Romance and relationships have always been integral to The Sims. They just haven’t always been happy, healthy relationships.
Long before Love Highland, an official dating gameshow mechanic, was even a glimmer in EA’s eyes, Sims have been striving for the affections of those other than their lovers. The Sims 1 even had a musical stab that played if you were caught flirting with another Sim’s partner.
The Sims 4 is no different – even when all we want is for our Sims to live in matrimonial bliss.
Clearly, most Simmers face cheating problems at some point. A quick search of ‘cheating’ on r/TheSims4 yields more posts that read like they’re from r/ATIA than about actually using cheats to, say, get infinite money.
The posts roll in: How do I stop cheating? How do I stop feeling tense around my cheating husband? Will I ever stop feeling guilty about cheating?
I’ve had my fair share of autonomous cheating scandals while playing The Sims 4. A long time ago, I had a legacy Sim marry Geoffrey Landgraab entirely to try and extort him for money. Not long after the marriage, he autonomously WooHoo’d out of wedlock and promptly died of overexertion.
It wasn’t my proudest moment. But my Sim did get her money.
How to stop Sims from cheating
The reality is, much like in real life, there isn’t a sure-fire way of stopping your Sim from getting cheated on. You can only really stop your Sim from cheating on other Sims by cancelling the interaction before it plays out.
Despite that, there are a few settings you can look out for to try to lessen how much their eye wanders. Or at least, how often they act on it.
Turn off autonomy
Free will is on in The Sims 4 by default. It’s easy to turn off, though, and not half as dystopian as it sounds.
To stop your Sims from doing whatever they please, and displeasing their partner in the process, open up the Game Settings menu. You can then decide how autonomous your Sims are under the Autonomy section.
Check for the Free Love Neighbourhood Action Plan
If you’ve got Eco Lifestyle installed, then you need to check which Neighbourhood Action Plans have been voted in.
Free Love normalises non-monogamy across the whole area, so if it’s in place, then it’s probably why your Sims are pursuing others. It even technically means they aren’t cheating at all.
Negotiate your relationship boundaries
Each Sim will have a preference for a different relationship style, alongside a specific dynamic with their loved one(s). You can find the settings menu in Create-a-Sim, under the “more details” menu. This menu lets you control whether your Sims feel jealousy about various intimate acts.
You can also speak to your partner Sim directly to sort out what your boundaries look like in your relationship. This is tucked away in a social menu under the Relationship section. You just need to choose the Ask To Reconsider Romantic Boundaries menu, and choose an option from there.
In theory, getting on the same page here should stop your Sim’s partner from flirting with others. If they choose to listen. Alternatively, you could choose to embrace it, or toggle jealousy off and overlook it.
Use the MC Command Centre mod
Even if you play The Sims 4 pretty much vanilla, there’s a good likelihood that you use MC Command Centre already. This mod helps to tune up your game while giving you even more control over your tiny people.
You can use the mod to turn off flirting between any Sims who haven’t flirted before. Admittedly, this won’t stop them from hitting up old flames, but it should put out any fires before they’ve even started.
