Tips for populating my empty festivals and lots? Plus slow mermaids.

LatinaBunny

Haven’t played older Sims games (before Sims 4) in a while, but I I still have Sims 3 installed, so I’m giving it another go since I miss my occults.

I want to know (or be reminded) of how to populate my empty/sparse festival and community lots?

Has there been changes/updates to the NRAAS mods since Sims 3 was connected to Origin? I still have files from before the Origin change.

Also: is there any way to make mermaids swim faster? A mod or something?

I can’t play and relax normally because of this stuff. Thank you.

puzzlezaddict

All NRaas mods except ErrorTrap are equally compatible with patches 1.67 and 1.69, so technically, you wouldn't have to replace any of your existing mods except ET. (It's a core mod and will complain if its internal build number doesn't match your patch level.) But NRaas mods are still in active development; there are probably new and improved versions of most if not all of the mods you used in the past. You can check out the update history to see the improvements, or just download new versions of all of them.

The easiest way to get more sims to visit the community lots you want is to bulldoze the ones you'll never use, and then set the you don't want to use at the moment to "No Visitors Allowed." (The option shows in Edit Town.) The fewer parks, venues, etc. in your town, the more sims will be pushed to each available lot.

From the complaints I've read here (so, so many of them), mermaids will try to swim everywhere no matter what you do. Some players resort to testingcheats teleporting them instead of waiting hours for them to swim. If anyone has a mod to make them swim faster, or take boats instead, that would save a lot of headaches.

Finally, if you're playing or plan to play in Isla Paradiso, I hope you use a fixed version of the world. EA's version of IP is so broken that even the entire suite of NRaas mods can't save it. But @ciane has done all the necessary edits to make IP run smoothly and offered her work for download. If you'd rather fix IP yourself, you can read her posts detailing the changes necessary to make it playable.

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/811253/removing-ip-lag/p1

GraceyManor

If you don't want to bulldoze your ots and If you're not against mods, you could try Shimrod's Townies out on the town on TNA.
simsasylum.com/tfm/

As the mermaid, I don't have any suggestions on that.:(

LatinaBunny

puzzlezaddict wrote: »

All NRaas mods except ErrorTrap are equally compatible with patches 1.67 and 1.69, so technically, you wouldn't have to replace any of your existing mods except ET. (It's a core mod and will complain if its internal build number doesn't match your patch level.) But NRaas mods are still in active development; there are probably new and improved versions of most if not all of the mods you used in the past. You can check out the update history to see the improvements, or just download new versions of all of them.

The easiest way to get more sims to visit the community lots you want is to bulldoze the ones you'll never use, and then set the you don't want to use at the moment to "No Visitors Allowed." (The option shows in Edit Town.) The fewer parks, venues, etc. in your town, the more sims will be pushed to each available lot.

From the complaints I've read here (so, so many of them), mermaids will try to swim everywhere no matter what you do. Some players resort to testingcheats teleporting them instead of waiting hours for them to swim. If anyone has a mod to make them swim faster, or take boats instead, that would save a lot of headaches.

Finally, if you're playing or plan to play in Isla Paradiso, I hope you use a fixed version of the world. EA's version of IP is so broken that even the entire suite of NRaas mods can't save it. But @ciane has done all the necessary edits to make IP run smoothly and offered her work for download. If you'd rather fix IP yourself, you can read her posts detailing the changes necessary to make it playable.

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/811253/removing-ip-lag/p1

Thanks, @puzzleaddict . Yeah, I think I may need to update some NRAAS files.

I'll try bulldozing some of those community lots, and using the "No Visitors Allowed" option for some.

Yeah, I've been pushing them to go on the boat, but the teleport cheat sounds muuuuch better. Thanks!

I'll have to see if I have the updated world. Thank you! ^_^

Springfairy556 wrote: »

If you don't want to bulldoze your ots and If you're not against mods, you could try Shimrod's Townies out on the town on TNA.
simsasylum.com/tfm/

As the mermaid, I don't have any suggestions on that.:(

It's definitely an option to try if the above methods don't work. (I would have to create an account for those forums, so I'll try to do that a later time.) Thank you for the suggestion!

IreneSwift

I use Shimrod's Townies Out on the Town myself, and it works great. Any time my sim goes to any community lot, there will soon be at least three or four other sims visiting the lot too, and even more the longer she stays, except for the festival lot in Isla Pardiso. For some reason they all avoid it like the plague, except for an occasional service sim.

LatinaBunny

IreneSwift wrote: »

I use Shimrod's Townies Out on the Town myself, and it works great. Any time my sim goes to any community lot, there will soon be at least three or four other sims visiting the lot too, and even more the longer she stays, except for the festival lot in Isla Pardiso. For some reason they all avoid it like the plague, except for an occasional service sim.

Cool, I’ll have to check that mod one of these days then.

Oh, dear, I play a lot in Isla Paradiso! And that festival lot is the one I’m talking about! It’s like the ghost festival, lol.

IreneSwift

OK, if that's the one you're talking about, I think you're probably just out of luck. Festival lots in other towns get lots of visitors, but not in IP. If you want your sim to meet other sims in IP, send them to the gym, the library, the grocery store, or pretty much any other community lot other than the festival lot.

IreneSwift

Or have them live in the Humble Home, the house on the big island closest to the fishing spot with the waterfall. Sims gather there in the middle of the night, right in my sim's backyard, ON HER PROPERTY! I hear groups of them out there talking almost every night, and have to get rid of them. It's been the same every single time I've had a family in that house. I even fenced it for her and locked the gate to everyone except her, but they still congregated in her bakyard! It's SO annoying! But you could wake your sim up and send him/her out to meet them. LOL!

GraceyManor

There's also an option in story progression to push sims to visit lots, but I can't remember off the top of my head where it is.
Did you by chance try deleting the festival lot in IP and replacing it?

igazor

I've just realized why I'm not recognizing the festival lot issue in IP. It's because I don't have one (smacks head...ouch, that was bit too hard). I've used that world as a vacation destination only (Traveler mod) thus far, not a homeworld as it was designed to be. Since I only have two seasons allowed in tropical worlds, instead I set up a Big Park or something like that with festival-like features that stays constant and it does get some draw especially when at least one of my actives visits it. I don't need to allow for apple bobbing and snowboarding because fall and winter are not going to happen there anyway, for me.

@IreneSwift - On the Humble Home issue, is it possible that you have some invisible object on the lot, possibly underground, that is drawing them in? I had this on a farm I built over what was once a fishing hole and accidentally left a fish spawner in place, so sims would come onto my lot all hours of the day and night uninvited and ungreeted, looking for a place to fish. There might other such objects or spawners I'm not thinking of that could have such an effect.

IreneSwift

@igazor Thanks for that information. I'll have to check in buydebug and see what might be there. It would be nice to get rid of that problem. But why would they come into her yard when it's fenced and the gate is locked?

Maybe I'll try your suggestion of replacing the festival lot too. I also use only two seasons, with all the holidays enabled, but only when I use it as a homeworld. If I'm only using it as a vacation destination, I only enable summer, and no holidays.

igazor

IreneSwift wrote: »

@igazor Thanks for that information. I'll have to check in buydebug and see what might be there. It would be nice to get rid of that problem. But why would they come into her yard when it's fenced and the gate is locked?

That part is indeed puzzling. Can you see exactly how they are entering the lot when they arrive -- are they swinging the locked gate open and walking through it, walking through the fence, transporting themselves directly into the lot's interior? Could there be a break in the fence somewhere that's allowing them in?

LatinaBunny

IreneSwift wrote: »

OK, if that's the one you're talking about, I think you're probably just out of luck. Festival lots in other towns get lots of visitors, but not in IP. If you want your sim to meet other sims in IP, send them to the gym, the library, the grocery store, or pretty much any other community lot other than the festival lot.

Oh, okay. So it’s Isla’s festival lot that is a problem.

I tend to play mostly in Isla Paradiso (and some of the store worlds), so that could be why I’m having trouble with Sims there. I tested and in Moonlight Falls (the Supernatural world), and in one of the store worlds, I had more Sims around.

So it’s the Isla Paradiso world that seems to be the big issue.

I might have to rearrange some lots. Maybe I can replace the festival lot with something else?

IreneSwift wrote: »

Or have them live in the Humble Home, the house on the big island closest to the fishing spot with the waterfall. Sims gather there in the middle of the night, right in my sim's backyard, ON HER PROPERTY! I hear groups of them out there talking almost every night, and have to get rid of them. It's been the same every single time I've had a family in that house. I even fenced it for her and locked the gate to everyone except her, but they still congregated in her bakyard! It's SO annoying! But you could wake your sim up and send him/her out to meet them. LOL!

Lol! That’s strange! I’ll have to check out what is going on in that Humble Home that is attracting the Sims! (Maybe I can get that attracting thing for the ghost lot, haha? )

Springfairy556 wrote: »

There's also an option in story progression to push sims to visit lots, but I can't remember off the top of my head where it is.
Did you by chance try deleting the festival lot in IP and replacing it?

I think there was a push option somewhere, but I don’t remember where. I’ll try searching for it. Maybe the Nraas wikia might mention it.

I haven’t done it yet, but I plan to do so.

igazor wrote: »

I've just realized why I'm not recognizing the festival lot issue in IP. It's because I don't have one (smacks head...ouch, that was bit too hard). I've used that world as a vacation destination only (Traveler mod) thus far, not a homeworld as it was designed to be. Since I only have two seasons allowed in tropical worlds, instead I set up a Big Park or something like that with festival-like features that stays constant and it does get some draw especially when at least one of my actives visits it. I don't need to allow for apple bobbing and snowboarding because fall and winter are not going to happen there anyway, for me.

Lol, okay. Well, I’ll try replacing that festival lot with something else and see what happens, then.

igazor

Springfairy556 wrote: »

There's also an option in story progression to push sims to visit lots, but I can't remember off the top of my head where it is.

bunny-🐸🐸🐸🐸 wrote: »

I think there was a push option somewhere, but I don’t remember where. I’ll try searching for it. Maybe the Nraas wikia might mention it.

The options to push inactive sims (by day, by night, after work) are all on Town (Caste, Household, Sim) Options and are set to True by default. The one in General Options (SP Extra module required), set to 0 by default, is for your actively played household, not the other town residents. That one defines the chance that SP will push your own sims out to community lots and some of us find that a bit unsettling.

IreneSwift

igazor wrote: »

IreneSwift wrote: »

@igazor Thanks for that information. I'll have to check in buydebug and see what might be there. It would be nice to get rid of that problem. But why would they come into her yard when it's fenced and the gate is locked?

That part is indeed puzzling. Can you see exactly how they are entering the lot when they arrive -- are they swinging the locked gate open and walking through it, walking through the fence, transporting themselves directly into the lot's interior? Could there be a break in the fence somewhere that's allowing them in?

I watched for them. They just suddenly appear there, as many as three at a time. Most of them are residents, so it's not that it's a spawning place for NPC's. I checked with MC, and there is nothing on the lot that shouldn't be there.

GraceyManor

igazor wrote: »

Springfairy556 wrote: »

There's also an option in story progression to push sims to visit lots, but I can't remember off the top of my head where it is.

bunny-🐸🐸🐸🐸 wrote: »

I think there was a push option somewhere, but I don’t remember where. I’ll try searching for it. Maybe the Nraas wikia might mention it.

The options to push inactive sims (by day, by night, after work) are all on Town (Caste, Household, Sim) Options and are set to True by default. The one in General Options (SP Extra module required), set to 0 by default, is for your actively played household, not the other town residents. That one defines the chance that SP will push your own sims out to community lots and some of us find that a bit unsettling.

Ah okay, I didn't know that lol.I changed it to 100% chance thinking it was sending townies out.It never sent my sim's out though.And it just seemed like I had more active neighbors.Could be Shimrod's mod doing it as well.