Small annoyances

[Joria]

So I've noticed some things about our island that is really annoying, or, somewhat annoying.

1.  If you build on an empty lot you are "off the grid" and your electrical stuff doesn't work.  You get a message saying you are off the grid.  So lights are only by candles or torches.  Not even camp lights work, so plan on using a grill or fire ring for cooking and forget gourment cooking and baking.  Refrigerators for some reason, do work so food can be kept.  I guess this is true to old Hawaiian/Polynesian cooking but a modern day Sim gets a tad frustrated by it.

2.  When you grill something it goes right into your inventory and not on a handy table so you'd better be ready to eat it all or place it on a table to share.

3.  So far there seems to be a dearth of fishing spots.  My lot has one but most I've investigated don't.  However, there are random traps and you can buy fish traps if you have the funds.  Not sure how good this is compared to actual fishing.

4.  If you are on a far away Island you can't travel home.  The only way I've discovered is by clicking on the home button on your Sim, which, if they are close to starvation could be a problem as they will swim and wade their way there.

5.  So far the only fresh fruit and veg I've discovered, (and I'm sure there must be more), are pineapples and coconut.  Not sure if other fruit and veg will grow there as have not tried planting yet.

6.  A MAJOR annoyance, (for me anyway), is using the ploy to gain wealth and items via joining and quitting jobs is now, once again, broken.  It's a cheating kind of way to gain enough money to build a decent house but it worked before and I want it back.  (Stomps foot)

7.  Went in in Summer this time and much better.  Too much rain in Spring.  Yes, I know, I could turn Seasons off or at least the bad weather but really, does it really rain every bloody day in Spring?  I live in Oregon, noted for it's rainy weather, but even Oregon doesn't rain every day in Spring.  Depressing.

8.  So far swimming in the water does not increase fun or hygiene unless you have a pool.

9.  Having fun takes more work than usual.  No libraries so unless you own a bookcase no books.  No random guitars, (at least haven't found any yet), no computers, (no libraries), but there are easels.  Have not found a source for music to dance with, only one bar and it is too small and doesn't seem to have music. 

And yet, I'm still enjoying this place!!  (glutton for punishment)

[MarianT]

I think if you check the lot traits, you can remove the "off-the-grid" trait and make everything work again.
I've read that fishing traps really do work well. You have to leave them out for 24 hours, I think.
The bar in the village does have music -- I noticed the speaker when my Sim was in there.
As for quitting and joining jobs -- are you talking about the Connections reward? That was working a couple of days ago, but I suppose the patch might have broken it.

[Playalot]

Traveling around Sulani is...interesting. If you want to go somewhere on the water and you have an aqua ski or rigger in your sim inventory they won't use it. You have to get them into the water, place the boat in the world, direct them to sit on it..then you can click the water and do 'boat here'  (or the words might be sail here).

If the end location is on the land then your sim may choose to jump off their deck, swim to nearest land point then run to the final land location. Or..they may also choose to jump into water, auto use aqua ski and boat to nearest land and then run the rest of the way.

It seems if they can't quite route by either of those described methods then nothing will happen so you have to manually direct them to a closer location and then again, and again until they are where you wanted them.

Or if you're like me you'll just cheat and teleport them there.

[Joria]

I think if you check the lot traits, you can remove the "off-the-grid" trait and make everything work again.
I've read that fishing traps really do work well. You have to leave them out for 24 hours, I think.
The bar in the village does have music -- I noticed the speaker when my Sim was in there.
As for quitting and joining jobs -- are you talking about the Connections reward? That was working a couple of days ago, but I suppose the patch might have broken it.

Yep, the Connections reward now broken again.  Thanks for the tip on turning off , off the grid.  It will make her life easier.  Didn't see the speakers but the bar was very crowded and my Sim was in the red for sleep deprivation. 

@Playalot :  Lol.  Another thing to add to my list of annoyances.  It's true though, you pretty much can't get there from here, at least not directly.

[candyraver69]

5.  So far the only fresh fruit and veg I've discovered, (and I'm sure there must be more), are pineapples and coconut.  Not sure if other fruit and veg will grow there as have not tried planting yet.

I found Taro before the pineapples and coconuts. I have yet to find a 4th new harvestable. We shall see I guess.

[scoed]

I have only played a little so far and the biggest annoyance is there seems to be some pathing issues with the pack. Small adjustments on angles of approach fix it but it is annoying.

[Nindigo]

@candyraver69 I believe you can buy at least 3 of the fruits/veggies at the beach vending machine on the main isle. I found the fourth after a couple of days (letting it spawn) on Mua Pel'am.

The only routing issues that annoy me so far, are when passersby walk into my Sims home as if they live there and join private parties they weren't invited to, despite the lot having the Private Dwelling trait. But I made a post about that over at EA Answers H/Q. You can make your Sim travel off the lot and come back, however, then it should fix.

[scoed]

@Nindigo I noticed that too but as I have a Vamp in the family, I don't mind the self stocking buffett these sims offer. Free food is free food after all and hunting is so much work. It is nice my poor vamp can just walk into the kitchen and get a snack.

[Joria]

Harvestables are indeed found in the kiosk on the big Island.  I have also found two so far fishing, taro root and coconut and imagine kava and pineapple will eventually show up that way.  So far have only seen coconut and pineapple growing "wild" and only coconut  is ready for harvest, although the first plant to show was pineapple.  I'm playing in Summer at the moment and the may not be ready to sprout or harvest.  When planted, I think it's kava that doesn't sprout being a spring/fall plant.  (Could have been the taro, can't remember).

I am really loving the fact you can catch some really pretty fish including the catch and release ones.  It's also nice to not have to go to the Sylvan Glade to catch treefish.  Not sure about the grotto fish as I haven't caught any but it looks like batfish at least are leaping out of the water.

So far the Conservationist career is easy and seems the way to go.  I love that Maua Pua, (I think that's the islands name), blooms so beautifully once you've improved it.  I'm playing it "from home", style and it leaves plenty of time for skilling, building or just having fun plus gets the job done and promotions rolling in.  Right now she has to "Spray invasive species" but haven't found any to spray.

Love the fact you can catch frogs in the waterfall and use it for showers!    There's a pretty long cool down for catching frogs but just a quick jaunt over every day should get you all the ones you need.

I actually love the fact they can walk into parties and help themselves to food.  Leilanni, ( I know, cheesy name), went to a huge party uninvited and pretty soon met a lot of people and had plenty of food and drink.  I think it's a temple or big party place on the big island.

Found a lot of "homes" that apparently house the homeless but not a place you can buy or enter.  Like the ones you find in Strangeville.  I have never liked that feature in any Sims game.  Takes up space you can build in or remodel.  Cool having the road with vehicles on it and even cooler the road is kind of crumbly looking around the edges like the ones in more rural areas of Hawaii would be.

If you keep exploring the cave you find different things, some to keep, (shells etc.), and some just to know about.  (Bats)  I really like the cave but wish it was not a rabbit hole.  I prefer the grotto or glade kind of thing, and think lava tubes would be interesting.  Another place to "go through the mist" to.

I really want to get enough simoleons to buy the big place on MP island.  Itching to remodel it!  Lol.  (Can we say money cheat?)

I finally caved and am using the mail box cheat so my Sim doesn't have any needs getting in the way, but it looks like that, while it may take a bit more patience than I currently have, you can have a really enjoyable time playing a more leisurely game here.  Just put life on long or use potions to keep your Sim young enough. I do think dynasty play is possible although you may have to visit other "worlds" to speed some things up and do it all.  Not sure, but really think it's doable, where before I pretty sure it wasn't.  I'm playing as if she is a founder, although not trying to meet all the requirements.

So far no mermaids.  Not sure how you come across them but it's early days yet and they have not been my focus.

I'm wondering about some of the "special" things your find, heart of solani, fingers of solani etc.  Do they have any special properties or abilities?  Haven't tried using them and only used the conch once.  It gave me a bunch of shells but think it probably does more.  Does anyone know?

Getting a very nice collection of shells which vary in value.  A small annoyance is if you are through with a task, or queue, your sim will immediately start "beach combing" and sometimes leaves a task to do so.

[Nindigo]

@scoed Ah. Yeah, that is a different situation then. To me, however, it is quite insulting and trespass-y

[Nindigo]

@Joria I started play during spring and found all 4 plants fairly easily. Also, by the way, there are two Maxis premade mermaids, a male and a female. They are usually employed at one of the stalls or the bar, but cannot be found in household management just like Erwin Pries from StrangerVille. Their names are: Ukupanipo Hekekia (male) and Kalamainu'u Iona (female).

[TomasGrizzly]

I've found coconut and one more growing wild just looking around the island with the beach 50x50 lot but I cheesed the plants a bit - since I just moved my millionaire family there, I looked up the rarities and bought 10-15 (not sure how many exactly) seed packets, in a mixture of common, uncommon, and summer (one is common, three uncommon). Got 3 of 4 from them (missing kava).

[Highlander]

There is a kiosk by Tangled Flat that sells Beach Supplies. You can buy all four plants there.

Pretty sure that all four are Spring, Summer plants.

[scoed]

OK new annoyance, this one is pretty big for me. No building ground floor swimming pools or basements on lots with water. This ruins my plans on building an under water mad scientist  lab. That kills so many of my plans. Grrr.


Edited to add an annoyance

OK now I find fishing on the islands don't count towards the scout badge. It looks like I will need to travel to do that one. Grrr.

[Nindigo]

I'm guessing that some of these annoyances are simply bugs that will get fixed sooner or later. New releases always bring their share of bugs. If something feels like a gameplay bug, it should probably be reported over at EA Answers HQ. We can always try to help things along that way.