The MAX Skills Marathon

[Metropolis Man]

The MAX Skills Marathon

GOAL: It’s the ultimate long distance race to see who can max all 10 Skills and finish all Skill Challenges as quickly as possible.

RULES

• Create 1 Young Adult Sim. No other Sims can be played.
• Lifespan set to Long.
• No cheats or modifications.
• Use of the Moodlet Manager and Mid-Life Crisis is banned.
• No Careers (don't start them and Quit just for Happiness points) or business investments. All income must be from Skills, Skill Opportunities, or Special Opportunities.
• Move your Sim into an existing house or build one yourself. Move as often as you want.
• The Challenge ends when you have maxed all 10 skills and completed all Skill Challenges in each Skill Journal. NOTE: It is widely accepted that the Guitar Star Challenge is bugged and nearly impossible to accomplish without using a cheat. So, it is recommended you just ignore Guitar Star.

SCORING: Fewest number of days to finish wins.

Good luck to everyone!

Leaderboard

Player                        Days to Finish
NancyJ                    86
PJSim                     88
Metro                     89
HelenP                   107

[Teresa]

I am going to give this one a shot starting today with Maxine Skelly - Artistic, Athletic, Bookworm, Handy, and Charismatic.

One question - I understand about not having jobs or investing in the local businesses - and not using the Moodlet manager - but can we buy the moodlet manager (or the other LTR once earned) and sell it/them for cash?

[Metropolis Man]

One question - I understand about not having jobs or investing in the local businesses - and not using the Moodlet manager - but can we buy the moodlet manager (or the other LTR once earned) and sell it/them for cash?

Good question. Yes, that's fine.

Changed my mind quickly. I really want all income totally skill related to fit the theme.

[Teresa]

cool, not that will be an option at first, but that is a money strategy I use a lot in the later years.

[Holmes]

All skill challenges!? Yikes!

And no business investments? ACK! Heh, I hate that rule, since my first move when I start playing is to invest in a business then struggle along on the pittance I have left. Good to move me out of my comfort zone, though.

This is interesting. Time-consuming, but interesting.

Uh... bookworm. Handy, to avoid being electrocuted. Probably Green thumb. Maybe loves outdoors. Perhaps Angler. Scratch at least one of those, I want Artistic, maybe virtuoso. Hmm...

I like TJS's set of traits, but I think s/he undervalues some of the gardening/fishing time.

OK, yeah this is my next challenge. It'll be the usual Holmes house, but no moodlet manager this time. Awesome.

I'll "buy" the teleporter (with lifetime happiness), but to keep with the spirit of your rules, I won't sell it for cash.

-Holmes

[Holmes]

Err to be crystal clear, you're talking about Handiness, Fishing, Writing, Charisma, Gardening, Logic, Cooking, Guitar, Athletic and Painting?

i.e. Collecting and its associated challenges is not included?

-Holmes

[Metropolis Man]

Err to be crystal clear, you're talking about Handiness, Fishing, Writing, Charisma, Gardening, Logic, Cooking, Guitar, Athletic and Painting?

Correct. The 10 skills in the game.

i.e. Collecting and its associated challenges is not included?

If there are Collecting Challenges, then I am not aware of any. The only Challenges you need to be concerned with are Skill Challenges listed in your Skill Journal.

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I'm going to create Maximus Skillious. I'll see if I can give him that special "Ceasar" look.  Maximus' trait set is going to be: Artistic, Bookworm, Over-Emotional, Ambitious, and Loves the Outdoors.

[Holmes]

The only Challenges you need to be concerned with are Skill Challenges listed in your Skill Journal.

Collections challenges are listed in your skill journal, hence my request for clarification. Check it out; start collecting, and you'll see them.

If there are Collecting Challenges, then I am not aware of any.

Collections is also (sort of) a skill in the game. It uses the same code pathways, and pops up as one of the skills when you hit J for the skills journal. Like skills, it does indeed have a series of challenges, like Gem Collector, and Awesomest Rock Collector in the Universe, and so on. (yes, really.)

Unlike the other 10 base skills, it doesn't visibly improve in skill level (it probably does, behind the scenes).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not disputing your rules; and I'm fine with the exclusion of Collecting; I just wanted to make sure I was going to be playing the challenge as you intended.

Final (?) question: May I start a career as long as I gain no employment income whatsoever from it? I.e., to obtain an employee discount or lifetime happiness?

-Holmes

[PJSim]

Very nice challenge Metro, very simple.

Also very lengthy though, I definitely want to do this but I don't know when I'll get to it.

And I have a question. Can we use the mid-life crisis to change traits?
If not you won't really be able to take advantage of all the traits that help with skills because you'll be stuck with some useless traits like angler once the relevant skill has been maxed.

I would really like it if it were allowed otherwise this will just be needlessly long. And it would add an extra layer to the strategy like when should you change traits, should you wait until all challenges for a skill has been completed or just get on with the next skill.

[Metropolis Man]

Collections challenges are listed in your skill journal, hence my request for clarification. Check it out; start collecting, and you'll see them.

Okay, thanks for clarifying. I've never done collecting. But, anyway — it's just Skill Challenges. No Collecting Challenges. I will clarify the rules.

May I start a career as long as I gain no employment income whatsoever from it? I.e., to obtain an employee discount or lifetime happiness?

No.

And I have a question. Can we use the mid-life crisis to change traits?
If not you won't really be able to take advantage of all the traits that help with skills because you'll be stuck with some useless traits like angler once the relevant skill has been maxed.

I would really like it if it were allowed otherwise this will just be needlessly long. And it would add an extra layer to the strategy like when should you change traits, should you wait until all challenges for a skill has been completed or just get on with the next skill.

I have no problem with someone using the Mid Life Crisis.

Ugh. Sorry to keep changing my mind, guys. But, the more I think about it, the more strategy I think is involved in initial planning a character's traits if Mid-Life Crisis is not allowed. Yes, it will add a little more time, but if we're all in the same boat, so what. And if Mid-Life Crisis was allowed, then we'd all be doing pretty much the same changes.

[Teresa]

I like TJS's set of traits, but I think s/he undervalues some of the gardening/fishing time.
-Holmes

I plan on changing traits with mid-life crisis when possible.

And I have changed my mind on the starting traits to Artistic/Bookworm (starting off painting/writing), Loves the Outdoors (mood boost), Excitable (increase happiness points), Virtuoso (guitar).  Once done with painting/writing/guitar she will change to Handy, Green Thumb, Angler, Natural Cook, Loves the Outdoors (handiness/gardening/fishing/start on cooking) - then last change will be Natural Cook, Charismatic, Good Sense of Humor, Athletic, Genius (athletics/charisma/logic/finish cooking).

I will probably go nuts and change it again before I settle down into the challenge but this is my current thoughts.

We are using Long life span and not Epic, correct?

[Metropolis Man]

We are using Long life span and not Epic, correct?

Right.

[Teresa]

LOL I am about to remake Maxine for the 5th time - but this time with the idea that her traits are set in stone.  I did manage to get her a house to start off in that she can actually afford.

[Metropolis Man]

LOL I am about to remake Maxine for the 5th time - but this time with the idea that her traits are set in stone.

I'm really sorry I've been so fickle.   You guys just keep bringing up stuff that I had not thought of when I first posted the rule set.

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EDIT: Maximus Skillious is now ready to begin his skillful journey —



This house is a clone of every other house I've built in other challenges (except Baby Boomer — that needed to be bigger). Now I need to rack my brain and decide what to do first and which direction would provide the most Happiness points (I've got my eyes set on Fast Learner as the first Lifetime Reward).

[PJSim]

LOL I am about to remake Maxine for the 5th time - but this time with the idea that her traits are set in stone.

I'm really sorry I've been so fickle.  You guys just keep bringing up stuff that I had not thought of when I first posted the rule set.

Hehe, that's alright. I'm still hoping you will change your mind back about the mid-life crisis because I disagree with this:

the more I think about it, the more strategy I think is involved in initial planning a character's traits if Mid-Life Crisis is not allowed. Yes, it will add a little more time, but if we're all in the same boat, so what. And if Mid-Life Crisis was allowed, then we'd all be doing pretty much the same changes.

I think the opposite is true. There are all kinds of combinations for changing the traits and when and also how many "skill traits" should you choose at any given time vs how many mood boosting traits. But if we can't change them then I think we will all be playing with the same traits namely those that boosts mood. All the "skill traits" will be useless after a while but mood boosts help with everything.

So everyone will have Over Emotional, Loves the Outdoors, Excitable, hmm No sense of Humor makes the fun moodlet last longer right? So that one too. Maybe Ambitious but after a short time you will have more happiness points than you can ever spend because there's so little to spend them on.

Well, if most of the planning for such a long game takes place before you even start playing I can just see myself restarting this 5 times and then never completing it. But that's me.

[Metropolis Man]

I thought and thought and thought and finally decided to go guitar at first and employ the trick I outlined in Centurian Solo. Another thing I'm doing is really trying to keep the Well Rested moodlet from never disappearing. That means more times in the sack, but shorter times, so hopefully it all balances out instead of longer times in bed. It's Day 2 and Maximus just hit level 5 in Guitar, so it's time to train him for some tip playing.

[wildredchild]

Metro, quick question and then I am off to create my character for this challenge.  I know that collecting won't count for one of the skills, but can we collect and sell what what we collect as income?  For instance, collecting seeds, bugs and rocks/gems.

[Metropolis Man]

Metro, quick question and then I am off to create my character for this challenge.  I know that collecting won't count for one of the skills, but can we collect and sell what what we collect as income?  For instance, collecting seeds, bugs and rocks/gems.

No. As per the rules, all income must come from skills (the standard 10) or skill opportunities.

[wildredchild]

Thanks Metro!!   

[Teresa]

When Maxine received a handy opportunity as she received the stereo to be fixed she also received 85,000 simoleons for no reason I could find.  I am going to family fund the money away.

She is insane, loves outdoors, mooch, childish, and lucky.  She may not skill fast but she is happy most of the time.

[Metropolis Man]

When Maxine received a handy opportunity as she received the stereo to be fixed she also received 85,000 simoleons for no reason I could find.  I am going to family fund the money away.

Wow. I love honest tourney players. 

[Pam]

This sounds like a great challenge.  The only drawback for me is that I don't usually like to play a single Sim.  But I think this one will have enough diversity to keep it more interesting.  I think I'm going to write a couple of Lifetime Wish guides before I get back to any challenges, though.  World Adventures will soon be upon us and I want to have the original game as complete as possible on Carl's Sims 3 Guide! 

[Teresa]

When Maxine received a handy opportunity as she received the stereo to be fixed she also received 85,000 simoleons for no reason I could find.  I am going to family fund the money away.

Wow. I love honest tourney players.  

LOL it just felt wrong to keep it - she is living out in the open, still no house, just the bare necessities and skilling items.  I just wish I knew where the money came from.  I have legacies that could use that particular glitch.

At week 4 day 6 she is 1 brilliant away from being done with painting and is now working on guitar.

[Metropolis Man]

LOL it just felt wrong to keep it - she is living out in the open, still no house..

Oh, no. Not you too?! Are you stealing tips from Holmes' playbook?  

World Adventures will soon be upon us and I want to have the original game as complete as possible on Carl's Sims 3 Guide!

That reminds me, Pam (and Carl) — I think the 3 of us need to have a private pow-wow about how World Adventures may impact current Challenges. Ideally, everyone playing in a given challenge needs to be playing under the same set of conditions (same version of the game, either no expansion or with expansion) because adding the expansion could very likely add a whole new set of unforeseen variables. I can't see it affecting Baby Boomer really given the nature of that challenge, but other challenges where money making is involved, or skill building, then who knows how the game will be impacted. And there will likely be tweaks to the game mechanics behind the scenes too that could affect challenges.

The simplest solution is to make the requirement that all current challenges be finished on the vanilla version of the game. And then when the expansion is released we can discuss how to tackle that.

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EDIT: Back on topic....

Maximus is slowly living up to his name and has maxed Guitar at Week 3, Day 3. He also knocked out the Master Guitarist Challenge and the Money Maker Challenge. Since the Guitar Star Challenge is a non-issue for this tourney, Guitar is officially a complete wrap. Painting is at lvl 8, so that's my next endeavor to finish up.

[Teresa]

LOL it just felt wrong to keep it - she is living out in the open, still no house..

Oh, no. Not you too?! Are you stealing tips from Holmes' playbook?  

LOL actually I just hate building houses for challenges and legacies.  I would much rather download one and move them in with freerealestate.  But in the spirit of this challenge (and Baby Boomer as they didn't get a house until the oldest was a child) I am being good.  I can either build or play but not enough patience to do both in the same game.   She has the beautiful vista as she lives at the waterfall, mood-lite candle so she has the decorated boost, and as I buy her furniture she is getting only the best.  Eventually she might get a house. 

Maxine has completed painting finally. I sold all her paintings except for the big three - the one she was painting when she mastered, the 6th brilliant and 5th masterpiece. Now she is level 9.25 guitar and about 1/3 way through the tips challenge.  She should be complete tomorrow and focusing on another skill.  Maybe charisma since she has all the friends from guitar playing.  We'll see.

I am really enjoying this.  I had wanted an excuse to play through every skill and related challenge.  I am just worried she will die before she finishes.  She is in week 6 I believe.