The Art Of Conversation

So, you’ve approached another Sim, you left-clicked on them, and now you are staring at a menu of different social options. How do you navigate the social structure of a conversation?

Well, your options are partially defined by your LTR, current mood, age, and your traits. Categories of socials include things like Friendly, Funny, Mean, Romantic, and Special.

Special leads to socials that are encouraged by the Actor having a specific trait, such as Bookworm. Inside the Bookworm menu, there will be options to talk about books or the bookstore.

The menu of available social categories appears around your Sim’s head. Left-click on an option to see what socials are available.

Now, select a social from the category to add it to the action queue.

When you select a social, it is added to your list of activities in the upper-right corner, just as if you were stacking interactions with objects.

When a current social ends, the next one automatically begins. But stacking socials is not a wise strategy because you do not want to just babble away about a topic that the other Sim is just not interested in listening to.

Use socials and then watch for reactions. A positive social with a positive effect is noted with a chime and a blue symbol of two Sims next to each other. A negative reaction is noted by two red Sims and a minus symbol.

Being Boring

Talking about the same things over and over gets boring to most Sims. The positive effect of a positive social is weakened the more you use it.

Repeating a social can also affect the STC. Continuous droning about the same subjects will nudge the STC into Dull, Drab, or Insufferably Tedious territory. If the conversation ends on one of those STCs, the LTR suffers.

When a relationship is suffering due to a boring conversation, red symbols appear over the Sims’ heads.

The default number of times you can repeat a social without getting boring is two. And if you break apart a conversation, you can use a social more than twice without any STC worries.

Some socials can be used more than twice without dullness setting in, such as Chat. Chat has four uses before it is boring in a single conversation.

However, it can be “recharged” so that the social can be used six times before it is boring. To recharge a social, you just need to break it up in the conversation.

For example, let’s say you use Chat four times in a row. The other Sim is not bored, but is about to be if you use it one more time.

So, you change course and Talk About Books. After that social runs its course, you have recharged Chat once. Now you can use Chat again without it being boring. However, if you tried to use it again without another recharge, the social would be considered boring.