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Strangerville - with or without mystery solved

I'm planning Strangerville as my next addition, but I'm not quite sure how to implement the quirks of the pack with my realistc main game. I played the same save since 2014, so I will not have a separate save for anything Strangerville stuff. The hoos seems tto match perfectly with my story, and I also want the Military career and the spy devices etc. It's just the infected sims' behavior and other stuff that I may not yet be aware of, that I need input on how to deal with.

Did you solve the mystery in your game? If solving iit, will then everything Strange be gone for ever?

Did you choose not to solve the mystery, and if so, did all strange behavior stay?

I understand that the infection comes from certain interactions. Will my not active sims perform those interactions, or will the game randomly make some of my sims infected? Or, will I to some extent be allowed to limit the infections if I avoid those triggers, and kinda ignore the mother mystery?

I guess there are several ways to deal with this all, please share your way.
Simmerville on Youtube | My blog is updated weekly: Simmerville's Sims<br>a.jpg

Comments

  • ChazzzyChazzzy Posts: 7,166 Member
    edited January 2020
    I solved the mystery. After solving, everything goes back to normal. But you have the option to either leave it as-is, restart the mission, OR just apply some of the original effects to the world again.

    I chose to leave it as normal so the town is now rid of the infection. I love the colors of the world.

    The game includes some premade Sims who are infected already. If you happen to meet them, you could get infected that way. If you don’t travel to StrangerVille you won’t notice anything.

    Basically after solving it, it’s like nothing happened which is nice in my opinion. There is an aspiration you can follow along as you complete the mission. Your Sim once they finish the mission will be able to tell Sims about it via a new social in the pie menu.
  • GrumpyGlowfishGrumpyGlowfish Posts: 2,208 Member
    edited January 2020
    The town starts out with the strangeness at a minimum, you'll see small strange plants in the neighbourhood and a few infected sims running around. Even your welcome wagon will consist of infected who will place a strange fruit in your fridge, which will then be confiscated by sims in black. If you don't want that to happen, just ignore the welcome wagon. Other than that, you'll meet scientists at the library and military personnel at the bar (but they will always be there, even after solving the mystery), and while in StrangerVille (whether you're living there or just visiting), you get a new social interaction to "ask about StrangerVille".

    From my experience, the infection can only autonomously befall NPCs in StrangerVille. I've never seen any infected running around in other towns, or my own sims getting infected while I wasn't playing them. A played sim can get infected by eating the strange fruit or breathing in spores in the basement of the laboratory; if there are other ways, I haven't discovered them yet. The infection itself is a moodlet that occasionally pops up, making your sim look and walk weird and keeping all their needs filled until it wears off.

    If you solve the mystery, it will indeed be gone forever unless you restart it by... I don't know if I can say that, because it might be a spoiler for you. Let's just say, after solving the mystery once, you get full control over how strange you want StrangerVille to be. But as I said, it will definitely start out with a little strangeness, and there's nothing you can do about that (at least not without mods) other than going with it and playing the story.

    The new military career is not tied to StrangerVille at all, though. Any sim in any world can join the career and get to the top of it without once setting foot in StrangerVille.
  • mustenimusteni Posts: 5,405 Member
    Something I've noticed is that after solving the mystery I still see conspiracy theorists and military personnel sims around my worlds. In case that matters to you.
  • SimmervilleSimmerville Posts: 11,660 Member
    Thanks all!

    >>The game includes some premade Sims who are infected already.
    So, if I do not solve the mystery, then the few already infected locals will keep getting their weird moments for the rest of their lives?

    >>The infection itself is a moodlet that occasionally pops up, making your sim look and walk weird and keeping all their needs filled until it wears off.
    How often do they behave weirdly? Is it just an hour per day or more?

    >>Something I've noticed is that after solving the mystery I still see conspiracy theorists and military personnel sims around my worlds. In case that matters to you.
    I don't mind seeing random military persoonal or conspiracy theorists in other worlds. It's not like I will pretend the mother mystery does not exist, I just want to be able to plat active households in Strangerville, without all their lives base on the mystery.
    Simmerville on Youtube | My blog is updated weekly: Simmerville's Sims<br>a.jpg
  • GrumpyGlowfishGrumpyGlowfish Posts: 2,208 Member
    >>The infection itself is a moodlet that occasionally pops up, making your sim look and walk weird and keeping all their needs filled until it wears off.
    How often do they behave weirdly? Is it just an hour per day or more?

    I can't say for sure, I've only played one infected sim once upon a time, and my memory is a little hazy. But I think the moodlet didn't last that long, just a few hours or so, and it came up randomly, like the occasional moodlets from emotional traits.
    I don't mind seeing random military persoonal or conspiracy theorists in other worlds. It's not like I will pretend the mother mystery does not exist, I just want to be able to plat active households in Strangerville, without all their lives base on the mystery.

    Then I suggest you either don't touch the mystery at all, or play through the entire thing once and then set the strangeness to whatever level you feel comfortable with. It only becomes really bothersome at maximum strangeness, when the entire world is littered with enormous strange plants, almost every NPC is a zombie, the sky is perpetually covered by colourful clouds that don't allow for any normal weather, and your bathroom equipment occasionally gets infested with vines that have to be cleaned up. In the end it's all a matter of personal taste; since sims can't live in the Magic Realm, I tend to use StrangerVille at maximum strangeness as a surrogate Magic Realm for sims who embrace the paranormal.
  • LaBlue0314LaBlue0314 Posts: 17,436 Member
    Someone created a mod to where all your sim has to do is:
    Search the Strangerville Archive in the information center to immediately get rid of the neighborhood effects in Strangerville (infected people, plants) without having to solve the mystery.

    It is called unstrange strangerville, and can be located at the link.
    https://deichschafblog.de/bienchen/strangerville-strangerville/
  • DaWaterRatDaWaterRat Posts: 3,353 Member
    Also be aware that you can't actually make significant progress in the mystery unless you use the Aspiration that came with Strangerville. So don't give any sims that aspiration, and you should be (mostly) fine.

    Played Infected sims are infected for a 3 hour period, that I think is supposed to be 1 Am to 4 Am, but it's been a while since I've played through. And they wake with all their needs filled. NPC infection periods are more random, it appears, though they're *also* infected for the time Played sims are infected.

    I have had infected NPC (as opposed to generated townie) sims show up at festivals in San Myshuno, but they're not usually seen wandering outside Strangerville very often.

    Also I know you said realistic gameplay, so this may not be an issue, but if you have Vampires and a vampire drinks from an infected sim, they get infected.
  • SimAlexandriaSimAlexandria Posts: 4,845 Member
    If you solve it you'll get daily fan mail in appreciation.
  • DaepheneDaephene Posts: 1,760 Member
    Played Sims who get infected will wake up at 1 am in zombie mode with needs filled and will have minimal command you can give them, mostly involving interacting with the weird plants. It wears off around 4 am. Also, if an infected sim is in the vicinity of a scanner (which you can only get by following the plot line) they will go into zombie mode and attack the person with the scanner and continue as they do at night for a few hours afterwards. Your active household members can only get infected through your actions, such as eating the fruit or a vampire drinking from an infected sim.

    Yes, without mods the infected premade sims will be like that forever if you don't solve the mystery. The unplaywd local infected Sims show up in zombie mode at more random times of day rather than just at night or when triggered by a scanner.
  • mustenimusteni Posts: 5,405 Member
    >>The infection itself is a moodlet that occasionally pops up, making your sim look and walk weird and keeping all their needs filled until it wears off.
    How often do they behave weirdly? Is it just an hour per day or more?

    I can't say for sure, I've only played one infected sim once upon a time, and my memory is a little hazy. But I think the moodlet didn't last that long, just a few hours or so, and it came up randomly, like the occasional moodlets from emotional traits.
    I don't mind seeing random military persoonal or conspiracy theorists in other worlds. It's not like I will pretend the mother mystery does not exist, I just want to be able to plat active households in Strangerville, without all their lives base on the mystery.

    Then I suggest you either don't touch the mystery at all, or play through the entire thing once and then set the strangeness to whatever level you feel comfortable with. It only becomes really bothersome at maximum strangeness, when the entire world is littered with enormous strange plants, almost every NPC is a zombie, the sky is perpetually covered by colourful clouds that don't allow for any normal weather, and your bathroom equipment occasionally gets infested with vines that have to be cleaned up. In the end it's all a matter of personal taste; since sims can't live in the Magic Realm, I tend to use StrangerVille at maximum strangeness as a surrogate Magic Realm for sims who embrace the paranormal.

    I'm liking this idea! Haven't really come up with a way to use Strangerville yet. I only have one sim living there...
  • taydevtaydev Posts: 912 Member
    I wanted the strange behavior out of my game so I completed the mystery and everything has been normal since.
  • Karababy52Karababy52 Posts: 5,952 Member
    I've played through and solved the mystery in Strangerville, had Sims living in Strangerville that didn't solve the mystery, played a single infected Sim (I had her eat Strange fruit from debug mode) in Sulani and an entire household full of infected + erratic Sims for the Asylum Challenge.

    An infected Sim will only be possessed from Midnight to 4 a.m. Their needs will all fill up to green when going into possession mode and start to deteriorate as normal after it wears off.

    You should also know that in addition to putting Strange fruit in your refrigerator, Welcome Wagon infected Sims will also put Strange fruit in any empty garden pots/planters. As noted the Sims in Black will visit immediately after they've left and confiscate your refrigerator. You'll get compensated for it though. They'll take any Strange fruit seeds in garden pots/planters too, but only the seeds. I'd just avoid the Welcome Wagon as suggested.

    As mentioned, you can see infected NPCs at CL Festivals if you have that pack. Not sure if you'll see them anywhere else though, but I haven't.

    One last thing I'd like to add. After my Hero had solved the mystery, everything was back to normal in his neighborhood, the town part, all the plants were gone, no infected Sims, the crater didn't have a glow above/around it, no jets flying over it night and day, etc.

    BUT, I still had some of the pod plants in the more expensive neighborhood up on the hill. I believe it's because my Sim had never visited that neighborhood until after the mystery was solved. I'm guessing your Sim needs to visit all areas in Strangerville to 'activate' them so the pod plants will disappear when the mystery is solved. Could be just a glitch with my save game though. I don't know. But thought I'd mention it.
  • candy8candy8 Posts: 3,815 Member
    After I solved the mystery I used the Weather Machine to see what affects it had in that world I made it snow all the time. Silly me!
  • RouensimsRouensims Posts: 4,858 Member
    I've been playing in Strangerville constantly since solving the mystery. No weird plants or infected people have shown up. Occasionally you see a weird vehicle drive by with an antenna mounted to the roof.
    Ooh Be Gah!! Whipna Choba-Dog? Whipna Choba-Dog!! :smiley:
  • SimmervilleSimmerville Posts: 11,660 Member
    I've been playing in Strangerville constantly since solving the mystery. No weird plants or infected people have shown up. Occasionally you see a weird vehicle drive by with an antenna mounted to the roof.

    Thanks. I really want to see the vissual changes etc while solving the mysstery, so I guess I will do that at some point, kind of wish some of the wirdness like weird weather would stay, but I understand I can decide the level of weirdness after the case is solved. Will start with nod see how I like that level.
    Simmerville on Youtube | My blog is updated weekly: Simmerville's Sims<br>a.jpg
  • CamkatCamkat Posts: 2,329 Member
    edited January 2020
    If you solve it you'll get daily fan mail in appreciation.

    Yeah, foul quality fish. "you saved my town and I'm so grateful, here's a dead fish in the mail!" Thanks?!?... :D

    To be fair, I have gotten other things. That's just the one that sticks out most in my mind because it would have been offensive to get something like that in your fan mail IRL. I did find it hilarious though.
    Origin ID: Peapod79
  • SimmervilleSimmerville Posts: 11,660 Member
    Camkat wrote: »
    If you solve it you'll get daily fan mail in appreciation.

    Yeah, foul quality fish. "you saved my town and I'm so grateful, here's a dead fish in the mail!" Thanks?!?... :D

    To be fair, I have gotten other things. That's just the one that sticks out most in my mind because it would have been offensive to get something like that in your fan mail IRL. I did find it hilarious though.

    LOL. Maybe that fish was fresh before you noticed there was any mail. Anyway, I'd laughed quite hard if my sim received a foul fish :smiley: )
    Simmerville on Youtube | My blog is updated weekly: Simmerville's Sims<br>a.jpg
  • CamkatCamkat Posts: 2,329 Member
    Camkat wrote: »
    If you solve it you'll get daily fan mail in appreciation.

    Yeah, foul quality fish. "you saved my town and I'm so grateful, here's a dead fish in the mail!" Thanks?!?... :D

    To be fair, I have gotten other things. That's just the one that sticks out most in my mind because it would have been offensive to get something like that in your fan mail IRL. I did find it hilarious though.

    LOL. Maybe that fish was fresh before you noticed there was any mail. Anyway, I'd laughed quite hard if my sim received a foul fish :smiley: )

    That's a really good point! hahahah I do often miss the mail delivery. :D
    Origin ID: Peapod79
  • KimmerKimmer Posts: 2,374 Member
    edited January 2020
    I solved the mystery on my first Strangerville play and the Sim who did it is still living in Strangerville, married now and has one kid. The world is completely normal, I haven't seen any infected people (not in any other worlds either).
    I also have few saves with Sims who live in Strangerville but have not solved the mystery. I like it, because it's more fun to see those infected Sims around, it's so creepy when they run, lol. I'm planning to solve the mystery on some of those saves, but not on all of them.
    I'm also planning to solve the mystery only partly on one of my saves. I want to make my Sims live in Strangerville with maximum strangeness. I love the atmosphere, sounds, strange plants and the vines that come up on sinks, showers, bath tubs and toilets.
  • GrumpyGlowfishGrumpyGlowfish Posts: 2,208 Member
    In my experience, the fish in the mail is always foul, just like the cupcake and every other edible fan mail you can get, whether you open it immediately or not. I find it rather annoying that you can't switch that off, but hey, foul fish can still be used as plant fertiliser!
  • DaWaterRatDaWaterRat Posts: 3,353 Member
    In my experience, the fish in the mail is always foul, just like the cupcake and every other edible fan mail you can get, whether you open it immediately or not. I find it rather annoying that you can't switch that off, but hey, foul fish can still be used as plant fertiliser!

    If you're playing a spellcaster, the delicioso spell will also allow you to de-spoil the cupcakes.
  • ElliandreElliandre Posts: 2,468 Member
    Has anyone solved the mystery and then restarted it with the infection rate set to high? Does it make it harder or longer to solve it on this setting? Or there are just more infected townies running around at night?
  • ButteredToastButteredToast Posts: 47 Member
    > @Elliandre said:
    > Has anyone solved the mystery and then restarted it with the infection rate set to high? Does it make it harder or longer to solve it on this setting? Or there are just more infected townies running around at night?


    I've solved the mystery and planned to restart it once my heroine sim graduated from Foxbury and join Sims-in-Black career branch. Hopefully I would remember to post my answer here.
  • CamkatCamkat Posts: 2,329 Member
    Elliandre wrote: »
    Has anyone solved the mystery and then restarted it with the infection rate set to high? Does it make it harder or longer to solve it on this setting? Or there are just more infected townies running around at night?

    It doesn't make it longer or harder. It just affects the weather and how many infected are running about.
    Origin ID: Peapod79
  • katrinasforestkatrinasforest Posts: 1,002 Member
    Karababy52 wrote: »
    I've played through and solved the mystery in Strangerville, had Sims living in Strangerville that didn't solve the mystery, played a single infected Sim (I had her eat Strange fruit from debug mode) in Sulani and an entire household full of infected + erratic Sims for the Asylum Challenge.

    An infected Sim will only be possessed from Midnight to 4 a.m. Their needs will all fill up to green when going into possession mode and start to deteriorate as normal after it wears off.

    You should also know that in addition to putting Strange fruit in your refrigerator, Welcome Wagon infected Sims will also put Strange fruit in any empty garden pots/planters. As noted the Sims in Black will visit immediately after they've left and confiscate your refrigerator. You'll get compensated for it though. They'll take any Strange fruit seeds in garden pots/planters too, but only the seeds. I'd just avoid the Welcome Wagon as suggested.

    As mentioned, you can see infected NPCs at CL Festivals if you have that pack. Not sure if you'll see them anywhere else though, but I haven't.

    One last thing I'd like to add. After my Hero had solved the mystery, everything was back to normal in his neighborhood, the town part, all the plants were gone, no infected Sims, the crater didn't have a glow above/around it, no jets flying over it night and day, etc.

    BUT, I still had some of the pod plants in the more expensive neighborhood up on the hill. I believe it's because my Sim had never visited that neighborhood until after the mystery was solved. I'm guessing your Sim needs to visit all areas in Strangerville to 'activate' them so the pod plants will disappear when the mystery is solved. Could be just a glitch with my save game though. I don't know. But thought I'd mention it.

    I've never had the thing with the welcome wagon. I'm kind of disappointed now.

    I'm pretty sure the time is 1am to 4pm, not midnight. I played an alien family for a while that was totally on Team Weird Plants. The automatic filling of their needs every time was very convenient. ^_^

    @Simmerville If you just want to solve the mystery as quickly as possible, there are a few shortcuts here and there you can take. For example, your first step is collect evidence, but if you find the USB Device and your Sim has level 10 Programming, they can hack it and jump ahead to the next step. The gallery also has rooms of items you can download to advance the plot if you don't feel like doing all the hunting yourself.
    Watch me mash together Sims and Pokémon to tell a story about battling glitches in Penny Saves Paldea. Updated every other Thursday.
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