Question about new update "Gender Preference"???

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I'm confused after reading this thread :/

Can someone offer a simple and clear explanation of what is different now from before? Because I know how it has worked up til this update, but I'm not really seeing anything new in what has been discussed so far.

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?

I don't think it is something you can set without a mod; but more like a hidden skill where it is there but you don't see. My sim as the romantic trait and I notice if I leave her alone, she will flirt with almost anyone if she is feeling flirty (her husband, random sims, the grim reaper, etc...); but noticed she does flirt with male sims more than female sims but had flirted with both on her own.

As for the patch, I think they just tuned it so it would be more or less successful depending on the sims your sims flirted with. If they flirted with male sims, romance with them will be easier than female sims. Not impossible; but you probably have to go out of your way at that point to build up their relationship if you want them to have it instead of flirting on their own as the game at that point sees their preferences for males.

"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? ;)

@GalacticGal Your real name is not GalacticGal and spelled like that...? Gee, I'm utterly inconsolable now :'(

Well, joke aside, the question remains. What exactly does the gender preference update entail?

"FanPhoria;c-17120977" wrote:
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.

This is my concern as well. My concern may turn out to be unfounded, but it is just not clear to me from the patch notes.

Thinking over the attraction system currently in-game, I'm starting to wonder if it'd be more effective to have it be a declarative thing that any sim can set through interaction, like the weather preferences (i.e. just like having the option to tell another sim "yo, I love rain / sun / wind / snow", you could approach another sim and, without flirting with them and affecting their gender preference, have an option to say "yo, I love dudes / ladies / both dudes & ladies / neither dudes nor ladies").

Well, let's start with what the gender preference is: In The Sims 4 the gender preference is like a hidden score checker and can be seen if you have MCCC. It has a score that goes from 0 to 100 for male and female, and this should supposedly set your sims preference through actions, such as you commanding them to flirt with someone. If you make your sim only flirt with male sims, then the score will be set to male: 100. Female:0. Or you make them flirt with both male and female, then they get 100 on both, or some other number, depending how much and equally you do it. The high score means that is your sim's preference.
It is not set in stone. It will change depending on what you make them do romantic interactions to.

A system that should supposedly work, but it doesn't. For one, compared to the previous gender preference system from TS3, it doesn't have a negative score, just 0. The negative one made your sim not being interested in that sex at all. In other words making them straight or gay. The 0 score makes that impossible.
It also seem to be strange in what interactions it thinks add to these scores. Sometimes friendly ones adds to it aswell.
Nor does it seem to follow its own scores that well since sims rarely seem to actually have a preference even if one is at 100 and the other is at 0. Sims just flirt with everything when they are in the mood to flirt.

In the end, the system isn't good. Not only is the hidden nature of it confusing and leaves more questions than answers, but it doesn't seem to work either!
I think it would be better if they just gave us a CAS option to set sims preferences. Perhaps on a slider, where one end is 100% for the opposite sex, the other 100% for the same sex and in between those all the combinations for both sexes. Also, an asexual option below it. Or maybe a slider on that one aswell. Newborn sims would of course have these set randomly.

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Now, after that rambling I may call an attempt of explanation. The Patch note!

I think the patch note means, that sims will no longer autonomously flirt with sims that have a very low score.
But that's purely a speculation from me.