Question about the testing cheats options

[valohim666]

So I was messing with the testing cheats, and I noticed that one of the options when clicking on a sim says "Cheat Sim Info" which leads to the options "Lock All Motive Decay" and "Add Sim Preference". Now I think I have an idea what the motive one does, or I hope so anyway lol, but can anyone tell me what that preference option is and what it does? I tried using it on a couple of sims to try and experiment, but so far I haven't noticed anything and I'm a little worried that I shouldn't have done that (though luckily this is mostly just a save for experimenting). I've tried looking it up, but it seems that trying to Google any combination of "Sims 4" and "preference" just brings up things about gender preference and I didn't see anything that mentioned that option.

I'm playing on Xbox by the way, in case that matters though I'm sure the option is the same no matter the platform.

[valohim666 · Accepted solution]

@PugLove888 Yeah I could see that being a possibility. I guess one way to test would be to start a new game with a sim that has no likes or dislikes, then try that option and see if it does anything. Or I could manually add a like or dislike, or one of each, and see what happens. It could definitely be why I haven't seen any changes, and I'm sure it also doesn't help that the two times I did previously use it were on inactive and un-played sims.

One other thing I could do to see if it has anything to do with those preferences at all is to load up my old PC version of the game, because it hasn't been updated since I believe around the time Island Living released. If I remember right that was one of the many times I quit the game, and since it wasn't long after that that the game was part of PS Plus I didn't bother with the PC version and have played on either PS4 or Xbox One since. So I could potentially load that up and see if the option is even there, and if it is I know it's nothing to do with those preference but if it isn't then I could experiment on Xbox since that's properly updated and what I play on now anyway.

EDIT: Okay so I did a quick test on a sim with no likes or dislikes, and it seemed to just randomly give them a few. They went from nothing at all, to liking the violin while hating blues music and the color yellow. If a sim already has some preferences, but isn't at the limit, it just keeps randomly adding in more until you hit the limit for likes and dislikes. So yeah it doesn't seem to change any existing preferences, just adds some.

[PugLove888]

@valohim666 this might be referring to cheating/forcing in the preferences (love/hate gardening/exercise, etc. that can happen to your Sim as you are playing (if you accidentally hit the wrong answer to the question when it pops up) or if you download a Sim from the gallery that has preferences you don't like (like when I download a Sim that hates blue, but put them into a blue house, it would be easier to change the preference than it would be to change the entire house! 😅 )  This might be why you haven't found any detectable change in your game.  But then again, this is only a guess. I haven't tested it myself!  If I do test it , I will get back to you! 

[valohim666 · Accepted solution]

@PugLove888 Yeah I could see that being a possibility. I guess one way to test would be to start a new game with a sim that has no likes or dislikes, then try that option and see if it does anything. Or I could manually add a like or dislike, or one of each, and see what happens. It could definitely be why I haven't seen any changes, and I'm sure it also doesn't help that the two times I did previously use it were on inactive and un-played sims.

One other thing I could do to see if it has anything to do with those preferences at all is to load up my old PC version of the game, because it hasn't been updated since I believe around the time Island Living released. If I remember right that was one of the many times I quit the game, and since it wasn't long after that that the game was part of PS Plus I didn't bother with the PC version and have played on either PS4 or Xbox One since. So I could potentially load that up and see if the option is even there, and if it is I know it's nothing to do with those preference but if it isn't then I could experiment on Xbox since that's properly updated and what I play on now anyway.

EDIT: Okay so I did a quick test on a sim with no likes or dislikes, and it seemed to just randomly give them a few. They went from nothing at all, to liking the violin while hating blues music and the color yellow. If a sim already has some preferences, but isn't at the limit, it just keeps randomly adding in more until you hit the limit for likes and dislikes. So yeah it doesn't seem to change any existing preferences, just adds some.

[PugLove888]

@valohim666 , sorry I couldn't get back to you... I haven't' had much time to help people and search for answers the past couple of days!  
But I see that you answered your own question!  Doesn't surprise me since you seemed to have 2 good ways of looking into the question.  There is no way I could have tested my game on the "Legacy Edition" that you have on your old PC (not that you ended up needing to do that!) 😅

I am a bit surprised that it only added likes/dislikes, and didn't take any away!😮  Good to know! 

Thanks for your detective work! 🔎😃