Opportunity

An opportunity is a side quest with a set of goals a Sim can complete for a reward. Opportunity is a feature in The Sims 3. There are nine types of opportunities: three from the base game (career, skill, and special), three from The Sims 3: World Adventures (China, Egypt, and France), and three from The Sims 3: University Life (social group, day job, and dare). A Sim can have multiple opportunities at once, but only one opportunity per type.

Opportunities are optional; the players can cancel an opportunity whenever they wish. Completing an opportunity generally reward Sims with money, career performance, moodlet, or special objects. Some opportunities have a time limit, and Sims may fail if the time limit has exceeded. Any children and older as well as plumbots with Sentience trait chip can receive an opportunity. Opportunities have three types of repeatability: repeatable, once per Sim, and once per household. Common opportunities are generally repeatable, special opportunities like Oh My Ghost! opportunity are only available once per Sim, while most adventure opportunities are only available once per household.

Obtaining an opportunity
Sims may receive an opportunity from various ways, such as receiving a phone call, reading a job board, getting one from work, and so on. Generally, skill and profession opportunities are received from phone, career opportunities are received at work, and World Adventures and University Life opportunities are received from respective job boards. Special opportunities do not have a definite way to be obtained.

Every opportunity received from phone calls, at work, or from job boards has a weighted chance. When a Sim, for example, receives a random opportunity phone call, the weighted chance determines which opportunity will be received. The higher the weighted chance is, the more likely an opportunity is selected. Regular phone call opportunities generally have low weighted chance, such as 5 or 10. More unique opportunities have higher weighted chance, e.g. Uncommonly Good (120), Oh My Ghost! (75), When Dreams Come True (500), and Master Invention (500); to make sure that these opportunities are experienced by the players.

Sims receive a phone call opportunity regularly between 1 and 3 days. If The Sims 3: Late Night is installed, celebrity opportunities are received regularly every day. The players may cancel an opportunity received from phone, and the same opportunity will be 75% less likely to be received in 5 days after cancelling it. The players can suppress opportunity in the game option whenever they don't feel like receiving opportunities in the game.

Opportunity requirements
Opportunities have some requirements to be able to be received. The players are not hinted about these requirements at all. Most opportunities are available if Sims possess the required skill and career levels. However, certain opportunities are also no longer available if the Sims' skill or career levels surpass the requirements, which means some opportunities may be missed forever. Many chained opportunities need certain opportunities to be completed first, before they become available. These opportunities may be received as soon as the required opportunity is completed (such as adventure opportunities), or just unlock opportunities to be received later (such as omni plant opportunity chain).

Some opportunities also require certain setups before they may be available. These opportunities require things like certain rabbit holes or certain lot assignments to exist in a world. Even then, the lot may require certain objects to be present, such as 4 band instruments for band opportunities, a stage for gig opportunities, or a chess table for chess competition opportunity. The players may not receive any Mixology opportunities if the world doesn't contain Late Night lot assignments, for example. Since these lots are not present outside Bridgeport, the players will have to place these lots manually.

Opportunity rewards
Upon completing an opportunity, Sims may be given a variety of rewards. The same opportunity always gives the same rewards, except for the amount of variable cash. Variable cash are usually rewarded for opportunities that require Sims to deliver certain crafted objects. As such, the amount of variable cash is specified by the quality of the objects brought. The calculation is as following:
 * For cooked meals, the cash depends on the quality per dish: §1 (horrifying), §2 (putrid), §4 (foul), §5 (bad), §50 (neutral), §100 (nice), §200 (very nice), §300 (great), §400 (excellent), §500 (outstanding), §700 (perfect).
 * For books, the cash depends on the quality per book: §100 (flop); §1,000 (normal); §2,500 (hit); §7,000 (best seller).
 * For paintings, the total value is multiplied by 4.
 * For fish, the total value is multiplied by 10.
 * For harvestables, the total value is multiplied by 10.
 * For rocks, gems, and metals; the total value is multiplied by 1.5.
 * For insects and butterflies, the total value is multiplied by 4.
 * For relics, the total value is multiplied by 2.
 * For photographs, the total value is multiplied by 10.
 * For nectar bottles, the total value is multiplied by 2.
 * For inventions, the total value is multiplied by 1.5.
 * For scraps, the total value is multiplied by 1.25.
 * For sculptures, the total value is multiplied by 2.
 * For spirits, the total value is multiplied by 1.25.
 * For seashells, the total value is multiplied by 2.

In addition, many traits and lifetime rewards benefit Sims with higher outcome:
 * Opportunistic lifetime reward increases rewards with calculable values (money, job performance, etc.) by 100%.
 * Perceptive trait increases cash and job performance rewards from completing Investigator opportunities by 30%.
 * Next Big Thing lifetime reward increases cash and celebrity point rewards from band opportunities by 15%.
 * Perfect Host lifetime reward increases rewards from hosting SimPort opportunities by 100% if any member of the household has this lifetime reward. The benefit doesn't stack with more members having the lifetime reward.
 * Fearless Voyager lifetime reward increases rewards from performing SimPort opportunities by 50%.
 * "Basil" moodlet increases opportunity rewards by 10%.

Sims may fail in opportunities that require the Sims to deliver special opportunity objects in their inventory by selling, deleting, or losing them. In that case, the opportunity will end prematurely and Sims will be penalized with money to compensate the loss.

The Sims 3

 * Career


 * Acrobat
 * Art appraiser
 * Astronomer
 * Bot arena
 * Business
 * College
 * Criminal
 * Culinary
 * Education


 * Film
 * Fortune teller
 * Ghost hunter
 * Investigator
 * Journalism
 * Law enforcement
 * Magician
 * Medical
 * Military


 * Music
 * Political
 * Professional sports
 * School
 * Science
 * Singer
 * Sports agent
 * Video game developer


 * Skill


 * Advanced technology
 * Alchemy
 * Athletic
 * Band
 * Bass
 * Bot building
 * Charisma
 * Cooking
 * DJ


 * Drums
 * Fishing
 * Gardening
 * Guitar
 * Handiness
 * Inventing
 * Laser rhythm-a-con
 * Logic
 * Martial arts


 * Mixology
 * Nectar making
 * Painting
 * Photography
 * Piano
 * Scuba diving
 * Sculpting
 * Street art
 * Writing


 * Special
 * Afterschool activity
 * Celebrity
 * Community event
 * Hidden island
 * Occult
 * Scavenger hunt
 * Time travel

The Sims 3: World Adventures
Adventure opportunities are received either by checking for adventures on a job board at the base camp or from phone. When the player sends multiple Sims on an adventure, only one Sim may obtain the unique adventure opportunities at a time. Other Sims will only receive generic repeatable opportunities; for example, an opportunity that requires them to collect some gems or metals. Unique adventure opportunities are only received once per household, while generic repeatable opportunities are generally repeatable for Sims.
 * China
 * Egypt
 * France

The Sims 3: University Life

 * Social group
 * Day job
 * Dare

Trivia

 * Part-time jobs and self-employed careers do not have any career opportunities. In addition, several professions also do not have opportunities, i.e. Architectural Designer, Firefighter, Stylist, Daycare, and Lifeguard.
 * Riding, Science, and Social Networking skills do not have any skill opportunities.
 * In many collecting opportunities, the number of required collectible to collect is randomly between a specified range, such as 5 to 15 pieces of copper. The number doesn't persist, however. When the opportunity requires Sims to collect 10 pieces of copper, saving and reloading the game may change the number randomly; it may be fewer or more. This can be used as an advantage for rarer collectibles that are hard to find, such as mummitomium.