Questions in prep for Death By Freewill Challenge

[jdanddpt]

I am testing and developing my own "Death By Freewill Challenge".  It is a variation of typical Freewill Challenges.  The object is to design a lot that will cause 8 Sims to autonomously die in 8 different ways.  Maximum points are awarded if every Sim dies in a different way (no repeat ghosts).

Now that death-by-lightning has been added with Seasons, I think there is finally enough different ways for Sims running purely on Freewill to autonomously kill themselves.  So my challenge is almost ready for release.

I just want to confirm some stuff with the Sims-savvy awesome crew here...

Correct me if I'm wrong... Are these are the only ways for Sims to autonomously die?
1) Old age
2) Elevator (OFB)
3) Lightning strike (Seasons)
4) Starvation
5) Flu/disease
6) Drowning
7) Scared to death
Fire
9) Cow plant (Uni)

The following deaths can never occur autonomously... correct?
1) Satellite (I've never seen a Sim autonomously Stargaze/Watch Clouds)
2) Flies (removed from the game circa Uni, right? ... haven't seen one since)
3) Electrocution while Repairing (Sims never autonomously repair)

What am I missing?  I never downloaded the Scissors.  Can Sims use them autonomously?  I also don't have any Vampires... but I assume they can autonomously die from exposure to sunlight?

Also, does anyone have any suggestions for dealing with the way the game makes in-game snapshots unavailable when everybody on a lot dies?  The .jpg files still exist, but the game won't access them because the lot code portion of the filename is no longer valid.  So far, my solution is renaming the files in a DOS window, en masse, to a valid lot code.  But something simpler would be nice.

Thanks for any help.  My testing suggests that this will be a fun challenge. 

[Lorelei]

Also, does anyone have any suggestions for dealing with the way the game makes in-game snapshots unavailable when everybody on a lot dies?  The .jpg files still exist, but the game won't access them because the lot code portion of the filename is no longer valid.  So far, my solution is renaming the files in a DOS window, en masse, to a valid lot code.  But something simpler would be nice.

Nothing modtastic, just a suggestion to import or marry in a new Sim before the very last one in the contest bites it. Or a pet, if a pet being on a lot is enough to keep it viable. Or a Servo.

[Magicmoon]

What am I missing?  I never downloaded the Scissors.  Can Sims use them autonomously? 

They are not autonomous as downloaded. However, I went into SimPe and made mine autonomous with extra attraction to playful Sims. I would have liked to have given the extra attraction to stupid Sims, but I couldn't figure out how to do that.

Anyway, I've tried out the autonomous version of the scissors and they are working fine in my game.

[dizzy]

Death by "Hail Bludgeoning" is another one.

[jdanddpt]

Death by "Hail Bludgeoning" is another one.

Wow, I never heard of that one.  I assume it's a (small) random chance, if a Sim is outdoors in a hail storm?

Between lightning, spontaneous combustion, and hail, Seasons is the deadliest expansion pack yet!

[J. M. Pescado]

Hail bludgeoning is nearly always fatal under free will. The "Hail!" action runs at max priority and will continue to inflict damage until you manually X it out or your sim dies, so a neglected sim will always die from it.

[jdanddpt]

Hail bludgeoning is nearly always fatal under free will. The "Hail!" action runs at max priority and will continue to inflict damage until you manually X it out or your sim dies, so a neglected sim will always die from it.

Wow.  That's stupid.  I would understand if they coded it to send Sims indoors at max priority (even though that would be annoying)... but to make them stand there and get pummelled... that's just dumb.

Does the hail actually inflict "damage" (to motives, I assume)?  Or is it a form of stun-lock, with motives decaying naturally till death?

[polonius]

I would have liked to have given the extra attraction to stupid Sims, but I couldn't figure out how to do that.

Is there a way to make it more attractive to sims with no logic points?

[J. M. Pescado]

Wow.  That's stupid.  I would understand if they coded it to send Sims indoors at max priority (even though that would be annoying)... but to make them stand there and get pummelled... that's just dumb.

Wanna know something else stupid? If a plantsim triggers the ceiling sprinkler, even though they get water from it, they run away from the water.

Does the hail actually inflict "damage" (to motives, I assume)?  Or is it a form of stun-lock, with motives decaying naturally till death?

Both.

[jdanddpt]

Okay, last question about hail:

Does death-by-hailstorm have its own color of ghost?

[Ambular]

Wanna know something else stupid? If a plantsim triggers the ceiling sprinkler, even though they get water from it, they run away from the water.

Can that be fixed?

[witch]

Ha ha - you clicked 'Quote' instead of 'Modify' didn't you? How do I know that? 

[Ambular]

Ha ha - you clicked 'Quote' instead of 'Modify' didn't you? How do I know that? 

Nah, just edited messily.  Thanks for calling my attention to it.  *Fixes*

[Lythdan]

3) Electrocution while Repairing (Sims never autonomously repair)

I actually have had sims try to autonomously repair things once or twice before. One of the few times I ever came close to an accidental death was when I was busy with one sim upstairs, then heard this ZAP noise coming from the lower level, switched levels and came just in time to see the guy die. Luckily, his wife was able to succesfully plead with the Reaper. I haven't had a sim autonomously try to repair something since NL, however.

[jdanddpt]

3) Electrocution while Repairing (Sims never autonomously repair)

I actually have had sims try to autonomously repair things once or twice before. One of the few times I ever came close to an accidental death was when I was busy with one sim upstairs, then heard this ZAP noise coming from the lower level, switched levels and came just in time to see the guy die. Luckily, his wife was able to succesfully plead with the Reaper. I haven't had a sim autonomously try to repair something since NL, however.

Very good!  I'm also hearing from some people that Death By Flies is still possible.  Overall, it looks like there are plenty of ways for Sims to autonomously kill themselves, especially if you deliberately design the lot as a deathtrap.  This is great for the challenge.

As you all know, it's trivially easy to design a lot to kill Sims fast.  The hard part is to design a lot to quickly kill 8 Sims in 8 different ways.  So the more ways there are for Freewill Sims to die (no matter how unlikely), the better!

Right now, the tentative unoffcial scoring system is as follows:

+10 Points for each unique death
0 Points for subsequent non-unique deaths
+10 Points for each dead visitor (Maid, Gardener, etc), regardless of how he dies (+10 more, if the death is unique, per the above rule) (you will be allowed to Hire NPCs, if you wish, at the beginning of the challenge)
+5 more Points if the dead visitor is the Repo Man
+5 Points if a Sim is Scared to Death by a Sim that was Scared to Death
+1 Point for each Sim that dies in a "mass death event" (2 or more Sims dying simultaneously from the same event, i.e., fire)
-1 Point per day, until all 8 starting Sims are dead

I'd like to add more bonuses like the scared-to-death-by-scared-to-death one.  We'll see what comes up in testing...

[witch]

I think there should be points for subsequent non-unique deaths, they're still freewill deaths after all.

[Flamingo]

What if a Social Worker was to die? I'm assuming no extra points for that. I have actually had that happen before, but I suppose death by flies is amusing like that. I doubt you'd want to have kids in this challenge as it is.

[Li'l Brudder]

That would make mass deaths even more worth it.

[jdanddpt]

I think there should be points for subsequent non-unique deaths, they're still freewill deaths after all.

The challenge ends when all 8 Sims are dead, which (given enough time) is inevitable regardless of Freewill.  So I don't see much point in rewarding something that will inevitably happen anyway.  Also, it's easy to make a single deathtrap snare and kill all 8 Sims within one day on Freewill.

The hard part (the essence of the challenge) is the balancing act of designing as many different Freewill deathtraps as possible without any single deathtrap being so attractive that it catches all 8 Sims.  But I recognize that things might not go according to plan and there may be a mass death "incident".  I'm wrestling with how to handle that, via the token +1 point for each Sim killed in a mass death, since players won't be getting +10 for extra Sims in the "incident".  I appreciate suggestions.

[jdanddpt]

What if a Social Worker was to die? I'm assuming no extra points for that. I have actually had that happen before, but I suppose death by flies is amusing like that. I doubt you'd want to have kids in this challenge as it is.

Considering how hard (lucky?) it would be to pull off a Social Worker kill, I think players should get extra points for this one.  More than just +10 for killing a visitor.  There's something morbidly peotic about scoring a Freewill kill on the Repo Man, hence the extra +5.  I think the Social Worker deserves an extra +15 (for +25 total).  Great idea. 

[Magicmoon]

Considering how hard (lucky?) it would be to pull off a Social Worker kill, ...

Couldn't someone who has met the social worker invite her over as a visitor, thus allowing her free access to all the death traps? In fact, any of the NPCs can be invited over as a visitor.

[dizzy]

+1000 if you kill a Social Bunny. 

[jdanddpt]

Couldn't someone who has met the social worker invite her over as a visitor, thus allowing her free access to all the death traps? In fact, any of the NPCs can be invited over as a visitor.

Yeah, but not on Freewill alone.  There's only a few ways, that I know of, to have visitors (including NPCs) when running on Freewill alone.

Trying to snare & kill service NPCs is fun, though, so I would allow an exception to the rules to Hire a Maid, Gardener, and Nanny at the beginning of the challenge.  Only at the very beginning, though.  After that, it's hands-off.

(the Nanny is another issue... because you could only Hire her "Just For Now", and she'd leave within the first day... unless the rules also allowed you to get jobs for your Sims, in which case you could Hire her to "Track Schedule"... hmmm...)

[Hecubus]

mass death "incident":

Too bad you can't make poisoned drinks or juice, Jim Jones style. I am now imagining sims standing around drinking, and dropping dead around each other.

Will there be points if multiple sims die in one day?

[rohina]

I think you need a rule clarification about manipulating the environment. Can I not remove a death trap after it gets someone, thus increasing my unique bonus chances?