Family Drama, (literally) family tree/relationship bits bug
Johnny's relationship panel with his 'not wife'
My game made my sims related to each other. that's weird and uncomfortable because they are a couple. but that's actually not the weirdest part.
The game keeps inventing new ways for them to be related over and over again.
long story condensed for time (and drama ofc)
I have the main sim that I play named Johnny (yes Zest), he's dating a woman that grew up in the Ward household. they have a kid and think now is a good time to get engaged.
but Johnny can't propose. is it the ring? no. is it their relationship meter? nah. romantic satisfaction? nope. your sim can't marry Madeleine Ward because they are related.
*gasp* how?? but they were able to romance each other, isn't romance locked for related sims? how are they related? *opens simology panel to check the family tree*
Game: your sims are Father and Daughter. okay . . . that's not physically possible and I think they would have noticed before now. I mess around with MC Command Center a lot, could I have done this on accident while trying to change their relationship levels? no, that would be hard to do on accident.
I bet I was trying to fix their sentiments (the soulmates sentiment goes away after your sims get too close sometimes) and clicked the father/daughter bit by accident and didn't even notice until now. I remove the relationship 'bit' and assume the problem is solved. nope. it comes back.
well, the family tree is ruined now so the game is probably trying to fix that. I'll pick a random townie and make him her father and then the simology can reconcile itself.
the wedding arrives and Johnny and Maddie are ready to tie the knot. but they can't. your sims can't get married if their related to each-other. I go back into the panel and find something new. Johnny is her Uncle now. how? apparently the random townies I assigned to be Johnny's parents, in game decades ago, had an illegitimate child on the father's side, while he was married, and that happens to be the same adult male sim who looks nothing the family and I chose at random to be Maddie's biological father.
weird. how many half-siblings does Johnny have that I could chose one at random? wouldn't they show up in his family relationships next to his other siblings? I don't want this to be a part of my games story so I pick a new sim to be her father, 'you! random Elder member of the paparazzi whose taking pictures of the wedding, you will be her father, that's kinda interesting since her mom was famous.'
I check the family tree again just in case. no they are not related to each other. the wedding continues and they are successfully married. . . . for one day.
the next day 'ask to be romantic partner' interaction appears. that's a strange thing to want to ask your wife. except, they are not married anymore. the game auto deleted their 'spouse' sentiment and relationship bits because they can't be married if they are related. I open the panel again. this random elder, who is older than his parents, is now Johnny's brother. I get two more elders and I make them this guy's (Maddie's bio dad's) parents. This random sim and Johnny have different parents now. problem solved?
No, BECAUSE if this elder sim has two parents that are also Elders then obviously the elder mother must be the daughter of your main sims Adult mother so that Johnny and this 'not in world' random townie will be tangentially related to each other and therefore to his daughter.
the family tree if insane and unreadable, romance is still unlocked between the two sims in question and they still have a kid together, that part didn't change. but they can't be married to each other because according to the sims 4, they are "cousin's child/parent's cousin" I didn't even know that was a relationship bit that existed in the game, but they have it and I can't get rid of it.
it's like the game want's them to be related in some way and doesn't care how.
pictures attached (she was briefly dead at one point and we crossed that bridge but that's why Johnny is 'grieving' her)
the game still says Johnny 'provider her with a happy childhood' ??? he wasn't there when she was a kid how do they have a family dynamic/sentiment about her childhood?
Update: reddit deleted one of the pictures do to indecency so I edited it a little