The new Sims 4: Eco Lifestyle expansion has brought a lot of changes to the game. One of the biggest is neighborhood action plans, also known as N.A.P.s. They offer different ways of affecting your world and can be voted on each week by both your sims and your neighbors.
There are a huge range of action plans available but they aren’t always what they seem. This new system can be more complex than it first appears and changes can be implemented every week. Here are some things you need to know about choosing and changing neighborhood action plans in your worlds.
10 Action Plans Are Available In All Residential Worlds
Every single residential world has the N.A.P system in place, even Strangerville. While Strangerville has no eco-footprint system to change, it can still be affected by other plans.
Voting can be conducted via the community voting board or your Sim’s mailbox. You can also get a voting update via the same methods to allow you to track the progress of each N.A.P. Community voting boards can be placed on the new community lot type in any world.
9 Voting Is Open Each Week And Requires Influence
Every week voting will open on Friday at 8 am and run until Monday at 6 pm. This never changes but voting numbers from NPCs will fluctuate each week. Voting requires influence points and you can use these to vote yourself or try to influence others votes.
Influence is mostly gained through social interactions and events. Participating in holidays, giving speeches, uploading to social media, and being an active member of a university club all give you influence. You’ll also gain some for introducing yourself to others, donating money, and other social interactions.
8 Community Lot Voting Happens At The Same Time
Voting for the style of community lot will also happen during the same voting period as action plans so your influence will be split if you want to do this alongside supporting a N.A.P. Players can choose from a community garden, maker space, or marketplace. Once the vote has finished it will only happen again if you cast a vote as a player.
Each Evergreen Harbor neighborhood has its own community lot with a different default design and three options that match the area. Community lots can also be placed in other worlds but are not customized in the same way.
7 Some Action Plans Are Restricted To Evergreen Harbor
There are nineteen action plans that can be enacted in any world as well as six that are specific to Evergreen Harbor. These location-dependent plans are linked to the world’s three neighborhoods, Conifer Station, Grim’s Quarry, and Port Promise. Each area has a green initiative and a modernization plan.
The green initiatives plan increases bills slightly and then cleans up the neighborhood over the week. It will see trash vanish and greenery appear across the lots. The modern development plan increases utilities and career pay as well as updating the homes and other neighborhood buildings instantly.
6 Action Plans Can Affect The Eco Footprint
Several of the action plan options will affect your neighborhood’s eco-footprint. Initiatives such as power conservation, water conservation, and clean energy production will have positive impacts due to the nature of the behavior they encourage.
All neighborhoods can be affected by these eco-friendly plans except for Strangerville which exists outside of the eco-footprint system due to its already changing world linked to the town’s mystery.
5 Other Neighborhoods In Your World Will Also Vote
An important thing to know about action plans is that once you begin voting in your neighborhood the others in your world will also start to vote by default. While this may not really affect you if you stay in one place, it will if you move to a new area in the world.
Other neighborhood action plans can also affect the feel of that area. For example, in a free love voting neighborhood, you’ll find sims are more forward with their romantic advances. If you don’t like this idea then you can check the option in the menu to restrict NPC voting.
4 Some Action Plans Can Have Unforeseen Consequences
Action plans can have unforeseen consequences so vote with care. For example sharing is caring sounds great. After all the plan allows you to freely “borrow” other Sims items. However, the downside is that they will also do this to you, often.
When your back is turned, and sometimes even when it isn’t, things will vanish from your lot and the only way to retrieve them is to steal them back from someone else. It can be fun but it can also get old, fast. Lock your doors and stash your valuables in your inventory until you can repeal if it all gets to be too much.
3 You Can Repeal Existing Action Plans
If you have moved somewhere that has voted in an action plan you don’t want then you can repeal it during the next voting period. Action plans do not automatically stop as several can run at once.
To repeal a plan you need to click the board or mailbox to start the process and then collect five signatures. Whether people will sign appears to be quite random with no obvious pattern between relationship, mood, and your ability to collect a signature.
2 You Can Increase Your Influence, Skills And Pay With Action Plans
The rewards from action plans will vary but most offer influence for following the rules. For example, clean energy production rewards influence to anyone who owns a functional solar panel, wind turbine, or dew collector.
However, not all action plans reward you just with influence. The eco-friendly appliances N.A.P also makes handiness skills easier to acquire when you repair appliances while the promote creative arts plan increases freelance pay for crafters and writers.
1 Action Plans Are Designed To Bring Life To Neighborhoods
The action plan system is designed to breathe life into your neighborhoods. It encourages socializing and social events in order to gain influence. Once plans are in place they encourage different types of behavior.
Experimenting with the plans will allow you to bring some story progression and a new dimension into your game, especially when combined with the new revitalized phone and text message system and community lots.
NEXT: Sims 4: 5 Reasons We’re Excited For Eco Lifestyle (& 5 Themes We Still Want)
