New Socials

New socials in Seasons greatly increase the number of conversation options available to your Sims. All the original socials from The Sims 3 are still available (plus those from any expansion packs you have installed), but this new set of socials is added to the mix so your Sims have even more to gab about—and more avenues for building relationships.

Use this table of socials added to Seasons to help guide conversations. Here’s how the table breaks down:

Social: Name of social as seen in the conversation menu
Commodity: Commodity associated with the social
Actor/Target Age: Ages in which the social is applicable
C = Child
T = Teen
Y = Young Adult
A = Adult
E = Elder
Social Available When?: What prompts the use of the social

Social	Commodity	Actor Age	Target Age
Talk About Rain	Friendly	C, Y, T, A, E,	C, Y, T, A, E,
Talk About Snow	Friendly	C, Y, T, A, E,	C, Y, T, A, E,
Talk About Hail	Friendly	C, Y, T, A, E,	C, Y, T, A, E,
Talk About Fog	Friendly	C, Y, T, A, E,	C, Y, T, A, E,
Talk About Cold	Friendly	C, Y, T, A, E,	C, Y, T, A, E,
Talk About Heat	Friendly	C, Y, T, A, E,	C, Y, T, A, E,

Social Activities

No Sim is an island. Forging and maintaining relationships with other Sims in town (and from beyond in the case of the aliens that come a-callin’ in Seasons) is as critical in The Sims 3 as it is on this side of the screen. If you’ve been playing The Sims 3 for a while now, you understand how Short Term Context (STC) and Long Term Relationship (LTR) works within the boundaries of the socialization system. STCs are the building blocks of a conversation, the commodity of socials such as friendly, steamed, and awkward. How you build a conversation and leave it determines the effect it has on LTR, which is how you go from being mere acquaintances to friends—and in some cases all the way to spouse... or enemy.

Because LTR decays toward zero over time (from either end of the relationship spectrum), you will need to set aside time to maintain relationships. However, with all of the things that you’ll want to do in Seasons, making time for conversations (either idle chit-chat or deep talks) is not always easy. Some days are just packed with possible activities.

This is when group activities are especially useful. There are a great number of group activities in Seasons, such as snowboarding with another Sim, playing horseshoes, throwing water balloons, bobbing for apples, and more. In addition, you can also participate in festivals, holidays, and throw/attend one of the new parties included in Seasons: gift-giving party, feast, pool party, and costume party. We’ll go into these parties in the next section of this chapter.

So, always be on the lookout for group activities, even if that group includes just you and one other Sim. Though you may not have huge LTR boosts, just participating in group activities affects LTR and can prevent a friends from slipping back into acquaintance.