Money cheat. Yay or Nay?

"NRowe;d-986594" wrote:
Motherlode?

Mostly, yes. It depends on the reasons. If you're just using it to pay bills and avoid a career, meh. But if you're starting a sim out in a later life stage, certainly they've been through college and worked for a number of years. They would have both money and happiness points saved up. In which case, I don't consider it cheating, merely being realistic. An adult with 0 money or happiness just isn't realistic (under normal circumstances). An infant or child, sure. There's also your intended story. Are they the sole survivors of somebody who left them an inheritance? There are a lot of reasons to award both money and happiness in excess of what the game gives you to start with.

I've already done the full non-cheating save, and that was that. Thinking about it now, I still don't use very many money cheats, but I don't hesitate to do so whenever I feel inclined. It's true that it isn't difficult to make money but nonetheless it's also true that there are many other things I'd personally rather spend my time on in the game.

The only money cheat I use is freerealestate on for Sims that I place in world but I'm not planning on playing. I also used it on my Paranormal Stuff test Sims because I didn't want to test it in a tiny starter house, I used the hounted house that came with the pack. I did delete all the money from the Sims, though, to make the game at least a little bit more challenging. I'm also planning to pay for the house later if I decide to continue playing with those Sims after I'm done with the testing.

Using money cheats makes the game boring for me. I love it when my Sims earn their own money and start being able to buy things and upgrade their house etc. Getting rewards from leveling up on a career also feels great.
I used money cheats in one save when I started playing Sims and everything felt so easy and sending my Sims to work was meaningless. I got bored and started another save without cheats and I loved it. I will never use money cheats again, unless it's required on challenges that I do.

I usually cheat money by planting money tree.

I only use it if I want to move my sims in a bigger lot that they can't afford.

Other!

I only use Motherlode on a test sim in my vanilla build save.

For my actual story play I often start with a homeless or extremely poor sim and empty their wallet completely. Zero simoleons.
I use the free real estate cheat so the extremely poor dude can at least move into the awful shack I built for him.
I don't do rags to riches challenges either, so my homeless guy just wanders the world and I try and make sure he survives and learns a thing or two on the way.
Sometimes I do the total opposite and make my sim stinking rich. I use a mod for that. I'm talking mansions, maids and butlers.

Then there's the "ordinary" guy. He starts off with 20000 simoleons and gets a "regular" job, finds a wife and may or may not have kids.
In this game the real challenge for me is not the money, but having little sim kids...

Sure, let them have riches! If lacking funds interferes with how I want to play or what I want to do, like send them on an adventure to Selvadorada, I'll cheat some money. If I want to play a wealthy household from the getgo, I'll cheat. I also play rotationally and colonize my game so I don't want every household to be the same grind, I like variety. Some are rich, some are poor, and some just don't need income as a factor.

The question is not clear.

"Money cheat. Y/N"

In what context and for what purpose?

I use it often to get new Sims established in a § bizillion home as my custom "premades". After established, then no more money cheats. If they have to sell things off then so be it. :tongue:
Starting over all the time with §20 000 gets irritating. However, could combine a few random townie NPC's for their § then delete them. But I do consider that a cheat. ;)

So my vote is yes and no.

There was a time when I cheated to give my Sims more stuff when they were just starting out. But that just made Sims4 too easy, and I like the challenge of seeing home lots change as my Sims become more successful and can afford nicer things. These days, because so many of my played Sims are too wealthy, the bigger challenge is keeping them from becoming wealthier than what I think is realistic even for a Sims game. My Sims donate a lot of money to charities almost daily, as well as give hand outs to NPCs that seem a bit down on their luck. I buy expensive decor items and put those in my Sims' personal inventory to give to Uni students. I also play a Riches to Rags story where my Sim is addicted to playing cards, but isn't very lucky, and he ended up losing a fine home along his wife who happened to have the materialistic trait. She was not at all happy when their stuff was being sold off is all I can say about that. The final straw was having the repo man show up and take the hot tub along with an antique rug, and she nearly died of anger right on the spot. He was booted out and has been trying to win back all the Simoleans he lost but it isn't going very well for him at the moment. The money mods I use have added a lot of surprises and storytelling tools, and I can't play without them now.

For me it is an No as cheating to gain artificially makes for an boring game instead of working my Sims to get the same goal. :)