And I don't mean increase the length of time it takes for a Sim to complete gardening.
Hi, first post here. Gonna get straight to the point.
What I want is to increase the length of time it takes for plants to grow, increase the amount of time it takes for weeds to grow again after being picked, and increase the time it takes for harvestables to grow back after being harvested. In short, I want to be able to have a garden go untended for 2 or 3 days and be just fine with the trade off being that the plants also can't be harvested for about 2 or 3 days.
I have a family that is responsible for a medium sized farm that feeds the entire neighborhood but I don't like that they have almost no time to do anything else but garden. I looked at the settings in Retuner but I wasn't quite sure where to start. Is this possible?
Slowing Down Gardening
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igazor
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Slowing Down Gardening
Hi there. Before we get into how Retuner may be able to help here, may I offer what immediately comes to mind as an in-game solution?
What I would probably do is hire one or more gardeners/ farm staff. I don't mean in a modded, NPC gardener type of way although there is that option too, I mean add one or more controllable sims to this household whose function is to tend the gardens and whom I will for storyline purposes treat as live-in staff. In exchange, they get meals, board, use of the household's amenities while there, and if that's not enough to fill in their days then perhaps add other duties such as cleaning, cooking, tending to pets/livestock or children, or give them a lucrative hobby or sets of skill-building tasks to work through. When their term of employment is concluded, I might consider paying them off for their services and sending them into the world as a resident on their own or move them into another household with a sum of cash "earned" over the course of their employment, then begin again with a new gardener.
No good?
What I would probably do is hire one or more gardeners/ farm staff. I don't mean in a modded, NPC gardener type of way although there is that option too, I mean add one or more controllable sims to this household whose function is to tend the gardens and whom I will for storyline purposes treat as live-in staff. In exchange, they get meals, board, use of the household's amenities while there, and if that's not enough to fill in their days then perhaps add other duties such as cleaning, cooking, tending to pets/livestock or children, or give them a lucrative hobby or sets of skill-building tasks to work through. When their term of employment is concluded, I might consider paying them off for their services and sending them into the world as a resident on their own or move them into another household with a sum of cash "earned" over the course of their employment, then begin again with a new gardener.
No good?
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indignantgirl
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Slowing Down Gardening
I have my gardener Legacy and it indeed takes a full household to keep things going every day. I like my sims to work hard, and my legacy is supposed to be a challenge, but it seems like (with a greenhouse especially) it's 8 sims working all day, every day, to keep it up. Their greenhouse is in a "perfect garden" state right now and if they don't keep on top of it, the quality will go down or they'll have to replant everything more often or something (tbh I'm not sure what exactly will happen because I never let them have a break). This last generation I've used a mod allowing children to garden and I have them do the weeding, which helps a bit without feeling too "cheaty".
In non-challenge saves I'll "adopt"/kidnap a paperchild, enroll them in homeschool, have them level up their general skills as well as do most of the gardening. They end up very highly skilled young adults, usually with a completed lifetime wish, get a good career before moving out, and become some of the wealthier inactives in my town, which I consider a good trade for their labor. Normally they'd age out of their job and be "disappeared" by the game.
But like the OP, I would love an option to slow things down a bit, just make the growth stages last a little longer. I did go and poke around in Retuner for a while and though there are several settings for garden objects, plants, etc, I didn't see anything that would accomplish this.
In non-challenge saves I'll "adopt"/kidnap a paperchild, enroll them in homeschool, have them level up their general skills as well as do most of the gardening. They end up very highly skilled young adults, usually with a completed lifetime wish, get a good career before moving out, and become some of the wealthier inactives in my town, which I consider a good trade for their labor. Normally they'd age out of their job and be "disappeared" by the game.
But like the OP, I would love an option to slow things down a bit, just make the growth stages last a little longer. I did go and poke around in Retuner for a while and though there are several settings for garden objects, plants, etc, I didn't see anything that would accomplish this.
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Chain_Reaction
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Slowing Down Gardening
There's a plethora of variables that all work together to pull this stuff off. It may be a bit complex and you are kind of limited on getting things the way you want them but I'll explain the basics of the values under Sims3.Gameplay.Objects / Gardening / Plant. Some the values you want are table based per plant and not accessible via Retuner but found in the Plants XML.
Growth is calculated, following by weeds, soil dampness then fertilizer.
Plants are updated once every 24 Sim hours throughout the 5am hour (can be a bit longer if your simulator is overwhelmed) and all their values are checked to determine their state. The plants move to their next growth state when growth progress points accumulate to 100. If the increase is negative and they reach -100, the plant wilts or dies if already wilted.
We have kGrowthPerformanceBase (10) which is the base points a plant gets per day.
Then by a value defined in the Plants XML for each plant for soil dampness added to it for whatever state the soil is in.
Then kGrowthPerformanceFertilizer (1.1) * fertilizer level (defined by the total points of all fertilizer items added to the plant) if the plant is fertilized.
Then the value of the above is times by 100 - kGrowthPerformancePenaltyWeeds (0.5) if the plant has weeds.
Finally times by the kMushroomCollectorMultipler (25) if your Sim has that perk.
If the sum of the above is greater than 100, they get 100 points. Otherwise if the sum is greater than -100, they get the value of of the above, otherwise -100.
This would all be easy if you could increase the 100 max, it'd take longer to grow. But you can't. So you'll have to play with the various points that accumulate daily and cut them to reduce how fast they get to 100.
Reducing how long it takes to get more harvestables involves reducing the above values as well. When plants are havested, they are reset to the Mature state, just 1 stage below harvestable.
Weeds happen based on a WeedProblem chance per plant (not tunable by Retuner) soil dampness and fertilizer:
kWeedChanceIncrementWater is an array of soil dampness levels (Dry 0%, Neutral 3%, Wet 5%) that determine base weed chance every update. If the plant has any fertilizer left on update then kWeedChanceIncrementFertalizer (2%) is added in. Finally kWeedChanceReductionForMasterPlanter (20%) is factored in if your Sim is a Master Planter.
Dampness decays based on how many hours it's been since the plant was last updated and not watered or rained. Each plant has a WaterDecay value that is used times how many hours since the last update, not tunable by Retuner.
Fertilizer effective days and points are determined when the plant is fertilized based on whatever it was fertilized with and it's quality. The base values are in the Ingredients tuning, not tunable by Retuner... the additional days based on quality levels and such are. You didn't mention fertilizer so I won't get into those.
If you need clarification on something, let me know. Hopefully this helps you get started down the right path or maybe it blows your mind and you run away screaming.
Growth is calculated, following by weeds, soil dampness then fertilizer.
Plants are updated once every 24 Sim hours throughout the 5am hour (can be a bit longer if your simulator is overwhelmed) and all their values are checked to determine their state. The plants move to their next growth state when growth progress points accumulate to 100. If the increase is negative and they reach -100, the plant wilts or dies if already wilted.
We have kGrowthPerformanceBase (10) which is the base points a plant gets per day.
Then by a value defined in the Plants XML for each plant for soil dampness added to it for whatever state the soil is in.
Then kGrowthPerformanceFertilizer (1.1) * fertilizer level (defined by the total points of all fertilizer items added to the plant) if the plant is fertilized.
Then the value of the above is times by 100 - kGrowthPerformancePenaltyWeeds (0.5) if the plant has weeds.
Finally times by the kMushroomCollectorMultipler (25) if your Sim has that perk.
If the sum of the above is greater than 100, they get 100 points. Otherwise if the sum is greater than -100, they get the value of of the above, otherwise -100.
This would all be easy if you could increase the 100 max, it'd take longer to grow. But you can't. So you'll have to play with the various points that accumulate daily and cut them to reduce how fast they get to 100.
Reducing how long it takes to get more harvestables involves reducing the above values as well. When plants are havested, they are reset to the Mature state, just 1 stage below harvestable.
Weeds happen based on a WeedProblem chance per plant (not tunable by Retuner) soil dampness and fertilizer:
kWeedChanceIncrementWater is an array of soil dampness levels (Dry 0%, Neutral 3%, Wet 5%) that determine base weed chance every update. If the plant has any fertilizer left on update then kWeedChanceIncrementFertalizer (2%) is added in. Finally kWeedChanceReductionForMasterPlanter (20%) is factored in if your Sim is a Master Planter.
Dampness decays based on how many hours it's been since the plant was last updated and not watered or rained. Each plant has a WaterDecay value that is used times how many hours since the last update, not tunable by Retuner.
Fertilizer effective days and points are determined when the plant is fertilized based on whatever it was fertilized with and it's quality. The base values are in the Ingredients tuning, not tunable by Retuner... the additional days based on quality levels and such are. You didn't mention fertilizer so I won't get into those.
If you need clarification on something, let me know. Hopefully this helps you get started down the right path or maybe it blows your mind and you run away screaming.
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igazor
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Slowing Down Gardening
There is one more solution I'd like to put on the table here that shouldn't be very mind-blowing and scream inducing. Have you considered deploying the tractor from the Granpa's Grove store set?
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DrThunderPHD
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Slowing Down Gardening
I actually did create another Sim to help with the gardening and it did help, but it still took her and two other Sims all day and then some to manage the whole thing.igazor wrote: ↑April 16th, 2021, 11:45 pmHi there. Before we get into how Retuner may be able to help here, may I offer what immediately comes to mind as an in-game solution?
What I would probably do is hire one or more gardeners/ farm staff. I don't mean in a modded, NPC gardener type of way although there is that option too, I mean add one or more controllable sims to this household whose function is to tend the gardens and whom I will for storyline purposes treat as live-in staff. In exchange, they get meals, board, use of the household's amenities while there, and if that's not enough to fill in their days then perhaps add other duties such as cleaning, cooking, tending to pets/livestock or children, or give them a lucrative hobby or sets of skill-building tasks to work through. When their term of employment is concluded, I might consider paying them off for their services and sending them into the world as a resident on their own or move them into another household with a sum of cash "earned" over the course of their employment, then begin again with a new gardener.
No good?
In another post you mention the tractor - I forgot all about that! I'll have to use that in addition to the fixes above and tweak things as needed. Would need a bigger lot, but that's easy enough to do.
Glad I'm not the only one wanting an answer to this question. Means I'm not just doing something wrong!indignantgirl wrote: ↑April 17th, 2021, 12:47 amI have my gardener Legacy and it indeed takes a full household to keep things going every day. I like my sims to work hard, and my legacy is supposed to be a challenge, but it seems like (with a greenhouse especially) it's 8 sims working all day, every day, to keep it up. Their greenhouse is in a "perfect garden" state right now and if they don't keep on top of it, the quality will go down or they'll have to replant everything more often or something (tbh I'm not sure what exactly will happen because I never let them have a break). This last generation I've used a mod allowing children to garden and I have them do the weeding, which helps a bit without feeling too "cheaty".
In non-challenge saves I'll "adopt"/kidnap a paperchild, enroll them in homeschool, have them level up their general skills as well as do most of the gardening. They end up very highly skilled young adults, usually with a completed lifetime wish, get a good career before moving out, and become some of the wealthier inactives in my town, which I consider a good trade for their labor. Normally they'd age out of their job and be "disappeared" by the game.
But like the OP, I would love an option to slow things down a bit, just make the growth stages last a little longer. I did go and poke around in Retuner for a while and though there are several settings for garden objects, plants, etc, I didn't see anything that would accomplish this.
Children -stolen or otherwise- would be a big help, yeah. My family hasn't had kids yet but they were looking at a long, long life spent in the fields at this rate. Kind of sucks for them and for me because it limits their choices for development, but that's how it goes sometimes. In my save there aren't traditional "careers" or even school for the kids to grow up to though, so all that skilling wouldn't do them much good unless they want to work in the farm later on lol.
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DrThunderPHD
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Slowing Down Gardening
Double posting because it was gonna be too long otherwise - hope that's not an issue.
To be clear, you're suggesting that I take all the multipliers and just lower them? That isn't so bad, and I figure that I could roughly half the default numbers and be much happier with the results.
This is a very helpful answer, thank you! The other suggestions were helpful too, but this is the kind of thing I was hoping to get when I posed the question. I'll admit that I'm not good with Retuner yet, and I'll admit that even seeing those numbers makes my head hurt despite how simple they actually are to manipulate, but I'm willing to give it a try and report back with my findings later.Chain_Reaction wrote: ↑April 17th, 2021, 4:51 pmThere's a plethora of variables that all work together to pull this stuff off. It may be a bit complex and you are kind of limited on getting things the way you want them but I'll explain the basics of the values under Sims3.Gameplay.Objects / Gardening / Plant. Some the values you want are table based per plant and not accessible via Retuner but found in the Plants XML.
Growth is calculated, following by weeds, soil dampness then fertilizer.
Plants are updated once every 24 Sim hours throughout the 5am hour (can be a bit longer if your simulator is overwhelmed) and all their values are checked to determine their state. The plants move to their next growth state when growth progress points accumulate to 100. If the increase is negative and they reach -100, the plant wilts or dies if already wilted.
We have kGrowthPerformanceBase (10) which is the base points a plant gets per day.
Then by a value defined in the Plants XML for each plant for soil dampness added to it for whatever state the soil is in.
Then kGrowthPerformanceFertilizer (1.1) * fertilizer level (defined by the total points of all fertilizer items added to the plant) if the plant is fertilized.
Then the value of the above is times by 100 - kGrowthPerformancePenaltyWeeds (0.5) if the plant has weeds.
Finally times by the kMushroomCollectorMultipler (25) if your Sim has that perk.
If the sum of the above is greater than 100, they get 100 points. Otherwise if the sum is greater than -100, they get the value of of the above, otherwise -100.
This would all be easy if you could increase the 100 max, it'd take longer to grow. But you can't. So you'll have to play with the various points that accumulate daily and cut them to reduce how fast they get to 100.
Reducing how long it takes to get more harvestables involves reducing the above values as well. When plants are havested, they are reset to the Mature state, just 1 stage below harvestable.
Weeds happen based on a WeedProblem chance per plant (not tunable by Retuner) soil dampness and fertilizer:
kWeedChanceIncrementWater is an array of soil dampness levels (Dry 0%, Neutral 3%, Wet 5%) that determine base weed chance every update. If the plant has any fertilizer left on update then kWeedChanceIncrementFertalizer (2%) is added in. Finally kWeedChanceReductionForMasterPlanter (20%) is factored in if your Sim is a Master Planter.
Dampness decays based on how many hours it's been since the plant was last updated and not watered or rained. Each plant has a WaterDecay value that is used times how many hours since the last update, not tunable by Retuner.
Fertilizer effective days and points are determined when the plant is fertilized based on whatever it was fertilized with and it's quality. The base values are in the Ingredients tuning, not tunable by Retuner... the additional days based on quality levels and such are. You didn't mention fertilizer so I won't get into those.
If you need clarification on something, let me know. Hopefully this helps you get started down the right path or maybe it blows your mind and you run away screaming.
To be clear, you're suggesting that I take all the multipliers and just lower them? That isn't so bad, and I figure that I could roughly half the default numbers and be much happier with the results.