Family Relations

[PlayLives]

In a sims relationship panel, if it doesn't show the little blue family icon on a family members pic, does that mean the game doesn't see the two sims as being related?

[J. M. Pescado]

Sorta. Some in-laws can end up in a state of being "quasi-family" where often one side, but not necessarily both, will see the other as "unavailable", and not manifest any of the flirt options, only "Family Kiss"....this is rarely a symmetric view, and there doesn't seem to be any trend as to why this happens.

[Batelle]

I had a sim, Kath, who dated a sim named Gray when they were both teenagers.  She aged before he did and she eventually fell in love with his father, Rhett.  Kath and Rhett were married and eventually Gray became an adult as well and for a while, Kath and Gray both had the romantic options available but she lost hers after awhile.  It was strange. 

[Jelenedra]

Ewwww, does that mean he was banging his step-mom?

How very... Metal Gear Solid 2 of him....

[PlayLives]

Oh okay, I didn't even think to check for in-laws. Most of mine of 2-3bolts for each other and I didn't want to start a family feud, lol.
I noticed that some cousins show up as being family but others don't.
For example, one sim shows his uncle's daughter as his cousin/family but the other cousins don't show him as family. They show being related to "the cousin" they have in common but not to each other.

[Batelle]

Ewwww, does that mean he was banging his step-mom?

How very... Metal Gear Solid 2 of him....

They never actually did anything after she married his father.  I just toyed with the idea from time to time, and would be tempted when the options came up.  Gray was obsessed with her until the day he died, though.  

[Jelenedra]

Awww poor guy.

Could you imagine her bedroom conversations with his dad though?

"Your son was a much better kisser."

[jsalemi]

.... not manifest any of the flirt options, only "Family Kiss"....this is rarely a symmetric view, and there doesn't seem to be any trend as to why this happens.

Yea, I saw this last night -- the step-daughter of a sim autonomously popped up the 'Family Kiss' thing for her step-father.  I'd never seen that before. They have a high relationship, but no family icons for each other.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I see it quite often, it usually depends on how old the step-child is when the parent and step-parent marry.  Romance sims seem to be less able to register and keep such a relationship, though.  when Don Lothario married Brandi in one of my games, the youngest boy, Keanu, was still a child, and Don definitely saw him as family, until he (Keanu) went to college, when suddenly they both started to get flirt wants for the other!

[Magicmoon]

I've got something similar going on in my game. I have a Greek house with only cousins in it. Then I noticed 2 flirting with each other. Checked and no family icon.

But it isn't even consistent. When calling the siblings of their kissin cousin they see some of the siblings as family members and others as not related. There are no step families involved.

I don't have any mods that mess with family ties so this must be one of those weird Maxian things. This is the first time I've had this happen though.

[Ancient Sim]

I've had several incidences involving this sort of thing, a couple in particular, both of which I've discussed here.

In my original Pleasantview, Desdemona Dreamer (daughter of Cassandra & Darren) was the half-auntie of Melinda Dreamer, daughter of Dirk & Lilith (half-auntie insofar as Dirk was her half-brother).  Melinda was married to Jonathan Burb, son of Jennifer & John, which meant he was actually related to his wife in that his mother was her gt. aunt, but they didn't see each other as family.  There was clearly a very strong connection between Desdemona & Jonathan, but the only options they had were family-related, even though they weren't actually related at all except by marriage.  JM thought this was because Desdemona had been present at the wedding of Jonathan & Melinda.  I tested it by giving them a crush and they were all over each other!

In my current Pleasantview, once Alexander went to Uni I noticed he had 3 lightning bolts for his stepmother, Dina.  Mortimer was dead by then, but Alexander & Dina only had the option for family-related interactions, even though it was clear they were crazy about each other (or would be, given half a chance).  No matter what I did, I couldn't change things, so I had to give them a crush to start things off.  In the end I removed it because Dina just couldn't get pregnant (although they've since autonomously fallen in love again) and Alexander is now with Missdoh, who has just had his daughter.  As Alexander was still a child when Dina moved in, I suppose that might have been the cause of it, because theoretically there was nothing to stop them getting together as they weren't related.

[ZephyrZodiac]

But maybe some sims, like some humans, find certain non-blood relationships to be taboo!

[skandelouslala]

I have strangeness in what is considered family a lot in my game.

The most common is the father/mother in law who have romantic interactions available for son/daughter in laws but son/daughter in law only has family interactions or vice versa.

I don't really care one way or another...I usually don't go that route when playing my families anyways...I try to keep the cheating outside of the family

I've spoken about my Steven Parker incident before though..him being the apparent neighborhood perv he decided he was going to grab and make out with his niece by marriage in his sister in law's toy shop (I notice a lot of whore like behavior going on in that toy shop..hmmmm)  That has been the most surprising one...has neice/uncle/cousin/nephew/aunt blah blah blah is always clearly marked in my game.  They also have no family maker so i have no idea what is up with that but it's still creepy. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, the family marker as shown when you check in SimPE is not always correct.  Various Maxis originals have the marker when they shouldn't - Dustin/Angela and Dirk/Lilith spring to mind, and I think there are various instances in Strangetown and Veronaville too.  I think sometimes the game just doesn't record the relationships correctly.

And of course, you can always prevent unacceptable behaviour by ticking the family checkbox.  Sisters/brothers in law are frequently seen as family, but never by romance sims, but once the box is ticked, they usually behave themselves!

[RainbowTigress]

But maybe some sims, like some humans, find certain non-blood relationships to be taboo!

Yeah, but there is no consistency.  Where it will consider one type of relationship off-limits, it will allow another kind.  I've had the situation skandelouslala describes in that sons and daughters-in-law will consider their parents-in-law family, but the parents-in-law will have romance options available for the son/daughter-in-law.  I had a test version of Pleasantview where I allowed Cassandra to marry Don, and I had brought back Bella.  I tried to get Don to get romantic with  Bella, but Don did not have any of the options, just Family kiss and friendly hug.  Bella had the options to flirt with Don, however. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think with Bella there could be problems, unless when you brought her back all her memories were intact, which they never have been when I've done it.  Also, with romance sims, I've noticed a tendency for the family tick-box to be ignored, as in the case of Don Lothario when he was married to Brandi and, after treating Keanu as family, this suddenly stopped.  But he always seemed to see both Beau and Dustin as family, and when Dustin's son was born, it was him that turned up unannounced to see the baby, not Brandi, and he turned up again just after Justin grew up to a toddler and just walked in and started playing with him on the charisma toy.

[Jack Rudd]

Bringing back Bella will cause extreme screwiness. Necromancy is bad, mmkay?

[ZephyrZodiac]

You're a fast learner!

[RainbowTigress]

Bringing back Bella will cause extreme screwiness. Necromancy is bad, mmkay?

It will only cause problems if you don't know what you're doing.    I've brought back Bella in several of my games.  The one I'm playing now I've played since I got the game, and I've not had any problems.  In fact, Bella is now an elder, she's reached several LTWs, and she's had 4 kids in addition to Cass and Alex.  No problems whatsoever.  I know for a fact that several other people have her in their games with no problems.  You probably missed a step, which can indeed cause strange things to happen.

ZZ:  I was just using Bella and Don as an example, since they are well-known sims.  I have observed this situation with other families as well, including CAS sims and born-in-game sims.  Obviously it's not an issue with Bella because skandelouslala mentions it, and this has been mentioned in other threads as well. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

And CAS sims never get screwed up in this game?  Some of mine behave in ways that would make all the Goths seem normal by comparison!  I think a lot depends on whether the aspiration *fits* the starsign/personality!    I have a pleasure sim with 0 for Outgoing - makes life very difficult for her!

[RainbowTigress]

I didn't say that CAS sims didn't get messed up.  You seemed to think the problem was caused by Bella, when I have noticed this problem consistently across the board.  I don't think you are understanding what I'm trying to say.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think you're basically saying that Bella is no more screwed up than any other sim, and if you know what you're doing when you bring her back then you are no more likely to have odd behaviours from her than you are from any other sim.  since she's alive and kicking in my current PV, and hasn't so far acted wierdly, I'd tend to agree with you.  But I do think some star-signs find romance a difficult aspiration, and I've definitely noticed with Pisces romance sims they have a very pronounced interest in family sim things like cooking and cleaning!

[RainbowTigress]

Yes, that is pretty much what I am trying to say.  I'm glad that you understand what I meant.  Is your Bella Pisces?  I think mine is Cancer, but I may have tweaked her personality a bit and it changed her sign...but I never really paid much attention to star signs until NL forced me to.  Now I use the astrological compatibility chart to try to get compatible sims together.

[ZephyrZodiac]

No, I think Bella has always been Cancer, even in Strangetown (the original one in Sims1 was too, but Mortimer has been changed from Taurus to Cancer.)  But Cancer, like Pisces, in the CAS format, is a shy and retiring sign, which doesn't really fit with romance, although they often beat popularity sims for making friends! 

I tend to think there's something so wrong in the whole NL thing that I don't bother too much now, sims with no LBs for each other seem to have perfectly happy relationships, so why worry!  But it really annoys me, I have a Leo popularity sim and another Leo who's Romance, and they get 3LBs, although the two aspirations rarely seem to in my game - but make a Romance Leo and a Knowledge leo with the exact-same turn-ons. interests and personality profile, and the most they'll ever get is 2!  Me, I can't see what an aspiration has to do with whether you get the hots for someone or not!

[jsalemi]

I see it quite often, it usually depends on how old the step-child is when the parent and step-parent marry. 

Well, in this case the girl was a teen (born when mom was a teen due to the kitten killer ).  Real Dad (Romance) was barely in her life, though they're both best friends now and they both get occasional wants to talk to each other.  Step-dad is Family, she's knowledge, so maybe that makes the difference.  In any case, she's off to uni now, so lets see how they are when she comes back.