2012 Tournament Finale: Got Skills?

[miricats]

Finished earlier today but couldn't post at the time

Made a *lot* of mistakes.

Finished with 22 completed skills and 43 skill challenges.  No supernatural, so completed all available skills.

So, final score is:

22000 * (1+2.15) = 69300.

Numbers should be right as my spreadsheet calculated them.

Thank you Metro Man for such an interesting challenge.  I greatly enjoyed it.

[LenaLJ]

Got a rare case of sclerose few months ago, has been good and bad days since.

This challenge was one of them i looked forward to the most, but now i couldnt play it because of the symptomes im struggeling with now.

If you accept this i would still like my score of 15 skills and 33 skill challenges. I both know its probaly to late, but as i didnt finish i first didnt want to add the score, but then again, wanted to have my name on all the lists.

[Metropolis Man]

It was nice to see so many players finish up yesterday and post scores. Sorry I was not one of them, guys. *wink* I promise I will mix it up with you big dogs more next year -- I am just so into the new Rift expansion and am trying to advance my toon which takes mega amounts of work.

Anyhoo, grats to Nutella for winning this Finale event and my thanks to all participants. It has been a fantastic season with great participation. I will be crunching the numbers later today and will post the final World Ranking very soon.

[Esther1981]

Congrats Nutella! And also congrats all that finished!! I'm getting pretty good with 1 sim without needs static but not any more than 1!!

[Chuckles_82]

I'm sorry you couldn't play your favourite challenge Lena. I myself had much more pleasant business that kept me from finishing challenges - family commitments. I did the same as you though, and posted an incomplete score. I also overcommitted myself on another huge project. I look forward to seeing what our top finishers did, and any tips on quickly completing skills and challenges (will also be useful for dynasties).

I guess a few tips I can contribute are:
A good mood is a must and increases all skills the fastest. And, always be working on a challenge, not just the skill itself.

Gardening - planting increases skill the fastest. Plant common until level 5, uncommon until level 7, and then bananas up to level 10, as they increase skill the fastest. Buy all necessary produce from the grocery store. Take the green thumb and gatherer traits, and the extra green thumb LTR. Plant some nice quality or better plants at level 10 and fertilise for perfect produce first time.

Alchemy - only use 'research' while you have recipes available to learn. Spend the rest of the time mixing elixirs. Don't mix any unless you absolutely have to at low levels, as once you reach level 10 you have a chance to make up to 3 in one go, so you'll spend much less time clocking up 150 for the challenge.

Fishing - take the 'angler' trait and fish with the correct bait for each fish in an active fishing spot. You'll catch many more fish that way.

Collecting - buy all gems and metals from consignment registers. Don't be afraid to buy them out of other objects along the way to make things faster. Check space rock spawners daily. Keep an eye out for aliens, as they seem to deposit space rocks randomly about the place. Check out the spawners list to work out when to look for rare bugs and butterflies.

Music skills - Play alone until level 5, then learn the first song to perform. Perform that a few times then play for tips in the subway until you get $25k. Then perform songs until level 10. Skip the guitar star type challenges, they take way too long to get all the opportunities, but if you get an opportunity, you may as well take it on the off chance that they'll add up to enough by the end.

Painting - paint small paintings

[drift9999]

A few pointers for this:

Set-Up
You'll want to grab a Moodlet Manager, as well as Fast Learner on both sims as quickly as possible. This can be done with gem transfiguration and the swimming in cash LTW combined with the potent wishing elixir (I'm not sure what it's actually called). For the quickest challenges, you can easily pick up two Consignment challenges by buying 500 vegetables from the supermarket and consigning them, and one or two Collection challenges by buying out the consignment store for metals and gems.

The first skill one of your sims does should be Logic, as this does give a bonus to the study of many other skills. It isn't significant for some where you'll reach level 10 before completing all the skill challenges, but may be useful for skills where you can complete the challenges before maxing - specifically Cooking, Gardening and the 4 Instruments.

Division of Labour
Do note that athletic/martial arts and handiness/inventing 'go together' in that training the latter skill will also give xp for the former one. So you'll probably want the same Sim to do both of them. I split the challenges as follows, in roughly the order they were done:

(-X means that X skill challenges were left out.)

The "Logic" Sim - Collin East

• Logic - Chess is pretty bothersome, but the rest of the challenges fell quite easily. You can go visiting others' homes to teach children if necessary.
• Piano/Guitar/Drums/Bass (-4) - Once you reach level 5, learn the song to perform; buy a community lot and install a subway. After a few performances of the song you'll easily finish the 25k. Then keep performing till level 10 - note that performing boosts the skill bar faster. Don't bother with the star challenges.
• Cooking - Menu Maven completes itself at level 10, so it's just about mass-serving dishes that are fast to prepare; I used Sushi.
• Painting - Stick with small paintings to finish the challenges quickly. I bought the Extra Creative LTR to increase the chance of masterpieces and brilliants.
• Charisma - Music skills can help here. I also made him a singer for a while to help build relationships. For Comedian, find a sim with the Good Sense of Humor trait. Then repeat making silly faces (faster than telling jokes) until the count reaches 100.
• Writing - If anything, the problematic one will be the 'get 30k (?) in royalties' one. I wrote mainly children's books as they're fast and pay decently well.
• Gardening - Mass harvesting was done with apples as those trees produce lots of fruit. During Collin's brief career as a singer I had my other Sim Raymond toss him a bunch of perfect produce. Planting them easily knocked in the other two challenges.
• Riding - Somewhat luck-based though keeping mood high helps. If you go to the Equestrian Center immediately when the tournament session opens, you can get in two races per session. Only do 1 International for each type; stick with Advanced for the rest to finish the challenges more smoothly.
• Nectar Making (-1) - I'm not sure if you can get The Vizard of Vine without access to France. Other than that, there isn't too much to say. The various combinations can be easily attained by buying fruit from the supermarket and entering it in various ways.
• Collecting (-2) - Didn't get the Fireflies and Beetles. Mushrooms can be done by planting them in a garden. As for the rest, the collection helper helps.
• Consignment - For profit, once you get paintings and sculptures it'll clear itself easily. Reputation and quantity of items is easily solvable by mass buying fruit from the supermarket and reselling it.

The "Non-Logic" Sim - Raymond East

• Alchemistry - Not too much to say other than what Chuckles has said. Wait for the higher levels to mix them for hopes of getting multiple at one shot.
• Sculpting - There aren't any challenges on sculpture value anyway, so it's just a question of time it seems.
• Inventing (-1) - Did this early to try and get the Simbot opportunity, which I did get. Judged 100 Big Inventions as too troublesome. For the scrap collection and detonation challenges, you can place one large stack of small items (preferably in a far corner of the lot) and detonate them.
• Handiness - Reached level 10 early, but it took quite a while to get the 10 electrical and 10 plumbing items. For the plumbing ones, when doing mixology I hired maids to clean up those drink trays, so there were enough broken sinks. The mass writing on the computer eventually broke enough computers to get Electrician.
• Fishing - Not much to say... Don't waste time in spots that don't have jumping fish. Use bait to catch stuff early, where applicable.
• Martial Arts (-2) - I don't think you can win the tournament, and Sim Fu King is possible but hard - (find a tourist from China and then keep inviting her as a foreign guest) - I didn't get it. The other 2 are easy enough.
• Athletic - This is why I picked the moodlet manager over the motive mobile - you can cure the exhausted moodlet. It's just a time investment, really.
• Mixology (-1) - I couldn't be bothered with Professor of Drinks. The rest... I had four bars so I could queue up the actions, and hired maids to clean up all the drinks trays.
• Photography (-1) - I missed out the complete 5 collections challenge. Photog, Architectural Eye aren't too bad; Paparazzi and Human Form Expert required some planning. I ensured that Raymond wasn't in touch with many other Sims until he went about shooting photos of them.

The Non-Sim - Wind Horse

• Jumping
• Racing - Similar approach. Not much to say, stick to advanced competitions to clear the requirements (of course after the Sim has won one International in each discipline for the Rider of Legends challenge).

@Lena: sorry to hear about that. Hope things get better for you soon.

Fairly straightforward but nevertheless enjoyable final challenge. Looking forward to an exciting 2013 season!

[Nutella]

Drift, my approach was very very similar to yours.

Instead of Moodlet Manager, I opt to go Alchemy + fast learner asap.  I also use swimming in cash LTW + gem cutting maching + transfiguration table + Wish Enhancing Serum (very important !!)  I also picked up 3 skill challenge on 1st day, 2 collecting and 1 consignment.  With 3 skill challenge completed, I use 2 for midlife crisis, 1 for fast learner. 

The first skill one of my sim level is photography.  Right after I use the Wish Enhancing Serum (24 hours) I level photography.  This netted me loads of happiness points -- plus 2 more skill challenge fairly quickly (photog and architectural eye).  I got another fast learner + teleporter (so i can travel fast !!!!)

My other sim worked hard on Alchemy -- very important in my challenge.  This is how I took care of my needs:
Hunger -- Hardly Hungry / eat a fruit
Bladder -- Steel Bladder
Hygiene -- Dirt Defiant / Mobile Motive
Social + Fun -- Vial of Bliss / Vial of Potent Bliss
Energy -- Potent Invigorating Elixir

As you can see, I didn't even bother getting moodlet manager.  I found out that potent invigorating elixir actually saves me more time by locking the energy bar for 2 days.  If I use moodlet, it will zap away the elixir buff (found that out when I was playing Dynasty).  My alchemy toon also made lots of wish enhancing serum -- anytime i have a 5k wish come up, I will use the serum and get 10k points.


Husband Sim
Photography + Gardening + Logic + Inventing + Handiness + Martial Arts + Nectar Making + Athletic

Wife Sim
Alchemy + Fishing + Cooking + Guitar + Instruments + Charisma + Writing + Painting + Mixology + Riding + Sculpting

Horse Sim
Jumping + Racing


Logic -- I threw parties in my lot, invite teens and children -- tutor.

Guitar + Instruments -- Don't bother with star challenges.  I didn't do the performing, but I had my sim play the intruments while I have party on my home lot.  She finished 3 of the charisma skill challenge just by playing instruments during parties.
   
Cooking --- autumn salad all the way till I hit 75 dishes.  Then off to the library to read cook books.

Painting -- small paintings + extra creative LTR

Charisma -- observant LTR + play during parties, then tell 100 jokes and finish off reading book in library to max.   
   
Writing -- children book, wrote 20 books then stop.  The royalties will keep rolling in every sunday, I think i got 30k by the 3rd sunday after I stopped.  Don't have to write more than 20 books, just have to wait it out.
   
Gardening -- planted 19 kind then move on to plant grapes (for nectar challenge) and elixir mats (spotlight mushroom + wolfsbane) -- needed those for potent invigorating elixirs.   

Riding -- buy lucky mount LTR on horse, then enter competition only after horse skill is max.  Horse training done on home lot.
   
Nextar Making -- vizard of vine can be done with homegrown grapes.
   
Collecting -- got all the collecting.  Main reason I play in sunset valley because I know all the insects / butterflies spawn point, made life easier.
   
Alchemy -- mix vial of bliss + potent invigorating + wish enhancing serum

Sculpting -- do 5 clays, 20 ice to get the faster sculpting unlock -- then finish off the rest of the challenge.

Inventing -- make smasher like crazy then detonate the smashers + blow up a nice expensive car.
   
Handiness -- I threw parties in the beginning everyday.  I put out dishwashers 1st, when i got 10 bad ones, then i put out sinks.  If they are dishwashers around, they won't use sink

Fishing -- fish like crazy, only fish in spots -- 6 fish per spots, move on when fish no longer jumps in the spot.

Martial Arts -- can't complete tournament.  Sim Fu King is easy.  My logic sim is my martial arts sim too, he teach/tutor the martial arts skill to another townie.  I tutor 2 sims (prefer the unemployed ones) in martial arts skill, then keep inviting back to the house and spar.

Athletic -- didn't use moodlet manager (because of potent elixir).  When fatigue, i have my sim switched to inventing, making those 100 big inventions was sooooo time consuming.
   
Mixology -- didn't do professor or master.

Photography -- didn't finish paparazzi, rest are pretty easy.

[smartburn]

For those who used midlife crisis, I'm curious as to what traits people chose...

I kept overemotional, and also added loves the outdoors (of course), excitable, and lucky for both. For my mostly artistic sim I chose loner, and for my mostly athletic sim I chose kleptomaniac. In hindsight I wish I had replaced lucky with ambitious, as lucky didn't help Mr. Klepto (aka Garnet Stone Gem) win horse competitions any more so than he would have without it I think, and I ran out of time to bother with the chess challenge with Mrs. Loner (aka Pewter Pigeon Gem) as I saved logic for later than I probably should have. I also realized that the "feeling lucky" moodlet only happens after sleeping, and by week 3 or so there was none of that silliness going on. I'm glad I picked loner and klepto though - Mrs. Loner made a great artist/writer/gardener/fishersim, while Mr. Klepto was instrumental (pun not really intended but whatever) in both completing their LTWs and also with Mrs. Loner's scrap collector challenge. Keeping OE and adding excitable also worked out well for both sims, even if they stopped every so often to cry or clap their hands.

I should add that for some reason I thought that mood-enhancing drinks, potions and elixirs were banned, when apparently this is not the case at all - it was just traits and skill-boosters. Had I realized that I would've tackled alchemy and perhaps logic far sooner than I did, and maybe even mixology, heh.  Also, I discovered that not only detonation is seriously entertaining, but increases inventing skill more than anything else - if I knew that my horse and dog would be taken away by the social worker thereby negating the horse's scores (8 in racing, 7 in jumping with 2 skill challenges completed at the time of removal - I gave up on the idea of a unicorn), I would've invested in fireproof homestead as an LTR. 

I could go on, but I tend to ramble and my main question was about traits used.

[Nutella]

smartburn-

I used midlife crisis many times, but here is the breakdown:

Husband
Midlife #1 -- loves outdoor + photographer's eye + genius + green thumb + gatherer
Midlife #2 -- loves outdoor + overemo + eccentric + handy + gatherer
Midlife #3 -- loves outdoor + overemo + disciplined + athletic + gatherer

Wife
Midlife #1 -- loves outdoor + overemo + supernatural fan + angler + natural cook
Midlife #2 -- loves outdoor + overemo + virtuoso + artistic + charismatic
Midlife #3 -- loves outdoor + overemo + bookworm + artistic + childish
Midlife #4 -- loves outdoor + overemo + equestarian + friendly + angler
Midlife #5 -- loves outdoor + overemo + equestarian + friendly + savvy sculptor

Loner trait was not needed for me, since my sims can drink vial of bliss when they are lonely
Lucky trait not needed either, since you only need it for racing, and the horse LTR (lucky mount) provides that lucky buff.

[smartburn]

Oooh, interesting - for some reason I felt like I had to save the chances to get rewards "just in case" but after a while it did become a bit irrelevant I suppose. I ended up favoring desert pony in favor of lucky mount, and neither that nor the purchase of equine zen did much for my hapless horse in the end. Mr. Klepto could've benefited from being Mr. Equestrian at some point, that's for sure - he maxed the riding skill very, very quickly by simply riding the horse, but he wasn't very close to getting any of the skill challenges, and I'll admit he paid less attention to the poor thing after he maxed. I swear I'm much better with pets in real life... 

Thank you Nutella for sharing your insight, and congrats on winning the challenge!

[drift9999]

Hmm, I didn't think of the idea of tutoring townies in martial arts or using mid-life crisis at all (for some reason thought that traits were fixed, when it was actually just trait changing elixirs and drinks banned). Congrats, Nutella! 

[LenaLJ]

I thought that  we werent allowed to change traits at all, but i might have misunderstood that part.

[gracieoscar]

I actually chose not to change traits. It's not the best move for the challenge but I was enjoying playing sims with traits I wouldn't normally choose. Also by the time you have a motive mobile sims no longer need to sleep, so they don't wake up grumpy. If you keep them happy enough, overemotional works well anyway. The only real problem I had in the end with the traits was that my charisma-learning sim had trait incompatibilities with just about everyone in town. Even then, it only takes one or two friendly socials to get over that initial dislike. I admit I would have very much liked to have virtuoso and equestrian at times, but overall I found it fine.

My tips would be to remember all the little things that can easily make even the grumpiest of sims feel elated - beautiful vista, music playing etc. Have your two sims be married at the start for easy fun from woohooing - although this becomes unneccesary after you get the motive mobile. I chose the motive mobile over moodlet manager, as i wasn't bothered by things like curing the exhausted moodlet - 12 weeks is plenty of time to supermax athletics!

Try to time challenges well between the two sims so things can be done together: e.g. sim1 would invite over a chess player, win the match,  then while the sim was on the lot he/she could either be tutored by sim1 or be photographed by and made a best friend of sim2.

Things I wish I had done better:  teaching townies martial arts (very clever!), not having my charisma sim also learn photography (he couldn't find enough strangers to complete the challenge!), detonating all the smashers would also be a great idea. I should have started inventing earlier as I didn't give myself enough time for the simbot opportunity chain.

[MarianT]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought you weren't allowed to change traits! I did the same as gracie, using the Motive Mobile to keep them happy (4 all told; they keep glitching).

I did manage to get the Vizard of Vine, using buydebug to obtain the varietals -- I PMed Metro, and he said they were skill items.

Of the traits, hates the outdoors and grumpy were the most troublesome, clumsy the least.

[Metropolis Man]

Using Mid-Life Crisis was a key strategy. Trust me guys. But it's one of those things where I could not come out and say "hey don't forget you CAN use it" then everyone would have done it and the players who realized that it was NOT banned and did it would not have been rewarded.