Farming EP ideas!

"RenRochelle;c-17517209" wrote:
So for animals I kind of want rabbit holes (sort of), say you build a chicken coop and you can have 10 chickens, I want to see different color chickens running around their fenced in area, (not all at once, some will be laying eggs) but I want to be able to click on the coop and see all ten chickens and give them different names and then maybe choose to "harvest" and older one, take to market (where you can sell it at a farmers market) and then "take to show" to try and win a ribbon for best chicken. And I would want this with all the animals. However, I want certain animals to share coops/barns, Like duck, geese and chickens (and quail) can share a coop and you have to add on to the coop to get more birds with a limit of how many you can have in the coop. Then i want sheep, goats, and llama/alpacas to share a barn with the same rabbit hole idea, you see some of them but some are in the barn. and then bulls and cows can share a barn (with horses, and donkeys, and ponies). I want to be able to mark some of them as well like "breed to X on tuesday" or "send to butcher on wednesday".

Sims4 would never give us that many animals, just as supernatural was seperated. We will be lucky to get four and that is real lucky. Cows, chicken, and pigs are a must for a real farm and goats and sheep would be so nice. We will never get that much. Sims3 yes, Sims4, well so many packs have proven this over and over.

"Elisdream;c-17521044" wrote:
I really wish farm animals could be able to get pregnant as cats and dogs do, to interact with each other, and maybe even be able to interact with other animals too. For example, it would be lovely if you already have cats and dogs, you could be able to train your dog to be sheepdog and look after sheeps. Maybe is a little too much to ask for, but it would also be so lovely if cows and horses could give birth and farmers and childrens could help to assist the birth, and toddlers and kids could watch the birth. If you have parenthood that could give toddlers, children and teens some points of empathy, and responsability. Maybe it could work similar to sim pregnancies, where you can either chose the mom to have the baby in the bassinet, or go to hospital. You could send your cow/horse to the vet, or you could buy an special object to work as bassinets do, for example, a big pile of hay, where you could click and have a few options: "to carry *name of animal* here", and then, "to start birth" "to asist with birth" and "to watch birth"

I really wish if we get horses they could get clasified as "pets" as well so we'd be able to create them and add them by CAS wih different accesories and types of hair. It would be cool to create a horse with braided hair and feathers.

I love some of your ideas, but horses in a farm pack I don't like. We will be lucky to even get maybe four animals and horses take huge amounts of resources that would take away the animals and equipment we would need to make a real farm. Horses can be put in a cowboy, midevil, or fantasy pack, but this could be the only time we will ever get real farm animals.

"Movotti;c-17521538" wrote:

Kids and toddlers could play with the chickens

And be chased and pecked by them. They're tiny dinosaurs after all!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0GHi9mf-54

Love the kid/toddler tie in ideas. Those would be great.

"Rhiannonraven;d-976286" wrote:

OUTDOOR ANIMALS! Cats and Dogs is great, don't get me wrong, but I would like to have the option for a more self-sufficient pet. A barn cat doesn't live in the house, usually hunts it's own meals, and definitely doesn't use a litter box. A farm dog may or may not live in the house, but it's often living outdoors, and it needs a dog house. Dogs don't need walks when they have an acreage to run around in, and cats don't need laser pointers when they have birds to chase.

FARM ANIMALS! Of course, it's kind of a given that everyone would want farm animals with a farming pack. My personal motto is, "It's not a farm until you've got animals".

FARM ANIMALS ARE NOT HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS! If you owned a farm, you could choose if your pet is a farm animal or a pet, and these would change the available interactions and the pet's needs. There could be a separate category, maybe viewed through the phone, that shows all of your chickens, pigs, goats, horses, barn cats, etc... Maybe you could have up to, say 30 farm animals. I know more would be ideal, but that would slow down the game too much. They would have simple needs, namely hunger, bladder, and energy. They would automatically sleep when tired, and leave some fertilizing droppings when necessary. You would have to keep their feeders full. Livestock would be incapable of going through gates, so you could make enclosures for them that the sims can go into and clean and stuff. There could be a Sell To Butcher interaction when clicking on an animal (though not horses, cats, or dogs), and this interaction would bring someone to pick up your livestock, then later a dilevery of meat would appear at your house or mailbox. There could be a whole range of interactions with animals. I'll put some ideas later...

SLOWER FOOD GROWING AND COMPLICATIONS! Growing food isn't that easy. Really, I've got lots of firsthand experience. About half your plants just don't grow, and you only get produce from each plant about 1 to 10 times per year. Root and stalk veggies only produce one harvest every year, whereas fruit trees, perennial leafy plants, and other such things, will produce maybe 5 to 15 harvest in a year. No one plant can be harvested every day. Most plants need to be re-planted every year because they are not perennial. You have to plant at certain times of year, too. Then there are the complications; seeds sprout with the seeds around the leaves, slugs eat the crops, and so much more!

I hope they don't address pets in a Farm EP. We will truely be lucky to get even 4 animals and they have been giving pets their own packs. Horses take so much to make that it would take away from crops/equipment/and real farm animals that we may never get in another pack, while their are several ways to introduce horses. Also, putting horses in their own packs would allow for making unicorns, pegasus, and donkeys at the same time since they have the same shape.

Personally, I hope they leave plant growth alone. Sometimes, I don't want to grow things; I just want to use them. They won't put grocery stores in, so it is hard to get plants that we want. I would rather leave plant growth alone. I would rather use EP resources on more farm machinery. Slugs ect. problems would be something that happens, but if a sprayer was hitched to the tractor and the plants were sprayed, they would die or not get on plants to begin with. Bug spray for the sprayer; something else to buy at the Co-op.