Intro and Overview

First before we say anything else, welcome to the Hobbies Path in The Sims: FreePlay - one of the most fun and rewarding elements of Game Play.

Previously we treated the hobbies as a light and flexible pursuit - and they were that to be sure - but with the addition of Finite Life Spans that is added to the game shortly after you begin the Life dreams & Legacies Mission and its Quest Lines, hobbies are no longer the carefree and easy-going means to farming XP, Simoleons, and Life Points that they once were!

It is fair to say that as long as you handle the various hobbies with the right amount of care and respect they can continue to be a rewarding element of game pay. The serious issue though is found in not treating them with the care that they must be given.

What we mean by that is simple enough really - because the majority of the hobbies are in fact time-sinks that will, if allowed to, such away huge chunks of your Sim's life timers for the various life stages they might even be treated as and considered to be a threat to your town and its people!

That being so, it is a very good idea for us to address the issues that apply right now so that they are out in the open and understood.

The Long Leveling Process
With very few exceptions the hobbies tend to divide into a well-established trio of leveling times, which account for the leveling difficulty assigned to each that is based on the massive amounts of time that can easily be spent in the process.

Understand that the hobbies are divided into two basic lists - the hobbies that are available prior to completing the Life dreams & Legacies Mission and its Quests, and those available AFTER Life Dreams & Legacies has been started and thus engaged. The pre-LD & L hobbies break down into these three difficulty-based groups:

Group I - The Easy Levelers
The following group of hobbies tends to level fairly fast, with very little by way of pain or discomfort. In theory the mastery process even after the LD&L stages will not present a serious threat.

• Ballet
  
• Diving
  
• Figure Skating
  
• Ghost Hunting
  
• Karate
  

Group II - The Moderate Levelers
This next and largest group of hobbies is both slow and certainly a danger to your Sims and their life timers. Progress - especially when you reach the final two upper stages - can be painfully slow and very much time consuming - which is a bad thing when you are trying to conserve life.

• Carnival High Striker
  
• Carnival Juggling
  
• Fashion Design
  
• Horse Jumping
  
• Horse Tricks
  
• Horse Vaulting
  
• Showjumping
  
• Teen Idol
  
• Woodowrking
  

Group III - The Slow Hobbies (and often frustrating)
This last small group are hobbies whose mastery process you should dread because it is slow, massively time-consuming, and difficult to justify.

• Bird Feeding
  
• Fishing
  

The best advice that we can give you is this:

(1) Do NOT proceed into the LD&L Mission or its Quests -- ANY of its Quests -- before you have fully mastered ALL of the above listed hobbies on your existing Sim Population.
(2) Be certain that you have ALL of the hobbies well covered among your Population.
(3) Seriously consider creating a Retirement Home for communal protection of these skills; ideally this could take the form of the Teen Idol Mansion, placed on the largest lot in the Islands, modified to support a monk's existence with each resident possessing a cell-like bedroom with all of the comforts that they need, while at the same time eschewing the sort of recreational Activities that will burn away life span without you even realizing it!

If you have read the fantasy epic novel Anathem, by Neal Stephenson, that will help you to understand what we are talking about when we say conserving skills sets.

The idea here is to create the game-equivalent of the an intellectual or skills-based concent or convent - what we can safely consider as a monastic community that holds knowledge to be the highest valued possession in the known world.

So we will call the Teen Idol Mansion a Concent, and the Sims who live in it we will call the Avout - Sims who have mastered a Hobby and dwell in the Concent with the goal being to protect that knowledge and skills by living a quality life while avoiding casual Activities.

Basically they live in a nice place (the Concent) and spend their days in meditation, only committing to actual time-consuming Activities when they are called upon to do so in order to advance a Mission or Quest.

By using this disciplined approach the Sims if your town ensure that the skills that they worked very hard to master will both not die out with them, and be readily available when they are actually needed. While it may not present an exciting life, by restricting their time-consuming actions to the necessities -- which are rest, eating, sleeping, bathing, discussion, and modest recreation they in effect lengthen their lives while remaining happy and content!

When a Sim reaches the mid-point in their Senior Stage of life it is time for a new Sim to take up their Hobby and master it with an eye towards replacing them when they finally pass on.

The Path to Nirvana?
Before you can adopt that clever approach there are a number of elements that you will have to accomplish, the least of which being mastery of the Teen Idol Hobby in order to complete the Town Sign and unlock the Teen Idol Mansion.

You will also need to master each of the hobbies with the ideal number of Sims - bearing in mind that only 5 Sims and a Pet can officially "live" in the dwelling, while the rest can use it as a house of convenience...

The hobbies that naturally follow the dividing line that is represented by the LD&L do so simply because without completing the LD&L you cannot actually activate or add those hobbies, or have your Sims participate in them because they don't yet exist!



The Post-LD&L Hobbies
The reason why there is a firmly drawn dividing line between the Pre-LD&L and Post-LD&L Hobbies is, as has been stated, due to the very real issue of the post-hobbies being unable to exist without the progress that takes place thru the LD&L Quest Lines.

That is to say the Orbs that are used to construct the various facilities and Service-Structures do not (and can not) exist prior to their respective introductions and construction.

The Post-LD&L Hobbies
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

• Arcade
  
• Pinball
  
• Seashell Collecting
  
• Skill Testing
  
• Snorkling
  
• Surfing
  
• Swimming
  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
  

With the bulk of these new hobbies taking place and/or being based within the confines of the Mystery Island, once they are a well-established reality everything goes well.




The following represents the Hobby Census in its extreme measures...

The Bare Minimum acceptable Hobby Presence in the Community:
No. -- Hobby Name (Qualifier)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1 -- Arcade Hobby (Teen)
1 -- Ballet (Preteens)
1 -- Bird Feeding Hobby (Seniors)
1 -- Carnival High Striker (Teens / Adults)
1 -- Carnival Juggling (Teens / Adults)
1 -- Diving (Preteens / Teens / Adults)
1 -- Fashion Designer (Adults)
1 -- Figure Skating (Preteens / Teens / Adults)
1 -- Fishing (Adults)
1 -- Ghost Hunter (Adults)
1 -- Horse Show Jumping (Teens / Adults)
1 -- Horse Tricks (Teens / Adults)
1 -- Horse Vaulting (Teens / Adults)
1 -- Karate (Preteens)
1 -- Pinball Hobby (Adult)
1 -- Quilting (Seniors)
1 -- Seashell Collecting Hobby (Toddler)
1 -- Skill Testing Hobby (Pre-Teen)
1 -- Snorkeling Hobby (Adults)
1 -- Surfing (Teens / Adults)
1 -- Swimming (All?)
1 -- Teen Idol (Teen)
1 -- Woodworking (Adults)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Total = 23 Sims

An Ideal Hobby Population
No. -- Hobby Name (Qualifier)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1 -- Arcade Hobby (Teen)
1 -- Ballet (Preteens)
1 -- Bird Feeding Hobby (Seniors)
1 -- Carnival High Striker (Teens / Adults)
1 -- Carnival Juggling (Teens / Adults)
4 -- Diving (Preteens / Teens / Adults)
2 -- Fashion Designer (Adults)
2 -- Figure Skating (Preteens / Teens / Adults)
1 -- Fishing (Adults)
4 -- Ghost Hunter (Adults)
1 -- Horse Show Jumping (Teens / Adults)
2 -- Horse Tricks (Teens / Adults)
1 -- Horse Vaulting (Teens / Adults)
1 -- Karate (Preteens)
2 -- Pinball Hobby (Adult)
1 -- Quilting (Seniors)
2 -- Seashell Collecting Hobby (Toddler)
2 -- Skill Testing Hobby (Pre-Teen)
2 -- Snorkeling Hobby (Adults)
2 -- Surfing (Teens / Adults)
2 -- Swimming (All?)
1 -- Teen Idol (Teen)
2 -- Woodworking (Adults)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Total = 39 Sims



Before you commit to the LD&L Missions and the associated Quests you should make it a point to read the first part of its proper section to learn what steps you are advised to take in order to prepare for the transition.



A Quick Reference Mini-Guide
The following information may be useful to you...

Default Hobby Locations

• Arcade: Arcade Machine / Pinball Machine / Skill Tester
  
• Community Center: Ballet / Karate / Woodworking
  
• Public Beach: Seashell Collecting / Snorkeling / Surfing / Swimming
  
• Town Park: Fishing / Bird Feeding
  
• Snow Park: Ice Skating
  
• Stables: Tricks / Show Jumping / Vaulting
  
• Swimming Center: Diving
  
• Sim Homes: Fashion Design / Ghost Hunting / Quilting / Teen Idol
  

Courtesy Houses

As you level up your town and add new friends to the social side of your game you may want to build into it a pair of Courtesy Houses - both as a courtesy for your Neighbors so that they have a place to go to find all (or at least most) of the resources that they required to complete the different Mission and Quest Goals or Tasks.

You will also find that the two courtesy Houses - one for Hobbies and Jobs, the other for Ghost Hunting that also includes star-gazing - offers your own Sims a convenient gathering point at which to work on their hobbies or Careers without the distraction that is often present at home!

Just saying...