My method is much less formal than Jo's, though kind of similar. I don't assign motivation levels to sims but how I perceive their personality does affect what happens outside of their wants. If I feel a sim is concerned about appearances, or are the sort to do something necessary whether or not they actually want to do it, then they'll do it. So even if a sim doesn't roll a teaching want they might still end up doing it. But I have had it happen that a toddler wanted to learn and their parents didn't care to teach them. If the parent does have a teaching want, then it doesn't matter if the toddler wants to learn. They'll get taught regardless, though I do try to match up the wants so both parent and child get the aspiration points for it.

But that doesn't happen under normal circumstances, unless the player already had directed them to perform romantic interactions in the past.

On the computer.

Ok, in all seriousness, I playthe only neighbourhood I’ve ever stuck with, Hope's Peak, in a rotational style, 1 season per rotations. I mostly play wants based, though I am a bit too nice with my Sims needs lol. I don’t like seeing them even half empty. I fulfil any wants my Sims can actually fulfil (which in the case of, for instance, buying something is that they have enough money to blow and still stay financially stable, and a place to put it in the house). Outside of that, I mostly either work on skilling for college/careers, or let my Sims do their own thing. I also play based off fears, so if, for instance, a sim was fearing rejection I’d see that as them wanting to do something romantic, but more terrified to do so and get rejected than excited to do it if it succeeds. I also look at their thought bubbles. Alicia was thinking a lot about adopting, presumably reminiscing about her daughter Vivian who just went off to college. I interpreted this as a case of empty nest syndrome, but since Alicia and her wife are only in their mid 40s I decided they wanted to adopt another child, even though it wasn’t technically in their wants. Conversely, after Alicia got fired, she wasn’t rolling up any wants to work and seemed to think very negatively of it, so I decided that meant she wanted to be a stay at home mother.

I don’t cheat, but I do use aspiration/career rewards. It’s how I keep lifespan in check- it’d be ridiculous for Alicia and Vinni to become elders before Vivian leaves college, so I use the elixir of life. Of course, this relies on aspiration points, which means happier Sims stay healthy and younger-looking for longer, which is pretty realistic I feel.

It certainly does, I played the vanilla game long enough to know that. I would say that the flirting would normally come from a single sim (although I cannot bet on it) - and it can, of course, cause a huge mess

Nope, that's not true. In a vanilla game, the only thing that will stop attracted Sims from flirting with each other is relationship flags. In-laws and step-siblings and step-children and such don't get flags (unless you have an extended-family mod or you manually add flags yourself), so they're fair game as far as the game is concerned.

I once had a Sim who had triple bolts with her wife's sister (and no bolts with her wife ). She met sis-in-law at a family get-together after she and her wife were married. Both were bisexual Romance Sims, and they flirted up a storm from the get-go. Eventually the spouse caught them smooching, and pitched a fit, of course, and that was pretty much the end of that marriage. And it wasn't ACR interactions that were making them do it, either, just the plain old Maxis ones because this was before I figured out that ACR can't control the Maxis interactions and then subsequently made them all non-autonomous. If there's enough attraction and no relationship flags, any two Sims can go at it with just Maxis romantic interactions, all the way up to making out as their relationship levels progress. They won't always do so, but they can, especially if they're Romance, and you can't really control it other than by noticing and canceling actions. (Ironically, you CAN fully control it with ACR, if you make all Maxis romantic interactions non-autonomous and you set friend zoning and/or things like autonomy and cheating caps appropriately. This is part of the reason why I won't play without ACR, because among many other things it allows me to curb such interactions if/when I don't want them.)

I'll toss in my two cents on this one as well. It can't happen if your Sim does not have a gender preference and in a vanilla game that is only assigned once a romantic action has taken place with them. Just like anything else though it spreads via sims interactions and soon your whole hood will have gender preferences assigned. Then it's really just up to the sim and they will flirt and have interactions with anyone they choose outside of family relationships. It can cause all sorts of problems, especially coupled with Maxis's insane jealousy rules.

I randomize gender preferences in a new hood using Simblender for this reason because I want diversity. If you start a hood and don't assign gender preference then your hood will end up being whatever you play most. If you play primarily heterosexual sims eventually that will be what your whole hood is and vice versa. All it takes is the "check sim out" interaction btw to trigger a non-assigned sim into either gender preference. I've never had a bi-sim happen naturally I've had to either assign it or put in the work to make it happen.

I once turned almost my entire male sim population gay in an old hood, completely unintentionally, by using a modded item (from Chris Hatch) without really understanding how gender preference worked in the game. Really made me do my homework on it.

I like this idea! I'm gonna start paying more attention to my sims' thoughts and conversations and see what else can be added to their story outside of their wants. (I can only buy so many kitchen appliances for my Fortune sims before I get bored lol)

Even though 4 and 3 have better tools, I find that building in TS2 is much more easier and more fun for me. The tools in TS2 are more straight-forward and simplistic and there are plenty enough options to cater to a variety of architecture styles (more so with cc). Building in TS3 feels like a chore to me because it takes so long, almost three times as long to do the same build as it does in TS2. I could never get the hang of TS4 build tools even though I've had that game since its release.

See, I don't like that.

Yep, this is all true. I use ACR to assign all Sims in a neighborhood a preference, once I get the game to generate all the ones I want. (I play with an empty Pleasantview template installed plus all the stealth hoods disabled unless I want the BV ones active to create a vacation hood, so that all my neighborhoods start completely empty.) I set them all with the "high" option so that their orientation isn't likely to change. ACR's high setting sets the various attraction numbers at +/- 500, so the ones you set as bi, for example, have a +500 attraction to both sexes, and it would be extremely difficult to budge that much.

And yeah, Maxis jealousy is...ridiculous. It'll make a Sim flip out if someone they have a CRUSH on interacts romantically with someone else, and that's flipping ridiculous. With ACR there are other levels, from no jealousy at all, to the same settings as Maxis, to only triggering jealousy when the Sims are in love or only if they're married. All sorts of options. And it can be set individually (so you can have some Sims who are way more jealous than others) or at global levels for the neighborhood, so it's very flexible. So...yeah.



I've never played TS4, so obviously I've never built in it, but I have to say that I don't really like building in TS3. The slider for roof pitch is a terrible idea because it's really hard to get roof pieces to match up properly. So unless you're building a really simple, one-piece roof, it's way more of a pain in the butt than TS2, especially if you use the individualroofslope angle "cheat" that TS2 has, which is very flexible, much more flexible than TS3. And I know that everyone raves about the CASt thing...but I've come to the conclusion that I just really don't like it. Because unless you've saved a ton of presets for the stuff you regularly use or if you just use the Maxis presets, it's really a pain in the butt to have to set color/pattern for every single thing you place in the building, especially if CASt is laggy like it is on my machine. It makes it take much longer than it needs to take. So, I much prefer TS2's recolor system. In fact, pretty much the ONLY thing I like better in TS3 in terms of its build tools is the fact that the terrain paints have square brushes in addition to round ones. That's nice when you want to paint an area with straight edges, so that you don't have to mask off areas with floor tiles like I do when terrain-painting in TS2. I suppose basements are easier in TS3, too, but I don't often build houses with basements, so that's kind of neither here nor there, for me. I do like the CASt/color wheel thing for CAS, though, especially for hair color, but I really don't like it for building. At all.

It has never happened to me ever. And I have free will turned on. The only time Sims flirt with each other in my game, ever, is if they have a romantic relationship or have had one in the past. Sims who were in love as teenagers do sometimes flirt with each other without me telling them once they have become adults. Former or current lovers kiss a Sim right in front of his wife, but I've literally never, in all my years of playing Sims, had anybody just choose their own romantic partners. Even Romance Sims that already had 5 lovers never touched anybody else unless I told them.
They display attraction, yes, but they never autonomously flirt or kiss or anything.

So what's going on in my game?

I...have no idea. That's really weird. I think you said you use Romance Mod? I've never used it. Does it have settings? Perhaps the settings need to be messed with? Unless of course you're happy with how your game works, in which case if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I do have the Romance Mod...but I just looked it up and it says that should only cause (non-Rmance) Sims to reject romantic interactions if they are in a relationship and removes any jealousy from Romance Sims (I love making Romance Sims couples that invite their friends over for orgy fun) in the description it says nothing about stopping Sims from autonomous romance. And no, it doesn't have any settings. So if anything I should just see Sims rejecting any autonomous flirt attempts (doesn't happen either, even with Sims who have 3 bolts)
Though mind you that Pescado's mods sometimes have "undocumented" features. So I guess it's possible that it's the cause. Huh. You never stop learning.

And yeah I'm happy with that. I mean the fact that I don't want my Sims to choose their own romantic partners is the reason I don't have ACR

I suppose it might also be possible that Romance Mod is conflicting with something else you have and as a result the Maxis romantic autonomy is getting messed up. I don't know. But, yeah, if you're happy with the way it is, then it's all good, no matter what's going on!

I guess it depends on what "normal" is. In my game, they definitely spontaneously, autonomously flirt and pursue relationships quite a bit. Dora Ottomas even struck up a relationship with the butler in my game. I think my use of no-jealousy-at-all may help to facilitate that, but not sure.



Yep, exactly, I am all about autonomy/free will. It's the surprises that are fun for me, and the things they can do autonomously that make them feel real, like I'm discovering this world of little people in the midst of their lives. I love finding hidden things in that world and building on them to make elaborate stories, but I never create the story ahead of time and make only that happen, just an occasional nudge or creating a certain mod or lot or whatever to help things along. Honestly, for me, making sims go to the bathroom and make dinner constantly is about the most boring thing I can imagine, but I know others feel the same about letting them do whatever and just "watching."

I agree about CASt. To me it's a great idea in theory but its implementation is bad. Sometimes when I build in TS3 I get lost at the amount of possibilities that I spend 3 hours recolouring a wooden floor, where as in TS2 I'd be like "yeah that's an almost-match, I'll go with that". And the bad lighting in TS3 makes it hard also to get good colour matches. I've had two objects recoloured with the same style before yet one of them appeared darker.

Basements are easier, but I never liked the blackout they do. The thing I always liked about TS2 'basements' is that when they're built they are actually under the house and you could see the terrain and foundation around.

Really the only thing I like about TS3's build tools are the platforms. I like how they're smaller/flatter and not clones of the foundation that can be placed on a foundation like TS2. I can see how the taller platforms are good for L-shaped stairs in TS2, but I wish I also had TS3's platforms too. Variety is the spice of life and all that.

And you never told her to flirt or "check out" the Butler (or had her scope the room with the Butler present) before she started to romance him?

I mean as ICad and I speculate above, it could be from the Romance Mod (because I don't have anything else that modifies autonomous behaviour, except the "noswarmbaby" mod) but I always thought it was vanilla behaviour.

i always play in the University. And then when my sim finish his study, work, love, and die with fire. Tragic... i know XDD insane jajajaja

Yeah, TS3's lighting leaves a lot to be desired...though in fairness so does TS2's! I've got both modded so that they're mostly acceptable to me now. There's still some weirdness, though. Like, strange shadows (I think it is, since it happens when shadows are turned on) on porch pieces such that, for instance, a column will be nice and white, the fence is much grayer. It happens in both games. I wish I knew what causes it and whether or not it's fixable. I'm guessing it has to do with the roof shadows getting confused with the lack of wall underneath the front edge of the roof, but...I don't know. It's ugly, but I suppose I've learned to with it.



Yeah, the TS3 tool is easier than the messing around you have to do in TS2 to build a basement, but I'm not really in love with the results you get. Plus, I often have trouble getting stairs to place, especially through a foundation. But, in fairness, I haven't tried all that hard to figure it out, either. I seem to prefer just playing in TS3 rather than building, so in TS3 I just choose a fully-built but unpopulated world to play and the go from there. Whereas in TS2 if I can't build from the ground up to my own specifications, I'm pretty damn unhappy.



Oh! Yeah, the platforms are nice, too, though yes, I do miss the "stage" foundations that TS2 has for making quickie L-shaped stairs without having to screw around with building cheats. But the platforms are definitely nice for making slightly raised patios. You can do that in TS2, but only if you use an outside program, namely the Grid Adjuster.



Nope, vanilla behavior is that Sims may flirt, etc. with anyone they're attracted to so long as you've had them "Scope room" somewhere at least once. I usually have them scope for the first time about a quarter of the way through teenhood (roughly the equivalent of 14 or 15 years old) since I think that's a pretty good time for them to start to date and stuff like that. I think this is especially so once the whole "chemistry" system is in place (which I assume is carried forward from Nightlife even if you don't have Nightlife? I'm not sure, though) because that's sort of designed to push the whole romance thing. In fact, I think the "scope room" might only be necessary for playables because I think townies will build romantic relationships on their own, and they've obviously never been commanded to scope a room. But that might be ACR that does that, I'm not sure. I don't really remember what things were like before I had ACR because that was waaaaaay long ago.

I'm guessing your townies don't interact on their own, either? I'm really puzzled. Maybe this doesn't bother you, but it's gonna bother me!

Okay THIS might be the reason! I never use the "Scope Room" interaction! I always have them "check out" individual Sims!

And as for Townies, I don't really use them, at all (I rather have my Sims interact with other playables). So, I don't know about them.

Yes, that probably has a lot to do with it! Although I think that if another Sim interacts romantically with one who hasn't yet done any scoping, that might "activate" them. Or it might not. I'm not entirely sure. It's been a long time since romance in my game has been "Maxis vanilla." But yeah, I'm thinking that since Nightlife, Sims need to do that scoping thing to kick them into gear. So, if you avoid that, then your game ought to keep doing what it's doing, I would think. They won't "scope room" autonomously, so it is something within your control.

And the funniest thing is I'm not even avoiding the "Scope Room" consciously or anything, I just never use it because I always forget it exists. When I send a Sim to look for a partner and there are 5 Sims of the gender the Sim is attracted to on a lot, I literally have my Sim walk up to each of them and "check them out" until I have a match.

Without this conversation, if I had ever made a Sim "Scope Room" and my Sims had suddenly started to flirt on their own, I would have probably thought I had neighbourhood corruption or some sort of mod conflict

No, I hadn't even thought about it till the little hearts appeared. I didn't know about scope the room then, and I don't use ACR. The butler may have initiated it, originally, but I don't remember that happening if it did. There were five infants in that house so we were all a bit busy and it just happened. I did help them get married, of course. They didn't do all that on their own.

I also have another Dora, the Oldies, and a CAS elder gentlemen living together and they all romance each other quite freely (only the two gentlemen don't seem interested in each other). I'm pretty sure that's the no-jealousy-at-all mod getting jealousy out of their way and their interests just take over.

Well, at least this is most of the mystery solved. So now you'll just have to remember to keep forgetting that Scope Room exists.



I'm going to guess this is because the bin families are already "activated," romantically, since they have pre-set relationships with each other and such. Well, the of-age members of the bin families are activated, anyway. I mean, I've played Sharla Ottomas as playable and I don't think she did romantic interactions until I "activated" her

And no, even with ACR Sims won't get married on their own. There is an auto-engagement option in ACR, but last I heard TJ never got it or auto-breakup to work, so I just leave those two globally disabled.

Oooo, good thought. Quite possible. I play almost exclusively with premades, too, so if it's something like this, I would never know the difference.