A Return on the Three Performers §20k Achievements
Right after the data correlation achievement, those three end up tie on the second place regarding the longer taking achievements. Even if you do it the best possible way, it is likely going to take you longer that a sim's normal life spawn each. Off course, one can also speed up the process by using testingcheatsenabled true, refilling the need meters and killing the "Exhausted" moodlet. However, for other reasons, it only halves the time required. Honestly, these three achievements (ane maybe twice for the blogging achievement) are the only ones I used testingcheatenabled, and, as I said, it does not make such a big difference.
First of all, key part about these achievement is location. Setting your performer on the most crowded lot is not a bad idea, but it's better to set him/her on a venue that has a lot of traffic on it. Like, in the evening, in a park, you'll see like the very same six to ten sims. On the restaurant lot, you'll see maybe fifteen sims going to eat, leaving, and another sim coming, eating, leaving and so on. Once your performer starts "Performing for Tips", passing by sims will stop to watch him/her, and all those "passer by"s can result in a very very large crowd at the end of the evening. You may actually have to edit the lot to set room for your performer, though.
Second, having an audience is one thing. However, you want their money, not their booing. There are a lot of factors that affect the "Tips", and those fall in two caterogries. First are those that affect if the audience like your show: your performers career level, your performer relevant hidden skill, relevant career traits (for all: "Natural born performers", "Ambitious", "Social Butterflies", then, for "Acrobat"s: "Athletic", and for "Singers": "Virtuoso"), the "Engaging" reward, to some extend, the "That Was Deliberate!" reward, and your relationship with the specific sim in the audience. Second are those that only affect the "Tips" solely, like is the sim about to give a "Tip" "Rich" or has the "Good", "Easily Impressed", or "Excitable" traits, and if your sim has the "Mooch" trait. I *think* that "Rich" sims "Tips" get a modifier that is randomly generated between two and ten times normal tips, while the three traits give a bonus ranging between twenty and thirty percents. I believe "The Next Big Thing" rewards could also have a positive effect, but I'm not sure about it. The "Mooch" trait seem to give a flat ten percents, no matter your sims level of "Mooch" hidden skill.
Third, your sim can only perform for so long before becoming "Exhausted" themselves, or having a need falling too low, but your audience too have needs of their own, and, should you "Perform for tip" nonstop, refilling the needs and killing the moodlet", sims in your audience may "Pee Self", "Freeze Solid", fall asleep on the spot, or, sometimes "Die from Starvation", each time forcing your performance to a stop and scaring away the remaining crowd. So using testingcheatsenabled only helps a little, but not as much as one might think.
Fourth, there are couple issue, though, that you need to know before trying out for these achievements. First, you have to manually take note of your financial gains, as there are no other way to keep track of those. Second if you send your performer "On Tour" through the "SimPort", your progression is lost. I don't think it's an intended side effect, for I learned it the hard way, and you may lose several real life day worth of work by inadvertently sending out that sim.
Fifth, how much? Well, best single "Tip" one of my sim ever gotwas around §740, but you will usually see §40 to §150. If I was to hazard a guess, I'd that that the best possible tip would be around §1k, though it would need some testing. However, same sim may leave "Tips" multiple times. On a good night, your sim may make like §2k, and best I ever saw was §4k. However, expect some evening to only bring you about §600 or so... This said, the times i used testingcheatsenabled, my sim cashed in about §6k for performing for a little over twenty four hours. As you see, it does help, but as much as one might believe.
