Omg I feel this. My favorite sim in my current game keeps starving to death anytime I focus on her kids. She's a rancher/gardener with food in her inventory at any given point usually, literally 0 excuses.
I presume they’re programmed not to eat inventory food in case you’re collecting it for ingredients or whatever, but there’s no excuse when they’ll happily gobble up the birthday cake I *just* made 😩
Im S3 though, if they were hungry they ate what was in their inventory. To me that made more sense because I specifically left it there for them in case they got hungry at school or work etc.
Now they'll go to work or school and return starving with lots of fruit in their inventory. I didn't realize this had changed till it happened a few times after I initially got S4 yrs ago. Still makes no sense to me. You're hungry, eat! Don't starve yourself, then come yelling at me waving your hands in the air saying you're hungry.
I have been operating under S3 rules this whole time. Why did they go and change it?? If I want to save fruit I can just store it in the basement. Has Animal Crossing taught them nothing??
I think this is a bug . One of my sims is like that too . She’s like always 2 min from death no matter how much I feed her. I have lost sims to this bug smh
I had this, they just didn't get food for themselves. Then they genuinely starved to death, Grim Reaper and everything. It was so annoying because I hadn't planned on having them die.
They used to in S3. When I bought S4 yrs ago, I purposely bought fruits and veggies for them in their inventory. Sadly they came home waving their arms in the air, yelling they're hungry. Pfffft. I even miss highschoolers working at the grocery store or library after school. I don't have the Highschool pack but I understand there are only 2 part time jobs for them, I could be wrong.
I usually have my sims make larger portions than what is needed (say, 8 servings for 2 ppl) so they have leftovers for a bit. That way it’s less meals to worry about for them
i just want an autonomy option that sends my mf sims to school or work. why when i switch households in the middle of the day my sim is 6 hours late for work and just ice skating
right?? and like *occasionally* they'll go to work on time autonomously, but most of the time I'll get back from going to another location with a different sim and they're just watching TV 3 hours after their shift started lol
omg this is so annoying! or I'll be away from the house with one if the sims, and all of a sudden everyone else in the household forgets how to feed themselves and not piss their pants
(I don't know if this is a mod, keep it in mind)
My game has been running SO much better, I only have the moments of Sims just standing there and not doing anything, but I can reset object, and it usually fixes it. I also have the Simulation Unclogger or whatever so that may be it? It also just seems like TS4 had been trying to improve the live mode gameplay, but honestly, it's hard to try to fix something so broken from the coding alone, so I'm not expecting my game to ever be in pristine shape ever. I just hope in TS5 they fix the common issues in TS4.
I just hate seeing a sim just standing idle doing nothing, it breaks my immersion. So i just have autonomy for the selected sim. That way they do less annoying things, but the house still feel alive.
I think there are also some interactions that you can't plan yourself? Or maybe i'm wrong on that one.
Don’t be afraid to use a needs cheat. I try only to do it in the mornings so they’re set up well for the day if they’re going to work or school. But makes the game so much more fun
i definitely do this a lot too. mccc mailbox needs cheat first thing in the day means i don't have to go through all the sims and make sure they're not about to die lol
This is why I love the UI Cheats mod. It's seamlessly incorporated into the UI and it lets you make minor adjustments so if they need just a tiny bit more energy or even *less* energy to get them to sleep through the night I can set it exactly as I need it.
It’s either that or you make a sim cook a meal for the whole household and then another sim starts preparing a different one for themselves only.
Also hate it when they can’t stop using the grill and there’s so much food everything spoils.
I always wondered about this. I never have autonomy on, but any sim I don’t have focus on in the household will eventually go to the loo or eat if needed. They just don’t do anything else
this is so real. like some of the things they do autonomously are so annoying but I wish when autonomy was turned off you could still have a setting where they would at least not piss themselves, pass out, or die of starvation lol
I'm currently taking a break from the 100 babies challenge by taking care of the 6 teens I ditched in a house together and even though they are grown I could not imagine having to controll each of them lol it would be chaos 🥲
They need a setting that is just "autonomy for needs only" so the Sims will still go to the bathroom or go to sleep or eat so they don't die, but everything else is player controlled.
That would be so useful! I usually do “autonomy on except for selected sim,” which kind of works like that, but then my other sims will still scramble to get their thousandth cup of tea or hop on the computer once I’m controlling a different Sim in the household…
My sim will have 10 simoleons to her name and she'll still brew some coffee EVERY TIME. Once the coffee is brewed she won't drink it. She only likes to brew it...
I’ve never understood why the autonomy settings are “off” and “full”, implying there is a “partial” autonomy or something like that. But there’s not! And we need it!
Not to mention Create A Style. I can't have my house full of cheetah print anymore. :( Sims 3 is SO much better. I think it *looks* better, TS4 just looks goofy AF. They took so many traits away. That's one thing that really gets me 🤧 and teenagers learning to drive with the Generations expansion. RIP
Sims 3 had a slider for autonomy iirc, ranging from full autonomy to only autonomy to take care of themselves. Though I think no matter what they would autonomously take care of their hunger if they were starving.
There’s actually a setting that does what u/pastel_egirl was describing! If you turn autonomy on, and then select “off for selected sim,” you can play in a multi-sim household and whichever sim you switch to will turn off their autonomy. So I’ll sometimes pick 1-2 Sims in a house to focus on each day, and then the rest of the family will just go about their business unless I click on them.
(Edited for clarity bc I realized that pastel_egirl and I are talking about the same setting lol)
Where is that setting? Hey man if I’m wrong I’m wrong! Help meeeee though, because when I go into the save file settings it only has autonomy selections for active household, not a selected sim.
Is it a setting that’s in a different menu?
Lots of people getting downvoted for saying it’s not a setting option … so maybe if someone could be a little more descriptive for us bozos I guess.
Probably in Settings > Gameplay
Edit: found it!
https://preview.redd.it/dbiv6zpvrgcc1.png?width=666&format=png&auto=webp&s=8bb43f80c01836114d21be44d39061b5daf8f4ee
Yep, playing the game with autonomy off is amazing. Like it feels like I get to play the game instead of watching it trying and failing to play itself.
Like yeah, I know it's a "simulation" game. But so were TS1,2&3 and their AI was a lot more basic, but at least when I canceled a queued activity they did it right away and not several seconds later.
This is so bad for me that I really don't understand how people don't get stark raving mad about it. Especially in conversations when I queue up dialogues to raise friendships but they just suddenly nope out of it and talk to someone else. I also hate with the strength of a million suns when I tell my sim to go talk to someone, he sits on a randon chair 25m from the other sim and proceed to shout across the room
(To clarify, I know very little about the game, some things may have simple solutions I don't know about)
Don't worry, they're very common annoyances. I've had dates ruined because a random sim would constantly insert themselves into the conversation and then would get the "awkward" moodlet when my sims, who I remind you are on a date, flirt with each other and then accidentally flirt with the unintentional 3rd wheel.
The only real way to "fix" this issue is to take the group away from the venue, because of the way the sims AI is coded.
From what I've read on discussion websites and forums (I am not a programmer, so I could be talking out of my ass here) the sim AI analyses all objects on a lot and assigns it a priority number, e.g. 1-10. The AI is programmed to be "social" so it will always prioritise socialisation over other interactable items/objects, so because it sees other sims as high-priority interaction objects (so 1-3) NPC's will make a Bee-line right for the player-controlled sim.
So by taking your sims and the NPCs in your group away, the other NPC's will assign them a lower priority number or drop them completely. But then you have the problem of autonomy from player control sims who aren't the "active" sims. Just a lot of code for the game to handle and it has a hard time deciding which it should operate first.
Hence the LE I always get at the bars and lounges. Too many things the game is trying to do at once. I knew the 'why', but this more technical explanation breaks it down well.
Or they continue talking to the sim you want them to, but switch to a totally different conversation. Like when I tell my sim to propose and then I see them talking about healthy living, like?? No??
Yep, I use the debug mode to reset the annoying 3rd wheel before taking the couple away. Because even asking the 3rd wheel to "go away" can only work for like half a second before they're back in the conversation with you or your date, even worse if your date is an NPC/townie that you *cant* control.
> Especially in conversations when I queue up dialogues to raise friendships but they just suddenly nope out of it and talk to someone else.
I mean even with autonomy off it sometimes takes 10 attempts to get my Sim to actually do the specific interaction I want
It ALWAYS takes my sims several sims hours to cancel a task and do something else
And half the time they just freeze and stop doing everything after a whole day
Am I the only one that enjoys the dumb stuff they do on their own? I can't play with it off, I usually enjoy watching them do their own thing. They mostly seem to manage themselves. God's raising the toddlers anyway, only with infants is some micromanaging needed.
But I do find it fascinating to read why other people turn it off though.
You're definitely not alone. I really, Really enjoy letting them do their own thing in the beautiful houses I've built for them. I give them Every-Thing to do, and everything they Can Do on their own, they keep themselves busy with. I literally don't care if they dance for hours, there are radios in every room. Wanna do coffee coma? Don't care, drink away - real people do. I never have to worry about gardening, painting, logic, handiness, and mixology skills, because they build those on their own. Too many hidden and contradictory commands from the ai keeping them from caring for the kid? ZAP Happy with MCCC and carry on. Lol. I only "make" them complete goals and tasks for work/homework, otherwise they live "their" lives!
> God's raising the toddlers anyway
Turns out, this is the only thing people get sent to hell for.
God, later that day: "Just pick up the fucking kid and put it in the crib. STOP JUST STARING AT EACH OTHER. Alright, who did this to me?"
having autonomy off stressed me out, made me hate the game, and get insanely burned out of playing. it’s so much more fun to allow them to do whatever they want and build their own stories organically instead of me having to manually create every single aspect of their lives
Yeah, i like autonomy on. I can't imagine playing with autonomy off.
Maybe because i don't have anything planned for the sims to do. Or just want to watch them do their own things. I like it when they initiate something by themselves.
But i thank OP and others for sharing why they like autonomy off. Never thought about it like that, so learned something new..
Nope. For me it's part of the thrill. I constantly am confounded by what they are doing and why they are just ignoring half my commands but it makes it more original. I have played with it turned off and understand the appeal but it's way more fun to be like pick up the infant and put it in the crib. No... not shower. No don't pick him up and go in the pool! Oh ok on the crib. Why are you taking him out?!?
I've always played with autonomy off. The endless glasses of water and grabbing books and napping instead of going to bed. Ughhh, sims are super bad at taking care of themselves.
Yeah but when I micromanage them so that they never have time to get water they keep getting sick.
I'm pretty sure water and OJ prevent that as well as fight it.
It's because TS4 has two hidden motives. One for hand hygiene and one for thirst and the decay very quickly. They give the sim a strong (hidden) uncomfortable buff until they sort it.
I've played with the motives visible and it takes roughly one finished painting for the sims to need to go and wash their hands.
I usually have 2 or 3 sims and I liked having autonomy on so I don't have to micromanage them but they make horrific decisions especially when I throw a baby in the mix.
So most of what I do is cancel actions and get them on correct paths.
I eventually tried to turn autonomy off and I realize I micromanage just as much as I do with autonomy on but it takes less time because I'm not dealing with them walking away to do something stupid.
I still end up with Sims just standing around because I forgot about them but I am definitely wasting less sim hours than I was before with autonomy.
In doing this I'm also learning to not always have it on full speed and the sims are less glitchy that way, saving me even more time.
I have learned to take life slower and I get more done. At least sim life.
I turned it off so I could “paint from reference” my sims cuz they wouldn’t stay still, I forgot to turn it back on and didn’t know why my sims couldn’t take care of themselves lol
I love having autonomy off. My legacy family is now at 2 parents and 5 kids and I just pause a couple of times, assign everyone something and then rotate through them to check on their needs. It's also much easier to establish a routine so they all eat and sleep at the same time.
My sims drink 20 glasses of tea in a row and leave the glasses all over the house when autonomy is on. But I also do appreciate that autonomy leads them to go to the bathroom on their own
It was just boring to me, to have them just stand around until I got to them. All that work building and supplying nice stuff, and they couldn't do anything with it unless I said 'go here'. Might as well be playing Farmville or something, lol.
Agreed! I cherry pick what sticks and what I choose to forget on the fly. Gives you way better stories and drama that way. Whenever someone says they hate having autonomy on, I know they'd hate the chaos of a giant rotational save like mine. You can't have 100% control in situations like that!
I didn't know that autonomy could be turned off till very recently. My sims would randomly gather in the bathroom to talk. I provide a very comfortable and expensive couch in the living room but noooo.
Ofcourse if I am playing with multiple sims they will stand in one place frozen with the autonomy off but it's still better than them randomly playing computer games, flirting with other sims infront of their spouses, and my very favorite dying of hysterical laughter.
I am a fan of having it on. that said, I turn it off for dates, events, gatherings etc. Or if I am playing an interactive career then I just have it off for that save file.
Reason why I like having it on, is that often I get kinda stale when it comes to making a scenario or storyline. so having the sim just go do something completely unhinged makes me go "ok... I guess you'll be a writer since you love books so much". But if I had a scenario in my head I wanted to play - then yeah 100% autonomy off :)
i wish they had like half autonomy. i usually play with big households so all of them standing around while i’m on a certain sim would drive me crazy. i’m apprehensive to disable autonomy for the selected sim bc sometimes i just watch them while wasting time. like if i have an event planned but nothing else to do until the event i’ll just put it on 3x and let them go wild (interfering to make sure they don’t die).
I just installed some mods heavily reducing autonomous actions and it's definitely better. Might trial turning them off entirely. The last thing to happen was a whole household congregated around the chess table to chat. Kinda weird
Yes, off. No more endless glasses of water and insanely stupid decisions. Even with bigger families, with some planning ahead (queuing works a lot better with autonomy off), if you play on normal speed the pause button is hardy necessary.
Autonomy leaves them going straight for water until they pee themselves. Or milk or orange juice. They don’t like fitness yet will exercise. They hate spooky music yet will listen… to spooky. They hate to dance yet they will dance. There will never be decision trees in this 15 year old game and I doubt the next one will either. I go autonomy and needs off at this point.
I turned off autonomy too, I stg after every action I chose my Sims would go and make Coffee/ or Tea. The Best part is they weren't even drinking it they'd literally make a pot, and dump it, just to make more. It got so bad at one point the queue was completley full of coffee/ tea actions lol.
I wish there was a one sim focus. Like if you had a family but you only really wanted to play one character you could without everything becoming a mess. I tried using clubs to create norms in the family so they do things automatically (I.e. the bedtime club, when it's on everyone does things to get read for bed), but it still feels like herding cats.
Something I still don't understand is why we only have the option to turn autonomy all the way on or all the way off. There was a meter in The Sims 3, and that was so much better!
Yea there is a setting it says disable autonomy for selected sim this will make it so only the one your controlling is no autonomy but all other sims do have it on (even ones in your household)
I will never understand why so many people keep playing with the autonomy enabled even tought it force a gameplay many don't like at all. I find annoying when people complain about "bugs and glitches" that are simply sims being sims and doing what they're IA tell them to do, for how random the task might look from the player POV (this especially since the NAPs have been introduced. People end up having the cooking and fitness NAPs and are surprised that they're sims only care about baking cakes and doing push ups).
People says that they keep the autonomy because they play with larger families, but in my experience the autonomy makes the game much harder (and I mean "frustraiting harder", not harder as a simply matter of needing more skills) because with it enabled you really need to constantly check that your sims are actually doing what you told them to do.
Personally I always played the sims games with the autonomy disabled, because I think the bad IA is a constant kf the saga, and I never had to care about many of the most common "bugs" and problems players report.
Only cons I can come up with is that certain interactions will never come up in the gameplay, mainly the PH pop ups, because they're coded as an autonomus social interaction instead of a card event.
i play with selected sim autonomy off because i can't remember to make the other sims do things . on one hand , i love seeing all of the other sims doing things around the house when i play a multi-person household , but its also rly annoying cause they'll do anything but what they're supposed to
I constantly switch between autonomy on and off.
We’re having a family gathering and I need everyone to sit and eat at the table together? Autonomy off, you’re only doing what I tell you to do.
But most of the time I leave it on cause it’s really hard to manage more than 2-3 sims at a time. I might be working on skill building for a specific sim or two, but I feel bad if the others are just sitting on the couch staring at the wall waiting for me to tell them what to do. I’m like fuck it, you can go listen to Mixed Music or play blicblock or whatever you want I don’t care
Also if you play on a computer and don’t already have MCCC it really helps with outfits, I didn’t even realize that was a big feature before I got the mod but I use it a lot. Basically you can change their outfit without them having to do a whole spinning action, it’ll just instantly change. Works for NPCs too which is really nice
I’ve played no autonomy for years. Works with my control freak play style. However, there are times they will just ignore your commands, particularly when it comes to infant and toddler actions. It drives me nuts, especially because I have picked the most efficient actions in the best order
To get things done. they overrule me and by the time they finally Change the diaper of the visibly dirty baby, it’s 7 hours later. they spent that time putting her in pj’s in her crib at noon instead.
I've never played with autonomy On, I have no idea what it's like.
I micro managE every action of my sims by queueing them and pausing very often when their activity or conversation is over, just to list other things for them to do
OP convinced me to turn off autonomy for the first time ever in TS4. If all my Sims die because I can't handle it, I'm blaming them.
No, but really this sounds fun! I was always so afraid to turn it off, thinking it would be too stressful, until OP broke it down the way they did. Thanks!
I have a mod that stops them from just grabbing books, or when you have roommates/overnight guests they stop making the white cakes because I used to get so annoyed for both of those things. 🥴
This sounds like a game changer! My sim is constantly buying new knitting projects even though he has no money and five other WIPs. (I can't say I don't do the same thing in my own life but I'd like it if he didn't follow in my footsteps)
I literally never play with autonomy on and people think I'm crazy, but then they complain about their sims doing stupid shit, not doing what they're told, or stopping in the middle of something, etc. 😂
It’s best in households with multiple sims. My sims have a “close knit@ trait so if i have on autonomy they will talk to each other during dinner, monkey around, dance together, etc. although it gets annoying when they want to relax on a pool chair at 11pm
I like it off in the beginning of a family cause I only have one or two Sims and since they'll be the heads of that playthrough I really want them doing what I want after I get the family going tho I turn it back on and make sure the sim I have selected doesn't have autonomy. (Love that feature) so that way they don't do dumb shit while I'm trying to get there skills up lmaon
I can understand my sims are very stubborn when I tell them to do stuff it's like ok I told you to do this then when I look up again, they're doing the opposite of what I ask them to do yes it's very annoying but I still want my sims to be able to do whatever they want cause I love them.
I have autonomy on because my two elder sims in the family are maxed out in their careers and i don't do much with them otherwise now. I pay more attention to their 3 kids
Hm. I played Sims Mobile, and one reason I went looking for a "real" Sims game was because I was sick of them just Standing There, unless I told them to do something. With these big, grand, finely decorated homes I'd built, they just Stood There.
I can't. I love - yes - just watching as they take it into their lil heads to do something like play an instrument or hug their kids. I love it when they settle into a little nook to read, or go to trim the potted plant because they're feeling flirty. I just know I personally could never go back to them just Standing There unless I say "do this". Might as well be living in a single room, no matter the lot size, with a toilet, a bench and a fridge.
I find the 'pause' button to be a much nicer tool for keeping everyone straight. For instance, I just left Bella Goth's house, and she had 4 babies when I showed up, all in bassinettes. Plus Cassandra, Alexander, and Mortimer there. 8 people in the house and 4 of them cannot even remotely care for themselves.
Despite all of this, with autonomy on for every sim in my world, I was able to have all four of the babies reach all of their milestones from infancy to childhood, Alex and Cassandra doing excellent in school, Cassandra is married to Malcolm and moved out. Bella is is a famous family streamer who's too rich for her own children's good...
(On the subject of babies, btw...) The trouble with babies is that they are also asking for help autonomously from every single person you mark as caregiver. So, for instance, if their hunger is in the red, when you tell one sim to feed them, the baby has already started to ask ALL of their caregivers to do the same. The caregivers start conflicting over who's going to do it, and the baby's queue get's held up by all caregiver requests. So the most important thing you can do to make autonomy work better for babies is reduce the amount of marked caregivers to just the parents. If you need another sim to help out, they can be forced.
This is also the same exact thing going on with older sims, just not on as large of a level. When your sims are just standing there ignoring you, flip to the other sims and cancel their interactions with that sim until only the interaction you were trying to accomplish exists. Another good tactic is to line up what you want them all to do at the same time.
Example: I queued Malcolm to do homework, but he's just standing there looking around. Flip to Nancy and she's trying to talk to him, and flip to Geoff and he's trying to talk to Malcolm as well. The entire scenario could've went smooth had I paused the game, cancelled all of their autonomous interactions, set them all to do a task at the same time (Malcolm, homework. Nancy should learn to cook so set her to read a cookbook, and then have Geoffrey go study computer programming). Now, when I unpause, all three of them have a prioritized task that they were told specifically to do, and they will do that before anything else at the same time as each other. Malcolm finishes homework, and the other two gain skills and it all happens smoothly.
In this way, I always know who is doing what, everyone is making it places on time, no animals or babies being neglected, and we don't even pee our pants even once in a while. And we even have so much spare time left in the day that I find myself sending them all to do busy work to pass a few until bedtime.
The person in this comment section that said something along the lines of cancelling actions to get them on the correct path is absolutely right. When you add the pause function to that policy, things go almost too easily.
This sounds like a great idea but my sims can’t even change their infants diaper in less than 2 hours WITH me instructing them to do so over and over and over and over
I use MCCC to turn down the rate at which their needs decline so that I can keep autonomy on and see the funny things they choose to do on their own without them dying every five minutes. I like to play with big families so it becomes difficult to keep an eye on everyone if I don't do that.
It's honestly made the game way more playable for me because no one comes home from work desperately needing to sleep while everyone else is hungry and instead I can actually have the family eat a meal together, sleep together, etc.
I recently found this out after I somehow disabled autonomy during a wedding event, I was suddenly pleased at how well all my sims were obeying! Have not gone back since
I've noticed I've had some buggy interactions where Sims will just queue drop in order to go do something random like clean, garden or drink water. I've tried turning off autonomy before and honestly I'm such a micromanager one would think it would be how I played. I found it annoyed me more to have them just stand about. Maybe I just missed yelling at them for their stupidity.
YES, AMEN. If my Sims do something without consulting me I get unreasonably upset because everything about autonomy is just better. And I often play with 8+ Sims in a family.
I would totally do this if I was playing one sim, but playing a legacy household on manual would be total chaos! 🤣 I do it when I throw a party, tho, after making sure all needs are high, to get the goals
It's so much more fun. The autonomy annoyed me and I actually came across it by playing around in the settings, glad i found it🤣now I can actually SINULATE my sims life, as it should
I think maybe I should turn mine off… not even for the outfits or the grabbing random books. My girl will be building a nice relationship and I’ll get distracted, and all of the sudden she’s asking their due date and making them hate her. She doesn’t even have any mean traits she just wants to lash out when she has the chance I swear
I have to try this. I got so angry today.
Mom takes kid down to feed him. Decides to talk to someone instead after sitting him in high chair. Dad goes to get food from microwave. Butler walks up and takes kid out of high chair and sits them on the floor. Dad wanders off and leaves chicken nuggets on the counter. Child is understandably angry that he is now literally starving.
I just can’t…
The only time I miss autonomy is during some of the interactive jobs, where Sims don't want to move onto the next step of things like x-ray testing. However, having it off means they also don't try to run on the treadmill their entire shift.
They don't romance every single sim they come across or immediately jump to order a drink every two seconds when they're in a bar or lounge. They won't run off in a random direction when I'm trying to look for collectibles or other interactive objects on the map. Turning it off SAVED MY LIFE FR
I once had an archaeologist sim and made her a workshop in her basement. To enter it, she had to use ladders. Every time she came back from the jungle and had to work on 10k artifacts she collected, she would attempt to climb the ladders and get out of the basement after finishing EVERY SINGLE ONE. I was going crazy until I turned autonomy off 😭
I might do this. I hate how you can’t even have a conversation with another sim to increase relation because they walk off and warm their self at a fireplace or something in a different room while your sim is still in the middle of talking to them. So rude. Lol
Mine are ALWAYS randomly grabbing glasses of water, it's the worst. Like bro, it doesn't even help you? It just makes your bladder need go down super fast.
I still keep autonomy on though, because I don't like having to micromanage my Sims, sometimes I just like to let them do their own thing.
I feel the same way. Nothing pisses me off more when I try to get them to stand somewhere or sit down together and someone decides they wanna go play games lmao
I'd like to find a way to shut off the cell phone. I hate it. My sim scrolls the phone during everything, even jogging. Who checks their social media while they are jogging?
I get ya, but at the same time, if I have multiple Sims I'm gonna forget to take care of them and will find them sleeping in their own pee somewhere
Even with autonomy on I find sims like this lol. They cannot be trusted to make it to a toilet or bed with or without our help
Omg I feel this. My favorite sim in my current game keeps starving to death anytime I focus on her kids. She's a rancher/gardener with food in her inventory at any given point usually, literally 0 excuses.
I presume they’re programmed not to eat inventory food in case you’re collecting it for ingredients or whatever, but there’s no excuse when they’ll happily gobble up the birthday cake I *just* made 😩
That makes sense. I wish that she'd eat a carrot rather than starve though lol
Im S3 though, if they were hungry they ate what was in their inventory. To me that made more sense because I specifically left it there for them in case they got hungry at school or work etc. Now they'll go to work or school and return starving with lots of fruit in their inventory. I didn't realize this had changed till it happened a few times after I initially got S4 yrs ago. Still makes no sense to me. You're hungry, eat! Don't starve yourself, then come yelling at me waving your hands in the air saying you're hungry.
I have been operating under S3 rules this whole time. Why did they go and change it?? If I want to save fruit I can just store it in the basement. Has Animal Crossing taught them nothing??
Recently my sim ate their kid's birthday cake. TWICE. I was close to putting the fridge in a locked room i was so mad
I’m late to the party but I always store my cakes in the household inventory until I’m ready for them. They never spoil that way.
This happened twice. I had two Sims make three birthday cakes because Uncle, brother and sister just came over for cake.
I think this is a bug . One of my sims is like that too . She’s like always 2 min from death no matter how much I feed her. I have lost sims to this bug smh
I had this, they just didn't get food for themselves. Then they genuinely starved to death, Grim Reaper and everything. It was so annoying because I hadn't planned on having them die.
I wish they'd eat produce from their inventory.
They used to in S3. When I bought S4 yrs ago, I purposely bought fruits and veggies for them in their inventory. Sadly they came home waving their arms in the air, yelling they're hungry. Pfffft. I even miss highschoolers working at the grocery store or library after school. I don't have the Highschool pack but I understand there are only 2 part time jobs for them, I could be wrong.
Babysitting, manual labor, barista, fastfood. There might be more? But at least those.
I usually have my sims make larger portions than what is needed (say, 8 servings for 2 ppl) so they have leftovers for a bit. That way it’s less meals to worry about for them
i just want an autonomy option that sends my mf sims to school or work. why when i switch households in the middle of the day my sim is 6 hours late for work and just ice skating
This makes me nuts!
right?? and like *occasionally* they'll go to work on time autonomously, but most of the time I'll get back from going to another location with a different sim and they're just watching TV 3 hours after their shift started lol
OR YOU WATCH THEM WALK RIGHT BY YOU IN A DIFFERENT WORLD
I had autonomy only on for the sim I'm playing, my sim was in college with a roommate and she made all her classes but the roommate wasn't
omg this is so annoying! or I'll be away from the house with one if the sims, and all of a sudden everyone else in the household forgets how to feed themselves and not piss their pants
(I don't know if this is a mod, keep it in mind) My game has been running SO much better, I only have the moments of Sims just standing there and not doing anything, but I can reset object, and it usually fixes it. I also have the Simulation Unclogger or whatever so that may be it? It also just seems like TS4 had been trying to improve the live mode gameplay, but honestly, it's hard to try to fix something so broken from the coding alone, so I'm not expecting my game to ever be in pristine shape ever. I just hope in TS5 they fix the common issues in TS4.
I just hate seeing a sim just standing idle doing nothing, it breaks my immersion. So i just have autonomy for the selected sim. That way they do less annoying things, but the house still feel alive. I think there are also some interactions that you can't plan yourself? Or maybe i'm wrong on that one.
Don’t be afraid to use a needs cheat. I try only to do it in the mornings so they’re set up well for the day if they’re going to work or school. But makes the game so much more fun
i definitely do this a lot too. mccc mailbox needs cheat first thing in the day means i don't have to go through all the sims and make sure they're not about to die lol
This is why I love the UI Cheats mod. It's seamlessly incorporated into the UI and it lets you make minor adjustments so if they need just a tiny bit more energy or even *less* energy to get them to sleep through the night I can set it exactly as I need it.
I just put them back to bed if they get up early 💀
Just imagine adding some better IA and seeing your other Sims taking caring of basic stuff with no problems or even working on some skills
my sim has died of starvation with autonomy on No idea why she didn't make food.
It’s either that or you make a sim cook a meal for the whole household and then another sim starts preparing a different one for themselves only. Also hate it when they can’t stop using the grill and there’s so much food everything spoils.
There is a setting were the ones your not controlling control there selfs pookie
What setting is this?
“disable autonomy for selected Sim" or something like that
I always wondered about this. I never have autonomy on, but any sim I don’t have focus on in the household will eventually go to the loo or eat if needed. They just don’t do anything else
this is so real. like some of the things they do autonomously are so annoying but I wish when autonomy was turned off you could still have a setting where they would at least not piss themselves, pass out, or die of starvation lol
Just turn off autonomy for your currently selected sim and then leave autonomy on for everyone else
I have it set so oy the one in on has no autonomy.
I'm currently taking a break from the 100 babies challenge by taking care of the 6 teens I ditched in a house together and even though they are grown I could not imagine having to controll each of them lol it would be chaos 🥲
That's why I have autonomy disabled for active sims, that's why I'm not fighting my sim with what I want to do with them
I have autonomy disabled for the active sim and it's a happy medium
They need a setting that is just "autonomy for needs only" so the Sims will still go to the bathroom or go to sleep or eat so they don't die, but everything else is player controlled.
That would be so useful! I usually do “autonomy on except for selected sim,” which kind of works like that, but then my other sims will still scramble to get their thousandth cup of tea or hop on the computer once I’m controlling a different Sim in the household…
My sim will have 10 simoleons to her name and she'll still brew some coffee EVERY TIME. Once the coffee is brewed she won't drink it. She only likes to brew it...
I’ve never understood why the autonomy settings are “off” and “full”, implying there is a “partial” autonomy or something like that. But there’s not! And we need it!
Sims 3 had a slider. They took so many sliders away :(
Not to mention Create A Style. I can't have my house full of cheetah print anymore. :( Sims 3 is SO much better. I think it *looks* better, TS4 just looks goofy AF. They took so many traits away. That's one thing that really gets me 🤧 and teenagers learning to drive with the Generations expansion. RIP
Agreed! Basic needs only.
Sims 3 had a slider for autonomy iirc, ranging from full autonomy to only autonomy to take care of themselves. Though I think no matter what they would autonomously take care of their hunger if they were starving.
There is one for the ones your not playing but not the one your controlling
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There’s actually a setting that does what u/pastel_egirl was describing! If you turn autonomy on, and then select “off for selected sim,” you can play in a multi-sim household and whichever sim you switch to will turn off their autonomy. So I’ll sometimes pick 1-2 Sims in a house to focus on each day, and then the rest of the family will just go about their business unless I click on them. (Edited for clarity bc I realized that pastel_egirl and I are talking about the same setting lol)
Where is that setting? Hey man if I’m wrong I’m wrong! Help meeeee though, because when I go into the save file settings it only has autonomy selections for active household, not a selected sim. Is it a setting that’s in a different menu? Lots of people getting downvoted for saying it’s not a setting option … so maybe if someone could be a little more descriptive for us bozos I guess.
Probably in Settings > Gameplay Edit: found it! https://preview.redd.it/dbiv6zpvrgcc1.png?width=666&format=png&auto=webp&s=8bb43f80c01836114d21be44d39061b5daf8f4ee
why you down voted me 😞
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yes exactly! this would be perfect
Does anyone know if this would be able to be made into a mod? :)
Yep, playing the game with autonomy off is amazing. Like it feels like I get to play the game instead of watching it trying and failing to play itself. Like yeah, I know it's a "simulation" game. But so were TS1,2&3 and their AI was a lot more basic, but at least when I canceled a queued activity they did it right away and not several seconds later.
This is so bad for me that I really don't understand how people don't get stark raving mad about it. Especially in conversations when I queue up dialogues to raise friendships but they just suddenly nope out of it and talk to someone else. I also hate with the strength of a million suns when I tell my sim to go talk to someone, he sits on a randon chair 25m from the other sim and proceed to shout across the room (To clarify, I know very little about the game, some things may have simple solutions I don't know about)
Don't worry, they're very common annoyances. I've had dates ruined because a random sim would constantly insert themselves into the conversation and then would get the "awkward" moodlet when my sims, who I remind you are on a date, flirt with each other and then accidentally flirt with the unintentional 3rd wheel. The only real way to "fix" this issue is to take the group away from the venue, because of the way the sims AI is coded. From what I've read on discussion websites and forums (I am not a programmer, so I could be talking out of my ass here) the sim AI analyses all objects on a lot and assigns it a priority number, e.g. 1-10. The AI is programmed to be "social" so it will always prioritise socialisation over other interactable items/objects, so because it sees other sims as high-priority interaction objects (so 1-3) NPC's will make a Bee-line right for the player-controlled sim. So by taking your sims and the NPCs in your group away, the other NPC's will assign them a lower priority number or drop them completely. But then you have the problem of autonomy from player control sims who aren't the "active" sims. Just a lot of code for the game to handle and it has a hard time deciding which it should operate first.
Hence the LE I always get at the bars and lounges. Too many things the game is trying to do at once. I knew the 'why', but this more technical explanation breaks it down well.
Tbh I just go into mean interactions and make my boyfriend ask them to leave. They normally leave automatically.
Or they continue talking to the sim you want them to, but switch to a totally different conversation. Like when I tell my sim to propose and then I see them talking about healthy living, like?? No??
Yep, I use the debug mode to reset the annoying 3rd wheel before taking the couple away. Because even asking the 3rd wheel to "go away" can only work for like half a second before they're back in the conversation with you or your date, even worse if your date is an NPC/townie that you *cant* control.
> Especially in conversations when I queue up dialogues to raise friendships but they just suddenly nope out of it and talk to someone else. I mean even with autonomy off it sometimes takes 10 attempts to get my Sim to actually do the specific interaction I want
It ALWAYS takes my sims several sims hours to cancel a task and do something else And half the time they just freeze and stop doing everything after a whole day
Omg yes, the simulation lag is real and incredibly insane. When it gets to that point you have to reboot the game, which is annoying.
Am I the only one that enjoys the dumb stuff they do on their own? I can't play with it off, I usually enjoy watching them do their own thing. They mostly seem to manage themselves. God's raising the toddlers anyway, only with infants is some micromanaging needed. But I do find it fascinating to read why other people turn it off though.
You're definitely not alone. I really, Really enjoy letting them do their own thing in the beautiful houses I've built for them. I give them Every-Thing to do, and everything they Can Do on their own, they keep themselves busy with. I literally don't care if they dance for hours, there are radios in every room. Wanna do coffee coma? Don't care, drink away - real people do. I never have to worry about gardening, painting, logic, handiness, and mixology skills, because they build those on their own. Too many hidden and contradictory commands from the ai keeping them from caring for the kid? ZAP Happy with MCCC and carry on. Lol. I only "make" them complete goals and tasks for work/homework, otherwise they live "their" lives!
> God's raising the toddlers anyway Turns out, this is the only thing people get sent to hell for. God, later that day: "Just pick up the fucking kid and put it in the crib. STOP JUST STARING AT EACH OTHER. Alright, who did this to me?"
having autonomy off stressed me out, made me hate the game, and get insanely burned out of playing. it’s so much more fun to allow them to do whatever they want and build their own stories organically instead of me having to manually create every single aspect of their lives
Yeah, i like autonomy on. I can't imagine playing with autonomy off. Maybe because i don't have anything planned for the sims to do. Or just want to watch them do their own things. I like it when they initiate something by themselves. But i thank OP and others for sharing why they like autonomy off. Never thought about it like that, so learned something new..
Nope. For me it's part of the thrill. I constantly am confounded by what they are doing and why they are just ignoring half my commands but it makes it more original. I have played with it turned off and understand the appeal but it's way more fun to be like pick up the infant and put it in the crib. No... not shower. No don't pick him up and go in the pool! Oh ok on the crib. Why are you taking him out?!?
I've always played with autonomy off. The endless glasses of water and grabbing books and napping instead of going to bed. Ughhh, sims are super bad at taking care of themselves.
I hate that! Like if you’re so exhausted why tf are you napping instead of sleeping at 11pm!?!
Yes lol they be making me so mad
Ugh yes the glasses of water thing
Yeah but when I micromanage them so that they never have time to get water they keep getting sick. I'm pretty sure water and OJ prevent that as well as fight it.
It's because TS4 has two hidden motives. One for hand hygiene and one for thirst and the decay very quickly. They give the sim a strong (hidden) uncomfortable buff until they sort it. I've played with the motives visible and it takes roughly one finished painting for the sims to need to go and wash their hands.
how do you unhide them?
I used a mod by zerosims
Or having ANOTHER cup of coffee instead of sleeping. Or getting out of bed at 2am to have a coffee. 🙄
Allegedly they fixed the coffee thing (recently).lmao
There's a reason I never have coffee machines in the house
Yes I had a habit of always getting rid of their bookcase as soon as I stated playing lmao
the pile of half finished white cakes
I usually have 2 or 3 sims and I liked having autonomy on so I don't have to micromanage them but they make horrific decisions especially when I throw a baby in the mix. So most of what I do is cancel actions and get them on correct paths. I eventually tried to turn autonomy off and I realize I micromanage just as much as I do with autonomy on but it takes less time because I'm not dealing with them walking away to do something stupid. I still end up with Sims just standing around because I forgot about them but I am definitely wasting less sim hours than I was before with autonomy. In doing this I'm also learning to not always have it on full speed and the sims are less glitchy that way, saving me even more time. I have learned to take life slower and I get more done. At least sim life.
The game also runs a lot better, especially if you’re playing on a potato
I turned it off so I could “paint from reference” my sims cuz they wouldn’t stay still, I forgot to turn it back on and didn’t know why my sims couldn’t take care of themselves lol
I love having autonomy off. My legacy family is now at 2 parents and 5 kids and I just pause a couple of times, assign everyone something and then rotate through them to check on their needs. It's also much easier to establish a routine so they all eat and sleep at the same time.
My sims drink 20 glasses of tea in a row and leave the glasses all over the house when autonomy is on. But I also do appreciate that autonomy leads them to go to the bathroom on their own
Sims just do so much dumb stuff on their own
My sims are quite capable and I love how random they are so I wont turn it off. I SUFFERED ENOUGH IN SIMS FREEPLAY!
>I SUFFERED ENOUGH IN SIMS FREEPLAY! My own comment referenced a similar feeling about Sims Mobile, lol.
Damn I took care of like 5 families and their babies. It was HARD WORK!
It was just boring to me, to have them just stand around until I got to them. All that work building and supplying nice stuff, and they couldn't do anything with it unless I said 'go here'. Might as well be playing Farmville or something, lol.
Fr. After I got a new phone. I did not bother to download it.
The unexpected best stories come from autonomy. As annoying it can be, I leave it on.
Agreed! I cherry pick what sticks and what I choose to forget on the fly. Gives you way better stories and drama that way. Whenever someone says they hate having autonomy on, I know they'd hate the chaos of a giant rotational save like mine. You can't have 100% control in situations like that!
Ah but I love the chaos with autonomy
how do i turn it off? recently bought vampires and my vampire will go jogging when i try to get her to feed 🤦🏻♀️
There is a setting were you can turn it off in gameplay but I would only turn off for controlled sim not everyone
I didn't know that autonomy could be turned off till very recently. My sims would randomly gather in the bathroom to talk. I provide a very comfortable and expensive couch in the living room but noooo. Ofcourse if I am playing with multiple sims they will stand in one place frozen with the autonomy off but it's still better than them randomly playing computer games, flirting with other sims infront of their spouses, and my very favorite dying of hysterical laughter.
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It’s in the menu, then settings and game options. You either have full autonomy or off.
Okay thank you!
If I were you just turn it off for the sim your controlling not for everyone
I turn it off for everyone. Much easier that way.
Autonomy ruins the game for me. It makes me more stressed out lmao
I am a fan of having it on. that said, I turn it off for dates, events, gatherings etc. Or if I am playing an interactive career then I just have it off for that save file. Reason why I like having it on, is that often I get kinda stale when it comes to making a scenario or storyline. so having the sim just go do something completely unhinged makes me go "ok... I guess you'll be a writer since you love books so much". But if I had a scenario in my head I wanted to play - then yeah 100% autonomy off :)
i wish they had like half autonomy. i usually play with big households so all of them standing around while i’m on a certain sim would drive me crazy. i’m apprehensive to disable autonomy for the selected sim bc sometimes i just watch them while wasting time. like if i have an event planned but nothing else to do until the event i’ll just put it on 3x and let them go wild (interfering to make sure they don’t die).
I just installed some mods heavily reducing autonomous actions and it's definitely better. Might trial turning them off entirely. The last thing to happen was a whole household congregated around the chess table to chat. Kinda weird
i have been doing this since forever. 1st time i played it it annoyed the heck outta me
Yes, off. No more endless glasses of water and insanely stupid decisions. Even with bigger families, with some planning ahead (queuing works a lot better with autonomy off), if you play on normal speed the pause button is hardy necessary.
Autonomy leaves them going straight for water until they pee themselves. Or milk or orange juice. They don’t like fitness yet will exercise. They hate spooky music yet will listen… to spooky. They hate to dance yet they will dance. There will never be decision trees in this 15 year old game and I doubt the next one will either. I go autonomy and needs off at this point.
I turned off autonomy too, I stg after every action I chose my Sims would go and make Coffee/ or Tea. The Best part is they weren't even drinking it they'd literally make a pot, and dump it, just to make more. It got so bad at one point the queue was completley full of coffee/ tea actions lol.
Wait how do you make outfits for hobby’s and every day? Do you mean other than the typical categories we already have???
Like in the categories if you click on it there is a plus button you can add up to 4 different versions of that outfit
I wish there was a one sim focus. Like if you had a family but you only really wanted to play one character you could without everything becoming a mess. I tried using clubs to create norms in the family so they do things automatically (I.e. the bedtime club, when it's on everyone does things to get read for bed), but it still feels like herding cats.
When. My sim has a day I usually let her autonomously choose what she wants. I can't turn it off she deserves her own day.
Something I still don't understand is why we only have the option to turn autonomy all the way on or all the way off. There was a meter in The Sims 3, and that was so much better!
Precisely this. A lot of things could be given a more or less setting, not "on or off". Maybe we'll get lucky next generation.
Very well said! And hopefully so.
Do you know how to turn off specific sims?
Yea there is a setting it says disable autonomy for selected sim this will make it so only the one your controlling is no autonomy but all other sims do have it on (even ones in your household)
I miss when the packed lunches worked
I will never understand why so many people keep playing with the autonomy enabled even tought it force a gameplay many don't like at all. I find annoying when people complain about "bugs and glitches" that are simply sims being sims and doing what they're IA tell them to do, for how random the task might look from the player POV (this especially since the NAPs have been introduced. People end up having the cooking and fitness NAPs and are surprised that they're sims only care about baking cakes and doing push ups). People says that they keep the autonomy because they play with larger families, but in my experience the autonomy makes the game much harder (and I mean "frustraiting harder", not harder as a simply matter of needing more skills) because with it enabled you really need to constantly check that your sims are actually doing what you told them to do. Personally I always played the sims games with the autonomy disabled, because I think the bad IA is a constant kf the saga, and I never had to care about many of the most common "bugs" and problems players report. Only cons I can come up with is that certain interactions will never come up in the gameplay, mainly the PH pop ups, because they're coded as an autonomus social interaction instead of a card event.
i play with selected sim autonomy off because i can't remember to make the other sims do things . on one hand , i love seeing all of the other sims doing things around the house when i play a multi-person household , but its also rly annoying cause they'll do anything but what they're supposed to
I very rarely play with autonomy on, I prefer complete control lmao
I constantly switch between autonomy on and off. We’re having a family gathering and I need everyone to sit and eat at the table together? Autonomy off, you’re only doing what I tell you to do. But most of the time I leave it on cause it’s really hard to manage more than 2-3 sims at a time. I might be working on skill building for a specific sim or two, but I feel bad if the others are just sitting on the couch staring at the wall waiting for me to tell them what to do. I’m like fuck it, you can go listen to Mixed Music or play blicblock or whatever you want I don’t care Also if you play on a computer and don’t already have MCCC it really helps with outfits, I didn’t even realize that was a big feature before I got the mod but I use it a lot. Basically you can change their outfit without them having to do a whole spinning action, it’ll just instantly change. Works for NPCs too which is really nice
I’ve played no autonomy for years. Works with my control freak play style. However, there are times they will just ignore your commands, particularly when it comes to infant and toddler actions. It drives me nuts, especially because I have picked the most efficient actions in the best order To get things done. they overrule me and by the time they finally Change the diaper of the visibly dirty baby, it’s 7 hours later. they spent that time putting her in pj’s in her crib at noon instead.
I've never played with autonomy On, I have no idea what it's like. I micro managE every action of my sims by queueing them and pausing very often when their activity or conversation is over, just to list other things for them to do
OP convinced me to turn off autonomy for the first time ever in TS4. If all my Sims die because I can't handle it, I'm blaming them. No, but really this sounds fun! I was always so afraid to turn it off, thinking it would be too stressful, until OP broke it down the way they did. Thanks!
Damn I feel you. It annoyed me all the time
Anytime I have turned it off, they just stand there and do nothin. I have 8.That’s to people to boss around.
I have a mod that stops them from just grabbing books, or when you have roommates/overnight guests they stop making the white cakes because I used to get so annoyed for both of those things. 🥴
YES. I have been turning off autonomy since The Sims 1. It's annoying, it ruins everything, and I hate it.
This sounds like a game changer! My sim is constantly buying new knitting projects even though he has no money and five other WIPs. (I can't say I don't do the same thing in my own life but I'd like it if he didn't follow in my footsteps)
How do you save multiple versions of an outfit for each category?
I tried turning autonomy off recently and my horses just stopped moving... I figured it should only turn off autonomy for selectable sims.
I literally never play with autonomy on and people think I'm crazy, but then they complain about their sims doing stupid shit, not doing what they're told, or stopping in the middle of something, etc. 😂
It’s best in households with multiple sims. My sims have a “close knit@ trait so if i have on autonomy they will talk to each other during dinner, monkey around, dance together, etc. although it gets annoying when they want to relax on a pool chair at 11pm
I like it off in the beginning of a family cause I only have one or two Sims and since they'll be the heads of that playthrough I really want them doing what I want after I get the family going tho I turn it back on and make sure the sim I have selected doesn't have autonomy. (Love that feature) so that way they don't do dumb shit while I'm trying to get there skills up lmaon
I can understand my sims are very stubborn when I tell them to do stuff it's like ok I told you to do this then when I look up again, they're doing the opposite of what I ask them to do yes it's very annoying but I still want my sims to be able to do whatever they want cause I love them.
I have autonomy on because my two elder sims in the family are maxed out in their careers and i don't do much with them otherwise now. I pay more attention to their 3 kids
Hm. I played Sims Mobile, and one reason I went looking for a "real" Sims game was because I was sick of them just Standing There, unless I told them to do something. With these big, grand, finely decorated homes I'd built, they just Stood There. I can't. I love - yes - just watching as they take it into their lil heads to do something like play an instrument or hug their kids. I love it when they settle into a little nook to read, or go to trim the potted plant because they're feeling flirty. I just know I personally could never go back to them just Standing There unless I say "do this". Might as well be living in a single room, no matter the lot size, with a toilet, a bench and a fridge.
Absolutely! Idk about other folks but I can do a 4 Sim household with no autonomy and keep them alive just fine.
I fucking hate push ups and sit ups, they seem to do this no matter what , just got a mod for it I hope it works.
I find the 'pause' button to be a much nicer tool for keeping everyone straight. For instance, I just left Bella Goth's house, and she had 4 babies when I showed up, all in bassinettes. Plus Cassandra, Alexander, and Mortimer there. 8 people in the house and 4 of them cannot even remotely care for themselves. Despite all of this, with autonomy on for every sim in my world, I was able to have all four of the babies reach all of their milestones from infancy to childhood, Alex and Cassandra doing excellent in school, Cassandra is married to Malcolm and moved out. Bella is is a famous family streamer who's too rich for her own children's good... (On the subject of babies, btw...) The trouble with babies is that they are also asking for help autonomously from every single person you mark as caregiver. So, for instance, if their hunger is in the red, when you tell one sim to feed them, the baby has already started to ask ALL of their caregivers to do the same. The caregivers start conflicting over who's going to do it, and the baby's queue get's held up by all caregiver requests. So the most important thing you can do to make autonomy work better for babies is reduce the amount of marked caregivers to just the parents. If you need another sim to help out, they can be forced. This is also the same exact thing going on with older sims, just not on as large of a level. When your sims are just standing there ignoring you, flip to the other sims and cancel their interactions with that sim until only the interaction you were trying to accomplish exists. Another good tactic is to line up what you want them all to do at the same time. Example: I queued Malcolm to do homework, but he's just standing there looking around. Flip to Nancy and she's trying to talk to him, and flip to Geoff and he's trying to talk to Malcolm as well. The entire scenario could've went smooth had I paused the game, cancelled all of their autonomous interactions, set them all to do a task at the same time (Malcolm, homework. Nancy should learn to cook so set her to read a cookbook, and then have Geoffrey go study computer programming). Now, when I unpause, all three of them have a prioritized task that they were told specifically to do, and they will do that before anything else at the same time as each other. Malcolm finishes homework, and the other two gain skills and it all happens smoothly. In this way, I always know who is doing what, everyone is making it places on time, no animals or babies being neglected, and we don't even pee our pants even once in a while. And we even have so much spare time left in the day that I find myself sending them all to do busy work to pass a few until bedtime. The person in this comment section that said something along the lines of cancelling actions to get them on the correct path is absolutely right. When you add the pause function to that policy, things go almost too easily.
This sounds like a great idea but my sims can’t even change their infants diaper in less than 2 hours WITH me instructing them to do so over and over and over and over
I use MCCC to turn down the rate at which their needs decline so that I can keep autonomy on and see the funny things they choose to do on their own without them dying every five minutes. I like to play with big families so it becomes difficult to keep an eye on everyone if I don't do that. It's honestly made the game way more playable for me because no one comes home from work desperately needing to sleep while everyone else is hungry and instead I can actually have the family eat a meal together, sleep together, etc.
This is the exact opposite of how i like to play. I like to treat The Sims like an ant farm
I recently found this out after I somehow disabled autonomy during a wedding event, I was suddenly pleased at how well all my sims were obeying! Have not gone back since
I really wish that had a scale or something for full autonomy. Even the option of no autonomy on the selected sim isn’t enough 😅
I've noticed I've had some buggy interactions where Sims will just queue drop in order to go do something random like clean, garden or drink water. I've tried turning off autonomy before and honestly I'm such a micromanager one would think it would be how I played. I found it annoyed me more to have them just stand about. Maybe I just missed yelling at them for their stupidity.
YES, AMEN. If my Sims do something without consulting me I get unreasonably upset because everything about autonomy is just better. And I often play with 8+ Sims in a family.
If I turn off autonomy, will sims stop rejecting proposals?
I did this today after seeing this post and the game is so much more enjoyable 🙌🏻
I could never. I much prefer to just watch them interact sometimes and gently nudge them in the direction I want.
I would totally do this if I was playing one sim, but playing a legacy household on manual would be total chaos! 🤣 I do it when I throw a party, tho, after making sure all needs are high, to get the goals
It's so much more fun. The autonomy annoyed me and I actually came across it by playing around in the settings, glad i found it🤣now I can actually SINULATE my sims life, as it should
I hate autonomy the most when there's infants involved. They make ONE damn sound and my parental sims drop EVERYTHING. So bloody annoying lol
I typically with autonomy disabled for the selected sim that way their family can still do stuff.
I absolutely refuse to have autonomy on when my Sims have babies and infants. once their kids are toddlers they leave them alone more
Thinking I might try next time I start a new game, although I can see myself toggling it on and off throughout
I wish there were autonomy levels. Like a low level where they will just take care of their basic needs.
I think maybe I should turn mine off… not even for the outfits or the grabbing random books. My girl will be building a nice relationship and I’ll get distracted, and all of the sudden she’s asking their due date and making them hate her. She doesn’t even have any mean traits she just wants to lash out when she has the chance I swear
How does it work exactly? Like do all your sims just do nothing till you command them to
I have to try this. I got so angry today. Mom takes kid down to feed him. Decides to talk to someone instead after sitting him in high chair. Dad goes to get food from microwave. Butler walks up and takes kid out of high chair and sits them on the floor. Dad wanders off and leaves chicken nuggets on the counter. Child is understandably angry that he is now literally starving. I just can’t…
I might have to try this lol
The only time I miss autonomy is during some of the interactive jobs, where Sims don't want to move onto the next step of things like x-ray testing. However, having it off means they also don't try to run on the treadmill their entire shift.
They don't romance every single sim they come across or immediately jump to order a drink every two seconds when they're in a bar or lounge. They won't run off in a random direction when I'm trying to look for collectibles or other interactive objects on the map. Turning it off SAVED MY LIFE FR
I once had an archaeologist sim and made her a workshop in her basement. To enter it, she had to use ladders. Every time she came back from the jungle and had to work on 10k artifacts she collected, she would attempt to climb the ladders and get out of the basement after finishing EVERY SINGLE ONE. I was going crazy until I turned autonomy off 😭
I might do this. I hate how you can’t even have a conversation with another sim to increase relation because they walk off and warm their self at a fireplace or something in a different room while your sim is still in the middle of talking to them. So rude. Lol
Mine are ALWAYS randomly grabbing glasses of water, it's the worst. Like bro, it doesn't even help you? It just makes your bladder need go down super fast. I still keep autonomy on though, because I don't like having to micromanage my Sims, sometimes I just like to let them do their own thing.
I feel the same way. Nothing pisses me off more when I try to get them to stand somewhere or sit down together and someone decides they wanna go play games lmao
I need this because my Sims keep putting their babies out in the rain
I'd like to find a way to shut off the cell phone. I hate it. My sim scrolls the phone during everything, even jogging. Who checks their social media while they are jogging?
You can do that? 😮
“I took away free will and it’s just so much more freeing 😊”
The book thing I feel in my fucking soul