Original description of mod in below spoiler. A long, - (long-winded some might say  ) - technical explanation of the mod.  

Spoiler

Yep, I've now tried my hand at one of these bad boys. I'll say now from the off, there will never be a perfect one of these mods by anyone, not even a final fix by Maxis, purely due to the unbalanced nature of the game mechanics that control sim autonomy pushes. (More on that in a minute) So then, this mod is not the perfect fix either, but it does come at the age old autonomy lag, lock ups and hold ups agony with a new approach, that I can happily - and proudly - say works better in my game than anything else I've tried before. (Given that most of the older versions of this mod never worked for me at all, that's not really saying much.  But please read on.)

Simmythesim made one of the most popular versions, which several modders on MTS have maintained over the years after he abandoned it. Each in turn doing their own abandonment of it. Though it is still being maintained by members via forum post on the last official MTS mod upload thread made for it.

I have tried every version of it released from the original, to all who have taken over the project, and it had never worked for me, no noticeable changes in game, but for the helpful MTS member who updated it when Maxis changed their python system. That was when it did start to work for me, because that is when I first put it inside my Overrides Folder. Don't know why I did not think of doing that before with all the other failed attempts, but glad I did finally think of it so I could, at last, see the benefits this mod had long since been providing players. Huge benefits, and, sadly one huge and terrible downside. Can't have your cake and eat it, no, sir. Where the mod certainly made sims move quicker autonomously from an idle, non-engaged state, and - my god - made my sim practically jump to every one of my commands, so fast and responsive it made my eyes well up just to finally experience the joy of being free from almost four years of Maxis simulation lag misery. Yet the thrill could not last, as a terrific downside also showed its hand. That sims in a pre-engaged state of interaction, meaning they were involved in interactions that have several animation parts, such as eating, drinking, playing chess, cleaning dishes, were now totally fucked in a state of lag I thought could only be seen in a horror movie. I had read reports from other users regarding this, but to see it with your own eyes. And have that great moment of your sim being so responsive, you've waited years to see if it was ever going to be possible again, only to be snatched away within seconds by a new form of lag created by Lucifer himself. Fuck! FUCK!!! Irony, irony. Fuck!

I won't bore you with the technical details... No, actually, I will. Go grab yourself a hot cocoa and get comfy in your chair, 'cause there's a story coming.

All previous versions of the mod concentrated on editing the Time Slice value. Typically reducing it by half the default value, going down from 33 to 17. In the notion that the game will push autonomy twice as fast. Yep, that kinda works. But no, because it runs into the big Maxis booboo every time.

On another XML, there is this innocent looking line of code that is actually the most potent form of influence over the two main types of sim autonomy in the game, and is the very reason why things can go so, so bad even though some things can be so, so good.  "FULL_AUTONOMY_STATISTIC_SCORE_VARIANCE" is the command code, and 0.51 is the default value set by Maxis. When the game first shipped, that value was set at 0.49. So that, my friends, is all the work Maxis have done to reduce simulation autonomy lag all this time. Nice to know they've tried though, eh? So then, those two forms of sim autonomy. First, when they are standing idle, non-engaged, just waiting for the push to do something, anything. Second, pre-engaged, in an interaction with multiple parts, each step needing autonomy confirmation before proceeding to next step. Is there more to drink in the glass? Is there another move to make on the chess table. Is there another dish to collect while cleaning. All needing autonomy confirmation what to do next. When altering that unique 0.51 number up or down, the lower you go, the more the sims get quicker pushes to move from non-engaged idling, but the repeat autonomy for doing things like dishes starts to suffer terribly. So much so it could end up taking several hours between grabbing each plate. Conversely, going in the other direction with a higher value, and standing sims just won't move off the spot at all for the day, and sims playing things like chess become so fast their hands become a blur as they play. When altering the Time Slice value from 33 to 17, you are effectively doing nothing more that reducing the 0.51 to about half behind the scenes. That's it. That's all. That's why previous iterations of this mod have given you such fantastically brilliant results with individual sim control it brought tears to your eyes, yet crippled the poor bastards when they tried to do the dishes. In a nutshell.

Getting the balance right for that 0.51 value is like playing with hot and cold shower taps trying to get the perfect temperature water to clean yourself, but never getting it. And the sim lag mods on offer thus far, kind of like while you're in the shower with your non-perfect water, someone goes in the toilet, takes a dump, then uses the flush, and you're now jumping out of your skin with the sudden, boiling torrent of shower water, even though the big smelly dump in the loo was flushed away perfectly. A perfect result on one end, a horrific result on the other, all while crashing in on a system that had a rotten imbalance to begin with. (What is it with people, always using toilet analogies and toilet humour to explain things?  He'll be talking about things in terms of farts next!!!)

In the perfect world, Maxis should have separated those two main autonomy types into two individual channels. (No simulation lag at all if that were so) Not have them as a conjoined, single channel you have to fiddle with like a faulty old shower that will never work right. Like a really bad safe-cracker twiddling the dial this way and that and never clicking home. 

But if this mod is going to evolve to have more success, and less adverse effects for twiddling with the blasted taps,  then someone is going to have to find a way to make two separate autonomy channels, or as near as damn it. Well, even Maxis aren't doing that, and they have all the right tools.

So as an alternative, or as near as damn it, I've come up with something along those lines to try and free up each autonomy channel from cursing the other for meddling with either - especially the chess/dishes/drinking type - from being locked into agonizing, doomed timeframes for setting the Time Slice low enough to have brilliant, responsive sim command control yet cannot finish washing dishes to save their life. Literally!

Rather than leave 0.51 as the single, governing value, that is a total lock-down, inescapable Alcatraz fucker when you're on the wrong side of the Time Slice, I've set it as a lower value now paired with a higher value. In essence a second, higher value for a trapped sim - their autonomy - to go to rather than be stuck. Plus plenty of scope for a random selection of a better value between the lowest and highest, so as not even starting dead, bang on a shitty, locked value every fucking time. And always the chance to accelerate off the poor starting value toward the higher value if that is where the game randomly began the autonomy push for the sim.

So I'm go to summarize now, (The cocoa's getting cold and the once comfy chair now biting into my butt.) by repeating this is not the perfect solution as the randomness for the low number is still there. But since making this unique edit and testing the outcomes in game, I am very happy with the results, and so, so thrilled to see my sims moving there asses more quickly here, there and everywhere than seen before in the only other version that partly worked for me just before the turn of the New Year.

Reading reports over the years from players who have used this type of mod, I understand folks prefer different Time Slice values. So I have made a selection here to choose from, to see which one works best in your game. My favourite is the Time Slice set to 8. Something that would have been agonising in previous versions of the mod when it came to doing things like dishes, but not a permanent, guaranteed issue seen with these versions. It can be a starting point occasionally, but it does not end that way, not stuck that way.

Also good news, the mod is not a Script Mod but a Tuning Mod, and will be very easy to maintain if and when patches change it. That's why I'm comfortable making so many versions. I know the significance of this mod when it works just right in the game, how important it becomes to a player to feel free from most of that simulation lag, so I'm happy to make several versions, so you can find the right fit for your game. But there is one caveat. I don't ask nor recommend this, I demand it. That you place this mod in the Overrides Folder and nowhere else. If you come back to me and say this mod does nothing in your game, and I ask is it in the Overrides Folder, and you say no, that's the end of that conversation right there. The Overrides Folder is where this mod first revealed its magic potential to me, after years of never working at all in normal mods folder, and I will accept nothing else from here on in. If you need to know more about an Overrides Folder, see this link - http://simsasylum.com/tfm/index.php?/topic/12798-more-nesting-depth-for-folders/ 

Almost forgot. The mod also has the same fix other versions have for the time speed borkiness. I don't particularly care about this issue. What I mean is, I care that Maxis have neglected to fix it in frikken years. But I don't use high speeds in my game that much for the glitch to bother me. But I know it does bother many players so I added it here too.  I don't know who first made that high speed fix mod. But whoever did, all credit goes to them, I had no part in making it. Just attaching it here with the quicker autonomy mod.

The "Time Slice 33" mod is default speeds for autonomy pushes, but it does contain the unique stuff I did to the 0.51 value to still make autonomy more balanced across the two main autonomy types. Also a Time Slice 64, as going the other way and doubling the autonomy push time while still smoothing it and reducing it in the 0.51 value might work wonders for some players. Try them all one at a time, see which one fits your game set up, play style and such things as altered world time speeds from mods like MC. Only use one version in your game.

 

TL;DR - shorter explanation of mod below and more relevant info to the changes made in patch version 1.71

 

Maxis finally, after seven long years, did a somewhat significant change in patch 1.71 to the main autonomy file this mod uses. They removed a single line of code from the original XML file, to give it a brand new home in its own XML. Though the value of that code line is exactly the same as it's always been. So just how significant that is to 1.71 gaming, time will tell. Personally, on its own, I don't see how it makes any difference presently. However, it may be the start of a new update chain regarding Simulation Lag, with more tweaks to follow,  as Maxis make good on their recent, transparent bid to say they will be doing more to address old, outstanding issues that many players have long since been reporting. Again, time will tell.

 

(Hey, just for poops and chuckles, you could try not using any Simulation Lag mods in a 1.71 game, just to see if this rehousing of the code line to its own XML makes any difference whatsoever. If not, then you always have the new 1.71 version of the mod here to fall back on. Your reports on that would be quite interesting.)

 

Until then, I have updated this set of mods accordingly. I'm not back into modding TS4 full time just yet. Still waiting for that fateful day Maxis quit patching TS4 before I go to town patching and updating my entire back catalog. But I also know just how important and game changing this particular mod is for so many players, so I am willing to keep modding this one, keeping it up to date as and when needed. And 1.71 has brought on the need.

 

There are two rar folders below. One for the set of these mods relating to game version 1.62+ (The patch level my main game is on.) The second rar folder has the complete set for 1.71+ games only. Do not use mods from the second set in games less than 1.71, or that rehoused line of code I mentioned above will not be in your game at all and problems can and will arise.

 

I have updated them all from both sets, a bit of fine tuning here and there, so pick the one you know works best for you, also the correct one for your game version, and replace any older version you were using. As of today, 11th March 2021, they are all the most recent versions, so be sure to replace anything you were previously using.

 

I will continue updating them in this thread if and when needed, so only get them from here if the need ever arises. (I did previously have updated ones from last year in a different thread, but to end all confusion I will maintain them in this thread, their original thread, from here on in.)

 

Helpful info in spoiler below for anyone who needs extra guidance and could not be arsed to read the original, long-winded explanation. (Can't say I blame you. Though I like it, but that's me. Good, old long-winded, whinging, mansplaining coolspear.) Hopefully the new explanation is more to your liking.

Spoiler

Whereas other versions of this mod, - the scripted version to be precise - mentions that it is not compatible with MC's slower world time settings, these version are very much compatible. Seeing as how I've played my game for over five years at three times slower default world time using MC. Yep, I like my sim days to be long, very long, but I still want those little sim critters to move their collective asses quickly. Indeed, even more needed on a game world time going three times slower than default! Hence more factors and values are tuned in these versions than in the scripted version. Plus more variance on offer to help fit more players games, play styles and machine specs. The scripted version is approximate to the TS16 (Time Slice 16) only and does not account for multi-autonomous interactions very well. Hence cleaning up dishes - that uses multi-autonomous coding - can take all day collecting the plates. Hence why I had to make this version to address the multi-autonomy interactions. (Read original, long-winded post for more details on this, if you can stand to endure it.)

 

So it comes as no surprise to me when reading through posts made on many forums over the years, that folks do tend to prefer this version than anything else. If they get it working right, of course. Hint, hint - Overrides Folder. If you treat Overrides Folder as optional, - as I have advised not to do - then fail to reap or even see the benefits.

 

And, respectfully,  please stop asking which is the best version to use. You know your game, your play style and your machine specs better than anyone. Work through them all, trying one at a time, till you find the Goldilocks version that best suits these criteria.

 

Lower TS4, TS8 versions are designed for high end gaming machines with busy lots and big families. TS16 is mid range machines and medium sized play style. The higher Time Slice versions aimed at a play style with mostly shotgun starter homes with small families, played on potato laptops not expressly designed for smooth gaming. Most of which are probably frozen at the 32bit Legacy version of Sims 4 and may even have a hard time running that lower version of the game. Certainly you don't need the most hardcore autonomy Time Slice pushing version of these mods in a tiny home with just two sims and only five or six things to do. You may initially enjoy the faster autonomy pace, less of that lollygagging, but it will get annoying when they keep doing the same things over and over, faster and faster.

 

But do experiment with them all, as finding the right fit and autonomy re-balance is not exclusive to the recommendations listed above. They are just a basic guide to get you started. After all, even with a high end rig, you may find Time Slice 4 too much of a turbo-charged, rocket fuel push for your sims, and prefer it slower. Experimentation is the key to your Goldilocks version, and no-one can tell you that but yourself and your own experience and play style. 

 

Though I have done my best to make versions that even potato machines can benefit from, I cannot test them thoroughly as, what do you know, I don't play any games on a potato machine. Me, my play style and my gaming rig are right up there on the Time Slice 4 version of the mod.

 

BTW - the Time Slice 4 version is very new to the set. The quickest yet, designed to be used for those players, like myself, who do slow global game time down with MC quite significantly. (My game going three times slower than default, I'd call that quite significant.) In default time it may be a bit too turbo-charged, rockets to the Moon. But horses for courses and mileage may vary, try it and see if it's cool or too scary... 

 

And finally, speaking of turbo, this mod is compatible with Turbodriver's Simulation Unclogger mod found on MTS - https://modthesims.info/d/627246/simulation-unclogger.html - These mods here are all about tweaking the autonomy pushing to be faster. Turbodriver's mod, which I also use myself, is all about preventing those horrid interactions that misfire and cause the game simulation to completely lock up. So they are two very different mods doing different things regarding game simulation and work great together.

 

Update March 2023 1.96 - Maxis have made a minor change to one of the XMLs this mod set uses. Specifically related to the high speed setting of the game. Haven't played game to see what it does, if anything. Only one line of new code added, so I cannot imagine much difference.

 

Update March 2024 1.105 - Again Maxis make a minor change a year later. (Always for month of March. Coincidence much?) In fact a line of code they put in for High School Years for (annoying) phone idle autonomy rates was removed. Such was the level of player complaints about sims being excessive with their phones, out the coding comes. I needn't have bothered updating last March ffs. Anyway, that's all it is for 1.105. (Practically going back to something similar to the 1.96 version, ffs Maxis get your act together.) No biggie.

Feb 13 2026 - Checked for patch 1.121 Royals & Legacy - No update required.

 

Quicker Sim Autonomy All Versions 1.62+.rar  - Updated March 2021

Quicker Sim Autonomy All Versions 1.71.rar  - Updated March 2021

Quicker Sim Autonomy All Versions 1.96.rar - Updated March 2023

Quicker Sim Autonomy All Versions 1.105.rar - Updated March 2024 - Works for Patch 1.121 Royals & Legacy

 

 

XML Resources Used:

Spoiler

03B33DDF!00000000!143F98639E4FDED3.autonomy.autonomy_modes.Tuning.xml

03B33DDF!00000000!2BE55516548A9522.time_service.Tuning.xml

03B33DDF!00000000!E81E51B398141F79.clock.Tuning.xml

Any other mods using these files will conflict.

 

Thanks and Credit: Simsasylum, Sims4Studio, our sims community, EA Maxis

Thank you so much! Watching that bubble hang there, waiting to drop into the queue as she just sat there staring off into space was about to drive me batty. Maybe my game will run smoother now. I'm starting with TS16. I run my game speed at 40. I'll let ya know how it goes. I just got a second sim moved in and waiting on two of them would have been torture. This is quite timely, imho! 

I found other simulation lag mods a bit daunting because some of them don't work for me in the saves I play. Thank you for coming up with a different approach to address the simulation lag issues.

I've got the overrides folder and your resource.cfg file. Thank you for this!!!

I will be testing it tonight!

Thanks for this! I am going to try these today.

 

What a clever person you are!  I bet you feel like a genius, having figured out something that no other modder has done.  I love that feeling. :-)

 

What's that old saying? I'm only standing on the shoulders of those who came before. Simmythesim got this one started, all I saw was a place to work on improving when experiencing the adverse effects of it. Wouldn't have been able to do that without all those who have been maintaining it since, especially the MTS member who updated it for the new python when the mod first started to work for me. To think, if I did not finally put it in the Overrides Folder... If anything, that was the moment of true genius.

Hey, what do your reckon on our new, young Mr. Spock?

Liking the 64 version quite a bit. The only issue I've had was sometimes hungry sims would cook and instead of eating directly afterwards they'd go and cook another meal. I'd have to direct them to eat. Other than that I'm liking your take on this.

Edited March 23, 20197 yr by Gade5

Thanks for the feedback on the 64 version. I did not actually try that myself. Given I use MC to slow time by a little more than half, I don't suppose the 64 would work well under those conditions. But I could imagine it working adequately under default conditions. I was also thinking it might be better for the lower performance computers and laptops. Might I ask what machine specs you run TS4 on? To see if my suspicions were founded?

BTW, I know sims not eating what they cooked, then cooking something else, is an older issue. I'm trying to think if someone made a mod to remedy that. LMS maybe? It sounds so familiar. I'm wondering if this mod has found a way to make that resurface? Though I've not seen it in my own game. The last two sessions I've been almost manically jumping from house to house, some homes not played in years, literally, (You can taste the cobwebs!) to see what this mod does to them. Not come across that issue so far. Does the sim do it with single meals or family meals? Or both?

Yea I'm on a shit laptop right now till I get a new system built. I can still run most things on medium-high tho. I went with the 64 version cause I don't really like to micromanage my sims at all. Other than the little food issue its been pretty ace for me

I edited my last post with another question. I'll repeat it here.

BTW, I know sims not eating what they cooked, then cooking something else, is an older issue. I'm trying to think if someone made a mod to remedy that. LMS maybe? It sounds so familiar. I'm wondering if this mod has found a way to make that resurface? Though I've not seen it in my own game. The last two sessions I've been almost manically jumping from house to house, some homes not played in years, literally, (You can taste the cobwebs!) to see what this mod does to them. Not come across that issue so far. Does the sim do it with single meals or family meals? Or both?

Single meals is where it happened, but I believe both. I'll have to pay attention next time I boot up the game. For what it's worth I didn't try the new addon yet will see if that changed anything.

Okay, my game's been running in the background while I've been available here today, and just tried a family of eight sims I haven't played since last summer 2018.

They still had a selection of miraculously fresh food meals on the buffet table from back then. This mod governing them quite well, as they went about the house pretty much non-stop for fun things to do.

Using weerbesu's UI cheats, I forced four of their hunger motives down into the red, to see how quickly they'll give up their pursuits of fun to go eat without me telling them to. The child and one adult went to the buffet almost immediately. Good. Two adults tried to cook, but only one can do that as there's only one oven. Second adult went to play chess after clashing with first over oven. (Guaranteed, without this mod, that second sim would have stood there aimlessly for a couple of hours at least after such a clash.) First adult prepared and cooked single meal, then sat and ate it without issue. Second adult finished solitaire chess game, then went to fridge/oven again to do themselves a single meal. Again, upon completion, sat and ate it without issue. Which leaves me with the only thing I can be upset about. Why the hell did they not just eat the buffet food in the first place?  Especially the second chess-playing sim! (Mind you, it has been there from last summer. That cannot be good! )

This is with TS 8 in my game.  

Hmm, that could explain why both of my sims have been doing that! I noticed they had started doing this and I have to basically chose get leftovers or open fridge and select the actual dish. I'm using TS16 and game speed 40. The push to cook is strong too. No sooner do I click it away than it pops back up. Luckily, I tend to micromanage so it only happens when I slack off or load into a new house and hunger is tanked on the whole household. 

I was using TS8 as well, standard EA speed. I had sims queue up for cooking single meals very frequently, or as KimberAnne better explains it, "the push to cook is strong too." Thank you.

Okay, cooking a lot when hungry. Just to get that into perspective for anyone reading these comments, trying to get a take on these mods, a sim is hungry, they go cook and eat, then they don't cook anymore till they are next hungry?

But they always, only cook single meal, even if in a large family with other hungry sims?

They ignore other food that is available?

They've done this every, single time since installing these mods?

Other than cooking, is the game having much better sims, quicker and more responsive to your commands and doing more stuff by themselves. Because cooking is one thing, and I don't want the benefits of this mod to be missed, bogged down with the notion that sims do nothing but cook all the livelong day.

I have edited the mods. On the main XML all six of the sims Motives are listed from most important, (do more often) to the least (do less often) Where Maxis set Social and Fun to maximum of 5, Energy and Hunger had no push at all, effectively zero. I gave Hunger a value of 2, in the hopes it made sims eat a little more sooner than they do, give it that little bit more importance, not wait for hunger bar to get so low before being pushed to eat. I've now reset that back to having no value at all, exactly as default.

Other than that, there is nothing else I can do. It's the only thing that deals remotely with cooking. To even suggest that is wrong, the mod does not deal with any individual methods to satisfy motives. Just sim autonomy overall. If the game somehow interprets giving Hunger a higher vale, is to push the cooking of single meals more agressively, then okay, it's possible, I guess.

I will say that prior to this little mod update, I have experienced some sims cooking when food is available as I've been jumping around each town to play all families, to see how this mod effects them. Though in my main household, with the buffet table filled to bursting with all manner of goodies, and Cornucopia fridges switched on, I've not yet seen them go cook in the kitchen instead.

So let's see if removing the Hunger value tames down the cooking of single meals.

Thank you so much for taking the time to give us more detail of what the mod is supposed to do. I will get the updated versions and start checking them out.

In my previous run, the household also had nine hungry children, so cooking single dishes was a bit selfish on my sims' part, hehehe.

On 3/23/2019 at 12:14 PM, coolspear said:

Hey, what do your reckon on our new, young Mr. Spock?

 

No one will ever replace Leonard NImoy's Spock in my heart, but I think Ethan Peck is doing an excellent job with what they're giving him to play.  Discovery's Spock is only about 25, so he still has some growing up to do, and given that the Red Angel basically scrambled his brain, it makes sense that he's a bit unsettled and not like the Spock we know from ten years later.  I liked the conversation between Spock and Burnham in the gym in "Red Angel;" I loved it that he'd come to try to comfort her, in a clumsy Vulcan way.  Peck has a great voice for the role, and that really helps me accept him in the part.

 

What do you think of him?

 

I'm sold. He's doing a great job so far. I love that, in a brutally subtle way, they showed that famous scene from the original pilot episode of Pike and Spock smiling and the funky plants. Spock smiling? Spock?!!! That was always the big mystery how he did that in the pilot episode, then never again in his super-serious way when Shatner took the captain's chair. (Can you blame him?) Marrying that now with all his Red Angel mental problems, and yep, that's why he never smiles again. Like it. Almost like they created the whole Red Angel storyline and all episode thus far, to finally explain away (As logically as possible.) the one and only time Spock smiled.

I love it when they touch upon the original stuff, like DS9 did with the tribbles episode, and they poked at Wharf why the Klingons look so different back then. Great stuff.

In regards to the fun add-on. do you think it will live happily in my Overrides folder with PolarBearSim's socialization is fun mods?  They basically boost the fun they get from any social interaction so they're socializing with family, being romantic, and playing with babies more often autonomously.  With the add-on, I felt like all they did was play with their phones.  I even got the phone quirk on one of my sims.    But, I may not have given as much of a chance since I somehow didn't notice your mention of them ignoring needs as being the norm with this one and removed it after only a few hours testing.

I'm running the 33 on a business minded laptop. I do manage my sims a little closer on the micro side but I've been having hella lag when Sciencing and such. I, too, had the weird push for my Mother sim to cook single servings of food when food was available. (Specifically, Chili. Just single bowls of Chili, all the time. Which is ironic as she was raised in a vegetarian household). I've also noticed that my sim will sometimes ignore my directive on what activity I want them to do for skill building. Like, I want her to examine the stars , which normally requires x-out to stop, but homegirl keeps swanning off to dance to Latin-Pop. So, it takes a try or two to get her going for real that I can try and stop her mom from making another bowl of Chili and just eating her Garlic noodles from the damn fridge. I'm going to try some of the other settings and see what the what is. I may just have a weird setting need but I'm used to all my shazzbot being weird.

I guess these mods are going to cause such big swings of difference, depending on play style and how a home has been set up. That's why I've spent the last few game sessions mostly jumping from home to home, some not played in years. Trying to build a more accurate picture of big families, small families, busy homes, sparse homes. Plenty of stuff to do. Minimal stuff to do. It does start to tell a different story in each household, to being a godsend, or exposing annoyances.

In the most part, I tweaked this mod around my main family, eight sims, huge house, trillions of thing to do for all ages. So all the tweaking through testing would make it more and more specialist to that. Though not exclusively, as all my jumping from house to house has indicated. But then again, that's my play style and tolerances. I did expect that I would probably need to do some finer tweaking once the reports from other users start coming in. There are quite a few autonomy settings that have been tweaked.

A grand experiment indeed, as it would be impossible for a single person to decipher what all those variable settings do for autonomy. Tweaking them, then trying to see what changes in game. One person could not build an accurate picture. But with a lot of feedback from many, I see some of those minor adjustment probably need to be reset to default. Even with many giving feedback, constant messing with the variables will always go against individual play styles. The language used on that autonomy XML for all the various setting is practically alien jargon. If only it were clearer, layman's terms, then someone looking to do simple tuning tweaks wouldn't have to do so much experimenting.

I think I'm just going to set the majority back to default numbers, leaving only the special change to the 0.51 I made. (As I know exactly what that part of the XML does.) Then this mod is what it is, like it or lump it. I won't be changing it any more. Can't change it any more. it will be practically default. Which might actually settle it to be a better all-rounder. As already said, there is no having cake and eating it with TS4 autonomy. Swings and roudabouts and horses for courses with all those variables. But once back to default, then the ball is back in Maxis' court as I don't want to spend years tweaking the alien jargon in the blind hopes of further improving the game - or indeed, making it far worse, as this mod could so very easily find itself repeatedly being the fall guy for the sins of the world as each unique play style encounters different annoyances. Set them variables all back to default again, then I'll know for sure it isn't the catalyst.

If there are no players who want to jump in at this stage and say the mod, as is, is working wonders for their larger, busy homes, as it does so in mine, then forever hold your peace after the return to default changes are made. There are already several version of it, so I will not be making another new set of default versions on top. The defaults will replace the ones currently on offer. Then the only thing I will be doing to them after that is patch maintenance if required.

Updated March 2019

All have had the "unknown" variables reset to default values. Now only the 0.51 element of the mod, which is the real crux of it anyway, is in effect. The rest all back to default Maxis values. It's been a good education at least, to know that this mod has been doing something in your game - albeit with unwanted increase in annoying things - rather than doing nothing at all. So that's a good starting point to work with. And no-one as yet, has reported that dire lag seen in the original MTS versions of the mod. So that is another good thing, if not the best result so far. So in that sense, the mod is working as intended.

I'll leave all the mystery tweaking of the other values to another time. Do them one at a time, see exactly what they do when going higher or lower. Who knows, it might not even have been needed to tweak them in the first place. Should have just let the mod ride out in the state it's in now, before tweaking the other stuff. That might have been enough across the board. Time will tell. And if I do feel the need to do more experimental tweaking, I'll put out a test version so that anyone else can help me determine just what all those other alien jargon settings are for. Obviously some not what I thought they were. Maybe one or two were, I just played with too many knobs at once. (Oh deary, don't take that sentence out of context! )

We can try all that shenanigans later, if the need to tweak further seems to be the way of it.

So please, let me know how these versions now work, seeing as it is almost all Maxis default settings once again.

@RainyIt is possible that the fun push mod will have a influence due to that mod. Sims will be pushed to do fun things, usually things given a higher fun attraction factor. In the case you mention, it depends if the mod creator just added a fun increase while doing said interactions, or also included a fun attraction factor to draw autonomy to it as well. If the former, sims may still do it autonomously for the fun element, but not very likely if anything else on the lot has a fun attraction factor, such as most fun objects will.

If you say your sims are mostly playing with their phones using this mod, what else in the way of fun is on the lot? If the phone is the most fun they can have, there can't be much else on offer higher than phone playing attraction. Which I don't think is all that high, but enough on its own if there's not much else to engage in. I also clarified on the main post, as I will here, that ignoring their motives is not the norm with this mod, that's not what I was trying to say. Even in vanilla, sims do not really take care of motives till they're about to hit the red or even a bit later, the same seen with these mods. I was just being cautious and advising folks to watch out for it. Because sims can ignore their motives and pee themselves on any given day of a modless week, I just did not wish my mod to be the fall guy from here on in when sims continue to do that ignoring.

In all the tests I did, pushing other motives into the red. Sims dropped the fun thing they were doing and went to take care of their urgent motive. That's default, and as such , still very much the norm. In TS4, compared to other iterations, it's actually not as easy to make sims do things like that, ignore motives until critical failure. They're usually very good at taking care of themselves, unless the player has done something to a venue that makes it difficult for them. I'd be more worried doing a mod like this for TS3 than for TS4  Still, it doesn't hurt to be extra cautious.

@coolspear After playing with the fun mod the whole day yesterday I have to say you're right.  Plus, as you noted there aren't a whole lot of fun items currently in any of the houses yet since I'm just setting up the neighborhood.  As to ignoring hunger, it's stopped happening completely.  And, I'd like to note in regards to the over-cooking that before I saw people's comments here I mentioned it on Twitter and several people, including vanilla gamers, said it's been a major problem in their games recently.  I'm wondering if perhaps your mod somehow strengthened an existing problem?

I don't play any of my really large households for a few more days so I can't give input on how the fun mod and the other work with them.  I can say, without a doubt, this mod has fixed one of my biggest irritations of late: sims dropping conversations to seek out things to clean.  Before this, they would have some sort of ESP knowing there was a dirty plate or pile of trash somewhere on the lot and completely obsess over it dropping social interactions even woohoo!  I have all of my sims social pretty much autonomous. first kiss, engagement, etc.  I even had a sim propose and then immediately leave their new partner to clean up trash outside.  I realized yesterday they've stopped this behavior completely!

Despite them occasionally dropping things from their queue before they start it that I need to redirect them to do I'm extremely pleased with the results.  To the point, I'm a bit hesitant to download the new slimmed down version.  Especially since I found a simple way to stop them from autonomously doing things that irritated me like playing with their phones using Scumbumbo's autonomy scan in MC Tuner.

Have a question @coolspear. Which of these is best suited to a sometimes full house run at default speed in game?

@RainySince making the changes earlier today, I've been messing around in game for a few hours and I haven't noticed anything different worth mentioning. There were some settings I thought would have strengthened and promoted more multitasking pushes, but I can't see any difference. Each of those settings would take more time to evaluate changes than one person could do in a few hours. I'll give it a few weeks for this version to settle in, then I'll start the bigger experiment of changing one at a time and putting it out there waiting for feedback. At the very least, it'd be nice to finally put some down to earth layman's terms on what those things do, rather than the (unnecessary) alien jargon they are in now. Methinks Maxis wanted to hold the godlike wisdom and power on them by making them indecipherable to the plebs. But we can test. Slowly but surely we can test. And claim the power back.

 

@MDunford78 TS 16 might be a comfortable place to start. Then the first thing to watch out for is sim responsiveness to your commands. If it's swift, no delays, great "get to it" speeds, then next watch out for how long it takes them to do multipart autonomy tasks. Dishes, eating, drinking, all things like that. It probably will vary, and always the chance to hit up the long delay starting value, but just see how often it happens and how long it takes to get out of delay if ever stuck in it. If it's too long, too often, try the 24 to see if it eases up. If 16 is mostly smooth, you could try for the faster 8, but then again why bother if 16 is working well enough? Let me know how it pans out.

Thanks for the tip @coolspear. I'm gonna try it out in a bit once I go through my routine mod updating before playing. 

I can attest that the obsession with cooking seems to be a game bug. And it seems to get triggered into high gear when you use mods that "push fun". I was experiencing major lags last night but unsure if this had anything to do with it. I am finally trying WW and Nisa's WP mod. Some of my lag could have come from all of that running for the first time in my save. Which is a save I've been playing for a while, just saved under a new name, so it's quite full and I'm running all the WSC mods also. It could be it's not playing nice with other mods outside of all those too. I'm sorry for not reporting sooner, I'm changing a lot of stuff with my game. Honestly, I'm not sure which version of the "Fun" I'm running at this point. And I was chasing a LE from MC for three days that turned out to something broken by Maxis; luckily there's a mod to fix it. That, on top of just getting a new pc and all that comes from setting that up, I'm just running out of time in a day. lol 

I can say that this is not good with a small family if you don't have lots to do, or large families with only one computer and one chess table, then they get into a repeating loop it seems of going to the same things over and over. That seems to be the case with all mods that push fun. Sims get stuck in corners is all I'm gonna say on the subject.

I'll download the latest file and give it a whirl. I may even try the TS8 and see what that changes. If I notice any quirkiness, I'll let ya know.

I can attest that the obsession with cooking seems to be a game bug. And it seems to get triggered into high gear when you use mods that "push fun". I was experiencing major lags last night but unsure if this had anything to do with it. I am finally trying WW and Nisa's WP mod. Some of my lag could have come from all of that running for the first time in my save. Which is a save I've been playing for a while, just saved under a new name, so it's quite full and I'm running all the WSC mods also. It could be it's not playing nice with other mods outside of all those too. I'm sorry for not reporting sooner, I'm changing a lot of stuff with my game. Honestly, I'm not sure which version of the "Fun" I'm running at this point. And I was chasing a LE from MC for three days that turned out to something broken by Maxis; luckily there's a mod to fix it. That, on top of just getting a new pc and all that comes from setting that up, I'm just running out of time in a day. lol 

I can say that this is not good with a small family if you don't have lots to do, or large families with only one computer and one chess table, then they get into a repeating loop it seems of going to the same things over and over. That seems to be the case with all mods that push fun. Sims get stuck in corners is all I'm gonna say on the subject.

I'll download the latest file and give it a whirl. I may even try the TS8 and see what that changes. If I notice any quirkiness, I'll let ya know.

Here we go loop-de-loop.

Cooking bug aside, testing today confirms the original mod, in my game at least, is better than the one reset to default.

Geez, I should have had more faith in myself. I'd spent all last week, many a day and night tweaking away at it, slowly getting where I like. Even if I don't know what most of those values and settings are for, I did go up and down with them over several days to get to a place I could live with. I should have shown a bit more restraint when the first reports were coming in. I should know better than that. Fell for the same thing when Get Famous came out, rushing to change a mod that I should have left alone. Here we go again.

Playing most of the day with default and some things are... basically, shit again. Put the original back in my game and things are already better once more. Well, that's it, I've decided. I am going to re-upload the frikking originals, take down the fun push one as that is too overbearing as is and does need tweaking down a bit. Then I'm going to take a break for a while. I'll be listening and watching for comments, but at a distance for a little while. I'm too close, need to step back, been at it a bit too much lately. Give myself some space and just watch for a bit, then I'll be good to go again.

I'll get them uploaded in a day or so, then a short break. My niece is getting married in less than three weeks, so I think I'll go join the rest of the family with that project for a bit, take my mind off things.

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride... (Hell, no. Been married once. That'll do for this lifetime. But always nice when someone else does it.)    

Update March 2019

Mods working much better now. Very similar to original files released, those default value ones were crap and are now discontinued. Return to the first versions but with a little tweak. Did a bit more fine tuning on them individually, so the changes to the 0.51 element better suits each TS value. Well, the logic and maths seemed the correct way to go about it, they shouldn't all have the same value change on the 0.51 element if the TS is getting halved each time, or indeed doubled on the 64. I did not have time (Or the will) to test all versions, just been playing with TS8 and it is very nice. Especially with the Fun Push mod also reworked. You almost don't notice it now, sims not pushed into doing repeat odd things any more. Back to same old stuff they usually do only a bit more lively getting to it.

I am happy with these at this stage, and look forward to your reports on the changes. As noted in last post, there's a wedding coming up in the family so I'll be preoccupied with that and may not be available for comments over the next few weeks. I'll try when I can, especially if any more unforeseeable hell is unleashed with these mods. But if the last couple of hours in my game are any indication, it should be a better all-round experience than seen with the earlier versions. Happy simming, folks.

On 3/26/2019 at 7:32 AM, Rainy said:

And, I'd like to note in regards to the over-cooking that before I saw people's comments here I mentioned it on Twitter and several people, including vanilla gamers, said it's been a major problem in their games recently.  I'm wondering if perhaps your mod somehow strengthened an existing problem?.

Despite them occasionally dropping things from their queue before they start it that I need to redirect them to do I'm extremely pleased with the results.  To the point, I'm a bit hesitant to download the new slimmed down version.  Especially since I found a simple way to stop them from autonomously doing things that irritated me like playing with their phones using Scumbumbo's autonomy scan in MC Tuner.

I have MCCC and I play a giant 11 sim household (2 adults, 4 kids, 1 surprise baby, 4 dogs) and the Mod was great for that. It was my smaller 3 person household that was giving me the most grief with the spontaneous cooking, if only because I kept having them "serve" meals which left hecka leftovers and then she'd cook that damn bowl of chili. I did figure out the Chili thing and it was a whim that kept popping up due to the season being Winter. I might not have noticed if it was happening in my vanilla game because one has so much more time to micro-manage a 3 sim household from an 11 sim. So, now I'm wondering if Maxis did a push on whims once they gave the option to hide them. Like, you don't have to have the sim fullfill a whim but if the sim is autonomous it will feel more push to fullfill them on it's own? I don't know.

I'm definitely going to try the newer versions and I'll try to leave some feedback. @coolspear you can always hit me up if you need feedback from someone who regularly swings between giant and small households. 

Edited March 27, 20197 yr by FoamytheGirl

I have several over-full households but that's mostly extra pets.  My largest is 4 adults, a teen, a toddler, 2 dogs, and a cat.  I wasn't aware sims would autonomously follow whims.  I re-roll my seasons each household switch so I'm not sure if I'd notice the chili.  Especially since I stopped them cooking for the most part with MC Tuner/Scumbumo's Autonomy Scan.  I'll use whatever version is newest as well since, as you said, we can't give feedback otherwise.  

Edited March 27, 20197 yr by Kimi
no need to quote the post above yours, as stated in the rules

I was using the TS33 version since this mod was first released. I noticed minor hiccups with the TS33 and thought the Sims were slightly slower and sometimes stuck on their tasks.

Now, I'm trying the TS8 version to see if the process becomes faster for my Sims to move around and do tasks without lag in my large family. I have 5 adults, 2 teens and 3 children on my lot totaling 11 Sims altogether. I used the other simulation lag fix mod before, but like some have said, that mod wasn't updated in a while.

I am wondering if there is a difference in how Sims 4 is played on Intel- and AMD-based computers when these computers process ingame commands to run tasks and Sims? Not sure if the lag issue is related to the CPU and GPU we use in our machines.

Hopefully, the TS8 will work better than the TS33.

Cooking bug aside latest update feels really good. Very smooth

Updated 31st March 2019

Another improvement in the right direction. Having set one of those alien jargon settings particularly high and playing the game for a few days I'm glad to say another one has been deciphered. Two down, about six more to go.

So, what does  "FULL_AUTONOMY_OPTIMISTIC_SCORE_THRESHOLD" say to you? What imagery does is conjure up in your mind of the thing it governs in game? Don't know? Can't seem to get a read on the jargon? Me neither. May as well be the Enigma Code. But the latest round of this grand experiment has revealed its purpose. The default value is 0.5, and going higher pushes the autonomy for sims to all do the same thing. Literally, all try to do the same thing with the same object. That's why you may have noticed this very thing happening frequently in game with last update of the mod, as I set it to max just to see what the frick it does. Hence those chess tournaments at the park I mentioned the other day, all wanting to play chess, on the same chess table, at the same time. Not play on the five different chess tables in the park, no, no, no. All on the same one, all of them, for hours, once autonomy picked it. Or all off to play darts at once, cause the game picked it as the autonomous action to push in the moment, and max setting forced everyone to be called. Eight sims at home all wanting to go view the same painting on the wall at once. Patients in hospital getting up to go to another bed, the "chosen bed" they gather around en mass, no sooner than your doc started examining each one!!! Yep, I think you get what it does now - as do I. Perhaps the code terminology should better read; "Interaction Diversity Variance."

Anyway, I have now set it slightly lower than default to see if it opens up better diversity in choosing interactions for each sim in turn, (and gets things at the hospital back in order.) Chiefly to find out if one of the age-old problems on community lots can be fixed. When or sims start turning up and waiting for their push to do something autonomous, and that 0.5 default holds the potential to tell some sims to do same thing at same time. Hence you get the conflict moment, like in the Russell Crowe film A Beautiful Mind, they all cancel each other out and then no-one can do it. And in sim terms that can mean standing there for hours afterwards as the clash fucked things up. Let's see if this opening of diversity relieves that in any capacity. That very logic, the equations and algorithms, won yer man Nash the Nobel Prize, and may yet serve to help our sims ease up a bit from clashing and cancelling each other out then aimlessly lollygagging on the streets in the aftermath. You never know???

I won't be trying any more extreme experiments on any other alien jargon values for a little while. Let all this stuff settle in first.

As ever, your feedback in this grand autonomy experiment will be helpful and greatly appreciated.

17 hours ago, coolspear said:

Hence those chess tournaments at the park I mentioned the other day, all wanting to play chess, on the same chess table, at the same time. Not play on the five different chess tables in the park, no, no, no. All on the same one, all of them, for hours, once autonomy picked it. Or all off to play darts at once, cause the game picked it as the autonomous action to push in the moment, and max setting forced everyone to be called. Eight sims at home all wanting to go view the same painting on the wall at once. Patients in hospital getting up to go to another bed, the "chosen bed" they gather around en mass, no sooner than your doc started examining each one!!!

I will try your rennovated mod!

Hey, I've been testing your mod, and I've been running into some issues - mainly with reading books and using the computer.

Sims cannot autonomously read books at all unless they have the Bookworm trait - they will pick up a random book, flip a page or two, and give up to do something else, each and every time. It seems to make sense because they aren't supposed to be avid readers or something, but that's one thing the unmodded game ends up doing better.

Autonomously browsing books seems to work normally, though.
 

A similar thing happens with using computers. They keep switching actions every three or so seconds, until they reach certain actions (which seem trait reliant) or just give up on the computer altogether. A Sim with the Erratic trait kept changing actions until Troll Forums came up. After swapping the Erratic trait for something else, no action seemed to stick and she would just ditch the computer to do something else.
 

I tested this both with my regular save and all my mods, and a brand new save with only this mod active. I tested the 8, 16, 24 and 33 flavours, with identical results each time.

I really want to like this mod because sending Sims to do things feels really responsive and it's amazing, but these autonomy issues are a real deal breaker to me. I appreciate all the effort put into this though, hopefully there's a solution somewhere.

As I've said in a previous post, this mod is so very easily going to find itself the fall guy for the sins of the world. Those book reading shenanigans are due to a return glitch that first came round about Seasons EP, where Maxis stopped auto reading somehow, then released a hotfix especially for it, which made sims do nothing but read, every few seconds going for yet another book, over and over. At that time I went against my own rules and made a no auto reading mod as a workaround for the Maxis sloppiness, because I very much like sims reading books, (Not pointless browsing.) but could not tolerated what Muxis did in the hotfix. They had tamed it down since, but then went and messed it up again with last StrangerVille patch in pretty much the same way - sloppy and forgetful. You'll find sims are doing the same default crap of partially reading before they are up to get another book, then another, so on and so on. It has been reported by others on MTS too after StrangerVille patch. I think you'll find if you test thoroughly, this mod actually prevents them from getting the next book in quick succession over and over, though they still only spend a few minutes reading the first book before quitting. I did not design it to do that specifically, but with the mod installed they only ever have attempted just one book. In default that will not be so. They will get another, and another, after only a few minutes reading each time.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the computer shit may very well be some new crap Maxis introduced after messing with computers for StrangerVille, in the same way they have made a bollox of basements due to StangerVille coding. And probably broke the Acting career too. (Which another of my mods is taking on the role of the fall guy for.)

But the deal breaker you mention needs to be taken to the door of Maxis for their continual bashing of the autonomous reading. 

Hey, great mod. Have been using the TS33 default version. Works great, but have one question. Should the sims still be stutter stepping, that's what I call it. Two sims seem to move fine, but 4 or more and I get this stutter stepping.  This just don't move smoothly. Is this what you mean by lag? 

Could be. I'd have to see that with my own eyes to confirm the effect and the cause. Is it just the sims stuttering, or the world. Is it a frame rate drop, or due to slow resource extraction. (If certain animation objects are taking an age to be dredged up from the depths of the coding to be used. Such as digging for gems or fossils, the game takes a godless age when trying to extract the coding for which gem or fossil object to give at the end of the digging animation sequence. Or waiting ages at the washing machines or dryers to move clothing. The game is abysmally  - Literally going down into a bottomless abyss for resources - awful at this object resource extraction in so many scenarios.) Does it happen with only one family on one lot or everywhere. And of course the capabilities of your hardware, computer specs and rig itself. I remember TS2 on one of my first computers, where I was not very computer savvy back then, and playing a small home with two sims was fine. Any more than that, even if a visitor came to house temporarily, the lag hell crept in more and more, entirely due to the non-gaming, not so powerful computer I was running the game on.

Generally it is all lag, but the causes can vary so much.    

My computer is a HP Intel core TM i7-3770. Cpu is 3.40 Have 16 Gbs. and a Nvidia Gt 630 graphics. It's probably 4 or five years old. I have about 155 sims I've made. Families are usually 4 to 8 large. It's just the sims stutter stepping, either at home or out on the town, but not when they are group dancing. I have that GT group dancing mod that extents the dance. Don't see the problem when they dance. Just generally walking around. I have alot of cc content and a lot of your mods and LittleMsSams. I can live with it because I enjoy playing the sims, but sometimes it drives me buggy.Your new mod had really helped speed up the sims, not much standing around.if fact the damn sims won't stay off the exercise equipment, have to tell the dummies when to sleep and take a bath.Just want to add that the NPA sims do it to when dinning out or at parks or bars.

Edited April 6, 20197 yr by Fern48
more information

Okay, just noticed something strange. Sims family 4 members went to the flea market, had them fool around a bit, sent them off to volunteer somewhere, the NPC sim didn't to the stutter stepping. When the family returned to flea market, everyone started doing the stutter stepping again. Should I assume that it's a mod causing this action.

If this stuttering is a recent development to your gameplay, I'd start the investigations of its possible cause by removing the mods you've installed most recently. If stuttering continues, remove more mods till it stops. If it does not stop yet all mods have been removed, then it's not a mod related issue.

Yep. I'm in the process of doing that now. Probably be a lot of my damn hair on the floor by the time I'm done. Will let you know the results.

My game was recenty stuttering and very sticky. I figured it was a mod so I tested them and cleaned some up. Still had the problem but then the game started loading with a glitchey screen. Finally after two days of trying to fix my game I figured it out, for me it was my tray folder. I have never cleaned it out. So I used tray importer and deleted a lot of old stuff I don't use anymore. My game is now starting normally and no more sttuering or stickeyness. Of course this mod helps tons. Now I got to figure out why it takes 6 minutes for my household to load. Probably too much cc. I use tons.

Okay, got things worked out finally. After checking all my mods, it turned out to be not cleaning the damn cache files enough. Didn't see that one coming. Happy Simmer again.no more stuttering stepping.

@Fern48 I always delete the thumbnailcache before playing if I've added or changed something in the mods folder - or the changes won't take effect anyway. I got so used to deleting cache since my Sims 2 days, that I do it almost without thinking before playing even Sims 4. I probably do it more than I need to at this point - I have to remind myself when I haven't changed anything that I don't need to delete the cache. LOL

Would this mod be compatible with the latest version of Sims 4

http://simsasylum.com/tfm/index.php?/topic/13181-the-pattern-of-the-monthly-patch-news-posts-please-read/

Also @Simscadet there is this.

I was thinking about trying this to see if it speeds up autonomy just a little, but I was just reading over on Deaderpool's Discord that they're saying not to mess with Game Time Speed at all because it's breaking the active careers, more specifically the acting career and the new freelancer careers.

I don't have this week's patch yet, but I was wondering @coolspear , since I know you don't play on the default game speed of 25, if you've seen any problems with the active careers in your game?

My understanding was that somehow it's breaking the acting career UI if you mess with altering the speed above 25 or do anything else to alter game speed. I haven't even bothered with that career yet, because of the bug with hair and makeup failing that Maxis was supposed to fix this week. I've been playing on speed 50 for probably three years now or thereabouts, so this really threw me for a loop.

And I guess EG on Deaderpool's Discord is trying to get him to remove the Game Time Speed setting from MC entirely. I know I will be seriously irritated if he does.

Anyway, sorry to bother you, but I was just curious for your feedback, since I trust your judgment.

Edited April 19, 20197 yr by aparkison