Aspiration and Career Rewards Can someone post a nice list of all the aspiration and career rewards and what they do? Is it worth using your hard earned points for it? I find I use the same few over and over. I never use some careers. I might be missing something wonderful! lol
Okay, let's start with the Aspiration ones. Each item is rated according to how I value it relative to the Thinking Cap(TC), with higher numbers being more, lower numbers being less. Money Tree - 3000 ASP - Rating: 0.45 TC It's the money tree. If watered regularly, it will spew out $40 when harvested by someone in Gold+. Otherwise, you get $1. Visiting sims like to raid your money tree. There are no harmful side effects, although if not watered, they will eventually die. Noodlesoother - 5000 ASP - Rating: 0.17 TC Probably one of the most dangerous toys: When used correctly, it'll improve your Sim's mood bar, but it will not actually solve his needs. In fact, they seem to drop even faster, and this toy is quite likely to cause your Sim's untimely demise. I tend to avoid this one, but people have reported good results when putting it on immediately before leaving for work. I think it lasts for about 24 hours of continuous use, which is longer than your Sim will last if he uses this. Smart Milk - 7500 ASP - Rating: 1.13 TC If fed to a toddler by a parent in Gold+, he will glow radioactively blue and learn to talk, walk, and crap about twice as fast as usual. Feed it to a toddler who has a full energy bar, and you can usually teach him to simultaneously talk and walk in a single dose. Potty-training is somewhat more time-consuming since you need to wait for low bladder meter as well, but two doses is generally enough to fully train any toddler. All in all, a pretty good deal, considering you get 5 doses, and the kid will gain ~2000 ASP for learning each of his basics, not including anything the parent might gain for teaching the kid. If used improperly, the child pukes and loses skill points. Cool Shades - 10000 ASP - Rating: 0.22 TC You get 5 of them, and they improve the relationship gain of a social interaction. It has no additional effect, either beneficial or baneful, if used out of Gold+. Energizer - 14000 ASP - Rating: 0.74 TC Restores all needs if used in Gold+. Takes approximately 40 minutes to recharge a Sim, depending on how bad his worst need is, so plan accordingly if using before work. If used improperly, your Sim's needs bottom out. While this will not directly kill him, it can very likely result in death, as your Sim will likely refuse to do anything except whine and pee himself. As per the description, you get only 5 uses. It's decent for its value, and although not something you use regularly as it can majorly mess up your schedule, it's great for emergencies after all-night study bender, when you lose plat and still have to make it to work in an hour...and want that promotion! Thinking cap - 15000 ASP - Rating: 1.0 TC (benchmark) It's the thinking cap. Your Sim skills twice as fast. Lasts for 24 hours of continuous use. Use ONLY in Gold+, this item practically never works correctly otherwise. If used improperly, your Sim loses a randomly selected skillpoint and all energy, passing out. SimVac - 17500 ASP - Rating: 0.29 TC Drains skills or aspiration meter from targeted sim. If used outside of Gold+, can backfire and drain Asp or Skills, depending on what you chose, from the user. Does not give anything to the target. Negatively affects relationships between user and target. Given the obvious difficulty of finding a target that is simultaneously worth leeching, and one that you don't care about harming, combined with its 5-use limit, I can't say this is a highly rated item....unless you use my trick to put it on a community lot. Due to lack of cost in doing this, however, no rating is assigned to such usage. Love Tub - 20000 ASP - Rating: 0.58 TC Its primary usage is a large, decorative, cash-free hot tub. This usage alone increases its rating in my mind. When functioning correctly, it enables the "Woohoo" options at lower relationship values than normally required, and interactions are pretty much never rejected. If used below Gold+, there are no harmful side effects, but it functions simply as a regular hot tub. It lasts for a only fixed duration, which I am uncertain of, but is indicated by the candles, after which it functions only as a regular hot tub. Even for a Romance sim, this item is not really profitable, hence I give it a low rating. However, it *CAN* be a nice hot-tub on a budget, if you have no money to spare for one. Elixir of Life - 30580 ASP - Rating: 1.77 TC (1.83 TC w/o memory bug) 5 doses. 3 days of life per dose. Cannot drop an age category. If used outside of Gold+, has a chance of subtracting days of lifespan instead. TS2: $42.95 New Graphics Card: $250 Being struck by the memory-chat bug and being unable to play your Sim anymore: Priceless. Some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's MasterCard.
Here are the career awards: I describe both the level you receive them at, and their ground footprint, including the space needed for both an user and trainer. Lie Detector - Criminal Receive At: Con Artist (L4) Footprint: 2x2 Increases creativity. No really special effects except being sometimes funny to watch when it shocks the Sim. No harmful effect, though. Obstacle Course - Military Receive At: Junior Officer (L4) Footprint: 10x4 - Trainer always stands on the left side of the course. Increases Body. Has a slight effect at improving Fitness, but is not as good at improving Fitness as the Bench. Funny to watch. Hydroponic Garden - Slacker Receive At: Party D.J. (L5) (?) (uncertain - could be received at L6 Projectionist instead) Footprint: 1x2 Increases creativity. I haven't used this one much. Fingerprint Scanner - Law Enforcement Receive At: Detective (L6) Footprint: 1x1, can be placed on empty surfaces - will roam when in use Increases Cleaning. Can often get completely lost if your Sim weirds out while trying to put it down. For this reason, I try not to move it from its display stand much. Chocolate Factory - Culinary Receive At: Prep Cook (L6) Footprint: 3x2 +1 (trainer stands at mouth of U) Increases Cooking. Makes money! Funny to watch. Biotech Station - Science Receive At: Inventor (L6) Footprint: 3x2 Makes virii or medicine. Not really very good at making money, requires a lot of micromanagement to use because your Sim stops when he completes his task. Virus appears to be useless, as it cannot be moved and has no options other than to dispose. Punching Bag - Athlete Receive At: Allstar (L5) Footprint: 2x2 - not certain where trainer will stand yet. It's a punching bag. It increases body. It's otherwise fairly simple and to the point. Golf Course - Business Receive At: Executive (L5) Footprint: 4x2 - User stands on left (side without pipe), trainer stands at back. Medical Station - Medical Receive At: Intern (L4) Footprint: 2x2 - right side cannot be placed against wall, however. Amusing to watch as user pulls forth bits and hides/throws them. Teleprompter - Politics Receive At: City Council Member(L5) Footprint: 1x3 - User stands in back, trainer stands in front. It increases Charisma. Otherwise not all that interesting to watch. Plan your house accordingly if you plan to stock these awards later. Some items require clearance room that is very inflexible and not indicated by the object until you attempt to use it. See above for details.
I hoped you'd post a detailed list! lol Thank you..it's perfect. I now know what that noodlesoother does. It looked like a dust bunny to me and couldn't figure it out. I so often miss the obvious. :(
I had Cassandra Goth come down with a "mystery illness" while using the biotech station. Could it be that making a virus has the potential to infect the user?
Yes, it does. I think I forgot to mention that. It's also a potentially fatal disease, so your Sim can die from it.
LOL - that's a pretty big thing to forget... it's like: "here's a hotdog, it's a little pricey but good fun" then halfway through eating it: "oh and by the way you can die if you eat that hotdog..." hee hee >_<
Well, you COULD die from it, yeah, but I've never actually had it *HAPPEN*, so you can understand why it slipped my mind. You know, it's kinda like the alien abductions or satellite deaths: They could HAPPEN, but it's not like you've actually HAD them happen to any other Sims but the Lone Gunmen. I mean, when you think about it, the odds of actually dying from the disease are somewhat worse than that of alien abduction. First, it has to actually happen, and then, you have to actually die from it. Hard to do.
LOL. The disease is also highly communicable. Appears to spread by contact. One hug is enough. The cure is pretty simple, though. I treated both cases by maxing the sim out with the energizer and getting them to meditate until they recovered.
Yeah, that's basically the cure for any disease in TS2. The only problem that occurs is when a townie catches it: Since townies cannot be played, and therefore cannot be simply confined to quarters until they recover, the only solution is field execution.
The satellite death I have only seen once and it wasn't even my game, it was my boyfriends. He had seen me playing and wanted to make his own guy. So he made one, got him into a house, got a job, and walked outside to see what "watch the clouds" did while waiting for the car pool (He didn't want to be late.) Thats when he got nailed by the satellite. Not even 5 minutes into playing. He was mad but I thought it was funny. It took him a few days to get over it and want to try again. He didn't save so his sim is a productive member of the sim community today
I have a very stupid question: Whats a townie? Oh, and about the rewards? I got the hydroponic garden thingy at level 4 once. Its not very fun and it takes a lot of time to grow things. The upside is, my sim has a lot of sparetime, so she actually gets a new plant every week to be sold for 350. It doesnt decrease its value through time. So if you need money, sell those plants!
Townies are the Sims you encounter that you didn't create, that are also not the prebuilt population of the neighborhood. They live in no house, nor are they in the family bin. This means that they are unplayable, they never age unless you move one in through "Propose" (Which cannot happen with child-townies)....and it also means that since they can never be played, once they catch a disease, it is impossible to cure them, since curing a disease requires that the Sim in question be played long enough to recover from the disease. This means they are ALWAYS sick, ALWAYS contagious, and will constantly reinfect any sim that drags one home from work! I ran some more tests: The Hydroponic Garden is definitely received at L5, Party DJ. I haven't really used it yet, but does it require your actual attention, or do the plants more or less grow on their own once planted? I would think it does not require any actual input from you, being that it's an object that should represent the inherent values of slackerhood.
Thank you so much for the list and your insight, JM. I did have a noodle-soother related death. I couldn't figure out how to get it off his stupid head! I kept telling him to take it off because his aspiration meter had turned green, but he wouldn't do it. He took it off, the laid down in the floor and died!
The plants require some attention. You start out with sow(or plant), then for maybe 3 days its Attending. After that you can harvest the plant, and put it on the terrace or whatever, or if you need excactly 350 Simoleons, sell it. Sorry about the level 4 statement. I meant was that I started on level 1, of course and moved up 4 levels, hence i got the hydro-garden at level 5. Sorry for the confusion.
It may be a dumb question but until I saw people talking about them on this forum I'd missed them, too! lol Click on the treasure chest icon to open the aspiration awards. There is a small icon there to toggle between the aspiration and career awards.
The career awards are in the same "treasure chest" section as the Aspiration awards, only you have to click the other tab. You'll find them next to the tab where one of them is the symbol of the currently select sim's aspiration, with a treasure chest: The other one, below it, is a symbol of a little man at a desk with a treasure chest: These are the career awards, and are unlocked by being promoted to the relevant level, as listed above. Note that you will not receive the award if you enter through the computer, or through teen job promotion, at a level at or above that level, or skip-promote over that level via a chance card. You must start at least one level below and be promoted to it normally.
Just a little thought.. Well I've tried all the carreer reward and I must say that they aren't so useful the only good thing with them is the fact that a sim can train another sim. I remember when my active boy was being train by his father (he's mastered Body) with the Punching Bag, and it took one day to fill his body bar.
