Forum Discussion

LiELF's avatar
LiELF
Seasoned Veteran
17 days ago

Lovestruck Relationships Question

Hey all, I've been wanting to get the Lovestruck pack, but have been waiting to see if they fix the bugs and if the game runs well before getting it.

One thing in the pack that I'm not sure of though, is the relationship decay of the romance meter, so I thought I'd ask the community. I play a lot of households in my main save, so if I switch to play another household, will the Sims I'm not playing have their relationships tank? From what I've seen, the feature is designed to make the player put effort into the Sims to keep their relationships in good standing, but I can't have all of my other Sims suddenly falling out of favor in their partnerships and marriages just because I'm not playing them. Have any of you found it difficult to play rotationally with this pack?

I've been wanting so many things in this EP for so long, but if it destroys all the work I've put into my Sims romantically, it's probably not worth it. 😟

Also, I do use MCCommand,  so if there's a setting for this pack to prevent such things, I'd love to know.


  • pinkplushgirl's avatar
    pinkplushgirl
    Seasoned Newcomer

    I play rotationally and I’ve noticed a decay after I leave a sims house for a fair amount of time it’ll go down to very un satisfied. And then the romance bar can go red you just have to do all the stuff that makes them happy and it’ll set them straight fairly fast. It scared the heck out of me at first but it’s more just a nuisance.  I haven’t noticed other households breaking up bc of it. I tried actively have a sim break up with a very low satisfaction and you had to be mean to them for them to actually breakup with my sim. They just get a bunch of sad moodlets instead. 

    • Jehane40's avatar
      Jehane40
      New Hotshot

      Same. I play rotational with seven households total, each gets a whole Sim week. When I returned to my main household yesterday, their romance bar had declined to maybe a fourth - still pink, but it needed a lot of work to fix it. More work than doing the tasks for Grim, actually. 

      I had that happen before and figured fiddling with the options might do the trick - turning off jealousy, setting their stance on romantic boundaries to non-negotiable, tweaking likes and dislikes so they perfectly align and so on. But it seems that's only working when I stick with them instead of switching to the next household. I mean, it does make kinda sense that things get a bit rocky if they can't interact for six weeks straight (or longer, if there's a college Sim living on campus), but it's still a nuisance. And the constant fretting about being left alone? That's downright annoying, I mean, romance bar is at a 100 %, romantic satisfaction detto, they're perfectly compatible in a steamy relationship... but they're scared of the other one leaving? SO annoying, and I haven't found a way to fix it yet. 

    • Ellupelluellu's avatar
      Ellupelluellu
      Hero

       

       

      Yeah, must be that my rotations are simply too fast, there is no time to anything major to happen 🙂

      pinkplushgirl wrote:

      after I leave a sims house for a fair amount of time

       

    • LiELF's avatar
      LiELF
      Seasoned Veteran

      Okay, that's very good to know, thank you. That's what my worry was, that if they were unsatisfied while I was playing someone else, that they would autonomously break up. As long as that's not a common thing, I think I might be okay with it. I play a LOT of households and I don't plan on time spans or anything, just whoever I feel like playing at the time. I don't mind if a couple of them break up here and there, for some drama, but I don't want it going nuclear with all my Sim relationships. Sounds like I should be able to deal with it. 

      • Jehane40's avatar
        Jehane40
        New Hotshot

        You can turn off autonomous breakups in the game's options to be on the safe side 😀

  • It's only me perhaps , but I love the pack to bits and have not yet seen ant romantic decay on its own (okay if not playing some sims in simyears, but that decay has always been there). 

    First of all your couples only get that romantic satisfaction meter when you play them.  So not all in my save even have it yet. 

    But however I did test and played a week with other couple, returned to my sweethearts with full romantic satisfaction, it was unchanged. I saw them every now and then at communitylots, but they were all loving to eachother , so I saw no reason why it would even go down. 

    So, my answer is no, I have not found out playing rotationally having effect on my already married and in love couples.  

    My rotations are pretty loose and fast tho. from day to max 5 days.

    • LiELF's avatar
      LiELF
      Seasoned Veteran

      That's great to hear! I will consider getting the pack then, maybe when the Reaper stuff is over. I'm always afraid that they forget about rotational players, ever since Discover University came out, which is very tricky to play with multiple households. 

  • I play in rotation. i just started a new save, so I hadn't dealt with any old relationships yet. Yesterday for the first time, I played the Goth family which I imported from my old save. I pictured them as having a steamy relationship, as in the Adams Family.

    While their romance bar was full, their attraction level was neutral. This was because they had no turn-ons and turn-offs set. Usually when I start playing a new family I do that first thing, so I had to go back into CAS and add those. 

    Also they were romantically unsatisfied with their relationship. This was fixed with some passionate kisses and reciting love poetry. I did install a mod by Lumpinou which prevents romantic satisfaction decay by time alone. It can still decay by game play however. 

  • AgnesValravn's avatar
    AgnesValravn
    Seasoned Traveler

    Well, I dont actually know, cause I havent tested it. But tbh I cant see that happening, so far relationships only went up/down when I was actively playing that household, I dont think the game does anything with inactive households (not counting neighborhood stories), especially when it comes to relationships.

    Also from what I learned it's the romantic satisfaction meter that you have to "work on", if it is high enough their romance bar will increase over time on its own but Im guessing (again) this will only happen when the household is actively played.

    Right now one of my couples has a high romance satisfaction, Im about to play a different household for the reaper thingy and then come back to them, can report if anything changed later. 

    • LiELF's avatar
      LiELF
      Seasoned Veteran

      Thank you, I appreciate the response. Yes, the satisfaction meter is the thing I'm worried about. 

      • SheriSim's avatar
        SheriSim
        Rising Vanguard

        I play rotational, and as long as you have built up a fairly high romance and or friendship I don’t think you will have to worry about it.   I read some time ago that high friend ship or romance keep it from decsying very much.  Also, a high enemy will keep it from decaying too.  I believe they did this to keep sims from being culled. 

  • Do anyone know if UI Cheat mod allows for cheating the drained romance bar back up, when returning to a couple after playing other houses? I use that mod often when I find it more fun to focus on other challenges than adjusting needs and relations etc.  I still don't own the lovestruck pack, but is warming up.

    • Ellupelluellu's avatar
      Ellupelluellu
      Hero

      Yes , you can set those bars to anything with UI cheats.. right click romance bar and it asks the numbers to set it.