The Chemistry of Attraction...

[Bangelnuts]

Velichen, with a teenage boy I too found him wanting interactions with another sim who he has negative chemistry with! The other sim is turned off by fitness though, and is not turned on by anything about the teenage boy. 

I'm putting it down to "sims don't always know who's good for them". Kinda like real life on occasion... sometimes people can be very stupid in recognizing when someone isn't good for them.

I think it has more to do with the fact that the sim-attraction engine is basically bolted onto the game and isn't correlated to the rest of it at all, like the want chain system (sims always progress from "Talk to" to "Flirt with" for anyone of compatible gender orientation, period, by default). All other factors are completely ignored.

interesting and sounds like that is the case

[KnightSkyKyte]

To answer the original question, I am pretty sure they are sorted by level of chemistry--either that, or it's totally random. I just looked at the chemistry panel of one of my sims--she has two bolts for six different guys, and her LTRs with them are 79, 90, 84, 96, 0 and 0, in that order. Only one of them is on the lot (the 79 one) and he doesn't live there. She also has three one-bolt guys, and her LTRs with them are 9, 0, and 73, in that order--none on the lot.

Yes, I noticed that in the chemistry the sims are sorted by number of bolts, but within-bolt categories, I was wondering if there was an order of preference/attraction, since I noticed what you noticed - the order in which sims appear in the list within-bolt categories does not follow the relationship order.

Which is why I wonder if there is a preference ranking, even within-bolt categories... anyone know for sure?

[skandelouslala]

I don't think anything is sorted within bolt categories.  Not that I have noticed anyways.

When I have a sim who has chemistry with several other sims and have no predetermined plans of who to hook them up with..I'll just watch and see who they get the heart bubbles and wants for the most.

[Bangelnuts]

I don't think anything is sorted within bolt categories.  Not that I have noticed anyways.

When I have a sim who has chemistry with several other sims and have no predetermined plans of who to hook them up with..I'll just watch and see who they get the heart bubbles and wants for the most.

I do the same thing when I have a sim who has an equal amount of bolts with more than one sim and if that fails I look at interests,birth sign etc  to determmine the  best compatibility .I would not think of putting sims together who shared no common interests. My Romance Sim Joe is in love with half the neighborhood at the moment. but I f I were in the mood to Pair him off which I'm not. I would put him with Bella  Goth
   Joe has three bolts for Bella Goth,1 bolt for Brandi Broke and 2 bolts for Maria his daughter in Law and 2 bolts for his  former daughter in law Honey. however all things being equal Joe and Bella dont have enough common interests to sustain a committment in spite of the three bolt Chemistry.So Joe will continue to play the field and compete for Romance with the other nieghborhood Romance Sims.
    My Romance Sim Justin who is the Son of Joe  just got engaged to my Sim Brynne  with whom he has 3 bolts  with and  6 common interests. ironically both Val and Justin are Gemini's. Val is a popularity Sim and Justin is Romance.
   if you listen to Maxis those aspiration are compatible and I have found that to be true. birth signs arent supposed to be gemini/gemini but it doesnt seem to matter to Justin and Val

[katemonster]

Yes, I noticed that in the chemistry the sims are sorted by number of bolts, but within-bolt categories, I was wondering if there was an order of preference/attraction, since I noticed what you noticed - the order in which sims appear in the list within-bolt categories does not follow the relationship order.

Which is why I wonder if there is a preference ranking, even within-bolt categories... anyone know for sure?

That's what I meant--I think they are ranked by preference because 1. they're ranked by number of bolts, and 2. within that, they're ranked by nothing at all obvious, so either it's random or they're ranked by preference. But preference makes more sense to me, and I just like to assume it is that way. No I don't know for sure.

[KnightSkyKyte]

I'm inclined to agree with you Kate, but, I noticed that the order changes sometimes... even though I've seen nothing change with those sims with respect to anything that should make a difference (have not changed turn ons/off preferences, or changed any physical things like hair, cologne etc, or adjusted any interests...) and they're all living in the same house, so I know what's going on with them. So why would the within-bolt order change?

I'm thinking of feeding two of the guys to cowplants and then ressurecting them so all relationships are broken and then allow them all to interact and see if any pairs develop on their own... trouble is, the guy who's the one everyone is nuts over (there are 6 other sims with whom he has 3 bolts...everyone seems crazy about him: he's a family sim who's completely shy, rather nice, rather tidy, rather playful, very active and a Cancerian, though I don't know why this combination shouild be so alluring) keeps changing the order in which his top three favourites appear in his attraction panel (there are 6 sims that are 3-bolters for this sim, and I haven't paid attention to whether the bottom three 3-bolters change order) so I don't know whether to leave him joined married or put him with one of the other two...

*sigh* I'm reading too much into air-headed pixel people, I think.