How Chemistry Works in The Sims 2 (+ mods to tweak it)

[@agwarddd]

The way this game is about to go 20 years old and we’re STILL amazed by its depth, complexity, and sheer scale. And couple it with April Black’s videos on demystifying corruption, we even find that the code actually is shockingly sophisticated and powerful. Its unreal how much love and genius went into making this game what it is and how outright brilliant it really is.

[@fluffyfeather39]

might be my favorite game of all time. ❤

[@itamarmedeirosnetto]

I knew It was detailed but never knew It was THIS detailed

[@letomills]

Yeah they clearly put a lot of thought into it, I swear this game never ceases to impress me 😄

[@itamarmedeirosnetto]

@@letomills the 5 points being out of the range is what surprised me the most. Thats why my Sims even with similar personalities did not have strong chemistry

[@delanienering1420]

The sims four could never

[@DonnaChamberson]

It’s THAT detailed.

[@WikiCap]

I actually think that all this 5.0 personality penalty thing makes perfect sense. If you are e.g. something in the middle between being messy and being neat, those who are more messy would consider you too neat, and those who are more neat would consider you to be not neat enough. So you cannot satisfy anyone. Sad, but realistic.

[@dina12987]

Man I really miss this from newer games, It's so in depth! I get why newer games would struggle with an attraction system like this without point-like personalities, but still! Sims 2 may have been "simplified" compared to the others, but it's on a whole nother level than the others when it comes to things like this.

[@hellorayna]

Thank you for explaining why my sims refuse to use the dishwasher and go all the way upstairs to wash dishes. Haha great video.

[@Marticore]

Holy crap... Excellent work!!! I finally understand the calculation of personality points, as reading about it I found it too complicated and difficult. I also learned a few useful details. Thank you!

[@letomills]

Thanks, I'm honored! 😊 I'm glad I could be of help.

[@xarzneimittel8220]

Marticore💕💕💕

[@tistoaries1931]

I knew TS2's attraction system was complex, but not THAT much lol ! The very little bonus for being in Twikkii Island (or any tropical destination I guess) is interesting... When booking a stay for lovers, I think I will choose this place more often then.

[@letomills]

Haha yep I'm gonna do the same! It's such a cute detail.

[@rashigupta986]

This was one of the most well made videos I have seen about the Sims 2 in the recent past. Thank you for compiling all this data. It was super easy to follow from your clear explanations!

[@letomills]

Thank you so much! I'm glad all the info came through clearly 😊

[@SkeruSeven]

After 15 years of playing Sims2, I still learned new stuff :D Except the whole chemistry rules: I didn't know you can mix oranges with cucumbers for a love drink! Thanks ^^

[@LaughOLott]

I just got back into Sims 2 because my sims4 is BROKEN.. But man I really appreciate the level of detail in Sims 2

[@snarkbotanya6557]

The attraction penalty for different personality scores is weird and complicated, but I can see where they were going with it. The more extreme a Sim's own personality trait is, the more they notice a lack of it, or its opposite, in their partners. As a couple of examples, let's take a strong introvert and moderate extravert (Outgoing 1 and Outgoing 7); and a neat freak and someone who's not sloppy, but not particularly organized either (Neat 9 and Neat 5). For the introvert and the extravert, their traits clash, but the strong introvert notices it more because they have less tolerance for unwanted social interaction than the moderate extravert has for going without social interaction, hence the greater part of the penalty coming from the introvert's side of the equation. For the neat freak and their not-neat-not-sloppy partner, the neat Sim gets annoyed by their patner not cleaning up to their standards, while the not-neat-not-sloppy Sim doesn't really appreciate or not appreciate their patner's organization skills because cleanliness or lack thereof isn't really a big deal to them, hence the penalty coming entirely from the neat Sim.

[@mistymonsterbite67]

I LOVE how in depth this was, the more in depth and technical, the better!!

[@shalryma]

This was the only maths class that I sat through with pleasure! This stuff is simply fascinating! Well done! As a kid I thought the only reasons for chemistry were turn ons and turn offs. And they are, of course, broken as well 😅

[@Kristyle187]

37:52 The streaking guy took me by such surprise that I literally spit out my coffee. 🤣 Aaahhh I LOVE the random comedy gold popping up in the middle of this fascinating video. Fantastic job on presenting the data and your observations in way that’s relatively easy to grasp!

[@BellaDovah]

I’ve not finished watching yet but I just have to comment after watching the personality section. While I daren’t try to change the formula, I really think I will look into removing the personality cap (or cap it at 14). Thank you for mentioning my no zodiac mod, I still firmly stand by it but what I did in that to make up for losing a potential +35 bonus, I brought down the threshold required for 3 bolts a little. While that works, I think it could be better balanced to put this back how it was and uncap personality (if it’s feasible with my limited knowledge). I’m also now extremely tempted to change every sim’s personality in SimPe if they have 500 points to either 499 or 501… Its so interesting to be able to learn so much more about the game after what feels like a lifetime of playing it, thank you for another excellently put together video absolutely jam packed with information! Edit: finished now. Difficult to sit through?! You had my full undivided attention and I was captivated by every second! I loved it! To add, I do tend to always change the randomly assigned turn ons/offs to premades based on what I think suits them. I think the main reason for this is that for a lot of them, even with a replacer (I use Lazy Duchess’ as I designed it and requested it) its usually pretty clear which ones would usually be a turn on and which would usually be a turn off except for in very specific circumstances. I can’t allow a seemingly ‘normal’ sim to be turned on by stink or a sim to be turned off by a good skill without a good storytelling reason for them to be. I think I will also look into the Twikkii Island buff, I think it should still be subtle though, maybe +7? If I can even find it haha! Anyway, well done and thanks again😊

[@letomills]

Thank you for your feedback, it's so lovely to hear! I'm so glad 😊 I've always had a very laid back outlook on TOs, basically just letting the game do its thing and never changing them. I don't even look what my sims' TOs are most of the time, so when they meet a potential partner I have pretty much no idea how it's gonna go, which I like. I totally understand your approach though, it makes sense to use the tools at our disposal to create the coherent characters we have in mind. I'm excited that you're wanting to make more chemistry-related mods 😄 Keep in mind though that if you remove the personality cap, you're allowing scores to fall below -7 down to -14, but they still won't be able to exceed +7 unless you change the formula that calculates bonuses. So unless you want sims to be more picky, maybe you'll want to keep a lower threshold for 3-bolt attraction. Like I said I have no idea how to make mods but if you need testers for a personality-uncapping mod, or a Twikkii bonus mod or anything else, I'm happy to volunteer!

[@BellaDovah]

@@letomills I completely get your approach too! Surprises and the unexpected is always fun. Yeah thats a really good point actually, I’ll just have to do some digging when I get chance and see what I can do. I appreciate that!

[@mrplumbob95]

Wow, you did an incredible job. Chemistry system was always kind of black magic to me so now I can finally understand what's going on. I didn't know it's that detailed

[@samifranco5541]

i still think the developers of this game where extremely bold to implement all this kind of interaction, for its time was pretty revolutionary how they try to imitate normal social interactions

[@fluffyfeather39]

yea its very complex for the time and even now.

[@snowpocalypse69]

This video is sooo good I'm so glad you dove so deep into this so I don't have to lol. You can check the numerical value of each sim's one-sided chemistry with each other using Cyjon's pizza box instead of having to make them check each other out.

[@letomills]

Oh yeah I found out about Cyjon's pizza box not long after publishing this vid and I was so annoyed with myself for not knowing about it earlier lol

[@ErikLeroux]

“Relaxed Object” made me happier than I can possibly express

[@AniBats]

Omg! Leto, this was incredible, I'm completely blown away 🤯 When you mentioned that you were making this video, I knew it would be something that I'd love. I didn't know it would sweep me away quite like this. It's a work of art! The time and dedication, the heart and soul, that you've put into this is insane. I loved every second of it, and will go right back to a re-watch of it. This is deeply fascinating, and you made it so easy to understand and follow along. You are a master at this, really wow!!! Thank you so much for creating this ❤

[@letomills]

Thank you so much! It's good to hear that you found my explanations engaging 😊

[@IDoNotFeelCreative]

I'm only 3 mins into it, but the intro, references and disclaimers are just chef's kiss

[@Ali-yp3zg]

I just found your channel but please keep making these videos! It's so hard to find this kind of content for TS2, I love this❤️

[@letomills]

Glad you enjoyed! I have another similar deep dive in the works 😊

[@midnight_daydream]

This was a fantastic video! I'm about to create an Uberhood where I want to change some things about the premades and I was having a hard time figuring out how to make my ships attracted to each other. This helped so much! I really enjoyed everything about the video and the way you explained it all. Thank you so much!

[@letomills]

Awesome, I'm glad you got some valuable info! Good luck and have fun with the Uberhood 😊

[@jenniferbarrett555]

I was playing the Sims 3 while watching your video on my other screen, lol. Excellent video. The Sims 2 just keeps on giving even after 19 years.

[@Microondah]

I have no idea how this came up on my recommendation, but WOW thank you algorithm gods for this delightful and detailed insight. I love technical deep-dives like this one, and it's amazing the level of detail and quality, like testing hypothesis in-game. Thank you for your time, I'm 100% subscribing!

[@strangextown]

You deserve so much more subs and views this is insane, never stop!!!

[@letomills]

Thank you, that's very sweet 😊

[@bybyden]

Me after all my life i thought the attraction is based just on turnon/turnoff : 😮😯😲😦😧😨🤡 Great video! Thank you!

[@sunflower7874]

same LOL

[@SkeruSeven]

Yes... now I feel stupid :'D

[@sunflower7874]

@@SkeruSeven you and me both

[@ntrg3248]

I think we all thought that at some point, because the game doesn't tell you much. Before I watched this I only knew the turn on/ turn off and the aspiration affects it, but turns out it was a lot more than that!

[@mccorade5941]

I remember reading on the Sims wiki how the chemistry system works, and just being absolutely floored by how detailed it is. It's honestly amazing.

[@sand__witch]

On my old phone, I had a note that just said "calm object", which I would periodically rediscover and lose my shit every time. Seeing mister Relaxed Object over here made me straight up snort. ...Aside from that, this was super interesting! You were worried that it was too in-depth, but I specifically liked how in-depth it was - there's so much weird little hidden stuff in this game that's so fun to explore, like Sims wanting to be close to those they are attracted to or the Twikki Island bonus. And glasses making you count as a werewolf, while (hopefully) unintended on the devs' part, is pretty hilarious.

[@LusiaP.]

Wow it's such well made video good job! Thank you for putting all this info for us, I'm grateful for those links to mods as well

[@letomills]

Thank you, I'm happy you're finding it useful!

[@ed8817]

This is my new favorite video on KZbin. I hope you make many more videos for different mechanics in ts2 in remarkable detail.

[@letomills]

Thank you! Another one is in the works 😊

[@ed8817]

YAY!!!

[@sanneoi6323]

Always found it strange that Fortune and Pleasure would have a negative attraction score. It seems to me that someone seeking to live a luxurious life should be perfect for someone seeking to obtain one.

[@fluffyfeather39]

yea true but i think pleasure sims are seen more as lazy by the game compared to hardworking fortune sims

[@sanneoi6323]

@@fluffyfeather39 yea I suppose so. I always view Pleasure aspiration as sort of the lack of clear goals. The thing that makes them happy is just having fun.

[@sparklestorm1236]

So much love was put into this game.

[@grumpysphinx4911]

This video is so amazing and informative! I've always been pretty confused and overwhelmed by the complexity of the Sims 2 attraction system, but you explained everything not only so in depth but also in a way that was easy to understand and follow along with. Thank you for this and all the hard work that undoubtedly went into it! 😁

[@Violetshy5]

This was a great video, very informative! I've read the sims wiki page on chemistry a couple times because it's so interesting to me, but I never could really understand the personality aspect of it because I'm so bad at math 😆 so this video helped me a lot. Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to make it!! 💜

[@letomills]

Glad you enjoyed 😊

[@ESC_Thomas]

Woah le travail dans cette vidéo est juste DINGUE !!! Je ne pensais pas les sims 2 aussi complexe et maintenant je comprend mieux le système de l’attraction. Je me demandais toujours pourquoi je n’arrivais jamais à avoir de sims avec plus d’un seul éclair lol

[@kevnova9665]

Great video! As one of the background listeners your voice was very nice to listen to! The attraction system always confused the crap outta me when I was younger and now I see why ^^;

[@brightea]

ty so much i finally got to understand why on earth one of my sims would do the dishes on the bathroom sink while their partner was bathing there it was driving me insane

[@anigodess]

I only ever played sims 1 once on my cousins computer. I bought sims 2 a few years later, and fell in love with the sims. I remember I was playing a legacy, but one of my sims just had terrible chemistry with everyone- except the maid. ❤️

[@bunnyw1312]

I LOVED how technical it was! ty for making this!!!!

[@itamarmedeirosnetto]

I also loved that you used in game famous sims to ilustrate your points

[@hadesbaby2180]

I’m always amazed how much math actually goes into games like these

[@magnus87]

I wish one day we would have something similar in TS4

[@MajaRatajewska-e4t]

THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS, i was wondering so much how it worked

[@steep9790]

this video was very informative! turns out it was a lot deeper than i had thought before. thank you :)

[@Kinmegami]

Thank you so much for this video! I know the sims 2 attraction system is complicated, but it really different level! Awesome!

[@dmas7749]

i always thought TOs were meh in this game, but wish they came back in 3 or 4 where you could make trait TOs. it'd make learning traits more satisfying as well

[@lostandgonesis6137]

i really enjoy how i’m depth the sims 2 is, but i also enjoy being in control of every little detail. maybe i just need play the sims 2

[@dnsoulx]

this is a fantastically indepth video on the mechanics! i applaud the amount of effort you put into it :)

[@letomills]

Thank you 😊

[@envy2069]

Sims 4 could never tbh

[@nsnstanner935]

nice vid!! i’m not a native english speaker so i thought i wouldn’t understand a word, but i did! the edition is very helpful!! now i’m only missing the sims 2 lol! suscribed!

[@letomills]

Thank you! The Sims 2 has become tricky to get but there are free options out there. I personally torrented it from there: games4theworld.site/sims-downloads/ But I think the best way now is to follow osab's guide: docs.google.com/document/d/1UT0HX3cO4xLft2KozGypU_N7ZcGQVr-54QD9asFsx5U/edit It will give you the Sims 2 with all packs and also guides you through how to make it work smoothly on modern computers. The community has come up with awesome programs and fixes to keep the game playable after all this time, it's pretty amazing.

[@scarletnight1077]

This is fascinating, I didn't know it was this in depth! Awesome video

[@Stegosaurus234]

Wow! What a wonderfully well done video! I enjoyed watching it so much! The care that went into the research, the presentation of it all, and the list of all the mods with a link is much appreciated. Thank you so so much!

[@claracardoso3349]

I learned so much from this! Amazing work! I'd also love to see a video exploring how ACR can influence chemistry and relationships in general, if you are looking for new video ideas 😉 But seriously, this is awesome, thank you for all the time and effort it must've taken to make this video, it was truly informative, well done 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@letomills]

Thank you so much! And thanks for the suggestion! ACR doesn't change how the game calculates chemistry scores, which is why I didn't end up mentioning it in this video, but it does change how sims interact romantically by allowing them to bypass the Maxis relationship requirements. I'm working on a video about gender preference and I'll talk about ACR in that context, with a section on how ACR introduces types of relationships that aren't possible in the vanilla game, like friends with benefits and polyamorous relationships. Maybe you'll be interested in hearing about that 😊

[@margaretfk]

I find this so fascinating and well explained, and I also love falling asleep to it 😂 thank you

[@indyavonside207]

Amazing!! I felt like it was more to getting these sims together boy did you just prove my thoughts. Thank you very well laid out and explained

[@sanneoi6323]

Bisexuality sticking would make it more realistic to me cause I personally was lesbian once but now even though I've mostly returned to heterosexuality there's still a bit of it buried deeply in me and I can't do anything about it so I just accept it.

[@kirbybie]

algorithm helping comment here 👏 i rlly enjoyed learning abt this system !

[@Christophee1987]

Really interesting video. I've read about this subject a lot, but you made everything much easier to understand, particularly with all the examples. Great work.

[@cottonsheep1493]

Thank you for the video i open it just to listen on background while doing my office work but now you make me wanna go back to playing sims 2 😂 great video!

[@clementine_makes_monsters]

This is incredible! I'm so glad I found your channel!

[@thewewguy8t88]

i would love to see this more detail like this talking about every current feature of the sims 4. heck i would love to see a chemiesty system like this in the sims 4 because now cheminesty starts to make sense i just wish this info was more aviabale.

[@luciavicc]

Great video, hope your channel grows, you deserve it

[@vanni_marie]

This was a wonderful video! Helped me get thru an hour at work today, thank you!

[@TsunadeSpammer]

Loved this, thank you so much! :D The examples were so fun too :D

[@yellowcatmonkey]

this vid is so in depth 🌻 incredibly useful 💖thank you ✨

[@jorgewemyssnava1661]

Hi! first time I watch a video of you. your voice is sublime! 😱😱I haven't finished the video yet, so sorry if it's not on topic. 😂

[@letomills]

Hahaha thank you for saying that lol

[@captainmac1614]

Yo this video is simply amazing! You made it so I could understand it and also make it very fun to watch at the same time! You deserve way more subs and views than now already! :) …Et est-ce que c'est un accent français que j'ai entendu? ;)

[@letomills]

Thank you! Et oui je suis française ^^

[@captainmac1614]

@@letomills Haha, j'étais pas sûr jusqu'à-ce que comment t'as prononcé „Je ne sais quoi“ 😂 Je suis pas français mais suisse :D Keep up the great work and I'm excited for what's to come! :)

[@Mskittenlover12]

You bring math into this and my brain shuts down. Nah, man, that's crazy. 😭

[@letomills]

Oh no 😭 I try to make things as clear as possible but admittedly this stuff is complicated.

[@lairestock]

Wow, this video is incredibile. So much information and all well explained, thank you!! ♥

[@allaboutstace77]

So happy I found your channel

[@smallspidersad78]

Relaxed Object made me laugh aloud

[@snowpocalypse69]

Relaxed Object LOL

[@vuthomas]

I learned so much from this. Thank you!

[@floridagirl4896]

Hi this comment is to help you with your KZbin algorithm have a good day

[@Braulyoko]

Does anybody have a spreadsheet to calculate the attraction points? Haha Excellent video! Btw 😊

[@la912]

Pretty useful video, thank you!

[@rompevuevitos222]

Nowadays a system like this would be advertised in the box, be enabled in a 1 month old patch and "require" the removal of another feature from previous games

[@Alexandra-ik3td]

Once very interesting thing happened to me in Sims 2. My CAS sim, running a business, suddenly had a memory with a golden palette of paints (you can see this pallette showing up when sims talking about an attractive sim, it also vanishes quickly) - it was saying saying, 'This

[@tisvana18]

Sounds like the game made a hiccup and pulled the wrong picture when you did a “Scope” action. The golden paint palette is for maxing out the Arts & Crafts hobby, and while I’ve never done the scope out action with someone with three bolts in the room, that’s the only context I know of for those sorts of pop ups

[@JamxGames]

Thank you ! great video!

[@yellowcatmonkey]

i wish eaxis based those on visuals(as in rl according to science, which is, to my knowledge, kind of "similar attracts similar", roughly put)+(both of each sims')aspirations+personality points(with wider more consistent range of bonuses and penalties)+turnons/turnoffs, discarded the zodiac signs from the equation and made them irrelevant info (like lazy duchess did 💖🙈)+interests now that would actually mean smth imo

[@XimGato]

Mmmm I think I have an idea, I'm gonna do a little program for calculate the chemistry of 2 sims :0 But I'm still learning, so it might don't work

[@indedgames4359]

That is interesting.happy ts4 fixed the sexual atraction decresse issuecin ts4 with the ubdate last year

[@vitoriadinardi2769]

Great content!!! I LOVE IT

[@indedgames4359]

I wondr how ts4 will Do this with The sociel chemestry systhem ther intodruce in a few weeks. Considering basic sexuel and romance thibgs ar in game already Mayby just as a normal atraction? Wher you could read into it as you please?

[@bunnyw1312]

I lol'd at Relaxed Object

[@nesser52]

Imma steal the idea to name smb Relaxed Object 😁✨

[@sophfromnuo]

I don't think there's anything like that in the sims 4 right? I mean I know now sims get a percentage of attraction towards a gender but I don't think there's anything else?

[@letomills]

I don't think so either but I'm not very knowledgeable on the Sims 4 so I couldn't tell you precisely, sorry 😕

[@aliveslice]

13:00 so devs made zodiac the default and virtually all premades don't match their signs but we don't have a choice with our sims 🥴 time for no zodiac mod 32:10 😂 I have to have relaxed object in game 33:20 why use many words when few words do trick 46:00 someone doesn't like your sim... 47:45 too real!

[@aliveslice]

14:35 18:00 37:10 37:55 49:40

[@leannetaylor87]

Could you do sims 2 gameplay xx new subscriber excellent work!

[@letomills]

Thank you! I don't plan to make gameplay videos any time soon, sorry, I have so many deep dive videos that I want to do first, I'm honestly a bit overwhelmed already 😅 But if you're in need of a let's play to binge, I can recommend the channels of Ani Bats, Tanic Sims 2, Sundog Sims, Tea Addict, Honey Bee Sims, as well as Pleasant Sims's older videos.

[@leannetaylor87]

@@letomills Thankyou so much for the recommendations and your doing 👍 😃

[@tombley.fraggle]

Ohhh!!!!

[@jacquelynbuono5249]

Me who plays sims 2 all the time 😶

[@yellowcatmonkey]

ohmygoodness my head hurts 🙈😸

[@e88oliveira]

✌️

[@gurota1786]

I dont know why or is it because i was a kid but sims 2 was leagues above sims 4 now. Sims 4 is like… a liberals dream world.

[@gurota1786]

@ferret yeah i worded it wrong. It shouldve been a far lefts dream world. I respect liberal ideology and actually think its good to have variation. But theres always extremes, and sims 4 is extremely safe, extremely woke

[@TallTapper]

car

[@yowieyahoo]

car