How did this dormie die?

[songsmith]

My YA left the dorm for a jaunt on campus and then downtown. When he returned, there was a tombstone by the mailbox. I was gone long enough that I couldn't remember if it had been raining as he pulled away. Still, I chalked the death up to (probably) a lightning strike.

I didn't recognize the name on the tombstone and thought the victim must have been a visitor since my dorm appeared full. Last night, the ghost finally haunted. He drifted upstairs, cheered a bed, was furious at another dormie and scared a few peeps. He also hangs out near the mini fridge upstairs but doesn't raid it.

My only problem? The ghost is white. I watched him for quite some time. He obviously is not an elder. Is his color some stupid glitch because he's a YA dormie? Any ideas on what killed him if it wasn't lightning?

I'm more curious than anything else. In all my years of play, that's the first time I've had a ghost and not been able to pinpoint what killed it.

[J. M. Pescado]

Ghosts have this tendency to lose their color, particularly if they reappear by the mailbox. There is no obvious way of determining how it died from visual inspection in-game if you have a white ghost.

[songsmith]

Thank you! I thought I'd missed a new death type or something. It probably was lightning (unless the dormie the ghost is furious with murdered him while I wasn't looking ).

[haifen]

I've never had a sim die from being struck by lightning (is that how it works?) but believe me, I've tried. The sim that did die, died of starvation due to lightning related motive depletion (...or is that how it's supposed to work?) so his ghost has no spectral colour. Sounds like that's what happened here.

[songsmith]

I'm only guessing that lightning killed him since I didn't see it. How dare he die when I couldn't point and laugh?

[J. M. Pescado]

Maybe it died of hail? I don't know what color a hail ghost is, but lightning ghosts should be yellow. If a non-selectable is hit by hail, it will never queuecancel it so will just sit there being bombarded until it dies.

[YoungOldPrude]

If I recall correctly, death by hail creates a fuchsia-colored ghost—which, incidentally, is repeatedly walloped by hail every time they come to haunt.

[J. M. Pescado]

Don't remember seeing the code for that anywhere, at least not while making the Brynne ghost.

[songsmith]

It's driving me nuts that he's white. I thought he might be a very pale yellow (for lightning) but he's not. He's white. I hate mysteries! 

[Lerf]

Y'know, you seriously have to love a place where people from all over the world come to discuss the fine points of color differentiation  on pixilated ghosts.