So i turned on the sims 4 for the first time in years last night to finally try to complete one of the GTW careers. (I chose doctor) I quickly remembered why I had stopped playing in the first place. First off I noticed that if I didn't fill up my sims queue immediately, they would wander off and do something I didn't want them to do instead of taking care of their needs. I had to cancel so many actions it was like trying to reel in a rambunctious toddler. Also the amount of actions I told them to do that they then just ignored in favor of something else was maddening. I had to tell them to do something three times minimum before they would do it. I couldn't keep my sim off her phone or trying to get a cup of coffee the entire time she was at work. Half the time she wasn't even tired or hungry so I don't know why she kept going to get coffee. I have never been so close to turning off free will and this from someone who never plays without it in the sims 3. Another thing I noticed is that unless you tell another sim to "care for self" while the other sim is at work, they do nothing to help themselves. I would come home with one sim only to find the other still in pjs on the computer with low bars on everything. WTH? Anyway I got so frustrated after awhile that I turned it off. Don't think i'll be playing it again anytime soon.Edit: Also noticed the game would unpause itself a lot. I would pause the game to get my bearings and it would unpause itself and I would have to pause it again, sometimes more than once.

Never had the issues you've had. I especially never heard of the game unpausing itself! Do you happen to have any mods??!

Before Strangerville if I traveled my sims at home took care of themselves. But now after traveling with one sim and coming back I have everyone in a bad state. 4 or 5 needs plumed out EACH. When you have a lot of sims with all there needs very BAD what do you do first?

As far as care for self you have to click I again after travel and they do fine. It is a bug but it can easily be worked around. The rest I haven’t personally experienced but I’m sorry you are having a hard time. Massive patch coming next week may fix some of this.

I think that it is the problem with doctor career that sim who work as one always try to get a snack, taking out trash and cleaning up the floor instead of acting like a doctor they act more like a cleaning service although the hospital employs the orderly. Other active career such as detective and scientist dont have this autonomy problem.

"fruitsbasket101;d-958170" wrote:So i turned on the sims 4 for the first time in years last night to finally try to complete one of the GTW careers. (I chose doctor) I quickly remembered why I had stopped playing in the first place. First off I noticed that if I didn't fill up my sims queue immediately, they would wander off and do something I didn't want them to do instead of taking care of their needs. I had to cancel so many actions it was like trying to reel in a rambunctious toddler. Also the amount of actions I told them to do that they then just ignored in favor of something else was maddening. I had to tell them to do something three times minimum before they would do it. I couldn't keep my sim off her phone or trying to get a cup of coffee the entire time she was at work. Half the time she wasn't even tired or hungry so I don't know why she kept going to get coffee. I have never been so close to turning off free will and this from someone who never plays without it in the sims 3. Another thing I noticed is that unless you tell another sim to "care for self" while the other sim is at work, they do nothing to help themselves. I would come home with one sim only to find the other still in pjs on the computer with low bars on everything. WTH? Anyway I got so frustrated after awhile that I turned it off. Don't think i'll be playing it again anytime soon.Edit: Also noticed the game would unpause itself a lot. I would pause the game to get my bearings and it would unpause itself and I would have to pause it again, sometimes more than once.I think I'm having that coffee issue too! I noticed the other night when I was playing that my Sims were annoyingly obsessed with going to make coffee instead of just going to bed. I deleted the darn thing. First the endless water thirst and now coffee too? I wish I could just block drinking altogether. Well, except for the Vampires and their plasma preferences. That I like. >:)

A little frustrated | EA Forums

20 Replies

alan650
Seasoned Ace
7 years ago
Never had the issues you've had. I especially never heard of the game unpausing itself! Do you happen to have any mods??!
Behappy1st
Seasoned Ace
7 years ago
Before Strangerville if I traveled my sims at home took care of themselves. But now after traveling with one sim and coming back I have everyone in a bad state. 4 or 5 needs plumed out EACH. When you have a lot of sims with all there needs very BAD what do you do first?
akl1226
Seasoned Ace
7 years ago
As far as care for self you have to click I again after travel and they do fine. It is a bug but it can easily be worked around. The rest I haven’t personally experienced but I’m sorry you are having a hard time. Massive patch coming next week may fix some of this.
timurjr96
7 years ago
I think that it is the problem with doctor career that sim who work as one always try to get a snack, taking out trash and cleaning up the floor instead of acting like a doctor they act more like a cleaning service although the hospital employs the orderly. Other active career such as detective and scientist dont have this autonomy problem.
fruitsbasket100
Seasoned Ace
7 years ago
@alan650111 Nope never used mods or cc. It was a new game and fresh install as it hadn't been on my computer in awhile. As for the unpausing itself, it was when the game would load in after a loading screen. I did learn you have to wait a couple minutes before trying to pause it after that but it still more often than not unpaused itself at least once.
TS1299
7 years ago
Can you try repairing your game?I always play with the Doctor career and never had this issue.
LiELF
Legend
7 years ago
"fruitsbasket101;d-958170" wrote:
So i turned on the sims 4 for the first time in years last night to finally try to complete one of the GTW careers. (I chose doctor) I quickly remembered why I had stopped playing in the first place. First off I noticed that if I didn't fill up my sims queue immediately, they would wander off and do something I didn't want them to do instead of taking care of their needs. I had to cancel so many actions it was like trying to reel in a rambunctious toddler. Also the amount of actions I told them to do that they then just ignored in favor of something else was maddening. I had to tell them to do something three times minimum before they would do it. I couldn't keep my sim off her phone or trying to get a cup of coffee the entire time she was at work. Half the time she wasn't even tired or hungry so I don't know why she kept going to get coffee. I have never been so close to turning off free will and this from someone who never plays without it in the sims 3. Another thing I noticed is that unless you tell another sim to "care for self" while the other sim is at work, they do nothing to help themselves. I would come home with one sim only to find the other still in pjs on the computer with low bars on everything. WTH? Anyway I got so frustrated after awhile that I turned it off. Don't think i'll be playing it again anytime soon.
Edit: Also noticed the game would unpause itself a lot. I would pause the game to get my bearings and it would unpause itself and I would have to pause it again, sometimes more than once.

I think I'm having that coffee issue too! I noticed the other night when I was playing that my Sims were annoyingly obsessed with going to make coffee instead of just going to bed. I deleted the darn thing. First the endless water thirst and now coffee too? I wish I could just block drinking altogether. Well, except for the Vampires and their plasma preferences. That I like. >:)
PlumbobDan
7 years ago
Look in your game settings and play around with the autonomy, I personally have it on full but tick the box to disable it on the active sim. This means that all sims in your household will do their own thing, but when you're controlling a sim they won't do any actions unless you ask them to. This may be the best compromise until it's fixed.

But there has been a few bugs recently that are expected to be solved in the upcoming patch so hopefully it shouldn't take too long to sort itself out.
fruitsbasket100
Seasoned Ace
7 years ago
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I did play the game again today and it wasn't as bad this time. Still had issues with having to tell sims to do things more than once and them not taking care of themselves when I was at work with another sim even if I told them to care for self but it wasn't as bad as before. Maybe it was just me getting used to the game again. Just had to play awhile to get back in to it. Despite me still playing the sims 3 fairly often and them both being sims games, sims 4 has a surprisingly different feel to it.
Daephene1
Seasoned Ace
7 years ago
I complained about the "care for self" thing in the bug area and someone responded that any time the sim cares for their own hunger needs and fills that bar, the other needs stop working until you click "care for self" again. Hopefully that's a bug they'll fix but for now checking them a couple of times while I'm out works for me.