Replanting?

[dadditude]

Yesterday, I was playing one of my home business lots when Dustin Broke proceeded to stomp to death 5 or 6 flowerbeds, and it made me remember how in the Sims 1, whenever you had flowers (and shrubs too, I think) on your lots that died (because you forgot to hire a gardener or water them yourself, for example), you could click on them and select 'replant', which would cost the same as the flowers originally did when you placed them, but was something your sim would do, rather than you needing to go into buy mode and delete the offending plantlife and replace it with a new one. In addition, if you hired a gardener at that point, the gardener would take care of the replanting for you.

So anyway, long story short (too late!), remembering this made me wonder if such a thing could be hacked for TS2, maybe as a part of the Macrotastics gardening macro and/or part of the gardener's duties?

[Emma]

That annoys me that they can only dispose of the flowers, and the gardener just ignores the dead plants. I use the perfect plants hack by TJ's That way I can fill my garden with flowers and not worry about watering them!

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, it's one answer, but I like dadditude's better - but a hack to stock controllable sims overwatering plants would be nice - the gardener knows how often to water them controllables don't, nor is it a skill they appear to learn!

[starrling]

I use TJ's hack too, but if you have a pissed-off teen sim in your household even that hack won't help.  She went around stomping the hell out of them till they died.  (so I killed her off).  However, I chose "die by drowning" - stupid on my part.  Now her ghost goes around dripping puddles all night, which then sprout weeds. 

Moral of this story? 

[ZephyrZodiac]

Help the teen achieve a few of his/her wants, and get a decent grade at school.  I've never had a problem with Dustin as long as I've stopped Brandi from nagging the poor kid!  (In one installation I had Brandi move out with the toddler and leave Dustin to fend for himself, and he was fine - in the next one I meant to do the same and accidentally left Beau behind.  Not only did Dustin teach him all his toddler skills, he went to school, gave up his awful job, put up with Nanny Kendall (who actually was quite reasonable back then) got an A grade and grew up well and got a job in the police force!  And he never so much as kicked a trashcan!

[starrling]

It was weird with this particular teen - her aspiration points decayed very quickly.  I'd have her meet one or two of her aspirations, then I'd click on another sim and not long after I'd hear the zzzzoom sound of an aspiration decaying and it was her again.   Oh well.  I don't play that neighborhood much anymore - got too big.  But I kept it in case I get inspired.

[ZephyrZodiac]

A lot depends on when you fill a want.  If it's just before a certain time (maybe 6.0 pm, but I'm not sure, then it will drop extremely quickly.

Sim Wardrobe has a nice little ornament which works as an aspiration preserver - and since you don't have to install it on every lot like a global, it's useful in an emergency!

Is the teen in question by any chance a Fortune sim?  the trouble with a lot of their wants is they don't spin many points, for which reason flowerbeds are the best bet as long as they keep spinning the want - it's worth just the same to your sim whether you get them a couple of 10 simoleon flowerbeds or a 100 simoleon shrub.
But I had a game where Jennifer Burb (having split up from John) was living alone and kept wanting flowerbeds, and since she didn't have the money for anything else she wanted that's what she got.  And then she decided to go an water them until the garden was covered in pools of water, which she proceded to mop up industriously!  I was so amused by it all I never bothered to stop her - and all the time her environment score was going lower and lower!

[J. M. Pescado]

I use TJ's hack too, but if you have a pissed-off teen sim in your household even that hack won't help.  She went around stomping the hell out of them till they died.  (so I killed her off).  However, I chose "die by drowning" - stupid on my part.  Now her ghost goes around dripping puddles all night, which then sprout weeds.

Meh. Maybe you should stop annoying your sims and leaving them with nothing to do, so that they won't have time to keep doing stupid things.

[starrling]

When I left her alone for a while (I was frustrated) was when she realllllly tanked.  I didn't have macrotastics then or I would have had her on auto-power idle.  But I've since learned my lesson.  The real moral of this story, though, is that despite the wonderful perfect plants hack, you can still have little unexpected "whoops" happen.  And that's what makes it all interesting, right?   

[ZephyrZodiac]

True, but did you have to drown her?

[starrling]

(actually, I had to as part of another storyline but I thought it added drama to my 'splanation above) 

[ZephyrZodiac]

LOL!  I've only ever drowned Angela Pleasant on purpose.  I had one of my playables get drwoned - new pool in the house he was visiting, hadn't realised he couldn't get out!  Had to quit without saving and lose hours of gameplay!

[starrling]

Geez, don'tcha hate when that happens?  I was playing merrily along one day, having just put in the simeatingcowplant and not realizing just how hungry that thing gets.  About two sim days into play (without save) I noticed allll these little gravestones (or was it urns - can't remember) all round the cowplant.  Woosh, exit without save, dumped that old cowplant quicker than quick.  Don't think I'll be using him again soon.   

[ZephyrZodiac]

I don't blame you!  (I couldn't let this Sim die, his sister and old father would have been heartbroken!)  This was back in the early days, and I didn't have any mods at all, so even if I'd realised in time (it was night, and the family had all gone to bed) so it was too late to plead with the GR!

[starrling]

Now that we've thoroughly hi-jacked this thread - I also felt just awful when my first generation legacy sim died.  Silly, isn't it.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, we play with them so long, they become like family members!  (Or at least, maybe, pets!)

[verdaeni]

i've missed the 'replant' option a lot too.   although as long as i use the daily gardener they mostly dont die.   but i had trouble with some of the little decorative edgings acting like walls the gardener or sims couldnt get through to water plants, so im using the plastic plants (with bees and butterlies) i got on tsr from someone...

i still cant figure out why i can have 500 bushes and flower beds in a yard and it doesnt add to the environment.

[ZephyrZodiac]

The gardener rarely fails to water because of edgings now.  Also, if you use macrotastics, I've noticed that the macro-garden function doesn't let your sims overwater plants.  But yes, not having the replant option is sadly missed, as it s every dead flowerbed has to be clicked on separately, and you still have to go in and replant yourself!

But I also miss (and in later stages of Sims1 I missed) how light bulbs didn't last forever and had to be replaced - and you had to make sure your sims were dry when they did it!  And I really miss the dance action where they could really dance together - they look so stupid when they dance to classical music or jazz the way they do!

[verdaeni]

oh yeah i forgot about the lightbulbs!   well maybe sims2 is using the bulb shaped flourescents now (hahah).    what i dont like with the lights is that it leaves rooms you arent in dark at night,  but then you cant see into it to click on something to pull your sim there... and even when i manually turn on 'all'  lights it doesnt seem to get all the rooms correctly.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Works for me.  I always have all the lights on, otherwise the room score goes right down when sims are asleep!

[verdaeni]

you know, i forgot about that with the score asleep!   still i hate to have to turn them on.  do you know of anyway to say 'all lights on all the time'  in a startup config?

[ZephyrZodiac]

Once you've done it on a lot, that should be it, they should always be on, unless you change it.  for comm lots, you can use Pescado's commlightson so you don't have to mess about turning them on when your sim gets there.

[verdaeni]

gee, i wonder how i missed that hack.  thanks.   you know what else we need, everytime i have a shop i buy it a cleaning robot.   but they are never ON when i have someone visit the store. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, they only empty bins and pick up rubbish, but if it stops a manager making a highly qualified cashier Tidy Up, then it seem like a good idea!  Whenever Jimmy Cash has one of his friends over to babysit, he can stick one in their inventory - he can afford it!

[Ness]

The best thing to stop managers reassigning your sims is...  wait for it...  another one of Pescado's hacks!

yes, the randomly reassigning sims to lame tasks has been squashed.