HARDER Harder Jobs, Please!

[cwykes]

The other dead end jobs are as employees in owned businesses.  I don't think they get paid properly even with Pescado's fixes though I wouldn't swear to that.  I had one manager who got paid 0$ for 9-5 Mon-Fri.  Employ mama Hick in a restaurant somewhere.

[Stitches]

I've noticed that with FT, it's almost impossible to get the Masterpiece want fulfilled now. I've had several Great Novels, but even Sims with high Arts & Crafts and maxed Creativity are having trouble selling good paintings: they're rarely over $100. Which makes it easier to have a starving artist, anyway, I suppose

I don't know that you can blame that on FT. My sims are still getting the usual amounts for their paintings.

[jolrei]

I've noticed that with FT, it's almost impossible to get the Masterpiece want fulfilled now. I've had several Great Novels, but even Sims with high Arts & Crafts and maxed Creativity are having trouble selling good paintings: they're rarely over $100. Which makes it easier to have a starving artist, anyway, I suppose

And it would also make it more likely that they could then complain about how they're not appreciated for their artistic vision (i.e. the real NEED in society for horrible clown paintings).

Unfortunately, while FT seems (don't know if it's only my perception or if it's a real difference) to have decreased the proportion of paintings that achieve masterpiece grade, my experienced painter sims still seem to sell a number of masterpieces and get their wants fulfilled regularly.  Your experience may just be a sadorandom artifact, as suggested by Stitches.

[talysman]

Aren't masterpieces restricted to still life and portrait paintings, anyways?

[jolrei]

Aren't masterpieces restricted to still life and portrait paintings, anyways?

No, I don't think so.  A masterpiece can be anything at all and depends on creativity skills and painting experience, as far as I know.

[Stitches]

Unfortunately, while FT seems (don't know if it's only my perception or if it's a real difference) to have decreased the proportion of paintings that achieve masterpiece grade, my experienced painter sims still seem to sell a number of masterpieces and get their wants fulfilled regularly.  Your experience may just be a sadorandom artifact, as suggested by Stitches.

Sadorandom, or the ever popular "hack conflict."

[cwykes]

Aren't masterpieces restricted to still life and portrait paintings, anyways?

I agree with Jolrei. I've had normal junk paintings sell as masterpieces (pre- FT anyway).

.....  A masterpiece can be anything at all and depends on creativity skills and painting experience, as far as I know.

The mood of the painter is critical.  I don't get masterpieces unless their mood is platinum.  I thought that stop/starting the painting also reduced its value, so a masterpiece has to be painted all at once or maybe in 2 sessions.  I'd love to know if that is true?  Again I haven't got Freetime installed yet and I wonder whether how new Lifetime mood affects the Masterpiece code.

From what I've seen in my game, I don't think novels and paintings have the same set of rules.  Does anyone know for sure?  I'd have said that creativity skill has to be 10 for a masterpiece, but not a great novel.  Is it possible to get a masterpiece from a lower skilled sim?  As to experience, I've noticed that it matters with novels - I'm not convinced it makes much/any difference to paintings.

[Charamei]

Unfortunately, while FT seems (don't know if it's only my perception or if it's a real difference) to have decreased the proportion of paintings that achieve masterpiece grade, my experienced painter sims still seem to sell a number of masterpieces and get their wants fulfilled regularly.  Your experience may just be a sadorandom artifact, as suggested by Stitches.

Sadorandom, or the ever popular "hack conflict."

Well, in a way that's good to know. I am having another issue with the EAxis easel, as it happens - it didn't occur to me that they might be related. Oh, bugger, time to do the Dance of the Booleans again.

[Sivany]

From what I've seen in my game, I don't think novels and paintings have the same set of rules.  Does anyone know for sure?  I'd have said that creativity skill has to be 10 for a masterpiece, but not a great novel.  Is it possible to get a masterpiece from a lower skilled sim?  As to experience, I've noticed that it matters with novels - I'm not convinced it makes much/any difference to paintings.

I've never been able to get a sim to fulfil the great novel want before I installed FT. Just yesterday though one of my sims finished a novel, she had 3 creativity when she started writing and maybe 7 points when she finished and the novel fulfilled her great novel want and gave her the memory so you definitely don't need full creativity or even a good mood to fulfil that want. (She was pregnant when she was writing so definitely not in a great mood most of the time!)

I did hear before FT that a sims had to have 10 creativity to even have a chance of fulfilling the paint a masterpiece want, but like I said, I never managed it.

[reggikko]

For a Masterpiece, the Sim has to have a 10 in creativity already when starting the painting. They also have to have completed a number of paintings before the masterpiece. In other words, if they have gained creativity with the piano or by some other means, it may take a while before they generate a Masterpiece. My Sims have never had to be in Platinum to fulfill the want. Also, not every painting completed after 10 creativity will be a masterpiece, so there is a bit of sadorandomness involved.

[Faizah]

Creativity should be maxed, definitely, but I think there's also a hidden 'Painting' skill, which has to get to a certain point before you can sell masterpieces. Even then it seems a bit (sado)random. Any painting that can be sold for over $500 is a masterpiece, no matter how it was painted.

[cwykes]

So we definitely agree the rules for masterpieces are different from those for novels.

Do we think the calculation of painting/novel value is a function of the number painted?  It's clearly not the only factor for paintings, but if the other factors only adjust this base price by a small margin then your sims will tend to paint all masterpieces after a while.

I'm not convinced that stop/starting paintings doesn't reduces the value.  I'm sure I read that somewhere a long time ago, but probably not anywhere awesome.  It's certainly plausible from what I've seen in my game.  I'd have sworn mood was a factor for painting too.

I really don't think I can be bothered to track paintings and novels in game to test it out though!

[J. M. Pescado]

So we definitely agree the rules for masterpieces are different from those for novels.

It SHOULD be! If you write a crappy beginning to a novel, get less suck, and realize you wrote crap at the beginning, you can just reedit it before you ever send it off. Once something is PAINTED, though, it's etched in STONE, barring copious use of turpentine.

[cwykes]

Aren't some masterpieces painted over the top of other pictures?  Working artists certainly used to edit bits of their paintings for important things like adding the face of their new patron.

[floopyboo]

It is difficult, though not impossible, to resurrect a crappy painting. It is, however, extremely unlikely it will be anything above mediocre when you do so. Most often the best option is to re-prime it & start again, else it's wiser to just grab a new board or canvas & start from the ground up.

[snabul]

Every painting that sells for 500§ or more counts as a masterpiece.

I have a bonsai that shows hidden skills, and it shows how the skills for writing and painting increases after creativity has reached level 10.

[seelindarun]

So we definitely agree the rules for masterpieces are different from those for novels.

Do we think the calculation of painting/novel value is a function of the number painted?  It's clearly not the only factor for paintings, but if the other factors only adjust this base price by a small margin then your sims will tend to paint all masterpieces after a while.

I'm not convinced that stop/starting paintings doesn't reduces the value.  I'm sure I read that somewhere a long time ago, but probably not anywhere awesome.  It's certainly plausible from what I've seen in my game.  I'd have sworn mood was a factor for painting too.

I really don't think I can be bothered to track paintings and novels in game to test it out though!

I do think mood affects the price of a finished painting, but I think the number painted is a bigger factor.  That might largely be because sims with low needs won't keep painting.  I had an unfortunate romance servo in perpetual reddish asp, who painted whenever he wasn't cleaning, gardening, or nannying.  By the time his youngest charge left the family manse, every painting sold for $700 or more.

Ask Gwill.  I seem to recall she had a servo who had painted hundreds of masterpieces.

[jsalemi]

I have a bonsai that shows hidden skills, and it shows how the skills for writing and painting increases after creativity has reached level 10.

Oooo, where'd you get that?  The status screen that shows hidden skills is one of the things I miss about Insim.

[gynarchy]

Bonsai of Wisdom from MTS2.

[GayJohnScarritt]

   Value of paintings doesn't seem to correlate to numbers of paintings painted.  I just had a child who maxed his creativity as a toddler, his first painting sold for over $500.  It is true tho, that the more paintings a sim does, the higher the price goes (the price will fluctuate up and down, but it consistently goes up).

[Faizah]

Did the toddler max creativity on the xylophone, or by drawing on the activity table? The latter could conceivably count towards 'paintings painted', though I wouldn't have thought it would. That's too logical.

[GayJohnScarritt]

Did the toddler max creativity on the xylophone, or by drawing on the activity table?

   I don't have FT, so i have no idea how the activity table affects things.  Toddler maxed using the xylophone (which is so easily done now, double smart-milk effect, Autumn (Seasons) boost and Adventurer/Journalism reward in toddler room), maxing 2 skills as a toddler is feasible.

[Mens Mortuus]

Did the toddler max creativity on the xylophone, or by drawing on the activity table?

   I don't have FT, so i have no idea how the activity table affects things.  Toddler maxed using the xylophone (which is so easily done now, double smart-milk effect, Autumn (Seasons) boost and Adventurer/Journalism reward in toddler room), maxing 2 skills as a toddler is feasible.

It's the same for me, but without the Journalism/Adventurer reward. Several children painted masterpieces, so now I remove the smart milk effect as soon as my toddlers grow up. MOAR PAIN is good, this game is just too easy otherwise. Also, I've the regular habit of starting/stopping the painting, gaining creativity via different objects, etc. My vampire maxed on the piano, painted three full paintings (start/stop) and got a masterpiece (green mood, green Asp).

Mood might be a factor, all my sims have also been in green mood or better. But as far as Aspiration is concerned, I have had some teens of the full-skills variety achieve masterpieces in red. Then again, it might just be my game. After the masterpiece is painted, though, it does seem to take some time to get another one.

[EsotericPolarBear]

This:

   Value of paintings doesn't seem to correlate to numbers of paintings painted.

 

Is the opposite of this:

It is true tho, that the more paintings a sim does, the higher the price goes.

Also, I've heard that paintings are one of the few objects in the game that appreciate over time.  Is this true?  How long does it take?

[Zazazu]

They appreciate a little over time. It's not worth it for non-masterpieces. When a sim dies, they appreciate greatly. I haven't looked at the numbers...generally, if I'm keeping a painting around, it's because it's a "portrait" or an early house painting I want for history and the sim painting dimensions work for it..otherwise I'm doing recolors of existing art. Less chance of the old reverting-to-stupid-sunset-painting bug. Anyways, I have one in my farm lot that I know was about $100 in value when painted and the artist has been dead for about 15 sim days. I can check what it is now.