Myths, urban legends.... and alien abduction

[cwykes]

MTS2's wiki is saying stop-starting telescope gazing is reported to increase the odds of abduction.  They don't go the whole way and say it's true as they obviously aren't awesome enough to know.  Is this lies & propaganda?
http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Aliens#Alien_Abduction

Be nice to have some more stuff in the War Room about how things really work.  It was a bit sad to see there's been nothing new there for so long.

[Kyna]

I vaguely recall seeing that myth debunked back on VS, when TJ released his higher abduction odds hack.  Or maybe it was just the way he hacked it?  I'm fairly sure that with his hack the more cycles they stargaze the more likely an abduction is - i.e. the longer they look through it in one session, the higher the odds.  I'm just not sure if that was vanilla behaviour and all he did was raise the odds, or if he tampered with that behaviour as well as raising the odds.

[Gwill]

In my experience alien abductions are governed exclusively by Murphy's law.

[jolrei]

As far as I know, abduction odds stay the same in an unmodded game all the time a sim is looking through the telescope.  With TJs higher abduction odds mod, odds of abduction start low and increase through the period that the sim is stargazing with the telescope.  If the sim stops stargazing (i.e. for BUY reasons) and then resumes, odds reset to low and have to start increasing again.  The mod was the only way I have ever had an abduction since I think unmodded odds give you a probability of abduction slightly lower than the IRL probability of increasing your wealth by watching TV preachers.

Now, please place your hands on your BV disks and say with me: "Heeeeyull!"

[veilchen]

I always thought that the abduction odds where a bit higher in an unmodded game when playing Strangetown. Is that a myth too?

I don't know fer sure, because I always play with TJ's mod in. Or did. And will again, as soon as my new shiney arrives. My neighborhoods are a bit out of the ordinary, and aliens are essential. That's why I also had a gender equality mod. Both, pixel men and pixel women got pregnant.

I hope that mod is also easy to re-find. I'm hoping it was TJ's. I better go check.

* veilchen is trying to figure out what "heeeeyull" could mean. Hell or Heal? That is the question.

[MissDoh]

I always thought that the abduction odds where a bit higher in an unmodded game when playing Strangetown. Is that a myth too?

I don't know fer sure, because I always play with TJ's mod in. Or did. And will again, as soon as my new shiney arrives. My neighborhoods are a bit out of the ordinary, and aliens are essential. That's why I also had a gender equality mod. Both, pixel men and pixel women got pregnant.

I hope that mod is also easy to re-find. I'm hoping it was TJ's. I better go check.

As far as I know the chance of abductions is the exact same in all the hoods, so for Strangetown it is a myth.

As for the mod, just want to make sure about this. Did you mean a mod which permit female to get alien pregnant too?  If so, that one was made by Squinge but there might be other modder that did it too.    There are 3 versions available at the sims2graveyard, if you are unsure of which you need, pm me and I can tell you what is the difference between the 3.

ETA:  Add a bleh moment and change permit abduction to permit alien pregnant

[jsalemi]

I always thought that the abduction odds where a bit higher in an unmodded game when playing Strangetown. Is that a myth too?

Not entirely a myth -- the Curious brothers are scripted to get abducted, at least in the initial scenario that comes with the base game.  So they have higher odds (at least for a while), but Strangetown as a whole isn't any different than the others.

[cwykes]

Jolrei reckons it's more than that....

Strangetown has a number of features (like increased alien abduction rates) which seem to be installed.  For this reason, I was always a bit cautious about stealing lots from there for custom hoods.  There may be stuff you don't want embedded in the Strangetown lots, I thought.  Someone else might have evidence of this.  Your experience with Strangetown lots is pretty convincing to me.

[jolrei]

Jolrei reckons it's more than that....

At this point perhaps "reckoned" is a better word.  I had been led to understand, if I recall correctly, that some Strangetown lots (esp. those related to the Curious family) might contain scripting/code that modified odds of abduction.  As noted in the quote, I thought someone else might have evidence and commented that the person's experience suggested support for the hypothesis, considering that people had reported oddities related to stealing lots from S-town for use in other 'hoods.  I'm perfectly happy to be wrong about this.

[veilchen]

I never really played the Strangetown hood. I tried once, and it worked fine for a while. Then I played the Curious brothers. Pascal (it was Pascal, wasn't it?) gave birth. All was well. I left the lot and played the the Singles household for a while. Came back to the Curious' and Pascal was pregnant again, and the new baby was gone. Pouf.

Then Olive's graveyard ghosts started acting up. I don't exactly remember what happened (it's been a while), but that was enough for me to just leave the hood and never look back.

So far I had some screwy going ons in all EAxis hoods. That's why I never played them again. That's also why I believe they tried to be cute and, as usual, messed things up royally. In the newest hood, Riverblossomsomething, the plantSim suddenly started dropping kids when visiting as a non-controllable. While I didn't mind that too much in the beginning, it started to annoy me enough to stop playing that hood as well.

[Khan of Wyrms]

Be nice to have some more stuff in the War Room about how things really work.  It was a bit sad to see there's been nothing new there for so long.

Are peasants not allowed to start topics in the War Room?  I have never sought to try it.   Well, I just checked, apparently I could not start a new topic there if I wanted to, but I could start a poll.  Very strange...


When the TJ's 'higher odds' hacks were hosted here, I am almost certain he stated in the description that abduction odds do not increase with time in a unmodified game, but that his mod made it so that they did.

That's why I also had a gender equality mod. Both, pixel men and pixel women got pregnant.

I hope that mod is also easy to re-find. I'm hoping it was TJ's. I better go check.

The one I have been using for a long time is by Smonaff at MTS2.  It seems reasonably stable and apparently plays nicely with TJ's hack.

[Zazazu]

I usually just tombstone an alien pregnancy after a female is abducted, because I don't want same-sex pregnancy as a general rule. It's a pretty rare occurrence.

As for abduction odds, the same post I read way back when saying that start-stopping viewing was the key to abduction also said that it always happens in the first 15 minutes of stargazing. This is patently untrue, as both my recent abductions have been after at least two hours of uninterrupted searching.

[veilchen]

I also read almost everywhere that abductions don't go on after 3 AM. I had people abducted as late as 5 AM. If they were teens, they had to race to the bus, and they usually were in pretty bad shape need-wise.

[MadameUgly]

I've had early morning (2 am ish) abductions before, too.  I also had a rash of abductions of sims that were just young enough to still get preg (adult males 5 days from elder?--I think those were just coincidence, but it was weird).

Is there any truth to the rumor that having more than one sim stargaze at the same time will increase odds of abduction?

And (one last question) anyone have a male plant sim abducted and get impregnated?  I'm trying for an alien/plant hybrid and am trying to resist just using the tombstone of life and death to do it.

[Khan of Wyrms]

I usually just tombstone an alien pregnancy after a female is abducted, because I don't want same-sex pregnancy as a general rule. It's a pretty rare occurrence.

I don't like same sex pregnancy among sims either, but for me the alien pregnancy for males is different.  It is alien, after all, and hilarious.

I also read almost everywhere that abductions don't go on after 3 AM. I had people abducted as late as 5 AM. If they were teens, they had to race to the bus, and they usually were in pretty bad shape need-wise.

I have had early morning abductions also, but the stargazing in those instances started well before 3 AM as I recall.

And (one last question) anyone have a male plant sim abducted and get impregnated?  I'm trying for an alien/plant hybrid and am trying to resist just using the tombstone of life and death to do it.

I'm glad I thought of that!  But almost embarrassed that I had not thought of it before.  Now I have something new to try.  Can plantsims even get pregnant by 'normal' methods?   

[veilchen]

I like the same sex pregnancy option. It's the sims, after all. I also heartily dislike the social worker, and all the other assorted NPC's who have the tendency to become weird and/or glitchy. That includes the head-master.

I have my own system. I use Inge's cat to get my home made head-master over, do my thing, and just toggle the private/public school thingy with Merola's painting if my sim family qualifies. It's not easy for my simmie-kiddies to go to private school, but my home-made headmaster doesn't become an issue in my game. I have to use a lot of imagination, but that's not a problem for me.

They also have to pay a school fee, which I deduct with the help of Monique's computer. Via the 'donation' option. Fees vary according to my rules, so I don't use a set fee mod.

I don't know if plant sims can get pregnant the usual way. That's something to try out. The abduction scenario is also something I would like to find out. Plant-sim aliens. Great idea.

[MissDoh]

I think the only way to have an alien plantsim is to make an alien turn into a plantsim since I don't think plantsims can get pregnant.

ETA:  Well I'll be damn, indeed the option to try for baby is there.  I always thought since plantsims spore plant babies they could not actually get pregnant the normal way, I learned something today.

[veilchen]

Yeah, that seems to be the case. Can plant-sims be abducted at all, do you know?

I don't think I've ever had that happen. But as far as pregnancy is concerned, the plant-sim in Riverbottomsomething did just sort of drop her offspring - everywhere.

By the way, thanks for your offer, Ms. D. I'm not looking forward to *not* finding the odd little mods back. You know, the ones that have been in your game for so long you forgotten that you had them.

[BastDawn]

Of course plant sims can become pregnant.  That's how most users learned that the one in Seasons is black.

[MadameUgly]

I assumed they could.  I also assume the gestated (as oppossed to "spore"d) baby will have the genetics of the mother and father and NOT the genetics of the mysterious "plant sim"?

That's it.  I'm going to cheat my plant sim into an alien pregnancy (he'll like being abducted and I'll like the alien baby).

[Lyra]

Plantsims can become pregnant and have a sprog, but it's a normal baby and not plantsim. I'd assume that if a plantsim got abducted the resulting alien baby would be a regular alien baby and not plantsim.

[jolrei]

Plantsims can become pregnant and have a sprog, but it's a normal baby and not plantsim. I'd assume that if a plantsim got abducted the resulting alien baby would be a regular alien baby and not plantsim.

What!  No little leafy alien cuties?

[Zazazu]

How many times have you tested? Alien babies don't always get the alien skintone. I've had a couple born without the skintone and with the eyes, and a few born with the skintone and not the eyes (which, considering general alien spawn eye size, it freaky).

Regardless, you can turn an alien kid plantsim.

[BastDawn]

What!  No little leafy alien cuties?

Grow up the baby, turn it into a plant sim, and generate all the part-alien plant toddlers you like.  Would that be close enough?

[Gwill]

Servos, Zombies and Bigfoots are sterile.  Other freaks breed just fine.