More Awesome Than You!

I'm starting this thread so that we don't derail the Awesomemod requests thread.  The goal of this thread is to come up with some improvements to make the vampires better.  I think they are fairly good already and with a few changes I'm sure they could be great.  I really like that they can't eat human food, although being able to drink juice box blood is a bit lame since I want them to be forced to drink from humans.  Anyway, here is the discussion so far:

I also think that, during the daytime, they should have to be asleep or in a room with no windows, with an accelerated rate of burn otherwise. They will burn outside, but it takes a long time to even START. They're a little overpowered when there's little to no downside to being awake during the day. I also think their motives should be static when sleeping during the day, but not at night.

I remember getting a Sims 2 vampire for the first time and finding it a real challenge to keep them away from windows if they happened to be up in the day. The problem there was that they had no real benefits. Sure, they had no motive decay at night, but that just meant that when they were sleeping during the day, all their motives were going down and they'd have to deal with them anyway. I don't know, it was stupid.

I love the Vampires in Sims 3, but I dont like the way they act... Really... drinking from juice boxes or plasma fruits?? WTF... That isnt a real vampire feeling at all!
I want to have vampires that really act, like they should! I also want a tuning file that makes vampires act autonomously, when they are hungry, well thirsty they should start to hunt and then drink from a chosen sim!
Only then it would be  a real vampire feeling in the game. Atm it feels like they just looking like vampires but act like normal sims!

I hope that will be changed sometime.

If you think the juice boxes and plasma fruit are lame simply don't use them, problem solved. But I do agree with the fact that there really is no difference between staying outside in the daytime from the night time, I usually keep the vamp vigor moodlet all the time. Has anyone had any vamp children yet? Do they age properly? I know I read they can't drink from another sim until YA, that would be good to change. I was kinda looking foward to having little creepy evil vamp children running around.

I played the Hemlocks for a bit. The kids age normally, have normal needs etc. until becoming YA. The only vampire features I noticed were the vampire look and ability to drink from the plasma juice boxes, possibly also eat plasma fruits without the sick moodlet, but I didn't try that.

Yeah, I turned my fridge around for my vampire sim so he couldn't sneak a juice box snack when I wasn't looking.  When I get a household with a vampire and regular sim in it I'll just need to install one of those door mods that keep certain sims out and block off the kitchen that way.  So it isn't too big of a deal since I can effectively get rid of juice boxes that way on my own.

About your vamp vigor moodlet always being active:  It shouldn't be.  Mine goes away at 6am and comes back at 6pm.  Also, if you are outside for more than an hour you should get the "heating up" moodlet and if you stay outside for another 3 hours you should get the "too much sun" moodlet.  It sounds like that isn't happening for your vampire so either he is glitched or you have some cc that is conflicting.  

I think the main point was that it takes a severely unrealistic time for anything to actually happen as a result of sun exposure. I've never heard of any vampire that took over four damn hours to burn up in the sun.

Uh...what? Did you actually use "realistic" and "vampires" in the same statement?

The vigor stays active just aboot all the time, I do still get the heating up moodlets. But I guess what I meant to say was that even though you get those moodlets there really isn't any real side effects to staying out in the sun as they are not life threatening as in Sims 2.

Yes, a severely bad choice of words on my part, I know. I just meant to say that it seemed to take an oddly lengthy amount of time for vampires to react to the sun, and even longer to really cripple them at all.

If it *WERE* more threatening, I suspect that since every sim in the neighborhood is active at once, all of the vampires in the game would kill themselves instantly.

What do you want people? Dracula could walk in the sun except he'd lose his powers if he did. This is EXACTLY what happens with vampires in NL.

Yes, the entire "vampires burn to death in the sun" thing is not part of the original, anyway.

Ah, true, I hadn't thought of that.

But do they actually lose their powers in the sun light? Or is the sun setting by the time that kicks in too, like the heating up moodlets. It just seems to me that there should be more of a penalty for being out in the sun, like sparkles.

The vampires seem to show up in mirrors, and that's just wrong. At least mine did, though it could be a bug too. Also the 'coffin' is kinda stupid, they don't really sleep inside, just hover on top without even changing to nightwear.

Other than these minor annoyances, I think the vampires are far better than TS2 versions. At least they don't have that stupid skintone that covered their makeup.

Doesn't matter what they want, you can't make everyone happy when putting vampires anywhere, simply because there are so many interpretations. I'm pretty happy with Dracula interpretation and think it would actually be funny if they were sex predators, but it's a 12's-friendly game, so they can't obviously do that. No instant death in the sun is actually there for practical reasons, too, as mentioned several posts above. And I guess the coders didn't want to make it impossible to fulfill most of the opportunities for vampire sims.

Besides, there are so many screw-ups in this EP, vampires are like least of the problems.

I think that one is for the sake of graphic engine sanity. Reflections are reflections in the game, if they wanted to omit some elements in those, they'd need a separate render, as far as I know, which would be quite resource-heavy.

One change that would immensely improve vampires imo would be to change the word "plasma" to "blood" in all vampire related instances.  The only place I know of where this would look stupid is "blood juice box" but then again "plasma juice box" already looks pretty stupid.

As far as the juice boxes go, they'd be better if they gave some sort of negative moodlet similar to "tastes like fridge" or the WA one from eating low quality dried food.  In fact, you could just use "tastes like fridge"; that'd work for me.  Of course, I find the entire idea of free food from the fridge to be offensive, regardless of the type of sim who's eating it.

Of course some sort of unfriendly drink is a must.  Why the heck else do all non-vampires feel "hunted" around unfriendly vamps?

"Hunted" is implied to literally only be there so that you can tell there's a vampire in the room.

And I believe "Plasma" was chosen in place of "Blood" because the "meat" of the blood, blood cells, is only found in blood plasma (which is 55% of the blood), and even then 91% of blood plasma is water. So it makes more sense to drink plasma than blood, because you benefit more from it for the same amount of liquid.

So they compensate for the fact that it isn't fresh from a kill by making it plasma instead of whole blood, I guess.

Though the fact that it's stored in the fridge and not microwaved or anything is silly. You'd think they'd prefer it warm. That alone is reason enough for it to give a negative moodlet.

I don't see any issue with the juice boxes apart from the name. Just call it, "Synthesized Plasma" and you're good to go. Hell, Underworld mentions Synthesized Plasma as a big money maker for the vampires. =P

Yeah for the playable sim, but what is with the npc vampires? They just dont do anything a vampire would do... Just eating plasma fruits.. I would really know what would happen if I delete the
code that 3 Plasma Fruits will be added in every NPC Vampire inventory. Will he/she die, because cant get a plasma fruit to eat? Thats so wrong. They should also drink from sims.
But autonomously they dont do anything. :(

I like the vampires so far, but some things need to be changed. Well first at all some other bugs should be fixed, before modders will make those kind of mods. And bugs are enough in this EP!

I am loving the eyebrows, I think it is a much better show than the TS2 stalking and blehing. I'm not sure about the V tattoo on their neck though.

Yea that tattoo is no good. BTW the action hunt does more than show a vamp is in the room. When a vamp uses hunt the game chooses one sim that would extra delectable. You get a lousy moodlet that's slightly better than the basic one you get for drinking. It would be possible to replace the juice box mesh and name with something else, yes?

It takes ~4 hours of sunlight to get "Too Much Sun", at which point you lose 17 Hunger an hour. With a full bar of 200 hunger, that would take just under 12 hours to die.

12 hours or so of daylight in a day - 4 hours of free time with no "Too Much Sun" moodlet = 8 hours of sunlight during which you can die, at the MOST = complete impossibility of death from sunlight with full hunger.

Even with half your hunger, 8 hours is still only -136 health, meaning a sim with just over a full Thirst bar would still live. You need to be halfway thirsty at the time you get the Too Much Sun moodlet to die from being in the sun for the entire fucking day. That's ridiculous. You pretty much have to TRY to die in the sunlight.

You can easily change the Too Much Sun moodlet to cause more hunger loss (150 per hour seemed to work nicely), but that doesn't fix that it takes 4 hours for it to even show up. It should show up immediately and drop at a rate of, say, 75 thirst per hour.

Stuck at a bar when 6AM rolls around? Have fun hanging out in the lobby all day, lest you die on the way home. Stuff like that.

Don't bars close at like 2-4AM in the game? (I thought it should be like 6AM, but again I have no experience with real-life bars, so maybe it's a realistic closing time)
[/offtopic]

Plasma is the part of the blood that DOESN'T include the cells, unreliavole.  Blood cells + plasma = blood.  Blood - blood cells = plasma.

Closing times are determined by an establishment's liquor license, which is restricted by city/county law and, in cities like Chicago, further by neighborhood aldermen. 2:00AM is a pretty common closing time around here. A few clubs I've been to around River North (Chicago neighborhood that blends with downtown) close at 3:00AM. 6:00AM...no. People generally would have an issue with loud drunk people carousing outside their door a couple hours before they are supposed to get up. Of course that's here. It's possible that other areas let bars stay open later. LA, maybe? Isn't Lindsey Lohan always leaving clubs and causing trouble at 6:00AM?

You know, there is more to the world than just Amurika.  

As for puddingworld, 2-4am sounds pretty reasonable to me. Most places I've been to kick you out around that time. Sure, some are open later, but that's not so common, at least in my experience.

Unlikely. The low-res motive curve should prevent most such deaths. Also, that code gets smitten next update. Death to free-handouts!

In QLD the closing times are between 2am and 5am. I would love a hack to modify the close times or to make a 24hr bar. How can my sims have a serious bender if they get kicked out at 2am?

That's all rumors, silly.

Sims is made in the US. They've shown in the past (hello, World Adventures) how very US-centric they are. Therefore, my comment was based on what they'd base it on.

Skadi, start earlier, go faster. Then get waffles.

Yeah, I'm seconding that vampires need a decent method of immorally obtaining blood; maybe their hunger meter should be filled/increased by winning a fight.  I'm also going to agree to a "tastes like fridge" moodlet for all fridge-obtained plasma, but that seems too merciful.  I'm not in charge for a variety of good reasons, but I'd throw in a statistically significant chance for something really hilarious to happen.  As a random stupid suggestion, perhaps a bad batch, one in ten or so, gives you three days to live and can only be cured by drinking the blood of a hunt target (to make that mechanic worthwhile).  Something in that vein, maybe less or more brutal depending on the whims of Pescado.  Make it a toggle-able option if you want to avoid whining from the weak, but if you do, set it to on by default as a punishment to those who fail to RTFM. 

The funny thing is that Pescado has done much worse than that.  He as an option in the config file that crashes your game.  That is its only pupose.  It even tells you that it will crash your game. And yet a few people still asked why their game crashed when they enabled.  Good times, good times.

Speaking of making game mechanics worthwhile, you are able to raid the hospital to obtain blood juice boxes. But they go bad in your inventory very quickly AND (due to a bug) once they do so your vampire gets stuck with the "bad food" moodlet until you manually remove it using a cheat. Even though I dislike blood juice boxes from the fridge because they are too easy to obtain, I do like the idea of raiding them from the hospital.  But to make it a viable option the blood juice boxes need to stop going bad or at least take no longer to go bad in your inventory.

There also needs to be a benefit to the ones from the hospital. Maybe a separate object with different "stats" altogether. Can't you just go to the fridge, get a juice, cancel the action, and add it to your inventory? It's the same thing. And if you immediately refrigerate the ones from the hospital, you get the same effect as just taking one from the fridge.

Is it supposed to be for emergencies? Are sims ever really that far from home that they wouldn't get home in 24 hours to get a juice from the fridge?

I remember a user here who turned it on (why?!?), then slunk off to another unrelated forum to ask about it because they were too ashamed to ask here.

You mean the Explode in BFBVS switch?  I remember that!  The second I saw it, I knew I had to try it.  So I backed up all my saves, turned it on, and LOLed at the results.


Another nod of agreement.  Hospital raiding is kinda useless right now, with one exception: my Crazy Hobo Vampire has no other source of blood (being a Crazy Hobo means no fridge and few friends).  Suffice it to say, I'm tired of spending so much time looting only to have my spoils... well, spoiled.

Yeah.  That's the one.  I really really wanted to press the red button.  The "Do not press" sign was so inviting, but I just didn't have the balls.
I was able to make it so that the vampire Juice doesn't spoil.  I also tried to make it so you couldn't get the vampire juice out of the fridge.  I did things like make it no longer available as a snack and making it so you needed level 11 cooking skills to prepare it.  I was successful in removing it as an option, but the side effect was that it also made hospital raids reset your sim back to home.  So I gave up on that part for now.  (My next and final attempt will be to make a plasma fruit a required ingredient to make the Juice which would make it so it isn't free... but if that makes you consume a plasma fruit each time you raid a juice from the hospital that won't work either)

So anyway, here is a mod that makes it so the vampire juice doesn't spoil.  It doesn't do anything else.  If you have other mods that alters the master recipe list this mod will conflict with it.  But you can modify those mods on your own by finding the vampire juice and going to <can_spoil>x</can_spoil> and just deleting the x.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/iflewf2a7edu5xv/vampirejuice.package


ETA: This next mod makes it so vampire juice doesn't spoil.  It also makes it so you consume one plasma fruit when getting a vampire juice out of the fridge.  It does not charge you any plasma fruits to raid the hospital.  However, there is a slight problem in that if you don't have any plasma fruits in your inventory you can still get a vampire juice from the fridge and it doesn't cost you anything.  There doesn't seem to be anything I can do about that unfortunately.  

http://www.mediafire.com/file/tzrnu093jkxyupk/vampirejuice.package


Both mods still allow you to raid the medical center to get vampire juice without costing you any plasma fruits.  Unfortunately I couldn't make a mod that allowed you to raid the medical center while also making it so you couldn't get a vampire juice from the fridge.

ETA:  This mod makes it so you can't get vampire juices from the fridge.  It also changes it so that instead of getting vampire juice from raiding the hospital, you get plasma fruits from raiding the hospital.  This is the one that does pretty much everything I wanted it to.  So, yay!

http://www.mediafire.com/file/1b2m18z2vp739eb/vampirejuice.package

I have a question. I have never played a vampire but my sim got an invite to a party from one and she went . While there the vamp kept having the hunger symbol well she died ! She turned into a pile of ashes and the death guy came and then she was a black ghost with like a red heart that was pulsing ,he took her into the elevator and all that was left was her urn. My sim and the other guests had the thing to mourn and then everyone left. The weird thing was next time my sim went to the lounge where the now dead vamp was a door person/bouncer she was there! Do they not really die? By the way she was/still is on my sims friend list although they are not friends , they dislike each other . Just curious if anyone else has seen something like this .

But here in the bestest part of USistan, we don't have that medieval thing known as "last call." It's 4am and I wanna get my drink on, well, there's a ton o' places do do just that. Of course, we aren't normal for this country. And we may just be electing the craziest senator in, like, ever.

</derail>

I was under the impression that big cities had 24 hour bars. There are a bunch in Los Angeles, London, New York, Seattle, etc.

Although my 6AM comment was more on a personal playstyle level, my sims may be kicked out at 4, but the other patrons tend to hang out outside after that, mine included.

Sure, you can completely ignore that comment, it was just me reminded of the issue and wondering if I'm the only one surprised/not exactly pleased with it ;)

Perhaps a mechanic were a vampire feeding off of another sim replenishes his thrist motive by draining the target sims hunger motive by an equal amount?  In which case an especially thirsty vampire might end up killing his meal (and possibly turning them as well) if they're not careful.

I like this idea.

With that, Read Mind should also have a "motives" option, so you can check to be sure (with a little math on your end) that you will or won't kill whoever you're going to drink from.

Other than that, I like it.

I'm sure there's a host of things to consider in implementing something like this.  Perhaps the ability, for player-controlleed vampires at least, to only fill themselves up to 25% or 50% thirst to lessen the risk of killing.  I like the idea of a motive check under "read mind" too. And you'd probably need to bunch of tunings for NPC vampires to keep them from systematically killing/turning the entire population of a town. Perhaps not letting them drain anyone below 25% hunger.  Or maybe giving them a small random chance of killing/turning while feeding.

I'd also like to see a trait that makes sims obsess about the vampires. Or maybe apply it to, say, eccentric. Just make them autonomously ask for autographs (even for non-celeb vampires) and ask to be turned and stuff.

Yeap that is also what I want for vampires! More action, more autonomous actions and a few changes to the whole vampire life and voila
we will have a really great vampire! I am sure with a mod tuning the vampires WILL be better as they already was in Sims 2 :) Because in my oppinion I loved the autonomy after
the player was turned into a vampire! Suddenly all the vampires were biting other npcs!  That is something I really miss about the vampires in sims 3

+1 for MOAR death. I want my vampires to be blood thirsty animals who can kill you just like that. Also - NAY to that glow at night (though, I should be thankful they don`t sparkle -_-), and if they`re supposed to be fast when running, then I want them to be FAST WHEN RUNNING like "OMFG did you see that, NO it was so fast you couldn`t have  seen it", you know. And not some crappy, swooshy pseudo motion blur.

I don't like that, really.  When I want to watch humanoids live short, brutal lives that end in agony for no good reason whatsoever, I grab seven dwarves and send their short asses to some place with a name like the Mire of Ooze.  In the Sims, you're supposed to care about the little blighters under your command... even if you only care about them in the same way a cat cares about a mouse it's just caught, and has decided to torment before the killing blow.  I don't like the idea of random murders in the Sims universe, save those that are part of my unholy will.  (My sig is mostly tongue-in-cheek.)  Also, vamps with the Wuss Good trait shouldn't be able to commit any aggressive bloodsucking, if such is implemented.
Perhaps those who willingly allow you to chow down on them should also be at less risk.  Say you can get a snack via either beating the stupid out of someone, or asking someone the old fashioned way.  The beat-down method might drain with a one-to-one ration, while a willing drain would be, say, three-to-one; three points of vamp chow for every one point of hunger the sacrifice loses.  Say the vampire doing the draining can concentrate on not harming his lunch or something.

http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=423754&goto=newpost

Someone apparently has completed a mod that adds a "Drink to Kill" option.

Says who?

Your quote is a bit lacking in context.

(Emphasis added.)  If you don't care, it's only because EAxis failed at their job, which was to make you care.  For a lot of the forum members here, I suspect EAxis had their work cut out for them... basically, my point was, I play The Sims to enjoy being the capricious over deity of a bunch of little virtual dimwits, and I don't want competition for the title of "most dangerous thing in the Sims universe" from a bunch of NPC bloodsuckers.

Can you make this optional? I noticed the Plasma fruit bushes only give you two fruits before they die, which would make it really hard to grow a huge crop of them, unless one spent lots of time collecting seeds... or using the handy ones in ones inventory that you wish to squelch.

And you never did squelch the free-handout seeds one gets for gaining a point in gardening and those are always sub-standard. Those should go.

Give me Christopher Lee.

(http://lothiane.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/dracula.jpg)

Or...

(http://www.motifake.com/image/demotivational-poster/small/0807/pms-bitch-girl-horror-funny-vampire-demotivational-poster-1215741169.jpg)

I may regret this...
Heh... add that to the Sims, and you'll have made it harder than I Wanna Be The Guy (http://kayin.pyoko.org/iwbtg/).

And somebody, please, make a proper coffin for vampires to sleep in. The current vampire bed is semi-interesting only until you make the joke from the first Ghostbusters movies, "She's interesting because she sleeps above the covers.  FOUR FEET above the covers." After that, you've pretty much got nothing.

There's multiple 'proper coffins'. Here's one set. (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=420356). And here's another (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=418565). Don't like either? There's even more if you are willing to actually search.

I second that.

Other than having to be friends to drink, I'd like the vampires to be left as they are. Or at least please give us options. I like the glow, I like the plasma juice, I like the plasma fruit. What I don't like is the stupid friend requirement.

What's with you and insisting on free plasma fruit? Is it so hard to raid grocery store for them?

I actually didn't know they were at the grocery store. Probably because I never check it.

Yes, you can buy them for 30 or raid the store and get some for free. Reportedly you can get caught for stealing but I haven't so far.

Says Karma.

Anyhow, just a little thought: Wouldn't it be possible to implement the vamps food favorite, O+ as a trait that could be given through awesome?

Such as that, all vampires who feed off of this sim would get the "sanguine snack" moodlet, disregarding the "hunt" option. It would be nothing short of someone actually having superior blood - full time.
Though playing the predator is quite nifty; I favour the thought some sims simply TASTING better. Much like how mosquitoes suck me dry in our horribly humid summer afternoons.
Though I really could do without the latter.

Props to most of the suggestions popping up here! Presuming The Boss might, or might not integrate it into awesome, I can't wait for the results.

No, because that's easy-ass in comparison to actually having to use the hunt option, find and befriend the prey, then lure it somewhere private to drink from (if you want to avoid public disgrace).

Did anyone else notice that garlic is making vampires sick? Loled a bit at that.

They also get sick if the feed off of someone who has the garlic breath moodlet.

Err... is no juice in fridge a part of that, my stupidity, or a bug? It's my stupidity, looked at wrong menu.

Re vamp modding in general: I understand that when you get down to it, whatever El Presidente says goes, because it's his mod made for his amusement, but I really hope he would make any vamp-related options configurable. More challenge and less T-ratedness may or may not be what everyone wants every time, especially considering wide variety  of opinion on what exactly vampire powers and weaknesses ought to be.

It would be like leaving 12-woohoo permanently on with no way to switch it off.

California stops serving alcohol at 2AM.

Uh, that doesn't mean there aren't 24-hour bars there.

One of my two vamps has been nauseous on and off ever since he was turned. He had a bad plasma drink in inventory, then it disappeared. (Maybe through the Hand of God). This might be why he's still getting moodlets, I don't know, I can't see any other reason for it, unless it is to do with garlic.

I've had non-vampire sims randomly throwing up.

I had a non-vampire sim pass out right in front of the movie cineplex.  Just fell down on the sidewalk and started sleeping.  My sim and the person she was talking with both stopped talking to turn and stare at the sleeping sim as if to say "WTF, over?"

What color are your vamps eyes turning? I've seen pics of red eyes but all I seem to get are a translucent blue/grey color.

I also get blue.

Growing plasma fruit like any other vegetable isn't "free", it does require a certain amount of work.  And since I'm trying to grow a huge batch of them to make Vampire Nectar out of - I want Perfect quality fruits, which you can't get at the Grocery.  It's a huge pain in the neck, in a non-vampire sort of way.

I was referring to the way de-selecting a sim gives it free fruit. Get your own damn fruit! This is unrelated the fridge contents issue.

It depends on the original color. Their eyes become somewhat brighter version of what they originally were.

I was referring to the "raid store for plasma fruit" option. It is free because you don't pay for the stolen fruit. Of course they're not perfect quality, but neither are free handouts, so what are we talking about?

At bars, vampires have their own selection of blood-named drinks... which don't refill the thirst bar. Considering a vampire's diet is primarily liquid, it seems like the bar drinks should work like the plasma juice boxes.

While I expected Vamp sims to not show in the mirror, I was mostly disappointed to find my elder didn't get the 5x age boost that my YA got.

Does that apply even if you are using the latest Rule of 6 version?

Yes. YA end up with 5x age length, I assume Adults do too. It now shows like a 1000 days in Epic for YA . However, the Elders still show a end date of 900. My current Elder Vamp is at 902 days, so either she could go any day, or if it does apply, but is a hidden bonus, she will die sometime after Christmas.

Elder vampires probably display funny because elders don't actually have an end of stage length.

Well if my Elder is still alive a month from now, then we know there is an extended termination date. The XML says vampires are multiplied by 5, but with no actual termination date, only a percentage chance of death, it's a bit hard to say.

Is there any real purpose to having your vampire Sim sleep on the "Vampiric Sanctum"? Awesomemod shows that there's no additional benefit, but I'm just curious as to why they put a special vampire bed in the game that doesn't even give them the "slept like the dead" moodlet (as from beds which have the "well rested" moodlet) other than it looks "cool." I mean, shouldn't it at least serve a more practical purpose too? Shouldn't speshul bed be extra speshul for the limited amount of Sims that can use it? /rant

It gives 30 EPH, which makes it higher-class than every other bed.

It makes more sense that the vamp beds should give the moodlet rather than normal beds. I bet that they simply got it the wrong way around.

Would I be correct in recalling that the juice box straws are red (implying that the content of the carton is red)? It bothers me that the plasma fruit and juice boxes are red when plasma is the part of blood that is not red. Blood plasma is straw coloured, clear fluid. I would personally prefer that vampires drink blood in its complete form - red blood cells included! To me, the term "blood juice box" would make more sense.

Also, why would a vampire raid a hospital for plasma and not blood (complete with red blood cells!) when they are happy to drink blood from other sims?

Because EA is trying to keep from "offending" anyone or being too traumatic for 6s and early 12s by using the b-word.  I don't usually download nitpicking mods, but that's one thing that is annoying enough for me to consider it.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=plasma
plasma  
1712, "form, shape" (earlier plasm, 1620), from L.L. plasma, from Gk. plasma "something molded or created," from plassein "to mold," originally "to spread thin," from PIE *plath-yein, from base *pele- "flat, to spread" (see plane (1)). Sense of "liquid part of blood" is from 1845; that of "ionized gas" is 1928.

Although I have to admit that EA probably did mean it as an alternative to 'ze b vord' only and has no concept of its etymology.

It says in your above quote "liquid part of blood". That is the reason I am having a problem with the word's use in game. The blood/'plasma' in game is red. Plasma is not red, it is clear/yellow liquid. I'm not sure how the etymology of the word would do anything to correct this?


I agree that it is for the sake of not "offending" anyone, but like you, I do find it particularly annoying.

Because it clearly states that the usage of the word as a part of blood is relatively modern and the base meaning is that of a mobile/maleable thing or something which spreads out into flatness, for which any liquid might fulfill the definition.

Yours DON'T show in the mirror? Because a brief test indicated that apparently the Lala could see herself in the mirror still. You sure that works in LN?

I expected them to NOT show, but was disappointed to see they do. I just had amusing thoughts of sims being depressed over not being able to see themselves in the mirror when directed to do so.

I don't play vampires because of how ridiculously easy it is to gain skills, especially for children and teens.

Plus, free food... unless there are meals you can cook with plasma fruit? It's kinda stupid that they give vampires a fruit, of all things, since gardening is usually done during the day....

Yes, that's one of the running gags of Awesomeland, that the Lala cannot see herself in the mirror. The hilarity of Snob sims being denied their "I Am Beautiful" moodlet because they cannot see themselves in the mirror.

Would I be correct in reading the dates on the etymology quote as being when the particular usage of the word started to appear? 1845 might be "relatively modern" and the word "plasma" still has a variety of uses, but today the word "plasma" does have a specific meaning if you are already on the topic of blood. I think that if they were searching for a word with which any liquid could be referred to, they should have used something more suitable. 

Today it is basic 'common knowledge' (I don't like that phrase but I can't think of another one) that plasma is the part of blood that does not include red blood cells. I say "common knowledge" in the sense that it is taught to young kids and teenagers at school (at least it is where I live) - the people that EA is trying to keep from offending?

To me, even if EA had been aware of the information you've shared, it wouldn't change my feeling that the above decision just doesn't make sense.   

Unless, of course, you are the Vole.

You know, technically, there isn't supposed to BE a skill bonus for 6 and 12s. However, my examinations into various issues, like why the Thirst motive always resets to max everytime you reload the game, uncovered a steaming cesspool of bork lurking in the skill system, which results in runaway accumulators that can produce crazyfast learning speeds, or make it impossible to skill at all.