Idea - Ghost activity game options
I have seen many people complain about too many ghosts appearing in their game, or not wanting phone calls from ghosts etc. Whether this is due to wanting a more realistic vibe to their game, or they just find them annoying, or they play with a shorter lifespan so they end up with sims dying more frequently than they are fading away, doesn't matter, they want fewer ghosts, I see this sentiment around a lot, and that's fair.
But then there are other people (like me) who are playing on long lifespans (so ghosts fade away faster than sims are dying) or as paranormal investigators, supernaturals, and ghosts, frustrated at how unevenly ghosts are handled socially in the other direction. When paying AS a ghost, I can go anywhere and invite all my living friends over or out with me, yet those same friends can not invite him over when i switch over to their household? Or I can not invite the ghost friends they met at Afterlife Anonymous over to my place, or to go out? they never knock on the door to visit? And I almost never see NPC ghosts on community lots. (except nightclubs and dance parties for some reason, I even have a ghost DJ in my game, which I love, but I can see other people being frustrated by. and one time i had a ghost haunt a pottery class i was taking which was wild, but I loved it, it was hilarious. more of that please) I can't invite Esther over to hang out, but she can invite me to the Geek Con? I can have my ghost-Johnny Zest (he died of laughter, and now haunts the Landgraabs) hire Bernard to play piano at his Businesses and Hobbies comedy club, staffed entirely by ghosts, but i can only ever visit socially with Bernard at his estate or cross my fingers and hope he shows up at Club Eternity? (or use MCCC to summon them but they often don't stay that way) I have Johnny's comedy skill maxed and top of the Comedian career, but when playing as other characters, he never appears at lounges like Baako does? I can invite ghosts to clubs, but only in person? Basically, Ghosts are all over the place in terms of social interactions, some may be by design, some may be oversights, some may be bugs, but either way it is frustrating as a player.
Solution: a game option for high and low ghost activity. Everyone gets what they want with one checkbox.
High activity - ghosts are treated more like any other sim in the game. They can be invited over/out, they will call/text their friends, they will appear on community lots, and ghost sims in careers that place them on community lots like the Entertainer career will have a chance to spawn ghosts in that career in those roles. I would be ok with them having a lower frequency during the day/outside of Ravenwood and a higher frequency at night, but never 0 chance.
Low activity - Ghosts lose cell phone access, they can not call you, they can not be contacted via the phone, can not be invited over. Ghosts only ever appear on Haunted House Residential lots, or lots where their urn/gravestone is present or they are a household member. Ravenwood can be an exception due to the nature of that game pack, as well as special ghosts outside of Ravenwood like Felix Psyded, or Bernard and Mimsy. also Ghost Nights at bars are disabled.
No Activity (or almost none if you have Life and Death) - Ghosts simply disappear from the game. They still exist in the game files, if you change the option later, but they won't spawn on lots with this option selected, ever. Bernard and Mimsy exist only through the plaques and portraits at their estate, ghosts do not appear in relationship panels. Death is treated as final. Life and Death will need to keep their ghosts, so as to not break the questlines and such, but it will be the sole exception, and if you have the pack it is used more for it's funeral/remembrance and grief options.
An alternate method, or one that could be used in conjunction with the low activity setting, might be to create a 'sixth sense' reward store trait, that ghosts themselves have by default, to allow them to contact ghosts, and be contacted by them.
PS I know there is a mod out there that makes ghosts invisible to living sims, which can address a lot of the things for the 'low activity' option, but i feel this is something that should be handled in the game itself, not as a mod, and the mod does not address the inability to invite ghosts over/out etc for the high activity option
