Author Topic: The Centurian's Solo Challenge (Read 13289 times)

Mooner · « **Reply #50 on:** October 02, 2009, 07:18:26 PM »

I did do a breakdown for ya

.

My next attempt is a different strategy. It is still using writing as the moneymaker. I'm thinking it might add a good amount to my score, not just due better efficiency, but a better plan. We shall see.

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #51 on:** October 02, 2009, 07:21:55 PM »

Hmmmmmm...well, now you're kind of convincing me to consider making another attempt with my painter, Mooner.

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EDIT: Well, I gave it some thought and I created another Frank Frazetta character for round #2 of this challenge. Of course it's only fair that my result this time around be the real deal — meaning even if Frank #2 does not do as well as Frank #1, tough luck for me. So, when I'm done with the challenge #2's score will replace #1's score.

A couple main differences right off the bat — I always move my characters into the Pre-Fabulous house in town with the Furnished option. Not this time. I built Frank a tiny little home overlooking the ocean for a nice moodlet. The traits are essentially the same as Frank #1 with the exception of Excited. I dropped that in place of Loner for the moodlet boost.

Yeshanu · « **Reply #52 on:** October 05, 2009, 03:14:00 PM »

I'm going to end my game at 6:17 am on Day 100. Yes, I know I have a few Sim hours left to make more money, but I'm solidly in third place, and I won't beat Mooner in that time so:

Lifetime Happiness Points: 387,431 (The Ambitious trait really did pay off here!)

Net Worth: 1,698,971

In case y'all are interested, I started again with a second Sim (I do that a lot). Ambitious, Loner, Artistic, Bookworm, Green Thumb. Working on the gardening did pay off, because I ended the game with six bearing Money Trees and a whole whack of Omni Plants that were producing the most expensive book. For about an hour's work, the garden was producing about $10,000 per day. As a writer, he specilized in Children's Books, because although they're almost as short as fiction books, they result in $700 to $900 royalty cheques, and he didn't need to wait until he was a level ten writer. Once the twenty book mark was reached, he could write three or four books a day, and after the first twenty books, every single book was a best seller! In between books, my Sim would paint, so eventually he would steadily produce three large paintings, three or four children's books, plus the garden income.

Anyhow, thanks for the fun challenge!

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #53 on:** October 05, 2009, 03:27:49 PM »

Nice job, Yeshanu. I'll update the table with your info.

Kreathyr · « **Reply #54 on:** October 06, 2009, 03:23:44 AM »

Funny how much money a sim can earn in only 100 day's

I wish I could do that

PJSim · « **Reply #55 on:** October 21, 2009, 11:18:01 AM »

So, encouraged by my surprising success with the renaissance challenge I think I'm going to try my hobo style of playing on this but I might change my mind along the way. I've never tried to just pile up huge amounts of cash so that will be new.

I notice that the writers are apparently the most successful but the idea of watching a sim sitting on his butt tapping away at a typewriter for 14 sim weeks is just more than I can face so I'm going with a painter.
I used to think painters were boring too but the paintings they make are actually really cool so I'll have that for entertainment. I've never tried playing a painter beyond maxing the skill so I'm kind of curious what might happen.

I haven't yet decided if I should be pursuing more than one line of income or if focusing on just the painting will be more lucrative. And then there's the question; to invest or not to invest. Hmm...

I'm not sure how much time I'll have for this until sometime next week but I'm starting this now. These are the traits I'm going with: Artistic, Ambitious, Handy, Loner and Over Emotional. Oh and I'm calling her Frida Kahlo.

Pam · « **Reply #56 on:** October 21, 2009, 02:40:15 PM »

Good luck with this one, PJ. It does get a bit tedious as your Sim does the same thing over and over. I wasn't able to push mine as hard as Metro and Carl pushed theirs. She had a little romance and a regular job in addition to writing novels. It showed in my final score, but it's all good. It's fun to play the challenges even if you don't win. Just the experience of it is worth it.

PJSim · « **Reply #57 on:** October 21, 2009, 02:54:28 PM »

Very true, it's really just to have something to aim for. Also there seems to be a lot of luck involved in this one, especially for a painter, since opportunities can really make a difference.

I've started this and already realized that if she's going to just paint I'm going to go nuts and not finish this.

So I've started a little side project to try to get an omni plant with the least amount of work. And painting was a good choice, some of her paintings amuse me. She painted a smiling blowfish.

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #58 on:** October 21, 2009, 04:08:43 PM »

Quote from: PJSim on October 21, 2009, 02:54:28 PM

Very true, it's really just to have something to aim for. Also there seems to be a lot of luck involved in this one, especially for a painter, since opportunities can really make a difference.

A huge difference. If you don't get the Fresco and 2 other main Painting Opportunities, forget it. You won't come close to the top scores in money.

PJSim · « **Reply #59 on:** October 22, 2009, 02:48:27 PM »

Yeah, I've restarted the game with a different sim partly for that reason. Well, really it was because that first game became incredibly buggy, no sound and such, and I don't know another way to fix that.

But also I found out it was a mistake to have a handy sim and have her do gardening too, she got nothing but plumbing opportunities! Not a single painting opportunity.

So now I'm going for an Illustrious Author. Only writing and painting, no gardening and I'm delaying the upgrades till later. It seems to be working, after less than a week she got a writing opportunity and after that one for painting, yay.

Quote from: Pam on October 21, 2009, 02:40:15 PM

I wasn't able to push mine as hard as Metro and Carl pushed theirs. She had a little romance and a regular job in addition to writing novels. It showed in my final score, but it's all good.

Well I'm sure your sim had a more fulfilling life!

Pam · « **Reply #60 on:** October 22, 2009, 07:27:47 PM »

And I'm a sucker for a happy ending. After the challenge was over, she married her sweetheart, retired from her job, moved to a house in the country, and adopted a baby girl.

PJSim · « **Reply #61 on:** October 23, 2009, 02:56:07 AM »

Awww!

My sim has just been offered to do a biography of Miraj Alvi for the second time. Does anyone else find it weird that a child in elementary school should need not just one but two biographies about himself?

I've also had a child ordering a group meal of grilled salmon. These kids seems to have interesting lives.

PJSim · « **Reply #62 on:** October 23, 2009, 02:44:45 PM »

Ah, finished! Much sooner than I thought but then the last half of the game was more or less entirely on fast forward.

The sim I ended up playing with had the traits: Artistic, Bookworm, Perfectionist, Loner, Over Emotional
Her lifetime wish was to max painting and writing and that's all she did.

I tried to split it evenly between the two skills but I think she ended up doing more writing than painting, mostly because she rolled a lot of writing wishes for a lot of points. She never got any of the really cool painting opportunities that Metro mentioned though she did get the fresco, but that was very late in the game so it didn't make much difference.

So I think the largest income was from writing, especially after she started writing masterpieces. Those checks really took off in the second half of the game! The last royalty check was around 175.000 and it would have continued to climb if I'd had more time. Also you get some writing wishes for some huge happy points!

I guess there's just no competing with the writer, if I had concentrated solely on writing I think she would have made even more. I still can't believe how much she ended up with after just 100 days:

Net worth: 1.808.734
Lifetime Happiness 359.879

Total: 2.168.613

Well, this got a little tedious at the end but it was also fun to see just how much money a sim can make. I guess i can go buy her a mansion now, and the whole town.

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #63 on:** October 23, 2009, 02:51:42 PM »

Nice job, PJ. I'll update the leaderboard.

Dale · « **Reply #64 on:** October 23, 2009, 05:41:42 PM »

What a blast! I followed Carl's strategy and managed to do quite well.

Net Worth - $2,401,887 (Sold Collection Helper and 2 Moodlet Managers for 7,200 each) (Have cut pink diamond in mailbox but I'll leave it for now)
Household Value - $22,008
Happiness - 338, 311 (Did not make any friends and spent the whole time in the house - Did not talk to anyone, answer the phone or take on any opportunities)
Total - $2,762,206

Wrote 24 Masterpieces, with the highest value being $25,625 and ammassed royalties of 351,167 per week at peak. Solo Mio earned $2,458,420 writing books and wrote a total of 62, with 41 being best sellers and 19 hits.

I think I might have broke even on the business investments but I'm not sure if it really helped in the timeframe I was working with.

Does anyone think that you could surpass the income of a writer in this time period and if so, what would it be?

Thanks Carl, you've got a great site and being relatively new to the Sims, it's really helped me with understanding the game.

Dale

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #65 on:** October 23, 2009, 05:44:53 PM »

Wow. Dale comes in out of left field and steals top spot. Great job!

Pam · « **Reply #66 on:** October 23, 2009, 07:20:01 PM »

Net worth of $2.4 million and living in a $22,000 house. That's kind of funny.

Welcome Dale and good job on the challenge!

Holmes · « **Reply #67 on:** October 26, 2009, 04:06:00 AM »

Hi all! (especially Metro, Pam and Carl)

This looks like a nice site, and I particularly like this challenge. I've been fooling around trying to optimize what I call the "Ambrosia Rush" -- i.e., getting to immortality as rapidly as possible, and this usually involves being unemployed and gardening/cooking/fishing a lot. Naturally, being able to pick up cash to survive in the early days is important, so I generally have my sims write (sometimes paint), and do some careful strategic investment.

I am a "casual power gamer" if that makes any sense at all; i.e., I enjoy figuring out what is optimum from a score perspective at any point (though I also somewhat enjoy the unfolding stories of my sims). The casual comes in in that I'm not terribly serious or particularly skilled.

I intend to give this challenge a try, and I'll let you know my results. While I plan on writing, I plan on taking a path somewhat different from Carl's strategy. I suspect this will prove unhelpful (at least for winning), but it will let me compare and contrast my approach.

A crude outline of my intended strategy.

My tentative stats:
-bookworm
-loves the outdoors
-angler
-green thumb
-natural cook.

I reserve the right to go back and change these if my approach proves beyond disastrous!

I do intend a respec (midlife crisis) midway through; I'll probably pick up perfectionist and possibly no sense of humour. (dropping cook and green thumb).

This will let me hit the 25-to-masterpiece-cap of novels faster (without perfectionist). The no sense of humour (taken on later) will let me do humour-satire-vaudeville path early on and then gain 15 hours of "Having a Blast" instead of 7. Since I'll be using the moodlet manager by that point, the extra time to get up to 15 won't matter; it'll simply mean I'm more of a writing machine.

The whole cook/garden/fish/outdoors line is a big risk. It may be utterly useless, but I'm obviously banking on getting enough good deathfish AND, ultimately, the omni opportunity fast enough. If I don't, then I'm dead in the water with enormous wasted time and my score will be a joke.

If it works out, I'm fairly confident that my final run rate of cash per week will be higher than Carl's/Dale's, but I'm not at all sure that I can hit their peak wealth as rapidly. Hence I may still fall way short, but I think it will prove instructive, even if I do.

I've a lot of mods installed, but with one exception they are all clothing/hair/meshes. The exception is the NR_aas supercomputer which I have just deleted. (I don't think it would change the game, but to be safe, I'm deleting it. Since I only installed it today it's no great loss!)

I'll let you know how I do.
-Holmes

Pam · « **Reply #68 on:** October 26, 2009, 05:25:54 AM »

Welcome to the Forum, Holmes!

Your strategy is definitely interesting. I wish you all the best in knocking Carl and Metro from their places of glory in this challenge! Haha! You may hit a snag trying to get the Omni plant early on. As I'm sure you know, you've got to get through three very challenging opportunities. So, here's a tip for you in case you didn't already know about it... there's a public Omni plant in both Sunset Valley and Riverview, behind the science facilities in both towns. You can feed and harvest it pretty much every day.

Good luck and please do keep us posted on your progress!

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #69 on:** October 26, 2009, 06:24:04 AM »

Hi Holmes. Welcome to the forums. I think your strategy is quite sound. Good luck with it and this challenge.

Holmes · « **Reply #70 on:** October 26, 2009, 11:16:33 AM »

** EDIT ** You can see my posting about the challenge here:
http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=130.0

Thanks, Metro and Pam, for the warm welcome.

@Pam Yes, I do know about the public Omni plant, but it really doesn't factor into my plans in any serious way. Basically, if I expend the whole time to ding 10 on gardening (and fishing!), to only end up using the public one is ... meh. That said, you're right, possibly I should start dumping deathfish into it early on. I admit I hadn't considered that.

I'm not worried about getting through the challenging opportunities (good fruits/veg, cheese, then steak); I am worried about getting them rapidly enough.

I don't think that I will eclipse Carl, Metro or anyone, since this is such an off-the-wall strat! But it's one that I KNOW well, and I think my strat will have a few things that are quite good in it.

@Metro thanks, and thanks for the interesting challenges.

-Holmes

Holmes · « **Reply #71 on:** October 26, 2009, 11:59:18 AM »

Oh, Metro... one thing I'd be tempted to add to the next version of the challenge... what is your Sim's cash run rate?

i.e., what did the Sim sustainably earn in the final week from day 94-100, excluding opportunities, and excluding sales of items not produced during that period?

Of course this requires calculation and of course it will favour slower power builds like my own (heh).

I see two downsides to recording this as part of the score:
1) it actually requires a bit of hassle on the player's part;
2) it further favors writers (who have residuals) as opposed to painters/guitarists.

I still like the idea of doing so.

Cheers,
-Holmes

Cel_sims3 · « **Reply #72 on:** October 26, 2009, 12:49:54 PM »

Alright, I'm going to start my go on this challenge. My character is Chanelle Deck (Yes, most of my sims are named this.) Her traits are Flirty, Over-emotional, Bookworm, Ambitious, and Charismatic. Her lifetime goal is to be the leader of the free world. She lives in riverview and starts her first day of work in the business career tomorrow. (I plan to switch over later when the public offers me the position of governer.)

Cel_sims3 · « **Reply #73 on:** October 26, 2009, 02:10:13 PM »

After reading your guy's posts I've decided to change my character.
I now have Lily Trinity. She has the traits: Bookworm, Ambitious, Workaholic, Over-emotional, and Lucky. Her lifetime Goal is to be living in the lap of luxury (networth of 100,000 Simoleons). I'm going to try and make it as an author and in the business career. Let's see how this goes, shall we?

Metropolis Man · « **Reply #74 on:** October 30, 2009, 04:57:01 PM »

While surfing the web today in hopes of discovering any kind of info to lead me to earn more tips from a guitar player, I happened upon one forum thread that gave me some info I had never read before. I tested it out briefly on my John Lennon character in the Centurian's Couples tournament and there seemed to be a definite correlation between a key stat in the Guitar Skill Journal and the amount per tip. That's all I'm going to say at this point. I need to really put it to the test and focus on a single character and try this challenge again.

If I do really well, Carl/Pam, I promise to write up a walkthrough and all will be revealed.

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EDIT: I'm almost done with the "training" phase of my guitarist. My goal is to hit a $1k minimum per tip level and I'm almost there. This screenshot is Johnny B Goode's start of a Play for Tips session immediately following his first Autograph Session in front of the Theatre. Those 17 sims watching, plus more that trickled into the area resulted in a 39k tips session over 4 hours.

News:

Author Topic: The Centurian's Solo Challenge (Read 13289 times)