Forum Discussion

Ayanko's avatar
6 years ago

ECO Living; Sharing and Caring is extremely bad for this game.

I'm sure there's been plenty of threads like this and I'm a lazy so and so for not finding them, but I wanted to say my peace. The N.A.P sharing is caring is perhaps one of the worst design choice mechanics I've seen, to actually have it in this game and portrayed as something positive is something I find disgusting.  It's not sharing, it's stealing. Sharing is positive, being forced to comply with a regime that is negative and that you don't agree with is stealing. You can clearly see the ramifications and impacts of this if you check the voting board. With NPCs voting you can see that there are a couple voting against the NAP, you the player, hold sway and can change this. But even still, you can see how horrible it is when you look at it this way. You're forcing others to comply with this to create anarchy. Not bad -pun intended- if you're playing an evil character and want the whole community to be a horrible mess. This might even be 'fun' if it didn't mean that now every NPC is now stealing everything no matter where it is, completely breaking the 'personalities' of the premade sims that exist as they go on a rampage stealing counters, sinks and couches.

While I understand the wish for people to have different gameplay and wanting to have a community where sharing is indeed caring and is beneficial. The way it's done in here is something that's far from the thought. And looking at it from a real-life perspective is probably going too far because this is just a game, but you have to lean back and smell the trash fruit - right now it's just terrible, even more so with the many bugs attached to it - for which we're at the mercy of the patch gods.

But still, In every game that includes 'thievery,' there is a negative reaction to the theft, either be the enemies/NPCs spotting you and reacting in a negative manner. Most RPGs have this system. The most common one I can think of and is probably fresh in everyone's mind nearly every single Elder Scrolls game, and if we're thinking about Sims, then even Klepto's are punished if they're caught - teaching the player that stealing, and being caught is wrong, meaning that stealing is indeed wrong.

So why do we have something that is akin to stealing in the game where the player has to go out of their way to stop it in multiple communities so those households and community lots don't become empty and non-functional?

Why isn't 'Sharing is Caring' literally a N.A.P where NPCs and players gain influence by gifting crafted items? Or donating items to charities or something? Why is it straight up stealing and with no control on just what they're stealing?

Surely I'm not the only one who thinks this N.A.P is just ridiculous and needs a rework.

The fact I have to turn off NPC voting, then go to every single community and cheat in four N.A.Ps so sharing is caring isn't activated isn't my idea of fun. The only reason I'm not suffering from NPCs etc stealing my sinks and counters is that a kind soul in this community created a mod that fixes part of the problem with N.A.Ps from different communities being falsely given such traits (buffs). I can't imagine how the game is playing for those on consoles where they can't do this and are at the mercy of this horrible N.A.P.

Regardless, I really want to know the thought process of the Devs for putting this N.A.P in. This isn't me being cruel or sarcastic, I'm genuinely curious about why this was put in the way it was. 

P.S only Kleptomaniacs and Evil NPCs should be voting for this N.A.P.

26 Replies

  • Jackie7Sims's avatar
    Jackie7Sims
    Seasoned Traveler
    5 years ago

    @AyankoYes, you know something... I am so so happy to see your post regarding this so called "Sharing Is Caring". My sentiment is that in this case "Sharing is Stealing". It is as you have taken the word right out of my mouth and is totally wrong and extremely bad design mechanics indeed.

    I have had to stop accepting friends wanting to come around and socialize because they are all stealing items from my sim's homes. I even saw "Santa" of all sims stealing a painting that had been sitting on an easel a sim had created. I am disgusted that anyone would even consider this for this game that all ages love to play. What is this teaching them?

    I don't want to keep resorting to locking all doors and building fences to avoid sofas, computers chessboards etc etc being stolen by my so called trusted good sims friends. Relationships are now deteriorated because of this.

    Long reply but yeah I hate this and feel it needs to be edited or watered down somehow. It's just not logically possible for everyone to be Klepto and it's not funny or cute either.

    I'm done!

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

    @Jackie7Sims 

    You are aware that you can disable NPC voting in Settings?

    That way only things you vote for gets enabled.

  • Jackie7Sims's avatar
    Jackie7Sims
    Seasoned Traveler
    5 years ago
    @jpkarlsen No, I was a bit confused in settings particularly but, I was unable to vote when voting was “Open” so, I must have already disabled it when messing with settings for Eco Living stuff.
  • I have stopped playing sims 4 because of this ECO Pack. I spend most of my time rebuilding the areas that have missing items. This takes to long. the having to vote and change things in every community takes to long too. I love sims 4, this and other things in this pack are horrible. How do I delete this pack is what I want to know..