Sim Romance and Changes

[AjaAja]

Hi everyone, I saw this excellent guide to sim romance here; while, this answered a lot of my curiosities and questions. There are still questions I have regarding if you change things with sims' personalities?

If you change a sim's sign, will it's compatibility change?
If it does, does it matter whether the personality points match that sign? (you can just change the sign with Insim for example)
Same with aspiration; if they change aspiration will the compatibility change?

*what I mean by "change" is... well, if you look at the compatibility chart, different signs are more attracted or not attracted to other signs; so for example Libra doesn't like Pisces and Sagittarius does, so if I change the sim's sign from Libra to Sagittarius, will it like Pisces or still not like Pisces.

[lewisb40]

I have changed quite a few of my sims personalities and their changes does reflex the compatibility with other other sims. What I mean, I made the sims signs and personalities match up with someone I wanted them to be with. The only thing is the offspring will inherit the old personalities of changed sims. To combat that, I get the parents to encourage them more to my liking. Sometimes, I will leave it, because I do want more diversity in my sims personalities and the neighborhood.

[BeosBoxBoy]

AjaAja, lewisb is right about the personality genetics remaining static - but there are subtle differences between the ways we can make these changes.  If you use SimPE to affect the change in Zodiac sign, the genetics and personality will remain static; but if you use another tool, the results may be different and follow the basic game scheme.  So - the attraction based on Zodiac sign will reflect the sign compatibility information, but the DNA may not sync depending on how you affect the change.

After Nightlife, there is a new layer of complexity to attraction and romantic compatibility based on "likes/dislikes" as well as a subtle but pronounced bias between aspirations.

All three of these factors will have direct influence on how Sims develop relationships without the intervention of humans, but once we add the intervention of humans (that is, we tell a Sim to do something) any or all of these influences can become over-ridden by human control.

I have seen strange things happen in the game without any mods, things that run against the common understanding of how all this works, so these rules are not fool-proof.  I think that the game uses different artificial intelligence engines depending on which EPs you have (naturally) - but I think it may also use different routines depending on whether the two Sims are on a community lot, a university lot, a residential lot, an "owned" business lot, as well as factors like if one Sim is an "employee" and the other is a "boss".

Obviously some Sims have personality traits that arise from factors we only barely understand.  there are hidden personality scores that may or may not have any impact on the relationships the Sims form, even the most expert modders don't know what these hidden things do with certainty.

My own hobbyhorse in this category is the "fitness preference" after 6 months of dabbling with it, I don't feel qualified to state that it has an impact on the relationships that I can reduce to a quantitative or qualitative statement.  I have seen it change things, but it seems an imperfect mechanism.

One great hurdle to our understanding is the basic buggy nature of the game; in this one way, it is probably a happy circumstance that the game is so buggy, it allows the chaotic nature of relationship formation to enter into the game... maybe the single area you can be happy for the bugs :lol:

[Sam the T-man]

I've noticed aspiration plays a big part, as well as zodiac sign. You can actually alter a sim's personality with Insim, then use TJ's college adjuster to make that hereditary. I have also noticed personality points have a little to do with it - a couple started out at three bolts, then when one became a werewolf (before any personality preserving mods came out), as he changed the chemistry between them dropped to two. Changing your Libra to Sagittarius will most likely mean that sim will like Pisces, but it depends on the aspirations and turn-ons/offs as well.

[JudeMG]

I hope you don't mind if I chime in here: I'm so interested in this whole process because I've only had Nightlife for about two months and have seen some interesting interactions in the romance department since installing it.

For example, I've had several instances where one sim seems obsessed with another, with hearts madly floating all around everytime she's near him, and her constantly following him around seeking interactions...despite the fact that he's gay and in their relationship panels there are no "sparks" between them whatsoever.

And my very favorite sim, who was one of the first born in the game for me, was quite the horndog in college and never seemed to settle for any one female until I accidentally apparently created his ideal dreamgirl after he graduated.

I've never seen a faster interval from "meet" to "want to get engaged" (on both sides, actually) in all the time I've been playing. Their three lightning bolts have never changed as they have for some of my other coupled sims, and eight children later, and another on the way (I have the casual romance hack installed and they can't stay off each other, it seems), they're still fluttering their hearts like crazy and still filling each others' want boxes to the exclusion of everything else.

It kind of makes me laugh, and yet I find it fascinating as well. Why are they so crazy about each other? He's never even thought about any of his past females (and there were a LOT of them he was "in love" with!) since he met her.  

So I find your comments really interesting, beosboxboy, especially about the buggy nature of the game and how it affects those interactions. All I know is that I haven't been able to reproduce that kind of pairing in the game even when I've tried by looking at signs and aspiration compatibility and such. So maybe it is just the bugs after all?

[lewisb40]

I know what you mean ^^ Although, I have had some couples break up (only 2 lightening bolts) when they meet the one with more chemistry.