Off the grid... what does it even mean?

Generally speaking, when people are talking about "off the grid" they mean living without electricity or even more isolated than that. People talking about it in the Sims seem to be aiming either for a sort of pioneer life or for a more modern version of self-sufficiency and sustainability. So you'll get things like growing your own food, building your own furniture, cooking on a wood stove, doing laundry by hand, and also things like solar power and wind power.

I do think that we'd still end up with the cellphones, at least in the UI. But I'd like to have a "this Sim has no phone" option. Sims who need to do something by computer could use a public library, I suppose. Or just pout and not do those things.

I think in the context of a Farming EP, it's that some people are looking most for a "pioneer" type life, whether that involves animals or crops or both.

"luthienrising;c-16531437" wrote:
Generally speaking, when people are talking about "off the grid" they mean living without electricity or even more isolated than that. People talking about it in the Sims seem to be aiming either for a sort of pioneer life or for a more modern version of self-sufficiency and sustainability. So you'll get things like growing your own food, building your own furniture, cooking on a wood stove, doing laundry by hand, and also things like solar power and wind power.

I do think that we'd still end up with the cellphones, at least in the UI. But I'd like to have a "this Sim has no phone" option. Sims who need to do something by computer could use a public library, I suppose. Or just pout and not do those things.

I think in the context of a Farming EP, it's that some people are looking most for a "pioneer" type life, whether that involves animals or crops or both.

All this and also, when I say "off the grid" in the game, I also picture canning and more forms of preserving food, a working well for water, chopping wood, making butter and cheese, have chickens for eggs and cows/goat for milk, produce nectar and olive oil (or other kinds of oils), maybe make soaps and candles and such. Basically a very hands on lifestyle where you are self-sufficient and crafty.

Why does this make me feel like it would be an Amish EP

Off the grid might give us things like wells or water pumps(to do what with I've no clue), solar panels(perhaps work like the electric box in CL, breaks and stuff). Canning was talked about during the laundry day stuff. Off the grid was an option then as well.

We had solar panels and wind turbines in Sims 3 -- while you couldn't go completely "off the grid" using them did help lower the bills a bit.

Ok but how would you make even a GP out of solar panels and wind turbines? lol. Seriously, I'm just confused about why so many people are voting for it when it just seems extremely limited and boring. I mean, a stuff pack maybe?

When we had the community pack vote for gameplay, Off the Grid was one of the options. This is what the sims team had in mind at the time. I assume if we had the feature it would be something like this.

https://simsvip.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/survey-2.png

"AlbaWaterhouse;c-16531454" wrote:

"luthienrising;c-16531437" wrote:
Generally speaking, when people are talking about "off the grid" they mean living without electricity or even more isolated than that. People talking about it in the Sims seem to be aiming either for a sort of pioneer life or for a more modern version of self-sufficiency and sustainability. So you'll get things like growing your own food, building your own furniture, cooking on a wood stove, doing laundry by hand, and also things like solar power and wind power.

I do think that we'd still end up with the cellphones, at least in the UI. But I'd like to have a "this Sim has no phone" option. Sims who need to do something by computer could use a public library, I suppose. Or just pout and not do those things.

I think in the context of a Farming EP, it's that some people are looking most for a "pioneer" type life, whether that involves animals or crops or both.

All this and also, when I say "off the grid" in the game, I also picture canning and more forms of preserving food, a working well for water, chopping wood, making butter and cheese, have chickens for eggs and cows/goat for milk, produce nectar and olive oil (or other kinds of oils), maybe make soaps and candles and such. Basically a very hands on lifestyle where you are self-sufficient and crafty.

This! When I hear off-the-grid, this is what I picture in terms of a Sims version. To me, it's more about being self-sufficient than it is about being isolated or eschewing all tech. So in terms of gameplay, what I imagine is maybe one family still uses electricity, etc., but they use alternative sources to power it and/or just use a lot less of it, versus maybe a family that really wants to get completely away from it all and live a very simple life out in the woods or something. I would think it would be pretty simple to sort of pick your degrees of how off-the-grid you wanted to go, in a game like this, too.

"Evilyn_1007;c-16531847" wrote:
When we had the community pack vote for gameplay, Off the Grid was one of the options. This is what the sims team had in mind at the time. I assume if we had the feature it would be something like this.

https://simsvip.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/survey-2.png

Ok thanks. This sounds awful LOL

As a student of environmental design, I highly enjoy the idea of my sims having sustainable energy. Lol.