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Instructor
Original Poster
#1 Old 25th Oct 2014 at 7:11 AM
Default Painting And Tech Guru Research
So, meet our new test subjects...errr...I mean...researchers. Your voluntarily here, not at all being held against their will and controlled by an all powerful being, researchers.

Our stereotypical nerd like Tech Guru.


And our hippie/punk/artist Painter. (You can't see it in this picture well but she has a nose ring.)


I've given them the traits that I believe will optimize their performance. Our tech guy has Genius, Geek, and Perfectionist. Our painter has Creative, Art Lover, and Perfectionist. I've given them both the Perfectionist trait because its description makes it seem like perfectionist will make more money.

Also, I think I already discovered the trick to the paintings and have just been overlooking it this whole time. Whenever a notification pops up like "You've reached Level 4 of Painting!" I just notice that part of it and ignore the rest of it. One of them finally caught my eye though.



"Carmen can now create medium skill Pop Art, low skill Surrealism, and low skill Impressionistic paintings." I scrolled through the notifications and the others followed this model as well except the first one which just said she would be able to create better work as she got better.

So it seems like rather than just saying you "can now create Pop Art" it's specifically saying medium level Pop Art. So, in this specific message and based on what I tried following this message, for as long as she's at this skill level her Pop Art paintings are going to fetch more money than her Surrealism or Impressionistic paintings.

So I think all I need to do is get a shot of the notification for every skill level of painting and then string it together so you can see which one gets to the highest level first and so on! That way instead of going "oh hey, I can do Surreal paintings now, so I'm going to start doing surreal paintings!" you can just continue on with the Classic paintings or Pop Art paintings until your surreal painting gets to a higher level.

Also, on her very first painting she immediately felt the negative effects of the Perfectionist trait which is that she has a higher negative reaction to poor work.
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 25th Oct 2014 at 7:48 AM
I will be keeping up with this thread because I am interested how having the perfectionist trait will impact skilling. Thanks for doing and reporting this information.

I am playing a couple of painters in two different families and although my sims don't have the perfectionist trait, they seem to skill very fast. The painting quality gets excellent mostly but wondered if the perfectionist trait would slow or move fast too.

Resident member of The Receptacle Refugees
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Lab Assistant
#3 Old 25th Oct 2014 at 8:01 AM
For my site, I've been researching the traits. The perfectionist trait causes a slowing down of producing items (food, painting, etc) but there's a bigger chance to create an item of excellent quality. But the Sim may get a +2 embarrassed moodlet if they create something of low quality.

To get the most out of painting, get your Sim in an Inspired mood (easy to achieve with the ball of clay). Sad also increases quality somewhat but harder to get.
Instructor
Original Poster
#4 Old 25th Oct 2014 at 8:03 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Snooty
For my site, I've been researching the traits. The perfectionist trait causes a slowing down of producing items (food, painting, etc) but there's a bigger chance to create an item of excellent quality. But the Sim may get a +2 embarrassed moodlet if they create something of low quality.

To get the most out of painting, get your Sim in an Inspired mood (easy to achieve with the ball of clay). Sad also increases quality somewhat but harder to get.


Ha! I never even thought about trying it with the Sad emotion. Makes sense that it would lead to higher quality though art though.
Instructor
Original Poster
#5 Old 25th Oct 2014 at 8:09 AM
So here's the first thing I found by compiling all of the notifications for leveling up.



You don't get a painting type to the highest level until you are at level 6. Classic first then Pop at the next level, Realism and Abstract at the level after that, then Surrealism and Impressionistic the following level which is level 9. Level 10 just adds the ability to Mentor other sims. (I'm going to put all the notifications together in one image and then share that).

So the next step I want to take is to paint all of those items at the highest level and see if there's clearly a style that makes more then the others and also if the size is going to effect the price. For instance, just because the large painting is the biggest and cost the most to buy the canvas for doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get the biggest profit for it...or does it? That's what I'll try to figure out next.

As for the Tech Guru. I'm taking a screenshot of everything he produces at each level and then will compile everything. Also, as soon as he levels up and it says something like "You can now make viruses" I make him stop practicing programming and immediately work on that new thing so I can figure out the initial amount then have him do that thing again when he gets to another skill level.
Forum Resident
#6 Old 25th Oct 2014 at 12:38 PM
I've restarted my "Utopia House Challenge" in order to blog it, so am at the point where I have a Level 1 painter. Because the house has no $ until someone digs and collects/sells fish/harvests plants, he repeatedly buys $50 canvases. Should I hold out for more expensive canvases? Will that get a greater return?

Here at MTS since 2008; avid S2 player/blogger; didn't care for S3; bought and hated SimCity 2013; am choosing to remain upbeat about Sims 4....

My Sims 4 blog: Veil's Utopia House Challenge Blog
Instructor
Original Poster
#7 Old 26th Oct 2014 at 2:54 AM
Quote: Originally posted by veil
I've restarted my "Utopia House Challenge" in order to blog it, so am at the point where I have a Level 1 painter. Because the house has no $ until someone digs and collects/sells fish/harvests plants, he repeatedly buys $50 canvases. Should I hold out for more expensive canvases? Will that get a greater return?


I've only got to work on this a bit more so far. I've had her repeatedly go back to painting the same size and style throughout the levels and now that she's maxed her skill, and also on the cheapest easel and the more expensive easel that gets unlocked. I think there may in fact be a cap on how much you can make from selling a painting to a collector...or at least a per level cap.


These are in order from the very first painting she did to random ones in order until the last one she did after maxing her skill level. As you can see in the last two spots they were both worth $540. They stayed at that price too for as long as she was still inspired. In order to paint a masterpiece you have to be "Very Inspired".

Here's what I'd suggest right now. Large paintings do bring in more cash even though they cost more, however, starting out the small canvases are going to be faster to finish. Giving you more paintings more quickly. Then, even later on, I would focus on medium paintings to sell as you'll be able to complete them faster then large, but make more then small.

I'm going to play this one through for a few days because there are some other things that will influence the price that I didn't initially think about like purchasing the Marketable trait. That increases the value of your work. Also, when she does have Masterpieces she can sell them to the Art Gallery and make even more. I basically want to push her to the limit as far as I possibly can to see if there's a point where the value of her paintings stop going up and in the process maybe figure out some good tips for getting to that point more quickly.
Lab Assistant
#8 Old 26th Oct 2014 at 2:38 PM
Thanks, this is really helpful and informative. Following the thread, too.
Forum Resident
#9 Old 26th Oct 2014 at 10:30 PM
I'm especially interested to know whether Hacking and Making Viruses is worth it. I tend to play all "good" Sims, and I won't let them have criminal careers, etc.

Here at MTS since 2008; avid S2 player/blogger; didn't care for S3; bought and hated SimCity 2013; am choosing to remain upbeat about Sims 4....

My Sims 4 blog: Veil's Utopia House Challenge Blog
Forum Resident
#10 Old 27th Oct 2014 at 12:30 AM
Also, re "Do Freelance Work", I usually have no idea how much my Sim gets paid! All I get is a pop-up saying, "Thanks for your work. Hope this payment is sufficient" (or something like that). I'm not even sure it's on the Notification Wall!

Here at MTS since 2008; avid S2 player/blogger; didn't care for S3; bought and hated SimCity 2013; am choosing to remain upbeat about Sims 4....

My Sims 4 blog: Veil's Utopia House Challenge Blog
Instructor
Original Poster
#11 Old 27th Oct 2014 at 1:44 AM
Quote: Originally posted by veil
Also, re "Do Freelance Work", I usually have no idea how much my Sim gets paid! All I get is a pop-up saying, "Thanks for your work. Hope this payment is sufficient" (or something like that). I'm not even sure it's on the Notification Wall!


Oh yea, I'm going to do this as well. It should say in the notification what they got paid I think. I had a guy before all this that was in Tech and he did those a couple times for work and they didn't bring in much but that was early on so I'm not sure on their potential either.
Forum Resident
#12 Old 27th Oct 2014 at 3:17 AM
Here are the 2 Notifications that relate to the latest Freelance job: no amount.
Screenshots

Here at MTS since 2008; avid S2 player/blogger; didn't care for S3; bought and hated SimCity 2013; am choosing to remain upbeat about Sims 4....

My Sims 4 blog: Veil's Utopia House Challenge Blog
Instructor
Original Poster
#13 Old 27th Oct 2014 at 3:25 AM
Quote: Originally posted by veil
Here are the 2 Notifications that relate to the latest Freelance job: no amount.


Have you checked into family inventory to see if they gave you an item?
Forum Resident
#14 Old 27th Oct 2014 at 5:42 AM
Quote: Originally posted by melbrewer367
Have you checked into family inventory to see if they gave you an item?


Nothing there.

Here at MTS since 2008; avid S2 player/blogger; didn't care for S3; bought and hated SimCity 2013; am choosing to remain upbeat about Sims 4....

My Sims 4 blog: Veil's Utopia House Challenge Blog
Instructor
Original Poster
#15 Old 27th Oct 2014 at 8:12 AM
Weird. And that's part of why I want to test these things more! lol
dodgy builder
#16 Old 27th Oct 2014 at 9:49 AM
I'm doing the rosebud challenge, reach 1 mill in one household. I'm on generation 5 at the moment, earned 700k of the 1mill. My masterpainter Nola just died, I have many of mine being painters and it's really a lucrative business for the best one's. I don't remember what traits she had, as she was the 3'rd generation or something.

Just answering a question, for pay look in the left side of your screen, that's often where you see the prices. They act like balloons and then fade quite fast.

I found out quite a few things with her. She got to level 10 in her career and fulfilled the fab wealthy aspiration, but she was also tending a farm and got to level 7 in farming. She bought the markatable reward as well. One of her paintings earned her 10591,- just for one painting. I just couldn't believe it

My impression on pop art is it's easy to gain skills, but doesn't pay that much. It fits with my real life thoughts. Impressionist and such requires more skills on painting technics, pop art is about other things. I'm not a painter, so I may be utterly wrong.

The size of the canvases may relate to the price of the paintings, but since there seem to me there is such a wide range of prices on the paintings, I'm not sure it's that useful. It's also the requirements for the next level in your career, I think they at least twice is about the size of the canvases. It's very useful for someone to do a real researce on this though, because with the different types and the 3 sizes, it can be quite complicated.

Nola did mentoring on another young one in her family and to me it looked like it was very useful to the young one's skill leveling. It looked to me like the skills kept coming almost for free, at each work level she only had the other requirement she had to fulfill most of the time.

I've been using the emotions lots of the time, mostly confident though, and it only gives the option of 100 size canvases. The quality of the paintings is different on the highest skill level. She can be confident or inspired and still only make excellent, not a masterpiece. She also made masterpieces without being either apparently.

Another thing to keep in mind is calling the agent, she can do that all the time if she likes and get nothing or 500 each time. It probably doesn't pay as much as actually painting, at least not when she get 10k for each Another thing I found out was the art gallery pays less than a collector most of the time, I may just have been unlucky though, but with a masterpiece she can't really choose. I tried putting them in the inventory as well, but didn't seem to do much different as to the price when I sold them.
dodgy builder
#17 Old 27th Oct 2014 at 10:06 AM Last edited by Volvenom : 27th Oct 2014 at 10:22 AM.
I've also done a lot on the geek career because it can be done from home, they don't really need to go anywhere. I also use the computer and make them writers for the same reason.

The programming looks to me the viruses pays very well, but making mobile and video apps pays more because it's royalty based. The same with books. When the sim earning them dies they stop coming in. I had 3 writers and geeks in the family reaching old age and lost 3000 in royalties when they died very close to each other. I earned money like grass as we say here

I stopped doing the hacking because it didn't seem to give me much money. I'm doing the rosebud achievement after all. Not even hacking apparent big community institutions payed much. Doing freelance work is required for work leveling a couple of times, but doesn't pay that much either.

Then of cause it's the issue of how much time each job takes compared to the payout. I haven't done that, but it's really the most important thing. If you do like tons of hacks you may earn more than making viruses in the same time because it's less work with the hacking. I haven't been paying attention to that. It's also an important point for painters.

I think perhaps the hacking gave me like 100 or 200 each time, while doing freelance work about 500?
Forum Resident
#18 Old 27th Oct 2014 at 12:21 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Volvenom
Another thing I found out was the art gallery pays less than a collector most of the time, I may just have been unlucky though, but with a masterpiece she can't really choose. I tried putting them in the inventory as well, but didn't seem to do much different as to the price when I sold them.


Really?--I'm under the impression just the opposite: the art gallery pays more, every time. I generally hover over the painting to check its value, then have my painter Sell to Art Gallery, and the sale proceeds are higher than the "hover value", which is what he'd get if he sold to a collector, or if I dragged the painting to the "Sell" box myself.

Here at MTS since 2008; avid S2 player/blogger; didn't care for S3; bought and hated SimCity 2013; am choosing to remain upbeat about Sims 4....

My Sims 4 blog: Veil's Utopia House Challenge Blog
dodgy builder
#19 Old 27th Oct 2014 at 4:18 PM
Quote: Originally posted by veil
Really?--I'm under the impression just the opposite: the art gallery pays more, every time. I generally hover over the painting to check its value, then have my painter Sell to Art Gallery, and the sale proceeds are higher than the "hover value", which is what he'd get if he sold to a collector, or if I dragged the painting to the "Sell" box myself.


Hm ... I may have been a bit fast then? Perhaps I should check that out one more time.
Instructor
Original Poster
#20 Old 27th Oct 2014 at 4:44 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Volvenom
Hm ... I may have been a bit fast then? Perhaps I should check that out one more time.


Yea, so far the gallery has been higher for me as well. Generally only by a few hundred or so though.

Thanks for the input! The more compiled info the better!!
Forum Resident
#21 Old 27th Oct 2014 at 6:30 PM
I'm getting the impression that, once you get to Level 7, doing Classic paintings (which were "high" at Level 6), gets a higher price than doing Pop paintings ("high" only at Level 7), perhaps because any painters have done Classic paintings longer. Do you think that a painter can learn to excel at one style of painting?

Here at MTS since 2008; avid S2 player/blogger; didn't care for S3; bought and hated SimCity 2013; am choosing to remain upbeat about Sims 4....

My Sims 4 blog: Veil's Utopia House Challenge Blog
Instructor
Original Poster
#22 Old 27th Oct 2014 at 8:01 PM
Quote: Originally posted by veil
I'm getting the impression that, once you get to Level 7, doing Classic paintings (which were "high" at Level 6), gets a higher price than doing Pop paintings ("high" only at Level 7), perhaps because any painters have done Classic paintings longer. Do you think that a painter can learn to excel at one style of painting?


See that's what I was originally thinking before I decided to do this and would just have my sim do the same style. Like maybe each style was like a "hidden" skill. I kinda feel like they do because I have a sim in my regular game who is consistently making more money with classic paintings then pop/abstract paintings even though she's level 9 and they're both available at high quality and the quality is excellent for the classic, pop, and abstract.

I'm going to do these different scenarios with multiple people and then do that same scenario again with someone else to see if I can duplicate it.

Like I'll have one sim whose only painting related trait will be creative which they'll get when I make them in CAS. Then that sim will lead a normal life, go to work as a painter, and work on the paintings in the order that they become available like I shared above. I'll never have them get any of the traits you can buy that will increase their value or anything like that. The only "boost" they'll get is from the creative trait and from their emotions like inspired, confident, playful, whatever.

Then I'll have one that has the creative trait and perfectionist trait which are the two in cas that will effect your quality/performance. That one will also go to work as a painter, work on paintings along the way, but I will also have them buy the aspiration rewards that help with value like Marketable. I'll have them paint in the order they become available too. So the first one I described would be our control sim basically. The second would be our experimental group.

Then I'll have two more exactly as above but focusing on one style. Maybe even one more set like the two above except they'll never work as a painter, they'll just stay home and paint.

I'm going to set up parameters for me to follow and track the order of the paintings I do and have them all paint in that same order. Like Small Classic, Medium Classic, Large Classic, Small Classic, Small Pop Art, etc. and then all of them will paint in that same order.
Forum Resident
#23 Old 27th Oct 2014 at 8:17 PM
Wow--that's going to be a great experiment!!!

Here at MTS since 2008; avid S2 player/blogger; didn't care for S3; bought and hated SimCity 2013; am choosing to remain upbeat about Sims 4....

My Sims 4 blog: Veil's Utopia House Challenge Blog
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