Some Simmers like to plan out their stories intricately. But, aside from turning off Free Will entirely, you can't always control those little pixels...

So have you ever had your Sims mess up your plans with their own autonomous actions?

I have, several times. ACR tends to lend to a lot of this. When I first got it and didn't understand a lot of the settings it was hilarious. In my first custom hood, Black Mesa, Chester Gieke got into a hot tub with one of my married Sims and began making out.

Before I figured out how to use SimPE to give my self-Sim a negative attraction towards males and females (I'm asexual/aromantic), my Sim was frequently having her first kiss with one of the neighbours on the apartment rooftops. (I didn't have the version with the "friendzone" at the time.)

Even without ACR it can happen. Melody Tinker gave herself a negative reputation because she constantly threw water balloons at everyone. Not exactly a thing you want if you're planning to take over your father's business in a few years.

Yea, and of course I have ACR too. Still, I see teens having 1st kiss with people they are not supposed to be with. Or married people that I didn't set up right flirting/kissing/etc on a community lot - well I guess they won't be producing a baby any time soon

my main plans for my sims are which couples there would be and the names of their children.
my sims hardly ever mess up those plans.

edit:: have not downloaded any version of ACR.


another edit::
there was a time where one of those plans came close to becoming "messed up".
plan was Johnny & Ophelia becoming wed.
Johnny was already an Adult by then; Ophelia was still a Teen.
close call was Ophelia almost doing romance toward Rip when she was on his lot. kind of was passing by and I had some household member greet her.

Yeah, I had three Sims who'd been friends since childhood. I don't remember their names, but I'll call them James, Ashley and Kyle. James and Ashley started dating. Kyle was attracted to Ashley, but she wasn't interested in him (not my interpretation - she kept rejecting his advances). Due to some mod, James never got mad about Kyle's failed attempts. This was all fine with me because I wanted Ashley with James and for the friendship to last. But then, the three of them happened to show up on a community lot while I was playing another house. Kyle made a move, and for some reason Ashley kissed him back. They were uncontrollable, so there was nothing to do but watch the chaos.

Then there was that time I incorrectly assumed that marking a male Sim as "Can't get pregnant" in ACR meant "Can't get anyone pregnant."

Oh, honey, that's what sims are for. The plans we make are almost always rooted in assumptions and tropes so ingrained in our cultures that we don't even know they're operating - until the sims come along and throw in a monkey wrench and give us something So Much Better!

You don't need ACR for it, either. Just ride 'em with a loose rein and pay attention.

Plan? What's a plan?

Every time I try to plan something happening, those darned pixels manage to outguess and out maneuver me 10 ways from Sunday.
The only time they will allow me to plan anything is deaths and funerals. Those they'll skip out on. (They trust me..)
Weddings are optional-sometimes they get carried away and have the honeymoon just before the wedding...like in the church.

But everything else is up for grabs-and they like the randomness..especially babies..always the babies.

It's half n half, their little mishaps and actions kind of inspire my plans and what they ruin creates something new and I usually run with it.

Pretty much.

Yeah, getting themselves killed, flirted at (arguing to their partner that it wasn't their fault doesn't wash), or falling for some ugly townie instead of the Sim I specifically made for them. Often.

I have added in SO much stuff for randomness; ACR, higher death chances with the satellite and murphy bed, some SimSlice party treats which are HILARIOUS, beer and um...herbs, BO's Alien Experiments, and a few other things to spice it up.

Actually, to be honest, my plans usually work out

I have many Nice Sims who behave alright at their houses and at parties - and I play with free will on. Then, when I take another Sim to a community lot I witness these very nice Sims behave like jerks. Now, there is nothing nice in farting at a stranger's face, is there?

I can't agree with this any more tbh.

I usually only have a loose idea of what they were like before moving to the area and let them tell their own stories. It's much more entertaining that way imo.

All the time. But kinda like Charmful, I usually try to use their spontaneity to add to what I have planned and point their stories in a new direction. There are some times, especially when I have quite an elaborate plot already in progress, where I have to put my foot down and say no. But usually I give my sims a little wiggle room.

For example, in my Belladonna Cove, I'm trying to set up supernatural factions--witches vs werewolves vs vampires vs humans--and I've got a lot of plans and plotting going on for the leaders of these factions. I went to great lengths to arrange a marriage between Kimberly Cordial and Timothy Riley. Samantha set them up, promised Timothy he could be any creature he wanted, etc., etc. Anyway, the wedding finally happens, and what does Timothy do on his honeymoon? Rolls wants to fall in love with his former girlfriends (I have a mod that makes sims drop old loves when married). Am I annoyed by that? Sure. I had hoped Kimberly's husband would be a little more faithful, but I decided to go with it. I'll let Timothy start an affair and use it as an opportunity to start my werewolf faction. So my sims get what they want and I get new ideas.

All the time, especially since I have ACR, too. Right now, for example, I'm playing a trailer park challenge turned prosperity challenge. I had two second generation spares, Tyrone and Jerry, live in the same trailer park. Tyrone got his roommate, Brenda, pregnant with twins, which I didn't think was possible, so I got them married, which wasn't planned at all. Then I noticed that Brenda had two bolts with Tyrone but three with Jerry, so when they started hanging out a lot, I moved Jerry out of the trailer park and into a lot of his own. He refused to leave the trailer park, though. When I play Tyrone and Brenda, he and his dog basically live in his apartment, too. So ACR took over and ruined everything. Brenda and Jerry started an affair. For a while there, Tyrone would walk into them making out and do that little nod outgoing sims do. Other times Jerry would see Tyrone and Brenda make out and he'd also approve. Then, inexplicably, Tyrone got mildly pissed at them out of nowhere, complete with crying and slapping, then he made up with both of them and then he caught them cheating again. Now he's slowly making up with his wife again, with no interference from me, but he's really mad at Jerry. He spends most of his day slapping him and then kissing him or shoving him and then apologizing. He also cries a lot in between. I don't even know how to go on from here, for now I just can't stop laughing at 8 nice points Tyrone attacking his brother only to apologize and hug him directly after.

Must be Canadian.

Oh yes. Especially if I post about my plans for them on my Simblr. My Sims love to make a liar out of me! I love them anyway.

Oh yes, and I love it when they do. It what makes every sim just that little bit different for me.

I kinda think randomness of the sims is partially what makes the game such a different yet similar experience for a lot of people. I mean I think the majority wouldn't have their sim cook a meal with 0 cooking points and full hunger bar, but they know there sims sure would autonomously try it and probably end up burning the house down in the process. At the same time we'd all get a different reason as to why that sim has thought to go cook that meal. One might say it was simply because the sim is just silly whilst another might say that sim wanted to prove to their friend they were worthy of being a fully qualified chef, only to fail tragically.

Oh, definitely. If they have more than eight points, they can't be of any other ethnicity.