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relationship system and living together
Ellessarr
Posts: 2,795 Member
hello here some more ideas for the game:
first about relationship:
as i already talked with the simgurueugi, the currently relationship system is a little "mess" and somehow "too easy" to have relationship, as i see and watch and read comments in youtube and others forums, the relationship on this game is too "cheap" (lot of youtubers comment on it), then for what i noticed the game normally dont take too much in care the sims traits when comes to evolve relationship, only gains: some traits increase your gain but none other effect, for this i have that idea:
first increase the amount of friendship/romance bar meet needed to reach the max, instead of the current -100 to 100 friendship/romance, things going to
-200 to 200 friendship and - 400 to 200 romance
all the sims have as basic value 0 to start a relationship, this value will change based on traits, current mood aspirations, career home, and if alone or have family
traits:
positive traits like Cheerful, Goofball, Bro can increase your initial bar, some neutral like traits, like family-lover, romantic or Perfectionist can or increase or decrease the initial bar, their will work in combination with thers traits, like a romantic+good can give a better initial romance bar, while a romantic+Noncommittal can give a bad initial bar, negative traits, like Noncommittal, like evil or mean, can reduce the initial bar
relationship, if the target sim have a lover or childrens, sims without family or lover are much more easy to romance or friendship while sims with childrens and a lover can be more hard for romance
moods
that part actually is working in game, if the sim is in angry mood then when you open a bar that bar can come negative if him is im a positive can come in positive
aspirations - aspirations like soulmate, or serial romantic can help or make more dificult while aspirations like public enemie only difficult
how this will work
let's go to romance
exemple:
we are playing don lothario and we want to conquest mary(a autonomous sim)
exemple A
mary is single dont have family(a single autonomous), no house is on happy mood and have these traits: romantic, family-lover and Perfectionist, soulmate aspiration
when we aproach her and start to talk her initial bar will be : 0(base)+ 10 romantic + 10 family lover + 10 Perfectionist, 10 being happy, +10 soulmate ,then her initial bar will be 50 then when we salute her our greetins can give another little bonus of +10 then her initial bar will be 60 after the greetings then we start to speak with her, then we rise a little more the romance to 80 to start to flirt, since she is single and dont have family or house and have a good positive combination of traits her initial romance bar will be also 50(positive)
since mary is a good sim, family lover and Perfectionist and is looking for her soulmate, she will be more open to romance to don lothario, this will make much more easy for him to conquest her and even ask her to move to his house.
exemple B:
mary is married with paul and have 2 childrens, a teen and a kid, her friendship and romance bar are at max, 200 each, paul is her soulmate and best friend, she still have good, family-lover and Perfectionist traits and have a big house in value of 200000(this is only for Materialistic)
for friendship not gonna change too much, the only big change is the chance to "move to house"
since mary have a family all the traits instead of increase the initial bar for don lothario they will decrease, because since she love her family and is a Perfectionist she not will want to cheat, then when don lothario try to open the romance bar the initial romance bar will be - 10 romance, -10 family-lover, -10 Perfectionist, -10 soulmate, + 10 happy, -30 to be married, -20 for 2 childs, -400 for her relationship bar with paul = -480, then don lothario will start with a -400(negative bar) in his try to conquest this woman, she will be much, much more hard for him but not impossible, and he need to carefull choose his actions with her or can become worse,.
now about living together, the current system have a big fail which easy allow move any sim to any house(without cheat), i was looking some the sims 4 videos then i see a youtuber, just to show "how easy and stupid the things are" he just create a sim, choose a place to start, then after his sim appear in the world he used the phone to choose "move" and moved to the goth family, that was pretty stupid and easy, he dont needed do anything the game allow us to move to any house(rich house) we gonna play with that family too but, this can make the game too stupid and what the sort of family happy accept so easy a total strange to live with then like that O.o??? what the means of create a house if i can just "move to any house who aleady have a family even if i dont have money to live on that house, by having peoples on her is enough to make me live, another thing who is worst, you can use that "trick" to "steal houses" from others sims, you can get you homeless sim, mix in let's say goth family then after that move out the goth family, you can gain a big house for free in the begins, the game prevent you to have a expensive house at the beginner if her is empty but if have peoples you can go to her without cheats, too stupid it
another thing you can do when talking to a sim to "move" if that sim have a house and others peoples living on her, in the mix family screen you can again "steal a better house" moving all the peoples from that house to your old house and move your sim to the new house, you dont even need to have the sim who you asked to live, to move with you, again a very horrible system.
first i believe which is missing a "chance of say no" based again on traits, family, aspirations and others things before a sim can accept live with you and the option to live must be split in 2 one to ask the sim to live in yout house and another to ask to live on that sim house, the second option is more hard and dont allow you (at last at first, you can this later) to take aways the old living peoples so "cheap".
the the moving system will work a little more hard in order to make someone live with you, you need to buil at last 80 or 160 (if cap 200) of relationship(friendship+romance in any way, like 80 only friendship or 50 friendship and 30 romance(you must have at last 40 friendship to try it)then this not will be atuomatic, when you ask the sim to move, the game will make a check again, based on the sim trait, relationship, career, aspirations, moods
exemple
jhon ask jane to live with him(move to his house)
jane living alone in her house(15000 cost), she have materialist, romantic and cheerfull traits
jhon house cost 20000
when you ask the game make a check
since jane is materialist the game check both house costs and since jhon house is better this give to jhon a +10 bonus in the chance of , since jane is alone and have romantic(is looking for romance) and cheerfull that traits give more 20 and let's say she is on flirt mood this give more 20
then his chance is 80(base)+ 10 from materialist + 20 from romantic and cheerfull + 20 from flirt= giving a total of 130 sucess chance then the game make a roll based on let's say 200 if and take 120, since 120 is lessa than 130 jane accept move to live with jhon.
another problem is "have babies" this is what make me feel even worst, how so cheap are the womans on this game to "have babies" what the heck a woman can accept in the first meet, a guy come and say let's make some babies, O.o, ok let's say who some womans can do that, but not the whole world, not all the womans in the world, again after watch some videos of youtubers also like me complain over it, this make me very sad, then i believe who make babies must be not so cheap, is not because the whoo hoo option pop up who also the have babies comes, we are assuming who the sims are at last smart in make safe woohooo and can opt in have or no babies, in order to make babies like the whole system must be a little more hard the woman must be more "self respect" at last the ones with traits for it, like the living with option i believe who the game must have a chance of the woman say no or even get angry over it, again all based on traits, relationship and bla bla bla, a woman married with a perfect family even if cheat not will so easy accept have babies, must have a "chance of happen" based on the things not just "being a pusher".
i see even a guy commented who in one day he pregnanted like 5 womans O.o, he told who most of the childrens in his previous world where almost his childrens, this show how "cheap" is to have that things.
this is why i thing a better relationship must be made where the autonomous sims can accept or no the things based on their personalities and not just because the player cheap make then enter in flirt mood and was a pusher in the romance(flooded her with pointless flirt, flirt ) the game need a system if the player start to "push" too much a sim can become really angry and the player loose all the gain and the sim can leave the place(and the player can prevent her to leave, at last not so many times, like he can try one, if the talk make her more angry or just dont help and she go away again then the player can't stop her again).
this is a game trying to mimic real life but many of that things really easy kill the "real life" side.
first about relationship:
as i already talked with the simgurueugi, the currently relationship system is a little "mess" and somehow "too easy" to have relationship, as i see and watch and read comments in youtube and others forums, the relationship on this game is too "cheap" (lot of youtubers comment on it), then for what i noticed the game normally dont take too much in care the sims traits when comes to evolve relationship, only gains: some traits increase your gain but none other effect, for this i have that idea:
first increase the amount of friendship/romance bar meet needed to reach the max, instead of the current -100 to 100 friendship/romance, things going to
-200 to 200 friendship and - 400 to 200 romance
all the sims have as basic value 0 to start a relationship, this value will change based on traits, current mood aspirations, career home, and if alone or have family
traits:
positive traits like Cheerful, Goofball, Bro can increase your initial bar, some neutral like traits, like family-lover, romantic or Perfectionist can or increase or decrease the initial bar, their will work in combination with thers traits, like a romantic+good can give a better initial romance bar, while a romantic+Noncommittal can give a bad initial bar, negative traits, like Noncommittal, like evil or mean, can reduce the initial bar
relationship, if the target sim have a lover or childrens, sims without family or lover are much more easy to romance or friendship while sims with childrens and a lover can be more hard for romance
moods
that part actually is working in game, if the sim is in angry mood then when you open a bar that bar can come negative if him is im a positive can come in positive
aspirations - aspirations like soulmate, or serial romantic can help or make more dificult while aspirations like public enemie only difficult
how this will work
let's go to romance
exemple:
we are playing don lothario and we want to conquest mary(a autonomous sim)
exemple A
mary is single dont have family(a single autonomous), no house is on happy mood and have these traits: romantic, family-lover and Perfectionist, soulmate aspiration
when we aproach her and start to talk her initial bar will be : 0(base)+ 10 romantic + 10 family lover + 10 Perfectionist, 10 being happy, +10 soulmate ,then her initial bar will be 50 then when we salute her our greetins can give another little bonus of +10 then her initial bar will be 60 after the greetings then we start to speak with her, then we rise a little more the romance to 80 to start to flirt, since she is single and dont have family or house and have a good positive combination of traits her initial romance bar will be also 50(positive)
since mary is a good sim, family lover and Perfectionist and is looking for her soulmate, she will be more open to romance to don lothario, this will make much more easy for him to conquest her and even ask her to move to his house.
exemple B:
mary is married with paul and have 2 childrens, a teen and a kid, her friendship and romance bar are at max, 200 each, paul is her soulmate and best friend, she still have good, family-lover and Perfectionist traits and have a big house in value of 200000(this is only for Materialistic)
for friendship not gonna change too much, the only big change is the chance to "move to house"
since mary have a family all the traits instead of increase the initial bar for don lothario they will decrease, because since she love her family and is a Perfectionist she not will want to cheat, then when don lothario try to open the romance bar the initial romance bar will be - 10 romance, -10 family-lover, -10 Perfectionist, -10 soulmate, + 10 happy, -30 to be married, -20 for 2 childs, -400 for her relationship bar with paul = -480, then don lothario will start with a -400(negative bar) in his try to conquest this woman, she will be much, much more hard for him but not impossible, and he need to carefull choose his actions with her or can become worse,.
now about living together, the current system have a big fail which easy allow move any sim to any house(without cheat), i was looking some the sims 4 videos then i see a youtuber, just to show "how easy and stupid the things are" he just create a sim, choose a place to start, then after his sim appear in the world he used the phone to choose "move" and moved to the goth family, that was pretty stupid and easy, he dont needed do anything the game allow us to move to any house(rich house) we gonna play with that family too but, this can make the game too stupid and what the sort of family happy accept so easy a total strange to live with then like that O.o??? what the means of create a house if i can just "move to any house who aleady have a family even if i dont have money to live on that house, by having peoples on her is enough to make me live, another thing who is worst, you can use that "trick" to "steal houses" from others sims, you can get you homeless sim, mix in let's say goth family then after that move out the goth family, you can gain a big house for free in the begins, the game prevent you to have a expensive house at the beginner if her is empty but if have peoples you can go to her without cheats, too stupid it
another thing you can do when talking to a sim to "move" if that sim have a house and others peoples living on her, in the mix family screen you can again "steal a better house" moving all the peoples from that house to your old house and move your sim to the new house, you dont even need to have the sim who you asked to live, to move with you, again a very horrible system.
first i believe which is missing a "chance of say no" based again on traits, family, aspirations and others things before a sim can accept live with you and the option to live must be split in 2 one to ask the sim to live in yout house and another to ask to live on that sim house, the second option is more hard and dont allow you (at last at first, you can this later) to take aways the old living peoples so "cheap".
the the moving system will work a little more hard in order to make someone live with you, you need to buil at last 80 or 160 (if cap 200) of relationship(friendship+romance in any way, like 80 only friendship or 50 friendship and 30 romance(you must have at last 40 friendship to try it)then this not will be atuomatic, when you ask the sim to move, the game will make a check again, based on the sim trait, relationship, career, aspirations, moods
exemple
jhon ask jane to live with him(move to his house)
jane living alone in her house(15000 cost), she have materialist, romantic and cheerfull traits
jhon house cost 20000
when you ask the game make a check
since jane is materialist the game check both house costs and since jhon house is better this give to jhon a +10 bonus in the chance of , since jane is alone and have romantic(is looking for romance) and cheerfull that traits give more 20 and let's say she is on flirt mood this give more 20
then his chance is 80(base)+ 10 from materialist + 20 from romantic and cheerfull + 20 from flirt= giving a total of 130 sucess chance then the game make a roll based on let's say 200 if and take 120, since 120 is lessa than 130 jane accept move to live with jhon.
another problem is "have babies" this is what make me feel even worst, how so cheap are the womans on this game to "have babies" what the heck a woman can accept in the first meet, a guy come and say let's make some babies, O.o, ok let's say who some womans can do that, but not the whole world, not all the womans in the world, again after watch some videos of youtubers also like me complain over it, this make me very sad, then i believe who make babies must be not so cheap, is not because the whoo hoo option pop up who also the have babies comes, we are assuming who the sims are at last smart in make safe woohooo and can opt in have or no babies, in order to make babies like the whole system must be a little more hard the woman must be more "self respect" at last the ones with traits for it, like the living with option i believe who the game must have a chance of the woman say no or even get angry over it, again all based on traits, relationship and bla bla bla, a woman married with a perfect family even if cheat not will so easy accept have babies, must have a "chance of happen" based on the things not just "being a pusher".
i see even a guy commented who in one day he pregnanted like 5 womans O.o, he told who most of the childrens in his previous world where almost his childrens, this show how "cheap" is to have that things.
this is why i thing a better relationship must be made where the autonomous sims can accept or no the things based on their personalities and not just because the player cheap make then enter in flirt mood and was a pusher in the romance(flooded her with pointless flirt, flirt ) the game need a system if the player start to "push" too much a sim can become really angry and the player loose all the gain and the sim can leave the place(and the player can prevent her to leave, at last not so many times, like he can try one, if the talk make her more angry or just dont help and she go away again then the player can't stop her again).
this is a game trying to mimic real life but many of that things really easy kill the "real life" side.
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Comments
basically i'm asking for "different sort of relationships in the beginner, instead of all the sims which you meet aways start with 0 in their friendly or romance bar their will start with different numbers based on their traits, current relationships, careers, moods or aspirations or compatibilities, have a home or being a homeless and making babies or living with being less "cheap"
exemple:
we are playing with jhon
jhon:
traits:
romantic
good
cheerfull
aspiration:soulmate
career:agent
he dont have a lover or childs
have a house of 100000
then with jhon we meet richard a autonomous in game npc
richard:
traits
evil
loner
Gloomy
aspiration:public enemie
career: criminal
dont have family or friends
richards is at a happy mood
richards is a homeless sim or tourist(is a not in world sim)
when we salute richard, instead of the friendship bar start with 0+ the salute bonus which is how game basically work his bar will start based on his traits, our compatibility, aspiration, career and relationship
I will use fictitious values just as a base to explain
evil reduce the bar in -10
loner reduce the bar in -30
gloomy in combination with evil and loner reduce the bar in -20
public enemie reduce the bar in -20
being true alone(no parents or family or friends) give a extra -10 in bar because of loner trait(the sim is being true to himself in want being forever alone)
richards being at a happy mood give to jhon a +10 bonus
being a homeless sim give a +10 to friendship, romance and chance to accept move to house
since richards have evil and jhon have good traits, richards have gloomy and jhon cheerfull this put a extra -30(20 from evil x good and 10 for gloomy x cheerfull) from oposite personalities
richards career is criminal this also give a -10 in relationship against others sims
jhon good trait give a +10 to jhon in initial bar as bonus
jhon romantic trait give a +10 in initial bar as bonus
jhon cheerfull trait give a +10 in initial bar as bonus
since jhon dont want a romantic relationship with richard and want only be friends, his aspiration dont give any bonus or penality
dont have family, parents or lover dont give any modifier to jhon if him had family or friends this could give to him a +10(from good)
jhon having a house and richards dont having a house give a +5 bonus on initial bar, for each 50000+ more in the cost of house beyound 100000 will give to him a +5 in initial friendship, romance or chance to accept living with him(150000 = 10; 200000=15, if richards also have a house then the bonus in chance of living together will be based difference in the cost of housing, if the jhon house cost more than the richards house so he gained an added bonus, the richards house is more expensive than jhon house so he received a penalty if Richard had materialistic trait this penalty or bonus would be even greater
them let's the mats:
-10 -30 -20 -20 -10 +10 +10 -30 -10 +10 +10 +10 +5 =-75 , with the salute bonus, let's say who is +5, their relationship will start at -70 after the greetins
now if jhon want be friend with richard he must beat a -70 bar
the same logic goes to romance if jhon wanted a romance with richards his initial bar will be a -70
exemple 2:
jhon and sophy
sophy:
traits:
romantic - dont already having a romance give a +10 in romance bar
family-lover - dont have childs or love give a +10 in romance bar, having parents, and a good relationship with then) give -10 for each
materialist - having a better house than jhon give a -10 modificator in romance and a -15 in chance to accept to live(jhon house is 100000 while sophy house is 150000: 100000 - 150000= -50000 which give a -5 penality in accept to live plus being a materialist)
aspiration:soulmate give a +10 to chance of romance since she dont have one yet, if she already had one soulmate this could ending turning in a -50(- 10 for each step of relationship:lovers > promised > grooms > married, and a -10 for her already having one(and only one) soulmate(if the woman have more then that bonus/penality is ignored)
career: none: this dont give any bonus or penality
have a 150000 house - read materialist
have parents(father and mother): read family-lover
she is on flirt mood - give a +10 chance
jhon want to have a romance with sophy, then jhon meet her and give the romantic greetins
then his romantic bar will begins at:
+10 for sophy romantic trait
-10 from have parents and family-lover
-10 from materialist and home
+10 from sophy soulmate aspiration
+10 from flirting mood
+10 from jhon and sophy shared trait (romantic)
+10 from jhon romantic trait
+10 from jhon good trait
+10 from jhon cheerfull tait
since john dont have any other romance no bonus or penality, if john already have a romance then this could give a "cheat penality" if jhon dont have Noncommittal trait
+10 - 10 -10 +10 +10 +10 +10 +10 +10 = +50, them jhon bar toward sophy will open at +50 then since his bar started positive and high the romantic greetings give him a +10 turning in a +60, this will be where john will start to build his romance with sophy.
now let's say who sophy already had a lover with max friendship and romance bar and is married with it
the new numbers will be:
+10 for sophy romantic trait
-10 from have parents and family-lover
-50 from having a soulmate
- 75 from her lover romantic and friendship bar(each 2 positive points in romance bar give a 1 negative point to the bar like: 20 positive romance give a -10 penality to cheat, and each 4 positive points in friendship give a 1negative point in romance like a 100 positive friendship give a -25 in romance bar)
- 30 from sophy type of friendship with her soulmate(friend, good friend and best friend)
-10 from materialist and home
+10 from sophy soulmate aspiration
+10 from flirting mood
+10 from jhon and sophy shared trait (romantic)
+10 from jhon romantic trait
+10 from jhon good trait
+10 from jhon cheerfull tait
them the formule will be:
+10 -10 -50 -75 -30 -10 +10 +10 +10 +10 +10 +10 = -105
them since her bar started at more than 10 negative(red) the romantic greetings will be count also as a negative one giving a -10 puting at -115, but since the cap is 100 them if john want to conquest sophy and make her cheat he must initially beat a -100 bar.
the same could be for living with option, instead of automatically accep, the asked sim will have a base chance of let's say 30% accept them based on the sims traits, career, aspiration, current relationships, compatibility that chance will rise or reduce, making the player need work more toward that goal:
let's say a sim with a max stable career with a rich house(much better than the player house) , with materialist, Perfectionist and loner could be near impossible to accept move from his house or living with anyone
and another thing making ask to live in your house and ask to living in the other sim house being separated, cuz currently this can be used as a "cheat" to cheap move to any house without need to even use any cheat(you can create a sim and move to goth house or godfrey house without need to have "money" for that house, or you can easy use that to steal house from others sims(you can use ask to living to move his sim to a house and remove all the others sim from that house) the system is really a mess.
then the same rule goes to "have babies" not "just have enough romance bar as to make woohoo", the woman can be more easy to accept or more hard to accept.
them after make the babies, if the player still not living with the woman the game will warn the player(like the taxs warn) about the woman being pregnant and wanting his support, if the player dont ask the woman to live with him, and ignore her(dont let her enter when she come to visit or ignore her cell calls) her romantic bar can go full red and the game warn every day until the baby is born who she is going to the laws, when the baby born if the player is playing with the father a option appear asking if the player want the woman and the baby to live with him if the player refuse then he will be "charged" to pay a insurance for the child(like real life), then for each week(7 days) he will pay xx for the children until she grow to a young adult, if the player invite the child to live with him, the insurance will be reduced to half(he still need pay the woman) until the child grow(ofcourse the player can use the "cake trick to avoid to pay the bills), this will influence the friendship bar between the parent and the child, if the father ignored the woman and she become angry and the player never visited the baby, when he turn in a child he have a chance of starting "hating the father"(negative bar) for never wanted to see him, when the baby become a child on each week the player get charged for the insurance also the game ask if the player want the child to move to his house(that could be interesting for drama, the father have to live with his child who currently hate him) if him accept them the child is automatically moved to his house, if the player dont accept he lose a good amount of friendship with his child, and that child have a great chance of automatically when age gain "negative traits", like hotheaded, evil, mean, snob, insany if being controlled by the player, if not them his traits when random choose have a big chance to be a negative one, generating "rebels childs". for a little drama for the player.
a final note to make more interesting and a little more challenge, rise the caps from friendship and romance bar
instead of both being -100 to 100 make:
friendship -200 to 200
romance -400 to 200
After 5 tries I made her drink a love potion from the store and she finally come around to him. I don't want the relationships to get any harder.
Tell me about it! In one day my Romantic sim got knocked back 3 times after suggesting a date to 3 different guys - including The Don! She spent more time under the bedclothes alone than doing the right thing!
-
Edit: Spelling again!
This is how I felt about MORTIMER! It might have been his Family-Oriented trait, but he got very upset every time my Sim tried to flirt with him. When I eventually gave up on having illegitimate Goth spawn, he showed up Flirty one day and put the moves on my Sim. Weird and annoying.
I like this! I think that this makes sense. It's like adding a certain amount of compatibility to Sims based on traits. If you remember, in Sims 3, they used to meet and learn a trait and have a slight increase or decrease to their relationship, depending on if they share traits or have conflicting traits. This could be brought back in a less obvious way, where they are more like to just "get along" with each other if they have things in common, like career paths, skills, relationships with certain Sims, or traits.
Maybe there is even a qualifier for being on a certain lot. For instance, let's say a single Flirty Sim goes to a nightclub and meets another single Flirty Sim. It would be cool if they have a greater likelihood of building a fast Romance than if they'd met at a Museum. Similarly, two Creative Sims meeting at the museum might have that same bonus.
I'd also like to see a friends with benefits possibility. For that matter, a sim should be able to date and have romantic relationships with several different sims unless they've committed (dating exclusively, going steady whatever you want to call it).
It would be cool if soul mates had an actual (random or if you want player's choice) soul mate. Just one, not the ability to be the soul mate of every single sim they meet so long as they get relationships up high enough. Make it so they can still achive their aspiration even if their soul mate is with someone else and won't leave them. (Bittersweet). Also it should be possible that soul mates are not mutual.
There could be a hidden trait of jealousy. Some people become jealous much quicker and sometimes over little things. Others go with the flow.
you tried for yourself or you just watched he trying autonomous, because for me i can easy get bella goth and almost every homeless sim, a good exemple in my current game, i already make at last 4 couples really easy i dont make then marry in the same day cuz i dont like, but as soon i started to try, i just needed then goes to "flirt mood" throw some "flit action, like rise romance bar to 40 or 50 and then kiss then wohoo i dont did babys cuz i'm not too much in so to cheap relationship, but none of my romantic trys was really "hard", the only times i see hard, is if the target sim, is on negative moods, like anger, sad or bored, then i just needed to put then on "flirt mood" that is the key, as soon you put a sim in flirt all we be just a joke, at last for me.
and like i told i see a lot of youtubers videos and all of the showed how prety cheap is to have romance. that is exactly what i'm trying to acomplish with that idea, all will be based on the "sim personality" based on all the things you can get "easy" and hard sims" not all the sims equals in the beginner, my idea is about when you know a new sim, your relationship with him could be hard or easy, you can get pretty easy womans to cheat as you can find pretty hard womans( or guys whatever you want), not how the current game is, which is more based on the current sim mood and again my bigger complain is more about the "make babies part" which currently is pretty cheap.
yep i even added something for this, based on if you sim share traits with the target sim this can give you a bonus, that system is to make more "different begins", when you meet a sim you can have a 0 bar have a negative or a positive, like in real life you can meet more easy, more hard and more "common" type of peoples to make friendship and love
Don't we already have a friends with benefits package in the game?
Edit: That said, I never have seen any severe problems coming from cheating. You may end up with an angry or sad sim, but nothing relationship destroying.
So if your a serial romantic you can have friends with benefits?