Relationships

It’s been the mantra of mothers since time began: You are judged by the company you keep. Well, without walking outside the boundaries of your lot and exploring Sunset Valley, you’ll never discover any such company to be judged by.

Socializing with other Sims is an important part of life in Sunset Valley, and not only because Social is one of your Sims’ needs, like Hunger or Hygiene. Developing relationships is how you will discover exciting opportunities, meet new friends, and perhaps even start the next generation of your family.

Relationships in The Sims 3 actually unfold not that differently from those in the real world. How you treat other Sims is the biggest metric in your overall relationship with them. If you insult another Sim, expect them to get upset in the immediate conversation and for that to have a lasting effect on your relationship.

Conversely, a constant stream of support or praise will boost the immediate interaction and lead to a longer-lasting positive relationship. Developing a successful romance means spotting if the other party is receptive to your advances and knowing when to cool your jets.

Unlike The Sims 2, the social structure of The Sims 3 is not navigated with obvious metrics. There is a touch of mystery in conversations that makes socializing more organic. Instead of running the numbers to see if another Sim will be receptive to a specific social interaction (or just known as a “social”), you need to consider the current attitude of the Sim in the conversation, often referred to as the Target.

(Your current Sim is known as the Actor.) That attitude affects the long-term status of your relationships with different Sims.

Before getting too deep into the intricacies of the social system in The Sims 3, let’s detail some basic concepts that will appear throughout the remainder of this chapter: short-term context, long-term relationship, and commodities.

Understanding these three factors is the key to brushing back some of the mystery of social interaction with the citizens of Sunset Valley.

Long-Term Relationship (LTR)

The long-term relationship represents the state of the relationship between two Sims, which extends beyond the time during which a conversation is taking place. LTR essentially describes the way two Sims view each other at a given moment. Every Sim outside the family starts out as a Stranger.

Once initial contact is made, the LTR moves up to Acquaintance and can never fall back into Stranger. However, Acquaintance is the proverbial fork in the road. From here, the LTR can blossom into friendship or deteriorate into rivalry.

The LTR is visually measured by the bar below the portrait of the Sim you are conversing with. If the relationship develops in a positive manner, the right half of the bar fills. Positive relationship status is noted with green. If the relationship is souring, that meter empties back out and can even dip into the left side, which is red. The red bar denotes a negative LTR.

How to achieve the different LTRs is explained in the Friendships (and Enemies) section of this chapter, but here is a list of all of the LTRs:

STCs

Short-term contexts are what a Sim thinks about the other Sim in the course of the current conversation, not as an LTR. The STC is displayed in the conversation box in the screen’s upper-left as the conversation unfolds. For example, the box may say that “Jenny thinks Sasha is being amusing.” STC is affected by the kind of socials used in a conversation. Each social has a commodity attached to it that directs the course of a conversation. These are all of the STCs:

Not all STCs are symmetrical. One Sim can have a totally different impression of a conversation than the other. The only symmetrical STCs are those associated with the following commodities: friendly, funny, amorous, and steamed. It is very possible that Jenny could think Sasha is being Dull while Sasha does not.

STC also modulates the way socials are accepted. Instead of just hot and cold, STCs and their respective commodities temper reactions.

Depending on your LTR and STC, you can see different degrees of reaction to a social. Trying to kiss a Sim on the cheek in the context of the Flirty STC will be a lot more successful than the Friendly STC.

Commodity

So, each STC is associated with a commodity? What’s a commodity? Think of these as the general categories a social or STC falls under. They are based on specific emotions we all feel, such as awkwardness or love.

Use the commodity of a social to inspire and STC, which will in turn effect the overall LTR. Here are the seven commodities:

As you look at the different STCs and socials in this chapter, check the associated commodities so you can push a conversation in the desired direction.

Decay and Normalizing

Relationships do not operate under inertia. They decay over time if not tended to, even if that time period is as short as 24 hours. This is why regular socializing is so important.

Decay is not necessarily a negative slide. While positive relationship can indeed decay into mere Acquaintance, a negative relationship can normalize into the far more desirable Acquaintance. (Apparently Sims don’t keep grudges quite like we do.)

Decay can be slowed by something as simple as a phone call.

As mentioned, the STC of a conversation contributes to LTR decay. These commodities dictate the decay. The amount of decay is also determined by the LTR itself.

An LTR above zero, which starts heading toward positive territory, will have a different amount of decay from a specific STC/commodity than a negative LTR, which is below zero. No hard math on-screen shows the numerical value of an LTR, but you can sort of eyeball it.

Use this table to understand the way decay occurs as different STCs (with their respective commodities) are used in social encounters:

Decay

So, here’s an example of how this decay works: Jenny and Sasha are Good Friends. If their last encounter was Impolite, then after a few days, the LTR will decay to just Friends.

Conversely, if Jenny and Sasha have the Disliked LTR, the relationship will normalize into Acquaintance if the last STC was Friendly.