Sexual Orientation Options Unclear

That is a lot of excitement, and while I don't have the answer to how game mechanics work with aro woohoo, it sounds charmingly true to life that so many mixed signals and misunderstandings could happen even with the best of intentions. It might so be that when Errol is fine with separating woohoo from romantic feelings, Deanna may not be, even if she agreed to it at first.
Happens all the time.
I do hope you get good answers so you can sort out the game mechanics to fit your scenario though. ?

Yeah thanks. I kind of put the family on hold while I sort this. The latest in this drama is that Errol and Deanna came home from the hospital with their new son and Makoa is still there.

Deanna kissed Errol in front of Makoa and both her and Errol got mischief emotes floating around for it. Makoa got angry but decided to immediately tell a joke to Deanna. This is a strange scenario.

Deanna then asked Errol about his romantic interests. Before Errol could even answer that he was only romantically interested in women, Makoa got angry.

Errol made this life choice because of all of the romantical drama that Makoa is bringing into this. Beforehand, he wasn't opposed to romance with men (if he were single).

Makoa just can't seem to take a hint. If he wasn't so cute, I'm sure Errol would have broke off the woohoo partnership altogether by now.

Anyway, until I can understand more fully how the mechanics work, I'm not touching this family again. I don't want to see Errol and Deanna divorce over this.

Okay so I created a new household to further test the SO and I'm starting to see something interesting.

@ignominiusrex you made a point that kind of stuck with me. Now, after I think I'm seeing it play out, it makes sense.

You said that maybe like in real life, a partner may say it's cool for you to have a woohoo buddy. But then when it happens, the partner may not be cool with it.

So my new household is a single person named Shayne Whitaker. He is single and I believe I went in and set his orientation to Romance: Men and Women, exploring on and Woohoo: Men and Women.

I then created an offworld character named Shawn Tolbert. I left his orientations default which means Romance: Neither, exploring on and Woohoo: Men and Women.

Shayne then asked Shawn to be his roommate. This would give Shawn full autonomy. In the course of time, Shayne asked Shawn what his Romance orientation was to which Shawn replied "I'm still trying to figure things out." Which actually sounds very real (and a bit meta since the game may actually be gathering data to set his preferences up). As for woohoo, Shawn is interested in both. So now, they are woohoo partners.

Now this is where things get interesting. I thought that having no romantic interests meant that he would not want to be romantically involves with anyone. Apparently that's all on the exploring option (very ?!). Because checking his profile, Shawn now is romantically interested in men. I'm assuming this is due to the one romantic interaction that he's had so far (Shayne asking his orientation).

So it's seeming like the player has a heavy influence on the characters around them through gameplay. BUT this is one character in one test so I'll have to explore more.

Now, maybe it's because he's still trying to figure things out. Maybe not but Shawn just blew Shayne a kiss which was well received. So immediately, I demanded that Shayne put the brakes on that romance stuff. This made Shawn sad but they agreed.

They share a bed and woohoo though Shawn doesn't automatically agree to it as past couples have. I actually have to have pleasant friendly conversations with him to work up to the woohoo. That's amazing! It turns out that Shawn refuses to just be a toy that Shayne gets to play with anytime he wants!

If I'm right about all of these things, then I am finally super excited about this new feature!

So, in terms of the "What's the point of having a friends-only woohoo option if the spouse is still gonna get jealous?" question, that ultimately boils down to the nature of how relationships work in the sims 4 and how simple they are. There are no "ask for a side partner" options and it's ultimately either "they don't care" or "absolutely not even flirting."

Because you're in a romantic relationship in the game, having a no-strings-attached partner IS considering cheating. But only because the game doesn't have a more complex relationship system that allows more variances of relationship types.

The no-strings-attached relationship setting only involves no strings with the two participants, but because you're still woohoo'ing with someone else (and the no jealousy trait); it's considered "cheating" since they're in a relationship (married/dating). As far as the flirting goes, I imagine that might be due to the "romance orientation, exploring" status + I think after HSY's patch & release I heard that a lot of the automatic flirting socializations became more frequent.

I would recommend turning romance orientation off for any woohoo partners that you are not playing as, and maybe give the married person in the "friends with benefits" relationship the player trait reward so their spouse doesn't get jealous. It's not ideal, but until the system allows more options in dating/marriage relationships and becomes more complex; that might be the best you can do for now.

The no-strings-attached option was likely made in mind for aromantics as the game doesn't really recognize open-marriage dynamics beyond "they never get jealous at all or they do get jealous."

@PenguinFoop
I'll try to explain in simple terms. So, first, just forget the "interested in romance" settings because they have nothing to do with jealousy. "Friendly woohoo" counts the same as romantic woohoo. The trigger for jealousy is the boyfriend/girlfriend status. You are right, marrying someone will make them get jealous where they weren't before. So if you want a sim to have two partners and no jealousy you have several options: either have the sim stay "single" asking neither of their partners for anything official. Or get the "player" trait, either by completing the "serial romantic" aspiration or by cheating it in. Or use mods. I think MCC can turn off jealousy completely.

So with this new household there have been some developments that have me scratching my head.

So Shawn kept flirting with Shayne although they were in a woohoo only friendship so Shayne had to keep reminding him that he doesn't want a romance.

Well, in time Shawn started dating this other guy. He even kissed the guy in front of Shayne but there were no negative consequences. Now, Shawn just called Shayne to say that he thinks Fuifui is going to propose to him. He asked Shayne what to do.

Shayne now has the "Single and living it" lifestyle so it shouldn't affect him. But for some reason, I am affected by this!!! I'm trying to remain neutral but failing.

Anyway, my point is that if Shawn and Fuifui get married, I'm afraid Shayne will lose his woohoo partner but maybe I can get some further insight into how the mechanics work. Because I'll be able to see if Fuifui gets jealous when Shayne asks Shawn for a woohoo when Fuifui is in the room.

I wish someone could explain in more detail how exactly the settings work so I don't have to do so much experimentation. Ugh!

Thanks for the clarity. So basically the jealousy will always remain in any type of intimate relationship. It's all just labeling.

In other words, if you're in a romantically labeled relationship (something with a status) with one sim, even if it's not sexual, you can't be in a sexual relationship with another sim without the player trait?

"PenguinFoop;d-1004342" wrote:
So my sim, Errol recently became Makoa's woohoo partner. Unfortunately, Errol accidentally flirted with Makoa so there became a romantic interest between them.

This was problematic for Deanna; Errol's wife, when she, Errol and Makoa were in the living room and Errol asked Makoa if he wanted to woohoo.

Deanna got jealous so immediately after the woohoo, Errol apologized. All seemed to be forgiven.

Errol then told Makoa that he only wanted to be friends (while also remaining woohoo partners). Makoa agreed. However, Makoa keeps flirting with Errol and it's causing problems between Errol and Deanna.

To complicate matters, Errol (a 2 star celebrity) used his PR person to get him invited to a celebrity party where he met Derrick (I think is his name.) After that, Errol invited Derrick, Makoa, Lilliana and several of his other friends to an incognito party.

Well, Deanna complimented Lilliana's costume which apparently Lilliana took wrong and flirted with Deanna in front of Makoa, Errol, Derrick (our guest of honor) and everyone else! Oh the drama!

Now, Errol and Makoa were angry (I'm assuming both at Deanna who is innocent) and Errol keeps getting paranoid about Deanna cheating on him. Nevermind that Makoa keeps flirting with Errol in front of Deanna!

I've tried switching the settings every which way but Makoa won't take the hint. Errol just wants his side toy with no emotional strings attached!

How does he achieve this with Makoa?

Will Deanna always get angry when Errol and Makoa woohoo or is it because of the romantic bar? The woohoo is under the friendship menu for them so it's not the romantic type.

What's the point of having a friends-only woohoo option if the spouse is still gonna get jealous?

Because woohooing with any sim other that your spouse is still cheating even in the game.

If you want to keep them married then I would put everyone but Errol and Deanna in rooms with no doors. ?