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Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous Lifetime Wish Walkthrough
by Tom "Metro" Schlueter
The Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous is a new Sims 3 Late Night Lifetime Wish that combines an old LTW requirement from Living in the Lap of Luxury (be worth at least 100,000 simoleans) with a new Late Night twist - reach Celebrity Level 5. The combination increases the point value of the LTW to 40,000. At first, I thought this was a pretty daunting task, especially since I was totally green with the whole Celebrity bit. But, once I got into it and read some tips on the forum as well, things wrapped up pretty quickly. So, let's bring out our host to see if he's up to this challenge.
Maximus' Traits
Ambitious
there are plenty of sweet Lifetime Happiness Rewards that Maximus has his eye on. The sooner he can nab these, the better. Ambitious Sims earn 15% more happiness points upon completing wishes. His LTW will jump to 46,000 points.
Charismatic
brushing up to and trying to impress potential Celebrities will be easier with the Charismatic trait.
Schmoozer
ditto.
Virtuoso
Maximus will earn more in tips with this trait.
Star Quality
one of the two new Late Night traits, a Star Quality Sim will build Celebrity Star Level faster.
Lifetime Wish: Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous
Hunger, Bladder, Energy and Drums...
...The four essential needs of any aspiring drummer. First on tap for Maximus is getting settled. That means learning a little cooking and immediately replacing some of the cheap objects that came with his cheap apartment. The above screenshot shows the nicer shower, stove, and fridge. The new Ultimate Bungalow Bed that's part of Late Night was very expensive, but it has a 10 Energy rating, plus boosts the environment nicely. And it's a double bed which means there's room for a fan willing to express their devotion to Drummond's Summons.
The drum set purchase was a no-brainer, but here's the deal on the Book Corral-EA did not put one in the Bridgeport Public Library. Hmmm, I guess they didn't get my email about the one missing at Twinbrook's Library. Getting around Bridgeport is pretty time consuming, so I decided not to use Edit Town to plop a Book Corral in the Library. The whole apartment/big city environment is quite cool and very realistic, but there's no getting around the fact that it will literally add hours and hours to your Sim's schedule over time. So, with that in mind my main plan of attack was to hole up Maximus in his apartment to hit the drumming cap first. That's all I wanted him to do the first week-eat, pee, sleep, and drum, drum, drum.
Maximus hit level 5 in the drum skill after two days of concentrated effort. So, at that point I pulled Maximus off the drum throne and had him venture downstairs to a) pay a bill, and b) head to the bookstore to purchase a drum song.
With those two minor things done, it was time to scope out a Celebrity and make some headway on the Celebrity portion of the LTW. Hey, if you're going the apartment dweller route in Bridgeport, you have to make good use of your Sim's time when they're out and about. So, let me take a gander at the Theatre entrance, a common hangout for Bridgeport Celebs...nope, nobody there. Let's check out the park...whoa...hold the phone. Who is the very attractive woman? Lola Belle? And she's a 5-Star Celebrity? Maximus says, "I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!" Stop your groveling, man, and get your butt to the park before she disappears.
Impressing Celebrities - Gateway to the Stars
Don't be surprised if your Sim is immediately hit with a minus sign upon meeting a Celebrity. That's normal. Be persistent. You need to impress them before the standard Socials pop up. So, if you have some decent skill points in something, brag on that to the Celeb. Impressing a Celebrity grants your Sim a nice Celebrity boost. Then you can turn your attention to the standard quick Socials for Friendship. Every advancement - Friend > Good Friend > Best Friend - will advance your Sim in their own Celebrity status. So, again we're talking about efficient use of time in the big city - keep hammering a high-level Celeb to hit the friendship cap before moving onto the next one. When you become Best Friends with a top notch Celeb, that in itself becomes a potent weapon you can use on another Celeb by Name Dropping. Personally, I would leave the Wealth Social in the Impress tab alone given your starting Sim will not have the kind of funds worth boasting about.
Here's a key tip if you're seeking potential band members who are well-known Celebrities in their own right - be patient. Don't ask them to Form/Join your band until you're at lvl 4 Celebrity status yourself or you'll be hit with rejection and a relationship hit as well. A double whammy.
Back to the Drums
So, at this point Maximus locked up Lola Belle as Best Friends and that took him to level 3 Celebrity status all by itself! Now, it was time to shift gears and concentrate on mastering his craft. I kept a watchful eye on the Theatre entrance and the park for more celebs, but it was back to the woodshed with his new Howdy! Means Hello level 5 drum song he purchased at the bookstore. Once your musician hits lvl 5, always have them switch from Play Alone to Perform (a song) because the skill gain is faster.
Speaking of the Perform option for instruments, the well-known guitar exploit that I've documented in my Guitar Star Guide article works just as well for all other instruments. The exploit is the same - rack up 8 Perform cues and cancel them upon hearing the initial notes. The song still registers in the statistics portion of the skill journal and it has a direct impact on amount made from tips. But, and this is sort of obvious - you want to max the skill first before employing the exploit. If you're constantly canceling cues starting at lvl 5, then it will take you forever to max the skill.
Important Lifetime Rewards to Help You With This LTW:
- Fast Learner This is what I grabbed first to aid in maxing drumming a little quicker.
- Observant and Attractive These go hand in hand and are next in importance for building the key relationships with Celebrities.
- The Next Big Thing Irrelevant if you aren't pursuing this LTW with a band, but it helps boost gig payments if you do go the band route.
- Opportunistic This is a biggie because you want those many agent phone call opportunities s to pay off big-more Celebrity points and more simoleans upon completion. And if you're doing something like painting or sculpting to knock out the financial portion of this LTW, all the more reason to grab Opportunistic.
- Hardly Hungry, Dirt Defiant, and Steel Bladder All of these are great and will allow your Sim to be productive for longer periods of time. They've always been top shelf rewards for efficiency-minded players, but in the big city environment they're even more important where simply getting around eats away at the clock.
Maximus Gains Celebrity Status
Getting from lvl 4 to lvl 5 Celebrity status takes a lot of effort. I could not believe how easy it was to hit level 3. Hitting lvl 4 took a couple of days, but wow...the experience bar really creeps slowly once you hit lvl 4. The good news is there's never a shortage of little things you can do thanks to a new Late Night feature - calls from your agent. You will not believe the number of opportunities thrown at you on a daily basis compared to pre-Late Night. Immortal Dynasty Challenge players struggling to finish their BlackOps requirement will rejoice in this fact. So, while bumping up the Celebrity experience bar is still slow towards the end - at least it's constant progress assuming you jump through the hoops.
One of the minor things you can do to boost Celebrity level is simply bar hop since the number of bars you've visited is a tracked stat in the Celebrity Journal (found in your Simology tab). Once you get to the upper levels of Celebrity status you should be able to simply ask bouncers to let you in. Heimrich Shimry gives Maximus the green light at the Prosper Room.
Maximus spots a mature, elegant looking woman at the park, Aria Trill. After talking with her a while he discovers she's an Orchestra Lead. Wow. Another potential band member along with Lola. I forgot to mention earlier that Lola turned out to be a Pop Icon. Are you kidding me? This is a vast improvement from Sunset Valley and Stiles McGraw who never advances past Talent Scout.
Anyway, as I was looking at Maximus and Aria talking I was reminded of a complaint that Pam shared with me shortly after she began playing Bridgeport - the fact that EA developers went overboard with some of the proportions of "things." So much so that certain "things" look completely unnatural and ridiculous. In the photo below a perfect example of this craziness are the wheels on the brown car in the background.
Drummond's Summons are Summoned
Maximus slowly narrows down the list of potential band mates via auditioning. He did need to say, "Thanks, but no thanks" to a couple Sims solely based on their appearance. Hey, if you're auditioning for Bridgeport's top rock band, then you need to show up dressed for success. Johanna King below most definitely had a wardrobe malfunction and thought a trench coat would be nice stage attire.
Renee Littler also was dropped after auditioning due to some serious dental problems. But, at least Maximus and Renee hit it off well. Maximus made her laugh with a Tell Funny Story Social...
Maximus: "Okay this vampire shows up at the Prosper Room, right? The Mixologist completely ignores the vampire for like 2 hours. Finally, the vampire growls, Hey, buddy...I'm dyin' over here."
Renee: "Ha ha ha ha ha."
Maximus: "Okay, run along now. Next."
Drummond's Summons is finally formed. Maximus asks all 3 other members to join in one fell swoop in front of the Theatre. In the order they were asked to join we have Lola "Ring My" Belle on the left playing guitar; in the back wearing white we have Tom "Gangsta" Wordy, a lvl 4 Celeb and a Lyricist. Finally, Maximus asks Aria "Are you ready for some football?" Trill to join.
It's the middle of week 2 and on Friday the band is to play their very first gig upon receiving the Ensemblely Challenged opportunity at Waylon's Haunt. Maximus quickly went to the Court House to register as a self-employed band to track progress and as a way to earn more happiness from career wishes to assist in purchasing more rewards.
Gig day! EA made the whole mechanic of getting to a gig really easy-at the appropriate start time, simply click on the venue and all band members will be directed to meet up at the location. No one's work schedule will be in conflict. When your Sim arrives at the venue, just click on their instrument and choose Perform Gig.
So, Drummond's Summons showed up and the performance went off without a hitch. The entire set lasted 2 hours. The band opened up with a 30-minute extended jam called "Opening Number" which featured a 20-minute drum solo. Since it happened to be the Mixologist's birthday, the band closed the set with a 45-minute version of Happy Birthday, also including a lengthy drum solo. Lola pulled off some Sweet Moves for the appreciative non-existent ant crowd at Waylon's.
That screenshot reminds me of an important lesson that Maximus learned at Waylon's that afternoon-you've undoubtedly heard the expression, "Behind every good man is a great woman." I believe that with all my heart, but what's even more true for Maximus is "Behind every woman is a good man checking out her great behind."
So for this first gig, Drummond's Summons made a whopping $316. Sounds like the identical amount I received in my first go at this LTW and the identical opportunity presented itself. The big difference then was 1) Maximus had not maxed his drum skill, and 2) There were no celebs in the band at all. So with my second attempt, the quality of the band is light years ahead, yet the pay was the same. Kind of disappointing. That tells me that audience size and/or total gig experience might be a factor in gig payment. I'm unsure at this point.
Here's a great thing about a band jamming as opposed to a solo instrumentalist Playing For Tips - a band playing together will receive a Social bar boost with all affected relationships getting mild boosts as well. Very cool.
Maximus Hits Top Celebrity Status
I mentioned earlier that getting from level 4 to level 5 Celebrity status was a slow process. Well, that was before I read a key tip on the forum. I want to give a shout out to forumer bde1225 who offered up some nice Celebrity tips in this Late Night forum thread. Bottom line: get up close and personal with Celebs for huge boosts to Celebrity status. Woohoo for the win!
Maximus took his kissing skill to the max and put the moves on Lola outside the courthouse. Now the two band members were an "item." Paparazzi Ruby "Of course they're real" Muddler was in the background ready to report the exciting news to the world.
The next day Maximus decided to go for the home run with Lola and invited her over to his apartment. Maximus moved slowly and started with a simple astrology question...
Maximus: "What's your sign?"
Lola: "Scenic view straight ahead."
Maximus went through all the hoops and within a few hours, Lola was married to Maximus. She brought about 8k simoleans to the table which will help with the financial portion of Maximus' LTW. Maximus hit the level 5 Celebrity status after Lola became his fiancee.
Finishing Up and Grabbing the 100k
So, in the last few days it was just a question of Maximus and Lola doing as much as they could to get their household funds to 100k. Drummond's Summons performed their 2nd gig-another one at Waylon's Haunt-and this time they made a little more scratch, $747.
There are a lot of musicians in Bridgeport. Musical Sims will be breaking out their instruments left and right and playing for tips. The last thing you want for your Sim when he's playing for tips is nearby competition that can steal attention away. That's why the new Take a Break From Playing social is quite welcome. And it does not cancel your Sim's existing action which is awesome-your Sim is playing along and another Sim sets up shop right next to him. Just click on the other Sim and tell them to take a break and chances are they'll turn to reading a book or something else.
Lola hit her career cap and achieved her Rock Star LTW, so she was able to keep busy with lots of Perform Concert actions. I pushed Maximus' Performance stat to 150 and he was making pretty good money from tips in front of the Theatre. I also had both of the Drummonds take as many opportunities as possible because most paid simoleons. Lola did a book signing and it paid $10k.
What finally sealed the 100k deal was a combination of Lola holding an Autograph Session in front of the Theatre and then all of the Sim fans hanging around were right there to throw money at Maximus...
Lola: "Hi. Sarah is it?"
Fan: "OMG, yes! Yes! Yes! No, it's not with an S. It's CZ."
Lola: Okay, Czarah. There you go."
Fan: "Uh, no. There's two H's at the end."
Lola: "Next!"
I absolutely loved this LTW -- so much new content with Late Night. I'll be writing a band article soon and will delve even deeper into that whole element, but that was really my only issue with how I chose to play this LTW out-the band stuff. Gigs do not seem to be too profitable. If band members are celebrities and have high instrument skill levels that apparently does not factor into the equation with gig pay. On top of all that, gigs are offered too infrequently. But, again, I chose a band route for this LTW and you can knock out the monetary portion of the Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous Lifetime Wish doing anything you want. So, have fun and get your bling on!
So, let's say goodbye to Maximus and look upon the drum master one last time just as he was granted his Lifetime Wish on the last day of Week 3...
The strategy used in this Lifetime Wish walkthrough is not the only way to complete it. Share your tips for finishing this LTW with other players below!
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