I’m just working on this now, and am interested in feedback on the idea basically.
If you are in a relationship, and you go out socially alone with someone of the opposite sex who is not your partner, then they will be jealous, you get a big hit to your relationship, and they will send you a message to say so.
I’m hoping to slot in a number of small additions and tweaks to the romance stuff, because its too simplistic as it stands.
Feedback much appreciated.
Shouldn’t it be your preferred sex as opposed to opposite?
The idea sounds good to me. What about this, what if you could buy gifts for the person you’re romantically involved with to try and make it up to them, like ordering flowers, chocolate, movies (vhs or dvd), music, jewelry, etc. etc.? Also, if it is looked at like you are cheating on the person you are romantically involved with, then why not change that persons stats… lets say they liked going to the theatre, or bowling before you actually “cheated” on them, but now because of what happened they no longer like doing those things. In otherwords, it would be harder to make it up to them through social activities and you’d have to spend time with them doing other things in order to gain there trust and raise your relationship and romantic involvement level. To put it simply, this person doesn’t want to do anything with you that reminds them of how you “cheated” on them. This also adds another level of strategy forcing you to be thoughtful about which activities you decide to participate in allowing you to do things that aren’t on your romantic partners interests list with other women (or your preferred gender). So if you don’t want to lose those activities that your relationship benefits from you can still do things with people that may offend your romantic partner, but at least you won’t tick them off more so by doing something that normally you and your partner would do (aside from sexual activity, that’s obviously a sure way to end the relationship completely).
Didn’t mean to make it sound so complicated but hopefully you understand what I’m trying to express.
So I do like the idea you have, if you elaborate on it then it will add even more depth.
Hopefully the idea above has been a little helpful.
Cheers!
J.
the preferred sex thing is awkward, basically im coding it so if you allow same sex relationships then spending time alone with anyone creates jealousy, which is a bit of a fudge, but hopefully baalnces out the advantage of having twice as many potential partners in that scenario.
I have considered the topic of gifts to boost relationships, but it’s tricky to think up gender-neutral gifts, or gender specific ones that aren’t too insulting. Is it really fair to say you can cheer a woman up with perfume and a man with alcohol? its not as easy as it sounds 
I may have to expand on the variety of romantic socialising options as well, and take into account the ratio of who invites who, when it comes to those activities. Right now, its pretty easy to sit back and rely on your partner to do the inviting.
Since we’re on the topic, I’d like to have the possibility of going to some of the “group” activities by yourself, with a small hit to your lonliness and a reduced positive effect for the benefits gained. I mean I can watch a movie, go to a restaurant, see a play, or most of the activities by myself, but it’s not as much fun as being with someone. The only real exceptions would be sporting activities. Even bowling and golf could be solitary.
With gifts - why not just give a cost? eg: You buy your special friend a gift worth $10, $20, etc.
I also would like to do some of the multi activities solo. What if you need to get your culture up, but noone else is interested in museum-visiting, etc.?
yeah I’ve gone with the idea of non-specific gifts, also people get jaded over time if you keep buying them gifts, so its not a long term substitute for spending time together.
This sounds interesting cliffski, I think that there should be a random chance that you get found out, perhaps if you goto the theatre with your new girl and you bump into mutal friends that you have with your faithful gf. So you’d have to avoid certain activities that your extended friends network do regulary in order to avoid detection. I also think it would be a neat idea that the chances of your current gf finding clues such as cinema tickets and gift reciepts in your apartment should be dependant on how often you clean it. of course a cleaning service would really help. Another funny thing would be if you see your gf out at the movies with a guy whilst your out with your new girl, that would be pretty amusing. You could then sit down and talk to her and decide whether or not to continue, ignore or break up the relationship.
Heh, I like the idea of a cleaning lady reducing your chances of being caught
I think I’ll release the next version soon, just with the gift option and jealousy, and think about the rest of it for a while.
that sounds cool to me. I am looking forward to the next patch.
Should I take it that if you go out with a group, there’s no hit to your love interest? Or does the group have to include your SO?
I’ve not encountered a problem going out in a group without the love interest along, although I have not tested it in a group of ALL opposite gender.
One thing, though, that hit to your social if you go out with or accept a social engagement with ANY gender if you have same-sex chosen and are in fact going with someone of the same sex? Way overkill. My social life drops off, I lose several friends, and it’s like walking on eggshells. Even on Easy Mode, I gave up the avatar because it was just too messy.
hmmm, possibly the effect of the jealousy is too strong generally? it shouldn’t kick in with the same force if you go out with a group though.
I would think it might quick in very slowly with a group, based on the perception that you’re not sharing your SO’s interests any longer. (If you don’t share time together, after all, their interest in you smply declines.) Whereas if you go out with someone else a good eal, your SO might get both jealous and suspicious.
I haven’t actually got the game yet, ordering tonight.
But reading of this I think it is a bit over the top. It is hardly realistic that your gf/bf would always think you were cheating on them.
Is there a way of factoring in your gf/bf stress or happiness or the strength of your relationship and create a % that jealousy will happen. Or add trust as a new feature (wasn’t in demo anyway)of relationships which can build over time, if it gets high enough you will be trusted to go out with whomever and there will only be a very low % that the GF will be jealous.
I personally feel that would be more realistic. Though I may have spouted a load of rubbish, I do not have the game.
No these are good ideas, and possibly would work well. Its a balance between realism and complexity though. I think if I did add that,. it would be better to keep that hidden from the player, just to prevent overload. Im not sure…
Hi, got the game Tuesday night and thoroughly impressed with it. Thought I’d add my thoughts on this matter.
I’d agree that the automatic jealousy doesn’t fit well, as it’s a little too black and white. Putting aside the heavy implementation problems of it, I think a trust system would be excellent as well; each person has a level of trustworthiness, that not only means how much a person trusts you to remain faithful, but also how faithful your partner would remain to you. I don’t like to mention Alter Ego, because this is an entirely seperate game going in a different direction, but that mechanic worked pretty well there.
Trustworthiness isn’t static, though. In life, you can start out honest and end up a crook. Simplistically, this could be done as a general trustworthiness; if you remain faithful, then it slowly increases. If you cheat a lot, people tend to see you as a bit of a ‘player’, so to speak, and trustworthiness goes down. (Side-note: Is trustworthiness even a word?)
The only problem with this is that trust isn’t ever that simple. Even in somewhere like Slough, I don’t think if you cheated on one person, the whole town would find out, and it certainly wouldn’t effect the relationship you had with your friends, at least in the same way. If you really wanted to be ambitious, you could make it all relative; if you’re unfaithful to one partner, their friend’s will obviously trust you less, and those who are in their social circle would also trust you less, but little Jackie/Jack on the other side of the town that has no relation to anyone else is none the wiser.
Further point - trustworthiness in other people, specifically partners. What would you think if you knew they weren’t altogether trustworthy, and at the end of a social gathering you recieved the message, “[partner’s name] spends all night talking to Glen/Glenda about pop music”. I haven’t played through the game enough to know if the following pops up, but do you ever get rejected for dates / social meets with your partner that go along the lines of, “Sorry, I’m seeing my friends tonight”? It’s perfectly legitimate in relationships to get that response, but what happens if Glen/Glenda says the same thing? Oh no! Better start dividing that CD collection now! Or should you?
Erm. Yes. I’ll stop there now.
EDIT: Tidied up typos and revised poor explanations, because my hands type faster than my brain thinks 
Theres so much potential to refine this area of the game, I quite like coding that sort of stuff. When I did the original AI for a lionhead game, it had lots of sexual jealousy going on. You’d meet some character, and if they were the new boyfriend of your ex girlfirend, you wouldnt get along, etc etc. (Sadly it all got dumped from the game).
My current todo list for kudos has streamlining the pets stuff at the top of the list. I’ve already changed the peopleskills stuff slightly, and I think I might incorporate a concept of slowly acquired relationship trust as you stick with a partner over time.
what game was that?
Hello,
First time post so don’t kill me if I get it wrong… Kidding… Kinda 
I was just thinking about the whole relationship thingie (the dating aspect). I have to say that I got tired of it pretty soon – I know all the people (possible partners) have different interests; I like that part.
I just think the gameplay is somewhat repetative. You find someone, go out, start dating and that’s that – all you have to do now is see them everynow and then to keep your partner happy, isn’t it ?
Now, if you add a few ‘levels’ to the relationship. So far i’ve noticed two - friends - dating … What if there was more ‘serious relationship’ - ‘engagement’ etc. …
Or, is that already possible ? … Hmmm, I mean, it isn’t is it ? … If so then how do I get someone to ‘get there’ - to the engagement thingie ?
Thanks for an entertaining game