Kluenii's Sims 4 Legacy Family: Tombstone Recovery

BE VERY DILIGENT IF YOU USE THIS RECOVERY WALK-THROUGH!!

I cannot stress it enough. Make backups, be prepared to try again. I have multiple copies at various stages of the process, each clearly named with the stage of the process so I can go back if needed, at the most, a couple (real time) hours, maybe a Sim Day or two have passed so nothing too drastic to recover.

This process uses MC Command - a mod for the Sims obtainable from MC Command Center modules for The Sims 4 -- a few console command cheats are used as well which are simple to type into the console window or to copy and paste from this document.

I have had some questions regarding the possibility of recovering tombstones without using MC Command. I did some trial runs and I don't think it's fully possible. I rely on MCC to reveal the hidden households, this is where the ghosts seem to be located when they aren't roaming the lots. Hidden households are accessed though the mailbox using MC Command and when clicked will show a number of nameless ghosts which can then be added to a utility household for creating tombstones that can then be released, or placed depending on what you want to do with them. More details below. Some ghosts will show up in hidden households on occasion that have already been released via tombstone until they have been cleaned by the system. These ghosts cannot be summoned even if added to a household and just remain inactive and unaccessible.

Nameless Ghosts in Manage Household after Hidden households revealed

Use a space and edit the ghost

exit back out and the ghost will have a name

I would suggest doing this using a utility/throw-away sim, or as I've done here, there is an underground home and my utility sim is happily hidden away from the carnage, playing the piano with no clue of what is going on above her. When I first did this, I set my lot as residential then changed it to a generic and decorated as a cemetary. Now I load a utility sim into an empty lot, travel to the cemetary and send her down to the piano.

Underground Area for Utility Sim

It is a bit tricky knowing who can pick up a tombstone, depending on who the sim is that died and their relationship to who is picking up the stone. I went through a few saves, and backup copies working it out and suggest making a backup save before doing important steps with sims/ghosts that you don't want lost permanently. The best option I discovered was to pick up the newly created tombstones with the utility sim after I had finished making them and travel to the home of the sim I play most. I then opened my inventory and left all the urns on her doorstep.

Utility Sim Delivering Summoned Urns

I then saved and exited to manage worlds, and loaded up my usual sim. The urns were waiting for me. Clicked each one, placed in inventory then went into Household Management, deleted my utility sim (I didn't want her showing up with all the ghost ties from adding them to her family to summon/reanimate etc), changed the lot to generic, traveled to that lot with my usual sim, placed the tombstones, decorated and my graveyard is complete! My sims now have a cemetery for mourning their ancestors and I no longer have generations of ghosts haunting me and destroying my plumbing every night!

Regular Sim Collecting Summoned Urns

I kept the game paused for most of this to keep impact on my other families at a minimum Pictures are included to help illustrate as much as possible.

Daniel_USA over at The Sims Forum created a video using this walk through!

I've included his video here, it can also be found on Youtube, it's a great demonstration of this page and I really appreciate his effort in making the video :)

Tombstone Recovery Walk-through

Control+Shift+C to open the cheats console

Type - "testingcheats on" (no quotes, you should get a message back "Cheats are enabled")

I shift click on the mail box before starting and select "Alter Needs", choosing "Fill Needs(household)" then repeat and choose "Disable household needs decay". This just keeps everyone happy while you manipulate things.

I have discovered you can add ghosts that are in your Household Management window so you can simplify this step. If you have ghosts without names showing (after using "show hidden households" at the mailbox in MC Command for example) and are uncertain who they are, give them a single letter then edit them and you will see their name, exit out and rename the ghost, delete them if not needed, or simply add to your utility sim's family in the management window and skip the summoning step. You can do 7 at a time, run though all the steps, then unpause and watch as all involved fall in unison.

SKIP to JUMP if using Household Management

Click on the mail box and select the "MC Cheats..." button
Select Summon Sim
Type the full name of the ghost you want to come to your lot, you should see a notification window response that SIM_NAME will be right over!
Cancel the MC Command window and briefly unpause the game.. you should see the ghost appear on the sidewalk of your lot
Shift Click on the Summoned Sim
Select "add to Family" Pause again if you want to keep your timers down on other lot

JUMP to here for Household Management Tool

Select the ghost sim
In the console window type without the quotes "traits.remove_trait X" (where X=cause of death, in most cases oldage, more causes are below) unpause if needed, your sim should be alive and in full living colour again! (Hit Pause again if desired) IF oldage doesn't remove the death trait, try another possible cause, until you find the one that does revive your sim. You can usually get a clue to the cause of death from their behaviour. CARL'S SIMS 4 GUIDE & WIKI has an excellent guide on ghosts.

OPTIONAL I've been using The Plum Tree App to document my Sims family tree and have been using the time my sim is alive to get a screen capture of them. If you want to get a picture of them younger, enter the cheat cas.fulleditmode in the console window.

Click on your sim
choose "MC Command Center"
"Modify Household in CAS"
make your changes,
grab your screen shots
(age them back to Elder before exiting)

Now this isn't a how to cheat and resurrect your sim so keep going......

Click on your sim
MC Command Center
Choose Sim Commands
Choose Kill Sim
Choose your method of Death

Grimmie will come along, take your sim and leave you the tombstone/urn which you can collect with your utility sim and move to a location of your choosing.

The Grim Reaper in Sims collecting souls

List of Death traits

traits.remove_trait anger

traits.remove_trait cowplant

traits.remove_trait drown - Drowning

traits.remove_trait electrocution - Electrocution

traits.remove_trait embarrassment - Embarrassment

traits.remove_trait fire - Fire

traits.remove_trait hunger - Hunger

traits.remove_trait laugh - Laughter

traits.remove_trait oldage - Old Age

traits.remove_trait exhaust - Overexertion (Old Age)

traits.remove_trait steam - Sauna

Simply reversing this (traits.equip_trait X) will create a ghost instantly but will not actually go through the death process resulting in a tombstone. If you are attempting to kill a sim without using MCC, you could use the add.buff command sequence to bring a sim close to the death state using the console, possibly killing them quickly if you add up the buff states.

sims.add_buff buff_Death_Electrocution_Warning

The Sim will die if they try to repair something too soon

sims.add_buff buff_Death_ElderExhaustion_Warning

May cause the Sim to die immediately, or if not, become close to dying of exhaustion

sims.add_buff buff_Mortified

Causes the Sim to be close to dying of embarrassment

sims.add_buff buff_Motives_Hunger_Starving

Causes the Sim to be close to dying of hunger

BE VERY DILIGENT IF YOU USE THIS RECOVERY WALKTHROUGH!!

Ghosts count in population totals and can cause uncontrollable deletions even with culling prevention mods in place. I had a number of my ghosts marked to never cull on a testing save and still had them wiped from all existence - not even a blank spot on the family tree remained - when a number of babies had been born, though I will admit four of the sims involved had been troublesome previously, disappearing only to spontaneously reappear, hanging out in the hidden household, refusing to come when called to invited anywhere.

Use the tombstones recovered by this process to release ghosts to Netherworld and maintain their spot and connections on the family tree, the remaining stones will allow your sims to mourn them. With this in mind, you can safely*(I'd still use backups) leave your more important ghosts active to be summoned by the stones when required in your sim stories.

I always recommend using backup precautions and keeping a save copy, especially if it's a set of sims you just don't want to lose for any reason!