Sims 3 Equivalent of Red Hands

[acid_fairy]

I've always found relationship progress in Sims 3 unbearably slow. In Sims 2 you could play red hands for a few hours and they were best friends - is there an equivalent quick relationship-boosting option in Sims 3?

[calisims]

Noting as simple as Red hands, but Sims get bigger boosts from talking about trait specific topics. So, bookworms get bigger boosts from talking about books or the bookstore. The trait can be either for the Sim choosing the topic or the receiving Sim, so if your Sim isn't a bookworm but is taking to a bookworm about books, the rel boost is still in effect.

Outside of conversation, if you get your Sim to have at least one skill point in Charisma, there is a skill challenge for having 25 acquaintances that gives an instant rel boost when meeting new Sims. That also stacks with the Attractive LTW reward that gives the same rel boost. If you have both, your Sim is instantly friends with every new Sim they meet.

[rian90]

I rather like the slower relationship gains. There are many things I miss about Sims 2 but the instant friend game is not one of them.

[katya_stevens]

I tend to find spamming the actions under the 'Funny' tab helps to raise the relationship fairly quickly (unless the sim has the no sense of humour trait). Once the sim gets bored with that, switch to some friendly actions, then back to funny.

For children, playing tag is a major friend-maker. One child of mine maxed out her relationship bar with another child in one afternoon of doing nothing but playing tag.

[calisims]

The playing tag thing is actually a bug. A lot of times even after the kids have stopped playing, the relationship continues to grow until it maxes. If you look at the inactive kid's status with master controller, you'll see it's stuck in a 'play tag' situation. If you try to romance that same kid later when they grow up, you'll find it difficult because the meter will keep going from 'flirty' to 'okay' because the Sim still thinks it is playing tag. You have to reset the Sim to fix it.

[ani_]

The playing tag thing is actually a bug. A lot of times even after the kids have stopped playing, the relationship continues to grow until it maxes. If you look at the inactive kid's status with master controller, you'll see it's stuck in a 'play tag' situation. If you try to romance that same kid later when they grow up, you'll find it difficult because the meter will keep going from 'flirty' to 'okay' because the Sim still thinks it is playing tag. You have to reset the Sim to fix it.

That was interesting, I have been abusing the play tag thing because sometimes it makes sense that some people are friends, so I'd just have them play tag. But, after Pets it seems it might be fixed, at least I have not been able to abuse it any more :/

[heaven]

Mine still does that with playing tag. Granted, I haven't looked into it as far as calisims but one afternoon of tag and my sims are best friends. That's the only way my sims make friends. I keep them busy at home. Sometimes, with the lack of using community lots, you'd think I was still playing TS2!!!

[calisims]

I looked into it because I was annoyed by my Sim's failure to romance a childhood friend when they became teens.
I've noticed it doesn't happen every time you play tag, but sometimes, it just gets stuck. Twallan has added a setting in Overwatch to clean up situations. It's possible the stuck play tag situation will be fixed by that.

[GnatGoSplat]

I don't know if it's particularly fast, but if you're looking for a hands-off automatic relationship builder, I noticed "Dance Together" does the job. I had a husband and wife who loathed each other to the max, -100. I set them to dancing together, left them alone while I played the other members of the house, and when I came back to them I saw it had repaired their relationship back into the green again. They won't stop until one of their motives goes critically low.

[acid_fairy]

Super helpful, thank you guys!

[TheLB]

I think any hobby together should work. Personally, I like having my sims play video games together. They'll level a hidden skill (not that it really matters) and they could probably play games for days on end if I wasn't ushering them around to do chores.

[r_deNoube]

I don't know if it's particularly fast, but if you're looking for a hands-off automatic relationship builder, I noticed "Dance Together" does the job. ...Wow, that's helpful to know. I wonder if it will even work on Morgana Wolff. I mean, she comes to all the parties but then just stands off to the side, right? She'll dance if you ask her, but I can never tell if she enjoys it. From what you've said, it seems there's at least some social value to the dancing, separate from the issue of whether she's having a good time.

[StardustX]

TestingCheatsEnabled true (control+shift+c if you don't know how to bring the cheat thing up) and then you can change the relationship by clicking and dragging the bar on the contact tab. If it doesn't work, switch to another sim and then switch back and it should be fine. It seems to only mess up when you're on the contact tab when you type TCE in.

If you don't want to use cheats:
If it's between a child and a toddler, peek-a-boo brings the relationship bar up fast. So does the peg box and xylophone, and teaching life skills, between a toddler and teen/adult.
For everyone else... Tag or other games, video games, and dancing are good for raising relationships.



I miss quick friendships too. My sims are always too busy to really make friends so they end up only having their children/spouse/pets/random inanimate objects for socialization. lol.

[katya_stevens]

The playing tag thing is actually a bug. A lot of times even after the kids have stopped playing, the relationship continues to grow until it maxes. If you look at the inactive kid's status with master controller, you'll see it's stuck in a 'play tag' situation. If you try to romance that same kid later when they grow up, you'll find it difficult because the meter will keep going from 'flirty' to 'okay' because the Sim still thinks it is playing tag. You have to reset the Sim to fix it.

Hmm, that might explain why I've had a few buggy romances (which does exactly what you say, going from 'flirty' to 'okay'). I do have Overwatch -- next time I go in game I'll see if there's an option to clear that scenario.

[calisims]

Hmm, that might explain why I've had a few buggy romances (which does exactly what you say, going from 'flirty' to 'okay'). I do have Overwatch -- next time I go in game I'll see if there's an option to clear that scenario.

If you can't clear the situation, try resetting the Sim. That's always worked for me.

[nonamena]

Charismatic sims don't bore other sims when they repeat themselves. So give a charismatic sim the Observant lifetime happiness reward (5k points) and then you can find a trait that you can spam a quick social with. You can buy the Never Dull lifetime happiness reward for non-Charismatic sims (10k points), but then you'll need 15k lifetime happiness points in total. Not a problem if you use a lifetime happiness cheat, I suppose. Anyhow, if you run into a virtuoso sim, for example, just use "Enthuse about Music" over and over. You can also enthuse about careers like, Business, Politics, Medicine, Science, and Law Enforcement. The "Enthuse About.." interactions are really nice for building relationships fast because they are really quick. You can Talk About Cooking with a Natural Cook, but Enthuse About Cooking is much faster.

Somebody mentioned completing the Celebrity Charisma challenge (know 25 sims in town) and combining that with the Attractive lifetime happiness reward, but you can push it one step further. Complete Everybod'y Best Friend (best friends with 10 sims) as well. With the three of them, you are instantly best friends with every new sim when you use Charming Introduction.