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Is Eco Living playable?

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I wanted Eco Living before it came out, then didn't buy it after I started reading about problems in the forums. Right now since it's 50% off, I decided I'd ask players who have been playing it for awhile more about it.

Do you have the ability to completely turn off NAPs? Can you easily control which NAPs you have? Do NAPs you don't have still affect your game? How do the NAPs affect other worlds?

I'm particularly concerned about "sharing is caring". I put a lot of time into creating my lots and the idea of Sims coming along and taking everything and ruining them is the biggest thing that turned me off from buying it.

Are there any other aspects of gameplay that are game breaking?
Gallery ID: LadyGray01

Comments

  • SharoniaSharonia Posts: 4,853 Member
    It’s playable if you turn off it’s main feature right at the start. N.A.P’s are the biggest issue with the pack.
  • BlkBarbiegalBlkBarbiegal Posts: 7,924 Member
    I think that if you buy the EP go straight to gameplay options to turn off NAP's so you then can control what you want in game.
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  • lisamwittlisamwitt Posts: 5,079 Member
    @Sharonia @BlkBarbiegal So turning it off DOES actually work? I saw comments early on about how people had turned them off and they were still affecting their game.
    Gallery ID: LadyGray01
  • Kita5399Kita5399 Posts: 2,112 Member
    I keep mine off from the start, it was a mess in my test save at first. I think one of the patches fixed the issue that caused them to “stick” to a save, just be sure to back up your saves, and turn them off at the start. I have a legacy I’ve been playing since 2017, and it has been fine, I can use all the other features, just keep the NAP’s off.
  • lisamwittlisamwitt Posts: 5,079 Member
    Kita5399 wrote: »
    I keep mine off from the start, it was a mess in my test save at first. I think one of the patches fixed the issue that caused them to “stick” to a save, just be sure to back up your saves, and turn them off at the start. I have a legacy I’ve been playing since 2017, and it has been fine, I can use all the other features, just keep the NAP’s off.

    Awesome. Good to know.
    Gallery ID: LadyGray01
  • lisamwittlisamwitt Posts: 5,079 Member
    So... is it worth $20?
    Gallery ID: LadyGray01
  • baddazonerbaddazoner Posts: 573 Member
    edited November 2020
    lisamwitt wrote: »
    So... is it worth $20?

    Haven't got the pack but if you end up turning one of the main features off I would say yes.

    I dont think packs get any cheaper than 50% off so its either miss it or play without the broken main feature
  • Kita5399Kita5399 Posts: 2,112 Member
    I really like the rest of the pack, honestly now that there have been a few patches (and I avoid the NAP’s). I don’t regret the $40 I spent, so I’d say $20 would be worth the build/buy, new hobbies, new venue type, and world.
  • Atreya33Atreya33 Posts: 4,404 Member
    edited November 2020
    @lisamwitt I was also thinking about getting eco lifestyle but I am worried about the effect of NAP.

    I created a thread with very similar questions just a few days ago.
    https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/984081/eco-lifestyle-turn-off-nap-does-it-work#latest

    I am still not sure if I will get it.
  • Bluebeard45Bluebeard45 Posts: 3,889 Member
    Eco Living is a hot mess. Don't plan on gardening it's a waste of time with Eco Living. Solar panels and Wind turbines don't do nothing to help lower the bills. Don't hold your breath for a serious Eco Living patch.
  • lisamwittlisamwitt Posts: 5,079 Member
    Eco Living is a hot mess. Don't plan on gardening it's a waste of time with Eco Living. Solar panels and Wind turbines don't do nothing to help lower the bills. Don't hold your breath for a serious Eco Living patch.

    They really don't work at all?? What about generators? Water storage? Does that stuff all work as advertised?

    With NAPs off, what is the neighborhood like? Just what it was when you installed the pack, or can you still clean it up on your own and make it change?
    Gallery ID: LadyGray01
  • lisamwittlisamwitt Posts: 5,079 Member
    Atreya33 wrote: »
    @lisamwitt I was also thinking about getting eco lifestyle but I am worried about the effect of NAP.

    I created a thread with very similar questions just a few days ago.
    https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/984081/eco-lifestyle-turn-off-nap-does-it-work#latest

    I am still not sure if I will get it.

    I'm still debating myself. I'm leaning towards buying it, I just don't want to get into it and be disappointed.
    Gallery ID: LadyGray01
  • Kita5399Kita5399 Posts: 2,112 Member
    lisamwitt wrote: »
    Eco Living is a hot mess. Don't plan on gardening it's a waste of time with Eco Living. Solar panels and Wind turbines don't do nothing to help lower the bills. Don't hold your breath for a serious Eco Living patch.

    They really don't work at all?? What about generators? Water storage? Does that stuff all work as advertised?

    With NAPs off, what is the neighborhood like? Just what it was when you installed the pack, or can you still clean it up on your own and make it change?
    My solar panels, wind turbines, generators, and water storage all work. There is a separate check box for build/buy eco effects, everything works fine for me if I have that enabled. You can still vote for neighborhood changes, as well as community lot changes even with NAP’s dissabled as that is a separate system. The changing eco footprint works fine in my game now as well.
  • lisamwittlisamwitt Posts: 5,079 Member
    Atreya33 wrote: »
    @lisamwitt I was also thinking about getting eco lifestyle but I am worried about the effect of NAP.

    I created a thread with very similar questions just a few days ago.
    https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/984081/eco-lifestyle-turn-off-nap-does-it-work#latest

    I am still not sure if I will get it.

    I just read through your thread. Sounds like some players are still having NAP problems. If I do get it, I will be backing up my back ups before installing.
    Gallery ID: LadyGray01
  • Atreya33Atreya33 Posts: 4,404 Member
    lisamwitt wrote: »
    Atreya33 wrote: »
    @lisamwitt I was also thinking about getting eco lifestyle but I am worried about the effect of NAP.

    I created a thread with very similar questions just a few days ago.
    https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/984081/eco-lifestyle-turn-off-nap-does-it-work#latest

    I am still not sure if I will get it.

    I just read through your thread. Sounds like some players are still having NAP problems. If I do get it, I will be backing up my back ups before installing.

    I am going back and forth in my decision. I like some of the aspects like crafting furniture, more apartments, and an industrial world but I am not sure I want the stress of NAPs that can overrule npc behaviour. If I should get it, I will definitely turn NAPs off as soon as I can. Too bad because that is the main feature of the pack but I dislike the random behaviour.
  • KerriganKerrigan Posts: 1,571 Member
    I like all of the packs for the most part and there is a lot of neat looking stuff in the Eco pack. Tina Tinker is a cute little Sim also! The Eco items do have very little effect and it really takes using the Eco lot traits to really get a self-sufficient house. NAPs thoroughly trashed several of my saves because there are NPC behaviors that get stuck to Sims even if you're playing them. I don't know if that's still a bug because I won't use NAPs in my game.
  • HandelHandel Posts: 395 Member
    Man I was excited for NAPs and kinda still curious about them but man. Kinda bad when both of the main features, (NAPs and the Green/Industrial thing) are both things I wanted to turn off.

    As it stands, I'm more likely to pick up Snowy Escape before Eco Lifestyle.
    Townie/NPC lore nerd!
  • lisamwittlisamwitt Posts: 5,079 Member
    Handel wrote: »
    Man I was excited for NAPs and kinda still curious about them but man. Kinda bad when both of the main features, (NAPs and the Green/Industrial thing) are both things I wanted to turn off.

    As it stands, I'm more likely to pick up Snowy Escape before Eco Lifestyle.

    If Snowy Escape was half off I would, maybe even if I could just bundle it, but it's too new. I won't pay full price for anything.
    Gallery ID: LadyGray01
  • HandelHandel Posts: 395 Member
    I mean, ditto there. And I'm still planning on picking up some stuff packs next sale because it annoys me when I don't have everything for gallery homes I'm interested in...

    ...which is how EA gets ya. -dramatic sigh-
    Townie/NPC lore nerd!
  • lisamwittlisamwitt Posts: 5,079 Member
    Still can't decide. Sigh.
    Gallery ID: LadyGray01
  • CelSimsCelSims Posts: 2,270 Member
    lisamwitt wrote: »
    Eco Living is a hot mess. Don't plan on gardening it's a waste of time with Eco Living. Solar panels and Wind turbines don't do nothing to help lower the bills. Don't hold your breath for a serious Eco Living patch.

    They really don't work at all?? What about generators? Water storage? Does that stuff all work as advertised?

    With NAPs off, what is the neighborhood like? Just what it was when you installed the pack, or can you still clean it up on your own and make it change?

    Electric and water generation does work. I have a save where I'm building Newcrest from scratch with alien colonists and every house has electrical and water items powered by electric and water I generate on the lot. All are using solar panels and wind turbines.

    It can be difficult at first to understand the bills and how to be sure you are generating enough, along with doing all the eco upgrades to lower your consumption in the first place. And some people don't realize that you need to choose the option to store the power/water and not have it being auto sold. Allowing the lot to auto sell rather than using the power yourself can give the appearance that you aren't getting a reduction, because you get small sums constantly added to house funds rather than it being shown on your household bills, so it's not very intuitive.

    With N.A.P.s off, NPC's are unable to vote on them. You will still get a notification that a NAP has been enacted, but it is an error, none has been chosen unless you have voted with a played sim. NOTE: I've seen one person comment that since the SE patch that this is not working for them and NPCs are voting but that is not my experience.
    With N.A.P.s off your played sim can still choose to vote if you want to. It basically allows you the player to dictate which NAP, if any, is implimented. If you dont have your sim vote there will be none enacted.

    The Eco footprint of each neighbourhood can be effected by some of the NAPS. But you don't need them turned on to change to green, neutral or industrial. I would say that it can be very hard to change the footprint and I would recommend using a mod to stop it returning to neutral very very quickly.
  • Atreya33Atreya33 Posts: 4,404 Member
    CelSims wrote: »
    lisamwitt wrote: »
    Eco Living is a hot mess. Don't plan on gardening it's a waste of time with Eco Living. Solar panels and Wind turbines don't do nothing to help lower the bills. Don't hold your breath for a serious Eco Living patch.

    They really don't work at all?? What about generators? Water storage? Does that stuff all work as advertised?

    With NAPs off, what is the neighborhood like? Just what it was when you installed the pack, or can you still clean it up on your own and make it change?

    Electric and water generation does work. I have a save where I'm building Newcrest from scratch with alien colonists and every house has electrical and water items powered by electric and water I generate on the lot. All are using solar panels and wind turbines.

    It can be difficult at first to understand the bills and how to be sure you are generating enough, along with doing all the eco upgrades to lower your consumption in the first place. And some people don't realize that you need to choose the option to store the power/water and not have it being auto sold. Allowing the lot to auto sell rather than using the power yourself can give the appearance that you aren't getting a reduction, because you get small sums constantly added to house funds rather than it being shown on your household bills, so it's not very intuitive.

    With N.A.P.s off, NPC's are unable to vote on them. You will still get a notification that a NAP has been enacted, but it is an error, none has been chosen unless you have voted with a played sim. NOTE: I've seen one person comment that since the SE patch that this is not working for them and NPCs are voting but that is not my experience.
    With N.A.P.s off your played sim can still choose to vote if you want to. It basically allows you the player to dictate which NAP, if any, is implimented. If you dont have your sim vote there will be none enacted.

    The Eco footprint of each neighbourhood can be effected by some of the NAPS. But you don't need them turned on to change to green, neutral or industrial. I would say that it can be very hard to change the footprint and I would recommend using a mod to stop it returning to neutral very very quickly.

    So the patch didn't cause problems with NAPs for everyone. Thanks for letting us know. I was kind of worried when I first heard about the patch messing up the NAP toggle.
  • Atreya33Atreya33 Posts: 4,404 Member
    lisamwitt wrote: »
    Still can't decide. Sigh.

    Same here. :neutral: *sigh*
  • mustenimusteni Posts: 5,403 Member
    edited November 2020
    I've been playing in Evergreen harbour the past few days. My sims Pippa and Mara moved there to an apartment (in Conifer Station) and also bought a store (in Port Promise). They had previously been staying in Newcrest with Pippa's sister and honing their skills. The idea is that they will start selling fabricated items and robots in a warehouse. Pippa is my only sim who has been using the fabricator and she is maybe level 6 now. I've enjoyed unlocking the different items and making them, though getting all the bits and pieces is a bit tedious. She has had to dumpster dive a lot. Luckily there are two dumpsters in Port Promise and at least one in Conifer Station. I suppose in other worlds you would have to buy stuff to recycle on the recycler machine. I have also played with the iniative NAPs a bit and I like how the modern development initiative changes the apartments. My gameplay combines different packs, but just thought I would post it to you because I've really enjoyed it and maybe it gives you some ideas :)

    Just a couple of pictures:
    Jxg9yOY.png
    O9u7b1N.png
    ZoxL6i4.png
  • texxx78texxx78 Posts: 5,657 Member
    lisamwitt wrote: »
    I wanted Eco Living before it came out, then didn't buy it after I started reading about problems in the forums. Right now since it's 50% off, I decided I'd ask players who have been playing it for awhile more about it.

    Do you have the ability to completely turn off NAPs? Can you easily control which NAPs you have? Do NAPs you don't have still affect your game? How do the NAPs affect other worlds?

    I'm particularly concerned about "sharing is caring". I put a lot of time into creating my lots and the idea of Sims coming along and taking everything and ruining them is the biggest thing that turned me off from buying it.

    Are there any other aspects of gameplay that are game breaking?

    It is playable. I have everything on atm and it's working really fine. Sharing is caring looks like it has been tuned down. Only one neighbourhood has automatically chosen it and it isn't as bad as in the beginning.
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