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Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#51 Old 12th Dec 2017 at 2:48 AM
Oh cool ihate, and it's quite new too. Must have missed that on bypass.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
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Mad Poster
#52 Old 12th Dec 2017 at 6:11 AM
Thanks!

Ironically, I have an exercise bike out by the pool in one sim family and no one ever uses it. My fitness obsessed sim cheers if I make her get on it, but won't touch it on her own.
Lab Assistant
#53 Old 12th Dec 2017 at 6:26 AM
I mod out or nerf the behaviours that annoy me most, but beyond that, free will all the way. I played Sims 3 for a while and found free will wasn't super rewarding there to me for some reason, and when I switched back to 2, I was constantly surprised and delighted by all the little things they do autonomously and spontaneously that I'd forgotten about. The more autonomy the better, for me: I like it when the idiots occasionally can kill themselves by accident or sabotage their marriage by calling an old flame over for a booty call (ACR is the best haha). Keeps the game dynamic for me, I don't want to control every aspect of their lives all the time.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#54 Old 12th Dec 2017 at 7:16 AM
I decided to turn free will back on. My sim acted just like he did when I controlled him. The only 'annoying' thing he did was start a painting when he was 1 day from graduation, after I told him to scrap the last one he started (I had him do painting for a bit to build up his creativity).

Based off of this thread, I decided to turn it back on and see how things play out. And for the record, I don't always have my sims be nice. Years ago when I was doing a legacy challenge, I had the founder get into an argument with the mailman for comedic effect. And I did actually have him do 'mean' socials. They even got into a fight. Multiple times. He lost every one.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#55 Old 12th Dec 2017 at 8:07 AM
Having it on will help you to become a better player if you play slowly and take notice of things. Your sims will also let you know who they are because they do have different likes and dislikes. It doesn't really matter if he starts a painting, it can always be scrapped at anytime by any sim. Sims paint because it raises fun; another sim might have chosen something different to do. When they can show you their personality they will become more interesting. Even with taking care of needs some sims are quite good at that while others are terrible at it. You will begin to see which sims need more direction and who you can be a bit more hands off with. Interestingly toddlers who have some CC items they can use themselves (like a toddler bed or never ending sippy cup) usually take better care of themselves than adult sims.

Make a list of behavior that you find annoying and we can probably point you to a mod to stop it.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#56 Old 12th Dec 2017 at 9:07 AM
A never ending sippy cup seems a bit too cheaty to me. I wonder if anyone ever made one that needs to be refilled from time to time.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#57 Old 12th Dec 2017 at 10:05 AM
Not that I know of-but good idea. They can 'wash' the cup but that means putting it into the dishwasher to never be seen again. I use a Bek's booster chair and toddler foods as well as I wouldn't want them to live off the cup, how often it's used is up to the player. It could be left in inventory for the middle of the night or emergencies. I am sure if I didn't have Bek's foods I would use it more but I like to see them eating fruit, scrambled eggs and things.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#58 Old 12th Dec 2017 at 11:43 AM
I've occasionally changed the advertising of custom items when it was way too strong (Exnem's hot dog and dessert carts, in particular, drew Sims to it even if they weren't hungry at all).

I'm secretly a Bulbasaur. | Formerly known as ihatemandatoryregister

Looking for SimWardrobe's mods? | Or Dizzy's? | Faiuwle/rufio's too! | smorbie1's Chris Hatch archives
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retired moderator
#59 Old 12th Dec 2017 at 12:06 PM
Quote: Originally posted by ihatemandatoryregister
(Exnem's hot dog and dessert carts, in particular, drew Sims to it even if they weren't hungry at all).

That seems realistic to me- I can't pass a dessert cart or hotdog stand without having one, even if I'm not hungry!
Mad Poster
#60 Old 12th Dec 2017 at 3:55 PM
Another thing that may make free will on easier for you, Black Heart, is the "training mechanism." A number of us have noticed that the more often a sim does something, the more likely she is to do it autonomously; and the more often a want is fulfilled, the more likely it is to be rolled again. These are probabilities, not certainties, and are probably governed by the Sim Wants and Fears history (SWAF), though with Freetime hobby wants are also influenced by hobby enthusiasm. (A sim who uses the telescope a lot gains Science enthusiasm and therefore rolls more wants to use the telescope.) So you probably will find that you've trained at least some of your sims into certain behaviors while you had free will off.

The effect doesn't distinguish between directed and autonomous actions, so people who never have free will off and free-range a lot often have sims who train themselves into certain behaviors. Many people are annoyed by repeated behaviors that I never see, and I think this is because they are unconsciously training their sims into them. For instance, all sims, when moved onto an empty lot, will roll wants for plumbing, appliances, and other furnishings immediately. Most sims, once those wants are filled, then roll social, skilling, or employment wants; but the want trees for Fortune sims are constructed so that there's a high probability of their rolling wants for Better Stuff once their Buy Stuff wants are filled. Many people complain that all Fortune sims ever want is to buy things, but this is not something I ever see except in sims who I've deliberately encouraged in it (i.e. the Manns of Widespot). I believe this is because I tend to build the house first and then move in the sims and fill the skilling, social, and employment wants that are typically rolled once all furnishing needs are satisfied, so that my Fortune sims are immediately trained to favor those wants and I have plenty of ways to keep their aspiration points up besides "buy some more." Thus, my Fortune sims tend to be methodical family providers rather than greedy consumers, with a typical want sequence being: "Buy item for building a skill needed for promotion," "learn skill for promotion," "get promotion," "flirt with wife," "play peekaboo."

As I said, this is probabilities rather than certainties, and some sims defy all attempts of the player to train them; while some defy the standard game code. To those of us who enjoy playing with free will on, though, this is a delightful development, as it makes the sim feel more like a real individual with character depth and even passion, and this gives us a thrill of pleasure that no amount of "perfect" behavior ever could. I have favorite examples of this that the old hands here have already heard ad nauseum, so I won't go into them right now; but if you look in the "7 favorite couples" thread that recently resurfaced you'll find some in the post I made there a couple of years ago.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#61 Old 12th Dec 2017 at 9:29 PM
I have examples of that as well, sims that go against the game. Instead of being annoyed that a sim isn't following your story it could be they are trying to show you a new story. Back in 07 when I started my legacy I had always avoided romance sims and certainly never made them but my founder (fortune) because I also wanted to try out aspirations that I didn't really play much or not at all married a romance sim. First thing I noticed was she did not have a regular romance sim LTW, no cheating, she wanted to be a hall of fame'er-she was an athlete (joy!) I gave her family as secondary and from their quickly forgot that she was romance. I got reminded once when she did the romance sim kiss goodbye to a visitor and had to check her aspiration. This sim only ever rolled wants for her husband or family sim type wants. Yes it was secondary but it was like that was what she really wanted so I started seeing romance sims differently and decided she was really a family sim who wanted romance like candle lit dinners. So she changed my mind over romance sims. Now not to say I now make heaps but I am not averse to having romance sims and these do not have to follow the set game rules. It gave me ideas for romance sims that were more into being romanced with cards and flowers by one partner not those wanting notches on a bedpost. It broadned my ideas of what I could do with them.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Test Subject
Original Poster
#62 Old 13th Dec 2017 at 2:23 AM
There are actually sub-types to some of the aspirations in the game. For instance, most knowledge sims will just roll wants to build skills. Some however will instead constantly roll paranormal wants, such as 'see ghost' or 'be abducted by aliens'. Family sims also have a variant where they'll roll romance wants all the time. They play like romance sims, minus that they don't roll wants to have more than one partner. And this is actually coded into the game. There is actually an internal toggle for sims that will cause them to roll wants differently than other sims of their aspiration. Though I've never heard of any variants for the other aspirations. I would assume there must be. I think there might be a variant with fortune sims. I think some are more likely to roll wants to make money, while others are more likely to roll wants to spend money. Though I think the latter is what happens when your fortune sim already has a lot of money. I do know Mr. Big and The Diva are specifically programmed to constantly roll wants to buy expensive stuff. But a lot of npcs that programming like that. The grand vampires for instance will constantly 'bleh' and do other vampire things, even if you cure them!
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#63 Old 13th Dec 2017 at 3:05 AM
There is that but training is also a component like Peni said. If you steadfast ignore certain types of wants and fill others that sim is more likely to roll the other wants. Also having certain objects available and not others will also push wants in a certain direction. A sim who visits a place with a pottery wheel is quite likely to roll a want to make pottery or gain a badge.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Test Subject
Original Poster
#64 Old 13th Dec 2017 at 4:38 AM
I have noticed that my knowledge sim kept rolling a want to buy a bass. I did it, but he'd roll it again if I put it in his inventory. He never rolled any wants to actually play it though. All he really rolled for was doing term papers, assignments, and seeing ghosts. Once I built up his 'science' hobby, he rolled wants to see shooting stars and stargaze. Now that's graduated though, he mostly just rolls wants to build skills and talent badges. He never once rolled a want for a talent badge, even though one of his first wants was to buy a robot bench, which I did do. It just sat there taking up space until I decided to start putting stuff in his inventory. At least when I did this with the bass he rolled a want to have it back.

And I do cater to my sims. Honestly my goals are typically to fulfill their wants, and their LTW. The only thing I really have them do that I just want is make robots. Well, this time around I made my sim get abducted by aliens. Annoyingly though, he didn't ever roll a want for that until AFTER it happened. And he still hasn't re-rolled it (I wasn't able to lock it because I had to lock the two skills he would need for his LTW career).

On a side note, I made my sim get himself abducted as soon as he moved into his own place (he started in college). I'm conducting an experiment to see if I can breed the polination agent or w/e that alien's name is. I plan to do this by having a family line that reproduces solely though alien abductions. Of course, it wasn't until the baby was born that I realized my error. Now I had a sim who lived alone, was unemployed, had no money, and now had an infant to take care of. Oops. I ended up taking a job for one day and hiring a nanny, just so that he could pay his taxes and start building robots, which has been his sole source of income. Sadly though, the child was a girl, which means that to continue the bloodline I'm going to have to have him be abducted again, and I'll have to repeatedly do that until I get a boy, in each generation. I'm trying to have him craft a servo so I can have a caretaker each generation.

So yeah, that wasn't very well thought through. As for right now, that kid is a toddler who's spending all her time building logic points (turns out, her predestined hobby is also science) and he spends all his free time in the basement making robots. He's only got silver to far. And even when I do get gold, I may not have enough cash to build a servo right away. The guy doesn't even have enough to make a munchiebot right now. Though part of that is I made a clean bot and didn't sell it. I decided to use it to clean up bottles and diapers.
Mad Poster
#65 Old 13th Dec 2017 at 5:36 AM
There's mods that enable female sims to be impregnated through abduction.

However, my impression is (it hasn't happened to me yet) that alien hybrids who get abducted don't get impregnated, unless you have a multi-PT mod.

Another possibility is the Tombstone of Life and Death, which will allow you to artificially inseminate a sim with the genetic donor of your choice.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Test Subject
Original Poster
#66 Old 13th Dec 2017 at 5:53 AM
I can find no mention of that in the wiki. Oh well. I'll find out for myself eventually anyway. Though come to think of it, it could possibly be limited. The game probably prevents hybrids from parenting children with the same pollination technician that was their parent. This means that first-gen hybrids may not be able to get pregnant by abduction if there's only one per neighborhood.

I have noticed though that being an alien hasn't affected the child's personality much. Her personality is identical to her father, minus that she has 2 extra points in one of them (he had 0 in serious/playful and shy/outgoing). I find it odd that her 'shy/outgoing' score was 0, considering that the alien has it at 10. I guess only so many extra personality points can be added per generation. I should note though, she seems to have gotten all his genetics for appearance. I don't know if that's normal or not.

I don't think I've ever actually gotten an alien baby before. I seem to recall doing so once, but I can't remember how it went. Either way, I'm certain I didn't look at the kid's stats at the time. Back then nobody knew about the extra personality points, everyone just thought it made them look different.
Mad Poster
#67 Old 13th Dec 2017 at 4:16 PM
The genetic mechanics on alien abduction work exactly like any other pregnancy. The skintone is the only element that absolutely trumps other genes (though of course the black hair and eyes are dominant), so it's not unusual to get an alien hybrid child who looks like a normal sim, only green.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Theorist
#68 Old 13th Dec 2017 at 7:18 PM
I used to hate it, too... but gradually, I switched to free will on for all but active Sim (I think that was a TS3 feature though), and now I do it full blown free will. My households feel more alive.
Lab Assistant
#69 Old 13th Dec 2017 at 7:54 PM
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
A big part of it is simply becoming a better player. Playing more speed 1 and 2 and using pause as needed and only using speed 3 when safe.

This. I see a lot of players getting annoyed at the game when they're simply impatient and literally put the game on speed 3 after setting up 1 interaction. They neglect sim's needs, don't pause and queue up actions and then complain at their sims being frustrated and not wanting to study mechanical for 5 hours straight lol
Free will is actually beneficial if you're organized.
Tip: don't relay on your mouse to change the speed. Using the 1, 2, 3 & P keys is much quicker and you don't need to waste like 2 seconds moving your cursor over to the speed panel. Always leave your left hand over the number keys!!
Mad Poster
#70 Old 14th Dec 2017 at 12:36 AM
I only use speed 3 when my sims are all asleep at night or if there is only one sim home and they're sitting there reading a skill book. Otherwise I always use speed 1. I don't think I ever bother with speed 2.
Mad Poster
#71 Old 14th Dec 2017 at 5:56 AM
Actually, I don't even play the usual game speed-I've got Chris Hatch's "1/2" speed global mod which slows the game down by half of the normal speed-the only time I speed up things is when I have a robot (which rarely tires out easily-they are machines, you know..)around. I've got no patience for anything but speed three to get through the night with one in the house.
But anyway, it's really fun to play slower. You get to notice all kinds of things, and can actually sit back to enjoy them doing their usual. It's far more relaxing. Even the pixels seem to enjoy it. They've got more time to goof off in!

Receptacle Refugee & Resident Polar Bear
"Get out of my way, young'un, I'm a ninja!"
Grave Matters: The funeral podium is available here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/e6tj...albits.zip/file
My other downloads are here: https://app.mediafire.com/myfiles
Mad Poster
#72 Old 15th Dec 2017 at 1:56 PM
BlackHeart, playing with Free Will on doesn't necessarily mean that your Sims will all get killed and/or hate each other. I've been playing for 5 years now, and, as I said in my last post in this thread, only about 2 minutes of that was with Free Will off. But, in all the time I've been playing, not one Sim has died in my game. I don't mean I quit without saving; I mean I've never once seen the Grim Reaper in my game. And the only times I've seen the social worker was when she was bringing children to be adopted. I can't take all the credit for that; I'm sure some guardian angel was watching over my Sims while I learned to play. And, far from all being enemies, most of my Sims have got loads of friends. I don't play for perfection but I do play for their safety and happiness. I like to have fun with my Sims, and think I have the most fun, when they're having fun too.

I keep my Sims safe by a combination of mods and careful play. Gummilutt wrote a mod to stop death by satellite, so I can actually tell my Sims to watch the clouds or stargaze, instead of having to cancel the action every time they choose to do it. (gummilutt actually wrote the mod for me -- thanks!) I use the no fires mod that Jo mentioned in an earlier post in this thread (it's by Squinge at insimenator.org). I also use the Don't Walk away while Cooking mod she mentioned and a Less Burnt Food with Cooking Skill mod. And, just in case all that lot doesn't work, I still fit fire alarms as standard above all stoves. So I reckon all my Sims get a healthy diet of properly cooked food, and probably burn it less often than I burn mine. (I wish that Don't Walk away while Cooking mod worked on me as well as my Sims! I frequently burn my food by leaving the kitchen to check for new posts on MTS.) And I have to say that my Sims aren't stupid. I reckon 80% or more of their decisions are perfectly rational. Often I'm just helping them to do what they were trying to do anyway; if two Sims try to use the same toilet at the same time, I just direct one of them to a different toilet. My only real gripe is with Sims who make a meal just for themselves, when there are hungry children and guests needing fed too. But I can usually cope with that by changing "Make . . ." to "Serve . . .".

I'm not trying to persuade you to pay the same way as I do, but merely trying to demonstrate that playing with Free Will on need not be a disaster for your Sims or for your game.

I think it must be obvious by now that the answer to your original question is that, despite widely varying playstyles, almost everyone here usually plays with Free Will on. In fact you seem to be coming round to our point of view yourself. I'm sure, with a little perseverance, you won't regret it! Happy Simming!

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
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