Thursday, September 1, 2011

The Sims Social - Ultimate Beginner Guide

The Sims Social is a life simulation Facebook game developed by Playfish and Electronic Arts, which is newest incarnation of the wildly popular The Sims series. In the game you will be responsible for keeping your sim happy, maintaining their relationships, and building and decorating their home. This guide will help you familiarize yourself with the world and get started in the game.

Quick Start Guide

The Sims Social

Navigating the Screen
The Sims Social
  • The top toolbar is where you will find your current balance for simoleons, simcash, social points, and energy. You will also find your current experience balance and level. On the far right you will find the options button and immediately below that are additional options.
  • On the left side of the screen you will find your current quests. Clicking on any of the images will open up the quest details.
The Sims Social
  • The bottom toolbar contains all the pertinent game information. On the left of the toolbar you will find your traits and relationship status. In the center of the toolbar are your needs. On the right side is the clothes button (where you can customize your sim), the shop button, and the crafting button.
The Sims Social
  • At the very bottom of the screen you have your house value and friends bar.
Game Terminology
  • Simoleons: The main currency of The Sims Social.
  • Simcash: Simcash is used to purchase premium items, purchase quest items, purchase workers and speed up in game events. Simcash can only be purchased using Facebook credits.
  • Social points: Social points are earned by interacting with other sims. They can be used to purchase certain items in the game.
  • Energy: Energy is used when you complete tasks and when you interact with other sims. You have a finite amount of energy so use it wisely. Energy does regenerate over time at a rate of one point every five minutes.
  • Experience: Experience is gained by completing tasks and performinh other activities. When you gain enough experience you will level up. Leveling up will unlock new items in the shop as well as new activities, interactions, and so on.
  • Traits: Traits can be purchased to make your sim more unique. There are numerous traits to choose from and they can all be upgraded. Traits add additional interactions and surprises to the game. Traits are purchased using life points.
  • Life points: Life points are used to purchase traits. Life points can be earned by leveling up relationships, earning skill levels, completing quests, and other activities.
  • House value: The current value of your home. You can increase the value by building expansions as well as purchasing furniture and décor items.
  • Needs: These are the basic needs your sim must fulfill. They include hygiene, hunger, fun, social, bladder, and energy. If your sims needs fall too low they will be unwilling to perform tasks until their needs are met.
  • Plumbob: This is the green diamond above your sims head. The color of the plumbob tells you the mood of your sim. If it is green your sim is in a good mood. The closer it gets to red the worse mood your sim is in and the more needs that need to be met.
Earning Simoleons

There are several ways to earn simoleons in The Sims Social:
  • You can earn simoleons by completing quests.
  • You can earn quite a bit of cash by working at leveling up your skills. The higher your skill level, the more simoleons you will earn.
  • If you work on your skills while in inspired mode you will earn additional bonus simoleons.
  • You can also earn simoleons by performing tasks like gardening, fixing broken equipment, and by visiting your neighbors and performing tasks at their homes.
  • You can also purchase simoleons using simcash.
  • If you are really strapped for cash, you can sell items in your house. They will earn you a small percentage of the amount you spent on the item.
Leveling Up

As you perform tasks, complete quests, and make friends (or enemies) you will accrue experience. Once you’ve earned enough experience you will level up. Leveling up will unlock new items in the shop as well as new features and interactions.

Customizing Your Sim
The Sims Social

When you first begin the game you will get to choose your sims gender, appearance, clothing, hairstyle and personality. After you have done so, you will be taken to the game proper. If you wish to change your sim after that, you can (with the exception of gender) but it will cost you simoleons or possibly simcash.
  • To change your personality you will need to click on the traits button in the bottom left of the screen. You can only change your personality using simcash.
  • To change the appearance of your sim click on the clothes button on the bottom right of the screen.
  • This will bring up the Create-A-Sim page. Here you can purchase new hairstyles, hair colors, and outfits.
  • You will need to purchase these changes using either simoleons or simcash.
Traits
The Sims Social
  • Traits allow you to further customize your sims as well as unlock new features and interactions. The traits that can be purchased at this time are as follows: Great Kisser, Insane, Ninja, Ogre, Slob, Steel Bladder, Neat, Super Mechanic, and Night Owl.
  • You can purchase traits using life points, which are earned by completing quests, learning new skills, and increasing relationship levels.
  • Each trait has five different upgrade levels. Each level unlocks something new. For example, level two of the Insane trait allows you talk to plants for socialization.
  • At the beginning of the game you will only be able to purchase one trait. As you level up you will be able to unlock addition trait slots. You will need life points to unlock the new slots.
  • Traits have different costs depending on what the trait is. First level traits can range in cost from 50 life points to 150 life points. They get progressively more expensive from there.
Skills
The Sims Social
  • There are numerous skills you can master in The Sims Social. Skills act as your profession, as there aren’t currently jobs in the game. You can be a writer, a musician, a chef, and/or an artist at this time.
  • Each skill has an associated item for increasing that skill.
    • To learn to write you will need a computer
    • To learn to paint you will need an easel
    • To learn to cook you will need a microwave
    • To learn to compose music you will need a guitar
  • Click on the skill items and select the related task (computer – write, easel – paint, etc.). Most items have other tasks that can be preformed as well, but only one will increase your skill level.
  • This will open the skill window. It will show you how far you’ve progressed on the skill level, and how many more times you need to perform the skill to level it up. Click on the skill to add it to your action queue.
  • Once you have leveled a skill up, you will need to unlock the next skill level to progress. This requires items that you will collect by performing various activities. Hover over the required item to see what activity you can get the item from.
  • Once you have reached level 11 in a skill it will be time to upgrade your skill equipment. For example, if you max out your skills on the guitar you will need to purchase an electric keyboard to go any further. All skill items can be found in the shop.
  • The higher you skill level is the more simoleons you will earn.
Fulfilling Your Needs
The Sims Social

This section will go into detail about keeping your sims’ needs in the green. If a sims’ needs fall too low, they will not be willing to perform tasks or interact with other sims. A grumpy sim is not a successful sim, so make sure you are keeping them happy.
  • You can view your sims needs in the bottom toolbar in the center.
  • Your sims needs are social, fun, hunger, hygiene, bladder, and energy.
  • To fulfill your sims needs you will need to have purchased objects and furniture that will fulfill the need, such as a bed to replenish energy.
  • You can tell what needs must be addressed by the color of the icon. If it is green your sim is doing well. However, as a need bottoms out it goes from green to yellow to orange and then to red.
  • If a need is red, it must be fixed before your sim will be willing to cooperate with any other tasks.
  • To fill a need you can either click on the object and select the appropriate action (for example, click on the bed and select sleep) or you can click on the need itself and your sim will choose an item in the house to fulfill the need.
  • To fulfill the social need you will lneed to leave the lot and visit a neighbor. You can also make a phone call if you own a phone.
  • If you get all your sims’ needs to green, you will enter inspired mode. In this mode, you will earn extra simoleons when you complete tasks.
Socializing and Relationships
The Sims Social

The more neighbors you have, the more fun you will have in the game. You will be building relationships with each of your friends and there are many options and interactions to choose from. This section will only scrape the surface of the various relationship options in the game, but discovering all the different interactions is part of the fun!
  • You can pursue three different relationships with your neighbors. You can become friends, rivals, or enter into a romance. There are various relationship levels to be unlocked, going from acquaintances to friends to BFFs or friendly rivals.
  • Each relationship path gives you different social interactions, as well as different tasks you can perform at your friends’ homes.
  • Friends can help each other out by watering plants, comforting one another, complimenting each other, and other positive interactions.
  • Rivals can be rude to on another by insulting each other, playing pranks, messing with household appliances, and other negative interactions.
  • Once you reach a new relationship level you will need to send a message to your friend to receive their approval for the new level.
  • If they accept the new relationship you will gain life points as well as new social interactions.
  • Interacting with friends will cost you energy. Luckily, you receive five bonus energy points each day when you visit a friend.
  • Once you have used those bonus points up you can still interact with your friends, but you will be drawing energy from your own energy pool.
  • You can send and receive gifts as well. To send a gift select the “Send Gift” tab above the top toolbar or click on the gift icon on the right hand side of the screen. Select the gift you wish to send and then select the friends you wish to send it to.
  • Socializing with other sims will earn you social points. Social points can be used to purchase items in the shop.
Customizing Your Home
The Sims Social

The Shop:The shop is where you will buy your furniture, décor items, expand your home, and customize it in numerous ways.
  • There are numerous items that you can purchase for your home. Once you have accessed the shop you will see a list of icons on the left. These are the shop categories and they are listed by room and/or type of item. The categories are as follows: living, bathroom, bedroom, decoration, kitchen, outdoor, skill, misc, and electronics.
  • Click on the category for the type of item you wish to purchase.
  • Items will either cost simoleons, simcash, or social points.
  • Certain items, like double beds and couches, will have a hammer icon in the right corner. This means that this item requires some assembly. To assemble the item you will need certain items that can only be gained by performing tasks. Hover over the needed item to learn which tasks will provide the item. Sometimes you may need to ask your friends for the item.
  • To purchase an item, click on it. If you change your mind you can undo the action before you place it on the screen.
  • Once you have selected the item you wish to purchase it’s time to place it in your home. Once you have placed it, be sure to collect your house value points.
  • If you want to change an items location or the direction it is facing, simply click on the item and select either move or rotate.
  • If you wish to sell an item, click on it and select sell.
  • If you wish to remove an object, but do not wish to sell it, you can click on it and select move. If you go to the bottom of the screen and click, you can add the item to your storage.
The Sims Social

Storage:
  • To access your storage, click on the shop button and then select the storage tab.
  • Storage is where you will find items that you’ve received from completing tasks or as gifts.
  • To remove an item from storage just click on it and then place it where you want it to go.
The Sims Social

Build Mode:
  • At some point your sim is going to need more space to store all their stuff. To build additional rooms, click on the shop button and then select the build tab.
  • The size of the rooms you can purchase will depend on your current house value level.
  • Select the room size you wish to purchase and then place it on the screen, connecting it to your house.
  • You may need to leave the build screen and remove some plants in your yard to make room for your new addition.
  • Once you’ve placed the new room, you will need to hire some friends to help you build the new room. You can either send a message to your friends requesting their assistance, or you can use simcash to hire workers.
  • Once you have enough help, you can click on the room and complete it.
  • Once completed you will want to make sure that you can access the new room. Under the build tab you can purchase doors and windows for your home.
  • Now it’s time to decorate. Under the build tab you can purchase different flooring and wallpaper.
Crafting
The Sims Social
  • In addition to building items and unlocking skills, you can use items found by performing tasks to craft special potions and complete collections.
  • You can craft numerous potions that can provide benefits to your sim. For example a fun potion will instantly max out your fun level, or a bad mood potion will instantly tank all your sims needs (helpful for when you are trying to find certain items).
  • To see what items can be crafted, and what ingredients you still need, click on the crafting button on the bottom right of the screen.
  • Hover over the ingredients you need to find out what task(s) you need to perform to find them. They will not appear each time you perform the task so you may have to repeat the same task several times.
  • Once you have all the required items, you can click on the crafting button and craft the item.
The Sims Social
  • Your crafted items are stored in your backpack which can be found by clicking on the crafting button and selecting your backpack.
  • To use a crafted item, click the crafting button and select your backpack. Then click use on the item you wish to use.
  • Energy bonuses are also stored in your backpack.
Congratulations!

You have completed the quick start guide for The Sims Social by Playfish. Be sure to check back often for game updates, staff and user review, user tips, forum comments, and much more here at The Sims Social Game Guide.


Source : http://www.gamezebo.com

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