Difference in experience gains for hobbies

[Bixas]

This falls under the category of "SOOO not important in the big picture" BUT since we are jumpstarting a community here, I thought I would throw out another newbie Question / Observation:

When I was leveling my hobbies for the first time, I noticed a significant difference (or so I believe) between the different hobbies in how fast they gain levels. Woodworking, for example seemed to move fairly quickly. If my mayor was tinkering overnight, I could expect a solid percentage gain (granted it went down each level). Diving, on the other hand was particularly painful in its leveling speed. A nine hour session might only get me 2 or 3 ticks and single hour sessions sometimes didn't even move the needle at all (forget the 4 minute quickies from doing anything but mocking me).

So now that I am past that and have unlocked the tiers, I don't pay attention to the leveling percentages anymore.

But the question remains in my head:

1) is this a real observation, or just a byproduct of me not paying close attention
2) if this is real, is it intentional by the developers
3) and if so - What are / were the reasons for the disparity. Because penalizing Diving especially is just silly as there are practically no other incentives beyond the 3LPs each time you clear a medal board.

[Perturbee]

When I was leveling my hobbies for the first time, I noticed a significant difference (or so I believe) between the different hobbies in how fast they gain levels. Woodworking, for example seemed to move fairly quickly. If my mayor was tinkering overnight, I could expect a solid percentage gain (granted it went down each level). Diving, on the other hand was particularly painful in its leveling speed. A nine hour session might only get me 2 or 3 ticks and single hour sessions sometimes didn't even move the needle at all (forget the 4 minute quickies from doing anything but mocking me).

I think you are right, but I must say that I found doing the diving sessions for medals in 4 mins blocks utterly boring and they all look very similar, so it's not as exciting as say fishing (also a tad boring to me, but better).
The last stretch from level 5 to 6 seems the same across all hobbies, from observations it looks like the 4 mins sessions (or 3:30 for ghost hunting) deliver 0.40% to 0.50%, showing as a 0% on screen. (I keep losing count while doing it ).

1) is this a real observation, or just a byproduct of me not paying close attention
2) if this is real, is it intentional by the developers
3) and if so - What are / were the reasons for the disparity. Because penalizing Diving especially is just silly as there are practically no other incentives beyond the 3LPs each time you clear a medal board.

There is intention involved in the rewards at least, every hobby had a § and XP reward for each single item, now it's only §. Also you aren't paid for the items you've already collected, the only exception is woodworking. The fashion design, ghost hunting and to a lesser extent fishing, have a three taps mini game, earning §, XP or even 1 LP.

The rewards for the rows have changed over time as well, at ghost hunting received LPs for the rows, now it's XP. The bottom row has been 3 LPs for a while, then 1 LP, now 2000 XP, while completion gave a town value booster, now 3 LPs.

[animagif]

I can confirm that moving from level 5 to level 6 for woodworking is a LOT faster than diving and fashion designing. Woodworking moves at 2% per 4 minute blocks at level 5 while diving and fashion designing only move 0.5%.

[Perturbee]

Thank you!

[mockingbird288z]

I know this is an old thread but I thought I'd add my two cents. I think it has a lot to do with the limited time only rewards when the hobby was introduced. For instance, the fashion design, fishing, and diving had a challenge to earn the first 6 medals in a set amount of time to win a limited item. I think the max level needed for that was 3.
But with the ghost hunting, woodworking, and skating the challenge was to complete the entire set. So you HAD to get to level 6. And since it had a time limit you could level up faster. I don't know if it changes after the challenge is over but from what you are saying it doesn't.

Also, it might not feel like it but the 4 minute task, if you have that kind of time, is actually the fastest way to level up. At .50% every 4 minutes (1% every 8 minutes) you can get 7.5% an hour. It's a lot of work but you only need one sim to be at the highest level to unlock all the medals and complete the sets for a measly 3lp.

As for the rewards you get doing the hobbies, always expect them to change and never for the better. This is what the rewards were when ghost hunting was new...

As you can see they are vastly different today. So don't be surprised if down the road we no longer get even 3lp.

[Perturbee]

As you can see they are vastly different today. So don't be surprised if down the road we no longer get even 3lp.

Thank you for the screenshots! I knew I wasn't crazy remembering the high LP rows.
Sadly they do make it more and more difficult... I really hope you're wrong with the possible disappearnce of the last 3 LPs. But it wouldn't surprise me in the least if they do it, greedy monkeys (and EA).

[mockingbird288z]

I play many games on my iDevice with "premium" currency and the sims freeplay is the only one where I feel like the programmers are doing everything they can think of to make it hard to earn them. And now they've added resources to the mix! I wasn't surprised to see the Febreeze action gone either. I knew that one wouldn't last!