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Scholar
Original Poster
#1 Old 3rd Feb 2017 at 7:15 PM Last edited by Florentzina : 3rd Feb 2017 at 7:35 PM.
Default Sims living in the wild (no roofs) - How do you deal with the temperatures?
In the challenge I play, I've a group of families living outcasted from the society (i.e. werewolves, homeless sims), sort of like camping and abandoned areas, so there is no roofs to cover from heat and snow when playing with Season EP. I've never played residental lots like this, so I wondering - how would you deal with the harsh temperatures such as snow and sunburns? It gets a bit annoying to constantly hearing them complain and get warnings.

AND, because I want to play it at as a challenge, please no suggestions of downloading hacks that disabled the weather and no hacked objects that change weather. I know they exists, but it sort of defeat the purpose of the challenge side of it. I do already make the game easier as it is, but I don't want to make everything easy to deal with! The only hacks that I do use that affect children are those for npc's and school such as social worker hacks and simbolical flexi school, because I use them for all sim families, not sims living "in the wild".

PS: This is how my sims lives when I say in the wild (screenshot attached), I am not a good builder but it sort of an abandoned area. It does has some walls (remains of a former building perhaps?), but that's just for sleeping and bathroom needs and won't stay there for 24/7, . Adults lives in tents though.
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#2 Old 3rd Feb 2017 at 7:23 PM
Hmmm. For cold weather there are a few things to keep them warm. Staying in bed (with pjs) keeps them warm regardless of the weather in the room. I've had some couples makeout in the snow and it keeps them warm for a bit. Any type of fire where they can warm themselves up helps as well.

As for the heatstroke? Lots of water helps sims cool down, though lemonade works wonders. Have sims go swimming if possible. I've also had sims stargaze. They relax on the ground but it doesn't affect their temperature (at least it doesn't seem to).

For my physical health, I can't eat cheesecake everyday.
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It's a delicate balance.
Forum Resident
#3 Old 3rd Feb 2017 at 7:47 PM
I have wanted a mod that makes tents immune to weather for a long time, but never found one. At least that would take care of them while sleeping. What I always end up doing is creating a structure using this set of cracks that work as doors and windows. This way I have a structure, but it still looks like it is falling apart. I make it really small and there is hardly enough room for everyone to sleep on the floor. Sometimes I make the structure be a disgusting old bathroom, but they are forced to spend time in there when it's really hot or cold out and they need to warm up/cool down. You could even make the roof of invisible tiles so it appears to have no roof. Anyway, sorry if this isn't very helpful but it's how I get around the issue.
http://modthesims.info/d/350615
Mad Poster
#4 Old 3rd Feb 2017 at 7:56 PM
Swimming, mouthwatering lemonade, and drinking from the sink are the easiest vanilla ways to cool down.

Since campers don't have sources of hot water, you could easily justify downloading the cold shower mod and requiring that camping sims only take cold showers. This is a big help in summer; but would be a further disadvantage in winter, as the default hot showers and baths are a big help warming dirty sims up. (They won't stay in long enough to warm up if you send them to shower when already clean.) If you prefer to restrict them to sink bathing, this has no effect on temperature either way.

Campfires and sexual activity are warming, as are hot chocolate and mouthwatering tomato juice. The drinks work faster and will probably be more effective outdoors.

Other sims can throw water on sims with heatstroke or use a hair dryer on sims who have frozen into immobility, but the distress has to be pretty bad for the option to be available.

By far the most effective vanilla way to keep them warm would be to send them to community lots with weatherproof buildings and hang out there when their temperature starts getting bad. (Real homeless people hang out in the library a lot in winter for this reason.) I know they're outcasts, but unless they've been physically removed to the wilderness, there may be warm/cool places they can go without attracting much attention. Werewolves would want to restrict their visits to the daytime and you may want to restrict your homeless people in where they can safely go and under what conditions they can safely stay there - I know you have a lot of rules in your games, so here's another place for them. Are there criminals who will trade a warm corner by the hearth for information? Are there charities? Are there empty buildings they can let themselves into when no law enforcement types are around?

Another possibility, especially appropriate if the sims are supposed to be living in wilderness far from human resources, would be to set yourself some challenge goals. What would they have to accomplish in order to allow them to build weatherproof shelters? Under what conditions might they find a "cave" that would shelter them from some degree of weather? You may already have some rules like this in place as part of the challenge, of course; if not, would adding some be appropriate to what you're trying to do?

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Scholar
Original Poster
#5 Old 3rd Feb 2017 at 8:18 PM Last edited by Florentzina : 4th Feb 2017 at 12:52 AM.
The rules I use (from challenges or made up myself) are used to simulate the feel I want to reach with my sims, but try to avoid having too many hacks that make everything easier, as I usually get into a habit with it and find it hard to get rid of it (such as speeding up the sims age and using maxmotives) . My hoods are rarely vanilla, but I like to rely on the vanilla mechanism when trying something I'm new to, coz otherwise it get too easy.

The sims who will live in these abandoned areas and camps are basically sims who were forced to be cut out of the society and basically treated like criminals, and that includes visiting community lots. They *may* visit them, but have a high risk of being discovered and put in jail. This is a rule used in the Warwickshire challenge which my hood is heavily based on (Former royal kingdom and Build a city, but I didn't feel I had enough structure) that I try to follow. They can climb back to the society, by earning it from various way and becoming slaves or "Serfs", but I don't allow it to happen with supernaturals and vampires. Most drama's and movies, I watched I've never seen they socially every happy after with regular humans, well, unless its one of those modern version, which I don't like.

Currently I only have two vampire and two werewolf families who are outcasted, but vampires, it feels impossible for them to live without a roof, vanilla way, so those get a old-looking house to live in, so currently only have two families to play "without roof" challenges. But later, there will be criminals, homeless and other sims that the society hate. The lots are located in forest and wasteland areas far away from the other families, so I doubt polices would suddenly travel miles to capture them. Beside the supernaturals are not known to the rest of the world yet, in the story I had in mind.
Mad Poster
#6 Old 3rd Feb 2017 at 8:39 PM
So rules governing the building weatherproof shelters and/or finding caves probably would be appropriate, since their time will be fully taken up with survival activities. You'd have to decide things like what tools they were able to bring with them, what would be necessary to enable them to make their own tools out of rock or whatever, who would be able to figure out the principles of basic shelters and safely erect them, etc. But that's getting a little far from the basic question, so I'll stop talking now.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#7 Old 3rd Feb 2017 at 11:16 PM
In my old challenge, it was called Creation to Future on the BBS I had a few allowances. One was the waterfall shower by Mavine. You probably don't want that as it's a download, but that shower has a cool down option and it fit perfectly with my cave man type start up.
Then I allowed juicing and tomato juice could be made to help warm them up.
Next was making out, that also warms them up as does a bath a little.
Then when they had a child they were allowed a certain number of wall pieces. I forget how I did that, but it made a small hut. Large enough for a baby crib.
Then in Calista's homeless challenge in that you can use the fire barrel fireplace. Kids up can warm themselves by that. Again she also had a tiny shelter, so sims could use it to stand in and warm up/cool down before going 'back outside again'

In my test of Time challenge I made a cave house out of wall and flat tile for the roof and surrounded it by rock. I did the same in my cave man legacy.

In my grass roots hippy island they used tents until the trees had grown and built huts.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Scholar
Original Poster
#8 Old 3rd Feb 2017 at 11:31 PM
I've a hack where you can choose between hot and warm water to shower or bath in.

It's hack that related to making the weather easier that I don't want to use, others are fine.
I think have a season hack though, which only affect whether it snow, rain, thunder etc making them less harsh when on residential lots, and one that affect beach activities.

Although, my hood is challenge based, I mainly using it as a play style flavor, so I break the rules sometimes such as with vampires, and many has a 2x3 or 4x4 room for children to sleep in, plus a bathroom which act as a outhouse (cheap and old shower + toilet) when I don't want to use those CC outdoor toilets.
Mad Poster
#9 Old 4th Feb 2017 at 12:52 AM
I don't think it's possible to actually keep sims alive with the full effects of weather. You need to give them some kind of shelter, otherwise they die. I have tried this many times! Sunstroke they'll be okay usually, but the winter freeze is really deadly. Most challenges take this into account unless they were written pre-seasons. For example there's a poverty challenge which places winter as the last season you encounter, to give you time to build a shelter before it hits.

Check out my thoughts on Psymchology (Sim Psychology) - latest post is on the main six aspirations.
Scholar
Original Poster
#10 Old 4th Feb 2017 at 1:03 AM
I've been intrigued to have few SiM Families w/o roofs and got inspired from the homeless challenge and decided to try something similar as it fits with the challenge I play. But the homeless challenge seems alot worse though as they only allowed to use 3 items at the time and seen several simmers add it to BACC. In Warwickshire it only stated that Outcasts/Outlaws (as they are called in it) shouldn't visit community llots and live in an open area without completely surrounded walls (well it also stated they can only have 30 tiles of furnitures but I ignored that one ).

Currently I'm (or will be) on Fall season, using vanilla 5 days seasons and Spring-Summer-Fall-Winter route. (Spring and Summer were just for set up of the families and to skip the infant-toddler phrase. But for fall I try to play more "normally". ). The eldest child of every family will turn teen during the winter rotation (first child is 8~10 years old and 13 is teen).
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#11 Old 4th Feb 2017 at 1:11 AM
My homeless sims have a tent and a toilet block. Again they need some way of warming up or cooling down. A toilet block isn't livable as such but they can go in, chat and get warm. As far as I experienced, they will need something.

Calista's challenge is very very hard. I have played it. I was her tester for her homeless career. It's borked for plantsims.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
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