Recently I've been playing the Sims 4 without a few mods I used to rely on like the no autonomous cellphone mod, which no longer works as the author has left the community. Regardless this has to be by far the MOST annoying consistent animation for sims who have low free will, I mean left simply standing they will use this animation nearly 10 times within a (a real) minute. THATS INSANE.Honestly in real life this is very alienating and annoying when your surrounded by people always checking their cellphones - heck its even considered a social taboo now in some circles or spaces. Many jobs which employ most of the population (like service jobs) actually FORBID use of cellphones during company time (I know this is shocking to silicon valley but would you prefer your barista make you a coffee or check their facebook status in example?) SO WHY are we forced to watch our sims do sometihng that annoys most people in real life over and over and over in-game? Maxis do you not realize HOW ANNOYING this is to watch? Its not a fun or interesting animation, anymore then it is in real life. So I'm asking you to PLS limit the amount of times this animation can play within a set time limit - especially for sims with low free will.

I always play with free will on, but this is one of the things that has driven me close to turning it off. Even more annoying is how sims will do it in the middle of conversations and other actions autonomously and cancel the current interaction. I get these sims are supposed to be modern and w/e but the phone thing is ridiculous (and rude, nothing like ignoring your date to play blicblock)The teen selfie animation is bad too, it's just an idle but it takes up time for them to do things and it can't even be canceled.

Again, I wish phones were an option and not a necessity.

"S100Headache;15317999" wrote:EA wants Maxis to be hip and with it. Constant cell phone usage is EA's idea of "hip and with it".On top of that, the cell phone is very good at keeping Sims' Fun and Social motives up. Maybe that is causing autonomous usage...People are sick of it. It's not exciting or funny to watch. Even the patch notes question the wisdom of giving everyone a supercomputer smartphone:"Who gave the kids a phone anyway? In my day kids didn’t have access to a phone. If they wanted to invite a stranger to a bar, they had to walk to their house… in the snow… uphill… both ways… during an earthquake… without any shoes on… and they had to ask the stranger in Latin!" Yes, and when they asked him, he wouldn't accept until they'd beaten him in a duel. Ahh, I remember those days myself ...Seriously, though, I would love to be able to get rid of the cellphones altogether and make my sims use an old fashioned landline if they want to phone anybody. I already have houses where the sims have no computers, because they spend too much time playing on them. I like playing on computers myself, I just don't find it much fun watching somebody else do it.

"mortia;15318505" wrote:@TOLKIEN , this just got updated today by @catalina_45. http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/897169/mb-updated-mods-by-catalina-45#latestYa I know I emailed her and asked for her to post her version after she commented in the old mod's thread that she'd made an update version.Still it would be nice for EA to address this issue instead of using mods...

@TOLKIEN Thanks for the post. I'm also pretty annoyed by the permantent cellphone fiddling but wasn't aware that there is already a mod to stop this.And of course thanks to @catalina_45 for updating the mod (direct link to download).

OMG STOP with the constant autonomous cellphone animation!!!

ZombiePary
Seasoned Novice
9 years ago
I loathe phones. In life and in the Sims. I wish there was some way to remove the phone from my Sim entirely.
There is nothing ruder or more aggravating than having coffee with someone and having them spend the entire time with their bloody eyes focused on their phone texting or Fakebooking instead of talking to you.

Being social my butt.
kremesch
9 years ago
"Pary;15322682" wrote:
I loathe phones. In life and in the Sims. I wish there was some way to remove the phone from my Sim entirely.
There is nothing ruder or more aggravating than having coffee with someone and having them spend the entire time with their bloody eyes focused on their phone texting or Fakebooking instead of talking to you.

Being social my butt.

Don't forget them showing YouTube vids you'd rather have swept under the carpet.

Not entertaining. Just not. No. not even funnny unless you're a social re-*cough-spit-hack*<--my cue to leave.
kremesch
9 years ago
"S100Headache;15323280" wrote:
Worst part of TS3's smartphones. Stream Video on Phone and Show Other Sim Video were very common. Even a Technophobe, reluctant to watch a TV or use a computer, would have a blast with this little piece of bleeding-edge technology.

Surely all that video would drain the average data plan. So long as the telecoms drag their feet on improving infrastructure, and continue to be stingy with data, that will never happen.

True. I modded that out. It drives me up the wall. I can't stand it when sims obsess over certain objects. I like to have computers in their homes, but I can't stand it when they beeline for them every second I take my eyes off of them. Can't stand obsessive cell phone usage either. Those are the only 2 I have issues with in 3. Luckily, I have DebugEnabler to stop them from using those autonomously.

I had similar issues in 2 as well. I really do wish the AI was better with the attraction to certain objects. I'd prefer it if it made more sense in relation to their personalities and what I've started getting them interested in on my own. My sims in 2 never had a mobile gaming system or the mp3 player for the same reasons. At least it is an option to not have them in that game, but there were several things I had to mod out of that one too. :\
kremesch
9 years ago
"Uzone27;15323779" wrote:

There is an addage in music mixing that goes something like, "the volume in the last track you were monitoring is usually too high"
Over the years I have noticed that the latest and greatest fun objects in new packs are typically biased ridiculously high.
Gnubbs....Who needs em?

They are. I don't use the gnubbs though. They're kind of pointless and there are better ways to increase fun. I do like the basketball hoop though. It's my favourite way to build Athletic and fun at the same time. But I restrict it to a small park to avoid the over-exaggerated attraction to it.
Kriztle_Pyre
6 years ago
Agree on the phones ESPECIALLY when you have get famous and then get the BLASTED phone fanatic, I literally had to ask in the deaderpool server, while getting help with another issue, on how to disable the phone fanatic quirk because it is indeed irritating to see your sim just play on their phone nonstop or during tasks like cooking etc. I had to start over many times because of this and came very close to disabling get famous ><
SEREFRAS
Seasoned Veteran
4 years ago
I wish there was a way to turn off the phones. It's so annoying for my sims to constantly be playing video games on it, especially with my historical households. I want a non mod actual in the Sims 4 toggle to turn off the phones. PLEASE.
king_of_simcity
9 years ago
Sounds quite realistic to me :open_mouth:
Odonata68
9 years ago
oops sorry :# wrong game.
eksynn
4 years ago
it's 2021. i still don't get why this is still a thing. the one mod I used can no-longer be used because the mod creator left the community. i hate having to rely on mods to fix dumb things like this.

Forum Discussion

OMG STOP with the constant autonomous cellphone animation!!!

About The Sims 4 General Discussion

Related Posts

Animal Crossing

Autonomous pet breeding

Zeb Animation Bug

Animals needy?

Autonomous break up?!

Recent Discussions

What happened in your game today?

Cozy Celebrations Rewards Event Coming Tuesday, December 3.

THE LAST SCREENSHOT YOU TOOK IN THE SIMS 4 (2.0)

The Sims 4: Horse Ranch Official Screenshot Thread

What do you think of these packs?