The Sims 2 ACR: Complete Guide to Settings & Interactions!

ACR (Autonomous Casual Romance) is my favorite mod for The Sims 2. It’s an easy way to add more spice and drama to your game, while letting your Sims make more of their own choices. It’s one of my must-have mods for this game.

Once you start playing with it, you’ll have a hard time going back to vanilla game play!

Some people are scared of ACR. I used to be one of those people. If you don’t know how to configure the mod, it can be VERY powerful. Your Sims will breed like rabbits and woohoo constantly.

But with some simple adjustments, you can make this mod work for your specific play style. In this guide, I’ll go through all the settings, what they mean, and how to change them for a better experience.

What Does ACR Do?

This mod does so much that even if you’ve been playing with it a while, you might not even realize everything going on in the background. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of the things I think are most important for game play:

• Allows Sims, including townies and NPCS, to autonomously kiss, flirt, woohoo, and even try for baby
• Allows teens to woohoo (but not get pregnant)
• Allows Sims to make booty calls to the Sim they currently have the hots for
• Automatically or manually chooses gender preference for Sims
• Adds “risky” woohoo so there’s a chance regular woohoo will result in pregnancy
• Adds a decline in fertility as Sims age. The older they are, the less fertile they will be and the lower the chances of pregnancy.
• Allows Sims to woohoo on the sofa!
• Adds birth control and the morning after pill

Download ACR

The website that once hosted ACR (Simbology) is no longer online – like so many of our beloved Sims 2 sites. Luckily, the files have been archived so it’s still easy to download.

Click here to download ACR from Sim File Share. You can find the official documentation released by the creator here.

Most of the information I cover in this blog post is included in the documentation (besides my personal notes). It also goes into more depth about calculations and how the mod works. I made this guide to create a more concise list of the ACR settings that doesn’t require you to search through several word documents to find an answer.

To install, unzip the files and place them in your Documents > EA Games > Sims 2 >  Downloads folder.  It’s okay to place them in a sub-folder.

How to Find ACR

Once you’ve installed ACR, open your game and load any inhabited lot in your neighborhood. You won’t find the mod in your buy mode catalog. Instead, click on a selected Sim in live mode and choose:

• Adjust > Casual Romance > Spawn Adjuster.

A stack of phone books will appear next to your Sim. This is the ACR adjuster. Don’t worry, you can change what it looks like to something more decorative – but we’ll get to that below.

NOTE: If you want all the features to work, make sure you spawn an adjuster on EVERY LOT you play. You only have to choose your settings once for each neighborhood, but an adjuster needs to be present on every residential lot if you want certain features – like booty calls – to work and for teens/elders to initiate ACR interactions. Basic settings will still work even if you forget to spawn the adjuster.

You do need to setup ACR for every individual neighborhood you play. Once you choose your settings in a neighborhood, they apply to ALL the Sims and households in that neighborhood. You only need to do this once per ‘hood.

Guide to ACR Settings

Now, let’s go through the settings one by one. This is mainly for reference so you can see what you might want to change for your personal game. If you just want to know how I set up ACR, see the next section – Pleasant Sims ACR Settings.

To change settings, just click on the adjuster and a menu will appear.

Adjuster

This menu allows you to change the appearance of the adjuster or delete the adjuster.

• Adjuster > Change Model – Changes the appearance of the adjuster. I prefer to change it to an Orchid and place it in my Sim’s bedroom so I always know where to find it. Other options include Bonsai, Philodendron, Fig Tree, Ficus, Rose Bush, Hydrangea, and Oleander.
• Adjuster > Delete Adjuster – Deletes the adjuster from the lot. If you ever decide you don’t like ACR and want to remove it from your game, use this option to delete the adjuster first.

Show My Token Stats

This option displays the token stats for the currently selected Sim. Stats include age, preferred dress, risky woohoo odds, who the Sim currently has the hots for (which is who they will call for a booty call), gender preference, and more.

Sim Settings

The Sim Settings menu allows you to change or view settings for a specific Sim.

• Sim Settings > Show Token Stats For > Sim Name – Displays token stats for the chosen Sim.
• Sim Settings > Show Token Stats For > Copy My Token To > Sim Name – Copies the ACR token from the currently selected Sim to another Sim.
  

  NOTE: If you cannot do ACR interactions with another Sim, it’s probably because they don’t have a token yet. Every Sim needs a token for the ACR interactions to work. The mod automatically gives Sims tokens every 12 hours. But newly created Sims may not have one yet. You can use this option to give them one. It will also copy any settings at the Sim level. If you need to give a Sim a token, copy it from a Sim who doesn’t have any special settings.

• Sim Settings > Autonomy – This menu leads to a sub-menu that allows you to choose autonomy settings for a specific Sim. These will override global defaults (but not global overrides). 
  • Setting is Dynamic – Allows you to change a Sim’s autonomy from dynamic to static. If a Sim’s autonomy is dynamic, their settings are recalculated every day. If static, their settings stay the same. I recommend leaving this on dynamic to allow your Sim to change over time.
  • Woohoo is Allowed – Allows you to choose if this Sim is allowed to autonomously woohoo.
  • Booty Calls are Allowed – Allows you to choose if this Sim is allowed to make booty calls.
  • Required Relationship – Allows you to set the required short-term and long-term relationship score needed for casual woohoo to be successful for this Sim.
  • Off, Spouse Only, Very Low, Low, Medium, High – These settings are for overall ACR autonomy for the specific Sim. If you don’t want this particular Sim to have ACR autonomy, you can turn it off, or set it to their spouse only so they don’t cheat. Default is set to high and that’s where I keep it for my Sims. I like to let them do what they want.
• Sim Settings > Jealousy – This menu leads to a sub-menu that allows you to choose jealousy settings for a specific Sim. These will override global defaults (but not global overrides).
  • Setting is Dynamic – Allows you to change a Sim’s setting from dynamic to static. If a Sim’s jealousy is dynamic, their settings are recalculated every day. If static, their settings stay the same. I recommend leaving this on dynamic to allow your Sim to change over time.
  • No Jealousy – Turn off jealousy for this Sim. For example, if you want your Sims to be in a poly relationship, you might turn jealousy Off for the involved Sims so they don’t get jealous of the other partners.
  • Married Only – The Sim will only be jealous toward their spouse.
  • Engaged/Steady – The Sim will only get jealous toward their steady, fiance, or spouse.
  • In Love – The Sim will get jealous toward any Sim they are in love with. (This is the default global setting for ACR and I prefer to leave it here for most Sims unless there’s a special situation, like a poly relationship.)
  • Crush – Normal Maxis jealousy; The Sim will get jealous toward any Sim they have a crush or higher with.
• Sim Settings > The One Sim – This menu leads to a sub-menu that allows you to choose settings pertaining to “The One Sim” for an individual Sim. The One Sim is who your Sim currently has the hots for as shown in the token stats menu. This is also the Sim your Sim will choose for a booty call.
  • Setting is Dynamic – Allows you to change a Sim’s setting from dynamic to static. If set to dynamic, The One Sim is recalculated every hour. If static, their One Sim remains the same. I recommend leaving this on dynamic to allow your Sim to change who they have the hots for over time.
  • Choose a Neighbor – Allows you to manually choose who your Sim has the hots for from a list of Sims in the neighborhood.
  • Set to None – Allows you to set your Sim’s “One Sim” to none (basically resets so they can start over).
  • Set to Sim Name – If there is another suitable Sim on the current lot, you may see their name in the menu and you can select them directly.
• Sim Settings > Preferred Dress – This menu leads to a sub-menu that allows you to choose preferred dress settings for a specific Sim. In this case, dress means what your Sim wears when they woohoo.
  • Setting is Dynamic – Allows you to change a Sim’s preferred dress setting from dynamic to static. If a Sim has a dynamic setting, their settings are recalculated every day. If static, their settings stay the same. I recommend leaving this on dynamic to allow your Sim to change over time.
  • Casual – The Sim will prefer casual or swimwear.
  • Undies – The Sim will prefer underwear or swimwear.
  • Nekkid – The Sim will prefer to woohoo naked.
• Sim Settings > Pregnancy – This menu leads to a sub-menu that allows you to choose pregnancy settings for a specific Sim.
  • Pregnancy Odds – Leads to another sub-menu that allows you to choose pregnancy odds settings for a specific Sim.
    • Setting is Dynamic – Allows you to change a Sim’s pregnancy settings from dynamic to static. If dynamic, their settings are recalculated every day. If static, their settings stay the same. I recommend leaving this on dynamic to allow your Sim to change over time.
    • Change Odds – Manually change pregnancy odds for this specific Sim. This will set a constant percentage chance of a Sim getting pregnant from Try For Baby.
    • Change Risky Odds – Allows you to change the risky woohoo percentage for this particular Sim.
    • Global Risky Odds – Set the Sim’s risky woohoo percentage back to the current Global Risky odds you have in your neighborhood.
  • Birth Control is Off – Allows you to place this Sim on birth control. When on birth control, a Sim cannot get other Sims pregnant or get pregnant themselves – except through risky woohoo. (In my gameplay rules, if a Sim has the fear of having a baby, I place them on birth control.)
  • Sim Can Get Pregnant – Allows you to turn off the ability for a Sim to get pregnant at all. A Sim can still get other Sims pregnant, but cannot get pregnant themselves.
  • Unmarried TFB is Not Allowed – Allows you to turn on the “Unmarried Try for Baby” option for this particular Sim.
  • Ideal Family Size – Allows you to set the ideal number of children for this particular Sim. If set, this number is used in the Try for Baby calculations. A weighted average of the mother and father’s settings (if they have one) is used to calculate the number of children the Sim will try to have.
• Sim Settings > Cheating – This menu leads to a sub-menu where you can choose cheating settings for a specific Sim.
  • Setting is Dynamic – Allows you to change a Sim’s cheating settings from dynamic to static. The cheating options are not dynamic even if the menu says they are. If you manually set them, you need to change the setting to static or else they will change back.
  • Set to Totally Faithful – Your Sim will NEVER cheat.
  • Low Flirts are Allowed – Your Sim can do low flirts with other Sims including Wolf Whistle, Charm, Caress, Sweet Talk, Hold Hands, and Romantic Hug,
  • Low Kisses are Allowed – Your Sim can do low kisses with other Sims including Peck, Tender Kiss, Kiss Hand, and First Kiss. 
  • High Flirts are Allowed – Your Sim can do high flirts with other Sims including Hit On, Suggestion, Goose, Serenade, Squeeze, and Leap into Arms.
  • High Kisses are Allowed – Your Sim can do high kisses with other Sims including Kiss up Arm, Romantic Kiss, Suck Face, and Dance Kiss.
  • Make Out is Allowed – Your Sim can make out with other Sims (behind their lover’s back).
  • Woohoo is Allowed – Your Sim can woohoo with other Sims (behind their lover’s back).

Hood-Wide Settings

Hood-Wide settings are settings that affect the entire neighborhood.

• Hood-Wide Settings > Global Switches – This menu leads to a sub-menu that allows you to change global switches for the neighborhood. These settings impact the entire ‘hood unless you override them at the Sim level or through global overrides.
  • ACR Autonomy is Enabled – Allows you to disable ACR autonomy for your entire ‘hood. Default is obviously enabled.
  • Teen-Adult Interactions are Enabled – Allows you to disable teen-adult interactions if you don’t want teens and adults to have any romance between them.
  • Teen Woohoo is Enabled – Allows you to disable teen woohoo. (Note: This is just woohoo. ACR does not add teen pregnancy.)
  • Cheating is Enabled – Allows you to disable cheating for all Sims.
  • Auto Woohoo is Enabled – Allows you to disable autonomous woohoo, meaning your Sims will no longer woohoo unless you direct them to.
  • Unmarried Woohoo is Enabled – You can disable this setting, but it won’t do anything. This feature was never actually implemented.
  • TFB Dialogs are Disabled – Turning this ON will show one or two dialogs every time sims casual woohoo and either Sim is eligible to get pregnant. The first will show the odds of them trying for baby. If the first is successful, the second will show the random number rolled when actually trying to get pregnant.
  • Booty Calls are Enabled – Allows you to disable booty calls. When enabled, a Sim who lives alone will autonomously call their One Sim for a romantic visit when their timer runs out.
  • Autonomous TFB Enabled – Allows you to disable Sims trying for a baby autonomously.
  • Unmarried TFB is Disabled – This setting is disabled by default and I recommend you leave it that way. Almost every time a Sim goes on a date, they will Try for Baby instead of just casually woohooing, which means you’ll end up with a lot of illegitimate babies in your neighborhood.
  • Auto Gender Preference is Disabled – Allows you to enable automatic gender preference. I really love this setting and always turn it on. When enabled, all Sims will have their gender preference randomized for them the first night after they age up to a teen. You will get a pop-up box informing you of their preference.
  • Sofa Woohoo Test is Standard – Allows you to toggle the sofa woohoo test from standard to relaxed. When set to relaxed, Sims may woohoo on the sofa even if they don’t have privacy or may be interrupted.
• Hood-Wide Settings > Global Defaults – This menu leads to a sub-menu that allows you to choose global defaults for the entire neighborhood.
  • Change Default Risky % – Allows you to change the default risky woohoo percentage in your neighborhood. Each time a Sim woohoos through the ACR Casual menu, there is a chance the woohoo results in pregnancy (unless you set this to zero). I like to set mine to 10%, as I found 5% was too low for me and 20% was too high.
  • Timer Multiplier – This is one of the most important settings in ACR. It determines how often your Sims will automatically woohoo or try for baby. 1x means Sims will woohoo every 24 hours, 2x = 48 hours, 3x = 72 hours, and 4x = 4 days (96 hours). I recommend setting this to 4x or your Sims will breed like crazy and you’ll end up with WAY too many babies too fast. You can always adjust this depending on how fast you want your population to grow.
  • Required Relationship – Allows you to change the required relationship level for casual woohoo to be successful. You can change both short-term and long-term based on aspiration (or change them all). I usually leave this at default values, but it’s there if you want to tinker around.
  • Cinematics – Allows you to change if the cinematics (cut scenes) play normally, never, or always. Normal will only show the woohoo cut scene the first time. Always will always show them, and never means they will never play. If the cinematics are turned off in the game options, this setting has no effect.
  • Gender Preference Targets – Allows you to change the percentage of gay and bisexual Sims in your neighborhood when using the randomizer or “randomize me” options.
• Hood-Wide Settings > Global Overrides – This menu leads to a sub-menu that allows you to choose global overrides for your neighborhood. These settings take precedence over a Sim’s token settings and will always trump any other settings.
  • Pregnancy Odds – Allows you to set pregnancy override odds.
  • Jealousy – Allows you to set jealousy override settings.
  • Dress – Allows you to set dress override settings.

Lot Settings

This menu allows you to choose settings at the lot level, meaning they affect all Sims on the current lot unless an override exists. These settings will take precedence over a Sim’s token settings.

• Lot Settings > Lot Type – Allows you to to set lot type to normal, brothel, or church.
  • Normal – Sim woohoo timers decay at the level set in global defaults.
  • Brothel – Causes woohoo timers for all Sims on the current lot to decay much faster than normal, increases chance Sims will woohoo before timer runs out, and increases autonomy. This is mostly for a brothel-type business lot, but you can use it on any lot you want.
  • Church – Does nothing. This feature was never actually implemented.
• Lot Settings > Jealousy Override – Allows you to set a jealousy override for Sims on the current lot.
• Lot Settings > Bed Routing – Alllows you to enable Inge’s inaccessible beds. This is a separate mod you can download if you want to use it with ACR. It allows your Sims to get into a bed when one side is against the wall. If you use this mod, you can enable it here so that it works with ACR woohoo.

Gender Pref

This menu allows you to choose gender preference settings for the neighborhood, display gender preferences for Sims on the lot, show your ‘hood census, and run the randomizer.

• Gender Pref > Hood – This menu leads to a sub-menu that allows you to choose gender preference settings for the neighborhood.
  • Change Target Gay and Bi % – Sets the percentage of gay and bisexual Sims in your neighborhood when using the randomizer or “randomize me” interaction.
  • Run Randomizer – Allows you to set/change the gender preferences for all or some of the Sims in the neighborhood.
    • Once run, you’ll be asked if you want to randomize Sims with no preference, the whole ‘hood, or only townies/NPCs. (I always choose “no preference” so that it gives all Sims in my ‘hood a preference – even my undecided playables.)
      

      NOTE: The randomizer will never change a Sim’s existing preference if they have a crush or higher on another Sim of that gender – no matter which option you choose.

    • Next, you’ll be asked if you want to set the Sim’s preferences to high or low. Using a low preferences sets it to +2 or -2, which makes it very easy for the Sim to change their gender preference through in-game interactions. Using a high preference sets it to +500 or -250. This makes it harder to change a Sim’s gender preference. (I always choose high because I like my Sims to pick one side and stay there, but this depends on how you like to play.)
    • The randomizer will then try to randomize the Sims while keeping the gay/bi percentage as close as possible to the values you chose, usually within a 5% margin.

• Show Census – Displays a census report for the neighborhood. You can run this any time to see the current status of gay and straight Sims in your neighborhood.

• Gender Pref > Sim Name – Choose a Sim’s name from the current lot, which leads to a sub-menu that allows you to view and change their individual gender preference settings.
  • Show Preferences – Displays the selected Sim’s gender preference. A positive number means the Sim has a preference for that gender. A negative number means they do not prefer that gender.
  • Randomize Me! – Randomizes the selected Sim’s gender preference. This will take into account the percentages that you set for your neighborhood (or use the default 10% gay/bi if you didn’t make any changes).
  • Make Gay – Makes the Sim gay with a high preference for the same sex.
  • Make Straight – Makes the Sim straight with a high preference for the opposite sex.
  • Make Bi – Makes the Sim bisexual with a high preference for both sexes.
  • Make Gay (Low) – Makes the Sim gay with a low preference for the same sex.
  • Make Straight (Low) – Makes the Sim straight with a low preference for the opposite sex.
  • Make Bi (Low) – Makes the Sim bisexual with a low preference for both sexes.

Misc

The Miscellaneous menu allows you to scan for pregnancy, take the morning after pill, and reset ACR to defaults.

• Misc > Pregnancy Scanner (Normal) – If a Sim on the lot is pregnant, this option will display the pregnancy information including the father, how long the Sim has been pregnant, and the number of babies expected. It does NOT show the baby’s gender.
• Misc > Pregnancy Scanner  (No Dad Info) – If a Sim on the lot is pregnant, this option will display the pregnancy information EXCEPT it will NOT show who the father is. Use if your Sim has been naughty and you want to be surprised.

  

• Misc > Take Morning After Pill – This option will only appear during the first 24 hours after a Sim becomes pregnant. If you “take the pill,” it terminates the pregnancy.
• Misc > Reset – Allows you to reset ACR back to its default settings.

Pleasant Sims ACR Settings

Here’s a run-down of my ACR settings. These are the settings I use in my personal rotational gameplay for every neighborhood. If you already know the basics, don’t care about the rest, and just want to a reasonable setup, here you go.

Spawn the adjuster, click on it and choose:

• Hood-wide Settings > Global Defaults > Change Default Risky % > 10%
• Hood-wide Settings > Global Defaults > Timer Multiplier > 4x
• Hood-wide Settings> Global Switches > Auto Gender Preference is Enabled
• Gender Preference > Hood > Run Randomizer (I choose “High” when prompted.)
• Adjuster > Change Model > Orchid

I leave all other settings at their default values unless I need to change something at the Sim level – like jealousy or ideal family size. But these are my basic, global settings.

ACR Interactions

Now that you understand ACR’s settings, let’s talk about the interactions.

When you click on another Sim that your Sim could possibly have romantic interactions with (i.e. not family or too young), you’ll now have a menu called “Casual.”

NOTE: If you click on a Sim and you don’t have any options under Casual, you may need to greet them properly first.

The Casual menu is what you’ll need to use if you direct your Sims to woohoo and you want the risky woohoo percentage to take effect. If you use the regular woohoo through the regular menu, risky woohoo will not work.

There are also several new interactions here that are not available in the vanilla game.

Will I Woohoo?

This will display the attraction score between two Sims. The Sim being asked will also give a little blurb to let you know how they feel about your Sim. You want to look at the “attraction score.” This is what determines how attracted your Sims are.

Here’s a chart that shows the chemistry two Sims will have based on the attraction score:

You can see more information on attraction score by reading the Chemistry Page on the Sims Wiki.

I use this interaction in my game to check the possible chemistry of two Sims. You can check this before a Sim is greeted, so it’s good for Romance Sims on a community lot looking for a three-bolter to add to their woohoo count. If the chemistry is bad, I don’t even bother.

Add to Friend Zone

Placing a Sim in the friend zone removes them as a valid target for ACR interactions. If a Sim is in the friend zone, even user-directed ACR interactions are disabled.

You can’t place blood relatives or Sims that are engaged, going steady, or married into the friend zone.

I don’t use this often, but if I do it’s because two Sims who shouldn’t have (in my opinion) started a romantic relationship. (Think Alexander and Dina after Mortimer dies.)

Auto Woo

When you select “Auto Woo” it makes the two Sims choose between woohoo and try for baby, so you don’t have to make that decision for them.

I rarely ever use this since I find my Sims try for baby on their own (or I end up with risky babies) enough already. But if I ever direct them to woohoo – such as on their wedding night – I will use this option to give them the choice.

Other Menu Interactions

All the other interactions are pretty self-explanatory. The only difference between kiss/flirt/woohoo in the casual menu and through the normal Maxis menu is that the causal menu interactions don’t have the same relationship requirements.

So, you can makeout and woohoo much earlier and you don’t have to wait around for silly things like falling in love.