I picked up Eco Living on sle yesterday as well. After looking around it for a short time, I'm very happy I didn't pay the full price. I doubt I'm moving my very happy, long played household moving into a dump town. Ah, the joys of EA's collective inventiveness, .

You'll find out by pressing the button on the right of the World information button (top middle) when going to every world. They all start off as Neutral (white) except for Evergreen Harbor where you start off with one of each. I'd repeal the NAP first or otherwise you'll get stuff stolen. I got all my bar chairs pinched, even in another world!

You gonna have to enter build mode a lot to make the most of that pack though, Places I've wanted Green have suddenly turned Industrial and Vice-Versa for most unknown reason, just remember if you want green, start with those Drywalls which bring the footprint down quite a bit, those are those grey walls you don't paint or forget to paint because they are normally in hidden in corners you don't normally see, such as in attics, inside chimeries, fountains and underground, etc etc then Electronics also bring the footprint down, so reduce your ownership of computers, TVs, Stereos, etc etc. If you find out thats not enough then you need a sim with high Handiness skill, to keep upgrading your existing applicances and furniture, and also your neighbors house count too, playable house or not, and there's still there's no guarantee.

If you get too frustrated you can disable the gameplay effects in options which then make the pack completely pointless. I won't even get the started with the gameplay side and the stealing.

This the pack EA/Maxis should have provided a guidebook for. It's very confusing to work out and get right. I'm not surprised many give up on NAPS.

i got this information from the finally released "guidebook" from SimsVIP and been working out things there and naturally wanted Windenberg to be a true green world from the way of its "green" looks, but apparently the "Plaster of Windenburg" wall texture that covers almost all the buildings is rated a Industrial+1 texture, so everything in maxis Windenberg get a horrible neutral rating. Eventually I got most of Windenburg into a nice green rating, but it was short lived, then overnight whole region suddenly changed into Smog industrial overnight without me even touchng anythiing, despite using Eco Footprint+2 content everywhere. Now my efforts are rewards witrh a smoggy coughing industrial windenburg since (even disabling effects in options don't help either anymore). So it's fair to say i've corrupted my game.

But strangely it's been vice Versia when I wanted the poorer neighborhood of Oasis Springs to be actually be Industrial then overnight I'm suddenly permanently awarded with the most "greenish" neighborhood.

All I know I was on the right track, but for longterm their is still something i'm missing...

Uh, yeah. I'm one of hem. I already turned it off. All I have now are the objects from the pack. And some new townies, although it's a pretty short list living there. I did have a random sim (well, known to my sims but not a new world one) show up with a gift of a postcard. First time I've ever seen that in all my time in game. I imagine it had to come with that EP.

I doubt I'll ever get to starting a game in that world and going all green and granola. I think I overpaid at half off.

The way bills are calculated is also a mystery to me. I find I will always have an obnoxious amount of water being used.

How?

Ah yes, German wood architecture. Truly a blight on the environment.

Talk about 2020 was a bad year for packs, I brought Snowy Escape for half price to finish off my 2020 collection, and must say that pack has not impressed me one little bit.

Tiny Living
Eco Lifestyle
Nifty Knitting
Star Wars
Snowy Escape

so out of the five, which was the Best pack of 2020 ?

Thinking about it just makes me want to puke.

I think the Star Wars pack has to be at the bottom, right?

From a person who hasn't bought of them, I'd say Eco Lifestyle be at top. Mechanics and content seem much more interesting. I hardly ever see Stuff Packs surprassing other pack types, but hey I'm open to surprises.

My bias for Japanese culture wants me to say Snowy Escape was the best. But....as far as content is concerned, Eco Living gave us a lot more to work with. Things that would be useful for regular gameplay and not just a neat vacation world. So Eco Living was the best pack this year and Star Wars was obviously the worst.

Eco Lifestyle
Tiny Living
Nifty Knitting
Snowy Escape
Journey To Batuu

Maybe?

Tiny Living

Positives Give you a way to quickly improve skills on a new character in a new game. Quick leveling up in a game as mature as the sims 4 is important.
Negatives: Murder beds.

Eco Lifestyle

Positives The community voting feature is a good simulation of real life. If you play it right, you can work it to your advantage. Ignore it at your own peril!
Natives: the rest the pack is a dumbster (sic) dive. Also everyone including Nancy Landgraab looked like a pincushion at first, later updates toned that down a bit.

Nifty Knitting

Positives The rocking chair.
Negatives: $10 for a rocking chair? It should have been included in toddlers!

Star Wars

Positives:Outfits look more magic than the magic pack.
Negatives: $20 for a stuff pack?

Snowy Escape

Positives Some of the CAS items. Some. Not all.
Negatives: Non-Japanese characters doing "polite" introductions and having Japanese names, and having to choose between hashi and a fork. I have no will to play this pack.

Eco Lifestyle could have been a good pack that actually attempts to implement its mechanics beyond one world but its mechanics are broken, and it’s far too tedious to set up in other worlds given the limited space.

My opinion is that placing an eco value on walls and floors was the culprit (overly complicated and pits you against aesthetics), and that eco value should have been limited to mechanical/electrical objects alone.

Also IMO, who thought it was a good idea to limit Community Space voting to people living in one neighborhood, while NPCs get to vote across the entire world? If that was the case, your sims should have the same opportunity, since one community space per neighborhood is excessive (considering that most neighborhoods usually have no more than five lots).

Every other pack was mostly just side interests/quests, and had little bearing on general gameplay.

Overall the year presents itself as a lost opportunity, and should be concerning for TS4 players given that TS4's foundations are starting to crack while there are lots of much-requested features that are still missing.

Actually there are no useful objects that are Eco-Friendly, like the Fabricator, Home Recycler, Solar Panels, etc because they consume power just to operate, While they do help in the long term, as long as you make up for it, with plenty of Eco-Friendly Shrubs, Trees, Walls, Floors, Windows, and Doors. Unfortunately it picked very few Windows and Doors from the Base Game and other Packs to be positive. Most of your choices will come from the Eco-Lifestyle EP itself, and with it werid looking doors and windows and I can say they look strange and ugly.

Surprisingly none of the pot-plants count in the decorative section, they are just all neutral and remain ignored .But Trees and shrubs do.

Unfortunately it seems like Snowy Escape which came after, ignored the pack altogether...

Some plumbing, electronics, and appliances should have been upgraded to be more eco friendly (or even unfriendly) by default.

Buy a Fabricator, and keep Fabricating Eco Parts, what I do know, you can upgrade the stove (with barely any handiness skill), to use no power at all.

You can but from a design standpoint, it makes sense to have some items better at some things than others.

The only night different between some of the electronics is the price. Energy efficient smart TVs to save on bills by default? Sounds great.

Just defeats the purpose of the Handiness Skill and much of the pack aswell, I think you can immediately upgrade anything by Shirt-Click in debug mode, but really more expense stuff increase the entertainment (Fun) and reliability value, so they don't break so much. Look for Walls and Floors with a +2 Eco Value, downside they are quite expensive tile by tile if you got a big mansion...

It doesn't. Players have the option to upgrade lower cost items and can add additional features to more expensive items.

Debug is cheating lol

Yeah, I've done the upgrade thing. My stereos still go bust all the time, even when they're turned off.

I'm having a great time going though Sims 4 Studio. Today, I learned many of the modern objects from Island Living have the tag "RESORT" or "resortIsland" in their name. The bathroom items also have the "LUX" tag in the name, which makes me believe resorts were cut from the game.

It looks like the next expansion pack is getting announced this June 10 and it's going to be Farm-related.



Source: SimsVIp

Well Arnie is going to be well p'd off if it is. I thought it looked more like village life and tea rooms myself. And if it's got fairies in it I probably won't buy it just like I didn't buy the vampire ones cos once you start letting supernaturals into your game they spread to all the towns and venues and you can't get rid of them.