I usually play by directing one young adult/adult sim, either living alone or as part of a family, and direct most of their actions, because they tend to be, well, stupid, and drive me crazy. But I thought it might be fun, or at least, interesting, to see how a larger household of sims acts fully on their own, without me telling them what to do. And it turns out that kind of full family acts just plain colossally stupid.
I set up a house with a married couple, a child, a toddler, a cat, and a dog, and all the items they would need to fill their, um, needs. But what I found was they are simply terrible at this, especially when it comes to helping with the needs of others. The adults walked around smelly most of the time, and their sleep habits made no real sense. And I really thought they'd be able to fill a pet bowl on their own, or give a pet a bath, but they never did. They also didn't pay hardly any attention to the toddler, just taking the time once daily or so to plop her in the highchair just before she starved to death. But bathe her, no. Not in a week's time. And hardly any interactions. Most of the toddler's bars were in the red most of the time, and she stomped around enraged. They did find time to grab water from the sink, play with their phones, and watch tv. And cook single serving meals. So the child was never very well fed either, but could at least grab peas and cereal.
I mean, really. Who programmed this thing? If a line of code can make them eventually feed a toddler, then why can't it make them give a bath to one with zero hygiene? Or give 'em a hug? And why do teens and up have to take a nap the second their energy turns yellow, but they won't shower until their own hygiene enters a failure state? Pretty pathetic.
As it is, it seems like a family game can only be played through micromanagement. If you are playing a house with kids, it's more like a parenting simulation than a family simulation. Get the parent up, direct them to shower, cook a group meal, fill the pet bowls, put the toddler in the high chair and feed them, take them back out, empty the cat box, tell the dog to go pee, try to catch the toddler in the short time between it's not worth it to potty train them and when the fill their diapers, yell at someone for making yet another mess on the floor (kid, cat, toddler, dog), etc, etc. No wonder the people who enjoy playing this style wanted laundry; it'll be just another thing to add to the list to direct a sim to do. I used to be able to just let my Sims 3 sims go, and while they weren't perfect, they surely weren't this useless. So much for "Smarter Sims".
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> All sims do on their own is drink water, wash their hands, and read books.
I got so annoyed, I have this sims ya woman and she definitely CAN'T SIT DOWN AND READ A BOOK BY HER OWN FOR A HOUR. It's making me go nuts! they do a lot of things by themselves, but none are really that important, most are useless
I'm also tired of adults playing with the dollhouse or watching the kids network all the time. I've actually removed the dollhouse & all TVs from many a lot. And I'm so sick of kids making messes all the time that I'm about ready to uninstall Parenthood & demand my money back.
@ldmarko I didn't play it that much to get annoyed with it, I played it for a few days and then stopped because it bored me, it's so repetitive it just gets old real fast.
Will you continue to play TS4 or move on to another sims game?
As said already in previous games my sims actually did interesting things of left to their own devices. I had a teen going through a mood swing in the sims 3 who would constantly berate her mothers ignorance and set traps on the computer when I didn’t control her.
In the sims 2 my sims tend to gravitate towards their hobbies or a hobby type activity. If their is any babies in the house they are obsessed with taking care of them.
My sims 4 sims left to their own devices will get lots and lots of water and empty the trash can even when it doesn’t need it. That and playing on the pc. They don’t really seem better at taking care of their needs by themselves.
Oh I'll continue to play, I know from past sims games that these bugs will eventually get ironed out & there's more content to come so that should help with the repetitiveness. Despite these little annoyances, my game is coming along fine & there's really no other games that I'm interested in.
> I have just the opposite problem with toddlers, every teen & adult on the lot won't leave them alone for two seconds. And the "check toddler" response is always the same-a drink. I'm still finding sippy cups on lots days after the last toddler aged up.
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> I'm also tired of adults playing with the dollhouse or watching the kids network all the time. I've actually removed the dollhouse & all TVs from many a lot. And I'm so sick of kids making messes all the time that I'm about ready to uninstall Parenthood & demand my money back.
My sims are the way. Endlessly checking the toddlers. Recently they're constantly stuffing them in the high chairs, too, even when the toddlers aren't at all hungry. Very annoying. :/
Overall though, yeah, Sims 4 sims are pretty helpless. I mod away the annoying behaviors of constant water drinking, reading, etc. Mostly they just autonomously play on the game pad or "Troll teh forums." Mine have even lost the ability to sit down after they grab leftovers from the fridge, so they just stand there blocking it until I tell them to have a seat.
i was just going to say in the sims 2 the adults are always competing for giving the todler attention and i also have a butler who is added to mix plus 2 severos lol.
I don't even use high chairs anymore, I just have a parent make a group meal & leave it on the counter, then have the tots grab a serving. Yeah, that eating in front of the fridge is aggravating, especially when someone else is trying to get to it. I also hate how they sit on the beds to eat, but they have been getting better about sitting around the table. I haven't been using mods lately, but that may change in the near future.
The only need they're good at controling is rest. Too good I'd say... My sims would always rush to bed as soon as their energy need hit the yellow. That's not even being tired, come on! And yet, they'd always do that. Was driving me crazy.
Hey, everyone knows to always throw away the free fruitcake after the welcome wagon is over! LOL
I've been playing since Sims 1, so... uh, the AI is always fine compared to that game. I left the game on overnight one time. Left to their own devices, all of my Sims died.
I attempted just such an experiment way back in my Sims2 days. Mostly I played everyday and was eager to do so on this day, but for the fact my house needed a good cleaning since that coming Sunday was Superbowl, and we always host a party. So, I decided to not lose the time in game play. I powered up and selected the boys' dormitory in uni. I then walked away to do some chores. Every now and again I would check to see how well they were doing, and would queue up what was necessary (I had one whom I desired should graduate with honors) and then save the game if all was well. The boys should be congratulated. They managed on their own just fine. So I saved and changed households to the girls. Now, the girls from my particular neighborhood were living in their own house at uni.
I let set them off and went back to doing more of the chores. As I was in the hallway just outside of my home office, where my computer was located, I could hear a very ominous sound and rushed in to see what was going on. Caught the girls in mid-fire! Yes, one of the twins was deceased on the kitchen floor. Needless to say, I exited without saving and decided the girls would need more intervention. At least the day wasn't a total loss.
http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
I do agree that they are stupid sometimes. Let's say I want to cook something, my sim will get something from the fridge, walk past the oven, and go all the way down to the basement to cook in the oven of the mini kitchen I have downstairs. If I want my family to eat, I will have a sim set the table and another call the group over to eat once the table is set. They all go to different bedrooms to eat on the bed or sit on a bench outside. Sometimes they nap on a random bench around the lot. They pick up all the plates but then set it down on the floor. It is the same when emptying out the trash cans. They go outside to set the trash down on the floor right in front of the trash bin. I need to click the trash on the floor for them to actually put it in the bin.
Also, my family is a household of 8. The two parents, the three teens, and triplets (children). Since the parenting pack, its been harder to manage them due to the mood swings from the teens and just the toddlers in general. When the triplets were toddlers, I hated it. It was like playing musical chairs with the high chairs. My sim would leave one toddler in the chair, go to the fridge to get their food, and when my sim put the plate down in front of them, another family member would always take them out of the high chair and place them in the other and go get more food. Now, imagine all that and repeat that process about 3x per crying toddler. The sims wouldn't recognize what their child was crying about either, they would always just place them in the high chair and bring food even if it was a dirty diaper. It was very frustrating. I had to delete the high chairs and put the food in the toddler's inventory so that they can eat in peace. I ended up growing them up early because I got annoyed.
Find most expensive item in house > go play with it even if your Fun bar is full > Also keep going to it like it has your highest priority.
Go to sleep whenever there is 'nothing' interesting enough to do even though its day time and the bar is half full
Show interest in objects that you have never discovered before (and they will have nothing to do with you and your personality)
Grab cheap food out of the fridge or eat the wrong meals in the wrong time of the day
Its so disturbing. I still hate it how my sims do not even take care of themself whenever i am away and turn back home. The worst is their sleeping time. I send them to sleep before leaving and come back 2 hours later and their bar is full???? Followed by them wandering around the house while they have school tomorrow. I thought that board that came with parenting was going to do any good about that, but nope. These sims are living like they are owning the place.