Sim abductions won't happen?

[Juxtavarious]

I've had my sims gathering space rocks and 'searching the galaxy' for weeks now and they never get abducted. Is there some special trick to it that I'm just not getting?

Also, why do all of the animations take so freaking long? My sime spend hours just climbing stairs or using elevators much less doing anything else.

[cruinne]

Maybe this can help: http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/seasons/aliens.php

Their suggestion is: "To trigger an abduction on your home lot, having a Sim use a telescope is a good place to start. The base chance of an abduction is only 2%, but using a telescope that day adds a +13% chance they'll visit on a given night. Collecting up to two space rocks will each add a 37.5% chance to the visit for a whopping 90% chance of a visit. This seems to reset so that you don't always find your Sims getting abducted, giving you a little bit of control over how often it happens."



As for the others: that's just the way. Remember in Sims 2 they would often eat dinner for like 4 hours?

[Juxtavarious]

I've read that, it's exactly what I've been doing daily for weeks. They have no jobs, just spend all their time scrounging for rocks all over town (which take most of the day because walking is just so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ complicated and they keep getting stuck on everything). At this point, the main Sim I've been focusing on has over 15 space rocks in his inventory, has spent most of his adult life on the telescope day and night and wandering about at night. A week of what should be 90% chances and not even so much as a flicker. Meanwhile, everything else has been going berserk between the paparazzi, the endless requests for parties and dates, the town crier declaring that everyone is aging en masse into the grave. All of this crap goes off constantly, it's like Facebook Tourettes, but no alien abductions.

I'm also getting conflicting notes on timing and other issues. Some guides say that you have to use the telescope during the day and roam about at night outside while others say that you have to use the telescope at night. I get times ranging anywhere from 7PM to midnight to 3-5AM all depending on what guide you read, though the Carl's Guide lists no time at all. Also, going on vague memories of Sims 2, I had my telescope set to the highest pont I could make since that was the old way of increasing the odds. But in all of the guides that I've seen, the telescopes are all on the ground. Can you not get abducted if you're not on the ground?

[Sacred Myths]

I get abducted all the time, it's frickn' annoying lol.

[-Fields-]

Originally posted by 小熊座 Sacred Myths:

I get abducted all the time, it's frickn' annoying lol.

Haha mine to.

To me it sounds like the OP might benefit from "Resetsim *" in the Alt +Ctrl + C console. To me the lag is often caused by stuck sims that try to constantly route to a place, but as they are totally stuck, it keeps canceling and goes in circles, imagine this happening to say 10 sims?

[Juxtavarious]

Right, I do resetSim and have Master Controller and all the fluff, only seems to make a small dent in the overall market. Though recently I've been getting bombarded as the townspeople find jobs, get married, have babies, date, breakup, what have you. I don't get why I need to know all of this stuff but at least it's mostly out of the way and I can ignore it.

[cruinne]

I will say that when my Sims have been abducted all this was true about them:

• Their Logic skill was maxed out.
  
• They had a huge collection of space rocks arranged on their property (not just any rock, only meteorites of various sorts).
  
• They were using the telescope in the early hours of the morning, like 2 AM.
  
• They were the only one out and about on their property (everyone else was inside and asleep).

[Terra]

they just dont want you. lol.

[Emmeraldyne]

Something you might not think of: lot size. You need a decent amount of outdoor flat surface for an alien abduction to occur so if your lot is too cluttered they won't be able to visit no matter what you do.

If your sim is the only adult in a household with children, they cannot be adbucted because it will leave the child alone.

Also, make sure the space rocks you collect are in your sim's inventory. Decorating your lot with them attracts the aliens to visit, not abduct.

I've had all kinds of sims get abducted whether they were awake, asleep, looking through a telescope, outdoors, indoors, away from the home lot... there's a reason i don't collect space rocks anymore.

[Juxtavarious]

Like I said, perpetually collecting space rocks for weeks and nothing happens. There are no children on the lot, he's the only one outside, everyone else is asleep, he has 20+ space rocks in his pockets, and still nothing.

[Scroller]

Collected dozens of rocks... Stargazed/Searched Galaxy until his eyes bled... Logic 10... Several visitations... Simbots taken EVERY TIME... Send bots off lot... NO VISITATIONS... This sucks...

[Scroller]

... cheats appear to be only option... FANTASTIC... thanks again EA...

[Scroller]

Simbots = Plumbots.

[Scroller]

THIS SUCKS!!!!! I eventually had to sell my plumbots to stop the aliens taking them. Since then... NOTHING!! In spite of collecting rocks for days combined with stargazing/searching the galaxy for hours... NOTHING!!! So much for 90%... This is celarly bugged... or something like that...

[Scroller]

Could it be something to do with playing it on a laptop that screws up the randomiser algorithm?

[Emmeraldyne]

Originally posted by Scroller:

Could it be something to do with playing it on a laptop that screws up the randomiser algorithm?

I've only ever played Sims 3 on a laptop. Then again, Into the Future is one ep I don't have, so I don't know what's up with plumbots and aliens.

All I can say are the same things I said before: check lot size, 0 children, rocks in inventory. There are mods out there that alter the chance of an alien abduction if you look for them.