Athletic Aspiration - Sims 4 - Basegame

In Sims 4, the only athletic aspiration is Bodybuilder - however, just being slim and fit does not constitute being athletic for Sims.

If you meet all four milestones of the aspiration, you receive a "Long Lived" trait that allows your Sim to live a longer life.

The four milestones are

1. Basic Trainer
2. Exercise Demon
3. Fit to a T
4. Bodybuilder

While most of the milestones are easily gauged, the final "maximum body potential" has no gauge to determine your Sims' goal for maximum body (built). It can feel like a "forever" event.

I built four young adult Sims starting with the Maximum and/or Minimum of the four body types. Practicing with the several body types to start with, the first one to reach the goal, after 40ish Sim hours of exercise on the Treadmill, Jogging and Workout "exercise machine," plus only eating salads for every meal, the Sim that had a maximum weight build to start with, also had a maximum muscle development.

I will include photos of the start and point of reaching the maximum potential.  That Sim was by no means skinny upon reaching the goal. After 40 hours (Sim hours) the Sim still had a heavy physique, but had slimmed down considerably from the start.

Now I'm starting another Sim from very skinny and low-defined muscle mass.

Max Muscle & Weight

Be aware than when we create the Sim, there is a sliding option that we can use, but once we have built the Sim, we no longer have access to that.
The top left is Maximum Muscle represented by a heavier dumbell and the top right is the Maximum Weight represented by an oval with arrows pointing outward, that can be used as the Sims' starting point.

Max Muscle & Least Weight

The bottom left is the Minimum Muscle and bottom right is the Minimum Weight that can be used to build the Sim.

These "on build" sliding functions allow us to build the Sim to match certain body types that we want to start with.

Over time, the Sim can gain or lose weight, as well as gain and lose muscle. It happens slowly, which is what is frustrating because we may think our Sim is working out enough to not gain weight, but the reality is that all those extra slices of cake when the Sim was at a party, or those free Hotdogs at the park, start adding up.

As I learn more, I will continue to add my findings.

Essentially, I have the Bodybuilding Sims working out five Sim hours per day, eating only one type of caloric meal.  As with the first Sim to hit the Maximum Body Potential, she ate only Salad every meal and rarely ate to the point of filling the hunger indicator.

My Bodybuilding Sims were not working at jobs and did not have families. The main focus was to meet needs and exercise.

Regardless of weight, when a Sim starts out with maximum muscle, the goal of Maximum Body Potential can only be met once the Sim reaches level six of the fitness skill. This can be done via jogging, boxing, swimming, workouts on the treadmill, etc. The Sim may need to lose some of the weight too, if they are on the heavy side. However, the Sim does not need to be skinny in order to build muscle. \

Sim One at build - Max Weight and Max Muscle
Weight loss alone eating only salad and water four weeks. It became obvious that weight loss without any exercise was basically useless, although there is some slight slimming, it was going to be a slow loss.

Day 1

Day 28

Starting over at Day one, the Sim started exercising; jogging, boxing, and basic workout on treadmill. In a little more than a Sim week (eight Sim Days), the Sim was losing weight quicker and because theSim was maximum muscled at development, the "existing" muscles started showing up quickly, eating only salads and water while exercising an average of five hours per day. After the Sim reached level six fitness skill, the Sim started to weight lifts only. The snapshot intervals are at 0, 15, 30 and 40 hours of exercise. As you can tell, the Sim is not maximum skinny, but is definitely muscled/toned after only 40 hours of weight loss and exercise. Day eight was essentially four hours of basic weight lifting.

Day 1

Day 3

Day 6

Day 8 MBP

MaxBody-side

MaxBody-back

Sim Two at build, was minimum muscle and minimum weight
The initial attempt with this Sim was to utilize the treadmill and punching bag. After 60 Sim hours, this Sim, unlike the Sim above, Sim Two was nowhere close to building muscle with the fitness workout for 12 days. This first attempt is represented in this table.

Day 1

Day 1

60 Hours

60 Hours

Giving up on the first Sim Two, a reboot of Sim Two from day one took a different fitness approach. The fitness regime switched from using the treadmill and punching bag, to the weight lifting machine and punching bag. Sim Two also jogged, but not as much. Not more than one hour per day, if at all. The weight lifting process was slower because it had to be broken up through the day since it caused more pain. In order to get the best workouts, a brisk shower helped to energize Sim Two first, before working out. The Weight Machine was the primary fitness developer, with three hours per day plus two hours of jogging and/or punching/boxing.  Despite having a minimum of muscle, the Maximum Body Potential occurred shortly after 40 hours, which is essentially the amount of time it takes to develop six fitness skill levels. Like Sim One, this Sim took eight days of intense work.Sim Two mostly ate Egg and Cheese meals. Please note, there are also special protein meals that pop up to be prepared when to cook is energized. They are more expensive, and don't really seem to be necessary to build muscle.

15 Hours

30 Hours

40 Hours

MaxBody

MaxBody Back

Nutshell, is that any Sim will need to get through the first six fitness skill levels before being able to get to the Maximum Body Potential Milestone.  If all the effort is done correctly, from the onset, it should not take too long to obtain the Body Potential by using the Exercise Machine several hours per day.

Notebook - Where is it? - Sims 4

[Update - there is now an icon for the Notebook on the bottom row next to the stereo speaker on the phone's options. Image is at the bottom of this page.]

The notebook is not intuitive despite the instructions telling the user to open the notebook using the icon bar at the top of the phone. It took me some time to figure out what and where. What is a notebook? Where is the notebook for my Sim? 

Cell Phone Lessons

While Sims 4 does have a Lessons section under Options, I discovered that there was literally no information to be found.  Not even under the cell phone lesson. 

 

 

Notebook Alert

Important information is stored in the Sims Notebook. For example, when a gardener chooses to research a plant to learn more about that plant, a notebook alert will pop up on the Sims Notification Wall.  While that's nice, there is little else to help the user to find the icon.

On the bottom of the game window, to the left,  is a little house and a little phone. The phone icon will open your Sim's phone.

Notebook Icon

Once the phone is opened, the top bar has three functions in the middle of the phone screen. The icon to the left (see arrow) is the notebook icon.

After you open the notebook, once you have caught fish or researched garden plants, you will have the option to open to folders, for Gardening and Fishing. 

The Gardening folder describes the "normal"  Simoleon's sell price of the plant, the appearance of the plant as well as plants that can be grafted with that plant, if any.  Price is the base price of the plant. As the plants improve in quality, the sell price will increase, but it does not increase on the descriptions.

Plant Information

The Fishing folder lists the type of fish, then the type of bait that has caught the fish. To the left of the bait are numbers.  In this example, for Trout, a lily has been used as bait to catch a trout. The first number (99+) is how many lilies are in my Sim's personal inventory while the second number (/1) is how many lilies are needed for bait to catch a trout. 

Fishing Bait

UPDATE - This is the updated version of the notebook button on the cellphone.

Notebook Button lower left

You can also open the Notebook from the Computer now, as well; "Open Notebook."

Computer's Notebook Option

It's Gnome Business Like Appeasing - Seasons - Sims 4

In Seasons, there is a day of celebration in the fall involving Gnomes. Several Gnomes will pop-up on the Sims lot for the day and basically harass the home/family. The objective is to appease all the Gnomes.

Bare Essentials Gnomes

If your Sim does not appease all the Gnomes that appear, the Gnomes will move throughout the property making messes and breaking items. You can instantly tell when the Sim did not appease the Gnome; fire will shoot out of the top of its hat. Then your Sim is only given a few options to fix the issue, such as to apologize or kick the Gnome. Kicking the Gnome will enrage all the Gnomes, causing more havoc. Apologizing will sometimes appease the Gnome, or it will cause the Sim to levitate and receive an electric shock, leaving the Sim temporarily dazed.

Appeased Gnomes will have halos of light over their heads. These Gnomes will proceed to move throughout the lot leaving seasonal seed packets. Note - The exception to this is the Gnome Decor.  While it can join the other gnomes disbursing seed packets, the gnome does not provide immediate proof that it has been appeased.

It is not always easy to tell which Gnome is which because, until they are appeased, there is no pop window that indicates which Gnome you are dealing with.

The festivities information implies that you need to give the Gnomes a toy to appease them. However, not all Gnomes want toys. There are at least twelve Gnomes with six options to appease.  Their names range from Gnome Matter What I'm Still Your Baby to Ghastly Ghostly Gnome. The coloring of their clothing/costumes can vary. The six options to appease are: Give a Toy, Give Coffee, Give Fruitcake, Give Future Cube, Give Pie and Give Salad.

Even if your Sim doesn't appease a gnome, the attempt is still considered a success for event. One appeasement/attempt per Sim is necessary for the event. I won't guarantee that these appeasement options will always work for you, but these have worked for my Sims in the past.

If your Sim household already has Gnomes, either from purchasing them, or from previous Harvestfest events, those Gnomes will join in.  The more Gnomes appeased during the event, the more seeds left behind.  The average is six seed packets per Gnome. Your Sims cannot sell the packets from their personal inventory, but the packets can be sold back in Build Mode.

NOTE - An answer to a recent comment about the seed packets vanishing when opened, that is because the seeds are not really seeds. They are the plant that will show up in the Sim's personal inventory. The plant, (fruit, vegetable, herb, or flower) will usually appear with a gold star next to them the first time you open up that Sim's inventory right after opening the packet. 

Image	Gnome's Gname	Gift
	Gnome Matter What. . . Baby	Fruitcake
	Bearly Gnome	Pie
	Mr. Floppy	Salad
	Happy Gnomiversary	Coffee
	Strictly Business	Toy
	Poolside	Toy
	Ghastly Ghostly	Future Cube
	Guardian of Gnomelaxy	Future Cube
	Bare Essentials	Future Cube Toy or Pie
	There's No Place Like	Fruit Cake
	Happy Garden Pal	Fruit Cake
	Don't Fear the Reagnomper	Pie
	Upside Down Gnome Decor	Salad

If you find you cannot appease the Gnome/s, you can open Build Mode and Sell the Gnome from the lot. Then if you want to try again with a different Gnome, purchase one from Build Mode during the festivities and you will have the option to appease that new Gnome.

I store the Gnomes in my Build Inventory until the next Harvestfest. Then, I will pull all the stored Gnomes out to appease them for the holiday to collect even more seasonal seed packets. 

Patchy the Straw Man - Seasons - Sims 4

Sim Chatting with Patchy
the Straw man

Patchy the straw man (scarecrow) is a gardening addition. Once Patchy is on your Sims' lot, you can start chatting with him while he stands guard over your plants. After a few Sim days of chatting, Patchy will come to life. 

Patchy is male, and interacts with the family similar to an invited guest. He will use the computer, chat and barge in on conversations, and he will clean up messes. Your Sim can become romantically involved with Patchy, and female Sims can get pregnant by Patchy. However, Patchy cannot become a family member or get married. 

Patchy joins conversation.

Patchy's household interactions last for about five hours per day. My Sim's Patchy jumps off his support tree at about 12:35 pm and returns to the tree at about 5:35 pm.  However, there can be exceptions to this, such as when there is a thunderstorm that is threatening his life.  He stayed indoors until midnight when the worst of the storm was over. If there is not enough Sim interaction in a 24-hour Sim day, Patchy may not animate at all for the day. Also, it has been noticed that on days where the garden requires a lot of tending, Patchy may stay on his support, leaving the job to the family. 

The best thing about Patchy is that he will tend to the garden plants by planting, watering, weeding and spraying for bugs.  He will not fertilize, sell or harvest the plants. [Note Update 2 below!] If your Sims travels away from the house early, Patchy won't do a thing, leaving your Sims to do it after returning from the trip. Patchy will work around the house while your Sim is at work. 

Patchy is also a great source for uncommon and rare seeds. Just check his pockets. Plus, if your Sim has not maximized the gardening skill, each time Patchy is asked for gardening tips, he will provide a large increase of skill for your Sim. Children can also grab seeds from Patchy's pocket. 

Patchy Returns to Guard Duty

Patchy makes himself right at home in the house, from mopping and picking up garbage, to fixing a meal for himself, and, if your Sims family has a bar, he will even mix himself a drink. Patchy will occasionally walk off with toys the he was playing with, keeping them until he reanimates the next day. 

One factor with the Sims 4 Seasons is that your Sims family cannot hire a professional gardening service using the phone. However, if a plant is unhealthy and/or near death, when you click on that plant, you may be granted the option to Hire a Professional. At that point, the gardener will show up for one day, on the next working day, starting Monday. The service is not available on the weekend. Hopefully, the plant does not die before the professional can show up. 

UPDATE - Some Patchy issues with the latest patches (2019) is that Patchy will tend to be confused or unmotivated to tend to the garden if the Sims family is all gone between noon and 5PM.  Patchy will stand by his support tree, looking back and forth for the whole five hours without so much as lifting a watering can, weeding or spraying for bugs.  So, at least one of the Sims family members needs to be home during his active "activity" period if you want his assistance with gardening.

UPDATE 2 - Now Patchy can harvest plants (2020) when he animates from his support tree.  Your household may lose the plants if this happens. Also, neighbors may start appearing to harvest your crop after 9 AM if  you have not collected the plants before that time. This causes your household to lose these resources until the next day. 

Patchy Reads a Book	Patchy talks to himself
Patchy Cleans Up	Patchy Makes Himself a Drink
Patchy Tends Garden	Patchy Waters Greenhouse Plants
Patchy Lunges at Sims	Patchy Scares Sims when being Examined