Ball and Chain: Dating Made Easy

When we left last time, the heir Mary had just finished lifting Art Appraisal. I mentioned briefly that Social Networking, once you unlock the ability to use it, is an awesome skill, and I promised to elaborate in this post.

In an Apocalypse, what is the ideal mate? I'd argue that it is:

• A young adult, the younger the better, ideally one that was a teenager the previous day.
• Good traits. Yay to Ambitious or Workaholic, but not so much Clumsy or Grumpy.
• In a career that has not yet been lifted, and as far along in that career as possible.
• All the skills they'll need to lift that career.

Fair enough? That covers pretty much anything you could reasonably desire, right?

Perhaps your founder was able to find such a mate, if she used her contacts at University effectively. Maybe your first generation heir was as well. But if you're anything like me, you've been pretty hit and miss with most of these points, if not all of them. Speaking for myself, I have terrible luck with the first option; sometimes I've been unable even to tell the difference between adult and elder in species such as aliens, and while my friends on Facebook assure me that there are definite graphical cues to distinguish between young adults and adults, I confess I am usually unable to spot them. A large part of my preference for female founders and heirs is directed towards the fact that an elder male spouse can still bring in the next generation, but an elder female (or female about to transition) cannot.

"Well OK Gaz," you might say, "but what has that got to do with Social Networking?"

Social Networking fulfils two goals. Firstly, it allows you to specify what sort of mate you want. Fire up the Sim Finder app and you'll see something like this:

You can't specify a career, or skills. However, you can specify the gender, age, and traits you want your ideal mate to have. If you've already lifted Master Thief then you don't care that much about career (as you can have them quit and take the career of your choice). And skills are definitely one area of the game that given sufficient time can always be acquired.

I suppose you could tailor the sign as well if you like, but I have about as much interest in Sims astrology as I do IRL. So I don't usually bother; I've never had any problems romancing anyone I needed to, and even if that were not normally the case, it's certainly not going to be a problem here (as we'll see).

The only restrictions that will remain for the final generation to lift are Forensics, Rock Star, and Sports Agent. None are particularly exciting, but easily the lowest maintenance is Rock Star via the Singer career, as to a large extent that is pretty much 'fire and forget'. With any luck at all Renee and Sarah will lift Entertainment and Movie Director in the next couple of days, which means that the prospective spouse will be able to even attend (outdoor) venues. Compare that to Forensics (requires Athletics, which any self respecting teen of mine will already have 10 in, so no need to waste that on a spouse) and Sports Agent (requires Jock 10, which means a delay of probably at least a day or more while I gather the necessary influence) and we'll see that Rock Star is the best choice here, even if I do it via Music instead.

So, I select:

and hit Find A Sim. A match! Pedro will be around momentarily!

He'll do. Now, normally, you'd need to do the usual buttering up, flattery, and friend making (see earlier posts for how I approach this). After all, he's a Stranger:

But I'm not done with the Sim Finder yet. Since he's on my relationship panel, the Transmogrifier can do the rest:

Make them besties, and then just flirt with the guy. It really is utterly trivial to convert a best friend into a lover in the Sims.

Note that Social Networking essentially makes Charisma irrelevant. Oh, sure, you can use the two in synergy (use Social Networking to make the acquaintances/friends/best friends you need for the challenges), but honestly it's not even necessary - if the relationship you want ever dips, you can just transmogrify it back to what you want it to be. No muss, no fuss. It's about the most powerful thing to do in the game that doesn't involve cheating, and it comes to any Sim willing to read a few books or even just make some blog entries. (The exact restrictions on Social Networking are, at the time of writing, still being discussed; the general idea is that Gamer will be required to use Social Networking at all, and Espionage will limit using the Sim Finder and Transmogrifier apps. Personally I think there's scope to add Alien Technology in as well, but we'll see how that comes out. In any case, it's certainly legal for me here).

A little flirting, and within less than a Sim hour:

One private wedding later and we're set. His traits are exactly as advertised, and he has 19 more days until he is an adult. He's currently unemployed with a lifetime wish of Hit Movie Composer (sorry dude, wrong branch). And he has no skills. But we can work on that. (I believe that the Sim Finder will create a Sim according to your specifications if none already exist - that's why no skills, no LTR points, and so on - but that's not a bad thing, that means you can use it to populate the world with whatever traits you like just by wanting to meet such people).

While Mary and Pedro are working on the next generation, I decide to make use of my new Architecture + Art Appraisal powers:

I have converted my second basement level into the library. There are 168 rooms here, each with a bookshelf (and a light, but that's unimportant). Each is accessible by at least 1 door. Since every bookshelf you buy (I just bought Sturdy Bookshelves) has 1-3 random books in it (besides any skill books), this is more than sufficient to clear The Copious Librarian. As an added bonus, any ghost or visitor that wanders off in search of something to read is going to be gone a while.

I get Pedro a job as a Singer. He joins Renee and Sarah at the park to perform for tips, but Renee isn't hanging around:

Entertainment lifted. Sarah isn't hanging around either:

So that's Movie Director lifted as well. And a day later, the new triplets Tina, Ursula, and Victor are born. That is actually one more than I need, of course.

With 5 more days as a young adult, Patricia lifts Paranormal:

However, it will be useful to have a spare adult to help look after the kids, and since I have enough now to finish the challenge, I keep her around. The same day, Mary becomes an adult, and the triplets become toddlers.

The first thing Patricia does is cart the toddlers one by one off to library to read them the toddler books. This is extremely fast, so once it is legal you should absolutely do this.

Thanks to this, the toddlers not only get all the books out of the way, but they also manage to get the peg box and the xylophone skills as well (including, of course, the usual toddler skills). They transition to children when Quentin and Patrician transition to adults. On the same day, Quentin reaches the top of the Mystic branch:

At present he is at 6/8 perfect plants, and 2/13 perfect aquarium. It's time for him to get the part time job in the Mausoleum. And just before midnight on the same day, Pedro lifts Rock Star:

I move him out. He did all that in 13 days, during which time he was never actually at home. :)

Just after 0500 the next day:

(This is why it's handy to have that as a lifetime wish - make the computer keep track!) So it's just the part time job, and the fish, to go. I have done a little genetic resequencing to give Quentin the Angler trait to improve that; as it is now winter, I'm going to have to stick to ocean fishing for a while.

If you're struggling with the fishing requirement, here are a few tips:

• Learn the right bait. Carl's Sims 3 Guide not only tells you what bait you need for each fish, but also where those fish can be found in common EA worlds. You cannot always get the bait you need; for example, you can't buy cheese (the bait for Alley Catfish) or eggs (the bait for Rainbow Trout). But use it where you can to greatly improve your chances of snagging a perfect fish.
• Make sure you have the Angler trait. It can be difficult to get the fish in a timely manner otherwise.
• You can speed the process considerably if you have a Sim with Science skill. Buy a Science Station, and use it to take samples of any fish that are less than Perfect. Then clone the sample, and you'll usually get an improvement - sometimes straight to Perfect, if not you can repeat the process starting from the improved version. (Nothing says you have to catch the fish - you just have to have the fish).
• Be aware that the more expansions you have the more fish that can be caught. The more expansions you have the easier this can be. If you have World Adventures and you absolutely must, unlock the ability to travel and catch your fish while time stands still.
• There are some possibilities to acquire "forbidden ingredients". If you use one of the performer careers to lift Entertainment, Movie Director, or Rock Star, and you are allowed to perform on stage, then perform as early as possible - you want to be bad at it. The audience will throw things at you - sometimes they'll throw food which will land in your inventory. It is usually of poor quality, but a Green Thumb that has the power to plant eggs or cheese can fix that given time. However, this is a desperate measure at best.

The Science Station is the big help. I managed to get all the perfect fish in 3 days:

With 19 more days left as an adult, Quentin lifts Naturalist:

Two restrictions to go. Three child Sims. Normally, I'd move out Patricia and Quentin at this point and take one of the kids with them. However, there is that Admirable Adonis restriction - if I want the prestige credit, then all the kids have to get to 10 Athletics first. So to be honest, I might as well hold on to the twins so that they can be personal trainers once the triplets reach teenage years in 5 days. (A side note on this. In previous versions of Sims 3, children could gain a hidden skill called "Child Athletics" that would transfer over to the real skill when they became teenagers. As far as I am able to test, this no longer works; children can still work out, but they get no skill for it. Let me know if you experiment and prove this to be incorrect).

So, once they are in fact all teens, the training begins:

I'm aiming for Tina to lift Forensics and for Ursula to lift Sports Agent - Victor is basically superfluous. So I'm also raising Ursula's Jock influence with the table tennis table.

As they reach Athletics 10, I have Tina branch out into Painting and Logic (which she'll need later), and Ursula gets tutored in Social Networking by Mary (she'll need that later in Sports Agent, and it will enable her to unlock the Charisma requirements she will also need). With almost everything unlocked I send the teens out for driving lessons, they attend after school activities, and they even go on field trips. All the fun to be had - it's the last time I'll ever have teens, so they might as well explore a bit. The adults I keep busy with learning new skills like Sculpting (Quentin), looking after the bees (Patricia), or tutoring the kids (Mary).

Once the triplets become young adults, it's time to take stock:

• Tina is Ambitious, Artistic, Athletic, Brave, and a Workaholic. She has just joined Law Enforcement and will take the Forensics branch. She has the skills Athletics 10, Charisma 2, Cooking 3, Handiness 6, Inventing 10, Logic 10, Painting 10, Writing 8, Advanced Technology 1 (from the sonic shower).
• Ursula is Ambitious, Athletic, Friendly, Genius, Over Emotional (bonus from Jocks), and a Workaholic. She has joined the Sports Agent career (bowling and table tennis set that up), and has the skills Athletics 10, Charisma 3, Cooking 7, Handiness 3, Logic 10, Social Networking 10, Writing 3, and Advanced Technology 4.
• And all you need to know about Victor is that he has Athletics 10.

It's time to clean out a bit. Mary, Patrician, and Victor move out, leaving just Quentin behind to look after the garden (not that I ever eat, or anything - I have 6 Motive Mobiles, 2 Moodlet Managers, and enough food in the super fridge to last out another Apocalypse).

We're coming to the end. The next (and final) entry will lift the last two restrictions, and give a general round up of how everything went. See you then!