Question about new update "Gender Preference"???

"Pamtastic72;c-17120485" wrote:

"mebagl15;c-17120473" wrote:
So it's been in the game all right along, but now we can choose the sim's sexuality in CAS. Is this correct?

Yes, you basically trigger it by who your sim flirts with, either autonomously or by your control. If your sim flirts mostly with men it establishes a preference for that gender, and vice versa with women. I assume too that if your sim flirts with both somewhat equally their preference will be for both. :)

I hope so; I'm a little concerned about how this update will work for my bisexual sims.

"Amapola76;c-17120511" wrote:

"Pamtastic72;c-17120485" wrote:

"mebagl15;c-17120473" wrote:
So it's been in the game all right along, but now we can choose the sim's sexuality in CAS. Is this correct?

Yes, you basically trigger it by who your sim flirts with, either autonomously or by your control. If your sim flirts mostly with men it establishes a preference for that gender, and vice versa with women. I assume too that if your sim flirts with both somewhat equally their preference will be for both. :)

I hope so; I'm a little concerned about how this update will work for my bisexual sims.

Mine still did a-ok yesterday after the patch. ;)

"Amapola76;c-17120511" wrote:

"Pamtastic72;c-17120485" wrote:

"mebagl15;c-17120473" wrote:
So it's been in the game all right along, but now we can choose the sim's sexuality in CAS. Is this correct?

Yes, you basically trigger it by who your sim flirts with, either autonomously or by your control. If your sim flirts mostly with men it establishes a preference for that gender, and vice versa with women. I assume too that if your sim flirts with both somewhat equally their preference will be for both. :)

I hope so; I'm a little concerned about how this update will work for my bisexual sims.

My guess would be that if your sims are flirting with both genders, the game would pick up on it and let your sims flirt with both.

That's good to hear! Much like me IRL, my sims are awkward enough as it is, they don't need any extra impediments to their game. :D

I was wondering this as well

"MaggieMarley;c-17120584" wrote:
So does this mean that if a male sim I’m not playing has been autonomously flirting with, say, only female sims, then he will reject the romantic advances of my male sim? I’m a bit worried about this update because I want my sims to be able to couple up with whoever I want them to be with. If gender preferences are going to affect flirt options in this way I would like the option to make all sims bisexual.

This is what I'm wondering as well. From reading this thread, it seems like it only affects "success," not reaction? Is that correct? So, it's "preference" in terms of "if you flirt more with one gender you 'get better' and have more success with that gender" but a sim will never "reject" based on their own preference?

Although, now that I think about it, I was just noticing that my sim was having a harder time than usually making romantic progress with certain sims...could it be because of this update?

I'm not opposed to there being a preference like that, but I kind of wish there were options about it. Like, for instance, as you said, if we wanted all our sims to be essentially bisexual (which I'd kind of gotten used to) we could, but then if we wanted to "turn on" a more clear preference, where some sims would be bisexual but some would have a clear preference, we could. Also, it'd definitely be nice if we could choose who has what preferences easily in CAS.

Based on my most recent experience playing after the update, it seems like a sim will reject advances based on a preference...but that can definitely be overcome by persistence and the right moves. Which is...sigh. I dunno. Sexuality can be fluid? But making that the case like that in game--that there's a "preference" that can be "overcome" by the player just putting sufficient moves on the sim in question--can have some unintentional unfortunate implications.

This is kinda why I've never been desperate to have set sexual preferences in game. I felt more comfortable just making those decisions for myself through gameplay than trusting an algorithm to do it properly for me.

"MaggieMarley;c-17120896" wrote:
Thank you for sharing your observations @FanPhoria I have to say I’m a little annoyed. I suspect that if e.g. a female sim is married to a male sim, this will mean she has a preference for men and will reject advances from women. No more having my female sims get with Bella Goth I guess :(

To be clear, I'm not certain this is the case. I haven't experimented much yet, and my sampling is small. However, I was noticing that my maxed charisma sim was having a much harder time romancing certain sims for no reason I could discern.

But I think you picked out what the potential issue is here--it makes things very binary. Essentially, it would make it almost impossible for there to be a "bisexual" sim in a relationship, because if they're in a romantic relationship, then whatever that person's gender is is their preference right? And since it's not something we, the player, actually have control over--certainly not with the NPCs and premades--it limits the stories that can be told.

Again, I don't have a problem with their being a preference per se, it's just that this isn't how I personally would have wanted it. Like...a percentage set in CAS--while still imperfect--would be preferable to this. So, there's be, like, a bar with male on one side and female on the other, and you could slide that bar where ever you wanted. You could put it at 100% one thing, or and even 50/50, or 75% female/25% male--whatever you wanted!

I've always wanted something like that for romance/flirty interactions in general too, tbh. So you could set the chance of romantic success for a given sim at Almost Guaranteed, Very High, High, Average, Low, Very Low, and Impossible. Y'know, rather simply an "unflirty" trait, which seems more like an "awkward in romance situations and hates PDA trait, lol.

I mean, then I could actually design a sim like me--I'd set the gender preference at close to 50/50, and then success at being romanced at Very Low--Boom! And actual ace/aro spectrum bisexual in the sims! Amazing!

I'm still very confused. Gender preference, AFAIK, was already in the game, and I've tested this before the patch. I've created sims to be gay, bi, & straight, and in the contextual menu (the first options that show up when you click another sim), I only saw flirt options appear if they were of a gender my active sim was attracted to. What exactly has been changed?

"calaprfy;c-17121053" wrote:
So will a happily-married straight male only ever flirt with females now?

I hope this is the case. I've been so frustrated by my married straight sims flirting with random sims of the the same gender.

"annabethc;c-17120442" wrote:

"luthienrising;c-17120438" wrote:

"annabethc;d-961064" wrote:
In the new patch, in the patch notes there's a note that says "Gender Preference now affects flirt options". Was there a new gender preference feature added? Was there one the whole time? I'm so confused. Can someone please explain what this means?

Hi Annabeth! The way gender preference works in game is that if you have a Sim act romantically with particular other Sims, that will become their preference over time. But you can also use this mod to control it yourself: http://modthesims.info/d/576385/gender-preference-set.html I checked it with the update and it's working in my game.

Thanks for the mod! And my real name's not Annabeth, it's a fictional character's name xD

My real name isn't my username, either, but it's common to call one by their username. It's infinitely better than hey, you? ;)