The Essentials

A Day in the Life

With Create a Sim and Build Mode you’ve conjured the elements of your new life—now it’s time to live it! There is a general flow of life in Sunset Valley, a place where dreams are never too far out of reach as long as you keep your Sims happy. Before barreling into this alternative life, you need to know how events unfold so that when surprises happen, they do not actually catch you by surprise. To ready you for Sunset Valley, let us introduce all of the essential terms and concepts that affect your Sims’ lives and show you a sample sliver of the lives of two different Sims under one roof: Catherine and Chris Browne.

Required Reading

Before starting your new story, you need to know these terms, as you will see them a lot in this chapter as well as those that follow. This chapter is a general overview of how the game unfolds. Deeper explanations of these concepts follow in the next three chapters.

Wishes: Every Sims has desires, both immediate and long-term. When you created a Sim, you gave it a Lifetime Wish. However, Sims also come up with smaller wishes each day that they would love for you to help them fulfill. Fulfilled wishes boost your Sim’s mood and award Lifetime Happiness points.

Lifetime Happiness Points: These are the ultimate barometer of your Sim’s fulfillment. When you complete a wish, your Sim earns Lifetime Happiness points. You also earn these points when you boost your Sim’s mood over a certain threshold. Lifetime Happiness points can be traded in for Lifetime Rewards, which affect your Sim’s personality and aptitude.

Skills: Sims can learn a variety of talents, such as writing, fishing, painting, and athletics. These skills are often tied into careers or hobbies. Certain activities increase your skill ranking. You can track your Sims’ skills in their Skill Journals.

Careers: In order to maintain their households, Sims must have a constant source of income. Careers provide that. There are a multitude of career tracks in Sunset Valley, from athlete to journalist. Sims can also seek out part-time jobs or turn their skills in moneymaking opportunities, such as penning books from home. Each career has several levels of promotion.

Opportunities: From time to time, Sims encounter opportunities that result in rewards when completed. Opportunities are typically related to careers and skills, but special opportunities pop up just by exploring Sunset Valley and talking to people. Rewards include job promotions, physical objects, Simoleons, or relationship boosts.

Moodlets: The Sims 3 introduces a new measurement of your Sim’s happiness—moodlets. Moodlets are factors that affect your overall mood. They are good, bad, and neutral. Most moodlets have a timer that denotes how long they affect overall mood. Some negative moodlets can be eliminated by correcting behavior or environment. To make your Sims’ life better and earn more Lifetime Happiness points, adjust your Sims’ life so they experience more positive moodlets.

Needs: As in The Sims&™ 2, Sims have individual needs like Bladder, Hunger, Hygiene, Social, Fun, and Energy. These needs are affected by environment, activities, and relationships. While mood and moodlet take center stage in making sure your Sim is happy, don’t neglect basic needs. When buying objects for your lot, be sure to keep an eye on how certain objects affect specific needs. For example, a nicer bathtub or shower will increase your Sim’s Hygiene rating.

Socials: Socials are the interactions that take place between Sims. There are literally hundreds of socials. Not all socials are available right away. Some are unlocked by developing skills. Other socials are activated by the traits you give your Sims. Use socials to direct a conversation and engage other Sims, paying attention to their likes and dislikes so you can build better relationships. Who knows what could happen? Playfully teasing the right Sim could lead to a lifelong love, while joking with a sourpuss could result in a new nemesis.

While The Sims 2 revolved a lot around time management, The Sims 3 is primarily a happiness factory. There are many roads to happiness (and a few highways to misery, too) and you’ll get the most out of the game by finding the best ways to get your Sims to feel good about themselves. To do this, you need to understand the best and easiest ways to deliver your Sims’ dreams, such as helping them build careers, develop skills, or seek out exciting opportunities. Use this chapter to get a firm grip on all the basic tools for creating happiness so that when you move into Sunset Valley, you minimize the frowns that are bound to happen when exploring a whole new life.

Brownie Bites

Because there is no linear Point A to Point B structure in The Sims 3, you have an unprecedented degree of freedom with your Sims. You can focus on a career with one Sim and focus on a family with another. You can put an entire clan under one roof with a zillion different interests pulling the household in multiple directions or design a power couple with a singular purpose. I played the game with several different families and was consistently amazed at how the smallest decisionmaking tweaks would result in a whole new life trajectory for my Sims. For example, I had one Sim who seemed happy as a clam when painting, but after meeting somebody in downtown Sunset Valley who loved fishing, the Sim told me she wanted to take a fishing class. By developing the Fishing skill, I banked a ton of Lifetime Happiness points because I had a whole new avenue to make my Sim happy. Whether out at the pond or in front of easel, this Sim was just high on life.