Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Often (50% - 99%)
What is your current game version number? 1.94.147.1030
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? University, Get Famous, Seasons, City Living, Get Together, Get to Work, Parenthood, Spa Day, Outdoor Retreat, Moschino, Backyard, Spooky, Perfect Patio. I have some free stuff and kits, too.
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Have a Sim interact or be around other Sims who are flirty. Then watch autonomous flirting happen between other Sims even though they're in a happy, committed relationship, causing them to cheat right in front of their s.o.
What happens when the bug occurs? Flirty Sims will flirt with any other Sim (YA, adult, elder), especially if that other Sim is flirty, regardless of their traits, if they're in a committed relationship, and/or their s.o. is in the room.
What do you expect to see? Being flirty shouldn't turn your Sims into horndogs who will flirt with anything that moves. And if Sims were going to cheat, you'd think they'd have the common sense and spacial awareness not to do it when their s.o. is literally 3 feet away from them and can see and hear everything going on. Especially if it goes against their traits, aspirations, and/or sentiments (like they're enamored with their s.o. yet they'll flirt with another in front of their s.o.). Autonomous flirting should be set up like autonomous mean interactions. Once Sims are in a committed relationship (boyfriend, girlfriend, fiance, spouse, etc.) flirting should only happen between that couple unless certain circumstances or traits override it. Like being mean or evil so you don't care about your s.o.'s feelings and flirt with whoever you want. Stuff like that.
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Never used.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Neutral/Not Sure
For more context: My married Sims have a large group of friends. They invited over their closest friends (2 sets of couples and 1 single friend) to share that they were expecting. Some of the Sims arrived flirty or quickly became flirty, probably because being around your s.o. makes Sims flirty. My Sim's best friend, who's married, was flirty and kissed the hands of another Sim who was also flirty but not his wife. That Sim didn't rebuff him even though she's happily married with kids. Everyone saw this and it caused their spouses to become very angry and get hurt sentiments. It became a whole thing.
I enabled cheats and tried to remove the bad sentiments, but it wouldn't work. I had to restore an old save because the game ruined 2 happily married couples.
This really impacts my storytelling playstyle, and it makes it difficult to have your Sims hang out in groups or throw parties, especially if you have other couples over. But if you have individuals over instead of groups, if they happen to be flirty, they'll flirt with your Sim or s.o. even when they're in a committed relationship and know your Sims are in a committed relationship. Sims shouldn't act out of character, they should have the common sense to know when to flirt and who to flirt with, regardless if they're flirty or not (like not flirting with your best friend's wife right in front of your best friend), and I shouldn't have to go back to old saves or cheat my way to maintain relationships that shouldn't be falling apart.
Interestingly enough, their single friend who was over who's a non-commital bro has yet to commit these infractions. It's the happily married Sims who act like they're trying to woohoo with anyone and everyone.
End rant lol
What @mdouglas2010 wrote is a very accurate depiction of what happens in the game. Flirty moodlets will lead sims in committed relationships to start flirting with anyone or if they're not flirty but the other sim is (the one they're talking to), they will still accept their advances completely ignoring their own relationship status.
Sims should never autonomously flirt or accept another sim's advances if they're committed in a relationship. (Maybe another story for sims with the player trait)
This is Really Bad for gameplay, please fix ASAP.
A suggestion: add a relationship autonomy setting with options for open or closed relationships. This should be set as closed by default. In a closed relationship sims would never autonomously flirt with others than their spouse and they would always reject other sims trying to flirt with them. If their own spouse saw this flirting happening, they would not get upset at their spouse (who rejected the flirting) but they could appropriately react to the other sim, perhaps depending on their traits and relationship with the "third sim". This setting would mean that even a sim with the Player trait would not autonomously flirt with others if they were in a committed relationship. A lot of players want to be in control of their own storylines (as seen in this thread) but then with the open relationship setting players that desire more chaos in their game could also experience it. It would be great if sims had a social interaction in which they could propose an open relationship with their partner thus setting the relationship as an open one if their spouse agrees. Perhaps a similar system as the Family dynamic could be used to implement this?
In addition to the previous suggestions, perhaps a sim's reaction to flirting could be adjusted so that the player could choose from 1) completely open (will rarely reject a flirt), 2) "opportunistic" (a chance of positive reaction when the Social compatibility is amazing between the two sims, they're in a good mood and NOT in a group conversation) or 3) completely closed committed relationship (sim will always reject flirtation from other sims than their significant other). In this way players could have control over their sims' lives but at the same time they could choose to have some random romantic encounters to create drama in their game. This should work for most if not all play styles.
(edit: fixed missing word, 2nd addition)
