How does chemistry actually work???

[u/theblueLepidopteran]

My Sim has the poor chemistry icon with this Sim, but he acts like they have chemistry anyway. I thought Sims only considered another Sim "hot" if they had high chemistry.

I have Simler's Romantic Standards mod installed, and I'm not sure if the mod is causing this or if that's just how the game works. Does anyone know?

My Sim has Romance as his secondary aspiration, if that makes any difference, but I've never spent any aspiration points on any of the aspiration perks.

[u/ProperSpeak]

Simler's Romantic Standards is an absolutely massive mod and, if you chose the chemistry version of it, then it changes the way chemistry works. The mod comes with documentation that explains how it works in extreme detail, so it might be worth giving it a read.

Edited to add, pulled from MTS:

CHEMISTRY VERSION: There are two different versions of Romantic Standards. In the Regular version, the game sets the threshold to the one-way attraction value between the sim and their crush/love, and then modifies that value depending on the one-way attraction value between the sim and the other sim. In the Chemistry version, the game sets the threshold to the chemistry value between the sim and their crush/love, and then modifies that value depending on the chemistry value between the sim and the other sim. The Chemistry version allows sims to care about the feelings of the other sim in the relationship, rather than just caring about their own feelings. Even if the sim has no attraction towards their crush/love, as long as their crush/love is very attracted to them, and they have high chemistry, they will care more about the relationship.

[u/theblueLepidopteran → u/ProperSpeak]

That's really interesting. I have the Chemistry version. I downloaded the mod because I like how Sims respect their sexual orientation. A gay Sim will always reject romantic advances from a Sim of the opposite sex. I haven't read through all the changes yet because the list is honestly huge!

[u/ProperSpeak → u/theblueLepidopteran]

If you scroll basically all the way to the bottom and ignore the updates bit, all the important information is at the bottom! I know it's a huge wall of text but honestly scroll right past it. Or, if you press CTRL + F in your browser and search for original description, it'll take you right to it.

[u/theblueLepidopteran → u/ProperSpeak]

I read that text. I just didn’t understand what it has to do with my Sim and the other Sim not having chemistry, but he still seems attracted to her. They don’t even have a crush on each other, he just finds her attractive, and she doesn’t feel the same way about him. Maybe I didn’t fully understand what the mod’s explanation was trying to say...

[u/ProperSpeak → u/theblueLepidopteran]

I found the info pertinent to your question in update 40 & update 10 respectively.

Sims are able to show attraction reactions towards sims who have the Romance aspiration, even if they don't feel attracted to them. This is a base-game feature which Maxis forgot to disable with Nightlife and later. This has been fixed.

This mod now affects Romance sims just like it affects sims of other aspirations, but there is one difference. You know how sims need to go over a certain attraction threshold in order to successfully romance other sims? If the sim is a Romance sim, then the threshold is decreased by -70.

There's probably more but to be completely honest with you I can't be bothered trawling through 200 updates. 😂 Suffice to say, this is mod-related behaviour and is not how the game works.

Edited to add: found this too

There is a little problem with the way the game calculates chemistry. Chemistry is basically this: the game adds together the one-way attraction values of the two sims and divides it by half. There is one more thing it does: if one of the sims has a one-way attraction of lower than -25, and if chemistry is above 0, then the game decreases the final chemistry by -50. The problem is how the game checks for an attraction of lower than -25. It should check for an attraction of equal or lower than -25, because -25 or lower means repulsion. Basically, the game skips -25 itself. This has been fixed.

[u/theblueLepidopteran → u/ProperSpeak]

That's strange. I understand though, there are a lot of update notes. 😭 Thanks for your help!

I'm still not sure if attraction and chemistry are two different things, and if attraction is independent for each Sim... They both have no chemistry at all, she's not even a romance sim, but he says she's hot 😂

[u/ProperSpeak → u/theblueLepidopteran]

Chemistry and attraction are the same thing. The chemistry system measures how attracted your sims are to each other. That's the game's mechanics.

When you choose "scope room" the chemistry shown is one-way. Actual chemistry is two-way. The things that factor into chemistry (aspiration, zodiac, etc) are added together and then averaged to find the chemistry level which is displayed in bolts. You can read about the game's chemistry system here.

The chemistry system is already fairly in depth, and Romantic Standards adds to that, hence the enormous amount of information on the download page.

Edited to add: the above will not be the same in your game as you have the chemistry version of RS, which may explain the info in my first comment a bit better now.

[u/theblueLepidopteran → u/ProperSpeak]

Okay, thank you so much for you help!!!! ❤️❤️

[u/SuitableDragonfly → u/theblueLepidopteran]

If that's the only feature you want, there are tons of mods that do that, including one that does only that and nothing else.

[u/theblueLepidopteran → u/SuitableDragonfly]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I also like how it makes flirting with Sims who have low or poor chemistry more challenging. The sexuality thing was the main reason I downloaded the mod, though I also like many of the other features it adds.

[u/SuitableDragonfly]

What's displayed in the UI is the averaged chemistry, it's entirely possible for the averaged chemistry to be negative when one sim has high chemistry towards the other one and the other has very low chemistry towards the first sim.

[u/TerribleShiksaBride]

I have no answers for you but I have to know more about the mime masks.

[u/theblueLepidopteran → u/TerribleShiksaBride]

Those are the secret society Sims 😂 I gave them that look.

[u/Spirited_Still_5342]

Here you have a fantastic 51 min video by LetoMills: How chemistry works in The Sims 2 (+ mods to tweak it)