Sims on autopilot / Big Brother meets The Real World Just wanted to share what I did for a particular household for those who might want to try something new. Basically I took the idea from Big Brother and Real World....a house full of adults (4 ladies, 4 guys) all unrelated, all very different looking with different aspirations. I basically did random sim generator and then picked the "cast". If you like downloading Celebrity sims you could also make a "celebreality" show with the same design for a single household. I loaded this group in a primo loaded house. 3 levels, full ameneties, tons of nice stuff. Here's where it gets fun, I often leave the game in autopilot. I load it up before going to bed and then check how they've progressed at night. I'll also leave it running while at work or doing errands and then come back and fix what's run a little askew while I've been gone. What I would recommend if you run autopilot: 1. Turn off aging - I realized after 3 (real) days that I was going to have a house of old farts as all were 5 days away from becoming elders. You could use other hacks to make them younger or you could play them til they die and see who the last standing is but that's up to you. 2. Feed the fridge - Learn to Cook- Biggest problem is that your sims are very dependent when they first start off. If you don't start them off immediately learning to get their cooking levels to 3 points or more they will create havok in the kitchen constantly. Even then they will often start fires and leave burned food on stoves, leave unfinished ingredients on counters, and not restock empty fridges on their own. So I gave them 4 big fridges, 2 ovens, and a microwave (along with a few grills outside). I also check back when i can to see if i need to clear these counters and the oven for burnt food. I learned the hard way when i first let my 8 loose their first night; I woke up in the morning with 4 dead and the other 4 out of food and completely exhausted and starving (and sick because roaches had gotten loose on the property)- thank god i didn't save and I simply restarted from my last save. Since I made these changes its been mostly smooth sailing. Make sure to call for delivery to find the true food amount for 4 fridges as each fridge will have different amounts and its the only way to truly check what food levels you are at. 3. Save often - Obviously the longer you wait (1hr vs 8 hrs) inbetween playing, the more things can go wrong. If you wait 24 hrs before checking on your sims you might find them all dead in heap but more then likely if you simply stock up the food and pay bills they'll be able to take care of the basic needs and they'll go to work on their own. Money won't be a problem with 8 employees in a house. 4. Focus on wants, relationships, and skills when YOU play. When you let the computer run the game on autopilot for a long simulated time you'll see your sims get their needs met but rarely their wants. So help them out when you do pop on for an hour. Otherwise they'll break down and cry often. Also you'll have to build up those needed skills if you want them to progress at work. Creativity, cleaning, and cooking are easy to satisfy every day but charisma and body they'll never touch with direct interaction. Amazingly all my sims still have their original jobs even though they occasionally miss work due to oversleeping. Relationships will naturally go their own course. Having hookups within the cast won't happen on their own but with a little nudging there will be plenty of fireworks (good and bad) that can make the game more interesting. If you have one sim who is pissing off the others you can choose to "eject" that sim after a household meeting (someone always inevitably gets kicked off every season of The Real World). Likewise you can replace any ejected or killed sim with a newcomer to keep the "cast" the same size. Or your goal can be to widdle your cast down through ejection or death if you want to follow the Big Brother mold. 5. Finally, take advantage of services. You'll need maids, gardeners, and the occasional exterminator to keep the household running. Likewise don't forget to pay bills and order groceries when you're online or you'll suffer the consequences. Anyway hope this gives some ideas to a few of you guys. Its a lot of fun and hardly any work.
Er ... if you say so. Reminds me of the joke about VCR's that record programs while you're at home and play them back when you go out ...
lol. I agree its really only fun when you get back online and actually rejoin the game and see whats been happening in your absence and what you can do to improve their current situation. You will see a lot of infighting happen on its own and of course its a rather difficult challenge to run an 8 person household anyway even if you nix the autopilot idea. The cool thing with autopilot is that you add a lot more randomness to your game and like with Big Brother you miss a lot of what happens behind the Scenes and you only get the "highlight reel" when you're actually on and playing. If your a control freak who dosen't like your sim saying "I don't FEEL like doing that right now" you'll be rather unprepared for the havok which happens when you don't control them at all. You'll really need to make your impact felt on those times that you ARE playing. If you don't train them well initially and throughout they won't be prepared to make it on their own. By the way, hi guys! I realized I haven't introduced myself yet. Finally got around to posting...
Hmmmm That sounds like an intriguing idea Ive sometimes left my Sims on auto-pilot by accident, and have always been intrigued by what they get up to when Im not around to control them. Ive always been afraid to actually go that route, though, as Ive usually invested so much time and energy into their little lives, and I usually have big plans for them But to create a household with just that laissez-faire plan in mind...that might be fun - just to check in once in a while to see what shenanigans they come up with
By all means don't use for favorite sims. I wouldn't do this to any of my other households. Just create a household that you could sacrafice in the name of science.
I think I might try that tomorrow. That sounds like a lot of fun. It would be interesting for when I'm having a slow day and I need something to keep me entertained. I might keep video running so I can keep precious record of the madness. Anways, awesome idea.
If the video you mean is the ingame video, I'm pretty sure it has a time limit measured in seconds, maybe 90. Not sure, but you might want to check it out.
I have done that before, but not for such a long period of time. Usually it's while I care for a child or do a household chore. Twice I've left it running while I did some errands. And you're right, they take care of their needs, but don't fullfill any wants. Most of the time, their aspiration decay meter is in the red by the time I get back.
I would think they'd fulfill some of their wants, like to gain another skill point in something they like doing, like playing chess or painting or playing the piano. I've had them turn on the TV and learn cooking spontaneously (because it was already set on the cooking channel.) And don't some neatniks like to clean? I guess it would depend on the personality -- knowledge vs pleasure sim, for example -- as to how successful a household would be if left to itself. Sounds like an experiment -- one household full of each type of sim personality. Which house would be most successful? Not sure I want to try something like this, however. I'm a control freak with sims. And I like being there, watching over them, benevolent goddess that I am.
