Eco LifeStyle - First Impressions

[MrsFlynn]

What's your first impression of the Eco LifeStyle pack? Was there any surprises for you?

Please keep on topic of first impression of the pack. If you have questions regarding this pack, please create a New Topic so we can better help with questions.

[Brian_Z]

One of the first things I saw was Bjorn Bjergssen voting at the NAP board.  In Evergreen Harbor!  Go vote in your own neighborhood!
Dumpster diving can be highly profitable.  My household is starting with the cheap lot in Port Promise, bulldozed and money 0 cheat.  On their third try diving in the dumpster on the community lot, one of my sims comes up with an Immersive Bend computer!  Score!  The over 3000 simoleans from selling it really improved their situation- now they have a tent, a grill, a CC outhouse, and a shower.

[scoed]

Very early opinion. I like the new Freegan and Recycle Disciple traits. They are fun. The cloths is better than I thought. I similar to @Brian_Z bulldozed cheap lot in Port Promise added the off-the -grid trait, and placed a dumpster on the lot and zeroed her money after. The difference is my sim was a teen runaway with the Freegan and Recycle Disciple traits. I never got as lucky as Brian_Z as to find such a high priced object and I didn't let my sim sell objects she didn't make from her inventory anyway. It was quite hard to keep up her needs. Lost her homework and her grades struggled to rise. It was a refreshing challenge just to meat her needs. I love the new voting systems. Winning the makerspace vote was a game changer. I had fun. I will give a more detailed review after more play. But being a dumpster diving teen living in a dumpster is a fun start. I just wish the dumpster on the lot generated trah so I could dive for deals on my own lot.

[MarianT]

Another early opinion. If you're going to move your Sim to the container house lot in Port Promise, dump the furniture. Otherwise, @Deklitch, your Sim will immediately try to grill something even though she's not hungry and set herself on fire. And the only shower she can take is the short, tepid kind. I finally had to send her to the gym to get her clean.

The lot is off-the-grid and the one that requires recycling and composting trash. I had her get the cheap dew collector (no more tepid showers) and a solar panel. She started a job as a Civil Designer and had to acquire recycled material. I found out that you can recycle things from household inventory as well as personal inventory, which is good to know.

I just got the notification that Tech Support won as the N.A.P. Not what my Sim was hoping for. I had her introduce the We Wear Bags measure. Incidentally, there are about 5 different bags that can be worn.

Right now, I'm just going with the attempt to make Port Promise green. I was afraid it would all happen in one week, but not if my neighbors are going for Tech Support.

[Rainbow Dash]

Posted by: MarianT« on: Today at 06:16:43 AM »Another early opinion. If you're going to move your Sim to the container house lot in Port Promise, dump the furniture. Otherwise, @Deklitch, your Sim will immediately try to grill something even though she's not hungry and set herself on fire. And the only shower she can take is the short, tepid kind. I finally had to send her to the gym to get her clean

Dump the furniture?! Heck no, we have FIREFIGHTERS so I'm gonna light that sucker up, fires are fun now! I'm gonna have way too much fun with this added feature, of course this may mean that Sims could be harder to kill by fire now, hmmm, I'll have to test that. *Evil laughter*

I bought the pack today but haven't played it yet, didn't get home until late and am too tired to bother with it right now, I'll probably get around to playing it tomorrow.

I'm not sure about this pack to be honest, it's not really my style, I could care less about community related gameplay and my Sims are like me, anti-social. But I have wanted Dumpster Diving back for the longest time and all of the crafty type skills such as Candle Making interest me. I'll just have to try it out and see, in the meantime I'm just gonna hang around here.

[Brian_Z]

@scoed My household is in fact TWO teenage runaways!  Big thunderstorm a couple days later, and they had an awful night of it after lightning destroyed their tent.
Surprised that there's no fishing spots in Port Promise, what with the water gathering that's an important thing for off-the-grid.  Seawater would be completely useless, but you could argue that this is actually the Great Lakes.
Way more votes on the NAP than there is people in the neighborhood.  You see people go through the voting animation, but the vote totals don't necessarily change when they do so.
If you can find or replace that homework, getting help with homework builds friendship in a hurry.  And becoming good friends with someone gets you a LOT of Influence points.

[Himekawa]

Usually, the fire casted by my caster is localized to one object (or somehow I did not notice it) and did not persist over 60 minutes (enough for a person to survive). I wonder if the code for magical fire is changed now, since when I try to burn my trash can, it quickly spread to the other objects and more long-lasting than I thought. Probably going to burn others now.

Edit: after testing by burning the furniture of my neighbor (the villareals), I managed to make two sims die, hugo and his daughter (a child). meanwhile, I try to burn the library, but the fire did not spread like in the villareal's house. In fact, it behaved like the old magical fire. So... I'm partly happy for the way to kill the children, and partly annoyed that I cannot burn the public facilities. I hope they patch this so that I can burn public facility.

[simfulicious]

Another early opinion. If you're going to move your Sim to the container house lot in Port Promise, dump the furniture. Otherwise, @Deklitch, your Sim will immediately try to grill something even though she's not hungry and set herself on fire.

Literally just happened to me!  And she couldn't save herself for anything!  Fastest I've ever had a sim die!

[ratchie]

I'm enjoying it so far I have been playing a rags to riches with a community maker center thing which is super useful because I can recycle and create pretty much everything for free. I am not sure what each new lot trait does but I like the underwater well one that means i have plumbing even off the grid. Build mode looks scary with all the extra things to consider and my daughter had lots of fires in her built homes i haven't yet but my sim owns a hut made out of metal and she doesn't own any kind of heat source so things might change.

Rachel

[Brian_Z]

Usually, the fire casted by my caster is localized to one object (or somehow I did not notice it) and did not persist over 60 minutes (enough for a person to survive). I wonder if the code for magical fire is changed now, since when I try to burn my trash can, it quickly spread to the other objects and more long-lasting than I thought. Probably going to burn others now.

Edit: after testing by burning the furniture of my neighbor (the villareals), I managed to make two sims die, hugo and his daughter (a child). meanwhile, I try to burn the library, but the fire did not spread like in the villareal's house. In fact, it behaved like the old magical fire. So... I'm partly happy for the way to kill the children, and partly annoyed that I cannot burn the public facilities. I hope they patch this so that I can burn public facility.

Some building materials are more combustible than others now, and especially flooring.  All wood flooring and most carpets have Low Fire Resistance (it says it in build mode).

[Brian_Z]

Why is Erwin Pries at my lot, dressed in overalls and a hard hat?  It finally turned out he was the garbage man!  I'm guessing if it had been someone else, they would have been tagged as Garbage Man (or whatever their actual title is).  Erwin was still tagged as Conspiracy Theorist, so it was puzzling until I finally got the notice about the dumpster.  Also I don't know why the garbage man would come in your house and hang out!

[stellybelly]

I've had a few glitches. Some actions have randomly been selected and been unable to cancel them. I also had a glitch where I teleported my sim and she was stuck in t-pose flashing in and out of existence. I've been on for countless of times too. But I'm sure we were expecting this with a new pack.

Stella

[scoed]

After my first play through, I like the patch a lot after they fixed my saves so I can play them again. The changes to off the lot made it playable. And EL effect on off the grid is welcome. Power is needed for some careers and EL opens them up for those lots. The biggest ad seems to be the new lot type, and the NAPs. Love the traits. Dumpster diving is fun. I think it is a little too profitable given we are talking trash. I am a little disappointed in the eco footprint thing but it adds challenge to building if you care about it. I give the pack a C+. Well done but it will lose it's appeal after a few playthroughs. This is it's final grade.

[Franki]

Haven't done more than a cursory look at the new pack, I like some of the new hairstyles and CAS outfits, as for the voting well that's a tough one to work with when at University, especially when everyone votes for 'Get Juiced' and next thing you know, everyone you sim meets is dazed and non responsive. Will go have a better look at all the details today but I do like the whole solar panels and wind turbines for both the roof and ground.

[Brian_Z]

After playing with it for a few days, I have to agree with @scoed.  The actual new gameplay is wearing thin pretty quick, it becomes the only thing you do anymore.  The craftables lose money, because they sell for less than the special materials needed.  The green technology will never save you enough money to pay for its purchase price.  All of this takes an immense amount of your sim's time.  The only thing that turns a profit is dumpster diving!  My sims now make a living just clicking Sell All on the garden every morning, I'll likely sell off all the crafting stations.  In the end, it's an interesting new zone and a large stuff pack, and in the future I'll have the eco footprint switched off.