Can't ask Sim out

Hi @CastleCatt

I moved your post to tech for troubleshooting. The thread you posted in was from 2015 and mod related at the time.

Are you using any mods in your game ?

Does it happen to all your Sims or just that particular one ?

So kind of you, thank you. I don't use any mods. I have the deluxe version of the base game and about 5 xpacs, and that's all. I played this darned game for over 300 hours (don't tell anyone) with no issue. But now it looks like this issue is now happening to all of my Sims, even after having restored factory settings. Granted, I went to the Community Gallery and used all of my premade sims and buildings in the new test world. Surely they are not bugged. If I have 2 or more romantic interests, the option stays on my phone. I had a Sim that lost the interaction in my original world, so she had a second guy over, flirted some pink into the bar, and the option reappeared. My sim in the test world asked to "just be friends" with several other sims to narrow romantic interests to the one I want her to marry. Strangely, 2 of the ones she broke up with still show up as being romantic interests (hearts instead of just smiley faces on the friendship icon and the romantic text in the relationship description) even with no pink in the bar. And there was a touch of pink in the romance bar of another 2, but it didn't offer the "just be friends" interaction, so I am stuck with my Sim still being interested in several sims. Her phone is fine, so I was hopeful. But I switched to the "boyfriend's" household. He's interested in only 1 Sim, and his phone does not have "Ask on Date" available, nor can I ask her in the Relationship panel. I think if I invite her over it will let me ask. I can check if it would be helpful. (It was working on my original world, so I assume it is fine in the test world.) There's another Sim in that household who also has interest in only 1 Sim, and they also cannot ask on date by phone or relationship panel. So yeah it really looks like, if a Sim is interested in only 1 person, they are not able to call them for a date. Thanks for your time. I appreciate what you do.

Could you try a new save just for testing purposes to see if it's related to the save game or a general issue ?

You don't need to delete your current save, this is just for narrowing down the problem.

No problem, thank you. I hope I did Ok. I didn't redo the test folder method. If I need to, please let me know and I will start again. I created a new save on the same test folder I had already created as per the instructions in the above link. I didn't put any of my uploaded gallery content in the world this time. I just created a Sim then took her to a couple of public places to meet some people. She met 3. When she had built up romance with only one guy, the "Ask on Date" phone interaction did not appear, and I also was unable to ask him on a date through the Relationship panel.

So I had another guy over and she built a little bit of romance with him. Having 2 romantic interests opened up the phone interaction. Interestingly, it only let me use the Relationship panel to ask on date if I had the guy over to her house. If a guy has left her house, I can use only the phone. So that's what happened on a completely pure new save when all I had my Sim do was meet 3 people and flirt with 2. I did have her watch about 10 seconds of TV. I have no idea if any of this information is helpful at all. I apologize. I am not tech savvy at all.

I will be absolutely amazed if this game ever becomes playable again. I really don't see how this can be fixed, and I have no idea what happened. I am sad because there were some other features I hadn't tried yet in some xpacs, but I am grateful that you have taken the time to give this a look.

Crin dear, I am on a different computer. I put Sims 4 on it and started a new save. I got weird results, but not as bad as the other computer.

I met 1 sim, built up some romantic interest, went home, and was not able to Ask on Date by phone or Relationship panel. Did the Relationship panel never work when they aren't at your sim's house? I could have sworn that it used to.

Then I went back out, met a 2nd sim, built up romance bar, and "Ask on Date" appeared as available on my phone and showed both romantic sims as being candidates for asking.

Then I had one over. My sim could ask both her and the other interest on date through phone and the one on the home lot in relationship panel, but couldn't ask the other sim through relationship panel. (Maybe this is normal.)

Then I broke up with one so I would have only 1 romantic interest again. The Ask on Date phone interaction, thus far, is staying available. I can't ask her on a date via the relationship panel when she is away from my sim's lot, but I can use the panel if I invite her over (which is strange because the interactions on that panel look like they are mostly for remotely calling a sim.)

This might mean, though, that if I choose to have a Sim only ever flirt with one other Sim, they might never be able to ask them on a date via phone. They would have to flirt with a 2nd sim to get the option to pop up at all. This really seems very strange. I commit a lot of user error. I apologize if this has been normal Simming from day 1 and maybe I only just now noticed how quirky it is. The game did completely break on me once before. The "First Kiss" option completely disappeared on all Sim interactions, and all of the Sims' romantic categories opened up as if my Sim had already First Kissed everyone on the whole world. lol. I didn't report it. I just started a new save and it seemed fine. But all of my Sims lost all of their money and stuff and a lot of the familial relationships are gone because I had to rebuild everything and pull them out of the gallery to start over. So I think my main concern isn't so much a quirky bug. Sims has always had  those in spades. Most of them are fixable by going to "Manage Worlds" and coming back or by going to build mode and moving things around. I am just afraid of investing another bunch of hours into building up careers and working hard to reach long term goals just to have this bug spiral into the whole thing breaking on me again. You're such a doll to spend some time looking at this. If this is a typical bug that happens to everyone and won't get worse, maybe just knowing that will reassure me and I can enjoy the game again without worrying it will get worse. <3

It is possible that it's always been that way. I usually don't use the relationship panel. Just the phone but I tried and I see what you see. They have to come over to be asked out.

I do however have the option on the phone but then after I canceled the traveling, it was gone. So it does seem a bit weird. Like the game thought my Sim was on a date when they aren't.

I think this is how it should be

1. Ask out on a date should always be available (unless maybe you're on a date)
2. On the romantic menu it only appears if the Sim is actually on the lot
3. As interaction when you see the Sims face to face.

I am with you. It should always appear on the phone and stay there whenever you have 1 or more romantic interests. It should also always be available in the Romantic category when face to face. I really don't pay much attention to the Relationship panel. Right now I have 2 sims living on the same lot who are romantic only with each other and no one else. She is able to ask on date with her phone, and he is not. This is much better than how it was on my other computer. But yeah it is still weird. I will play it on this different computer until it finally breaks again. I appreciate your feedback and time so much. You have been very kind.

Edit: Ok upon logging back in they have both lost the phone interaction. I have used it before with a married couple. But they live on the same lot, so that is still playable. It simply makes me nervous as I play additional Sims. :P Thanks again!

Hi @CastleCatt

Could you create a thread in the bug forum for the missing phone interaction https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/bd-p/The-Sims-4-Bugs ?

It does seem odd and inconsistent.