The NAPs Pest: my huge workaround :(

emere

I bought Eco Living EP at day one and at full price. I start playing at my Test Save. It took me a few days to discovered that something was really wrong with the NAP system. I turned it OFF. Later I started playing at my Main Save, I Turned OFF the NAP system. But this was not enough: for some reason the NAP were already activated at my main save (maybe the devs can aswer this question... or maybe they do not know). I discovered this in a bad way: that bad version of the Kleptomaniac trait, Sharing is caring, was activate in my Sulani Nightclub: the sims stole almost everything, even the DJ boost! All the sims reset at that point and then leave the entire neighborhood. Yes, my played sims were in a ghost town. Even the game knew that something was wrong. Until today one of the sims I played while that event is bugged with activities that only Kleptomaniacs sims can do (no, my sim does not have that trait). I start fixing my save, I did not know it was a huge workaround until almost 3 months later:

I played 41 different households just to enter my 41 neighborhoods (I do not own GF so not Del Sol world in this count). Each time I activated testingcheats true to be able to revoke the NAPs at the mail box. in some cases it was more complex because some neighborhoods do not have a residential lot; in this cases a change a park or anything else to residential, then change it again. I played each household at least 2 sims days and without traveling between worlds just to check that the NAP was off.

This are the stadistics of a save with NAP disable, I can not imagine how it works when you turn on this bad feature:

Of 41 neighborhoods 70 % had active NAPs. From this 70 %, the 60 % had one or a combo of the worst NAPs (sharing is caring, fights, compulsive art skill, compulsive cooking skill).

While touring all my neighborhoods I discovered that the Footprints do not work: this feature is broken for rotational players or even players that travel a lot with one household.

With the Footprints broken and the need to disable the NAP system the Eco Points are useless. All of this transformed Eco Living in a NON Expansion Pack. Even worse: the compulsive behavior of the features broke the distinctive feature of Sims 4: the MULTITASKING. It is sad that a nice world and nice stuff was eclipsed by this this programming disaster Do Sims programmers play the game or thay just need to go back to school? I really want an answer from the devs!!!

I fixed my save, almost, because some of my sims are bugged. I also deleted NPC with compulsive behavior. Touring 41 neighborhoods took me weeks. But maybe this workaround can help other simmer to recover their saves.

At the end I got a last surprise: I had not realized that I had only entered 40 neighborhoods, yes I missed one; I discovered it while visiting my Boho Restaurant. Everything was working nice, all the tables were full and I was happy to finally start playing the way I like until this:




I keep playing just to know what would happen: at some point all the customers were standing staring at each other, frozen. I recover the control of the game reseting every sim in the restaurant. I leave the game without saving and I enter again just to revoque the NAPs of that last neighborhood. Just then I decided to have a break of Sims 4. It is not fun anymore.

At least I got this picture from that last event, a beautiful metaphor of the awesome programming of Vampires GP and the mediocre programming of Ecoliving NAP pest!

FairyGodMother

I bought EL only because they said you don't have to use NAPs and stuff. When I create a "new game" and make my sim in CAS, when finished it takes me to the game to choose where my sim will live....I don't choose yet...I bring up the options and go to EL tab and disable NPC voting and the Footprint gameplay. I also go to "gameplay" and disable the wallpaper, flooring, etc Then I place my sim in the game. It will still bring up the notification about voting, etc....but it doesn't mean anything. I don't have anything activated at all (like sharing is caring).

Seems like you have jumped thru a lot of hoops, so glad you found a workaround. I don't know if this helps, but I don't have to disable my pack to play it my way. I love the EL pack!

As far as the clay goes, seems it is a bug (luckily my sim never got that bug).

Love your pics

emere

Sorry for the delay @FairyGodMother I was taking a break from the sims... I feel there is an issue with old saves maybe. I never understood what happened in my save (3 years old). Maybe it is time for me to start a new one, but I'm so attached to all the sims I play there

Too bad for those bad features, the EP is good, full of great details, and a unique world. I only regret having bought it at full price

Thanks and take care

Simmerville

Sorry you had to go through all that! I agree the NAP system is very poorly designed, but after disabling it and checking all my hoods to get rid of NAPs I don't want, I had few problems. I wish we had a total overview showing what NAPs are active in what hood, and also that we could disable certain NAPS - and even more I wish we could design our own NAPS by picking elements from a list. The system could have benn awesome and flexible, instead of just being a nightmare...

PS: Just got Vampires and loves it to pieces

SPARKY1922

@emere

I wish I had seen this info before as I stopped playing after what eco did to my game as it took me a while to come back and begin with a new folder. Right now I have eco living off in game added a few eco dedicated mods and now I am finally able to play the community space lots (which is what I bought it for) How awful to loose a 3 year old save I am the same way I play my sims for a long time and am invested in them..

@Simmerville

I confess to loving the way they put vampires together this time. Enjoy