For the last year, I have been wondering exactly how you place objects in a room with the Environmental modifier so that you can get the "Decorated", "Nicely Decorated" and "Beautifully Decorated" moodlets. I spent yesterday evening trying different combinations of objects in rooms, and have come up with the following conclusions:
1.
Your Sim's perception of objects has a range of 30 feet For this, I did the following test: I placed a wall in an empty lot, and placed "Puck's Soliloquy" on it. I then placed a line of chairs leading away from it in perpendicular and diagonal lines. I then had a Sim sit in each chair, going further away, until the decorated moodlet disappeared. This happened when the sim got 11 squares in a straight line, and 8 squares in a diagonal line, away from the object. Therefore the object must be within 10 and 7 squares to add to the moodlet.
Recommendation: don't make your rooms larger than 7x7 to have the same decorated moodlet exist within the entire room.
2.
The Environmental modifier is not linearly cumulative.I started by testing what is needed to get the basic "Decorated" moodlet by placing various paintings on the wall of an empty room, and seeing which moodlet popped up, and found the following:
a: A single object with a minimum Env:5 rating, but less than 10, will make the room "Decorated".
Easy enough to test, a 5 gives the moodlet, a 4 doesn't.
b: Three objects, two rated 4 and one rated 1 are needed for "Decorated".
I figured that, if the cumulative env for a room was additive, then a 4 and a 1 would be the same as a 5, but a 4 and a 1 gave no moodlet. Neither did two 4's, but when I added a 1 to the room, the moodlet appeared. Three 3's, or a 4, a 3, and a 2 will also give the moodlet.
Recommendation: To get the "Decorated" moodlet, one of the following combinations minimum must be placed in a room:
- a 5
- two 4's and a 1
- three 3's
- a 4 and three 2's
- two 3's and two 2's
- a 3 and four 2's
- a 3, three 2's and three 1's
- seven 2's
- a 2 and fifteen 1's
c: A single object with Env: 10 will give a "Nicely Decorated" moodlet.
Tested as above, a 10 gave it, a 9 didn't.
d: A 9 and a 5 will give you the same moodlet.
The 9 and 4 combo was only "Decorated".
e: You need two 10's and a 9 to get "Beautifully Decorated".
Since there are so few objects with that high a rating, I decided to check some lower numbers.
f: You need TWELVE 5's and a 1 to get BD.
Yep, that little 1 made the difference between "Nicely" and "Beautifully".
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I hadn't messed with ND much, and there are many other combinations that will work for the higher moodlets. Maybe there is a math expert out there that can come up with a formula that will tell us more combinations that will work. I hope that this information is helpful.
Notes:
Awards (certificates, etc.) all have a rating of 6.
Floor and wall decoration (build mode type), doors, and windows make no difference to environment. Only objects add to environment, and only those with ratings.
It would have been nice if EA just TOLD us how this works.
