[TIP or TRICK!] How to Manage & Stop "Cheating" Zois.

[xchylar]

Tired of your Zois meddling with your plans every time you find them developing feelings or urges to pursue another NPC Zoi or (gasp) their BFF (how dare they!)? I have a trick just for you, but it’s not a complete fix. It has a caveat, a limitation if you will, but until they fix this dynamic of the game, this should do for now:

1. Call the Zoi you want to get the Romance bar off.

2. Opening the cheat console CTRL + SHIFT + C, then input showZoiInfo true and take note of the NPC’s Zoi ID.

3. Type the cheat setRelationship [NPC Zoi ID Number] 0 Romance without the square brackets. If you have multiple NPCs to take care of, highlight the cheat, and press CTRL + C to copy the text. For the next NPC, repeat this step by pasting the cheat code CTRL + V and simply change the [NPC Zoi ID Number]. Open the Relationship Icon for your Zoi and you should see the Romance bar gone for that Zoi.

4. Once you’ve applied that to all of the NPCs, type in CustomZoi [YOUR Zoi's ID Number]. This will open up the profile studio for your Zoi.

5. Near the Gender field, click the Edit button, and keep the Romantic Relationships on, but UNTICK the Attracted To field and click Complete.
   

   

6. Check your Zoi’s Info Card. The Attracted To field should read None.

   

7. Open the cheat console again and then type in showZoiInfo false to get rid of the Zoi IDs above their heads, then close the cheat console by pressing X.

8. Your Zoi’s Romance interaction will be very limited. If they interact with another Zoi that is not their partner, this is what’s going to be shown. Vice-versa, if an NPC or another flirts with your Zoi, they will act not interested, thus stopping them from making unnecessary flirtations when you are not looking.

   

   Now here’s the caveat. If your Zoi interacts with their partner, they can no longer share physically romantic gestures such as hugging, kissing, trying for a baby and the like. They can still be romantic with each other, the closest to being physical is holding their hands while talking or showing them appreciation.

   

9. I’ve tried this with lover Zois and married Zois. Another tip I can give is to have their Romance bar as high/get them married/have a baby together before deploying this trick.

10. Simply reverse the steps above if you want to access the full Romance interactions again by going back to customizing your Zoi (Step 4) & selecting a choice under your Zoi’s Attracted To option.

    NOTE:
    @LazyTaco made a similar post, but it’s the reverse so that your Zois can start being all flirty. They have more detailed steps, so you may want to check that out too if you’re more of a visual person and needs more screenshots to follow the above steps. (Thanks for this, LazyTaco! )

[LazyTaco]

Thank you for the shoutout! I never thought of the reverse steps being used to STOP Zois from cheating or remove the romance bar from certain Zoi Well done!

[xchylar]

You’re welcome! I was so tired of them “cheating” around town and having to remove all these NPCs that messes up my story. I wouldn’t mind them flirting around, as long as it’s my narrative to make. Hopefully this feature is improved in the coming patches.

[DivineManifest]

I used smartzoi to prompt to love only the spouse and not cheat. Works in most cases. NPCs may try to flirt, but the playable Zoi shows disinterest and/or has negative conversations with such NPCs. I feel this is more natural than shutting off all romantic interactions.

I am using the smartzoi for guiding various relationships between family members and friends. The prompts need to be specific, often with targeted names. Works most of the time, with some surprising behavior added, making the game play more interesting rather than being all directed (by me, the player). I have even got the zois to change their values over time. The whole AI stuff is a bit wonky, but fun too.

[xchylar]

Yeah this works too, but unfortunately not all can enable SmartZoi for their gameplay since not everyone has a high-end PC or units that can run this feature. But to clarify, this workaround does not shut off all romantic interactions, instead limits it to the bare minimum so they do not progress further into something more serious that could lead to “cheating” when it shouldn’t be part of a Zoi’s story.

But just the same, I hope the devs improve this dynamic to make the interactions more realistic and natural and not depend on cheats & workarounds like this one, or the SmartZoi feature. It doesn’t only break immersion, but by doing this, it makes playing the game feel like a chore that you have to constantly monitor/implement. In my opinion, this should already be established in the base game following a certain logic (a Zoi crazy in love with their partner would not be flirting unless it is part of their personality which is not available to us as players at least for now anyway), but since it’s in Early Access, it’s understandable.

[shanonoyouknow]

Had not thought to try this! Thanks for the idea