I am new to modding the Sims and have been browsing the TS4 description files using the tuning browser tool. Have been trying to find answers on google, but i cannot find detailed information about the differences between the different interactions described in the description files. Is it possible anyone with knowledge can explain to me what is the difference between a socialmixerinteraction and a socialsuperinteraction and in what scenarios to use which one?

Thanks in advance.

The mixer interactions "mix" with a regular superinteraction, and no I'm not trying to be the master of the obvious here. For instance, when two or more sims are chatting together and one brings up the tell a joke interaction, that's a mixer. It doesn't end the chat interaction, it works as a part of it and can affect the entire social group that was setup by the superinteraction.

You can see this graphically on the interaction queue, say Bob is chatting with Brenda and you choose (via pie menu or otherwise) to Tell an Engaging Story. The chat interaction on the queue will continue to show "Chat with Brenda" and the new mixer appears queued with the text "Chat With Brenda (Tell Engaging Story)" and a friendship bubble. Once they are done with whatever current topic they were talking about, that new interaction mixes into the chat and the main icon will show "Chat With Brenda" while the little attached friendship bubble shows the mixed in interaction "Tell Engaging Story". The chat interaction hasn't ended though, so after they are done with the story and the engaging story mixer stops running, the original chat superinteraction continues and another mixer (either another topic or the "Idle_Chatting_STC" mixer) can start.

If it weren't for this style of mixer interactions, at the end of the Tell Engaging Story a fresh new chat interaction would have to be pushed onto all the sims in the conversation in order for them to continue talking. That's a mess, so basically anytime you want an interaction to have parts that mix into the the interaction without ending it, a mixer is the way to go.

Another example of social interactions that use mixers would be two Sims playing chess. We want Sims to be able to make a chess move, or sit and think, or cheat at the game, without ending the actual game. The mixer, e.g. chess_make_move or chess_cheat, mixes into the overall superinteraction and then it continues once that mixer has finished.

Thank you scumbumbo for the detailed information. Very helpful in understanding the concepts of the game

From a modding perspective and after further studying the description files. You create a Superinteraction and from there for example you can push Mixerinteractions to on target sims or the sim that started the Superinteraction?

Sounds like you're gettting it, yes. Take for instance the play chess example. It can be started off with the Chess_Social SocialSuperInteraction, or from a SimPickerInteraction (from targeting the chess board) which runs the Chess_Social as a continuation, or via the "rallyable" SuperInteraction (Sim already playing chess, and another Sim targets the board and chooses to join) which also runs Chess_Social. The Chess_Social SocialSuperInteraction then defines the list of valid mixers in its staging_content section. The mixers themselves aren't attached as superaffordances of the chess table, so even though they are autonomous they won't be considered for autonomy until during the Chess_Social which makes them available while Chess_Social is running.

All the different ways to start a game trigger the Chess_Social, which then allows the mixers to run.

Thanks again for the information. Very helpful for me as i just started trying to mod the game. After studying the description files sometimes had a blank stare at the screen and had to rewrite the information i just read. I guess things will fall into place with actually doing some real modding.