all community-style lots: Sims cannot run out of energy on community lots. I'm not sure you can even make them pass out. Just drag their energy down in debug mode, it's much faster than actually waiting, and they still won't pass out. It's not vacation-specific, and it IS at least theoretically possible to die on a vacation...just not by energy failure, apparently.

See, I thought about this, but I also seem to remember having dormies die at Uni from energy failure in a ladderless pool.  Since the "lodges" have a similar structure to dorms, I thought it would be possible to die in the ocean. 

[spaceface]

are inventories accessible on holiday lots?
if so, take along a cow plant and see what happens...

[jsalemi]

See, I thought about this, but I also seem to remember having dormies die at Uni from energy failure in a ladderless pool. 

Ah, but that's only possible with Pescado's 'nouniprotect' hack -- otherwise, dormies are invincible.

[B]

See, I thought about this, but I also seem to remember having dormies die at Uni from energy failure in a ladderless pool. 

Ah, but that's only possible with Pescado's 'nouniprotect' hack -- otherwise, dormies are invincible.

That would certainly explain the issue I'm having.  I guess it's time to start reintroducing my hacks.

[SnootCB]

They should be dead! If only 3 of the bars go down to full red (or just the hunger bar) then Grim comes a-calling. This is not fair.

That was my understanding as well.  It seems like the game forces sims to stay alive while in the ocean by little boosts to the various needs.  I'm wondering if this same manipulation occurs on all vacation lots.  I also seem to remember seeing a promo vid where a sim dies in the ocean, which doubles my confusion.  Clearly, more experimentation is required.   

If you remember from that video, they were having trouble getting the Reaper to show up properly.  Perhaps they just gave up and decided to prevent the deaths from happening in the first place.  Though I'm not sure that really has anything to do with it, considering Pes said it's always been a comm lot feature.

[miramis]

I've had a sim electrocuted to death at the Twikki secret location, so you can definitely die there at least.  Haven't had any deaths at the other comm lots yet though.  Oh, he was successfully brought back when his wife pleaded with Grimmy by the way.

[jolrei]

I would expect that with energy and hunger both completely depleted, if Mr. Traveller and girlspawn Traveller took a nap immediately upon return home (before eating) that Grim might make an apearance at the home lot to send them off on "permanent vacation".  Or does this not happen either?

[B]

I would expect that with energy and hunger both completely depleted, if Mr. Traveller and girlspawn Traveller took a nap immediately upon return home (before eating) that Grim might make an apearance at the home lot to send them off on "permanent vacation".  Or does this not happen either?

Don't know yet.  I had to go to class and so I didn't see what ended up happening.  I will check when I get home.

[Zazazu]

Dammit. That's what I was going to do with the new Goopy BV gave me as a vacation townie. No Goopies in my game, unless they are institutionalized. I really didn't want to build another institution.

[Inge]

I don't understand how you managed to stop them simply getting out of the water?  Presumably they don't need pool steps.

[B]

I don't understand how you managed to stop them simply getting out of the water?  Presumably they don't need pool steps.

I turned off free will.  No pool steps are required, although since the drop off is rather steep it looks like sims are walking down stairs to reach a swimmable depth.

Edit for clarity (maybe)

[Ambular]

On a tangent here, is it now possible to build lots with swimmable oceans or is that a feature of only the Maxis BV lots?

[cyperangel]

On a tangent here, is it now possible to build lots with swimmable oceans or is that a feature of only the Maxis BV lots?

Well, as long as you got the right distance from road to coast, and the right height too, and use the specific shoreline lots, then you can do your own...

[Ellatrue]

What do you mean by specific shoreline lots? Do you have to designate the lot as shoreline when you place it? Or is it only possible by building on empty lots in the maxis hood?

It would be awesome if we could get them to swim in the ocean in the base neighborhood.

[B]

What do you mean by specific shoreline lots? Do you have to designate the lot as shoreline when you place it? Or is it only possible by building on empty lots in the maxis hood?

It would be awesome if we could get them to swim in the ocean in the base neighborhood.

I have only tried placing ocean lots in vacation hoods.  I'll experiment with a clean base hood when I next play to see if the option exists.

[akatonbo]

Shoreline lots are a new blank lot template type in the lot catalog. They can be placed in any neighborhood that has a road close enough (but not too close) to the water -- the lot must be able to touch the water, but at least half of its area must be on dry ground.

[maxon]

Perhaps Grimmy's on vacation, too

I want to see Grimmy in a bikini with a Pina Colada at the beach bar.

[witch]

I should start a poll - how many other players named their test families 'Traveller' or Traveler'.
*witch puts hand up

[Ellatrue]

Shoreline lots are a new blank lot template type in the lot catalog. They can be placed in any neighborhood that has a road close enough (but not too close) to the water -- the lot must be able to touch the water, but at least half of its area must be on dry ground.

AWESOME! My beach neighborhood will finally be complete! Joy!