Mine both ocured in custom worlds during the first generation, with female, gothic sims on cheap lots with very little furniture, but I think that was a coincidence. I might have a mod that makes meteors more likely right now, I can't remember. The first was definitely random. The second might have been affected by mods.

If you want to see one without using mods, you could make a maximum-sized household and have all of the sims (perhaps making them unlucky might help) stargaze with the telescope all the time. It might take a while, but you'll probably end up with one if you're persistent.

If you don't want one without using mods, all you can do is keep your sims off the telescope. It's not foolproof (My first sim who got killed in a meteor strike didn't have a telescope and was presumably on her computer at the time), but it's your best bet.

I had no special mods in my game. I've been playing on and off since 2009 and this is the first time it's ever happened. It was an elder in my game I sent out to search the galaxy so she'd stop bothering the sleeping toddler.

They're extremeley rare and a bit less rare with the telescope. I never saw any without a mod that raises the odd and even came to think that it was a Sims 3 urban legend before I finally had one thanks to that now obsolete mod here at MTS. Some people are plagued with a lot of meteors, but I'm sure it's due to outdated mods they forgot to remove somewhere in their folders...
It's maybe absurd but the game feels lacking without the occasional mayhem caused by a meteor once you've had one. I even resigned to learn how to update obsolete mods to have it back and it works! *happy* I think I tweeked the odds perfectly, I had the second one only today, while visiting Egypt with my sim

Okay thanks guys, because I thought people were just saying that to sound cool actually, I've seen pics of them, but I thought maybe they were just good at machinima or something. Any chance of you uploading that mod you tweaked MiniMimi Anyway I'll keep playing and hopefully SOMEDAY it'll happen for me.

Here you go Remove the mod if you don't like it, or tweak it yourself, it's very easy to do.
Meteors came with Ambitions BTW, you can't have them without the EP. Don't know if that was mentioned.

Omigod MiniMimi what an absolute doll!! Thank you so much, I'll give this a try...You've really made my day.

ah i completely forgot this board thanks for all the replys guys, and still no meteors i don't desperately want them, and tbh i don't want to use a mod now i know all the damage they cause but it would make the game more interesting every once in a while

I dunno if I'd want a meteor, unless I was trying to fit it into a storyline in a blog...If I wanted to kill my sims, I'd find easier ways

I had a gigantic meteor once...after installing a mod to spawn more. My sim stood right under the shadow and got completely owned. But I was too busy flipping out and reloading my game to laugh at the time. If you do get a meteor, collect all the space rocks and scrap. They tend to sell for quite a lot.

I've never had one myself, but I'm telling you, it's waiting for me to really get into a Legacy game before it wipes everybody out.

My father has told me that he has had them in his game and it killed his sims. I couldn't help but laugh.

I hadn't had any since the WA or whatever EP the meteors came out, until last week. I was playing this Sim and just letting life go by, I had cheats on so she had no house and her motives were static since I wanted to see how the hood evolved, and I read a book while reading.

Suddenly I hear different music, my sim yelling and this dark shadow coming towards her, I was shocked as it hit her and she died.

Created another Sim, she lasted longer then the previous and I added a Unicorn to the family. Suddenly another meteor hit and she was killed as well (Two in the same hour), sadly the Unicorn got taken away and I never found him again (How can you get Unicorns back? I tried to make another sim Adopt a horse but the Unicorn never showed up).

Made another sim to watch and see if this would make another, didn't happen again but it was shocking.

Lol, I had one that hit the school when everyone was attending, so all the children died :/