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How do I turn off the defense grid?

Hi! I'm playing the dystopian time-line in Oasis Landing, and I'm not getting any meteors or lightning strikes. The defense grid is enabled, but from what I have read in the forums and Carl's Sims 3 guide, the defense grid is only supposed to last for 24 hours. I've been playing for around a week game-time and haven't gotten any. Is there a way to turn off the grid? Am I having a glitch?
Also from what I gather in the forums, I should be getting meteor strikes in Ambitions, but in all the years I played it I have never even had one.
I'm missing out on all the drama!

Comments

  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    I can't answer the ITF Defense Grid question I'm afraid, hopefully others can. But the Ambitions meteor strikes are meant to be very rare. I've only had three of them in eight years of play. Two of them hit unpopulated mostly empty community lots and didn't really affect anyone. One of them (shudders) well, let's just say that I didn't save my game after that. It would have destroyed most of my legacy household at the time and would have been a total mess.

    For those so inclined, there are mods and NRaas Retuner ways to make both meteor strikes and the showers in Oasis (again not sure about about the Defense Grid thing) more or less likely or impossible to happen at all.
    o550pjoa47rpxo63g.jpg
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  • AuroraskiesAuroraskies Posts: 1,834 Member
    I don’t know about the grid; it is possible to enable as a result of an opportunity that I have not had, yet. But like you said, it is for a period of 24 hours only at a time.

    I think the reason for your lack of meteor showers is that you have Overwatch installed; and the reason for OW nipping the meteors this:

    https://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2013/12/meteors-in-normal-future-and-utopia.html

    In a new unmodded gamesave I played a day in the dystopian future and had three meteor showers that all singed my sim. The meteors keep falling in normal and utopian future once the dystopian future have been enabled in that game save. They did not singe my sim though, playing for one day each.

    The tip to revert to normal before changing to utopian did nothing to stop the meteors; but 'Resetting the time continuum' on the Time Portal did, playing for one day. Level ten in Advanced Technology skill required.

    Take out Overwatch, delete the cashes in Sims 3 folder and see if you get meteors. You can put OW back when you are fed up with it.
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited July 2019
    Worth a try if the mod is in use. But NRaas Overwatch helps resolve an issue with with the meteor shower alarms getting stuck across the three types of future worlds beginning with version 111, I wasn't aware that it prevents the showers from happening entirely. The current OW version is 122 so these reports are from quite a while ago, probably very soon after ITF was released as v111 was Twallan's last release and not that of our current developer.
    o550pjoa47rpxo63g.jpg
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    Our new site is at http://nraas.net
  • AuroraskiesAuroraskies Posts: 1,834 Member
    @igazor I read this:

    https://www.nraas.net/community/chatterbox/topic3393

    And another report from two years ago, on a site I am not sure I can link. They reported having told the current developer at NRaas though. The OP has stated that they have OW in a post in this forum. It is just a guess and although I did not need it here, I am aware that it is a great mod.
  • spankenstein89spankenstein89 Posts: 103 Member
    Thanks Igazor, thanks Auroraskies, I appreciate your comments and suggestions.
    I do have Overwatch, but I'm not sure which version. I'll try removing it and deleting the cashes and see if that helps.
    I'll check out the mods at NRaas to. Thanks!
  • spankenstein89spankenstein89 Posts: 103 Member
    Question please? Which caches in the Sims 3 folder should I clear?
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    When we speak of clearing caches, we usually mean the five cache files on the top level of the TS3 user game folder in Documents.

    CasPartCache.package
    compositorCache.package
    scriptCache.package
    simCompositorCache.package
    socialCache.package (this one is optional)

    They will appear without the ".package" part to their names if you have your operating system set to hide file extensions.

    These files should be cleared (deleted) every so often as part of routine maintenance and certainly whenever content is added, updated, or removed. Fresh ones will spawn again the next time the game starts up.
    o550pjoa47rpxo63g.jpg
    NRaas has moved!
    Our new site is at http://nraas.net
  • spankenstein89spankenstein89 Posts: 103 Member
    Thanks Igazor! I appreciate your help, and your dedication to Sims 3 is inspiring.
  • AuroraskiesAuroraskies Posts: 1,834 Member
    edited July 2019
    My sim spent more than a week in Dystopia, talking to Emit and completing other opportunities, but the opportunity to Raise Defense Grid does not turn up. I assume you got it by chance, or from Emit? It would help if you described how.

    I also read this:
    "The dypstopia version of OL is supposed to have regular non-lethal meteors striking the world, but OW puts a stop to that. To get the meteors working if the world has seen OW I need to give my sim a particular opportunity with DebugEnabler (doesn't always show up with MC) to recalibrate the defense grid. This will restart the meteors once the defense grid goes back down. With OW installed this needs to be done every play session in OL, without OW installed it only needs to be done once."

    NRaas, see post nr 2
    https://www.nraas.net/community/post61497#p61497

    I do not have these mods and cannot help with that.

    Edit: So the way I understand it, it is not enough to uninstall OW to get the meteor storms working.

    I suggest you try to enable Dystopia in a completely new Sims 3 folder, in a new save; if you want to rule out any influence from OW.

    It does not really take that long to create a dystopian world, ironically.
  • spankenstein89spankenstein89 Posts: 103 Member
    Thanks Auroraskies, I appreciate your help and the link. I never received an opportunity to turn off the defense grid, it was already on when my sims got there. It was only after my sim got a wish to swim in a meteor rift did I notice I wasn't getting any. That started this whole thing to find out why. I don't feel I'm fully appreciating the dystopian version until I have meteors.
  • AuroraskiesAuroraskies Posts: 1,834 Member
    Thank you! So maybe the defense grid is used by OW to stop the meteors then and you would have to follow the quoted description on how to turn it off in your particular save, choosing which version you want to do. DebugEnabler is another mod by NRaas. I do not know how to give the opportunity to your sim, but igazor will.

    And still, you could also visit Dystopia in a new save in a newly generated Sims 3 folder; in case the lack of meteors have another explanation.
  • spankenstein89spankenstein89 Posts: 103 Member
    Okay! I'll try that.
  • JugaariJugaari Posts: 11 New Member
    This question solved my problem too.
  • spankenstein89spankenstein89 Posts: 103 Member
    Yeah I've been having a bit of trouble with Oasis Landing. Now I have a sim, who's in the future, who wants to travel into the future!
  • spankenstein89spankenstein89 Posts: 103 Member
    edited July 2019
    Although I finally figured out how to change households in Oasis Landing. Now I can fix a few things wrong with my sim's descendants. They're supposed to be wealthy, but there's six of them crammed into a shack with bed space for two.

    In case anyone's wondering how I did it, I clicked on a sim who's household I wanted to change to, then selected NRass>Master controller>Household>Make active.
    Post edited by spankenstein89 on
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