Ranking the Best Money-Making Activities

[Mistour]

This would give us a definitive answer but boy that's a lot of book gathering for one little factoid.

Couldn't you get another Sim to write some books? I wonder if that counts!

I have a question(s) about the guitar tips thing. Does it basically mean that the more performances you've done, the more tips you get? By performing does this mean at a stadium, etc. or going to Perform > *insert song*? And does queueing them up then cancelling them really make them count towards the performance count?  

Whew! Good to be here by the way  

[Metropolis Man]

Mistour, welcome to the forums. The Performance # has nothing to do with performing concerts in different venues. It's the Perform cue available for the different songs you've learned.

[Mistour]

Ah great. So how does "cueing "Perform" of various songs and then canceling the cue quickly to rack up the Skill Journal performance statistic." work? Is it as easy as it sounds?  I used a guitar-playing Sim in my Sunset Valley game but found it didn't pay very well at Rock Star level, planned to use an Artist in Riverview but guitar here sounds like a much better option.

Thanks for the quick reply 

[PJSim]

It's the Perform option you get when clicking on the guitar. You need to let the Sim get out the guitar and play a few notes, then cancel.
You can see in the skill journal if what you're doing works, it's the "Number of times compositions have been performed" that matters.

[Pam]

Yes, do what PJ said and it will work.  I got mine to the point where he was making at least $500 per tip.  When I paired it up with an autograph session, he would easily earn $15,000 in tips.

[Metropolis Man]

I just did some testing on the question of the 50 books read and writing speed issue. And the definitive answer is....

It doesn't make any difference at all. I timed a writer at 49 books read and he wrote his first Fiction novel in about exactly 5 hours. After he read his 50th book he wrote his 2nd Fiction book in basically the same time. It was like 10 minutes less, but I'm guessing the 2nd book was a slightly shorter page count. I forgot to check on that. And reading 50 books is not something a Sim can knock out in a day. We're talkin' a solid week of work of nothing but reading. Which means no writing. So if there were any kind of bonus to offset a week of lost work it would have to be really significant.

[e^(pi*i)]

Thanks for doing all that work!

[PJSim]

I just did some testing on the question of the 50 books read and writing speed issue.

Metro, I've seen this 50 books thing mentioned by people who have looked at the game files.

Apparently it's not like most skill challenges where you get a bonus after reaching a certain goal. Instead you get a small increase in writing speed for every book read which tops at 50 books; no reason to read more than that.

So if that's how it works, there wouldn't be much difference between reading 49 and 50 books. You would need to compare the Sim with 50 books read to one who has read none.

[Metropolis Man]

Ah, thanks PJ. That would certainly make more sense than an "all or nothing" approach at 50.

[PJSim]

Yeah, I like it this way. Oh and recipes seems to count as books.

[bshag]

Yes, do what PJ said and it will work.  I got mine to the point where he was making at least $500 per tip.  When I paired it up with an autograph session, he would easily earn $15,000 in tips.

  I'm definitely gonna have to put Jon Lessen to work!

[Pam]

Speaking of challenges...  Has anyone ever made a skid row bum challenge?

Why don't you suggest that one on our Proposed Challenges thread? 

http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=400.0

[Eftyen]

Hmm... I just suggested a "Happy Hobo" challenge this morning.

As to money-making, has anyone investigated collecting?  If not, I'll try to gather some reliable data.

[Pam]

I haven't done an official investigation on collecting, but I know my Sims make a huge amount of money collecting in the foreign countries.  Palladium, Platinum, Tiberium and such are big money makers.

[Eftyen]

Agreed.  I JUST discovered the more interesting properties of Tiberium.

I've been trying to train myself to recognize the high-value rocks/metals by color.  The rocks are pretty easy, but many of the metals are almost indistinguishable from iron until you pick them up.

My idea is to maximize money/time by only sending my sim to pick up the most valuable items lying on the ground.  I'll start a strict collector Sim in Riverview (since the location of various collectibles is easier to track).  He'll be athletic, loves outdoors, loner, insane, and neurotic (just to keep things interesting).