It's a Rewarding Life - Part II

[Nandarelle]

My team of Sims gathered 671 points.

[junegem]

Well, @Metropolis Man , as you say, unlikely it was identical, but I would not be surprised if there was a core similarity in our approach. Will be interested to hear after the event and of course I will be very interested to hear how people managed to get these huge scores. It shows me how much I still have to learn. Well done to all.

[Eighty8Keys]

Rhea Ward and her household ended up with career rewards worth 466 points. Excellent challenge. It was fun trying out some new careers.

[Nutella]

850 points

[sone]

Final score for part two is 602. Just barely had enough irl time to finish. (And only 1 death!)

[Metropolis Man]

This challenge is now closed. There were not quite as many participants as in Part 1, as a few players ended up not posting scores, but still, a respectable 11 players jumped into Part II. I do not know when the last time she won an event was, but former challenge team member @Nutella is the winner. Great job!

Everyone is now free to discuss strategy.

Oh, one more thing. The two August rulesets will be posted next Monday and not today,

[Nutella]

Two main points to my strategy:

A) Discard part one file.  Strategy involves inviting in fresh premade sims with high careers, doesn't work if I continue file for part one.  When you invite in high career sim, you will receive the career rewards in your household inventory.  During testing I only found one exception to this: Jacques Villareal, in order to get his criminal career rewards, you have to move in his entire household, not just him.

B) Clubs.  Rally the troops, Networked club, and all the different skill boost perks.  With rally the troops, my sims never have to pee / eat / sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lot - Manzanita Terrace in San Sequoia.  This lot comes with Bracing Breezes (for fitness) and Natural Light (for painting) lot trait.

1) Starting sim -- no career
2) Penny Pizzazz -- Social Media (eight)
3) Lily Feng -- Business (9)
4) Raj Rasoya -- Culinary (7)
5) Celeste Michaelson -- Tech Guru (10)
6) Ian Robles -- Writer (9)
7) Anaya Jang -- Painter (9)
eight) Baako Jang -- Entertainer (9)

Just by inviting these premade sims into my household, I already have 313 points by end of first day.  Using a combination of fortune aspirations, I was able to have enough points for everyone to buy Connections and Enterpreneurial trait. 

My made my starter sim a gardener, focusing on inviting everyone into household on day one then garden garden garden.  I chose floral designer at level 5 but made some mistake and took 3 days on one of the level (managing 8 sims is tiring), so only ended at level 8 by the end of challenge.

Penny is already at social media / internet level 8, I didn't feel like it was worth pursuing social media as level 9 didn't have reward and level 10 only have one room template.  I had Penny quit her job and started Military career at level 4.  By the end of 2 weeks, she was able to max Military career.

Lily started with business career at level 9 (CEO), I kept her job and she was leveling charisma from skill 0 to max in several days.  Took 2 vacation days so she could stay home and just talk to mirror all day long for charisma.  Finally hit max charisma and was able to get business 10 promotion on week one friday.  After that I had her quit her job and took up secret agent at level 4.  Only managed to get to level 6 by week 2 thursday.  Her job had 3 days off, no way I can get anymore more promotions in, so had her quit and join all the other jobs one by one to get all the level 1-4 career rewards.

Raj is at the culinary / chef route level 7.  Chef is so much better than mixologist for this challenge, as chef route gives many rewards.  Raj is the only sim in the household that did not need to buy Connections, just have him concentrate on getting chef career to max.  He was able to max chef career by end of week 2.

Celeste is already at the top of tech guru career, so I had her quit her job and enter the Athletic career.  Chose Pro Athlete instead of Bodybuilder because pro athlete have longer working hours, easier for promotion when have long work hours.  Manage to get to level 9 by end of week 2.

Ian is writer / author level 9. needed one last level in writing skill and 6 logic levels for promotion.  Got the promotion week one saturday and then proceed to quit job and enter the Astronaut career at 4.  Finish challenge at astronaut 6.

Anaya is at painter career 9.  Need few more levels of painting skills and 6 logic levels for promotion.  Got the promotion week one friday and then proceed to join style influencer at 4, got to level 6 then quit and join criminal at 4, ended challenge at criminal 6.  I should have join criminal right after the painter career max, would have got more points in criminal career instead of style influencer.

Baako is at entertainer / comedian 9.  Didn't want him to get to comedian 10, not much reward.  Instead quit and join Detective at 4.  Detective career has so many rewards, but managing it is very tiring while worrying about 7 other sims.  Baako managed to get to Detective level 7 by end of 2 weeks.  During his work hours I would go to work with him and watch while my other sims go to work so I can change work normal to work hard. 

One annoyance I find is the creative fog and mental fog.  While it is easy to deal with, I just put sims on the treadmill, it is an annoyance that it took them away from leveling their actual skill needed for promotion.  I could ignore the fog and have burnout later, then buy moodlet solver but if their burnout happens during work hours, then that is bad news. 

Job promotions at medium level usually takes 2 days of working hard, 3 days if I made mistake and did not change to work hard.  High level (like from 9 to 10) I noticed needed 3 days to get promotion.

[Elinoee]

Great job @Nutella !

My strategy was closer to yours, except that I continued my Part 1 file (that my sim 1 did all alone): I didn't even think that the premade sims could have another career after a week of play... I was lucky that all the sims I wanted to move in were at the same level of their careers that they do in a fresh save.

I moved in the same premade as yours, execpt Baako Jang that I replaced with Thi Linh ( Secret agent level 7) because I really wanted Anaya Jang but if I wanted to move in her husband Baako too, I would have to move in their child and I didn't want her to take a slot in my household. How did you do? Is it ok to leave the child alone?

Here is my complete strategy:

On day 1, my sim 1, Erol moved in some sims that were at a quite high level of their careers and gave instantly a great amount of points :
- Thi Linh (secret agent l7) gave 23 points
- Raj Rasoya (chef l7)  gave 41 points
- Ian Robles (author l9) gave 37 points
- Anaya Jang (master of the real l9) gave 37 points
- Penny Pizzaz (internet personality l8) gave 54 points
- Celeste Michaelson (startup entrepreneur l10) gave 62 points

Then Celeste got the connections reward and got the astronaut career at l4,which gave 9 more instant points, the athlete career at l4 which gave 2 points,the criminal career l4 6 points, the entertainer career l4 9 points,the style influencer career l4 9 points,the doctor career l4 8 points, the scientist career l4 9 points, the gardener career l4 20 points, the actress career l4 4 points, the military career l4 12 points, the education career l4 9 points, the law career l4 6 points, the civil designer l4 career 2 points.
She ended up the day by being a detective at l4, which is from afar the most lucrative career in terms of rewards. That gave her instantly 59 more points.

I so had already 458 points at the end of day 1.
Then it was time for my eight sims to work had in their careers ! Everyone got the entrepreunarial reward trait + connections reward trait + networked club perk with the household club.

Erol decided to go in the military career and managed to go to level 10 the last day of the challenge.
Level 5 to 10 from military career (covert operator) gave the household 60 more points.

Raj Rasoya stick on to his chef career and managed to go to level 10 which gave 58 more points (the level 10 is particularly lucrative, with 50 points).

Celeste got 88 points by going from level 4 to level 7 of the detective career.

Thi Linh got 17 more points by going from level 7 to level 9 of the secret agent career. As it was impossible to go to level 8 before the end of the challenge, she grabbed 5 more points by going from level 4 to level 5 of the entertainer career (comedian).

Penny Pizzaz managed to go to the top of her internet personality career, which gave only 10 more points. She then became a style influencer and got 5 more points by going from level 4 to level 5 of the career.

Anaya Jang went to level 10 of her painter career, which 20 more points. She then became a gardener and went from level 4 to level 6 of the floral designer career:11 more points.
As it was too short to get the level 7, she then began an entertainer career and got 5 points by going from level 4 to level 5 (musician branch).

Ian Robles got the level 10 of his author career, which gave 10 points, and then became an astronaut which gave 11 points (level 5 and 6).

Lily Feng became a l10 manager, which gave 20 points, and the became a doctor, while learning the veterinarian skill. The doctor career gave 11 points (level 5 and 6) and the veterinarian skill 45 points.

[Nutella]

I moved in the same premade as yours, execpt Baako Jang that I replaced with Thi Linh ( Secret agent level 7) because I really wanted Anaya Jang but if I wanted to move in her husband Baako too, I would have to move in their child and I didn't want her to take a slot in my household. How did you do? Is it ok to leave the child alone?

I invite their child to my lot and have a birthday party for her, age her up to teen.  Then you can move in both mom and dad without moving Billie Jang in.

[Nutella]

Ian Robles got the level 10 of his author career, which gave 10 points, and then became an astronaut which gave 11 points (level 5 and 6).

Give yourself 10 more points, should be 20 points for level 10 author career.

[Rebelangel]

@Nutella, congrats on the win! Super interesting that you and elinoee used the same strategy of bringing in premade sims (which admittedly was a lot less effort for a lot more reward than the one I pursued

I kept all 8 sims from the previous challenge. While my starting sim tried to rack up aspiration points, the others raised their fame to L4/L5 by making and selling paintings nonstop. Coming into this challenge none (except the starter) had pursued a career before, but all had 1) connections, 2) an atrocious reputation (bribery appears to be the most effective way of ensuring promotions) and 3) Career Hopper. The strategy involved mapping out careers to minimize days off. For example, one sim pursued the Bodybuilder and Tech Entrepreneur career simultaneously. Her schedule looked something like this:

Monday 1: .Joined the military career, got promoted to L5. Quit and join Athlete.
Tuesday 1: Athlete promoted to Bodybuilder L5.
Wednesday 1: Promoted to Bodybuilder L6. Quit and join tech guru
Thursday 1 - Saturday 1: Reach Tech Guru L6. Quit and rejoin Bodybuilder
Saturday 1 - Monday 2: Reach L9 of Bodybuilder. Quit and rejoin Tech entrepeneur
Tuesday 2 - Friday 2: Join Tech Entrepreneur at L7, get promoted to L10
Saturday 2: Rejoin Bodybuilder and get promoted to L10

I did learn by playing in this ridiculous fashion that the Sims has a very realistic function that won't let you rejoin a career after quitting two times in a row, which stopped a few of the other household members from maxing out their respective career paths. Oh well.

[Granny Lawlor]

If we're allowed to score career rewards that pre-mades bring in during Part II, I need to amend my score to 311.

[Elinoee]

Ian Robles got the level 10 of his author career, which gave 10 points, and then became an astronaut which gave 11 points (level 5 and 6).

Give yourself 10 more points, should be 20 points for level 10 author career.

You're right @Nutella , I forgot about the room, so I got a total of 844 points! So close to yours 
It was clever to age up Billie Jang in order to move in both parents!

[Nutella]

@Rebelangel

Question for you about rejoining careers.  Don't you lose a level when you quit and rejoin? 

[Deklitch]

Congrats all, especially Nutella.

I kept my file going from part 1. I started part 2 with my starter sim and his adopted son (who was adopted on the Friday of the part 1 file). Son joined scouts. Father hopped careers with his connections. He formed a club (Newsies) and among those who joined was Marcus Flex. Marcus and Dek hit it off, and Dek invited him and his household to join. Enough was brought in for most/all to earn enough for connections and entrepreneur. I played most of the two weeks with these six sims. Then I brought in the high level actress lady, once I worked out the 'sets' were stylised rooms.

Re my invisible sim/fire.

Marcus was put into cooking. I realised after a time he had turned invisible, but I could still him to do things. I annoyed the team about that happening (it was about Tuesday of the first week of this challenge) as to what to do. They gave a couple of suggestions. Thankfully though I just had to turn off and restart my computer and he appeared again. During the 2nd week of the challenge, I decided it was time to age up my child sim to a teen sim and so he went to cook the cake. He got to the stage of putting the cake mixture in the pan on the bench and he became burnt out. So he didn't go on with it. His cooking skill was level 6. One of his female starting housemates tried to continue on with the process (no cooking skill) and that caused the fire. All the household crowded into their little kitchen to protest the fire ... and my astronaut sim used a fire extinguisher to put out the fire. No one died, amazingly and my kid sim never got to celebrate his birthday party, poor Darius.

Thanks for the fun challenge, as always, it was, as they say, rewarding.