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

[pamysue]

I'd love for a message to pop up sometime and tell the family that Mommy/Daddy died on their way home in a car wreck.  I think death is way to predictable in the game.

[Liz]

Honestly, as much as I tend to baby my sims, I could definitely stand to see a little more accidental mayhem of all kinds, including "unscheduled" sim-death. It's probably due to the fact that I try to keep their bars as green as possible that even when I encounter one of the rare potentially-lethal situations (autonomous electrocution by computer fixing, etc.), my sims always manage to bounce back pretty much unscathed. I think what irks me about sim-death most is that a sim will bolt for the shower or the fridge hours before they should even be *thinking* about a sandwich or a bath - like they're all hyper-aware of the slightest dip in their needs - but they'll strum that frigging guitar until they're about to keel over dead. Likewise, when I'm actually *trying* to kill a sim for that "saved from death" want, it takes forEVER for them to finally snuff it, but a few minutes on the treadmill - outside in the middle of winter - has them bursting into flames. And I don't want to see more "realistic" death in the form of car crashes and such, but non-lethal plague is just silly. If you're gonna give a sim the plague, there should be at least a mild-moderate chance of them not surviving it.

When I leave my sims to their own devices, the only mayhem I get is of the "too dumb to quit drumming before you starve to death" variety. But I'd love to see more mayhem to the tune of infidelity, unexpected inheritances, and so forth. Pretty much all my sims aspire to flirt with people other than their committed partner, but they never do. My Sims 1 sims were total horn-dogs, always turning up in the corner of some community lot making out with their wife's best friend. Of course, it would be easy enough for me to set up an affair or whatever, but that's the sort of thing I'd like my sims to surprise me with. So in my desire for more autonomous/unscheduled mayhem, I would definitely welcome more accidental sim-deaths. After all, I can always just exit.

[Sleepycat]

But I'd love to see more mayhem to the tune of infidelity, unexpected inheritances, and so forth. Pretty much all my sims aspire to flirt with people other than their committed partner, but they never do. My Sims 1 sims were total horn-dogs, always turning up in the corner of some community lot making out with their wife's best friend. Of course, it would be easy enough for me to set up an affair or whatever, but that's the sort of thing I'd like my sims to surprise me with.

you should get ACR (Autonomous Casual Romance) by twojeffs 
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=4691.0

[Liz]

That's probably a good idea, Sleepycat - ACR is one of those mods I keep *meaning* to try out, but then I get distracted by some other bit of shiny. In honour of Celebration!Stuff... or possibly in celebration of it being midnight on a Monday... I've decided to do a total reinstall of my game from the ground up, in order to have a better handle on all the extraneous saved games, orphan meshes, and any accumulating gremlins that may be lurking about (I'm not really attached to any of my characters right now, so it's as good a time to do it as any). Aaaaanyway... tossing a little ACR into the mix sounds like fun - I think I'll actually do it this time!

[Mens Mortuus]

ACR is the best "investment" I made It improved my game tremendously, I like the surprises and unexpectedness

[notveryawesome]

I finally broke down and tried ACR. I'm finding it enjoyable enough, so far, but I don't like having to set up each individual neighbourhood and/or family, and I'm having the same problems that I have with any autonomous actions - the sims decide to do them at the LEAST convenient times (like right before the carpool arrives). I'm keeping ACR in my game, for now, but I honestly don't know how long I'll be able to stand it. I like to play with free will on, because I like the autonomous conversing, flirting, etc, but I can't stand it when they decide to go off and cook lobster thermidore for no good reason. No-autonomy hacks have become my best friends. That said, it was kind of funny to see Bianca Monty putting the moves on Oberon Summerdream at a party, with no prompting from me.

[Sagana]

I leave freewill on and then tediously micromanage. If they're doing something I don't want them to, I click it off and occasionally tell the stupid sim to 'stop that, right now' when it doesn't go away fast enough. ACR goes away fast enough, so I don't have any issues with it. (I must have the game paused more than it's running...)

I didn't set up every house though - I set the hood, and then I set houses that I want to be different for some reason, but if I'm satisfied with the way it works standardly, I just leave them be. Oh and I use... uh, not-static so it'll change based on what I do/let them do.

<loves ACR>

[Zazazu]

I generally micromanage my sims only on the weekdays. I'll give them two hours before bed to goof off, but other than that it's work/skill build/homework/friend build. On the weekends, it's a free-for-all. I'll check their needs ever four hours or so just to make sure they aren't pillow fighting themselves into bladder failure, but that's it.

ACR has been interesting. I have a Grilled Cheese non-zombie (a first, but she was my legacy girl and rolled Romance so I couldn't bring myself to zombify her)/Family sim combo right now and every 32 hours like clockwork, it's time to strip and woohoo. They could be on the way to get a bottle for that toddler they had against the Oversoul's wishes (ugly little thing it is, too) and they'll drop that for a little hibbity jibbity. Cracks me up. Toddler's starving, but they're getting it on.

[halfeatencorpse]

Frankly, I don't mind the thought of having a little bit of random mayhem in my game, but it's been virtually mayhem free, and I've been playing since TS2 was released.  I did experience the bug related pregnancy death you mentioned in the scarecrow thread, which was triggered when a Sim visited a community lot whilst pregnant (but before she started to show), but beyond that, the only two accidental Sim deaths I've experienced were death by fright and death by satellite.  The death by fright incident would've been avoidable if I hadn't built a mausoleum to house the urns of 9 generations of dead Sims & let one of my knowledge Sims fulfill her "see a ghost" want.  The death by satellite incident would've been avoidable as well if I hadn't let Daisy Greenman watch the pretty clouds.

Considering the number of ways that a Sim can die, I guess I've been lucky.  That or I just rule my Sims with an iron fist.  Probably the latter.  I don't let them do stupid things very often unless the population is in dire need of culling.  Or the whim strikes me.  Or they continuously engage in stupid or annoying behavior during those odd moments that I feel gracious enough to grant them free will, in which case, I generally feel the need to punish them.  In my game, stupidity is a crime and, depending upon its severity, it can be punishable by death.  It's my version of natural selection.

[frivolous]

I'd love for a message to pop up sometime and tell the family that Mommy/Daddy died on their way home in a car wreck.  I think death is way to predictable in the game.

i have been waiting for a hack like this since 2005.

D:

the sims is too cookie-cutter! i never use fire alarms as that at least gives me a CHANCE of accidental death......

[Skadi]

I would love a deadlier illness, and random car related deaths. Instead of teens getting acne they could get ill, and be contagious.

The only "accidental" death in my game was when I had a sim with an influence... prank want do it, her sim husband electrocuted and killed her brother at her wedding.

At one stage, during my apocalypse challenge I was rolling at birth and every age transition for death, either by risky childbirth or a "failure " to thrive.

I know in real live death can be a tragic painful thing, but my game is so saccharine at the moment, I need drama. Maybe not days of our lives drama, but something.
-Skadi

[kemowery]

I have never had a Sim die accidentally, and I'm too soft-hearted to do something like wall them in a room to watch them starve to death.  The only accidental thing that ever happens to my sims is getting caught flirting (and that's only happened twice in all the time I've played).

The closest I've ever come was today, when I forgot that a vampire teen would still run like an idiot to the mailbox to look at his grades, even if he was going to school in a car and parking in the garage.

EDIT: I'm not sure I want more death incidents, but maybe make them a little more lethal when they happen.  Currently it seems like if you're even moderately on top of keeping your sims' needs satisified, they'll be able to survive just about anything.

[dorquemada]

My most ridiculous accidental death was when I killed a sim off on purpose, so to grant his ressurection wish - and his wife lost to Reaper. Then it was an OFB community multiple death, when I carelessly bought a club with those furnace thingies (got quite a bodycount with it. Including a Grand Vamp!). Oh well, at least I found out kids can die. There were a couple of glitch cases, too, like sudden illness or 'died on another lot' thing. Also, death of a de-roacher who was cleaning mess left after death-from-flies setup and got eaten by them himself was quite accidental.


As for having qualms about killing off sims...I dunno. I obliterated entire nations in Civ series and left bloody footprints over Duke Nukem maps, so probably it's too late to worry about one more or less murder of a bunch o'pixels.