Toddlers in control?

SimKeats · November 2020

So, every time I try and do a legacy, I notice something that is to me, rather odd.
Adult sims will cancel their actions ALL the time because a toddler que up like "ask adult for" type stuff. Which is total nonsense. Basically if I have a bunch of toddlers and a bunch of adults, the toddlers will have low needs all the time because the adults don't get to decide how to take care of them, since toddlers can interrupt their actions from anywhere on the lot.
Basically toddlers wreck my whole household AI, is there any way to disable this stupid behaviour? Why do toddlers get to override other sims' actions?

babajayne · November 2020

I’ve taken to locking the toddler in their bedroom. It sounds cruel but they have everything they need. I drag foods to them so they stay fed and I send a parent in to spend time with them. But mostly they are happy to just play with their toys. If I don’t lock the door, they waste all kinds of time wandering around, fumbling down the steps, wanting to sit next to someone else to eat. Sometimes, the reverse happens and another family member goes to the nursery to eat with them. But at least it doesn’t take an hour to use a set of stairs.

haneul · November 2020

I don't remember ever having this issue. I'm a micro manager so maybe I never noticed it, but even with 5 toddlers in the house at once ... I don't think it happened to me. If it did, I think I canceled everyone's actions so that one adult could get to them. But generally I think that I always prioritize the toddlers in my households, telling them what to do until they're on the verge of passing out from exhaustion (and then I send them to bed).

Sharonia · November 2020

My sims are dropping actions with or without toddlers. It seems to have got worse since the last patch.

charmed4life4 · November 2020

Sharonia wrote: »

My sims are dropping actions with or without toddlers. It seems to have got worse since the last patch.

I've noticed this as well. It is making family play difficult as I tend to queue up actions and if I don't focus on the one sim nothing gets done.

AnnLee87 · November 2020

We have to hands on with toddlers. Now that we have sentiments they grow up with bad parental sentiments. My Sim kid has a neglected toddler sentiment. Don't remember the actual wording. I wouldn't age up any toddlers until they fix stuff.

Daephene · November 2020

I generally make the toddlers get their own food off the counters, and once they can potty by themselves I control them to make that happen also. Then the adults are really only responsible for the hygiene need, and I usually will have them read the child to sleep to help with imagination skill but if they're busy or some AI conflict is being annoying I'll have the toddler go to sleep themselves.

Glacierlily · November 2020

“My sims are dropping actions with or without toddlers. It seems to have got worse since the last patch.”

SAME. It’s weird. I am a micromanager though so I’ve just had to up my micromanaging game lol. Instead of assuming my freelance programmer stays at the 🐸🐸🐸🐸 computer, I make sure to keep checking on them. It’s annoying though.

Glacierlily · November 2020

I also lock toddlers in the nursery. This is the only way I’ve found to actually get Top Notch Toddler without cheating on normal life span. If I’m not after that trait I let them run free and enjoy them. If I want that trait, usually for the heiress of my legacy, then I do this. Works like a charm!

SantiagoWitt · November 2020

Getting toddlers to max skills on normal lifespan is a challenge. I’ve only done it once and it was all I focused on. I know it can sound gross, but if you want to free up a lot of toddler time then ignore the potty skill. It’s so time consuming and getting it to max skill offers no advantage upon aging up to child. It’s literally just wasted toddler time. Maxing out the other skills gives a huge boost to child skills, so just have your toddler use the diaper and eat fruits and vegetables directly from their inventory. I don’t endorse locking toddlers in a room because they need to run around and max out the movement skill.

haneul · November 2020

I get top notch toddler within 7 days every time with no problem.

Now, my sims are excellent parents so it's super easy, but before that what helped is keeping the toddlers up and on task until their energy is red.

I don't lock them in rooms or ignore any skills. I just tell them what to do all day long

and have adults help them. It's nice if there are two toddlers at once because then they can help each other.

I feed them regular meals outside of the high chair. I used to do fruits, but it's easier for me to feed them fewer times and fill the bar more.

I also try to match the emotion with the trait they're building, so energized for walking, etc.

Having good parents gives an extreme boost, though. After getting top notch toddler, my child sim maxed out the child creative skill and the adult piano skill in a few days because her dad helped her. She went to school, had friends over, exercised, etc. She didn't just play piano like a robot.

I'm soon to have another toddler, so I'll look out for this bug.

somewhsome · November 2020

SantiagoWitt wrote: »

Getting toddlers to max skills on normal lifespan is a challenge. I’ve only done it once and it was all I focused on. I know it can sound gross, but if you want to free up a lot of toddler time then ignore the potty skill. It’s so time consuming and getting it to max skill offers no advantage upon aging up to child. It’s literally just wasted toddler time. Maxing out the other skills gives a huge boost to child skills, so just have your toddler use the diaper and eat fruits and vegetables directly from their inventory. I don’t endorse locking toddlers in a room because they need to run around and max out the movement skill.

But without the potty skill they won't get the "top-notch toddler" trait, will they? And this trait give a boost to all skills, even adult ones.

haneul · November 2020

somewhsome wrote: »

SantiagoWitt wrote: »

Getting toddlers to max skills on normal lifespan is a challenge. I’ve only done it once and it was all I focused on. I know it can sound gross, but if you want to free up a lot of toddler time then ignore the potty skill. It’s so time consuming and getting it to max skill offers no advantage upon aging up to child. It’s literally just wasted toddler time. Maxing out the other skills gives a huge boost to child skills, so just have your toddler use the diaper and eat fruits and vegetables directly from their inventory. I don’t endorse locking toddlers in a room because they need to run around and max out the movement skill.

But without the potty skill they won't get the "top-notch toddler" trait, will they? And this trait give a boost to all skills, even adult ones.

They won't, but the potty trait is easy because it maxes out at 3. Just have an adult take them/have them go by themselves when their bladder is yellow.

somewhsome · November 2020

haneul wrote: »

somewhsome wrote: »

SantiagoWitt wrote: »

Getting toddlers to max skills on normal lifespan is a challenge. I’ve only done it once and it was all I focused on. I know it can sound gross, but if you want to free up a lot of toddler time then ignore the potty skill. It’s so time consuming and getting it to max skill offers no advantage upon aging up to child. It’s literally just wasted toddler time. Maxing out the other skills gives a huge boost to child skills, so just have your toddler use the diaper and eat fruits and vegetables directly from their inventory. I don’t endorse locking toddlers in a room because they need to run around and max out the movement skill.

But without the potty skill they won't get the "top-notch toddler" trait, will they? And this trait give a boost to all skills, even adult ones.

They won't, but the potty trait is easy because it maxes out at 3. Just have an adult take them/have them go by themselves when their bladder is yellow.

Yeah, I know, I also play on a long lifespan and my toddlers are usually maxed out in the middle of a lifestage, so no problems here. I was just wondering. I personally don't care much about child skills, I always want the trait. 😅

SimKeats · November 2020

From my experience the only way I can prevent toddlers from interfering with adult sim AI is turning free will off. I think this is one of my biggest frustrations with Sims 4, I constantly have things encouraging me to turn off free will. I don't mind turning off free will with a single sim household, but it kind of sucks the fun out of family play if I have to micromanage ALL the sims ALL the time.

catmando830 · November 2020

And this is what I loath toddlers in my game. I do like the idea of locking them up.

Admiral8Q · November 2020

Toddlers are a full time job to take of in real life.

For the game, I play fine if the current family/household I'm playing, I chose they want to bring up their toddler(s). Otherwise send them to another household or an "orphanage". Or hire a nanny.

As for locking them up in isolation. To a degree I find it is often best to keep them out of some places, depending on your house. You could lock them in a room underground dungeon "nursery" for eternity, I suppose, if it supplies all their needs...

CelSims · November 2020

I use a mod that tones down the 'check on toddler' that sims stop to do all the time. I also have the toddlers ability to ask an adult to play at the dolls house turned off. And just to be sure, the dolls house is only accessible via a pet door, which the tods can use but the adults cant xD The darn Doll house is the cause of a lot of it.

brinjen · January 2021

I'm getting frustrated with my current household. I have the parents, a teen, child and toddler. Parents and teen keep wanting to check on the toddler. I'm at the point where I'm thinking I may as well sell the toddler gym as the kid never gets to use it. He makes it outside, goes to play and immediately stops as someone is checking on him. I wish Sims were better aware of what other Sims were doing.

brinjen · January 2021

Also, it's not just interrupting the toddler playing, but care of the toddler. I asign one Sim to give the toddler a bath, they start to walk towards their room then they stop as another Sim is checking on the toddler. Or I have the toddler being read to sleep when suddenly he's getting out of bed as another Sim is checking him again.

Sketch793 · January 2021

I just turn off autonomy when Sims start acting like that. It might not be the ideal solution but it does help.

permanentrose · January 2021

I cheat my toddlers needs pretty often since they are a pain to take care of, but I like having them around since they are cute. I also cheated to give my main toddler reward traits, so her needs don't decay as fast anymore which is lovely

haneul · January 2021

brinjen wrote: »

Also, it's not just interrupting the toddler playing, but care of the toddler. I asign one Sim to give the toddler a bath, they start to walk towards their room then they stop as another Sim is checking on the toddler. Or I have the toddler being read to sleep when suddenly he's getting out of bed as another Sim is checking him again.

I apologize if this isn't helpful because I don't have this issue even though I raised a ton of toddlers, but can you just cancel the action? Are the other sims not busy when they go to check on the toddler? Maybe reset the sims if they don't cooperate or have both the toddler and the sim be near the object (like the bath) before you ask the sim to help the toddler. It sounds like your AI is lagging a bit.

Simmingal · January 2021

toddlers are indeed starting rebellion lately

i even have toddlers that insist on dancing everytime stereo is on in another floor and magically route there even though they normally would not be able to

its not too bad cause its ghost toddler and my family is very occulty but oh boy

ACruelButLovingGod · January 2021

I tend to raise Sim kids one at a time and aggressively micromanage them throughout toddler and childhood, only really letting them off the leash a bit when they become teens.

This has a lot to do with my philosophy about having babies vs. just going into CAS and making a new sim. The ones raised from babies are intentionally engineered to be what Carl over on his site called "super sims". That means Top Notch Toddler, all four "Gifted" childhood aspirations, plus Scouting and the 3 critical character-value traits (Manners, Responsibility, and Emotional Control, for the bennies they bring in adulthood.)

I do tend to run the entire baby life stage, mainly because it's a great way for the new parents to grind up some Parenting skill while doing most of the work toward befriending their little ones before their USSR-like programmed childhoods.

But after that? Meet goals. Eat cake. Meet next goals. Eat another cake. Meet final goals. Eat one more cake. Then move out to vacate training room for next subject.

Daephene · January 2021

brinjen wrote: »

Also, it's not just interrupting the toddler playing, but care of the toddler. I asign one Sim to give the toddler a bath, they start to walk towards their room then they stop as another Sim is checking on the toddler. Or I have the toddler being read to sleep when suddenly he's getting out of bed as another Sim is checking him again.

I tend to pause the game and give the other sims a hard to interrupt task, like taking a shower or doing homework, while assigning one to deal with the toddler. This usually prevents the others from autonomously interfering.

The Sims Forums

Toddlers in control?

Comments