Gender Preference

See, that's the only way I'd be cool with a gender preference--if we, the players, could control it. Right now it feels...obstructive, and it actually makes it difficult to play truly bisexual storylines. Like, apparently, the algorithm or whatever takes previous "behavior" into account, but that basically means any sim that's married is virtually un-romanceable by the gender they're not married to. Which means there's a whole bunch of stories (say, a lesbian married to a man for convenience, but then falls for a woman outside of her marriage) aren't really available. Before I could basically just direct my sims to have a certain preference through their actions, or follow their whims and such, and it baffles me that they thought it was okay to take this aspect of the game out of the hands of the player.

I would very much like a gender preference option, and I would like the option to randomise that as well as choose for myself. I liked the chemistry option in Sims 2 because you could direct the traits to what you wanted. For example, if I had a sim choose facial hair as a turn on, I knew they liked men, and if they had makeup as a turn on, they were most likely interested in women. At the same time, there was a random element as well that led to unexpected pairings now and then.

"Sigzy05;c-17168511" wrote:

"FanPhoria;c-17168447" wrote:
See, that's the only way I'd be cool with a gender preference--if we, the players, could control it. Right now it feels...obstructive, and it actually makes it difficult to play truly bisexual storylines. Like, apparently, the algorithm or whatever takes previous "behavior" into account, but that basically means any sim that's married is virtually un-romanceable by the gender they're not married to. Which means there's a whole bunch of stories (say, a lesbian married to a man for convenience, but then falls for a woman outside of her marriage) aren't really available. Before I could basically just direct my sims to have a certain preference through their actions, or follow their whims and such, and it baffles me that they thought it was okay to take this aspect of the game out of the hands of the player.

Yes it does, but no they are not un-romanceable. Don't know where you got that from. You can influence that preference by flirting with any male or female sim. The preference influences their autonomous flirting and betters the chance of romantic interactions to succeed for a particular gender, but you still can romance the other one, you just need to put in some more work. If you get them both flirty it's even easier.

I like that we can't see it and I like that it's still player defined. I don't need a "it's this" or "it's that" in CAS, and it works well like this so, if it ain't broke.... This has been a BG system since TS2 days. So honestly don't know what you mean by "before" lol

Yeah, but like...that's kind of my issue? Pointing back to my previous example, why would it be "more work" to romance a lesbian in a marriage of convenience with a man? Or, for that matter, a bisexual who was married, but then got divorced or their spouse died or something. There's no reason why the gender of the other sim should factor into how "hard" it is to romance them.

I should just be able to designate sims I want to be truly bisexual, is what I'm saying. I don't want to have to "work at" flirting with them in equal measure from different genders. I just want them to be bisexual.

Also, it's kind of a messed up implication that those with a strong preference for one gender or another just need "more work" put into them. I would actually rather that it be impossible, and we get a notice response flirting saying something like, "Sorry, I'm not into guys" or something like that.

Again, I just want to able to designate and control the characters of my sims. I want to be able to say "this sim is bisexual" or "this sim is gay" or "this sim is straight" and have that stick. The game doesn't know what stories I'm telling and shouldn't be in control like that. If it's an option to have it game designated, that's fine, it should be an option, not a universal.

And again, the idea that a character could be a "lesbian" sim...but still will sleep with a male sim if that sim just "works hard" at romancing her enough makes me actively queasy.

I'd very much like that. I don't like how currently any sim (including married sims) can flirt with anyone and have no way to set a preference for who you don't want them flirting with.

I would also like to have the gender preference option in CAS as well. :)

It would have been a nice touch to include choosing gender preference in CAS during that pride update.

I would like to be able to control gender preference too. I would like personalities/chemistry/romance to be developed further generally though. Also a loyal trait or something like that would be welcome. Soulmates should live up to that and not flirt with just anyone, even if they are the gender they prefer. Or perhaps I'm just a control freak. :D

"FanPhoria;c-17168447" wrote:
See, that's the only way I'd be cool with a gender preference--if we, the players, could control it. Right now it feels...obstructive, and it actually makes it difficult to play truly bisexual storylines. Like, apparently, the algorithm or whatever takes previous "behavior" into account, but that basically means any sim that's married is virtually un-romanceable by the gender they're not married to. Which means there's a whole bunch of stories (say, a lesbian married to a man for convenience, but then falls for a woman outside of her marriage) aren't really available. Before I could basically just direct my sims to have a certain preference through their actions, or follow their whims and such, and it baffles me that they thought it was okay to take this aspect of the game out of the hands of the player.

Yes it does, but no they are not un-romanceable. Don't know where you got that from. You can influence that preference by flirting with any male or female sim. The preference influences their autonomous flirting and betters the chance of romantic interactions to succeed for a particular gender, but you still can romance the other one, you just need to put in some more work. If you get them both flirty it's even easier.

I like that we can't see it and I like that it's still player defined. I don't need a "it's this" or "it's that" in CAS, and it works well like this so, if it ain't broke.... This has been a BG system since TS2 days. So honestly don't know what you mean by "before" lol

I want this feature, I have been using MCCC off and on, and when I click on a sim it lets me maintain them (one of the commands) and pick their gender preference and the number for it, but I would rather have an actual feature in the game that allows us to pick, not them.

With the rest of the gender settings that we already have, I feel like they should add this in as well. I personally don't want the game attempting to guess what my sim's preference would be, when instead I could easily select it for myself and avoid undesired interactions when the game's guess doesn't match with what I had in mind.