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Psychotps's avatar
Psychotps
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago

Off the grid with new ECO living pack.

Does anyone else think the whole off-the-grid living with the new pack is SEVERELY difficult?

I tried doing it with a job but I couldn't keep up. It's basically a 24/7 job just keeping things going.

Getting money is easy. I have lots of ways to get it. However it's all useless off-the-grid. You can't buy anything that helps and everything breaks far too often.

The fabricator breaks one out of every 3 times you use it and fails at least 3 out of 5 times. And there's no way to upgrade it to make it unbreakable. The solar panels either break or get dirty at least once a day. The dew collectors break once every 2-3 days, the only way to upgrade them is using eco parts, which take FOREVER to craft. I worked my sim until she was an Elder and I still don't even have enough parts to upgrade ONE of the panels.

Getting the parts for the recycler is cake. Things break so often now I have thousands of "bits" but I can't spend them because the fabricator is constantly breaking.

I think doing it all at once is just not feasible. It's flat-out impossible to get your bills to 0. Your sim will die of old age several times over before you get enough parts to upgrade everything and having more than a few of the dew and solar/wind devices isn't practical. You spend the majority of your time repairing them.

gameplay issue

6 Replies

  • jpkarlsen's avatar
    jpkarlsen
    Hero (Retired)
    6 years ago

    @Psychotps 

    I have never so far had the fabricator break even once. Do you have the lot trait Gremlins that causes stuff to break far more often?

    Invest in the Handiness skill so you can upgrade things to unbreakable.

    Consider using Roof Solar panels that newer breaks or get dirty. Likewise with roof windmills.

  • Psychotps's avatar
    Psychotps
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago

    @jpkarlsen

    No gremlins. Using the shipping container lot. Default traits. They break constantly. Not sure what's up.

    You can't upgrade the fabricator at all. There isn't any options.

    Something else that's weird... I put down 4 ground solar panels. Upgraded all 4 with self-cleaning using the handiness method and 1 unbreakable using eco parts, and they ALL stopped working. Took 3 days before I noticed it because my power store ended up draining and went out. Even on a sunny day it said 0. Should have been over +20. Ended up selling them all and re-purchasing them. Upgraded them all with unbreakable and they're all still working. I think the self-cleaning broke them. I'll try it again making them self-cleaning and see if they break again.

    Maybe it was the combination of eco parts and handiness?

    The juicer ended up breaking also. Was making a batch of grape or blackberry seltzer (don't remember which) and it ended up locking up. It kept saying "Not ready" and no menu at all when I clicked on it.

    NPC's end up constantly spawning with the clay. I moved one into my household and saw they had over 15 moulding clays in their inventory.

    A lot of things in this pack are broken.

  • jpkarlsen's avatar
    jpkarlsen
    Hero (Retired)
    6 years ago

    @Psychotps 

    Ah you are in the heavily polluted area. There are some differences to behavior in the three different areas. This is likely why everything breaks often. I can't remember what they wrote were the differences but you should be able to find it. 

  • Psychotps's avatar
    Psychotps
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago
    @jpkarlsen I need to do a lot more testing. There are so many things broken in the game now I can't keep them all straight.

    The moulding clay thing is a big problem. I moved to another house and my sims are still constantly spawning them in. My sims have hundreds now. I recycled them once and got over 3000 bits. It's a bit OP. I can sell them all but since I never purchased them, I'm getting a ton of free money. I could destroy them all using cheats but I'd have to put them on the ground first and 200-300 of them, that's not practical either. I could just keep selling them and use UI cheats to remove the money gained... but that's annoying.

    Gonna move the household to someplace like newcrest and see if it all stops.
  • jpkarlsen's avatar
    jpkarlsen
    Hero (Retired)
    6 years ago

    @Psychotps 

    I do not have a single one of those. Are "Sharing is caring" active in your neighborhood?

  • Psychotps's avatar
    Psychotps
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago

    @jpkarlsenThings didn't start disappearing until I got to Willow Creek. I just checked the NAP's and the "Sharing is Caring" was active. It's not any longer. I cheated it off. I also disabled NPC voting so "I" can control it. Come to think of it... the welcome wagon was right before then... if that Sharing is Caring was active then... give a whole new meaning to "Welcome Wagon". Some welcome... {sarcastic}

    Not sure what is causing the molding clay bug... have to test that...

    Edit:

    The neighborhood that was doing it the most with the clay spawning has Fun Loving, Creative Arts, Rock Your Body, and Water Conservation.

    I suppose it might be a side-effect of Creative Arts... Might run tests later.  I'll likely Cheat-Repeal ALL of them and see if it stops. Maybe I can figure out which one is bugged.

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