Introduction
Welcome to The Sims 2 Connected Edition for the mobile phone. This mobile Sims game gives you a whole new town in the Sim's universe to explore - a little place called Splendington, out on the Road to Nowhere, past Pleasantview and Strangetown, way out in the boondocks. Your Sim has headed out there as one of four different kinds of traveling salespeople, based on the Aspiration you chose for them. There are hundreds of unique Splendies, the townies of Splendington, for you to meet and sell your Sim's wares to. Every time you choose to reconnect to the server and refresh your game's content, new Splendies will be swapped out of your phone.
Basics
If you've gone through the optional in game tutorial, you already know that there are two choices for navigating around your Sim's block in Splendington. In Direct Control mode, you use your phone's Joystick/D-Pad to move your Sim around, walking up to objects and other Sims you would like to interact with, and hitting "5" or pressing the center button on the Joystick/D-pad to initiate the interaction. This allows you to always be oriented on where your Sim is on the screen. Alternatively,in Explore mode, you guide the green arrow cursor around the screen, and when you press "5" or the center button on your Joystick/D-pad, your Sim heads to the spot the cursor is over, or may interact with the object or other Sim you selected. This allows you to navigate about the world more quickly.
Needs
To view your Sim's needs, press the "1" key. This user interface panel shows icons and slowly decreasing bars that represent your Sim's growing Needs for various interactions. The lower the green, the more dire your Sim's need is becoming!
Satisfying some needs is obvious; only a toilet can satisfy the Bladder need for instance. But with more than a hundred objects in The Sims 2 CE, it might take you some time and exploration to figure out what they all do. Some hints:
Comfort: Beds, chairs, bathtubs.
Environment: Paintings and posters are key to environmental satisfaction, though cleaning constantly helps, too.
Hunger: Refrigerators and Stoves; be careful of fires! And remember, the higher your Cooking Skill, the faster you get full!
Hygiene: inks, tubs, showers, even the hot tub! Showers are the most efficient at getting you clean, but tubs add a little Fun and Comfort satisfaction into the mix.
Fun: Arcade games, the TV, WooHoo.
Social: Social is only satisfied by socializing with other Sims - but be careful, as negative results from a social also make your Sim's Social Need go down.
Wants
Things that your Sim wants to do or achieve are called "Wants" and are related to your Sim's Aspiration. To inspect the Wants user interface panel, press the right soft-key once. In order to see your Sim's Wants described, press the asterix key ("*"), and use the Joystick/D-pad to move through them.
Some Wants confer a big boost to your Aspiration, shown by the color of your Plumbob in the middle of the Wants panel. Others will yield a small effect. The same value is also added to your Sim's Level Points. Get enough points and you'll be able to upgrade the block for your Sim and all your Sim's neighbors!
Skills
In order to see your Sim's skills press the "1" key twice; this will reveal Cooking, Cleaning, Logic, Body, Mechanical, and Charisma. All Skills increase quickly at first, but require more and more practice to gain each additional skill point, up to the maximum score of 5. Every time your Simgains a Skill point, you will gain 250 leveling points toward the next level. And keep your eyes peeled for Wants that ask you to max out one of your Sim's skills - these are worth quite a bit more points.
Cooking and Cleaning are obvious learn-by-doing skills; the better your Sim is at cooking, the less likely it is that they will set fire to the stove by my mistake. The better your Sim is at Cleaning, the more quickly they will pick up bonuses to their Environment Need.
Logic can only be brushed up by using the Bookcase object.
The Mechanical Skill can be improved by fixing a household appliance that has broken from fire or depreciation, as well as by study it from books on the Bookcase object.
Charisma may be acquired through practicing speeches in front of one of the Mirror objects.
The Body Skill is increased by working out, in front of TV aerobics shows, or on a Exercise Machine or the Boxing Beanie. Having a high Body score improves the results of certain physical and romantic interactions, should your Sim be so inclined.
Socials
Sims love to socialize but can sometimes be a bit particular about who they socialize with, about what, and when. The other Sim will decide whether or not they are pleased with your Sim's social overtures (represented by a green double plus icon), or annoyed by those same gestures (represented by a red double minus icon). This is determined by the compatibility of the two Sims, based on their astrological signs, and their relationship scores with one another at the time of the social interaction. Developing relationships, both good and bad, will unlock new social interactions so be sure to experiment and see where the Socials can lead.
Every successful Social has a point value which is added to the Daily Relationship score with that Sim, as well as being added to your Sim's Social Need. If the Social is unsuccessful, roughly half that point value will be subtracted from both the relationship score and your Sim's Social Need.
One Social with special constraints for where and when it can occur is WooHoo. In order to succeed here, both Sims need to be adjacent to a bed or a hot tub. Try the "Call Over" option on the Socials menu if you're having trouble getting that special Sim-one into the bedroom.
Keep track of the Relationship scores you are building with the Sims on your block by looking at the Friends Inventory panel. You can find this panel by pressing the "3" key three times. The top score is your Lifetime relationship, the bottom score is your Daily relationship; the two are averaged at the end of every game day to make your new Lifetime score.
The Action Queue
If one of your Sims needs has gotten very low, interacting with an object to improve that need will take that much longer. For instance, if your Sim has gotten downright stinky by not satisfying their Hygiene need, and they go to the sink to wash their hands, they might stay at the sink for a long time trying to get clean.
If you want to interrupt this action, go to the Action Queue by pressing the right soft-key three times, select the action by using the asterix ("*") key to initialize, and the Joystick/D-pad to select which action you would like to cancel.
Leveling
In order to improve your Sim's residential surroundings your Sim will need to continue to to impress their Employer by selling their Aspiration's special commodity - Dongles for the Fortune, Love Pouches for Romance, Encyclopedia Simacticas for Knowledge, and Freedom Bonds for Popularity.
Every sale of these items will affect your Leveling score; sales for a profit give you points, sales for a loss take points away. Gaining a Skill point and satisfying Wants also will increase your leveling score; but no matter how many points you get from increasing Skills and satisfying Wants, you have to make at least ONE sale of your special commodity for a profit PER LEVEL.
If you have acquired objects that you wish to take with you to your upgraded house on the next level, you MUST PUT THEM IN THE TRADING OBJECTS INVENTORY before heading off to the next level. Objects left in the Home Inventory on the previous level will not make the transition to the next level.
Once you have been notified that your Sim has received a promotion and is eligible to level up, pack up your house by moving objects from the Home to the Trading Inventory, save your game, exit, continue your existing game, selecting the option to update the content of your game. After a short mini-game you will enter Block View where once again, you may select from the empty houses available.
Leveling gets increasingly more difficult as play progresses; but even if you are not leveling, you can always connect to the serverand download new objects and Splendies for your Sim to interact with.
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