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

[DavidC]

I have only ever had one accidental death in my game. The servo started making a Baked Alaska which he was addicted to doing, I canceled the action and told him to do something useful, then instead of just throwing it away I had one of my Sims finish it off and he set himself on fire with it  The same thing happened again a couple of sims days later except it was the servo that did it with max cooking skill. I'm starting the think this game has lucky and unlucky game sessions the way things happen sometimes.

After I originally read this thread and voted for more deaths I had a visitor (playable sim) at my lot catch fire in the hot tub, lucky I was busy with another sim in the garden or I wouldn't have noticed and he would be dead. Guess I got what I asked for.

[Tamha]

I voted for increased deaths, but really I'd like what a lot of people seem to prefer, not so much more stupid or bizarre death (although I admit I do have 2J's satellite drop increase hack), but illness should be deadly on occasion (I never treat sims different when they are sick, and they never die on me). Of course, I micro-manage my sims, so whenever they try to do something stupid, I can usually tell them to do something else. I really ought to let more of them electrocute themselves, I guess, but the first time I figured out that was possible I killed Nina (who I had my self-sim wooing, and she's one of my favorite sims), so I ended up not saving it. And now that I have Monique's save game reminder, preventing an accidental death (usually from me neglecting one sim for another) that I don't want is even easier. It also be nice if sims who froze could die from cold rather than having to die from starvation eventually. They could be treated like drowned ghosts for all I care, they leave puddles everywhere because they're "thawing out".

[Pyromaniac]

I've had a pure, 100% accidental death when I installed Seasons. My sim was raking leaves during Fall, and when I chose to burn the leaves, the Sim decided to walk over the leaves.  A rather stupid decision, really, since he immediately caught on fire and nobody was around to extinguish him. The guy owned four business, too, and they were all inherited by his sister.

[angelyne]

I don't think I would like more need-depletion deaths, because I spend enough time micro-managing my sims without having to worry that they will kill themselves if I don't pay attention to them for a few seconds. 

However, I remember that my only death in game was from the mysterious choking death.   I exited the game and reloaded it but she got up and started choking again.  I had to replay this quite a few times before her family successfully rescued her from ole Grimmy.

I have to admit that it certainly was a pretty exciting episode.

So a slightly increased chance of random death from various causes might be fun (so long as it's not starvartion, or something you need to micro-manage).  You always have the option to reload the game if you can't save your sim (and he's a favorite).

But what that I think would make the game more realistic and fun is to make disease more meaningful.  As it is now, your sims get "sick", they cough a bit and then get better.  I'd love it if there was a chance that they would get worse and worse and potentially die.  The game always says "Make sure your sim gets lot of rest".  Well it would be nice if that meant something. 

You could have the whole family stricken with disease.  It would make creating a hospital in game mean something.  You could still save your sims by using a cure, or by pleading with Grimmy.

I know we discussed this in the past, and maybe that's where the decimate option came from, but it Could be so much fun if that could be done through disease.

Could a more virulent form of disease be modded?

[Tigerlilley]

I've had a pure, 100% accidental death when I installed Seasons. My sim was raking leaves during Fall, and when I chose to burn the leaves, the Sim decided to walk over the leaves.  A rather stupid decision, really, since he immediately caught on fire and nobody was around to extinguish him. The guy owned four business, too, and they were all inherited by his sister.

How did you do that?  I had my sim standing between 2 piles of burning leaves and nothing happened.  I thought maybe they were safe from leave piles burning.  Might not be so lax next time!

[madamejeanie]

In the three years that I've been playing this game, there have only been three accidental deaths in my game.  Two by disease and one just this week from a satellite.  My neighborhoods get very full of sims because they breed like rabbits and they take a long time to die of old age.  I'd like a few more of mine to kick off without me having to plan it.  I feel so guilty, killing sims....

[Faizah]

Teen to 35 - increase deaths.

I play with aging slowed down, I basically turn it off completely until I feel like growing the younger sims up. (Usually when they've maxed all available skills, or have enough for scholarships, or I'm just plain sick of looking at them) I try to keep everyone around the same age level, but this means my adults/elders are around forever. I rarely have an old age death, I'm still playing Mortimer Goth and Olive Specter. 

More deaths would be interesting. But, I'm too cautious a player to initiate them. I keep their motives up, so motive-related deaths are generally harmless. I send them inside when their temperature gauge gets to either the extreme low or extreme high, and have them warm up or cool down as quickly as possible. I stick smoke alarms in the kitchen, in whatever room I've stuck the fireplace, and on the outside walls - just in case. (Though lightning fires inevitably get put out by the rain, which is neat) And only recently have I started playing with free will on. (I'll turn it off when I need them to do something specific, but 90% of the time I leave it on)

[BastDawn]

I recently had a pregnant sim die from 3-bolt syndrome; I think the only previous time I had an accidental death was shortly after I got the base game, years ago.  I was playing in a hand-off style, watching to see how well they would handle their own needs (answer: not very well).  I watched her relax on the bed next to her sleeping husband, pillow fight with him, pick a book to read at the kitchen table while he ate, and attempt to get into the bathroom to clean the tub while he used the toilet (only to be kicked out by BUY over and over again), all while her hunger bar got further and further into the red.  Finally she keeled over dead right in front of the refrigerator.  I had the husband plead with the Reaper and she survived, but I seriously considered leaving her dead.      Stupid sim.

[lefty]

I am 21, and I want more random deaths. Especially for the elder age, whom I typically find boring since they're plat and just putting around. I've probably had a few random deaths since I've been playing, only one seems to come to mind right now. My most favorite sim ever got struck by lighting on my first day of playing seasons... twice! He was in the hottub during a storm, got struck, and when he climbed out of the tub he got struck again, I was pretty horrified. Thankfully his wife was hanging around, and saved him.

I only really feel attachment to this one sim, so I would really enjoy increases in death. I haven't experienced anyone freezing or spontaneously combusting yet, but just in case I have my fav sim's daughter going into the paranormal career so we can get the phone to revive him, just in case.

You have to be pretty negligent to let your sims die in a lot of cases, and for the ones that are really just "whoops" it makes the game more interesting in my opinion. I also make it a habit of ignoring sims I don't really want anymore and focus on the rest of the family (I can't bring myself to engineer their deaths) hoping they'll off themselves in some way, but they still live on!

[elle.jae]

I don't think I've ever had an accidental death. It's way too easy to keep sims alive and able to procreate, which (in my experience) leads to over-population and predictability. That's why I instituted my "Random Death Policy."

Every sim day at 6 o'clock, I roll a die for every teen, adult, and elder sim in a household. The number rolled determines whether they take a run with the Giant Scissors of Death. As a sim gets older, their odds of having to run with the scissors gets higher. It goes like this:

Teens to age 30 - Only if the die lands on 1
Ages 30 to 59 - Only if a 1 or a 6 is rolled
Ages 60 to ? - Even number, they run; odd number, they don't

If they do keel over, I roll the die again. If it lands on an even number, another sim can try to save them. If it's odd, no such luck.

So far it's done a pretty good job of thinning out the population a little bit and keeping things interesting. It's actually kind of exciting to see whether they survive or not. Sometimes it's hard to accept the death of one of my favorite sims or one I had specific plans for (my self-sim's child's future partner died as a teenager - pfft), but I make myself stick to it. I mainly play Pleasantview with a couple of my own families, and so far I've lost Cassandra (age 32), Darren (59), Daniel (71 - almost made it natural death!), Angela (36), Brandi (54), Brandi's son that she was  pregnant with at the beginning (16), Lucy's and Alexander's oldest daughter (16), and one of Angela and Dirk's kids (14).

The unpredictability of it makes everything a lot more interesting to me. I don't like having control over everything.

[cyperangel]

Right now I am considering how to best get rid of a couple of unfortunate sims. They should have been part of bringing the legacy of the Whyte family on, but honestly, they are too darn ugly to ever be alowed anywhere near the genepool again. My guess is they fell out of the ugly tree, and hit every darn branch on the way down. Sheehs!

Anyways, if anyone happens to have that pair of scissors, the one that actually kills, id love to get my hands on it Starvation, fire, overheating and all that havent taken to those sims yet... They seem to be blessed.

[MyPrecious]

Most of the accidental deaths I can avoid, but the ones I would really like the option to turn off or just plain eradicate are the fire deaths. I know this emanates from my very real fear of fire and I can't seem to get a grip when it happens in the game, to a Sim I have been nurturing for what seems like an age. I never think about pleading with the reaper because my own fear has skyrocketed and like the lady who posted the poll I always exit without saving.

I can't find my "no fire" hacks after Seasons, so once again I have removed all the fireplaces and cook with sprinklers and fire alarms. I personally think it sucks that the fire places are so dangerous in the game; I was brought up with a real fire and have many friends and relatives who still have them. None of them has ever burnt the house down or themselves by using them (although I am aware people do). I wish the odds were much lower I guess.

The other risk I would eliminate is the "watching clouds/stars", the rare occasion that I play my Sim self I would like to lay back and stare skywards like I do in real life and drift…without the risk of an outdated rusty satellite hurtling towards me. (In real life I am lucky to see tiny meteorites let alone space junk!  ) 

[Lorelei]

Safe fireplaces exist, as this is a frequently-cited Annoyance. I have some, but it has been a while since I built a house, so I'll have to hunt them down in-game next time I play and cross my fingers that the creator labeled them so I can tell you where to get them.

Or, hmm, maybe SimCat will help. I think I bunged them into a Fireplaces folder at one point, but it may not have survived my last 'puter poop out.

[jdanddpt]

It was a genuine accidental death that inspired me to start designing the Death-by-Freewill Challenge.  I had a huge house party going on, and lightning struck two guests in an outdoor hot tub (twice... I think).  The party was so hectic that I didn't even realise what happened till I saw one Sim wandering around with the black-and-burned outfit on.  Then I noticed Grimmy marching toward another black-and-burned Sim in the back yard.  Oops.  IIRC, the party was still a Roof Raiser.

I must be a neglectful player, because I've had several other accidental deaths.  One party host died of disease, because I didn't let him rest enough.  Another party guest died in an elevator.  And (before JMP's warmthfixes), two party guests died from catching on fire in hot tubs.

I guess I throw dangerous parties.

I voted for meh -- who cares.

[Tamha]

I remember when I discovered the danger of (pre-Seasons) hottubs. My man was playing his self-sim's son, who got engaged to the Cheerleader in college, before we knew it was a VBT, and at his Wedding Party he starved to death in the hottub (I wouldn't be surprised if it was partially 3-bolt syndrome!). Since he hadn't married the girl yet, there were no residents on the lot to plead for his life. As his first accidental sim death (this was, like, a week after we first got the game and Uni and NL) he ended up quitting without saving. His elder self-sim hadn't even died of old age yet!

[jdanddpt]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot... I also had a party guest starve while playing guitar.  He didn't leave when the party ended.  He stayed, kept jammin for hours, and died.  Probably a bug.

That makes 6 accidental deaths at parties.  Time for a FOX 5 Special Report!

[angelyne]

Right now I am considering how to best get rid of a couple of unfortunate sims. They should have been part of bringing the legacy of the Whyte family on, but honestly, they are too darn ugly to ever be alowed anywhere near the genepool again. My guess is they fell out of the ugly tree, and hit every darn branch on the way down. Sheehs!

Anyways, if anyone happens to have that pair of scissors, the one that actually kills, id love to get my hands on it Starvation, fire, overheating and all that havent taken to those sims yet... They seem to be blessed.

I'd like the deadly scissors as well.

BTW, just give them a makeover using the surgery machine.  It's a simple matter to fix the genetics afteward (takes 2 minutes).

I've had a problem with letting go of my characters and allowing them to die of old age.  But I think I finally have come up with a solution that will help me get over that.  Using sim surgery I export every sim that I play, either born in the game or not.  What I plan to do is, assuming I get this far, is reintroduce my favorite characters appearance in the later generations by using Theo's sims surgery plugin.  It makes senses in a "Oh she's the spitting image of her grand-mother" way.  This way I get rid of sims who aren't too good looking and I get to see my favorite chars again.

[gynarchy]

Does anyone have a rough idea when the deadlier scissors would have been available? The file I have is from 5/4/2006.

[J. M. Pescado]

What I plan to do is, assuming I get this far, is reintroduce my favorite characters appearance in the later generations by using Theo's sims surgery plugin.  It makes senses in a "Oh she's the spitting image of her grand-mother" way.  This way I get rid of sims who aren't too good looking and I get to see my favorite chars again.

I hope Theo's sim surgery differs from regular sim-surgery in that it does not involve the creation of useless sims, but merely a straight LXNR replacement.

[jsalemi]

Does anyone have a rough idea when the deadlier scissors would have been available? The file I have is from 5/4/2006.

The one I have is dated March 22, 2006; I'm pretty sure it's the deadlier version (I've had a sim or three die while running with them )

[Moa]

Deadly scissors: I think they still work, they're simply not as deadly as they used to be. I recently put the latest downloaded version from the official website to use against Lorenna Sunset (knowledge Sim and the prettiest adult female in my game) to satisfy her desire to beat death. Her SO, Flower Forth, had a desire to save someone from death. Neat when it works out like that, but I held my breath when Grim showed up. I've only had one high relationship ever fail the pleading, but still.... (Loved the tension, however.)

Lorenna did have to make several runs with the scissors before she got the desired results.


Death to Ugly Sims?: I'm still a bit puzzled over the prejudice against ugly Sims in the game. Sure I want some attractive Sims in the game, and I'm very pleased when a plain child blossoms into a swan, but I like to be able to spot a Sim going by on the street and immediatly know who it is. Everytime one of my Sims makes an age transition, I send them to the mirror, put them temporarily in a generic hair style with no makeup, glasses, or facial hair, then take screenshots in full face and profile. I've got enough of them now that I can say that the Sims I deem the most attractive are almost identical, with only noticeable differences in the minor facial features. Since I want more variety among the population, I don't kill the uglier ones. (Okay, the really ugly ones I don't let breed as much.)

Of course I've got a large number of Sims at this point, so there's room for a lot of variety.


Difficulty letting go of my Sims: Yes, I'm a wuss. I can't pick and choose which ones to bump, especially since I'm not practicing any sort of eugenics program. But its cool when one of them bites it at random. And with the capacity to resurrect the dead, I don't feel quite so bad about letting them go. At some point I intend to get a group of bereaved relatives together at the household of the one Paranormal expert and roll a number to bring one of my dead Sims back. Some fun tension, because I won't know until then who it will be.

Every sim day at 6 o'clock, I roll a die for every teen, adult, and elder sim in a household. The number rolled determines whether they take a run with the Giant Scissors of Death. As a sim gets older, their odds of having to run with the scissors gets higher.

That really appeals to the random events freak in me. I may adapt it for my own game.

[Sagana]

Another request for dealier-than-you scissors please.

Ok, since I'm posting I'll say that what I'd really like is more objects like those that are pretty much instant or interesting death and you have the option of whether to use them or not (so people that don't want their sims to die can easily choose not). What I most don't like about the available ways to kills sims is the need to be mean to them first.

I have a difficult time letting my sims stats go all down red/playing badly on purpose so motives and aspirations are low (and I micromanage to a ridiculous point - my sims can't do much at all without me knowing it and either letting them or stopping them) and it seems like the vast majority of the deaths require good numbers of low stats or they aren't deadly, and then you wait... and wait... and wait while they starve/drown/get low enough for the next lightning bolt to kill 'em. I want optional instant death. I want the scarecrow scare to kill - don't hafta use it if I don't want it.

I have several death-type mods, but I wish EA would do some more - they fit better in the game, and they can do the instant thing or add other ghosts and stuff that modders can't do (or not easily) so what I end up with is just another form of lightning (no offense to modders) or poison that means I have a starved ghost (fits and it's fun, I just want some different ones too).

But seeing as how EA won't even give us more wants and ltws and turnons and all, and took away the scissors too, I'm not holding my breath for more 'bad' stuff.

I didn't answer the poll cuz polls are Verona's to do but I belong to that second group there even if you count Pescado's way.

PS: Yes I love the random death roll idea and will probably blatantly steal it as well <adding not-thanks here>

[angelyne]

I hope Theo's sim surgery differs from regular sim-surgery in that it does not involve the creation of useless sims, but merely a straight LXNR replacement.

Yup. That's why Theo's sim surgery plugin is definitively MoreAwesomeTM.  It allows you to load a package file (created with body shop) in order to perform the surgery.  The other method is next to useless.  Who wants to clutter their neighbourdhood with a bunch of useless clones.

[neriana]

Death to Ugly Sims?: I'm still a bit puzzled over the prejudice against ugly Sims in the game.

I don't mind ugly Sims, I mind mutant freak Sims. I have quite a few born in-game fuglies whom I rather like. The difference between them and Maxis ugly is that my fuglies look human. Maxis ugly is scary.

[J. M. Pescado]

If you've got some really ugly ones, maybe you should submit them to the Chernobyl Challenge.