Autonomy

In my game it depends on the sims and their relationship. The ones who have high relationship interact a lot. If I want them to start interacting I usually just do one 'friendly' or 'romantic' interaction and they'll take it from there.

(Oops hit post to soon.) Loner sims will stay to themselves. Friendly sims will be friendly. A lot of it depends on character traits too. Sims in sims 3 stay true to their character.

"ZeeGee;c-17656452" wrote:
In my game it depends on the sims and their relationship. The ones who have high relationship interact a lot. If I want them to start interacting I usually just do one 'friendly' or 'romantic' interaction and they'll take it from there.

(Oops hit post to soon.) Loner sims will stay to themselves. Friendly sims will be friendly. A lot of it depends on character traits too. Sims in sims 3 stay true to their character.

Oh that's might explain it. One of my sims does have the loner trait. I never even thought about that. Ty so much. :D

My sims rarely keep still. They are always trying to interact with each other to the point that I need to make them start skilling activities so they will be left alone. The kids are always interrupting the parents to play or talk and the parents are always trying to get to each other. I use an auto romance mod which means I don't even need to supervise my teens in starting relationships. They can get to "propose marriage" on their own. I used to have a flavour of the mod that allowed them to marry on their own but got frustrated by the number of teen sims being added to the household when I wasn't looking! :D

I have one particular sim that does not much else but wander off on his own and start fights, even with his best friend. He has the evil + hot headed traits.
My loners or shy sims don't tend to initiate any interactions, though they will respond if another sim approaches them. I also use auto romance mods like Zumi, because I like my sims to just get on with it, rather than me having to direct every second of their lives.

ZeeGee is right, TS3 sims do stay true to their traits. Such as party animal sims being the ones you will find quite often at clubs or bars, or Inappropriate + hot headed picking fights in the park etc.
Apart from the Dislikes Children trait. I've known some of my sims with that trait who quite happily have children, and it isn't really until the babies get to childhood age, that the parent begins to shoo them away.

I mostly like negative traits, I don't like perfect sunshine and rainbow games, but that one makes me feel a little bad for the kiddie sims, so if I notice a sim I like has grown up with it, I will sometimes change it.

Sims 4 Sims are in general a lot more social than Sims 3 Sims - to a point that really gets on my nerves, because nothing gets done. I´m always like, stop chatting, do the thing that I told you, gosh dang it!

I did a asylum challenge (you play with 8 insane/erratic sims, only controling one) once, in Sims 3 and Sims 4, trying to make them as similar as possible (traits and looks). The Sims 3 Sims usually ran off doing things based on their traits, interacting only when their social was low. The Sims 4 Sims always hung together chatting all the time, doing little else.

If you want your Sims 3 Sims to interact more, it helps, if there is not much to do for them - meaning, no pc, no television or other fun stuff. They will do a lot more with each other.

Sims 4 sims are the MOST social of all. IMHO the other games are more balanced. I do think loner sims will happily interact with others they know well with a high relationship score. Is this a new family? Did the couple need their relationship built first?

From what I observe since the first time I played the sims 3 in 2011, sometime the specific traits assigned to some specific sims tend to be more or less potent or they act according to their trait rather differently to another sims, i remembered i once played Frio household, Jared rarely insult or being mean to his brother eventhough he has mean spirited trait, and Connor's loner trait only ignore his wife but still talk to his children autonomously, while my own created mean spirited sims did insult or pick a fight with his wife a lot.

@Sharonia I don't often play the Loner trait but I remember Eddy Mullis from the University world was a loner and I never had a problem with him autonomously interacting with his spouse or children. He did get a negative moodlet when the house was full but was otherwise quite friendly/romantic with spouse.

"izecson;c-17671907" wrote:
From what I observe since the first time I played the sims 3 in 2011, sometime the specific traits assigned to some specific sims tend to be more or less potent or they act according to their trait rather differently to another sims, i remembered i once played Frio household, Jared rarely insult or being mean to his brother eventhough he has mean spirited trait, and Connor's loner trait only ignore his wife but still talk to his children autonomously, while my own created mean spirited sims did insult or pick a fight with his wife a lot.

It's funny that you mention the Frio's...

Connor is the one that I had my sim marry. He still rarely ever talks to his wife autonomously but the kids get a lot of attention from him just like you mention above. It doesn't bother me anymore though as I just think it's his personality. He would rather spend his leisure time reading books or doing some other activity and that's fine. They still have a great relationship and that's all I really want for them.

@Sharonia When I was playing Connor about a year ago he was the one who always instigated romantic interactions with his husband. He was even the one to propose! The proposal could be put down to my auto romance mod but not the other interactions :D

Edit to add: LOL I just remembered how much Connor likes to read! :D