More Awesome Than You!

 >:(

So, I've recently started to get rid of my money trees.   I have all kinds of performance problems with my game, never able to narrow it down to just one factor.   I read somewhere that more than 1 or 2 money trees can cause problems with lots.  Sniff, I've got plenty of lots with 5.  (I have a fair number of fortune Sims and I need the trees to satisfy wants and to try for their LTWs of $100K - and I don't use money cheats.)

Okay, fine.  Getting rid of money trees and replacing them with the counterfit machine.  Hate this because the money trees look nice in the yard and the counterfit machine is butt ugly, but okay fine.

Learned the hard way about fires and counterfit machines.  ::)  I can deal with this, just don't let them run the machine excessively.

All of a sudden, now the police seem to be showing up a lot.  I have two Sims crying over the bad memory from yesterday.  The one guy had just gotten demoted over a bad chance card (fricking seaport project!!), and I was trying to cheer him up with some Simoleans.  Now he's got two things to cry about.

So, what are the odds of the police showing up?  I've used the machine plenty and now all of a sudden...am I just in a bad patch of luck?  I like running some risks in the game, but I can't have my Sims crying all the time.

(P.S.  I'm relatively new to Uni and haven't installed NL, which is why I'm asking questions that most of you guys settled 6 months ago.)

Doesn't it depend on the sim's aspiration? Or am I remembering that wrong? I haven't used that machine a lot.

Well, it's an Aspiration reward, so it probably has more chance of failure if you're not gold.

I have only used it once, and I stopped using it because of the police having a permanent coffee break in my house.  ::)
I think perhaps Velax is right that it depends on your aspiration level. Will try that next time.

Yup...aspiration level counts. Don't use below gold (permaplats can just stay home and work on this...who needs jobs?). I've yet to find out when it bursts into flames though.

I've had it burst into flames/police pay a visit even in platinum..it seems random..but your chances are way better in platinum.  Anything below gold will generally result in failure like all aspiration rewards.  Bursting into flames is usually caused by it running too long.

Yeah, I've had it burst into flames several times when my perma-plat was using it. Haven't had the police come though, as far as I remember.

It's a given that it'll catch fire under prolonged use. I just have to time it so we can know approximately how long it's safe to use. Never been busted when in plat mode though. That must have been an extreme streak of bad luck for you skandelous.

If you have University and no NL multiple money trees do cause crashes for some people. I used to get them and had to stop using them. You can get away with one, but don't try any more than that. The good news is that NL seemed to fix the problem for me. I'm not sure if the University patch does or not though.

I've had the police come when using it but rarely so it may be aspiration related as was said since I rarely have my sims use it below gold. I do have the fires and make sure I have an alarm or sprinkler near it but as you said, stopping to get the cash and restarting after a bit does prevent this.

When I played with the money machine, I had my Sim turn the crank for an hour, then stop and collect the Simoleons.  Repeat as necessary.

I never had a fire unless I let 'em run the machine for at least 2 hours, and only had the cops come once after I'd let them work the machine for at least 2 hours, altho I didn't time it when the cops came.

As always, your mileage may vary. :D

Hook

Well, my copy of NL is sitting in an Amazon box, ready to be installed...I've had it since the first week, I'm just letting everybody else do the testing for me.   ;)

If NL seems to fix the money tree problems, it may be time for me to install.  I reallly don't like the counterfeiting machine at all....my Sims are the sort that may believe money grows on trees, but they really wouldn't take such glee in fake money that brings the police.  Except Mary Sue Pleasant who is an outright criminal.

FWIW, the Sims who were busted were in at least gold if not platinum.  They are usually all in platinum, but it might have been gold ... my using the machine to drive them up to platinum. 

I don't have green Sims!  ;D

(Fires appear to be duration of use, as others have said. I can avoid it by keeping them to about $150 take at a time.  Bit of a pain to stop and start...macrotastics "harvest money trees" is the way to go if the stupid trees don't encourage my game to crash.)

Thanks!!

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edit, just read Hook's post....yesterday's police visits came within Sim minutes of machine use.  Poor John Burb had never even used the machine before.  Usually it is Jennifer's job, but I was looking for just a little extra cash and he was available.  He didn't have $50 before the police showed up...in his bedroom!!  And then he's crying over the memory.

Make sure you don't have the machine outside in the yard. It seems they come quicker if it's outside. Also, if you have it inside with a sprinkler over it, even if it catches fire, you can still grab the money from the money bag.

I usually put mine outside in the of the house. Either that or in a basement if the house has one. I just can't bring myself to put that big honking thing in a living room or bedroom. As long as you don't do it continuously for an extended period of time you shouldn't have problems with police or fire. Just make sure you keep stopping and starting again.

If you place it outside--I placed one once on a balcony--and use the move_objects cheat to put a sprinkler above it you don't have to worry about fires really. And I have found no pattern to when the money machine will catch fire. I have had it in blaze after only a few secs of use. And that darn police does sometimes show up even if your Sim is in plat. Not as often as when they are below gold but it has happened to me once or twice.

I've used it loads of times for short intervals and stopping and have never had police or fire that way, but I may just have been lucky. It seems like the chance of something happening increases the longer you use it. If you use it for a few seconds the chance of anything happening is probably pretty low, but if you use it for a whole sim day it's almost guaranteed you'll get the fire or police at some point.

I keep meaning to take note of how many hours my sims have been counterfeiting before the police shows up but because I usually forget I had a sim who had nothing better to do working on the machine, when I hear the siren, I pause the game and pick the police car up with moveObjects and stick it on the exit portal, and the police would get out and promptly disappear with the patrol car :P.

Sigh.

I believe that there is a relation between aspiration meter and/or length of time using the machine and the occurance of the fires/police...but I swear, both of these Sims had just started using the machine.  We're talking Sim minutes, not hours.

And one was in the yard and another in the bedroom.  This is within the same human hour or so that both happened, after playing the machine regularly for weeks with no police visits. 

I think it must just have been really bad luck.  Remind me not to download a "risky woohoo" hack for these guys!

I've had the police come as soon as my sims touch the machine too. It was annoying, that perma-plat didn't make a difference, so I've resorted to picking the patrol car up with moveObjects and sticking it on the exit portal so my sims don't get caught and cry about it. If and when I want to see sims cry, I just have other sims view and dislike paintings done by them :P.


 :D