Free will or not to free will?, that is the question!

Free will or not to free will?, that is the question!

hey fellow simmers ,
im bored and thought i would ask people what they prefer,
throwing cuation to the wind and letting their sims control there own lives
or
controlling their sims evey movement so that the sims have no control over their tiny, insignificant lives?

personally i use both, free will because i like toddlers crawling all over the house while the other sims run around madly, but i also like to have the household in order sometimes...

 

I've never played the sims with free will off before, so I can't imagine the game without it. I love it and the mayhem it can cause!

A thought just came to me: it would be so much easier to take pictures for my stories if I turned free will off. That way my sims wouldn't be running off when I just want them to stand somewhere and pose for a shot. I like this thread. It gives me ideas.

 

I always have free will on too. It gives my sims a little more 'independence'. Otherwise they'd just be standing around doing nothing and getting bored. But it would help when they get hungry...I usually have 5 sims trying to cook a meal at once and at least one of them nearly burning the house down:hot:!

 

my sims never fail to cause a fire when they dont have many cooking skills thing is its normally when there newly moved in and i always forget to buy a flipping fire alarm! and of course they end up burning down half there new furniture which there to broke to replace luckily they always pull through alive

 

I've never played with free will off either. I don't think I ever will. LOL I can't imagine not having it on.
I still control their lives, but at least it means that if I'm busy with one sim in a family I don't have to worry about the others not using the toilet or going to work when they need to. I guess also they just don't seem like 'people' if free will is turned off and I like how they seem alive when you have it on.

Cass.

 

:yes:I couldn't agree more!:yes:

 

I think that a big part of the game is watching how your sims behave in different situations. I usually play with Free Will On. This also helps with larger families, when it can be difficult to make sure that everyone is fed and has used the bathroom and not tired. With free will on, they take care of their needs when they're low. However, one exception to this rule would be PlantSims. It seems to me that allowing the PlantSims to have free reign is much more difficult--they won't stay outside or under a sunlamp, they keep running off to take baths when they could swim and fulfill 2 needs at once (water and sunlight), and they ignore skilling and childcare.

 

good points!, i used to never play with free will, its only been the last month i have played with free will, ohhhhh and the fun i have had

 

There are a lot of actions you can't make them do, that they'll do if you leave them to their own devices. I'm still discovering some and I've been playing a while. I once had a sim cheer another sim up after she caught her boyfriend cheating. Never seen it since, because I tend to micromanage.

But I always play with free will on even if I don't let them exert it much. I just get tired cleaning up after them when they let their motives run into the ground. Besides, I have goals for them! I'm starting to let go more and more though, because, darnit, they're funny when they're stupid.

I'd love to get a family photo of everyone in a family sometime. It's nearly impossible, though. You can invite the entire family over once they've flown but the chances that everyone will show? Nearly impossible. I have a family with 14 kids and a bunch o'grandkids and I'd love to have a picture of them all together at once. If I could even manage to get them there I'd turn off free will long enough to get them to pose. Lynet keeps talking about the sim summoner but I must have the wrong version of the insiminator because I don't see that option. Or maybe just looking in the wrong place.

I wish the game had a better "pose for photo" option! That would be cool. The camera only seems to lets me pose one sim at a time.

 

I would die without the Summoner. I love it to bits and I use it all the time. That way, my sims can get to know each other better. The Relations Adjuster is really useful as well.

SBW, the Summoner is in Electronics/All (it looks like a box). I think you can also summon it by clicking on any random place on the ground then on Summon/ The Summoner.

 

I've had to re-download the InSimenator with each expansion, and it matters which version you choose. There are three, I think. I choose the one that allows me to click on a sim and get the menu of options, one of them being the Summoner.

The reason I use this version is because buy/build mode aren't available on community lots, but the InSimenator is available when you click on the sim. Therefore, I can summon other sims to a community lot, if necessary.

I always have free will turned on. Sims are hysterical when left to their own devices. I have had knowledge sims trying to smooch every sim who knocks on the door. Go figure.

 

one time i saw my sim pigging out by just going to the fridge and eating straight out of it, but i like when the toddlers play in the toilet the most

 

LOL that's happened to me too! I also had a sim lick his plates by his own free will instead of cleaning them, that was entertaining. The thing was, he wasn't that sloppy either.

I hate it when toddlers play with the toilet because they do it all the time. It was cute the first couple of a times, now it's just down right annoying. Though I do think it's very cute when they splash around in the puddles later.

 

See, I think the toddlers playing with the toilets AND splashing afterwards is annoying. They make such a mess! I totally micromanage the little ones. As soon as the grow up to toddlers, it's either straight to the potty or smart milk, depending on how low their bladder need is. I have the toddler blanket so they can put themselves to bed, and I have a hack that lets the adults make bottle after bottle of smart milk without actually giving it to the toddler. So the little ones smart millk, skill, sleep, repeat. And throw in learning the toddler skills here and there when the parents are able.

 

I've never played with free will off (didn't even know it was an option!), but after reading this thread, I was wondering whether an adult will still get a baby a bottle and 'help with birthday' with free will turned off?

 

The more I play, the less I control them. I used to have lots of goals for each of them, and still I set a particular goal and then force a sim to do that (like recently, making the Evil Servos that have now ruined an entire household). But except for very specific goals, like earn enough money to buy a car, I let them run their lives to a large extent and just watch. I'm not even using the elixir much anymore, and look forward to their accidental and natural deaths - hey, it's an existential roller-coaster! And babies and toddlers, they're just taking their chances when they come into my households. Survival of the fittest!

 

they won't get it a bottle but they will still help with birthday, which is annoying when the person helping is about to faint from lack of sleep and the bady takes it sweet time growing!

and Jiko, i never use the elixer, one sim life is already to long for me, i tend to kill off my older generations ...

 

Yes, it's annoying when the baby hasn't grown up yet and the adult sims keep getting up in the night to help with birthday.... oh never mind let's just hold the baby instead. It's very irritating, because there's no reason why the baby doesn't just grow up the first time. Or maybe there is, and I haven't figured it out yet!

 

maybe its the baby's way of saying you were to lazy to buy me a cake so now you can stand there and hold me!

 

haha that's probably the reason. I almost never bother with birthday cake, I usually just leave them to it Might try that for the baby though, it would stop the rest of the household from getting up every hour during the night until baby decides to age