Hard-to-find conversational options

[Gus Smedstad]

"Boast about..." - gardening, cooking, athletics.  Maybe more.  I've seen it, I know it exists, but it never seems to be available when a Sim actually wants to do this.  The reaction seems to be negative almost always, though I suspect Easily Impressed Sims like it.

"Praise" - I'm pretty sure this is a Friendly Sim only action, and probably one that requires that you be deeper in the Friendly tree.  Much the way "Friendly Hug" won't show up until you've been chatting for a while.  I don't recall ever seeing it, though.

The corresponding wishes come up often enough, but it's so unclear how you fulfill them that I've taken to deleting them as I see them.

 - Gus

[hidethe_cutlery]

Sims with the Schmoozer trait can always Praise and Flatter. Friendly sims can always Friendly Hug, Express Fondness and Ask About Day.
Under Cooking there is also Discuss Fine Cuisine, Trade Kitchen Secrets (or something similar, maybe just trade recipes? Your sim learns a new recipe from this) and Boast about Culinary Prowess as well as Enthuse about Cooking.
For Books there is Talk about Books, Talk about Bookstore, Discuss Books, Praise Fantastic (or similar) Book, Criticise Lousy Book (which gives the 3 hour Let Off Steam Moodlet) and Ask About Book. Possibly others I've forgotten, but those are the ones I've seen today.

[pbox]

As far as I've seen, the "Boast About .." options are only available when the sim in question has recently skilled up in the thing to boast about (not necessarily by a full point -- but as long as they learn, they can boast). Similarly, even my Green Thumb sims aren't always able to "Talk About" gardening -- I believe they need to have recently been gardening. That or perhaps be in the garden? Not sure.

Compliment Cooking and Thank For Cleaning also only show up when the sim has recently cooked/cleaned something. (I believe I've seen sims being able to Thank For Cleaning visitors who had been cleaning *on their home lot* before coming over .. so I'd say time is the only thing that matters here. Also, my sims can compliment their kids on the bread and jam they make for themselves!).

I had to laugh when I saw "Share Trivia" and "Bore to Death" for the first time (both options of No-Sense-Of-Humour sims).

Athletic sims have an "Express Need for Exercise" pretty much anytime I believe; Talk about books seem to be available to pretty much any sim who has ever read a book;  Praise Fantastic Book / Complain about Shitty Book (not in these words) when they have recently read one. I imagine all these time-based options probably work a bit like hidden modlets or tokens .. sim cleans something, and gets an invisible "Can be thanked or cleaning" thingy.

Praise and Flatter are Schmoozer options, yes.

Gripe about Kids is exclusive to Dislikes Children sims. They can also Patronize (I like! My one non-kids-liking teen sim did that all the time with his little sisters when the brats tried to play catch with his girlfriend while he was romancing her), and unfortunately Shoo Kid Out Of Room which is very disruptive. Genius sims can be complimented on Cleverness.


(Actually, I believe a lot of this kind of info is already in the various Traits threads, isn't it?)

[J. M. Pescado]

While this is all find and good, as it REALLY turns out, there are only about 9 distinct socials in the game, and even fewer that would regularly appear. Every other social is just a restring of these 9.

[pbox]

But sims get bored when the "same" (as in, same string) social is being repeated too often -- I haven't seen this yet with socials that look different (even though they probably boil down to the same + / - effect). I guess that's the point of having different keys for them?

[fatkitty]

As far as I've seen, the "Boast About .." options are only available when the sim in question has recently skilled up in the thing to boast about (not necessarily by a full point -- but as long as they learn, they can boast).

So my natural cook, with level 10 cooking skill, who has learned all the recipes will never be able to boast about cooking?  That would make sense since I can't ever seem to fulfill that want.

[J. M. Pescado]

But sims get bored when the "same" (as in, same string) social is being repeated too often -- I haven't seen this yet with socials that look different (even though they probably boil down to the same + / - effect). I guess that's the point of having different keys for them?

Pretty much. It's there to pretend you're doing something different, even though they're really the same things. Mechanically, all socials of a given type are completely interchangeable.

[Gus Smedstad]

Friendly sims can always Friendly Hug, Express Fondness and Ask About Day.

Not exactly.  While most sims have a minimum relationship level before they can Friendly Hug, and Friendies do not, they can't do Friendly Hug right off the bat.  They have to raise the "friendly" level of that specific conversation through repeated "Friendly" topics until it opens up.

I've yet to play a Schmoozer sim, but the Friendlies roll "Praise" wants all the time.  Which is why I'm wondering where it's hidden in the tree for non-Schmoozer sims.

It's apparent that certain options open up once a Sim knows the target has a specific trait.  I.e. a Sim can "Applaud Vegetarianism" once he knows the target is Vegetarian.

It's entirely possible that "Boast" is only available right after a skill increase, much like Announce Promotion requires a recent promotion.  Which is annoying, since my level-10 cook was rolling "Boast about cooking" wants ever time he cooked a Perfect meal, which was all the time.

 - Gus

[phyllis_p]

"Boast about" is also avilalble for Snobbish Sims, as is "Talk about Self," "Talk about personal possessions," "Talk about bike/car/house/etc."

[Motoki]

I believe I've gotten praise on non-schmoozy sims when they have a child who just made the honor roll.

[nanacake]

So if they're all the same 9, does it have no effect on the image the speech bubbles show at all? I thought it did a little bit.

[rufio]

But sims get bored when the "same" (as in, same string) social is being repeated too often -- I haven't seen this yet with socials that look different (even though they probably boil down to the same + / - effect). I guess that's the point of having different keys for them?

Pretty much. It's there to pretend you're doing something different, even though they're really the same things. Mechanically, all socials of a given type are completely interchangeable.

Does this mean you've been working on a TS3 autosoc?

[Roflganger]

So if they're all the same 9, does it have no effect on the image the speech bubbles show at all? I thought it did a little bit.

The speech bubbles do vary depending on the topic - favorites are typically shown in "get to know" interactions, discussions about cooking show recipe cards and mixing bowls, etc.  

TS2 did a much better job of giving conversations the illusion of personality and depth.  If they were talking about tennis, they'd show off their serve; if they were discussing their alien abductions, they'd rub their rumps.  My favorite was the dirty joke animation where a Sim would illustrate a female body with his hands.  In 3, the animations have very little variety to them, and except for a few rare examples, seem to just cycle randomly for each interaction type, regardless of the specific social being used.

Simlish also seems extremely limited this time around.  In TS2, even after years of playing, it never sounded really repetitive.  In TS3, though, I hear things like "How da hail?" all the freakin time.  That's probably why conversations are so much shorter in this version; there doesn't seem to be enough unique dialogue to have more than a 2 minute conversation without repeating the same phrases over and over.

[chaos]

Since TS3 sims are fairly smart about taking care of their needs, I've been taking a more hands-off approach to playing the game, and sims are hilarious when left to their own devices. The parents in the fambly that I'm currently playing will take every opportunity they can with their kids to praise them, express fondness for them, request them to do homework, and request them to clean. The daredevil teenage son loves to do the Watch This interaction, and the bookwork son wants nothing but to talk about books. Unless I queue them to skill or something, all they do is socialize with each other, read books, or play on the computer, but they mostly want to socialize. The autonomous book critiques are especially funny to me. Science fiction, romance and trashy novels almost always get criticized as lousy. Drama, mystery, and other higher-level novels nearly always get praised as being great, and yes, this tends to happen directly after a sim has finished reading a book.

[Gastfyr]

I believe I've gotten praise on non-schmoozy sims when they have a child who just made the honor roll.

Yep, me too.  In fact, my sim parents have rolled wishes to praise the honor roll student.  And they weren't shmoozers.

I agree that it is very frustrating when a lvl 10 cook rolls a want to boast about cooking and it is entirely impossible to actually fulfill the want.  Should be easy points, but no. 

[Motoki]

I agree that it is very frustrating when a lvl 10 cook rolls a want to boast about cooking and it is entirely impossible to actually fulfill the want.  Should be easy points, but no. 

Seems to me they should be able to after cooking a high quality meal, like perfect and maybe outstanding and excellent. That makes more sense than boasting about supposed cooking skill from reading a book or watching a TV show. 

[Gus Smedstad]

"I learned how to make PB & J sandwiches today!  I are awesome cook!"

 - Gus

[Caraleede]

"Boast about" is also avilalble for Snobbish Sims, as is "Talk about Self," "Talk about personal possessions," "Talk about bike/car/house/etc."

I've only ever seen "Boast about pool" and "Boast about personal posessions" from snobs. This includes a sim who was level 10 with all skills as an experiment.

[virgali]

I play the dutch version so I may not be translating well but here it goes. I have a sim that has the cooking trait but I cannot find the cooking social under the special socials menu. I believe all they can do is talk about cooking anyways. If other sims have the cooking trait they can share recipe tips or something like that. (no need to waist 1200 simoleons and time learning how to cook ambrosia yay!)

I do have another sim with the cooking trait and for him I can find it under special socials all the time. I've always wondered wether the sequence of the traits matter?

[Gastfyr]

no need to waist 1200 simoleons and time learning how to cook ambrosia

Is that a typo, because even with Haggler and Bookshop Barganer, it's still more than that, right?  The base price for the Amborsia recipe is 14,000 simoleons.

[virgali]

It was a typo yes... but I did mean 12,000. I only bought the recipe once, maybe my store had a discount at the time? Ever since I realised you can learn recipes through the socials I never bought a recipe book again.

[Pinstar]

"Ask how they slept" Or some form of that is available talking to a sim that has recently woken up. Seems to be favored by light sleeper sims.

[virgali]

I've seen that plenty of times too and none of the sims was a light sleeper. Maybe the sim that got asked the question? Though I don't think so... either ways the sims I remember getting that option had the charisma/schmoozer trait (I believe there was one with neither of those traits as well that had the option but I'm not really sure). I believe getting a high skill in charisma also "unlocks" certain socials that your sim wouldn't have with his/her current set of traits.

[chaos]

I think the "ask about" interactions (book, day, how slept, etc) have more to do with close relationships and recent activities than with individual traits. None of my sims have the traits mentioned, yet a father/child or husband/wife can ask each other how they slept, how their day is going, or about the book they just read, depending on whether a sim just woke up, just read a book, etc. I think it's cute.

[virgali]

TS2 did a much better job of giving conversations the illusion of personality and depth.  If they were talking about tennis, they'd show off their serve; if they were discussing their alien abductions, they'd rub their rumps.  My favorite was the dirty joke animation where a Sim would illustrate a female body with his hands.  In 3, the animations have very little variety to them, and except for a few rare examples, seem to just cycle randomly for each interaction type, regardless of the specific social being used.

Simlish also seems extremely limited this time around.  In TS2, even after years of playing, it never sounded really repetitive.  In TS3, though, I hear things like "How da hail?" all the freakin time.  That's probably why conversations are so much shorter in this version; there doesn't seem to be enough unique dialogue to have more than a 2 minute conversation without repeating the same phrases over and over.

I totally agree with this. I really miss that dirty joke animation as well. I feel like pulling my hair out when my sims are socializing. That's how repetitive the sentences are. I'm glad you brought this up. Seriously TS3 must be the most poorly produced game in the history of gaming. I'm still amazed at how lazy these people are.

If I had access to my old puter I'd be playing TS2 still, seriously. I think I'll have my new pc built up and delivered in about two more months. I'll just install all my TS2 stuffs there and just stick with that.