Simming Tips, Tricks, and Curiosities

Seasoned Ace

3 years ago

Simming Tips #18: Can You Dig It? - Collectible Spawn Maps

This was an endeavour I'd been wanting to undertake for far too long, but when I'd first attempted it I wound up frustrated by variables I couldn't understand clearly. After two weeks (on-and-off), I still have yet to fully understand what's going on under the hood when it comes to spawned collectibles. With this in mind, let's get to the disclaimers and notes.

Disclaimers:

I do not own 'My Wedding Stories', 'Journey To Batuu', 'Werewolves', 'High School Years', or 'Cottage Living', so the list of worlds excludes Tartosa, Henford-On-Bagley, Moonwood Mill, Copperdale, and Batuu.

These maps (much to the irritation of my perfectionism) aren't perfect. This feeds into the following:

There will likely be spawns I did not see in my scouring of the neighborhoods, as well as those that may be rare enough (or at least affected by mods, CC, bugs, or any number of other variables) that I didn't get to see them, and possible never had prior.

I have 'Cats & Dogs', so dirt patches are in the rotation of spawners for basegame collectibles. If they were introduced to the basegame pre-C&D, I've no clue. I can only presume it came with the pack, due to animals being able to dig them up autonomously (one reason a patch might disappear in a place with a lot of strays).

If you've paid attention to the digsites before, you'll note that the three types (crystals, minerals, and fossils) interchange. This is true for frog logs and dirt patches as well, though some worlds won't spawn one or more, sticking to specific types instead. Because they all spawn in the same predetermined locations, they will all be marked with yellow X's on the maps. Trying to suss out which won't spawn where, what spawns less often than what, and whether or not certain ones are static (despite disappearing post-collection) is not feasible enough for me to spend more time on.

There are spots where only dirt patches will spawn (as far as I have noticed), and where they've only ever spawned once or twice for me. I will still include these spots on the maps, just in case they spawn for others.

There are certain (usually world-exclusive) spawns, such as water pumps, snowglobe boxes, etc. These will be differently-coloured than the usual spawners. What matters here is not that the spawner itself (the visually representative object) de/spawns, but rather that the ability to collect from it has a (relatively long) cooldown.

If the X is on an object such as a tree, rock, etc, then it's an issue with the angle of the screenshot, and the spawner is being obscured by the object.

Certain collectibles may not spawn for you. I've noted that past the initial collection, few simply do not spawn again, or at least not on a day-to-day timeframe. To add to this, most require you being in the neighborhood around 2am for them to spawn after the initial round (like some harvestables do).

I've noted an issue wherein certain digsites will not yield an item ("empty" digsites). I've neither a solution, nor explanation, for that one. The AHQ report is here.

Sixam's geodes, alien mounds, and crystal sites may sometimes state that their resources have already been harvested. It's possible that the Sixamites themselves also collect them.

Selvadorada's (and possibly Sixam's) clusters of digsites may not spawn every member of each cluster on the first day. In my case, on the first day only one spawn would appear per location. On the second day, two. For my more seasoned saves (wherein I'd visited Selvadorada multiple times and stayed multiple days) all of the members of each cluster would spawn. This is not a certainty, regardless of the time spent there, however.

The included archeological digsites for the Selvadorada maps will not contain the ones that spawn when surveying at level 4 of the requisite skill. Just...no.

I will not be covering any collectibles that do not have spawn points. As well, I will not be including harvestables and fish, as both are too numerous to retroactively include.

Only the Western half of Yukimatsu is shown on its map. This is due to its size, as well as my not having found any collectibles in the Eastern half.

Granite Falls Forest was too large to include as one map and still be able to accurately pinpoint the collectibles, hence it was split into North and South.

Evergreen Harbor's spawn points are the same, regardless of the active NAP's. That said, I've found none in Conifer Station.

Similarly to the above, I did not find any spawns in Lani St. Taz, Ohan'ali Town (Sulani), the Secret Lab (Strangerville), Lykke Centre, Olde Platz (Windenburg), and Mt. Komorebi's titular mountain.

The Civic Center neighborhood is actually two identical ones- one for the Police Station, and one for the hospital. Depending on which you visit, you'll end up with all of the same locations, but different instances. Luckily, both have the same exact spawn point (yes, one), so if you're hard up to get there just to harvest it, you can do so twice, so long as you've a way (job or pregnancy) to get to both.

Notes:

The "Collector" aspiration choice trait from the "Nature" section gives 2 collectibles per crystal digsite, time capsule, or limestone. When using a treasure map, it defaults to one MySims figure only. Similarly, when collecting in Selvadorada or Sixam, only one item will be obtained per spawn.
The "Incredible Forager" Spellcaster perk makes it so that collected and harvested items (only in the Magic Realm) yield 2 items, instead of one. Combined with the "Collector" trait, this yields 3-4 collectibles (those affected by both) each.
Digsites (and other collectibles not bought, but collected) spawn after 2-3 in-game hours either spent in the neighborhood, or spent away from it after visiting.
In most cases, the spawns occur each day around 2am. In rare cases, they happen right after having been harvested.
Where there are clustered spawns of the same type, they will be marked once, but with a small number at the top-right (dependent on the amount).
Dirt patches contain:
- Common Upgrade Parts
- Foul Minnows (I can only assume the animals are burying them)
- Voodoo Dolls (rare)
- Limestones (fossils)
- Capsules (MySims figures)
If a stray/pet digs up a dirt patch, they'll leave a small purple gift box. This can contain random items - more commonly chew toys - including collectibles. It's worthwhile to get to the patches before the animals, but not a total loss if you don't.
Mineral digsites (the basegame trio) can also result in robot parts alongside their usual yield. Who's burying those? I have the answer to the meaning of life, but this one stumps me.
Water can be gathered from water pumps if one's home lot is off-the-grid.
Sixam-based crystal sites contain random crystals, even if they say "collect", and despite bearing the colours of the two Get To Work-exclusive crystals (Nitelite and Crandestine). In fact, those are the two least common crystals found in them, given the number of crystals they pull from.
Sixam-based mineral sites can still contain capsules with MySims figures, and contain both solarium and blutonium. Despite those being the more likely minerals found there, one can still find others, though those are (weirdly enough) less common.
Neither the Sixam-based crystal sites nor mineral sites spawn as something else.
I have obtained a broken keyboard (and since then, other items) from a snowglobe junk box before, so I'm reasonably confident there's more than just snowglobes in there. Given the amount of snowglobes found since then, it's definitely a rare find.
Treasure maps and voodoo dolls can be sold, but default to being unowned. Put them in the household inventory, then retrieve them to fix this issue.
As I've chosen to include insect spawn points, there are a couple of things to keep in mind:
- Whilst some spawn points may be shared between insects, others are exclusively for one type. This includes Mosquitoes, Fireflies (and Rainbow ones), Dragonflies (and Dragon ones), Will-o-The-Wisps, and Dust Spirits. Given Fireflies, WotWs, and Dust Spirits only spawn past sunset, you'll only see spawns in their designated locations then.
- Spawn points draw from the same pools on a day-to-day basis. It may, however, be harder to spot certain members within larger pools (3 or more) simply due to RNG (even in the case of Common insects). In those cases, it's best to check another spawner with the same pool.
- The rarer the insect, the less you'll obtain per spawn (from 3 commons to 1 rare).
- Time of day doesn't seem to matter as much as I'd first thought. Other than strictly nocturnal insects, the rest is up to RNG, and simply flitting from point to point whilst sims are busy is enough to gather most of the collection within the first day of one's vacation.
- I've included letters for each insect spawn marker, and a corresponding guide with the relevant insects.
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