Rockstar...

[kibakiba]

Hello, sorry if this isn't the place to ask this but...

I have a sim who's a rockstar and I've completed the guitar star challenge but I haven't been getting any more money that I did before. His performance level is as high as it'll go. He only gets 300-600 for his performances or a rare 700-800 show every once in a while. His wife makes more than he does in an hour than he does in one show. Have I done something wrong or have I misunderstood how much rockstars make? Oh, and his traits are (if you need to know) hopeless romantic, virtuoso, artistic, friendly and family oriented.

Any help or information you could give me is very much appreciated.
Thanks!
Kiba

[Metropolis Man]

Hi kibakiba, welcome to the forums. Look on the Guide for an article I wrote on maximizing guitar income. Concerts are not the way to go for Rockstars. The entire Rockstar career to be honest is simply not as profitable if you go pure guitar and train your guitarist for days at a stretch to get his performance count high in his skill journal. Once you get that all-important performance number sky high, then his individual tips can be larger than a 1.5-2k full concert paycheck. On rare occasions, I've had 10k individual tips. I keep meaning to test and see if the "exploit" I detail in my article is still valid with the latest patch/Ambitions.

--------

Here's the article. I posted and was lazy. 

[Pam]

I keep meaning to test and see if the "exploit" I detail in my article is still valid with the latest patch/Ambitions.

Yes, the exploit still works. 

[kibakiba]

Ahh, thank you
I guess he'll be playing for tips from now on. That guide is pretty helpful!

Thanks again,
Kiba

[Pam]

A fun combination is to have an autograph session, then play for tips immediately after.  It's also not a bad idea to cook up some food and put it in your Sim's inventory, then set it out on the ground for the audience to eat.  They won't leave from being hungry that way. 

[Leto85]

A fun combination is to have an autograph session, then play for tips immediately after.  It's also not a bad idea to cook up some food and put it in your Sim's inventory, then set it out on the ground for the audience to eat.  They won't leave from being hungry that way.  

Can you also put cups of coffee that way? Then they will not leave immediately from being exhausted.

[Metropolis Man]

Yes, the exploit still works. 

That's really surprising given the painting one was fixed and it was based off of a similar game mechanic. Thanks, Pam.

[Pam]

Can you also put cups of coffee that way? Then they will not leave immediately from being exhausted.

I don't do coffee, in real life or the Sims 3, so I don't know for sure.  It would depend on whether you could drag the coffee tray to your inventory and they drag it to the ground where your Sim is playing.

[LlamaMama]

I tried to queue up various songs to "perform", then click on each as the sim started playing it. As it turned out, every action cancellation made the sim audience lose interest and walk away. I must have done something wrong.

[Pam]

I tried to queue up various songs to "perform", then click on each as the sim started playing it. As it turned out, every action cancellation made the sim audience lose interest and walk away. I must have done something wrong.

You're sort of trying to do two different things at once and it won't work.  If you're playing for tips, the crowd will stick around and give you money.  But as you see, if you stop playing, they leave.  By queueing up performances and cancelling when he starts to play, you're using the exploit to add to the number of performances to make each tip larger when you play for tips.  You can't do both at once, though.  You can't use the exploit and actually get tips at the same time.  You don't even need an audience for the exploit.  Just do it whenever or wherever it's convenient.  Then the next time you play for tips, each tip will be bigger.

[LlamaMama]

Thank you! A fantastic tip for those of us screwed up by the Rockstar challenge bug.

Did I miss the link to the article? There are at least 3 of them on Carl's Guides, and none sounded like this.

edit: missed it and now found it.

[Saltypaws]

With my rockstar, when she got up in the mornings, I would have her do as many "performs" as possible, but, she was also an artist and gardner, but she was so easy to work with.  Throughout the day, I would stop her and do a few more "perfoms" until evening, then she would spend time with family.  On weekends, that is when she would go down to the theatre around noon on Saturday and play until nine pm and I would take her back down there on Sunday and then start the whole process over.  Naturally, I would notice an increase in her tips, I think the biggest tip she got was 4,500 and I hit over 300 performances, but since she was doing other things, she didn't get the last challenge for the guitarist, but I did not push her.  I am so family oriented and she raised three kids, but she made it to the top of her career.  Plus, to do an autograph session and then play for tips is awesome.  I forgot about her one weekend and she made 259,000 in tips from Saturday to Sunday.  This is just my style of play, but I love the Rockstar profession myself.  Whatever works for you, then that is the key.

[Metropolis Man]

Salty nailed it. I think I've played over a dozen guitarists since Sims 3 came out and by far the best way to go is "training" Mon-Fri, then standing in front of the Theatre on the weekend for tip playing. You can definitely still make decent money in the week with tip playing, but the crowds on the weekend are noticeably larger. I haven't played a guitarist in a while. Maybe if I set up a Rock Star challenge for the 2011 Tournament I can strut my stuff and win one for a change!   

[Saltypaws]

I don't know, I am not as extreme as you are, but as many rockstars that I have played, might give ya a run for your money, but, you are the master of that guitar profession.  I have done that one more than any other career, maybe because I love music.  Sounds like a good challenge Metro.

[LlamaMama]

A fun combination is to have an autograph session, then play for tips immediately after.  It's also not a bad idea to cook up some food and put it in your Sim's inventory, then set it out on the ground for the audience to eat.  They won't leave from being hungry that way. 

Will they eat fruit if you leave it on the ground, or does it have to be "serving" plates of cooked food?