Flip the Crick

[Metropolis Man]

Flip the Crick



Goal
Your painter and your woodworker move into Crick Cabana in Willow Creek. After becoming skilled in their respective crafts, they each add paintings and sculptures/furniture to every room in the house to add value to the home.


General Challenge Rules

• The General Challenge Rules always apply. If applicable, exceptions will be listed below.

Specific Challenge Rules

• Create 2 Young Adult Human or Alien Sims. Relationship = player choice.
• No household additions allowed after leaving CAS.
• You are allowed to use the Buydebug cheat for the sole purpose of purchasing a satellite to prevent abductions.
• You are only allowed to buy one easel and one woodworking table from Buy Mode. Any earned career rewards may also be purchased, but all earned career rewards must be placed into inventory before final lot value is calculated.
• Buying Fame perks is fine, as well as reward traits, but no Money Tree.
• You may add 1 painting and 1 woodworking item (sculpture or furniture) to each smaller room (bedrooms and the bathroom). You may add 2 paintings and 2 woodworking items to the main front room (kitchen/living area). The only allowed items are crafted items by your two Sims.
• Additionally, your woodworker may replace any existing room item if a duplicate can be crafted (i.e. crafted toilet for the existing toilet). The crafted bathtub qualifies as replacing the shower.
• No structural changes to the home or lot. The only allowed changes are what is mentioned above.
• This challenge concludes when your Sims age up to Adult.

Scoring

Lot Value — When your painter and woodworker age up to Adult, pause your game. Press F2 (Build Mode) and click the Lot Info Panel at the top left of the screen. Write down the Lot Value of your Crick Cabana.

Ch-Ch-Changes
The team does not want to edit and make changes to the ruleset once this event goes live, but we may have to. If an exploit is brought to our attention or we discover something else we may ask affected players to redo their effort.

Have Questions?
Please think hard before you ask in the challenge thread because it may be strategy. What you may consider an innocent question could cause another player to go — “oh, I did not think of doing that.” It’s always safer to PM everyone on the team (Metro, MarianT, sdhoey, and LenaLJ) for clarifications. Thanks.

And the Winner is...
After this event has closed everyone is encouraged to discuss how they approached the event, but the winner is expected to do so in detail.

This Event is Now Closed

Player	Lot Value
LenaLJ	117533
Deveroux	115996
perksofbeingrachel	115059
smastbrook	109464
Eva	109259
Nandarelle	100868
BallerinaHippo	96907
Snoochenpurner	94631
HelenP	93726
sdhoey	92406
Nikitachi	90024
KTK10	87144
workingmum8	86114
MomOfMany	85388
Metropolis Man	84887
december22	82222
SueDenim	79386
Tynynounours	79263
Eighty8Keys	75865
MarianT	70541
MSUCalli	62084
Elinoee	61930
coolsim9999999	59446
Ravencloud999	50315
rokrchik	49426
kirkbysims	48518
math_chick	44734
JocyMc	38867
Annabec	37749
jewels129	35807
CynKuy	29943
titaniadioxide	23336
SIMantics101	17579

[oshizu]

This is going to be a fun challenge!
I like the twist of our woodworker being allowed to replace existing room items!
Just 18 more days to go!

[Metropolis Man]

This is going to be a fun challenge!
I like the twist of our woodworker being allowed to replace existing room items!
Just 18 more days to go!

I am looking forward to it as well. Crafters are my favorite types of Sims. And by the way, everyone, if you did not catch the start date, it's a Friday instead of the typical Monday.

[coolsim9999999]

Great idea, team!  It will be fun to flip that house .

[Felicat]

Oooh I think I"ll make this my first official challenge.  Only question I have is, are we allowed to sell lower quality crafted items, or do we have to use each one we create in the challenge?  Looking forward to this one. 

[MystiKitty]

Nifty house-building challenge to kick off the 2019 Sims Tournament!

[Metropolis Man]

Oooh I think I"ll make this my first official challenge.  Only question I have is, are we allowed to sell lower quality crafted items, or do we have to use each one we create in the challenge?  Looking forward to this one. 

Awesome. It will be nice to have some fresh faces in 2019. To answer your question...yes, you can sell lower quality items.

Nifty house-building challenge to kick off the 2019 Sims Tournament!

Actually, there is no "building" involved. You buy the Crick Cabana lot and any structural changes are off limits.

[Metropolis Man]

A couple clarifications added just now...

• You are only allowed to buy an easel and a woodworking table from Buy Mode.
• Buying Fame perks is fine, as well as reward traits, but no Money Tree.

[HelenP]

My test sims have different ages, they are 1 day apart. What's your recommendation on when to finish if this happens in the scoring file?

[Metropolis Man]

My test sims have different ages, they are 1 day apart. What's your recommendation on when to finish if this happens in the scoring file?

Hmmm...interesting. The correct days to age up on Short life span is 11 days, correct? So, that's what you would go off of.

[ibbygidge]

If we notice the age discrepancy after the first day, is there a way to see how old our sims are? I can see in my test that one of my sims has 8 days left till aging, and one has 7. Or I suppose if the game starts at 8am on Sunday (at least I think that's how sims 3 worked, not sure about 4), I could calculate how many days it's been and then see when 11 days would end.. Or else I suppose if they are different ages, at the start of the game it's not possible that one sim was less than 0 age (or seems unlikely), but it is possible for the other sim to have started at 1 day old, so a full young adulthood should be based on the younger sim's age, I would think?

Sorry, does this line of thought make sense?

[Metropolis Man]

If we notice the age discrepancy after the first day, is there a way to see how old our sims are? I can see in my test that one of my sims has 8 days left till aging, and one has 7. Or I suppose if the game starts at 8am on Sunday (at least I think that's how sims 3 worked, not sure about 4), I could calculate how many days it's been and then see when 11 days would end.. Or else I suppose if they are different ages, at the start of the game it's not possible that one sim was less than 0 age (or seems unlikely), but it is possible for the other sim to have started at 1 day old, so a full young adulthood should be based on the younger sim's age, I would think?

Sorry, does this line of thought make sense?

Well, I know that 11 days to age up is the correct YA life span on Short. So, someone correct me if I am wrong, but you should end your file on Week 2, Thursday...I think.

[Metropolis Man]

I added the last sentence of the following rule...

• You may add 1 painting and 1 sculpture to each smaller room (bedrooms and the bathroom). You may add 2 paintings and 2 sculptures the main front room (kitchen/living area). The only allowed items are crafted items by your two Sims.

[titaniadioxide]

First-time challenger here!

You are only allowed to buy an easel and a woodworking table from Buy Mode.

Clarification on this - does this mean that you can only acquire the easel and the woodworking table through Buy Mode, or that the only things you can purchase from Buy Mode are the easel and the woodworking table?

Are we allowed to purchase better quality flooring/wallpaper? Add pools or gardens or scenery? Purchase better quality furniture for the furniture that we can’t make?

Someone else asked this too, but are we allowed to sell the paintings and sculptures and furniture that we make?

Thanks!

[Metropolis Man]

First-time challenger here!

You are only allowed to buy an easel and a woodworking table from Buy Mode.

Clarification on this - does this mean that you can only acquire the easel and the woodworking table through Buy Mode, or that the only things you can purchase from Buy Mode are the easel and the woodworking table?

They are the only things you can buy from Buy Mode.

Are we allowed to purchase better quality flooring/wallpaper? Add pools or gardens or scenery? Purchase better quality furniture for the furniture that we can’t make?

No to all these questions. Sorry if it was not obvious. You cannot change anything except the crafted additions. That is the whole point of the challenge.

Someone else asked this too, but are we allowed to sell the paintings and sculptures and furniture that we make?

Thanks!

Yes.

[titaniadioxide]

Thanks so much! As a follow up, is the woodworker allowed to do upgrades on existing appliances with the handiness skills they gain woodworking? Basically, is it just woodworking and painting, or general “using the handiness and painting skills to improve the house”?

Thanks for your help, and let me know if there’s somewhere better to discuss this stuff, I’m still trying to figure out forum politics and norms. 

[Metropolis Man]

Thanks so much! As a follow up, is the woodworker allowed to do upgrades on existing appliances with the handiness skills they gain woodworking? Basically, is it just woodworking and painting, or general “using the handiness and painting skills to improve the house”?

Thanks for your help, and let me know if there’s somewhere better to discuss this stuff, I’m still trying to figure out forum politics and norms. 

Upgrades are fine. You are not changing the lot, per se, adding new items, etc. And additional questions can be sent via a team PM. Look at the bottom of the page and you'll see team members in parenthesis.

[KTK10]

Hi, am trying my luck here.. but I know the rules say you can buy an easel and a woodworking table.. am I right in assuming only one of each are allowed to be purchased?

[Nomac]

Crafting - I like that, too. I loved the sculpting skill in Sims 3 - my lots were usually full of stone and wood furniture, and in the bottom basement (the deeper, the better the quality, I once read) I kept rows of sculpted nectar racks full of homemade wine. Those were the days... 

So, we endeavour to enhance the value of the lot by placing crafted items, but other than replacing existing furniture, we are limited to four sculptures plus four paintings for the whole house, is this correct?
Is the painter allowed to woodwork and the woodworker to paint, or do they need to stick to their respective skill?
May we move existing furniture around?
May we plant things outside? Huh, probably not.

Whaaat, only four questions from me? Wait, that makes five... as always, thank you for you answers and, hopefully, patience.  
Man, I really hope I can participate in this one, I'm gone for all but four days of the time it's scheduled in.. should be enough, though, for 11 sims days.

[Metropolis Man]

Hi, am trying my luck here.. but I know the rules say you can buy an easel and a woodworking table.. am I right in assuming only one of each are allowed to be purchased?

Only one of each. I will edit the rules.

So, we endeavour to enhance the value of the lot by placing crafted items, but other than replacing existing furniture, we are limited to four sculptures plus four paintings for the whole house, is this correct?

Correct. And you cannot replace all existing furniture -- only similar items that the woodworker can craft.

Is the painter allowed to woodwork and the woodworker to paint, or do they need to stick to their respective skill? May we move existing furniture around?
May we plant things outside? Huh, probably not.

Yes, yes, and no. Plants would be changing the lot.

[HelenP]

Well, I know that 11 days to age up is the correct YA life span on Short. So, someone correct me if I am wrong, but you should end your file on Week 2, Thursday...I think.

Hi Metro,  I did a quick test for another file and found the full YA lifespan on short is 12 days, making them age up on Week 2, Friday.  I haven't got far with the test file but I expect that the birthday notice/bubbling age bar will kick in at 8am and the sims will age at 8pm with no cake.

[Metropolis Man]

Ok, thank you, HelenP.

[Vesper]

When you say you can add 1 sculpture to a room does that just include things from the sculpture section like dragons and lumberjacks or does it also include things from the furniture section e.g. the wall hanging that's in the image for the post?

[Metropolis Man]

When you say you can add 1 sculpture to a room does that just include things from the sculpture section like dragons and lumberjacks or does it also include things from the furniture section e.g. the wall hanging that's in the image for the post?

It includes things from the furniture section as well. I will clarify.

[Lisabee2]

I am going to bookmark this one .. I have never done a challenge in here <3  With luck RL will have mercy on me

[Metropolis Man]

I am going to bookmark this one .. I have never done a challenge in here <3  With luck RL will have mercy on me

It's always exciting to see new forum members try out new challenges when a new season starts. Good luck. And Happy New Year, everybody!

Take another look at the rules and make sure you are clear. This starts on Friday. The team has gotten quite a few "can I put x into my inventory" types of questions. The only thing I can figure is players are trying to increase their Lot Value by this. If this is true -- I did not think that was the case, then no, you cannot put things into inventory. The whole point of this challenge is to craft the allowed number of items to put into rooms. That's it.

[MystiKitty]

Happy New Year's, everyone! I might actually try this challenge since it's so simple and doesn't require you to do anything crazy like have babies, all you have to do is spend two Sim weeks decorating a pre-made house to improve its lot value. I can do that... as long as my copy of Sims 4 doesn't lag like slow molasses.

(I spent last night, just before the fireworks - my place is surrounded by fireworks fields  - getting back into Sims... and the game started lagging like no business.  )

Well, I have three days before the event starts, working on strats. Good luck to everyone doing this challenge.

[Metropolis Man]

I added the last sentence to the following rule....

• You are only allowed to buy one easel and one woodworking table from Buy Mode. Any earned career rewards may also be purchased.

[december22]

I added the last sentence to the following rule....

• You are only allowed to buy one easel and one woodworking table from Buy Mode. Any earned career rewards may also be purchased.

Does this mean that all career rewards earned can be placed on the lot?

[Metropolis Man]

I added the last sentence to the following rule....

• You are only allowed to buy one easel and one woodworking table from Buy Mode. Any earned career rewards may also be purchased.

Does this mean that all career rewards earned can be placed on the lot?

No. I will clarify the rule. If that was allowed then players would grab Connections asap and gobble up rewards and scatter them about the lot which, again...is not what this challenge is about. It's crafting items via 2 skills.

EDIT:

• You are only allowed to buy one easel and one woodworking table from Buy Mode. Any earned career rewards may also be purchased, but all earned career rewards must be placed into inventory before final lot value is calculated.

[december22]

Thank you for the clarification

[Metropolis Man]

This challenge goes live in less than 48 hours, so please look over the rules one more time. There have been several edits/additions.

[coolsim9999999]

When my painter (Claudia Monet) and Charles Carpenter (my carpenter) aged up to adult the value of my Crick Cabana was §59,446. 

Thanks for a great start to the year, team!  Good luck to everyone .

Coolsim

[Ravencloud999]

I've started and given up on these tournaments for two or three years now. Hopefully, this is the year I stick to it!

My final lot value for this challenge was: $50,315.

[december22]

Remember its always good to check you're on the right life span length BEFORE you get halfway through a challenge. 

[perksofbeingrachel]

Assuming I've done everything correctly...

My two sims final lot value was: $115,059.

I had a lot of fun!

[december22]

Carrie and Cole McFlipper finished with a lot value of $82,222

Good luck to everyone partaking this year 

[Elinoee]

My final lot value is 61930 $
I'm quite satisfied of my first participation     
It was a fun quick challenge !

[MSUCalli]

Fablo Dicasso and Con Gwanson finished with a lot total of $62,084

[MSUCalli]

Remember its always good to check you're on the right life span length BEFORE you get halfway through a challenge. 

I was 3/4 of the way through when I realized I was in normal

[HelenP]

Thomas and Teresa Sands crafted their way to a house worth £93,726.

[Nikitachi]

Done with the result of 90,024.

Thank you for the new challenges!

[Deveroux]

First challenge complete~

Ended with $115,996, pretty good for my first shot at it

[Metropolis Man]

First challenge complete~

Ended with $115,996, pretty good for my first shot at it

No kidding. Well done. You and perksofbeingrachel are both first-timers and posted great scores.

[sdhoey]

The Hatton Twins Flipped the Crick for §92,406

[jewels129]

Finished up with a lot value of 35,807

[JocyMc]

Lot value of 38,867.

[kirkbysims]

Finished with a lot value of £48,518

[Snoochenpurner]

If one sim ages up and the other doesn't age until the end of the day, when should we stop the clock?

[Metropolis Man]

If one sim ages up and the other doesn't age until the end of the day, when should we stop the clock?

As long as both are aging up on the correct day (11 days from starting your file), then it can be your choice if one ages up earlier.

[math_chick]

Lot value of 44,734
I can't wait to hear the better strategies!

[Metropolis Man]

Lot value of 44,734
I can't wait to hear the better strategies!

Me too. I need to knock this one out soon because the next Diablo season starts in a week. I hope everybody doing this one realizes that you cannot leave a painting on the easel and then assess Lot Value because you're essentially adding more paintings to a room than allowed. So, sell any painting at the end that's on the easel.

[smastbrook]

Jayce & Angelina Galvan finished with a lot value of $109,464.

[Snoochenpurner]

Denzel and Whitney Hutton flipped the Crick ended with a lot value of 94,631

[Metropolis Man]

Well, painting challenges are always fun for me because it's a nice excuse to create a Frank Frazetta Sim. Frank and his woodworking significant other racked up $84887 in Lot Value.

[Eighty8Keys]

Final lot value is 75,865. I did better in my practice file. I can't wait to hear how others got such great scores.

[Eva]

Finished Lot Value $ 109,259.

Thank-you, was a fun challenge. 

[rokrchik]

Final lot value 49,426

Man I can't wait to read other, better strategies. How some of you got such high values! WOW!

Kerry

[MarianT]

Leo and Nardo daVinci scored 70,541.

[KTK10]

My Sims got 87,144 - Thanks, great challenge!

[SueDenim]

Con and Dee Struct finished at 79,386.

Weird challenge.  I'm looking forward to some reveals.

[Annabec]

I finished at 37,749. Thanks for the challenge!

[Metropolis Man]

This challenge ends Sunday night, so please get those scores in soon.

On a different note, since there are some newcomers up at the top it's always expected that detailed strategy of how you pulled off great scores will be laid out once I close an event. Just take a look at what others have typed in recent challenges to get an idea. Good luck to everyone finishing up.

[CynKuy]

My Sims made a measly $29,943.

[Metropolis Man]

My Sims made a measly $29,943.

I went ahead and posted your score, @CynKuy, but your wording...that your Sims "made" a certain amount...the challenge was about Lot Value, not household income. So, I am hoping you remembered that.

[titaniadioxide]

I warned y'all that I was new to the challenges.  I sort of went about it semi-blind, without much strategy.  At the end of the Thursday, Crick Cabana was worth $23,336 (the household funds were $32,448).  I'm happy - I was hoping I'd hit $20k! 

I can't wait to hear how everyone actually did it, and got to such high lot values!

[workingmum8]

My sims managed to increase the lot value  to $86, 114.  Can't wait to see the strategies from the front runners.

Good luck to everyone still finishing.

[BallerinaHippo]

My sims achieved a lot value of $96907.  Like many others, I am looking forward to the post-challenge discussion. This was a fun one.

[SIMantics101]

My sims Arts and Crafts had a tough time flipping this house and only got the lot value to $17,579.  Oh well, I guess someone has to bring up the rear, right?  Anyway, it was a fun break from work / school stuff.  Hope everyone had fun.  Thanks to the moderators for a nice start to the new year of challenges.  And congrats to the winners!

[LenaLJ]

In the end my couple raised their household value to 117533, was quiet fun to play without playtesting first this time

[Tynynounours]

So, Painting and Woodworking Slave raised the house worth to 79 263 simoleons

[Nandarelle]

After decorating, my Sims' house was worth §100868.

[MomOfMany]

I finished with a lot value of $85,388.

[Metropolis Man]

This event is now closed.

33 participants -- not too shabby for this first event of the season. And several of those are first-timers, so welcome to the 2019 Sims 4 Challenge Tournament season, and welcome to the forum. Like a lot of others, I am very curious on exactly how some pushed their lot value past 100k. Grats to Queen Lena who often comes in at the 11th hour and reminds all of us of our mortality. Lol. Should be a great season, everyone. And thank you for participating in Flip the Crick. Good luck in the rest of the year!

[Eva]

Hello, All.
To y’all I am new because I have never posted anything in the forum.  But to me, I have ~known~ all of you who have written guides and tips for many years from playing Sims 3 with my daughter.  We just made the jump to Sims 4 this Christmas & I am so excited to be able to do challenges with you guys now.

Probably everything I know how to do I learned from you guys! Lol.  But since I was able to get my lot value over 100k, I will post the strategy I used.  My strategy had 2 phases.  The first phase was the accumulation of satisfaction points to buy rewards and reaching level 10 in the skills.  The second phase was cranking out the sculptures & paintings.

Painter Traits:  Art Lover, Perfectionist, Creative & Muser
Woodworker Traits:  Genius, Cheerful, Perfectionist & Quick Learner
Lot Traits:  Home Studio, Natural Light & Homey

Accumulation of Satisfaction points:  By whims and from completing these aspirations:
Painter:  Creativity fully completed
Masterchef- she got partially thru level 2.
Grilled Cheese- partial level 1
Fabulously wealthy reached partial level 4 in phase 2
Mansion Baron reached partial level 2
Soul Mate – partially thru level 3
Curator- partially thru level 2
Woodworker: Fabulously wealthy fully completed
Mansion baron- partially completed level 2
Curator partial completed level 2
Renaissance sim- level 1 finished.

Rewards Purchased: 
     On Day 4 the Painter was able to purchase Connections and the woodworker purchased Marketable. I wanted Connections to get the Easel from the Painter Career and the career rewards that had focusing décor for the woodworker.  (astronaut, tech guru, scientist, doctor)  I also used the Writer’s PC to order upgrade parts and for the Woodworker to Browse simpedia.  All career rewards were in family storage at the end of the challenge, as required.
    On Day 5 the Painter was able to purchase Creative Visionary.
    On Day 6 the Painter was able to purchase Marketable.
    On Day 7, both Sims reached Level 10 in their skills.  This began Phase 2.  All painting / All sculpting/ all day all night.  Mood Solvers round the clock for the rest of their young adulthood.  No more woohoo, no more sleep, no more grilled cheese.  Lol.

The Paintings:  I learned from a study on this forum that the Surrealism paintings were found to be of the highest value.  So my painter painted Surrealism only. 
The top 5 highest values were:  16134, 15447, 11513, 11207, 10337
4 of those were the cow with the apple on his nose and one tree with red background.

Sculptures/  All Mascots: 4475, 4381, 4374, 4344, 4328
(I think an interesting twist on this challenge would have been if the sculptures and paintings had to be unique.)

Furniture Replacements:
Mirror 350  (Interesting this is only one not affected by "Marketable")
End Table 513
Dining Chairs 536, 525, 490, 447
Dining Table 1858
Bathtub 4466
Toilet 644

Mood Management:  By phase 2 when the valuable stuff was being made, the Sims were Very inspired/ Very Focused all the time.  The Painter got inspired by Cloud/Star gazing and admiring art.  The Woodworker mainly had to be in his bedroom with all the focusing décor, maybe occasionally studied a crystal or fossil.  They got the VERY from renewing their vows every other morning for the +3 happy.  (At the park there’s a wedding arch.)

All of this = End lot value of $ 109,259.

Thank-you for the fun challenge.
I am looking forward to reading how I could have done better.

[Metropolis Man]

Eva, fantastic info. Thank you so much. Ugh, so it's surrealism paintings, huh? And I thought it was abstract that gave the highest value. No wonder my paintings never broke 10k.

[thekatie0409]

If you are looking for total value from painting, abstract is the highest income earner. The surrealism paintings have the highest variance in value of any painting type. On this challenge that means the outliers on the upper side are going to give the highest painting values. The downside is that you get far more masterpieces worth practically nothing. My 5 highest painting values ended up being 11995, 13069,14337, 14801, 21693 using the surrealism paintings!
The last post in this thread has a great breakdown on the best painting type for each situation  http://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=21257.25

[Deveroux]

Yeah, I used surreal too. I think I saw the same study lol 

Looking at Eva's strategy, mine was similar, though the pure aspiration gathering lasted 1 day, and I would separate my skill gathering phase from production.

I started with a married couple and gave them both the Creative Visionary aspiration so that they would fill their fun need off of painting. Traits were Perfectionist, Art Lover, and Creative.

I had them join Good Timers (very original idea, definitely not grabbed from half of the winner strategies last year) and maintained a constant meeting with romantic and friendly socials as the activities. While they were chatting it up and racking up points, I had my Sims finish the Soulmate aspiration.

For the club, I bought the painting bonus so they could get that up quickly, then the +2 comradery bonus (eventually bought +3) to plunge my Sims into the "Very" zone.

Then I started painting. I actually ignored woodworking for the first bit of the challenge since I figured painting would be the biggest determiner (which I still think it was).

I went to the art studio in the city and painted there instead of at home (more decoration, instant very inspired vibes while painting, less distraction by them wanting to shower). In my practice run I was also woodworking there and it was awful because everyone was trying to use the table and I had to kick them out and--ugh.

Basically I just racked up both of their painting and fabulously wealthy aspirations, maxed their skills, bought a focused club vibe and used it for a tiny bit so they could draw mathematical diagrams

Bought things in this priority:

Night Owl
Morning Sim
Marketable - Figured this wouldn't come into play until they maxed their skill anyway, so I prioritized skill gain speed
Creative Visionary
Need-type

Anyway, once they had all the target traits and maxed painting skill and my club had enough points for the handiness bonus, I bought Connections for my woodworker and joined the painter career to get the easel for my house. Also got some nice inspired stuff, so now I could match the effectiveness of the art studio. Went to my house and had the woodworker actually woodwork while the painter painted. That was more or less rinse and repeat, club people were kinda distracting so I wish I locked them out, but oh well. Just completely ignored their hygiene need but was otherwise full and able to keep them at Very Inspired or Focused.

I based what I was making in woodworking on how far my current creation was from the max price (the 3x multiplier or whatever marketable gives you). I tried mass producing bathtubs since I thought they had higher potential, but then I made a few mascot sculptures and those consistently gave me higher $4k+ values, so I just used those instead. I was looser about my requirements for the lower price furniture since they had less potential, but I made sure they hit 2.5x the original value. Once I did that for all my furniture, I sent him back to painting.

Painter lady just kept going and I had two $12k, two $14k, and one glorious $18,113 painting, bless my luck.

From the moment I bought connections, I was actually sending the woodworker to work because I wanted the fancy easel, but I ended up not making it so it was an unfortunate waste of time. Ah well, despite that, I did pretty dang well.

[Elinoee]

It's so interesting to read all your strategies!
I did approximately the same with traits,strategy,woodworking,etc...
What made a big difference was the paintings values: I never managed to get so high values with mines. They were approximately §4000,even with the "creative visionary" and "marketable" traits,and painting skill level 10.
I didn't know that surrealism was the worthy,it's really interesting to know that,thanks 

§18113,that's incredible! 

[coolsim9999999]

My Flip the Crick Strategy:
Lot traits:
Homey, Natural Light, Private Dwelling
Under options:
Summer for 28 days does not affect Sims
Opt out of fame
their traits and reward traits:
Claudia Monet
Aspiration and traits:
Painter Extraordinaire aspiration, Creative, Art Lover and Loner
Reward Traits:
Creative Visionary, Morning Sim, Night Owl, Marketable
Charles Carpenter
Aspiration and traits:
Nerd Brain Aspiration
Genius Perfectionist and Loner
Reward traits
None

My painter and woodworker were married in CAS before I ever left CAS. 

My painter finished the painting aspiration, and my woodworker never worked on his aspiration.
She went to the museum in Oasis Springs to view 3 paintings, as part of her aspiration.  That was the only time that either of them left the house ( I locked the door.) Besides, they were both loners, so they didn't want to meet strangers, anyway.

My painter was able to paint mostly 10K paintings --- all surrealism because a long time ago, I read that post about which painting type is worth the most.  My woodworker produced all excellent quality work. My painter maxed the painting skill, and my woodworker maxed the handiness skill. 

I also always take screenshots during any practice runs that I do, so I looked at  my 13 screenshots to see if I took pictures of anything I didn't write down in my word document for my scoring file.

[coolsim9999999]

Congratulations for winning this challenge, Lena

Awesome strategies, everyone!

[LenaLJ]

My strategy going into this challenge was quiet different than what I have been doing for years.
I am allowed to think all I want about a challenge, but this year I am not allowing myself practice runs.
So this challenge was fun in a new way (been playing since we started making the tournaments, so always fun to push myself a bit)

The two sims I created in CAS I created as married sims. I gave the male (Woodworker) one of the Knowledge aspirations to gain benefit from the "Quick Learner" trait, and the female (Painter) a Creative aspiration for the "Muser" trait.
When starting the game I switched them both to Soulmate though, to rack up the aspiration points fast. This was to get the "Market Able" reward trait for both, and "Connections" and "Creative Visionary" for the Painter.
At the beginning of the game I also created a club for the benefits like "Rally the troops", I find it easier to make my own club when I have more than one sim, so that I dont have to deal with other members.

After completing Soulmate for both sims I invited over a Repairman, the woodworker befriended her, so that she could mentor him in Handiness. The painter joined the painting career, because I wanted the best easel for their home, which also worked out.

The most of the first week the two sims spent their time in the Art district in San Mushyno. Having both an easel and a woodworking bench there is very beneficial.

Regarding the scoring items, it was about to get as much as possible out of replacing the home lot items, here the bathtub was a very high hitter.
The sculptures the woodworker placed was Camping Mascots, with the lowest value of 4175.
The painting painted where all surrealism paintings, the average of these types of paintings is lower than other types, but the single value can be alot higher. I got a nice output in mine resulting in these values 15342, 16160, 16305, 11994, 12049.

This all resultet in a score of 117533

[coolsim9999999]

Great strategy, Lena !

[Ravencloud999]

I'm amazed that you can get such a good score without even practicing. I did two practice runs and still got only $50k.

[LenaLJ]

I'm amazed that you can get such a good score without even practicing. I did two practice runs and still got only $50k.

I have 9 years of training. And believe me when I say I dont expect myself to hit that high all year. We will get challenges that are totally new, where I cant really pull on what we did before. So it will be interesting.