Masterpieces

[wheefi]

how do you get sims to do masterpieces, either paintings or novels? i know that you have to have maxed the creativity, but what else? how much is a masterpiece worth?

[Zootyzoot]

I like your sceen name :). Maxed creativity is all that's needed to make masterpieces. The paintings and novels they make aren't always masterpieces, but they usually are. Masterpiece paintings are usually worth $500-600, and novels in the low thousands I think, but I'm not completely sure. Novels take ages to finish and I've never done it, primarily because they don't add anything to the Fun meter. Which I think they should. If painting and making music is fun, why not writing?

[Jakethedane]

I tried a couple of times to write a book, with the creativity meter maxed out, but I never succeeded. Do my sim have to write the whole book in one go, or can he eat, drink and sleep in between?

[Angelyne]

My sims had a desire to write a novel so I persisted. It will take several sims days before it's done, so yes you can do it in spurts just like a painting. Once it's done you will get a message saying your sims hopes it will sell well. A little bit later you get a phone call (I think) and a message telling you how much money you made. I can't remember how much it was, there was also a bonus involved. It was a pretty good amount, depending on how you look at it. Compared to a career-maxed daily salary (man I wish I earned that much myself), it wasn't worth the bother but my Broke family would have loved it :)

[Rowanstaff]

Zootyxoot pontificated:
Which I think they should. If painting and making music is fun, why not writing?

I agree. I am just now finishing a Bachelor in the FIne Arts--Creative Writing. I love writing and it is fun for me. However, I think Maxis was balancing the fact that novels gross so much money compared to painting. Novels are all about money (expense of time and fun) while paitings are fun, a little money, and faster. Seems like a balance issue to me.

[Zootyzoot]

Yes okay but it's a filthy lie nonetheless :mad:. I can see it makes a lot of sense in terms of gameplay, and you can accuse me of disregarding the fact that it's just a game and not a mirror of reality in any way if you like, but Maxis are wrong to not have writing novels grant fun. Zootyzoot has spoken!

... Was (/am) I really pontificating? :cry:

And good luck on your degree, Rowanstaff :).

[Rowanstaff]

No, you weren't pontificating, I just picked a verb to use :) I find it more fun than "Quoted for such-and-such". No insult intended

[mangrovejane]

I always ignore the novel writing thing. I tried it once. It took forever. The sims lost fun. It was a boring pointless exercise for little money incomparison to the work you do. The painting thing is much better. My sims get on average around $600 for their paintings (I have seen it get up to around $670). They can do it in one day. They have fun while doing it. I think $600 for a days fun work is not too shabby but I wish that every now and again that you would sell a painting for like $10,000 or something huge. Oh, and my sims consider a painting sold for about $550 upwards to be a masterpiece.

[kato]

Dustin broke grew up and his aspiration meter was pretty lousy but one of his wants was to write a great novel so i thought what the hell. I persisted and he finished it earning him 2,700 pretty good for the broke family. :)

[wheefi]

ok, thanks. it's just that i have one sims who doesn't want to do anything else but sell a masterpiece painting or a novel, she has maxed the creativity ages ago, but no luck.. her aspiration is getting pretty low..

[Blower]

taken from the Prima guide(in quotes):

"easel created paintings don't depreciate. Rather, they appreciate every two days for sims with creativity with 8 or more"

as follows:

"50/50 chance of

If less than $100, +/- $2
Between 100/1000, +/-15
More than 100, +/-50"

Also note that when the painter of the piece dies the value suddenly shoots up (painting subject doesn't matter) and the above mentioned "every 2 days" changes to "every day" - so ideally one would build a collection of say 15 paintings, die, pass the paintings on for generations, gaining 50 a day ontop of approximatley 2500 per item.
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Personally this would be a matter of achievement rather than wealth, having a piece worth 10,000 would take a few generations - and that's why i'd be proud - however you would have to keep living in the same house every generation - which would either be very boring or cause you to modify the house everytime the parents died. It would be nice if the art work could be transferable - perhaps through modding it could be...

Oh and hello (1st post :) )

PS/edit: A masterpiece is defined as created piece worth over $500