Lot Taxes Too High!!

[Psychotps]

@Trismagistos So the vault money no longer counts towards it. That's good to know.

I don't think I'll need to worry about it. After playing hundreds of households, ever since the "lottery" thing started, I've only had a sim win it once, that one time. I don't seem to play a household long enough to gain more than a quarter million. Before half that time expires, my sims are so leveled up and OP, they're not fun any more. I tend to move on to someone else.

[SheriGR]

@Trismagistos Hmmm... Well, when I had that happen with my household bills it was about a year and a half ago at least. This was before they re-vamped billing. I don't remember all the details, but I do remember that the money/cash they had didn't seem to effect bills like that produce did. As I said, they had probably a million or more in produce in the end. They also had a large home with expensive content, but not a mansion and not extravagant.

For now, I've been avoiding playing my homes with extensive gardens as I don't want the plants to get buggy from the gardening bug. I also didn't play any of the ones with extensive gardens for any long periods of time after the Eco pack. So did you have that much produce in inventory (mine was a combo of personal and household inventory - where my tons of produce was sitting)? I just kept having them harvest it and wasn't thinking it would matter that much. 

I do remember that at that time if they had lots of produce in the Lice Cold Freezers in their (owned) retail stores it didn't seem to affect their bills like it did if they kept it in their personal inventories, which  I thought was interesting.

Actually, I keep perfect produce plants for supplemental income on my lots frequently, and I have never noticed a huge bill since the revamping of bills around the time the Eco pack was released. That's not to say that it would not affect it if I accumulated a huge amount of produce in personal inventories again, but I haven't re-tested that. I'm obsessive about selling all but a small amount of the produce now. 

[Psychotps]

@SheriGR Personally, I don't keep most of the harvestables. I usually grow one plant of each of the common food ingredients. Tomatoes, Potatoes, Carrots, Onions, Mushrooms, Basil, Spinach, Parsley, and Strawberries. I usually also have Roses (multiple uses for those) and Snapdragons for a while until I can graft them with the strawberries.

I usually take one harvest and stick it in the fridge so cooking is cheaper. Replenishing when they either run out or the plants increase a few levels. (better meals) Otherwise, I always Sell All or SuperSell.

I never saw a point to keeping more than one of each plant. Normal meals, even for a large family, will never use more than one plant harvest in quite a while. So, what's the benefit to having more than one Tomato plant? You can't use all the harvestables from ONE plant if you tried. So you sell them for money? There are a TON of better ways to make money than caring for dozens of plants.

I never saw any benefit to keeping ALL of the harvestables. Seems to be a huge waste to me when I could be selling them for cash.

I used to use the beehive quite a lot but it's so severely OP when it comes to plant evolution that I had to stop using it.

Unless I grow DragonFruit, the money from harvesting is piddly. If I need to make money, usually book royalties or paintings are better. I usually only grow DragonFruit now if I'm in a rush to buy a better house since one plant will give over 2K a day.

Bill costs don't bother me much as long as they work. If something doesn't work, it's more the fact that I don't like something broken, even if it's a minor cost increase/decrease.

I'm still not sure if I like the new billing system. I like the power and water storage/selling part. But that's pretty much useless in anything other than an off-the-grid lot. Auto-selling power and water doesn't gain you enough money to make it worth worrying about, even with upgraded appliances. And frankly, I'd rather have the larger bills. Money is a bit too easy to make and nothing to spend it on.

[Trismagistos]

@SheriGR One of my main Sims, I have been playing with him from the start, has a hugh amount of items in his inventory. He collected it throughout his travels in all the worlds/maps and packs. He is one of the three Sims with which  I started the storytelling line and the family tree. At a certain moment, before the alterations of the inventory, I had to sell the content because the gameplay became to laggy in my experience. And just like your Sim (it took me quite some time) he became a millionaire.

I also stashed some of the fruit and veggies in the household inventory and I even made a museum (curators target). At a certain moment I wanted to adjust that messy cellar and when I picked up some of the items the had, it had tremendously increased in value. All perfect items. To give you an example, one blackberry of over 2,000 simoleons an cowplantberry of over 12,000.

So I checked his own inventory and saw the same results. I guess that this has been altered since Eco Living but I am not exactly sure when it was altered. It could have been long before that time. As a matter of fact, that didn't matter that much anymore. At a certain point my households get such enormous intrest rates which I can't spend on a weekly bases. So I let 'them' spend it on renovating and remodeling their dwellings. 😉 @Psychotps I agree with you in that matter that it tends to get a little boring. But because it is not the way I play the game, I can't be bothered. I just move the households to bigger plots, buy more items with which they can train their skills an send the offspring off into the world. Many times I see a sim with a familiar surname and I really have to dig into the family tree to find out which branch the Sim comes from.

@SheriGR As you know I do love them to potter around in the garden and we both seem to have indoor gardens. I also use the hydro planters and the only bug I experience is that when I want teenagers to gain the Freelance Botanist goal, there is a difficulty with developing the plants. Even when I let them buy seeds, as soon as they plant them, the plant turns perfect overnight. I also use the fruits and vegetables for cooking but some of my Sims have gained almost all the traits and I keep these Sims to boost and train the skills of others. These Sims only eat for pleasure.

[SheriGR]

It sounds like both of you have played more with your plants than I have recently. The most recent experimenting I did with them was after the Eco pack when I tested bugs (found my plants were not experiencing the current bugs in the vertical planters, which was a relief). I didn't test the self-watering planters since players have to create them with higher skills or access via hidden objects. (Heck, it's easy to get them watered anyway via upgraded sprinklers, a butler, patchy, or hiring a gardener, if I don't want to deal with it or want backup.)

As to your comments on what plants I grow, @Psychotps ...back when I began gardening a ton with huge gardens to experiment, splice, etc., I sold them in my retail stores along with dishes made. I grew most to 'perfect' and made expensive dishes. Though I could have just sold them 'as-is' more simply, I did sell some via the retail store for part of the produce (per my 'storyline'/thinking, a tomato may be cheap but we still want to be able to buy it at a retail/'grocery' store for our dishes) and flowers (flower arrangements) for a pretty penny after mark-up, and I would just 'super-sell' the rest. Even at that many of the fruits and veggies are moderate in value, so I may only have one or two plants of those, but the valuable ones I would grow multiples of (dragon fruit, BoP, roses, UFO, bonsai, etc.).

In my game I play large households of Sims that work jobs to the top tier (sometimes of multiple careers) with aging off. Then in the hours they're not at work they run restaurants and retail stores and raise families. I also do the 'takes a village' approach to running the home and businesses for parenthood. And I am good to my Sims. That's how I keep from being bored in my game. 

I eventually created plants with multi-fruits, multi-veggies, and multi-flowers that were perfect and grafted so as to produce outdoors, unsheltered year-round. Those plants will produce sufficiently for making a small cooking and income garden on the lot when I build now, plus I can add to those perfect versions of trees and plants that are sheltered for the income-plants in a small greenhouse or indoor area. So... bottom line, my Sims end up quickly accumulating plenty of money from their gardens 'on the side', and I can control efficiently how much so this will happen by the plants I add to their lot.

[Psychotps]

@SheriGR

Wow, that's a brilliant idea. Never thought about that. Grafting different season plants together to get around the dormancy.

And to think, all I did was write a mod that turns off "out of season".

If I really want a lot of money fast, I just make a trip to willow creek, grab some strawberries and snapdragons, graft and get dragonfruit. Plant them with a beehive nearby. In a little over a week, I'll have all perfect plants getting over 3K per plant. Grow 4 of them and I'll have well over 10K a day doing nothing but gardening. Put them on a tiny lot and they'll evolve even faster.

I tend to not play in "story mode", I can't help but play as efficiently as possible. Grow roses for laundry buffs and dating gifts, go on a date to get gold and use the ice bucket to make future romances faster and easier, get a post card from a pen pal for a free "Inspired" buff anytime I want. Same with crystals "energized" buffs and dolls "Playful" buffs when needed to make workouts level faster, comedy skill building faster... I tend to have my sims eat on the sofa watching Cooking shows or comedy that way they replenish hunger, build fun and cooking or comedy all at the same time... etc

I can't help but play that way.

[SheriGR]

@Psychotps I agree and I love the multitasking possibilities!! One of my fave multitasking tips for keeping Sims fit is to put two treadmills side-by-side in the home with a TV in front of them. Then get the Sims the 'gym rat' reward. I play the Sims directing two at a time to run/workout and watch the cooking channel at the same time. They socialize while they're at it, and if memory serves, because they are watching TV their fun raises. Physical, cooking, and social also raise. After I do that for a couple of Sim weeks on a regular basis they get in the 'habit'. I did this with Clement Frost in the household and didn't have him get on the treadmill, but I came back to the house after time had passed and even he's lost weight! They seem to enjoy it! Anyway, multitasking is awesome, I completely agree.

[Psychotps]

@SheriGR There ARE other ways that are a bit more OP... You can set up a club that just has home related stuff like cooking, watching tv, add the entire household and just leave the gathering running. You'll get lots of points and can choose club buffs like romantic, homework, skill gains, workout buffs, cooking buffs, etc.

[Psychotps]

It appears lot taxes are BROKEN yet again.

I have a BULLDOZED lot. Absolutely NOTHING on the lot except for the mailbox.

Spent 3 days there and it continuously adds -72 power.

How's this possible?

Edit:

Moved to a completely different lot... one that was completely empty... this one has a permanent -36 power consumption.

Edit 2:

It appears that ALL lots on MT Komorebi are broken.

Moved to 3 other empty lots in newcrest, willow creek, and Oasis... they are all "0" power on empty lots.

Here are the numbers... Each lot in Komorebi has a permanent latent power draw:

5-1-1 Kiyomatsu -36.37
5-1-2 Kiyomatsu -36.37
Kiyomatsu Point -36.37
Izakaya Ippai -72.74
Hanamigawa Koen -72.74
6-4-1 Hanamigawa -72.74
5-6-1 Shinrinyoku -72.74
5-3-1 Shinrinyoku -72.74
2-4-1 Wakabamori -36.37
2-4-2 Wakabamori -36.37
2-4-3 Wakabamori -36.37
2-5-1 Wakabamori -36.37
Hazakura Lounge -36.37

[Castaway-Sims]

I have read some of the solutions regarding the high tax bill. These are not the point. I do not pay tax every week or month or year on my belongings just when I initially buy them in the real world. One should not have to clear out their inventory or cheat or alter the way they live because of the way some people perceive life. If you want the real world apply tax inclusively at time of purchase and leave it alone. I too enjoy this game, it is my downtime and I no longer find it enjoyable due to these taxes. My sim has a simple life in the science career, she should not have to clear out inventory especially since she needs it for her work. Now she has twins and I find I can't expand the house without cheats, or pay a bill.