How about a realistic inheritence upon death?

[Jabberdau]

Probably spelled wrong but you know what I mean. When a sim dies they suddenly pull 30K out of their ass. How about something ELSE happened? I don´t know what, I just want something else instead of this. Its stupid.

[Kitiara]

30K? really? I wish I had the same bug. when Mortimer Goth died in my game Cassandra got about 5K and Alexander got about 6K. Where did the other 500K+ go? Have had few deaths (don't like to age my sims) but all other inheritances have been 2K or less. Have I been screwed?

[aqualectrix]

'Tisn't a bug, really.

The money passed out on death isn't inheritance per se.  It's life insurance.  The total amount may be more or less than the sim's actual wealth; I believe the handout to each beneficiary is determined by the dead sim's aspiration level and the living sim's relationship with the dead sim.

To my knowledge, if a Sim dies alone, all its money is lost forever.  You can deal with this in two (at least that I know of) ways.  In the last few days of a sim-living-alone's life, you can either move someone in with him/her or have him/her send money away via money orders.

[Jabberdau]

After thinking about it for a while it actually DOES make sence if they DO NOT die of natural causes (old age). It is insurance right? Right. So just a mod which removes the payout in natural death situations. 

[J. M. Pescado]

Wouldn't that mean there's no payout at all, since the inheritance is not handed out EXCEPT in cases of natural death, apparently to prevent fraud?

[Oddysey]

Well, it's really more of an effective gameplay thing than a realism thing. I expect that they figure an elder is going to move in with their kids, or vice versa, to help take care of the grandchildren. (Only good thing about elders. Just having them at home meditating or puttering around the house keeps the social worker from coming, and with the "No Get Crappy Minimum Wage Job Wants" mod, they're happy to stay home with the kids and nix the need for a nanny.) And the inheritance thing is an incentive to keep the elders in Platinum, at least around 6 o'clock.

Making insurance realistic would make it too easy to abuse. You make a family of eight, with whatever sims you want to play and a handful of filler sims, then kill off the filler for the cash. On the other hand, it would make more sense to just move them in and out of the house repeatedly if you didn't have the no20khandout hack, but whatever.

Having inheritance be logical would make some players happier, but it would also provide an incentive for elders to live by themself, particularly if they had multiple kids, because otherwise the kid they live with would either get all the money or the money from the household fund would get moved without the player's consent to other houses. As it stands, it only annoys players who want their sims to work for every dime they have, and we have JMP's money order hack for that. Just move a townie in, get 'em a lot, and use them as a cash dump.

[J. M. Pescado]

The only answer I can see to "realistic" inheritance is an inheritance system where if the last man on the lot dies, the networth of the lot is divvied out to his next of kin. Otherwise, nobody would get anything since the lot would still be inhabited. This means you could actually *HAVE* an elder die alone and not simply waste all of the funds involved. The reason why this was not done somewhat eludes me, but hey. Every other alternative is either easily subject to fraud, or simply annoying and pointless.

[Oddysey]

It wasn't done because it *wouldn't* be annoying and pointless, if current trends on Maxis behavior are any indication.

[Jabberdau]

Wouldn't that mean there's no payout at all, since the inheritance is not handed out EXCEPT in cases of natural death, apparently to prevent fraud?

I would like that. But I don´t know if it is ONLY handed out when they die of old age. I WOULD like it to be the other way around so you get the insurance money when they die ACCIDENTIALLY. And if I would cheat I could use the motherlode cheat lol. Why should I do that? I simply want the 30k handouts OUT! That no20khandout is a really nice hack.I have used it for a long time 

[J. M. Pescado]

So what would constitute "accidental" death? I think the only real form of accidental death is the choking disease, and possibly satelliting, but the odds of this happening are so extremely bad that you probably did it deliberately, given the purposelessness of cloudwatching. Dying of anything else tends to represent intentional malice. A sim can't "accidentally" drown, because they leave the pool before this happens, unless you remove the ladders, in which case it's no longer accidental. It's possible to burn to death in a cooking fire on accident, but more often than not this is a homicide. How would you investigate this properly to determine whether it was an accident, or a homicide?

And finally, if the insurance policy were no longer an apparently government-funded benefit, would you actually have to then BUY a policy and pay the monthly premiums on it? If so, why would this even be useful?!? Like in real life, the only reason to take out a life insurance plan on somebody is if you plan to have them murdered in a way which looks like an accident. Otherwise it's simply a waste of money.

[Jabberdau]

So what would constitute "accidental" death?

Electrocution, scared to death and burning to death maybe.

It's possible to burn to death in a cooking fire on accident, but more often than not this is a homicide. How would you investigate this properly to determine whether it was an accident, or a homicide?

Would I ask you to make a hack to use it to cheat for money when I could just type in motherlode?

And finally, if the insurance policy were no longer an apparently government-funded benefit, would you actually have to then BUY a policy and pay the monthly premiums on it? If so, why would this even be useful?!?

Do you get a gigantic payout if you die of natural causes in real life? There is no government funded insurance to pay people where I come from if they die of natural causes. The country would be broke pretty fast that way.

[J. M. Pescado]

Do you get a gigantic payout if you die of natural causes in real life? There is no government funded insurance to pay people where I come from if they die of natural causes. The country would be broke pretty fast that way.

No, but apparently, they do in Simland. Death benefits, or something. Those bills have to be funding SOMETHING, after all. It sure as hell isn't road maintenance, because nobody has a car!

[Jabberdau]

Maybe it should just be removed intirely to make sense? Unless a sim was living alone and knew somone to give their money like relatives or friends. Hmm and maybe then the amount beeing given out should be equalent to the lot value+their current "cold cash" amount.

[tiggerypum]

 

I find it fascinating that people actually want this game to 'make sense' and object to things like $$ being thrown at them at random.  I mean are you really have people getting rich off inheritences?  Isn't the answer to have your sims become nasty old hermits before they die of old age?

[J. M. Pescado]

Well, as far as I can tell, the death-benefits thing is entirely designed as a game mechanic to reward A: Not murdering your sims, B: Filling an elder's aspirational wants, at least before he dies, and C: Building up family relationships. Otherwise the poor soon-to-be dead folks might get kinda neglected, what with them shortly about to be, well, dead, and all.