Three Notes on Sims 3 Vampires
I was a little skeptical of vampires in the Late Night expansion pack at first. I had some really bad experiences with vampirism in The Sims 2! But they have made four significant changes to vampires for Sims 3.
1. No Non-Consensual Vampirism
All the sources and forums that I have read so far agree: your Sim will only be turned into a vampire if they ask nicely.
This is a huge change, and a very welcome one! In Sims 2 I once had the sole heir to my generational challenge get attacked by a vampire when he went shopping downtown. (I literally screamed "Get off him!!!" at my computer.)
I also had a situation where the on-site manager at the gaming hidden rewards clubhouse was a vampire. This meant that I could never visit there again, because I was worried about my Sims being attacked and turned into vampires. What a pain!
At the same time, Story Progression causes some NPC Sims to be turned into vampires, seemingly at random. The game seems to want you to always have a few vampires hanging around, but not too many.
2. Sunlight Okay!
If you ever played a vampire in Sims 2 then you know that A) sunlight made them burst into flames and die, and B) vampire Sims had this bizarre compulsion to run outside during the daytime.
My vampire Sim heir? I lost him when he insisted on running outside to get the paper. Then he stood out on the lawn reading the paper as he burst into flames. Never mind that none of my non-vampire Sims had ever, and I mean EVER, spontaneously gone outside to read the paper.
Sunlight will give a Sims 3 vampire a bad moodlet, and you may notice some smoke trailing out behind them. But it's not fatal.
3. Strangely Vulnerable To Starvation
I accidentally killed my game's Lola Belle when I invited her to spend the night. After getting the "I'm REALLY hungry" moodlet, she turned into a heap of ash. In talking to some of my Simming friends, this is a strangely common occurrence. One friend has never successfully invited a Sim vampire to a party without them starving to death halfway through.
This may be the way that the game nudges you into asking to be turned. Or maybe it's just a consequence of having turned off non-consensual vampirism. At any rate, it's something to be watchful for, if you care about the health of your party guests. Maybe you should lay in a supply of Plasma Fruit from the store first!
4. Stronger, Better, Faster, Harder
Vampirism has some distinct advantages. After dark your vampire Sim is stronger, learns skills faster, can exercise indefinitely without getting tired, can make other Sims think about them, can run with super speed, and also is awesome.
Unlike Sims 2, these vampires actually drink blood. Your Sim can drink the blood of another Sim without turning them into a vampire. This makes it a lot more realistic than Sims 2 vampires, whose hunger was easily satisfied by a bowl of mac and cheese.