How intelligent do you want Sims to be?

Let's see
Simmies if you have leftovers in the fridge, why make a new meal.
Simmies you have a perfectly good sink in the kitchen, don't go to the bathroom to wash those dishes.
Simmies you just got into a fight with your neighbor and you despise them, this is not the time to ask how are you
Simmies don't go outside to prepare the food when you have such lovely counters in the kitchen.
Simmies you have a nice kitchen table, you don't have to go outside in the cold and eat at the backyard table.
Simmies it is freezing outside, now is not the time to jump in the pool.

Yeah I can go on but you guys get the idea...


oh I just had to add this one...Simmies, you are at a restaurant, you don't get up and walk over to random sim tables and have conversations.

"Kaylen34;c-17732910" wrote:
I think I hit yes by mistake.

It depends on what you mean by smarter. If you mean smarter as in adding new skills for sims to learn, No. As it is, I would love to stop my sims from learning comedy and mischief skills. All of my sims maxing out almost all skills is boring and unrealistic. I want my sims to be individuals and I would like to be able to choose what skills they learn and when.

If you mean smarter as in more autonomous, No. what's the point in the game if the sims do everything themselves.

If you mean Smarter as in having the common sense to not stand in a fire, tamper with electronics, or cook without appropriate skills, Yes.

It all depends on what you mean by smarter.

That brings to my mind an interesting idea. What if there was a skill cap on how many different skills your sim could learn? I did a bit of research and there are about 30+ skills our sims could learn and I think you're right: it is unrealistic that they would be able to learn them all. Though there were no limitations before, it might be good for gameplay if a sim couldn't learn everything but put a cap on it of say 10 or so after that if you want to learn something else you have to give up skills to learn a new one.

I want smarter Sims. I'd love if the personality we give them had more impact on how they interact and what activities they pick. I'd like their social interactions to correspond more with what they know about other sims and with relationships and memories. But most of all, I'd like my sims to stop wasting time and stop harming themselves with bad choices of autonomous actions.

As GrumpyGlowfish said, right now, Sims have trouble with pathing in situations that make no sense, wasting a lot of time because of it, from using sinks that are at the other end of a house instead of the one next to them to wash dishes, to picking up plates, putting them back down, picking them up, and so on without ever completing their task, to stopping all they do for a random social interaction (say, getting up and not eating because they want to hug instead of talk, or stopping cooking as they listen to another Sim talk), to refusing to take food from a fridge or take care of a toddler because another sim is blocking the way, even while they are not yet in the same room, so the way would be clear by the time they reach their objective, or making food on the barbecue when there is plenty of food in the fridge or while someone else is cooking.

Worse than that, Sims often take autonomous actions that give them bad moodlets, or worse. I have a household with vampires and humans. The humans keep prioritizing the plasmafruit salad instead of normal food, then getting sick from it. Meanwhile, if I don't keep an eye, my vampires love to go out for a swim in the bright noon daylight. I've had to reset my game a couple times because one vampire decided, while I was focusing on other sims, to swim all the way to the end of the island in Sulani and couldn't make it back in time before burning.

I don't want an actual learning AI. I just want actions that make sense to keep them alive and to avoid wasting time on pathing, and gameplay/autonomy that reflects the choices I made while setting their traits and during interactions. I still enjoy Sims 4, so long as I micro-manage everything, but I can't do anything about the pathing issues, and there are times, in bigger families, when I wish I could let some sims take care of themselves.

It's not just about being "smarter" or improved AI, but it's also about sims acting and reacting according to their individual personalities. Here is the one great area I believe TS2 spoiled me....

Yeah, smarter would be nice. I don't want my sims to use the grill for breakfast or eat outside in freezing temps because there's a bench out there. I don't want to direct a sim to start making a nice big breakfast only for someone else to come over and start making a salad. Or when they're done watching TV, they turn it off even though 3 other people were watching. Or try to mop puddles outside while it's still raining.

But also, like what a few people have already said, sims acting to their personalities would be nice. They all react the same way to situations regardless of traits. Why is my lazy sim autonomously doing the laundry?

Or act to their age. Should my teen sims always attend to their baby siblings before their parents? Should children be doing the dishes? Of course they can. But all the time?

I saw some people say that making them smarter would take away from the game, but wasn't it TS3 that had different levels of Free Will? That might be cool.

@BreeNilla Bienchen’s Less Auto Cleaning For Minors mod could help with the dish situation. https://deichschafblog.de/bienchen/autonomie-mods-autonomy-mods/

"SAEldarin;c-17733733" wrote:
It's not just about being "smarter" or improved AI, but it's also about sims acting and reacting according to their individual personalities. Here is the one great area I believe TS2 spoiled me....

so true...

It was because each sim had layers to their personality. They started with their lifetime goal and basic personality such as lazy or active, outgoing or shy etc. Then they had fears based on those things. Then you moved on to their attractiveness preference, do they like sims with a certain color hair, glasses, hats etc. Then you had what they liked to talk about(interests)which could be changed by reading magazines. So while they might like the sim in the hat if they did not have interests in common, it lowered their lightning bolts. Memories was that final glorious part of their personality. It was nice to see them remember certain events that upset them every now and then.

All the layers worked together creating their reactions. If Sims A was talking to Sim B about something Sim B did not like, the relationship took a hit. Fighting left sims FURIOUS for days and they couldn't even speak to each other without fighting again. Caught cheating was SERIOUS in that game. The fighting went on so long...If one of my sims was having an affair, I worked hard so they didn't get caught...LOL Now who cares, I can have them back together in minutes even if they have the angry moodlet still. I believe moodlets have cheapened the game since sims 3 but at least in sim 3 there was still a reaction to things happening. In sims 4, we get a moodlet and they are stuck in one of the 9 emotional states.

"AyKooChao;c-17733765" wrote:
@BreeNilla Bienchen’s Less Auto Cleaning For Minors mod could help with the dish situation. https://deichschafblog.de/bienchen/autonomie-mods-autonomy-mods/

Yeah, I have it, thank you! XD. But wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to use a mod to fix some of these things?

Smarter! PLEASE. More autonomous and quirky with the option to turn off autonomy (which is an option already) for those who like them to be mere puppets. And some way for personality and experiences to matter, rather than just whatever moodlet and environmental object is controlling them that second. And those vapid smiles on their faces all the time...what happened to being neutral unless there's a reason to be happy?

So it seems I am in minority thinking this is smart enough. The way I see it, I would have a problem with more selfsufficient Sims, more indipendent with there own needs and wants, then who am I to tell them what to do. It would be interesting what they would be up to, but to force them into a dictatorship no way!