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can I play in the Eco worlds without setting anything off again?
SPARKY1922
Posts: 5,965 Member
Hi,
I have no real clue how to play in the eco worlds as the pack basically destroyed my game prior to any meaningful game play so in a desperate effort to control what was happening i downloaded a few eco mods that sounded right and turned as much as i could off in game and that helped me a lot going forward however I am wondering with eco living turned off in game and a few mods to help can I actually play in those eco worlds without setting anything negative off again?
I am not bothered by not being able to play the eco lifestyle in these worlds but would like to be able to re design those eco worlds and play in them normally but am afraid when these eco sims come knocking on my sims door it may start something off i do not wish to experience again especially as the voting boards are located in these worlds.
I suppose what i am asking is how I can play in these worlds with everything eco turned off so it does not effect normal game play for my sims living in these worlds? and if I cannot do that I will simply not play in those worlds ever again but just stick to be able to using the objects/cas that came with the pack in other worlds..
I have no real clue how to play in the eco worlds as the pack basically destroyed my game prior to any meaningful game play so in a desperate effort to control what was happening i downloaded a few eco mods that sounded right and turned as much as i could off in game and that helped me a lot going forward however I am wondering with eco living turned off in game and a few mods to help can I actually play in those eco worlds without setting anything negative off again?
I am not bothered by not being able to play the eco lifestyle in these worlds but would like to be able to re design those eco worlds and play in them normally but am afraid when these eco sims come knocking on my sims door it may start something off i do not wish to experience again especially as the voting boards are located in these worlds.
I suppose what i am asking is how I can play in these worlds with everything eco turned off so it does not effect normal game play for my sims living in these worlds? and if I cannot do that I will simply not play in those worlds ever again but just stick to be able to using the objects/cas that came with the pack in other worlds..
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If you have voting turned off from the start (like from the beginning of starting a save before ever loading any family or sim at all, then you should be fine because the game can't vote in any NAPs without you manually voting for them yourself. I can't remember if Evergreen Harbor starts with any by default (probably not). So you should be fine playing the game normally.
The only difference with Evergreen Harbor NPCs is that Knox and Bess will do the welcome wagon, instead of the regular welcome wagon and that's it. All they do is say hi and pop up an information window. That's it. It doesn't "set off anything negative". Also, even if you never visit Evergreen Harbor, those two will show up anywhere in any other world as regular NPCs just doing their thing and offering to clean up your garbage if your lot is a mess etc.
If you have mods installed to deal with the current main bugs, then you can even turn on all Eco Lifestyle features and enjoy the game the way it was always meant to be.
thanks for that info. Could you explain how I cheat the boards please? and thank you for reminding me I should run a test game lol I always forget and simply continue playing my save game after downloading/installing any new packs including the eco living pack then finding my game going haywire so I wish I would have considered doing that first
@simvasion
Thank you for your info and your mods they basically saved my game after eco living and although you may feel there were no game destroying bugs for me there were so many things that borked after i downloaded that pack I could no longer play my game properly anymore and I actually waited several weeks before I even tried to play my game again with a new game folder which is why i asked my question above as I would love to be able to play some of those eco pack features but am not willing to risk going through everything i did the first time so I have avoided even playing in the eco worlds as I am so worried about it all going wrong again simply because I do not understand how to control everything.
So from reading all the info is it correct as long as i don't send my sims to vote in these worlds then the behavior from NAPS I believe it is called will not happen in the eco worlds or any other world either? (what about sims autonomously voting out of my control?) and if I ignore the welcome wagon and don't involve my sims in any other voting or eco related activity then i can just play the world normally like i do in any other world and cheat the weather to my liking and at least have the world to play in as I choose to play it?
My Plumbob is GREEN today
I am given to understand the eco pack wrecked many a players game and it certainly was something i had never experienced before with 4 on the decent rig I am playing on so I knew it wasn't anything to do with my PC specs. Thanks for the info it's good to know I can get some benefits from the pack without the reoccurring nightmare lol I will have another go as it seems silly to have those worlds and not play in them
My Plumbob is GREEN today
Thank you
In my experience, I stopped everything bad that could happen before it could happen by making my mod cover all the negative stuff people were reporting on the forums. If you have that in, then you probably don't need to worry about anything and just play the game as you choose to play it. It'd be interesting to know what you consider "borked" because then I could give more specific suggestions on how to avoid it.
Like, you don't need to ignore the Knox welcome wagon. He's just a sim that says hello and after reading his message you can ignore him if you want. Just leaving him standing on your doorstep just seems really anti-social to me
You just put in the ctrl shift c command then type testingcheats true Then click on the mailbox or the boards and choose the neighborhood beautification and clean up options for your neighborhoods and it should start to remove the trash and make it prettier.
When I first downloaded the pack I allowed my new sim eco family to vote once and suddenly the constant cube playing/spawning started. cycles were spawning everywhere and sims were trying to ride their bikes in their houses whenever I directed them from one action to another even indoors. Sims were hitting on each other everywhere too so i tried turning the eco features off and that did not stop it. sims with bags over their heads everywhere and if memory serves there were all sorts of issues starting in other worlds when I played them as well which got so overwhelming I ended up deleting my whole 4 folder entirely. It was a while before I even felt like trying again but when I did I noticed mods that were supposed to help with the eco issues specifically so I downloaded those started a new folder and went into game and switched off eco living game-play and so far so good but i never loaded the eco worlds again because of the voting boards as i thought maybe there maybe some autonomous sim voting or other actions in those worlds that could set it all off again which was the reason for my question. Also Yesterday after noticing some wonderful eco world lots in the gallery I suddenly thought I would like to play in those worlds even if i am not actually playing the eco living but needed to be sure I could do that without and further issues.
I have searched everywhere for a mod to stop sims cycling in their homes but cannot find anything so if anyone knows of one I can download and save would be nice in case that started up again because that alone made my game unplayable.
@Karon
It was less about the footprint for me and more about all the other issues detailed above-) I am pleased your game appears to be unaffected and you are enjoying the eco features
@duhboy2u2
Thank you for that info that's what i will do then
Bicycle issues would be related to Discover University, rather than have anything to do with Eco Lifestyle. There was a mod by bienchen to make sims ride bikes only outdoors, but that mod is now gone, listed as obsolete, so presumably it was fixed by an official patch.
The NPC voting (if turned on) happens off-screen simulated. Sims don’t actually use boards for their auto-votes. The boards are just decorative/alternative for you instead of being restricted to mailbox voting like in other worlds. You see NPCs chatting there but they aren’t actually voting autonomously. Evergreen Harbour works exactly the same as every other world. If you haven’t had any problems elsewhere then you shouldn’t have any there. The only difference is that there are the extra NAPs to change the neighbourhood appearance that Maxis built-in to the world, like trash removal, modern architecture and greenery.
It sounds like you won’t have the same issues you had before, but if you’re still concerned you can make a backup of your save to revert to, instead of having to delete everything.
I realize I should have probably backed up prior to installing patches and packs before but because I never had much of an issue before I did not when Eco living came out either. Strange the cycle issue was never a problem for me when I actually installed and played University but only popped up with Eco living. I think I feel brave enough now to have another go with everything tuned off as I really dislike ignoring the worlds and would like to play in them
Thank you everyone for your input much appreciated
I've been considering getting this pack when it's on sale because I want the world, CAS and build/buy but don't like most of the gameplay and don't want it to be invasive. I really don't like the Eco footprint on every wall and floor influencing builds because I download all of my lots from the gallery and don't want to change them. And I don't want naps influencing my Sims (though I might want to cheat a "juiced" community here and there
But it sounds like a lot of things have smoothed out, so depending on what the next EP is, I may get EL during the holiday sales. That's if the next big patch doesn't make things go wonky again.
You have to update some of your lots to make sure things don't get on the Industrial side of things. For example as long as you don't have a student at University you can enter build mode; a tip is to give the student housings eco roofs and maybe a solar panel or two to the detached houses.
Same in other worlds, it's really a quick fix; all worlds except that one place at the harbor in Evergreen Harbor start off neutral, so just putting some green tech on some lots would push them on the good side of things in other worlds.
Also there seem to be a few problems (at least for me) that got sorted after I installed Nifty Knitting. I had a few of the bugs like doorways not being displayed properly after installing Eco Lifestyle but after installing Nifty Knitting (I bought that AFTER Eco Lifestyle) those things fixed themselves. I have no idea how.
I honestly do not regret buying this pack despite the hag it caused me for some considerable time lol I liked the look of the worlds plus the build/buy items which i think enhance any game play considerably depending on what story-line a player might like to choose in any world.
If you want to be careful the info from the players on this thread is a great way to start especially if you are like me and don't understand the game play too well and never intend playing NAPS-) I also still use 5-6 Eco specific mods that i know help as well so i feel it's the right time to press on and at least see if I can actually get my game play going as I would like to play in those particular worlds.
My initial goals are the same as they were when the pack came out and that is to have the various worlds playing different community goals however I just dived into game to begin scouring the gallery for community builds when I suddenly thought these lots have voting boards too and i want to be sure before placing these lots in my world if I need to remove the voting board for any reason? and if i do will sims still gather together to get involved in each world community lot or does that require voting on? I would like to plonk the lot down and have sims from my various surrounding communities come visit and get involved with each other regardless.
so i am asking @simvasion & @duhboy2u2 if I can use the community lots in the method I describe in the last paragraph or do i need to cheat it or use another mod to play the community lots the way i would like to? I apologize for going slightly off topic and probably being a pain but I would like to get it right this time
If i have turned everything Eco off in game won't the world weather stay neutral or normal permanently? After reading about the weather type cheat @duhboy2u2 told me about in the above post I am hoping I can choose the weather for each world separately if I want to but am not sure right now if this is doable yet.
I might like to crossover a trashy Eco world with my mother infected strangerville world-)
I was not aware if a household had a sim at university the family home cannot go into build mode is that the same in every world as up to now I have only sent singles to university so of course I have not found that out yet-)
I also bought nifty knitting and despite not playing with it yet due to sorting out all my worlds/sims in a new folder I hoped it would fit in nicely with the eco worlds of buying/selling and am wondering if you have incorporated knitting into your eco game play style and what the results were like?
Are you playing with your sims voting or not right now?
I think we might have to turn this thread into how is everyone playing with the Eco pack as I am really interested in how others are playing this pack
So yes, I play with voting on.
Oh and I am not talking about the family home but the opposite: You cannot enter build mode for University lots if you have a Sim going to University. The main reason is that the Semester Cost is calculated beforehand (depending no the luxury of the housing). Also of course it ads a little bit of "realism"; we all have rented or lived in 🐸🐸🐸🐸 dorms.
I am a little envious of you playing with voting on but I think I will have to wait a while longer to try that one again lol
Ah, apologies i got it wrong re the sim at university-) I thought you meant if a sim in any household was a uni then I could not get into build mode at their usual home but I never thought about going into build mode while my sims have been at Uni either so it's still good to know in case I ever want to make any changes to Uni lots as I will now remember to do it before I send my sim there
Like I said before, even if the board summons sims to stand in front of it and chat, it's all for show. Or for when you want to do the aspiration or new careers and they ask you to do tasks like "convince a sim to vote" or "check the community board gossip".
Just to clarify. Are you saying sims in the community tend not to visit those community lots autonomously to join in with other sims in community activities as if so that's a real bummer as i thought if sims were attracted to these sorts of lots how great community activities would be.
I can be a little dumb with 4 as I don't play it as much as other series so off to download community lots and hope for the best
On a default community space with no particular type selected, the only sims that the lot itself will summon are sims to dig through dumpsters and use recyclers. If you change the community space type, then it will load up crowds of sims based on whatever function fits, like sims who want to craft stuff for a maker space and maker mentors. Or vendors and shoppers for a market.
Thank you I understand now. it took me long enough and I appreciate your continued input to this point
I particularly like the thought of the voting board in strangerville so will defo be doing that one
try "force voting" one stuff that won't bother you... after your community choose the limit of things they can have going on, they don't change... at least for me they didn't change yet unless i try a petition to cancel something.
Right now i am so enjoying actually being in those Eco worlds and changing them to my liking and I have no clue what force voting means I am just happy to be back there without all the issues I had before and then maybe I can learn some more and be more brave going forward
I wanted to ask is your Avi on the gallery for download? I so wish there was some sort of mod to have Mrs Crumplebottom back in my game in S4