Supermax Skills

[TheTripWasInfraGreen]

I mentioned this on the immortal dynasty help thread, but my unskilled test subject was halfway to supermaxing gardening in a week with the greenhouse. It's perfectly possible without it too, but that just makes it a breeze.

Fishing is really easy to supermax, though Seasons limits the times that it can be done. Do it while you can still travel, to maximize the amount of time that your fisher can fish.

[azokka361]

I'm not a huge fan of gardening, but if I get the greenhouse, I might just test it out and try to use it as a supermax! Fishing . . . ah . . . irritates me. I just don't have the patience to try to catch 13 different types of perfect fish (I have never fulfilled that lifetime wish, or the Perfect Garden), let alone 19 different fish (or 350!) for the challenges! Thus, Gardening is really my preferred back-up.

[saltpastillen]

As far as i know vaudeville and childrens books are still the most profitable books. I made my founder a hope less romantic and had her specialize in romance books. I chose that route because I wanted her to clear the speed writer challenge quickly. After that i just spammed fiction and non fiction books in order to finnish of enough (25) books to start writing master pieces. I know that writing soething else might have been more efficient, but parking my writer in front of the computer freed up time for me to focus on my other sims.

Writing is deffinate possible without either the moodlet manager or the motive mobile (even if it's more of a hazzel since you have to work ofthe stress the old fashioned way) I made my founder a couch potato since that helped her raise fun faster while watching tv, and since tv is a group activity she could full fill her social needs at the same time.

As for poetry, I didn't write enough to figure out if they are a good investment, but I would say no. Stick to romance novels for more profit or childrens books.

Starting your writer as a teenager is a good idea. I had to do it from YA since my writer was also my founder and in the end I was nervous she'd die before maxing out her careere. Thoses two final career stages are slow. But, you get a lot ofmoney which is why I picked it for my founder. So it's a trade of that you have to consider. I would deffinately have a writeer early in the dynasty because of this.

Finally i would say that writing in my oppinion is a great supermax since my writer always had more wishes to write books, which kept her occupied long after she retired. She also had a lot of wishes about working on her novel and writers collect a lot of ltwp's quickly. So it's entirely possible to start out without a motive mobile and get one with the points you collect from writing.

[Serena Darrin]

I have NEVER even attempted to supermax, or even have a sim in the writing career, so having a scheduled writer in my Immortal Dynasty is scaring me. Are there any tips for supermaxing writing that more experienced simmers would share?

Couch Potato and Bookworm are also really helpful traits.  Also, the incense burner from Egypt slows down the decay of the Fun meter, so that's really helpful too.

Masterpeices take forever so you don't need to worry about them.  Pick something that's decent for profit and run with those.   If you do want to write one, as someone else mentioned, bring a masterpeice to 95% while on vacation.

Also, writing on vacation won't count for your profit for the Writer Career (but it does count to the skill challenges)  but the weekly royalties will include books you finished on vacation, so that can still help you out.

Finally, having a writer sim is honestly kind of boring.  They'll just sit and write, and it's not very interactive.   So bear that in mind when you're considering your own play style -- a writer sim is not for everyone.

[Wai]

azokka361

You don't need to continue your sim in painting after level four has unlocked the children's book option.  If you need to stop the sim advancing any further, remove all easals from the house.  If you have another sim doing the painting skill, simply build that sim a little art studio and use door locking to prevent any other sim using the easal.  (You could also pou it in the sim's bedroom if it is a single room.)

[azokka361]

Thanks for all the help! Now I'm feeling much more confident about having a writing Immortal.

[koda733]

Cooking is definitely the easiest to supermax. It should come after playing a while.

Photography and Charisma....that just blows my mind as to how anyone can do that in as little as 50 Sim days.

[Wai]

Photography, that I can't comment on.  However, charisma can be done in less than two sim weeks.  You need to have the "good sense of humour" trait.  Start a new sim, buy a guitar and play for tips.  This will get all but the jokes challenge completed about the same time as you max the guitar skill.  Take the "never dull" LTR and simply bail up one of the crowd watching you play and tell them jokes.  After that, just keep on telling as many jokes as possible to each sim you meet.  You should have made enough money from tips to support your un-employed sim while they go around town telling 100 jokes.

[cathyknits]

Photography seems to be considered one of the harder skills to supermax - it's always been a little buggy. I think it would be much easier to supermax if you're able to travel freely (especially the challenge where you're photographing unknown sims), but there will still be some photo subjects that don't register properly (e.g. if you have Late Night, the Nectary in France always seems to register as "Hotspot" instead of "Nectary", and combined rabbit holes sometimes only register as one of the parts).

I agree that charisma is very easy - if you buy the Observant LTR, it'll get your required traits in a hurry, and also make it that much more likely that you'll get interactions with people that will give you 2 +'s for the relationship bar. Introduce yourself to everyone until you complete the Celebrity challenge - don't worry about doing more than that. Once you've got that done, use Charming Introductions to add to the boost you get when you introduce yourself to people, and Ask About Career which might open up more "double plus" interactions - it shouldn't take more than one or two interactions to get the next few sims you meet to Friend, and you can use jokes for those. Buy the Never Dull LTR, and you can use the "double plus" interactions repeatedly to make best friends fairly quickly. (Also, don't waste time talking to known Grumpy or Mean-Spirited people...)

[Vesper]

I've never been able to supermax Riding as I always have one type of race that can't be won at international. I failed a Decadynasty because of this and I had all the other elements on turning adult so that's a whole adulthood trying for first place in that single race. I tried again with a recent challenge and the Sim couldn't complete it but it was racing this time rather than cross country. He also dropped all his Show Jumping statistics randomly so I had to do eight or nine again including the international. It's a shame as it's a really different skill to others and enjoyable.
TLDNR version - wouldn't recommend racing as a supermax

For the photography Paparazzi and Human Form challenges a handy thing I noticed was that you can take pictures of sleeping sims (and they don't run away). This was great on vacation as I'd go to the base camp and photograph other travellers while they slept. In France the big shared room means you can get six to eight strangers in a panorama shot which is a great jump towards the challenges. Just don't introduce yourself to them beforehand.

Has anyone supermaxed science yet? Is it doable? I'd like to keep Logic as a shared skill for my immortals so they can all play chess and tutor kids but will use it if science is too tricky.

[Ricalynn]

I actually managed to SuperMax Riding before my heir was an adult in my dynasty.  I used some of the tricks on the guide for my international races.   Some of the tricks I used - Had a unicorn bless horse and rider.   Rider was lucky and horse had the lucky mount LTR.  Both of them had max moodlets before we started the race.  Showered/Brushed, hooves cleaned, licked the salt lick, full on water, not hungry, not tired and hadn't been ridden for several hours. 

I supermaxed science in a non dynasty file.   It's most likely doable with no issues.  Social Networking didn't want to work when I wanted it to but someone else said they had done it so it's doable but the rewards are broken.  Science only has three skill challenges but it takes a while to get them all done.   Out of the two, science is going to be way faster to do than logic I think.    Although I loved Logic for my founder.   He became best friends with each new generation through tutoring and I could just sit him at the computer playing Chess all day when he wasn't working.   But then again I had a different activity planned for each immortal so they'd be out of my hair.

[Vesper]

Hmm your story of a max logic founder has tempted me... I've always loved Logic so this time I didn't want to limit it. Science will be nice and new.

Interesting about the racing. What I was missing was the unicorn blessing and a lucky jockey in the second attempt and just the blessing on the horse (which was the unicorn) in the first. Seems harsh that it couldn't be achieved out of 50+ races without perfect conditions though. Especially as two of the three internationals had been achieved so much more quickly. Perhaps I'm just unlucky.

[Ricalynn]

Hmm your story of a max logic founder has tempted me... I've always loved Logic so this time I didn't want to limit it. Science will be nice and new.

Interesting about the racing. What I was missing was the unicorn blessing and a lucky jockey in the second attempt and just the blessing on the horse (which was the unicorn) in the first. Seems harsh that it couldn't be achieved out of 50+ races without perfect conditions though. Especially as two of the three internationals had been achieved so much more quickly. Perhaps I'm just unlucky.

It all came down to the type of race too.   You have to watch the screen and change the settings based on what was going on for each one.  You couldn't just set the tone and work on other people.