More Awesome Than You!

Before sims had inventories, they used to steal back their gnome and replace it.  Now the lazy sods expect ME to do it!

Macrotastics has an option to steal back gnomes. 

I know, and I use it, but the gnomes go in the inventory.  Before they had an inventory, sims put them back themselves!

LOL that's why I rarely have gnomes. My sims usually get them as 'outing' gifts! I'm not sure if the gnome going in the inventory after being stolen back is just an OFB thing though, I still just have Uni and NL, and I haven't had a stolen gnome yet.

Oh, it happened in the base game, and I still have a vivid memory of Don Lothario rushing off into the night to steal his gnome back - and return it to where it came from!

Yeah and with Uni too....my sim married Kennedy Cox, who every time he was invited over used to steal her gnome...every night without fail, she used to steal it back! When she invited him over for the wedding party, first thing he did when he stepped on the lot was steal her gnome! They got married, raised the roof, honeymooned, woohooed, got pregnant etc, and I was getting them to clean up after the party, when Kennedy suddenly sneaked off to steal back the gnome he stole! He must've left it in the limo I think. :D

Now that's really wierd, but Kennedy Cox is pretty wierd too!

Yeah, you can tell it was when I first got the game-I don't let my sims touch him with a bargepole now :D

I totaly agree - in my first game Brandi was all over one of the other townies, the gorgeous Benjamin!

Haha! I do like Benjamin though. That's who my Cassandra married, and when she was preggers with their first child, he got abducted! I was so surprised cos he had no logic skill points, and it was the first time he had looked through the telescope! It was my first alien birth ( apart from Pascal and Vicund) and I was really happy! I think that is why I have a bit of a soft spot for him ;D

I use gnomes for my sims to kick while using Macrotastics and the Skillinator.  I kept having the flamingos get stuck.  You can keep the gnomes from getting stolen by either putting them facing a wall or a fence or by using a hack to prevent them from being stolen.  I am using the no gnome theft mod SaraMK made a while back.  Works great.

Now, the only one of them I quite like is Amin Sims!  But I once had my sim Lucrezie de la Mort fall for Komei and move him in, and then he moved his friend Joe in too.  Then they got the expensive telescope (since they'd asked for it, didn't like the cheap one, of course) and they both got abducted - but I do have the alwaysabduct hack! - and Jo Carr had twins!  It was just about the funniest scenario I've ever played!

I just put my gnomes in a fenced in piece of garden with a locked gate, but that's a luxury some of my sims can't afford!

Yeah, I like Amin too-he is good to play. He has a nice personality and his kids are really cute :D

Amin is a lazy lout with a terrible personality. Of the stock townies, Komei is my favorite by far.

Grumpy Komei? You would like him best :P

Doesn't surprise me either!  Birds of a feather and all that!

I like Komei too and I'm not mean. At least komei doesn't try to stalk or befriend everyone he meets or run like hell to catch up with somebody leaving the lot just to tell them a joke and hopefully become friends with. :P

No, he's far more likely to walk up to a total stranger and tease him!  And in the game where he was playable, he did just that, then when he went back home he told everyone about it and what a good laugh it was!

Yeah, he's quirky like that. :D I don't know how wants work, but whenever sims rolled a I-want-to-be-friends-with-the-random-townie-who-just-harrassed-me want, you can be sure the other party most likely has the same want too, and I prefer to think it's their fault. Afterall, they would never have gotten the want if they've never met. :P

I'm not saying Pes is mean-he isn't. If he was, he wouldn't be giving us all the hacks to make our games better. He is just a grump :D

Of course I'm mean. I'm mean and I like to scowl. Do not feed me.

Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that :D

Of course I'm mean. I'm mean and I like to scowl. Do not feed me.
[/quote]
* kacidama runs over and leaves a muffin basket

Don't feed him muffins! They will make him even sweeter :D

Sourdough and vinegar - that's the stuff!

That'll put [more] hairs on his chest  :P

Shame it won't put any on his head :D

/me mauls Kacidama.

*Kacidama steals Pescado's Gnome.....*

* kacidama looks down


*EEek is this a dagger gnome I see before me?*


* kacidama wonders how it got there

*Kacidama picks up the gnome and, looking furtively around for signs of a raging Pescado....*

Yea, I liked Komei too.  He ended up marrying Mary-Sue Pleasant after she booted Daniel out, and he got abducted not long after, bringing my first alien kid into the game.  And after Mary-Sue died, he rolled 3 bolts with Stella Terrano (guess he developed a thing for aliens, what with giving birth to one and all :)), and they had 4 kids before he finally went to the great bit bucket in the sky.

Well, in my present game he a Grilled Cheese!

I like the gnome stealing, but I wish the gnome would turn up on the lot of whoever stole it.  It'd be fun to see it go round the neighourhood!

Today one of my sims arrived at another sim's house, (townies all banned, so since so far only 4 families, they are constantly walking by) and was greeted by his friend, immediately gave a wicked grin and put the gnome in his *inventory* - now why couldn't there be a way to get it back there and then? 

"Hey!  give me back my gnome!" 
"What gnome?  I don't have your gnome!" 
"Then what's that sticking out of your *inventory*?!"

Komei ended up kicking starting my last Legacy.   He was pretty good to my CAS.  They adored each other to the end.  He didn't make a half bad elder either.  Distingushed right up like a Burt Reynold's, Sean Connery kind of way.

and...

/me throws cheese at the JMBeastie

In one game (pre-NL) I made a Romance sim called Lucrezie de la Mort with the intention of using her to kill off all the townies!  The first one she met was Komei and she fell for him.  Last time I played them, he had had an alien baby, while Joe Carr, who was living in their house, had had twin alien babies - they both got abducted the same night.  Lucrezie was an excellent step-mum, going out to work and earning an astronaut's salary in order to grant their wants for shrubs and trees etc.  Komei and Joe were excellent parents, although they kept wanting to get jobs!  since I didn't want any nannies around, they were doomed to be stay-at-home dads for quite a few simdays!

/me wonders to himself why when he sends a thread off-topic it gets sent to RL...but when others do it...they remain.  Strange  :-\

It's because you're special Twain.  :-*

I usually kill Komei. Just because I can.

I have Lola and Chloe Singles/Curious fighting over Komei right now.  Sheesh, way to woohoo with the same guy on the same day.   ::)

Heh, sounds like a couple of the girls who lived on the floor of my dorm. :P You should have Lola & Chloe both have kids by him.

I think there must be some virtual testosterone that Maxis gave to its own creations!  (Townies and NPCs in particular....)

Since I cloned a bunch of Sims from other neighborhoods using SimPE, Chloe and Don Lothario had a love child.  If Lola and Chloe had kids by Komei, that'd be baby number two for her.  Unfortunately I let them age to elder, so that can't happen.   :D

Well, you can always age her back down again.

It's because you smell like feet Twain :D

/me pokes Twain with a long stick

And because if the thread is amusing enough, it stops the Podium getting too serious!  (I think!)

Anyway, back to those dratted gnomes, everyone!  Anyone got a good gnome joke?

Two gnomes walk into a bar...

...and the bartender says...

"What are you gnomes drinking?"

The first gnome says to the other "we just walked into his bar and he still wants to serve us?"



Q: What's the difference between a truck and a pile of dead gnomes?
A: I don't have a truck in my garage.

Q.   How many gnomes can you get in a mini?

A.   How many would you like to get in a mini?

Q: How many gnomes does it take to change a lightbulb?


A: 10.  Why you ask? Well...you need 9 to form the cute pyramid and 1 to climb to the top and actually change the lightbulb

 ;D

Q.  How does a gnome get up a tree?

A.  He hitches a ride from a passing squirrel.

Q.  How does a gnome get down from a tree?

A.  He sits on a leaf and waits for the squirrel to go back down.

 ;D

No joke - this actually exists http://www.freethegnomes.com/

That's brilliant!  Maybe we should report a certain advocate of gnomekicking?

They need the Travelocity Roaming Gnome as their Spokesgnome.

Maybe we should nominate JM for the post of Chairgnome of the Free the Gnomes Campaign?

He's not trying to hurt them by directing his sims to kick them...he is trying to free their little spirits  ;)

Pull the other one!  Gnomes of the world unite!  Kick the kickers!

Darn! I'll have to uninstall everything to see that gnome thing.

I still haven't had nay gnome stolen yet, especially since i keep forgetting to add gnomes in the yard and I make lots of nice sims. It's funnier to see them put it back themselves. Do they chose a random location or do they place it at he exact same spot prior to the burglary? ???

They usually put it down close to the mailbox, on the nearest spare tile. :)

But now they put it in their inventory!  Lazy sims!  Hey, one got stolen in my last but one house, and one of the family actually went and got it back without being told to!  Haven't had that happen in ages  But, if they don't go and get it back, what happens to it, it's not in the thief's house and it's not in his inventory, so WHERE DOES HE PUT IT?

Even when they put it back themselves, I'd always end up having to move it, because they'd put it down in the middle of the sidewalk or something.  :P  The Pleasant house is the first one I witnessed the gnome stealing scenario.  Now Daniel and Mary Sue are dead, Angela and Dustin are elders, and one of their sons and his wife and daughter live there.  Macrotastics shows Steal Gnome back, but they don't do anything when I click on it.  They must have a gnome stuck somewhere that they never got back.  I've since put new gnomes out and I've got SaraMK's patch, but I don't know how to get rid of the Macrotastics option.  It's just mildly annoying to always see it on their pie menu.

I didn't mind them sticking the gnome down anywhere they felt like it - I could move it next time I went into buy mode - but in the inventory just means I forget to put the darn thing back!

Maybe the gnome stealer is dead?

i'll have to look as i go though town.  one of my households, i dont remember which... i had  two people of the right temperment.  the stealer would steal the gnorme and immediately the wife of the owner pair would rush off and steal it back, and immediately  the stealer would come steal it back.   they did it all night more then once.   its the only pair like that, normally its a day or two before they come back for the gnome again.     makes me wonder from my own late night programing experiences (i once wrote a utitility that you had to tell you loved it to before it would work)  if programmers were up at 4am going, hey,  lets make it so if you get two meanies living next togeher they do it ever five minutes!

I think the main factor is playfulness, not meanness.  And they only do it if they are a legitimate visitor, at least, that's what I've found.  It's like in my Pleasantview, all the newspaper thieves were Leos with very playful natures.  (Some were pretty mean, but not all.)

The same place he keeps his wallet, the microphone and everything else sims randomly pull out of the air...
In the butt. I keep telling you, it's like a purse, except apparently much, much bigger.

Could you imagine how big a bag they would need for all the items in their inventory!?  It would put Santas sack to shame

newspaper thieves?  i didn't know we had these.  it was only my dormies that didnt get papers, annoying me cause i couldnt use the paper to get them career rewards.   i cant remember if i still had this listed as  a bug. 

 i need to try to find the supergnomestealing families again.. it was all so outer limits.   the neighbor SHOULD have only been over to steal after visiting... i had tested before and i didnt find next door neighbors actually walked by more frequently then anyone else,  so i could never figure out how i got the nonstop stealing going. 

what was that french movie where the gnome went on vacation in all over the world?   i actually liked the movie because of the way she got revenge on her enemies, but the gnome bit should be imortalized with the sims...it WAS out before sims2 came out.

Amelie. Fantastic movie, and that actress is so darn cute!

Most of my gnome stealers are best friends, visiting after work, you see a mischievous look and then, hey presto, gnome gone!  So I made one selectable just to see if the gnome was in his inventory, but it wasn't, so I guess it was in the other place with the mop!  Even kids will do it - one of my simkids' best friends pinched her gnome, she didn't go steal it back autonomously, I had to tell her, but it was so funny watching her!

I lock my gnomes in fenced areas with the port set to family only.
I use Numenor's invisible fences (I fixed the door so the OFB locking functions appear).

Townies and visitors now hover in front of the gate for a while, and leave leaving my gnome behind.

Well, I've had a lot more gnomenapping lately since I started using macrotastics.  Pink flamingo lawn ornaments are just plain tacky.  So I've been using gnomes for my sims to kick.

I had forgotten about them being stolen, since I hadn't been putting any out for so long.  But I have some sims who make this evil sound when they steal a gnome.  It's kind of a mix of heavy breathing and low growl and reminds me of Peter Lorre.  They always used to just look around, then grab the gnome.  

I wonder if that breathing noise was always there for certain personality types or if it was added in one of the EP's.  Anyone else notice this?

Not the sound, but the evil look on their faces!  Funny though, I had a welcome wagon for my newest family, and one of them went and stole the gnome, and the teen got the option to steal back his gnome while the thief was still on the lot.  He went to the portal, made the usual mischievous pose, then off he went - and returned with his gnome!  Seems like the invisible pocket stretches a very long way!

LOL!  I just had that happen the other day as well!  It wasn't the welcome wagon, but the teen had a friend over after school who stole the gnome.  He was still there when the resident teen went and stole it back!

And I don't usually have to tell them to take it, they do it on their own.  But in the base game, pre any EPs, they would wait until the middle of the night.  After 11 pm, I think.  Now they go and steal it back at any time.

Is that a change in the game itself, or is it a hack that's allowing them to go at any time of day?  Or was my original observation of it being the middle of the night just a coincidence in those cases where they went at that time?

Does any of that make sense?  My brain's a little foggy this morning.  NEED COFFEE.

No, before I patched the option in macrotastics didn't appear until about 11.0 pm, but it's definitely earlier now.  Maybe though they only get the option when they NEED the gnome!

Ha!  I didn't think of that!  It would explain why they went and stole it back while the thief was still on the lot!

I'm divided on which way is better, though - inventory vs. putting it back themselves.  They would always put it in a place that was in their way the next morning.  At least it seemed so.  Middle of the sidewalk, on their usual path to work/school.  Stomp, whine.  So I had to put it back where it was supposed to be anyway.

And early on I watched that kids' channel show that shows the gnomes fighting back.  So I wondered if I put a bunch of gnomes on each side of the walk, would they attack the kicker/thief?  (The answer is no, unless you need a lot more that I had!  :D)

Would be funny, though!  Like if you have a cat who's a voracious bird-kller, and one day they kill a baby starling, and all the starlings line up on the fences all around the garden and divebomb the cat and scream at it!  Happened to a cat we had when I was a kid, and you never saw a cat run into the house so fast!

I suppose if they keep blocking their path with the gnomes, the inventory is better, but since I usually add new objects or build a bit while the sims are asleep, it wouldn't take a second to move them .  But as soon as my sims can afford it, I fence off a little bit of garden and put a lockable gate on it!  Don't bother to make it invisible though.

ROFL, ZZ!  I can just picture that poor cat!

Yeah, I wondered if there were any hidden clues in any of the shows they watched, like maybe hints on the best way to play the game or little "Easter egg" things that you wouldn't know otherwise.  Never found anything.  And what a shame - that would have been a cool thing to do!

The only doors I have that get locked are the dorm doors.  And I never used to have my sims lock those, but somewhere along the line the dormies went from no interest in my sims' rooms to sleeping in their beds.  So I lock those, now.  I'm debating about putting locked doors on my houses, since I have sims walking in on their own more now than they used to, as well.

Where I come from, the only people who walk into a house without knocking/ringing the doorbell are family and close friends.  Not some guy you just met and barely know.  Unless he's a thief!

And why don't the burglars steal the gnomes?  Why do family friends/acquaintances?  I don't think anyone I know would steal one of my gnomes if I had any!

Well, it's a teen thing on a par with kicking trashcans in real life, I would think!  Or kids out trick-or-treating here in the UK where most people still don't accept it - it's not one of our customs, after all - and the kids steal something - but usually they put it in someone else's front garden!

I wonder why dormies would sleep in your sims beds when they never sleep in their own?  I stopped having dormies a long time ago, they just annoyed me so much, they'd always decide they needed to pee just as you clicked on your sim to go and do so!  And if you sent your sim to eat, they'd get there first!  some dormies seem to eat about 20 times a sim day!

Where I come from, not even RESIDENT family will walk into a house without proper authentication protocol to indicate you are entering freely of your own volition. This allows us to make sure that you are, in fact, YOU, and not a hostile intruder, and not being coerced by hostile forces. There is a set of specific responses you give to authentication challenges when that occurs so that the defenders will be warned. Failure to properly identify yourself before approaching the gate can get you shot!

My guess? Because gnome-theft is some manner of Maxian in-joke prank. Burglars are not interested in them because gnomes have very little in the way of monetary value and therefore are not exactly worth stealing for profit.

My current favorite anti-gnome stealing method is the sentry bot -- it's fun to see sims getting zapped if they're even THINKING about stealing the gnome. :)

Good to know the sentry-bot is useful for something!

And with Monique's computer, your well-off sims can buy one without having to craft them, or your having to have a sim open a robot store.

It's probably because I have JM's nodormieprotect.  They sleep wherever they can find a bed. (or floor!)  I usually put a bed somewhere outside the dorm (and close to something that produces noise - like a jukebox or musical instruments) just to torment them.  I'm not mean - really! - but they have been so annoying for so long I'm just getting even.  You know the old saying - "Don't get mad, get even."

I don't usually have many dormies, but I haven't gotten rid of them completely yet, as they provide some amusement with this mod installed.  Now, they wet themselves, fall asleep in their food and die if they don't take care of themselves.  In fact, I made my first (and only) zombies from two dead YAs.

Trick or Treating here usually involves stealing the Jack O'Lantern on your front step and smashing it in the middle of the street.  And it's not aimed at anyone in particular - if it's there, they will smash it!

Sentry bots are great for trash can kickers, too.  And newspaper thieves!

I actually have a sim with an electrical store and he and his wife can both make robots of all kinds - they spent their college years learning useful stuff - but after the one they had in the house disintegrated when it went wrong, the munchie bot went haywire and the gardening one watered everything but the plants, I rather gave up on them!  But Jimmy's father's robot, Roberta, still wanders the neighbourhood looking for love!

I don't have any shops, because that aspect of OFB doesn't interest me.  I actually got it for some of the stuff it offered - like the crafting benches.  I think they should earn mechanical with them like they did in TS1, though.

So that's usually what I have my elders do - make stuff with the benches.  I only have one who's gotten far enough to make the sentry bots.  And none yet who can make a Servo, though I think this sim might make it before he dies of old age!

And JM - I had a burglar once who stole a toddler's toy!  It was probably the only thing in the house he could take at the time, though (no paintings or anything else of value).  That was a long time ago, so I don't remember if I had a burglar alarm or not.  But even with the burglar alarm in place, those burglars still grab something sometimes!

And now that I've put in yet ANOTHER patch, I'll probably get a new round of burglaries.  I only get them when I add a new EP or patch.  And then everysim gets them!

Mine don't! ;D

I got Crammy's  'robots break less' patch here -- it helps quite a bit with that issue.

I don't generally use Elders for benchwork. As it turns out, it's much easier to exploit townie-labor. Why bother training someone for 3 days just to get a gold badge so he can die with it, when you can just use some townie slave to produce it for you? Plus, as it turns out, craftbadges are by far the least useful badges. While there's a huge market for the easily acquired sales badges, and the variably-difficult cashier badges, there's basically no demand for craft badges, since one crafter can produce a prodigious amount of output that far exceeds the demand of nearly the entire neighborhood. Indeed, making a business out of it is arguably the entire point of the expansion pack.

I've got it somewhere, I think, just haven't used it, but I might just give it a try.  I've quite a few hacks that I got and I'd sort of put a few in my game each time I load, but then came the patch and everything had to be take out and put back in or not, so not everything has actually been put in yet.

Elvira:

If you want to get a sim really really keen on robot building, use a romance sim!  They get the want for each level, and then when the time comes to make the servo, they'll work like crazy to get it finished!

Which is why I wasn't going to buy it in the first place!  Or NL, for that matter, since neither of them intersted me in the slightest.  It was the inventory thing that made me get NL and the idea of getting Servo (and the improved graphics for better cards) that made me get OFB.  I've only sent sims to the NL places a handful of times and I didn't even add Bluewater Village to my hoods.

I figure at some point I'll get bored with the way I play and get into the idea of starting a sim business, but having been there-done that in real life with a software company, it doesn't hold any great appeal for me.

And I think Maxis should reinstate the hacker career.  I had quite a few sims doing that in TS1.

ZZ:

Hadn't noticed that about romance sims, but I do have some knowledge sims who want to get that next badge as soon as they've achieved the one they were working for.  Will have to check that out!

All sims tend to want to reach the next badge level, regardless of aspiration.

I have some who really just don't give a flying...  but I think they're probably too lazy to care!

Well, the romance sim in question was a Gemini!  But he moved out to live with Brandi and left the poor servo all alone!  (But she's quite a wealthy robot!)

So is she (the servo) romance aspiration or fortune?

Romance, poor thing, she's still walking about looking for love!

Servo's take the aspiration and most (if not all) of the personality of the person who activates them. Fortunately, you can use the Renu-u orb to change that later on, just like any other playable sim.

That was what I thought, that she'd have to be romance.  You'll have to change her to fortune, ZZ, with all the money she has!

I don't know that she has a lot of money, can't remember, but the house is worth a fair bit, so she'd be a good catch for a fortune sim (or servo), which begs the question - can servos marry sims?

They can fall in love with sims, so probably.  About the only thing they can't do is be a parent, other than by adoption of course.

Would making another servo count?

Yes and no -- they won't show up as the parent of the new servo, like they would if they adopted.

Now that's a shame!  Maybe they'll introduce mini servos?

Well, you can sort-of do that now, with the SimDroid skin over on MTS2 (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=42554&highlight=simdroid).  It's a genetic android skin that you can use in CAS to create sims who would be normal sims in every other way.  Like any custom skin, there's also a chance it could be passed on to kids.

Plus, it makes a real nice skin to use with existing servos, though they don't otherwise change their servo behaviors. There's a thread in Peasantry here about how to use SimPe to make this skin appear on a servo - you'd have to edit existing servos individually, so you can have some classic and some android servos running about.

I definitely prefer the Data look to the R2D2 metallic appearance!  I might well try it sometime, when I decide that it's time for Roberta Cash to get on with her pseudo life!