Forum Discussion

Re: Favorite Fertilizer Option Please

@PugLove888 Yea, bees do sting quite often, even when calm, but with the automatic fertilization, selling the honey, the temperature protection provided by the honey, using the bees to romance sims and find collectibles, they more than make up for a minor sting here and there.

18 Replies

  • PugLove888's avatar
    PugLove888
    Hero
    6 years ago

    @Psychotps, I don't even need the temperature protection, as i've never had a Sim die from temperature.  (Except the one where I was testing something for someone and I had my Sim die on purpose, but that is antoher matter, since eating honey would have messed up what I was trying to test!) 

    I also don't use the bees that much to have them find collectables, unless the weather is really bad.  And I've never used them for romance since in real life this would put me in any mood but romantic! 😃 

    For me I like the honey to cook with (in the bakery I downloaded from @SheriGR I added a hive because I had some honey from my Sim's home garden and wanted honey on had at the bakery  since the honey cake makes a nice profit! 🙂  )

    I also like it as a source of emergency food and of course to sell.  But I use it mostly to negate bad moodlets... like if my Sim is embarassed or uncomfortable or sad.  But I usually end up using it to combat the effects of bee stings... and I have one family that gets stung a lot so I'm not sure if having honey just to fix the moodlet caused by bee stings is a really logical way of doing things! 😃

    Also, some of my gardens were planted before Seasons so they arent' formatted in a way best to utilize bees.  I have a house I've played since Outdoor Retreat where the extensive garden encircles the house!   One bee box won't do the job!  I have other older gardens set up for the Gardne Gnomes Club to help out, and those have so many plants that there isn't even room for a bee box... I would have to get rid of some plants, and I don't want to do that! â˜šī¸

    I guess you can say I'm a bit of a plant hoarder myself! 😃

  • Psychotps's avatar
    Psychotps
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago
    @PugLove888 Laff... Actually I've never had to use it for the temperature protection. But I do like having it handy just-in-case the opportunity arrives.

    I've done the romance thing once, but it's a bit of work for a small benefit. I've never used the honey for cooking, baking? I've never tried baking. I'll have to get into that soon.

    I don't know why you guys hoard so many plants. I never saw a need to. With 3-6 harvestables a day, I can't possibly use it all and end up selling it. Most plants aren't good for money. Roses are good for money to start out, but once you hit level 5, the spliced plants are much better.

    It's like I'll have one onion, tomato, potato, mushroom, spinach, and carrot plants. One of each for cooking. Those cover most recipes. Having more than one of each is useless. I'll never use all the harvestables, and they don't provide much money, so why have more?

    I always grow 1 strawberry and 1 snapdragon, evolving them until I hit level 5, once I do, I splice the strawberry onto the snapdragon (or whichever is more evolved) and sell the other once I get a dragonfruit. Then I grow 2 and get over 3000 a day at magnificent quality. Those are my money-makers.

    For normal game-play I never really have more than 8-10 plants. There isn't any need for it... unless I'm doing flower arranging, then I need all the flowers.
  • PugLove888's avatar
    PugLove888
    Hero
    6 years ago

    @Psychotps  😃 I love your reaction to @SheriGR 's garden pics! :eahigh_file:  I was waiting for your reaction because I knew how many plants some of her gardens have (both from pictures and from houses of hers that I have downloaded ) ! 

    I should try the bees interaction for romantic pursuits, as I'm sure it is comical.  But in my book bees and romance don't mix, unless you are giving your beloved some candy or dessert with honey in it!.  But I just generally think of bees as painful! 

    Sometimes I have Sims who keep doing things I don't want them to do, and I find a large garden can be useful for this. 😃

    I do have some of my Sims keep honey  on hand for temperature emergencies, but I've stopped requireing all my Sims from carrying it since I've never had any cold or heat related near-deaths (the closest was when one of my Sims went outside briefly to take the garbage out and didn't have his cold wheather clothes on , and then Aliens abducted him and he kept getting colder and colder.  He had honey on him actually, but since he was in the spaceship, I couldn't access it! But he got home in time and went right inside his warm house and was fine! )

    As for baking, I think the honey cake is actually under the Cooking interaction. 🤔  And even though some of my high Cooking skill Sims don't have much or any Baking skill, all of my high Baking skill Sims have high Cooking skill! 

    It's not that @SheriGR  & I  need more plants, its that we want more plants! :eahigh_file: â¤ī¸ We like our playing style, and you like yours; there is no wrong way!  🙂  I like how it looks to have a lot a plants and many of my Sims have the Loves the Outdoors trait.  While some of my gardens are small, many are not!   Garden produce is a form of collecting anyway, and like all collections, one doesn't actually need to have the collection in the first place, one just wants to have it for aethestics, accomplishment, and fun! 😉

  • Psychotps's avatar
    Psychotps
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago
    @PugLove888 I had a long post but then the EA website crashed and I lost it. I really don't want to post it all again.
  • PugLove888's avatar
    PugLove888
    Hero
    6 years ago

    @Psychotps, i've had that happen to me many times! 😠   I've taken to highlighting an hitting Ctrl + C for longer posts  quite often when posting, so if anything is lost most of it can be recovered.  (I've even pasted it in Word to be on the safe side).  😉

    But now I'm curious as to what you were going to say! 

  • Psychotps's avatar
    Psychotps
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago
    @PugLove888 Geez, now you're gonna make me reply again... {reading again}

    Well, I'm nothing if not predictable.

    You really should do the romantic bees option, at least once. It's not very practical but it's very cute.

    That does have some benefits then, My sims are constantly doing things I don't want them to do. I've turned off most of the seriously annoying things like getting water, shoveling snow, serenading {broken currently}, etc. But having a large garden will take a while to weed, water, or harvest.

    The honey thing is just something I do. Well, if I'm not currently working on a garden, I won't go out of my way to have a beehive just for the honey. But if I already have a garden and beehive, then I might as well keep some on my sims since it's like... already there. It's not like it's costing me anything.

    I saw the honey cake yesterday, didn't bother to make it though. I've gone through cooking and gourmet many times but never baking. (other than baking a cake for a birthday) I'll have to go through it soon. Someday I'll have to finish the national foods for a sim. Never gotten them all for a single sim. Takes too long.

    Although I just finished Ambrosia the long way earlier today. Was playing a sim who fell in love with a ghost. My sim went the long way of splicing and grafting to get a death flower (which took all morning), fishing for the angel fish. Once my ghost became human, they got married. So sweet.

    Large gardens just seem like too much work for something mostly cosmetic. I'd rather have my sims focus on other things. My plan was to have my current sim go through fashion photography but somehow got sidetracked into a music career (don't ask). The Ambrosia took so long, Not sure if I want to continue down another track with the same sim or start another.
  • PugLove888's avatar
    PugLove888
    Hero
    6 years ago

    @Psychotps, thanks for replying.  I will try to do the romantic bees option the next time I have a single Sim who I want to have a relationship with someone. 

    Yes, and fertilizing each plant, while tedious oftentimes, can be beneficial if you are trying to get a Sim out of your hair for a good amount of time so they don't cook food they don't need to, or drink a milion glasses of water and then pee themselves!  Or worse, set the house on fire!

    i'm not sure but I think I've used honey cake before for a birthday.  I know you can use the hamburger cake or a zombie cake for birthdays.  So the next tiem your Sim has a birthday and you have some honey on hand, give it a try! 😉

    Ambrosia! I usually have the skill but not the ingredients, or if I have the death flower I usually don't have the angelfish, but that might change now.  I've caught some angelfish in Sulani, and i've seen both angelfish and deathflowers at the ingedients stall in Casters Alley in the Rearlm of Magic!  And since regular Sims can still purchase these items, you can have them use them for Ambrosia instead of potions! 🙌

    That is a sweet story about your Sim  and the ghost! â¤ī¸

    You wanted your Sim to be a photographer, but got sidetracked with music... I usually have plans for my Sims and I get sidetracked on Gardening! 😃

  • Psychotps's avatar
    Psychotps
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago
    @PugLove888 Lol. Weird, I don't usually have a problem with fires. Don't know why. I used to have a huge problem with sims getting hit by lightning until I nerfed it. 😉

    Ambrosia takes a LOT of work. The hardest part was finding a cherry tree. Most of the places listed on blogs that were supposed to have them are no longer there, couldn't find any at produce stands. Ended up finding a grove of cherry trees in Brindleton. The rest, Apples, lilies and snapdragons were easy, they are all over Newcrest.

    It takes a lot of time. Plant cherry, apple, snapdragon, and lily, wait for them all to grow, get to level 5, take cuttings, graft cherry onto apple, lily onto snapdragon, wait for them to grow again, get the orchids and pomegranate, plant them separately, wait for them to grow... take more cuttings, graft orchid onto pomegranate, then viola, death flower. The whole process took weeks.

    I thought I was going to have a hell of a time finding an angel fish, I lucked out. From the start, the third fish I ever caught was an angel fish. Stuck it in my aquarium until I finished with the death flower. By that time I already had level 10 cooking and gourmet cooking and plenty of aspiration points for the potion of youth.

    Took a lot of photos of it 'cause I'm not likely to do it again soon.
  • SheriGR's avatar
    SheriGR
    Hero
    6 years ago

    @Psychotps I went through all of that to make a few Ambrosias, then I figured I did it enough... so I uploaded one in a room to my library (& the gallery). As far as I'm concerned I did the work for it already, so if I want one later I will just download my room to a different and grab it. đŸ˜‰ Ambrosia is currently the only 'prepared dish' that will upload and download properly within a room, last I knew. So... if you want to upload a room with your current Ambrosia into your library you will have a copy of it for later if you decide you want it. 

  • Psychotps's avatar
    Psychotps
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago
    @SheriGR I didn't know that. I already have a room with perfect food plants for recipes. I might add the death flower to it since that's so hard to make and I've already gone through it the long way. Not sure if I want to add the actual ambrosia though.

    I tend to play the same way. It's like in Skyrim, I played the entire game on console without cheating. I hated lockpicking but I toughed through it and finished the game. Ever since, I play on PC with a lockpicking mod to remove it from being such a pain. I don't care it's cheating because I've done it once all the way already.

    Same thing with Sims. I know there are rooms with all the plants already perfect but I've never used them. I grew all my own and made my own room. Now I have no problem using it in future plays because I've already done it once and I know I can do it again.
  • SheriGR's avatar
    SheriGR
    Hero
    6 years ago

    @Psychotps I relate to that 100%!

    I play with aging off, and have a main family that had offspring and most of my play is from that group and their sub-household. Several are highly developed and have many skills and sometimes multiple careers. Many of my favorites were 'born' not made, and I have been through a lot with them. They work hard, and we have 'history' going on. I can rely on them. They test my builds also mostly. I have no issue when using one of them (or their households) to start out in a new pack or world, to test a build or issue, and cheat them money generously if dropping them into a new home or world in a new save.

    In my view, they had money from before and worked hard to earn it, so it feels like a waste (and a little mean) to make them go through the grueling start-up work. I'm not even aware of and haven't used any but a small handful of cheats and very selectively and intentionally. I must admit that once I used moo (and hidden objects) for building purposes I was hooked. It also made my building life much more complicated and challenging, as now my testing (placement and live) is much harder.

    Those three building cheats and motherlode for the listed reasons are my 'pet' cheats. But how I use them doesn't feel like cheating to me. 

  • Psychotps's avatar
    Psychotps
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago
    @SheriGR I'm a little different there. I like the build-up. Working from nothing and building an empire.

    I've just started a new sim for Fashion Photography. Found out a problem with it. It's not designed for new sims. Most, if not all, of the gigs require to be taken in a fashion studio, which new sims can't afford. My sim only has $1500 and can't afford things like a tripod, expensive camera, photo marks, backdrop, etc. I'm either going to have to change careers or put it on hold until my sim has a ton of money.
  • SheriGR's avatar
    SheriGR
    Hero
    6 years ago

    @Psychotps Hmmm... I did the fashion photographer freelance as part of a test (maybe it was your question? I don't remember). I used my main sim (the female of my original couple I mentioned). I play her the most - yes I am a weirdo who made a 'sim-self'. In real life I do website design and professional photography. In the game she does painting and photography. She has been at 10 for painting for many sim years, and at 10 for photography for less of them.

    I have have made a 'make-shift' studio before in-game with white-walls (which you can switch the paint/wallpaper on for background purposes) and place the soft-box lights (one or two). You're right, though, I think to get the fashion photographer prompts you probably need the fancy camera and tripod. Not sure if you can get away with a make-shift background setting.

    You could upload a few of your dragonfruit plants to a room then place them in her lot to help boost income. You could also have her paint from home and harvest dragonfruit until she has the money for the fancy equipment. Irl you would not even want to know what the fancy equipment costs. I'm sure it's more than in the game, if that's any consolation. Pro photography takes a lot of work and pain. Seriously. 

    Have fun! She'll get there! â˜•

  • Psychotps's avatar
    Psychotps
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago

    @SheriGRSince I'm starting this sim from the beginning, she has very few skills yet. Sure, I could spawn a dragon-fruit, money tree, motherlode, I'm just not going to. Trying to do this the normal way.

    I'm pretty sure I only need a tripod, problem is the house is small and I don't have the room for a studio. A house expansion is necessary and I don't have the money yet.


    I'll figure something out. See what I can get away with. If all else fails, I'll keep gardening and building money that way until I can expand the house and make a studio addition.

  • SheriGR's avatar
    SheriGR
    Hero
    6 years ago

    @Psychotps Sounds like a great plan. And you will have the opportunity to develop many aspects of your new sim in the process. Have fun! đŸ™Œ

  • PugLove888's avatar
    PugLove888
    Hero
    6 years ago

    @Psychotps, I have some problems with fires.  Many come from the dryer, even though I try to keep the lint tray clean.  I also try to upgrade them when I can so they don't catch on fire.  I also get a lot of fires from unskilled cooks ... I try to train all my Sims to at least get a Cooking skill of 3, but when I'm not looking, those pesky Sim teens decide to cook something other than salad or fruit salad before I get their skill raised! 😃  I've also had many fireplaces catch on fire, but not for a good while. 

    If you want to find cherries in the game and not wait for their trees to grow produce in Brindleton (unless you live there near them) and if you have City Living, you can travel around until you find a produce stand , since they always stock cherries (as well as pomegranets).   But the best place to find a produce stand is after a festival ends.... usually the Humor and Hijinks Festival will spawn one , once the festival's food stalls have evaporated.  I can almost  always find a produce stand and either another food stall or a coffee/tea stall after the festival! 😉

    I might also get cherries from the gnomes that show up on Harvestfest if you have Seasons.  I can't remember though.  I do know that you can get them in Real of Magic, along with dragon fruit, angelfish, and death flowers! 🙌 Just go to the stall in Casters Alley that sells alchemy ingredients! 

    Orchids, on the other hand are a bit trickier to get.  I might have gotten them from gnomes on Harvestfest, or from Patchy the Scarecrow.  And of course if your Sims have enough money and gardening skill you can purchase them, although it is a crap shoot if you actually get an orchid or just another plant with the same level of rarity. 

  • Psychotps's avatar
    Psychotps
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago
    @SheriGR It didn't take long, Easter came by and the bunny dropped a bunch of different flowers everywhere. Planted them all and money built up.

    @PugLove888 I checked at the produce stand and they didn't have any. I don't think non-spellcasters should be able to go to the magical world. Doesn't seem right.

    I wanted to go the long way and do it from scratch. Start to finish making everything by hand. I'm a little too good at the game and things tend to come very easily. That house I just started? $1500 and no studio? I've already expanded the house twice and have over 50K now and three dragonfruit plants. Up to just under level 4 photography.

    Need to find ways to make it harder.
  • PugLove888's avatar
    PugLove888
    Hero
    6 years ago

    @Psychotps, I just re-checked the produce stand... I went to the Arts District at night.  Cherrries were there, as usual.  I found them 4th down in the list.  Pomegrantes are closer to the bottom!. 

    You should play the game any way you want to! 🙌  I'm just giveing you , as well as anyone reading this, options! 😃

    I certainly understand challenging yourself!  I'm debating on if I want to try the Apocalypse Challenge or not. 🤔   If I do it, I think I'll wait until after Christmas becasue I will have more time! 🙂