Traps - Again, what would a tomb be without traps? They come in different forms, can be mounted on walls as well as floors and are designed to impede your adventurer and hopefully make him too scared to carry on. Sometimes they are in plain sight, other times it requires inspecting some ground. If ground can be inspected, it means there is a trap there. Other times, you can only find them by triggering them. Movable statues will permanently disable floor-mounted traps but not every area has a spare movable stature lying around.

Once a trap has been discovered, it can sometimes be inspected and it will indicate what sort it is. Traps can sometimes be disarmed. This is not always successful. Traps can sometimes be crossed. Crossing it successfully usually permanently disables it. Not all traps can be disarmed by your adventurer, nor can all traps can be crossed. Sometimes, it requires finding the right switch to disable it either permanently or temporarily.

Traps come in different forms. You can usually tell that a trap is nearby if a wish to disable a trap comes up.

Fire Traps - Jets of flame are emitted from these traps. These are very difficult to get across. If you catch fire, you will need to extinguish yourself very quickly. Either jump into a steam trap, a dive well or use a shower-in-a-can. Personally, I prefer the former two options as the last option costs §120 a can. At some point, you will catch fire from a fire trap. If there are none of these options available to extinguish the flames, the fire will burn out but the sim will have seriously depleted need bars, be scared witless of going back through the trap again and have other negative moodlets. They will not be having a good day.

Steam Traps - Clouds of steam are emitted from these traps. If caught in one, your sim will get soaked. This will provide a negative moodlet but otherwise they only have the negative effect of scaring your sim. A steam trap in close proximity to a fire trap can negate the effect of the latter.

Dart Traps - Poisoned darts are emitted from these traps. If your sim gets caught in one of these traps, they will be scared and also they will pass out for about 30 sim minutes. By the time they wake up, most of the scared moodlet will have worn off.

Electric Traps - Frying tonight. Arcs of blue electricity are emitted from these traps. If your sim gets caught in one of these traps, as well as being scared, they will be electrocuted. No surprise there.

I am yet to have someone die from the effects of a trap. I admit that I would rather keep my sims alive than try and kill one of them off in the interest of research. I do take my metaphorical hat off to the lot designers as some of the traps are quite fiendishly placed. I have been challenged on many occasions in working out a way to get around them. Sometimes, little plaques placed on the wall near these traps give clues on how to deactivate them or get through them.

Every relic-hunting adventure has an objective and these are marked with a radiating glow around where it can be found. It can be in a treasure chest, mounted on a wall, it can even be down a hole. Also, at that point, the adventurer will be told they have fully explored that tomb. This is not always the case. Some tombs are bigger than others and be host to many relic-hunting adventures. Also, even if that objective is reached and their adventure log tells them to return the discovered relic back to the patron, there may still be some hidden rooms still to be discovered.

If I have explored a tomb, is there any point exploring it again the next time I return to visit that country?

Yes. Even though the main relic that your initial adventure was about may have gone, the tomb is restocked with minor relics and other treasure while your sim is recharging his batteries back in his hometown. The advantage with exploring one of these tombs again is that everything you saw before will still be there. All traps that were deactivated will stay like that and all doors that were unlocked are still unlocked.

Why can't I see these graphic effects you talk about?

If you can see the effects, you do not need to read on and can skip to the next section.

For those of you who have modded your game to remove the censor blur with the "nomosaic" package, it will affect what you can see. You will need to remove this altogether. Alternately, remove it and replace it with one that is tested for World Adventures.

By now, your sims should now know how to travel to a destination, they should also know how to prepare themselves for relic hunting and should have an awareness of what may will be in store for them when they go hunting for relics.

In the next report, we will be going to China and looking at the details of adventuring in Shang Simla. We will be looking at the geography of this beautiful village and also looking in depth at the new skill of Martial Arts.