Help me, I am bored!

[tomomi1922]

Generations has been delayed for me. I have had a long week, don't feel like modding, nor building anything creative (which takes a lot of brain energy to do btw). So I just want to play and ... do whatever fun.

My sim is at rank 10 Business already. I am thinking about switching job. What job is good for a single sim? Photographer? Ghost buster? Something rewarding, not too much micro managing, but not another 9-5 rabbit hole job.

Help me! I am tired of the routine daily life. :bunny:

[ani_]

Photographer is more fun, there are many categories, and at least with my slow gameplay style, it will take several different photographers before I'm even done doing all categories. Ghost hunting, is kind of blah, not at all fun, or at least not enough fun to repeat multiple times.

[tomomi1922]

Photographer is more fun, there are many categories, and at least with my slow gameplay style, it will take several different photographers before I'm even done doing all categories. Ghost hunting, is kind of blah, not at all fun, or at least not enough fun to repeat multiple times.
Yeah one of my sim is doing Ghost hunting. It was nifty at first, but it got so repetitive. We do get options to talk the ghost to move away and stuff. But after trying about 6 times without success, nothing stops me from "Banish" them. "Banish" is the best option too, fast and easy with 90% success rate (or just do again) and gain a free spirit to donate.

Yeah I play with no aging as well, so I don't feel "rushed" about time. What do you do with photography beside going around snapping random objects and sell photos via the phone (or that square box under the phone)? It sounds like a cool care-free job (wish I have it IRL), but running around aimlessly snapping random photos for money is kinda repetitive, no?

[BenC0722]

You can use house plan web sites if you want a source of inspiration for TS3 houses. You will nearly always have to deviate from the plans because of TS3 limitations, or because doing something else simply works better. But you don't have to imagine everything from the ground up. It's a method that has served me well so far.

Photographer is more fun, there are many categories, and at least with my slow gameplay style, it will take several different photographers before I'm even done doing all categories.

The patch level released with Generations breaks the Photography skill and the cameras. Maybe it's something to do with the video cameras they released, not sure. I hope it gets fixed.

You can still use the "C" key to take screenshots though, for sharing with people.

[ani_]

What do you do with photography beside going around snapping random objects and sell photos via the phone (or that square box under the phone)? It sounds like a cool care-free job (wish I have it IRL), but running around aimlessly snapping random photos for money is kinda repetitive, no?
Well, at first I also ran around like a crazy woman taking photos, but then it occurred to me that Photographers spesialize. Now I have my photographer woman, who spesializes in some of the categories, of course if she stumbles upon a happening in another category, she will take a picture, but I'm kind of planning that she would become a gardern photographer. Plant different plants, and take pictures of them. This will not generate huge incomes if she takes the same photos every day, but if being rich is not priority, it would work well.

I'm also thinking that the some day, I would like to have a serial killer Sim who would fulfil the paranormal category, he would kill the Sims in the desired way, and take the picture.

Another idea, I've been having is to make a studio in town, where a Sim would get a commission every day to take certain advertisement pictures, with this idea I could fulfil the object categories. I could also use the studio to take family or individual photos of Sims, by asking them to visit the community lot, and then have them pose.

Another idea is having an indiana-jones type of photographer, who travels the world taking photos.

I think the photographer skill is one of those multi-usable things, and I'm really happy EA came up with it.


The patch level released with Generations breaks the Photography skill and the cameras. Maybe it's something to do with the video cameras they released, not sure. I hope it gets fixed.

You can still use the "C" key to take screenshots though, for sharing with people.
Do you mean you can't use the photographer camera at all? if so, this is bad news for my photographer lady as she's the first family I'm going to play with Generations. I hope EA fixes their bugs soon.

[tomomi1922]

ani, I see what you are doing. Specialization is an imaginative role you give to your sim. Unlike real life, there is not a whole lot to take photos of as pretty much all of them are quite identical and lack variations. I am an amateur photographer in RL as well, I carry my SLR camera snapping stuff around, and even my iPhone would be a better camera than half of the digital camera on the market (iPhone 4 is great only at day time, when night comes, the LED flash is a joke). In fact I am doing that to a lot of sims, having camera in their inventory snapping photos. However, I am going to give it a try and see if there is a real difference in actually registering as a Photographer.

It is indeed a multi-usage thing. TS3 with actual photo frames is so amazing. I only wish I could find a mod that create new photo frames without borders (they have their use).

Any other profession worth dedicating to? I have dappled in all professions, including the ones Twallan came up with. But I guess I didn't spend the time to actually played them from the ground up as how normal game play would be.

[BenC0722]

Do you mean you can't use the photographer camera at all? if so, this is bad news for my photographer lady as she's the first family I'm going to play with Generations. I hope EA fixes their bugs soon.

That's exactly what I mean. When I tried it, I got to the part where you're looking from the sim eye point-of-view. First thing I noticed is that the different category types didn't show up at the bottom of the screen. When I tried to take a picture, the sim taking the picture was stuck on that interaction, which never completed. I had to use "resetsim" to fix her.

So in essence, any opportunities relating to photography can't be completed.

Any other profession worth dedicating to? I have dappled in all professions, including the ones Twallan came up with. But I guess I didn't spend the time to actually played them from the ground up as how normal game play would be.

I've tried Architectural Designer once, but didn't like it. If I really don't like how a lot looks, I can just use testingcheatsenabled. Also, such sims could only accept jobs at certain times of the day and week. The last time I tried this, LN wasn't even out.

The only other "profession" I tried was Writer. I thought it was boring, though it would be great for a stay-at-home mother, since she could interrupt writing at any time as needed. Also, if memory serves, you could perform the writing at any time of the day and week, and it would still "count."

Writing performed on vacations wouldn't count for the profession, though sims would still get royalty checks for them.

[juansfalcin]

My camera is working "fine" with Generations.

[anifromid2]

How about making her an artist? Have her paint and sculpt and sell the paintings and sculptures at the consignment store. Building and decorating an artist's studio will keep you occupied for a bit, then running around getting scrap for metal sculptures, and making friends with the consignment clerk will get her out of the house occasionally. There's a portable easel that I downloaded somewhere that is lovely for an artist. You can go paint in the park, or on the beach. In the world that I'm playing now, I built an "art school" as part of the museum. Easels, sculpting stations, a dive well for when they set themselves on fire doing metal sculptures, and the chinese incense burner so they skill up a little faster.

I also built a nectary, and my current sim makes nectar for a living and sells it at the consignment store. I downloaded a lot from here that has all the garden plants at perfect levels and I used it for the basis of the nectary... my sim can pick the fruit and make the wine right at the nectary. I have 4 nectar makers there and she's upgraded all of them. I used that same lot to build a community garden. It's fairly interesting as careers go, because some days you garden all day, some days you make nectar all day, and some days you say the heck with it and play guitar all day.

[juansfalcin]

Quick question: can you sell wine, paitings and photos on the consigment store and still get experience in the jobs?

[anifromid2]

Sure you can. Register as a self employed nectar maker, sculptor or artist at city hall, and you get a career from it.

[juansfalcin]

Sorry. What I meant was, when Ambitions came out, you had to sell things in the box thingie down the cellphone icon to win job experience. If you tried to sell things in the consignment store, it wouldn't give you exp. They fixed that?

[ani_]

BenC0722: I think you are experiencing a mod conflict with your camera. Like juansfalcin, mine works just fine.

[anifromid2]

I'm not sure. I have Twallan's Consigner mod, but I think I was doing it even before I got the mod.

[Stina1701-D]

What about a firefighter? I have personally NEVER tried it but thinking of having one of the kids become one because he is brave. What I have read about it seems nifty and the firestation is not a rabbit hole. I mean you have to spend time at the fire station while on duty but it has a tv if I remember correctly :D

[juansfalcin]

Firefighters are a mess. The crew watches TV all day and you're stuck doin everything in the building. LAZY BUMS

[ani_]

Firefighters are a mess. The crew watches TV all day and you're stuck doin everything in the building. LAZY BUMS

But everything is not that much. You can update the truck and fire-alarm twice a week and that's enough. The fire part is also quite boring, as it's not really even a hands on job. The Sim will run to the truck when the emergency comes, the Sim will drive to the lot, and most of the time you don't even have to direct the Sim to extinguish the fire, as he will do it autonomously. The only fun task I've don with the fire-fighter so far, has been the genome invasion, because at least then, you need to find and click on the genome and hope your Sim gets to it in time before it teleports to another location.

What comes to Ambition jobs, I've really enjoyed the self employed jobs, and the architect job. I have not yet tried all ambition jobs, like sculpture making and tattooing. But the ones I have tried, have been fun.

[tomomi1922]

I realize I have put at least 1 sim per profession so I honestly can try every job/profession I want. The problem is to remember which sim is doing what. I downloaded Twallan's Career as well so ... I have a lot more jobs than originally EA gives. And it is hard to tell which job is EA and which is Twallan's without digging up his readme.txt. The only problem is "The Family" profession which is very buggy somehow that caused me a few Error 12 on save, so I now stay clear of it.

Finally I decided my sim would take up photographer, while also write books to earn royalty fee. My sim has 80k saved up from being rank 10 Business so money is not a problem, just that I do want to ensure a steady income, that 80k eventually run out someday. In fact it won't, because of this lifetime reward "No bill ever" which I do feel it is a cheat. I get that reward because I don't want the repoman to mess up my lot design. Oh, btw, I think it would be neat if someone can rewrite the repoman script that he would come to act like a debt collector at first, so sim has an option to "pay up or lose something", don't care if they even give me an extra penalty fee to allow debt to go into collection.

About the fire fighter job, I kind of like it in a way. Although not for my personal sim (who is too frail and delicate to be a fire fighter), but my alter ego of a hulky sim, the job is paying me to sit around "on call" which is very neat. When there is nothing to do, I get to do my own things (as long as maintenance is performed on schedule). Yeah stuck in doing everything in the building, but isn't all job like that? But this job even let you work out, play video games, draw stuff, basically do anything TS3 allows you to do, even sleep on the job while getting paid for it. And without having to look professional and pretty for customers to see. I wouldn't mind a job like this IRL. Well IRL fire fighter has to go through a lot more than TS3 to stay on the job, which is not for everyone.

What I do is I put a 5x5 lot next to the fire station, so this household can call it home while they technically live in the fire station too. It is amazing, except: can't put away food in the fridge (community lot fridge) and no where to woohoo (it would be wrong to put a double bed in a fire department).

[J. M. Pescado]

But after trying about 6 times without success, nothing stops me from "Banish" them. "Banish" is the best option too, fast and easy with 90% success rate (or just do again) and gain a free spirit to donate.I've never had any problems simply convincing them to go away. It's actually faster than Banish. But perhaps not as funny.

[ani_]

and no where to woohoo (it would be wrong to put a double bed in a fire department). Except now with Generations, and shower WooHoo.