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Player-assigned tasks need more weight than Sim assigned-tasks.

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    zombiesuezombiesue Posts: 148 Member
    > @Felicity said:
    > Ah, Sims Forums, never change.
    >
    > Really, it bugs me that my sims don't do what I tell them to do because the AI really isn't good enough. It's fine if I'm focusing on one sim to have the others do things, but I often cue up actions because I know there are things that they should get done, and then when I check on them again, they're doing something entirely different.
    >
    > I also hated it in Sims 3 when I would do things like, oh, have my celebrity sim go to the library to read his toddler books (it takes a fraction of the time there), and I'd have them all queued up, I'd focus on another sim, and then after going back to the celebrity, someone asked for an autograph or a picture at some point and completely stomped the queue.
    >
    > It shouldn't be that difficult to prioritize player directions. I want to play the game, not watch TV.

    Lol my favorite is when I have to tell my sim to read a gosh darned book 4 times. Like, she should WANT to read the book! Being the best parent ever is her life goal right now! Micromanaging is really important because your sim will cancel what you asked them to do ._.
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    elanorbretonelanorbreton Posts: 14,552 Member
    @DeservedCriticism You sure do have some heated threads lately :o Could I make a suggestion which may help to minimise that? Just don't respond to personal attackers. Sometimes it's hard to bite your tongue but it keeps you saner in the long run ;)

    As to your original post, you made some very valid points.

    We are meant to be in control of this game. Some people may be happy to just sit back and watch with little or no participation (though, for the life of me I do not understand why) but those who do like to actually play the game should have the ability, for example, to tell their sims to sit and read a book and have them stay there until told otherwise. It can become quite frustrating if a variety of things get cancelled in a short space of time. Makes you feel like locking your sim in a room with no door, and just one chair and the one book you want them to read. They would probably still find something else to do though :D
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    simgamersimgamer Posts: 22 Member
    I have had a pretty bad problem with the lately. I had to turn autonomy off for a while because it would sometimes take 3 or 4 commands to get my toddler to stop canceling her eating action.
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    Uzone27Uzone27 Posts: 2,808 Member
    edited June 2017
    I am a master at getting the Sims to do my bidding on full autonomy.
    The only time they don't is if I'm late on the draw and the Sim is already committed to an action (such as walking up or down a flight of stairs) I'm also quite adept at knowing how to stack the cue for max efficiency.


    If anything I find these Sims more responsive than ever before.. and no... I'm not saying this just to be obstinate.
    I could dig up some old posts with my first impressions of the game with proof that this was one of my first observations about these Sims.
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    PrincessSaturnPrincessSaturn Posts: 564 Member
    Uzone27 wrote: »
    I could dig up some old posts with my first impressions of the game with proof that this was one of my first observations about these Sims.

    I hope that this reply doesn't read as hostile, but your experience is clearly not the same as OP's so I don't see how that would be too helpful.
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    Uzone27Uzone27 Posts: 2,808 Member
    The OP seems incredulous that other people are experimcing the game differently and earlier in the thread called someone out for defending the game out of kne jerk reaction as opposed to actual counterpoint.
    The OP and I have history, so I felt it important to let him know I'm not just disagreeing for the sake of it...I'm literally not experienceing what he's experincing on this topic and have mentioned it more than once on this forum.
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    princess_kaguyaprincess_kaguya Posts: 508 Member
    my sims always cancel what theyre doing but i use mc command center so idk if this mod has something to do with it.
    i did had issues with sims not finishing their books and neglecting toddlers to do something else but the most annoying thing thats happening in my game right now is how sims will drink from the bar and the vintage glamour's globe every 🐸🐸🐸🐸 time and thus wasting all their money on it, i have even downloaded a specific mod to make them stop doing it but it didnt work. >:)
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    Anemone7Anemone7 Posts: 3,950 Member
    edited June 2017
    Sims do not cancel out my actions for self-assigned tasks in my game and that's how it's intended to work, so this is a bug in your game. You are right about queuing up wishes that can be done while fulfilling my tasks (always starring at art while doing something, why?). An easy work-around is to queue another action up that they can't do simultaneously, because that blocks the multi-tasking ability. Their strong desire to do certain things when left alone that has nothing to do with traits or needs is my biggest pet peeve because it makes them all behave the same way, so I agree with you on that one.
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    ShadowmarkedShadowmarked Posts: 1,054 Member
    I've been having this issue a lot in particular with reading books. And as Anemone stated cuing up another action they can't do immediately stops a lot of the smaller actions and is what I have started to do to stop things like the check their phone interaction from constantly being triggered.

    I still don't like having to do this and I agree with op this should be reexamined and perhaps revised a bit.
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    heatherXkittyheatherXkitty Posts: 307 Member
    The worst thing regarding the tv>books thing is when you have only 1 bookshelf on the lot, on the opposite side of the house and on a different floor than the tv is. You tell a sim to read and they carry the book to the tv, which is far from the bookshelf. And they read for 5 seconds and start watching tv...
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    DeservedCriticismDeservedCriticism Posts: 2,251 Member
    Sadly, there's quite a few others. The book-TV think is the example we're all referencing since it was named first, but there's plenty of others.

    -The recent patch (or Parenthood?) causes kids to obsess over dollhouses, and worse, they want a special "Play with" that will automatically attempt to pull an adult over to play with them.

    -Toddlers in general can suffer from this, because the Toddlers might autonomously demand help with a need at any given moment, sometimes demanding help with a need you were already in the process of helping them with. The result is a parent that picks them up, sets them down, picks them up, sets them down, then gets confused and gives up. Or to add onto it, adults often ask toddlers what they need (Check on) on their own and in my experience toddlers will almost always say toilet if no other needs need attention, regardless of if their bladder is full or not.

    -Recently had a Sim hanging out at the park trying to wait for some plants to grow. I got the impression certain Sims at certain lot venues have specifically assigned tasks. For example, go to a bar and you can probably find one Sim glued to a TV while another is ordering drinks at the bar. At the park, there was consistently a guy sleeping on a bench, one playing chess, and one that seemed to periodically attempt to socialize with my sim, and consistently needed to have the action canceled twice (first cancel would fade out the action with an X over it, the sim would walk over anyways, and once they reached my sim it would re-activate itself) before they got the message...for about an in-game hour, at which point they tried again. I seriously wonder if certain lot NPCs are DESIGNED to try and chat up your sim, because it was consistently the same 1-2 sims seemingly serving the same role.

    -Drinks. Any kind. Water, bar drinks, anything. Sims have a hidden thirst meter and this thing will cause them to consistently try for drinks in the presence of a bar or sink....

    -....Or in the case of vampires, strangely, they get the random desire to wash their hands, which may indeed cause them to cancel existing actions.


    I mean there's plenty more of these, it's just these are the ones that have recently been a real nuisance for me.
    "Who are you, that do not know your history?"
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    HermitgirlHermitgirl Posts: 8,825 Member
    BeJaWa wrote: »
    I've been having this issue a lot in particular with reading books. And as Anemone stated cuing up another action they can't do immediately stops a lot of the smaller actions and is what I have started to do to stop things like the check their phone interaction from constantly being triggered.

    I still don't like having to do this and I agree with op this should be reexamined and perhaps revised a bit.

    Try making the sim read then clicking on the book to read it again when they start reading. If you have queued up the action twice it keeps them reading for some reason until they finish the book. Now I haven't tried it on a sim with very low needs..



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    fullspiralfullspiral Posts: 14,717 Member
    One thing I absolutely hate is when you direct a sim to talk to another, one has their back to them the whole time. Or dance together.....across the dang room.

    And yes, to the op, I get tired of cancelling things to get them to do something I want them to do.
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    fullspiralfullspiral Posts: 14,717 Member
    I seriously wonder if certain lot NPCs are DESIGNED to try and chat up your sim, because it was consistently the same 1-2 sims seemingly serving the same role.

    I think this is a HUGE flaw in the game design. And why there's such strict requirements on venues. The NPCs are programmed to go to lots and do what the lot is made for. This is to make it "look" busy and functional.

    Half of the venues are bars/nightclubs, or require those restrictions. Therefore, the NPCs go hang at the bar, order drinks and try to socialize.

    This design actually inhibits the users creativity, or what they wish to make a lot for.
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    JouvayJouvay Posts: 834 Member
    It does need to be recalibrated. It unecessarily lengthens tasks - I have too many examples and in frustration I had to remove autonomy for selected sims. I enjoy multitasking, it makes the sims lively but the balance is off.
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    MissCherieMissCherie Posts: 408 Member
    Jouvay wrote: »
    It does need to be recalibrated. It unecessarily lengthens tasks - I have too many examples and in frustration I had to remove autonomy for selected sims. I enjoy multitasking, it makes the sims lively but the balance is off.

    When I do the party animal aspiration I have to completely remove the autonomy during the parties/events otherwise all my sim does is chatting with people.
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    lopithecuslopithecus Posts: 1,735 Member
    Wow, I felt like I was reading a Tumblr post going through this. This is how people act on Tumblr (attacking OP for their opinion) and shouldn't on here (shouldn't on Tumblr either but...) I love how some people were attacking you and saying you wanted the game to be like the Sims 3 when, from what I read, you never even once said you hated/disliked the Sims 4 to begin with. Like what??

    Anyways, I agree with you. I love the Sims 4 and in fact kind of like it more than the Sims 3 (because the Sims 3 got to the point where it was so buggy I was constantly annoyed with it), however, the autonomy is super annoying. Though I don't have any problems with my sims randomly talking to people outside of their houses (it has never once happened to me), I have had instances in which I will assign an action and then the sim's chosen action will cancel it out and so then I have to cancel that and reassign the previous action. This even happens with basic needs from my experience as well. For example, I was just playing the game and I had told a sims to go to the bathroom because their need was in the yellow. Instead of going to the bathroom, they cancelled it and went to go play a game on the computer. I had to then reassign the action, manually cancelling the play game action. This also happens when I've queued actions before. For example, I'll have a few things queued for my sims to do but then they will choose to do something and either cancel all the queued actions, causing them to disappear, or it'll slot itself between the queued actions and so then I have to go and cancel it myself.

    Granted, this happened to an extent in the Sims 3 as well, but with the Sims 3 I played with low freewill that way the only actions that would cancel or have precedence over my own chosen action would be ones that required needs that went into the yellow or red. This helped a lot with sims choosing their own actions and having it cancel player chosen actions and I was very disappointed when I saw it wasn't in the Sims 4. I don't want to play with freewill off because I tend to play households and so I need them to take care of their needs themselves if I can't get to them in time. However, the problem you mentioned does get extremely annoying after awhile.

    It seems to have gotten worse with toddlers as well. "Check on" is constantly interrupting my sims actions and queued actions. This is one of those examples in which it will cancel all the queued actions and make them disappear, meaning I have to re-queue them all over again. This gets really, really annoying really, really fast.

    I don't care if my sims choose their own actions, especially if their need is in the red or all of them are green and I don't have anything I want them to do, but when I do have something I want them to do and all their needs are green, they shouldn't have so much power over my chosen tasks for them to do what they want to do. That's not why I'm playing the game.

    I'm not saying I hate the game. Like I stated in the beginning, I love the game and I have a lot of fun playing it, but that doesn't mean I'm blind to its faults either. The same goes with any Sims game really.
    k55mmxl
    "The one you confide in the most. The one who understands you best. The one you'll miss more than any other. When he dies..." - Batman/Superman 018
    SuperBat ruined my life!<3
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    lopithecuslopithecus Posts: 1,735 Member
    I just wish my sim parents would LEAVE THE TODDLER ALONE for the love of cheesecake! It gets annoying when I set the toddler to do something like say...play blickblock on the Wabbit or even just eat and the parents keep hovering around, checking on the toddler and making the tot cancel the action just to talk to them.
    As for autonomous actions cancelling out player directed actions, I will say this has been a recurring annoyance in both TS3 and 4. I play both games and while it's a bit manageable in 3 as long as you're not playing a large family, in 4 it really grates on my nerves all the time when I cancel an action and the stoopid sim just keeps on doing it....with a smile.

    I am so glad I am not the only one who is annoyed by this. When I first installed the patch and started playing with a toddler, it was the first thing I noticed and it got annoying really, really fast. It's especially annoying when "check on" interrupts any queued actions you had set, cancelling them all. The toddlers can practically take care of themselves in this game (at least mine can) and don't need my sims checking up on them constantly. It got to the point in which I even went looking for a mod to stop it but, alas, no such luck.
    k55mmxl
    "The one you confide in the most. The one who understands you best. The one you'll miss more than any other. When he dies..." - Batman/Superman 018
    SuperBat ruined my life!<3
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    MidnightAuraMidnightAura Posts: 5,809 Member
    lopithecus wrote: »
    I just wish my sim parents would LEAVE THE TODDLER ALONE for the love of cheesecake! It gets annoying when I set the toddler to do something like say...play blickblock on the Wabbit or even just eat and the parents keep hovering around, checking on the toddler and making the tot cancel the action just to talk to them.
    As for autonomous actions cancelling out player directed actions, I will say this has been a recurring annoyance in both TS3 and 4. I play both games and while it's a bit manageable in 3 as long as you're not playing a large family, in 4 it really grates on my nerves all the time when I cancel an action and the stoopid sim just keeps on doing it....with a smile.

    I am so glad I am not the only one who is annoyed by this. When I first installed the patch and started playing with a toddler, it was the first thing I noticed and it got annoying really, really fast. It's especially annoying when "check on" interrupts any queued actions you had set, cancelling them all. The toddlers can practically take care of themselves in this game (at least mine can) and don't need my sims checking up on them constantly. It got to the point in which I even went looking for a mod to stop it but, alas, no such luck.

    I have it too and it's driving me crazy. Sims 2 parents could be bad for interacting with the baby and feeding it all the time but this is a whole other level of obsession. Not to mention my toddlers are quite independent. They don't need parents following them around checking on them.

    I do agree with the original poster as well. The game is becoming unplayable for me and it feels like I'm having to direct every little thing and then re direct it when a sim cancels it. Not fun. I think I'm going to take a break from it for a while.
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    DeservedCriticismDeservedCriticism Posts: 2,251 Member
    fullspiral wrote: »
    One thing I absolutely hate is when you direct a sim to talk to another, one has their back to them the whole time. Or dance together.....across the dang room.

    And yes, to the op, I get tired of cancelling things to get them to do something I want them to do.

    And while it's a bit of a tangent....why do Sims wave one at a time?

    Go try to talk to someone in a group convo, and every single person in the group will take turns waving. The entire conversation freezes until this is completed. The result is that joining into group convos is a nightmare, not only because it's higher odds one of the NPCs queues up an action and slows yours, but because just the intro is gonna kill 20-30 seconds.

    In what universe do people act like this? If I meet a group of friends at a bar, they don't all take turns waving, they'd all say my name and say hi together. I mean we could definitely have a discussion if they should skip the intros entirely (on one hand it's more realistic, on the other it slows gameplay), but even if we decided to keep it, what's the reason for them not doing it at the same time? Saves on time and more realistic anyways.
    "Who are you, that do not know your history?"
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    JouvayJouvay Posts: 834 Member
    edited June 2017
    MissCherie wrote: »
    Jouvay wrote: »
    It does need to be recalibrated. It unecessarily lengthens tasks - I have too many examples and in frustration I had to remove autonomy for selected sims. I enjoy multitasking, it makes the sims lively but the balance is off.

    When I do the party animal aspiration I have to completely remove the autonomy during the parties/events otherwise all my sim does is chatting with people.
    I can imagine. I always switch off autonomy for selected sims during social events.

    And I can already see frustrations with pets if it's not addressed before that release.
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    tmcevoy1121tmcevoy1121 Posts: 304 Member
    This happens a lot when you have a retail store. I tell my sims to go greet the customer and ......they walk outside to talk to someone. They are supposed to be talking to the customers not just chatting. It gets frustrating!
    A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous. A girl should also always be a lady even when arguing
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    lopithecuslopithecus Posts: 1,735 Member
    edited June 2017
    Okay I just started playing and this has happened already (it hasn't even been five minutes real time!). This is what everyone is complaining about...

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    I woke my sim up and immediately assigned him to go to the bathroom. He gets all the way to the bathroom, stands there, then the "put down" interaction queues and he immediately goes to do it (even though he is not even carrying the toddler!!) not even have bothered going to the bathroom beforehand. I then cancelled the action and he proceeded to walk halfway to the toddler even though I had cancelled it long before that, then finally stopped and turned around.

    We aren't complaining about Sims being able to choose what they want to do. What we are complaining about are our assigned actions not being done because their own chosen ones overwrite/overpower ours. That's the problem.
    k55mmxl
    "The one you confide in the most. The one who understands you best. The one you'll miss more than any other. When he dies..." - Batman/Superman 018
    SuperBat ruined my life!<3
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