Decreased fire & burglary since Nightlife?

[Ness]

here's a thought...

stop pushing them out so frequently, and make sure they are done right!

Ness

[Inge]

Noooo I like the 6-monthly EPs.  Though if the extra two weeks would have allowed a car theft animation I'd have said never mind that, just give me proper looking water in my garden ponds

[MaxoidTom]

here's a thought...

stop pushing them out so frequently, and make sure they are done right!

Ness

That's not exactly my decision to make.  Doing it "right" is also a matter of opinion.  If I had my way, we would have had car racing, curved driveways, etc., but we simply did not have the manpower or the time to do it.  It still amazes me how long it takes to make a model or a new animation.  Given the size of our team, we simply cannot do everything that you or the community wants.  Even with a much larger team, I doubt we could make you happy.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Maybe the trouble is you're all being pushed to include too much in each EP.  Setting your sights lower would mean that what you do include would be more thoroughly tested.  For example, why not have made a separate EP for the Vampire stuff?  I'm sure there is enough material for both NightLife and VampireLife!

[Motoki]

Here is something for ya: Daily and weekly burglaries I haven't used it, however.

I've been using that hack. The weekly one without the arsonist portion, just the burglar. It works pretty well and my sims now get burgled. Before using it I never had it happen except for the Calientes but that doesn't count because that one is staged. 

Supposedly, to have the burglar come normally without hacks you need to have all sims on the lot sleeping at night. That's something I rarely have at any given time, although when I did try to do it I still didn't have burglaries until I got the hack.

With NL now everyone becomes furious with the burglar. In one house I just had a burglary where the little girl has one want to become friends with the burglar and another to see her ghost. LOL

I don't worry to much about the animations as I have alarms on all my cars and they can't steal them. Anyway, it's The Sims, there's always going to be some cartoony goofiness. I mean we have babies alien and otherwise just popping out of thin air and nannies who suck toilet bowls into their sacks when you forget to pay them.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Oh, I've had a burglar come and swipe the tv while the sims were watching it!

[MaxoidTom]

Maybe the trouble is you're all being pushed to include too much in each EP.  Setting your sights lower would mean that what you do include would be more thoroughly tested.  For example, why not have made a separate EP for the Vampire stuff?  I'm sure there is enough material for both NightLife and VampireLife!

I'm sure there would be.  However, if you haven't seen the many threads out there before NL shipped, there are many people that hated the ideas of vampires.

In any case, we try to put something in expansion that appeals to the many different types of players, from builders to the hardcore gamers to the storytellers.  That's the inherent problem though--we have so many different types of users we cannot possibly please them all.

[ZephyrZodiac]

So, since vampires don't appeal to everyone, mightn't they have been better in a separate pack, so the gamer had the choice of whether or not to include that element in their game.  I mean, we already have ghosts and zombies, not everyone is really interested in the supernatural side of things.

[Regina]

Since installing Nightlife I've started something like four Legacy families (hopefully this fourth one will be my last one  ).  Three of these families were started Xtreme which means there was no money for a burglar alarm, or even walls on which to hang a burglar alarm for some sim days.  During the first week of this sim's life he was burglared--mostly everything he owned was stolen including his couch, bookcase and telescope.

Then another Legacy family was burgled not once, but twice, by two separate burglars by the time the second generation was starting on their family.  Each one of these burglaries were perpetrated by different burglars.

In these neighborhoods I had deleted all characters, which in the past (pre-NL and I don't have Uni) seemed to knock down the instance of burglaries considerably, although it may've just been the run of the game.  It's always seemed like things run in spurts in my game anyway, even back with TS1.  I'll go along for a long while with no burglaries then bam, everyone gets burgled (pre-NL I had one neighborhood where everyone was getting hit by the burglar on a weekly basis and the cop was all of a sudden rarely winning the fight).  I'll play my sims for weeks with no chance cards, then suddenly they're getting chance cards every day.  At one point none of my sims would get pregnant the first time they tried and at other times they're just fertile Myrtles.

There's also a 'nifty' little thing the developers of NL did, I'm supposing just because they could, which is downright annoying.  When your sim is burglared they can sleep right through the burglary without ever missing a beat.  But yet somehow they 'meet' the burglar and of course are furious at him.  So, they spend the rest of their adult life doing that absolutely moronic animation they do when they're furious at someone.  The only way it won't last the rest of their life is if you have them befriend the burglar, which brings up the relationship points which makes the furious state go away faster.  I don't mind my sims making friends with the burglar, but I am so sick of that furious animation loop that I could just scream.

[MaxoidTom]

So, since vampires don't appeal to everyone, mightn't they have been better in a separate pack, so the gamer had the choice of whether or not to include that element in their game.  I mean, we already have ghosts and zombies, not everyone is really interested in the supernatural side of things.

At this time we are not doing packs targeted at specific types of users.  As I mentioned previously, we are trying to put something for everyone in the game.  Your point is well taken, however.  I would suggest you post on the official website with your concerns, as the designers read the forums there.

[Regina]

That's not exactly my decision to make.  Doing it "right" is also a matter of opinion.  If I had my way, we would have had car racing, curved driveways, etc., but we simply did not have the manpower or the time to do it.  It still amazes me how long it takes to make a model or a new animation.  Given the size of our team, we simply cannot do everything that you or the community wants.  Even with a much larger team, I doubt we could make you happy.

I'd have taken the curved driveways over that blamed furious animation. 

And you are right--no one expansion pack or game is going to be everything to all people.  I was one of those who thought, "Vampires?  Why on earth do we need vampires?"  Then I learned that I don't have to play with them if I don't want to, so no problem!  My grand vampires run around the Downtown area doing their thing and my sims do theirs.  Some of them are making friends with the vampires and I may even go so far as to have one bit just so I can watch him die in the sun.    (I know, that's morbid but I figure I've got to see it at least once. )

[ZephyrZodiac]

).

  Three of these families were started Xtreme which means there was no money for a burglar alarm, or even walls on which to hang a burglar alarm for some sim days.  During the first week of this sim's life he was burglared--mostly everything he owned was stolen including his couch, bookcase and telescope.

Don't know if it'll sork with NL, but it does work with Uni - just use SimPE to turn your burglars into babies - in Uni at least the game doesn't seem to generate any new ones.

[Motoki]

Heh, well if your sims are broke sometimes being burgled can be a good thing. I've noticed when he steals the aspiration reward items and the cop catches him you actually get cash back for the aspiration cost of the reward. In the case of the counterfeiting machine, the theif will almost always go for that first and you end up with 30,000+ simoleans.

[Regina]

).

  Three of these families were started Xtreme which means there was no money for a burglar alarm, or even walls on which to hang a burglar alarm for some sim days.  During the first week of this sim's life he was burglared--mostly everything he owned was stolen including his couch, bookcase and telescope.

Don't know if it'll sork with NL, but it does work with Uni - just use SimPE to turn your burglars into babies - in Uni at least the game doesn't seem to generate any new ones.

I think I'd rather the burglars stay adults. LOL  One thing I forgot to mention, there's a handy way to thwart the burglars and although one wouldn't want to do it with a sim with a lot of possessions, but I soon learned to tuck away his desirables into his inventory before I sent him to bed.

The fellow I started last night only got to leave his belongings out once he got four walls and a burglar alarm.  Then within a night or two he was burglarized. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

What happens if you put Inge's lockable doors on the house?

[Regina]

Lockable doors on the house might work, but this was an Xtreme Legacy sim.  He only had one wall, one side for his toilet, the other for his phone.  And even with my more lax way of playing my Legacy sims, to me lockable doors would be a real cheat.

As I posted elsewhere, I finally just started putting all his valuables in his inventory at night.  This particular night, though, I was pretty tired and had taken him Downtown.  I had bought the telescope for him to gain a logic skill point (it was a want and he needed the point for a promotion too) and was planning on selling it when I brought him back from Downtown.  Because I was tired I forgot to sell off his telescope and that night it was stolen.  He'd been just doing crossword puzzles but the one that day was already done and he really needed to top off that Logic point, thus the telescope.

[Motoki]

I thought NPCs (not townies but service NPCs) were exempt from Inge's doors though? I know the maid is and the burglar comes from the same household that the maids and nannies and such do.

[ZephyrZodiac]

In that case, of course you're right, it won't work.  

What i used to do in Sims 1 was place a wall or fence all round the property, with an archway.  When it was bed time I used to just move the archway out of the wall and put it back in the morning.  Can't remember exctly how it worked, but it should be much easier with Sims2.