The Detective Career: Solved Cases and Other Questions

[oshizu]

How does the Detective career keep track of the "Cases solved" value?

For example, the promotion requirement for Level 7 is "Solve 3 Cases."

My sim has started Case 4 but wasn't promoted to L7 (her progress bar didn't move at all the day she solved Case 3).

Question: Should she stop short of solving Case 4 until she gets the L7 promotion?
               Or can she go ahead and solve her 4th case and, after the L7 promotion, have it count toward the L8 promotion task of "Solve 4 Cases"?

[Playalot]

I'm pretty sure they count regardless of what level your sim is at. So you might get to solve the next case now and it would count towards the 4 cases you need at level 8.

Let's see what other people have to say to be sure though... it's been a while since I played the detective career.

@meubanks @dodi90 @grimsoul  Do you guys remember how this works?

[MarianT]

I would keep going with the 4th case. Also, you might try not following your sim to work one day and see if you can get her progress to move that way. If you have her in a club and have the network perk, she will actually make more progress than if you join her at work.

[oshizu]

I would keep going with the 4th case. Also, you might try not following your sim to work one day and see if you can get her progress to move that way. If you have her in a club and have the network perk, she will actually make more progress than if you join her at work.

Thank you for the tip, @MarianT
I wondered if performance might work like the Scientist Career, but have no experience with Detectives. So you're suggesting that I altnerate between "Join/solve a case" and "Send alone"...sounds like a smart plan!

[meubanks]

It is more important to fill the daily progress bar every day than it is to solve cases, and there is generally no benefit at all in doing any more work related tasks once the bar is filled. You will almost always be able to easily solve enough cases time for each career level, so solving extra ones neither hurts nor helps to be honest. I would not choose solving a case if doing so would prevent you from maxing out the task bar, because it will actually slow down your promotion. If it is close to the end of the day it is advisable to wait (if your task bar is already filled), because solving the case will often come up first the next day, and it gives you an easy jump on the next day's tasks.

Honestly, once you fill the task bar for the day, it is more productive to build skills or relationships than it is to queue up any work. Fill the bar, then do whatever you want. Extra work has no additional benefits. Police is kind of boring because most of the tasks are meaningless, generic, and repetitive. They all count the same and are only there to give the illusion of police work. You can literally skip all of the tasks and just solve the case at the map if you want to.

If I do a factory reset, I'll play through each of the GTW careers once to unlock the achievements, but scientist is the only one I play for fun anymore. Police and doctor lose their luster quickly, but for different reasons. Scientist also has very nice benefits outside of work, while the other two not-so-much. Police get a decent computer though.

[oshizu]

@meubanks
I heartily agree with you that filling the daily progress bar takes priority, but only after a sim has solved the required number of cases for the next promotion.
If my sim's next promotion requires that one more case be solved, the sim will focus on solving that case first because, as MarianT pointed out, the performance bar fills faster when the sim goes to work alone.

Once the required number of cases for the next promotion is solved, my sim starts a new case assignment and begins working on the next case (visiting crime scene and gathering evidence, if necessary; analyzing evidence).  If one is trying to max the career as quickly as possible, doing extra (case-related) work can have its benefits. Like, when my sim arrives at work the day after a promotion, she can issue an APB before noon and solve a case the same day.
My sim is currently Level 9 and has solved the required 6 cases. She only needs to push her performance bar all the way to the right, so she'll only be "sent alone" to the Station from now on.

I'd never done the Detective career before, so I wanted to try it out in my dynasty challenge. For my first three cases, I had problems with the arrested suspects not showing up with me at the station. My third suspect "only" had to be arrested twice and my last two suspects came with me the first time. That was both worrying and annoying.

I agree with you that the Scientist career is the most fun and most useful. Playing the Doctor and Detective careers once each is enough for me, though my sim looks pretty bad when she's dressed in the detective uniform! And I love when she dangles the handcuffs.

[meubanks]

@oshizu
I wasn't disputing that you should solve the required cases for promotion. I'm sorry if my post was confusing in that regard. I meant that you should prioritize filling the task bar over solving any over and above the requirement. In most cases solving the case will pop up on the daily tasks anyway, so the two goals will align reasonably well, but like all things Sims it can be wonky at times. When the task bar is full, I like to save the case I'm working on for the next morning, mainly because it lets me get a jump on that days task bar. In situations where solving would result in the promotion I would certainly solve it though. Sorry if I sounded argumentative. that wasn't my intention.

If there are skills that the Sim can gain at work, sometimes I'll follow them in anyway just so I can skill them up. Other than that, I agree that sending alone is the better option, because to me the career is repetitive and not much fun after a while.

The one thing that most people don't realize, is that the illusionary police work has no impact on the case whatsoever. You can completely skip gathering and processing evidence, just using the map to get clues and solve. The queue will make you do the other stuff, but it is meaningless busywork to give the illusion of depth. You can also gather extra evidence at one site, and use it until you run out. Evidence is completely generic and not related to a specific case at all. I only go to the crime scene every 2-3 cases and I only do the filler tasks if they help to fill the bar.

I think we essentially agree with each other. I just didn't explain myself correctly in the earlier post.

[oshizu]

@meubanks
I'm really, really sorry if I sounded like I was arguing with you. 
I do appreciate your feedback and clarification!

I'd also like to clarify the reason I was so focused on cases in my post: my suspects weren't following me back to the Station unless I arrested them multiple times at first, one only showed up the next day.
I understand what you mean now---solve cases, fill the task bar, then any other work at the Station is just busy work.

That's pretty awesome that you can arrest the right person just using the map to get clues. I visited a crime scene every other case but don't issue an APB without 6 six because I fear a drop in my daily task bar. I agree with you that the career gets repetitive after awhile. I like your phrase "illusion of depth."

I had trouble interrogating the suspects of my first three cases (had to issue multiple APBs and couldn't get them to the station). The fourth perp, I arrested twice before she showed up. The fifth and sixth perps showed up after the first arrest.
Do you think, meubanks, that my game was just glitching or that the later arrests were more more successful because of my sim's higher Detective level?

[meubanks]

@oshizu
Interrogation can be wonky. It doesn't always work correctly, even when you do everything correctly. That's one of the reasons that I avoid solving a case late in the day. In most cases, the suspect will be in the cells the next morning, and you can finish the interrogation then. If they don't follow you to the station after the arrest it isn't usually game breaking.

One small clarification. It is good to unlock as many clues as possible, but you DON"T need to analyze the evidence or anything to do it. If you keep clicking the find clues option on the map(sorry I don't know exactly how it's worded in game), it will generally keep giving you clues. You do want to narrow the options down as much as possible, because with only 2-3 clues there may be more than 1 suspect who fits the description, and you'll be left with a risky guess. In many cases the correct suspect will be fairly obvious though. If you try to arrest the wrong suspect you'll get a substantial performance hit.

Interrogation game play is remarkably thin. Most of the time you won't need anything but bad cop. Switch it up if you start getting failures or if you like the other animations, but overwhelmingly that is the most effective interrogation interaction.

And no worries. I didn't think you were arguing with me. I know that my tone is sometimes more blunt than I intend it to be. I wanted to make it clear that I wasn't attacking anyone else's opinion.

Also, I haven't played the career lately, so there is a chance that some of my info has changed in patches. I doubt it however, the career is just not as interesting as it could have been. I totally agree about the animations though. The dangling handcuffs and bad cop animations are a hoot.

[Sonshine]

I just wanted to add that at first I had problems w/the perps staying. I'd arrest them, but if I had to go to the next day, I would have to go out and re-arrest them. I don't know if that was corrected by a patch or what, but about halfway through, they would be in the cell when I arrived the next day.

As for the Interrogation interface, I found that the good cop worked most of the time. Once in a while though I would need to use the bad cop. Sometimes when I used the bad cop immediately, I would get a substantial drop in progress. That is why I usually stick w/the good cop unless that one isn't getting results. Many times, a mix of the two will work. 

[Blanchflower]

To reach to the top of the detective career, one must solve at least 6 cases. I think the best strategy to do this, is to solve all 6 cases in your early stages of the career. By doing this, you need not worry about solving cases when there is a promotion opportunity. Granted, doing this may not boost your performance but if money is not a concern, this tactic is highly recommended.

Additionally, I don't think that the information about the potential suspect is a bug because it was actually intended by design to provide 1 or 2 incorrect description of the potential suspect. As in real life, not all clues are reliable. To counter this problem, I suggest you choose the option to ask about the suspect on the Sims you find in the lot. More than often, they will point to the direction where the suspect is. Then, just follow their advise and arrest the suspect. However, this does not work all the time though.

My Sim has now reached Level 10 of the detective career by following the above mentioned strategy. Hope this helps.

[Playalot]

Hi Blanchflower, great tips. Just so you know though the suspects not matching the clues is a bug and was not like that when Get To Work first released. It is a shame tbh as it ruins the fun for many simmers and causes them a fair bit of frustration.

I like your tip to complete the 6 cases as quickly as possible which is quite easy to do as the clues/evidence from the previous case will actually work for all future cases so if you really want to power through the career it can all be done very quickly indeed! I always hang on to the extra and often collect as much as I can from the first crime scene meaning that subsequent crimes can be solved a lot quicker and without any loading screens! Just don't analyze it until you have started the next and subsequent cases.