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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 8:20 AM
Self-Sufficient Farming
I've read here about people setting up self-sufficient hoods, where playables do everything (all the NPC jobs, everything is purchased from playable owned businesses, etc.), and I thought it would be interesting if I could make my neighborhood self sufficient for food - where all the food is grown by other Sims. I'm not quite sure how to set it up, though. In some ways it seems easiest if my gardening Sims just have a home business and sell their produce after it is harvested. That doesn't work very well if a non-gardening family ends up with an empty fridge, though. But if I send them to a community grocery store, I'm worried about townies showing up and buying all the food or shelves being automatically restocked. (I've never played businesses before - they seemed ultra hard to me, lol - and am in the process of trying to figure out how they work. I think I've sort of figured out how to run a home business, but don't know much about playable owned community businesses yet.)

I was just wondering, for those of you with self-sufficient hoods, how you set it up so Sims can buy food when they need it, townies can't purchase food, and shelves can only be stocked with playable grown produce?
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Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#2 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 9:05 AM Last edited by joandsarah77 : 21st Nov 2014 at 9:19 AM.
That can be done, but if you want entirely grown produce I would recommend a few mods. Mainly realistic harvests, Sim wardrobes packing stations and a couple of other sanity savers. No in the zone effects, or at least the sound and there is a mod to remove the plant as soon as the sim harvests the plant as sometimes even though the plant has been picked the plant remains and the sim does a walking loop.

You will either need a hood with only a small population or quite a few sims involved in the growing. With realistic harvest this will help a lot with the amount of food. In a vanilla game a fruit tree gives about 12 pieces of fruit at harvest time which is very unrealistic, with realistic harvest you will get about 40 per tree.

With sim wardrobes packing station you can direct sims to pack a crate and sell the produce by the cratefull rather than one piece at a time. Normal OFB shelves only hold something like 9 per shelve and a sim will stand and stare at that before deciding on buying that one orange. Unrealistic, with too little turn over. A sim would have to stand there all day getting one piece of fruit at a time. So selling by crate is the only way to do it.

Once the crates are packed and you have opened your business you will need to use the sale tool to set them for sale. Start off at cheap until you have a few stars and then put the price up. If you are selling sub par produce I would always sell that cheap. A couple can run a store for a while but if your sim has plenty of money you could hire sims.

You can not use the grocery bins if you want your sims to only buy produce. That simply sells regular groceries.

If you have townies in your hood you will need to use the Business selector or the visitor controller to ban them.

I'll come back with the name of those mods.

Simwardrobe: http://www.simwardrobe.com/ Go to Sims 2>Objects. Under that tab you will find the
packing stations. There is one for produce and one for fish.
Employee fishing and gardening are also available there which allow you to assign staff to gardening or fishing.
Harvest Fix http://cyjon.net/node/313 prevents sims looping because of stuck plants.
MoreRealisticYields http://www.leefish.nl/mybb/thread-923.html
No in the zone effects http://forum.jfade.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=439 You can take your pick, I use the one to stop the sound.
Visitor Controller http://www.simbology.com/smf/index.php?topic=17.0
Or business selector http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...pic,5906.0.html Kind of tricky to use. I find setting everyone I don't want to And-OR and those I do want to And-Not seems to work. I've never understood Pescado's logic on this thing.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#3 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 9:22 AM
You can't sell sub-par produce using crates from Simwardrobe. Produce is automatically mouth-watering after being put in a crate. Other than that, I agree with everything jo said. And thanks for the realistic yields mod
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#4 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 9:41 AM
I hadn't even noticed lol.I should put my prices up.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Née whiterider
retired moderator
#5 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 11:56 AM
Don't worry too much about townies buying stuff in your owned businesses. If you go to the business with another playable family, anything that's bought will be automatically replaced (or rather, the fact that it has been bought won't be saved) so the produce will still be there next time you visit the lot with another playable family or with the owner; so if the shop was stocked last time you played it with the owners, it will still be stocked when your sims need food.

My self-sufficient 'hood doesn't have any townies at all, which is another option.

What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact.
Mad Poster
#6 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 1:42 PM
You will need this probably, selling produce.
It is a restocking fix.
http://www.insimenator.org/index.php?topic=105631.0

Je mange des girafes et je parle aussi français !...surtout :0)

Find all my old MTS Uploads, on my SFS, And all new uploads Here . :)
Mad Poster
#7 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 5:20 PM
@JoandSarah77 - Did you know BO greatly enhanced SimWardrobe's packing stations? Here's the linksie: http://www.leefish.nl/mybb/forumdisplay.php?fid=55

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Mad Poster
#8 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 5:22 PM
The disagree made me wonder if I was remembering things wrong, so I went to check on the website, and then I couldn't find it, so I figured I'd mention where it is if anyone else wonders
Sims 2 > Objects > Business Facilitators > Produce packing station

And I double-checked on the quality thing, and it states in the read me that produce will turn mouth-watering when packed. Paladin tried to make it distinguish, but was not able to make it do so.
Field Researcher
#9 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 5:24 PM
To help with being self-sufficient where food is concerned, you could also include fishing. A fishing hole is a nice community lot for non-gardening families to visit to stock up on food, or you could dig a pond on the home lot if there's room. It also gives the farmer families something to do when everything's been weeded and watered. (Except when the pond freezes over in winter, of course.)
Mad Poster
#10 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 5:30 PM
Quote: Originally posted by gummilutt
The disagree made me wonder if I was remembering things wrong, so I went to check on the website, and then I couldn't find it, so I figured I'd mention where it is if anyone else wonders
Sims 2 > Objects > Business Facilitators > Produce packing station

And I double-checked on the quality thing, and it states in the read me that produce will turn mouth-watering when packed. Paladin tried to make it distinguish, but was not able to make it do so.


I wondered too..disagreez can be helpful, or confusing.
I then tried to remember if I had already gotten a fix for this or if it was my imagination. Fix, that I would have run into by searching for whatever else, because honestly, I never realized that packaging station was mouthwaterizing all produce!

Je mange des girafes et je parle aussi français !...surtout :0)

Find all my old MTS Uploads, on my SFS, And all new uploads Here . :)
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#11 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 7:19 PM
Thank you for the list of hacks, joandsarah77! I had found a couple of those, but not all of them.


Quote: Originally posted by Nysha
Don't worry too much about townies buying stuff in your owned businesses. If you go to the business with another playable family, anything that's bought will be automatically replaced (or rather, the fact that it has been bought won't be saved) so the produce will still be there next time you visit the lot with another playable family or with the owner; so if the shop was stocked last time you played it with the owners, it will still be stocked when your sims need food.

My self-sufficient 'hood doesn't have any townies at all, which is another option.


That is good if it doesn't save what townies buy - but does that mean it also doesn't save what the family I'm playing buys? So the food my family buys will be automatically restocked (i.e. created out of thin air) the next time another family goes to the lot?

I wish I'd known about things like clean and empty hoods when I started playing, but unfortunately I didn't - and I'm too attached to my current hood to want to start over. I've "gotten rid of" most of the townies but there are still a number hanging around who will I like and will probably eventually become playable - or who I just haven't had a chance to get rid of yet.
Mad Poster
#12 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 7:23 PM
No, the items will remain in the playable's inventory.

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.)
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#13 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 7:38 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Peni Griffin
No, the items will remain in the playable's inventory.


I meant in the store - will the items my family purchased be restocked out of nothing? It defeats my purpose if I have a playable owned business that stocks its shelves with playable grown produce, but then a single crate of produce essentially gets sold over and over again every time different Sim families visit the store. Does that make sense? I'm not wanting a particular crate of produce to get sold numerous times to playable families; what I want is for it to go out of stock until the business owner restocks from his/her inventory - but I'm afraid the game doesn't work that way.
Née whiterider
retired moderator
#14 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 8:10 PM
Yes, that is what happens. I force error -> delete the items when it's something unique, like an outfit that has been sewn for a particular sim who has already bought it. That's also part of why I prefer home businesses for selling sim-produced items in self-sufficient 'hoods.

What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact.
Mad Poster
#15 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 8:40 PM
I've never noticed that, good to know. Doesn't bug me that much, my hood is far from realistic in terms of economy, and too much hassle to "fix".

But I suppose one could either keep track of what playables buy, and force error it like Nysha said, run it has home business, or gift things and send money via one of the many money-sending-tools.
Scholar
#16 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 8:41 PM
I don't think the game does work that way. I think items only go out of stock when you are playing the business, not when you are playing the customer. It makes sense in game terms. If youj're playing the customer, you can't control the business owner to make her restock or ave her employees prepare goods for restocking or whatever. So your stores would not be functional for customers to visit.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#17 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 8:43 PM
@Rosebine I didn't know of that fix. Does that work on simwardrobes packing crates or just when you have a few fruit and veg set out on shelves? Does it work with BO's mods?

@CatherineTCJD I have seen that but I wasn't sure if I needed it or not, so never got it.
He says
Quote:
If you use this, do NOT also install the Apples correction that I released earlier. It's not needed, and in fact even counter-productive.

I have realistic prices by BO and wasn't sure if he was referring to that mod or something else.

Cat I am feeling another "Do these mods work together" coming on posts over on leefish.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#18 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 8:46 PM
If you go to the page, it's all laid out and explained clearly.

You need the SimWardrobe packing station. If you only have the packing station, you will need the Apples correction. If you have the Updated Produce Packing Station that overwrites some of the SimWardrobe files, you will not need the Apples correction.

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.)
Mad Poster
#19 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 9:22 PM
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
@Rosebine I didn't know of that fix. Does that work on simwardrobes packing crates or just when you have a few fruit and veg set out on shelves? Does it work with BO's mods?


the restock fix at insim I linked to?
It fixes the restocking period. It won't fix the produce quality of the SW packaging station. But if you had a 6 oranges on a display shelf, and 2 were bland while 4 were mouthwatering..when your sim will restock, he will replace the blands with blands, and the mouthwatering by..mouthwatering. if your owner does not have the required item in inventory, it won't be restocked.
Is it compatible with BO's fix for SW packaging station?
I was not even aware of BO's fix.
Not even aware of the SW packaging station problem. I learned this today...lol, and got the BO fix.
I ran the HCDU right after placing it into my game. No conflict detected.
So far, so good.

Je mange des girafes et je parle aussi français !...surtout :0)

Find all my old MTS Uploads, on my SFS, And all new uploads Here . :)
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#20 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 9:32 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Peni Griffin
If you go to the page, it's all laid out and explained clearly.

You need the SimWardrobe packing station. If you only have the packing station, you will need the Apples correction. If you have the Updated Produce Packing Station that overwrites some of the SimWardrobe files, you will not need the Apples correction.


I think I have the updated one. I know I have a bunch of files such as
SWProducePackingStation part 1 right up to part 11.

I just went and grabbed Landlords no gardening. Those guys/ladies are a real pain trying to weed my plants before my sim can.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#21 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 10:54 PM
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
I find setting everyone I don't want to And-OR and those I do want to And-Not seems to work. I've never understood Pescado's logic on this thing.


The way it should work is as follows:

AND = sim must have this attribute to be picked. You can set several, so for example, customers must be female AND teen. If they're male teens they won't come, if they're females of any other age, they also won't come.

OR = this is one of several attributes that a sim can have (used like this for example - sim must be Nature enthusiasm, or work in the Natural Science career. They don't need to be both.)

NOT = anyone with this attribute is excluded from being picked.

The option which is disabled is the one that's selected, you can't have two options on at once. So it sounds like when you're setting it "And-Not" you're setting it to "OR" (meaning this is an acceptable attribute) and when you're setting it to "AND-OR" you're setting it to "not" meaning that people with that attribute are banned.

To give a workable example. If you want to attract customers who are interested in the outdoors, who are female, but not pregnant, you'd set it up like this:

Anything they MUST be, set to AND. So Female = AND. (You could also set male to NOT, but you don't need to, since gender in Sims is binary.)
Anything where there's a range of options which are acceptable, set to OR - in this case, perhaps sims with a OTH of nature, fitness, science, a career in natural science, an active personality, an interest in Weather (I don't know if all of these are options, but you get the idea).
Anything which you definitely don't want, set to NOT. So set Pregnant to NOT, and perhaps some of the other careers/hobbies.

You can't set two directly contrasting things to AND - for example, Male AND Female. That doesn't work because it's impossible for sims to be both male and female at once. What you could set would be Female AND Science career, and that would attract all of your female scientists (but nobody else).

To compare this to the Visitor Controller, OR = allowed, NOT = banned, AND = a new setting which lets you target at a very specific group. Limited use but occasionally helpful, I sometimes wish the visitor controller had it (I wanted to set up an ante-natal clinic for my pregnant sims to meet each other!)

Does that help? I know Pescado has a tendency to get a kick out of making things deliberately jargon-ified and then laughs if you don't understand it. I'm happy to explain stuff where I can, though.

I use the sims as a psychology simulator...
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#22 Old 21st Nov 2014 at 11:05 PM
Yes, I had AND-NOT highlighted while OR was darkened for females and found that worked to get females on a lot I wanted when I was trying to find my pub owner a wife. I set it so the males where AND-OR highlighted and NOT was darkened and they stayed away. I didn't get if the highlighted words was what I was setting or the darkened words, all I knew was that worked! So I guess I had really set females to OR and males to NOT. I find the visitor controler a whole lot easier to work out, but it's bugging me how sims come home from work in everyday clothes instead of work clothes and there seems to be no fix for that, so I have been wanting to use the customer selector instead, only then I am faced with Pescado's 'logic'.

So in a nutshell, make sure Or is darkened to call the sim and have NOT darkened to ban them.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Née whiterider
retired moderator
#23 Old 22nd Nov 2014 at 12:21 AM
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
but it's bugging me how sims come home from work in everyday clothes instead of work clothes and there seems to be no fix for that
That's a visitor controller thing? How weird. Buhbye visitor controller. :D

What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#24 Old 22nd Nov 2014 at 12:33 AM
Yes, it's talked about somewhere on Simbology. You can set force into any clothes but work clothes, and while sims spin into and leave in their work clothes, the force into everyday means they arrive home back in every day clothes. It happens if you have placed the controller on the lot or not.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#25 Old 22nd Nov 2014 at 9:02 AM
I have the VC and my sims don't do that.
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