Innocent spouse accused of cheating because NPC is flirty
Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Occasionally (10% - 49%)
What is your current game version number? 1.72.28.1030
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? At this point it's easier to say what I don't have. I have all expansion packs, all game packs except Journey to Batuu, an extra heapin' helpin' of stuff packs... All but Laundry, Backyard, Movie hangout, Luxury Party. No kits.
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Have a happily married couple visit friends or go to a public venue. Have someone who is not your married couple be flirty.
What happens when the bug occurs? One of the spouses becomes furious with the "flirty spouse" moodlet and gets a "deeply wounded" sentiment EVEN THOUGH THEIR SPOUSE DIDN'T FLIRT. They're then sometimes autonomously mean to their spouse, causing their relationship to further degrade.
What do you expect to see? If some rando flirts with my spouse and my spouse doesn't reciprocate in any way, I get angry with the rando but not my spouse. The spouse is innocent!
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Yes
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Yes
Please describe the patch or change you made. The patch that gave us sentiments, to support Snowy Escape.
Guys. I understand that in your player base you have a wide variety of opinions on added spice and drama in the game, ranging from "OMG OTP 4-EVA TRUE LOVE ALWAYS" to "BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA cheating and physical fights are HILARIOUS BRING IT ON!", but I feel like I should choose! Maybe implement a drama slider in game options. 😉
My happily married couple went to visit their teen's bestie at his home and brought their child so she could befriend the parents for her Social Butterfly aspiration. Apparently their teen's bestie's mom was feeling flirty, but her husband was also in the room and didn't throw a tantrum, and honestly I'm not convinced she flirted, either. I feel like the kids didn't need to see their parents turn into an episode of Jerry Springer for no reason.
I've also had this happen on dates, where some rando sat down at the table (rude), butted herself into their conversation (rude!), and flirted with one of the two people on the date and the other one got FLIRTY SPOUSE DEEPLY WOUNDED. He didn't flirt! some rude rando threw herself at him! My friend sent her married couple to Granite Falls and the park ranger threw himself at one of her Sims and then stalked him with constant texts and requests for dates until she killed him off. Despite the target never reciprocating in any way it damaged their relationship.
Sentiments makes this worse. I don't know if my Sims noticed that some rando in the vicinity was flirty before sentiments, but now it's BETRAYED DEEPLY WOUNDED!!!!!!!!!!!!! because some dumb rando did something flirty and the spouse didn't reciprocate.
I don't necessarily want to cheat Player onto every Sim I play, but I might because this is absolutely infuriating!
Okay, trying to be constructive, LOL, since I posted here partly because I was surprised that no one else had reported it.
If you're willing to cheat:
Control-shift-c to open the console, testing cheats on , and then Traits.equip_trait Player. If you want extra satisfaction points as well, instead turn on testing cheats and then set their aspiration to Serial Romantic and type Aspirations.Complete_Current_Milestone until the aspiration is achieved and the game gives you the Player reward trait. This trait doesn't stop flirting, it just means that no matter what your Sim does their partner(s) won't get jealous.
Side effect: I noticed after doing this that, well. My Sim didn't flirt before, but he did after receiving Player. Nothing major, just the occasional little flirty wave, and it didn't destroy his marriage which is what matters.
If you're willing to use mods:
MC Command Center (see the hero-approved mods post) has the option Stop Random Flirting under MC Tuner -> Change Interaction Behavior. You can also disable jealousy under MC Woohoo -> Woohoo Interactions. I haven't tested this but CGrant56 suggested Stop Random Flirting and it sounds like it would work. I also went into MC Tuner -> Change Interaction Autonomy and disabled mean interactions in case it doesn't. I'll let you know.
Note: CGrant56 also pointed out above that if you have other mods that influence flirting or romance interactions they might interfere with these settings.
If you're not willing to use mods (or are on console) or cheats:
Level charisma to 4 or higher and spam "smooth apology" and "profess undying love" every time it happens until the sentiment goes away. This is more of an annoying workaround than a solution. UGH.
