Forum Discussion

Chessack's avatar
7 years ago

Disobedient Sims are driving me crazy

I have experienced this to some extent before, but the last few days playing Sims 4, my Sims are driving me up the wall with disobedience. Before anyone asks, yes, I leave autonomy on. And I know this leads to them having minds of their own. To some extent I like it.

But... when I give them a direct order to do something that has a defined duration, such as taking a shower, cooking a meal, eating a meal -- I expect them to follow through with that activity until it completes. And up until a week or two ago, they did that the majority of the time.

Now, however, especially over the last few days, it seems like I can't get them to do almost anything other than a skill activity (like making an end table at the workbench) without them canceling it the second I switch to another active Sim. I will have a Sim with yellow hygiene, and tell her to "take a shower" and she will walk over to the shower. Figuring that's done, I will click on another Sim and tell him to "ponder chess moves." Once he seats himself at the table (having all needs in the green and thus no urgent needs), I will switch back to the first Sim. She's not in the shower but now petting the cat. I figure wow, that was quick, but check needs and she did not take the shower! Argh! So I order it again -- I have taken to clicking the Take Shower command FIVE TIMES to fill up her queue and ensure the activity. Then I switch back to the 2nd Sim and he's reading a book -- not pondering chess moves! ARGH!

And today, even my active Sims are being disobedient. I had to tell my Gen 3 Legacy heir to eat a meal like 4 times to get her to finish it. She kept taking a bite, putting it down, and trying to do something else (usually -- go to the card table, the pool, or the computer...). It took her like 3 in-game hours to just finish eating.

It's become so ridiculous that for the first time in probably 11 years of Simming, I am thinking seriously about just turning autonomy off and leaving it off. I don't really want to do that -- because I enjoy seeing what they get up to when I am not controlling them. As long as, when I issue a direct order, they follow it (which has been true, generally, in the past). But if they're going to disobey direct orders... I may have to rethink my strategy.

Anyone else having fits with this? Or do you all just play with autonomy off?