My Sim's Short Attention Span

[Schipperke]

Even though I had the game on pre-order, it just arrived the other day, so I am way behind most of you here when it comes to learning the new game.  So I'm hoping my question will be an easy one for someone to answer.

My problem, as the title indicates, is that my Sim has a distressingly short attention span.  I take him to the Library to study a skill book.  After a few minutes of reading, he drops the book to wander over & watch a chess game.  I tell him to pick up his book again.  He reads for a few minutes then drops the book to go to the bathroom and wash his hands?!  His hygiene need was still high at that time, as were all his needs, but he still felt a need to wash his hands.  His traits are Cheerful, Bookworm and some other skill-related trait.  But I'm having a terrible time getting him to actually read a book because he always stops and goes off to do something else.  He seems obsessed with hand-washing, and for the first time in my years of playing Sims games I've had to spend money on a sink for the bathroom to keep him from going all the way to the kitchen to wash his hands after using the toilet and then walking back to the bathroom for the shower that I had queued up for him next.  Oh, and he often drops tasks from his queue for no apparent reason.

At this point, I'm extremely frustrated with him.  I know I could turn off free will but would rather not turn him into an automaton - is there any other way to keep him on task?  And is there any way to cure him of his hand-washing obsession other than giving him the Slob trait?  Please tell me all Sims4 Sims aren't like this!

[Nutella]

Welcome to Sims4.   

Reading is the worst, my sim have a hard time sitting there just read and not do anything else, and dropping tasks for no apparent reason is pretty common in my game too.  I do not like the multi-tasking conversation, seems to take priority over anything else.  I send my sim to the library to read skill books, she ends up chatting with the whole town and not paying attention to reading the skill book, so frustrating. 

I keep my sim home alone and skill up using the manual way, reading skill books just very underwhelming in sims4.  Also remove/delete all sinks in my house.

[Schipperke]

Thanks for the reply, Nutella.  I'm so glad it's not just me!  Every time I play, I can't help thinking "I'm so glad I'm not trying to manage this Sim in a Challenge" because I can't imagine trying to do a Challenge with free will on and a Sim like that.  I never thought about removing all the sinks, because I thought he needed one to wash dishes, but I gather from other posts somewhere in the forum that I can just drag the dishes to the garbage, so that's what I'll do.  Good idea! 

[Dellena]

I would suggest that you turn off Autonomy in the gameplay settings.  They will stay on task much better and you'll have a more enjoyable gameplay if you like your sims to follow your instructions.  If you like to play the sims more like watching a big brother house, then leave autonomy on.

[Schipperke]

I would suggest that you turn off Autonomy in the gameplay settings.  They will stay on task much better and you'll have a more enjoyable gameplay if you like your sims to follow your instructions.  If you like to play the sims more like watching a big brother house, then leave autonomy on.

I was hoping to not have to turn off autonomy, but if that's my only way to avoid having a Sim who can't concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes at a time, I guess that's what I'll have to do.  It's entertaining watching him, but I keep wanting to wring his neck, and it's not how I like to play.  Thanks, Dellena!

[Granny789]

I've noticed that some tasks they stay on until they are in the red for some needs. I've never left them past that so I don't know if they'd continue until death but it's really annoying that they won't continue reading a book but they'll stay forever on things like computer/program/create game or using the microscope and observatory. I think EA just needs to tweak a few things. They should at least stay on task until they level up and then maybe assess their own needs if you have them on full autonomy. 

[Schipperke]

Welcome to the forum, Granny789, and thanks for sharing your experience with this.  I am used to Sims doing what I tell them, for the most part, and couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong.  It still doesn't make sense to me that a Bookworm would suddenly quit reading to run and wash his hands, but I guess it's all part of learning the new game.

I hope you'll enjoy the forum! 

[Devin]

This seems to be a pretty common problem, particularly when it comes to skilling. I can't even keep my kids on the monkey bars without supervision to keep them at it to build their motor skill, so this is something I think that a lot of us have struggled with.

The key is to watch your sims closely or to queue up the action several times to keep them doing what you've told them to do. Skills are best learned by doing the actions rather than by reading, and they develop surprisingly quickly with the associated emotions.

[Franki]

I found the easiest way to do it was to just turn autonomy off for the selected sim rather than turning it off for everyone, otherwise they end up stopping and starting which just extends the amount of time you have to try and get your sim to do the action.

[Playalot]

I've found that if you put the game on pause and then queue up several "read book' actions, then press play - works quite well for keeping sims on task with skill reading, but it is probably much quicker to get your sims 'doing' the skill you want them to learn.
I've definitely got better at keeping sims on task as I've played more. Quite different to TS3!

[Joria]

I feel your pain Schip!  What's even worse is when you have a child you have to read to for 3 hours.  Either or both will stop in mid-read and wander off to do any number of things.  It took me hours of making them both come back and sit down and be read to before I could complete that aspiration need/quest.  If it's a skill related to doing something manually, just not bothering with skill books can be the answer.  My chef had to reach a certain level in mixology.  I thought, "aha, skill books!"  Nope.  Too frustrating to keep putting him back on task.  So a bazillion thrown out mixed beverages later he made it to level 4 but STILL hasn't maxed that skill.  So, yesterday he comes home from work, (he's a chef), and autonomously picks up the mixology level 3 book and starts reading it!  I could have smacked him one.  So I'm yelling at my pc saying, "Hey stupid!  Why didn't you do that before when I told you to?!", cracking up my husband sitting near by.

[Tuija]

Sims waste so much time on hand washing it drives me nuts!  Since sims 2 I have pulled all the sinks from my house, and just drag dishes to the trash bin.

[RunAmokSims]

      I want to say I was never on the fence about buying TS4.  I was attracted to the "smarter Sims, weirder stories" aspect of the game.  The worst thing I said about it before the game was released was that I liked what I had seen but I wanted my own hands on time to make up my mind.

     My plan to test the new game was to make several unrelated Sims and put them into a house together to see what could be possible. They all had different traits and personalities, including some that were evil or insane.

     What I found, I felt, was that they weren't even as "weird" as TS3 Sims. One Sim went off to play on the computer, the others grouped together on the living room sofas and chatted.  As needed they would head to the bathroom, the shower or the kitchen. I could see no behavior that would differentiate one Sim from another. None of the traits really stood out. No one acted insane or evil.  Not even a little.

     As to their attention span.  The Sim on the computer stayed there for quite some time. In fact it almost seemed like the sprinkler obsession that TS3 Sims had.  The 'chatting' Sims were constantly getting up and down to head for the kitchen or to walk around.  Basically the scene reminded me of an episode of Friends.  Remember how they all sat on the sofas at the coffee shop and talked? Except that instead of the more interesting parts of the show all they did was stay and chat.

     Maybe I expected too much of these little digital people but at this point I'm more than a little disappointed. 

     

[Schipperke]

I have to say, I am very relieved to know I'm not the only one struggling with these issues.  I thought I was pretty good at Sims games, having played all of them from the original game but they say pride goeth before a fall, and this game is definitely making me re-evaluate some of my ways of doing things.  I tend to emphasize skill building with my Sims.  In the past making a Sim a Bookworm & taking him to the Library was the fastest way to increase most of the skills, and now it seems my time-tested strategy doesn't work any more.  I'm definitely going to turn off autonomy.  "Sim, this is your Watcher speaking.  Prepare to lose your free will.  You WILL obey!" heheh.  And I'll either remove all the sinks or try the Slob trait to see if that cures his obsessive hand-washing.  Never a dull moment with our Sims!  Thanks for the replies, everyone!   

[Dellena]

My sims only wash their hands after using the toilet - which is a good practice in real life as well.