Oh. I didn't even see it. I'm slow on the uptake.

S'okay, I'm a blond, I'll loan you some hair, and you can call it a blond moment!

I know, it's way off topic, but what you said sounds really interesting, so I have to ask.
Do you have a list of these events that you can share? Or do you make them up as you play? And how do you incorporate disability in game? (Do I ask too much? Probably I do.) Maybe in a more appropriate thread you could tell more about your sistem, share your rolls. If you'd like.

Also, wanted to say this is very cool thread. I get so inspired every time I visit Sims 2 section of the site! Thank you all

I have posted a bit about this aspect of my game-play system before, I think, but it's scattered all over the place in random threads :-D I'll start a dedicated thread about the use of random number generators for The Sims 2 play in a few minutes! I'd like to know if anyone else uses them as well :-)


Agreed! I love this forum :lovestruc

I've got a sim who just accidentally died in college. I had plans for her, but nothing definite. Basically my plans were that she'd mellow out in adulthood, marry and have children, but then get caught cheating and divorce and move away. Do you think I should try resurrecting her or just leave her be?

That's up to your playstyle and how much you enjoy the surprises the game throws you. It is a life simulator, after all, and life is what happens while you're making other plans.

On a practical level, when Ivy Copur died at SSU Drama Acres, I could not keep her tombstone from vanishing no matter what I did; nor could I or the Hood Checker send her off campus. It's possible I missed a trick, or that the problem was not with death on campus but with the general level of corruption in Drama Acres, but eventually the fun of having a haunted sorority was not worth the effort of continually respawning her tombstone, so she was resurrected by the last person at Tri-Var who remembered her, and resumed her college career amid strangers. She attracts a lot of curiosity, has adopted a Pleasure secondary to represent having learned to seize the day, and is now bound for a paranormal career, as she has the perfect backstory for Drama Acres's very first Cult Leader. So at this point I regret neither the death nor the resurrection.

So I say let her haunt campus until it bugs you or you get a good story/character excuse to resurrect her, and then milk it. Resurrection is far more dramatic if some time passes and the subject reawakens in a world that isn't where she left it.

Drama Acres is corrupt as all get out, so I have no idea if my problem was with that, or with a more basic problem with ghosts on campus. Given that there's a cowplant at the Secret Society, they should have planned for ghosts on campus. So you needn't assume your tombstone will glitch out until you see it doing so.

@Peni Griffin - I think your post got cut off.

I say do what makes you happy. Either stick with the plan or roll with the punches. If you really can't decide, flip a coin.

Ha, so it did. I wonder what's up with that. Fixed it now.

Maybe you accidentally hit a keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Z, for instance). I've sent a few emails prematurely with keyboard shortcuts.

Last time I messed with my game files I forgot to put in empty templates for Uni and ended up with 50 Maxis-made dormies. I didn't mind their looks as much as the overpopulation of my tiny college 'hood, so one of my playables got a mini botanical garden with a cowplant as the centerpiece in his front yard, the college itself got a cemetery lot, and in a couple of sim-days there were at least dozen dormie-graves lying around. I've kept them on the lot until the ghosts spawned, moved them to cemetery and spent some time with my knowledge playables there laughing at the ghosts scaring the living daylights out of the visitors.

tl;dr - I've had no issues with ghosts/tombstones in Uni 'hood.

Brandi Broke died and I'm unsure what her orphaned children should do.
How it happend: she invited some towny over to her house, the date started off well and proceeded to bedroom, but then Dustin set up the kitchen on fire in his attempt to care for his brothers and make some dinner. So the date score went down the hole. While Dustin was trying to put out the fire (fire alarms are a little more expensive in their universe), the towny was screaming and not helping, and Brandi was locked up in her bedroom by me. At some point the towny took off saying "Screw you, I'm getting outta here, I had a terrible time, don't ever call me again!" (or something like that anyway), aaaand to my biggest shock the Grim arrived to take Brandi. She was a single mother and was a bit hungry and tired while on a date, and I guess, that terrible date score had really bad effect on her needs, and she died. As I see it, she either had a heart attack (a little young for that though) or the towny just murdered her. (No one burned in fire, by the way.)
Dustin is still a teen and left with two little brothers. Poor, out of school, out of job (criminals fired him for bad grades, heh). I wonder - is he the type of guy to raise his brothers or to put them up for adoption? Brandi was close with John Burb, so maybe Jonh would want to take care of her kids? Although he's got his own problems and Jennifer would probably mind. Nina Caliente has her own problems as well. I made Brandi's friends help out by giving gifts to Dustin, so he's got some cash to pay bills, but this is it for now. What next - I don't know. Also, what should I do with the towny that caused all this? I should probably think of ways for Dustin to get back at him. But the main concern at the moment - living situation. What happens with the kids? I don't have any strict rules or government in the 'hood, so it could be anything.

Is Dustin close with his brothers? You said he was tryin to feed them. Maybe bein the sole person responsible for the boys is what will help him grow up and become a mature male.

Several possibilities here.
1. Dustin drops out of school and devotes his life to keeping his family together. Maybe this ends well, maybe it ends badly - play it as it lies. You can invent new and ingenious ways for him to earn money without ever having to hire a nanny. Maybe he starts a "handyman business." I.E. he visits each playable household in the neighborhood, is influenced to garden, clean, repair, watch kids, etc., and is rewarded by your preferred method of transferring funds - artwork he can sell, Monique's computer, whatever. Maybe he sells craftables from home, starts a home business, goes to work at a business run by another playable, whatever.
2. Dustin can't cope and a playable "social worker" takes the younger boys to a playable foster home. Dustin is on his own and you have a new household.
3. Dustin's friends and neighbors rally around him and the kids are raised by a neighborhood coalition of babysitters and patrons.
4. Dustin and/or his brothers befriend an adult who adopts them, Disney-happy-ending style. If he's still friends with Gordon King, that could lead in interesting directions...
5. Dustin's best friend (Dirk? Angela?) convinces a parent (or possibly grandparent, in Angela's case) to take the whole bunch of them in. Overcrowding and blended-family hijinx and stresses ensue.
6. A random sim - townie walkby, CAS special built, bin sim - sees that the boys are vulnerable and moves in on them, posing as their benefactor but in effect stealing their home and treating them like servants.
7. ????? Having read through that list shaking your head you suddenly realize - no, none of that but this other brilliant idea that has suddenly leaped full-blown into your mind! (It happens.)

The only thing I wouldn't suggest you do is use the in game adoption system, as doing so will ensure Dustin's brothers will forget their relation to him and lose their family tree. (And all their memories, too! ) I know I find that sort of thing irksome--I can understand a young sim forgetting they knew someone, but the family tree thing bothers me so much. So if that sort of thing matters to you too, I'd use hacks to go the adoption route, if you chose to go that way.

As for other options, well, normally my Dustin would try everything he could to take care of his brothers--it's what he does anyway, even when Brandi is around. He'd forgo college, or maybe go later/study at home, and get a full time job, working to ensure his brothers got a chance to go. But, since it's currently what's going on in my game, I advocate a life of crime. You see, my Brandi remarried a townie who happened to be a smuggler (I feel like I told this story before?) and he's teaching Dustin how to steal. They hit up a few places downtown (using the buy/build always enabled hack) and got away with everything since there's no playable sim in law enforcement, military, or intelligence. I set up limits on what they steal, etc., but Renaud (Brandi's new smuggler husband) also happened to know the current Mr. Big, whom he befriended, moved in, and murdered. Now the family is rolling in dough, even more than the Pleasants and it looks as if everyone is going to college. Except for the fact that their house is glitched (It always happens to them, too. I swear, 99% of the time I restart Pleasantview, it's cuz of them and their family's glitchiness!), they're doing pretty good.

So I'd advocate Gordon King coming to Dustin's rescue. Maybe he moves in, involving the boys in questionable dealings, maybe forces an arranged marriage between Dustin (or one of the boys after they grow up a bit) and a townie who wants to be a playable (in exchange for money, of course), or maybe Gordon lends Dustin money at a super high interest rate and Dustin has to steal to pay it back. Every time you have Dustin visit somewhere or see him visiting someone else (like when he comes home with Angela), he could be stealing something, with a chance to get caught.

Or maybe he abandons his brothers, scared of the responsibility, and goes off to college without ever looking back. He gets his act together enough in college so that he can marry Angela and years later his brothers come back into his life, looking for revenge. Or a handout. Or both.

Or maybe he sells the house for a cheap plot of land/farm in the middle of nowhere, where he doesn't have to worry about his brothers being taken away and can live off the land for food, becoming the founder in your next legacy!

I guess I'd have to ask what type of hood is it and what everyone else has going on. For example, today in my game Daniel Pleasant just died in a fire that started when Angela burned dinner. It was a very sudden tragic "accident" (quotes because I waited until half the kitchen was burned down and Daniel was gone before I let anyone call the fire department. Don't tell my sims I'm evil!) and it happened right after Lilith got into a brawl with her dad and decided to move out. Oh, and at the exact same time Daniel was dying, Mary-sue had a miscarriage. So my Pleasants aren't exactly in the best shape to adopt anyone right now--Mary-sue's got to decide if she's going to remarry for money or build her empire by herself, if she'll really let Lilith go without a cent to her name, and what to do about those rumors that Daniel got the maid pregnant (she doesn't want to believe it, but he did leave her some money in his will after all [It was only a thousand bucks, though. What a cheapskate!]).

So I don't really know if someone else should adopt/move some of the Brokes in, cuz they maybe have their own drama going on, but who knows, maybe there's a family you don't play a lot in the hood and creating a blended family could get playtime for them and help for the Brokes?

Oooh, I'll go with Gordon King with hidden agenda! Which will lead to boys beeing kicked out or escape and a chance for Dustin to be that mature male after he learns this lesson. So it'll be a combination of what you all said. And it all makes sense - Gordon is a friend, but not that much of a friend - he didn't help when Dustin got fired and Dustin remembers beeing beat up by him. Now that he has a house without Brandi in it, he'd be of interest again. And it's a good opportunity to make Gordon playable, as I plan with all "connected" NPCs. Perfect! Thanks!

Dustin is close with his brothers, yes, and it's a normal good old Pleasantview, no special type. I'm not very far, but everyone has something going on. Well maybe except for Lucy Burb. She has no problems so far, but at the same time it IS a problem in the 'hood where everybody's lifes are complicated in some way or another - because no one seemed to notice her even at her own birthday party, so she might start to get in trouble, for attention.

So, about Gordon King. He turned out to be a knowledge sim who wishes to learn every skill. He's very serious and very into science, which is also his true hobby. He has ZERO interest in crime and very interested in weather and ecology. I loved the idea of him enslaving Brokes, and now that I know he's all sciency I may turn them into guinea pigs. Would be easier if he aspired for money though...

Darren Dreamer and Nina Caliente have fallen in love and Darren wants to move Nina in, but Nina has twins and she also is the only one taking care of Dina's son. If I move in Nina with Darren should she bring Dina's son too, or just her own kids?

For me, it would depend on why the twins and the kids were living in that family dynamic. Is Dina the breadwinner, while Nina stays home with all three kids, or is Dina too lazy and self-absorbed to raise her own son? Does Nina like her nephew - does she play with him, read to him etc. or does she do the bare minimum to ward off the social worker? If Nina loves her nephew like a son, and Dina is neglectful, I would let Nina take him. If Dina's neglectful and Nina's not attached, I'd have her leave him behind so that Dina could step up.

If Dina is a good mother and Nina is attached, I'd probably have Nina leave him, but invite him/teleport him over to her place often for visits. Or, I'd let Nina insist on taking him over Dina's wishes and do a custody battle.

Nina has a higher relationship with all three kids than Dina. I don't think Dina would really even notice if the kids were gone, if the cribs weren't in the living-room, Dina picked her son up, maybe, once or twice, since she gave birth, while Nina plays with, and feeds him. Nina actually rolled secondary aspiration of family, while Dina rolled popularity (tho you wouldn't know it by her wants, constantly wanting paintings, sculptures or to be promoted rather than make friends).

Then better take him. Invite Dina over frequently and see if she shows signs of missing him or likes him better once he's a kid.

Yeah, I'll have Nina take him, and try inviting Dina over once he's a little older, that is if the twins stop hating each other.

If they don't start getting along, and you wanted to get a story out of that, you could always have Dina invite him over to her place and secretly build a relationship with him. Even if Dina never develops a true interest in him, she might feel like he's better off with her once he's more self-sufficient and old enough to get a job soon. Then you could let Nina react to Dina moving in on what is essentially Nina's son.

Well, if Nina and Darren aren't planning on having more kids, Darren could aways move in with the Calientes. After all, Darren is older and already has a son--maybe he wants to focus on his paintings. And even with a family secondary, I can't see Nina wanting too many more kids, especially if she considers her nephew her own. So unless you have other plans for Dina and the house, they don't necessarily have to move. Nina might not be ready to move fully into the suburbs.

@Lamare, maybe Gordon is stealing in the name of science? Lab equipment *is* expensive. Maybe he steals to fund zombie research or steals skills from other sims? He could be one of those supervillains that thinks the only way to save the world is too destroy it. People have lots of reasons behind what they do.

I've moved in Gordan, he's really nice, hard working and not a complainer. All around great guy and father who wanted to be head of the CIA or whatever that American in game job is. I had a hard time picturing him as a criminal after that and figured he must really be an undercover cop.

I'm having a hard time as well. Moved him in and quit the game to think what to do with him in terms of gameplay.

Stealing skills from other sims sounds interesting. I don't think I've ever used SimVac, so it'll be fun. Aspiration rewards are limited, and he's gonna need a lot, so that's how he'll use the boys (and their unsuspecting friends). I read SimVac has affect on relationships. After Gordon uses it a few times on Brokes it'll probably be the time when they start to hate him and try to escape.

Once again, thank you!

I got a little dilemma... I got a family of five. Two adults, two teens, and a baby belonging to the teens-WHO ARE MARRIED. The school in town was torn down for a home, and now the teens and their baby need to move out. The mother of the boy teen is expecting, and she needs the crib in their home. But, if the teens leave, then they take some of their parents' money with them. I started thinking about a couple of options for the teen couple:

1. The parents build another home on-site as a studio for the teens and their child, and they do not have to move out at all-unless you count out of the main building
2. The teens are forced to move out by the reluctant adults, and they are forced to buy a house within the city, taking the original family car with them
3. The parents make heavy renovations to the lodge they own, and set the kids into that renovated section built (presumably) just for them

I need some input on this, to figure out where to go with this thing, help to decide whether to either keep the younger part of the family on the lot or not, since they'll take more money than give now since they cannot take part-time jobs due to the child. Oh, and the mod I use, besides its MasterController from the same creator, is Nraas' WooHooer mod, that's how the teens got married in the first place and had the kid-while the school was still operational, of course.