My entire simming life I've played the game with high freewill. I like the 'unpredictability' and 'WTF are you doing moments?', but now things feel more predictable and dull than interesting.

I want to know what are your experiences like with that no free will play style.

Turned it off on the first day of playing, 7 years ago, and never even considered turning it on again.
If you're a control freak, it's the only acceptable way.

I leave it on but am a control freak. So often I override what they think they're going to do next.

Like Gargoyle Cat I only turn it off when I'm shooting pictures for a story post, its the only way to keep them still - even though they still go through all those annoying idles. One time I forgot it was on and I was shooting a scene on a special set I'd designed. It involved a very small pool, not really intended (or, indeed, large enough) for swimming in. The first thing every sim on the set (12 of them) decided to do was go swimming! But of course, they couldn't all fit into that tiny cube of water, so there followed a veritable orgy of route failing tantrums.

I started playing on low free will after I got frustrated with a sim family I was playing always doing the exact opposite of what I wanted and ruining any situation I tried to set up. been playing that way for several years now. over all, I like it. I'll usually pause every so often while I check in with my sims and set up some stuff in their queue. it's just easier to set up situations and keep conversations from going completely off track in a direction I absolutely don't want them to go and my sims don't interrupt each other when I'm trying to have them do something.

the one thing I don't like about it is that I don't like babysitting my sims at parties and with low free will I have to or they'll just stand around doing nothing for a few hours and that's not the point of going to a party. but I mean I also don't like parties much in general so unless I have a solid reason for sending a sim there I usually just ignore parties.

I haven't actually played with free will turned completely off although I've considered it. low free will has worked fine for me.

I have a deal with my sims. I keep high freewill on but try to keep them living wonderful lives but I decide what a wonderful life will be. Of course, if they set themselves on fire and none of us manages to save them, or I decide to point and laugh, well...

Actually, it has never occurred to me to play with free will off. I like to be surprised sometimes.

I never turn it off but pause a lot to control things a bit more when wanted.

I usually play with high free will on, but free will turned off for the active sim. Once in a while I will turn free will off completely, if I'm trying to set something specific up, though.

I always pause the game when controlling my Sims. Everything just goes too fast when you keep it running, and since TS3 is such a sluggish game I've learned to play it sluggishly.
So the whole "standing around for hours" thing is pretty interesting. For me there's also a bit of a challenge in trying to keep my Sims busy, since they're not doing it by themselves.
What I really like about TS4 is that Sims will continue to interact with each other indefinitely, if they were doing so previously at the player's discretion.
And Buzzler's "Moar Interactions" mod adds the "Socialize" interaction, which also does this. So I use that a lot.
By the way, if you don't have that mod, get it NOW. It adds a TON of essential interactions.

I play with Free Will on the highest setting, although sometimes it doesn't make too much of a difference because I STILL have to micromanage things and leaving sims on their own will often lead to them stinky and almost starving to death. As it is now, I can send a sim to the park and forget about them since they'll socialize, do some activities and then come home on their own when they get too tired. Since getting a new PC I've often found myself speeding through some interactions on speed 3 because I don't have the patience to wait for them on speed 2 (which is my default, 1 may as well be paused).


Same here, I only turn free will off if I'm taking CC previews and the sims are being particularly disobedient.

@MysticCandy I was thinking of keeping the training wheels on and playing low freewill.

@Riesen I tried playing with disabled autonomy but I kept switching to other Sims to stop them from doing dumb stuff, just for my main Sim to run off and do something 'out of character'


@GrijzePilion I love buzzler's moar interactions mod. Use that in combination with retuner to steer Sims in the right direction.

So now I'm thinking of doing a combination household of high and low freewill. I think master controller or Ani's apartment mod should help with that. Got some overstuffed households and don't want to control everybody.

I turn off free will when I'm testing a build, does that count? I can't very well have a Sim take care of essential life needs when I need to know if a stairs work and if one can sit in that chair.

So uh, you guys kinda make it sound like Free Will is a good thing to have. Should I maybe eventually consider to try turning it on for once?

You should only worry if you have Mean Spirited sims...though if mine are to be believed, they love to insult each other's mothers and woohoo immediately afterwards.

Otherwise, most of my "normal" sims prefer to watch TV, play computer games or make silly faces at each other.

So, basically, my Sims will just be me all day long?

I play with Free will on high, but I'm also constantly checking to see what the sim is doing and give them something else to do if I don't like the idea of them doing what they were about to do.

I also tend to play with very small families, or with single sims.

I always play with free will on high, but I check in with them regularly to make sure they're not electrocuting themselves or drowning for no apparent reason. However, I figured if I turned free will off they might do something stupid like accidentally starve themselves to death so I'm not sure there's a winning scenario here, lol.

I often play a household of 8 sims. There is no way I would ever consider playing with free will off. I have played since 1 came out and have never even considered turning free will off. Free will and the lives of non played sims evolving on their own is what make these game dynamic and interesting to me. I love the story progression in 3. I want my game to be alive and moving along. Like RL.

I kept it off entirely cause I've had previous experiences of them being too stupid to survive with Free Will. And my households were generally super small. Now that I play 8+ Sims in a household, I keep it on but disable autonomy for my selected Sim. Bad enough I need to micromanage their food intake and such when I have a lot of Sims, I'm not gonna micromanage their free time. So far, any deaths were all game mechanic based that I couldn't help. (Meteorites)

I have high free will on always, because even though i always like to tell my sims what to do, it gets annoying sometimes, for example when i send one of my sims on a date, i want to concentrate on that, and i don't want to constantly swap between my house and the area where the date is happening.

And i also like to think that whenever i'm not controlling my sims, they can do whatever they want, even if that means that the kitchen will be full of burnt mac and cheese, but everyone makes mistakes i guess.

I wouldn't let my Sims eat mac and cheese, because their culinary standards are at least as high as mine.

Mac and cheese is delicious!! Can't blame them for trying to make that culinary masterpiece, but yeah, they should stick to autumn salad if their cooking skill is below 3, though sometimes their cravings simply gets the best of them

I don't know, I've never had it. Looks kinda chemical and cheap though. I mean, neither of the main ingredients of mac 'n' cheese aren't as nearly as yellow as mac 'n' cheese would have you believe. That can't be right.
I read an article about this, about how the American food industry favours colour and shape while the European food industry favours flavour and freshness, and about how many Americans who visit Europe are shocked to find that they've never tasted "real" veggies before because everything has chemicals in it back home.
Which is why my Sims, much like myself, stay well clear of the American imports aisle at the grocery store.
But apart from that, I can't bring myself to give a toss about what they eat.