When the Welcome Wagon Becomes Unwelcome

GalacticGal

I started a brand new game save this morning. (Actually, I started working toward that end yesterday, creating one of the two families needed and finishing the farmstead for one family.) I moved in the Hawkins, to their Hawkins Complex. Of course, not long later the Welcome Wagon shows up. Do they come to the front door? Not really, I had the pop-up long before I located them. Turns out they were standing in the doorway of the greenhouse. No worries, one of them was from my other family. Since these two families were good friends, I took a moment to use MCCC to create a relationship between Sarah and Joannah, Joseph and Joannah, and Sarah Jane and Joannah.

However, one of the male Sims who came along took it upon themselves to light the fireplaces both downstairs and then upstairs! My Sim, Joseph, had just ordered the upgrade parts. I learned the hard way a few years ago to always, always, always upgrade to firesafe. I got at least five of the fireplaces (the house is HUGE) queued up. Then the perpetrator of this misdeed, went around and finished lighting the rest of the upstairs fireplaces. Just who does he think he is? I am about to kick them out.

Please share the ungracious treatment/behavior your Sims have had endured under the guise of the Welcome Wagon — from alleged friendly neighbors. With 'friends' like these who needs enemies, right?

Flap

Yassssssss, unwelcome welcome wagons (!) are great. xD Sometimes I do end up throwing a drink on neighbors 😌

My neighbors loves to clean dishes and use computers (very unwelcome of their part, but I do appreciate their dishes effort), so I lock all bedroom doors and also serve everybody with some tasty drink for good behavior 😁

They can't be left loosen or otherwise they'll take over the place like crazy toddlers usually does

GalacticGal

@Flap Normally I enjoy the opportunity for my Sims to meet other Sims, especially in a brand new game. But this is the very first time I had a neighbor go through the entire large manor and take it upon themselves to light all of the fireplaces. I think there's twelve of them! Yeah, it was on the cold side for the first day of Spring, but still. Wood ain't cheap either. LOL

mcrudd

I ignore them I lock the front and back doors so they can't get in. If I have a fenced property I lock the gate I keep my sim busy until the message comes up along the lines of "not today" Then I unlock the doors and gates

sarabeth2984

It depends. I usually ignore it, unless I've built the neighborhood up with alm the families I want to interact. Then its nice:)

SerenityVIII

Well my story with Welcome Wagon goes way back to the 'fruitcake bug'(this has been fixed).

I downloaded a Sim from the gallery and started playing with him and he married one of my Sims and created a family. He had one strange quirk that drove me cookoo. He constantly made horrible faces when he ate no matter what quality of food it was. I thought maybe it was something to do with me downloading him from the Gallery as I had never done that before. (it was not due to this)

Disclaimer - The following has since been fixed. This was a few years ago.
Then it started happening with other Sims I created and did some investigating and it was from Welcome Wagon fruitcake. Oh boy! That Welcome Wagon was not feeding that to my Sims ever ever again. I do not run mods and really had to be quick to throw that fruitcake out or stop my Sims from eating it. It would immediately get dragged to trash can if possible. One problem was if you played rotational and your current Sim lived near another played family, I would have to swap back and forth and micro manage that wicked wicked gourmet atrocity. Everything was ok as long my Sim that brought the fruitcake didn't put it in their inventory. There was no way to get it out at the time, or at least I couldn't figure it out, other then re loading a previous save and play musical fruitcake again.

So this fruitcake and Welcome Wagon was not welcome at all and in fact dreaded in every new game. This still sticks with me to this day and although they did fix and patch the fruitcake bug, I am still fearful to have any Sim of mine eat it. A couple weeks ago I wasn't paying attention and my Sim ate the fruitcake when I wasn't looking and to my surprise, she liked it. So maybe through many Sim hours, I can get over my fear of this fruitcake, but the memory lives on lol.

One day I may grow to accept the fruitcake from Welcome Wagon but please please paws off my stuff! Now there is a fear these Welcome Wagon NPCs have the recycle trait. My Sims now do Welcome Wagon 'outside' the home', far away from any items that can be insta recycled by tense recycle NPCs. So now my Sims are practicing social distancing and now item distancing with any NPCs that are sketchy. This is a separate issue from NAPs which are disabled in my game.

Admiral8Q

sarabeth2984 wrote: »

It depends. I usually ignore it, unless I've built the neighborhood up with alm the families I want to interact. Then its nice:)

Actually yes. This is probably why I don't have any issues with "the welcome wagon". Any sims I don't want in my worlds, I delete. I've been building up my own Sims either from scratch, or taking a pre-made household and getting them to at least the next generation born-in-game characters.

@SerenityVIII So your Sims practice social distancing out of fear and prevention of the spread of the fruitcake problem?

crocobaura

I recently had a fruitcake dilemma in my game. She loved the fruitcake but he hated it, so it was difficult to decide whether to throw it out or not. Wish they would not eat it if they hate it.

AnnLee87

When moving into a house the first thing I do is check to see what door is set as the front door and then I set the door to disallow whatever at that time. It depends on my story. I use the tools given to me if I don't want the welcome wagon, vampires etc.

Sadiesue

I had a widowed mama who moved with her two children to a new world to start fresh. The welcome wagon showed. I was about to ignore them when I noticed it was just one single male townie so I decided to have her welcome him in and make a new friend. Big mistake. He was very angry for some reason. I had her thank him for coming. They made idle conversation for a couple seconds and he started yelling at her. I cancelled the chatting so he stomps off on a huff and he heads straight for my kids dollhouse and smashes it causing my kids to cry. I was crabby anyway so I sent mama up to chew him out. I then used a mod I have to electrocute him and had her kick him out. Then deleted her relationship with him. He messed with the wrong family!

Sketch793

crocobaura wrote: »

I recently had a fruitcake dilemma in my game. She loved the fruitcake but he hated it, so it was difficult to decide whether to throw it out or not. Wish they would not eat it if they hate it.

Put the fruitcake in her personal inventory. That way, she can get it but he can't.

Admiral8Q

The everlasting fruitcake...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIxDyBB3qPs

FamilyFriend

I usually ignore the welcome wagons unless I want the family I created to befriend another family, then I just place them in the same area so the family will come over with their little cake thing

GalacticGal

Admiral8Q wrote: »

The everlasting fruitcake...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIxDyBB3qPs

Actually, I've had some really fine fruitcake. Others are like eating dust, however.

Isharell

Oh my, that fruitcake. Only once have I seen any sim enjoy it, while other sims eating the same fruitcake hated it. I get rid of them as fast as I can. I also glare a lot at the sim who brought it to my new sims welcoming party, and feel a mean pleasure when my sim doesn't get along with that sim during the first meeting.

And explain to me why a Vampire would bring a fruitcake? The Vatore boy had one at my most recent WW event (it was in Forgotten Hollow so it's not like there are that many neighbors anyway). That felt so...wrong. But I just pretended it was a ruse on his part to appear unthreatening.

GalacticGal

In one of my too many iterations of Erik Cantrell and his family, he actually liked the fruitcake. LOL Most of the time, he rubs his belly and complains, wondering what it was he just ate.

Mareah

They are always unwelcome in my game lol. With their poisonous fruit cake, or whatever cooking experiment gone wrong that dish is. I used to forget to get rid of it so my sims naturally just go and grab some whenever they are hungry, they never learn. One time i somehow only invited one person in and the rest stood outside the whole time, their rude selves left complaining.

SerenityVIII

Admiral8Q wrote: »

sarabeth2984 wrote: »

It depends. I usually ignore it, unless I've built the neighborhood up with alm the families I want to interact. Then its nice:)

Actually yes. This is probably why I don't have any issues with "the welcome wagon". Any sims I don't want in my worlds, I delete. I've been building up my own Sims either from scratch, or taking a pre-made household and getting them to at least the next generation born-in-game characters.

@SerenityVIII So your Sims practice social distancing out of fear and prevention of the spread of the fruitcake problem?

@Admiral8Q My Sims practice 'item distancing' from the fruitcake (although the bug should be fixed now), but 'social distancing' from NPC Sims that may have the Recycle Trait. They insta recycle your belongings and leave a trail of ash behind to pick up. However the fruitcake bug from years ago still lives on in memory and fear lol.

Nate_Whiplash1

Ohhhhh yes, the unwelcome Welcome Wagon. I've had some come over and pick fights right away. And others help themselves to the fridge and the computer, like they own the place. I even had one use the hot tub!

GalacticGal

Nate_Whiplash1 wrote: »

Ohhhhh yes, the unwelcome Welcome Wagon. I've had some come over and pick fights right away. And others help themselves to the fridge and the computer, like they own the place. I even had one use the hot tub!

Gosh, and all of this time I thought the use of my Sims private whirl-pool bath was a thing the Butler would help themselves to. Oh, but you're speaking about the actual hot tub, likely out in the yard. Still, one should always wait to be invited …

Admiral8Q

I've occasionally built a wall around the edge of the lot. Not really a 'wall' per se, but maybe hedges or even a 'fake-wall' that works like a wall. More like a speed-bump, heh!

Not so much for the welcome wagon, that only happens once anyways so doesn't bother me. It was more for people walking back and forth through the yard. That household had a bunch of kids so it made me nervous. Built a hedge around the entire lot.

This is the house I'm specifically talking about.

Admiral8Q

OK...
Since there are many people that are frustrated with the "Welcome Wagon", I did some looking around and found an improvement. It's made by LittleMsSam, an excellent programmer and a proven modder.
(I rate her 5 out of 5 cookies.)

Housewarming Party (instead of welcome wagon

This little tuning Mod turns the Welcome Wagon into a Housewarming Party.

Now instead of Neighbors your Friends are coming over for a little Housewarming Party.

Up to 8 Friends instead of Neighbors will come over to celebrate a Housewarming Party with you.

Instead of a Evil Fruitcake, they will bring tasty Chocolate Cupcakes with them!

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There are two Versions. One where Friends come and one where Neighbors with Cupcakes come. Only Install one Version!

Nate_Whiplash1

The Welcome Wagon can be fun with the right mod installed. As part of a Welcome Wagon, a husband and wife came over--my Sim woohoo'd the man's wife right in front of him. Needless to say, he was not amused...