Burglars: Why they need to return and what can be done to improve/evolve the NPC feature

I love the burglars in the sims 1-3.

However it’s my belief that the burglar won’t be returning because anything even slightly negative is either not there or if it’s there is toned right down. For example sims don’t die if fixing electronics and they get shocked the first time, death in the temples in jungle adventure is rare If not non existent. Currently the most dangerous feature in game is the tumble dryer if you don’t clean the lint trap.

How would that work with a burglar? He creeps in the front door and is so overcome with happiness moodlets he decides not to rob you? He is confronted by your sim and they stop and have a friendly discussion, after which he picks up your sims valuables and walks out the door? Or what if he gets the current trend of visiting your house and not leaving for hours? It would be really immersion breaking got see the burglar rob you then make a beeline for your sims pc to play games.

Your sims spot a burglar and who they going to call? The police? What police? Without the police a burglar would be pointless as much as it pains me to admit it.

But please Gurus prove me wrong!

"MidnightAura;c-16681880" wrote:
I love the burglars in the sims 1-3.

However it’s my belief that the burglar won’t be returning because anything even slightly negative is either not there or if it’s there is toned right down. For example sims don’t die if fixing electronics and they get shocked the first time, death in the temples in jungle adventure is rare If not non existent. Currently the most dangerous feature in game is the tumble dryer if you don’t clean the lint trap.

How would that work with a burglar? He creeps in the front door and is so overcome with happiness moodlets he decides not to rob you? He is confronted by your sim and they stop and have a friendly discussion, after which he picks up your sims valuables and walks out the door? Or what if he gets the current trend of visiting your house and not leaving for hours? It would be really immersion breaking got see the burglar rob you then make a beeline for your sims pc to play games.

Your sims spot a burglar and who they going to call? The police? What police? Without the police a burglar would be pointless as much as it pains me to admit it.

But please Gurus prove me wrong!

Good point! I had almost completely forgot about the police involvement needed for this feature to actually make sense, your comment leading to the realisation and quick tweet to a guru of expanding the active police career we currently have via GTW.

For the record, we DO have police, technically, just not in NPC form as of yet, however, they are there and should EA decide to add the negative feature to our game, they could simply revamp that career so we had off duty, or at least semi active police sims walking the beat and or patrolling in an NPC cop car, cars are a decorative feature in the sims 4 so it wouldn't be too crazy a push to have them roll up during a robbery or even some sort of negative altercation and see what the problem is.

This in itself brings the question of "Because we have police, shouldn't we have a reason for them being here?"

Yes we have the lazy, poorly designed interactions of checking out a crime scene and asking witnesses for their statements before looking for the criminal responsible, but that in itself just adds to the subject, we can visit a crime scene of a burglary, yet we don't have actual burglars, simply oddly dressed NPC's who act as a stand-in for what who we should really be locking up!

Again, the more we look into it, the more it doesn't make sense, why don't we have burglars when we can look at crime scenes and arrest sims? Why can we do X Y and Z but don't actually have active thieves?! Why do we have everything BUT burglars.

It doesn't make sense, and though I agree with everything you've said, we do have police, and hopefully the DEV team will, should they add burglars, work on their animations and features so we don't have them hanging around playing on our sims computers or eating their food (Actually that sounds sorta funny, they break in and raid your fridge) before deciding to loot the place.

It won't be a clean cut patch, it wont be perfect and we should accept that now, BUT it doesn't mean we shouldn't demand something we have the tools for but lack in terms of presence.

...Why can I imagine a burglar eating Bob's pancakes? Why is that a fight scene I want right now?

I was thinking about this some days ago, a lot of people don't want burglars and they used to stole only toilettes anyway... to make everyone happy they could just make an object that, if placed on lot, triggers the visit from burglars, like some sort of vault you can put money in.... so it would solve both the problem of random absurd object being stolen and would not force the feature on people that don't like it.

Lack of NPCs has always been my biggest disappointment with TS4. I would love to see both burglars and firefighters return to The Sims.

They could be triggered by a new lot trait called maybe Bad or Tough Neighborhood or something like that. That would work for everyone. You could take or leave it, or only use it in certain saves but not others.

I wonder how difficult it would be to increase the number of lot traits available for each lot. I wouldn't mind having 4 instead of 3.

I admit that burglars were never my favorite so they are not something I absolutely need to have in the game. However, it would not hurt anything if they were added so I hope those of you who really want them to return get your wish.

Now firefighters! Who doesn't love a hot firefighter. We need those back as soon as possible.

Yes! Burglars, Firefighters and Bailiffs, if you don't pay your bills on time. I would like the option to beat up the burglar if you catch him and a fire engine to appear in the road outside when you have the fire alarm. We have ice-cream vans anyway.

"Simburian;c-16684464" wrote:
Yes! Burglars, Firefighters and Bailiffs, if you don't pay your bills on time. I would like the option to beat up the burglar if you catch him and a fire engine to appear in the road outside when you have the fire alarm. We have ice-cream vans anyway.

With the rocketing heater bills caused by seasons, it would be very realistic for sims to get into debt and have repo turn up demanding their items! However if you were a living off the land simmer who had nothing, they could leave you a tab, meaning once you started working, or somehow got a certain amount, the money would leave your bank automatically, maybe even charging relatives to cover your losses.

With firemen, it would be great having them come back to save thanksgiving when Jeff has set the turkey on fire! Allow fines for fake calls and maybe have them encourage fire safety with tips and tricks for avoiding incidents. The ability to work as a fireman would be nice too, able to save your own home from disaster or answer neighbors calls for help

Bring them back! <3

An idea suddenly struck me: what if burglars could also become an active career? As a way to monitor or at least semi control the rate of thefts, the Sims team add a system where if the burglar was someone you knew, there was less chance of them striking your home and or taking items of value as they didn’t want to affect your sims friendship with them?

For example, your sim has a good friend down the road, or in the neighborhood over, that sim turns out to be the local thief and so when they break into your home and you cannot confront them as you’re asleep or somewhere else, they have a 50/50 chance of realizing their mistake and either leaving the home immediately, falling pray to the alarm system, stealing a few minor cheap objects or stealing only one item of value, this of course depends how many valuables you own.

Also what could change them is the fact you do or do not have children.
That example being: the theft breaks in, whether they know you or not, they see a toddler or baby item and again, have the 50/50 chance of a speech bubble displaying their sudden bout of a conscious and leaving you alone, or perhaps even GIVING you something as a good Will gesture to help with the family, of course this can be either left around the home or sent via the mail anonymously or even given to your via that sim however if you haven’t seen them as a thief yet, they simply say it’s a little gift for being a friend or they just found it and thought you’d like it.

This not only lightens the tone, meaning EA don’t have to worry so much about upsetting simmers, but also means if you do choose to become a burglar, you can make bad, good or neutral choices based on your preference of play style.

Speaking of tone, I would also like to see how thieves react to certain situations or even times of year during the game! Such as an elderly sim dying of fright should they catch the burglar in their home, a snow storm occurring meaning the thief has to trudge around leaving footprints in and outside the home, overheating under their wool mask during the summer and so on, maybe even running into the family pet whose a big lovable pooch but to them is scary as plum!

For pet interactions, I imagine something along the lines of: if the burglar breaks in and there’s a dog, it can chase them away, start barking loudly, run away out of fear, follow them around and even out of the house, or just blatantly ignore them and go back to sleep. For cats, I see something a little sneakier, and perhaps more violent such as should they be territorial, they leap at the burglar and claw at them, if they’re stealthy or spoiled then they knock things over and alert sims or trip the alarm which can be turned off if the thief is skilled enough, similar to dogs they can just ignore them, but if they follow the burglar out they can return with evidence which you can use to help police Sims find them, maybe they can even lead you straight to the Sims home.

If interacting as a human sim, then the obvious would occur along with some newer options to spice things up: you’d have your usual fight or flight responses. Call police if you didn’t have an alarm or if it was turned off. Fight them if you’re brave enough. Tell them to leave and avoid conflict or maybe even seduce them into staying a little longer, yes you have to be a romantic sim for this but in the right circumstances they may leave with nothing except your heart....and a few other things if you catch my drift.

If you have children below teenager range then they can go run for help, they’ll be able to out run the burglar and fetch neighbors who may follow or call the police, or maybe they’ll just cry and hide.

If you do have teenagers then depending on their traits, they’ll either fight with or without you, hide away or go call for help, this can be either by fetching locals or calling the police, should they be throwing a tantrum at the time they may even just drive the thief off by being a brat, even they have limits you know.

Just a few things my brain decided to throw out.

Everyone is welcome to add more and give their thoughts on new and exciting interactions and possibilities! Have a nice day, everyone