Investigators, risk, and rambling

[mangaroo]

I played an investigator for the first time yesterday -- Mrs Riddle from the gentrified end of Twinbrook (I had only played swamp families before, because...SWAMP!) -- and it made me realize that The Sims 3 development team may need some remedial game theory. As far as I can tell, the only way to fail at an investigation is to reject the next step. Otherwise, every time Riddle searched a mailbox, there was incriminating evidence. Every time she performed a stakeout, a couple of random Sims would engage in suspicious behavior. (Okay, I confess, I kind of like the goofiness of "let's put on an Agatha Christie play for the lady holding the bushes.") But, still. In WA quests, there were puzzles along the way. They were puzzles that could be smashed through with persistence rather than cleverness, but persistence is an attribute of the explorer. Investigators should have choices to make, and they should be able to make wrong choices, with frustrating consequences or increased rewards. Rather than searching the mailbox and the trash can and finding evidence in both, the Sim should have time to search only one or risk being caught. And if the investigator comes up empty-handed, the client should cancel the case or there should be an increased level of difficulty to completing it.

I guess what I'm wondering is...other than the adorable bush-holding stakeout animation, what is the point of an investigator? Do the cases increase in complexity at some point? (Riddle completed 4 before I succumbed to boredom.) Do the people your Sim is investigating ever catch on and start hating the investigator? Is there a cool investigator reward item?

[babele44]

I quit playing an investigator after my Sim hit level 8 in that profession and decided to curse him with the mummy curse and play him now as a self-employed sculptor ghost.
I really thought that I was too old for this infantile job especially when I got a door with a magnifying glass on it as one of the rewards and a decorative notice board that I couldn't place anywhere in the Riddle house (my Sim happened to live there after Anna-Liza's death). I particularly despised all the idiotic animations that came with that profession and of course the fact that indeed all of the cases that I got were like "Go here" "Click on the Ground" "Report Back" "Wait for 2 hours" "Report Back" - case solved.
Maybe it was because I had switched household quite often before and knew everyone in Twinbrook who acted now as shady suspects, the whole career felt as if the town had finally found a way to keep the mentally retarded village boy busy by putting up a show of criminal mystery for him.
And therefore after I had solved the mystery of the hurt foot at least twice I decided that even the mentally retarded village boy wasn't as dumb as they wanted to make me believe.

[simbalena]

When your sim needs to question someone they can also bribe them or beat them up for the information. That's about the only choice an investigator gets to make, and I don't know if this has any effect on the outcome of the case.

[Nalia]

No, it hasn't, except that for some cases "bribery" is the only way to go because the client has made up the case: he/she and the suspect/informer Sim are actually a team aiming at your Investigator's wallet. Talk about evil times!

[mangaroo]

No, it hasn't, except that for some cases "bribery" is the only way to go because the client has made up the case: he/she and the suspect/informer Sim are actually a team aiming at your Investigator's wallet. Talk about evil times!

Well, that's kind of interesting. It would be close to what I'm looking for if there were some hints along the way that this was a phoney case, so your investigator could drop it before offering the bribe. Or, if the investigator pays the bribe, the case completion dialog should be something like "fooled you!" and the investigator should have a negative relationship score with the conspirators. I may have to give old Riddle another chance until I see how these cases play out.

[Nalia]

You said the magic word: Kind of. EAtards made a half-assed work -- once again. There are no hints about a phoney case. Then again, I haven't played Investigator career extensively so I am not fully knowledgeable. If you have the patience for further research let us know how it went. :)

[jerin8]

I think what gets to us Simmers is that there is always so much potential for the things that are given in the EP's but EA just couldn't care less. It's just "here now give us your money". I don't blame the dev. team, they probably want to do so many things but are constrained by budgets and schedules decided above their pay grade. I'm just thankful that they keep the games fully "moddable"? so that modders can at least do something with what they give us.