Wildlife and Community Gardens

lanlyn

Last night I noticed 3 deer in a small park that has an unfenced garden area. I got worried because I've seen a wild horse reach over a neighbor's fence and destroy a potato plant. It never grew again. I've also seen a deer eat a tomato plant on a fishing hole lot that my sims owned. I had planted that tomato myself when improving the real estate. I know animals can destroy unprotected plants on my active lot too.

One of my questions is, can wildlife destroy gardens on un-owned community lots and will the plants never recover? But if I fence the garden, will I cause problems for spawning sims or animals? And finally, can deer go through single gates. I know horses can't.

After seeing those deer, I edited the park and put a fence around the garden area. I put 4 single gates in place too so sims could go in and out. But I'm concerned that the fence itself could cause stuck issues for sims or animals even with the gates. I've read in one thread here that sims/animals can spawn inside fences or hedged areas and not be able to get out.

What has been others' experience with protecting community gardens?

TadOlson

I always use tall fences and put several gates in and rarely have anything getting stuck inside the garden area.
Here's what I did to protect Garden House from wildlife eating the garden.

Here's a close-up of the protested garden.

lanlyn

After a search, I read that it's possible for deer to JUMP over low fences! A gate wouldn't matter at all I guess. The fence I put in was too low I think.

The thread I read was 3 years old. There was a mod suggestion, but it was for an earlier patch.

EDIT: BTW, TadOlson. Very unique home lot. Do all your sims there have the Love Outdoors trait?

TadOlson

I was showing a community lot called Garden House and most of my residents in town there all love the outdoors though I've got two households living there and I've got the same thing in Winfield though the population there is about to grow with another household.

philkewley

I am pretty sure that plants in community lots regenerate, I build community gardens in every town I play and I've yet to see weeds or dead plants.

Karritz

I've never previously thought about the plants eaten by wildlife. But I have noticed plants destroyed by zombies are dead. They are not barren. I wonder if wildlife make plants dead or barren.

A level 5 Gardner with a green thumb can revive dead plants. Barren plants can't be revived.

lanlyn

Ok, just through my own game playing, I found out a couple of things. My sims visited the garden park with a pet. The little dog got too hungry while there and went into the garden area and ate a grape, but the plant wasn't destroyed. I feed her some treats and her hunger was satisfied til I could get her home.

Also, a deer showed up. It tried to go into the garden through the gates and couldn't. It didn't jump the fence either.

[img]http://lvlt.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000//shard000/145/844/016/00/screenshot_original.jpg "width=640"[/img]

Then I saw this thought bubble and felt bad.

[img]http://lvlt.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000//shard000/141/844/016/00/screenshot_original.jpg "width=640"[/img]

My sim was able to pet the deer, but then it got skittish and ran off. I was hoping to get a Feed Treat option.

[img]http://lvlt.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000//shard000/143/844/016/00/screenshot_original.jpg "width=640"[/img]

lanlyn

Karritz: The few times I've seen plants destroyed by wildlife, the only thing left were shreds of unrecognizable vegetation--not barren or dead--so nothing to revive. But if only the produce is harvested (or eaten?), the plants will regenerate.

philkewley

You made me go Ahhh! and everyone in the room turned to stare because they're not used to such sentiment
The picture with the deer is cute. I would take the gates away and let the wildlife in. Unless you've got stuff like grizzly bears or rampaging wildebeest your garden isn't going to suffer.

philkewley

lanlyn wrote:

Karritz: The few times I've seen plants destroyed by wildlife, the only thing left were shreds of unrecognizable vegetation--not barren or dead--so nothing to revive. But if only the produce is harvested (or eaten?), the plants will regenerate.

I know when horses eat the farm vegetables they're completely trashed and the sim has to clean up what's left and nothing regenerates - it just leaves an empty patch.
But, I am still not sure about community plants. I know that after planting them (using BuyDebug) if you want to delete the plant - you have to delete 3 times to totally clear the plot. That's possibly the 3 life states, or it could be 3 chances of regeneration. I am going to look into it!

Rflong7

Hi

It's hard to say how it works now or if anything has changed but wildlife used to get stuck in fenced areas all the time. That is one reason for lag and stutters in the game.

Yes, animals will destroy the plant life in a lot if they eat them. The good thing is you can get the lot back (if it's a prebuilt lot from a world) or edit it in game and put the plants back.

I've seen many horses and deer get trapped in fenced areas and in houses/fenced yards. But, this game changes with each update, I'm not sure how good my old information is any more.