Always coming home to chaotic household!

FurSimsOfficial

I have 3 toddlers and whenever i let one of the parent go out and sleep over somewhere else, i come home to a chaotic house. All the toddlers are full red in everything and its imposible to save them before they would get taken away. I dont know if this is part of the game where it would just be impossible for 1 parent to do this on her own if the other leaves for a full day, or if its just that sims do NOT take care of themself or others when you dont play with them.
I think it is a bit too much and all my sims in the household are full red, which seems actually impossible unless they just stand in the corner all day doing nothing.

My toddler got just taken away, so i had to close the game and not save. Its not so nice, cause now i lost all i played, but I think sims need to take care of their self better when your out of the house. I also find it very annoying that they never sleep in normal sleeping hours. Why are my kids still awake watching tv at 3 am???

monkeypants1

FurSimsOriginal wrote: »

I have 3 toddlers and whenever i let one of the parent go out and sleep over somewhere else, i come home to a chaotic house.

Heh as a mother whose been through the toddler phase twice in real life, I find this quite realistic.

bythedreadwolf

FurSimsOriginal wrote: »

I dont know if this is part of the game where it would just be impossible for 1 parent to do this on her own if the other leaves for a full day, or if its just that sims do NOT take care of themself or others when you dont play with them.

I think it's more of this than anything else. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. This is why I very rarely go out with my sims and leave someone behind, I hate it that I can't control them in any way. You can't even leave a full queue of things for your sims to do because the moment you leave, it will be deleted. The menu to tell them to do things needs to be updated to include more stuff like go to bed, do homework, etc.

FurSimsOfficial

bythedreadwolf wrote: »

FurSimsOriginal wrote: »

I dont know if this is part of the game where it would just be impossible for 1 parent to do this on her own if the other leaves for a full day, or if its just that sims do NOT take care of themself or others when you dont play with them.

I think it's more of this than anything else. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. This is why I very rarely go out with my sims and leave someone behind, I hate it that I can't control them in any way. You can't even leave a full queue of things for your sims to do because the moment you leave, it will be deleted. The menu to tell them to do things needs to be updated to include more stuff like go to bed, do homework, etc.

agree! Its all totally pointless also. Many times i let my sims hang out with their friends, but their friendship doesnt even go up and when i turn back to the lot, the invited sim isnt even there.
I have left a few times and i guess it is somewhat realistic to come back to this chaos when my sim sleeps over at someones else places, it does match the story, but i think it is ridiculous that sims do not sleep in normal times when they can. It makes me think they dont take care of other while they can.. simple as that.

AprilDawn

Yes this is really bad with toddlers. I almost always have to use the needs cheat to prevent them from being taken away if one parent is away for a while. The 'take care of self' has always been hit or miss it seems - sometimes works - sometimes does not - but do not think they tweaked it with the toddler update - toddlers cannot take care of themselves - at least not their hunger (unless you are there to direct them to take food off the counter). So the parent you leave at home is not feeding the toddlers even though 99% of the time when you are there - a parent is constantly sticking the toddler in a highchair to feed it!
I much preferred the Sims 2 way where nothing changed (even time! was like having a time machine!) when a sim left the household. Since you cannot control the sims left in the household like you could in Sims 3 - it should just remain static.

Rukola_Schaaf

yes, the sims not directed at the moment don't really take care of themselves & the game doesn't take care of them either
i would prefer they would be constantly in full green than rather the opposite, in red, what's the point ?
& it's really unnerving when you go out with a sim, the other remaining are sleeping but then you come back few hours later & they are wasting their time with useless actions, complaining of being uncomfortable instead of just ... being asleep as you left them - i think it's just awful game design

i started using the UI_Cheats_Extensions, it's a life saver in some cases
TS4 is at times just punishing the player for playing it vanilla

PolluxSims

Not sure if it would work, but could you hire a nanny when you send your Sim away, and see if that helps anything? And you could always cheat their fee back to yourself like you never lost any money and just pretend the Sim left behind took care of them.

FurSimsOfficial

AprilDawn wrote: »

Yes this is really bad with toddlers. I almost always have to use the needs cheat to prevent them from being taken away if one parent is away for a while. The 'take care of self' has always been hit or miss it seems - sometimes works - sometimes does not - but do not think they tweaked it with the toddler update - toddlers cannot take care of themselves - at least not their hunger (unless you are there to direct them to take food off the counter). So the parent you leave at home is not feeding the toddlers even though 99% of the time when you are there - a parent is constantly sticking the toddler in a highchair to feed it!
I much preferred the Sims 2 way where nothing changed (even time! was like having a time machine!) when a sim left the household. Since you cannot control the sims left in the household like you could in Sims 3 - it should just remain static.

oh no i hated that in ts2... it was horrible. Whole stories were getting messed up and it wasnt realistic. When their crazy rebellious son was out late partying and then comes home at.. 9 oclock pm.. thats weird xD

Firande

I don't have it as bad with adult Sims I leave behind, but toddlers. God yes. The other day I had my Sim go to her art gallery and had to send her fiancé over because she is jealous and was therefore constantly tense without him which didn't help with sales. When they came back, all of my my twin toddlers' most vital needs (bladder, hunger, energy) were in the deepest red - I immediately enabled testingcheats and clicked on them to fill their needs because I'm entirely sure that they would've been taken away immediately if I hadn't done that. And you're right, that happens pretty much whenever the parents are out even if only for a short while. Thank god for those cheats. I don't like to cheat, not with my more "important" households, but I think it's fair to make an exception in cases like this, as it's completely out of my control. When I play the tots myself and have not been paying much attention to them I've also sometimes had their vital needs drop like crazy but in those cases, since it's essentially my fault / the parents' fault, I'll also force the Sim parents to fix it themselves.

FurSimsOfficial

I wish for the game to recognize what your routine is and what time your sims generally sleep and just kind of copy that whenever the game needs to do those tasks itself so you can go out. I always let my toddlers sleep around 9 and have them fed, played with and for the most part happy.

The sleeping times are getting me the most actually. I can understand that with 3 toddlers, a kid, a dog and 1 parent it gets hard and it is somewhat realistic to come home as a father-sim that just cared about chasing his boy-crush in a lounge and not helping his wife out, and then see this messy household.. but i had some days where it went sort of ok. Al though, my sim was gone for almost 24 hours

The thing that disturbs me is, that im sure that its poor game designing for sims to do logic tasks..

PlumbobCrossing

Use to when a sim went out at night, when they got home the rest of the house would be sleeping. I miss that. I swear it's a bug or something because you can tell your sims to take care of themselves but they don't.

SimsLovinLycan

You know what I hate? When you return after being out with one sim, only to find your other sims scattered about in places they shouldn't be. You come back to find the mother of the family on the computer in her kid's room, the kid on the computer in Mom and Dad's room, Dad eating breakfast leftovers at 7 in the evening...it's a disjointed mess! It really makes me miss TS2's weird timewarp, because at the very least you know that all of your sims are right where they should be instead of in random places all around the house like the game just went all Wheatley on you with assigning their actions...

I wish that the away system paused and saved everyone's positions and actions instead, then when your "away" sim returns home, you get the option to play the sims you left at home up to the point where your "away" sim returns or just have everyone be where you left them, with their needs at the levels you left them at when you get back...or something like that.

verlainem

Better to send all adult sims off lot and have toddlers go to daycare. However I have had the child come home from daycare with needs low but still do able.
I prefer to play with 2 cheats MCC and UI_Cheats_Extensions, because taking care of needs interferes with skilling and all the other things I like my sims to do.

GalacticGal

Up until now, I've managed okay. I've got a rather large family going, however. This is the first time I've had a toddler not getting enough attention. Either I'm slipping in my Sim wrangling skills, or I was just having a hard day. I don't know. Didn't get a chance to play today. Perhaps, tomorrow. Then I hope little Charlie will get the attention he deserves. It's tough when you're number six on the roster.

WonderAis

I've often had this issue with toddlers, but for the last little while I've noticed my adult sims won't take care of themselves.. I'm playing with an 8 sims household at the moment and it's quite frustrating having my sim(s) return home to the rest of the household with almost all needs in the red! My poor sims are suffering

NunnDuuRaah1

Hey, raising the lil' ones is rough. They want to emulate those years :P.

frogkiss1

I find when I have a baby or toddler in the game I do not leave the house at all end of story.

Elleysims

I always bring my toddler with me even if it is just to leave her/him on the floor while I do my own thing. That way, I can quickly give them some food or play with them.

@WonderAis I noticed that too with my adults recently. Like one was in the red and I had to click care for self, even though it was already there. Once I clicked that he cheered up a bit. I make sure to click it now.

FurSimsOfficial

SimsLovinLycan wrote: »

You know what I hate? When you return after being out with one sim, only to find your other sims scattered about in places they shouldn't be. You come back to find the mother of the family on the computer in her kid's room, the kid on the computer in Mom and Dad's room, Dad eating breakfast leftovers at 7 in the evening...it's a disjointed mess! It really makes me miss TS2's weird timewarp, because at the very least you know that all of your sims are right where they should be instead of in random places all around the house like the game just went all Wheatley on you with assigning their actions...

I wish that the away system paused and saved everyone's positions and actions instead, then when your "away" sim returns home, you get the option to play the sims you left at home up to the point where your "away" sim returns or just have everyone be where you left them, with their needs at the levels you left them at when you get back...or something like that.

Its actually quite an idea to be able to play with the sims that remained at home in the time you went out with your other sim. That sim would then come home when you made him come back. Its like playing in the same universe, but in multiple places at different times, so it all lines up correctly eventually. There is however a issue here.. It can get exhausting. Sometimes i escape the house (especially with 4 kids) just to not play with them for a while and focus on another story. BUT then they could give us the option: To continue the current time or play the household meanwhile the other sim(s) went away. Would like to see how this would work out and if its fun or not.

Livin in Sim

This seems to have gotten worse in my game, I think with the last patch. "Care For Needs" is the default selection on the small portrait menu, but it doesn't seem to be working at times. I haven't tried re-selecting it manually to jog the simulation.

For awhile there, it was working better than usual. A couple times, I even came home late at night with one household member, to find the other member in the green for Needs except Sleep, sticking to her normal schedule and being in bed. But, as usual, the patch and expansion have juggled the works. I've been playing without mods/cc since I updated/got C&D, so I know it's not that in my case.

You can switch back to the home lot, by selecting a Sim there, and choosing the option "Switch Control To (Name)." Often the Sim who is out and about will stay out, and you can have them "Socialize With (Name)", and few other general options, on the same menu. But you don't have any control over when they autonomously return except for clicking Home at a certain moment, and of course it's pretty hard to complete objectives.

Also, if I hire a nanny to be with the kids/toddlers while I go out, the game says it's sending the toddlers to Daycare regardless. Not sure there's a way to actually check if they leave the lot, tho. The nanny is still there when I get home, and has been charging me. I guess I could check by seeing if the toddler is still there if I switch back to the child. I have a hunch they will be, along with the nanny, and that the game is just saying that.