How to use Outdoor Retreat and make it interesting?
I have had Outdoor Retreat since 2015. For me it has always been the least interesting Game Pack(I know it was also the first GP for The Sims 4). I just never know what to do with it. I've used it like once or twice maybe. I'm looking for ways/ideas to make it interesting so I'm open for ideas. (I'm not a family player and I dislike toddlers(too needy for me). When I play I focus on sims from kids to elders)
I turned it into a version of Camp Crystal Lake from Friday 13th. Ghosts, curses, tunnels, concealed entrances that allow serial killers to sneak up on teenagers as they roast their spliffs on an open fire... A run-down house and a lake...
I gotta admit... I've never been to the Granite Falls and I've owned the game pack for quite some time now :''D I'm actually just about to start playing with a couple that I'm finally gonna send there so the lady can learn the herbalism skill...
"Loanet;c-16406962" wrote: I turned it into a version of Camp Crystal Lake from Friday 13th. Ghosts, curses, tunnels, concealed entrances that allow serial killers to sneak up on teenagers as they roast their spliffs on an open fire... A run-down house and a lake...
Wow that sounds AMAZING and so creative! Now I want a horror pack for TS4.
However, if you want to set him as the actual NPC forest ranger for Granite Falls, that requires going into testingcheats. There's a way I'm sure, but I can't help there. Maybe @PsychoSimXX could help with that; she has experience in setting up specific Sims to be specific NPC's in save games.
There are three ways to do this and it mainly depends on what you want the end result to be.
1. For the cooks, mixologists and entertainers. You just have to create a sim with the associating aspirations and traits. The mixologists will show up in your bars as bartenders. It is still pretty random. To hire them for parties you might have to have them have those jobs and your sim know them I think. I don't mess with parties all that much anymore.
Now for the NPC services jobs that isn't an playable job.
2. My method of choice is to just edit the ones game produces but I have done it the hard way a time or two.
4. This one you will need to use plenty of cheat codes. I have only done it a time or two and only use this method for a sim I have created as a townies and wanted them to have a certain job. Using the cheat codes is HIGHLY important. I also suggest using the Teleport Any Sim mod to achieve this. You can also use the MC Command Center mod to summon the sim but they have to already be in your relationship pool to summon them. With the teleport sim you can summon all pets and sims with exception of babies.
Once you have summoned the unplayed sim you will need to get their Sim ID and set their skill. To set their skill I just use shift and click on the sim. Then choose Cheat Sim info and from there set skill. All of them are there even the hidden ones. You can do this with SOME of the traits as well.
I used this to make a massage therapist. So I gave her max Wellness Skill once i brought her to the lot.
"ItsJanier;d-937774" wrote: I have had Outdoor Retreat since 2015. For me it has always been the least interesting Game Pack(I know it was also the first GP for The Sims 4). I just never know what to do with it. I've used it like once or twice maybe. I'm looking for ways/ideas to make it interesting so I'm open for ideas. (I'm not a family player and I dislike toddlers(too needy for me). When I play I focus on sims from kids to elders)
I would suggest either building or downloading lots that you will use while there and are geared for your own game play. Outdoor is my fav pack just because it is a vacation spot and that is all I use it for now because I have explored the world a million times. I don't even have to search for the cave any more. What you have stated is pretty much how I feel bout Oasis Springs. I do not like the whole desert look to it and I never have. I never even played them in the previous games. I love greenery way to much...LOL so I have been turning it into mostly a venue world with different classes of venues. If I wouldn't be doing that, I would never even venture over there. Heck I haven't even really explored the world....lol
My sim owned a store in which he made herbal remedies. To gain money for the store I had him go and collect bugs and sold the ones he wouldn't need. He grew the plants needed.
I do take my Sims on vacations. Sometimes it is just weekend getaway with friends or a romantic getaway with his love interest of the moment. I'll even have his kids move in just for the weekend and go on family camping trips. Now that we can have venues in the destination worlds, I built a few lots for my Sims to do while on vacation. I have a Spa retreat for romantic getaways. Cabins for weekend trips with friends and family and camp ground for camping. I even have a bar for when he's off with his friends. That is what I do as for taking my sims there. As for the objects, I use them in various of my builds.
I haven't tried locking sims in a dungeon for a while now so I don't know if the prisoners still leave once your sim leaves the lot or not. If they do you could still play the whole "Cabin by the Lake" scenario by torturing and killing sims. Just don't leave the lot when you have a prisoner. LOL
Bulldoze the park in Oasis Springs, turn it into a National Park, put a cabin and some other amenities there, and go on a long desert camping adventure instead of going out to the lush woods.
I loved your post @TheLibrarySim I got some ideas from it. I really want to make the bear pass out now. Little private blood doll.
Anyway, despite all the flack and .. well hate this pack got for so long it's been my favorite GP. I haven't even explored JA long enough for it to top it (yet). I'll just tell you a few ways I play.. doubt it's exciting though. I really love to start off a sim and move them into an empty lot in game. Then I go to build in Granite Falls and flatten the cheapest lot there and rent it for I think about 11 bucks a day.. might be a few bucks more. Then I just take my brand new sim on vacation. They don't have a house to bring in bills for. I just skill them herbalism, fishing, gardening, collections ect... if I set up lots before I go and add the traits then I can skill them in many other things also.. whatever I want the sim to become they can get a good start. You can set up free general or community lots for them to live in. My sim normally makes their home base in the National Forest. I almost always start a massive garden there also. Splicing it down as I go (this can take a few trips and even different sims) . I try not to evolve the plants to high so that other sims in that save can eventually make use of them. I have used it as was mentioned also for romantic aspirations... you get caught a lot less because the sims rarely wander into the national forest build unless invited.. You can have dates there also. I stay there as long as I want or until I get tired of doing it. I've usually gotten deep into the collectors aspiration, herbalism, gardening and fishing. My sims usually have a really good base of skills to start their lives off this way too. When they get home I keep what I want to keep and sell the excess and always have much more money then the start of the game.
Yeah, as beautiful as the vacation world is, Outdoor Retreat could definitely use some kind of gameplay upgrade.
My simself's first trip to Selvadorada unexpectedly turned into a fun travel journal with me taking screenshots of everything and writing a little story around them. In the end I had a PDF with 80+ screenshots. Now I want to do the same thing with Granite Falls, and I already have some story ideas, like someone being bitten by a vampire hiding in the woods and requiring a herbal remedy to be cured, or me and my sister running from a bear which turns out to be our mother trolling us in a bear costume, etc. But I'll have to stage most of the screenshots because things like these don't happen naturally in the game. In fact, almost nothing happens in Granite Falls.
I really wish we had Seasons already, because I can see them (especially winter) significantly enhancing the gameplay experience.
