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Robotics is a new skill in The Sims 4 Discover University Expansion Pack
The Robotics skill was a new addition with Discover University and allows your Sim to make bots that help out around the house, as well as Servo who can live with you... But that's not all! They can also craft a Robo-Arm that helps with crafting speeds and skill gains.
The Robotics Workstation is your go-to for crafting robots. Ok it's the only thing.
While of course you're free to learn Robotics from a book, you should really learn by doing if you can afford it. Dr. F's Robotics Workstation is $1,100 Simoleons and tinkering on it will yield you the Robot Salvage Parts that you need to craft things. It saves a tiny bit of money, but more importantly provides some skill experience.
Robot Salvage Parts are a new type of Upgrade Part you can purchase or make while 'Tinkering' at the Robotics Workstation
All the various things you can make with Robotics can actually be sold for money, so don't worry about risking your investment. Some of them take some cash in addition to parts (including those from the Handiness Skill). The developers set things up so that you're actually able to do (some parts of) robotics retail if you so choose, but it's possible to just sell them from your Sim's inventory and make a little money on toys.
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My Sim being shocked to death while working on a simple toy. The Robotics Skill is now the most dangerous skill in The Sims 4
While on my way to level 6 Robotics skill, I got shocked no less than 12 times which is an absurd amount that I hope they'll change. Any time you have this happen, your Sim gets dazed. It's a warning which will last about two hours. I was curious if I could be killed like with handiness repairs, and gave it a go after saving. Yes, I died. This skill's shock rate is ridiculously high when working on the materials and simple toys. I'm curious if I'll end up shocked 10x making a Servo. There are items from high level that help you prevent shocks, but evidently Sims are very bad at working with electronics.
Making and selling toy robots is one way to make money with Discover University's robotics skill.
Because of the need for parts, the only profitable early-game item for a Robotics expert is the Chatter Bot toy. This requires $30 and another $20 in Robot Salvage Parts (4, if purchased from computer). It sells for $150 or so, so it's definitely profitable but nowhere near as worth it as other skills. However there are some nice things about Robotics that make it worth pursing for reasons other than money making.
The Robo-Arm is a cybernetic enhancement skill roboticists can make for their Sims. Once equipped, it provides some bonuses discussed below.
As you level up Robotics, you gradually learn to craft new types of bots. Here's a list of what you unlock, with details on the individual abilities further down.
As you can see, Quadcopters take a bit more parts. This results in them being either less profitable or more time consuming than the simple toys.
Other than getting shocked regularly, this is perhaps the most frustrating part of the skill, and a place where using crafting in The Sims 4 highlights its flaws. It's not made for crafting in convenience, so you must craft computer chips and mechanisms that you need for other things one at a time. At least they're free, unlike the electronics and other upgrade parts you need to make an actual robot... but it would've been better to allow a Sim to craft more than one at a time or queue up the interaction more than once.
Utili-Bots like the Fixer-Bot can be used to do a variety of things, but their batteries and durability drain while on. They enter a 'searching' mode where they are constantly looking for things to fix.
The game throws a bunch of Utili-Bots at you between levels 3 and 6. The bots themselves are Not Bad, you just need to only activate them whenever you actually need them. They will do exactly what you'd expect and take care of problems. Your Sim activates them via remote, and only needs to do occasional maintenance on them. The four types of Utili-Bots are:
To give you an idea what they cost in terms of materials, the Gardener-Bot and Fixer-Bot both take:
If nothing needs done, these guys should be off because otherwise their durability is draining constantly.
We were told that you can sell bots at retail before launch, but I spent $1500 plus the above parts to make a bot of "Excellent!" quality and sold it for $800. I lost over $1200, off the top of my head. It turns out that this is a bug using the sell button on robots themselves. I tested it while recording a video for this skill, and the ultimate result is that dragging the bots to the inventory sell button will actually give you a proper price (think $3500 for a fully constructed Utili-Bot) and the sell button gave me $80. So... Don't use the Sell Interaction until it's fixed unless you like losing money..
Bots do sell for more when they're enhanced, but even at 3 levels upgraded they only went for $960.
Utili-Bots can be enhanced, for the cost of 10 Robot Salvage parts, 1 common upgrade part, 2 electronic, 1 kitchen, 2 Mechanisms, and 1 Computer Chip. It's a lot of scavenging for parts, ordering from the computer and making mechanisms and computer chips one at a time at the Robotics Workstation.
You can upgrade your Utili-bots a total 10x, each time getting a little better durability, or energy drain, or energy recharge rate. It's good, but the way the parts are handled makes it somewhat frustrating. It is nice if you like one of the bot types you can push it to be even better.
The Robo-Arm enhances your Sim with Cybernetics.
The Robo-Arm is the one thing that reduced the rate of my Sim being shocked, though it didn't negate it all together until I was max-level Robotics. While I have been "mean" to many parts of this skill, I have to admit... I love this thing! Not only does it look cool, it also increases robotics skill gains by 25%, and boosts crafting speeds by 20%. This is one of the only instances of this bonus in the game! And, of course, it makes you get shocked less. Use this with Marketable to make even more money in any skill that requires crafting.
At Level 8 in Robotics, you can craft Servo, who I'll cover tomorrow. He takes a GOB of parts. Here's what you need in case you want to plan ahead:
So in order to make a Servo, you need about $1200 in Electronic Upgrade Parts, $150 in Common, $1350 in Kitchen Upgarde Parts, $60 in Plumbing, and $375 in Robot Salvage Parts. The grand total for this is $3,135 and you still need to craft, one at a time, 18 Mechanism and 12 Computer Chips which will take about 30 hours. Yes, making a Servo should be an achievement but I don't stand by the idea this is somehow OK that his value is $6,000 retail.
I need to touch on Mechanical Engineer and Servo itself. The new robot is actually pretty cool despite the annoying crafting process. When I'm done, we'll have a good deal more information on cybernetics in The Sims 4 Discover University. See, Computer Engineers can get a special helmet/visor and Mechanical Engineers can make an entire Exo-suit that gives them the ability to hover. Both of these are great additions to the pack. So I'm a bit salty about how Robotics went down when I examined it, but I do want people who read this to understand that it's only because I was excited about it. I'd rather have things to be excited about and maybe be let down sometimes than to never feel that. In this case, I was not happy with what I found examining robotics.
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The Sims 4 Seasons expansion now has options! Want to disable weather or make plants in season year-round? You can do so with my new Seasons Tuner Mod
The past month, I've spent every day tinkering The Sims 4, making quality of life improvements, gameplay changes, and new difficulty settings for the game. If you'd like to learn more about my project, visit the post on Patreon where you can download it now.
Cottage Living Guide! Here is my guide to new features in the Sims 4 Cottage Living Expansion
You can also find handy Cottage Living Cheats
I have much more to come, since you can actually write a few guides about this pack!
Blender has been incredibly useful in video production, so I made my own Physics and Simulation Improvement Addon that lumps a ton of unique tools into one compact interface.
Snowy Escape Cheats
Lifestyles in Snowy Escape
Climb Mt. Komorebi
Sentiments in Snowy Escape
Rock Climbing
Skiing Skill
Snowboarding Skill
I've released a guide to Sentiments in The Sims 4 & Snowy Escape.
There is a new platform tool in The Sims 4. There's also a new Sentiments system, but it'll take some time to create a guide to that. Players can also use rental lots in any world now by changing lot types of builds in manage worlds.
I've created a massive List of The Best Mods in The Sims 4 that should be very helpful to new players and those who have not yet explored modding and how much it can do for your gameplay.
New - Secrets I have a new guide to secrets in the game. If you prefer, you can also watch a video about secrets in Sims 4.
Nifty Knitting is now available. Learn all about the stuff pack on my guide page here.
NEW - Nifty Knitting CheatsNew features in the Sims 4 June 2020
The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle Guide
Eco Footprint: How it Works
Neighborhood Action Plans
How to Cheat in Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle
Civil Designer Career
Insect Farms & Bio Fuel
Fabrication Skill in Eco Lifestyle
Juice Fizzing NEW
Traits and Aspirations in DLC
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Updated
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This is inspired by a new series in which I start at toddler and gradually take on the major bonuses. Here's a link to the full playlist!
I now have a guide page to Tiny Living Stuff where you can learn about Murphy Beds, the new death, as well as the lot bonuses you'll receive if you manage to keep the size of your lot down with this new pack's Tiny Home Lot Type.
New I now have a guide to Making Super Sims in The Sims 4. Look for a text version within the next 72h. It won't have THAT much more info but it will help out as a checklist.
This was inspired by a series, "Let's Play a Super Sim" in which I start at toddler and gradually take on the major bonuses. Here's a link to each part for people who are interested. You can also see the Let's Play as a Playlist on Youtube.
The Sims 4 Discover University has been announced for November 15 for PC/Mac and December 17 for Xbox and Playstation 4 consoles. Click to learn more about the pack, see my summary of the livestream or read our FAQs below.
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New: Discover University FAQ: Gameplay Features
New Video The Sims 4 Discover University Gameplay Tips Video
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Comments (18)
If you get handiness up to lvl 5+ one of the supposed benefits is that you get shocked less while repairing electronics. After I hit level 5 handiness, I also noticed I got shocked much less during robotics. Possibly connected?
Undoubtedly connected.
So I just noticed that if you simply drag your utility bot to the "drop the item here to sell" area, a level 1 bot gives you 1750 (which is probably the same price as its costs) and a level 2 bot gives you 3500.
Would be nice if we could actually play as the servo but I'm guessing it operates more like a roommate or Butler. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think we could have played as a robot in Sims 2 and I think they also had genders and we could've woohooed the robot as well.
You do have full control over any servo your sims makes and then activates as they become part of your active household.
So can the servos increase in skills? And live on their own? Can they create more servos?
Servos can increase skills and get degrees etc but can't live on their own until they have been enhanced to a certain enhancement level (level 7 maybe?) as until then they need another sim to tune them and repair them as their stats decrease over time. Around Level 7 (I think) they can self repair and repair other servos so can live in their own household if you wanted them to. I don't know if servos can build other servos but as they can gain the robotics skill I can't see why not. I'm just going off Carl's notes here as tbh the whole robotics skill doesn't interest me and I haven't played though it all yet.
I have been able to play as a Servo after going through a few steps first. They are as follows: After you have gotten your Robotics Skill up to the level required, craft your Servo and get him/her to the Enhanced level to be able to self repair. Then make sure you have "testingcheats true" active then add "cas.fulleditmode" in as well. Shift+click on one of your Sims and go into CAS then removed the extra Sim(s) leaving just your Servo in the active family and save to the Gallery. You can now start a new game, or save and continue playing the current game, playing with the Servo you made. You can also build more of them as Servo if you want to.
You can sell the utili-bots for more directly from your inventory rather than selling them on the bot work station.
I actually don't mind not getting rich by selling robots. Imo you get money out of almost everything, so as long as it's fun or useful in any way, it doesn't need to make you rich. I like the stuff the Sims can craft and wear. I would love to see more content of that kind.
I agree it's fine to not make money on everything in the game. However, having explored this issue further, it's not OK to have a bugged sell button. That's actually what's up. At the moment, it's actually possible to make plenty of money with robotics, but the 'Sell' button is bugged at least on some models of Utili-bot. Pressing this, you'll get something like $80 for a fully constructed bot with about $2000 in parts + cash in it. Dragging it from the inventory to the sell button is the way to go and actually gives a profit, not a massive loss.
One way to get Robot Salvage parts is by Experimenting at the Chemistry Lab. Not sure why it works, but it does.
You can also get them while harvesting collectibles.
Also when repairing broken plumbing.
I have a student who's working on robotics, so she uses the workstation in the commons. I got so sick of people pestering her to play ping pong I had her torch the table (she's a spellcaster). Also if it's Mixer Night she turns the annoying UBrite students into inanimate objects if they come harass her.
Also, enhancing a utili-bot isn't working for me, all the materials get wasted and nothing happens.
I haven't had an issue with enhancing servos/bots but have seem other people talk about this. I can't see a bug report on this so not sure if it is a bug or something else. Maybe do some testing a new save with no cc and no mods and see if you can reproduce the problem and if you can then make a bug report about it. EA Bug Forum
For bots I have had to run them until they were basically broken to even get the enhance interaction but then it worked fine for me, I have been working on my home lot though. For a servo I had to get them to learn skills before the enhance interaction became available but after that it was not a problem. Hope this helps.
How do you remove a robo arm from your sim?
There is an interaction for that when you click on your Sim
It should have an option either on your sim or in the inventory, my memories are kinda foggy
I have made the servo and while it takes quite a while to make and even longer to level up (Servos need to gain skills and once it has hit a certain amount of skill gain it can be upgraded.) The upgrades are important. I call level zero servos baby bots because they have no skills, even the ones I expected it to have like the behavior modules that were mentioned while gaining enough robotics skill to make a servo in the first place, eg nanny bot, gardener bot. Once you start upgrading the servo is great though, the sim defense module is fantastic if you are playing a celeb sim because the servo can act as a body guard and zap paparatzi and annoying fans. The gardening ability makes your plants gain quality faster, and who wouldn't want a live in nanny. You can even send your servo to work to earn money for the family. I am really enjoying my servos. (my family currently has 4 servos as I am still experimenting with them.)
Buenas, tengo la duda, mi utilibot limpiador es nivel 3 pero no me sale la opción de mejorar, alguna respuesta por favor.
estas son las imagenes que describen mi duda, no me sale para mejorar a mas niveles.
Servos need to gain skills and once it has hit a certain amount of skill gain it can be upgraded.
Hello! I've gone three a super sim playthrough (it's on the Carl Sim Guides YT) and just to let everyone know, with all, by the time you craft all of the computer parts and mechanism, you should be pretty close to unlocking the servo, just a heads up.
I've managed to build the robot arm. I equipped it It wasn't showing. Yes, I have mods, so I thought, maybe that was the issue. Went to another Sim, who didn't have tattoos up and down his arms. Still not showing. Now I wonder, is it because they were all spellcasters?
Go online, see that there's a new glitch where nobody can remove the arm. Huh, I was able to put it on, take it off, give it to somebody else, they did the same. But it wasn't showing, graphics-wise, either of them with the arm.
Maybe I need to try with somebody who's not a spellcaster? I may need to create one then, I've converted almost everyone with the Rite of Ascension.
Question: Does the robo-arm provides global crafting speed gain or is it only for robotic crafting speed gain?
I built my servo but he has no face display. The panel is black without any emotion show. I have no cc in the game atm. He is my second robot, the first one didn't have it either. What I did wrong? I am curious.
My Servo just died of Catastrophic Meltdown while he was crafting a bot. I paused as he died -- he had Durability in the green, and no Dazed moodlet. I wonder if that was a bug or by design. Poor guy.
Is the servo section not coming? :(
It has been over two years, so I'm guessing not.
Does dismantling robots give you back all the upgrade parts?
What’s skill level do you need for a robotics degree at Ubrite ?