I have read a lot of posts about taxing Sims and creating all types of ways to deal with the Sims excessive wealth, and this gave me an interesting idea. What if the Sim economy collapsed?

In my game the Simnation economy collapses so that there are no longer jobs available so that any Sim who is currently employed and loses his job, cannot find a new job, and Sims who are unemployed cannot look for jobs.

Sims can not buy new items in their houses so if an old item breaks they must fix it or lose it. Sims can still hire service Sims but cannot have businesses. During this period Sims are not allowed to sell paintings, or sell items they have crafted, and pets cannot work. Also during this dark time Universities are closed. Sims are also not allowed to buy new clothes, during this period, but may still go out to clubs and restaurants or other money draining venues.

I do allow them to still buy food to replenish their fridges, as this drains a good chunk of change, and i allow fishing, and gardening to supplement the Sims diet but the goal of this period is to drain coffers.

I usually have this economic collapse last two or three generations or until I feel that the Sims have suffered enough. I like to think of this as a major recession rather than an outright collapse but it could easily lead to a complete collapse (I've never let it go that far or last too long as I like my Sims too much). Any thoughts?

Nice idea too time intensive for me to actually do. Usually i'll just build a single family home and change it to an apartment which will run about 4k+ a week and that takes care of it.

I agree with SingleClawDesigns. It's a bit too involved for me. I just use hacks to lower wages and raise bills. Not to mention I use the families funds to improve the house as they gain money. So a sim could get a promotion and come home with 2000+ only to lose it about an hour later due to upgrades through out the house(wallpaper, new floors, furniture upgrades, maybe even a new level to the house) As the families get older and the upgrades become fewer I just give money to family members like college students and grandchildren. My famlies are rarely ever rich because of the way I play.

I think that's a very interesting way to play, Deryn; more realistic and easier than the closed economic systems people are always straining themselves to make (there is no true closed economy on earth, so why struggle to make one in the Sims?). The game mechanics model an economy that's boom all the time instead of the boom/bust cycle of real capitalist systems, with neither depression nor inflation to deal with, not to mention lacking the foundation of hardscrabble workers creating the raw materials of economic growth (i.e. fibers, foods, minerals, etc.) on which all economies are based. Good fun up to a point, but it restricts the stories we can tell and we have to exercise our ingenuity to include those aspects of simkind.

I think the Goths would still be bleeding simoleans through the nose.

With no 20k handout and a tendency towards big families I don't generally have this problem.

I've always wanted to get the ''no 20k handout'' hack but how would sims move out on their own without the 20k? Do they take a chunk of family income with them?

Deryn, I think it is a GREAT idea and having seen your awesome apocalypse game pics, I have no doubt you could pull it off. It does not seem too intensive and could make an amazing storyline.

this could work for an interesting challenge

Yup, they do. And if they can't afford the smallest lot, they're doomed. Well, unless you have Apartment Life (ETA: and whatever EP digging came with) - I had a sim move out of the main house with too little money for a place of their own, so I sent them to an apartment lot and made them dig until they could afford the first rent payment. XD

Loan Jar (or one of the other debt mods out there) because IRL people borrow to buy a house rather than paying cash.

I really like this idea! I think I will implement it at some point

Hmm, I'm not really into the challenge aspect of the game but I have realized that it is far too easy for a Sim family to become well-off to the point that even moving to a new lot and leaving everything behind in the old place will hardly be tasking on their account. In my game, three of the richest families had considerable amounts of simoleons on hand by the time the first generation of born-in-game children were teens.

While I cannot play at the moment, I do intend to start an entirely new neighborhood that will have some very different things going on monetarily and gameplay-wise. I intend to start by putting a stop to those huge handouts that in a vanilla game, would get any Sim a modest-sized house. In combination with some mods to up bills and lower wages, I will also be instituting some fees for things such as marriages, divorces, college, etc. I also intend to make it so that apartments are the main housing types affordable to young Sims just out of high school/college/CAS.

I have been working on floor plans for some very low end apartment housing. All if those things will make it so that it will be more of a challenge for any Sim family to keep any amount of cash on hand. Some Simmers have touted keeping track of arrangements so that richer Sims are providing loans to poorer Sims, which have to be kept track of and paid back with interest. I think that once I get a couple well-to-do families in my game, I will be instituting that type of dynamic, as well as taking some portion of unneeded funds to eventually build what will become the University.

There are just so many ways to keep your Sims humble beggars. I was also thinking of getting a certain mod mentioned on here that institutes a number of religions with rules of the Simmer's choosing. With that, another type of fund depletion could be used. I could take funds away in the name of religious support. A Sim with very high religious "interest" would be willing to live as a pauper when they make the salary of a mayor.

You could always have them buy stuff and give gifts (this would be especially good if there are Popularity Sims in the household, help them make friends) to townies.

Or just move them into a bigger house that will take up more Simoleons, and eventually everything will drop in value.

Interesting. Thanks for the link. I'm going to check this out and possibly implement it into my game.

These days I don't have to worry about excessive wealth - the bigger bill mod does it all for me. Also, for Sims who have a household income of 20+ or more have to pay taxes, school fees, and child taxes.

The gifting thing is actually something I've recently implemented as well. Dina left Mortimer so now in his desolate and lonely condition he's giving out pianos to his dates. I think word of it is getting around though, he's been rejected for dates lately when he asks. Guess it should be diamonds instead Hmm that does give me an idea though.

There's more than one of those out there, isn't there? (I'm pretty sure Cyjon and MATY have both done versions.) Cyjon's definitely does it and then some - the bills are based on money available + value of stuff on lot.

Overall, the money aspect isn't one I really concentrate on. If I feel like I want to play a poor family, I'll familyfunds them down to where they need to be; if someone's getting really rich, the mods for bigger bills or that allow donations to charity both work well. If familyfunds isn't an option, buying very expensive statues/paintings, placing them in inventory, and forgetting they exist works well. (Hopefully, it's not a VBT to have sims die with items in their inventory; otherwise, my 'hood would be horribly borked.)

I kind of like my legacy family having $500,000.

I'll just send them on a vacation or make them a new house :U

If you have a Sim with a LTW of have 5 top-level businesses, that's where the money can go. And make them nice, expensive community lots, too. Have them hire as many employees as possible and overpay them.

I make my wealthy sims give other, less wealthy family members loans to build new houses. Loans in the form of $10,000 televisions.

Y U TORTURE UR SIMMIE?!
Me, I usually use the usual tax method, in which the tax paid every week divided by two :
a. Household tax : 10 % of the household funds
b. Salary tax : 5 % of the accumulated salary per week

Simoleon comes from these taxes is going to the town's fund, which will be used to make community lot.
So, in short, I never make BIG community lot. T_T

Use x10 rule for all prices for buy mode, phone services, bills, lot costs, and community services. Deduct funds by hacks like ATM machine. I guarantee that your sims will be poor in no time, unable to buy anything.

My wealthiest family who has over a million simoleons has only scraped by enough to finally buy a bank. In the normal game you really wouldn't know what to do with them at this point, but in mine a million is nothing.

A typical poor family lives without a fridge or bed in an apartment, its members sleeping on the benches outside, eating mostly only at work, and waiting for a weekend party from the landlord to steal pizza or hamburgers.

I do it the strange way: I go into SimPE, and edit the amount of money the family has. Usually downwards, but one can do upwards, as well if you're really into playing excessively wealthy sims.
I call it the 'great equalizer'. Everyone starts at the same amount, and nobody has an edge on others.

Other ways to spend all that moola: redecorate the house with the most expensive wallpapers, floors, furniture, appliances...everything has to be 'ultra' for them, and the bills will reflect that. Lots of decorations, paintings, and odds & ends that would make up for clutter.

I just keep the extra money, although I usually don't use it.