This is a wonderful idea. I do miss it greatly from previous sims versions. It was one of the best in sims 3 especially with the items from the store. I do hope they add in more farming options, and off grid living woud be wonderful. I think we need a nice farming community town as well. Right now the only real option to place a built farm is Brindleton bay and only in certain areas. Much too small a space. I would love this sort of expansion and game play. Especially with versatile options to make it suitable for medieval game play or fantasy worlds. Being able to live off the land is vital in those instances.
I like the idea of living off the grid, in a map with no paved roads in a sort of timeless place where you can't tell what year it is.
I wouldn't mind seeing some build/buy that includes shoddy exterior walls and roofs with holes and floors that are worn with cracks so we could make really old barn structures.
As far as the farm life itself, I personally wouldn't do much with it, but I'd like to see a petting zoo, where Sims could take their children and toddlers to feed chickens, pet goats and sheep and cows, play in a bunny pen, etc. If the animals were objects, it could probably be done without hogging too many resources. And it would give Sims more activities to do with their offspring.
A new, returning & fitting WooHoo location could be a haystack https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nCogCaG7EF0
You could reuse the animations from the WooHoo bush in Get Together and Jungle Adventure or the leaf piles from Seasons!
I am not a fan of the homeschooling (as that is not off the grid to me) but I LOVE the rest of it! Take my money!
Just don't use the feature.
Homeschooling would be optional, I only thought about it because then the whole family could work at the farm and some rural areas might not have proper schools
I have to say, I was never on board with farming until I came across this. I was kind of like "why would I buy a pack to just...look at animals?" It really wasn't clicking in my brain. But I love how much thought and detail there is in this, how many new skills that can even be carried into other gameplay (like a stylist career sim that can sew). If farming arrived for Sims 4 and was like this, I might actually buy it (especially if the world is a good size). 😊
I live on a farm that is now mostly defunct. My last horse passed away a few years ago but I still have a couple of cows. (I'm down to 2 cows, 3 dogs, and 18 cats). In it's prime, my farm had horses, ducks, chickens, geese, turkeys, guinea fowl, quail, pigeons, pigs, goats, dogs, cats, rabbits, gerbils, & hamsters. I wouldn't expect all of those in game though. I would like some of them.
Fresh horse manure is not a good fertilizer until it composts- it can actually damage crops due to some of the chemicals, but cow manure is an excellent fertilizer & even a couple of cows make plenty of it. My elderly friend who lived in town used to ask me to bag up the cow manure (which he called "barnyard fertilizer") in sacks for him to use in his garden.
The ones I would want (that are not currently in game) are horses, chickens, sheep, goats, cows, & pigs for the basic farms.
*Horses could be used to herd other animals & to travel places- I'd also add in basically everything for horses that were in Sims3
*Sheep for standard wool
*Cows for standard milk & fertilizer
*Chickens for eggs
*Pigs for truffles (I know, it's silly, but in other farm games, pigs hunt truffles) and to eat non-toxic garbage/expired food
*Sheep for wool & lanolin
*Goats for more milk & to keep grass down (they are natural lawn-mowers) - there are also some breeds of more fluffy goats that can be shaved for wool.
Some people who can't drink cow's milk can drink goat's milk. Goats are also highly entertaining when they play.
For some more exotic pets, I would have alpacas or llamas (for more wool) and ostriches or emus for larger eggs. Maybe have geese that leave down/feathers in their enclosures.
I agree that a method of spinning wool into thread would be necessary, so spinning wheels (and modern equivalents) and looms would be cool. I'd also like to add silk worms to make silk. There could be special plants used to attract the moths that lay the eggs & then the silkworms can be raised in to new moths. I was going to suggest butterflies, but silkworks turn to moths-- but the game could fudge it and have silk butterflies too. Around where I live there are pernicious plant-devouring tent caterpillars that create a lot of what looks like silk (looks similar to spiderwebs in raw form).
I like the idea of low tech & high tech solutions. In a more off-the-grid higher tech solution, there was a farmer (featured on "Dirty Jobs") with a dairy farm where he harvested the manure from his dairy cows & processed it to extract the methane. He extracted the liquid and filtered it to a point it could be used to water the land, he extracted the methane from the waste to use as fuel to power the farm, and he composted the solids and molded them in to bio-degradable plant pots.
Growing hay on farms with more land would be a good idea to have food for the cows (corn is a popular food in fiction, but it can actually kill cows- dried chopped corn is fine for chickens & goats though). I feed my cows hay mixed with molasses. If there was a sea pack that allowed Sims to grow kelp/seaweed, that could be used for feed bc apparently certain types of seaweed are good for cows.
It would be cool for the farm animals to have different personalities. I've had cows that were friendly & docile, some that are docile but nervous/afraid, and my biggest cow is friendly but rambunctious/playful. She weighs a ton & has 18" horns & loooves to chase people. She's chased off trespassers in the past & she just finds it fun- thinks it's a game when people run from her.
Goats and sheep are the same. They can be very sweet and cuddly or they can be jerks that love to headbutt people and knock them down.
Pigs can also be pretty funny. One of mine once grabbed an annoying child by the pantleg and dragged him to the trash pile 50ft away bc the kid was kicking dirt in his face (kid was my little brother- I laughed hysterically while I watched).
Chickens like to be held and petted somewhat- although some roosters will chase/attack people. They particularly hate the color red.
Since we could breed horses in Sims3 that would be nice for Sims4. It would also be nice to be able to breed better chickens to get ones that produce better eggs.
I would like to find a different title though- Off the Land makes me think of something at sea. LOL.
Growing hay on farms with more land would be a good idea to have food for the cows (corn is a popular food in fiction, but it can actually kill cows- dried chopped corn is fine for chickens & goats though). I feed my cows hay mixed with molasses.
Great suggestion! Growing and using hay as a source of food for your animals would be another fun aspect. Besides that you mentioned many other ideas that are also really great, I hope the development team will take some inspiration!
I live on a farm that is now mostly defunct. My last horse passed away a few years ago but I still have a couple of cows. (I'm down to 2 cows, 3 dogs, and 18 cats). In it's prime, my farm had horses, ducks, chickens, geese, turkeys, guinea fowl, quail, pigeons, pigs, goats, dogs, cats, rabbits, gerbils, & hamsters. I wouldn't expect all of those in game though. I would like some of them.
Fresh horse manure is not a good fertilizer until it composts- it can actually damage crops due to some of the chemicals, but cow manure is an excellent fertilizer & even a couple of cows make plenty of it. My elderly friend who lived in town used to ask me to bag up the cow manure (which he called "barnyard fertilizer") in sacks for him to use in his garden.
The ones I would want (that are not currently in game) are horses, chickens, sheep, goats, cows, & pigs for the basic farms.
*Horses could be used to herd other animals & to travel places- I'd also add in basically everything for horses that were in Sims3
*Sheep for standard wool
*Cows for standard milk & fertilizer
*Chickens for eggs
*Pigs for truffles (I know, it's silly, but in other farm games, pigs hunt truffles) and to eat non-toxic garbage/expired food
*Sheep for wool & lanolin
*Goats for more milk & to keep grass down (they are natural lawn-mowers) - there are also some breeds of more fluffy goats that can be shaved for wool.
Some people who can't drink cow's milk can drink goat's milk. Goats are also highly entertaining when they play.
For some more exotic pets, I would have alpacas or llamas (for more wool) and ostriches or emus for larger eggs. Maybe have geese that leave down/feathers in their enclosures.
I agree that a method of spinning wool into thread would be necessary, so spinning wheels (and modern equivalents) and looms would be cool. I'd also like to add silk worms to make silk. There could be special plants used to attract the moths that lay the eggs & then the silkworms can be raised in to new moths. I was going to suggest butterflies, but silkworks turn to moths-- but the game could fudge it and have silk butterflies too. Around where I live there are pernicious plant-devouring tent caterpillars that create a lot of what looks like silk (looks similar to spiderwebs in raw form).
I like the idea of low tech & high tech solutions. In a more off-the-grid higher tech solution, there was a farmer (featured on "Dirty Jobs") with a dairy farm where he harvested the manure from his dairy cows & processed it to extract the methane. He extracted the liquid and filtered it to a point it could be used to water the land, he extracted the methane from the waste to use as fuel to power the farm, and he composted the solids and molded them in to bio-degradable plant pots.
Growing hay on farms with more land would be a good idea to have food for the cows (corn is a popular food in fiction, but it can actually kill cows- dried chopped corn is fine for chickens & goats though). I feed my cows hay mixed with molasses. If there was a sea pack that allowed Sims to grow kelp/seaweed, that could be used for feed bc apparently certain types of seaweed are good for cows.
It would be cool for the farm animals to have different personalities. I've had cows that were friendly & docile, some that are docile but nervous/afraid, and my biggest cow is friendly but rambunctious/playful. She weighs a ton & has 18" horns & loooves to chase people. She's chased off trespassers in the past & she just finds it fun- thinks it's a game when people run from her.
Goats and sheep are the same. They can be very sweet and cuddly or they can be jerks that love to headbutt people and knock them down.
Pigs can also be pretty funny. One of mine once grabbed an annoying child by the pantleg and dragged him to the trash pile 50ft away bc the kid was kicking dirt in his face (kid was my little brother- I laughed hysterically while I watched).
Chickens like to be held and petted somewhat- although some roosters will chase/attack people. They particularly hate the color red.
Since we could breed horses in Sims3 that would be nice for Sims4. It would also be nice to be able to breed better chickens to get ones that produce better eggs.
I would like to find a different title though- Off the Land makes me think of something at sea. LOL.
I’ve seen a lot of requests for a farming pack. Can’t say it’s my top priority, but I think it might be fun. What happens when the sheep/chickens/cows die though? I can’t imagine them letting our sims eat them/sell them for meat. But, at the same time, if they don’t then it wouldn’t seem like a real farm.
When they die the game can pop up a notification like: “[insert livestock name] has been transferred to the animal retirement home due to old age.” Where the animal retirement home is the euphemism for smokehouse I guess
Btw I’d like to have mini ponies / piggies as pets and the ability to hand raise calves / lambs / piglets / foals. And an annual rabbit-hole fair event where you can bring along your best livestock and with a chance bring home with a ribbon & large sum of Simoleons & varies moodlets would be very cool!
I’ve seen a lot of requests for a farming pack. Can’t say it’s my top priority, but I think it might be fun. What happens when the sheep/chickens/cows die though? I can’t imagine them letting our sims eat them/sell them for meat. But, at the same time, if they don’t then it wouldn’t seem like a real farm.
And an annual rabbit-hole fair event where you can bring along your best livestock and with a chance bring home with a ribbon & large sum of Simoleons & varies moodlets would be very cool!
I'd rather have a weekly farmers market or country fair in the world! There could be stands that sell eggs, milk, whool, canned food, nectar bottles, etc.
I like the idea of having farm animal ratings/ competitions where you can earn badges based on the animals health and egg quality or milk quality!
I am still waiting for this but probably in vain. We are getting objects and wallpapers sneaked into various packs like StrangerVille so might be able to make a farm ourselves eventually putting them all together if all else fails.
I'd love a chicken coop and plants like wheat, rye, barley and even rice paddies. If we had hops and barley we could have a beer industry!
Hopefully they do Wine Making again, I have sims who own a Farm and their primary focus is the Vineyard, Winery and Brewery
Just hope there are requirements to production
Like: You need x50 Grapes in your sims inventory to craft a Bottle of wine.
I also want to be able to name, My sims crafts. I've built a wine cellar so I hope we can also barrel our crafts and store them as well as our future college kids can tap them sell them in our restaurants, or sell them to restaurants, or gift them.
I want the world to be big primarily one big Neighborhood
perhaps a 100x100 lot for My Sim's estate that sits on top of a hill and overlooks the entire Farm. Sort of How the two 50x50 Lots looks over the other Lot, in Willow Creek, sort of the Rear entrance to the farm as well.
probably about 4, 64x64 Lots Scattered south of the giant Lot.
Of Course if the entire World could be just one large Lot, boarded by a Birch Forest, Oak and Pine and Mountains to the north. TO give us complete customization of the Farmland set up. We could landscape everything to our desire.
Definitely want Hogs and Pigs, Cows and Bulls,
I had built stables/Barn, when Get Together came out. can't wait to put it to use.
And During Spring and Autumn, I'll have host Harvest Festivals, there.
Also I would prefer live bull riding, but if not, mechanical bull riding for restaurants, and as a pool toy would be cool.
I want horses so freaking bad, that was one of my favorite additions to sims 3. I think farming would be great especially if some livestock were included, I feel like every pack has been very focused on city life and hobbies and it would be cool to be able to entertain other lifestyles.
This would be the perfect way to do a farming pack, the only other details I’d possibly want would be;
•Tree Object that sims can interact with; climb, cut down to collect firewood, and build a tree fort (maybe usable for cats too)
•Firewood Chopping Block for sims to chop wood or practice axe throwing to build the fitness skill. (+ a wood box object to store firewood that sims can add to fireplaces for extra emotion buffs)
•”Juice” brewing alongside Nectar making
•More furniture to craft at the handiness workbench (using firewood)
•Gophers and Rabbits (they’d look similar to hampsters/rodents or rats but rome around like the vacuume roombas from Cats and Dogs, damaging your garden plants unless you or a cat or dog chases them off!)
Also, homeschooling would be a great addition or sims would realistically be exhausted from the commute (my commute was over an hour each way in high school)
I would love a pack like this - it is different but adds lots of game play to the game. I didn't play the Sims 3 where they had horses and cows, I had stopped playing by then.
Pests
A new idea I had to make farm life a bit challenging: pests. Pests appear on your lot and can take over your farm if you don't take care of them.
Moles
Moles leave molehills all over your lot. You have to clear them up. They might destroy your crops if they dig a molehill at the same spot a crop is growing.
Caterpillars
Caterpillars can damage your harvestables and eat plant leaves. They spread to other crops if you don't use bug spray.
Flies
Flies annoy your livestock, which will lead to unhappy farm animals if left untreated. This results in them producing bad quality eggs and milk. Scare the flies away manually or upgrade the barn or coop with a fly trap to prevent flies from coming to it.
You might also call pest control, a new type of NPC, to get rid of pests professionally. (for a fee)
This is my favorite expansion pack idea by miles and miles! A farming themed pack would have endless ideas that make sense in it as proven by this thread. PLEASE LET THIS HAPPEN!!
Comments
I wouldn't mind seeing some build/buy that includes shoddy exterior walls and roofs with holes and floors that are worn with cracks so we could make really old barn structures.
As far as the farm life itself, I personally wouldn't do much with it, but I'd like to see a petting zoo, where Sims could take their children and toddlers to feed chickens, pet goats and sheep and cows, play in a bunny pen, etc. If the animals were objects, it could probably be done without hogging too many resources. And it would give Sims more activities to do with their offspring.
Just don't use the feature.
You could reuse the animations from the WooHoo bush in Get Together and Jungle Adventure or the leaf piles from Seasons!
(Please watch the video with sound on!
Homeschooling would be optional, I only thought about it because then the whole family could work at the farm and some rural areas might not have proper schools
Fresh horse manure is not a good fertilizer until it composts- it can actually damage crops due to some of the chemicals, but cow manure is an excellent fertilizer & even a couple of cows make plenty of it. My elderly friend who lived in town used to ask me to bag up the cow manure (which he called "barnyard fertilizer") in sacks for him to use in his garden.
The ones I would want (that are not currently in game) are horses, chickens, sheep, goats, cows, & pigs for the basic farms.
*Horses could be used to herd other animals & to travel places- I'd also add in basically everything for horses that were in Sims3
*Sheep for standard wool
*Cows for standard milk & fertilizer
*Chickens for eggs
*Pigs for truffles (I know, it's silly, but in other farm games, pigs hunt truffles) and to eat non-toxic garbage/expired food
*Sheep for wool & lanolin
*Goats for more milk & to keep grass down (they are natural lawn-mowers) - there are also some breeds of more fluffy goats that can be shaved for wool.
Some people who can't drink cow's milk can drink goat's milk. Goats are also highly entertaining when they play.
For some more exotic pets, I would have alpacas or llamas (for more wool) and ostriches or emus for larger eggs. Maybe have geese that leave down/feathers in their enclosures.
I agree that a method of spinning wool into thread would be necessary, so spinning wheels (and modern equivalents) and looms would be cool. I'd also like to add silk worms to make silk. There could be special plants used to attract the moths that lay the eggs & then the silkworms can be raised in to new moths. I was going to suggest butterflies, but silkworks turn to moths-- but the game could fudge it and have silk butterflies too. Around where I live there are pernicious plant-devouring tent caterpillars that create a lot of what looks like silk (looks similar to spiderwebs in raw form).
I like the idea of low tech & high tech solutions. In a more off-the-grid higher tech solution, there was a farmer (featured on "Dirty Jobs") with a dairy farm where he harvested the manure from his dairy cows & processed it to extract the methane. He extracted the liquid and filtered it to a point it could be used to water the land, he extracted the methane from the waste to use as fuel to power the farm, and he composted the solids and molded them in to bio-degradable plant pots.
Growing hay on farms with more land would be a good idea to have food for the cows (corn is a popular food in fiction, but it can actually kill cows- dried chopped corn is fine for chickens & goats though). I feed my cows hay mixed with molasses. If there was a sea pack that allowed Sims to grow kelp/seaweed, that could be used for feed bc apparently certain types of seaweed are good for cows.
It would be cool for the farm animals to have different personalities. I've had cows that were friendly & docile, some that are docile but nervous/afraid, and my biggest cow is friendly but rambunctious/playful. She weighs a ton & has 18" horns & loooves to chase people. She's chased off trespassers in the past & she just finds it fun- thinks it's a game when people run from her.
Goats and sheep are the same. They can be very sweet and cuddly or they can be jerks that love to headbutt people and knock them down.
Pigs can also be pretty funny. One of mine once grabbed an annoying child by the pantleg and dragged him to the trash pile 50ft away bc the kid was kicking dirt in his face (kid was my little brother- I laughed hysterically while I watched).
Chickens like to be held and petted somewhat- although some roosters will chase/attack people. They particularly hate the color red.
Since we could breed horses in Sims3 that would be nice for Sims4. It would also be nice to be able to breed better chickens to get ones that produce better eggs.
I would like to find a different title though- Off the Land makes me think of something at sea. LOL.
The title comes from "Living off the land", but maybe we could call it "On The Land"
And wheat to feed cows, sheep, etc.
SO MANY GOOD IDEAS!! Yes!!!
When they die the game can pop up a notification like: “[insert livestock name] has been transferred to the animal retirement home due to old age.” Where the animal retirement home is the euphemism for smokehouse I guess
Btw I’d like to have mini ponies / piggies as pets and the ability to hand raise calves / lambs / piglets / foals. And an annual rabbit-hole fair event where you can bring along your best livestock and with a chance bring home with a ribbon & large sum of Simoleons & varies moodlets would be very cool!
I'd rather have a weekly farmers market or country fair in the world! There could be stands that sell eggs, milk, whool, canned food, nectar bottles, etc.
I like the idea of having farm animal ratings/ competitions where you can earn badges based on the animals health and egg quality or milk quality!
I'd love a chicken coop and plants like wheat, rye, barley and even rice paddies. If we had hops and barley we could have a beer industry!
Just hope there are requirements to production
Like: You need x50 Grapes in your sims inventory to craft a Bottle of wine.
I also want to be able to name, My sims crafts. I've built a wine cellar so I hope we can also barrel our crafts and store them as well as our future college kids can tap them
I want the world to be big primarily one big Neighborhood
perhaps a 100x100 lot for My Sim's estate that sits on top of a hill and overlooks the entire Farm. Sort of How the two 50x50 Lots looks over the other Lot, in Willow Creek, sort of the Rear entrance to the farm as well.
probably about 4, 64x64 Lots Scattered south of the giant Lot.
Of Course if the entire World could be just one large Lot, boarded by a Birch Forest, Oak and Pine and Mountains to the north. TO give us complete customization of the Farmland set up. We could landscape everything to our desire.
Definitely want Hogs and Pigs, Cows and Bulls,
I had built stables/Barn, when Get Together came out. can't wait to put it to use.
And During Spring and Autumn, I'll have host Harvest Festivals, there.
Also I would prefer live bull riding, but if not, mechanical bull riding for restaurants, and as a pool toy would be cool.
My Mood:
•Tree Object that sims can interact with; climb, cut down to collect firewood, and build a tree fort (maybe usable for cats too)
•Firewood Chopping Block for sims to chop wood or practice axe throwing to build the fitness skill. (+ a wood box object to store firewood that sims can add to fireplaces for extra emotion buffs)
•”Juice” brewing alongside Nectar making
•More furniture to craft at the handiness workbench (using firewood)
•Gophers and Rabbits (they’d look similar to hampsters/rodents or rats but rome around like the vacuume roombas from Cats and Dogs, damaging your garden plants unless you or a cat or dog chases them off!)
Also, homeschooling would be a great addition or sims would realistically be exhausted from the commute (my commute was over an hour each way in high school)
A new idea I had to make farm life a bit challenging: pests. Pests appear on your lot and can take over your farm if you don't take care of them.
Moles
Moles leave molehills all over your lot. You have to clear them up. They might destroy your crops if they dig a molehill at the same spot a crop is growing.
Caterpillars
Caterpillars can damage your harvestables and eat plant leaves. They spread to other crops if you don't use bug spray.
Flies
Flies annoy your livestock, which will lead to unhappy farm animals if left untreated. This results in them producing bad quality eggs and milk. Scare the flies away manually or upgrade the barn or coop with a fly trap to prevent flies from coming to it.
You might also call pest control, a new type of NPC, to get rid of pests professionally. (for a fee)