Safe detonating tips?

[Vigil80]

Any tips on detonating without blowing up everything else on the lot? Besides having an empty lot, of course.

I don't want to detonate in the junkyards, because the scrap piles and salvage items are usually too close to something I'd rather not blow up. And I don't feel comfortable detonating on my home lot anymore, because I just don't trust it. Recently, I thought I was being cautious by detonating items in a big empty spot in the yard. I later realized that I had somehow blown up items in the basement level underneath!

So how do you practice safe detonation without leaving the whole town a blackened ruin? Do I need to create a custom scrapyard with no "keeper" objects where I can detonate with abandon?

[Leto85]

First, welcome to the forum Vigil80! Your first post is straightaway a topic on it's own. Nice.

Well, like I read in your topic I asume you have World Adventures installed.
Maybe you should make a basement 4 floors deep and blow everything you like up there. I will really doubt it that you even will hear a boom on the first floor.

[Pam]

Welcome to our Forum, Vigil80!

I haven't done a lot of detonation, but the times I did turned out fine.  I've blown up junk piles at the junkyard, as well as cars sitting in driveways.  I've never had any extra damage to the surroundings.

@Leto85:

You don't need World Adventures to build basements.  That also came out in a patch to the regular vanilla Sims 3 game.  I'm pretty sure everyone can build basements with or without World Adventures.

[Vigil80]

I have living spaces on my 4th basement level, as well as the vault where my most valuable valuables are displayed.   My household lives in a converted missile silo I found from some creative person on another site.

I think I am going to make it easy on myself and throw some scrap piles down on an empty lot. Thanks for the welcome, by the way. Mr. Carl has compiled some great Sims 3 info.

[Twinmum]

I actually had one of my sims blow himself up about a week ago. He detonated a large pile at the junkyard and obviously didn't move far enough away. He ended up all singed, I thought they automatically moved far enough away.

Norma

[Pam]

I actually had one of my sims blow himself up about a week ago. He detonated a large pile at the junkyard and obviously didn't move far enough away. He ended up all singed, I thought they automatically moved far enough away.

Norma

Mine ran away from it, but walked back when it didn't go off.  Naturally, as soon as he got to the detonation spot, it blew up in his face.  He was singed, but didn't die.

[Esther1981]

I've had them singed, but never die! I just blow things up when I'm in the mood for a laugh, but I think it would be cool to have a 64x64 lot for blowing stuff up. I don't think you would be fined, but I never get the fines anyways! I blew up alot of things in the firehouse just today and they kept saying I would get a fine in the mail, but I never did! Maybe it will sneak up on me and catch me with $0 lol question, can your sims ever be -$?

[applejackkxo]

I blew up alot of things in the firehouse just today and they kept saying I would get a fine in the mail, but I never did!

Lucky, I got fined for blowing up a bench in the park lol. like $250 I think it was.

As far as blowing yourself up, it seems that if your sim doesn't have enough room to move away they'll get hit.
Mine tried to blow up a junk pile and backed up as far as it seemed she could be still became "signed" from it.

[jestina]

I blew up Agnes Crumplebottom's car...for over a 1000 scrap. My inventor didn't have to go salvaging for awhile after that. She also blew up something in the library and got warned about it.

[samoht04]

I have the large lot for my legacy and I put an enclosure in the corner where nothing else was and blow stuff up in there. 

I blew up Agnes Crumplebottom's car...for over a 1000 scrap. My inventor didn't have to go salvaging for awhile after that. She also blew up something in the library and got warned about it.

Now try the Plane Sculpture outside the Military Base it = 1,500 

[AriaGirl77]

I blow up stuff in the junkyard all the time and I've never had any problems because of it.  If there's something you want to salvage nearby all you have to do is pick it up before you blow up anything else.  The blast radius really isn't that big.  Unless there's something smack dab next to whatever you're gonna boom then it shouldn't affect it at all.

[sydney511]

I usually smash (not blow up, I have a SimBot) stuff in the junkyard for scrap. He smashes stuff for scrap, since he is an inventor and he needs to eat it, but usually smashing a TV and a couch gets you enough scrap for a while, since they only eat 2-3 pieces a day. As for blowing up, you can always make a huge community lot and put a bunch of chairs close to each other, but make sure you make the lot as a Junkyard so you won't get fined.

[twrdrockfan]

Get a lot bigger than you want, ie a 30x20 if you only want to build on a 20x20. Fence off the detonation zone. You don't really need to, but you can lock the gate then, and keep stray sims from wandering into it.

Next, get the Fireproof Homestead Lifetime Reward. Accidents happen, and this one will keep your house from burning down when it does.

Think I will put together an inventor to test detonation blast radii. Good safety info, that.

-Update-
With the test run, my result is that I hate detonating items. I put together a 10x10 test grid, target item in the center, and a line of equally detonatable items in each of the 8 directions from it. In two of the directions, it left the outer most 4 items untouched, and in a 3rd direction it left the 3rd from the end untouched and took out the rest in that line. Nothing outside the test grid though, so I think a 5 tile radius from the target item is the limit. This was done with one of those squid things with the smaller footprint though, and I want to bet that the bigger items bring a bigger radius. Seems chaotic as to whether it will even destroy an item though.