Arranged Marriages (31.08.2024)  

This mod allows your Sims to get married without the need for romance. You can do this in three different ways, with more options coming later (such as matchmakers and placing ads).

The main focus of the mod is, of course, arranging marriages for other members of your household with members of other Sim families. The second option is to arrange marriages for the selected Sim with a member of another household. The third option is a regular Marriage of Convenience, where your Sim can get married without romance to another Sim of their choice. You can find more details about how each option works in the "Arranging Choices" section.

Sims must have met each other before using these interactions, but you don't need a high friendship level to select them. When you ask another Sim about an arrangement, the active Sim and the target Sim are scored based on several factors to continue. If the score is too low, the interaction will fail, causing some minor relationship loss.

Factors considered include moods, traits, skills, careers, reputation, fame, character values, money (note: removed in the current version due to a bug), royalty (LazyNeiph or KiaraSims4Mods required for effects), sentiments, and other minor things (more to be added later). If you fail twice, you won't be able to ask that family for about 24 hours. In the future, further consequences and another scoring system will likely be added, so it's recommended that you prepare your Sims for this big moment. For the Marriage of Convenience option, it has a lower score to pass but may change in the future based on feedback.

Once the arrangement is complete, the paired sims of any gender will receive one of two possible relationships based on age: Engaged or Betrothed. Engaged is for sims Young Adult and older and will allow them to marry or start a wedding event at any point. Betrothed is for Child and Teen sims and will age with the sims, so when they go from Teen to Young Adult the game will auto-update the relationship to Engaged without you needing to do anything. Only once both sims reach Young Adult will they be able to marry. When pairing sims keep in mind that only Child sims can be paired with other Child sims, while Teens (who seem to me to be 17/18) are allowed to be paired with other Teens and older, but will still receive the Betrothed relationship regardless of who they are paired with.

If sims are unhappy with their arrangement they have a chance to break it off, with consequences/reactions coming at a later date. For Child/Teen sims, they have a basic interaction that allows them to tell their parent (or grandparents) that they refuse to marry the other sim. For Young Adult and older they may talk to their partner and choose to call off the arrangement. For sims in a Marriage of Convenience they can change their mind and stop the relationship. All interactions are under the Friendly menu but this may change. (Parents will be able to break off arrangements with the other family in a future update as the system is complicated.)

Arranging Choices

There are currently 3 options to choose from, with more being added later. All 3 are currently under the Relationship > Other Sims pie menu (optional custom pie menu coming soon) and are found on the other sims/households you are arranging with:

Arranging Marriages For Other Sims

This interaction is for arranging for other members of your family and can be done by any adult in the family (looking for feedback on adding a "head of household" trait or something so only certain sims can do this interaction). Selecting it and passing the scoring system will bring up the first picker where you choose the member of your household. After selecting it will take you to a second picker to choose a sim from the other family. Once done the sims will shake hands to complete the contract.

Known Issue: If the other family does not have any suitable candidates the second picker will fail and cancel the entire interaction chain.

Arranging Marriages For The Active Sim

This interaction is for arranging for the active sim with a member of the target's family. Only one picker appears to select the chosen sim.

Marriage Of Convenience

This interaction is for any two sims who just want to marry without any emotional baggage. Good for peasant sims and sims who just want a married life without romance.