More Awesome Than You!

Well I finally made a Servo, and have been playing it for a day or two. As I suspected, a Servo is a huge, huge bonus for a business. Except next time I will use a less outgoing Sim to make the Servo - my Servo's Social needs drop faster than the Sim he lives with! (He did almost kill my Sim when he ran amok the first time.)

My Servo now has a Gold Badge in robotics - and then I realized that  it would be just too easy for everyone in the 'hood to have a Servo if I set up a community business and had an uninintialized Servo for sale for cheap. Because that would mean making a Servo once, and then any time a playable Sim goes to the robot shop, the business stock gets reset with the same Servo for sale.

So I think if I do set up a community-based robot store, its Servo will be extremely expensive - like $50,000. Then only serious, wealthy Sims who need it for their business can buy one. Or of course my Sims can spend the time to make it themselves if they're poor.

That's how much I price Servos for, PERIOD, because that's what I consider a fair price for them, so that's how much I make everyone ELSE pay for them also. Naturally, Servo-stores make a killing from this.

Which is why I am going to make 1 servo, initialize it, and then move it out. It will then be skilling up to a gold robotics badge, and open its own Terminator Inc store, with high priced servos for sale.
That way my regular families wont be swamped with cash, and i got a nice place (black hole) to pour the simoleons into.

Later on, I will just make the servo into a townie.

My first servo actually came with a gold robotics badge.  So if you want to skip that step, just reload until you get the badge you want.

If you run a restaurant, their 10 cooking skill also makes them a great chef.

My only issue with them is it's hard to tell them apart, but I have some ideas for working on making recolors for their 'formal' outfit and if I can figure out how to access the head as a hat maybe even different colored servos.

I'd love to have a hot oil tub for servos too. ;) I can do the recoloring of the water easily enough, not sure about the hack part so they can go in it without going haywire and the humans would be restricted (or boiled heh).

Mine did as well but isn't that because it picks up all of the attributes of the person who initializes it? If the creator initializes it, won't it have a gold badge to start?

The badges are random. I believe they only get one badge and I think it's always gold, but they definitely are random and have no bearing on what badges the creator does or doesn't have.

I have had several that started out with more than one badge. One badge seems to be minimum, and 3 is the most i have seen, all were intialized either by the same sim, or by the robots initialized by him.

Interesting, Motoki. Thanks, yeah a quick look at the prima guide confirms the badge mystery.

I've only created three servos.  Of the two that have been initialized, neither had any badges.  I thought someone from Maxis had posted in a chat that all servos would have gold badges in robotics.  It would make sense, I don't make any of my electronic possessions practice to gain abilities they should already have.  

My Servo had a handful of random badges, and did not have a Gold in Robotics - he had to work up to that. However, he did have a Gold in Cash Register  ;D when I saw that I knew I had to keep him in the family.

I sell my servos for 25k.  I tried 50k but was having a heck of a time selling any.   25k works for me.  I don't sell many, but Jorge's Robotics doesn't need anymore money.  They've already made 400k.  I jack up the prices on the other robots too.  Anything silver badge required I sell for 6k.

That would be nice.  I have 3 active servos in my neighborhood, all of whom work at the robot factory, and I have no idea which is which.

Even with that, though, I probably won't activate any more of them.  They're just another way of making an easy game easier.

"Thank the Maker; this is going to feel so good."

What purpose would a Hot Oil tub serve?  Fun?  Servos have so few needs.

 - Gus

Fun and socializing I suppose (well assuming another servo is in there with them). I guess it could do power but that wouldn't make much sense. *shrug*

Motoki, I love the idea of a hot oil bath for the servos.  Granted, I haven't actually built one yet (working my way to it) so don't really know how their needs are affected (or for that matter even what needs they have) but it just makes sense in my mind they could go soak in an oil bath for a while!   :D

My Servo came with a gold robotics badge and no other.  The person who activated him had two silvers as I recall, neither in robotics, although the person who made him had a gold robotics badge.  What bothers me most about Servos is the fact that every one made adds another character file to the neighbourhood, which would certainly stop me making as many of them as I would have done otherwise.

Hmm... I wonder why I suddenly have the urge to watch 'Star Wars'?

But I agree, that would be nice. The poor things have so little to do, and they most definitely can't go into the water. I learned that the hard way, although why that robot went into the pool in the first place is a mystery to me. I didn't order it to do that, and I have JM's wonderful pool-hack. Oh well, it had its entertainment value :D

adds a character file when you *make* them or when you *initialize* them?

Initialize. You can sell them all you want if they aren't initialized and it won't add character files.

That's not surprising; they are, for all intents and purposes, Sims, with Aspirations, Wants, Fears, etc. In fact except for the lack of half of the motives and their "skin", everything else really seems the same: they move the same, have the same gestures (e.g. scratching under armpits), etc.

Did you know that Servos can power up by sleeping in a bed? I wonder why Maxis added that in. How can a robot power up by sleeping? Do they plug themselves in the nearby wall outlet?

Servos are pretty cool.  But I think I'll refrain from making any in my main hood.  Because then I'll be tempted to make another Servo so it can have a "robot buddy".  And another and another untill my character files start to skyrocket.


Of course this doesn't hold true in my other hoods.  Chester Gieke has gotten the monopoly on Servo suppling in Strangetown.

my one and only servo has turned out to be a shoplifter....pissed off out of the florists and through the lot portal, bag in hand with not a backward glance earlier

I've checked this for Pescado myself - servos can't go swimming, but they CAN go into hot tubs without dramas.

Well that doesn't make much sense.  :P

no, it doesn't

just means you need to worry about the recolouring and not the hacking, though!

Particularly since every time one of my Servos tried to repair or clean a leaking shower, he took major damage.

 - Gus

SIm hot tubs must be filled with a magic, non-liquid substance.

No, they're random and not necessarily one badge, they're issued using the same apparent random-badge function townies get, because I got one with two silvers.

Upon further testing I found that only spawn servo through debugging seems to pass on badges and skills - at least on my end of the game. I have no idea if that would be true with the buyable servo as I havent "bought" it.

Activating a Servo copies all of the activator's skills, personality, and sign, but not interests, "genetic" personality, or badges. It instead receives random badges that may or may not be good.

Servos also automatically receive 10s in cooking, cleaning, and mechanical, regardless of the activator's skills.

Servos can power up by sleeping in a bed because there is no other way for vampire Servos to recharge. Without this feature, a vampire Servo's motives would drop rapidly every time the power need bottomed out (would run outside to recharge, and the sun would have it's normal effect on vampires).

Did you know that Servos can phone the repairman if no one else is in the house when it breaks down (even if they don't have a cellphone)?

Making a Servo on the craftbench does not add a file, only activation creates an actual character. Until a Servo is activated, it is merely an object.

I'm not sure Servos *CAN* die like that, because in order for a Servo to die, it has to bottom out in Hunger, Energy, Bladder, etc., which it does not have.

You were right, its motives just bottom out (with the exception of Social, which just decayed normally).

Well I sure wish someone would make a tool in or out of the game that calls that random townie assign function. I thought about getting a whole list of all my playable 'townies' last night and generation random #s for 1 2 or 3 badges, then for which of the 7 badges, then for which of the 3 levels etc etc but I have a lot of sims like that and it was taking too damned long and I gave up. :p

According to the Guide, it was only supposed to be the coffin that allowed Servos to recharge. I think this is an oversight on Maxis' part. It doesn't make sense (unless they're plugging themselves in the wall) that Servos recharge by sleeping.