Autonomy: Who uses it and what are your thoughts on it? «12...Next Go

Triplis

I want to keep my OP short, to stay focused on the question for the thread, which is: Do you use autonomy? And, what are your thoughts on it?

The short version of my answer is that if I'm managing any more than 1-2 sims, I tend to use autonomy because otherwise I have to micromanage them all the time and it gets exhausting. But it's a double-edged sword. Autonomy has a lot of annoying quirks that only get worse the more sims you have in a household and the bigger your house is.

ShinobuTypeError

I always have autonomy on, whether I'm playing a household of 1 Sim or 8 Sims. I find the game boring with autonomy off. Part of what makes the Sims games fun for me is just watching my Sims to see what they get up to on their own, sometimes I am pleasantly surprised at the stuff that happens.

I'm not control-freaky with my Sims, and don't feel the need to micromanage every little thing they do. If I need one to do something specific of course I will control them, but what they do when I'm focusing on another Sim doesn't matter to me really. You're correct of course that some autonomous actions are very annoying, and I use mods to disable some of the worst offenders (mainly hugging, getting water from the sink, and forum trolling) but overall I don't find my Sims to be too irritating, most of the time. I have an insane Sim that I need to watch carefully because if left alone he will argue with and insult his family all day, lol....but I made the character crazy for a reason so I just have to deal with that behavior.

papersuitcase

I use it on everyone except for my main sim, usually the stay at home mom. I play huge families.

fullspiral

Always full autonomy here. I can't imagine playing the game without it.

Movotti

Even though I'm curently using the game for modeling and story telling, I still have autonomy on.
I'm sort of allowing the story to tell it's self. Then I go back, and reenact the scenes, to get better pics.
I know, I'm bonkers.

ShinobuTypeError

Movotti wrote: »

Even though I'm curently using the game for modeling and story telling, I still have autonomy on.
I'm sort of allowing the story to tell it's self. Then I go back, and reenact the scenes, to get better pics.
I know, I'm bonkers.

That's how I play too when I am storytelling. I rarely ever follow a scripted path, but prefer instead to let the story tell itself through the Sims' actions, whims, and chance occurrences.

And when I'm reading other people's stories I prefer the ones based around what happens naturally in the game rather than scripted stories.

Pancakesandwich

I always have autonomy on, even for my main Sim and even if I only have one Sim. I like it when the game tells a story just based on the autonomous actions. But I do have some mods that stop certain auto-actions such as drinking from the sink or mourning at an urn/gravestone.

Then again, I control my Sims in certain situations. But when I do, it's either for repairing/upgrading something, for filling their needs or for storytelling purposes. For example, I can't imagine anyone but an insane Sim to not shout at the Grim Reaper and insult him after he took away a relative or other beloved person. An insane Sim on the other hand would chat quite friendly with him, and a romantic one (that is Very Flirty) would instead try to seduce death (especially with the Serial Romantic aspiration).
But that's just me trying to keep the game a little bit realistic (this doesn't mean that I don't play with aliens though, it's more about the unrealistic emotional reactions that bother me).

And the other case where I take full control is when they have a whim. I always make them sticky so they don't go away (unless it's a whim to greet someone who already left the lot) and then try my best to satisfy that wish.

Terra

StarlingGray wrote: »

I always have autonomy on, whether I'm playing a household of 1 Sim or 8 Sims. I find the game boring with autonomy off. Part of what makes the Sims games fun for me is just watching my Sims to see what they get up to on their own, sometimes I am pleasantly surprised at the stuff that happens.

I'm not control-freaky with my Sims, and don't feel the need to micromanage every little thing they do. If I need one to do something specific of course I will control them, but what they do when I'm focusing on another Sim doesn't matter to me really. You're correct of course that some autonomous actions are very annoying, and I use mods to disable some of the worst offenders (mainly hugging, getting water from the sink, and forum trolling) but overall I don't find my Sims to be too irritating, most of the time. I have an insane Sim that I need to watch carefully because if left alone he will argue with and insult his family all day, lol....but I made the character crazy for a reason so I just have to deal with that behavior.

There's a mod that disables autonomous hugging??? Where can I find it?!

Mysan

I always play with full autonomy on, but I often have to go in and steer my sims into doing things. They often just sit at the TV or computer if I leave them to themselves. They never leave their apartment to go out to the square below, or outside their yard if they live in a house. So in my experience, full autonomy does too little and I would like so see my sims actually do more things and take more decisions by themselves. They rarely flirt, argue, seek out a lot of conversations or such by themselves. They don't even care for their own needs very often without me having to tell them.

ShinobuTypeError

Terra wrote: »

StarlingGray wrote: »

I always have autonomy on, whether I'm playing a household of 1 Sim or 8 Sims. I find the game boring with autonomy off. Part of what makes the Sims games fun for me is just watching my Sims to see what they get up to on their own, sometimes I am pleasantly surprised at the stuff that happens.

I'm not control-freaky with my Sims, and don't feel the need to micromanage every little thing they do. If I need one to do something specific of course I will control them, but what they do when I'm focusing on another Sim doesn't matter to me really. You're correct of course that some autonomous actions are very annoying, and I use mods to disable some of the worst offenders (mainly hugging, getting water from the sink, and forum trolling) but overall I don't find my Sims to be too irritating, most of the time. I have an insane Sim that I need to watch carefully because if left alone he will argue with and insult his family all day, lol....but I made the character crazy for a reason so I just have to deal with that behavior.

There's a mod that disables autonomous hugging??? Where can I find it?!

@Terra It can found in this set http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=571552

You must be a registered Mod The Sims member to download it. Works with the latest patch for me.

That mod and MC Command Center are my two mods that I refuse to play without. I always avoid patching until I know they are working with the patch or get updated. The hugging drives me bonkers, I find that they will choose that action like 75% of the time. With the mod, the variety of autonomous socials I see them choose is a lot better.

HowGreatThouArt

I'm rather controlling of my legacy families so I usually keep the autonomy off. But if I do play a family very casually, I keep it on so I don't have to micromanage. I'm still wishing for a middle-ground autonomy option in the future, and for some tuning for the annoying quirks like constant water drinking and walking across the entire lot to hug someone.

I'll probably pick up that mod @StarlingGray

Terra

StarlingGray wrote: »

Terra wrote: »

StarlingGray wrote: »

I always have autonomy on, whether I'm playing a household of 1 Sim or 8 Sims. I find the game boring with autonomy off. Part of what makes the Sims games fun for me is just watching my Sims to see what they get up to on their own, sometimes I am pleasantly surprised at the stuff that happens.

I'm not control-freaky with my Sims, and don't feel the need to micromanage every little thing they do. If I need one to do something specific of course I will control them, but what they do when I'm focusing on another Sim doesn't matter to me really. You're correct of course that some autonomous actions are very annoying, and I use mods to disable some of the worst offenders (mainly hugging, getting water from the sink, and forum trolling) but overall I don't find my Sims to be too irritating, most of the time. I have an insane Sim that I need to watch carefully because if left alone he will argue with and insult his family all day, lol....but I made the character crazy for a reason so I just have to deal with that behavior.

There's a mod that disables autonomous hugging??? Where can I find it?!

@Terra It can found in this set http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=571552

You must be a registered Mod The Sims member to download it. Works with the latest patch for me.

That mod and MC Command Center are my two mods that I refuse to play without. I always avoid patching until I know they are working with the patch or get updated. The hugging drives me bonkers, I find that they will choose that action like 75% of the time. With the mod, the variety of autonomous socials I see them choose is a lot better.

Thank you!

JoAnne65

StarlingGray wrote: »

Movotti wrote: »

Even though I'm curently using the game for modeling and story telling, I still have autonomy on.
I'm sort of allowing the story to tell it's self. Then I go back, and reenact the scenes, to get better pics.
I know, I'm bonkers.

That's how I play too when I am storytelling. I rarely ever follow a scripted path, but prefer instead to let the story tell itself through the Sims' actions, whims, and chance occurrences.

And when I'm reading other people's stories I prefer the ones based around what happens naturally in the game rather than scripted stories.

Yes, me too. I love the interaction between what happens in the game and what the player does with that. When I'm the player, but also when someone else is. I always play with free will/autonomy enabled.

TheGoodOldGamer

I have free will on for all the Sims, though I'm usually giving constant commands to the one I'm playing anyway, lol. It's still good to have on in case I get distracted by something and they need to go to the bathroom or whatever though. I don't get the point of having free will off for more than the currently controlled Sim though. Then all the Sims just stand around or whatever.

Sel

lmao i read the title as "anatomy" instead of "autonomy" at first

depends on how i'm feeling at the moment tho, like sometimes i'lll be super paranoid and want to manage exactly what every sim is doing, but sometimes i just let them live their own little lives.

NZsimm3r

I always have full autonomy on. Never occurs to me to change it as I don't want my sims standing around waiting for instructions from me. I like micro-managing my sims and I also like seeing what they get up to when out and about talking to other NPC sims etc. imo their personality does come out a little better (as far as possible with the games limitations) when on full autonomy.

NotLoudonWainwright

I use it frequently to set up stories.

For example, in one of my side saves I have a young adult female looking for love. I got her flirty, sent her to a bar and paired her with the first man she flirted with. He wouldn't have been my first choice for her had I been controlling her, but I found that they played well off of each other because they have clashing traits, and that opened up a lot of possibilities for future stories.

musteni

After two years of playing I changed my autonomy setting from full autonomy to full autonomy + disable autonomy for selected sim. I never thought I would like it, but it works. It's not a huge difference, but there's now less chasing after sims, less cancelling actions, less idle play while I wait them to do finish tasks I wanted them to do but the game queued for them first and more of my decisions about what happens next. I can still enjoy autonomous actions of the sims I'm not currently controlling. I'm really surprised, because I've always sworn in the name of full autonomy.

It was the simguru in the toddler livestream who inspired me to explore the autonomy options. The one who said they play without autonomy (I was a bit shocked that someone would do that).

duhboy2u2

I always play with autonomy on. I love seeing all the little idiosyncrasies in their actions when I'm not controlling them. With autonomy off, I'd never have had the opportunity to see my sim who was expecting a nooboo soon pat her tummy and smile randomly, or the kiddos running out the door to hug dad or mom hello when returning from work. I'd miss those little things without it.

MasonGamer

I like autonomy, to the point where Sims can take care of their needs, I don't like it when I'm working on projects with them. I usually have the Check box to disallow autonomy for selected sim, now.

Pancakesandwich

duhboy2u2 wrote: »

I always play with autonomy on. I love seeing all the little idiosyncrasies in their actions when I'm not controlling them. With autonomy off, I'd never have had the opportunity to see my sim who was expecting a nooboo soon pat her tummy and smile randomly, or the kiddos running out the door to hug dad or mom hello when returning from work. I'd miss those little things without it.

And sometimes, the game really tells a story better than any player could.
Like when I planned a romantic relationship to grow, but my Sim instead autonomously used a romantic interaction that made it fall down again rather early. Which in the end made me stop talking to that particular potential partner for a while (in fear of their relationship turning into outright rivalry). And during that time, my Sim had already found another one whom she was getting along really well with.
Some time later I checked the traits of that first Sim in World Management. He hated children. So now I keep imagining that my Sim was watchful enough to notice a bit of that trait although she never officially found out. And after realising this, she deliberately brought the conversation to a fall in order to prevent him from ever calling again. Which worked perfectly.

elanorbreton

I haven't tried it without. What's it like? Do sims just stand around doing nothing until you tell them what to do?

Triplis

elanorbreton wrote: »

I haven't tried it without. What's it like? Do sims just stand around doing nothing until you tell them what to do?

Pretty much. I believe there are a few situations where they will activate an autonomous action even if it's turned off. The occasional conversation choice if they're already in a conversation. Or they might queue up an action if a need is desperately low.

But otherwise, yeah, they just stand there unless you tell them what to do.

SnowWolf58

I have always had full autonomy on in all my Sims games from S1 to S4. I like to control a lot of what my sims do but not down to the last detail. They often do some pretty entertaining things when left to their own devices.

ModerateOsprey

I switch between them. Indeed, I dearly, dearly wish the autonomy settings weren't buried in the game options. Be brilliant to have the autonomy options mapped to hot keys.

SuRihtanil

Mines always on. I enjoy letting my sims think for themselves and do what they want to do I get more enjoyment out of that. I just guide them here and there... sometimes there are things I want to them to do and I have them do it but normally I just let them do their own thing. The only problem is the AI isn't that great and outside of your own personal lot nothing else evolves or progresses... sims 4 forces you to do everything pretty much, which kills the immersion of the game when you want to just be a passenger and enjoy the ride.