The Score
Note: Charlie’s score is unofficial. I made the mistake of forgetting to age Mae and Berry to adults when I began the challenge; they began as young adults: thus, the challenge doesn’t meet the rules. Having the two caregivers start at the young adult stage offers an advantage. So, consider this an unofficial score!
Rules for scoring are found at Pinstar’s Official Wonder Child page.
Days to childhood after earing an A – 3 for 3 points
Days to young adulthood after earning an A in high school – 11 for 11 points
Silver childhood birthday party – 0 points
Gold young adult birthday party – 5 points
Traits: – 34 for 340 points
- Good
- Music Lover
- Glutton
- Physically Gifted
- Night Owl
- Creatively Gifted
- Long Lived
- Incredibly Friendly
- Gym Rat
- Socially Gifted
- Mentor
- Expressionistic
- Speed Cleaner
- Free Services
- Mentally Gifted
- Observant
- Beguiling
- Natural Leader
- Marketable
- Speed Reader
- Frugal
- Piper
- Shameless
- Savant
- Always Welcome
- Entrepreneurial
- Steel Bladder
- Beloved
- Independent
- Creative Visionary
- Great Storyteller
- Morning Sim
- Stoves and Grills Master
- Gregarious
Skills (1 point for each skill, plus 3 bonus points for every maxed skill) – 143 points
Charisma 10 + 3
Comedy 3
Cooking 6
Dancing 1
Fishing 2
Fitness 10 + 3
Gardening 1
Gourmet Cooking 3
Handiness 2
Herbalism 2
Logic 7
Painting 10 + 3
Photography 1
Piano 4
Programming 2
Video Gaming 3
Violin 10 + 3
Wellness 2
Social – 10 + 3
Mental – 10 + 3
Creative – 10 + 3
Physical – 10 + 3
Totals:
Skill points: 143
Traits: 340
Grade Points: 14
Birthday Party: 5
Final Total Score: 502
My Response
I’m so pleased with this score! Last time I played, in November 2014, I earned 327 points. Granted, it was much harder to complete aspirations (adult and child aspirations) before the December 2014 patch. I had set my goal for this challenge to have a higher score. I was hoping to beat 420. In review, I think of the ways I could have earned more points, but all in all, I’m really happy with this score–and I’m even more pleased with Mae, Berry, Charlie, their friends and family, and the way that this game and story is developing.
The Strategy
The strategy for earning a high score rested on a few leveraged points:
- The child super-skilling trick
- No sleep for the Wonder Child (thanks to Zzz juice)
- Aspiration-switching to facilitate the completion of multiple aspirations
The Child Super-Skilling Trick
JordanNicoleJJ and I developed this technique while playing legacies. Think of it as an Easter-egg of multi-skilling. It rests on the bonus of a child being able to quickly max a second skill while completing another skill through a computer activity. Specifically, once a child has gained Level 9 Mental Skill, playing Arithmetic Attack will allow the child to rapidly max Physical Skill at the same time as increasing Mental Skill. Then, playing Keyboard Commander once the child has reached Level 9 Physical Skill will allow the child to rapidly max Creative Skill while simultaneously increasing Physical Skill.
The trick isn’t 100% guaranteed to work immediately, or (possibly) even every time. Sometimes, the games (Arithmetic Attack and Keyboard Commander) don’t work: in that case, try Research on Simpedia. It will often work. When playing Charlie, the simul-skill of Mental and Physical worked great–but the Physical/Creative didn’t work at first. In the interim, I played my SimKids in New World Symphony. One of the twins was able to simul-skill both pairs quickly and easily. The other ran into the same issue as Charlie: Physical/Creative wouldn’t simul-skill. Since that’s an aging off game, I had lots of time to experiment. I played with using Research on Simpedia, trying multiple times, and eventually, it seemed that if I had the child in the right mood, the simul-skill worked. When I returned to Charlie, I had him browse art on the web until he was inspired, and then the simul-skill worked perfectly. So, if you get stuck with simul-skilling, experiment with different moods: try energetic, if you need to rapidly skill the physical. Try inspired, if you need to rapidly skill the creative. If it doesn’t work the first time, just keep experimenting. It’s worth it! With this technique, Charlie was able to max these three childhood skills within three days, and maxing social skill seems to happen easily through interactions with friends and family, especially if you choose the social interactions that have the mouth icon (the social skill icon).
Here’s the summary of the Child Super-Skilling Trick:
1. Have a child reach level 9 mental.
2. Have the child play Arithmetic Attack to earn mental skill while simultaneously earning physical.
3. Have the child play Keyboard Commander to max physical while simultaneously maxing creative.
Remember: if the games don’t work, try Research Simpedia.
Living on Zzzz Juice
This is a common strategy for Wonder Children. I used it in my legacy, too. When the child doesn’t sleep, all sorts of time opens up for skilling and completing aspirations. The two caregivers become important in providing the aspiration points to purchase Zzz juice–save the child’s aspiration points for his or her reward traits!
Aspiration Switching
The first time I played the Wonder Child Challenge (and, of course, in the legacy), I had the child complete one aspiration before working on the next. It’s much more strategic to switch often, knocking off milestones in the most efficient way.
I also chose adult aspirations that I find to be easy: Friend of the World; Leader of the Pack; Body Builder; Musical Protege; and Artistic Visionary (or whatever the painting one is called). Within Charlie’s first day as a teen, he was able to complete all except the Level 10 Charisma milestone of Friend of the World. Once the “Incredibly Friendly” reward trait is purchased (which was the first trait purchased for Charlie), making friends is quick and easy.
Leader of the Pack was also a very easy aspiration.
For Charlie, who reached Level 9 violin skill as child, and had already begun three compositions, completing Musical Protege was easy–this was the first adult aspiration he completed.
I was a little worried about Body Builder–in the past, it had taken a while for the Sim to achieve maximum fitness. But Charlie achieved that very quickly, while he was still at Level 8 Fitness. I thank Paolo’s good genes!
Painting was a little tricky–it took a lot of canvases before Charlie completed enough masterpieces! Because Charlie has the “Music Lover” trait, I had him listen to music while he painted, and so he kept his fun level up throughout.
Other Tips
Mentors help a lot! The quickest way to gain fitness skill is by heading to the gym and having a trainer mentor. If I play this again, I’ll have one of the adults master the violin, so that she can mentor the child.
Taking advantage of the charisma social interactions (those with the sunglasses icon) raises the charisma skill much faster than other socials.
Don’t worry about sending the child to school once the A is earned! (I learned this tip from AkramA.) Use vacation, sick, and excuse days! The time is much better spent gaining skills and working on aspirations. Once the student has used up excused absences, then consider sending them to school so the grade doesn’t drop–you will have some grace days before losing that A!
How I could have earned more points
I had forgotten about the points earned for every day before the birthday after the A grade was achieved when Charlie was a child. So I lost about five or six points there. There may have been some compensation through gaining more skills and aspiration points, but next time, I’ll wait and use vacation days after the A is earned. There’s plenty of time to earn the A first and still complete all four childhood aspirations!
I don’t know why I wasn’t able to earn the gold medal party for Charlie’s first birthday party! It may have to do with the household still being fairly new. I remember in the legacy that the first gen had a tough time with parties, and the more established the family became, the easier the parties were.
I ended the game with 2,500 aspiration points that I wasn’t able to spend! Charlie had already bought all the rewards for that amount or less. I tried to gain 3,000 so we could get one more trait, but I ran out of time! If I were to play again, I’d try to calculate the final aspiration points a bit better.
The Reflections
This has been so fun, so rewarding, and so surprising! I love Mae and Berry, and they were amazing care-givers. It worked really well not to have them have jobs: they earned plenty of money through painting and writing, and having them at home allowed them to stay happy, keep the home functioning, and earn lots of aspiration points for Charlie’s Zzz juice. It worked out great!
I also really enjoyed the story that developed as I got to know Mae, Berry, and Charlie. Charlie is the biggest surprise. When he was a kid, I thought he might fit the traditional gender stereotypes for a boy. I expected him to be into sports, to be a little bit macho, and to be active. I was looking forward to writing a character very different from my usual character types.
Somehow, Charlie developed into this type that seems to be in most of my games and stories: Charlie become very sensitive, very thoughtful, rather religious or spiritual, and quite esoteric! How did that happen? I did not intend that. But Charlie could easily be a Bough!
I have an idea that Sims are shaped through game-play. When I play Charlie so that he develops himself to the height of his abilities, so that he is considerate, kind, thoughtful, respectful, funny, and caring, so that he spends hours playing music and painting, then he develops intelligence, emotional sensitivity, and, perhaps, digital awareness. He becomes amazing.
At the point we’re at now in the game, I am discovering who Charlie is, who he has become. I’m learning from him.
Where do we go from here?
The game and story will continue in the format of “A Day in The Life.” As we’ve done so far, each of Charlie’s days will be a chapter. We’ll still hear from Mae and Berry now and then. I’ll be giving Charlie more autonomy: Wonder children are kept pretty busy and pretty player-directed, and now he’ll get more free time to decide for himself what he wants to do. We’ll be watching and responding to his whims, also. The big life-choices will be left up to him. I’m excited to see what the rest of his digital life will be like!
Cathy Tea's SimLit Anthology 