I just don't get it...

[Valden21]

...my household consists of two female sims I made, both of them female vampires in a relationship with each other. For some reason, I can't get their relationship to anything higher than "Romantic Interest". It seems to be stuck there. No matter how many times I have them get romantic with each other, the relationship bar never seems to advance, which bugs me because I would like to have these two sims marry each other.

[igazor]

The relationship bar shows two sims' social relationships (how friendly they are towards each other and how much they like, hate, or are indifferent to each other). It does not show romantic relationship progress except by way of a status icon. And it does max out at 100, or fully green. Are you unable to get it that far?

If an uninterrupted, and it must indeed be uninterrupted, very long string of romantic interactions (no friendly, funny, mean, no bathroom breaks or answering the phone, petting the dog, etc.) does not EVER lead to Ask to Go Steady, which would be the next step, then one might think one of them already has a partner or has traits not conducive to a committed relationship . A partner in TS3 is defined as Steady or higher and each sim can usually only have one at a time. Might that be possible or might one of them be hung up on a past relationship that isn't clearing the way for them to progress with someone else?

These things become much easier to investigate, troubleshoot, and fix if necessary with mod usage but as I recall you are not using mods?

[Valden21]

Originally posted by igazor:

The relationship bar shows two sims' social relationships (how friendly they are towards each other and how much they like, hate, or are indifferent to each other). It does not show romantic relationship progress except by way of a status icon. And it does max out at 100, or fully green. Are you unable to get it that far?

If an uninterrupted, and it must indeed be uninterrupted, very long string of romantic interactions (no friendly, funny, mean, no bathroom breaks or answering the phone, petting the dog, etc.) does not EVER lead to Ask to Go Steady, which would be the next step, then one might think one of them already has a partner or has traits not conducive to a committed relationship . A partner in TS3 is defined as Steady or higher and each sim can usually only have one at a time. Might that be possible or might one of them be hung up on a past relationship that isn't clearing the way for them to progress with someone else?

These things become much easier to investigate, troubleshoot, and fix if necessary with mod usage but as I recall you are not using mods?

Correct, I am not using mods. Neither of them have been in any past relationships, and both of them are sims that I've made. At first, I thought it was connected to the fact that they're both vampires. However, you mentioned that a string of romantic interaction between the two of them has to be interrupted, and I'm starting to think that might have something to do with it. There are times in the past where they were being lovey-dovey, and it was interrupted due to outside circumstances. So that's the reason, and I just have to ensure that they be lovey-dovey for long time with no interruptions?

[Haeloth]

On the top left, it should say "extremely irresistible" or something like that when doing romantic interactions, if I remember correctly.

[igazor]

Yep, that's correct. We call that short term context (STC).

The uninterrupted string of interactions has to proceed from Sim A thinks Sim B is being OK, flirty, alluring, through to irresistible. It will drop backwards at times even if not interrupted, but outside influences and either sim not having their needs met (bladder, fun, hunger, energy, thirst in the case vamps, social but that doesn't make sense if they are standing there talking to each other anyway) will cause it to start over at OK or slide backwards. It can even go negative, as in Sim A thinks Sim B is being inappropriate, weird, creepy, making Sim A uncomfortable, whatever the other negative ones are.

All of the interaction types have strings like that -- social, funny, mean each have their own with different payoffs by way of suddenly available interactions that would never otherwise show up at either end of them.

There are things we can provide these sims with to help those strings along and get faster results, sometimes. In the case of romance, those would include herbs (cinnamon from Uni), romantic drinks (Late Night), elixirs and mood lights (Supernatural), and various traits, moodlets, and LTRs that are more conducive to romance and attraction. Each one of them will oil the STC machine, so to speak, in different ways.

It's all part of the fun of the game. Or it's all a royal pain in the sim, depends on how one looks at it and approaches things. :)

[Valden21]

Originally posted by igazor:

Yep, that's correct. We call that short term context (STC).

The uninterrupted string of interactions has to proceed from Sim A thinks Sim B is being OK, flirty, alluring, through to irresistible. It will drop backwards at times even if not interrupted, but outside influences and either sims not having their needs met (bladder, hunger, energy, thirst in the case vamps) will cause it to start over at OK or slide backwards. It can even go negative, as in Sim A thinks Sim B is being inappropriate, weird, making me uncomfortable, whatever the other negative ones are.

All of the interaction types have strings like that -- social, funny, mean each have their own with different payoffs by way of suddenly available interactions that would never otherwise show up at either end of them.

There are things we can provide these sims with to help those strings along and get faster results, sometimes. In the case of romance, those would include herbs (cinnamon from Uni), romantic drinks (Late Night), elixirs (Supernatural), and various traits and LTRs that are more conducive to romance and attraction. Each one of them will oil the STC machine, so to speak, in different ways.

On average, how long does the string of positive interactions take to go from "Alluring" to "Irresistible"? Both of my sims have the "Flirty" trait", and their interactions with each other go from "Flirty" to "Alluring" like *finger snap* that.

[igazor]

The Flirty trait on both sims should be helping, sounds like it already is somewhat. But there is no one answer to that as every sim couple is different. Some of them do take a long time to warm up to romance and commitments, some of them seem to jump into it much faster. And some of them will jump into commitments and even marriage but seem totally against the idea of woohoo and other forms of physical expression at least for a while.

Have they been on many dates yet? Do they know pretty much everything about each other by now, even the more inconsequential stuff like alma maters and what they each like to do?

[Valden21]

Originally posted by igazor:

The Flirty trait on both sims should be helping, sounds like it already is somewhat. But there is no one answer to that as every sim couple is different. Some of them do take a long time to warm up to romance and commitments, some of them seem to jump into it much faster. And some of them will jump into commitments and even marriage but seem totally against the idea of woohoo and other forms of physical expression at least for a while.

Have they been on many dates yet? Do they know pretty much everything about each other by now, even the more inconsequential stuff like alma maters and what they each like to do?

They've been on a few dates so far, but they both have jobs so I have to coordinate the dates for when they both have the next day off. I don't have the college DLC, and both my sims started off as young adults. I do have the "Supernatural" DLC, and I had one of them start out as a vampire, and she turned the other sim into a vampire. As to how much they know about each other, one of them still has to learn one trait about the other. Other than that, they share pretty much the same interests. I made them with the intent of them being a band, so I tried to make sure that their interests were as close to each other as I could get.

[Valden21]

Originally posted by igazor:

Yep, that's correct. We call that short term context (STC).

The uninterrupted string of interactions has to proceed from Sim A thinks Sim B is being OK, flirty, alluring, through to irresistible. It will drop backwards at times even if not interrupted, but outside influences and either sim not having their needs met (bladder, fun, hunger, energy, thirst in the case vamps, social but that doesn't make sense if they are standing there talking to each other anyway) will cause it to start over at OK or slide backwards. It can even go negative, as in Sim A thinks Sim B is being inappropriate, weird, creepy, making Sim A uncomfortable, whatever the other negative ones are.

All of the interaction types have strings like that -- social, funny, mean each have their own with different payoffs by way of suddenly available interactions that would never otherwise show up at either end of them.

There are things we can provide these sims with to help those strings along and get faster results, sometimes. In the case of romance, those would include herbs (cinnamon from Uni), romantic drinks (Late Night), elixirs and mood lights (Supernatural), and various traits, moodlets, and LTRs that are more conducive to romance and attraction. Each one of them will oil the STC machine, so to speak, in different ways.

It's all part of the fun of the game. Or it's all a royal pain in the sim, depends on how one looks at it and approaches things. :)

YES! Your mention of romantic drinks is what did it. One of my sims has enough Mixology skill to make romantic drinks, and I had her make a tray of them. One Romantic Drink each, and after a few romantic interactions, the option to go steady appeared. My sims are officially a couple now. Thanks for the help, you are swiftly becoming the person I most turn to answers in these forums.

[igazor]

What I've basically taught you is that sims may be more responsive to an "I love you" if you get them drunk (LN drinks) or drugged (Uni herbs) first. Not sure how good I should feel about the compliment, but maybe I should just take it gracefully and keep quiet. :)

[HiFive]

In the World Adventures DLC, you can buy an incense burner in France that puts Sims in a romantic mood.

[Valden21]

Originally posted by igazor:

What I've basically taught you is that sims may be more responsive to an "I love you" if you get them drunk (LN drinks) or drugged (Uni herbs) first. Not sure how good I should feel about the compliment, but maybe I should just take it gracefully and keep quiet. :)

I'm thanking you for putting me on a path that solved an issue that I was having, nothing more.

[igazor]

Originally posted by Valden21:

I'm thanking you for putting me on a path that solved an issue that I was having, nothing more.

And all I was doing was attempting to make a joke at my own expense, nothing more. Sorry if you didn't find it amusing.

[Valden21]

Originally posted by igazor:

Originally posted by Valden21:

I'm thanking you for putting me on a path that solved an issue that I was having, nothing more.

And all I was doing was attempting to make a joke at my own expense, nothing more. Sorry if you didn't find it amusing.

Well, it IS often hard to tell when a person is joking in online forums like this. I didn't see the smiley face you had on your post.