Favourite and least favourite skills to build?

This is less about the overall usefulness of each skill, and more about how much fun you have building them with your sims, be it because you find it interesting to watch them while they're at it, or like the benefits that come with the process, or just have fun engaging in such activities, and so on.

Some of my favourites:

Handiness. Nothing compares to slowly turning your humble ramshackle hovel into a high-tech fortress decorated with all kinds of beautiful, emotional, or just bizarre wooden figurines. Too bad this skill doesn't get you anywhere on the job market.

Fitness. Great variety here, there are so many ways to gain fitness (like using gym equipment, swimming, playing basketball and ice skating) which, unlike all the things lumped together under "Logic", are actually somewhat related. It also visibly affects your sim's body, can give them positive moodlets, and jogging is an ideal opportunity to try out the new first-person mode.

Archaeology. Building this skill happens very naturally, it takes only one thorough visit to the Selvadoradian jungle to get it to at least level 7, and you receive many valuable objects while doing so.

Least favourites:

Charisma. Not only is it incredibly uninteresting to watch a sim practice speeches in front of a mirror all day, it also doesn't benefit them at all other than building the skill - no fulfilled needs, no emotional moodlets, no items, no new insights, just the occasional whim. Building it in conversation with other sims seems random to me, is there any way to tell if a certain interaction is going to help with it?

Selvadoradian Culture. Granted, it only has five levels, but those are tiring to reach unless you really, really want to fatten your sim up; you can only look at Madre Cosecha and listen to the same jungle legends so many times before it gets boring.

Photography. Spamming selfies just to get that bar up quickly becomes tedious, especially since you can't even choose poses. Thankfully, of the five photos you can take at a time, at least one usually turns out okay, so there's no pressure to actually get better at it. I only maxed it once for the sake of completion, then pretty much forgot it even exists.

funny

fullspiral
7 years ago
I enjoy handiness as well. All of my sims learn that skill so they can repair their own household items.

I also love gardening in the game. Getting everything to perfect and adding it to my community garden is something I enjoy in the game.

I enjoy watching them do yoga.

******

I'm not keen on the fitness skill because of how they can get overly muscular so I don't have a lot of sims do that. Some jogging and things to stay in shape is good enough.

The thing I don't like about the archaeology is how long it takes to uncover something at the table. It's just too long.

I've never bothered with the mischief skill.
evelynin
7 years ago
My favourite is the violin skill. You really see (and hear) the evolution of the music and I like listening to it. The variety of songs your sim can play is nice too. And if your sim can sing as well, it's even better.
My least favourite is logic. I don't get why you can only build this skill with playing chess? It's just so boring to see your sim play chess all day long. I wish your sim could make mathematical diagrams on the computer or something. Or maybe drawings on a sketchbook?
GrumpyGlowfish
Seasoned Newcomer
7 years ago
@Evalyn326 There are many ways to build the logic skill, some just aren't very obvious, others are impractical because of the ridiculous sizes of the objects required. If you're tired of playing chess, try using the telescope, the microscope, the science equpiment from GTW, or drawing mathematical diagrams at the easel (yes, that actually builds logic, not painting, but you have to be focused for the option to appear).
catitude5
7 years ago
I don't think it makes sense. You create an adult sim, and they can't cook, they can't do anything. It isn't logical. I use MC Commander to set them.
kaeyresky
7 years ago
My favorite to level is Cooking. It has a really nice visual progression as your sim gets better at it, and I love watching the animations for it all the way through, even during the mid-levels. It's probably the only skill that I don't try to fast-forward through building.

As for least favorite, Herbalism by far. On top of the fact that I have to take a vacation to get to the materials I need, scanning over the Granite Falls floor looking for plants and bugs to collect in order to level this skill irritates me and I don't find it enjoyable whatsoever. I know there are other ways to level the skill but they either take more time (like growing the plants at home) or feel cheaty (like getting the plants off the gallery or something)
zisp
7 years ago
"catitude5;c-16857163" wrote:
I don't think it makes sense. You create an adult sim, and they can't cook, they can't do anything. It isn't logical. I use MC Commander to set them.

It really isn't that illogical. Not everybody gets taught or learns.
zvinko
7 years ago
I love building Dancing skill, it's fun to watch and it goes up pretty quickly. I also like all the others where you can see/ hear the progress, like cooking, guitar, violin, singing...

My least favourite is Handiness. When something breaks, I just replace it. I rarely have my sims fix it . It's only useful if your sims are on a budget, and mine almost never are haha.
Hermitgirl
New Spectator
7 years ago
@GrumpyGlowfish
For Charisma I never have them practice in the mirror and they always get it up quick. I play a lot of lothario types though. It's mostly the interactions where you compliment sims and brighten their day.. I do have to admit I spam all of the interactions once a day per sim they meet though. It's basically sprinkled in with any convo they have. I started a 2 days and his charisma level is 6. (Opps my two days not two sim days). He also topped his good reputation .. I think it's called pristine but whatever the top is. It does give you a lot more ways to make friends easier and have things smooth over faster. Now with Get Famous it's useful for many jobs. He was offered a tier 5 level acting career (with no acting ability) due to his good rep. I started taking him to auditions that asked for higher charisma.

Otherwise I like most of them.. some need a cool down phase if the variety of ways to get it aren't big. Some I haven't done because I haven't made a sim character that does that.. like I've never made a DJ sim.

The ones I find the most tedious to build is programming and rocket science.
GrumpyGlowfish
Seasoned Newcomer
7 years ago
Okay then! I usually have my sims do their own thing and only come together for special occasions, or when someone desperately needs company, but based on your comments, it seems like I should just make them socialise more to have an easier time with Charisma. I still wish the parrot from TS2 back, though, that was a nice alternative to the mirror.

Unlike many, I actually like building the Logic skill, even if it's just playing chess most of the time. Chess provides fun, keeps them busy, gives them a focused moodlet useful for work and other things, and you can always have another sim join in. The latter is perfect for sims who need to raise their fun and social bars while getting to know each other better at the same time.

I agree with Herbalism being rather lame. Harvesting herbs doesn't even build your Herbalism skill, brewing potions does, and while some of those potions can be quite useful, I wish they didn't require insects to be made, because those can be hard to come by. I had to download a mod to make insects appear in my main herbalist's garden because I couldn't afford going to Granite Falls every other day.
Simmerville
Seasoned Ace
7 years ago
"Anjolaoluwas;c-16857224" wrote:
As others have mentioned it, I love the ones you can see the progression, specially the musical ones. I love hearing the new musics that my sims can play after they gain a skill level.

The one I least like I think it is photography. I have to take a thousand of plum pictures with random gnomes in it before the pictures start coming out good and I can display them. It is really annoying lol.

I never quite understood the photography skill in TS4. I think my none skilled sims take pictures good enough for the wall, easily enough. Okay, there are a few gnomes or blurriness. But as you always can take 5 pictures, it's actually hard not to get it right on one of them, even with low skills.

In TS3 I think the photography skill must have worked differently, as I remember using "pro photographers" more often.

Added: I never tried this skill/career for a living, though. Maybe there is more to it than raising the photograph values when getting real skilled.