Please use this thread going forward: Romantic and Friendship Changes in Neighborhood Stories have no effect | EA Forums - 5013577
Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? All the time
What is your current game version number? 1.108.318.1020
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? Everything except: Lovesturck, Castle Kit, Urban Homage Kit
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Enable Romance Changes for Other Households, track the Dating/Breakup changes in the Neighborhood Stories notifications and then load the household to check the romantic relationship.
What happens when the bug occurs? Sims don't get romantic relationships added (when they start dating) or removed (when breaking up)
What do you expect to see? The change in the notification to be reflected in the sim relationship pannel
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Not now. I've removed them.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Yes
Please describe the patch or change you made. Installed patch 1.108.318.1020.
(can't get the forum form to show so I did my best with text)
New Save.
Enabled Romance Changes for Other Households.
Played as a vampire in hibernation to let the time pass quickly.
Monitored Neighborhood Stories Notifications for recognizable townies.
Ex1: Nilani and Don have started dating per notification
Loaded into Don's household. No relationship or acquaintance to Nilani.
These two sims live in separate households.
Ex2: Eric and Alice have broken up.
Eric and Alice are base game townies living in the same household.
Loaded up their household and checked their relationship panel.
They are still married with good Friendly and Romantic relationship.
They both have a Sad Buff from breaking up but that's not reflected in each other's relationship panels.
They have the option to Divorce in the Relationships interactions so it's not just a visual issue.
[Edit] Changes appear in the relationship panel when households are in the My Households group (set per household).
If Romantic Changes shouldn't affect Other Households then a) we shouldn't get notifications on it and b) it shouldn't trigger moodlets with no correlation to the relationship panel.
@Alas_Enkiduomgosh, this EXACT SAME ONE happened to me (with Eric and Alice I mean lol).
It also was the case with the Fengs and every other instance of supposed divorce I checked, and yes, sims that I'm told started dating don't even know each other when I check that either.
Not sure if this is the same kind of thing or completely unrelated, but romance and friendship influence when you get a call asking for advice has never really worked either. The sims in question don't get "introduced" to each other, and the increase in relationship they get is SO TINY that it barely makes any difference and basically disappears and gets culled in a few days. I really wish they'd make this kind of thing more impactful if they're going to have it all. Otherwise, it just seems like a waste of coding to include it.
Edit: Okay, I really paid attention on my new save and checked every one of the notifications, and here's the situation so far after about a week of sim time:
There were 3 notifications that sims "started dating". Only 1 of these was "real" (ie, sims in question had a romance bar & status as "partners" in relationship panel).
There were 6 notifications of sims "becoming friends". Only 1 of these had any relationship with each other when I actually checked, but it was only a very small amount of green bar, not enough for them to actually be considered "friends". A more accurate notification might be "Sim A & Sim B have met" (except that they actually haven't, more on that later.)
There was 1 notification of sims "breaking up". When checked, there was no change in their marriage status and they still had high green & pink bars.
Also, in the few cases of something appearing to actually happen (such as the one couple I was told started dating who seemed to actually be romantic partners now), they still didn't actually "know" each other. That is, they still had to be introduced, because while the game gave them a romance bar, it hadn't bothered to act like they'd actually met lol.
So, based on this (to be fair, small sample size), the stories relationship change function DOES seem to "work" (sort of) about 2 out of every 10 times, but even when it works the sims still won't actually know each other.
I just...I really wish this worked better, cause I actually love the idea of it. It's just so frustrating ☹️
