HARDER Harder Jobs, Please!

[croiduire]

Pescado, would you please consider expanding/enhancing "harder jobs"? I just had a teen get a job in oceanography (her first job ever). She worked less than one hour before being promoted to the top of the teen career track. That is just absurd.

Is there a way to add another check requiring a minimum of three full work days at any level before becoming eligible for promotion? If it's feasible, I'd also add an additional day for each career level above five.

[Inge]

That way no sim would ever reach the top of their careers unless you turned aging off?

What would be really good is if the higher up the ladder you got the fewer vacancies there were at that level so you were actually competing against other sims in the hood.  So only one in each hood could be right at the top, only 2 at the next level down etc

And/or how about if you always had to be good friends with someone in the same career at a level above you in order to get promoted?  Then for the jump between 2nd highest level and highest that's when the really tough bit happens - you have to be platinum asp, full green mood, fully skilled at everything etc.

[jsalemi]

What would be really good is if the higher up the ladder you got the fewer vacancies there were at that level so you were actually competing against other sims in the hood.  So only one in each hood could be right at the top, only 2 at the next level down etc

Harderjobs already does something like this -- there are certain jobs (mayor, captain hero, maybe others) where there can only be one in the hood at a time. I believe Pesc said he did this for any job where it doesn't make sense that there would be more than one at a time.

[pixiejuice]

Croiduire, I have to agree with you, but I don't know about the three-day thing.  Maybe one full day?  What's bothering me more than anything else is age problems.  Perhaps some kind of age check could be added?  So that they couldn't be promoted beyond a certain level that makes sense for their age.  That is, if such checks can be made in terms of sim-days old, rather than just the broader age stages. 

For example, I have a girl straight out of college, adult, and supposed to be about 24 years/sim-days old and in the medical career, and I've got her as an intern or resident, which makes sense, but I can't keep her from being promoted and have to keep knocking her down a couple levels.  I really can't see her being a surgeon or whatever until she's at least in her 30s, you know?  I have another guy straight out of college in the law career and he's gotten up to Entertainment Attorney in just a couple days.  He'll probably be promoted again soon. 

Otherwise though, I'm happy with everything else harderjobs is doing.     

[Kyna]

Pescado, would you please consider expanding/enhancing "harder jobs"? I just had a teen get a job in oceanography (her first job ever). She worked less than one hour before being promoted to the top of the teen career track. That is just absurd.

Is there a way to add another check requiring a minimum of three full work days at any level before becoming eligible for promotion? If it's feasible, I'd also add an additional day for each career level above five.

The teen career only has 3 levels.  If your sim is in private school when they find the job (whether from paper or computer) they will start at level 2, which is one promotion away from the top of the career track.  If she did less than one hour's work, it sounds like you answered a chance card and got a promotion from that.

If you want your teens to start teen careers at level 1, then don't put them into private school until after they have a job.  Also, don't answer the chance cards, because there's a chance they'll get promoted from that even if they don't have the skills/friends required.  Another way you could make it harder is to only look for your teen's chosen career in the paper, rather than on the computer.  With only 3 jobs per day in the paper, and with all the careers now available for teens (assuming you have both Seasons + FT), your sim may have to wait a while before finding the job they want (or that you want to give them).

[Eliste]

At the moment (since BV through to FT) Original Harder jobs don't work as advertised anyway. Every sim who was waiting to become a Mayor got promoted straight away after installing BV. And more keep getting promoted.
I admit it might be due to the fact that I am using Inteenimated Pets0jobfixes.
Did anybody notice that without Inteen?

[jsalemi]

harderjobs works as advertised without inteen.

[croiduire]

That way no sim would ever reach the top of their careers unless you turned aging off?

I do play with extended lifespans, proportionate to pregnancy (and uni, for that matter) so that a day is 3 months. However, as far as never reaching the top of the career ladder, who cares? I do everything I can to prevent permaplat as it is, and frankly how many people actually get to the top in ANY career? I'd much rather see "started as a file clerk, promoted to secretary, then personal assistant, and retired as an office manager" or "started as a general construction worker, retired as a foreman" than the whole architect/lawyer/business tycoon nonsense. I just don't know how to make it happen.

[Kyna]

Croiduire, you could pick one of the skills they need for their career and not train it up beyond a certain point, or train it very slowly - say a skill point every 3 or 4 days AND only when they need it for a promotion (so those promotions where you need 2 more skill points in a particular skill than the previous level could take 8 days).  This is in your control, so you don't need harder jobs modified to tailor this aspect of the game to your playing style with its extended lifespans.

I was getting my teens to go for all the skills scholarships, plus the pool, abduction, dance & job scholarships, but then I asked myself what's the point?  Yes it's for cash to go to uni with, but then I realised that no20khandouts had no point in my game because all my sims were graduating with more than that due to the scholarships they started with, and all the skillpoints they had made promotion too easy.

[Jack Rudd]

Oh, for a game of this type that had meaningful opportunity costs built in. That way my Strategy Gamer self (which says: get all the teens all the scholarships, try to make everyone achieve at least one LTW, etc, etc) wouldn't be in conflict with the side of me that's disappointed when everyone ends up the same.

[doren]

That way no sim would ever reach the top of their careers unless you turned aging off?

I'd much rather see "started as a file clerk, promoted to secretary, then personal assistant, and retired as an office manager" or "started as a general construction worker, retired as a foreman" than the whole architect/lawyer/business tycoon nonsense. I just don't know how to make it happen.

I would really like some dead-end careers, where it does not make much difference whether you reach the top level because you still aren't much better off than before, but my search for custom careers like that wasn't very successful so far. If you play with your sims for a very long time it is not always easy (or fun) to keep them from acquiring skills, so that they don't get promoted. I have two sims in the politics career and every creative activity is forbidden to them. 

[Emma]

I only purposely allow my sims to skill if they roll a want to either 1) Gain a skill point, or 2) Reach a certain skill level. Otherwise no directed skillling allowed.

[Mirelly]

Even harder harderjobs seems like an overkill solution to me as well.

I also tend now to play in such a way that all of a sim's self-improvement activities need a want before they can be started. Sometimes, just for the lulz I'll make them complete the want regardless of the consequences. A silly sim wanting a promotion and a skill point (needed for for the promotion) roll up an hour before work begins will be made to fulfill that want, before going into work, late, pants-wettingly desperate and falling down eye-bleary. That'll teach the silly pixel-piles to have dreams.

Besides, as it is far to easy for sims to get a job anyway I have a ploy to ensure they live like most of the human race by doing a job they would hate if sims had the ability to be so emotional. When job hunting, I pick a random number and then force the sim to take the 'modulo' 3 or 4 of that random number to choose which of the 3 or 4 available jobs the sim will take.

Since FT added new chance cards, the odds of getting fired seem reduced and this is retrograde step. But with an evil imagination is is not difficult to keep them in a condition of perpetual uncertainty.

Oh yes, I always allow them to quit job or stay home from work when those wants appear.

Finally with debug mode always on, I have a few final punishments to administer. Burning food is punished with the loss of a cooking point. If the msoke alarm goes off I take away 2 points or one third whichever is more. Lazy bastards who pig out and get fat lose all body points. Idiots who clog toilets and break stuff lose mechanical points. Being stupid enough to get electrocuted can lose them all points in mech, cleaning and body. Getting slapped by a neighbour result in decimation of charisma, and if I catch them getting caught at cheating I decimate their logic skills. I don't really need harderjobs, but being an idle bitch, it's simpler to install the whole DC.

Of course I sometimes worry that my casual interference in their works with my debugger's elan is a recipe for a BFBVFS ... but what the hey.

[Kyna]

Finally with debug mode always on, I have a few final punishments to administer. Burning food is punished with the loss of a cooking point. If the msoke alarm goes off I take away 2 points or one third whichever is more. Lazy bastards who pig out and get fat lose all body points. Idiots who clog toilets and break stuff lose mechanical points. Being stupid enough to get electrocuted can lose them all points in mech, cleaning and body. Getting slapped by a neighbour result in decimation of charisma, and if I catch them getting caught at cheating I decimate their logic skills. I don't really need harderjobs, but being an idle bitch, it's simpler to install the whole DC.

ARRing this for my game.

[pixiejuice]

Finally with debug mode always on, I have a few final punishments to administer. Burning food is punished with the loss of a cooking point. If the msoke alarm goes off I take away 2 points or one third whichever is more. Lazy bastards who pig out and get fat lose all body points. Idiots who clog toilets and break stuff lose mechanical points. Being stupid enough to get electrocuted can lose them all points in mech, cleaning and body. Getting slapped by a neighbour result in decimation of charisma, and if I catch them getting caught at cheating I decimate their logic skills.

LOL, this is brilliant!  I am absolutely going to steal this idea.

[maxon]

Finally with debug mode always on, I have a few final punishments to administer. Burning food is punished with the loss of a cooking point. If the msoke alarm goes off I take away 2 points or one third whichever is more. Lazy bastards who pig out and get fat lose all body points. Idiots who clog toilets and break stuff lose mechanical points. Being stupid enough to get electrocuted can lose them all points in mech, cleaning and body. Getting slapped by a neighbour result in decimation of charisma, and if I catch them getting caught at cheating I decimate their logic skills. I don't really need harderjobs, but being an idle bitch, it's simpler to install the whole DC.

hoo yah - yes, there's a nice set of ideas. 

I'd like dead end jobs too.  I made a cleaner career for Mama Hick which involves lots of bad pay and cleaning toilets.  I only made the upper levels of the career because I thought about her escaping my little scheme and getting promoted to something higher up in the Slacker Career (that's the template I used).  I had no iintention of promoting her above level 3 but you know what they're like.  I cut the pay drastically at the top but if she ever does make it to level 10, she will be Head of Hygiene Services in Little Carping.  But, then again, there's a wild card in there which will catch her with her fingers in the budget and she'll get demoted to cleaning the public lavatories again.  Her clone is the maid in Little Carping.  I have nothing against cleaners BTW - I mean, someone has to do it and I'm grateful.  It was written with Mama Hick in mind who lives in a caravan (trailer) and whose twin daughters fight every day after school.  I didn't know children could fight in the game till I had those two.  I digress.  I quite enjoyed writing the career though they are a s** to do - 10 levels with four options for the chance cards for each level.  Even with the SimPE career editor, they take ages to do.

[Inge]

There is actually a field to define how many levels you want in an individual career, but EA in their usual shortcutty kludgey way decided to hardcode it in some places and use it as a test in others for whether the career is a human or pet career!  So it's pretty useless.

[Sivany]

Oh yes, I always allow them to quit job or stay home from work when those wants appear.

I've been playing since the game came out and I've never seen either of these wants! Is there some prerequisite for them appearing, like the sim has to be in a foul mood or really lazy or something similar?

I love your punishment ideas by the way, I might have to see how implementing a few of them in my game as well.

[Crash]

Someone with influence should ask Pescado for a punishment hack. 

[gynarchy]

I've been playing since the game came out and I've never seen either of these wants! Is there some prerequisite for them appearing, like the sim has to be in a foul mood or really lazy or something similar?

My fortune Sims often roll the want to quit their jobs after they fulfill the want to sell a great novel or sell a masterpiece. I've seen the "Stay Home From Work" want a couple of times with my Knowledge Sims if they lose a skill point or something equally traumatizing. I'm sure the wants come up at other times as well but those are the times that I can remember seeing them.

[Kyna]

Failing a chance card can also trigger the want to stay home from work, whether it's demotion or loss of skills.

[Sivany]

Well I've never been able to get a single sim to paint a masterpiece (even after trying time and time again with a sim with full creativity) so that's probably not helping. The chance cards happen all the time though, just yesterday a sim lost 3 logic points from one of them but still didn't get any quite job or stay home from work wants. I guess I'll just have to keep trying.

[pixiejuice]

My pleasure sims also roll the stay home wants occasionally, not related to anything sometimes it seems.

[talysman]

Well I've never been able to get a single sim to paint a masterpiece (even after trying time and time again with a sim with full creativity) so that's probably not helping. The chance cards happen all the time though, just yesterday a sim lost 3 logic points from one of them but still didn't get any quite job or stay home from work wants. I guess I'll just have to keep trying.

NO guarantees, but I think the value of the painting or novel is based on the mood of the sim during the painting or writing. Or, more likely, when finishing the painting or novel. I haven't sold a masterpiece, but I finished a novel with a sim in platinum yesterday and fulfilled his want to sell a great novel. My strategy? Immediately before writing, he goes on a date with his wife. He rolls the usual date wants and occasionally fills hers, until he rolls the "have a dream date" want and fills the date meter. End the date, instant platinum. You don't even have to leave the house, except to reroll lame wants.

Warning: this is with Uni+NL only. I have yet to clean out space on my hard drive and install any other expansions.

[Charamei]

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

As for dead-end careers, the only one I know of is this one.