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Trees...

G

Guest

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

Skilling isn't the problem. The offline game has skilling. Why would you make the online versions 100% different??? Skilling is what it has always been, skilling and boring.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm glad you can finally see why eating a ripe to fill a lock is much better than watching a toon read a book for several hours. Skilling being such a boring thing is what gives ripes their value. Make skilling more interactive and fun and trees become less popular.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry, I don't see why eating a ripe to fill a lock is better. I sit endlessly for hours skilling my sim in TC3. I don't eat fruit. If I had my own tree(which is coming up in a couple of months)I would eat off of it. The way any anniversary gift should have been, non tradeable and non sellable. Most games that give you anniversary gifts or even holiday gifts for that matter, you can't trade those gifts off or sell them. I think the same should be done in this game.


edit: grammatical correction
 
G

Guest

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

The way any anniversary gift should have been, non tradeable and non sellable. Most games that give you anniversary gifts or even holiday gifts for that matter, you can trade those gifts off or sell them. I think the same should be done in this game.

[/ QUOTE ]

Shoulda, woulda, coulda....that ship has sailed, at least where trees are concerned. I think chaning trees now will have a widespread negative effect on players and their willingness to stick with the game.
 
N

NightFlyer

Guest
..."The way any anniversary gift should have been, non tradeable and non sellable. Most games that give you anniversary gifts or even holiday gifts for that matter, you can trade those gifts off or sell them. I think the same should be done in this game."


Make up your mind.
 
G

Guest

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

..."The way any anniversary gift should have been, non tradeable and non sellable. Most games that give you anniversary gifts or even holiday gifts for that matter, you can trade those gifts off or sell them. I think the same should be done in this game."


Make up your mind.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not sure what you mean. I came to this conclusion a few pages back. It stands in line with only the owner can use it.
 
G

Guest

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

..."The way any anniversary gift should have been, non tradeable and non sellable. Most games that give you anniversary gifts or even holiday gifts for that matter, you can trade those gifts off or sell them. I think the same should be done in this game."


Make up your mind.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not sure what you mean. I came to this conclusion a few pages back. It stands in line with only the owner can use it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes I agree they should remain tradeable and be allowed to be shared. You have said two different things here. Look at your post and read it again.
 
G

Guest

Guest
I'm sorry, its edited. Spelling mistake.

I believe only the owner should have use of the tree. I believe the only the owner should have use of all anniversary gifts with the exception of the campfire. The campfire is a group activity.
 
G

Guest

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

The way any anniversary gift should have been, non tradeable and non sellable. Most games that give you anniversary gifts or even holiday gifts for that matter, you can trade those gifts off or sell them. I think the same should be done in this game.

[/ QUOTE ]

Shoulda, woulda, coulda....that ship has sailed, at least where trees are concerned. I think changing trees now will have a widespread negative effect on players and their willingness to stick with the game.

[/ QUOTE ]

I totally agree with you Milton. It's a shame others cannot see this as well.
 
G

Guest

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

I'm sorry, its edited. Spelling mistake.

I believe only the owner should have use of the tree. I believe the only the owner should have use of all anniversary gifts with the exception of the campfire. The campfire is a group activity.

[/ QUOTE ]

Trees are also a group activity. Sharing fruit, using them to green fun and comfort, a must have when teaching other sims.
 
I

imported_DutchAmerica

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

..."The way any anniversary gift should have been, non tradeable and non sellable. Most games that give you anniversary gifts or even holiday gifts for that matter, you can trade those gifts off or sell them. I think the same should be done in this game."


Make up your mind.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've made up my mind.

I believe trees should be left alone and players do with them what they want.

Why can't a player set up a store selling nothing but fruit? Where in the rule book does it say that players can't use their imagination to set up successful sim businesses in TSO? I actually think that coming up with ideas that appeal to the players and make you a successful TSO sim is actually encouraged?

If I were to open my house and sell fruit from my trees, that's my business. I've paid my accounts from day one and have earned each of those trees. Seems to me, as long as I'm not using a 3rd party program, overriding features or using an exploit...I should be able to use my trees as I see fit.

I don't call selling fruit off your trees an exploit and I don't believe that it 'ruins' the economy. What ruined the economy was the over abundance of simoleans in the system from both botters and the people using the exploit.

If I don't agree with it, I just won't participate in it.

What's next to hit...let's stop people from pet pulling because rare pets 'spoil' the economy?
 
R

Roger Wilco

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

They are an unbalanciing force in the game....

[/ QUOTE ]

That's pretty funny considering you're enthusiastically implementing the most unbalancing force conceivable - in game currency for real life money. It doesn't get more blatantly unbalanced than that.

To me there's nothing at all wrong with fruit or trees. In conjunction with skill locks they provide a nice fix for the moronically designed skill up/skill decay system.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Okay, so let's get technical then shall we. Everything that can be done on a tree, can be done by one person alone.

I don't believe the ghost that comes out of the campfire, can be done with one person alone.

Hence, a tree is not a group activity as a campfire is a group activity.

That is technical side of it.

As far as selling off fruit, I highly doubt the original devs had thought this would happen. I bet it was designed to be used by the owner and roomies on the lot it was on. This is why I believe this, you can't actually set fruit itself for sale. You have to mark another item for sale and block off the fruit so that it can only be eaten once the other item has been bought.

Besides, I hate having to set up a lot where my tree has to be carefully looked over and guarded so no one else eats it. I've gone so far, that once in AV and in BF, I went from lot to lot to see how much fruit I could get for free. Using the hide and seek feature worked wonders. I never ate the fruit, but I messaged the lot owner with my find and how to protect their fruit.

That's why I believe only the tree owner should be able to eat the fruit.
 
I

imported_remflyer

Guest
In part DutchAmeria, said <blockquote><hr>

"I truly believe that whether people sell fruit or not, have tree farms or not, eat fruit for skills or not..are mostly 'game play' choices that should be left to the players.

The trees are an anniversary gift. Whether someone keeps theirs, gives it away or sells it, really should be up to them. It's THEIR game play choice and really is not up to all the rest of us to tell them what to do.

The basic use of the trees should not change."

[/ QUOTE ]
I really agree with what you have said here. However the Devs have seen a problem with the trees coming to EA-Land as is. My guess is that their real concern is the tree farms and how they will affect the economy and ultimately how the tree farms might cut into EA's schemes to get more money from the players. They do not want to have to compete with the tree farmers.

We should want EA to make money too or else we will not have a game anymore. I still think the fastest way to do this without hurting the average player is to restrict the eating of a ripe fruit to the account holder of the tree.

The best way to fix the "unbalancing force of the Mystic Tree" of course would be to fix the boring skilling system we now have but that would take many man hours and money. I think they want to fix skilling but it can't be a priority right now. So we are going to get a quick cheap fix.

So we need to generate ideas for the quick fix. A fix that will not alienate the average player (a player who does not have a tree farm). Would restricting the eating of ripe fruits to owners only be a big negative to those of you who are not tree farmers? Does the average player still want the ability to buy fruit? How about if EA just sells skill points? Do you have a better idea?
 
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imported_DutchAmerica

Guest
<blockquote><hr>


I really agree with what you have said here. However the Devs have seen a problem with the trees coming to EA-Land as is. My guess is that their real concern is the tree farms and how they will affect the economy and ultimately how the tree farms might cut into EA's schemes to get more money from the players. They do not want to have to compete with the tree farmers.


[/ QUOTE ]

The only thing is, I'm wondering if we aren't seeing the 'forest' for the 'trees'?

It's not the trees that are causing the problem....it's where the simoleans come from that does. THAT's what really needs to be addressed and is the real problem.

If there are sims paying 100k per fruit in the first month of EAland being open, then I'd have to wonder where that kind of money is coming from. And actually, prices on mystic fruit could be an indicator of a problem.
 
G

Guest

Guest
The trouble I see with limiting the eating of fruit to only the owner is the many founders in the game who no longer need to eat fruit at all, they have their skills up there already, and are just adding a lock as they gain one. Is it fair to them to make it so their beloved tree suddenly becomes just another ornamental object? I don't think so. They should be able to give a fruit to a friend, or another of their sims, or sell it if they so choose to. It would maybe be a "quick" fix to the problem EA thinks exists, but it would just put the screws to the players who stuck with this game the longest.

I stand my ground, fix the real problem, the mind numbing boredom that skilling is, and leave the trees alone.
 
I

imported_DutchAmerica

Guest
<blockquote><hr>


I stand my ground, fix the real problem, the mind numbing boredom that skilling is, and leave the trees alone.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep, I'll back you up!!!

I say let's get rid of skill decay all together! One we've finished skilling up everything, we can move onto doing other things in the game.
 
G

Guest

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

As far as selling off fruit, I highly doubt the original devs had thought this would happen. I bet it was designed to be used by the owner and roomies on the lot it was on. This is why I believe this, you can't actually set fruit itself for sale. You have to mark another item for sale and block off the fruit so that it can only be eaten once the other item has been bought.

Besides, I hate having to set up a lot where my tree has to be carefully looked over and guarded so no one else eats it. I've gone so far, that once in AV and in BF, I went from lot to lot to see how much fruit I could get for free. Using the hide and seek feature worked wonders. I never ate the fruit, but I messaged the lot owner with my find and how to protect their fruit.

That's why I believe only the tree owner should be able to eat the fruit.

[/ QUOTE ]
You want to restrict it every further than what you believe the original intent was?

Don't forget paydoors. People have blocked off beds and toilets using pay doors. Pay doors can be used on any lot type. That is no different than selling fruit.
 
G

Guest

Guest
You are perfectly correct that the base problem, with the boredom of skilling, needs to be fixed, I think we can all agree on that!

But they have already stated a long time ago, that fixing skilling, can not be a priority over opening EA Land, merging the cities, and getting Custom Content operational.

remflyer also has a point, that they need a 'quick fix' for the trees before all those production city trees merge with, and mess-up, the new economic dynamics they are putting into EA Land....if tree sellers immediately converted their tree sales to cash-out from EA.......


There are relatively few arguments against making the consumption of fruit, a sole benefit to the tree's owner....people can still use it decoratively and green motives, from 'view'ing it....which is a lot more than you can say for Simmys or Pet Statues, our other 'rewards'. And the recipient of the gift, the one it was always intended to reward, will still have the full use of the fruit.

It is possible that another 'quick' fix would be to put a moratorium on tree sales (make them temporarily unsalable/tradable for 6 months/1 year), until they can get to working on the skill fix, that would make the trees obsolete, as money generators. Or they could make them, sellback, only....sell them to EA for a low fixed price, delete them or keep them forever.

Just because players were able to maximize an unintended consequence of the design, does not necessarily, entitle us to permanent use of that consequence, any more than any of the other fun side affect to game flaws, that we have played with, over the years, until they were 'fixed'.
 
G

Guest

Guest
I am not for getting rid of decay altogether, it would be nice but, I don't think that would be fair either, older sims have more locks, new players shouldn't be able to have all the skills in the first week never to decay at all.

I think the answer is starting out with 40 locks, which means an extra 20 should be handed to all sims, yes founders would have enough to never need skill again, bet they would hate that idea too.
The reason for more locks is simply because 20 is not enough. We want these new players to be able to enjoy this game, and having interactions, working, being able to craft, etc, is all part of the fun in this game. With additional locks to use, they can actually experience the different aspects of the game, thus making it more varied and more fun right from the start.

Then next speed up skilling. It takes what seems like forever and a day to get those last points. Make it same speed the whole way through. I'd originally thought the speed of 1-3 would be great, but that is really fast, so maybe the speed we have once we get over 3, keep that speed the rest of the way. Decay would actually be slower than gaining, as it should have always been. Not that I wouldn't like to see it slowed down a bit for my own personal use, but I really don't think that would be necessary to change to be honest.

Considering they can sit there and tweak money objects I would assume they can sit there and tweak the speed of skilling as well. It would not be a hard thing for them to accomplish, and I am sure it would make a lot more people happy than angry to see their skills go up faster.

If people could gain the skills they want within a reasonable amount of time, the key part of this whole issue, do you really think many players would waste money to buy fruit that gives random skill points?
 
K

Keep It Real

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

You are perfectly correct that the base problem, with the boredom of skilling, needs to be fixed, I think we can all agree on that!

But they have already stated a long time ago, that fixing skilling, can not be a priority over opening EA Land, merging the cities, and getting Custom Content operational.

remflyer also has a point, that they need a 'quick fix' for the trees before all those production city trees merge with, and mess-up, the new economic dynamics they are putting into EA Land....if tree sellers immediately converted their tree sales to cash-out from EA.......


There are relatively few arguments against making the consumption of fruit, a sole benefit to the tree's owner....people can still use it decoratively and green motives, from 'view'ing it....which is a lot more than you can say for Simmys or Pet Statues, our other 'rewards'. And the recipient of the gift, the one it was always intended to reward, will still have the full use of the fruit.

It is possible that another 'quick' fix would be to put a moratorium on tree sales (make them temporarily unsalable/tradable for 6 months/1 year), until they can get to working on the skill fix, that would make the trees obsolete, as money generators. Or they could make them, sellback, only....sell them to EA for a low fixed price, delete them or keep them forever.

Just because players were able to maximize an unintended consequence of the design, does not necessarily, entitle us to permanent use of that consequence, any more than any of the other fun side affect to game flaws, that we have played with, over the years, until they were 'fixed'.


[/ QUOTE ]


You will have to explain this a little better. Any simoleans used to purchase a tree and or fruit has to already be in the economy. Does it matter who does the cashing in of the simoleans already in the game? Please explain how these trees suddenly generate simoleans that were not already in the economy to begin with.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Agrees with KIR above they won't be even buying or able to buy fruit for quite a few days and trust me fruit isnt 1st on their lists. Many more people besides the fruit farmers will certinly be cashing in simoleans for real cash and someone else poed about farms selling fruit for like 100k each in ealand. Let me tell you unless another major exploit is found that will NEVER be the price in ealand for fruit.
 
I

imported_DutchAmerica

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

Agrees with KIR above they won't be even buying or able to buy fruit for quite a few days and trust me fruit isnt 1st on their lists. Many more people besides the fruit farmers will certinly be cashing in simoleans for real cash and someone else poed about farms selling fruit for like 100k each in ealand. Let me tell you unless another major exploit is found that will NEVER be the price in ealand for fruit.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think many players are so used to all that exploit money floating around that it's hard to imagine life without tons of money. LOL

If people want to 'buy' simoleans from ea to gobble down fruit, means money is going into the TSO coffers. Muahaha!!!

Like I said before, why would EA get rid of something will probably end up bringing them a profit, that's even if the tree farmers 'sell back' simoleans. (Which personally I hope they decide NOT to do. I think EA needs to reconsider the buy back deal.)
 
G

Guest

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

Agrees with KIR above they won't be even buying or able to buy fruit for quite a few days and trust me fruit isnt 1st on their lists. Many more people besides the fruit farmers will certinly be cashing in simoleans for real cash and someone else poed about farms selling fruit for like 100k each in ealand. Let me tell you unless another major exploit is found that will NEVER be the price in ealand for fruit.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think many players are so used to all that exploit money floating around that it's hard to imagine life without tons of money. LOL

If people want to 'buy' simoleans from ea to gobble down fruit, means money is going into the TSO coffers. Muahaha!!!

Like I said before, why would EA get rid of something will probably end up bringing them a profit, that's even if the tree farmers 'sell back' simoleans. (Which personally I hope they decide NOT to do. I think EA needs to reconsider the buy back deal.)

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL True never thought of that. Looking at it in that view the farms are great for EA. Sims buy cash ingame, eat fruit, spend all the cash, buy more cash. Maybe EA might recnsider any tree alterations and open their own farms? LMAO
 
I

imported_Gracie Nito

Guest
Pfft. Like I've said before Fester. Why should EA even bother with a fruit farm at all. They have the ability to directly sell us skill points. haha.
 
C

calvinscreeksim

Guest
Why don't we all just hug a tree and leave the boo hoos for another day?
 
M

Meggers

Guest
Okay, so let's get technical then shall we. Everything that can be done on a tree, can be done by one person alone.

I don't believe the ghost that comes out of the campfire, can be done with one person alone.

Hence, a tree is not a group activity as a campfire is a group activity.

That is technical side of it.

As far as selling off fruit, I highly doubt the original devs had thought this would happen. I bet it was designed to be used by the owner and roomies on the lot it was on. This is why I believe this, you can't actually set fruit itself for sale. You have to mark another item for sale and block off the fruit so that it can only be eaten once the other item has been bought.

Besides, I hate having to set up a lot where my tree has to be carefully looked over and guarded so no one else eats it. I've gone so far, that once in AV and in BF, I went from lot to lot to see how much fruit I could get for free. Using the hide and seek feature worked wonders. I never ate the fruit, but I messaged the lot owner with my find and how to protect their fruit.

That's why I believe only the tree owner should be able to eat the fruit.
-------------------------------------------------


In AV and BF I let my other sims and some friends eat the fruit. If you don't like other people selling or sharing their fruit, then avoid them. I for one don't want my trees changed. I have 12 trees, all earned on my accounts so what's it to you how I use them?
 
M

Meggers

Guest
I really agree with what you have said here. However the Devs have seen a problem with the trees coming to EA-Land as is. My guess is that their real concern is the tree farms and how they will affect the economy and ultimately how the tree farms might cut into EA's schemes to get more money from the players. They do not want to have to compete with the tree farmers.
---------------------------------


That's it in a nutshell. They want to suck more RL cash from us. Hell will freeze over before I pay one more penny than I already do for this game.
 
M

Meggers

Guest
Like I said before, why would EA get rid of something will probably end up bringing them a profit, that's even if the tree farmers 'sell back' simoleans. (Which personally I hope they decide NOT to do. I think EA needs to reconsider the buy back deal.)
-------------------------------------

I am opposed to the buy back deal as well. That is just begging for botters.
 
G

Guest

Guest
I am apposed to the buy back in the way they intended to implement it, I believe now they are reconsidering how they intend to do that. Last I saw they were only going to implement the sale of simoleans for now.
As for tree farms, 2 points I would like to make clear here.
These farms are almost always open with an AFK sim clearly to ripen the fruit.
I don't believe that should be allowed to continue, the farm owner should be made to be at the keyboard to gain his high rewards from the farm.
Secondly it is questionable as to how the majority of these owners gained so many trees in the 1st place. Most of the farms are owned by the same hand full of people, one having thousands of trees throughout the main cities. With these trees costing so much one has to wonder where all money came from to obtain so many trees.
Lee often comments on time over money. I think that needs to be applied here and can be done in several ways. One way could be to have a fruit fly outbreak that invades the trees randomly needing a sim to spray that tree to save the fruit. If done correctly this would make the owner have to work to keep his farm going. It would also leave the trees much the same as they are now, except for maybe needing a spray once every 5 minutes or so on average.
 
K

Keep It Real

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

I am apposed to the buy back in the way they intended to implement it, I believe now they are reconsidering how they intend to do that. Last I saw they were only going to implement the sale of simoleans for now.
As for tree farms, 2 points I would like to make clear here.
These farms are almost always open with an AFK sim clearly to ripen the fruit.
I don't believe that should be allowed to continue, the farm owner should be made to be at the keyboard to gain his high rewards from the farm.
Secondly it is questionable as to how the majority of these owners gained so many trees in the 1st place. Most of the farms are owned by the same hand full of people, one having thousands of trees throughout the main cities. With these trees costing so much one has to wonder where all money came from to obtain so many trees.
Lee often comments on time over money. I think that needs to be applied here and can be done in several ways. One way could be to have a fruit fly outbreak that invades the trees randomly needing a sim to spray that tree to save the fruit. If done correctly this would make the owner have to work to keep his farm going. It would also leave the trees much the same as they are now, except for maybe needing a spray once every 5 minutes or so on average.

[/ QUOTE ]


Interesting but Luc had mention making an NPC to keep stores open without a player having to be there. Pay a fee to have the NPC keep the lot open sounds like a great idea to me. I think the major part of the issue remains the boring aspect of skilling and that is what needs to be taken of first. The trees will lose value and importance if people would find that skilling isn't so damn boring and more interactive.


Edited to add: We all know how Lee feels about bots so I don't see the issue with afk stores, I just don't go to them.
 
G

Guest

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

I am apposed to the buy back in the way they intended to implement it, I believe now they are reconsidering how they intend to do that. Last I saw they were only going to implement the sale of simoleans for now.
As for tree farms, 2 points I would like to make clear here.
These farms are almost always open with an AFK sim clearly to ripen the fruit.
I don't believe that should be allowed to continue, the farm owner should be made to be at the keyboard to gain his high rewards from the farm.
Secondly it is questionable as to how the majority of these owners gained so many trees in the 1st place. Most of the farms are owned by the same hand full of people, one having thousands of trees throughout the main cities. With these trees costing so much one has to wonder where all money came from to obtain so many trees.
Lee often comments on time over money. I think that needs to be applied here and can be done in several ways. One way could be to have a fruit fly outbreak that invades the trees randomly needing a sim to spray that tree to save the fruit. If done correctly this would make the owner have to work to keep his farm going. It would also leave the trees much the same as they are now, except for maybe needing a spray once every 5 minutes or so on average.

[/ QUOTE ]


Interesting but Luc had mention making an NPC to keep stores open without a player having to be there. Pay a fee to have the NPC keep the lot open sounds like a great idea to me. I think the major part of the issue remains the boring aspect of skilling and that is what needs to be taken of first. The trees will lose value and importance if people would find that skilling isn't so damn boring and more interactive.


Edited to add: We all know how Lee feels about bots so I don't see the issue with afk stores, I just don't go to them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah bring back the extended skilling design whatever that was from way back? but funny though an outbreak of flies or locusts, lol.. the npc idea is cool especially if we will have ability to own several lots by one sim.
 
G

Guest

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

I am apposed to the buy back in the way they intended to implement it, I believe now they are reconsidering how they intend to do that. Last I saw they were only going to implement the sale of simoleans for now.
As for tree farms, 2 points I would like to make clear here.
These farms are almost always open with an AFK sim clearly to ripen the fruit.
I don't believe that should be allowed to continue, the farm owner should be made to be at the keyboard to gain his high rewards from the farm.
Secondly it is questionable as to how the majority of these owners gained so many trees in the 1st place. Most of the farms are owned by the same hand full of people, one having thousands of trees throughout the main cities. With these trees costing so much one has to wonder where all money came from to obtain so many trees.
Lee often comments on time over money. I think that needs to be applied here and can be done in several ways. One way could be to have a fruit fly outbreak that invades the trees randomly needing a sim to spray that tree to save the fruit. If done correctly this would make the owner have to work to keep his farm going. It would also leave the trees much the same as they are now, except for maybe needing a spray once every 5 minutes or so on average.

[/ QUOTE ]


Interesting but Luc had mention making an NPC to keep stores open without a player having to be there. Pay a fee to have the NPC keep the lot open sounds like a great idea to me. I think the major part of the issue remains the boring aspect of skilling and that is what needs to be taken of first. The trees will lose value and importance if people would find that skilling isn't so damn boring and more interactive.


Edited to add: We all know how Lee feels about bots so I don't see the issue with afk stores, I just don't go to them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry but I was under the impression that this thread was about trees and if they need to be tuned or not. Mainly because of the tree farms.
You seem to want to swing this around to a discussion about how boring skilling is. While I agree that skilling is the pits, I also realize that it is an important part of the game. Plus why is watching your sim do push ups or read a book so much worse than watching your sim do jams, gnomes or write a story. Except for 2 clicks of the mouse every 5 mins the only difference is you get paid with one, the other makes it so you get paid more.
I mentioned the fruit flies thing as an example, just something off the top of my head. I agree with the people here that feel the trees need to be tuned to stop the farms from being such a simple way of making massive amounts of simoleans.
Also your suggestion that an NPC would stop the fruit fly idea from working is incorrect. An NPC would only keep the house open and would not spray the flies. And if you think that a bot could easily be made to do that, you would be wrong again.
Another suggestion I made earlier that didn't seem to get any notice taken of it is to restrict the amount of fruits a sim could eat each day, another way of tuning the trees. If a sim could only eat say 6 fruits each day then the farms would find it much harder to do business.
Both of these ideas would not effect the normal use of trees to any great extent and would give EA a way of tuning the trees.
 
G

Guest

Guest
You did what I have not. You have made suggestions that would work. Regardless of what the current crowd here at stratics thinks, your suggestions are the best I've seen thus far. I must admit, I wish I had came up with them.
 
G

Guest

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

Also your suggestion that an NPC would stop the fruit fly idea from working is incorrect. An NPC would only keep the house open and would not spray the flies. And if you think that a bot could easily be made to do that, you would be wrong again.


[/ QUOTE ]

Who stated that npcs would take care of fruit flies? I saw nobody say any such thing? it just stated that an np could keep the lot open was all.
 
G

Guest

Guest
NOIP

I think if they do offer this NPC to keep lots open for owners, it should be based on real life money. That way, it's not a commodity that everyone can have at their leisure like the maid and repair man are.

This would also keep the tree farmers to using their 3rd party programs. Which I'm pretty sure the devs know who is using said programs. I think they are waiting till after the cities merge to EALand to do anything about it.

I have stated my opinion on the trees already. So far, Biteme has the best ideas that I've seen in this thread.
 
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Guest

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

NOIP

I think if they do offer this NPC to keep lots open for owners, it should be based on real life money. That way, it's not a commodity that everyone can have at their leisure like the maid and repair man are.

This would also keep the tree farmers to using their 3rd party programs. Which I'm pretty sure the devs know who is using said programs. I think they are waiting till after the cities merge to EALand to do anything about it.

I have stated my opinion on the trees already. So far, Biteme has the best ideas that I've seen in this thread.

[/ QUOTE ]

Tree farmers may be using programs, but what about all the other afk stores? Especially the ones with 5, 10, 15 sims or more all hiding and online all day/night. they HAVE to be using some programs too.

At least from what i've seen of the tree farms they do answer thier ims so they must be relatively close to their pc and they are never on 23.5/7 like many of the afk stores are which btw rarely answer their ims unlike their bios state, lol.
 
K

Keep It Real

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

I am apposed to the buy back in the way they intended to implement it, I believe now they are reconsidering how they intend to do that. Last I saw they were only going to implement the sale of simoleans for now.
As for tree farms, 2 points I would like to make clear here.
These farms are almost always open with an AFK sim clearly to ripen the fruit.
I don't believe that should be allowed to continue, the farm owner should be made to be at the keyboard to gain his high rewards from the farm.
Secondly it is questionable as to how the majority of these owners gained so many trees in the 1st place. Most of the farms are owned by the same hand full of people, one having thousands of trees throughout the main cities. With these trees costing so much one has to wonder where all money came from to obtain so many trees.
Lee often comments on time over money. I think that needs to be applied here and can be done in several ways. One way could be to have a fruit fly outbreak that invades the trees randomly needing a sim to spray that tree to save the fruit. If done correctly this would make the owner have to work to keep his farm going. It would also leave the trees much the same as they are now, except for maybe needing a spray once every 5 minutes or so on average.

[/ QUOTE ]


Interesting but Luc had mention making an NPC to keep stores open without a player having to be there. Pay a fee to have the NPC keep the lot open sounds like a great idea to me. I think the major part of the issue remains the boring aspect of skilling and that is what needs to be taken of first. The trees will lose value and importance if people would find that skilling isn't so damn boring and more interactive.


Edited to add: We all know how Lee feels about bots so I don't see the issue with afk stores, I just don't go to them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry but I was under the impression that this thread was about trees and if they need to be tuned or not. Mainly because of the tree farms.
You seem to want to swing this around to a discussion about how boring skilling is. While I agree that skilling is the pits, I also realize that it is an important part of the game. Plus why is watching your sim do push ups or read a book so much worse than watching your sim do jams, gnomes or write a story. Except for 2 clicks of the mouse every 5 mins the only difference is you get paid with one, the other makes it so you get paid more.
I mentioned the fruit flies thing as an example, just something off the top of my head. I agree with the people here that feel the trees need to be tuned to stop the farms from being such a simple way of making massive amounts of simoleans.
Also your suggestion that an NPC would stop the fruit fly idea from working is incorrect. An NPC would only keep the house open and would not spray the flies. And if you think that a bot could easily be made to do that, you would be wrong again.
Another suggestion I made earlier that didn't seem to get any notice taken of it is to restrict the amount of fruits a sim could eat each day, another way of tuning the trees. If a sim could only eat say 6 fruits each day then the farms would find it much harder to do business.
Both of these ideas would not effect the normal use of trees to any great extent and would give EA a way of tuning the trees.

[/ QUOTE ]


Umm.... I bring up how boring skilling is as a reason trees are so popular. Cause and effect, my point is treat the cause not the effect. Make skilling more fun and interactive and more people would be willing to skill and not buy ripes to avoid the bordom of skilling. Get it?
 
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Guest

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People are lazy. KIR you should know that. Regardless of how skilling is done, trees will be just as popular as they are now. Fixing skilling(unless its done away with)will never fix the tree problem. You are looking at a cause that is for the trees. The devs want the trees exploitation fixed. Fixing skilling won't fix that.
 
K

Keep It Real

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

People are lazy. KIR you should know that. Regardless of how skilling is done, trees will be just as popular as they are now. Fixing skilling(unless its done away with)will never fix the tree problem. You are looking at a cause that is for the trees. The devs want the trees exploitation fixed. Fixing skilling won't fix that.

[/ QUOTE ]


I think many do not understand the cause and effect aspect of all this, but thats ok. It's the Dev's that will make the choice of what is done. I understand you have a differing opinion and thats great, thats what THIS forum is all about.
 
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Guest

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

NOIP

I think if they do offer this NPC to keep lots open for owners, it should be based on real life money. That way, it's not a commodity that everyone can have at their leisure like the maid and repair man are.

This would also keep the tree farmers to using their 3rd party programs. Which I'm pretty sure the devs know who is using said programs. I think they are waiting till after the cities merge to EALand to do anything about it.

I have stated my opinion on the trees already. So far, Biteme has the best ideas that I've seen in this thread.

[/ QUOTE ]

Tree farmers may be using programs, but what about all the other afk stores? Especially the ones with 5, 10, 15 sims or more all hiding and online all day/night. they HAVE to be using some programs too.

At least from what i've seen of the tree farms they do answer thier ims so they must be relatively close to their pc and they are never on 23.5/7 like many of the afk stores are which btw rarely answer their ims unlike their bios state, lol.

[/ QUOTE ]

I actually think the NPC for store owners is a good idea.
Having owned a store, I know the reasons store owners tend to leave their stores unattended. Basically it’s boring and the returns are very little for the time spent in the store. Most people that visit the stores don’t look for conversation, they just say hello and buy a few things and leave. The returns from a store are so low that a good player would earn more doing pizza or code. Also now that the only place we are able to purchase our items is from a store I think we need to give the owners a little leeway.
After al,l as someone in this thread has already pointed out, if you prefer to deal with a non AFK store, simply bypass them and go where a store owner is present. Having said that I think that AFK stores should note that they are self serve in their property bio.

As for the tree farms, if these guys are prepared to be at their keyboard for the entire time that the store is open, including maturing the fruit. Then I have less of a problem with that. I just don’t like the idea of these guys being able to make a heap of real life money while sitting at the pub.
 
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Let's not lose sight of the original topic here:
<blockquote><hr>

I hear that Parizad and Lee talked of making mystic trees only give fruit on skill lots last night at the pub.

[/ QUOTE ]

And Lee's followup comment:
<blockquote><hr>

They are an unbalanciing force in the game, the object was not well thought out, and we would like to find a way to tune it. I am oft amused at the angst over the discussions of potential future thoughts and directions about things. We discused the limitation of trees to skill lots as a possible idea and one that was actually suggested by community members. It has not been done yet. May never be done. Bit one thing is cleare something will need to be done.

[/ QUOTE ]

While tree farms are an example of an unbalancing force x 200, it is the single object that will be tuned, thus effecting how everyone uses them.
 
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imported_DutchAmerica

Guest
Back on topic for Milton.....


Personally, I think they need to leave the trees alone and limit how many per lot. That way players can have their trees at whatever lot they wish but it makes it less convenient for 'tree farms' to sprout up.

However, it's a technicality but we WILL have the opportunity to have more than 1 type house in EAland since all our sims will be in the same city.

Can not players make one of those houses a skill house just for the sole purpose of keeping their trees there? But that could mean that there may be a disproportional amount of skill houses open as opposed to the other categories.

I think if this is something the devs are seriously considering I think they need to contemplate allowing trees on more types of lots such as service because there are teachers there.
 
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Guest

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I agree - max 8 trees per lot (1 per roomie if you have a full house as they could all have a tree) and a temproary restriction, for say 6 months of use only by the tree owner.

That should give EA long enough to come up with a permanent fix for the trees/skilling/money side.

Sorted.
 
M

Meggers

Guest
I think if they do offer this NPC to keep lots open for owners, it should be based on real life money. That way, it's not a commodity that everyone can have at their leisure like the maid and repair man are.
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Talk about unbalanced. Only people with a lot of expendable income will be able to afford it. Any features in this game should be available with simoleans only. I am also opposed to EA selling simoleans. Only the RL wealthy will be able to make in the game.
 
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imported_DutchAmerica

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

I think if they do offer this NPC to keep lots open for owners, it should be based on real life money. That way, it's not a commodity that everyone can have at their leisure like the maid and repair man are.
-------------------------------------------------


Talk about unbalanced. Only people with a lot of expendable income will be able to afford it. Any features in this game should be available with simoleans only. I am also opposed to EA selling simoleans. Only the RL wealthy will be able to make in the game.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep, I agree. Talk about 'unfair'.

If NPC's for lots need to be hired, it should be for simoleans which players can make in the game.
 
S

Simsaholic

Guest
Way to go Maxis trying to add more fuel to the fire.
Once again they show us how little they think of us. To mess with anniversary gifts is just plain evil. Rather than listen to our cries of more catregories, pets, furniture, etc. they'd rather wipe our money &amp; mess with our trees! The craft benches have already been ruined thus giving my fully skilled founder sims NOTHING to do.
Are they TRYING to make us all quit TSO-excuse me EA land??
And as for all those fruit farms out there-how do you think they get all those trees? MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS, scamming, buying &amp; getting them from friends that left the game. If it wasn't for the fact I met alot of nice ppl I would have sold MY account already!
 
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imported_Spacey

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

I think if they do offer this NPC to keep lots open for owners, it should be based on real life money. That way, it's not a commodity that everyone can have at their leisure like the maid and repair man are.
-------------------------------------------------
Talk about unbalanced.Only people with a lot of expendable income will be able to afford it. Any features in this game should be available with simoleans only. I am also opposed to EA selling simoleans. Only the RL wealthy will be able to make in the game

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep, I agree. Talk about 'unfair'.

If NPC's for lots need to be hired, it should be for simoleans which players can make in the game.

[/ QUOTE ]

My thoughts exactly!

On topic of trees: I don't agree with the limit of trees put on a lot. I have 1 for every sim I have and would like to put them on the same lot (the one that would be open most of the time) so they can ripen faster. I love my trees and want to display them.

I have never bought a ripe, although I did have my trees at a store once. And, there was always someone willing to buy a ripe for a skill point. What does this truly say? That people would rather spend their money trying for a 1 in 6 chance of getting the skill they want, rather than knowing they are going to get those points by boring skilling. Where do they get that money? Who knows? But, whether they get it by good or bad means...this will all disappear come EAland. They will have to buy the money (good news for EA) if they want to get anything special, for example, rare pets. Will you take the ability away to sell those too?

What does this say about the tree farms? Like mentioned before, I was a part of a store that sold both fruit, clothing and lots of catalog items. I can't speak for roomies, but I was ALWAYS present at the store. Lets not punish those present just to weed out the few that aren't. And, EA, IF you are concerned about people paying outrageous amounts of money for things, why do you have the ability to price things up to 999,999,999? If it is to keep people from buying certian stocked items, certianly if you price a table at double its price, noone will buy it...if they do, good for you!

I was wondering, EA... does the thought of someone buying money from you for fruit, then transferring bought money to fruit seller (that did not pay for money) concern you? I am still trying to figure out what is so bad about trees.

Ronin Dex, I am curious... Do you have a tree? I saw somewhere that you were waiting on yours. If so, when you get one, maybe your opinion will change. The have nots and the want nots often differ. Not always though. I was just curious.
 
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imported_DutchAmerica

Guest
I have a number of trees and all of them on the same lot which happens to be 'store' category. However, I rarely if ever open my store. My store is actually just a catch all of stuff I don't want to age or just don't use very often. And if I get really desperate for a fashion or an object that I have been looking for, I'll use my store as a place of last resort.

I don't sell my fruit and I don't eat it. My trees are not for sale, not for rent and I'm not giving them away. It's just convenient for me to keep them all in the same place so I don't have to figure out what sim has them or bring in skalliwags in my other houses just because they want to eat my fruit. Keeping them at my private store also makes it easier for me to trade off to other alts as needed depending on who is holding down the lot. I really do not wish to have to change my main houses into stores everytime I want to move my trees around.

So I really wish that trees would be left alone because I think there a higher majority of sims like me that use our trees for personal use then people that own 'fruit stores'.
 
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Roger Wilco

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

I was wondering, EA... does the thought of someone buying money from you for fruit, then transferring bought money to fruit seller (that did not pay for money) concern you? I am still trying to figure out what is so bad about trees.

[/ QUOTE ]

Considering that they are getting into the business of both buying and selling simoleans you would think that they could figure this out, but then we are talking about people who have an unbroken five year track record of being utterly clueless when it comes to both the in-game economy, or even basic economic principles.

I’ll spell it out for you EA - Your average players won’t buy simoleans from you unless there are:

A) Items worth buying (I gotta have that!)

and

B) The cost of these I gotta have 'em items exceeds the pain level in time needed to grind out the pretend money for it’s purchase (it will take forever to earn the money
so I'll buy some).

Fruit and rare’s are among the handful of things I would envision people being willing to buy simoleans off of you to obtain. Custom content also if it ever gets beyond its current state.
 
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Guest

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Whats the major conniption about trees/farms anyway?
This big unbalance of what exactly?
Is it simoleons? What is the difference if several sims hold the say 250 thousand simoleons or if it i traded to one sim for services rendered? (paid for skills obtained from the trees, so what) .

I mean those sims all had to work jobs or job objects normally and used no exploits. why does anything at all have to be done to or about the trees? who says that the tree farmers will do a mad rush and cash in their simoleons for rl cash? maybe they use that money for rare pet hunting and crafting and other things?

So some sims paid and gained skills faster who cares to be entirely honest, its their prerogative to play "their way".

What if those tree farms just opened and left the fruit entirely "FREE" fr everyone to eat and do as they pleased. I bet NOT a single sim would complain and I'd even bet many of the gripers would in fact eat many fruit and would love the farms.
 
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