How to create a more RPG-like experience? (limit build mode, etc)

[aifman7]

So I've been playing The Sims 4 for maybe a year now and every time I play I have a tendency to go hog-wild with high quality furniture. I don't use money cheats most of the time and prefer to actually play the game as more of an RPG of sorts, actually sending my sims to work or selling items that they make and only allowing myself to use the money they earn legitimately.

The problem I'm running in to is that I still tend to always buy the best of everything. So even though I'm earning money legitimately, going into build mode means that I'm going to spend that money on the top quality furniture and decorations almost every time, simply because they're available to me in build mode. It's hard to stop myself from doing this most of the time, and even in games where I'm able to limit myself for the first few weeks, after a while I always end up ruining the experience by decking out my houses with the best of the best and that usually means I'll get bored with that world soon enough (mostly because I don't feel like I have much more to work toward).

Is there a way to set it up so that I can only acquire new furniture through the game itself? I know in Magnolia Promenade there are the three retail stores there that sell a few pieces of furniture, but it's really not a lot and it always seems to be the same stuff. There is the street fair event (I forget the name of it) where vendors will come and sell various things, sometimes including furniture, but all in all it doesn't really seem like there are a lot of ways to acquire new furniture outside of build mode.

Are there mods that allow for this? Is there a mod that limits build mode for you, or maybe mods that add in large shopping malls or furniture stores that have rotational stock which changes every few days? I did a little searching on the various CC sites but mostly just found lots and households, nothing specifically related to furniture sales overhauls or anything like this.

I'm mostly focused on the furniture/build mode aspects at the moment, but relatedly if anyone has any other mods that really enhance the RPG aspects of The Sims 4, I would love to hear them. Anything I can do to keep myself from nuking my own saves is welcomed. Sometimes it's really hard to stop myself from just buying the best everything. Self control can be tough when the best of the best is just a click away.

EDIT: This isn't even just related to mods specifically, if you have certain settings you use that enhance the RPG elements of the game or certain self-imposed limitations that you find easy to stick to, please share!

[Elsalovescocaine]

On 1/4/2020 at 10:11 PM, aifman7 said:

So I've been playing The Sims 4 for maybe a year now and every time I play I have a tendency to go hog-wild with high quality furniture. I don't use money cheats most of the time and prefer to actually play the game as more of an RPG of sorts, actually sending my sims to work or selling items that they make and only allowing myself to use the money they earn legitimately.

The problem I'm running in to is that I still tend to always buy the best of everything. So even though I'm earning money legitimately, going into build mode means that I'm going to spend that money on the top quality furniture and decorations almost every time, simply because they're available to me in build mode. It's hard to stop myself from doing this most of the time, and even in games where I'm able to limit myself for the first few weeks, after a while I always end up ruining the experience by decking out my houses with the best of the best and that usually means I'll get bored with that world soon enough (mostly because I don't feel like I have much more to work toward).

Is there a way to set it up so that I can only acquire new furniture through the game itself? I know in Magnolia Promenade there are the three retail stores there that sell a few pieces of furniture, but it's really not a lot and it always seems to be the same stuff. There is the street fair event (I forget the name of it) where vendors will come and sell various things, sometimes including furniture, but all in all it doesn't really seem like there are a lot of ways to acquire new furniture outside of build mode.

Are there mods that allow for this? Is there a mod that limits build mode for you, or maybe mods that add in large shopping malls or furniture stores that have rotational stock which changes every few days? I did a little searching on the various CC sites but mostly just found lots and households, nothing specifically related to furniture sales overhauls or anything like this.

I'm mostly focused on the furniture/build mode aspects at the moment, but relatedly if anyone has any other mods that really enhance the RPG aspects of The Sims 4, I would love to hear them. Anything I can do to keep myself from nuking my own saves is welcomed. Sometimes it's really hard to stop myself from just buying the best everything. Self control can be tough when the best of the best is just a click away.

EDIT: This isn't even just related to mods specifically, if you have certain settings you use that enhance the RPG elements of the game or certain self-imposed limitations that you find easy to stick to, please share!

https://littlemssam.tumblr.com/post/175408773833/social-activities-visit-friends-family-and

She may help you, have a lot of related mini mods for different game experience 

[Oops19]

You may need to define some rules first and write them down. It shouldn't be a big issue to follow and play them. One does not really need code which enforces the rules. E.g. shopping for furniture only on Saturdays and depending on the world you're living in with budget limits. Selling used stuff should return only 0-20% of the value, if it's more use the money cheat to fix it. There should be a chance that the table/chair/bed breaks and a new one is needed - in-game only electronic devices break from time to time.

There are mods which allow to add a car (static) but I have absolutely no idea whether they also contribute to the monthly bill.

 

The GTW stores sell always the same stuff. While one may write a mod to rotate them. 

 

MsSam's mods may help, but as long as your sims earn too much money you'll need a fireplace to burn it, like in IRL. Or use the in-game computer to buy DLCs for EA games.

[0wnyx]

seems like ur problem is that u have very little furniture cc. so u end up having to buy always the same top3 models by default. increase ur mod folder with a few gb. the problem is going to be which furniture fits the style the best... also buying cheap stuff and upgrading it helps.

[aifman7]

Thanks for the responses!

 

On 1/9/2020 at 2:27 PM, Oops19 said:

You may need to define some rules first and write them down. It shouldn't be a big issue to follow and play them. One does not really need code which enforces the rules. E.g. shopping for furniture only on Saturdays and depending on the world you're living in with budget limits. Selling used stuff should return only 0-20% of the value, if it's more use the money cheat to fix it. There should be a chance that the table/chair/bed breaks and a new one is needed - in-game only electronic devices break from time to time.

There are mods which allow to add a car (static) but I have absolutely no idea whether they also contribute to the monthly bill.

 

The GTW stores sell always the same stuff. While one may write a mod to rotate them. 

 

MsSam's mods may help, but as long as your sims earn too much money you'll need a fireplace to burn it, like in IRL. Or use the in-game computer to buy DLCs for EA games.

This is pretty much what I've been doing since I made the OP in this thread. I sort of realized by the lack of search results I was coming up with, as well as the lack of responses in this thread (until today that is, thank you!) that I probably wasn't going to find any hardcoded solutions to the type of game I was trying to set up. So I've essentially done what you recommended here and have simply limited myself to only being able to purchase one new piece of furniture each  month and not allowing myself to simply buy the best of the best. Instead, I'm forcing myself to upgrade each piece of furniture completely before purchasing a newer/better model. For furniture that can't be upgraded like sofas or lamps, I simply only allow myself to make a purchase once per month or so, if at all. My sim works a basic part time retail job and lives in one of the cheaper apartments in San Myshuno, so it doesn't make sense that they would be able to afford extravagant stuff, and living on a budget in a minimum wage job generally means you very rarely if ever buy new big pieces of furniture.

I'd love to find a mod that allows for rotational stock in something like a thrift store or more frequent flea market events, but for the time being my self-imposed limitations are working fairly well, all things considered.

@0wnyx: I do have quite a bit of furniture CC installed but a lot of it is really high quality stuff that I was using in a previous playthrough. Most of that really is just too high quality for my current sim, so I think you're right in that I don't have enough "low quality" or "cheap furniture" CC installed. Might be time to search for some patchwork or second-hand furniture CC.

This game really is great for the amount of roleplaying you can do. In some ways I wish they'd hardcoded more optional limitations regarding build mode, it would be interesting to play with build mode almost entirely disabled, for example. I'd love to *only* be able to place or move around existing furniture or items that are currently in your household inventory. But as Oops19 said above, it's probably a much simpler and easier solution to just self-impose those limitations rather than asking some talented modder to try and code that scenario from the ground up. In hindsight, it seems like a lot more work than is necessary.

Anyway, thanks everyone!