Ridiculous Firefighter Pension

[Ciel Noir]

I've looked through the forum to see if anyone's asked this but haven't been able to find an answer anywhere, so here goes.

I got Ambitions last week and finally got my first Twinbrook resident (a firefighter) to the elder stage. She was at the top of the career track and retired, and is now receiving a pension of more than $7000 a day! I don't like this at all because having so much money takes away the challenge of the game.

Is there a patch to fix this? Does anyone know if this problem is unique to the firefighter profession? If so it doesn't really matter because I'm unlikely to play that profession twice.

Failing that, if an elder just chooses to quit their job (as opposed to retiring) does that mean they won't get a pension? I might just have to do that and forfeit any pension when a Sim with a profession becomes an elder. That's better than earning $30,000 a week for doing nothing!

[calisims]

I recently retired a Sim in the Stylist career and her pension is like $4,956 a day. It's absolutely ridiculous. Especially since this is a Challenge game I'm playing. These Ambitions career pay ridiculous salaries in the first place, and then slap giant pensions on top of it. My family is drowning in cash and I wish it would stop.

[Ciel Noir]

Ugh, that's bad news. The thing is I really love this expansion, because I've always played Sims that are completely work-obsessed and having so much flexibility with work is great. But I like to work hard for my money and this is making it too easy.

[tjstreak]

The whole compensation scheme in The Sims 3 is out of whack. I expect that the lower levels of a career would not pay well, and one would have to have room mates (or live in an apartment) just to get by. However, by the time someone reaches the top of their career, they should be rolling in dough, which is not always the case. (By the same token, reaching the top of a career should not be easy, nor should it be impossible.) If a sim is a CEO, a world renown surgeon or a rock star, they should be able to afford some of the more expensive homes one finds uploaded here or elsewhere without any trouble. And they certainly should be able to move into some of the more moderately priced homes without using cheats.

By the time someone retires, the kids should be grown and out of the home and the retiree should be in more modest housing. Pensions need to be more modest. The pension system is only part of what needs to be fixed.

However, in the game it is quite possible to make gobs and gobs of money. 30,000 simoleons in a week is nothing. Try a million. Since I know how to make lots of money, the imbalance does not drive me all that crazy. Not enough to do something about it.

I suspect that this can be adjusted by adjusting a few xml files, for somebody ambitious enough to do it.

[Austin0331]

Wow, it really sounds like you guys are mad at this! $7000 a day. Just too much money. Imagine real life, my god. You wouldn't want it to stop. But I do agree, it's ridiculous.

[Ciel Noir]

Wow, it really sounds like you guys are mad at this! $7000 a day. Just too much money. Imagine real life, my god. You wouldn't want it to stop. But I do agree, it's ridiculous.

I just want the game to be challenging. I might donate the excess money to charity or buy some useless sports cars.

[calisims]

I bought a useless sports car for my retired stylist's YA daughter. The family wealth is already back up to 80k, lol. It just never stops.
I know a stylist in RL who is pretty wealthy, she's even done Bill Clinton's hair, but even she doesn't pull in this kind of money.

[Ciel Noir]

I bought a useless sports car for my retired stylist's YA daughter. The family wealth is already back up to 80k, lol. It just never stops.
I know a stylist in RL who is pretty wealthy, she's even done Bill Clinton's hair, but even she doesn't pull in this kind of money.

Haha. Yeah, rock star and international spy I can understand, but firefighter and stylist gaining thousands a day? I honestly thought it was a bug.

[MaxieBoy]

I for one LOVE the ridiculously high pension. It is pretty stupid though, but I'm never unhappy with some extra money for my simmies. Only the best for them!!

[Ive]

The money flow as it is now is ridiculous. I like making families of different wealth and it sucks when I place a family in a small house to be a A4 family, yet even halfway up the ladder on both of them I'm already starting to have too much. Don't want them all to have big houses with nice cars etc. Same goes for professions. Some times I just have one sims doing all as it rakes in so much money.

[J. M. Pescado]

I suspect that the bug is that it is taking a "Weekly" stipend and transforming it into a "Daily" pension, resulting in your sim getting more retired than he did at work. Will squash if found.

Okay, so a look at the system reveals the following:
1. The pension "amount" is equal to 6x the amount of your average daily income earned while working at that job. This is fairly large.
2. The pension amount is only paid at the "weekly stipend" day, however, so the end result is that your pension is about 6/7ths your average income.

In practice, this means whatever you were earning before, you basically keep earning. Value #1 above can be tuned in the XML if you think it's too massive.

[Ciel Noir]

I suspect that the bug is that it is taking a "Weekly" stipend and transforming it into a "Daily" pension, resulting in your sim getting more retired than he did at work. Will squash if found.

Okay, so a look at the system reveals the following:
1. The pension "amount" is equal to 6x the amount of your average daily income earned while working at that job. This is fairly large.
2. The pension amount is only paid at the "weekly stipend" day, however, so the end result is that your pension is about 6/7ths your average income.

In practice, this means whatever you were earning before, you basically keep earning. Value #1 above can be tuned in the XML if you think it's too massive.

Forgive me but what is the XML? Also is it possible to just choose "Quit job" instead of "Retire" and therefore forfeit your retirement if you want?

Edit: I've looked it up and the XML is obviously a modding tool. Not sure I'm clued up enough to start tinkering with the game. :wtf:

[christmas fear]

i have to say, your sim WAS at the top. don't you feel like they've earned it a little bit?

you'd have to imagine, retired top of the line fire fighters are pretty well off.

[Ciel Noir]

i have to say, your sim WAS at the top. don't you feel like they've earned it a little bit?

you'd have to imagine, retired top of the line fire fighters are pretty well off.

You have a point. My firefighter basically dedicated her adult life to her work, never having time to make friends because there were so many emergencies and overtime work to take care of.

But I still don't think a fire chief would make more than a rock star!

[Elanorea]

Also is it possible to just choose "Quit job" instead of "Retire" and therefore forfeit your retirement if you want?:
Yes, it's possible. No different than an adult quitting their job.

And I agree about the ridiculous amounts of money. My architectural designer had more money by the time she became an elder than my pre-ambitions legacy family had after ten generations. Granted, I did play several weeks with aging off, but even so the amount of cash was absolutely ludicrous.

[Ciel Noir]

Yes, it's possible. No different than an adult quitting their job.

And I agree about the ridiculous amounts of money. My architectural designer had more money by the time she became an elder than my pre-ambitions legacy family had after ten generations. Granted, I did play several weeks with aging off, but even so the amount of cash was absolutely ludicrous.

Yeah, it's beginning to turn me off Ambitions a bit. I guess I can just use the extra cash to do things I normally wouldn't, like buying lots of property and cars.

[Ive]

It's not just ambitions, it's the whole game! Cash everywhere unless you chose to do nothing with your sim, hehe :)

[Ciel Noir]

It's not just ambitions, it's the whole game! Cash everywhere unless you chose to do nothing with your sim, hehe :)

Yeah, with opportunities there are a lot of different ways to make money. Choice is good, it's just harder than ever to have a moderately well-off Sim that struggles now and then with money (although when you have a mansion now the bills are astronomical!)

[J. M. Pescado]

But I still don't think a fire chief would make more than a rock star!The insanely huge pensions are an easily tweakable setting in the XMLs. If you cut the "Pension Multiplier" from about 6 to 0.5, you'll see a much more reasonable, and by reasonable, I mean paltry, pension.

[We are all trash]

Start buying the town or making unneeded remodels to your Sims homes (buy everything top of the line!). It's what I did. I'm somehow still at 400k from 500k though... though I haven't finished my current remodel. Hopefully I can get it down to 100k...

[Ciel Noir]

The insanely huge pensions are an easily tweakable setting in the XMLs. If you cut the "Pension Multiplier" from about 6 to 0.5, you'll see a much more reasonable, and by reasonable, I mean paltry, pension.

I looked into the XML and it seems you need to have a PC to edit it (I'm on a Mac). I guess I'll just have to do without pensions altogether and get on with fighting fires. =D

[J. M. Pescado]

No you don't. Macs can edit XMLs just fine, they are simply regular text files.

[Ciel Noir]

No you don't. Macs can edit XMLs just fine, they are simply regular text files.

Really? I will definitely look into that. It's just that I read a guide on here that said you needed to download some user-made software which required a PC.

[J. M. Pescado]

Well, IngePE runs on Windoze, but I believe EchoPE uses Jawa and should run on Mac. Plus the packages could simply be built manually using compilable command line tools or even a hex editor.

[innocenteyes]

My firerfighter was making a little over 10,000 a day upon retiring. I thought it was redicoulous. He was able to put all 5 of his kids nice houses when they moved out though.

[Maffers87]

Yeah I had this happen to me too. My couple retired around the same time. The husband was a retired Fire chief and had almost $10,000 a day for his pension, and his wife was a retired Lead of the Free World and made maybe $700 for her pension. Someone please explain to me how Fire Chief makes more than a President. I found it kind of funny ;)

[Ciel Noir]

Yeah I had this happen to me too. My couple retired around the same time. The husband was a retired Fire chief and had almost $10,000 a day for his pension, and his wife was a retired Lead of the Free World and made maybe $700 for her pension. Someone please explain to me how Fire Chief makes more than a President. I found it kind of funny ;)

Yeah it's messed up. Gonna try messing with the XML and see what I can do.

[Lemon&Lime]

I think its very telling about our attitude to Sims and pensions in general when we complain that they are receiving TOO MUCH money. Why are you complaining? Just let your Sims flaunt their cash without worrying about whether it'll actually happen in real life.

[Beer76]

The insanely huge pensions are an easily tweakable setting in the XMLs. If you cut the "Pension Multiplier" from about 6 to 0.5, you'll see a much more reasonable, and by reasonable, I mean paltry, pension.

Time to make a quick pension.package file.

Is this a feature you'll be putting into Awesomemod?

[Blaise Parker]

The XML file that needs to be changed is:

ActiveCareer_0x01d3a534e091a5ca

Just change this line:

<kPensionIncomePerDayMultiplier value="6">
<!--Multiplier used to calculate the retirement stipend. This number is multiplied by the average earnings-per-day achieved over the lifetime of the career.-->

From 6 to whatever value seems more reasonable, like 0.5, as Pescado mentioned.

Don't edit the original of course, make a new file and import.

[CleoSombra]

Lucky you.

When my sim called on the phone to retire, she wound up with 0 dollars a day, working from 12PM-12PM at Town Hall. Yes, that comes up if you GO to town hall to retire, but she didn't.

And the glitch isn't unique to her. -.-

[SilentPsycho]

I think its very telling about our attitude to Sims and pensions in general when we complain that they are receiving TOO MUCH money. Why are you complaining? Just let your Sims flaunt their cash without worrying about whether it'll actually happen in real life.

Because we like a challenge in our games? Like someone said on here, it would definately upset the balance of a Legacy and make it almost too easy if the Founder becomes a Millionaire before they die, let alone the later generations. Same with pretty much any challenge. Want lots of money with minimal effort? Just get one person working as a Firefighter, get them retired, you're set for life.

[Lemon&Lime]

The only problem with your argument is that people do get rich in real life. If you wanted them to stay poor and struggling then you make sure they stay in low-paid jobs their entire life. Don't go complaining just because a successfull sim in the top of their career gets a high pension - 2 + 2 does equal 4 you know.

[Ciel Noir]

The XML file that needs to be changed is:

ActiveCareer_0x01d3a534e091a5ca

Just change this line:

<kPensionIncomePerDayMultiplier value="6">
<!--Multiplier used to calculate the retirement stipend. This number is multiplied by the average earnings-per-day achieved over the lifetime of the career.-->

From 6 to whatever value seems more reasonable, like 0.5, as Pescado mentioned.

Don't edit the original of course, make a new file and import.

Sorry to be stupid but I can't find the file to edit. The XML editing tutorial says to go to '\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin\Gameplay\', but the file there doesn't contain the information you've mentioned.

[Ive]

But if you go to work they get promoted in the end, even without having all the skills. It's just too easy to do well in the game. And with the new profession (example fireman) all you have to do is go do the job to get promoted as the bar fills up. So if you want a family to struggle you basically have to make sure you go with bad needs to work, not have any of the ambitions professions and not earn any skill. Which is quite boring if you think about it. Then all you could do with the family was mess up their needs.

If you play a sim family where both parents have a job, mid career ladder ones that in real life would have average pay, you get too much money. I don't want my whole neighbourhood to be rich. I want a challenge and balance.

Some people get rich in real life. If all of us got rich and promoted at the same scale that sims do then rich would be a person who has billions instead of millions as millions would be the norm. There has to always be someone at the bottom of the ladder.

Top of the career = More money. Yea that's fine. But then the way you acquire the top career should change.

[christmas fear]

You have a point. My firefighter basically dedicated her adult life to her work, never having time to make friends because there were so many emergencies and overtime work to take care of.

But I still don't think a fire chief would make more than a rock star!


well, a rock stars fame and money would vary, depending on different factors.

i think it's appropriate for a respectable firefighter to earn more, even if that isn't so in reality.

[Ranissa]

Because we like a challenge in our games? Like someone said on here, it would definately upset the balance of a Legacy and make it almost too easy if the Founder becomes a Millionaire before they die, let alone the later generations. Same with pretty much any challenge. Want lots of money with minimal effort? Just get one person working as a Firefighter, get them retired, you're set for life.

Here's how I solve "the money issue":

Start out on an empty lot or in a very modest one or two bedroom home. Everything should be the cheapest money can buy. As the Sim progresses, spend the money as you can:

1) buy the most expensive toilet/shower/paintings/curtains/stove/fridge/etc - whatever it is, make sure the upgrade almost wipes out the amount of new money you just made

2) Have a lot of children and don't count any money that the children make as "family funds". I shove all children-found/made stuff into their inventories to take with them when they move. If they write books, I keep track of their royalty payments.

3) Rather than selling gems/paintings/sculptures, etc, use them to decorate the Sim's home. This cuts down on "extra" funds and I think adds a nice touch when the house is passed on to the next generation.

4) Buy the best camera/vacation stuff/music boxes/etc. The little "extras" can cost a lot if you buy the good stuff.

I dunno, maybe it's just me but I don't have Sims with lots of money. By starting out modestly, they are forced to work their way up and often use up their funds as their families grow. As elders, I enjoy seeing the nice, fat pack of money they have because it will only benefit the next generation. My only hitch to this is, of course, those Sims who already live in big mansions like Agnes Crumplebottom and the Goths. They do rack up the cash annoyingly fast but hey, they're rich, so they make the rich folk in the town!

[Undercovers_Agent]

Yeah I had this happen to me too. My couple retired around the same time. The husband was a retired Fire chief and had almost $10,000 a day for his pension, and his wife was a retired Lead of the Free World and made maybe $700 for her pension. Someone please explain to me how Fire Chief makes more than a President. I found it kind of funny ;)

Illegal extorition from OTJ accidents into his 401K?

[Beer76]

The only problem with your argument is that people do get rich in real life. If you wanted them to stay poor and struggling then you make sure they stay in low-paid jobs their entire life. Don't go complaining just because a successfull sim in the top of their career gets a high pension - 2 + 2 does equal 4 you know.

The problem with your argument is that you're focusing on the wrong thing.

No one argues that sims get rich from actual work. The argument is that sims shouldn't get ridiculously wealthy from a pension. Pensions are meant to support people who no longer work. Typically they're just enough to live off of with maybe a couple extra bucks at the end of the day to splurge on a hot fudge sundae. Well, ok. Maybe more than that. But hopefully you get the picture.

Again. Getting rich from actual paychecks is one thing. Getting rich from pension pay is a whole other ball of beeswax.

[Ciel Noir]

The problem with your argument is that you're focusing on the wrong thing.

No one argues that sims get rich from actual work. The argument is that sims shouldn't get ridiculously wealthy from a pension. Pensions are meant to support people who no longer work. Typically they're just enough to live off of with maybe a couple extra bucks at the end of the day to splurge on a hot fudge sundae. Well, ok. Maybe more than that. But hopefully you get the picture.

Again. Getting rich from actual paychecks is one thing. Getting rich from pension pay is a whole other ball of beeswax.

Yeah, it doesn't make any sense at all. Unless you were putting the vast majority of your income into your pension fund it would not be SIX TIMES your daily income (not that anyone in real life has daily income, haha!)

Ranissa, that sounds like a good plan. That's how I like to have it: the first generation may be well-off by the end of his/her life, but it won't be until around the third generation that the family is truly wealthy.

[J. M. Pescado]

It's not actually 6x their daily income, since the pension is paid only once a week. See the above. The actual value is about 6/7ths of your previous income. Which is still very high.

[Ranissa]

The problem with your argument is that you're focusing on the wrong thing.

No one argues that sims get rich from actual work. The argument is that sims shouldn't get ridiculously wealthy from a pension. Pensions are meant to support people who no longer work. Typically they're just enough to live off of with maybe a couple extra bucks at the end of the day to splurge on a hot fudge sundae. Well, ok. Maybe more than that. But hopefully you get the picture.

Again. Getting rich from actual paychecks is one thing. Getting rich from pension pay is a whole other ball of beeswax.

It sounds like someone is thinking of the broken beyond belief social security system in the U.S. and not actual pension funds which, if managed correctly, can be astronomically wonderful. All it takes is a few good investments, careful saving and a decent salary before retirement. :)

[Beer76]

It sounds like someone is thinking of the broken beyond belief social security system in the U.S. and not actual pension funds which, if managed correctly, can be astronomically wonderful. All it takes is a few good investments, careful saving and a decent salary before retirement. :)

You're right on both accounts. But it still doesn't just 'happen' like it does. You still need to plan ahead.

[Exyll]

That's better than earning $30,000 a week for doing nothing!

Something you would never hear irl.

[Ciel Noir]

Something you would never hear irl.

Ha, totally. But in a game where you can get as much money as you want by entering a code, there is only going to be challenge and building up to goals if you're not getting loads of money for nothing.

By the way, can anyone help me locate the file I need to edit in order to change the amount you get for pensions and the like? :cry:

[Lemon&Lime]

The problem with your argument is that you're focusing on the wrong thing.

No one argues that sims get rich from actual work. The argument is that sims shouldn't get ridiculously wealthy from a pension. Pensions are meant to support people who no longer work. Typically they're just enough to live off of with maybe a couple extra bucks at the end of the day to splurge on a hot fudge sundae. Well, ok. Maybe more than that. But hopefully you get the picture.

Again. Getting rich from actual paychecks is one thing. Getting rich from pension pay is a whole other ball of beeswax.

Pensions can actually be high amounts of money. It all depends on how much you pay in and who your pension is with. Just look at some of the Bank of England's ex-employees.

As for the challenge argument - you've already had your challenging aspect of the game. Getting your Sim that high up in the career ladder. Do you people turn down every reward offered?

[SilentPsycho]

Pensions can actually be high amounts of money. It all depends on how much you pay in and who your pension is with. Just look at some of the Bank of England's ex-employees.

Don't even go there. I'm willing to bet that those who get that sort of retirement package are the Top Ten or so. Don't even THINK that all bank workers are getting that sort of money. Same with bonuses.

As for the challenge argument - you've already had your challenging aspect of the game. Getting your Sim that high up in the career ladder. Do you people turn down every reward offered?

Excuse us for actually wanting a bit of challenge throughout a Sim's entire lifetime. To be honest, I find it easy to get a Sim promoted. If I want diversity and struggle in my game, I have to actually stop Sims from getting jobs or doing anything that brings in money. I played an 8-sim family once, and ended up after two weeks with over 200,000 simoleons. I just lost interest at that point because it was too easy.

By the way, Game = Game, Real Life = Real Life.

[Beer76]

Pensions can actually be high amounts of money. It all depends on how much you pay in and who your pension is with. Just look at some of the Bank of England's ex-employees.

This has already been addressed earlier. Underlined for effect.

As for the challenge argument - you've already had your challenging aspect of the game. Getting your Sim that high up in the career ladder. Do you people turn down every reward offered?

Again, this really has nothing to do with the topic. It's expected that wealth will come from active participation in jobs and/or professions. That's not in debate here.

The debate is the ludicrous amount of pension money received post-job. While there is no argument that -if- you had your sims put money aside, they -could- live a life of wealth and luxury based on those investments.

However those investments were neither made nor do they exist.

It's clear that it was an oversight. Ambitions was released with quite a bit of errors and oversights like this. Thankfully we have people like Pescado with his Awesomemod and Twallan with his debugger to fix most of them. In addition to people like Blaise Parker who can show what line of code can be changed to be a bit more realistic to your taste.

[Lemon&Lime]

Don't even go there. I'm willing to bet that those who get that sort of retirement package are the Top Ten or so. Don't even THINK that all bank workers are getting that sort of money. Same with bonuses

Don't insult my intelligence, I'm aware not everyone in a bank is on the same payscale. I'm not an imbecile. But you've just proven my point. The top 10 get high amounts in pension... sort of like someone in the top of a career? Like, firefighter perhaps?



Excuse us for actually wanting a bit of challenge throughout a Sim's entire lifetime. To be honest, I find it easy to get a Sim promoted. If I want diversity and struggle in my game, I have to actually stop Sims from getting jobs or doing anything that brings in money. I played an 8-sim family once, and ended up after two weeks with over 200,000 simoleons. I just lost interest at that point because it was too easy.

By the way, Game = Game, Real Life = Real Life.

Another contradicting point. Yes, a game is a game, and not real life. In real life, a retired chief won't get that much money. But this is a GAME. Therefore they do. And it's your problem if you don't like your Sims making a lot of money, it doesn't mean it's a problem in the game or that others who think it's a good balance are wrong.

[lucifear]

Sorry I'm bumping this but...I just retired as a firefighter and the game wants to give me 162k a month for it..what the fuck? My entire house isn't even worth 50k atm

Anyone can help a total n00b who never modded a thing in his life in a way to fix this? it's surely a gamebreaking bug.

Worst case scenario I'll just kick myself out of the family =/

[BL00DIEDHELL]

...What's wrong with using the family funds cheat, guys? Okay, I know it won't be a fix for the 'problem' with retirement payments, but surely it'd work as a short term solution? Until somebody makes a mod to 'fix' it

[gabrielorie]

Just do what i do when i get too much money,buy sports cars and blow em up :D !My sims were really rich,they had more than $3,000,000 so i just bought a crapload of cars and blew them up,now they only have $2,453 :lol: