Styling: "client is too picky"

[Thalassicus]

Early in the styling career almost every makeover succeeded, but as my level rises, the rate of "completed job, but client is too picky" failures are also rising. The past half dozen makeovers failed despite doing what the customer wanted. I become 100-relationship best friends with each client before the makeover, then discuss and compliment fashion, then offer makeover.

My sim is:
Level 8 stylist.
7 styling skill.
10 charisma skill.
10 painting skill.
27% complete portfolio.

What am I doing wrong? Am I just really unlucky? I might get the "lucky" trait if it's just a random number generator type failure.

The failed makeovers still add to profession experience, but I'm getting no money and cannot fill out the portfolio. It's discouraging to spend half an hour on a complete wardrobe of a dozen items for someone, only to have the game say, "You failed!" without further explanation. I wonder if there's some way to mod it to give more helpful feedback?

[Katie123urgreat]

I, too, would like to find out more on styling and the chances of having a failed attempt. But, I never knew there was a styling skill.

[saltpastillen]

This is the advice from the guide about the "client is to picky problem".


"The Importance of Socializing to Success in Fashion
Get to know your clients. The discuss fashion and compliment fashion sense social interactions are your friends. Chat them up as well. This puts them into a better mood and improves your relationship. If you get a lot of complaints that your Sim did a good job but the client is too picky, you're probably just not buddying up to them enough."

Try socializing a lot more with your clients before makeovers.

[Katie123urgreat]

Thalassicus said that her stylist becomes best friends with each client.

[saltpastillen]

I saw that, all I meant was that maybe she should try even more social interactions, to see if that made a difference. I usually have more success when I do 2-3 more social interactions than I think I need, that tends to make my stylist have more success. But it does take a lot more time.

Sometimes you're asked to do a makeover for someone who is a friend/best friend already. If that's a case I always do at least 5-6 social interactions before offering makeover.

It tends to differ a lot from sim to sim though (the sim doing the makeovers). In some games I rarely have any problems, while other sims have a lot more negative feedback.

[Katie123urgreat]

I saw that, all I meant was that maybe she should try even more social interactions, to see if that made a difference. I usually have more success when I do 2-3 more social interactions than I think I need, that tends to make my stylist have more success. But it does take a lot more time.

Sometimes you're asked to do a makeover for someone who is a friend/best friend already. If that's a case I always do at least 5-6 social interactions before offering makeover.

It tends to differ a lot from sim to sim though (the sim doing the makeovers). In some games I rarely have any problems, while other sims have a lot more negative feedback.

Sorry about that. Yeah, some games for me I am really lucky and hardly get that they are too picky, but sometimes my sims just have their bad days.
I after reading this I will probably socialise more with my stylist's clients, even though I'm usually not bothered. 
Maybe someone can look at the game codes and see if there's anything on the chance of failing a makeover.

[Thalassicus]

I looked through the files and found what affects styling. The first two values allow the "offer makeover" to appear on the socialization pie menu for "unofficial" makeovers (those which are not official jobs for the day). These rules do not apply to official makeovers. They only affect visibility of the "offer makeover" option, and the developer specifically mentions these values do not affect success/failure of a completed makeover.

kLtrThresholdForMakeover = -80
This means we cannot offer a spontaneous makeover to super-enemies. We must have -80 lifetime relationship or higher for the "offer makeover" option to appear.

kStcThresholdForMakeover = -80
This means we cannot offer spontaneous makeovers to people whose current conversation status is "very angry" or "bored." The current conversation status must be okay, sociable, or friendly.


kMakeoverFailureChancesPerStylingSkillLevel = 40%, 35%, 30%, 25%, 20%, 15%, 10%, 5%, 3%, 2%, 1%

The numbers above are the random chances to fail at Styling skill levels 0 through 10. You can see the stylist skill with any "hidden skills unhidden" mod. It's possible to reach level 10 in the stylist career while still having a low styling skill. The commonly-cited tips below do not appear to affect success rate:

• Best friend status
• Socialization
• Matching favorite color
• Adding outfits instead of replacing them
• Lucky trait

The only way to improve our odds is doing more styling to raise our Styling skill. Each makeover (failed or success) raises our skill level, and working on the drafting table also raises skill. There is still a chance to fail makeovers at maximum skill. I had 7 styling skill, so I probably had a string of bad luck.

[saltpastillen]

Thanks for taking the time to write down this information.

I'm horrible at looking at game code, but I like knowing what's behind the scenes so to speak.

[Katie123urgreat]

Thank you!
How would you raise the stylist skill? I know it's by continually styling, but is there a way, other than a mod, that simmers could see their sim's level?

[Seabody]

Thank you!
How would you raise the stylist skill? I know it's by continually styling, but is there a way, other than a mod, that simmers could see their sim's level?

It's a hidden skill, so if you want to see it, you have to use a Mod.

[Katie123urgreat]

It's a hidden skill, so if you want to see it, you have to use a Mod.

Thank you. Would I need to use master controller, or is it another one? If the latter, please PM me.

[Seabody]

Thank you. Would I need to use master controller, or is it another one? If the latter, please PM me.

MasterController would do it.

[Katie123urgreat]

MasterController would do it.

Okay, thank you again, Seabody.

[SimBlip]

I never had a 'picky' client. The trick is not to annihilate the wardrobe they already have. But to add items to it.

[Thalassicus]

I've had "picky" failures when adding clothes. I did not find anything in the files indicating it has an effect.