More Awesome Than You!

I'm getting kinda annoyed with Sim AI and was wondering if anyone had any advice.

I'm finding my Sims are spending too much time just standing around doing nothing. They like to just stand there. I've started using Supreme Commander but even then they like to stand there. I turned it to random crap and it's better, but they still aren't doing all the things I wish they would. And it keeps turning off at random times so I constantly have to remember to turn it on, and switch it to random crap for each sim regularly. Is there anyway to just have all my sims working on random crap at all time?

Why I say they're not doing things I want them to: I was playing one sim, switched to another family for a day then checked back, and the first sim had suddenly gone out, met another sim I'd made...one he'd never met before, made good friends with her, and was touring a theatre with her as I watched. Sweet, I said as I switched to his household again. He then came out of the theatre with her...and just stood there. Told him to try talking to her, he said a couple things, and they both stood there saying nothing to each other for an hour. Then a random old guy ran up and slapped him, and he got so scared he ran home flailing his arms.

But why are my sims standing there? I want to be able to make sims, and then just watch them live out their lives. I want them to be able to make decisions, and friends, and go places on their own. Why do they just keep standing there?

My guess is because it's a game, and the point is to play it, not look at it.

I do play it. I create things, and houses, and people, and a world, and then I observe as they all interact in interesting and awesome ways. Isn't that the point of the Sims? Whats the fun if I make the sims do everything? No fun at all, I get my fun out of watching them do things I wouldn't think of. Things I can then tell my friends "Hey,, you totally slapped a guy when he tried to say hello to you. And then you flirted with another dude and passed out" or whatever.

Just out of curiosity what level of autonomy do you have it set at?  I have the opposite problem because I play on high autonomy...my Sims cry over the death of their mother and then 1 second later they are flirting with the neighbor, then they run off dancing, cook burgers, and read a book!

If you just installed Ambitions or the patch, your settings may have been reset and it might be set on low or no autonomy.

Other than that I can not help you!  Someone with more computer guts knowledge will have to chime in.

I have the same issue. On high they do too much, on low, well, it acts as if it is off. They will stand there, in a completely vanilla game, and piss themselves or starve to death, when before, they were at least go off and do basic things while I focused on one of their housemates. I like playing large families. With the game like this, this is nearly impossible to do because they will just stand in one spot and die while I follow another sim to work.

What I've noticed lately, even with AwesomeMod installed, is my sims like to stand still and stare into space after I've told them to do something. Sometimes my sim will stand naked infront of the bathtub for about 30 sim minutes before they actually hop in, or when I tell them to clean up, they stand infront of the pile and pick their nose. EA has either played with the autonomy levels or something, because I swear when I had it on low, my sims are least did SOMETHINGs, such as watch TV etc, and on high they didn't all flood the PC to play it (had to get a mod to stop this), they actually did quite a lot of different things. Since getting AMB however it's been rather frustruting with their random actions.

Standing there picking their noses is a distinct sign of computer overload. Doesn't happen on my computer because it is awesome.

The AI in my game works well overall. I have it set at high autonomy and the Sims do not stand around and do take care of themselves normally.

The one exception seems to be the babysitters who must just stand there and do nothing, as the baby is totally in the red when left with a sitter way too often. They seem to be about as useless as the nannies were in 2.

But at least the nannies were funny to watch. They cooked, but never ate it and peed at least once during their shift. Plus they cleaned the damn house.

So that explains a lot. Is upgrading RAM will satisfy this problem?

If you get a lot of RAM your sims will have twims!!!!!einz!

It's on high, but still they are very not independent when they're the active household. If it's a sign of computer overload, I'll try to fix it a bit...any other ideas?

No... (as Pescado said) it's definitively a RAM problem, I used to play the sims3, when there weren't expansion packs yet, in my big and old computer. It had a pitiful RAM and my sims where SLOW always... when I chaged the computer, with good RAM, I installed the game and that SLOW-problem never ocurred again... There could be a way to reduce the SLOW-problem, and make thew sims take 15 minutes before entering in the tube, instaead of 30; but the time will pass, new expansions will be released and so, those 30 minutes will be one hour... Believe me, I suffered that A LOT with the sims2... Specially with Seasons and then...

Yes, they at least did something.  Not usually what you wanted them to do, but something; in fact, I had to get into the habbit of putting most of my house's furnishings into sims inventories before the nanny showed up or she'd spend her whole shift playing with the stand-up base or the DJ booth.  I really only remember one case of brutal child-neglect by a nanny and that was in a house with twins, so maybe two babies was just too much for her poor little mind (she took care of one baby then spent the rest of the shift watching TV while the 2nd baby screamed it's head off while lying on the floor in a poopy diaper.

In TS3, the Babysitters don't do bugger all.  The most I have ever seen one do is maker herself a drink at the bar.  Usually, they just stand around in the same bloody spot compaining about the stink and they baby crying.  The only way I use babysitters now is by cheating to add them to my household and forcoing them to work (thanks to Twallian's career mod I can enroll them in homeschooling so they never ever have to leave the lot).