LEARNING NEW SKILLS - THE WAY TO SELF IMPROVEMENT
Learning skills is one of the best ways to improve your character. If you haven't begun to learn some new skills by now, you should do so right now! It will pay off, we promise.
Skills can be awarded to players, or more commonly, purchased at your local book store. Buy the book on the subject or skill that you think might help you and read it. To read the book go to your items inventory and click on "Use" next to the title. When you've read the book it will magically vanish into thin air. Just like in real life.
Different stores have different prices and different books. If you can't find what you're looking for or the price ain't right... shop around till you find the deal that's right for you. Knowledge doesn't usually come cheap though so be prepared to spend some cash.
Once you've read a book of your choice make sure to view your character's "Priorities & Skills" and select which skill you wish to improve by clicking the button next to it and then hit "OK". Your character also needs to focus on "Improve Skills" as a career mission. If you don't do this, your character won't learn anything!!! So pay attention. With time your skill level will increase and you'll see more stars appear next to your skills. 5 Stars is the maximum at this point in time.
Even though it might be hard sometimes to see the usage of a skill, all of them are somehow implemented in the game. And one thing is definitely clear: the type and level of your character's skills will affect your future life in this world.
SECRET SKILLS
There are some skills that are very uncommon and have special effects. These are not mentioned below - you will have to find out about them on your own. Some skills are classified as secret (S). If you have any of these skills, other characters cannot see them. But beware of who may be reading your diary...
MASTER AND APPRENTICE
Another way to learn new skills is to find a Master or Mistress and become his or her Apprentice. In fact, some rare and secret skills can only be learned this way, because there are no books available on the market which discuss the subject.
In order to become an Apprentice, find someone willing to act as your Master or Mistress. Then make close friends with that person. When you reach a sufficient level of friendship, the interaction option ''Seek apprenticeship'' becomes available to you.
Then it is up to the Master/Mistress to accept by using the interaction option ''Accept as Apprentice''. If they do, the relationship is formally recognised and you can start learning from them. An apprentice can only have one Master, but a Master can have several apprentices. For every update the Master gets, some progress points are distributed among the apprentices. This means that fewer apprentices leads to faster progress.
Then both you and your Master/Mistress must start dedicating your time to the learning process. All of the following requirements must be fulfilled!
- You (the Apprentice) must choose the Career mission ''Learn from Master/Mistress''.
- The Master/Mistress must choose the Career mission ''Teach a skill''.
- The Master/Mistress must choose which skill to teach.
- You must be in the same locale as your Master/Mistress when the Master's update happens. Using the ''Follow'' option (a.k.a. stalking) is a good idea for the apprentice.
- Some skills require that you have sufficient knowledge in other skills before learning them. Make sure you have them - otherwise you won't learn anything.
It will then take time to learn the skill. Sometimes it takes a long time, and sometimes less - this depends on how many apprentices the Master has and a bit of luck. It is also helpful for the Master/Mistress to have high intelligence and a high level of the skill being taught (at least 5 stars). And, it is helpful for you to have a high intelligence as well. Interrupting the learning process - examples: moving away from your Master for a few days, or choosing a different career mission - does not affect your chances to learn the skill, once you resume learning. But if the Master switches to another skill before you've learned the one you've been working on, your progress will reset.
A Master/Mistress can have several apprentices (though this is not recommended, since it means slower progress for the apprentices), and all of them can potentially learn the skill at the same time. It is not possible for you to have several Masters/Mistresses.
When you are the one teaching a skill, and the requirements shown here are fulfilled, you may be rewarded with an improvement of your own knowledge of the skill. But, this will not happen until at least one apprentice has learned the skill. Indeed, teaching a skill can even bring your knowledge beyond the limit of 5 stars that you can reach by merely studying it yourself. But that is a very slow process.
Please note that the Master-Apprentice relationship is only for gaining new skills that you do not have. You cannot improve a skill you already know by being an apprentice. Once you have learned the new skill, your priority will automatically be set to improving the skill.
SPECIAL CHARACTER SKILLS
| Record Production: | This skill is vital when it comes to recording a track in a studio. The quality of the production is determined by the highest record production skill level of any character present in the studio at the time the recording session finishes. This character doesn't have to be a member of the band. |
| Poetry: | Skill that improves the maximum quality your lyrics will receive when you write a song. |
| Composing: | Skill that improves the maximum quality your melody will receive when you write a song. |
| Showmanship: | Just how good of a showman are you. One of the best skills to improve the outcome of your shows. |
| Sex Appeal: | Do you know what it takes to strut your stuff and shake your booty. This skill make sure you do. Both on stage and off. |
| Make Up: | There's no way you play those Kiss covers and get away with it if you don't have this skill. |
| Dancing: | Without this skill a character wouldn't dream of being caught dancing sober on stage. And even if they did, the audience would probably just hate it. |
| Fashion: | For all of us who don't want to be lost in the fashion district. If you don't have this skill you'll never know when it's ok to wear one white glove on stage. |
| Theft: | Recommended for those who wish to throw their life away in prison. Not recommended for the rest of us. Usually leads to a heap of trouble. |
| Law: | Necessary skill to work as a lawyer at Law Firm. |
| Economics: | Skill useful when working as a CEO of a locale. This skill is also a requirement for the Accounting skill. |
| Medicine: | Skill usefull if working in a hospital. |
INSTRUMENT SKILLS
In addition to these special character skills, we have all the skills tied to musical instruments. It's not a requirement to know how to play an instrument in order to put on a good show, but it is HIGHLY recommended.
To learn how to play a musical instrument, you should first learn the basics of the instrument you want to play. For example: if you want to learn how to play the guitar, you should first learn the skill Basic String Instruments.
As soon as you've gotten at least three stars in the basic skill, you can proceed to learn to Play the Guitar.
GENRE SKILLS
Genre Skills are skills that determine how well schooled you are in the history and trends of the different music genres in the game.
All characters should invest in genre skills as they will determine how high you can jam the songs in your repertoire.
Characters with no skills in their selected genres will only be able to jam songs to 50%, which will hurt the ratings of their shows. The percentage increases with each additional star, so those with five stars will be able to jam their songs to 100%. Band members' genre skills are averaged, so a two person band that has one member with five stars and one with no stars will only be able to jam their songs to 75%.
