More Awesome Than You!

I had a sim used cologne once, and it was cute.  But it didn't seem to do anything.  Does it only affect turn-ons and turn-offs?  If so, it seems like a pity.

Yep-just turn ons/offs :)

Thanks for the fast answer.  It's too bad it doesn't have more uses.  I really don't need more "turn-ons" - my sims have hearts flying out of their heads constantly as it is!

LOL lucky you! All my sims hate each other ;D

Wish it would actually affect lightning bolts for all sims, all the time!  Then my couples who've been together since the base game and now appear to be totally unsuited, although they get on like a house on fire, would actually get the hots for each other!  And I wish the Underwear turn on worked even when a sim is dressed - one assumes they still have the underwear underneath!  And really, to have sims walking around ALL DAY in their bra and knickers is just not good for the kids!

I am still disenchanted by the turn ons/offs...the animations for things like cologne are cute as they spray themselves with it..but there is no true point except possibly taking the chemistry up a notch.  Almost all my sims have the same turn ons/offs as I have predetermined plans as to who I want them to hook up with.  It eventually all comes down to hair color in the end :p

The turn-on/turn-off system is really only a minor factor in the attraction engine. You might get an extra bolt out of a tweaked turn-ons, but ultimately it's not that big an effect. The selection is also very limited. All of the clothing-type ones can effectively be dismissed as irrelevant, since they're so transient that it can't really be meaningfully used. The accessory-based ones are slightly more usable, but due to rampant misrepresentation of third-party accessories, and sometimes even Maxian ones, this is also slightly dodgy. Some accessories are also removed at various times, making this slightly wobbly, but by and large accessories like hats, glasses, makeups, are pretty constant in normal situations. Hair-color is slightly unstable, as a reliance on this means you'll lose it when your sims become elders (unless you picked gray). As such, the only REALLY reliable ones, the ones you can count on to apply at nearly all times, are "beefy arm", "fat", and "vampire". These three are consistently reliable and are not currently misrepresented by anything available in the game. If you pick these, you are sure to get exactly that.

So what are the most reliable characters? Vampires with beefy arms, and fat vampires.

Or bearded fat vampires. 

Or isn't facial hair reliable either?

Hmm...facial hair with fit or fat people...yeah, most of them aren't applicable all the time. Why couldn't they have things like skintone and eyecolor?

I'm sure that Maxis didn't include skintone because then you could make sims racist - something they want to avoid.  Racists don't need any help.

Eyecolor would've been nifty, though.

And even if you have contacts for your sims, eye-colour itself is unchangeable and would have been a really useful turn on!  And let's face it, most of us are more attracted by a person's eyes and voice than any other body parts or clothing accessory except perhaps shapely butts etc. and that kind of attraction is transitory!

As for the problem that family and romance don't have many LBs, in that case, why is it nearly always married, engaged or going steady family sims who stalk your romance sim, following him/her home from work or school, phoning him up three times a day etc!  Popularity sims are indiscriminate - they phone any sim they've met regardless of aspiration, but family sims seem to really stick like glue to any romance sim they've taken a fancy to!

True.  When I finally did marry Kaylynn the maid off to one of my sims (he was a romance sim, as she seemed to be attracted to them) I was surprised to find she was a family sim.  Given the way she slept around with the romance sims I'd always assumed she was romance.

Kaylynn may be family, but she's a whore! :D

lol, I knew you were building up to something.


But I don't agree.  Your vampire can be cured, your beefy boyfriend can get fat and out of shape, and you can put your fat wife on a exercise program and get her in shape!

I've started to automatically put in a turn-on, turn-off based on hair color for my red-headed and blond sims.  I want them to express that hair color in future generations, so I don't want them to mate with darker hair sims.  When they become elder and loose that bolt, it will makes it more realistic, as how many people do you know that still have the hots for each other when they are old and gray :)

I have a question regarding something that has been puzzling me.  I'm trying to match up my three roomates with 3 potential husbands.  All 3 found suitable 2 and 3 lighting bolt mates.  (God I love that they fall in love autonomously now, once you get them past the akward critical first meeting when all they want to do is annoy each other).  Anyway, 2 have the hots for each other (little pink hearts everytime they see each other) but the last doesn't, even though she has 2 lighting bolts. 

So what determines wether or not you get the little pink hearts?

By my side, I noticed the combination of the zodiac signs is the most relevant thing to increase the chemistry between two sims and the second one is the "beefy arm".

Ice

I tend to change mine through the game, which is very easy using the DMA red burglar alarm thngy (the one that goes with the Woo-Hoo set).  I don't have any Sims that use cologne at all, because it's not a permanent thing so I only use it for a turn-off.   It's useful as a turn-off for Romance Sims, as with them they need to be attracted by as many Sims as possible.  Most of my Sims fit a lot of categories - I use things like teeth/freckles, etc. so they have full face make-up, scarves/earrings/necklaces so they have glasses, etc., that way they appeal to a wider audience so to speak.

Now that's ageist!

Eyecolour would have been brilliant.

As for skintone, I wouldn't want the normal ones - but 'Green Skin' would be nice. If people can be turned off by vampires, why not aliens?

I guess that would be racist - now with vampires it isn't because vampires can start with any colour skin!

I don't see how the vampirism Turn Off isn't discriminatory, though. If Sims can be prejudiced against bloodsucking monsters of the night, why not against greenskinned foreigners from beyond the stars?

I only say 'Green Skin' turn off because that's the only thing that alien babies are more or less guaranteed to have. If it would be more politically correct, they could easily call the TO 'Alienism' or something... ::) Not like it'd be any different.

I get confused everytime I try and figure this out also, but I will try to explain what I think I know.  ???

Attraction, which includes turn ons and offs, is demonstrated by the little pink hearts. (Someone on this board called it "farting" pink hearts - love that!)  Sims will be attracted to someone based on their gender preference, turn ons/offs, personality similarities (zodiac sign), and aspirations.  Sim A can be attracted to Sim B, but Sim B is not necessarily attracted to Sim A.  However, chemistry (shown by lightning bolts) is the average of both Sims attraction to each other.  So if you have any number of lightning bolts there is definitely attraction on both sides.  

The answer to your question is: gender preference and/or personality similiarities (zodiac sign) and/or aspiration preferences and/or turn ons/offs.  

I really don't like the way the game uses aspirations to determine attraction, because it wants sims to be matched up with sims of the same aspiration. In my experience, a couple with different aspirations is much better for a balanced family life.

And what about the attraction of opposites?  My mother and father were about as opposite as you can get (Gemini and Capricorn) but they rarely argued.  The problems were us kids, my brother and I are Taurus and extremely argumentative  and didn't really get on at all, while my poor sister (pisces) was stuck in the middle!

No we're not !!!


Well it's not so much a question of age as a question of long familiarity.  There are a few exceptions out there, but  most couples see their relationship die down to slow burning embers over the years.

But that's what I don't get.  I have Sim A and Sim B with the fart hearts (lol) and 2 bolts each.  Then I have Sim C and Sim D with 2 bolts, but no hearts.  So hearts and lighting bolts must not be exactly equivalent

Have sim C and sim D woohoo'd?  Just a thought........

I don't think the implementation of skin-color turn-ons itself would be racist. It's only when pple intentionally use them in a racist fashion that it's racist.

I find it annoying that you can't make sims be turned on by tans, for example. In RL, lots of pple think tanned skin is hot. Is that racist? Of course not. Also, in RL pple do tend to factor race in when it comes to relationships. Pple tend to flock towards their own races. But a preference for one type doesn't necessarily mean hate towards another. And even if you have skincolor as a turn-off, just b/c you won't necessarily date a certain type of person doesn't mean you hate the race. I have quite a few asian friends who don't like dating white guys, but does that mean they hate white pple as a whole? Absolutely not.

And plus, skintone turn-on/offs would make things so much easier for my sims, as my turn-on/offs for each sim are pretty much exactly the same, and I'd like a way to divvy it up a bit. Eyecolour differentiation would be great too. This one isn't controversial at all. So why the heck did they not implement it?

Who knows what goes through their minds?

You're right, though, preference for a particular skin colour is not necessarily racist and quite honestly, when you have carefully selected turn-ons/offs for your sims and they go and get three lightning bolts for another sim entirely, and none for their partner, I don't really see how you could make your sims racists if you tried!

I think they didn't implement things that can't be changed. Skin color, eye color can't be changed. The only TOTO that can't be changed, AFAIK, is Gray Hair. I also think they didn't implement skin color because even though it's only how it's implemented in the game that makes it racist or -non racist, there'd be a lot of potential on the BBS, or people might put up stories that could be interpreted as racist.

Well, of course, that's true, they could, which just goes to show that the way the BBS is set up is dangerous - people don't need turn-ons/offs of skin colour in order to create a racist storyline!

You get the hearts before they have  even met.  It's enough for one sims to be walking past another sim to get the effet.

Actually this is kinda funny, because my sim was on the sidewalk when the postman came to deliver a letter, and at the same time, another sim walked past.  I got the heart effect.  I thought she was reacting to the postman so I had her say hi and "scope him out".  She shrugged.  Nada.  So it was the other walking by.  I didn't have time to make sure who he was.  So now I'm stuck with my popularity Sim wanting to be friends with an butt ugly Maxis NPC while the mystery sim has vanished into the mists.

If you look closely when your Sims sleep they dream about Sims that they show hearts for, there will be a bubble with a face appearing above their heads along with the little "heart" music so it is a way to found out who that mystery Sim is.

But these are all actions that require a concious desire to alter your sim, not something that will fluctuate on its own. All the other factors are not things you have absolute control over: Sims remove their glasses and hats without your input, accessories and makeups are often misrepresented and used for things which have nothing to do with the purported category, and hair color is all replaced by gray. None of these factors are things you have the final word in. Beefy Arm, vampire, and fat, however, are absolutely under your control. These will not change unless you exert an effort to make them change.

So if all my sims are turned on by Beefy Arm and Vampirism, and turned off by Fatness, there should be quite a few LBs around!

What about custom hair? That won't change unless you change it...

Same applies to hair colour, hats, glasses etc.  You have to make the effort to get your sim to change these things!  And if you have noeatcrap II, then only lazy sims will get fat!  (Oh, and sometimes neithr thin or fat YAs will eat a meal made by the dorm cook, and suddenly they are fit!  Don't tell me I caused that by telling my sim to EAT!

Actually, if you do glasses, your sim can get attracted to jewelry, because that's in the glasses bin. And they take them off for bed, anyway. And Hair Colour changes when you get old :)

Unless your sim has custom hair that doesn't change!

But what's to stop someone from putting up a racist story (or story that could be interpreted as racist) now?  ???

Simply giving the player a choice over their sims' eye, skin, and hair colours (not to mention sexual orientation and being able to control them at all) gives them the potential to express their biases. I have big doubts that if skin colours were a part of the turn on system in the game it would suddenly inspire someone to express a previously latent racist tendancy, when the base game did not inspire them to express it.

It could, possibly, inspire someone to make a sim that is racist, but I don't see the problem with that as the players are not their sims, much like writers are not their characters. Problems with people on the BBS would perhaps inspire them to actually manage it properly, like a company BBS rather than one reminicent of a badly-run fansite.

Of course, this would require EA/Maxis to be sensible, and the world is pretty short on miracles right now.

Custom hair is prone to misrepresentation and is a vague, ambiguous category. All custom hair, regardless of type, is considered all the same, be it hair-dyed-to-unrealistic-colors, or anotherwise normal hairmesh that just happens to not be Maxian.

So basically if two elders have custom hair then having grey hair as a turn on won't work, you'd need to have custom hair as a turn on.  You know, I think I'd already figured that one out!

That's a good point.

It's true that the costume makeup and glasses are wildly misrepresented but those are all custom objects, so you are in control of what you put into your game.  I've managed to rationalize this into a turn-on turn off that makes sense.  For example, my only custom costume makeup are mostly freckles and birth marks.  So I just need to think that if I use that as a turn-on or turn-off that my sims are attracted/repelled by freckles or birth marks.  Which is entirely possible.  Same for accessories, but it's more strained  You could have sims turned off by piercings, or earings etc.  In a way it makes the turn on/off system a little more varied.  The only one I avoid entirely is makeup as every single one of my female sims wears makeup of some description

I think that make-up is a problem here, as most of my sims, male and female, have eye-make up of some description.  Same goes for blusher, as some just look like natural colour on the cheeks, which many paler skinned people have!  and any goth teens have to have black lippy!

Yeah, nearly everyone in my neighbour hood is a make-up wearer. Make make-up turn off and would prolly make my sims an old maid, since they would probably be repelled by EVERYBODY.

I quite often put very natural looking lippy on male sims too, just often looks better than the Maxis default.  Really, I don't know why they included it at all!  Now, on the other hand, they could have included sloppiness as a turnon/off!  I mean, very neat people are turned off by a sloppy person so why not sims?

Oooo, that would be good.  Sloppiness and neatness would both make good turn-offs.  Especially when you consider that extremely neat sims are pretty strange really - making up other people's beds, "cleaing up" plates of fresh food, and cheering when it's time to clean the toilet!

I imagine it's too complicated to make personality a turn-off/on, however.

I wish they could be turned on/off by rich sims. I now it's not a visual thing as such, but it would be great for the Dina Caliente types!  ;D

At least then they would be keen on marrying them more quickly!  I mean, as it is, they meet the rich sim of their dreams, and it takes ages to get the relationship up high enough for the marriage option!  3 LBs and it wouldn't take half as long!

I guess if they're are really gold-diggers, you can give them 'grey hair' as a turn-on.  :P

Well, that would certainly be an advantage for Dinah if she's really set on marrying Mortimer!  But before NL, the Pleasantview I was playing had dinah married to a romance sim called Dylan who had a daughter.  She married Dylan because she really seemed to have the hots for him, and since the daughter liked her, and both she and Dylan were slobs, I thought, why not?  And she was perfectly happy, and spun an enormous number of family wants!

I wonder if some modder will crack the turn-on system.  There are soooo many possibilities for various turn ons, as was illustrated in this thread.  I know it's only a small part of the attraction equation, but it's rife with possibilities.  I just love this new attraction system.  Now I let my sims pretty much pick their partners autonomously, by seeing if they will get crushes on their own.  Sometimes I'll just help them along by navigating through the initital meeting.  Otherwise they often start off on a bad foot. 

My big wish on the turn on/off system is to have more turn "slots", both for on and off.
This definitively gets us a bigger variety of attractions.

I'm thinking mainly on two different gategories, genetics and social.
For the first one, that are normally out of player's control, mainly:
1. Eyes's color.
2. Height (why damn ALL sims must have the same height?).
3. Skintones.
4. Voice.

For the second ones (on wich the player has control), mainly:
1. Skills.
2. Job/Career (or, money amount, LOL)
3. Hidden skills.

But I think it would be only a dream, pity.

Ice

I would like to add age to that list. I would really lie e.g. a young Adult sims would have an elder as a turn off and an adult sima could have a elder sim as a turn on.

I'm not sure about heights tho. since heights is controlled by a sims age. The only way to change it is with the cheat so I doubt maxis or any other modder would try to add that.

I think the prob with eye color and skin tone is the same as JM said.  Custom content tends to be ambiguous.  It kind of takes the meaning away--say your sim hates blue eyes yet they are in love with a blue eyed sim just because they have custom blue eyes.  I do admit that it would add more options.  I always have my sims have two of three wants--fit,make up,and custom hair.  It applies to all Playable characters and not townies--so if a sim has two bolts for a townie--I take notice because it usually means with very little tinkering they will develope three bolts. 

Animations look quite strange when sims are two different heights. My knowledge of making animations and programming them is pretty sketchy, but it probably would have been too difficult/time-consuming/adding to game size to add the necessary animations, especially if the heights were a scale instead of predefined settings.

Agree with that!  The kids are so wierd when they are able to cook food!  their animations are totally screwy, but obviously as good as the modder can make them! 

As to age as a turn on/off, I thought grey as opposed to brown, blond etc. hair would cover that one!

I would like to see "finished college" and "permaplat" as turn ons/offs. That way, sims could be materialistic, or discerning about avoiding ambitious overacheivers. Younger sims might want to meet people who were more like themselves, while older sims might only want to meet successfull mates.

  That is a really good idea--perfect for the wealth sims.

I suppose the game could have made some adults stay at teen size, most animations seem to work with just that small height difference.

I think a wide range of hobbies would also been a great idea for turn-offs/ons.  Like Chess, Computers or any number of things as that plays a big role in relationships too imo.

Sims don't really have hobbies. Except for the Sport of Kings. Sims of all ages love the Sport of Kings.

Horse-Racing?

Flamingo/Gnome/The Cheat kicking.

Sorry, but that's the Sport of Pescado!

Pescado, King, El Presidente, Grand High Poobah, The Most Awesome One . . . it's all about the same, really.

But that reminds me. Gotta load up the game to finish testing of uber expensive game categorized flamingo.

Returning to the hobbies mentioned earlier, you could have "Cheats at chess" as a turnon/off!  (Turn on for Leos etc., turn off for serious Virgos!)

You could add quite a few based on the personality extremes.
Hmm... imagine the screwed up sims you could make.

"I get turned on by Don Lothoria coz he pee's in the shower,
but hell it makes me so angry to mop up after him."

 ;D  But so true of life!  I mean, how many of us are turned on by a stud who goes from one bed to another as the mood takes him, but are also turned off by his faithlessness?