Off The Grid Cooking Needs Revamp
I was really excited when I saw the Cottage Living pack was coming out and overall I am very happy with it. Paired with the new lot Challenges update I am finally able to live my dream of having an o...
Forum Discussion
I'm sure you already know this, but for anyone reading this who doesn't...
I use Off the Grid with Wind Turbines and Solar Panels from Eco Lifestyle. That's pretty much the main thing I use Wind Turbines and Solar panels for--the stove and fridge. If you give the stove and fridge energy-efficient upgrades two wind turbines will run both the fridge and the stove and will let you use all options on your phone--if you delete all electric lights.
(I'm assuming you're doing the Decades Challenge or are for other reasons Choosing Not To Do That.)
That said, I do that because the off-the-grid cooking options are so limited. I mean, I totally get that off-the-grid is a lot challenge and they're trying to make there be consequences to choosing that lot trait/lot challenge, but...
I guess... what the OP said?
[edited to add: I do NOT have Bust the Dust... thank $DEITY]
@xochiquetzl_xkvn and @shamelle71
Glad you both joined the discussion!
@xochiquetzl_xkvn you would be correct that I am going for something more similar to the decades challenge which is why I am avoiding the green energy options for off the grid. I really wanted to play a more "little house on the prairie" type game now that there is the option of real farming and the simple living lot challenge is available. Give the game more of a frontier or olden day feel.
The fact that I am unable to bake a pie-which dates bake to Queen Elizabeth the 1st days in it's modern form- but can make bread? Shepherd's pie (AKA cottage pie) is kinda an old recipe too dating to at least the 1700's
The Dev's know what a dutch oven is right?
Speaking of which i think it would be cool if we could do some cooking in the fireplaces-at least the nice wide one that came with Cottage Living.
And truly,I understand not being able to cook everything off the grid, but it should at least be consistant. If I can cook a soup pot dish I should be able to cook all soup pot dishes.
As for the challenge aspect I think having more recipes available for OTG would not change that. They would still have to cook it. They would still have no electricity or internet. Would still have briney water, tepid baths, have to fill the fridge with ice, and have no central heating or air conditioning.
What else do you think should be added or changed to improve the off the grid lot challenge?
@Renaissance_SimWell.
To start with, I think they did improve off the grid a lot in the patch to support Eco Lifestyle (at least, I think that was the patch). I used it prior to that, and....
Anyway. I'm mostly playing off the grid for Rags to Riches, or for conservationist/environmentalist narratives. Rags to Riches, why would I pay for utilities when I own no electronics or plumbing? except then I just end up never turning it on. :D Environmentalists are doing it for what are probably obvious reasons. I had a Rags to Riches with several teens I played rotationally, one of whom had a child brother he was responsible for, and for the brothers who lived in The Shipping Views it was A GREAT DAY when they were able to buy a cooler, and A GREAT DAY when they were able to buy a fridge that worked off the grid, and A GREAT DAY when they bought the horrible used Yum Cooker, and it was SO AMAZING when they got a wind turbine and were able to cook more things.
I did have a Sim where I was experimenting to see if she could live in Granite Falls full-time without a mod. Her home lot, which I didn't really want to end up using, was the cheapest lot in the game (the $1500 lot in Oasis Springs) and she had a 4x4 floor under her tent (so it would count as a tiny house for skilling), a portable camping shower, a pee bush, and a cooler while I skilled her up. BTW, the answer to whether she can live in Granite Falls full time is "Yes, if she's a freelancer she can work from Granite Falls forever, but no, she gets a sad 'homesick' buff after being in Granite Falls for 5 days." ☹️ So she never turned on her power, but she did do the gardener, fishing, and outdoor enthusiast aspirations and then went on temple runs in Selvadorada before spending her earnings on one of the super fancy farms in Henford on Bagley, where she has both off the grid and simple living, but also the green energy generation options. TBH she'd probably be happier in a tent but she has a spouse now and I plan to have her start a family. (Also before she married her social was always awful so I had her adopt a cat.)
SO.
Earlier iterations of off the grid were barrrrrrrrrely functional, IMHO. You couldn't take a bath, but you could click your toddler and choose "bathe" and your tub would suddenly work for only that purpose, for example. So my mermaid conservationist who lived off the grid and supported her teen sister was pretty much tense, dazed, or uncomfortable 24x7.
- Tense: from tepid off the grid water, either from the quick tepid shower or from washing dishes or...
- Dazed: from cooking off the grid (apparently the Yum Cooker leaks gas)
- Uncomfortable: sore from chores, and also she fell victim to the bug where mermaid scales were permanently dried out if their hygiene ever got low once.
- (I also made them mermaids because they were perpetually tense from low fun, as the only fun items on the lot were books and a chess board. Go swimming, girls. Go swimming!)
I basically bought Eco Lifestyle for her. :D Prior to that I'd abandoned the save in frustration (see also mermaid marine biologists are constantly assigned the WFH task "snorkel," which mermaids can't do, so she was constantly Not Paid, thank goodness for gardening!).
So, what would make it better: I would like to see the wood stove possibly produce an "ouch! burned hand!" uncomfortable buff instead of a dazed "from cooking with gas off the grid" buff, especially at low cooking level. Wood stoves have a learning curve! I'd like more variety in what I could cook off the grid--I agree that you should be able to cook pies even in the horrible
death trapYum Cooker stove. (I remember panicking about how I would get a cake when it came to be time for my mermaid conservationist to age up her little sister! I'd decided that I'd find a public lot with a stove and cook there.) I don't know, more soups and simple baked items like pies and maybe not gourmet items and no cakes or cookies or, I don't know, nothing too fancy. No Eggs Benedict, LOL.. I might be misremembering but I was under the impression that medieval people used a communal oven for all their cooking? I haven't tried the grill with Simple Living, but I'm curious, LOL. (BTW, even in on grid non-simple-living lots I basically only use Quick Meals for kids who are grabbing a snack when the household is out of leftovers, so I applaud turning off Quick Meals.) TBH, I'd like my Sims to have to purchase gas if that Yum Cooker is burning gas, or wood for the wood stove (or gather wood some other way? I know EL has "bio fuel" to run "fuel cells" on the stove, but I try to avoid making my devices industrial because, again, a lot of these Sims are in the Civil Designer or Environmentalist careers).My impression is that electric lights use a ludicrous amount of energy and I'm actually fine with that. I like giving my off the grid lots oil lamps and candles. I actually really enjoy having my Sims make candles out of bees wax, but don't do it as often as I probably should. :D (I have the bees for my garden.)
Basically, if an electronic item has an "energy efficient" upgrade I let my off the grid Sims have it, and if it doesn't they can do without. But again, I'm playing Conservationists and people who get their electronics out of a dumpster, LOL.
