This may seem like a question that should be solvable with the FAQs but I only saw oblique references to this. In Sims 2, given a sufficient relationship, a sims can propose to another to move in (either romantically or not), to become significant others (I can't remember the right word), engaged, to marry, and some other things I'm not thinking of. I have never seen anything for my young adult Sims 3 sims. Nada. Except "become roommates" which I learned very quickly is a trap and a very bad idea. It is the opposite of advancing a relationship!

Currently I have a young adult sim in University who has a "love interest." The relationship bar is completely filled, and when they have a conversation he always finds her "alluring" or "irresistible" (ugh, how I hate the language of the conversation observations!) She never has any option to propose anything to him but woohoo and roommates (they woohoo a lot, spontaneously). I want her to go steady (or rather the adult version of that), get engaged with, or move in with this fellow. This term he's not even in the same dorm (probably due to an error on my part), so I can't even assign him to the same room (I'm not falling for the "roommates" trap again!). How will they ever advance their relationship?

This game has so many extraneous "challenges" that I wish I could just turn off (like the social group and celebtrity nonsense and the ridiculous teenaged mood swings and "rebellious urges" that I have to keep nipping in the bud), but building normal relationships seems to be utterly backburnered. (end complaint)

tl/dr: actual question: what is the relationship of steady girlfriends/boyfriends for young adfults-elders called, and how do I get it to happen, and where in the menu are the choices for it hidden?

When I had my Sims in University, I mostly concentrated on their studies with a sprinkling of parties, a romantic interest or two and hanging out with friends (*yawn*). I wonder if you're having difficulty moving the relationship further because you're in the University town? When your Sim returns home, see if they can invite the other Sim to visit them in the home world. There may be additional romantic options at home that aren't available in Uni.

From Romantic Interests, the progression is Steady (BF/GF), Engaged, Married Couple. To get from the friendly ones to RI, the interaction is "Confess Attraction." For RI to Steady, the elusive interaction is "Ask to Go Steady." But that can't/shouldn't happen if either sim already has a steady or higher in the world in which you are currently playing. Could this be a possibility with the inactive in question?
http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/r...ips/romance.php

I've never had any problems progressing romance in Uni World. But it's also the case that some sims for trait, attraction, and who knows what else related reasons are a bit more resistant to move forward in certain couplings or as quickly than others.

The NRaas Woohooer mod with its debugging function can sometimes help explain what's going wrong there as well. But of course adding that in changes other things about gameplay that you might not have wanted.
http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Woohooer+FAQ

I have woohooer in but I've been unable to figure out how to bring any of it to bear on my active sims. I'll check out the debugging function: I hadn't thought of that. Accordung to the infomation panel that pops up about the fellow, he doesn't have a partner, and he gets the "romantic interest" label with my sim. Also if she calls and invites him over, they are unaccountably on a date? Which seems odd because she didn't call him for a date.

So are you telling me that the game will not present the options for romantic advancement if one of the sims is already entangled? That's somewhat prudish. But it could maybe me my problem then. My sim had a high school boyfriend who she did break up with because he was boring and she had met this other fellow. Maybe the game hasn't absorbed this information yet, though my sims is listed with no partner.

Thank you for the information and the links, izagor.

edit: well, following the links to Carl's guide I see it is a common problem. Oh well, she's close to graduation, maybe something will happen then.

I suppose that could indeed be construed as prudish, but the technical reason is that the game can only accommodate one entry in the behind the scenes "partner" field for each sim. A partner is considered to be a steady or higher. If sims were to have multiple partners within the same world (such as can happen by glitch with the high school prom scenario and I think the photo booths), then strange and unexpected things can happen.

Not that strange and unexpected things ever happen in this game anyway.

But they are free to pursue and have as many RIs as they like. One of my sims has over 30. But the cheating conniving dirtbag manipulating scum (whatever the other official reputation designations are) is just so loveable...

A standard group-up situation where the only sims involved are two RIs or higher tends to get converted into a "date" automatically. Sometimes that's actually helpful. But if you were intending to meet your amorous friend at the laundromat to keep yours company while washing clothes or something like that, it's kind of silly. Unless you are into that kind of thing. The NRaas GoHere mod has a setting that can prevent that from happening.

Thank you again, Igazor. So moving onwards, the problem seemed to be solved and then re-appeared in a new form.

After my sim graduated from University and returned to her home, she was able to chat long distance with her love interest. She had the option to invite foreign visitors, and he agreed to come, but didn't: I decided to try it again, and now he was no longer a long-distance friend and he wasn't available as a foreign visitor, but he was available on all the regular phone menus. Also, now he was listen as her partner on the panel.

So she invited him over and the items under the "romantic" menu were all gone except "take romantic photo together." They are both family-oriented, so they did have the option to "try for baby" under that menu,but repeated attempts resulted in them just looking at each other and idling.

They continued to play music together and chat and enjoy each other's company. They continued to be listed as Romantic Interest and Partner but could not do anything. I got impatient and used Nraas Master Controller to move him in.

Now there are no olptions to woohoo or try for baby. No options to flirt, to kiss, or compliment. Now that he's a part of the household, I can see things from his point of view and he also lists her as Romantic Interest and Partner, but except for that I would think the game is treating them as siblings, not lovers. I sent them to bed to relax, sims-2 style, and their options once there were all pleasant conversation, not a single affectionate one.

At this point I wondered if maybe they just weren't very sexy sims, so I went into Master Controller again and gave them each a trait that I thought might increase their options: I gave her Irresistible and him Flirty and nothing whatever changed.

Using Story Progression, I had set the option for same sex pregnancy. I don't think I knocked out the options for normal pregnancy, but that will be the next thing I check: but still, that shouldn't have knocked out all the affectionate and romantic options too, should it? And anyway I made that change after I moved him in.

(I am not thinking of this as a problem related to Nraas, which is why I'm continuing to poist here instead of there: I'm only mentioning the Nraas things I did because they might be relevant).

edit: well, that was entertaining. I don't know how, but when I went into Story Progression to check up and fix things, I saw that all romantic interations and also find job were disallowed for young adults. I know for sure I didn't touch the find job option and I didn't intend to disallow anything, but the simplest explanation is that I clicked something I didn't intend to. Which means I was wrong before when I thought the problem didn't arise in Nraas.

Changing the settings helped with the romantic interactions issue, but now the silly fellow can't go to work. If I try to send him, it's never the right time, no matter what it says on his career panel. As soon as his shift is supposed to start the message changes to "...starts in 1 day." So I made him quit his jobn and set him up to garden and fish, while his sweetie continues to advance in her career. Very modern sims! Or at least resilient.

When you bring a foreign sim into your world with a MC command, it can sometimes be the case that they are still considered a resident elsewhere by some fields that govern work and school activities. If you have NRaas DebugEnabler or are willing to install it, try running Fix Homeworld to take care of the can't go to work issue. That is, if you want to put him back into the workforce or just check to see if it can be done.

On the sim, NRaas > DE > Options: Sim (or Smartphone) > Sim > Fix Homeworld

Moved to the regular Discussion Forum, since Help is for actual game issues.

I'm sorry, I thought it was a game issue.

Well, I guess an "issue" would be where something appears to be malfunctioning or not set up correctly. In this case, it's more a matter of play style. Certainly the distinction isn't always obvious, especially where relationships are involved.