I love and hate you

So its been a few days of playing off and on. If I had to give the game a score it'd be about 7.5 out of 10. I have to say that the interactions that make the game so unique are all starting to be a pain in the butt. Hindsight is 20/20 they say and I can't imagine having to be a programmer that had to balance the delicate act of having more intuitive Sims and then make them just smart enough that they aren't 'too smart'. So what am I talking about? What is this love and hate relationship?

I'm talking about autonomy. Its nice that my sims won't die when I walk away from the computer because they are smart enough to eat if they're starving to death, however this same autonomy makes tasks 40x more difficult. I exaggerate of course.

No where was this problem more clear than when I took my sim on her first date. First of all, it was almost impossible to get a date. Whenever I invited the potential date over he wouldn't hold still long enough to be asked anything important. He was drinking coffee, playing on the computer, using my sim's restroom and then he just left. Invited him to the park and because two sims on an outing don't have the circling icon that indicates we are a group when he disappeared right after arriving at the park I couldn't find him. Then when I finally landed the date he wouldn't sit still at the Rattlesnake bar. He went from inside to outside, to hopping stools, to drinking coffee, to ordering drinks, to sitting with a large group of people. Those people, struck by the more intuitive AI to group together, started smothering my date out of conversation. I literally couldn't get a word in with him. They even stole the seat my sim was sitting in. Another woman started talking with him.

Have you ever had your sim go on a date? You automatically have goals to accomplish. Have 10 convos. 3 deep convos. 3 flirts etc. I barely managed to make all the goals. Meanwhile I had two sims missing work at home and I couldn't manage to make them go w/o forfeiting my progress on the disaster date. At the end of the date I was mentally exhausted from jockeying position among the swelling crowd.

So yes, the more intuitive sims are great fun but they can also be very frustrating, annoying, and just too much. I'm not sure if/what anything can be done to remedy the situation but I posted here (sorry for the long post) to see if anyone else had been experiencing this level of frustration with getting a sim alone in a crowd.

Below is the only shot I managed to get on the date at the Rattlesnake Bar. All the patrons sitting around wandered over while Cheyenne and her date Tucker were getting to know each other. Tucker and Cheyenne are standing in this picture. Tucker in his blue and white t-shirt might be obscuring Cheyenne a little in this shot. She was following him back to the bar which he had visited about three times. Before this Tucker was engaged in conversation with about four of those people sitting around.

I found this problem too - so annoying! I haven't tried turning the Auto option off? I don't konw if anyone else has but it still won't solve the problem of the AI's interuppting. This, and the "no reaction to cheating" bug are the only two things grinding me down so far though tbh!

lol mattyude. I wish there was a way to turn down 'grouping' as it were but even when my sims go to the park with a spouse and do something like play chess there is always someone walking up to the table to talk. I found it interesting when I briefly played as my married gay couple that the sims flirting with them at the chess table are male. Wonder if it switches a preference meter or something in-game. Lol

Yeah, initially I thought that the group conversation would be awesome, which they are if I want it to happen, it makes flirting with a sim really difficult and I have just ended up inviting them to my home to get away from it.

I tried the museum during a date because there are less people but one premade in particular kept following my couple around and butting into convo. There should be an option to ask people to go away or request privacy imho. Same at the house, family always interfering or wanting to talk during important moments. *sigh* We just have to work around the little inconveniences.

I hope it is something that EA has realized is inconvenient and patches it, and hopefully it won't be something we have to wait for an expansion pack to fix.

I absolutely agree with Stawberrigurl that a "go away" or "privacy" option would be perfect. My Sim has never even so much as flirted yet (perhaps a reflection of my own personality) So needless to say, my single, live alone Sim Ellie has never been on a date, although I literally have her out talking to Sims all day. This get's to the flirting part.. It annoys me when 5 sims walk up and join a conversation or wont go away, because for whatever reason, I don't want to use flirt interactions in the middle of a group of every Sim at the joint. And even when my sim gets a moment alone with another Sim, he just decides to walk of and order some chips and talk to the other girl at the bar. Yes... it does feel kind of like my real reality.. Awkward public interactions, being ignored and ditched, being followed by the annoying friend... sigh. Sometimes though, games are fun because they aren't so much like that annoying reality of things. So, sometimes I want my Sim to be in a lounge with 10 Sims she knows but they all magically f off when she's on a date, instead of being annoying. And my date will just sit there like a love rock and let me have my way with him. Even if the guy comes to my Sims house, she'll try to ask if he's single or something.. He'll walk off and mess with her stuff instead. Now, granted it's not always this bad. My Sim gets plenty of decent conversation in, as well, but not at the moments I really want, it seems. So yes- I would love to tell Sims to gtfo sometimes. Maybe make it so when they are "hanging out" or "on a date" this autonomy will reduce slightly so they can actually engage more.

I just use "Rude Introduction" followed by "Good bye", but I still want a go away interaction so I don't have to introduce my sim to every ignorant sim jumping into my A-B conversations.

Lol I love this ...love rock.
Yep, this grouping/butting in feature can make dates a nightmare. It is easier to stay home, especially when your sim is single and the house isn't full of kids like mine is, but where is the fun in that? We definitely need to find a happy medium. I finally ended up asking the love interest to move into the house because that was the only way I could pin him down long enough for him to date my sim. lol

I tried this. The other sim didn't seem phased by it. She went away briefly and came right back several times. I wish I had pictures of the event. She was like the stalker of my guy sim love interest. lol When I looked into my relationships for both the sim girl and guy this chick was nearly an enemy for both of them.

It seems like everywhere my sim goes, there's this guy sim who comes and follows her and butts into all her conversations, but they both HATE each other. I definitely wish I had Nraas's total annihilation in these situations.