Pescado.

Pescado.

It's a Pescado mod, but I yanked it as soon as I started playing with polyamory because it would kind (completely and totally) of mess up my plans. I've now got Midge the Tree's “Just Be Friends” Social, and I so much prefer having the control rather than having things happen automatically. But YMMV.

Lol you three were quick on the gun. I will look into both mods, thank you. :D

Now I want to download Widespot and try Midge's "Just be Friends" to see if that works. I'm over here like, "only way," you say? Challenge accepted!

Don't worry, I never thought you were trying to talk me into liking it; part of the reason I started this thread was to see others' perspectives on the matter and find different ways to look at the aspiration, because I really truly wanted to find a way to enjoy it. Yours' and many others' posts here have really helped me in this regard. Perspective on things is very important in games like this and I couldn't seem get out of the perception I already formed. As someone mentioned above the aspiration(s) might not be perfect but after all this is largely a sandbox game and we all choose how to interpret our sims and what stories we want to tell. I really appreciate all the replies here for helping me re-realize that, and I think I'll be able to enjoy playing with the aspiration a lot more now. I really didn't want to have to force it out of my game because I like variation in sims' personalities.

I feel like this is probably an appropriate thread to share a bit about the rules I recently worked out for player-directed Infidelity. I used to play with the rule that, "no one is allowed to cheat, EVER." Then I played a bit with, "They can cheat if I think it's fun/funny." And then I moved to, "No cheating, EVER...but polyamory is fine." I realized recently that I needed a more universal sort of rule especially when playing long-term hoods. I'm the sort of player who makes rules for myself. I've even got rules for what foods sims can/should make from the fridge (dependant on interest in Health/Food, time of year, and weather) and rules for who should take hot/cold showers and when (mostly dependant on season/weather, but undead sims prefer cold showers and Romance/Pleasure prefer hot unless they are currently overheated and needing to cool down). These sorts of rules make the game more fun for me. I realize they would not work for everyone, and that's ok.

Anyway, in case anyone else likes to see rules (and I know there are a few), here are my current rules for Infidelity:

So far in (admittedly quite brief) testing no sims have been allowed to attempt infidelity actions. Interestingly, one of my test sims was a Popularity/Pleasure sim who rolled a want to cheat on his wife - just thought that was kind of noteworthy in the context of a discussion of Romance sims being dirty rotten cheaters.

From my viewpoint, those pixels who are famously tagged as 'romance' aspiration sims, (Taurus and Libra) are utterly unfit for it. It's a misapplication of the aspiration-mostly because according to their zodiac signs, they're both lazy but also focused on popularity. A true romance pixel (if they're really into romance) needs to be active and popular at the same time in order to actually get any results. I make those two types into popularity sims.
A Scorpio is far better suited to the aspiration because they're legendarily very intense and active, which turns them into mini-Casanovas every time they meet a potential love interest.
Likewise with a Sagittarius or even a Leo, always searching for something/someone new to have fun with.
But I never make romance a primary aspiration-because love doesn't pay the bills. Pixels need to focus on what they need to survive and then play. It'll be a secondary every time.

In one of my neighborhoods sim nation finally reached communism. Marriage as capitalistic anachonism is restricted. Everyone loves everyone and all sims are happy. Every adult sim must work though to give their contribution into world happiness. There is no individual property. Everyone in commune can use everything in commune regardless who bought, brought or made it. It also applies to members of other communes who visit. Children is raised collectively and there is no way they have been left unattended.
Maxis+Pescado

Chloe Singles once broke the heart of a Sim I'd raised from birth, when he came home early, elated at an unexpected promotion, and caught her in bed with someone; for a long time after that I didn't play the Romance aspiration at all. Later, I went through a patch of always changing their LTW to Professional Party Guest, so they'd have something to work towards and I wouldn't need to worry about their cheating wants after they'd gone permaplat.

These days I don't hate it as much, but I still see it as a selfish and anti-social aspiration and tend to reserve it for Sims who are outgoing but grouchy. Most of my Romance Sims do end up in a permanent relationship, though generally not actually married. If they roll a want for woohoo, I lock it until it's filled; when that is immediately replaced by a want to woohoo with multiple Sims, I ignore the want until they just want to woohoo with anyone, then make sure it gets filled within the relationship again.

TBH, although in the early days my favourite aspiration was Family, because I just wanted to play toddlers all the time, these days I find it at least as bad as Romance. Family Sims should, in my opinion, be focused on their children's happiness, with wants like Family Member has Platinum Aspiration (or Gold Aspiration, for fewer points), but they're programmed as breeding machines who want to control their children's lives by making them breeding machines, too.

The introduction of a secondary aspiration helped a lot, because it means Sims are a bit more balanced in their wants.

I don't like romance sims very much, but I try to play them as they are.
I pair them with each other and some of my gen 2 sims are romance sims, too, it just fits their character.

I have several questions. But I'm tired.

The Romance Mod has actually made me like Romance Sims. I usually marry them to other (primary or secondary) Romance Sims (unless I want drama) and they have harmonious, open relationships, sometimes they are even in poliamorous relationships (for example 3 Sims all in love with each other, living together)

I don't see it as infidelity if the sims involved don't have a commitment. For me, Peter Ottomas never wants to cheat. (The only time he did cheat was when I needed him to for an, eventually failed, 26 kids challenge.) Daniel Pleasant and Don Lothario are horrible cheaters. Nina Pleasant and Chloe Curious-Smith both play the field like crazy, but they're not engaged or married so that's not cheating.

My sims have to use their words, that's all there is to it.

See, that's the thing for me.. I'm fine with open and polyamorous relationships being possible, I just don't like that an entire aspiration is seemingly based on those premises. It's not the kind of niche I want to play with much. But I guess you could see them being poly/in open relationships as just another interpretation, not the only interpretation.

You need to remember, when looking at a game feature you don't like, that somebody else loves it. There are plenty of people out there who have no love life and console themselves by making a selfsim who's a relentless player; or who love creating Drama, or enjoy the challenge of getting 20 Loves at Once without the slightly cheaty dodge of making 20 best friends and then inviting them over one at a time to flirt, or have stories to tell, or like a lot of variety in their games and a lot of surprises from their sims, or whatever. Lots of people on here also start out hating a feature and never playing it, and then years later find themselves enjoying it after their life has changed and their playing style has evolved.

It's the player's ability to tailor the game to their desires, and the game's ability to adapt as the player's desires change, that make this one of the greatest games of all time.

I tend to enjoy playing Romance sims more when their secondary aspiration is either Family or Fortune. When it's Family they seem to have some balance between always wanting to have a good time, and still maintain a desire to put a little time in with loved ones too. Like they're not just focused on shagging, but will take time to be a parent as well.

And when it's Fortune, I usually end up with a single sim that's all about having excitement in their life (who might just be content with dating around). They might also end up causing drama for other relationships, or they might just want to focus on their career.

Well, I've said before, I know a lot of people like to play sims who sleep around and cause drama, and I never implied that I think it shouldn't be possible. In fact, I've tried my best to communicate that I know a large portion of the community enjoys that playstyle and I would not want it gone. I just felt that the way the aspiration was structured, it painted whichever sim had it as that kind of person and I personally, at least right now, don't want to play stories like that. And yes, I know I don't have to, and yes, I've been trying to play them through my own interpretation, but sometimes it's a little hard to get around the fact that it's pretty obvious what the developers intended with it.

I mean, the official description for the aspiration is "Sims with the Romance Aspiration crave lots of lovin' with as many different Sims as they can find." And the Wiki describes it as: "Romance Sims are passionate to have as many romantic possibilities with anyone as possible, without being tied up by lifelong commitment. Romance Sims dare to have many lovers and cheat them without getting caught. They also want to make out and WooHoo with many Sims."

So yeah. I guess my whole gripe is that something like this was made into the premise of an entire aspiration. All the other aspirations feel like they leave me room to play my sims how I want to, whether I wanted to actually make them poly, or cheaters, or assholes, or whatever, I could do that but I could just as easily not and it wouldn't feel out of character; whereas the romance aspiration quite honestly takes a fair amount of mental gymnastics to not interpret as cheaters and/or polyamorous.

I absolutely love this game. It's so surprising how things turn out, and how different people play and experience things. I've played with Cyjon's, Pescado and ACR mods for so long it's hard to remember how vanilla sims play, but I'll try.

I matched up Nina and Don, years ago when the game came out. Now as we all know Don is a dirty dog with many girls (as I found out when someone invited him downtown and all his loves turned up) but after he married Nina, there was no other woman for him. He became the perfect husband and father and couldn't keep his eyes or hands off her. Funny, Nina is a romance sim as well, but she never ever had the want for anyone but Don, even before they got married. Guess it's because she is also very shy, so I see her as a hopeless romantic, whilst Don was a reformed bad boy just waiting for the right woman.

Daniel Pleasant is another faithful type of romantic sim. All right, we know about the maid and the wife, but for Daniel, it's only the maid and the wife, no other sim, he just wants to get back with wife or to bang his new maid girlfriend in the changing room at the local boutique where he took her to buy a fur coat. Herb Oldie, Daniel's father in law is romance sim I never knew about (until I saw on a let's play), Played him a couple of times and he just kept dragging his poor old wife to the bedroom instead of working on making money in their retirement. (That and trying to kept his fighting grandchildren Lilith and Angela apart) Brandon Lillard (Townie), romance sim, totally faithful to wife, no romance wants for anyone else but totally crap as a father.

None of these Maxis created sims have secondary wants, all played without mods.

As for the sims I created... Well, there was Moria, the cool serious blonde town Mayor who was made to make money. First day in her new apartment, she went behind the bar and started making out with the barman. I reprogrammed ACR, she went downstairs met a townie and took him upstairs to do woohoo. I reset ACR again and introduced her to Antonio (the mafia boss who didn't like crime and wanted to grow flowers.) They got engaged, and 2 days before she grabbed Benjamin Cox off the street and um... he left the next morning. But when her and Benjamin and Antonio later had dinner, she rejected all Benjamin's advances (which left him confused) and left him on the floor when she backed out of him trying to leap in her arms. (Antonio poor innocent never noticed a thing) She wasn't the type of Mayor I thought I'd created.

My school teacher's romantic husband also refused to cheat, even though I made him a lazy, skirt-chasing braggart with no redeeming qualities at all, (figured she was slumming and married down) but the stupid sims wouldn't cheat or get angry and they spoiled all my plans. In my world, romantic sims are just misunderstood. But I'm gonna test it out more (when my computer gets fixed) and make a love cult, where they have a large polyandry marriage and then we'll see who cheats on who.

My sims seem to do what they want to, romance, promiscuity, and faithfulness means different things to different sims.

I wouldn't take that description too much to heart. The game is straight up weird in how it handles some situations. It's default behavior that if one sim has a crush on another, they'll get jealous if that sim has a romantic interaction with anyone else, even if that sim doesn't reciprocate the crush. A partnered sim can get in trouble with their partner if someone initiates a romantic interaction with them, even if they reject it. That's some super possessive behavior! There are people like that, but I'd say most people aren't. I personally just interpret Romance sims as mostly uninterested in committed relationships. They don't want to be tied to just one person. Sure, some of them might be jerks and cheaters, though no more than any other Aspiration. My most prolific cheater has been Camryn Lee, who is a Popularity sim. She got the itch to land more partners before she got a Romance secondary. Fortunately for her, her husband Julien Cooke doesn't give two shakes about her extra-marital activities, provided she doesn't engage in them in his presence. (They autonomously healed the rift caused by him catching her, preferring to talk it out rather than get into fights like I've seen others do.)

I have enough monogamous Romance Sims. Sure some of them might wish to flirt with other Sims from time to time. Doesn't mean I have to follow that wish. Still can play them as "good" person.

Excuse my crassness for a moment. But only because somebody might get randy because they saw an attractive person at a party (for example) doesn't mean they are forced to automatically act on that desire.

I mean, to be entirely fair, we also have an entire aspiration dedicated to grilled cheese. And one that's all about jumping on the couch and juggling, basically the "goof off" aspiration. I haven't actually tried playing even with secondary Grilled Cheese yet, but maybe I really should someday...

The unmodded version of this game is certainly screwy when it comes to jealousy. Factor in that Sims also seem to be able to see through walls and see someone flirt no matter where anyone is on the lot and it gets even worse. All this talking over aspirations though and being able to accept them or play them if different ways is making me feel guilty of my hate of the pleasure aspiration. I'll have to give it another try. I have a few kids that have very high playful scores. I'll see how it goes.

High outgoing fits into pleasure more than playful. Pleasure sims want go out into town, make outings and dates in downtown, Just go somewhere and have a lot of fun with group of sims.

I never try to make aspiration "fit with" a sim's personality. I actually find it more fun to play shy Popularity sims, mean Family sims, etc