Cranking out cash the non cheat way...

[Horkslair]

Something irrelevant

[Metropolis Man]

I believe it was Pam who mentioned Metro was a cash machine in Sims 3... perhaps he can enlighten us all on his not so secret methods of raking in mountains of simoleans?  

Inquiring minds want to know... Help us Obi-Metro! you're our only hope!  

What a coincidence you started this thread. I literally minutes ago was having a PM with Carl about starting a new thread discussing the money-making mechanics of the game. I'm going to do some testing of various skills I enjoy such as painting, writing, and guitar playing and what I want to see is how they stack up per unit of time. Someone else can do areas of the game I'm not as versed in like gardening or photography.

[Ya Cheese Buddy]

My personal favourite way to get tons of cash is to start with a bunch of adults, have a garderner, fisher, few people with high up jobs and a painter and guitarist. Then the sim i intend to play has whatever i want him/her to be as a job and if i want them to start work by themselves have them start out as a child or teenager then when the become a young adult i move out everyone else.
Yay

[Metropolis Man]

Despite the fact that Holmes topped me in the Centurian Solo challenge with his gardening/fishing combo vs my tip playing technique for guitar, I'll go on the record and state that per hour of Sim work, nothing can touch tip playing on a weekend in front of the Theatre. I didn't train my guitarist as fanatically as I could have in that challenge simply because the technique for doing so takes a real iron stomach and I got bored at the end. There almost seems to be no ceiling as to the size of tips that can be earned by pushing the performances number into the stratosphere.

I'll post some results when I have some good numbers.

Great. When you do your space rock experiments, take note of the actual time investment. That's what I'm most curious about in the thread I want to start up — pitting certain activities against each other and looking at what can be made per unit of time.

[sims96fan]

Nothing beats the money tree/omni fish combo.  For some reason my deathfish seem to max out at $1,200 or so, but I have 8 of those and 20 money trees in my garden.  Easily pull in $15k a day from the money trees plus + nearly $10k from the omni deathfish. 

Masterpiece literature only resells for about $700 so it's not really worth growing over the highest level fishing book.

One thing I'm curious about for tips is if it really caps tips based on the contributing Sims' actual funds?  It would be weird if a Sim kept tipping massive amounts even if that was beyond their household means, otherwise the AI should make tips stop after a while, which you mean you would need to keep finding new tippers to sustain your income level.

[Metropolis Man]

One thing I'm curious about for tips is if it really caps tips based on the contributing Sims' actual funds?  It would be weird if a Sim kept tipping massive amounts even if that was beyond their household means, otherwise the AI should make tips stop after a while, which you mean you would need to keep finding new tippers to sustain your income level.

I've often wondered the same thing. I really don't know if income is connected to tip size. You'd think it would be, but I've played a huge number of guitarists, and I can't seem to notice a big relation between being rich and tip size. Whenever the Goths, Landgraabs, or Agnes Crumplebottom approach the guitar case I always take notice, but the tips seem to be similar to non-rich Sim's tips. My hunch is a Sim's true household funds amount has absolutely nothing to do with what they'll throw at a guitarist.

[sims96fan]

I meant cap in terms of total tips a single Sim will give.  The Landgraabs etc may be "rich" but if you look in the town, their cash is only $75,000 simoleons or so despite their house value, which is not that wealthy in the grand scheme of things and if you have a money-generating household yourself.  If tips are unlimited, it seems unrealistic that even they (the NPC Sim) would tip you everything they had, down to their last simoleon, and see no effect personally.  I guess what I was asking is if a single Sim's source of tips is limited, and then would you need to find someone else to tip you to continue to make money?

[Lesa]

There is a book in China worth +2300 my sim had in her inventory.  I believe she picked it up in the starting base camp,  because when i went there she was always trying to read something.  And i think it got placed in her inventory by canceling the read interaction?  Basically she stolen the book on her own,  because i didn't buy the book,  or place it in her inventory.  Just wish i could remember the name of the book!

[Metropolis Man]

There is a book in China worth +2300 my sim had in her inventory. 

I know. Isn't that funny? I mentioned the valuable China books in my Martial Arts Master walkthrough at the Guide. Bruce Lee's wife returned to Sunset Valley with thousands of simoleans worth of books.

[Pam]

Great. When you do your space rock experiments, take note of the actual time investment. That's what I'm most curious about in the thread I want to start up — pitting certain activities against each other and looking at what can be made per unit of time.

After breaking rocks for excessive amounts of time, I have concluded that Tiberium is much too rare to make it a reliable source of income.  It's a beauty when you get one as it is between 30,000 & 40,000 simoleans positive cashflow, but even when you have the Timber Terminator challenge unlocked, the rock value from breaking space rocks is much too scattered, and the great majority of "space rocks" are sickeningly low value (under 50) even when cut.

You can get the following high value rocks though from space rock smashing via the board breaker
Tiberium - $6500 to cut - let "percolate"  in the basement or outside until it grows to large...  Value 35,000-41,000 when it grows.  (Do not hold in personal inventory, you get a -25 nausea debuff after about a day) Burglars WILL steal your Tiberium if they show up while it's percolating.  I recommend letting it sit in an empty basement room.   Enjoy the green glow to the room as it percolates.
Soulpeace - Value 7,000- 9,000 with heart cut
Pink Diamond - Value 4,000-6,000 with heart cut
Luminorius - 3,000+ with heart cut

These are the gems I look for and have gotten good at identifying from the raw rock colors.  Terbium is a tough one as Jade & Emerald are also slightly different shades of green, just keep an eye out for the popup when you pick it up.  Make sure to have 6,500 simoleans handy for the proper cut.

Considering the other options, space rock breaking doesn't seem too much more profitable than a top end JOB  

I have some things to add.

I've had very good results from breaking space rock boards.  Sure, I get plenty of the cheap gems, but I get a lot of the expensive ones, too.  I easily make enough to support my Sim family in a wealthy lifestyle.  Just 3 or 4 pieces of Tiberium will set them up for a good long time. 

There's no need to spend $6,500 on a spire cut Tiberium.  Just spend $1,000 and get a heart cut.  It will do the very same thing and "percolate" and transform into a large spire cut worth around $40,000.  Mine sit on the floor or on a table until they turn.  The burglar alarm will take care of any thieves.  You can also travel with the raw Tiberium in inventory and it will transform without being cut at all.

[TGBlank]

Confirming that tiberium self-grows without any cutting.

Tiberium alone is inert, you can leave it out and it won't do a thing, however, if you leave it in a sim's inventory, your sim will eventually get a sick moodlet and the tiberium will change, becoming grayish and emiting radiation; after a certain time passes, it'll transform for free into a large spire cut tiberium.

Photography:
Photography at lvl 10 isn't as bad as it initially appeared for money-making purposes. It can support a wealthy family and even surpass painting.
In sunset valley / riverview, once you complete the architectural eye challenge, you can make 800-1000 simoleons on the first pic (half for the second) from each unique landmark with the "new today" thingy.
There is: park, bistro, dinner, spa, theatre, city hall, bookstore, grocery, library, gym, beach, school, mausoleum, stadium, hospital and places in town. My photographer sim can take a jog around town (train athletics) and make 15k simoleons in little less than 4 game hours. By going in car or by using teleporter+horus, these 15k could be obtained within an hour with ease.

You can probably also catch a car, sims around town, two is company, a bicycle, furniture, outdoor stuff, picnic, bathroom, hobbies, garden-related pics and other miscellaneous subjects; if you're lucky, you'll also be able to catch top career sims going to work and a limo, this would mean additional 1~3k per day. If you are in a multi-sim home with several family members, you could add another 500~2000 on top of that as well. Add in a whole lot more money from pics to travel stuff and relics (i wonder how much one can get from a canopy jar collection each day).
If you also have, say, a mummy in your home or a playable ghost mummy, well, money goes upwards again.

Of course, that is on the home city, on vacation, landmarks give stupidly high amounts of money. My first pic of dragon cave was about 11k.

PD: you also get 4-8 wishes per day to take photographs with specific filter/sizes, the beauty of this is that they're triggered by taking a photo of the subject in question, so you can complete them right away and cash in good amounts of happiness.

[Edit:  We don't allow links to mods in the forum, so I removed the one you posted.  -Pam]

[Mirtrione]

Painting is the best way, hands down.  Selling off two large paintings worth $2500 - $4500 per hour doesn't really have any challangers!  Need to be a master painter though, as to how to paint so quickly, I started a thread about that. 

[Metropolis Man]

Painting is the best way, hands down.  Selling off two large paintings worth $2500 - $4500 per hour doesn't really have any challangers!  Need to be a master painter though, as to how to paint so quickly, I started a thread about that. 

I've had a guitarist bring in a million simoleans over a 12-hour stretch. Yeah, I think that tops your newfound painting trick. But, it's still a really cool discovery.

[Mirtrione]

Cool! How do you do that?

[Metropolis Man]

http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=33.75

Go to the middle of the page for the post where I begin..."And that's a wrap!"