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Smarter Sims, Have You Ever Seen One?

CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
Not many of us can claim any of these Sims are very smart in any iteration. Yes, we wanted them to be able to take care of themselves a little better, but still yet, even in 2020 Sims do foolish things that makes no sense to a player.

I can say I saw one smart Sim in my games that I thought, wow, he is really smarter than my choices I had queued up.

Back in TS2 when the game was current, my Sim (actually premade Mr. Big by Maxis) was running a business and very, very busy. Everyone knows just how busy a shop can get once you are on a higher level of running that business, you will have a lot more customers. I had queued up for him to help out employees, and his energy was low but not any lower than hunger, fun, hygiene etc. I had queued for him to eat, fill fun (a fast boost by looking at a painting) and drink some coffee along with the other duties which in TS2 you could queue up eight things. This is the only time I saw the Sim rearrange my choices and put coffee first. Pretty smart. I watched as things got rearranged in what he thought he needed to do first. He did them all eventually but he drank the coffee first, which boosted hunger, boosted energy and he had enough enery to finish the other tasks. This was important by the way because Sims in TS2 die if three things get too low at once. Energy, hygiene and hunger. All those were very low but even levels with each other, so he drank the coffee. That's a smart Sim.

At no other time in the history of me playing all four games, have I seen something like that ever again. It's usually get off that pc, you need to go pee, or eat, and or take a shower, or do homework and or go to work and or call someone, and or go to bed. lol

Maxis may claim Sims get smarter with each iteration, but it's not smart to fix a meal then set it down and grab some left overs from the fridge. Nor for two Sims to start cooking when one is already fixing dinner, nor run out of the house to go speak to another Sim they don't know, when the house is full of family, nor keep painting when fun is full nor to keep watching TV when fun is full, nor to keep talking when social is full, nor to get up from the dinner table to go sit on a bed, and or take a plate to the upstairs bathroom, nor to set bowls out on the sidewalk, and or get into the wrong bed just because someone stayed over the night before, and suddenly your Sim doesn't remember which bed belongs to them even if guest is gone, nor to walk around a house and try to talk to a Sim from the outer wall, nor to take the longest route when there is a counter right there, etc. etc.

If you have a story that shows any of these Sims have been intutive enough to show they are smarter than a previous geneartion of Sims, then I would like to hear it. I only have the one example above in twenty years of watching Sims and hearing how smart the next generation is supposed to be, each and every time. lol See, I beg to differ, not needing to fill motives doesn't make a smarter Sim, just a watered down Sim.

"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
Post edited by Cinebar on

Comments

  • CamkatCamkat Posts: 2,329 Member
    I've played all 4 versions and various spin offs and I don't have any stories of sims being as smart as your Mr. Big in that situation.

    I think it was TS3, where after getting my sim to make their bed after waking up enough times and they would start to do it themselves and I remember thinking: "that's smart, they can learn now". A sim would learn what actions in what order if you made them do it enough times. I think washing hands after using the toilet was another instance of that. However, that was for all sims in that iteration and they would learn so it's really not the same as your story but it did impress me that they were teachable and that to me, made me feel as if they were smarter than before.

    I think it was TS2, when sims would look at you if they questioned what you wanted them to do... I remember one of my sims looking at me as if to say "really?" after repeatedly telling them to "run with scissors" :D Almost as if they were questioning my motives and as if they were almost self aware. Again, not really the same thing, but it was something that made me question and think "are they really alive?" and made me feel as if they were smarter.

    I don't really have any feelings like these for sims in TS4 though. Actually, I think they've regressed and gone back to not learning and I sure don't feel like they question me and my motives anymore. I've never had a "smart" sim as you described, but the past versions I did see things that gave me impressions they were smarter at least. This is the first time where I don't feel as if AI improvements have been made. :/
    Origin ID: Peapod79
  • ClarionOfJoyClarionOfJoy Posts: 1,945 Member
    In TS3, my sim was scuba diving but I had an emergency and left the game running. I also did not have anything cued up. I came back about half an hour so and what I found was her sleeping in bed. Apparently, she surfaced on her own, boated back to the beach, went home, made dinner and ate it (hunger meter full), even washed up her dish, used the toilet (that meter was full too), and went to sleep.

    I don't remember anything special from TS2, but I always felt that they were self-sufficient and I didn't have to worry about them too much if I stepped away for a short time.

  • MaggieMarleyMaggieMarley Posts: 5,299 Member
    Best example of "smart" sims in the Sims 4. Sim is a vegetarian. Sim autonomously eats meat. Great...

    This is so true. A while back I was playing a family where alien twins were born from an abduction. Since they weren't planned I mostly left them to their own devices. One of the kids kept getting sick and I couldn't figure out why. Then I caught him eating a ham sandwich and remembered that he had rolled the vegetarian trait. I observed the kid and found that he kept eating ham sandwiches autonomously. It seemed to happen multiple times a day, at least once daily anyway. Kid had an obsession with ham sandwiches which I just can't explain! I don't think I ever saw his brother grab a ham sandwich on free will but it was the veggie sim's go-to meal. One of the stupidest sims I ever did see :D
  • BabykittyjadeBabykittyjade Posts: 4,975 Member
    I love hearing these smart sim stories! I wish I had some to share but I mainly play sims 4. And after my vampire died lounging in the sun, my kid died in the pool in winter, my vegetarian sick from meat etc etc. I only have dumb stories to tell 😆 but I keep autonomy off for that reason. I wonder where sims 4 went wrong in the AI.
    And one thing I really don't like is how when I occasionally turn autonomy on my family spreads out all around the house and do odd random things. 🤔 but I hope to hear more smart stories!
    Zombies, oh please oh please give us zombies!! :'(
  • SimmerGeorgeSimmerGeorge Posts: 2,724 Member
    edited July 2020
    Let's not forget the classics "washing the plates in the bathroom sink", "eating food in front of the fridge and not in the dining room" and the notorious "trash cycle of death" where the Sim is supposed to take out the trash from the small bin to the bin outside, however if the action is cancelled he will leave the trash on the floor, then attempt to clean the trash from the floor by putting it back into....you guessed it the tiny kitchen bin instead of outside. The small kitchen bin is then full and you have to make the Sim take outside the trash again and hope the action doesn't get cancelled or the same thing will happen again and again and again 😆🤪
    Where's my Sims 5 squad at?
  • EveryDaySimEveryDaySim Posts: 193 Member
    edited July 2020
    When I was getting my first legacy started in S4, I found my sim a good potential mate and got my sim to ask them out on a date.

    Got to pick the location, waited through the loading screen, they were there.

    They stood out on the sidewalk and the date took out a book and started reading.
    My sim took out their phone and started playing with it.

    They stayed like that until the date was over.
    I didn't bother with the legacy after that any more.

    The first time I started S3, I made a husband and wife and found them a nice little starter house. A passerby hit on the wife while she was outside harvesting seeds and the hubby was inside fixing leaks.

    She went up to the husband and made upset actions, next thing you know the husband went out to his truck, drove away. Next place I found him was he was in the driveway of that person's house - he had found it. He got out, beat them up, got back in his truck and drove home again.
  • Calico45Calico45 Posts: 2,038 Member
    edited July 2020
    I don't have smart stories, but I have a few dumb generalized ones I remember from 6 years of Sims 4.

    My toddlers 50/50 have a death wish. When they are literally starving and I get the warning alert, they finally get food after the high chair struggle and they just throw it. Still in the red. 50/50 in my toddlers. Sometimes it happens in a row. On the third time I just put food directly into their inventories and still have to fight them because they want mom, dad, or guardian to put them in the high chair. I have never gotten the to eat from their inventory in a high chair. I usually manage to save them, but I always wonder if it was worth it. (For the record, I still like Sims 4 toddlers the best of them all. The Sims 3 toddlers were so much maintenance that I flat out refused.)

    Also, breeding pets. Just sigh. I know they were designed without real relationships for pet-to-pet, but still. For it to be the struggle that it is, it is kind of ridiculous, especially when my pets for absolutely no reason just say no. Even with a high relationship with the sim. Their personalities really make no sense what so ever, though. I usually have both a cat and a dog when I play with pets, usually at least two, and their interactions are completely random if they acknowledge each other at all. One minute they love each other and the next they are antagonistic. I don't understand how we can go from Sims 3 where baby pets unrelated but raised together can have a littermate relationship, but in 4 you cannot have them be anything other than neutral strangers their whole lives because they do not have relationships. Add to that when I first pulled out the hamster cage, my pets camped on and by it for three sim days and nearly died. So yeah, cannot talk about stupid sims without bringing up the pet ai.
  • bella_gothbella_goth Posts: 1,770 Member
    edited November 2020
    Deleted
    Post edited by bella_goth on
  • SimmerGeorgeSimmerGeorge Posts: 2,724 Member
    Remember in the Sims 2 when the Sims chatted their speech bubbles would show you what subject their talking about and they also moved their hands according to the subject of the conversation?
    Where's my Sims 5 squad at?
  • CamkatCamkat Posts: 2,329 Member
    Remember in the Sims 2 when the Sims chatted their speech bubbles would show you what subject their talking about and they also moved their hands according to the subject of the conversation?

    Yes! They would even talk about and remember things that happened. If your sim had a burglary or a fire in their house, they often talked about it later with other sims. Sometimes for a few days!

    Memories definitely helped them feel smarter. In TS3 memories caused the save to bloat and become unplayable, so I had turned mine off, so I'm not sure if they did the same thing in TS3?

    Origin ID: Peapod79
  • OldeseadoggeOldeseadogge Posts: 4,973 Member
    Something I remember in TS2 is how the sims, if you do the alter appearance in the mirror, will let you know what they think of your efforts. I've seen responses range from covering mouth and nearly throwing up to wild estatic cheers, with many of various levels in between. While not so dramaticaly, they also let you know what they think of your choices in decor - be it furniture, lights, decorative items, doors and windows, or whatever. They will also on their own let you know if a need is very low, no looking at the panel necessary. TS2 sims seem very much to be real little pixel people. EA's lying propaganda notwithstanding, TS4 sims aren't even close.
  • ClarionOfJoyClarionOfJoy Posts: 1,945 Member
    Something I remember in TS2 is how the sims, if you do the alter appearance in the mirror, will let you know what they think of your efforts. I've seen responses range from covering mouth and nearly throwing up to wild estatic cheers, with many of various levels in between. While not so dramaticaly, they also let you know what they think of your choices in decor - be it furniture, lights, decorative items, doors and windows, or whatever. They will also on their own let you know if a need is very low, no looking at the panel necessary. TS2 sims seem very much to be real little pixel people. EA's lying propaganda notwithstanding, TS4 sims aren't even close.


    TS3 does those things as well. With the problems that TS4 sims have, now I am a little worried about TS5 sims. There is some hope though because I know that at least TS5 won't be built on TS4's abysmal game engine which I think is the real issue.


  • CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
    edited July 2020
    bellagoth_ wrote: »
    it's fun how i never noticed these "smarter sims" because i just assumed that they should behave with some realism and common sense, this is a life simulator after all, you would expect a good AI.

    ts4 just showed me that in fact, sims were smarter in previous games, their actions made sense, they acted according to their traits, personality, wants, fears, interests, situation, circumstances, etc. yes, of course sometimes they had some inconsistencies, but that's not the problem, the problem is that 10 years later sims should actually be smarter but instead i have to see how useless are their traits and their emotions. other nonsense like how vegetarian sims eat meat, how sims go wash the dishes on the bathroom, how they keep moving from chair to chair to have a normal conversation, how loyalty among the sims is impossible, how a mean sim is always good, how their conversation actions don't make sense, how the talking bubbles won't even make sense... and so many more. not even their randomly generated clothes make sense, let's not forget AI means everything else that the player can't directly control

    It's not just TS4 though, I gave examples of how Sims do behave in TS2 by still sitting at a pc playing a game long after fun was full. Granted people complained and they did adjust things like that a bit. For instance, they would stop dancing. Or they would stop eating (even if plate was not empty) if hunger was full etc. But TS3 also had bad AI problems, such as children automatically doing homework as soon as they got home even though they were too sleepy, too hungry and or even needed to pee badly. Instead of taking care of fun which might have been in the red, they would go ahead and do homework. As I said TS4 is no better. lol I only have the one true example (From my TS2 game) that I can remember of actually seeing a smarter Sim in all these years. But even every trailer Maxis ever produced to introduce us to game play we are always told that next iteration will have much smarter Sims, it hasn't been true, not one time.
    True, TS2's AI seems smarter to all the rest, at least they walk around a crowd if they can't get through it, who might be blocking a door (TS3's University) and or then again they may not and just wave their arms but most of the time a Sim will move and they will work their way through a crowd blocking a staircase and or door in TS2 or step over something.

    TS4 Sims just might walk through them and collide right into the body of another. That's not smarter, that's just lazy, and a short cut I would only expect in a phone game or something where graphics don't matter. But when you see it on a bigger screen, it's like what?

    The best critique of this is my husband. He doesn't play many games that are animated as much. He will walk by the screen and ask why did that train just run through that boy? lol Train tycoon games where the train moving on down a track may seem to run through a person.

    Or why did that person just walk through that counter? (TS4). He often sees the stuff I don't pay attention to in little games because it's not about what I see but what I'm doing and how to level up etc.

    But in The Sims, yeah, he will stop and ask me why is that Sim standing like that (need to pee) or why don't they go to the bathroom, lol, and or why don't they get up and get some food? Or why didn't they drink coffee before they took a bath? After twenty years, I would expect the Sim to be as smart as me, or at least to seem to be smarter than the first pixel where they stood and couldn't think, hey, I'm not low on fun right now, I need to stop shooting hoops, I need to stop dancing, I need to use my time wisely and maybe work on a skill and or a relationship, and or clean the house, and or build something, and or be more productive. With TS4 it seems Maxis must be trying to tell us we spend way too much time on fun and talkng, talking, talking because that is basically the whole essence of the S4 sim. It has to be some sort of message that people are using their phone over and over and over (can't even cancel it enough in TS4) and satire of what people aren't doing because TS4 Sims are some of the most obsessed Sims I have ever seen. But to be fair, none of these games have produced smarter Sims in my opinion.
    "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
  • Bettyboop55Bettyboop55 Posts: 2,646 Member
    This is a story I tell to demonstrate my point about sims being more than the sum of their pixels.

    I had two very loved up sims with several children. I decided that there should be no more children because of the house size. While I was busy watching what the children were up to, the pair made their way to the bedroom. The first I knew about it was when I heard the bell to indicate there was another baby on the way. The look on the Dad's face was priceless. The lesson I learned was to pay more attention to the sims' wishes.

    For reference this happened in TS3. For the life of me I can't remember if I had put any actions in their queues. Even if I did they clearly ignored the actions. I am not sure others would judge their behaviour as smart in as much as their action was not done as a means of preserving their existence. Certainly they outsmarted me and, because it had made me laugh rather than get cross I saved the game and they kept their baby.

    I no longer use Origin or My Page. You can find me on YouTube or Twitter as Bettyboop711000. You are welcome to contact me as I explore options for a PC sandbox life simulation game.
    Wherever I am friends call me Betty

    Sim enim est vita
  • CamkatCamkat Posts: 2,329 Member
    Cinebar wrote: »
    It has to be some sort of message that people are using their phone over and over and over (can't even cancel it enough in TS4) and satire of what people aren't doing because TS4 Sims are some of the most obsessed Sims I have ever seen. But to be fair, none of these games have produced smarter Sims in my opinion.

    I clipped this bit out because I think you hit on something important. I do believe TS4 is a satire on life in the 2000's. I don't know about you but I can't go anywhere without seeing almost everyone on their phones. They're listening to music, watching movies, playing games, all while out in public and some even wandering into roads or benches, not paying attention. I see groups of friends out and about and no one is talking or looking at each other, just at their phones. I think that's the life TS4 is trying to replicate, and like it or not... they do seem to be doing a good job of it.

    Origin ID: Peapod79
  • bella_gothbella_goth Posts: 1,770 Member
    i didn't do a deep research but this is on the wikipedia:
    "Wright has stated that The Sims was actually meant as a satire of U.S. consumer culture. Wright took ideas from the 1977 architecture and urban design book A Pattern Language, American psychologist Abraham Maslow's 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation and his hierarchy of needs, and Charles Hampden-Turner's Maps of the Mind to develop a model for the game's artificial intelligence."


    i don't think sims 4 has any kind of message in it, you just can see everywhere how rushed and poorly thought is that game (as if they were in the mood to make a satire after the mess that the sims olympus was lmao).
    of course i can be wrong on this, but the way they're marketing the game seems to me that all this hipster behavior is just to make people identify with the sims, and not anything deeper, rn it seems that maxis biggest inspiration are twitter, buzzfeed and tumblr

    but then again, ea is a multi million dollar company, huuge on its field and i doubt that they would create such a mediocre product and genuinely sell it as something amazing, so i kinda think that they're actually making a big joke out of this franchise because they're getting away with it
    Cinebar wrote: »
    bellagoth_ wrote: »
    it's fun how i never noticed these "smarter sims" because i just assumed that they should behave with some realism and common sense, this is a life simulator after all, you would expect a good AI.

    ts4 just showed me that in fact, sims were smarter in previous games, their actions made sense, they acted according to their traits, personality, wants, fears, interests, situation, circumstances, etc. yes, of course sometimes they had some inconsistencies, but that's not the problem, the problem is that 10 years later sims should actually be smarter but instead i have to see how useless are their traits and their emotions. other nonsense like how vegetarian sims eat meat, how sims go wash the dishes on the bathroom, how they keep moving from chair to chair to have a normal conversation, how loyalty among the sims is impossible, how a mean sim is always good, how their conversation actions don't make sense, how the talking bubbles won't even make sense... and so many more. not even their randomly generated clothes make sense, let's not forget AI means everything else that the player can't directly control

    It's not just TS4 though

    i never said the sims 2 ai was perfect, i said the problem is that 15 years later their ai is even worse
  • ClarionOfJoyClarionOfJoy Posts: 1,945 Member
    Cinebar wrote: »
    True, TS2's AI seems smarter to all the rest, at least they walk around a crowd if they can't get through it, who might be blocking a door (TS3's University) and or then again they may not and just wave their arms but most of the time a Sim will move and they will work their way through a crowd blocking a staircase and or door in TS2 or step over something.

    This is just a small thing, but the sims do move around each other and move away from the door in TS3. The real problem is that the mechanism takes so long because it's trying to figure out who should go through the door first. You can fix that by adding more doorways. But since those uni buildings are shells, you can't just add more doors. Fortunately, there's a mod specifically for TS3's university that fixes that.

    For me, I've been testing out having a campus in the current homeworld that I'm playing and I actually prefer it now to having to send my sims to the university world. There was a problem of bottle necking at the science building because it only had one door, but when I added two more, voila! No more bottle-necking crowd! The previously students whose classes finished and normally blocked the doors were able to leave quickly and the next scheduled students had no problem getting in.

    So sometimes it's not the sims being dumb, sometimes it's a structural problem.


  • CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
    Cinebar wrote: »
    True, TS2's AI seems smarter to all the rest, at least they walk around a crowd if they can't get through it, who might be blocking a door (TS3's University) and or then again they may not and just wave their arms but most of the time a Sim will move and they will work their way through a crowd blocking a staircase and or door in TS2 or step over something.

    This is just a small thing, but the sims do move around each other and move away from the door in TS3. The real problem is that the mechanism takes so long because it's trying to figure out who should go through the door first. You can fix that by adding more doorways. But since those uni buildings are shells, you can't just add more doors. Fortunately, there's a mod specifically for TS3's university that fixes that.

    For me, I've been testing out having a campus in the current homeworld that I'm playing and I actually prefer it now to having to send my sims to the university world. There was a problem of bottle necking at the science building because it only had one door, but when I added two more, voila! No more bottle-necking crowd! The previously students whose classes finished and normally blocked the doors were able to leave quickly and the next scheduled students had no problem getting in.

    So sometimes it's not the sims being dumb, sometimes it's a structural problem.


    TS3's UL was one of my favorite EPs for that game. As much as I love TS2 I guess people don't know I actually liked a lot of TS3. lol And actually I never had any bottleneck doorways in that EP. I read a lot of complaints where people were upset with Sims bunching up at doorways in those buildings but I never had that problem. It's sort of weird because I'm sure it is true, and extremely annoying for people, don't know why I never had that problem with that EP. But sometimes, I think I didn't see a lot of stuff (like error12) because I never bought WA...go figure. It was the only thing I knew that was different about my game than other people's games at the time. I just didn't see a lot of stuff but I also had problems other people didn't seem to have. I have always believed the order of installing packs matter. They finally admitted that in TS2, they had always thought it didn't but one day a maxiod stated publicly it did matter and they had been wrong all those years in TS2. lol I was like yes, I knew I was right. lol
    "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
  • BabykittyjadeBabykittyjade Posts: 4,975 Member
    When I was getting my first legacy started in S4, I found my sim a good potential mate and got my sim to ask them out on a date.

    Got to pick the location, waited through the loading screen, they were there.

    They stood out on the sidewalk and the date took out a book and started reading.
    My sim took out their phone and started playing with it.

    They stayed like that until the date was over.
    I didn't bother with the legacy after that any more.

    The first time I started S3, I made a husband and wife and found them a nice little starter house. A passerby hit on the wife while she was outside harvesting seeds and the hubby was inside fixing leaks.

    She went up to the husband and made upset actions, next thing you know the husband went out to his truck, drove away. Next place I found him was he was in the driveway of that person's house - he had found it. He got out, beat them up, got back in his truck and drove home again.


    Omg I died 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 I love smart sims. I wish sims4 had that kind of AI. I tired so many times to get a similar situation going with zero reactions. The best part though is that he didnt get mad at the wife. He knew who was at fault 👌
    Zombies, oh please oh please give us zombies!! :'(
  • Lucy_HenleyLucy_Henley Posts: 2,943 Member
    One of my child Sims in Sims 4 was exhausted, so I got her to climb into bed... she was in it for all of two seconds before getting out again and PASSING OUT ON THE FLOOR! Just... no. So dumb.
  • king_of_simcity7king_of_simcity7 Posts: 25,102 Member
    I have seen a lot in TS3! :smiley:
    Simbourne
    screenshot_original.jpg
  • Flikka_FlikkaFlikka_Flikka Posts: 431 Member
    I have to say, watching Sims try to handle a Starlight Accolades ceremony is painful.

    No, I can't just sit in this chair. I have to get up and go kneel on the floor. And then I have to share astronomy knowledge with that onetime acquaintance in the opposite corner of the room. And then a couple of us are going to go stand and chat at center stage directly in front of the mic where Judith Ward is muddling through her acceptance speech.
  • SimmerGeorgeSimmerGeorge Posts: 2,724 Member
    I have to say, watching Sims try to handle a Starlight Accolades ceremony is painful.

    No, I can't just sit in this chair. I have to get up and go kneel on the floor. And then I have to share astronomy knowledge with that onetime acquaintance in the opposite corner of the room. And then a couple of us are going to go stand and chat at center stage directly in front of the mic where Judith Ward is muddling through her acceptance speech.

    Yes. This! Thanks.. I was so excited for the award event and then once I went there once I was like nope. Sims are too dumb for that.
    Where's my Sims 5 squad at?
  • EveryDaySimEveryDaySim Posts: 193 Member
    My sim has 14 college degrees and still does not know how to stay seated.
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