Oddly fluctuating money, disappearing cars

[phyllis_p]

As the title states, I've noticed some odd monetary fluctuations that I can't account for.  For instance, in one family I noted with satisfaction that the had passed the $100,000 mark; I'd been watching because one of the family members had the lifetime want of having something like $131,000 in the bank.  Later in the same session I glanced at the money, and it was down to a figure in the $80,000s.  No one had purchased anything, so I'm not sure what happened.

In another family I was playing, they had money in the $60,000s.  Daughter married in a private ceremony and moved into husband's house.  Next time I looked at the money, it was down to in the $2,000s.  I'm using Awesomemod, so she should not have taken more than about $15,000 with her, if anything (it was a family of 4).  I looked at daughter's husband's family, and the money defenitely did not go there, as they only had about $20,000 in the bank.

Also:  after one fellow's resident father died, everything from dad's inventory went into adult son's inventory, including his very expensive car.  At some point much later, I noticed the car was no longer in inventory and was not in the garage, and no other family member had it.  Later when I played another family who had owned a car the last time I'd been there, their car was likewise missing.  If a klepto takes your stuff, do you get notified or does it just disappear?  I'm not sure if this part is a "feature" or a bug.

Anyone else with similar experiences?

[sewinglady]

Well I clicked into this thread on account of the 'disappearing car' thing - I've had several pregnant sim mothers take their car to the hospital to give birth, but they come home in a taxi - hence the car is gone.  I need to double check and see if the car is in their inventory...or if it's just disappeared.

As for what you're describing happening - gee, more weirdness I'll get to contend with when I finally play long enough to have that happen, too. pffft.

[Marhis]

I experienced a similar situation.

Bunch household: every time a sibling dies from old age, its inventory is entirely translated to another sibling. This is all good an well, of course.
When the household consists of 2 cranky old Bunch siblings + 2 of their adult spawn, I send the female out to marry Malcolm Landgraab (she's a gold digger). Status: 1 old female with the inventory filled with stuff + 1 old fag brother + 1 adult male, son of the female Bunch. They're pretty much filthy rich.
Now, I switch the family, and go to Landgrabb's to do so Malcolm's young wife also starts an affair with the maid. While I'm there, someone reads on the newspaper that the Bunch female is dead. I switch household again and lo, she's dead, but there's no tombstone anywhere, and her inventory is gone poof completely. Her tombsone is nowhere, neither in the mausoleum: disappeared in thin air.
I also notice that the adult has a new weird interaction under Friendly: "worry about money". WTF? Heh, their household cash is now around 800 §. Where did it go? No idea, but the burial costs in Sunset Valley have to be really expensive, apparently.
The dude reads the newspapaer and oho, Malcolm Landgraab is dead. Switch household. Their money are still the same, but no tombstone, again. That poor chick sacrificed herself to the ugly fat guy for nothing, as she will never see the ghost of her hubby, now.
Now she married the maid, who is actually fathering 3 babies at once around the town, sister-in-law's included. But the top class sportscar he got as a wedding present is now gone during a later switch.

[Zazazu]

Granted, this is experience with one awesomemod build ago, so may not be applicable:

I've found that if you have sims move out using the computer, it takes all household funds to make the new household. So, if the household has $200k, all $200k goes to the newly formed couple. If you split the household from Edit Town view, it distributes the money evenly. My last move-out was two sims moving from a five sim home, $192k in household funds. From sim-directed move on computer, all $192k showed as the funds for the new house. From Edit Town, it was about $77k.

[Marhis]

On a side note, I think I've found an easy exploit, and I bet it's not because of awesomemod.

1. Have one of your sim move out and choose the "kick out" option, so it will be out in the wild with 0§ and nowhere to go.
2. Later, check the hood: that sim have been moved by the game in a random house.
3. Evict the sim from the house, it will come up with the lot value in simoleons.
4. Merge the sim again in the original household.
5. Repeat.
6. Profit! (indeed)

[Zazu]

Did any of you with a missing car not have a maid?  I was wondering because, I have had a missing car problem. I assumed that one of the klepto maids must have taken it. I have noticed that every single one of those maids has the klepto trait. There wasn't any announcement of the car being taken so I can't be certain what happened to it. This is one reason why I miss the memories where if something like that happened a sim would have a memory of what exactly happened.  EA could at least have put in something to let us know if a klepto takes something. Part of me thinks that the cars are just disappearing into thin air.

[Alex]

Would NPCs be able to steal stuff during the day?

[phyllis_p]

My households had maids, but I didn't think they could take stuff during the daytime.

[Alex]

I didn't think so either, but literally just this minute my sim visted her neighbors at about midday and swiped their bathroom ceiling light. So I guess they can do it autonomously during the day. Hm, I must keep a closer eye on my maids now...

[tyleetwen]

I had a similar problem, with the Jolina Household. A mysterious 76,500 deposited itself in the bank account. I quit without saving and came back, just to see if it would happen again, and yep, it sure did. This was before Awesomemod came out, and I haven't noticed any other stange deposits or debits.

[phyllis_p]

I didn't think so either, but literally just this minute my sim visted her neighbors at about midday and swiped their bathroom ceiling light. So I guess they can do it autonomously during the day. Hm, I must keep a closer eye on my maids now...

Bleh. I wouldn't mind if they took my bathroom ceiling light.  But a car?  That exceeds my definition of kleptomania.

[J. M. Pescado]

Bleh. I wouldn't mind if they took my bathroom ceiling light.  But a car?  That exceeds my definition of kleptomania.

I dunno about that. Cars seem an ideal target for theft. There is, however, a caveat: Sims seem unable to pass through garage doors in TS3. Garage doors are not confined to being installed in specific directions like in TS2, so you can use them to seal off entire sections of the house by using them as blast doors. Once you close the blast doors, no one gets in or out of that sector, so you can use them to create areas of no-mans-land, generally containing all the valuables you don't want anyone to touch. Like your car.

[Zazazu]

My klepto doesn't seem to have the options to snag anything. I've had kleptos before who could. But then, I only have about 20 occupied households and most of them have only landscaping outside. Deshaun has been spending his mornings rummaging through trashcans while the sims inside are at work and hiding all the loot on the second story rear porch.

[phyllis_p]

Bleh. I wouldn't mind if they took my bathroom ceiling light.  But a car?  That exceeds my definition of kleptomania.

I dunno about that. Cars seem an ideal target for theft. There is, however, a caveat: Sims seem unable to pass through garage doors in TS3. Garage doors are not confined to being installed in specific directions like in TS2, so you can use them to seal off entire sections of the house by using them as blast doors. Once you close the blast doors, no one gets in or out of that sector, so you can use them to create areas of no-mans-land, generally containing all the valuables you don't want anyone to touch. Like your car.

Theft and kleptomania are two different things.  Kleptomania usually involves small items, often of little value, and is a compulsive and unpremeditated behavior.  Theft, on the other hand, is to achieve some sort of material gain, and while it can be impulsive, it is not compulsive.

That aside, your info on garage doors seems to rule out Sim-style kleptomania for at least one of my households.  They have an encolsed two-car garage.  However, they already had two cars, which means dead grandpa's car should have remained in his son's backpack.  Kleptos can't steal out of backpacks, can they?  I suppose if he took the car downtown and parked it in a parking space there, someone could have stolen it.  *sigh*  I suppose I'll have to pay better attention, or quit buying cars.

[Nimrod]

When goofing off, killing sims and such without saving, I've noticed that when they pass, the inventory all gets passed down except the car.  So I thought that perhaps the ghosts needed their wheels to drive around as do the NPC ghosts (err, whatever they are, the original graveyard ghosts).  But no, the car has always just vanished if it is in the dying sim's inventory.  Vanishing cars at death have been the norm, in both leaked and Retail versions... 

As for the monetary fluctuations, I'm betting that it has something to do with storymode jitters.

[phyllis_p]

Thing is, I saw the car in the son's inventory, along with his dad's guitar, laptop computer, and a bunch of books.  Then later I actually brought the guy back, first as a playable ghost and then with ambrosia as a live Sim again, and he had nothing in his inventory when he came back.

[Drakron]

... why should he?

When a Sim dies the estate is inherited by another Sim that can do whatever he pleases with it, like selling it and then blow the money so what would happen if your "resurrected" Sim come back and the money was spend and his items were sold?

You did thought about that ... right?

[jolrei]

Garage doors are not confined to being installed in specific directions like in TS2, so you can use them to seal off entire sections of the house by using them as blast doors. Once you close the blast doors, no one gets in or out of that sector, so you can use them to create areas of no-mans-land, generally containing all the valuables you don't want anyone to touch. Like your car.

I sense a parameter for TS3 Awesomespec here.

[witch]

I sense a parameter for TS3 Awesomespec here.

Yeah, same. I had an insta-pic in my head of a sectioned house interspersed with blast doors. 

[phyllis_p]

... why should he?

When a Sim dies the estate is inherited by another Sim that can do whatever he pleases with it, like selling it and then blow the money so what would happen if your "resurrected" Sim come back and the money was spend and his items were sold?

You did thought about that ... right?

You did read what I was responding to, right, dickwad?  I had no expectations of the ghost bringing back anything.  Someone else suggested it. I was confirming that, in fact, the item in question (car) went to the inventory of the son (with whom he lived) and did not stay with the ghost.

[jolrei]

You did read what I was responding to, right, dickwad? 

 
I, for one, welcome the new Phyllis.

[spaceface]

Granted, this is experience with one awesomemod build ago, so may not be applicable:

I've found that if you have sims move out using the computer, it takes all household funds to make the new household. So, if the household has $200k, all $200k goes to the newly formed couple. If you split the household from Edit Town view, it distributes the money evenly. My last move-out was two sims moving from a five sim home, $192k in household funds. From sim-directed move on computer, all $192k showed as the funds for the new house. From Edit Town, it was about $77k.

I noticed the move-out thing yesterday, with latest Awesomemod. I had YA Malcolm Landgraab move out, he took all the family's spare cash (about 150K) with him, which meant he could buy a lovely house at the beach. I was amused to see his new wife gossip that Nancy Landgraab was now completely broke.

Does money fluctuate when Sims make campaign donations? I guess they earn salaries for going to work even when they are not being played.

[FrickinIdjit]

In the same vein, I had a kid spin up a LTW to have §416,000 in the bank.  I left that family for awhile and returned when she was a teenager.  Her LTW had changed to §511,000.

[J. M. Pescado]

LTWs are subject to inflation now? Ouch. That is some LTW. I forsee a future, 3 or 4 expansions down the line, when your Emperor of Evil tries to hold the world ransom for...ONE MILLION DOLLARS...and gets laughed at.

[Zazazu]

I've seen LTWs to have about $40k, then the next generation a different sim with the want to have $200k. The reward points were the same.