More Awesome Than You!

I am curious to know just how many hidden items, décor or functional, exist in the game; achieved either through skills, career advancement, or dumb luck. Excluding the ones we know of, space rocks, gems, metals, Mr. Mystery Gnome and the achievement wall-hangings for mastering a skill, what all is out there?

The one which sparked my interested was a small golden fox carrying a satchel which is acquired from reaching Master Thief- the tenth rank for the thief path in the criminal career. 

(http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5801/screenshot18m.jpg)

I would love to have a list compiled of the hidden items, and where to get them, so please do not hesitate to make additions. Screenshots of the items would be darling, but I understand it is not always possible.

There's a fancy-pants fridge that comes from reaching the top of the culinary career.  It gives a boost in room decor for as long as you have it there.

Strangely enough, even infants and toddlers get the "nice stuff" moodlet from the reward fridge.
In addition to that, it seems to hold an endless amount of food forever, i. e. without getting spoilt, so if you chain a retired celebrity chef to the cooker for the end of her/his life, you can provide high-quality meals for at least the two next generations.
There's a smaller reward - a food processor - for the culinary career as well, but it might just be the one from the buy menu.

AFAIK, the top of the medical career brings you tons of money but no reward item.

*edited due to stupidity

Once reached the top of medical career, the sim can also choose "play golf" when at work, with no penalty.

When you reach Pop Star level (9) in the Rock Musician job track, EA forces your Sims to be the kind of douchebags who wear sunglasses at all times. Women get dark round frames, men get silver aviators. Not a great perk, really.

Journalism uses the fastest car for as carpool at lv 10.

-edit-

I made a error

No, it looks almost the same, but it has a different version number in its name. So I assume it's a better version.

I received the expensive stereo when my sim go to the top of the Music career, Symphony track. I'm still hunting for the electric guitar a coworker saw in ads for the game. I suspect that it's in the Rock track of the Music career, but still working on that.

JF

The stereo reward is identical to the one you can buy, only difference is the custom gold skin that can not be copied or saved in CASt since it shows the default colors when you try to edit it. There is no reward for the Rock branch, except they take your hours away and you can't get raises any more. :[

The food processor is just like the stereo, gold plated, but default in CASt. Identical model as the one you can buy.

At some point in the law enforcement career (mid-level?) you get given a police car, as a regular owned car. My ex-law enforcement sim went on to a life of crime, it was amusing seeing him come home from work in his police car. Heh.

Later on you also get a free laptop, but that seems to be identical to any other laptop.

There appears to be no benefit for reaching the top of the business career (only career I'm the top of atm) other than it requires no skills whatsoever.
All you need is to be BFFLz with your boss and co-workers and have a peachy-fucking-keen mood.

You can also hold meetings worth $750 when you reach top of business career. I had my business dude hold about 5 meetings  max on a day off

Well we do get payed for performances when reaching the top level and yes, it seems we no longer get any more work days and so the only income is doing to be of doing performances.

So there is a "reward" (performances now giving money) but it also comes with the loss of the salary and the loss of working hours.

Bawww, your sim doesn't have to piss away countless hours to go to work and can now instead piss away countless hours doing empty romance and friendship parties!  Woo!

Kind of a pisser, honestly, it would've been a nice reward in TS2, but puddingsville is so... dead-feeling.  Not even uncanny valley, that would be fun sometimes, just dead and void.

As an addendum I was also expecting the master thief statue to be a gigantic golden fox and was sorely disappointed to see that it was nobbut a tinyfox.  You'd think a master thief could have stolen something a bit larger, considering the title, or at least something a bit more impressive.

I was honestly more disappointed in the fact that master thieves can't steal other sims' things.  What the hell is the point of being a thief then?  Fie on "perks", the boring things.

My Master thief Sim didn't get a fox statue.  She got a couple of stupid paintings on different heists, but they were lame.

That's very interesting... I wonder if the rewards for career-upping in the thief- or even the criminal career as a whole- are random; perhaps based on skills or some hidden trait?

Hit Movie Composers get the option to sign autographs (I guess, Rock Stars do, too?). It's a minigame where you have to sign as much autographs as possible in a given time. Easy money, a nice ego boost buff, and watching the fans freak out is funny, too. I was strongly reminded of TS1 Superstar (ah, the good times).

Rock stars do indeed also get the "Sign Autograph" feature, as do star athletes (I can't remember the exact title for Level 10 in the athletics track).  Star athletes additionally get the ability to do advertising deals, apparently.  It was available for my star athlete with the bookstore, but I stopped playing her before ever trying it on other lots.

I have a star athlete as well, and the bookstore does appear to be the only one with the advertising deal. I did check to see if the other rabbit holes had the option.

My sim got absolutely nothing for becoming the Emperor of Evil (Level 10, Criminal, Evil). Although he does get to wear a snazzy black and green outfit, I would have liked some sort of great reward. But no, he didn't get anything at all.

However, his Master Thief wife did get the golden fox statue, which shall go nicely with the rest of the loot in their mansion.

A few things.

One, since there are no working hours that means there are no raises.
Two, Pop Star worked 3 days per week and the working hours were of late afternoon to night so its not as if time was a factor.
Three, Socializing is easy in TS3.
Four, the Sim night not have to "piss away" hours in work but he does have to "piss away" works in performances so the end result is going from a well payed automatic activity to a less payed (the first performance given me §500) player-have-to-initiate activity.

Granted its a matter of debate if the Rock Star "perk" of no working hours or salary is a good or bad thing but in some ways its annoying.

There must be a hidden performance skill with the music track.  My rock star was getting around $$2,500 per performance, though time of day, location and mood seemed to play key roles.  Plus, after reaching level 7, I think, her only autonomous activity besides survival was play guitar, so she had many, many hours of actual guitar time.  Oddly, after turning elder, her pay dropped and fans were booing her much more often.

My sim is a mad scientist now ( level 10 Science career ) and now he can experiment on some objects. Sometimes make a couch look better, it gets a glowing circle around it or it catches fire when the experiment fails. Other objects start to make music or a annoying sound. But it can also improve an object, like a fridge can hold more items, and a shower cleans the sim faster.

I never said it wasn't.  I was just commenting on how lame and empty it is, and I was never saying it was a particularly good thing or had any worthwhile awards.  I'd honestly rather have the ability to "have" a job a sim never does and do stuff on the side (rockstar billionaire bikini supermodel epic novelist), but that's me, and I am definitely not you.

Also, the reward for being Emperor of Evil is an aura of haet!1.  That red glow you see?  Each pulse makes your friends and family haet!1 you.  Parents, teachers, friends - they are all against you.

Also this seems to have looped into career perks.

So I have recently noticed. It seems to have a greater effect on sims with the "Good" trait. It would also explain why his son and daughter-in-law absolutely despise him.

Relationships suck in this game. It's no longer a two way street, and they share the same meter (based on my observations). They both either have like each other or both haet each other, which sucks. I don't know whether that is by some moronic design or just pure laziness.

The only thing my level 10 Scientist can do when she "Experiments On" something is make it give a good mood to people who walk by.  I have tried it on the fridge and the stupid Gnome that moves around.

When you master the guitar skill you get a certificate.

(http://i672.photobucket.com/albums/vv90/stilesmcgraw/Screenshot-581.jpg)

When you master any skill you get a certificate.  That's not news.

In the military career, you get a new interaction under friendly, "salute".  It's cute.

The children of your military Sims also get the salute option, which is also cute. My Sim's daughters would salute him when he came home from work. :D
His grandchildren also have the salute option. I don't know when/if the salute stops passing down.

The gnome moves? I only saw it stand up in a funny pose, it never really moved from the spot.

"Can Salute" is a hidden trait, and is therefore heriditary. There are a whole bunch of other ones too.

The gnome randomly respawns to a different part of the lot, when you're supposedly not looking.

Asked, answered, and discussed to death already in several threads. Try the Search feature.

In short, buyable gnomes do nothing but look tacky. Mysterious Mr. Gnomes can be acquired in various ways, and wander around the lot. This sort of nonsense has already worn thin with me, but I had a whole crew of them teleporting around and pointing at or skulking near things.

Someone who apparently figured that I need help in playing pixelized people, just because i had one little argument with my computer screen, bough me the Sims 3 Prima Guide.  If anyone ever needs book-solve-able related answers, feel free to PM me.

According to the books, the rewards for each career are as followed:

Business - You can hold meetings at your whim.  These trump normal work hours, and you do get paid for them.

Criminal, Thief - The aforementioned The Fox statue, which boosts environment and gives the thief a positive moodlet when examined.

Criminal, Evil - The Aura of Evil.  Good sims and cops boo you; cowards, losers, and neurotic sims run away from you.

Culinary - Lvl 6, you get a faster food processor, and at lvl 10, you get the Master Chef fridge, which gives you a positive moodlet and better food quality.

Journalism - The Tells News Story social, which can be used several time per sim.

Law Enforcement, Forensic - Lvl 6, a laptop, and lvl 10, a new computer interaction, Run Analysis, which results in lots of money, supposedly.

Law Enforcement, Special Agent - The Tell Impressive Story social and the Raid Warehouse interaction, that if succeeds, results in cash.

Medical - Yep... play golf.  Which is supposed to boost your athletic skill.

Military - When you become an top Gun, you get the Show Jet interaction.  *snicker*  No, really.  Supposedly, you can sneak them on base to show them the jet you fly.  If you succeed, huge romantic booster, and if you fail, you lose work performance.  At lvl 10, this interaction becomes Show Spaceship.

Music, Rock - No work schedule; money is earned solely through playing concerts whenever you want.

Music, Symphonic - The 85g Audio Explosion stereo boosts the fun and athleticism of sims using it beyond the limits of the normal stereos.

Politics - The Aura of Leadership, where other sims stop and wave at you wherever you go.

Professional Sports - You can hold autograph sessions and can do sponsorship deals while at work at least once a week.

Science - You receive occasional rare gems and seeds from work, and at lvl 10, you can Do Science To It! to any seat, bed, electronic, or appliance.  If it works, it can boost the environmental plus, play music, earn a random handiness upgrade, or broadcast random positive moodlets.  If it fails, the object can catch fire, electrocute sims who try to later use it, disappear completely, break, or broadcast random negative moodlets.

Well now there's a picture. Hoo-ray.

I didn't get that. What a gyp.

I wonder about the laptop at level 6 of the Law Enforcement career (Forensic branch). I had a sim get all the way to the top of that career branch, and she never received a laptop. I was specifically waiting for it to happen because I'd read about it. I assume it's something that's supposed to appear in their inventory.

That is probably the single most awesome ability in the game, however: It takes awhile to do, but you can make it so every item in the room grants a useful buff, creating a Room of Ultimate Power.

It appears in the family inventory.  When my cop sim got it, I moved it to a desk, and then decided to put it in her husband's inventory instead.  Then it broke; any time I attempted to do anything with it, a message popped up saying that it could not be used on the lot.

Law Enforcement (Special Agent) also gives a personal Cop car at level 5 or 6.

Ahh, well, that explains it, I never realized to look in there.

Keep in mind, guys,  th book is not infallible.  It IS an EA product, via Prima, as far as I'm considered.  I've found several typos and inconsistencies, so it wouldn't surprise me to find a good chunk of what I typed from it is wrong.  My guess is, since the book and game were released at the same time, they may have made further tweaks to the game during/after the book writer was playing it.

I think most of us are aware of that. However, I love discovering all the ways that the Prima Guide is wrong. My copy of the TS2 basegame one has corrections throughout.

I'm hating that I already decided to make Trevor's house contain all unbreakables. He reached level 10 of Science sort of by accident. I should have had him experiment on everything. And, unfortunately, that household doesn't have any gnomes, unlike Magnolia's home with 17 of the buggers at last count.

Sorry to do a minor threadjack, but is there a way to stop the damn aura once you get a good experiment? I haven't tried since I got Awesomemod, does that stop it at all?

I remember early on in the game, I had a few items with positive mood boosters on them, and it was driving me crazy!

Not a hidden item, but an activity that I noticed today:  Children can "fish" in swimming pools.  It's a nice continuation of the toddler "play as learning" concept.

Edit: deleted inaccurate info regarding catchability of fish in pools.

With items like the Thief fox statue and the Culinary food processor I never received them with promotions, is there some kind of trick to getting them, do you have to go to work as soon as I got a promotion to Level 10 culinary it gave me a prompt and placed the fridge in the family inventory. It didn't for the rest...

I have done the Culinary career at least 3 times with different Sims, and every time they have gotten both the food processor and fridge. When you reach the correct rank, you get a prompt about it the same way you do with the fridge, straight after you finish work and get the promotion prompt.

However, I have only gotten 1 Sim to the Thief level 10 rank, and he didn't get the fox statue. Maybe it's luck of the draw, or possibly a bug (this was pre-Awesomemod by the way).

Actually, they can catch any fish that's on the lot (in the pond) + that clownfish or something like that.

Josette

I think being able to fish in swimming pools is tied to the "Insane" trait, but I'm not completely sure.

I don't think so, I've seen it a few times and I haven't had any insane Sims.

Being unbreakable does not prevent you from experimenting on it, nor are you limited to experimenting on your own things. You are free to vaporize other people's things!

Children (regardless of traits) and older sims with the insane or childish traits can fish in the pool, and they do actually catch fish. I think they might need a level of fishing skill before they catch anything, but they can gain skill without catching anything.

Hmm, is the reward item from Symphonic good, and golden? I never seen anyone wave at someone when he was the President(leader of free world). Oh, and when I got the Master Chef Fridge, I tried experimenting with it, and it fucking disappeared. For Military, I am going to try that, it might be funny.

Nice summary.  Maty (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,15291.0.html) has a link to it tho.

Yep, I know that now, and in fact taunted my sister for buying me a book I didn't need, and could have gotten for free if I did.  But at the time of posting, I wasn't aware of it, and was trying to help.

The only career reward I can confirm so far is the Law Enforcement ones.  I haven't played any other Sim long enough to max out their careers.

My self-Sim's in the Law Enforcement career, and did receive a cop car upon reaching a certain level, but once she switched to the Forensics track, it seems to have disappeared. She still carpools to work in a cop car, though, if I remember correctly.

If you use the testingcheatsenabled true cheat and shift-click the mailbox, you can change your career and any joblevel. You can get all the special items this way.

I seen somewhere that if your sim marry a firefighter npc that you should get some sort of a fire axe sculpture.

I had my sim get to the top of the symphonic career track, but my stereo never arrived.  Does it come through the mail, or do I need to wait for an opportunity to pop up?

Also, the "reward" for the rock career path is seriously messed up(hence why I switched to the symphony).  I only made about $750 each for my concerts that I played, with guitar maxed.  I could almost make more cash busking in the park, with less skill drain.
Someone has got to mod in the ability to decline promotions.  Between the rock career and the military career, I'm beginning to fear the level 10 promotion.

Did you make the same mistake I did and not look into the household inventory?

Yeah it seems some top level perks just don't work. For example the "show your date the spaceship" is not there when I became an astronaut.

Is that where it gets put?  That's not very intuitive, especially since you don't get a notification that you've received the item in the first place.
I'll check for it there the next time I fire up my game.  Thanks.

EDIT: I checked when I played just now, and the item is not in my family inventory.  They're a legacy-style family, so I haven't done any moving in/out oddness.  Perhaps the fact that he previously went to the top of the rock track, quit his job, then did the symphony track is bugging it somehow.

I've gotten a notice for every career reward my sim received.

It must just have bugged and never was sent to me.  I'll have to raise another sim through the career and see if I can get it that way.
Irritating.