Adults Will Not Allow Toddlers to Sit on Living Chairs
Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
What is your current game version number? 1.82.99.1030
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? All
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Put living chairs (ANY living chairs - sofa, loveseat, armchair, an ottoman, or even one of the kids' living chairs, like the bear chair) in a house with adults and toddlers. Once a toddler sits on a living chair, watch every adult in the house drop everything in their queue to go "Put Down" the toddler who's sitting in a chair. Then, watch your entire game become about adults dropping every player assigned action from their queues to autonomously "put down" a toddler they're not even holding, simply because the toddler is sitting on something OTHER than the floor, and observe how unplayable the game becomes as a result of this, especially when trying to manage a large household, because assigning actions to sims' queues if you have toddlers AND seating in a house is essentially pointless. The minute a toddler sits on a chair, it all falls apart.
What happens when the bug occurs? If a toddler sits on a living chair, the adults in the household will stop what they're doing, drop all player assigned actions from their queues, and obsessively go "put down" any toddler who is sitting in a living chair.
What do you expect to see? I expect toddlers to be able to sit on living chairs without adults dropping everything from their queues to go "put down" the toddler.
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Not now. I've removed them.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Neutral/Not Sure
This issue happens constantly with or without mods installed. It's been happening for months, so I can't pinpoint exactly which patch caused it. It's gotten so bad in my game that I am considering moving all seating to the family inventory until the toddlers age up to kids just to make it stop. This used to only be an issue with high chairs, which I gave up on using years ago, but now it applies to ALL chairs that are usable by toddlers.
This, like so many other issues, is ultimately tied to the fact that sim autonomy continues to override player directed actions, which is quite possibly THE biggest issue with Sims 4 as a whole.
Can we PLEASE fix the autonomy system so that player directed actions DON'T get cancelled by game breaking autonomous obsessions, because truth be told, 99% of the gameplay issues that occur in this game happen because a sim's autonomous choices take priority over player directed actions, which is the opposite of how it should work for optimal gameplay and is especially problematic with NPC or household pet autonomy that can't be controlled by the player (because anything an NPC chooses to do WILL override and cancel any action the player tries to assign to active sims), not that the player has much choice over the actions of sims they (theoretically) CAN control anyway, at least not with the way the game functions currently.
Bottom line, issues like this make it virtually impossible to manage large households. We should be able to have furniture AND toddlers on the lot at the same time. As it stands now, the only way to have a playable game and eliminate the "put down" obsession adults have with toddlers is by moving all living chairs to the family inventory until the toddlers age up to kids...so, no seating can be on the lot if a family has toddlers? Maybe this was by design, but I can't imagine why.
Please make adults allow toddlers to sit on chairs without having the autonomous "put down" obsession completely derail gameplay. If toddlers really AREN'T supposed to be using living chairs for some strange, nonsensical reason (as adult sim autonomy currently indicates) then please code all seating surfaces other than the floor to be off limits to toddlers. Either stop the autonomous "Put Down" madness or code living chairs to be unusable by toddlers, one or the other, because the way this "works" right now is anything but workable.
EDIT: I'll add that even if you try to cancel the "Put Down" action from an adult's queue, the sim will still complete the canceled action anyway. There's no way to stop it aside from eliminating all living chairs from the lot. I tried to attach a video (but that didn't work either) that shows a sim completing a cancelled "Put Down" action even though the toddler is no longer sitting on the chair. The adult was supposed to be cooking lunch for the toddlers, but that assigned action got dropped from her queue so she could first walk up two flights of stairs to put down one toddler who was sitting in a chair on the third floor, and then walk down two floors again and all the way to the other side of the lot to needlessly "Put Down" a toddler who was not even sitting in a chair at the time but standing on the ground instead, She walked all the way across the lot just to pick the kid up and put her back down again instead of making lunch, and there was nothing I could do to stop it, because completing a series of pointless "Put Down" actions was deemed a higher priority than the player assigned action to feed the children was. Even resetting the sims doesn't work. The "Put Down" action comes back immediately after resetting and can't be canceled. This should not be happening.
