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.
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.
