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Kits - Dust and vacuum suggestion

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arletaarleta Posts: 54 Member
I got excited about vacuuming, but as always I Have to turn it off as many things I already have like naps and calendar features (since university is still not fixed). The dust is gathering at an alarming rate. Did creators of this “Brilliant” plan though my sims have nothing else to do but vacuum all day and that every sim will need their own vacuum? That’s like putting the entire stove in the inventory after you cook a meal. Why put it in inventory? Can you make the vacuum a fixture of the home not a personal item? At least the large ones. I don’t exactly walk around with vacuums in my purse. I also don’t carry around a mini fridge. And reduce the dust gathering. After 1 hour it became so annoying I had to turn it off. It’s like your sims entire existence just revolves around dusting. It’s a cute addition, with emphasis on addition. Tone it down. I don’t want to go in and play sims the dusting challenge. I want to play sims. Right now I’m just vacuuming every few hours. It’s eat, shower toilet vacuum sleep vacuum. It an addition not the entire game.

Comments

  • BlkBarbiegalBlkBarbiegal Posts: 7,924 Member
    edited March 2021
    From my understanding the more sims the faster dust accumulates? I don't know. So far I've played 2 households. One house with 4 sims (two-story), the other with 3 (3 story). Dust gathers once a day in each house so it was fairly easy to maintain. To be fair both had a maid.

    When I move to the next rotation, that lot will have 6 sims. One of the sims is a sim who drowned, so you know that's a continuous mess right there. lol But what I'm going to do is try to manage it like the other households but without a maid. I think it'll be fun imo. If it gets too out of hand, I'll temporarily turn off dust until I move to the next household.

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  • Calico45Calico45 Posts: 2,038 Member
    I play nearly exclusively in a house of eight and did all my testing in a house of eight and have not had a problem. (It was a three story home with a basement, too.) I did summon Bonehilda, but she did not vacuum. Oh, and it was heroic mode haunted, too, so I was cleaning up ghost junk as well.

    All in all, I do not think it is hard to keep up with. I also think it is an appropriate sort of challenge for keeping up with a large home and/or family. That is the reason I hear most stated for why people do not want big houses: because they will then have to clean a big house.

    Then again, I have micromanaged seven Sims through university at the same time. I barely had time to pause. Short of mechanics not working properly, I doubt the difficulty would bother me too much. You can always turn it off, though.
  • SimmervilleSimmerville Posts: 11,644 Member
    I tdon't own the kit, but I thought the dust kit came with 3 different levels? I must have misunderstood.
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  • AineAine Posts: 3,043 Member
    With the vacuum, a little goes a long way. You don't have to do much to keep the dust bunnies away. If you have a big family you either need a maid or have the family do one room or level each. And unless you have a clean freak in the house, no need to do it more than every other day.
    Allons-y!

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  • Kita5399Kita5399 Posts: 2,112 Member
    I’ll have to do some testing on this, as I agree with the OP (but I’ve seen mixed reports). I’ve only used the feature in one household so far, it’s the apartment Salim lived in (tiny one bedroom apartment). I too find that it gets dusty constantly, I have only one “neat” sim living there. She has to vacuum 3-4 times a day, and it gets dusty again halfway through the night while sleeping. I’ve found that even if she just finished vacuuming then invites someone inside, the floor immediately gets dusty the second the other Sim enters. I know Ninja said in the live stream that they added a lot of cross pack features, so I wonder if the excess is due to the apartment trait “needs TLC”?? I’m going to buy her one of those robot vacuums from the pets EP an see how it goes with that.
  • arletaarleta Posts: 54 Member
    edited March 2021
    I don’t have a clean freak. Yet my sims default is now to vacuum. I would like the vacuum to be a fixture of the house not put in personal inventory. I don’t want each sim to have their own vacuum. that is absurd. I don’t have each sim have their own stove or washing machine. I don’t want to use a maid for every household just to keep up. And yes, it makes a huge difference so you cannot even compare. I don’t know how you play sims, but I’d like them to do other stuff except for vacuuming like skill building. If you compare it to laundry day, the design is almost seamless. It’s something that was added and my sim just does it from time to time. Its a cool addition not the game itself. It’s not the laundry day challenge. That is how I feel right now. it’s the vacuum challenge and the solution once again is to turn it off. Well that’s additional game play you pay for that needs to be turned off once again because it’s poorly tuned. In one hour game play my sim picked vacuum 4 times autonomously. I think once would be enough for a chore. I had 3 dust bunnies and dust pile up all the time every few minutes. There should at least be an option to lower the occurrence. I am not playing a large household. It’s a two sim household in a starter home. Maybe that is why I notice them. it’s a small home. I would have this set to super low. Vacuuming is not exciting, but I thought for realism would be a nice addition, but not when it’s taking over my game. I don’t want to see dust bunnies even every other day. Give me one a week and just regular dust every third day. I can deal with that. Not multiple in a sim day. And the vacuum should be a fixture of the house so anyone can grab it, at least the large ones. I don’t want each sim to carry a vacuum in inventory. In my house I have a vacuum in a closet not in my pocket.
  • arletaarleta Posts: 54 Member
    I moved the family to a new home and within 5 minutes my sim canceled painting and started vacuuming
  • arletaarleta Posts: 54 Member
    On a different note. Why my sim don’t gain fun out of painting? Shouldn’t painting be fun?
  • Kita5399Kita5399 Posts: 2,112 Member
    arleta wrote: »
    I don’t have a clean freak. Yet my sims default is now to vacuum. I would like the vacuum to be a fixture of the house not put in personal inventory. I don’t want each sim to have their own vacuum. that is absurd. I don’t have each sim have their own stove or washing machine. I don’t want to use a maid for every household just to keep up. And yes, it makes a huge difference so you cannot even compare. I don’t know how you play sims, but I’d like them to do other stuff except for vacuuming like skill building. If you compare it to laundry day, the design is almost seamless. It’s something that was added and my sim just does it from time to time. Its a cool addition not the game itself. It’s not the laundry day challenge. That is how I feel right now. it’s the vacuum challenge and the solution once again is to turn it off. Well that’s additional game play you pay for that needs to be turned off once again because it’s poorly tuned. In one hour game play my sim picked vacuum 4 times autonomously. I think once would be enough for a chore. I had 3 dust bunnies and dust pile up all the time every few minutes. There should at least be an option to lower the occurrence. I am not playing a large household. It’s a two sim household in a starter home. Maybe that is why I notice them. it’s a small home. I would have this set to super low. Vacuuming is not exciting, but I thought for realism would be a nice addition, but not when it’s taking over my game. I don’t want to see dust bunnies even every other day. Give me one a week and just regular dust every third day. I can deal with that. Not multiple in a sim day. And the vacuum should be a fixture of the house so anyone can grab it, at least the large ones. I don’t want each sim to carry a vacuum in inventory. In my house I have a vacuum in a closet not in my pocket.
    Personally I don’t mind the fact it goes in the inventory, I keep mine out and just drag it into the inventory before use (to be fair I’m not playing a large household). I wouldn’t mind the need to vacuum everyday as long as it was just once, maybe twice for really large households. I do wish the dust bunnies occurred less frequently for two reasons:
    1. It would make them a bit more special, since they bring valuables and stuff.
    2. They cause routing issues in tiny houses.
  • BlkBarbiegalBlkBarbiegal Posts: 7,924 Member
    edited March 2021
    I have noticed on the rare occasion dust will appear on the first floor where the pool is twice a day. My sims live in the 3 story Spire Apartment in San Myshuno. They have guests every evening. My sim may go and clean it up if I'm not controlling them when I'm focused on a different sim. Other than that I was setting morning time for my sims to vacuum even if a little dust creeps up later in the day.
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  • arletaarleta Posts: 54 Member
    I just turned on sim in new house to see how often dust bunnies will show up. 2 adults and one toddler. On average in 1 hour of game play it happened 3 times. That is less then a day for a sim. I hate that I have to find everything in the inventory. I have sim who have a lot of stuff in there since they list them on ploppsy (another game feature that I’m not happy with. I mean watching sims sit at a computer is game play at its finest (sarcasm), but what else can you do since retail is so limited in design and there isn’t enough empty lots for stores). So now I have to scroll through entire inventory every 15 minutes to find a vacuum and take it out so both sim can use a vacuum or they all have to carry one around. Just put a place holder and put the vacuum back. It’s annoying and it makes no sense. I created a little cubby for the vacuum but the vacuum is never there. So now they eat shower and use the toilet as well as vacuum as if it’s a daily survival necessity. And no I don’t want modders to fix it. I don’t understand why modders can fix things but game designers can’t. I’m paying for the features. I’ve been playing sims since sims 1. It’s why I am so annoyed. I loved this game. It’s the only one that allows you to relax. Except in sims 4 I find myself more frustrated then relaxed. This is the first time I have to turn things off because they are not designed properly. I have never done it with any other sim game before. The build mode for this game is by far the best ( it is also beautiful in graphics, which is why it’s hard to go back to previous versions), but out of all versions game play is by far worse (excluding sim 1). My sim sit by the pool so often I stopped building pools, they do push ups during weddings (apparently watching your child getting married isn’t interesting enough) they move constantly (sit, down, step to the right, step to the left) when talking to other sim or simply stand in their way or talk while staring in the other direction. They cook even if there is excellent food already prepared. They change into workout clothes in winter to play basketball and don’t change back so they often freeze to death. They abandon toddlers on slopes hungry and tired (you can send the toddler home hungry and tired so when you get home they are nearly dead because the supposed nanny never did anything. Just poof vanishing toddler. Another great feature) They think of family members all the time. They cancel assigned tasks all the time almost as soon as you assign them. Lower free will means they won’t do anything at all. Even if you assign task like eat while starving they still cancel to dance. They talk to everyone, including the dude sitting at the other end of the restaurant while on a romantic date. You can’t exclude anyone from a conversation without an introduction or cancelling the entire conversation just to have someone join in as soon as you start another private convo. When taking to a group on an outing they scatter like roaches and as soon as you call them back they scatter again. Your snow bro has no use. You can’t build skills together like climbing so they can go on an expedition together. The vending machines never work. It’s not cute it’s glitchy. The Murphy bad will kill your entire family within a week of game play. If you have those bugs from eco you have to nurture them all the time which takes way too long. Yet things are supposedly challenging are not. Doctors can’t treat patients because the nurse is always in the way and can’t tell her to move or a assign her a task so she goes away. Sentiments are assigned without context. Got married no sentiment. Didn’t like a gift festering grudge. Logic at its best. Roughhousing calendar event. Sims fight, hug it out, laugh about it and apparently get furious sentiment. Sims don’t go to class just stand in front of a building even if you send them early or they go early(way too early) and walk away never to return again. Sims don’t go to exams because of seasons calendar (I had the calendar turned and they still didn’t go to exams resulting in failure) Naps: sharing is caring will render your carefully build lot into a fraction of the work you put in it. Technology naps and creative naps will just make things spawn in inventory without end and have your sim do nothing play with clay. And on and on and on. And now let’s add vacuuming as a feature which will happen in this glitchy chaos 3-4 times an hour so your sims can clean more times then they pee. And the solution to this pile is turn the feature you paid for off or get a mod which you will have to replace every time the game introduces something that doesn’t work properly. It’s just tuning. How hard is it to fix that since modders do it?

    These are just glitches. Fixable glitches. I am not even making a list of why this game lost its former life. Your sim are happy little clones with nothing that actually impacts relationships or individuality or long term game play. Reputation, traits, relationships, preferences are non impactful but shallow at best. They are a blurb in a profile. So at the very least having vacuuming as a nice reasonable reoccurring feature would be nice and not having it add to the chaos would be a welcome addition.
  • AncientMuseAncientMuse Posts: 1,061 Member
    Here's how my sim's day went after they vacuumed for the first time the night before:

    - wake up
    - use potty, wash hands
    - take a shower
    - make breakfast
    - sit down to eat breakfast
    - dust bunny appears
    - stop eating, get up and vacuum bunny
    - be instructed to sit back down and finish eating
    - take one bite, stop eating, and get up to vacuum again
    - be instructed to sit back down and finish eating
    - take one bite, stop eating, and get up to vacuum again
    - be instructed to sit back down and finish eating
    - rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat

    By noon, I turned off the dust effects in the game options menu and sold the vacuum in my sims inventory.
    *sigh*
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  • arletaarleta Posts: 54 Member
    edited March 2021
    Yup. This is what I’m talking about. On the second hour of game play. Dust was showing up while my sims was vacuuming. The longer he was vacuuming the more dust was showing up. I want my money back or make this reasonable. Once a week is fine. Right now my sim is not finishing anything just vacuuming all day.
  • LaxPhoenixLaxPhoenix Posts: 13 New Member
    @Kita5399
    I have had the same issues in an Eco Lifestyle apartment with no 'Needs TLC' lot trait, so I don't believe it's exclusively caused by that.
  • Kita5399Kita5399 Posts: 2,112 Member
    LaxPhoenix wrote: »
    @Kita5399
    I have had the same issues in an Eco Lifestyle apartment with no 'Needs TLC' lot trait, so I don't believe it's exclusively caused by that.
    Yeah, I moved my Sim to Windenburg and I’m seeing the same :|
  • bshag4lvbshag4lv Posts: 9,374 Member
    This one feature is making me crazy! My sims do all of the above. I hate, hate complaining about a feature, especially if it's one that's the main pack but dang. Is there no such thing in the world of Maxis as "tone it down a little bit" and is it too much to ask? :s The only way I have found to keep my sim from vaccuming every 15 sim minutes (I timed it) is to have them travel everywhere except home, and that's a crying shame. :(
    In my house, dog hair sticks to everything but the dog.
  • AncientMuseAncientMuse Posts: 1,061 Member
    edited March 2021
    bshag4lv wrote: »
    This one feature is making me crazy! My sims do all of the above. I hate, hate complaining about a feature, especially if it's one that's the main pack but dang. Is there no such thing in the world of Maxis as "tone it down a little bit" and is it too much to ask? :s The only way I have found to keep my sim from vaccuming every 15 sim minutes (I timed it) is to have them travel everywhere except home, and that's a crying shame. :(

    Agreed. I'm not one to complain about gameplay features because I usually accept the challenge and find ways to resolve the issue or find a workaround. But it looks like once that vacuum is in our sim's inventory, it's all they want to do.... this is the exact same issue we have with the knitting basket once you have one of those in your inventory too.

    I'm hoping the devs will come to realize this and fine tune these particular gameplay features to a more realistic level so that our sims can have the correct balance of autonomous activities without overdoing things to the point of taking away from all the other playable aspects of the game. My sim still needs to eat, use the potty, shower, socialize, do other fun things too without my having to stop them from wanting to vacuum every few minutes. I suspect finding that proper autonomy balance is maybe a bit tricky and that's the reason why the vacuuming is on overkill right now? Or maybe the only way to fix this issue is to not have the vacuum or knitting basket in our inventories and instead have the item placed in the world where you have to click on it to use it? Just a thought.... but I don't know the answer to these problems. *shrug*
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  • BlkBarbiegalBlkBarbiegal Posts: 7,924 Member
    When you have your sims visit other households, dust accumulates there too. :#
    I mean, I don't mind dust at the lot I'm playing, but when you visit other sims watching dirt grow..... lol
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  • Kita5399Kita5399 Posts: 2,112 Member
    When you have your sims visit other households, dust accumulates there too. :#
    I mean, I don't mind dust at the lot I'm playing, but when you visit other sims watching dirt grow..... lol
    I’ve seen people mention it happens on community lots as well. I haven’t seen it myself, but they do have the sparkles so it seems possible. I also had it happen at a rental, fun vacation that was. It isn’t realistic for Sims to be expected to clean in places other than their own home. I turned it off for now, and will only turn it on when it specifically goes with the family I want to play (I downloaded several mods to fix problems with it too).
  • BlkBarbiegalBlkBarbiegal Posts: 7,924 Member

    What I'm going to do is give everyone a vacuum cleaner so when my sim visits, hopefully the household I'm visiting will clean their own house at the time of visit. lol I'm just going to try different things. I am still keeping an eye out if a sim ignores what's in their queue to vacuum.

    Right now my 2 story house of 6 sims are actually doing great. I did in fact give everyone but 2 sims some type of vacuum. I can't or maybe don't control them all at one time so if a sim wants to go off and vacuum, cool with me. Keeps things nice. ;)
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  • calaprfycalaprfy Posts: 3,927 Member
    I agree it does need a fine tune. Dust bunnies materialise far too often. I was hoping a hoovering every few days was going to be the case, not every five minutes!
  • 83bienchen83bienchen Posts: 2,554 Member
    I'm fairly certain they'll tune things down with a future update. The Sim team always seems to release things overtuned - maybe they want people to be able to see what they've added immediately so that people don't think there's nothing to see/experience.

    I don't like it, but at least I'm positive that we'll get some changes. Meanwhile, Simmers are again dependent on Mods. Zero already did a great job on fixing the Dust the Bust kit.
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  • HermitgirlHermitgirl Posts: 8,825 Member
    When you have your sims visit other households, dust accumulates there too. :#
    I mean, I don't mind dust at the lot I'm playing, but when you visit other sims watching dirt grow..... lol

    I haven't seen this either. I made a sim specifically to go be a "maid" at others houses but was disappointed. He went to the Pancakes with the Always Welcome Trait and stayed for 3 days. I could see the sparkles but it didn't get dusty. Then he went to Oasis Spring park and stayed for 2 days ... nothing. He could clean with the vacuum and other actions were available which was nice.
    Before they nerf it can you tell me what community lot types this happens at? I want to get some pictures and gameplay in.
    egTcBMc.png
  • PurpleThistlesPurpleThistles Posts: 618 Member
    I’m loving the dust kit! Just take the hoover out of your inventory and put it in a little tiny room with a locked door, no more autonomous cleaning until you want them too! And I adore stomping on the little dust bunnies, because I’m mean!
  • HermitgirlHermitgirl Posts: 8,825 Member
    Hermitgirl wrote: »
    When you have your sims visit other households, dust accumulates there too. :#
    I mean, I don't mind dust at the lot I'm playing, but when you visit other sims watching dirt grow..... lol

    I haven't seen this either. I made a sim specifically to go be a "maid" at others houses but was disappointed. He went to the Pancakes with the Always Welcome Trait and stayed for 3 days. I could see the sparkles but it didn't get dusty. Then he went to Oasis Spring park and stayed for 2 days ... nothing. He could clean with the vacuum and other actions were available which was nice.
    Before they nerf it can you tell me what community lot types this happens at? I want to get some pictures and gameplay in.

    Okay I went and tested some more on my always welcome trait sim. He went to the Spenser-Kim home and stayed from Sunday at 10 am until Monday 1pm... that's when the middle floor got some dust and a dust bunny showed up. That's a long time to stay visiting. But it did happen for me. Personally I'm okay with it... for a large family (they have 5 sims) and not sure if the visitor counts. That isn't undoable to me. I sent my sim home then and when he came back the bunny and dust pile was gone, but I did gift Alice a vacuum just in case! Still not sure how long it takes on other lots.
    egTcBMc.png
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