All my plans Ruined!

[Muisie]

I wonder if the star sign attaction part is stronger than any of the other ones.  That may be why we see sims with only one bolt or even a crossed out bolt obsessing over each other.  Or they're just weird.  (You make me gag!  Want to date?)

[PlaidSquirrel]

Well it is somewhat realistic. How many of us know rl couples who are completely wrong for each other? In fact when I think about it I myself have been half of a couple like that once or twice when I was a teenager.

[angelyne]

Actually I think this is absolutely awesome.  I love that Sims finally have a mind of their own when it comes to love.  It makes things so much more realistic.  And I like that my sims defy me sometimes.  Adds spice to the game.

[simposiast]

I still can't get the hang of the chemistry/attraction/turn-ons/sim-is-hot thing.

One couple I had went from 2 bolts to 1 crossed out, when she left him at the alter. Apart from him being mad at her, wouldn't their chemistry still be the same?

[Regina]

I would think their chemistry should still be the same, but what do I know?  I'm with you--I have a hard time figuring it out sometimes!

Still, I have mainly 3-bolt couples in my game.  My sim-self and sim-hubby have ended up with six kids.  The oldest is married to her 3-bolt ex-Downtownie stud-muffin.  I'm still trying to figure out why it is her younger sister and her boyfriend only have two bolts for each other--everything indicates they should have three.  I'm thinking here it may be a star sign issue.  Maybe I'll try some tweaking with that and see what happens.

Then there's their son who's in a 2-bolt relationship with his prof.  I'm not completely satisfied with that one and think I may try for 3 bolts before he settles down.  He's just started his first semester of his senior year so he still has some time.

Then there's Wally.  Wallys a teen and currently dating one of the Countesses.  I have no clue how many bolts they have but they're so smitten!  His younger half-alien sister fell for their dad's best friend, Abercrombie.  Abercrombie was a Townie I created, then had him move in with the family when they were a bit strapped for cash, had him move out on his own, move in the oldest daughter's future husband, de-age him to a teen so he could go to college, then Abercrombie went on to resurrect the Tricou family, for which he was handsomely rewarded.  Then Cara-Beri, the little green teen, was hanging out at the Panting Lizard one day when in walked Abercrombie, and she was completely lost to him!  So, poor Abercrombie (knowledge sim he is he just shouldn't miss out on anything of life, right?) decided to do the aging experiment on himself, so now he's reverted back to a teen so he can go to college with Cara-Beri.  I think Wally's going to skip college, though.  His lifetime goal is to become a professional party guest.  He's also carrying around a case of vampire potion just in case his galfriend gets a little too friendly.

After playing today I was just really, really glad the youngest child is still a toddler!

I also use Merola's multi-painting and mind-control mirror so that I can try to optimize turn-ons and turn-offs for prospective partners.  It sure makes it a whole lot easier to know quickly if a couple ever will be really attracted to each other.

[J. M. Pescado]

I absolutely hate that too.  The obsession that sims get with a past love also is very annoying.  Hey you graduated like 20 years ago, married and have 3 kids yet you want to flirt with ure college boyfriend everyday? the only way I've found that I can get rid of that is if I put the relationship to 0, even then they still want to do something with a past love.

That effect is the "Random flirt want" effect. it has nothing really do with sim attraction at all. Basically how it works is that, by default, anytime a sim satisfies an interactional want with another sim, if that sim is of a compatible gender, one of the wants that will randomly appear tends to invariably be "Flirt With". Nothing else matters. It's not even coupled to the attraction system, it's basically just entirely random.

The bolts are kind of decieving.  I had a couple who had 1 lighting bolt for each other, then the wife would constantly be dreaming of some townie that I didn't even know.  I found him later but heck no idea when she even met or saw the guy.  I eventually gave in to her, since it gets difficult playing a happily married couple when you have one of them dreaming and fantasising over someone else :/

The thought bubbles are random. Sims will just randomly think about anything that happens to be the subject or object of a recent interaction or memory. There is no deeper meaning, and the random thought bubbles have no connection to a sim's wants.

I also had a sim who just graduated and was obsessing over his college sweetheart (who happened to be romance, not at all suitable for a knowledge guy).  They had 1 bolt together.  I played him for like 15-20 sim days and well no matter who he dated or who he met with I couldn't get him to hate her.  I even made him catch her with someone else.  He was furious with her but still wanted her.  Anyways I managed to find him a 3 bolt townie, they married but that didn't work either.  So in the end, when he turned elder I made him marry her.  Funny thing was he never got any wants towrds his 3 bolt ex-wife ever.  He just lived happily ever after.  Weird huh?

You're reading too much into it. The reason that thought kept coming up was likely because that sim just happened to keep coming up as a discussion topic, likely because she was a romance sim, and by continuously exposing him to her, you were just feeding the apparent obsession.

Sim thought bubbles are essentially random noise, and you should not pay any attention to them whatsoever.

[BlueSoup]

Sim thought bubbles are essentially random noise, and you should not pay any attention to them whatsoever.

Good, because your Sim-self in my game always thinks of Brynne, and my Sim-self was getting ready to kick your ass!

[Oddysey]

Sim thought bubbles are essentially random noise, and you should not pay any attention to them whatsoever.

This is true of human thought bubbles as well. Er, at least, human thoughts.

[BeckerCheez]

Yeah for some odd reason, all my third generation kids who graduated from college kept thinking and talking about Jane Stacks, including hearts flying around her picture.  None of them knew her very well, none of them had attraction to her.  Maybe they were impressed that she had 4 lightening bolts for Martin Ruben.  Who knows at this point, it was just random stuff.   

[seven]

Are 4 lightening bolts possible? I thought 3 was the most you could have.

[BeckerCheez]

It is possible;  I've have several couples with four lightening bolts.   

[seven]

That I've got to see. I have 2 couples with 3 LB each and they won't leave each other alone! So 4 must be something else! 

[BlueSoup]

It is possible;  I've have several couples with four lightening bolts.   

No this was talked about a while ago - the max you can get is 3, although the picture does make it look like there are 4.

[BeckerCheez]

Yeah they're pretty close at 4.  When I first had it happen, the two college kids already had girlfriend/boyfriend relationships with other people.  Once their lovers graduated, they were left in the house alone...and they had 4 bolts.    Autonomous flirting and everything...

Edit:  Huh, interesting...so it is really three...I better go look at that again.   

[Kyna]

Last time someone said they had 4 bolts in their game, they ended up posting a pic.  The pic definitely showed three bolts, but it did look like four bolts at first glance.

[PlaidSquirrel]

Last time i played my game I tried to change my sim self from pleasure to family since she is married with kids now. Unfortunately that took her and her sim husband down to one bolt. Of course I imediately switched back to pleasure. There's no way she's letting him get away! I was disappointed, but not really suprised I guess, to see that their asperation played such a huge part in their chemistry.

[Muisie]

Yep, it's quite ironic if you go back to Pleasantville and notice how many family-romance couples are in there.

[Dark Trepie]

Yep, it's quite ironic if you go back to Pleasantville and notice how many family-romance couples are in there.

There's really only one couple like that.  The Oldies.

Two couples if you managed to the Don and Cassandra married.

[BeckerCheez]

Yeah I looked at it again...I swear I cannot tell if this is four or three lightening bolts (btw I dressed Heather Huffington in a frilly dress, seems to suit her ):

[J. M. Pescado]

It clearly looks like 3 to me. You need your eyes checked.

[BeckerCheez]

Maybe so, it's been awhile.   

[Sleepycat]

It clearly looks like 3 to me.

ditto