Collections Section Launch

[Carl]

I've put together the Collections List for the Guide. I would appreciate any other general tips or suggested edits for finding things you guys may have to offer, and the readers will too. After all, there's not a lot to be done about the fact that people have to scan about for rocks, plants, etc. and visit numerous neighborhoods to find them all. The page is fairly well written, I think, so that people understand where rares come from but I may have made some mistakes. Do let me know

I think spawners start spawning around 4-5AM across the world? I saw a rock pop up in my yard at that time, but it was 4:15AM and I'm wondering if they don't do this more dynamically than in Sims 3 - maybe even throughout the day with a chance of a spawn at intervals, so that the longer you wait to revisit an area the more it will have. I went to Oasis Springs park and found 8 rocks, then a day later just 2. Pretty big gap there.

The following pages were also created to flesh out the section:
Collecting Metals
Collecting Crystals
Collecting Elements

I'll likely polish this list off fairly quickly so that the section can be done, then get back to editing Careers. It's bothering me that section is off. I have a lot of capsules to open to get MySims pricing and icons. Before I made the list of collections, I wanted to be able to provide links for at least half of them, and I've managed to give people info on almost all of them now! So that's pretty cool  Thank you to everyone who submitted information on the boards; while prices changed for some items, it helped to know what I was looking for!

Aliens and Space Rocks will end up with their own pages so that whenever I get the site converted to the new design all Collecting pages have the same navigation.

As you can see, I went the extra distance and took time to make icons for all of those new collectibles. I would've made pretty icons for the insects in OR but they all had the same terrarium picture and it was a pain to get them positioned the same for images in the table, so that will likely be the only page that doesn't have the actual collectibles' inventory icons.

[Carl]

Added:

Aliens & Space Rocks
Fossils
Postcards & Pen Pals

To do: Mysims Trophies and Microscope prints, and we will then have a full section on collecting

[Metropolis Man]

Well done, Carl. And perfect timing too because there is an upcoming Collecting challenge, and if players have accurate info that will be awesome.

[Carl]

What a coincidence  MySims Trophies are done now too. I'm finished for the day but will make edits tomorrow and consider what to do about microscope prints. I will likely get icons for the aliens and space rocks while I'm at it

[Tixxis]

I would appreciate any other general tips or suggested edits for finding things you guys may have to offer, and the readers will too.

Great guides! So much work done!

I hope the following may be useful to you and forum readers:

For neighbourhoods, I find the spawners for metals, rocks, gems and fossils spawn between 2.30 am and 3.30 am. Most of the spawners can spawn up to two times, thus leaving a 'double yield' for your Sim to collect. To explain, at the beginning of your game, it may be worth not collecting on the first day, but to wait until the early hours of the following day. You will do the same amount of miles getting round your neighborhood, but you may collect twice as much. This only works if you stay in the same neighborhood that time. In short, it's better to collect every two days than every day, if you see what I mean?
Also, it takes about 30 mins up to an hour for a newly visited area to spawn for the first time. Timing your visit after midnight, but before 3.00 am often yields double in rocks, metals, fossils, gems found.

As for MYSims Trophies and Treasure Maps: Treasure maps yield rare Trophies or a voodoo doll. There aren't that many rare Trophies, so when these have been found, it's better not to use Treasure maps. 'Dig' instead of 'dig for treasure' will often yield an 'ordinary' capsule which helps to make the rest of the collection. A Treasure Map sells for $80.
The ordinary capsules sell for $70. It's worth selling these if you've completed that part of the collection. There is only one uncommon Trophy (Doctor F) which is worth more at $75.

Postcards: A penpal request can be made every three hours. Obviously, one should 'check for replies' before repeating 'find a pen pal'.

That's all I have for now, because I'm not totally clear on the insects from OR yet. Most of these seem to spawn every 5-6 hours, but not all do.