Townie Skill-a-Thon

[ratchie]

@Rainbow Dash taking pictures of other Sims increases friendship with them similarly taking selfies with them has the same effect. Three pictures technically 15 bit you know what I mean got me to good friend status.

Rachel

[Sruixan]

@Rainbow Dash - as Vesper says, though Elsa was still a child, her maxed mental skill allowed her to gain points in Video Gaming. I knew beforehand that kids could learn some adult skills, but went googling for a full list; that was also when I learnt about them being able to learn Vampire Lore, courtesy this list:

Maxed Creativity unlocks: Media Production, Photography, Piano, Pipe Organ, Singing, Violin.
Maxed Mental unlocks: Fishing, Logic, Video Gaming.
Maxed Social unlocks: Charisma, Mischief. (Not Comedy for some reason.)
Maxed Motor unlocks nothing.
Available from the start: Bowling, Pet Training, Vampire Lore.

Apparently I miscategorised Media Production when I replicated this for my spreadsheet, which might explain the trouble I had in testing! Whoops! One other thing to note - I was actually aware that Video Gaming was accessible to kids already, and moreover, that it can be unlocked by maxing either Mental or Motor, because I remember quite clearly a bug where any points gained in Video Gaming after maxing one of those two were lost the moment the other was maxed! I assume it's long since been fixed, but was still pretty worried about Elsa in this challenge regardless. She was gaining Motor skill alongside Video Gaming and almost as quickly, but fortunately having the club perk skill boost for Video Gaming and the Focused club vibe (Motor being an Energized skill) meant she was able to reach level 10 before maxing Motor, though I think she did make it to level 9 there!

As for the photos, taking phone selfies with sims is the way I went, hence the shot of Skylar and Dennis Kim, but as has been said, simply taking a photo of another sim works too. Oh, and with regards to your original strategy post - you don't have to kick yourself for forgetting gym trainers, because I forgot about handymen!

[SoulGal7]

@Sruixan - Wow! I didn't even know about this. Thanks so much for sharing. I also didn't know that children can gain the bowling skill. I guess I always just thought that children could only gain the "4" children's skills and that was it.

[Teresa]

This is the reason I love these challenges - I learn so many things about the game, and I have been playing since it came out.  But we get into the habit of playing a certain way so the challenges pushes us to try different things.  And then we read what others did, and there are light bulbs popping around me from all of the good ideas.

[IronicBeauty]

Late to the strategy round-up and wanted to add the only (and possibly disqualifying) trick I knew that I didn't see mentioned already.

Other than having a gym trainer mentor you in fitness you can play basketball. When using the 'Dream Big' option you seem to level the skill at a rate that could be considered very exploitative. Haven't measured it or anything but I would say it could be upwards of 5-10x faster when using all your club boosts and such. If this has been mentioned as an exploit that is a no-no to do, my apologies for missing it. Though it has been in the game for quite awhile now. I'm always expecting it to be patched out but it never is.

If this disqualifies me that's fine I'll still reveal in my discovery as I'm normally so dumbfounded by all I didn't know that I kind of... somewhat.. to myself... never out loud... vow just a little vengeance... in the next challenge that I will inevitably and utterly fail.

Eh, I try

[Metropolis Man]

If this disqualifies me that's fine...

Nope. You're fine.

[Kirstie]

I was reading through everyone's strategies and as usually it is enlightening.

I had one major accident in my own score file that didn't happen in testing. I created a club and started inviting people I wanted to make good friends with. One of them was Vlad... unfortunately during one club outing to the yoga studio, Vlad stayed in the sun too long and burnt to a crisp.

I couldn't believe my level 10 Pipe Organ plans turned to ashes in front of me! But a lesson learned

- Kirstie