More Awesome Than You!

After taking a look at a disassembled version of the AttractionScores.ObjLua I am left wondering, has Pescado waded through this mess and can he give a clear picture of how attraction scores are calculated?  I see that zodiac signs, aspirations, and personality traits (Nice, Neat, Playful, Outgoing, and Active) are all pulled into the calculation but I am unsure as to how they affect it.  Do zodiac signs use the standard attract/repel guidelines?  What aspirations attract/repel?  How much do personal traits play a role?  If someone can point me in the right direction that would be most appreciated.

Some of this info is in the NL Prima Guide, I'll look it up tonight if someone else doesn't have it handy!

It confuses me a lot.  I have this couple in Uni and they vary between two and three bolts, even though nothing changes between them.  It seems to be that the lose a bolt when they don't communicate for a while, but whether that's the only reason or it's more complex than that, I don't know.  I just wish they'd allow for the attraction of opposites - a lot of my original couples were like that and with Uni they have no bolts at all.  I have always ended-up with my opposite in real-life (bloody Taurus men - grrrrrrrr) and it's definitely the most powerful attraction, but it isn't allowed for in the game at all.

It could be related to their turns on, for example if one of them is turned on by underwear you will have 3 bolts temporary appearing until the Sim change into other clothes.  I notice that the game will change automatically for the strongest attraction weither or not the 2 Sims feels the same way.  What I mean is that the one that is turn-on by underwear should have the 3 bolts appearing temporary, but how come the one wearing underwear have also 3 bolts appearing? That does not really make sense.  I really must pay more attention to weither or not my controllable Sims will display the same attractions for each other or not.  If so, the system is not working properly, they should not display the same amount of bolts.  Ok let's say I have a couple which are 1 popularity and 1 family Sim.  Popularity Sim is neutral to family but family is bad with popularity so they should not have the same amount of bolts for each other.  Now let's add that one is a gemini and the other one is an aries.  Aries are strongly attracted to gemini but gemini are repelled by aries, how many bolts will they have?  Will they both display the same number of bolts?  Which of them is consider to evaluated the number of bolts showing.  If we make them live together will the number of bolts change (I do think so)?

It is really hard to determine which factor is the most important.  But yes, zodiac signs and aspiration compatibility is a factor and turnons/off.  Let me give you an example that kind of made me wonder how does this whole attraction system works:

I have a couple which is a family Sim and romance Sim (which are 2 aspiration that are not suppose to go well together), they do have on both side strong zodiac compatibility and only 1 of the turn-on is match, well they have 2 bolts for each other which I find weird.  For me so far I would say the number 1 thing it checks is zodiac signs if it match well, then it will check the aspiration and finally the turn-on/turn-off but then again for another couple it could be completely different.  Whatever subject your Sim likes to talk about as no effect on weither a Sim will be attracting or not.

But on the other hand, I think when you scope a room it will mainly look at the turnons/off.

That's the odd thing with my YA's - as I said, nothing is changing.  She is attracted to brown hair and fitness (he is fully fit and hasn't gone down a jot), he is attracted to hats & glasses, which she permanently wears.  I noticed that when she met someone else she had 3 bolts for instantly, she lost a bolt with the other one, then got it back when the new guy left and she spoke to the other one.  Perhaps she's just flighty.

Also, whenever she goes to class, he makes a point of flirting with the other YA in the dorm who he has 2 bolts with (they are all Knowledge).  She got a crush on him when he did this, but he didn't get one on her.  When the 3-bolt girl came back, he started flirting with her, but the other one didn't bat an eyelid - normally they react.  So now he has a mutual crush on the 3-bolter and the 2-bolter has a crush on him.  He's going to have to make his mind-up quickly because he's graduated and when he goes back to the neighbourhood he's going to be worth several hundred thousand simoleans with the house he's got waiting and all the money he has gaining oodles of interest in the bank.  He needs to choose his future wife wisely!

I think on the 2 bolt, 3 bolt underwear thing, maybe the sim wearing the underwear already has the three bolts for mr. underwear fetish sim, but it drops back to 2 bolts when they change clothes because it take the max amount they both have in common...I hope that makes sense!

When I want to mate two sims, I do it with the SimPe (less headacke), concentrating on 4 areas:

1) Zodiac fit, as given in the Official Guide.
2) Same interests.
3) Same turn-ons and offs.
4) More or less close enough personality traits (for instance: 5 neat, 8 nice, etc).

Thus I get all the time 3 bolts between the two, and never get it with other sims.

Simple as that...:).

Oh, so according to this, the aspiration would not really have any effect on attraction system?  ???

Oooops!!! - Sorry, forgot about the aspirations...:).

But the fit is as said in the Official Guide too: pleasure->pleasure, knowledge->knowledge, etc.

This makes 5 areas...:).

Don't hats and glasses come off when the sim is in pajamas or swimwear or nude? I thought I had noticed this affecting someone's attraction somewhere in my game (losing a bolt while the partner was showering, because they didn't have their hat on or whatever).

Edit: If you meant she actually keeps them on while sleeping, swimming and showering, then never mind. But I had no idea you could do that with glasses. Can you really? (I have one sim who sorely needs glasses as he was fathered by the llama dude and ended up with a unibrow. Actually I have a couple of those, but the second one isn't the son of a llama.)

Ancient, how did you set your sim to "permanently wear" hats or glasses? I've been wanting to do this forever.

:P

. Ironically my best fits aspiration  wise are Romance/Popularity  ,Family/Knowledge, Pleasure/fortune. worst fits are Knowledge or Family with Romance  and Knowledge /fortune.

The prima guide says that the bolts thing is the average of attraction between two sims.

Personally, I do prefer it that way, because if I want to get two sims together, I like to know what they are going to be like as a couple and not have to work it out, particularly if one of the sims is a townie, and you can't see in-game what level of attraction they have to another sim - you can only find out what #bolts a playable sim has (unless you do non-standard things, like go to SimPE, or other ways) - so to just look at one sim's number of bolts lets me know what two sims would be like as a couple.

In my case it is different, I have a 2 bolts couple that are family/romance... I still don't fully understand why lol.

Anyhow, because of that, I don't really put much attention to that whole attraction thing, I still match the Sims I want  ;D  sometimes it takes longer but it still works.

I find that the most important thing is that they are really good friends and share similar interests, even one lightning bolt is enough then.  And I've had romance and Family sims who have three for each other,  so I don't think the aspiration is all that important!

in my game Ive found it makes a difference. as well as trying to match zodiac compatibility and interests .one bolt in my game rarely ever does well in the long term committments

Well, I don't know, I think it depends, just like it does in RL!  But it's interesting, if they only have one, then you get the family pic on loading with the "cheating" V sign, and not just from romance sims!  Yet I have a couple, she's pleasure and he's romance, and he doesn't display that sign (they have either 2 or 3 for each other, can't remember which) whereas good little family sim John Burke (burb) does!  (Plus he's forever on the prowl, and any new arrivals, he's there in the welcoming committee all ready to wiegh up the possibilities!  Creep!)

Er ... well ... er ... let's just say I've worked out now why the 3rd bolt keeps disappearing and returning.  I think the word for it is "Duh" ...



I take it you're one?  Of course, for the situation to be really dire it has to be a left-handed Taurus man, using no artificial smelly stuff of any kind whatsoever, instead relying purely on his pheremones (of which most Taurean men have a plentiful supply, ditto most left-handed men).  Don Lothario is a leftie, you know, I can tell.  I can always pick them out.  And yes, I do have a thing about left-handed men ... they're more virile, doncha know?  Look, there are worse things.  With my best friend at school it was ears and then there's my friend Melanie whose poor husband had to buy a pair of glasses with clear lenses to use as a sex toy ...

POST ABRUPTLY CUT SHORT AS WRITER OF SAME NEEDS COLD SHOWER.

Could be worse you could have Pescado in your welcoming commitee constantly like I get

I couldn't - I didn't download him yet! ::)

I did and the grouchy old goat shows up at all new sims houses  ::)

Well, John seems to have stopped coming lately, now its Nylissit and one of my own sims, Samantha Wilde, who keep arriving and staying for a couple of days in the hot tub!  They come out to be fed, then straight back in!  But I just moved brandi, Skip and the two younger sons to a new house, Mortimer came as well, and within five sim minutes he had Brandi in tears and now she's Furious!!

Brandi In My Game is Married  to a man named Grant Tatterton and pregnant with their first child and she has 3 grandchildren and 2 grown twin sons in my game. Mortimer doesnt live in my neighborhood

I don't think the "V" sign means they are cheating or want to cheat.  That's just a playful gesture called "rabbit ears."  People do it to each other all the time, for pictures and stuff.

i think your right  because  I see it in my sim couples who have never even checked out another sim let alone think of cheating

Maybe it's an American thing?  In this country it's a bit like the old V for Victory sign, which in those circumstances could mean anything.....and if the Burb is such a good husband, why is he always wandering around town?  He's also about the biggest jerk out, says he wants to gain cleaning skills, but moans if he has to clean a sink!  Keanu Broke, with only one nice point and three for neatness never complains at all!  Even don makes less fuss about mopping up the bathroom after he's flooded it!

I always thought Maxis  was crazy when they Matched up John Burb with Jennifer Pleasant and gave them a kid together which is why I never play them

I play them to have her cheat on him - she'll get three lightning bolts for almost any sim in the game, male or female!  (Well, quite a few anyway - and she definitely prefers married men!)

Family sims want to learn cleaning and cooking.  Grumbling when cleaning comes from their neatness/sloppiness score, regardless of what wants their aspiration throws up.  Don always grumbles at me when I tell him to clean up his mess.  He even has to grumble separately for each puddle!  I haven't noticed John doing it so much.

John and Jennifer seemed like an odd couple to me as well, with him Family and her Fortune.  He wants a baby, but she wants to make money and get promotions.  It seems like it would make more sense for the female to be family, and the male to be fortune, unless you have a hack to make the guy carry the baby.  The Prima Guide pushed the idea of marrying a fortune and a family sim because the fortune sim was happy to go to work, earn skills, and make money while the family sim stayed home, made friends, and took care of the kids.

I had John Burb dump Jennifer and marry Brandi. They seems very happy and have gorgeous kids.  The Burbs are worth plaing as Lucy turns out very pretty.

Well, when you consider that jennifer is Gemini and has so much energy she'd soon be bored at home all day.  Don doesn't moan about cleaning up puddles if he chooses to do it - I just don't queue him to do anything after his shower and he stands there looking miserable and then mops up.  When you get him to 7 or 8 for cleaning, he just cleans up without being told. But John moans at anything that involves a bit of effort, and even with JM's food hack he still gets fat and needs to exercise just to keep his weight down.  (Lucy has to get her laziness from one of them!)

Grief, Brandi Broke is bad enough as a name, but brandi Burb!?  Sounds like what you do when you've had too much Brandy!  (I know they get two lightning bolts for each other, and Brandi and Skip only have one for each other, but I think that's because they're both Aries and too much alike.  But he's got the expensive car thanks to Brandi getting a Big Bonus so I don't think he's in a hurry to leave (or die again!)

My Brandi and Skip have 3 bolts for each other.  I changed Skip to Family because I didn't want him cheating on her.  I also change all my sims to have at least 6 active, so that might be why my John Burb doesn't complain so much.  I can't stand lazy sims, and I want them to be able to run, so 6 minimum in active is a must.

Well, I think that would make quite a difference, and would explain why don gets good at cleaning up autonomously even though he doesn't like doing it.  But I rarely alter what my sims start out with - I changed Lilith I admit, but only back to her original genetic personality.  (And in this game, keanu Broke got his Libra personality, so I changed him to Leo as I don't like him a Libra, always crying and getting upset!  But I did leave him with 3 neatness, when sometimes the game generates him with only 1, and then the rest of the family have to keep cleaning up after him!)

I don't know about changing Skip to Family, I could try it, I suppose, but I rarely have both partners with the same aspiration, it's too boring (except Romance - I love the way they both want to cheat on each other, and without JM's Romance Mod they both get sooooo jealous!)

I generally have  my sims as different aspirations as well but occasionally I have sims with the same aspiration click so well I go with it like tonight My Trepie Sim and My Ancient sim  both are Knowledge  instantly started clicking  together and are now in love with each other.

Knowledge seem to do that a lot, just make a straight set for each other and you can't do a lot about it if they won't show any interest elsewhere, though I find very often Romance and Knowledge make a good partnership.

At present I have a relationship at Uni that really surprise me.  I cloned Dustin and Dirk from YA's in my broken game, so when I installed them of course they were in the Students' Bin, so I decided to move them both in to a dorm together till they could get enough cash for a house.  Even though they were in separate "Families" in the bin, by the time I moved them into the dorm they were very nearly friends, and before they'd finsihed their Freshman Year they had fallen head over heels for each other!  I've only ever had Dustin have gay relationship once before, and the same goes for Dirk, and it wasn't as if they lived alone, they were in a dorm, so it must be something in their personalities etc. which set it all off!

 I try not to interfere with who my sims fall for. unless they have no chemistry or bad chemistry then I will steer them a different direction..I have a gay couple in my game  I need to play I havent been to their house in a while though.

I had a money sim once that had three lightning bolts with a knowledge sim.  I was surprised because I thought they weren't supposed to be a good match.  My only complaints about knowledge/family sims is it that the poor family sim's always getting ignored by the knowledge spouse.  However, as long as they keep pumpin' out the babies they're happy as can be!  Never mind the fact Knowledge Dad's in near aspiration failure from staying up all night changing diapers! LOL

I try and Make sure my sims get plenty of rest when they have toddlers or babies in the house. other wise they ttend to negleect their offspring regardless of aspiration

I would think the whole thing works like this.  Take a score of 30+ to be 3 LBs, 25 to be 2, and 20 to be 1.  Then, each compatible area would count for so many points, say 5-10 for aspiration, 5-10 for personality, 5 -10 for interests, 5-10 for Turn-ons, then it's possible that a mismatch in one area could be compensated for by a strong match in another, which would explain why sims with three LBs may not appear to be the right match.  For example, since making Daniel Knowledge and Mary-Sue family, they have 3LBs (but in the original game, I think they had 3 LBs with the Fortune/Romance combination.)

My sims don't need plenty of rest when they have babies or toddlers around - the flamingo keeps them going too!  I wouldn't be without it!

I tried the flamingo's and wasnt overly Impressed but thats just me. I have one house with 7 toddlers and 1 infant and adults galore  so needless to say those particular toddlers and Babies get an over abundance of  care.but in houses where that isnt the case plenty of energy appears to be vital for my sims.in my overstuffed lot  I had one adult named Josh a Romance sim who is perma plat and married with 2 toddlers decided  that the child care was his sole responsibility.
  when I checked on him after having been dealing with other sims in the house hold I discovered  that his needs all except hunger and social were redlined  yet he was still insistent that he had to feed a baby. Merola's Multi painting rescued him from a  total collapse . I then made him put the baby in the crib although I had to tell him several times to leave the toddlers and babies alone and go eat and then head off to bed.
  the other sims in the household had no problems bathing toddlers ,feeding them and putting them to bed after I stopped Josh from his overly attentive behavior...

You need to run the flamingoes through SimPE as they were original game creations.  I rarely use the Flamingo of Decay, though, I found it didn't update well and had glitches, but the other flamingoes are great, and you can use them for as long as you want.  Sometimes if my sims are really dropping into the red, and they have wants that can't be filled quickly, I stick a Flamingo of Decency on the lot just to keep them green until they fulfil the Maximize the Logic Skill want, or whatever ( and some of the stupid knowledge sims will spawn that want while they're still only at level 6!)  But the Flamingo of Contentment means that toddlers can be taught to walk, or talk, in one session before their needs deplete too much, and it doesn't stop the toilet training, but you never ever get a soiled diaper!   And since babies can't use the multi-painting, it's also useful for babies, they rarely get so desperate for food that they start to cry and wake the toddler, but two toddlers in one nursery does mean one wakes up and proceeds to yell and wake the other!

Realistically I don't have too many problems keeping my sims happy without hacked objects.  The thing about knowledge/family parents was a bit of an exaggeration. LOL  Occasionally one will get down into the green aspiration level.  I only ever had one sim truly go into failure and that was early on in my game before I learned to watch out for those kind of things.  This particular sim wanted to get her kids into private school and the headmaster just wasn't impressed.  It was one of those sim days when everything than possibly can does go wrong, like the grandma who was preparing dinner dying in the middle of baking the lobster thermidor.

I'm afraid I do let my sims go into aspiration failure sometimes, after all, it's part of RL so why shouldn't it be part of SimLife too?  And if the only wants that my sim has are either ones that take ages for them to fulfil or require having parties at 3am, then hard luck, they just have to learn to cope with the ups and downs of life.  (As I said, I only use the Flamingo of Decency occasionally, when a sim in aspiration failure would interfere with my overall plans too much - but then as far as my sims are concerned, "I'm in Charge"!)

I have some sims who are either desperately over-sexed or desperately under-sexed, I'm not sure which. Because they're based on real people, I won't let them have romantic relationships. But they so badly want to, it's hilarious! Because they are Best Friends (with the special symbol), any romantic interaction (e.g. Flirt --> Caress) and they instantly fall in love. Not crush - love. (The pink hearts appear above their heads & are immediately replaced with red hearts). The first time this happened, I was quite freaked out, because I didn't realise that Hug --> Leap Into Arms was a romantic interaction.

Anyway, they have zero turn-ons in common, they're both the same Aspiration (Popularity), and their personalities are fairly similar. I'll have to have a look next time this happens to see if they have any lightning bolts at all. Would be funny if they had none or negative bolts, yet they fall instantly into very hot love. (Very hot - because after the initial Flirt, everything else is autonomous.)

Why are you looking at me like that? I quit without saving whenever it happens. Y'know, when I accidentally slip with the mouse and hit a romantic interaction by mistake...  :D

(I do wish that Kiss --> Peck wasn't counted as a romantic interaction, though. I often kiss my friends that way, and I don't want to sleep with ALL of them. I wish the European two kiss greeting that was added for Uni was available as a normal interaction, not just as a greeting.)

I think that was actually in the Base game (the European kiss) but only appeared very rarely.  Like the Afro-American greeting with the hand slapping etc.

I guess you could say I usually find a happy medium in there somewhere. ;)  It's usually when those weird wants come up that I don't want to take the time to satisfy occur that they slip into the green level.  I enjoy popularity sims to an extent, but those have a party wants to rather annoying.  I've had popularity sims live out their entire lives with maybe one party.  Unless they just don't have anything better to do, they've got to carry on without the partying!  :D  Of course it also helps that sims tend to have more wants of the type the player satisfies, so after a while instead of my popularity sims rolling up have a party wants they're rolling other things.

As long as they're in green I don't worry too much, unless I want them to use an aspiration reward!  (Or in some cases, IF I want them to use an aspiration reward, I wait until they're down to green!