Faster learning without cheating

[eve_ftw]

I'm not very experienced with this forum, so maybe this is the wrong section to put this in, but I am an experienced simmer having raised over 200 of them.  I don't know why I didn't figure this out sooner, but I stumbled across it and have tried it on 6 sim babies so far and it has worked on all of them. 
When they are toddlers, always feed them smart milk and read to them at least once a day...that's it.  If you do this they will get the stuck smart milk effect everyone has described as being a fluke or obtainable in debug mode with the box thingy.  I checked them with the box and there is never a "make me smart" option, only "make me stupid" or dumb or whatever it says, which implies to me that this method works, and they do learn much faster in my opinion.  Not outrageously so, but enough to be very noticeable.  I like to use as few cheats as possible, so I was pretty happy to figure this out and I hope it helps you all out as well.  I hadn't seen it in any other forums and I read up quite a few.  I wanted to post it on here cuz I love this site!  Hope you like it!

[Annette]

Very interesting, I shall try this out.....I seem to be knee deep in toddlers at the moment, and as it's not really a cheat  it might help.  I haven't let the parents read to the toddlers (shame) as there is too much to do. I hate to cheat, but at the moment my houses are too big for me, and I'm only getting by with help from Merola's items.

[BlueSoup]

Thanks for posting, and in the future please don't post in colours.  It's hard to read.

[Lythdan]

You can get the stuck smart milk effect without reading to them. My toddlers are almost never read too, and they still get it.

[Ness]

Lythie's right - reading has nothing to do with it, it's just sticky smart milk...  mine are NEVER read to, and always have it.

It resets if you move houses, though.

[eve_ftw]

That's actually why I hadn't found this out earlier, reading to them seemed like a waste of time when they could be skilling.  I go in rounds, raising each families kids and sending them off to college and then playing all the college kids, then back to the main neighborhood to couple them up and raise babies of their own, I have sooooo many that I rarely wasted time reading to them, but... this was my last family and they only had 2 kids (I've started to limit them, and no more family aspirations lol).  I was keeping their aspirations up by not using the debug feature like I usually do and actually doing the interactions that they wanted... that's how I found it.  I had the hack with the book to make them genius and they learn almost instantly, but it was starting too many fires and then they got the bad memory of getting shocked. Plus it was kinda boring once they had already learned everything so early...
I like this way cuz it seems like a good pace, not too fast, not too slow...
I'm not saying by the way that just smart milk doesn't work, I know it does and have had it happen a few times, but it seemed pretty rare with my families.  all I'm saying is the by reading to them it has happened every time, and with as many as I've raised, and as rare as it has been with mine, it obviously does have an effect.

[eve_ftw]

oops, I didn't think I put colors on that last one, sorry

[Lythdan]

Feeding my toddlers one smartmilk is enough to get it stuck for me. Oh well, if it works for you it works for you.

[cwieberdink]

*cwieberdink hits the thanks button!

C

[skandelouslala]

Feeding my toddlers one smartmilk is enough to get it stuck for me. Oh well, if it works for you it works for you.

Same here. 

[momtogirls]

I don't think I have ever had smart milk NOT stick.  I've even had it stick into adulthood.

[eve_ftw]

wow, you guys must have some kind of cool bug that makes that happen.  I was not so fortunate    I have always fed my toddlers smart milk all the time, and only maybe 3 stuck.
I tested my theory further tonight, raised 2 sets of twins feeding both smart milk.  Reading to one twin and not the other, and the ones that I read to stuck again, the ones I didn't read to didn't.  Maybe it's just a bug in mine, who knows, but it works for me!

[starrling]

Don't feel too bad - I've never had it stick either.   

[Emma]

The only time I have ever had the stuck smartmilk effect was when my toddler had a bath while still glowing. It glowed until it grew up. Not sure if it was just the glow that stuck though, or the faster learning thing.

[laeshanin]

Very intriguing. I will try this out as the stuck glowing feature has only ever happened twice for me, and it appeared to be completely random. I've always fed the sprogs smart milk too as otherwise they just don't grow up well.

[Rascal]

I've found it generally sticks after only one feed.  I test with JMP's baby controller once the glow has worn off and if IQ is still 300 I don't give them anymore.  Occasionally they need another dose but if the smart milk effect is stuck another dose can unstick it.  I often have the effect last to childhood and occasionally to teens.  If they do grow up with it, don't let them wear a thinking cap or allow another sim to give them instruction on a career reward.  Both of these things will cause their IQ to reset to normal once they stop (take of the cap or stop being instructed).

[J. M. Pescado]

Stuck smart milk will stick through being given instruction on a career reward. You will see a 400 IQ if you do that and test while they're being instructed. It will return to 300 when they stop being instructed.

Wearing a thinking cap WILL reset them, as will anything which causes a sim to error and reset (patches/bugs/etc), as will anything which causes them to reinstantiate, like travelling to community lots (returns to 300 on return).

Of course, by the time your sim is old enough to wear a thinking cap, surely you'll have maxed out everything anyway. The Skillinator and Baby Controller are both capable of detecting stuck smart milk conditions and will not feed any more or use a thinking cap if this is the case.

[Lythdan]

I once had a sim with 420 IQ, which I put down to being a really, really strange glitch. Unfortunately, this was just before the installation of OFB.

[jsalemi]

I once had a sim with 420 IQ, which I put down to being a really, really strange glitch. Unfortunately, this was just before the installation of OFB.

I've seen toddlers have an IQ of 360 after their first smart milk, and it then reverts to 300 at some point (never quite sure where).

[Orikes]

I've never noticed the difference between smart milk sticking or not sticking, but I have seen one twin learn easier than another twin. Both were fed smart milk and taught all the toddler basics. The one twin, though, learns like a demon. She's a teen now with nearly quite a few skills maxed. I said screw it on rolling for her aspiration since she obviously wanted to be a Knowledge sim.

[Jelenedra]

I think that means that one of them got stuck and the other didn't. 

[eve_ftw]

Occasionally they need another dose but if the smart milk effect is stuck another dose can unstick it.

DOH!  I use the baby controller and have it set to always smart milk, I guess I didn't realize another could unstick it, I just let them feed them what the controller says, and it's always smart milk...but 

The Skillinator and Baby Controller are both capable of detecting stuck smart milk conditions and will not feed any more or use a thinking cap if this is the case.

..... so does this mean if mine is always giving them smart milk that it simply isn't sticking?  I'll have to look into that more once i go back to my main neighborhood.  Thanks for all the tips you guys!

[Orikes]

I think that means that one of them got stuck and the other didn't. 

Probably. But in my own little mind, I like to think that Macy was just smarter than Madison.

[nectere]

Interesting - I use one feeding of smart milk and then let them go, 8 out of 10 sims will remain smart stuck until they are YAs. Of course I test with the eye in the sky every day too - just to make sure its still stuck - but sometimes I forget to check before they turn into a  kid. It sucks when you have twins and one is stuck and the other isnt...its the slow twin syndrome lol - poor billy, his twin is such a bright child while he is such a slow learner...

[RainbowTigress]

Occasionally they need another dose but if the smart milk effect is stuck another dose can unstick it.

DOH!  I use the baby controller and have it set to always smart milk, I guess I didn't realize another could unstick it, I just let them feed them what the controller says, and it's always smart milk...but 

The Skillinator and Baby Controller are both capable of detecting stuck smart milk conditions and will not feed any more or use a thinking cap if this is the case.

..... so does this mean if mine is always giving them smart milk that it simply isn't sticking?  I'll have to look into that more once i go back to my main neighborhood.  Thanks for all the tips you guys!

JM says he doesn't recommend using the Always Smart Milk option.  I think it was in the RTFM.  The smart milk bug has been discussed many times here on this forum, especially in the War Room in the Myths, Urban Legends, And Apocrypha Of TS2 Explored And Exploded thread.  It used to be that if you installed a new EP, a new patch, or a mod that caused your sims to reset, or if an error occurred that reset your sim as JM described, the accelerated learning bit was lost and there was no way to get it back.  Now JM has included the feature as part of the Lot debugger not just to cheat, but to be able to restore this to sims who had the "smart" bit stuck before.  You can use this on older sims if you wish, of course, but I think the original intent wasn't to "cheat" but to allow you to restore that bit if something causes your sim to be reset.