Autonomy

Autonomy on is my default state, because I want to see my sims to weird/surprising things, but the ai/programming (?) behind the sims isn't very intelligent, so they end up doing stupid/repetetive things instead.

I was testing to see how much influence traits had on autonomy and gameplay objects yesterday (spoiler: not much), and locked my sims in a lot with a fence, testing indoor and outdoor activities. I gave the arty sim clay, which they left outside in winter (unfortunate), and because all sims obsess over it, the least creative froze to death when he wouldn't stop molding it.

The amount of times I had to cancel a sim-destructive action during that session (did not want to make another replacement sim), made me almost long for playing with autonomy off. Almost.

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I'm too controlling of a player. My Sims do almost nothing I don't ask them to do, and I hate it if they try.

The autonomy on usually makes me mad at my sims as they'll do stupid things like neglect to take care of their basic needs or their kids. I had one sim who would just drink a glass of water over and over. I've never seemed to have any luck with seeing them do anything interesting or storyline-ish... they just seem to obsess over repeating some random and obscure task

I have autonomy on. I prefer that my sims not just stand around if I am busy with one of their other family members, but I am pretty controlling so I frequently pause the game and line up a queue for everyone. But if a sim finishes all their tasks and I'm not paying attention to them, they can do whatever they want.

Sometimes I just leave my game running while I'm watching youtube (I play in windowed mode) and come back and several days have passed and my sims are fine, save for a broken sink or something.

I like seeing what they get up to. With 2 adults, a teen, child, toddler, and dog it can be quite chaotic at times but I can always redirect them if necessary.

For whatever reason, I've always played with Autonomy Off. It never occurred to me until just now that it might be more fun to play with Autonomy On; in fact, it sounds stressful. But it could be exciting. I'm gonna try to play with Autonomy On and see how I feel about it.

"Elliandre;c-17387523" wrote:
DaWaterRatoh oh this is really interesting! I've never tried to play like that. I really like the idea of watching their actions to figure out what their next trait might be.

@LiELF I played with autonomy off in Sims 2 as well so I'm not sure how they would compare. When you say the story guides you, do you watch your Sim's autonomous actions to see what it reveals about their personality and then get inspired to choose other actions for them? What about a job or a skill hobby? Do they kind of choose on their own with their actions?

AriaMad2 :D So when that happens, what do you do? Do you just watch it all unfold or do you rescue your Sims when they get in trouble :o

I'm so fascinated by all the Autonomy On players here. I've never actually met another person who played the Sims besides my brother, and since I taught him how to play, he does exactly what I do lol.

@Elliandre Well, for example, Sims 2 had a chemistry/attraction system and also zodiac signs that determined how well their personalities would merge or clash. So I would take a couple of Sims from a household out to the club and chat up some strangers and see how well they got along. If my Sim had a positive reaction to someone and continued to converse with them, I would go with it and decide that my Sim was interested in them as a potential partner. But say, if I sent my other Sim to chat up or try to dance with a Sim that I wanted them to be with but they kept getting negatives and turning away from each other, I would determine that they clearly weren't meant to be.

In Sims 4, I did something like this in University in the dorms when a dorm mate NPC had a party and my Sim went to chat up a good-looking guest. He seemed her type but just when I'd go to flirt with him, he'd leave, lol. He came back another day and I tried again but for some reason if I looked away for a second, they were almost avoiding each other. So I accepted they weren't meant to be. But the next time he came for a party, my second Sim tried to talk to him since her friend gave up. She seemed to have a little more success but he would always leave before they could really get into flirting. So i ended up having her flirt with someone else and when he called another day to go out, I took it as a sign that he was more interested in her and that other guy just wasn't looking for intimacy of any kind, lol.

This is the kind of thing I like in my game, but unfortunately, Sims 4 just doesn't have enough of it and so many times I'm just sitting there, bored, looking for signs of my Sims' personalities. So I really hope we do get those new personality systems that were mentioned in the survey because I really need the action. :D

I always play with it off. I'm very controlling with my sims and get annoyed when they try to do anything on their own.