Sims Talk: Issue with sim memories

[strangetomato]

I'm having a really weird game issue and it's driving me crazy. Ripp and Nervous were best friends, since they both rolled the want (I'm all about filling wants, within reason). After a couple of phone calls, they were all set. Then I just played along in their normal lives for a while, and they didn't see each other, since they don't exactly cross paths all that often. Soon, I get the message that Nervous has lost Ripp as a family friend, but retain they retain the BF sign, as usual. A couple of interactions should boost it back to friends, right? WRONG! They both lose best friend status instead.

Allow me to illustrate...




So Ripp meets Nervous, a guy in the middle of a severe withdrawal, and decides that he simply MUST be best friends with him. Since, you know, the guy must have good connections, or something, and you can never befriend too many drug addicts, right?

So he calls him up a couple of times, and BAM - best friend status.




Ripp: Aliens? Yeah, I like aliens. Wait... who told you about that? 




Ripp: So... completely hypothetical question, but if you were a woman, who's the one guy you would sleep with? John Stamos? No? That hot guy downtown, right? Me too! Did we just become best friends?

So, as you can clearly see from this conversation, they MUST be best friends.




More proof right here. This is after the relationship has faded away a little, so no "friend", but "best friend" is still intact, but hanging by a thread. A little hug should fix that up nicely.




Nervous: You want ME to hug HIM? Oh, I guess so...




So far, so good...




Then this happens.

Completely positive interaction, and they regain "friend" status, but "best friends" status is lost. Why? I tried building the relationship up by phone again and this still happens. Why can't I keep it? Is it too close to being lost to retain it? Is this a known issue? It even happens when I InSIM them to best friends.

This isn't such a big deal, since it's just a memory, but it's the principle of the thing that bugs me here. Does anyone know what might be going on? I searched around, but found no details on this specific occurrence.

ETA: After reading some of the comments, I decided to check Ripp's relationship panel.




Aha! This is the real reason they are still best friends. Ripp's score is still 50. A quick scan of the Prima guide confirms that 50 is indeed the break limit, but it must fall below that point for both before they lose the status.

(Also notice that Ripp has no worries of falling into the same trouble with Johnny and Phi. Oh, and he's hot for Phi. No surprise there.)




Time to Bust a Move! 

(Ripp does this autonomously sometimes, and it cracks me up. The bragging does too.)




Nervous approves.




Still the same problem. This continues to make no sense to me, since the game guide says that they won't lose the BF status until both fall below 50 and Ripp did not. (I know the game guide can be sketchy, though...)

*sigh*

Comments

[dothesmustle.livejournal.com]

I think it is because your sims need to have a 50+ long term relationship with another in order to be best friends.

This is *probably* a bug on Maxis' part, but they stay best friends until they interact with eachother.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I thought that they held the status until it dropped lower, and they could keep it with a lower score than it took to gain it. It's been that way for me in the past, and as long as they kept the icon, I could just build it back up. It's like that for a crush and love too. They hold those for a very long time.

But... maybe I could get it back if I did an interaction that boosted back up to 50 in one move? Is that even possible? Would Bust a Move pull it off?

The fact that InSIM can't do it makes me think it's just a bug or something similarly messed up.

[dothesmustle.livejournal.com]

Whenever my sim loses a friend, they lose them as a family friend, but they maintain best friend status until they interact in any form.

Bust a move can probably pull it off. I would suggest a dirty joke, but Nervous is shy, shy sims usually don't enjoy dirty jokes.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

And when they interact again, they lose best friend status for you too? That just doesn't make sense to me, but at least it's not just happening in my game.

Okay, so I'll have to get Ripp to Bust a Move, and hopefully Nervous will accept it, but you never know with poor ol' Nervous. He's a touchy guy. Good thing Ripp can Bust a Move like nobody's business.

[dothesmustle.livejournal.com]

That is usually what happens. I think it was an error on Eaxis' part that they probably thought was not much of a big deal to fix. :/

It is funny to think of Ripp busting a move to Nervous,

Ripp: "Oh, your mom is dead, you're suffering from drug withdrawal, and you used to be used as a test subject?This'll cheer you right up!"

Nervous: "*quivers in fear*"

Nervous is a sensitive one, too! I think he was upset, because there weren't any creepy, dead animal heads on the wall.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, no big deal at all, EAxis! I'll bet it would be super easy to fix too.

I just added a couple of pics of Ripp busting a move on Nervous. Pretty cute.

Nice pic. :D Always the art critic, eh Nervous?

[sinderellah.livejournal.com]

I don't think Sims will become best friends until the lifetime relationship is 50 or 55, so I guess if they aren't regular friends, they lose the best friend status? I know what you mean though, it happens with my Sims too, and it's really annoying!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

They usually hold the BF status longer, in my experience. Until it drops to 40, maybe. I guess the idea is that if you're best friends, you hold onto the relationship, even if you aren't friends in a day to day sense anymore.

The problem with this is that it doesn't usually happen! This defies everything I know to be true about the game.

[simcerely-yours.livejournal.com]

HELLO. I have absolutely nothing to say that could possibly help you, but I just added you to my friends list last night and was thinking about commenting and letting you know when I saw his post, like an omen, on my friends list.

I stayed up until 4AM last night reading every part of your Strangetown story and I love it and I love you and that is all.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Hi there! Nice to meet you too. ^_^ Thanks for making me smile in the midst of my agonizing problem here. I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed the story. Thanks for reading!

Now, if we were sims in my game right now, we might get the "lost a friend" memory for this friendly interaction. *snicker* Why must it not work properly?

[simgarooop.livejournal.com]

Sim relationships (and memories) are so odd that I stopped paying attention to them a long time ago.

Yup, I've got that issue too, between a couple of children. It makes no sense, so I'm sure it must be a bug.

I know there are mods that fix the relationship decay so it makes more sense, but I'm not really sure how.

And now that we are on the topic of Sim relationships, there is something that annoys me of the new BFF status. You just need to have a best friend (LTR over 50) for two days before they become BFF, so now most of my sims are BFF with *everyone* they know.

I think it's pretty silly! BFF were supposed to be "extra-special" with all the new interactions and everything, right?

They should have made it that the two sims must reach a 100/100 relationship, or mantain the best friend status for at least a week before becoming "Best friends FOREVER" (as in best friends for a loooong time). :P

[dothesmustle.livejournal.com]

What REALLY gets me is when my sims become best friends forever with dead sims. That isn't possible! Are they secretly having conversations through a medium in the graveyard or something?

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

WHAT?! When does that happen? Is it a Free Time bug?

Though, at the Specter Estate, it's not too far fetched.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

It wouldn't bother me so much, but I know they'll gossip about it! :P

The relationship decay can be really annoying when the relationship is in the middle like that, since a sim ends up on the phone all of the time if they have a lot of friends (like Ripp - though "friends" might be more accurate. :P They're just booty calls).

I totally agree about the BFFs. I would have assumed that BFF would be dependent on a 100/100 relationship that was maintained for a day or so. I'd still have BFFs if it was that hard to achieve (J/R/O are almost always 100/100).

[franwi.livejournal.com]

I'd agree that it's just too close to that falling-off point to stay intact. Maybe some kickybag would help? ;) But how much do I love that they bonded over "what guy would you do?" Cornrow downtownie guy doesn't know how popular he is!

I also find it funny that Pascal got beat out by Phi and two dogs on the list of Nervous' most adored. ;) And the fact that three dogs are in his top 5 is sorta sad. Poor Nervous.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's the problem. It's too far gone. Nothing helps. Any interaction will lead to losing the Bf status. *sigh* So annoying. Now I have to deal with the gossip.

Seeing sims chatting about hotties always makes me laugh, and Ripp does it a lot (and *ahem* a lot of them are dudes too). I have a really funny example of this for the next set of outtakes.

Nervous has taken in a bunch of stray dogs, and, being a family sim, he's all about playing with them. That's why he has so many canine friends. And Ophelia didn't beat Pascal out by much. It was pretty close. ;)

[sinderellah.livejournal.com]

The one my Sims all think are hot? That naggy Garden Club old lady! Everyone is blowing hearts for her! O_o

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

That must be one foxy old lady! ;)

It seems like those speech bubbles are random to me, since they don't always seem connected to memories. Ripp has talked about a hot girl that he's actually slept with, but in this conversation, I don't think that either of them had even met this guy. Ripp hasn't done any interaction with males (that I know of - but who knows with him), and Nervous hasn't had a romantic interaction with anyone. It might be a second hand memory, though. They seem to like to pass this sort of information on.

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

Haha! With me it's Stella Terrano. Even the teenage girl in the family my brother created thinks so! It's really strange, considering that I don't have any mods to make the teens be able to have romantic interactions with adults, yet she's constantly thinking about her with hearts flying everywhere.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I don't think the conversation bubble with hearts has anything to do with individual attraction. It's like gossip. They just pass the word around about the hotties in town (which amuses me every single time). I guess it starts somewhere, with someone finding the sim attractive, but sometimes I'm really not sure.

[mothproof-ammeh.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I hate the sudden best-friend-loss thing. Even more annoying is when you get them to fall in love, assume now you're good for some making out or face-touching, the sim gets rejected and big glaring "FELL OUT OF LOVE WITH ___" memory forever. And then they fall right back in love a second later but no new memory. These things should have an incubation period or something.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

The way the game handles friend loss is a bit excessive. It's WAY too easy to lose best friends. And I hear you about the rejection from sims in love. There are some interactions, like sweet talk, that are risky at the best of times. The sim's personality is a factor too. Really outgoing, nice, playful sims, like Ripp, will accept almost any advance. It's the slutty personality. *snicker*

[mothproof-ammeh.livejournal.com]

At least the memories for friend/love loss aren't quite as fickle as "caught cheating" memories. Those things NEVER seem to work for me. Half the time the memory doesn't show up, even when the sim was very definitely caught.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. That's so weird. I haven't intentionally tried to get that memory in a while, so I'm not sure how easily it happens in my game. It did work for Daniel Pleasant when I played through his scenario with the maid.

[mothproof-ammeh.livejournal.com]

I think that's one of the cases where it didn't work for me. When I put the sims on our new computer and started playing that house, I had him invite her over while Mary Sue was at work. Just as they were about to jump under the covers, Mary Sue came home due to a demotion from a chance card, and though I wasn't planning on getting him caught so soon I couldn't pass up the semi-realistic scenario. (Because how often do sims ACTUALLY come home from work early?) She spazzed, icon-over-head and slapping and everything, but when I checked her memories later there was no "Caught Daniel Cheating" memory.

...I love their opening screen now though. Everyone is angry and turning away from one another.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

That's so odd. The scenario seems to have played out exactly right for you, but you didn't get a memory? I wonder why.

Yeah, you've gotta love those angry load screens.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I had no idea that it had to be triggered like that, but now I know. You learn something new every day, as they say. The thing that gets me, though, is that the Prima guide says that both scores have to drop below 50, but this doesn't seem to be the case. They lose it if one does. The game guide lies. (This is not new information, however. *snicker*)

I was thinking about SimPE too, but I don't know if I care enough to bother. Though it might be a good excuse to learn how to do that. I'll have to think about it.

[aezlo.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of situation that happens sometimes with Drama Professors, where every interaction with them results in "Lost BFF" spam no matter what, even if they weren't BFF's before, or if the interaction was positive. There's a fix for that on MATY called dramafix, and maybe the two situations are interrelated, and it'll help? If it's driving you that crazy, it might be worth a try.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Ah, but that's supposed to happen with the drama profs! They're instantly in love with everyone they meet, because they're - you guessed it - drama professors! (And I've met my share of drama professors, so I get the joke.) It's about creating drama.

I have plans to include a bit of a wink and nod to this feature of the drama professors in the story (besides the fact that Ripp has obviously slept with some of his profs). I might have them play a part in stirring up some drama.