MY TWELVE TOP TIPS TO BECOMING AN ARCHETECTURAL DESIGN MASTER

I'm at level 10 and a Town hero so I thought I'd share what I learnt (and yes I had my share of angry clients and rubbish reviews):

1. TRAITS: Get Artistic, Perfectionist, Photographer's eye and Charismatic as these will help enormously. I also got Natural Saleswoman but not sure how much it contributes.

2. SKILLS: Get these skills asap and work hard at improving them - Painting &/or scupture, photography, Charisma and Photography.

3. LIFE TIME REWARDS; Entrepener thingy, Observant, Creative - it's late but read the descriptions and anything that sounds like it will help, get it asap.

4. Be ready for 8am when you are on the clock - my Sim always got up at 6am and often painted a picture before work.


5. Get a decent Camera _ it doesn't matter what the picture in the Portfolio looks like as long as there is a picture in it - BUT

6. Get a Photograph of the client (again it doesn't matter what it looks like just so long as you got one)...you'll get HUGE bonuses for including a personal touch.

7. RENOVATING - Talk to the client before you COMPLETE the renovation. You can take a few days to do a renovation...you don't have to do it all on one day and you can have 2 or 3 renovation jobs going at the same time (if your work day ends then the next day the ones you've started but not completed will be in blue).

* So visit the lot and have a look around, phone and Chat to the client ...then at your first opportunity pick the "Discuss Renovation" with them (has to be done in work hours and face to face)

* When you get to a certain level you'll get a "Take Measurments" Option - use it, it's important and you can often watch where your sim goes to see which is the likiest place that the game expects you to renovate.

* Once you've place all the required things - go to live mode and test everything - ie relax in the bed and watch TV, sit in the seats, view the paintings etc.

8. CLIENTS TRAITS - Only those that matter will show but if their is a partner around it might be worth trying to find out their traits too - BIG MISTAKE TO PUT A PLASMA TV IN A CLIENT'S ROOM WHEN HIS GF IS A TECHNOPHOBE...YIKES.

9. If you are a painter or a scupture make sure you have a few paintings or scuptures on you. They appear in the Family Inventory while you are renovating...include them and, remember that photo you took of the client...place that - THEY LOVE IT.

10. You can delete ANY of their existing furniture and replace it with better - I had a kitchen refurb to do and deleted everything on the ground floor, knocked down all the walls and completely revamped the Downstairs. The money for anything you deleted gets added to your budget and it often gives you more space to work in.

11. Add a few decorative items (the previously referred to "Clutter") they do seem to llike it if they get extra things that they didn't ask for. I got a Computer Whizz a Laptop and he was over the moon.

12. The colours and styles DON'T matter (the programme can't SEE them)...but the Environment Score DOES - so scroll to the bottom of the inventory lists and try and choose the furniture with the highest Environment score ( or for instance if it's a cooker - self cleanng, learn cooking faster). Obviously keep an eye on the budget...sometimes you have to 'jiggle' things.

Hope this helps

J

Oh...I forgot to say that you can Paint (or get a draftsman's easel and "Research Archetectural Design") at weekends and in the evenings and your job performance increases - I got about 3 promotions over a weekend doing this.

Biggest amount I've been paid so far is £21,798 for a nursery - That was £11,000 for the job and a £10,000 bonus....