Thank you, Nutella!
I took a leaf out of your book actually.
Let me give you the breakdown first:
72 Lifetime wishes
28 Master Skill wishes
30 Max Career wishes
74 'Proper' 5K wishes
131 Marry X wishes
The social networking skill was a key feature in my strategy. Not only to find elders, but to find elder partners for marriage.
Testing had showed that a Sim could marry up to five, even six times in a day. But I never went that far in the official file.
All my Sims had 'family oriented' and 'hopeless romantic'. But even Sims with a 'Surrounded by Family' LTW
and those traits would not always succesfully translate their proposals in wishes to marry 'X'.
I found that the first two marriage proposals were the most efficient, and that if needed, the Sim would wait for the next day (or later) to have more 5K marriages.
The 'marriage' procedure I used was always the same. The Sim found by the app would be made a best friend and moved into the household, which reveals the LTW. After the Sim had used appropriate mood-enhancing elixirs, romantic interactions followed up to 'propose marriage'. This operation would take about 4 hours on the whole.
The relationship between the involved Sims would then be reset to 'best friends' and the Sim found by the app would be kicked out. However, those who reciprocated the wish to marry and/or get married - and had displayed an interesting LTW - would be invited back into the household at a later stage, because they kept those happiness points, even if away for awhile.
I mostly used this technique with Sims, who did not have to hold a job in order to fulfill their LTW. But Sims with career-related LTW's used it as well, once they had fulfilled the requirements and were ready to leave the house.
Social networking was also key in LTW's such as heartbreaker, master romancer, super popular, lifestyle of the rich and famous, etc. For the charisma skill purely, it was just as easy to use the brain enhancement machines. The machines fill in any 'friends' and 'acquaintances' needed as you go through the levels.
This brings me to the issue of skill boosters versus brain enhancement machines.
Personal Programming does not affect the efficiency of skill boosters, but brain enhancement does. I used the machines mainly for townies who had too many different skills already. But on 'blank' Sims I used skill boosters.
There is a belief that the effect of skill boosters is random. But elixirs made with perfect plant and high-end gem dust will deliver time amd time again. And skilling will be much quicker than with brain machines.
The one problem with skill boosters is how to 'dose' them. This was particularly important for the 'One Sim Band' LTW. I used the skill boosters until level 7-8 for all instruments. Then, I used the brain enhancement machine to go up to level 9. The Sim then would play for 6 Sims to have the wish in each given instrument. I could then finish off with brain enhancement - not skill boosters, as they would be inefficient by now.
By the way, playing for 6 Sims does not mean that they have to actually watch the performer. Just having 6 Sims around the player is sufficient to fulfill that wish and have the 'max instrument' wish.
No need to say then, that I used a lot of 'Arnett Household' Sims and/or NPC Sims as opposed to townies. Which is just as well, because I played in Appaloosa Plains, and honestly, there aren't many high-flyers there.
I also liked to work with aliens, because they come without fail with logic 10 and handiness 7.
I had a few upsetting moments. The 'Animal Rescuer' did not register for me. I hoped that adopting 6 elder animals from shelter would be good enough. But it obviously was not.
Also, 'Surrounded by Family', was a disaster. In hindsight, it could have been avoided if the Sim I controlled had this LTW. I counted, however, on the townie wife to duly produce the babies. Once the babies became children, I would have one of my minions age them up to teens with elixir except for one, of course. Ageing up the last one would be up to the elder mother.
Unfortunately, the mother had all the necessary babies (I checked the family tree), but two of them never made it into the game proper, and hence, never grew up.
Other LTW's I didn't fulfill:
Monster Maker: those Simbots come in the world as adults
Fairy Tale Finder: couldn't tell the age of the unicorn
Grand Explorer: Hehe! In Appaloosa Plains? No way.
Deep Sea Diver: not without proper diving sites
Seaside Saviour: simply hate that one
Firefighter Superhero: could not face micro-manageing that one, but got a point for maxing the career.
Gold Digger: ghost of spouse would turn into fiance, so I scrapped it
Home Design Hotshot: too much hassle and time - I did get a point for maxing the career, though.
Perfect Student: not enough vacation/uni days left
