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
