Funeral ceremony - facts and ideas

Let's share finds and ideas related to the funeral event. It seems to take some trying to master it, and that some events might vary a bit with guests and perhaps relations to the deceased sim. It also seems that elements can  be used in  more ways than the obvious, this event seems to be much more flexible than I was expecting :) 

I've been testing a couple ceremonies, and made a few discoveries that might help other ceremony newbies, too :)

The memorial ceremony can only be for a sim who is a ghost. So, in my case, I can not host funeral service for most of my previously dead sims because I had a habit of freeing their spirits in order to limit the sim count of my save. In the future I might wait until the funeral to free those spirits.

I find it a bit annoying that the ghost can appear at its own funeral ceremony. On my first test the ghost left the group at the gate of the cemetery, and the Host waved goodbye (which I thought was super cute). On my 2nd test the ghost showed up inside the ceremonial room, but it's easy enough to tell a ghost to "just go away".

The event, lasting for 8 hours, can be initiated (=hosted) by anyone with a relation to the ghost of deceased sim - relative or friend. Being a member of the same club doesn't seem to be enough, you need the ghost in  your relations panel. My Host knew only one ghost, but could invite numerous ghosts as guests - not sure why they could be guests when he did not know them, but they might have been ghostly relatives of the deceased one, which would make perfect sense. If so, the Host won't need a relation to all guests.

If you place a piano/pipe organ in the room, there seems to be a chance Grim Reaper himself shows up to play music. I had it happen only once, so it might be a random thing. Grim is a talented Pianist, but I found it weird that he played a ragtime piece. Shouldn't they choose something a tad less joyful? Well, he is probably less sad at this event than the guests...

Cassandra G. Mux-Raisser looked a bit worried arriving the ceremony, when noticing who played the piano.

The  coffin casket thing to be placed on top of a memorial podium can be opened. I never understood why I would want to store anything in that casket, it's not as we have a body, but it is intended for placing the urn, resulting in some activities focusing on that coffin (hidden urn) rather than  the host. Coffin is not opened visually, only in UI as a storage box. In my first test I did not learn this, so when my Host initiated a moment of silence, the guests flocked around her and totally ignored the coffin. By open casket and click the hidden urn, they will focus on the coffin instead, which looks a trillion times better ;)

Guests are limited to 8, it might seem tight especially when not all invited show up. I don't know if their relation to the ghost affects this (enemies might skip it, although they actually should applaud the passing). It might be just that the hour conflicted with work/school. Sundays might be the better day even in SimNation... And, 8 seems like a good limit after trying to control those unplayed guests a few times :)

Guests' outfits can be chosen by Host (style and color), which is super cool for a more themed memorial ceremony. For general funerals, I found that this includes too much randomness, making some outfits not so suitable despites being correctly chosen technically. Pictured above is Fehla Cracrow, wearing Preppy+Black, as requested... I think I will go for the standard formal attire, just making sure that most sims keep their formal #1 moderate, avoiding wedding dresses and gala gowns and tiaras at the funerals. My plan will work well only if the game always picks Formal outfit #1, though. I won't mind a few weird outfits as long as they link to the sims wearing them. 

There are pie menus for choosing activity, but they vary a bit depending on what object you click. Some has a dedicated Funeral menu that I assume is active only during the event. This far I clicked the Host, the urn, memorial table and eulogy podium. There might be more.

Your Host will not need to even know where the deceased sim's urn/gravestone was located, or to bring it, because when arriving the memorial ceremony a gravestone will be placed in the Host's inventory. I did not check if this affects the original urn/gravestone, but I assume it is just a copy to use at the event. I did not dare to delete it yet. I liked his, because it will be a typical thing for me forgetting to bring the urn :)