More Awesome Than You!

I searched the forums and had no luck finding out if anyone had posted about gemstones... I have a sim who tried to "collect'em all" up until the day he died of old age (and he was actually very long-lived: 227 days, using the Long Life version). Anyway, I never found two types. Let me see if I can enumerate the ones I did find:
1. blue topaz
2. yellow sapphire
3. smoky quartz
4. ruby
5. emerald
6. luminorious (?) gem
7. tanzanite
8. diamond

So based on the fact that his skill sheet reported that he'd found 80%, I'm assuming there are two more I never found. And I had the collection helper thingy... I spent ages zooming in and out and had to click on every one of the rocks and queue it to be picked up so I could see what color it was. The collection helper thingy makes collectibles shoot out so much light you can't tell if it's a gemstone of a lump of iron.

Has anyone found all ten stones? Is there some secret place you find two of them?

Awesomemod has an auto-rock-collecting feature in it (it is one of the functions under Supreme Commander).  You might want to try that.

I don't bother with collecting gems so I'm not much help.  Off the top of my head though... maybe the other two gems are only found in meteoroids and you need to examine them to get the gem type.  I dunno. 

There's a pink diamond and a rainbow gem.  I have most luck finding pink diamonds when my sims go dumpster diving, which is used in the law enforcement and journalism careers.

http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Collecting_(The_Sims_3) (http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Collecting_(The_Sims_3))

I found pink diamond somewhere behind the stadium. It only appeared there once, though. It's totally random. Presumably if you search for long enough you will find it.

I had a sim collect a ton of gem stones and find everything else but the pink one. I even used the map that suggests the places the pink stones are supposed to appear at, but I never had luck finding any. According to the guide, I think the pink gem stone is the most valuable one, so it makes sense it's also the hardest one to find.

There's a map in the Prima guide showing what types of gems can be found at specific spawn sites, but since the guide is unreliable at best, I'm not sure how accurate/useful it would be.

Macro Collect Rocks. You'll find tons of the damn things.

I got two pink, one was next to a grave when I got the burial ground challenge, another as I mentioned - somewhere behind the stadium. It only spawned there once, though, and I go on collector route every couple of days. No luck with rainbow so far.

I found my very first rainbow one yesterday. Tis sparkly. Prima guide is useless and calls the Luminorious one "Special". Idiots.

I'm curious, what's the burial ground challenge?

Thanks to all who answered.


The rainbow one is different from the "luminorious" gem? Or is there yet another gem, because I've collected the luminorious one. Am I even spelling luminorious right? I guess if it's a made up word anyway, it shouldn't matter...

looks made-up to me...as words go, that is.

I have my astronaut sim do gem collecting a couple of days each week. In about 100 total days (so about 20 collecting days) he has only found 1 pink diamond. It was on the hill above the stadium, only time I've ever seen a gem there at all. The only rainbow gem he's found was by dumpster diving. He's found well over 200 space rocks, over 300 metals, and about 200 gems. I keep selling off the low-cost gems and cheap metals. I've kept the better gems after being cut and the metals after being smelted in the family inventory for future needs.

By the way, if you are looking for the last metal, I first found plutonium in the valley between simhenge and the Goth's house.

And having him jog between collecting sites was a nice, easy way to improve his athletic skill.

Yeah, my gem-collector became a marathon runner as a result of his searches.
Currently having CTD issues (unrelated to gem-hunting) and taking a break from the game, though.  >:(

The burial ground challenge sometimes pops up when you move a sim into a new house.  A pop-up appears that tells you that your house was built on a burial ground.  If you accept the challenge when it loads the lot it creates 3 tombstones with ghosts.  Next to each tombstone will be a gem of some sort, you can collect these.  A few minutes after you first load the lot a repoman will appear and ask if you want your ghosts busted.  If you say yes he will repo the tombstones and your ghosts will be gone, if you say no you have 3 npc ghosts who will haunt your lot till you get rid of them some other way.

Forgive me for sounding like a noob, but what do you do with the collected and cut stones? Just display them? Can they be sold?

Yes, they can be sold. The easiest way is to, from inventory, drag a gem to the "sell item" (or whatever it's called) icon at left of the inventory box.

I use them as fences  - you can place them on the ground, sims will not step over them, and I can see around them (unlike the fences). Other than that I guess they're pretty useless, especially if you already decorate your lots to get the Beautifully Decorated mood.

Yeah, the rainbow is different from the luminorious one, even if they are quite similar. The rainbow stone, while multi-colored like the other one, is overall lighter in color (after being cut).


The only way I've managed to find plutonium so far is have a sim explore the catacombs at the cemetary.

I remember reading the ghostbuster is borked and causes th game to crash - no? I'm quite ok with my ghosts, one taught my sim 4 receipies so far. It's only a problem that they eat from your fridge and sleep in your bed :P

I found rainbow gem along the road near Crumplebottom house the other day so now I have them all :)

I once found plutonium when I had an insane Mad Scientist sim rummage through her own rubbish.

What is the criteria for being able to rummage through the trash bin?  I cannot seem to get either of my sims to do it.

My sims that have been able to rummage through their own bins have all had the insane trait (there may be other traits that also allow this) but I've been able to send all sims (12 and up, haven't tried with 6s) to rummage in the neighbours' bins.

I wonder then, if certain traits make it impossible to rummage at all.  I have a sim with the neatness trait (the only trait she has that I could imagine would make a difference) and I can't get any options on the trash bin at all for her. 

The only time any sim other than slob or insane can rummage in trash (in my game anyway) is when they are in the Journalism career path. They have to rummage to get 'dirt' on their neighbours and friends and then write articles on them. I've never had a sim without those traits be able to rummage in bins for no apparent reason.

After a couple levels, law enforcement career should also let you rummage in trash cans.

I have no slob and/or insane journalists at the moment but my neat freak did just start a job in law enforcement, so I'm hopeful.  Thanks all.

No, teens can definitely rummage in the neighbours' bins, the option is there for both of the teens in my current household. (One Neurotic, Absent-Minded, Easily Impressed, Green Thumb and the other Insane, Loner, Evil, Artistic. The second teen also has the option on the home bin.) So it's not linked to career, as far as I can tell. (But the career might enable it for sims that otherwise can't?)

What were their parents' careers?

Mad Scientists, both of them. The mother was married to a sim that has reached level 10 in both Journalism and Law Enforcement (as well as several other careers... and is yet to become an adult. Epic lifespan is epic.) but they shouldn't inherit anything from him, he's not their father.

That's weird. I'm going to go play in a bit to see what my sims can do regarding rummaging in bins :D

You're not kidding. I had my dirt-poor YA sim collect rocks for about a sim week, sell them without getting any of them cut, and was able to move her to a §60,000+ house.

In my game, (pre-made YA) Christopher Steel is able to rummage in trash.  He doesn't have slob or insane and has never had a job.

Is he a mooch? I've never played one, but it seems logical that mooches could steal people's garbage.

No.  Great Kisser, Daredevil, Natural Cook, Friendly, Angler.  I also added Loves Outdoors very recently, since he spends most of his time outside, but I believe that he was able to rummage before I gave him that trait.

His wife is a Mooch, but I've never tried having her rummage... let me see what happens. ETA: Yes, she can rummage too.

Neat sims cannot do it, unless their career requires it.

Kleptos can do it on neighbor lots, but not their own without the insane trait.

I got a rainbow gem completely randomly by exploring the catacombs under the masoleum in the cemetary. My sim was done there for quite some time. He also found a book I hadn't come across before and got scared by a zombie bear who popper out of a coffin.  :D

It was probably random but it's at least possible to get rainbow gems that way. The message even said something to the effect of 'More people would probably explore the catacombs if they knew they could find a rainbow gem down there'.

Well, my sim is neat so that would explain why she can't do it.  The husband is able to do it (although he couldn't the first few times I tried...I did end up changing his traits via "mid life crisis") and all he found were multiple bags of garbage, some newspapers and 2 copies of the novel his wife had written.  Apparently the neighbors didn't think it was that good :P

My neat mad scientist sim can rummage through bins, but I gave him the Neat trait via AwesomeMod. He didn't have it originally. Also, being a mad scientist seems to make you able to rummage trash, regardless of traits, even though the career doesn't require it. Maybe mad scientist sims are given hidden behaviors for being "mad."