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The Sims 4 Programming Skill - a Great Office
The Sims 4's Programming Skill allows you to make money with your Computer. The Skill grants the ability to create Plugins, Mod Video Games to make them increase Fun faster, and even turn to the dark side and Hack computer systems. Additionally, you can earn some long-term cash by creating Video Games and Mobile Apps. This Guide to the Skill will cover these various features, while also helping you get your Sim Focused so they can learn the Skill faster and make more money.
How to: Programming Cheats
Press Control + Shift + C then type testingcheats on and press enter. You can now set your skill level with stats.set_skill_level major_programming x (fill in 1-10) - we also have a full listing of Skill Cheats and a master list of Cheats in The Sims 4
Careers that Boost Programming
Two Careers can help you with your Programming Skill by providing extra abilities or items. The Oracle Branch of the Criminal Career lets you get the Hack Mainframe ability, granting additional money from Hacking for 8 hours. Tech Guru will give you plenty of items that grant a Focused Aura, and is also necessary for the Computer Whiz Aspiration, if even temporarily. I would go into Tech Guru for the Aspiration, then move on to Oracle to get Hack Mainframe for maximum profit.
Programming and Handiness
Programming is helped greatly by the Handiness Skill. You can install ECC Ram to make the Computer nigh-Unbreakable, while also updating the Graphics Card to grant faster Fun regeneration when playing games. Lastly, you can install IP Spoofers which help with Hacking. They seem to make you earn more money with the ability.
Good Traits and Aspirations for Programming
The following Traits may help you to become Focused, which helps Programmers. There is also an Aspiration tied to the Skill:
Learning Programming
In order to learn the Skill, you need a Computer. You can of course learn through Skill Books, but through the Computer you can earn money as you learn. Every feature of this Skill is found under the Programming category on the computer. You can use a cheap one, but will do much better with a more reliable machine. This Skill synergizes well with Handiness, which will let you upgrade your Computer to be nearly unbreakable and make Hacking more successful.
Getting Very Focused helps Skill Gains and Profits Immensely
Getting Very Focused
Sims who are Focused perform Programming tasks better, leading to faster Skill gains and more money earned from Making Viruses, Plugins, Video Games/Apps and Freelance Work. In order to get your Sim Focused, you should do at least some of the following: Drink Pitch Black Tea from the Tea Brewer, Purchase an Easel and make Mathematical Diagrams while Focused, then hang them near your Desk and enable Auras. 3 to 4 of these Paintings will help give off a nice aura (Max +2 Focused), and you can also view them to get a Moodlet.
Also, you can Browse Simipedia on the Computer. Listening to Music while you work (Classical or Blues are good choices) and making your Sim's Needs high will boost these Focused Moodlets, leading to powerful buffs that result in the Very Focused Moodlet for several Hours. Another buff that takes a little longer to acquire is to read the Book Honing Your Mind's Eye, ordered under the Emotion Section when buying Books from the Computer, which grants a +1 Focused Buff each time you read it for a while. You can stop when the Moodlet comes up. With enough +Happiness buffs, you do not need as many of these options to make it all the way to Very Focused, so see what works for you at any given time.
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The first picture demonstrates a better setup;
This Sim is just Learning Programming
Skill Level Unlocks
As you gain Skill in Programming, you learn more abilities and can hack different servers. Here are the various Skill unlocks for each level:
Practice Programming
This is your entry point for the Skill. You'll find it is only useful for the Computer Whiz Aspiration's requirement of using it for 10 hours.
Make Plugins
This is a quick way to earn some cash, though not much early on. You will see around 10-20x the early earnings by the time you are level 10. However, it's a great way to help your Sim make money until you can move on to bigger, better things.
Hack Supercomputer can fail, resulting in a Broken Computer
Hacking
Hacking has a cooldown of 24 hours for each Server. Each higher level Server is worth more money, but even at level 10 you can steal a lot of money from Llamacorn Listserv. This alone would get your Sim by, as you can earn several thousand each day by going through each Server and stealing from their accounts.
At level 10, you're able to Hack Supercomputer, which is a bit dangerous and may only be used once per week. You should only do it when Very Focused, and accept the fact that the Supercomputer may hack you back, breaking your Sim's Computer and possibly making it irreparable. I sent a bug report to EA on this, but am not sure that it's by design. I was unable to repair my Sim's computer even with level 10 Handiness and had to replace it. The machine had ECC Ram and IP Spoofers to help with Hacking, and I still failed twice. On the third try, when I successfully hacked the Supercomputer, I got $1300. I'm sure it's possible you can get a lot more given the cooldown, but that was unexpectedly low. Replacing the Computer before cost $5009. Perhaps this would be best done on a cheap Computer with IP Spoofing and ECC - you can then replace it for a much lower price, should you fail. I do not think higher-end Computers are any better at Programming, period.
Be Prepared to Repair/Replace Computers a lot without Handiness Upgrades
Sims can also Hack Work Performance, granting them a bump in performance. It takes quite a while, but is definitely helpful if you want to get Promoted faster. You still need to do the Promotion Requirements, but will see the Job Progress bar tick noticeably to the right.
Modding Games
Modding Games allows you to increase the Fun of any of the games your Sim has unlocked via the Gaming Skill, but more importantly a super-fun Modded game will give your Sim a 4h +2 Happiness Moodlet that can be used to boost the Focused Mood, allowing you to more easily reach Very Focused for your Programming efforts. You only need to play the game a few minutes to get this Moodlet! It's very much worth the time.
Make Viruses
Making Viruses is another means of using your Programming skills to make money, though it's a bit dark. Sims don't seem to mind the morality of it, however. You'll get a good chunk of change, and there's no reason I've discovered not to use the ability. I prefer to use this when Hacking is on cooldown, as opposed to Freelance Work, below.
Freelance Work
With this ability, your Sim will find a random job on the web and perform the Programming for another Sim. This ability takes a while, but you're able to resume most Programming interactions should your Sim tire or get burned out from Programming too much. This ability nets some decent money, but can take quite a while to complete. I've seen over $1000 with this at level 10, though it took proportionately longer than making a Plugin.
Earn Royalties from Computer Games and Mobile Apps
Making Computer Games and Mobile Phone Apps
Computer Games take roughly 36 hours to complete, and Mobile Phone Apps 24 hours. Thankfully, you can resume making them, thus are able to do them in little chunks of time. I highly recommend being Focused for a better outcome. Each of these will net you a chunk of change when completed, then provide Royalties that slowly dwindle down to nothing. Royalties can be anywhere from $50-$200/day before they drop to single digits. You'll get cash for all Apps and Games you've made at 10AM each day. I got Royalties for about 6 days before they started dropping, then got less and less as the days went on. They are worth it, even considering the time investment. You could, at most, have 4-5 of these making decent money for you at a time. Use this ability when your Hacking is on cooldown to make the most possible Money with the Skill.
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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
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Comments (25)
Update Info on the Forum
1. Where is the tab to hack work performance I am in level 10 programming and it's not under the hack tab.
2. If you have the Ghostwriter Dissapearing Desktop/GDD and the supercomputer hacks you back, does the computer become irreparable?
2. I haven't had this happen recently but that's not to say it still can't happen. Use a cheaper computer with all the upgrades on it just in case. It'll be cheaper to replace.
My Sim is making video game and I want earn very very much money :)
I will make 50 games. :) :) Can I earn?
If you are leveling skills, as long as your sim is in the correct 'Very' form of the associated mood then that sim will learn quickly. (Actually sims that are Very Happy will learn almost as quickly.) The best focused boost for skilling is a mixology drink called Amygdelight which any sim can make when focused when they click on a mixology bar. As your sim levels in mixology they will get much faster at making these drinks. This drink gives a 50% boost to logic and a 25% boost to programming and rocket science.
To be successful every time at hacking your sim needs to stay in the Very Focused mood for the entire hack, so set up a focused aura computer room that keeps your sim in this state while in the room. Use items that give off a focused aura and then bump it to 'Very' with items that give happy and well decorated environment moodlets.
Having a fossil near the computer and studying it will also get you a focused moodlet. Any store rewards good for the programmer sims?
Morning Sim and Night Owl give you the ability to learn faster in the morning and at night, respectively. They both cost 1,000 RP (Reward Points) each and they won't cancel each other out. Savant also lets you build skills faster and costs 4,000 RP. Additionally, any reward trait should that cuts motive loss (eg., Hardly Hungry) should passively contribute to all skills gains as you can spend more time skilling and less time taking care of your Sims' needs - although I should note I haven't purchased any of those types yet.
I forgot to mention that these are traits.
You can also get a couple of the crystals from the computer and send two off to be turned into elements and one into a gem. Put them on a shelf right above the computer for a nice focused decor.
cool
Hello there, and thanks for all the useful information. Maybe a little too late for the Sims party but playing it almost regularly since the pandemic began, as well as other games of course. A small trick I have noticed for the Hacking skill: the computer with a holographic keyboard, called something like Ghostwriter-Desktop, is indestructible and can resist the counterattack of the Supercomputer if the hacking fails. One of my Sims got one for $10.000 while doing the Oracle Villain Career and made two failed attempts on hacking the Supercomputer with Programming 10 and IP-Spoofer as the only Update while still leveling Handiness. As said before, two failed hacking attempts at the Supercomputer, but the PC remained intact. I bought the Sims 4 with most DLCs and Packs, so I am not sure if the Ghostwriter computer belongs to any specific DLC or Pack
I have seen that someone commented about it ... five years ago!! But anyway I can confirm that the Ghostwriter computer is indeed indestructible against the counterattack of the Supercomputer
This was a rare gem as that of veing gifted a money tree and as helpful as Santa on thee holiday. Haha thanks a motherlode ! All I see is Kaching kaching coming in for my couple on The Sims 4
Ciao ti volevo dire se ti ricordi che è
Ciao
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