More realistic/difficult relationships?
Ennarys:
Quote from: elle.jae on 2007 July 07, 01:07:41
I agree that Sim relationships are too easy. My problem is more that you can get them maxed out really fast and then it just sits there - there's no change in STR/LTR unless you make one sim do something to upset another. I'd rather have more autonomous negative behavior, and make it continue even if two sims have a high relationship score.
Rather than type out the whole thing, I'll just post the link to the thread I started about it: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,6633.0.html
I too would like for relationships to be more difficult to maintain. It is unrealistic to me that it takes more effort to damage a relationship that it does to maintain it. The romance of a marriage should fade if the couple doesn't make time in their busy lives to interact and work at keeping their love alive. Every marriage in my neighborhood is perfect by default, that just doesn't seem right.
J. M. Pescado:
Quote from: Ennarys on 2007 July 11, 00:57:52
I too would like for relationships to be more difficult to maintain. It is unrealistic to me that it takes more effort to damage a relationship that it does to maintain it. The romance of a marriage should fade if the couple doesn't make time in their busy lives to interact and work at keeping their love alive. Every marriage in my neighborhood is perfect by default, that just doesn't seem right.
The paradox of maintenance is that more maintenance will actually make it EASIER to keep. If there is no "maintenance", you're not obligated to do anything, so any state becomes a potentially stable state. More maintenance would simply force this tiresome chore on you. It's the same reason why in Life Stories, a relationship can be allowed to simply "slide" at 60, but in the Real Thing, everything goes to 100/100 because you're forced to maintain it. Maintenance turns things into all or nothing.
Ennarys:
Quote from: J. M. Pescado on 2007 July 11, 04:45:16
Quote from: Ennarys on 2007 July 11, 00:57:52
I too would like for relationships to be more difficult to maintain. It is unrealistic to me that it takes more effort to damage a relationship that it does to maintain it. The romance of a marriage should fade if the couple doesn't make time in their busy lives to interact and work at keeping their love alive. Every marriage in my neighborhood is perfect by default, that just doesn't seem right.
The paradox of maintenance is that more maintenance will actually make it EASIER to keep. If there is no "maintenance", you're not obligated to do anything, so any state becomes a potentially stable state. More maintenance would simply force this tiresome chore on you. It's the same reason why in Life Stories, a relationship can be allowed to simply "slide" at 60, but in the Real Thing, everything goes to 100/100 because you're forced to maintain it. Maintenance turns things into all or nothing.
O.k. i think I get it...no I don't, but I trust you.
J. M. Pescado:
Basically, there are two outcomes to relationship decay:
1. Players do not maintain them, and all relationships thus collapse.
2. Players DO maintain them, and naturally, overcompensate in an attempt to reduce the amount of maintenance, or simply because maintaining at a very specific level is more work than simply letting it go to 100. Relationships now never collapse because of overcompensation in maintenance.
It is believed that "enemies accumulate" currently maintains a satisfactory balance between these two extremes.
Farsight:
Quote from: J. M. Pescado on 2007 July 11, 07:11:17
Basically, there are two outcomes to relationship decay:
1. Players do not maintain them, and all relationships thus collapse.
2. Players DO maintain them, and naturally, overcompensate in an attempt to reduce the amount of maintenance, or simply because maintaining at a very specific level is more work than simply letting it go to 100. Relationships now never collapse because of overcompensation in maintenance.
It is believed that "enemies accumulate" currently maintains a satisfactory balance between these two extremes.
But, if Sims' personalities affected their max LTR with other Sims, AND made interactions less positive / more volatile, the result would be that chemistry and compatiblity would be more important, making any relationship successful would be more rewarding, and making 'incompatible' Sims a successful couple (or friends even) would be an actual challenge.
In that situation, two Sims with similar interests and personalities would have a max LTR of 100, and would be more likely to have positive interactions, so could probably remain at or near 100 with nothing more than conversation over a meal now and then.
Conversely, somewhat compatible Sims might have a max LTR of 80, and would have a few more negative interactions, making it necesarry to set aside some "couples time" if you want them to stay on good terms.
Somewhat incompatible Sims might have a max LTR of 60, making their relationship a real struggle, and very volatile / prone to fights + making up, etc...
Very incompatible Sims might have a max LTR of 20, making it impossible for them to get along beyond the short-term, and making them very likely to become enemies at the drop of a hat.
Seeing that kind of wide array of personalities and interactions in the game would make it infinitely more engaging to me, and greatly reduce the feeling that beyond their appearance nothing about a Sim really matters. If a player chooses a friend/mate for their Sim that is incompatible, the increased maintenance required to keep the relationship going becomes a balancing factor (maintenance might be the wrong word as well, since their social interactions wouldn't reliably push their STR/LTR upwards any longer - them interacting could just lead to a fight) - you might even choose to have your Sim cheat on their spouse because another Sim is easier to get a long with... the social/relationship system in the game would have far more depth.
Out of curiosity, are the following possible to mod currently w/ what is known about BHAVs, etc?
1) Capping a Sims' LTR with another Sim (I know Life Stories does this for 'your' Sim)
2) Changing how a positive/negative social interaction is calculated (like if a Chat is successful or fails)
3) Changing the calculation for how many points a social interaction gives (like a positive Chat giving +5 STR)
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