Also: you can get away with giving cats in TS4 ZERO attention and they won't be taken away but chickens need to be petted or they leave? Irl a cat needs human attention much more than a chicken does...
Cats and Dogs in Sims 4 absolutely need attention or they'll run away. I just had my pupper - who was getting lots of attention, just no walks because the bramblewood makes even short walks take half the night - run away last night. (I also think a mod might have been to blame. I've pulled it for now.) The only way they don't run away is if you make them a spellcaster's familiar.
Maybe it depends on the traits of the cat. I've had a cat in my sims' family for ten generations who sometimes goes for days and days without any attention and he has never once run away. Could be because he has the aloof trait though. I had a dog run away once though but that dog came back so even if your pet does run away from lack of attention it's not a permanent thing unlike your farm animals being taken away permanently.
Treats help. But largely, no - I expected animals to require care. One instance of filthy chickens was all it took to make sure I keep that coop clean. I check in on my brood at least twice a day, doing at least one Social per animal, and scattering feed if the yard looks bare. In the morning, that's my first stop: scatter feed, collect eggs, clean the coop. While my sim tends the adjacent garden, I monitor individual chickens to see if any need extra attention.
I haven't tried a cow, yet (an inordinate amount of my farm lot is pond) and don't personally care for llamas, which thematically, for the setting, really ought to be sheep, but I also don't care for sheep. But I have had my Country Caretaker sim maintain good relations with his bunnies and his birds as well - one, he gets a relationship boost from his Animal Enthusiast trait and two, the outdoor work is his job. It does help to have a dedicated sim with supporting traits.
Downside - I have committed to keeping one rooster at a time. Rooster chicks that age up while my current Chaunticleer is still roostering get traded for meat, which gives my sim a Sad moodlet.
My horse was insanely needy in TS3. I don't have to get my sims out of bed in the middle of the night to soothe a panicked chicken. I actually find TS4 animals less work than TS3 Pets. And I had a dedicated sim just for that, then, as well.
My sims has the loves animals trait (or whatever it's called) which that help in caring for the animals. My 2 chickens don't need a lot of attention, but the cow needs a bit more than the llama. But only once a day. Though I only tried once, the cow kicked the pail over while my sim tried to milk it and the llama wouldn't let my sim shear it. smh lol I feel it's a nice little challenge and I hope it doesn't get nerfed.
Me on:
Twitch jovi_jov
Twitter BarbieSimmy
Origin SimsBarbie
My horse was insanely needy in TS3. I don't have to get my sims out of bed in the middle of the night to soothe a panicked chicken. I actually find TS4 animals less work than TS3 Pets. And I had a dedicated sim just for that, then, as well.
lol my sims3 horse was awesome. When I came back to it's household, there were 3 foals! lol Good times...
Me on:
Twitch jovi_jov
Twitter BarbieSimmy
Origin SimsBarbie
I like it. Farming should be work and I am glad EA made it hard. I do hate that my sims are spamming clean cow all the time when the cow is already clean.
Never had a problem with attention, I make sure all my chickens have a friendly treat then socialise away and they all gain from it, once the bar is full it seems to go down super slow after that and those golden eggs start pouring in. Every so often I have to put the chicken coop and chickens into household inventory then place them all back down and call them into the coop to get them to age up or pass on etc, but in the whole, no major issues.
I don't think I would have 16 chickens at once, lol. Why would you need that many?
At the moment I have two hens and a rooster plus a cow. I like the work involved as I want my farmers to be busy. Once I get used to it, I will add a llama and maybe a couple more chickens, but I would never have more than one coop. I get plenty of eggs for my family just with a couple of hens.
I am enjoying the challenge of keeping up with everything. Sometimes the game is just way too easy: easy money, easy cheats, just stay on your lot and paint or write books. It's been getting stale for me and I love this pack. I like having my sims being busy doing something other than just skill up, go to work, or paint for cash. I'm not into partying.
I was playing my Vampire family over the weekend, Mom and two teen kids. They are in a house in Forgotten Hollow with the Wild Fox trait. Yes, the foxes come around! The boy isn't interested in farming or any other outdoor activity, so my ladies have been working on the garden and keeping their black and white spotted cow happy. They have a garden of plasma trees but no chickens. I got the cow on impulse and was shocked/delighted when I got the popup saying the cow wasn't happy and might run away! I hadn't realized they had been neglecting her. How cool this is! When Sasishi (daughter) started spending more time with the cow, she (the cow) was very standoffish and wouldn't let Sasishi hug her and I just loved it. Now Anastacia (mom) and Sasishi each check the cow a couple of times a day and she is happy, although she does still give them the side-eye once in a while. Sasishi is the main caretaker, she is the one who milks and cleans the cow, who has been named Spotolina, but I've got mom helping out with the feeding and shed cleaning. They sell the milk, not that they need the money because they are super rich.
I especially love the animation when the cow is happy and does that little hop, and her expression when she is getting hugged or brushed is so sweet. Yes, the animals are a bit needy, but I love that! IRL farming and animal handling is a full time job and I am really pleased with they way they have been handled. Please don't nerf the needy animals!
The sim in my other household has 2 chickens and a small garden. She is slowly befriending rabbits and foxes, and mostly subsists on raw carrots from her garden since she is broke. She will eventually get a cow or llama. She can't get both till she moves to a larger lot.
I am not interested at this time in having my sims make the chickens my friends. That would take a different sim with a different outlook. But the cow who almost ran away gets a name and some fussing over. I turned aging off for the animals for now.
When it comes to the animals I think it's best to limit yourself to what you can manage. Just cause the coop holds eight chickens it doesn't mean that you have to have eight chickens. In my game currently I'm playing a single sim with just chickens on her lot and I limit her to four chickens in total because anything more than that for just one sim can be a lot to deal with. Obviously the other animals are limited to one per shed so limiting those is not so difficult.
When it comes to the animals I think it's best to limit yourself to what you can manage. Just cause the coop holds eight chickens it doesn't mean that you have to have eight chickens. In my game currently I'm playing a single sim with just chickens on her lot and I limit her to four chickens in total because anything more than that for just one sim can be a lot to deal with. Obviously the other animals are limited to one per shed so limiting those is not so difficult.
Exactly. Mavis managed to scramble some money together and I bought her 2 hens because her funds are stretched tight and I just wanted her to have some eggs for food or to sell. Since she's alone, I didn't think she could handle dealing with too many animals on top of her garden plots and time spent exploring the world, doing the occasional errand for her neighbors.
My little farm has come a long way this past week. I'm keeping the population at three hens, two llamas, a bunny stump and a wild bird tree for now as I work at understanding the new produce and how best to use it. Once I was able to reach a full relationship bar with all the animals, their motives decayed slower. My hens are free roaming and they follow my Sim everywhere when she is taking care of the llamas and her extensive gardens. Their motives seemed to stabilize after I set them free. But that could be due to the fact my Sim can interact with them more frequently, too. The bunny stump is keeping the farm jumping with several full time residents along with a bunch of bunnies that just stop by to say hello. My Sim hasn't needed to pull weeds but once. The flock of wild birds living on the farm have kept the bugs at bay so no more insecticides are being used which is very handy because spraying always took up so much time. The only thing I don't like is the gift giving ritual between the rabbits and birds and my Sim. I wish it came up less frequently rather than every day. It's cute, but once a Sim has all the cross stitch patterns, seeds and books they need, the ritual loses some of it's charm, and becomes another chore as well as yet another way to snag free Simoleans. I think my Sims should have the option to give gifts because the rabbits and birds are great little helpers. Their gift to my Sim is doing a fantastic job at their tasks. That should be enough. It is really cute when the bunny hands my Sim a tiny wrapped gift. But having that interaction every day, with many rabbits, is cuteness overload and might become less cute over time. The number of foxes that prowl the neighborhoods is a bit much, too. One or two is okay, but when you see six different ones in one day they blend into the background and are easily ignored which is a bit unfair to the foxes, to be honest. We should have to seek them out in their natural habitat rather than see them cruising down main street during a fair.
But all in all, I am loving this pack. The animals were done very well, and the expressions on the llama's face are hilarious. It's easy to see the team that worked on Nifty Knitting probably did a lot of work on Cottage Living, too. I see that in the cross stitch patterns and the style of a lot of the new decor assets. The fact the finished cross stitch projects can be sold on Plopsy, is right up my alley. I use Plopsy as much as I can. It's very helpful for Sims just starting out. The 'simple life' lot challenge is one of the best because it opens up an entirely different way for my Sims to live. And my Sims don't seem to miss living in a busy city at all.
Comments
Maybe it depends on the traits of the cat. I've had a cat in my sims' family for ten generations who sometimes goes for days and days without any attention and he has never once run away. Could be because he has the aloof trait though. I had a dog run away once though but that dog came back so even if your pet does run away from lack of attention it's not a permanent thing unlike your farm animals being taken away permanently.
Vlad The Dad: A 100 Baby Challenge, Vlad as ‘matriarch’ *COMPLETE*
Breed Out The Weird *COMPLETE*
I haven't tried a cow, yet (an inordinate amount of my farm lot is pond) and don't personally care for llamas, which thematically, for the setting, really ought to be sheep, but I also don't care for sheep. But I have had my Country Caretaker sim maintain good relations with his bunnies and his birds as well - one, he gets a relationship boost from his Animal Enthusiast trait and two, the outdoor work is his job. It does help to have a dedicated sim with supporting traits.
Downside - I have committed to keeping one rooster at a time. Rooster chicks that age up while my current Chaunticleer is still roostering get traded for meat, which gives my sim a Sad moodlet.
My sims has the loves animals trait (or whatever it's called) which that help in caring for the animals. My 2 chickens don't need a lot of attention, but the cow needs a bit more than the llama. But only once a day. Though I only tried once, the cow kicked the pail over while my sim tried to milk it and the llama wouldn't let my sim shear it. smh lol I feel it's a nice little challenge and I hope it doesn't get nerfed.
Twitch jovi_jov
Twitter BarbieSimmy
Origin SimsBarbie
lol my sims3 horse was awesome. When I came back to it's household, there were 3 foals! lol Good times...
Twitch jovi_jov
Twitter BarbieSimmy
Origin SimsBarbie
At the moment I have two hens and a rooster plus a cow. I like the work involved as I want my farmers to be busy. Once I get used to it, I will add a llama and maybe a couple more chickens, but I would never have more than one coop. I get plenty of eggs for my family just with a couple of hens.
I was playing my Vampire family over the weekend, Mom and two teen kids. They are in a house in Forgotten Hollow with the Wild Fox trait. Yes, the foxes come around!
I especially love the animation when the cow is happy and does that little hop, and her expression when she is getting hugged or brushed is so sweet. Yes, the animals are a bit needy, but I love that! IRL farming and animal handling is a full time job and I am really pleased with they way they have been handled. Please don't nerf the needy animals!
The sim in my other household has 2 chickens and a small garden. She is slowly befriending rabbits and foxes, and mostly subsists on raw carrots from her garden since she is broke.
I am not interested at this time in having my sims make the chickens my friends. That would take a different sim with a different outlook. But the cow who almost ran away gets a name and some fussing over. I turned aging off for the animals for now.
Exactly. Mavis managed to scramble some money together and I bought her 2 hens because her funds are stretched tight and I just wanted her to have some eggs for food or to sell. Since she's alone, I didn't think she could handle dealing with too many animals on top of her garden plots and time spent exploring the world, doing the occasional errand for her neighbors.
But all in all, I am loving this pack. The animals were done very well, and the expressions on the llama's face are hilarious. It's easy to see the team that worked on Nifty Knitting probably did a lot of work on Cottage Living, too. I see that in the cross stitch patterns and the style of a lot of the new decor assets. The fact the finished cross stitch projects can be sold on Plopsy, is right up my alley. I use Plopsy as much as I can. It's very helpful for Sims just starting out. The 'simple life' lot challenge is one of the best because it opens up an entirely different way for my Sims to live. And my Sims don't seem to miss living in a busy city at all.