My sim, Angela, was in the park singing for tips.https://i.imgur.com/9GeYSyp.jpgSuddenly, I heard an ominous sound and got the message that Angela was wondering why it suddenly got dark. Notice the shadow indicating exactly where it's going to hit.https://i.imgur.com/hB1gMnf.jpgNeedless to say, I had Angela stop singing and run to the other end of the park. Unfortunately, the sims who had been watching her sing did not leave with her. They just had to stay and freak out. Not only that, but other sims came along to freak out with them. https://i.imgur.com/gdSOYxu.jpgI had Angela start performing for tips at the other end of the park, in hopes that they would forget about the meteor coming down on them and go watch her instead. But no, that was too smart of a thing for them to do, apparently.https://i.imgur.com/WpF3yBr.jpgI could tell when the smoke and flames cleared that at least a couple of sims were now missing, but I didn't know who or how many. Sure enough, the Grim Reaper soon rose up out of the ground.https://i.imgur.com/gxM7UFX.jpgI sent Angela back to watch. I wasn't going to make her be so heartless as to start collecting the rocks and scrap before the deceased were properly taken care of, so she stood there and mourned with the rest of the living. The first to be taken was a teen girl, Selena Payne. She begged for her life on her knees, but it was too late for her.https://i.imgur.com/GpB1hs4.jpgThe next to be taken was her father, Oscar Payne.https://i.imgur.com/lTRGdij.jpgHe wasn't any happier about leaving the present world behind than she had been.https://i.imgur.com/wCLQmWE.jpgWhile this was going on, I was watching in horror and saying NOOOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOO! Angela is probably traumatized too, but I forgot to check her moodlets to find out. Once she went home where her husband was just getting home from his after work jog, I saved and closed the game.I am really torn about what to do about this. This is a world I made and populated myself. I'd made this world a few years ago, but had just re-populated it with an all-new population. I'd made the residents a couple of years ago, for a different world I was making, which I never completed to my satisfaction. When I make residents for new worlds, I don't just make a bunch of sims and stick them here and there and leave them for the game to deal with. I place them all in my build & edit world, an empty flat map I exported from CAW, where I use the world editor to place whatever lots I need for the project I want to work on. For new resident households, I have a save of it with some vacant houses and a 64x64 community lot with a science center and all the rabbithole portals from Lunar Lakes. I use NRaas Master Controller to assign them their careers based on their traits and LTW's, assign their career levels based on their ages, give them related skills at levels appropriate to their age and career levels, set the relationship values within each household, give them whatever they need in their personal inventory for their skills and personalities, including motorcycles for the rebellious and daredevil sims, set celebrity levels for the ones that should reasonably be well-known, and make two or three of the partnered women pregnant. Then I make a list of what each household needs in their home. When I place them in the world I select the houses that fit their needs, then edit them to add cars and bicycles, skill items like easels, telescopes, etc, however many cribs and toddler items they need, and whatever else they might need. After I place them, I use the family funds cheat to give them enough money to pay their bills for several sim weeks.I had done all that for these households, but found some issues when I played in the world I'd made them for, and after several attempts at fixing it, finally decided to start over at some future time, with a blank map, instead of taking an already made world into CAW. All of these households have been waiting for a couple of years, and I really wanted to play them. So I placed them in my older town, and was looking forward to getting acquainted with them as neighbors and friends for my active household. Then this happened on the second sim day in the game! And the man that died was the only actual doctor in town, a trauma surgeon. The hospital is now staffed with only a bunch of homeless organ donors and one paramedic.I have been feeling torn as to whether I should go back to the beginning of the day, so the meteor won't hit, or just going with what the game gave me. It's certainly a financial boon for my household, as the largest rock is worth over $3000. But I'm not happy about losing those two sims so quickly.

I know this is on the General Discussion board, but "You know you have been providing tech support for too long" when you read a subject line like this and assume incorrectly it's going to be a messy computer system related problem.Players have different takes on this, but for me it would be a no-brainer. The game would have stopped as soon as the shadow and subsequent freaking out appeared and I would have reverted to a prior save. I realize that players want things to happen "organically" or "naturally" to their worlds as they progress in many cases, but honestly how many people do you know of in real life who have been hit by random falling meteors? The argument that it's meant to representative of other kinds of disasters that do not (usually) exist in the game holds some value, but I don't want to see such disasters. If I wanted that I would be out in the real world more often instead of playing and servicing this game. Or at least playing a very different one. It's difficult to "unsee" stuff like this once it happens though, hence my reflex to shut it all down before the scenario really plays itself out. :)

I think with all the work you have put into this world and these sims it would be a shame to let a burning rock from space ruin it all for you. Personally I think there are enough catastrophes in RL, both man made and natural without having to worry over such things in game. Perhaps it wasn't the original intention for the game but a lot of people use TS3 as a means of relaxation and I can't think of anything more stressful than watching such a scenario unfold. As you say some things are more important than money and I think saving the lives of those two sims, especially ones you have put so much time and effort into creating, might count as one of them :)

I feel bad for you! But also a little jealous. I’ve played for years and still not had a meteor strike.

"MidnightAura;c-17001873" wrote:I’ve played for years and still not had a meteor strike.I've had three, not counting meteor showers in Oasis Landing. Two were on vacant lots, the screen shook while they were happening and I was playing elsewhere, and either no sims were on or near those lots or they got out of the way in plenty of time. The third one landed on the first and only inactive resident hosted party my sims were skilled enough to take control of and make everyone on the lot have a great time, that one would have wiped out most of my legacy household except for a couple of toddlers and the family dog who were back home. Was not at all interested in seeing that scenario through and my sims went back to throwing their own parties after that.My favorite meteor story remains the one where another player, soon after Dragon Valley was released, had set up a test game with an elaborate 10 x 10 grid of 100 evenly spaced apart dragon eggs, the point being to test out how talking to each egg on the various subjects would impact the kind of dragons who hatched from them. So that was at least six eight tests, each one for a different talk subject. One of the tests was ruined when a meteor fell on the lot destroying most of the eggs and the baby hatchlings. Besides sounding incredibly sad even though this was just essentially a series of lab tests and not a "real" game, the entire day's worth of work was apparently lost and had to be redone. This remains one of my not so favorite game features. :/

I made an alien just to call down a meteor onto Oscar's parents in the Oscar's Childhood video. I'm still wondering what to do with their ghosts. They are safely waiting in their world for me to make up my mind as Oscar h as been transported to the boarding school in Chocolate Cake Island.I see there are three things that could work with this scenario @IreneSwift has just had.1. Continue on playing and accept you have 2 new ghosts in town. 2. Go back to an earlier save and forfeit the money3. Pick up the tombstones and take them home and get a Philosopher's Stone and bind the ghosts so you have control of them and get them to eat AmbrosiaI've done each of these things at different times in different games. They all work. It's just what will fit with the story.Have fun and force it to work for you.

Forum Discussion

IreneSwift

Seasoned Newcomer

6 years ago

Disaster!

My sim, Angela, was in the park singing for tips.

https://i.imgur.com/9GeYSyp.jpg

Suddenly, I heard an ominous sound and got the message that Angela was wondering why it suddenly got dark. Notice the shadow indicating exactly where it's going to hit.

https://i.imgur.com/hB1gMnf.jpg

Needless to say, I had Angela stop singing and run to the other end of the park. Unfortunately, the sims who had been watching her sing did not leave with her. They just had to stay and freak out. Not only that, but other sims came along to freak out with them.

https://i.imgur.com/gdSOYxu.jpg

I had Angela start performing for tips at the other end of the park, in hopes that they would forget about the meteor coming down on them and go watch her instead. But no, that was too smart of a thing for them to do, apparently.

https://i.imgur.com/WpF3yBr.jpg

I could tell when the smoke and flames cleared that at least a couple of sims were now missing, but I didn't know who or how many. Sure enough, the Grim Reaper soon rose up out of the ground.

https://i.imgur.com/gxM7UFX.jpg

I sent Angela back to watch. I wasn't going to make her be so heartless as to start collecting the rocks and scrap before the deceased were properly taken care of, so she stood there and mourned with the rest of the living. The first to be taken was a teen girl, Selena Payne. She begged for her life on her knees, but it was too late for her.

https://i.imgur.com/GpB1hs4.jpg

The next to be taken was her father, Oscar Payne.

https://i.imgur.com/lTRGdij.jpg

He wasn't any happier about leaving the present world behind than she had been.

https://i.imgur.com/wCLQmWE.jpg

While this was going on, I was watching in horror and saying NOOOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOO! Angela is probably traumatized too, but I forgot to check her moodlets to find out. Once she went home where her husband was just getting home from his after work jog, I saved and closed the game.

I am really torn about what to do about this. This is a world I made and populated myself. I'd made this world a few years ago, but had just re-populated it with an all-new population. I'd made the residents a couple of years ago, for a different world I was making, which I never completed to my satisfaction. When I make residents for new worlds, I don't just make a bunch of sims and stick them here and there and leave them for the game to deal with. I place them all in my build & edit world, an empty flat map I exported from CAW, where I use the world editor to place whatever lots I need for the project I want to work on. For new resident households, I have a save of it with some vacant houses and a 64x64 community lot with a science center and all the rabbithole portals from Lunar Lakes. I use NRaas Master Controller to assign them their careers based on their traits and LTW's, assign their career levels based on their ages, give them related skills at levels appropriate to their age and career levels, set the relationship values within each household, give them whatever they need in their personal inventory for their skills and personalities, including motorcycles for the rebellious and daredevil sims, set celebrity levels for the ones that should reasonably be well-known, and make two or three of the partnered women pregnant. Then I make a list of what each household needs in their home.

When I place them in the world I select the houses that fit their needs, then edit them to add cars and bicycles, skill items like easels, telescopes, etc, however many cribs and toddler items they need, and whatever else they might need. After I place them, I use the family funds cheat to give them enough money to pay their bills for several sim weeks.

I had done all that for these households, but found some issues when I played in the world I'd made them for, and after several attempts at fixing it, finally decided to start over at some future time, with a blank map, instead of taking an already made world into CAW. All of these households have been waiting for a couple of years, and I really wanted to play them. So I placed them in my older town, and was looking forward to getting acquainted with them as neighbors and friends for my active household. Then this happened on the second sim day in the game! And the man that died was the only actual doctor in town, a trauma surgeon. The hospital is now staffed with only a bunch of homeless organ donors and one paramedic.

I have been feeling torn as to whether I should go back to the beginning of the day, so the meteor won't hit, or just going with what the game gave me. It's certainly a financial boon for my household, as the largest rock is worth over $3000. But I'm not happy about losing those two sims so quickly.

igazor
6 years ago
I know this is on the General Discussion board, but "You know you have been providing tech support for too long" when you read a subject line like this and assume incorrectly it's going to be a messy computer system related problem.

Players have different takes on this, but for me it would be a no-brainer. The game would have stopped as soon as the shadow and subsequent freaking out appeared and I would have reverted to a prior save. I realize that players want things to happen "organically" or "naturally" to their worlds as they progress in many cases, but honestly how many people do you know of in real life who have been hit by random falling meteors? The argument that it's meant to representative of other kinds of disasters that do not (usually) exist in the game holds some value, but I don't want to see such disasters. If I wanted that I would be out in the real world more often instead of playing and servicing this game. Or at least playing a very different one. It's difficult to "unsee" stuff like this once it happens though, hence my reflex to shut it all down before the scenario really plays itself out. :)
Bettyboop55
New Spectator
6 years ago
I think with all the work you have put into this world and these sims it would be a shame to let a burning rock from space ruin it all for you. Personally I think there are enough catastrophes in RL, both man made and natural without having to worry over such things in game. Perhaps it wasn't the original intention for the game but a lot of people use TS3 as a means of relaxation and I can't think of anything more stressful than watching such a scenario unfold. As you say some things are more important than money and I think saving the lives of those two sims, especially ones you have put so much time and effort into creating, might count as one of them :)
MidnightAura86
New Spectator
6 years ago
I feel bad for you!

But also a little jealous. I’ve played for years and still not had a meteor strike.
igazor
6 years ago
"MidnightAura;c-17001873" wrote:
I’ve played for years and still not had a meteor strike.

I've had three, not counting meteor showers in Oasis Landing. Two were on vacant lots, the screen shook while they were happening and I was playing elsewhere, and either no sims were on or near those lots or they got out of the way in plenty of time. The third one landed on the first and only inactive resident hosted party my sims were skilled enough to take control of and make everyone on the lot have a great time, that one would have wiped out most of my legacy household except for a couple of toddlers and the family dog who were back home. Was not at all interested in seeing that scenario through and my sims went back to throwing their own parties after that.

My favorite meteor story remains the one where another player, soon after Dragon Valley was released, had set up a test game with an elaborate 10 x 10 grid of 100 evenly spaced apart dragon eggs, the point being to test out how talking to each egg on the various subjects would impact the kind of dragons who hatched from them. So that was at least ~~six~~ eight tests, each one for a different talk subject. One of the tests was ruined when a meteor fell on the lot destroying most of the eggs and the baby hatchlings. Besides sounding incredibly sad even though this was just essentially a series of lab tests and not a "real" game, the entire day's worth of work was apparently lost and had to be redone. This remains one of my not so favorite game features. :/
karritz
Seasoned Rookie
6 years ago
I made an alien just to call down a meteor onto Oscar's parents in the Oscar's Childhood video. I'm still wondering what to do with their ghosts. They are safely waiting in their world for me to make up my mind as Oscar h as been transported to the boarding school in Chocolate Cake Island.

I see there are three things that could work with this scenario @IreneSwift has just had.

1. Continue on playing and accept you have 2 new ghosts in town.
2. Go back to an earlier save and forfeit the money
3. Pick up the tombstones and take them home and get a Philosopher's Stone and bind the ghosts so you have control of them and get them to eat Ambrosia

I've done each of these things at different times in different games. They all work. It's just what will fit with the story.

Have fun and force it to work for you.
IreneSwift
Seasoned Newcomer
6 years ago
Thanks for your comments everybody. I did think of another possible solution - to have the rest of the Payne family "move away" (move them to the clipboard and delete them, or use MC to annihilate them), then take the original Payne family back to Build & Edit, change all of their names, save them again, and place them back in the same house. But I didn't really want to do that either.

As it turned out, I decided to start all over from the beginning. I got a bunch of stuck aging notices, and when I looked at the residents' tags in map view, I discovered several whose "days until birthday" were negative numbers, some of them over 100 days in the negative! I don't want to lose my residents to premature aging either, so I'm going to go through the resident population again, in the starter save for this game, and change the ages of any who are too far from where they should be. I'm glad I only played 2 days so far, so I haven't lost too much time.

@MidnightAura I've been playing for almost 7 years now, and this is only my third. Normally it wouldn't bother me to lose residents, since I don't play in rotation, and am therefore not nearly so attached to them as to my active families. But this time it's very different. I'm attached to them even though I'm not playing them, because I spent so much time making them and setting them up, and this is the first chance I've had to see how they will actually live their lives.
karritz
Seasoned Rookie
6 years ago
My games have evolved into one BIG Game and it has over 700 sims in it. I made most of them. The others are either born in game or a few townies I've picked up along the way.

I use a spreadsheet and have them all listed. Names, addresses, if they were originally a townie or not. If they were born in game I show who their parents were. I have lots of other info too, such as age or days to aging up and level of their skills I know they've got. Some sims have all of this detail and some have bits missing. Townies I hardly played have lots of missing info.

I also record how they are related to my 'founder' sim, Patience and each of her ex partners. Most of the sims in the currently 13 worlds in the game have no relationship to any of them. But I intend to continue this through the generations as I play the game. I think Patience has at least 1 great grandchild so far.

So I know how you feel about having something disastrous happening. While I was playing the other day the game threw me to another house. I have a single male witch in that house. I have only played him briefly a few years ago. He's really only there to be a prospective husband to any suitable and unattached sim who may require a husband at some stage. He was on fire. I panicked as I don't want to lose him. I made him about 3 years ago and haven't played him for at least 2 years but he's in the world and I don't want him to be lost to it. I thought fast and in the end all I could think of was to use Master Controller to reset him. That worked. I went back to my active household and I got thrown to him again and he was on fire again - so I reset him again.

I'm glad you managed to find a satisfactory solution to the meteor issue.
IreneSwift
Seasoned Newcomer
6 years ago
@igazor Now, you've seen me around long enough to know that I know where to post things. But I guess your experience with the tech side of the game must trump your experience with my posts. Or maybe you didn't even notice who posted it before you read it?

I'm like you and @Bettyboop55, in that I play to relieve stress, and I'm sick and tired of all the bad news and conflict in the real world. I do not need any stress in my game. But we may not all get stressed over the same things in the game. This one would have been OK, if it weren't for it being the first time playing with these residents I've been wanting to play for such a long time, especially with it being so early in the game. I don't play in rotation, so usually I'm not nearly as attached to inactive residents as I am to my active sims. When I do get attached to some residents I've made, I play them in a game of their own later. And I do tend to get attached to at least some of them, so I'm planning on playing most of the residents of another town I made in rotation someday. If I ever get to it, it will be my first experience with playing in rotation.
igazor
6 years ago
"IreneSwift;c-17001977" wrote:
Now, you've seen me around long enough to know that I know where to post things. But I guess your experience with the tech side of the game must trump your experience with my posts. Or maybe you didn't even notice who posted it before you read it?

Oh, have we met before? >:) :p

Anyone can accidentally post something were they might not have intended to by mistake, but it was the latter, I had just logged into the forums and noticed the subject line. It was kind of eye-catching. But I didn't see it was yours right away, I was recording my initial reaction before even looking at the thread. :)
IreneSwift
Seasoned Newcomer
6 years ago
@Karritz I can relate to your feelings about that single male sim too, even though I don't play in rotation. I have used several sims that were born in older games, with new names, as residents in my worlds. One in particular is in all of them, with a different name each time. I feel just as invested in and protective of those formerly active sims as the ones I'm actively playing in those worlds, and even more so when I'm considering one of them as a potential spouse for a currently active sim. If I get a notification from NRaas Story Progression that one of them has started going steady with one of the lowlifes in town, I'll say to myself, "No, no no! You can do better than that!" If I find one of them with a betrayed symbol in their thought balloon, I have to find out right away who cheated on them. Then that sim goes on my personal dislike list. Even worse, if one of them turns into a cheater, I will ask them out loud, "HOW COULD YOU?!!!"