Myths, urban legends.... and alien abduction

[J. M. Pescado]

Kids can't be shoved and can telescope all they want, no one notices. Teens can be both shovers and shovees.

[Zazazu]

ETA
Theodor Heuss? I like your style, Zazazu.

That's his birth house. Does yours look similar?

He's named after Theodor Heuss Bridge in Dusseldorf. Looks like it's the same person, though for a different reason (yes, I'm half German, but I know almost nothing about the country). The Ridge family direct descendants of founder/heir are all named after bridges of the world. Of course, this would have made more sense had I named them the Bridges instead of the Ridges, but there you are.  The house the sim was born in is a colonial. He's currently living in a small cabin in the woods with a dog and his niece Galata, expecting some alien spawn.

[cwykes]

I thought the default shover was the "p/matriarch" of the hood.  The first created sim maybe?  That's why it's Mortimer Goth  in Pleasantview & Consort Capp in Veronaville, or so I thought.   In my TSR challenge hood it's Sonny Day who was the first sim I put in there.

[veilchen]

If the matriarch/patriarch of the hood is the shover, then Loki and Circe Beaker(I could be wrong with the last name), the scientist couple who experiment on Nervous Subject, must be the leading citizens of Strangetown. Because that is the one hood where I actually played long enough to have my simmie look through the telescope and had Circe come over and practice hostility on my pixel person.

[jsalemi]

Yea, it's the 'oldest' playable sim in the hood based on their character file number.  In Pleasantview, after Mortimer Goth dies John Burb becomes the shover. And so on down the line.

[veilchen]

Thanks Joe, that makes sense. I thought it would be one of the sims with the least nice points that was selected by the game.

Hmm, it makes me wonder how that works in a new hood then. If you still have the assorted families in the sim-bin and the houses. Do they already have character-files associated with them, or do they get one once you put them in game? The sim-bin sims must already have one, because they are used for walk-by sims. Or is it the first CAS sim that gets the honor?

Gah. I wish I could look. Where the hell is that computer? Come on Fed-Ex, get the lead out!

[Khan of Wyrms]

Hmm, it makes me wonder how that works in a new hood then.

In my custom neighborhood it is the first sim I created there.  I wish that I had known about this effect way back then, because I later created a sort of 'neighborhood bully' character whom I wanted to be be the one.  But alas, no.  Even emptying out all 'nice' and 'playful' points was not enough to make it happen.

[jsalemi]

In a new hood, it's the first playable created (lowest character file #), even if they're still in the sim bin, or just plopped in a lot and never played again.

[Yimmit]

In a new hood, it's the first playable created (lowest character file #), even if they're still in the sim bin, or just plopped in a lot and never played again.

Or spawned as a townie and then moved in and made playable. For a while after my first playable died, it was Colby, who had married Daisy. Once Blaine married Meredith, she took over as shover even though Colby is still around.

[Gwill]

I usually start a new neigbourhood with each new EP, and I always plan my telescope shover.  Ever since pets, I've used a crazy cat lady sim for the job:

[doren]

Here's something I always wanted to know (actually since Sims 1):

Does the zodiac sign have any influence on the personality or behaviour of a sim? Of course if I create a sim in CAS the sign will change with the distribution of the personality points, but if I change it with Insim for example, would it make any difference apart from that sim suddenly being more (or less) attractive to certain other sims?

Does it matter - for the behaviour of a sim - how I distribute the personality points? I could never free myself of the suspicion that there are only three categories - low, medium, high - and that the range from 1 - 10 is deluding the players, so that they believe they have more choice.

[veilchen]

Lawdy, Gwill. That sim looks meaner than Crumplebottom. The perfect shover.

I don't know about the zodiac signs. Those seem to do a little (emphasis on little) something in the attraction arena. Other than that, I could never see a discernible difference in either interest points or personality points, save for the cut-offs. Like 4 ticks in interest stops the sim from doing the 'finger in the ear' or related stuff.

Sims with 4 ticks in nice, neat, and playful also show a visible difference, but active needs more than 4 to make the sim run. I haven't had the chance to see for myself yet, and it will be a while before I can.

[Jelenedra]

Isn't there something in Peasantry that breaks down how attraction works and how much certain things influence attraction?

I remember someone was working on it the right before I took my hiatus. I can't remember if it ever got done...

[veilchen]

Same here, Jelendra.

I haven't looked, but then again, I had no reason as of yet. I can't even play right now, I'm still trying to get everything installed.

[Jelenedra]

I rarely ever let my sims find mates naturally. I always make couples. Then I get to match their signs and turn ons myself. Then it doesn't matter if they think Sports are boring because they have three bolts for each other.

[Zazazu]

I like having a couple now and again who are hot for each other but can't carry on a conversation. Or those who have neutral chemistry but whose interests are completely in line.

[J. M. Pescado]

Does the zodiac sign have any influence on the personality or behaviour of a sim? Of course if I create a sim in CAS the sign will change with the distribution of the personality points, but if I change it with Insim for example, would it make any difference apart from that sim suddenly being more (or less) attractive to certain other sims?

Zodiac sign alone has no effect on personality or behavior in any edition of the game, but personality defines the zodiac sign in CAS and if you use the debug-drag. Zodiac sign independently of other factors has an influence on attraction after NL's attraction system. Pre-NL, it is meaningless.

Does it matter - for the behaviour of a sim - how I distribute the personality points?

To some degree. Personality has an influence on the motive decays along a continuum: Active sims lose energy more slowly, Serious sims lose fun more slowly, Shysims lose Social more slowly, etc. Some objects are slightly more attractive to sims of certain personality classes, although this generally means the action goes from "Obsessive-compulsive" to "REALLY obsessive-compulsive". There are also, however, quantized points, where either you have it, or you don't. For instance, the ability to Always Run appears at Active > 500. Therefore, below 501, you have a lazy sim who takes forever to get anywhere, at 501+, you can GO GO GO, which makes a MASSIVE difference. In CAS, since you can only control at 100-point increments, this ability will appear at 6 bars. Other points include the 301 "Book Point" for Neat: At 301+, a sim will return a book to the shelf, at 300 and below, they will refuse to do so, and will obsessively and perversely attempt to dump it on a coffee or end table, even if it means a longer trip!

[Skadi]

J.M.  - any chance you might be willing to make a thread in The War Room with the personality info?

[J. M. Pescado]

J.M.  - any chance you might be willing to make a thread in The War Room with the personality info?

Maybe. There's not all that much to it, though, I only keep track of a few nuisance points. The basic underlying point is that more personality isn't necessarily better, just more neurotic.

[cwykes]

There's plenty of unanswered questions about aliens in this thread that need pulling together and de-bunking if you're interested in necromancy on Myths and Legends.  Nobody has said "yes" or "no" about whether stop-starting telescope gazing increases abduction chances. 

Totally off-topic, but someone asked me yesterday why the policeman always came and broke up parties because they were too noisy.  I know that's a feature of late parties, but does noise have anything to do with it at all?

[veilchen]

I was under the impression that the cops would only come if you had music outside. I have to look into that once I can play again.

According to TJ's abduction rtfm - if I understood it right, the stopping action resets his mod to the beginning again. The odds get better, the longer a sim looks through, but re-start from the top once the sim stop-starts. I don't know if that applies to non-modded telescope behavior though. I have to re-read TJ's rtfm again, maybe he meant that this goes for all telescope usage.
 

[jolrei]

Yup.  In my game, the cops show up if the stereo is on and is either outside or there is a speaker outside.  Considering that the speaker is borked and sends out animated notes signals even when the stereo is off, the cops come to all parties.  Gotta get rid of that damned speaker.  I used to just delete the police car, which allowed me the amusement of watching the police woman (who inexplicably had a mohawk hairdo) walk home.

As Veilchen says, with TJ's mod installed, if your sim wants to be abducted, there is no point in stopping and restarting stargazing 'cos odds reset to low.  Not sure what happens in an unmodded game.  For me, there would be no abductions at all, with my luck.

[witch]

In my game the cops come if there is a stereo on anywhere in the lot. Inside or outside.

[jolrei]

In my game the cops come if there is a stereo on anywhere in the lot. Inside or outside.

The bastards!

[gethane]

Sims are lucky not to get tazed!