So what the hell are the benefits of being in The Zone anyway?

[Emma]

It's the welcome wagons that make them fat! They come round at noon-of course my sim is hungry then, so I serve a meal. In every new household I make. Bingo! Fat townies! On the plus side though, one of my playables has just opened a gym

[seelindarun]

The one that really bothers me, though, is that as far as the game is concerned, "healthy" and "fattening" are the exact same thing. Somehow adding some homegrown tomatoes to your salad gives it a massive infusion of fitness-draining calories. Good thing I have noeatcrap; otherwise my sims would all be porking out over salad!

But this effect is mainly because there's no such thing as chronic disease in the sims.  That's really what 'unhealthy' means, not specifically fat, but prone to heart disease, diabetes, emphysema, etc.  Many of these are linked to being overweight of course, but in the sims there are absolutely no consequences to being fat.

Also, I've found that stocking the fridge with homegrown tomatoes doesn't make most foods over-filling if your sims have cheap prep, and cooking surfaces.  It's just that the differences between the cheapest vs. most expensive base game counters/appliances is so massive that fresh-fortified foods on the most expensive counters is completely over the top.  Lately, I've been having fun keeping my families dirt poor, and most of them eat one or two full servings a day of what a normal person would eat: a low food value breakfast like cereal, and a high value dinner like pork chops or fish.

Oddly, these values mean that slobby sims are the ones that bathe a lot and neat sims are the ones that don't. Very counter-intuitive.

This is only half-moronic, because neat sims logically should be able to maintain higher hygiene through their anal habits, like the way they eat, for example.  What's missing is stronger tolerance.  Sloppy sims should have a much higher tolerance for personal filth so that they'd walk around in a stink cloud for at least a day, before thinking of bathing.

[Liz]

It's just that the differences between the cheapest vs. most expensive base game counters/appliances is so massive that fresh-fortified foods on the most expensive counters is completely over the top.

I don't actually mind the high-calorie, sparkly dinners, but that's only because I have Dizzy's leftover array. Good cooks with expensive counters can make a plate of salmon that'll last for days, lol. It's actually quite convenient in terms of sim-management, because once I've served a sparkly meal, sims can spend the next week pulling leftovers out of the fridge for themselves without attempting Lobster Thermidor when they're only mildly peckish (that's the one thing about the game that's griped my ass the most from the very beginning). No, sparklies plus autonomous leftover-ing is a breeze. I just think it's silly that in an unmodded game a sim will lose significant Fitness while eating a sparkly salad. It's just not very sensible design.

[Gwill]

My headmasters are always fat.  Hard to avoid really.

[J. M. Pescado]

But this effect is mainly because there's no such thing as chronic disease in the sims.  That's really what 'unhealthy' means, not specifically fat, but prone to heart disease, diabetes, emphysema, etc.  Many of these are linked to being overweight of course, but in the sims there are absolutely no consequences to being fat.

Yes, but all these are genetic conditions. Since sims don't have genetic conditions, they don't get messed up when you inbreed them, either.

[seelindarun]

But this effect is mainly because there's no such thing as chronic disease in the sims.  That's really what 'unhealthy' means, not specifically fat, but prone to heart disease, diabetes, emphysema, etc.  Many of these are linked to being overweight of course, but in the sims there are absolutely no consequences to being fat.

Yes, but all these are genetic conditions. Since sims don't have genetic conditions, they don't get messed up when you inbreed them, either.

Pescado, I'm surprised that you'd be so sloppy.  Those conditions certainly do have a genetic component, but the likelihood of suffering from them is undeniably modified by behaviour.  I'd be perfectly happy with a rudimentary facsimile of chronic disease in the game, wholly divorced from genetics, depending only on behaviour -- even recent behaviour would be preferable to the complete lack of negative consequences in the game right now.

[jennydeenyc]

Hmm, I also have Dizzy's leftover packages (from his Seasons anthology), and while I had great success with the "put away leftovers" one (though had to disable it for dorm lots, that got annoying fast), the "get a leftover" one never seems to kick in. My sims would be on the verge of starving to death when I'd have to direct them to eat something, they'd never try to make themselves a meal either, and since I have "no stuff face" installed too, they wouldn't do that as a last-ditch effor to save themselves either! Probably a conflict my hack scanner isn't picking up.

[Kazzandra]

You don't happen to being a custom refrigerator, jennydee? Because many custom refrigerators were never updated for Seasons, and lack the "Get a Leftover' option.

[jennydeenyc]

No, I can manually direct my sims to get leftovers from the fridge, so I don't see why the mod can't call into that function as well.

[Kazzandra]

And you have have-a-leftover1c-serve.package?

Sorry to sound condescending but I know how the hack shuffle is, especially when changing expansions.

[jennydeenyc]

Yes, I have havealeftover1c installed, and there are plenty of leftovers in the fridge. My sims just never seem to autonomously try to make themselves food at all anymore. I still suspect some hidden conflict with the nostuffface hack.

[aussieone]

I have Inge's No Autonomy Fridge patch and I've never had any luck with Dizzy's Have A Leftover either. I wonder if there's a conflict there?

[jennydeenyc]

I don't have Inge's hack, but did have Monique's auto food-ordering hack installed. Trying the game now without it to see if that makes a difference. The hack conflict detector didn't see anything conflicting in those mods, but since my current sims have been harvesting their own food & haven't gotten an auto-ordered basket of groceries in a while, I figure I can try not having Monique's hack for a while anyway.

[Kazzandra]

Better yet use Dizzy's work-deliver3-40-20.package.

If the fridge isn't already full and if they can afford it, working sims return with a probability of bringing in food. The odds are 40% of groceries, and 20% of a pizza (unless there is already groceries/a pizza on the lot).

Here for Seasons

[buddha pest]

Better yet use Dizzy's work-deliver3-40-20.package.

If the fridge isn't already full and if they can afford it, working sims return with a probability of bringing in food. The odds are 40% of groceries, and 20% of a pizza (unless there is already groceries/a pizza on the lot).

Here for Seasons

Does the food supply in the fridge have to be at least moderately low before this happens? Or is it a 40% chance every time the fridge is not completely full to the brim?

Because if it's the latter, well, that's a lot of groceries.

[maxon]

Does the food supply in the fridge have to be at least moderately low before this happens? Or is it a 40% chance every time the fridge is not completely full to the brim?

Because if it's the latter, well, that's a lot of groceries.

I'm not sure about the level that triggers it but I can tell you I altered the BHavs of that hack so they didn't do it so often.  It was often enough to annoy me.  Then again I have a very low tolerance for sims doing things without permission.

[jennydeenyc]

Just to report, disabling no-stuff-face seemed to do the trick and allow my sims to autonomously try to feed themselves, coming up with an action to Have a meal but actually pulling a leftover out of the fridge instead. Yays!

[Roux]

I have Inge's No Autonomy Fridge patch and I've never had any luck with Dizzy's Have A Leftover either. I wonder if there's a conflict there?

Dizzy's Have a Leftover modifies autonomous fridge behavior, so yes, there's a conflict. When sims autonomously try to make a meal, his mod makes them grab a leftover instead.

[highstresslevel]

On the original topic of this thread...

Being in the zone seems to slow motive decay.  Just not by much.

Ran a test:  Max Motives, paint entire painting, screenshot.  Same sim, five times without zone, five times with.  Fresh sim with no LTA bonuses applied.

I layered the results in Photoshop to show any variation between individual rounds; there was little.

Results here: top zoned, bottom not.  http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm1/highstresslevel/thezonetestresults.jpg

[jolrei]

On the original topic of this thread...

Being in the zone seems to slow motive decay.  Just not by much.

Ran a test:  Max Motives, paint entire painting, screenshot.  Same sim, five times without zone, five times with.  Fresh sim with no LTA bonuses applied.

I layered the results in Photoshop to show any variation between individual rounds; there was little.

Results here: top zoned, bottom not. 

These results appear inconclusive at best.  Difference is minimal, therefore likely not significant.  Can not reject null hypothesis of no apparent difference.  My view would be that the zone remains, by and large, useless.

[highstresslevel]

These results appear inconclusive at best.  Difference is minimal, therefore likely not significant.  Can not reject null hypothesis of no apparent difference.  My view would be that the zone remains, by and large, useless.

Difference is minimal, but present.  I repeated the test, this time doing two paintings in a row, and pausing as soon as the "painting complete" dialog was displayed.

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm1/highstresslevel/thezonetestresults2.jpg (Top zoned, bottom not.)

I did three runs of each zoned and non-zoned.  I layered the screenshots in Photoshop, setting all but the bottom layer to 25% opacity.   This shows that each motive dropped to the same point in each of the three runs, with the exception of environment, which was effected by day/night.  (Note the faint, secondary black line on the environment bars.)  Season was fall for each run, to avoid seasonal motive changes.

Being in the zone does slow motive drain, but again, its not by much. 

[gethane]

woot, data!

[unregister]

Sims being in the "zone" doesn't seem to be of any great benefit to make it worthwhile for me.

I find the sound so annoying with the constant repetition. I lower the hobby gains to stop it. Is there any hack/mod that puts a stop to that irritating sound? Would be so very gratefull to get one.

[gynarchy]

Jfade made two versions.

[unregister]

Jfade made two versions.

Thank you gynarchy! I take regular strolls through the Peasantry and I don't know how I could have missed it. This is going to save my sanity!