Autonomy players?

"Mstybl95;c-17845119" wrote:
What mods make autonomy better? I am a player that likes to let my sims do their own thing, but in TS4, the only things they do is stand around talking. After playing with a family for a couple of sim weeks, one of them has started watching tv on her own and the other is always gardening, but still, they don't do anything. They want to play on computers all the time.

Why not remove their computers or only let one have the use of it?

"Mstybl95;c-17845119" wrote:
What mods make autonomy better? I am a player that likes to let my sims do their own thing, but in TS4, the only things they do is stand around talking. After playing with a family for a couple of sim weeks, one of them has started watching tv on her own and the other is always gardening, but still, they don't do anything. They want to play on computers all the time.

My sims tend to do pretty well with autonomy, but I'm not doing anything "right." I primarily play on a giant lot with a pool, computers, a ping pong table, etc. which is "wrong" because my sims have a lot of options to do whatever.

But I think it may help to have mods that generate whims/push sims to do things - so the big mods like Slice of Life, More Personality Please, Wonderful Whims, MCCC, etc. Personally, I only use WW and MCCC for big mods because the others do too much for me. I don't do this but with MCCC you can also disable sims from doing specific actions autonomously if they get on your nerves instead of getting rid of those objects in your household.

I think it helps to have sims develop a bit of a personality first as well as they tend to repeat things that they've already done. So if you give a sim a hobby like painting, watching movies, or playing a particular instrument, they're more likely to repeat it.

I play relatively large households of 5 to 8 sims, so autonomy isn't boring for me because it mainly happens when I'm focused on directing a few sims and I let the others kind of do what they want because they've already accomplished what I'd like them to do for the day.

It probably helps that my computer is a powerful gaming desktop (Alienware, i9, 2080 Ti) and that I've been lucky not to really have simulation lag or any other kind of lag.

I play big families usually and I play with autonomy on. I have always played with it on. I only turn it off when I'm trying to take family pictures and I need them to do what I want. I like to see what my sims do and how they interact on their own.

"Simmingal;c-17845118" wrote:
I play autonomy off and always have

I just really dislike sims doing things i didn't command them to while I'm trying to play them

Yes... Good to see they are still doing what you commanded them to do... :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_q5OGZK3HI

And then stand there stupidly waiting for more orders... :tongue:

I keep the autonomy on and I usually concentrate on one Sim and the others will do whatever they want. I've also had saves in which I put random Sims with different traits living together and I never clicked anything, I just watched them doing their things. There used to be a lot of deaths and fights between those Sims, but never a romance. It was entertaining, but it was difficult not to click anything. I don't have those saves anymore.

Right now I have to play with autonomy off on selected Sims because there is a bug that makes Sims drop everything from their queues. I hate to do it, but there is no other choice if I want my Sims to do their work tasks etc. I hope the bug will get fixed soon.

I always have full autonomy on. In private I control them, but when they're in a public setting (like a bar or club), I pretty much let them do their own thing.

One thing I learned with autonomy is to never let them have a tv---they will spend the entire day watching it if you let them

I had an interesting example of autonomy affecting my play last night. I have a Sim who I thought was just going to produce a band, and not perform in it. But last night, when I was playing the other bandmembers and not him, he autonomously immediately ran to the microphone and took centerstage as the lead singer. Some people just have to have all the attention! So now I’m considering having him be the lead singer instead of just being the producer.

Yeah my family runs on auto pilot. I only intervene when the Gen4+ family members start to get a little frisky with

"Mstybl95;c-17845330" wrote:

I tend to play on smaller lots with some options, but I do have like a tv, computers, usually at least 1 hobby/skilling item, etc. This one family is the first time I've ever seen them do anything on their own and it took a whole university degree + 1 extra semester for it to start happening. That's a long time. And then it's still kind of me forcing the personality on them because I still have to direct them to do it first. I'm the kind of player that likes for them to do stuff that I can notice about them. It tells me who they are. Before this, they literally just stood in the walkway between the living room and kitchen and talked forever. They never stopped. My other families are also doing the same thing. Gathering in a bathroom and talking the whole time. I think because I play rotational and only for a week at a time, it isn't allowing the AI to shift and handle it on it's own. I only played this one house for longer because they were in college and that's how I stumbled upon them doing more than talking autonomously.

I'm going to check out the mods you suggested. I had SOL and that wasn't updated even for the patch before this one so I doubt it's good now. I won't do MCCC - I just can't figure it out and hate that it put families in my empty houses. I'll look into wonderful whims as I've never heard of it.

It's really interesting to hear how different people play. I'm similar in that I also like for my sims to do stuff that I can notice about them, so that I can build/understand their personalities from there. I play legacy style, so I get the sims from babies and I never rotate :sweat_smile:. I randomize their toddler traits and kind of watch them and build upon everything. I use the whims a lot to help. My sims talk a lot too, but only once did they chat in the bathroom. Even though I play a giant lot, I also try to keep my sims together so that they have opportunities to interact with one another. More than having any big things that happen, though, I just have a lot of cute little moments. Like a teenager will be dancing with her friends and her dad will randomly come in trying to impress with his own moves, I guess, and fall on his face embarrassing her.


Or on New Years sims will autonomously kiss their significant others and hug close family members and friends.


My AI right now is on point. Even the butler is working well. My sims may be sitting at a table to eat (perhaps amazing in itself) and then the butler will pick up the plate as they finish. She also fixes things immediately after they break. But, overall, the game seems to be very finicky and unstable.

I suppose the closest I come to what you described is that I play a full household, most of the time, which requires autonomy be on. I will then primarily focus on my 'main' Sim, if you will, and pretty much allow the rest of the household to do their own thing. Once in a great while, I'll intervene, (unless I've got students and Uni and then I direct their days so that they graduate Summa Coom Laude, all A's, highest distinction). The main character is my would-be celebrity Sim. I've played this same family in several iterations. Sometimes I've had to start all over due to a corrupted file, or Operator Malfunction (me goofing things up a bit). But, recently, with the patches playing havoc and not wishing to sit on my hands not playing until the mods I use are given the all-clear or are updated, I have taken to starting this family again in a TEST SAVE.