Just an idea about how a murder mystery style game pack might work, similar to Agitha Christie books or the game Clue
- Attend parties at large mansions... until thieves or murderers strike, leaving your sim to solve the case quickly! Interview suspects, search for clues, and explore the house to solve the mystery, but be careful of dangers lurking in every room!
- Explore sprawling mansions and a massive castle in a quiet countryside. Use new build mode features to create your own elegant manor where your sims can live in luxury!
- Become a private investigator or a field journalist to put your sim in the streets as they collect information and search for secrets! Collect enough evidence to arrest other sims as a PI, or to compile and publish articles as a journalist!
-New Neighborhood-
Explore a quiet countryside neighborhood, far from any large town, with rolling hills and a lazy river.
•Special Lots-
- Victorian Mansion- An elegant, sprawling mansion with many comforts, secret passage ways, and hidden rooms in the attic and basement!
- Modern Mansion- Built into the cliff of a hill, with modern architecture, an indoor pool, and many rooms to explore and get lost in.
- Castle- A very large castle with lots of rooms, corridors, courtyards, balconies, secret passages, and towers.
•5 Residential Lots- A cottage, a brick manor, and one large victorian farmhouse that functions like an apartment building with 3 very small apartment lots (1 on each level) to customize and rent!
-Murder Mystery System- (how it might work)
•A “mystery event” may be triggered by: a random party invitation for your sim, progressing in the private investigator career, finding a note that hints at devious plans, etc.
•Every mystery event will center around a Crime: a theft, an assault, or a murder. (Options for murder and assault may be turned off in the option menu for more “family friendly” simmers)
•Mystery Events will only occur on special lots.
- These lots only let you see the room your sim is currently in, allowing things to happen outside the player’s view.
- Crimes will always occur in a separate room than the one your sim is in. (the actual crime would never be shown for two reasons: to keep it somewhat family friendly by not showing violence, and most obviously because it should be a mystery who committed the crime!)
- Your sim will be prompted to go to certain rooms to investigate a Crime when it occurs by speaking to witnesses, and searching for clues.
•Each mystery will select 8 sims from 8 different non-played households. Favorited households that haven’t been played will be most likely to be randomly chosen (so you can have some influence over what sims are randomly chosen for each event.)
•The game clock will move slower during an event, so everything can be done without it taking several in game days to complete.
•When the event begins, the 8 sims will arrive at the location at the specific time in formal attire.
•First, your sim will be prompted to enjoy the party and interact with the other guests.
•After the sims settle into the party, the Crime will occur and one of the 8 sims will be given the NPC role of the Victim, the rest will be given the NPC role of a Suspect. It will either be a theft, an assault, or a murder.
- A theft will leave the Victim sim alive but sad or angry.
- An assault will leave the sim knocked out or asleep until the mystery is solved.
- A murder will result in the death of the sim, who will lay down dead until the mystery is solved at which point the grim reaper will come.
- Occasionally, two or three of these may occur in the same event if prompted by any of the sims including your own!
•Emotions will cause sims to act out with consequences. A very angry sim may even commit/prompt an additional Crime (sims with the kleptomaniac trait my commit theft, if the victim of theft if made angry they may commit an assault, or if two sims have a negative relationship one of them may commit a crime against the other, etc.).
•NPC staff members (a maid, a chef, and a butler) assigned to the lot will also become suspects, and sometimes victims.
•Suspects may be questioned, and will only be cleared if the mystery is solved or if they become a Victim of an additional crime.
•After the Crime has been committed, your sim will need to begin searching for clues by selecting an area in a room to search, by questioning Suspects, and by using or examining various objects.
•The clues you find will narrow down your search for the criminal sim. These clues may include hair color, traits, careers, and more. (Similar to the detective career from GW)
•Be careful as you search for clues, the criminal won’t be happy that you are after them, and they may leave dangerous traps for your sim! The more clues you find, the more dangerous the house will become!
•When you have discovered enough clues to have an idea of who the criminal is, you may confront the sim you suspect.
- If you are correct, your sim may need to fight them or coerce them to cooperate and the mystery will be solved! You can then choose to have the sim arrested or let them go for a bribe!
- If you choose the wrong suspect, your sim can keep searching for clues to find the correct sim, but they will be in danger of even more traps and the criminal may even attack them by surprise resulting either in your sim’s death or the apprehension of the criminal and the mystery will be solved!
•When you have successfully solved the mystery, the sims that are still alive will be very thankful (and the sims that didn’t make it can always be resurrected if you liked them). Your sim will also receive an award from the police.
•Additionally, after solving your sim’s first mystery, they will unlock the option to move into the special lot (making it a residential lot) and also unlock an option to host their own mystery event! They will be able to choose the location, the Crime, the guests, the Victim, and the Criminal (including themselves)! So whether your sim is looking to get revenge on a group of sims or terrorize their friends, they can cause chaos like never before!!
-New Deaths and Dangers-
•Food and drinks can be poisoned
•Traps can be set on many household objects to create “accidents” that can be fatal for sims (fireplaces and ovens may light sims on fire, electronics may shock sims who use them, and staircases can be rigged to trip sims and send them tumbling!)
-New Architecture Objects-
•Spiral staircases
•Hidden doors (bookshelf, painting, mirror)
•Trapdoor- A quick way to climb up to the next floor, onto roofs, and into attics... or a way to drop unsuspecting sims into basements!
•Chandeliers (can raised or lowered in live mode, rigged to fall on sims, or swung on for fun)
•Electric boxes and plumbing pipes (like the ones from city living)- These objects can be repaired if broken, or you can sabotage them to cause plumbing and electrical failures in a home!
-New activity objects-
•Notebook- Write custom notes that can be placed in the world, write letters to send in the mail, access a sim’s “notebook” like you would on their phone, and use it to compile clues while solving a mystery!
•Home Phone- A blast from the distant past (or... you know, just a few years ago)! Purchase a phone for your sim’s home to use as they would a cell phone, but with more options for managing your household staff (hire specific maids, gardeners, and chefs for you home and choose their schedule) and choose from more options for ordering objects and food!
•Tabletop Tea/Coffee Set- Place it on any small table to let your sims serve hot drinks and have tea parties or serious conversations over coffee!
•Six Sided Game Table- Play games of cards, new board games, and even contact the dead using a ouija board!!
•Typewriter- Sims can write books and letters that will be added to their inventory. Choose the cover for completed books while publishing them, and send written letters in the mail to gain relationship boosts.
•Storage Closet- A closet that allows for more cleaning options (autonomously clean the house, sweep floors, dust, etc.), as well as storage for most inventory objects (including pieces of evidence in murder mysteries!), sims can also hide inside or woohoo inside!
-New Active/Freelance Careers-
•Private Investigator- Use a computer or phone to choose your own cases (like choosing gigs in freelance careers). Your sim will travel to various locations in different towns and need to find evidence, take pictures, and interview sims. (similar to the detective career from Get to Work)
•Field Journalist- Your sim will be at the heart of the story as they travel to different locations searching for information, taking pictures, interviewing sims, and writing articles. Use a computer or phone to pick up a gig/story to pursue.
-New Social Gatherings-
•LARP Murder Mystery Party- Invite other sims over to play out a pretend murder mystery... just for fun! (Separate from the murder mysteries, no crime occurs, just a themed party)
-CAS Styles-
•Detective garb; trench coats, leather jackets, and shady brimmed hats.
•Party clothes; fancy dresses and suit pieces.
-New Collections-
•Fine Jewelry- Sims can purchase some pieces online, others can be found as evidence during mystery events or given to your sim as a gift. With a piece of jewelry in their inventory, Sims can wear it (similar to how the hazmat suit from ST is ruined on sims) or place in in homes and museums on display!
-Game Patch- (things that should be patched into the game that would go well with this GP)
•Taller Buildings
•Create landings in build mode-
- Change the height of individual rooms
- Raise and lower landings to different heights, connect them with stairs
- Create stages and platforms
•Lower rooms directly into the ground or cut partway into hills
•Customize ceilings
- Select ceiling material and color
- Replace a room’s ceiling with rafters
Comments
So, let's say only those sims not in "My Households" section can be the victim of murder.
But then again, some players don't want murder in their game...
I totally agree that the player should have control over who might die, because I don’t want my favorite sims to die either, but I also don’t want the guests to be the boring randomly generated sims that flood the game. (In their atrociously random outfits!)
And like I said there should absolutely be an option to turn off murder so simmers can play the game by solving thefts instead!
Yesss!! I love that idea! It would add a whole new element to make the worlds seem more personal. Your sim could have to uncover corrupt politicians in San Myshuno, or search for a cat burglar in Bridgetown Bay, or expose an evil club in Windenberg... anything really!
Then I say that it would be great if they make it.
I really like all these ideas! I’d absolutely want these details added, and I think you're probably right that a mystery event should be available on any lot, but my thought was that violence can’t really be shown on screen for the sake of the game rating and the time it would take to make the animations, so instead, a few special lots that “black out” the rooms that your sim is not in (similar to the temple in JA or the lab in SV) might be the simplest solution.