More Awesome Than You!

Just out of curiosity, how does the game determine how much a painting is sold for (ones that your Sims paint).  Obviously, it depends on the amount of creativity points the sim has, but beyond that, it seems somewhat random.  I have a sim who is a stay-at-home Dad and during his free time, he paints.  His creativity has long been maxed and most of his points are around 7 or 8 for the other skills.  About 1 in 4 paintings seem to sell above 500, earning him the "masterpiece" memory.  Otherwise, they are anywhere between 460 and 495.  Anyone know what the game uses to determine these sorta things?

It appears to be based on a fixed seed value, plus a fluctuation factor which is specially handled at max skill. There's also a ton of other factors which are essentially random and arbitrary, and it's a giant jumbled mess.

Sounds like Maxis has found it's new slogan!

I had a Sim start painting after he maxed creativity and graphed the resulting painting values.  I determined that the paintings were worth about 475 plus 5 per painting on average.  This value could fluctuate by around +/- 70.  The Sim's sixth painting would be worth 500, plus or minus about 70.

I also found things that seemed to affect the sale value.  For example, a Sim who was in high green in all his needs produced a painting worth more than one who had allowed even one need to decay past the top 1/4 of the bar.  If the painting is started when the Sim is in platinum mood, it seems to be worth more than if the Sim were in gold... BUT... I haven't verified that one.  

I had one Sim who was in high green in all needs (thanks to the Enigmatic Energizer) when he started his first painting and was in platinum mood.  If any need decayed much, he'd stop and go back to paint later when his needs were greened back to near max.  His very first painting sold for §553.  Slightly more than the averages mentioned above, but in the ball park.

If your Sims' paintings don't sell for much, try having them paint when their moods are near max. And take breaks when their moods decay.  If that doesn't help, go play an instrument on a community lot for tips instead. :)

Hook

Hm, that's interesting.  I had a sim on a lot and he painted the default crap painting and it was a masterpiece yet on another a sim that has done like 5 still lifes still hasn't sold one and they are both 10 creativity and lifetime platinum.

I have also noticed that there seems to be some correlation between mood and paintig quality. Not sure how much, and I'd have to get more data before I can verify it, but it does seem to have an effect.

The main thing that affects it, after you hit Max Creativity, is the "masterpeice skill" which is basically a semi-open ended creativity skill that applies only to paintings. The more paintings you paint, the more money you can sell them for. Prima says the cap is 4,500, but that would take ages to hit.

I've started getting into the habit of ensuring all needs are high green, and the painter is always in platinum mood while painting. As a result I haven't been getting much negative fluctuation in the painting price, and most of my Sims' paintings have been masterpieces.

If your Sim has the recurring "Sell a Masterpiece" Want, you can keep your Needs in high green by using the Enigmatic Energiser. I find it useful to max out the Needs once per painting. Five uses of the Energiser will cost you 14000 Aspiration points. Five Masterpieces will net you 30000 Aspiration points.

As for staying in Platinum - even if your Sim isn't permaplat, the Aspiration Meter should get filled by selling one masterpiece, and as long as you time things right (e.g. don't sell the masterpiece just before the hourly Aspiration meter drain), one masterpiece's platinum should keep your Sim in platinum mood for long enough to paint another masterpiece.

Thanks for the advice -- I'll be sure to try the moods / asp test when I play later.  In regards to the instrument playing on community lots, I think my game is bugged and it won't work well if I have more than one instrument... but that's another matter for another post. ;)  Wait... a maxis game bugged?  NEVER

Yeah, I saw that in the guide the other day. Soon I will make an immortal sim either one who has earned the cow plant (and will therefore double as my townie cleaner since I just reset my 'hood and the annoying ones are back), or a zombie. I look forward to the very appropriate highly gothic vampire artist who will naturally reach this goal.

:D Sounds like Carrigons "little vampire dolly" is right up your alley then.

G.

I think the amount may also be determined by how creative they are to start with.  Some first paintings only sell for 2 simoleons, others for 4, and possibly about one sim in ten sells their first on for 5.

I sold some master pieces for over 600 she had her creativety maxed out

Did she start off as a 5?

Dustin Broke (Fortune Sim with no interest in culture) sells paintings worth §764 on a regular basis.  I was trying to find out what the maximum price a painting can sell for by posting on the BBS but I haven't really had a straight answer.  Quick question, what do you mean by starting with creativity 5?  Do you mean when the sim in question switched to learning creativity via the easel instead of instruments?

No, I meant the number of simoleons the first painting sold for.  It can vary between 2, 4 and 5 simoleons.

Ahh I see.  Unfortunately I think Dustin's first painting was around the §480 mark as sims tend to practise the guitar to build creativity.  Does the initial painting value affect the eventual selling price of masterpieces?  Dustin has completed around 18 masterpieces but he doesn't seem to be getting any more money for his latest creations  :-\

It seems mostly random, so no.

Thanks ;D

I think from whenever I've played Dustin, he's actually quite creative and sells his first painting for one of the higher amounts - I palyed him at least 3 times before Uni, when their was only the easel and the piano, and they were too poor for the piano!  And he always has the Sell a Masterpiece want!

I have some paintings now that are selling over 1000 the sim that painted them just died, maybe they go up after death. I will wait a couple of sim day and see if they go up more.

Well it would be logical, I suppose, since he won't be creating any more!  They'd gain in value because of their scarcity.

I was given the Sims 2 along with PRIMA's Official Game Guide for the Sims 2 as a present.  I haven't looked at it in a long time (since I first got the game) but that was one of the things it implied was that you should hang on to the paintings because they go up in value after the sim who painted them dies.  I get so sick of their first few paintings though that I usually sell them and don't even pay attention  to how much they sold for! LOL

The value of a painting doubles when the artist dies.

Bear in mind that a Masterpiece is a painting whose initial value is §500 or more - so the post-mortem doubling of value won't have any impact on a painting's Masterpiece status.

To me it seems a ridiculously small amount for a masterpiece!  A saleable piece of art, perhaps, but hardly the Mona Lisa!

Well ZZ we are talking simland here, not the real world - a masterpiece can be anything, and as the game isn't focussed around art selling, they aren't going to put much more thought into it than that. I would expect sims in the art career track to rack up more with painting sales (not that they do, but it would be an assumption one would make) simply because that is part of their job. Sims who paint as a hobby are hardly going to create something Mona-Lisa-esque and thus a $500 masterpiece is a feasible occurance.

I can't tell you how happy I'd be if I sold a piece of mine for £500 but it aint going to happen - I would consider that an acheivement as would many artists I know.

All right, as stated earlier, paintings do double in value at death, but the also (very) slowly increase in value over time while the sim is alive. Paintings are my major source of income at uni. I tend to use the same house over and over. It is never completely empty. The walls are covered with paintings. If I need money, I sell a couple of the older ones, and have the current residents replace them. Works for me.

Oh, so far the most I've sold a pinting for was one that had increased from about $600 to about $2400, but it had been hanging up for a very long time.

If my sims are short of money, I put them into the second-hand furniture business!  I have a set of bedroom furniture from XM Sims, the bed costs 50 simoleons, and sells in the morning for 1200!  The make-up table is equally good at generating cash!  And it's quicker than typing Kaching!

That sounds like an artifact of badly coded objects.

Well, I'd agree they aren't perfect - it just saves me time and gives them somewhere to sleep until they have enough cash for decent furniture.