The 'Work Hard' Career Ethic, and Math

[Antalia]

I just got Sims 3 for Christmas, and I have only one expansion (Pets), which I acquired last week. After being puzzled by some of the less well-explained mechanics of the game, I've created a test game to experiment with them. Currently I've been looking at the difference between the "Work Hard" and "Normal Effort" job ethics.

I have a set of twins with the same traits and skills. They acquired the same job on the same day. The job only takes "Mood" into account for performance (at low levels), according to the career tab. So I sent the twins to work with their mood bars and moodlets in identical states. But I told one twin to use the "Normal Effort" ethic at work, and the second twin to use "Work Hard". I was hoping to see how much difference in job performance gain there was between the two ethics. (Because I had a growing suspicion that there wasn't any...)

I kept this up for several days and I was (am) completely baffled by the results. Sometimes the "Normal Effort" twin got a much higher performance increase for the day, and sometimes the "Work Hard" twin did. Sometimes they did the same. Sometimes one or the other did not gain any performance at all while at work. The "Normal Effort" twin received her promotions faster overall, though she only beat the "Work Hard" twin by a day to career level 2 and then 3.

At this point, I could have continued as more performance measures started to come into play. But, I've realized I need a larger sample size or a better method to measure the difference between the ethics, if there is any. I realized someone else had probably already done this, since this is quite an old game (although it is quite new to me). I had searched the internet and found that this site and some other wikis often suggest that using the "Work Hard" ethic as much as possible, is the best choice for increasing job performance. But I couldn't find a percentage difference from "Normal Effort", or any game XML quoted. Then I found a mod (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=354611) that, if I am reading the description properly, causes job performance to increase when "Work Hard" is selected. That seems to imply "Work Hard" might not increase performance in the base game, if I am interpreting the language and the comments about the mod correctly.

Could someone help me to devise an experiment to find how much performance difference there really is between these two ethics? I am afraid I don't understand the capabilities of the (undocumented) "cheat console" well enough to set up a good test scenario (I did it completely manually with my twins--no console--and it was a real headache). Or (ideally), could someone explain how I can view the information I'm looking for in the game database, if that is possible? I am ordinarily very technically capable, but I've run into dead ends concerning the tools others must be using to find and quote game XML.

I realize this is a very advanced question. Thanks in advance for your help.

[RainBeau]

Well. I am not adept at delving into the game code, but I never noticed Work Hard being the same or inferior to Business as Usual. That is surprising to me. However, I can tell you how to open to cheats console.

In game, press CTRL+Shift+C. This will open the cheats window. If you want everyone to have perfect motives or be able to adjust them, etc., type in "testingcheatsenabled true" without the quotes. This is the base cheat for the game, and many other cheats depend on it. This will allow you to Shift+click the mailbox and it will give you a variety of options. You can use Make Everyone Happy to raise the motives of everyone on the lot to full, or you can choose Make Needs Static to make the motive bars full and keep them from changing. To reverse this, just Shift+click the mailbox again and select Make Needs Dynamic. Having the testing cheats enabled will also allow you to adjust the motive bars directly by clicking and dragging them. Keep in mind if the game is paused you will not see a difference in the motives until you un-pause the game.

I hope this is helpful to you. Enjoy the wonder that is the Sims 3!

[MarianT]

If a sim has the workaholic trait, then "work hard" does indeed produce much better results than the normal mode. If your sim also works at home on the computer -- an option available only to sims with the workaholic trait -- it's possible to get a promotion every day for the first 4 or 5 levels.

[Antalia]

Thanks, ombradellarosa, I didn't know that about the mailbox, and that's exactly what I would like to do!

It's a good point about Workaholic--I will check the performance difference with that trait. (I know how to set traits with the console, amazingly My twins were not Workaholics when I was testing.

[Sarabi]

Here's a guide to viewing the XML tuning files:  http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/forum/index.php/topic,10759.new.html#new

[Fysh]

It may be that other factors come into play that have made your original experiment less reliable. For instance if a sim works hard they are more likely to become 'strained', which in turn has an effect on their mood, and consequently their productivity. For non-workaholic sims you might see better results by working hard for only half the working hours, then changing to work normally.

Of course to run a proper experiment you do need to make the needs static, so your new experiments should give more conclusive results. It sounds very interesting, let us know what you find!

[Seabody]

Hi Antalia, welcome to the forum.

What parts of viewing the Game Code are you finding tricky? In order to do it, you need at a minimum s3pe - this lets you go into the XML, ITUN, OBJD, and VIDEO files, among others. Then, to get into the C area, you need any good browser/decompiler. I use ILSpy (it's free and Open-Source), but you can use Reflector, or any other one. If you need any more help, feel free to PM me.

If you want to test this, I would set Needs to Static, then have the Sim join a career and spam "Work Hard" until they are promoted. I would then quit without saving, and place the Sim again in the same town, same lot, set Needs to Static, have them join the same career, and spam "Business as Usual" until they are promoted. Don't let the Sim leave the lot; turn off autonomy if you have to.

Edit: Working on seeing how this tone works. I can tell you it has a performance bonus of 5, but nothing else yet.

[Antalia]

Okay, here are my results so far for the job performance increase after one day of work with static needs (all need bars full, all the time). The "Having a Blast" moodlet was active at all times while at work, assumedly due to the static needs. The top section of the mood bar sat at what looked like half at all times. This is with a new part time career (three hour shift) at level one.

(No Workaholic trait.) Job performance increases:
Work Hard: 6mm (50% of the upper performance bar)
Normal Effort: slightly under 5mm...looks like 4.8mm, but I don't have a ruler that accurate (~40% of the bar)
(The total length of the positive performance bar on my screen is 12mm.)

I tested the same scenario with the Workaholic trait as well, and I got exactly the same results. (Of course, note that Workaholics get the red stapler moodlet while at work--so their mood state at work is naturally higher than non-Workaholics. This bonus isn't reflected in my results, because needs are always set to maximum.)

To be clear, I measured the career performance bar with a ruler after work ends for the day. (This is since I haven't come up with a way to display the numeric value; the in-game screenshot feature doesn't capture the UI for easy pixel counting; and PrintScreen captures solid black pixels, probably because I insist on playing in full screen mode.)

I should probably add that this all seems, in my experience, fairly useless as soon as needs are non-static and Sims go to work under more realistic conditions. "Work Hard" seems to decrease the Fun bar rapidly, driving down the Sim's mood under normal circumstances. The poorer mood state generally brought on by "Work Hard" seems to slow the overall rate of job performance increase (over what could have been achieved with "Normal Effort" over the course of the day) sometimes.

Obviously this leaves still more questions, but at least I have confirmed that "Work Hard" actually does increase performance by about exactly 25% over "Normal Effort" under static conditions (reliant on the accuracy of my ruler, anyway)!

I haven't had a chance to look at the XML yet, but perhaps that will help provide enough information to determine the clear point in the mood bar when "Normal Effort" ought to be activated for the best performance.

[AlienTwins]

Good to see a bit of scientific method in a game often lacking it