Poll: How do you feel about accidental deaths in the Sims 2?

[skandelouslala]

I got strangely giddy last night seeing a sim that I can't decide rather I want her to live or die catch herself on fire making crepes suzette  (I always have a strange vibe when it might be risky to make, and tend to make my sims make in then for some hopeful fire inducing drama)  She was a pile of ashes when I decided to wake her lover up and have him plead if he could make it there in time.  Sadly he did.    I should have let her remain a pile of ashes on the floor.

The only sure fire way I have found of making "accidental" deaths more common is leaving large amounts of tombstones and angry ghosts on lots.  It is almost a promised accidental death per generation. 

I also turn off the picture in picture that shows special events.  Every once in a while I will stumble across an "accident" that happened to late for me to do anything.

I personally wish the way pleading with the reaper works could be changed.  It is too predictable.  If someone with a high relationship is doing the pleading it is pretty  much guaranteed that pleader will win.  I wish it was more random.

[ThePolygotNerd]

I like accidental deaths - the game isn't a challenge any more if everyone's rich, happily married, and with lots of children.  It adds a bit of interest to their stories.

[Sagana]

Lightning is probably the deadliest due to its instant hunger hit, which can kill.

A hunger hit? My sim got hit by lightning yesterday and came running in the house with her bladder and hygiene all the way down, but I didn't notice she was low on hunger. As she was pregnant at the time, I'da likely noticed a big hunger one. (a littller one I wouldn'ta noticed.)

[ThePolygotNerd]

I personally wish the way pleading with the reaper works could be changed.  It is too predictable.  If someone with a high relationship is doing the pleading it is pretty  much guaranteed that pleader will win.  I wish it was more random.

I've had a wife at 100/100 with her husband plead for him, and fail.  I then tried to resurrect him with insim, but it borked, so I had to kill him again.

[Lythdan]

I thought that the highest chance of winning against the reaper was 90%. Of course, the chance is probably sadorandom, like many other things in the game. 

[floopyboo]

I also turn off the picture in picture that shows special events.  Every once in a while I will stumble across an "accident" that happened to late for me to do anything.

How do you turn that sucker off? I've managed to find all the other annoyancy-type things like the cut scene thingy, but that one strangely eludes me.

[Nepheris]

The only time when I had sims dying accidental deaths was when I just got the base game, to be honest, and didn't know about stoves bursting into flames and other fun goodness.

Nowadays I just don't get accidental deaths. I'm not particularly keen on having them, mind you, and if I do want to get rid of a sim I'll do it myself. (The old pool-without-a-ladder trick was a favourite until I got tired of ghosts leaving puddles all over the place, now I just use the Insimenator)
I really don't get how your game can still be a deadly hazard for sims after more than a week's worth of playing.

[Dark Trepie]

I've had maybe one accidental death.  That was when I was playing with nouniprotect and my sim got scared three times in a row.

I had a pregnant sim die once.  But I'm saying that was a glitch as she just sorta keeled over for no reason (most of her motives were yellow at worst).  And when the reaper came in he jumped and disappeared.  All the husband found there was an urn stone when he finally made it there.

I had a vampire die when I sent her to uni.  She was the fourth one out of the taxi and died instantly when she aged transition.

Oh yeah, I had a nanny grab the cowplant cake once too.  But that's just a nanny being a nanny.  (ie.  Dumb)

[Batelle]

I voted no change, although I wouldn't mind a slightly higher chance of bizarr-o death.  I very rarely have accidental deaths in my game, and I'm not always that careful when I play.  Most of the accidental deaths that I do have are visitors who get taken by a hungry cow plant in an unlocked enclosure.  I had a pregnant sim die after coming home from a community lot (this was before Nightlife) and her husband couldn't reach the Grim Reaper to plead.  All of those sims I was able to resurrect with the resident knowledge sim who gets major aspiration points for such endeavors, so it's not a big deal at all.  

Other than those and the inexplicable choking death, I can only kill sims with testingCheats or extreme  effort, and sometimes that doesn't even work.  It gets frustrating sometimes, especially when I play the Legacy Challenge and my house is packed with three generations of sims, some of which (elders) have served their purpose (elders) long ago (elders).  I would love for some of them to be vulnerable to a "wierd" death just to get them out of the way and to make my ghost collection less monochromatic.

Of course, I'm someone who loves the aliens, vampires, zombies, werewolves, plantsims, cowplants, death by falling satellite doofiness.  Even when I try to be serious with the game, something awesomely ridiculous happens and I realize that I have much more fun when I just embrace the fact that I'm basically playing with cartoon characters in a cartoon dream world.

[J. M. Pescado]

I had a vampire die when I sent her to uni.  She was the fourth one out of the taxi and died instantly when she aged transition.

That entire cutscene and transition thing is basically instantly lethal for vampires. Don't move them in that way, or if you do, quit-without-saving immediately and reload the lot to bypass the cutscene transition, and instead they'll just by standing by the curb already transitioned and you can have them run inside. Alternative safer methods include merging them into an existing dorm.

[maxon]

I also turn off the picture in picture that shows special events.  Every once in a while I will stumble across an "accident" that happened to late for me to do anything.

How do you turn that sucker off? I've managed to find all the other annoyancy-type things like the cut scene thingy, but that one strangely eludes me.

It's in game options somewhere, there's a clickable bit with on/off.

For me, I think I agree with more or less everyone about more randomness, bad events (and maybe good ones too) and adjustments to the death actions.  I'd like it to be easier though to kill off sims when you want to.  I once killed 10 Jack Thompsons - actually I wanted them to kill themselves and set them up with whatever it was - sure I could cheat but I wanted him to die 10 times over due to his own stupidity.  I also wanted multi-coloured Jacks.  Some were ok and pretty straightforward (a fridge and barbecue in a locked room is a dead cert) but I got very, very, very bored waiting for one of them to starve and had to cheat with the satellite thing.  I see the new *cough* stuff pack doesn't include funerals in the new party ideas.  I'd really, really like a funeral option.

[Dark Trepie]

Fortuantly, I had a backup of the hood I just made.  A little habit I got into whenever I'm ready to send large groups of teens off to uni.  Moved her three roommates in, waited till night, moved the vampire in, then synced them up with College Clock.

I had another un-explained death once too.  The newspaper npc came by the lot that morning at seven like usual and just died.  No animation or anything.  She just went "poof!".  And her tombstone appeared in front of the cowplant.  A fenced in and unreachable cowplant at that...

[Theo]

I only had two accidental deaths: one occurred when a sim got too close to the ground flamethrowers on a community lot, and another when a visiting sim swam to exhaustion in a ladder laden pool. But I didn't save on this last one (chicken!)

That entire cutscene and transition thing is basically instantly lethal for vampires. Don't move them in that way, or if you do, quit-without-saving immediately and reload the lot to bypass the cutscene transition, and instead they'll just by standing by the curb already transitioned and you can have them run inside. Alternative safer methods include merging them into an existing dorm.

Could it be possible to set the game clock to 19:00 hours when the family moving in has a vampire?

[Kyna]

Some were ok and pretty straightforward (a fridge and barbecue in a locked room is a dead cert) but I got very, very, very bored waiting for one of them to starve and had to cheat with the satellite thing.

For a starvation death:  Dig a very deep basement.  Don't bother with stairs.  Use moveobjects on to move the sim there.  They'll be far enough away that you won't hear them whining about their needs, and you can go about playing the house as normal (in your case that would have been killing off a few more Jack Thompsons).  Check back on them a few sim days later and they'll be dead.

Read this years ago on some forum in a topic about ways to get rid of Marsha Bruenig and another harrassing townies.  This was before there was a phone hack to put an end to the harassing calls.

[gjam]

I voted "No Change", but my real opinion wasn't one of the choices.  I would like to see an increase in truly random deaths, and a corresponding decrease in the predictable ones. 

I don't think I've had any unintentional deaths since I was first learning the game. An occasional random death would add some risk.  On the other hand, the WTF deaths really annoy me.  My (pre-Seasons) sim can spend hours engaged in a variety of outdoor activities with no problem, but if he looks at the sky a falling satellite is gonna crush him?  That doesn't make any sense.

[SaraMK]

I had another un-explained death once too.  The newspaper npc came by the lot that morning at seven like usual and just died.  No animation or anything.  She just went "poof!".  And her tombstone appeared in front of the cowplant.  A fenced in and unreachable cowplant at that...

Maybe your cowplant has a long, sticky tongue, like a lizard?

[maxon]

For a starvation death:  Dig a very deep basement.  Don't bother with stairs.  Use moveobjects on to move the sim there.  They'll be far enough away that you won't hear them whining about their needs, and you can go about playing the house as normal (in your case that would have been killing off a few more Jack Thompsons).  Check back on them a few sim days later and they'll be dead.

Nah - I had him on top of a pillar - far more biblical.

[sewinglady]

My first thought on seeing the title was "there are accidental deaths in Sims2?"  But then I remembered I actually had one of those, once...

Is this poll for a proposed hack?  Will it make sims smarter?  Cuz that would prevent about 99% of accidental deaths... I mean, if they are stupid enough to stick a screw driver in the back of a turned on, plugged in computer, don't they deserve to die by electrocution?

[Orikes]

Is this poll for a proposed hack? 

The poll is the result of an argument that started in the 'scarecrow' thread. It's worth a read to see where this all started. It'll also explain why the answers are divided by age group.

[J. M. Pescado]

The poll is the result of an argument that started in the 'scarecrow' thread. It's worth a read to see where this all started. It'll also explain why the answers are divided by age group.

The age groups aren't even correct. There's no 35 or 55. That's still 30 and 54.

[Anne]

I haven't even had an accidental death in two years of playing the game - mine have all been from old age. I had a close call once - a sim set herself on fire while cooking (The stove didn't burn, but she did. It was sort of odd.) in a house without a fire alarm. She survived in the end, which is good because she's a favorite.  I wish some of my less favored sims would catch themselves on fire - shrink the neighborhood a little - but I'm a big softie. I can't kill them off deliberately.

[J. M. Pescado]

Most of my sims have sprinklers, but I decided not to give one to Sim-Brynne after a funny incident, because Sim-Brynne has an onboard extinguisher and is therefore self-extinguishing.

[Kyna]

Since one of the main points of the argument in that other topic was the experience of loved ones dying, I don't see that the age groups are that valid, really.  The most death-intensive period of my life, if I can put it like that, was when I was 30 when my (now ex) husband and I lost 4 close relatives to unrelated deaths within a time frame of 3 weeks, and another relative had passed away 6 months earlier.

Reading that topic and this poll, it seems there's an assumption that you need to be 35 or over to have experienced the loss of close friends and/or relatives, and thus will feel differently about accidental deaths in the game.

[sewinglady]

I'm beginning to think that some of us somehow have forgotten it's a game...

It's NOT real life and at least in my 'realm' the only connection to real life is that sometimes it distracts me from doing what I SHOULD be doing...

My relatives consider it akin to when I was 7 and played with dolls - according to them, my 'dolls' are just virtual now.

In any case, death is a part of life.  I've always believed that.  So death, even odd non-sensical death, should be a part of a 'life simulation' game...

[Stitches]

I've only ever had one death that wasn't old age. Sim Me overheated on the treadmill and burst into fire the first time I played with Seasons, before everyone started posting about the problem.