What is Autonomy?

@Pamtastic72 explained it best.
But the funny thing is I actually play with all autonomy off AND pause?? I probably think more than I actually play

I always play with autonomy on, because 1) it's easy to override their decisions 2) sometimes I want them to do their own thing. Example; if I send a Sim to the club, I don't want to control them the whole time, I want to be able to sit back and watch the (freak) show

Put out fires (iirc they used to just flee, but now they autonomously extinguish fires)

Oh I hate this one so much. especially when my spellcaster sets things on fire for fun and then immediately auto put it out without my command :triumph:

"GalacticGal;c-17950417" wrote:
Rather than turn off autonomy, why not just hit the pause button while you set up interactions for the desired Sim?

The 'pause' button is my best friend in this game. I do laugh though.
Me, "Why are you talking to a plant? You're tiered! Go to bed!"

"Peral;c-17950465" wrote:
I almost always play with autonomy on, since my Sims finds ways of improving the stories I planned. I love when they surprise me

Being an old-school role-player myself, me too. I never did like "sledge-hammer" plot.

"Babykittyjade;c-17950693" wrote:
@Pamtastic72 explained it best.
But the funny thing is I actually play with all autonomy off AND pause?? I probably think more than I actually play

Probably why you want zombies so much? ;)

"Pamtastic72;c-17950428" wrote:

"ren_sibal123;d-992649" wrote:
What if i turned on or off autonomy? My sims will not do anything until i interact it?

Autonomy on = all played sims in a household will queue up their own interactions and and go about their business without your interaction and you many have to cancel queued actions on the sim you’re actively playing to get them to do an action you chose.

Autonomy off= no sims in a played household will do anything unless you queue up the action for them. They will literally just stand around until you tell them what to do.

Autonomy on (active sim only)= all sims in the household will perform auto-queued actions on their own except the sim you choose to actively play. They will only perform the action you select for them.

Would you believe I've been playing this game for three years now and never quite fully grasped how that last (active sim only) worked? I'd turned autonomy off completely because I got tired of controlled sims doing dumb things on their own, but ran into the opposite problem of having to babysit, say, Mom and Dad while I worked on guiding the kid through youth/skill development. I completely missed that there's a middle ground there. Thanks!

I turn it on and off throughout the game. Just depends on what I’m trying to have my household accomplish. Like skills or tasks for their careers. (Yes, I know that filling out reports isn’t fun but do it anyway) Also birthdays. It’s very irritating when mom or dad adds the candles and just when junior goes to blow out the candles, they all go off to dance. Celebrate that poor kids birthday! Geez.

"ACruelButLovingGod;c-17951629" wrote:
... I completely missed that there's a middle ground there. Thanks!

Yes! That middle ground is very useful if you want to have full control of the Sim you have selected, but let everyone else do what's in their queue and/or do what they need/want to do.