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TS2: Burnination => The Podium => Topic started by: YYZdnl on 2005 October 14, 23:13:56



Title: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: YYZdnl on 2005 October 14, 23:13:56
I don't know if it is just the luck of the draw, but I haven't had a single spontaneous fire or burglary attempt on any of my lots since I installed Nightlife.  I have considerable game playtime in since the install and should think I would have had some trouble by now.

I did check, and can create a fire in a toaster.  I don't think I have any hacks running other than the coffee cup hack.

Has anyone else noticed this?


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: Ancient Sim on 2005 October 14, 23:17:18
I've had a fire or two, but no burglaries.  Then again, I can count on one hand the number of burglaries I've had since installing Uni, let alone Nightlife.  They only happen so often and I have so many lots I probably just haven't played any of them long enough for the next scheduled burglary to roll round.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: MissDoh on 2005 October 14, 23:20:38
My story is different though I must say I resetted my game after I install Nightlife.

I had 3 or 4 burglaries, a few fires but I notice the appliances brake less often.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: YYZdnl on 2005 October 14, 23:24:49
I didn't know fire & burglaries were a timed event.  That maybe it, I only have a few sim days of play time on anyone lot.  Since, I have mainly been updating my lots with driveways and cars, and the family's with attractions.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: sonofajoiner on 2005 October 14, 23:26:53
Ive had a pretty spectacular fire involving crepe suzette and a sim with lousy cooking skills. It was almost fatal.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 October 14, 23:29:49
You don't get burglaries if you only have the college installed, the game only generates burglars if you enter the main neighbourhood, so if you are growing sims up to start a new hood, they won't get burgled.  I know because I noticed in SimPE that this hood hasn't regenerated any burglars since I deleted All characters.  and when the burglars do appear, they''ll all be turned into babies - then they can't burgle!  (Only works for burglars, I'm afraid, Uni characters still come and visit your lot and lie on the portal!)  works for any really annoying delievery persons who don't deliver properly, or say you haven't paid them when you have!  But as soon as another sim orders groceries, the game replaces them.  I think it works for burglars because your sim doesn't normally call to order a burglary!


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: theisz on 2005 October 14, 23:31:32
Now that you mention it I have not had a single burglary.   I have played many different families and played each individually for log periods of time.  It could be just luck of the draw, but it is weird. 

I have the no fire hack so I don't get those.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 October 14, 23:39:11
I hate them because of the way the kids get so upset and you have a real job to get them to go to school the next day!


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: virgali on 2005 October 14, 23:53:20
I for one miss being burglared! It's one of those you-never-know-when-it's-going-to-happen-events thta make sthe game so unpredictable!

couldnt soemone make a hack to increase the chance to get burglared? Or createa "burglar on demand"? :D Would be greate for storytelling! 8)


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: virgali on 2005 October 14, 23:54:17
P.S Did anybody got a car stolen yet? I was really looking forward to a good joyride!  ;D


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: witch on 2005 October 15, 00:03:54
Yes, I've been leaving hot sports cars outside lots with no alarms. Still no burglaries. I have a custom n'hood and did deleteallcharacters so I guess I have no burglars. :(


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: gynarchy on 2005 October 15, 00:43:19
I am playing a custom neighborhood and am going on my fourth generation with only one fire and no burglaries. I started off the neighborhood by deleting all the chars but regenerated all the NPCs. The theives' file are there, they just haven't come around yet.

Quote
You don't get burglaries if you only have the college installed

I thought burglaries weren't supposed to happen at Uni either, but in my pre-NL neighborhood my Greek house Sims were robbed. It shocked the hell out of me and the whole scene played out very strangely - the cop came and handcuffed the burglar but he still got away - and my Sims didn't receive a memory of it happening.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: skandelouslala on 2005 October 15, 00:51:14
Burglaries were always rare in my game.  I don't care one way or another..I find them annoying lol

Fires...I've had a few since installing NL...mostly w/ sims with low cooking points as normal.

Oh yes...and one generated by a dumbass attack.  I had a poor family who first burned their their entire kitchen.  All the money they had left that could barely afford a new fridge and grill.  I didn't realize that if you tried to stick a grill inside it would lead to fire breaking out each and everytime a sim tried to use it.

I guess a few things are like real life in that respect lol


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: Myrddin on 2005 October 15, 01:05:30
I started with a clean install with Nightlife, began a custom hood for a brand new legacy, and was burgled within the first sim week.  And had three fires within the first two sim week.  Both events are more frequent for me; before Nightlife the only burglary I had was the preset Caliente one (which I played just to see it happen) and my sims generally only have one fire per sim.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: MissDoh on 2005 October 15, 02:50:36
P.S Did anybody got a car stolen yet? I was really looking forward to a good joyride!  ;D

Well the burglar try to stole one of my Sims car but it was equipped with an alarm.  One thing I notice is that the Sims did not wake-up because the car is outside.  I wonder if I place it in a garage if it would wake them up or not.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: Oddysey on 2005 October 15, 03:10:18
My sims don't sleep, so I don't get burglaries.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: cabelle on 2005 October 15, 03:14:53
Ah, so your sims believe in JM's statement that sleep is for wusses. :P I haven't had a burglary since Nina & Dina Caliente strangely enough. I do put a burglar alarm in each house and with NL, I get an alarm installed in each car. Paranoid that way I guess.

I just had a fire today at the Tri Vu house. Tiffany Sampson was making spaghetti and nearly went up in flames. Had to keep telling the twit to get away from the fire. ::)


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: Diala on 2005 October 15, 03:15:48
couldnt soemone make a hack to increase the chance to get burglared? Or createa "burglar on demand"? :D Would be greate for storytelling! 8)

Here is something for ya: Daily and weekly burglaries (http://www.variousimmers.net/vsimforum/showthread.php?t=1992&highlight=burglar) I haven't used it, however.

I've never had a burglary. Not once. Maybe because I only make my Sims sleep when their energy is low, no matter what time of day it is, so a lot of them tend to be nocturnal. Maybe one of these days I should download one of those hacks just to experience what a burglary is like.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: Oddysey on 2005 October 15, 03:34:46
Ah, so your sims believe in JM's statement that sleep is for wusses. :P

Yes. Sleep is unnecessary. You will be assimilated.





(Sorry! Sorry! Couldn't resist.)


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: MissDoh on 2005 October 15, 03:41:32
Ah, so your sims believe in JM's statement that sleep is for wusses. :P

Yes. Sleep is unnecessary. You will be assimilated.





(Sorry! Sorry! Couldn't resist.)

Oh so you are a Treky  :D


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: Ness on 2005 October 15, 03:50:36
the thing is...  when the burglar steals the car, they stuff it in the bag like everything else - they don't get in and drive off, which is really quite disappointing!

Ness


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: MissDoh on 2005 October 15, 03:57:51
Yes it would have been a good idea to make a special animation for the car that get stolen.  Maybe in a future ep they will change that.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: Andygal on 2005 October 15, 04:29:00
I like NEVER had a burglar for a loong time then just recently after installing NL I had one. And now my sim is furious with him.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: noname on 2005 October 15, 07:00:09
Yes it would have been a good idea to make a special animation for the car that get stolen.  Maybe in a future ep they will change that.

But it would hardly even need a special animation. The existing animations would have sufficed if the had programmed them in. That's just EA being lazy again.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: MaxoidTom on 2005 October 15, 07:53:16
Yes it would have been a good idea to make a special animation for the car that get stolen.  Maybe in a future ep they will change that.

But it would hardly even need a special animation. The existing animations would have sufficed if the had programmed them in. That's just EA being lazy again.

We didn't have time; I wish we did, because that would've been cool.  Sorry to disappoint you.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: Ness on 2005 October 15, 08:19:56
here's a thought...

stop pushing them out so frequently, and make sure they are done right!

Ness


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: Inge on 2005 October 15, 08:22:33
Noooo I like the 6-monthly EPs.  Though if the extra two weeks would have allowed a car theft animation I'd have said never mind that, just give me proper looking water in my garden ponds :)


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: MaxoidTom on 2005 October 15, 08:43:51
here's a thought...

stop pushing them out so frequently, and make sure they are done right!

Ness


That's not exactly my decision to make.  Doing it "right" is also a matter of opinion.  If I had my way, we would have had car racing, curved driveways, etc., but we simply did not have the manpower or the time to do it.  It still amazes me how long it takes to make a model or a new animation.  Given the size of our team, we simply cannot do everything that you or the community wants.  Even with a much larger team, I doubt we could make you happy.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 October 15, 11:06:17
Maybe the trouble is you're all being pushed to include too much in each EP.  Setting your sights lower would mean that what you do include would be more thoroughly tested.  For example, why not have made a separate EP for the Vampire stuff?  I'm sure there is enough material for both NightLife and VampireLife!


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: Motoki on 2005 October 15, 12:42:09
Here is something for ya: Daily and weekly burglaries (http://www.variousimmers.net/vsimforum/showthread.php?t=1992&highlight=burglar) I haven't used it, however.

I've been using that hack. The weekly one without the arsonist portion, just the burglar. It works pretty well and my sims now get burgled. Before using it I never had it happen except for the Calientes but that doesn't count because that one is staged.  :P

Supposedly, to have the burglar come normally without hacks you need to have all sims on the lot sleeping at night. That's something I rarely have at any given time, although when I did try to do it I still didn't have burglaries until I got the hack.

With NL now everyone becomes furious with the burglar. In one house I just had a burglary where the little girl has one want to become friends with the burglar and another to see her ghost. LOL

I don't worry to much about the animations as I have alarms on all my cars and they can't steal them. Anyway, it's The Sims, there's always going to be some cartoony goofiness. I mean we have babies alien and otherwise just popping out of thin air and nannies who suck toilet bowls into their sacks when you forget to pay them.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 October 15, 17:31:45
Oh, I've had a burglar come and swipe the tv while the sims were watching it!


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: MaxoidTom on 2005 October 15, 17:39:03
Maybe the trouble is you're all being pushed to include too much in each EP.  Setting your sights lower would mean that what you do include would be more thoroughly tested.  For example, why not have made a separate EP for the Vampire stuff?  I'm sure there is enough material for both NightLife and VampireLife!

I'm sure there would be.  However, if you haven't seen the many threads out there before NL shipped, there are many people that hated the ideas of vampires.

In any case, we try to put something in expansion that appeals to the many different types of players, from builders to the hardcore gamers to the storytellers.  That's the inherent problem though--we have so many different types of users we cannot possibly please them all.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 October 15, 17:55:44
So, since vampires don't appeal to everyone, mightn't they have been better in a separate pack, so the gamer had the choice of whether or not to include that element in their game.  I mean, we already have ghosts and zombies, not everyone is really interested in the supernatural side of things.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: Regina on 2005 October 15, 17:59:44
Since installing Nightlife I've started something like four Legacy families (hopefully this fourth one will be my last one  :P).  Three of these families were started Xtreme which means there was no money for a burglar alarm, or even walls on which to hang a burglar alarm for some sim days.  During the first week of this sim's life he was burglared--mostly everything he owned was stolen including his couch, bookcase and telescope.

Then another Legacy family was burgled not once, but twice, by two separate burglars by the time the second generation was starting on their family.  Each one of these burglaries were perpetrated by different burglars.

In these neighborhoods I had deleted all characters, which in the past (pre-NL and I don't have Uni) seemed to knock down the instance of burglaries considerably, although it may've just been the run of the game.  It's always seemed like things run in spurts in my game anyway, even back with TS1.  I'll go along for a long while with no burglaries then bam, everyone gets burgled (pre-NL I had one neighborhood where everyone was getting hit by the burglar on a weekly basis and the cop was all of a sudden rarely winning the fight).  I'll play my sims for weeks with no chance cards, then suddenly they're getting chance cards every day.  At one point none of my sims would get pregnant the first time they tried and at other times they're just fertile Myrtles.

There's also a 'nifty' little thing the developers of NL did, I'm supposing just because they could, which is downright annoying.  When your sim is burglared they can sleep right through the burglary without ever missing a beat.  But yet somehow they 'meet' the burglar and of course are furious at him.  So, they spend the rest of their adult life doing that absolutely moronic animation they do when they're furious at someone.  The only way it won't last the rest of their life is if you have them befriend the burglar, which brings up the relationship points which makes the furious state go away faster.  I don't mind my sims making friends with the burglar, but I am so sick of that furious animation loop that I could just scream.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: MaxoidTom on 2005 October 15, 18:03:51
So, since vampires don't appeal to everyone, mightn't they have been better in a separate pack, so the gamer had the choice of whether or not to include that element in their game.  I mean, we already have ghosts and zombies, not everyone is really interested in the supernatural side of things.

At this time we are not doing packs targeted at specific types of users.  As I mentioned previously, we are trying to put something for everyone in the game.  Your point is well taken, however.  I would suggest you post on the official website with your concerns, as the designers read the forums there.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: Regina on 2005 October 15, 18:24:02
That's not exactly my decision to make.  Doing it "right" is also a matter of opinion.  If I had my way, we would have had car racing, curved driveways, etc., but we simply did not have the manpower or the time to do it.  It still amazes me how long it takes to make a model or a new animation.  Given the size of our team, we simply cannot do everything that you or the community wants.  Even with a much larger team, I doubt we could make you happy.

I'd have taken the curved driveways over that blamed furious animation.  ;D

And you are right--no one expansion pack or game is going to be everything to all people.  I was one of those who thought, "Vampires?  Why on earth do we need vampires?"  Then I learned that I don't have to play with them if I don't want to, so no problem!  My grand vampires run around the Downtown area doing their thing and my sims do theirs.  Some of them are making friends with the vampires and I may even go so far as to have one bit just so I can watch him die in the sun.  :o  (I know, that's morbid but I figure I've got to see it at least once. ;))


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 October 15, 20:20:19
).
Quote
  Three of these families were started Xtreme which means there was no money for a burglar alarm, or even walls on which to hang a burglar alarm for some sim days.  During the first week of this sim's life he was burglared--mostly everything he owned was stolen including his couch, bookcase and telescope.

Don't know if it'll sork with NL, but it does work with Uni - just use SimPE to turn your burglars into babies - in Uni at least the game doesn't seem to generate any new ones.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: Motoki on 2005 October 15, 20:26:06
Heh, well if your sims are broke sometimes being burgled can be a good thing. I've noticed when he steals the aspiration reward items and the cop catches him you actually get cash back for the aspiration cost of the reward. In the case of the counterfeiting machine, the theif will almost always go for that first and you end up with 30,000+ simoleans. ;)


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: Regina on 2005 October 15, 20:31:01
).
Quote
  Three of these families were started Xtreme which means there was no money for a burglar alarm, or even walls on which to hang a burglar alarm for some sim days.  During the first week of this sim's life he was burglared--mostly everything he owned was stolen including his couch, bookcase and telescope.

Don't know if it'll sork with NL, but it does work with Uni - just use SimPE to turn your burglars into babies - in Uni at least the game doesn't seem to generate any new ones.

I think I'd rather the burglars stay adults. LOL  One thing I forgot to mention, there's a handy way to thwart the burglars and although one wouldn't want to do it with a sim with a lot of possessions, but I soon learned to tuck away his desirables into his inventory before I sent him to bed. ;)

The fellow I started last night only got to leave his belongings out once he got four walls and a burglar alarm.  Then within a night or two he was burglarized.  ::)


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 October 15, 20:34:30
What happens if you put Inge's lockable doors on the house?


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: Regina on 2005 October 15, 20:56:08
Lockable doors on the house might work, but this was an Xtreme Legacy sim.  He only had one wall, one side for his toilet, the other for his phone.  And even with my more lax way of playing my Legacy sims, to me lockable doors would be a real cheat. ;)

As I posted elsewhere, I finally just started putting all his valuables in his inventory at night.  This particular night, though, I was pretty tired and had taken him Downtown.  I had bought the telescope for him to gain a logic skill point (it was a want and he needed the point for a promotion too) and was planning on selling it when I brought him back from Downtown.  Because I was tired I forgot to sell off his telescope and that night it was stolen.  He'd been just doing crossword puzzles but the one that day was already done and he really needed to top off that Logic point, thus the telescope.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: Motoki on 2005 October 15, 23:28:59
I thought NPCs (not townies but service NPCs) were exempt from Inge's doors though? I know the maid is and the burglar comes from the same household that the maids and nannies and such do.


Title: Re: Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?
Post by: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 October 16, 03:57:28
In that case, of course you're right, it won't work.  

What i used to do in Sims 1 was place a wall or fence all round the property, with an archway.  When it was bed time I used to just move the archway out of the wall and put it back in the morning.  Can't remember exctly how it worked, but it should be much easier with Sims2.