Factoids and Statistics on Skill Gaining

[J. M. Pescado]

It was the fastest I've ever seen a skill bar increase.  I give it 2 thumbs up.  I should have him at max skills in less than 3 Sim days.

*3* days? You suck. I do that in 1.

[notveryawesome]

Am I the only one who doesn't max out my sims' skills by the time they are teens? I like for them to have something to actually do while at uni, so I only give them 8-10 skillpoints in a few areas - just enough so they can afford a rental house on their own, if they I want. Permaplat and fully-skilled sims are boring, IMO. I like the challenge of needing skillpoints and/or friends to advance in their careers.

[witch]

I don't bother with skilling much at all, toddlers do because they're playing and it's realistic, otherwise my sims pretty much gain points as they need them for jobs. I've only maxed skills on very few sims and that would probably be the ones that have it as a lifetime aspiration. Don't use influence at all, can't be bothered, even sim wants don't dictate the stories I play.

[kutto]

Bah. Default influence wants and boring and dumb. They never want to stir up trouble. If one of my sims wanted to start a fight or get someone to cheat, I'd probably use influence more often.

[Khan of Wyrms]

So, not sure if I have an unexplainable bug or unique system 'feature', but all of this seems to pale in comparison to multi-tasking the skilling actions with the career rewards.  100%, 200%, 500%, what does it matter if you can have most skills advancing at the same time?  I have always wondered about this but I have never seen it mentioned before.

If you have a trainable sim ask another sim of higher level for help learning a skill on one of the career reward objects, then while that session is still going on have that first sim ask for help with a different reward object, the sims will automatically transition to the next object and the skilling will continue for the first item as well as the next.  Continue this in a like manner and soon you can have all skills advancing at the same time, except cleaning.  Combine this with a thinking cap on the training sim and in this way you can max a sims' skills in a day or two, providing you have enough reward objects and a 'teacher' sim who is already maxed.

Feature, exploit, or bug?  I wonder if this works for anyone else or is it just because my game functions off of the energy derived from a BFBVFS?  Certain reward objects like the fingerprints scanner will not combine with others in such a way, but most do.  I know at least that I have never used a skill related hack.

N.B.  Perhaps the thinking cap is required for this, I can't remember if I ever tried it without one.

[J. M. Pescado]

So, not sure if I have an unexplainable bug or unique system 'feature', but all of this seems to pale in comparison to multi-tasking the skilling actions with the career rewards.  100%, 200%, 500%, what does it matter if you can have most skills advancing at the same time?  I have always wondered about this but I have never seen it mentioned before.

The chain-training bug is a known issue, but seems to be rather unreliable, as it doesn't always work for all games. I've never been enable to get it to work. Conversely, the Smart Milk IQ thing appears to be an intentional feature by design.

[purplehaze]

Works for me. But, you have to do it in a certain order. The fingerprint scanner has to be used alone. Also, the mechanical skill doohickey has to be used last.

I usually do it thusly:
Cooking (always works with a child..do not attempt if the Teen or adult Sim has less than 6 pts cooking. They will cause a puddle and interupt the action) With a child or teen/adult with more than 6 cooking, make sure the adult has moved over to the prep area and is making the goodies. If you do the ask interaction before this, it breaks the chain. I do this first, as it's the trickiest to get in the chain.
Then : ask> charisma ( putter or podium) Ask> Body ( punching bag works best, sketchy with the obstacle course) Ask> creativity ( lie detector) Ask> mechanical. These can be mixed , but the mechanical has to be last.

I have not attempted this with the new Seasons career rewards. But, I have been using this for years with no problems. Now I need to try it with the guitar and law podium . We'll see how it goes.

[Khan of Wyrms]

I have not noticed the issue with the surgical station needing to be used last, although I have noticed that sometimes it takes much longer for the sims to back out of that object and move on to the next.  Also, the chocolate factory can be used in this for sims with no or low cooking skill to start, but the order to move on to a different object must be given before the skilling on that object drops out.

This seems to be a very odd sort of thing to be a bug affecting only some people.  I wonder what causes it?  The only obvious differences in peoples' games, outside of hacks, that I can think of right away are patches installed or not, or base game CD or DVD editions.  I have all patches and DVD base game.  I actually always wondered why there were separate patches for CD or DVD base game, unless there was some actual difference in the core game, perhaps?  Once installed, why would it matter if the game was CD or DVD edition, unless they were different somehow? 

[purplehaze]

If you back out of the chocolate factory before the Sim 'shuts it down' it can get stuck in the chocolate making mode. It will run interminably until the action is initiated again and the machine is properly shut down.  It bugs the hell out of me to hear that humming and squishing sound day and night. Hey, but that's just me.  I suppose you could put the contraption in the basement so you don't hear it day and night.

I still haven't tested the rock guitar, I don't have any teens available at the moment for testing, but will next play session. Obviously, children can't ask for lessons on that particular object. I have another lot where the law podium award is available. I will have to test it, but I assume it will work the same as the teleprompter.

[sara_dippity]

So it is the knowledge book not the bookcase that gives the boost, right? So if a sim went to put a book back on the case and a cat was sitting in front of it and the book was put on the floor, then the book was put into the sim's inventory, that book can now be given to a non-edumacation-bookshelf-having-family and that family will recieve the bonus?
Hey, can those books be sold?

[purplehaze]

Good question Sara. And to further exploit this, if it works, you could maybe give it as a gift to someone without the award?

[JennyJenny]

So it is the knowledge book not the bookcase that gives the boost, right? So if a sim went to put a book back on the case and a cat was sitting in front of it and the book was put on the floor, then the book was put into the sim's inventory, that book can now be given to a non-edumacation-bookshelf-having-family and that family will recieve the bonus?
Hey, can those books be sold?

I thought I was being so smart when I had a teen sim put all the scattered career-reward-bookshelf books in her inventory, then sent her to college. Boy, was I disappointed when I took them out and they could only be used for cooking, mechanical, and cleaning. I don't know if their boost remained, because I deleted them out of anger.

[purplehaze]

Well, that blows my exploit out of the water. 

[Zazazu]

Well, that blows my exploit out of the water. 

There's always the "unlockCareerRewards" cheat. I figure that if a family member has earned the bookcase, there's no reason their spawn can't bring a functioning one to college.

[J. M. Pescado]

The book is actually linked to the bookcase, so if you delete the bookcase, it will stop working. In fact, if you put it in your inventory, it will stop working even if you take it back out, because the instance ID of the bookcase is stamped onto the book and checked for to determine if it's a true goldbook. Sadly, this means you can't sell it.

[purplehaze]

Well, that blows my exploit out of the water. 

There's always the "unlockCareerRewards" cheat. I figure that if a family member has earned the bookcase, there's no reason their spawn can't bring a functioning one to college.

Yeah, I know. But, I try to play without cheating. It sucks the life out of the game for me. I don't mind some tweaks and critical mods plus certain annoyance mods. I don't consider them cheating. My summa grads start at level 9 and go to 10 in one day. They can also apply for all the jobs and nab the career rewards. It takes about 3 days to collect them all; that's if they rotate into the job bin the way they should. It's too damn easy to get to the top of the career track the way it is. Harder Jobs works nicely for me. I had to get it because it was so ridiculously easy to perma-ignore a Sim with a job related LTW.

[J. M. Pescado]

Job LTWs are only medium-speed LTWs. FAST LTws are "Max all skills", and even faster, "earn 100K". Those you can do within seconds of transitioning and getting an LTW.

[purplehaze]

You're right...those are also ridiculously easy. The one that I've never accomplished is 20 simultaneous lovers. I get tired just watching the poor Sim. And, trying to keep track of who they've bonked and maintaining the affairs is just tiring for me.  I have one Romance Sim languishing at Uni...he's up to 9. I'm actually thinking of failing him every semester just so he can knock boots with a few more Uni students. At least they don't wander into my downtown. I'm saving downtown for after the transition. Then he can cut a swath through that neighborhood. I suck at playing romance sims. They bore me.

[Hook]

Romance Sims at Uni:  Just meet a lot of elegible students.  When you move back to the neighborhood, invite them over one at a time for a quick woohoo.  They don't walk past the house, so you won't have a problem with jealousy.  I did this once when I cheated Goopy into Uni (which didn't work too well, btw, but he did meet enough coeds to get his LTW later).

The Edumacation bookcase reward:  Just before your teen shuffles off to Uni, put it in his inventory.  It works at Uni without problems.  The parents are probably already maxed in all skills so don't need it for themselves, and if there are younger siblings at home, the parents can either get another or send the siblings to the same dorm so they can use the bookcase too.

Hook

[purplehaze]

I'm going to 'attempt' to perma plat him whilst in college. If I can't, I'm sure I can get damn close.

I do send my teens off to Uni with a full 'fruitbowl'. The strawberry lemondae comes in handy when I don't feel like granting their needs. I can plat 'em with one dose.  The edumacation bookcase is a good idea, but I have yet to have a teen leave the house without max skills. I always save 1 skill point for Sims who are knowledge. That way if the Max skills comes up...Wham!  Platinum. Since installing Seasons, I have not had one, no not one, LTW to max all skills. They all want to be criminals, gamers, musians or adventureres.  The wheel of fortune hasn't been spinning well for me since the installation.

Off on a tangent: (I should just post this in the Podium), has anyone noticed that non-resident family friends no longer count towards the total for job promotions since Seasons?  It's happening to me across all hoods and careers.  I tested with a clean hacks folder and it's still occuring. I have no custom careers or other such nonsense. LOL For example: (shuffles papers around) I had a Sim in the Medical career track. She lived alone and had 17 'friends'.  Nine of them were non-resident family members. When she returned home from work she didn't get her promotion...her friends count wasn't high enough. WTF. I had to haul ass to the phone and call up some Sims to make up for two she was missing.  Then again, maybe it's just my game.

[notveryawesome]

It's been that way since Pets.

[J. M. Pescado]

The family friend rules have always been kinda wonky. For some reason you can't count family members as family friends, and the friend count is by household, not actual "family" friends. It's sort of like some bizarre mutant version of TS1's rules warped to fit into TS2.

[purplehaze]

Good to know it's not my game. I could have sworn that family members that are friends (not living with the Sim) used to count for promotions.  I know the big Sim on campus memory doesn't count family, but career requirements did , or so I thought. Guess I must have been smokiin' crack.

[Li'l Brudder]

I rarely, if ever, max my sims' skills.

I just don't see the need.

A cook (generally) doesn't go out of his way to build his muscles, does he?

[J. M. Pescado]

A cook (generally) doesn't go out of his way to build his muscles, does he?

Clearly, you're not a reader of Armored Chef magazine, the publication for military and para-military cooks.