Akin to the popular reality TV program, Big Brother, I’m setting up a little Sims 3 experiment. I’ve created eight stereotypical Sims, I’ve turned up the AI and now I’m going to throw them in to a large house together and see what they do when I just leave them to it. It’s a simple experiment that should hopefully show some pretty interesting interactions. Will any of these Sims start to romance each other, or will they all just become mortal enemies? and just how many actions will the Sims do autonomously if left, will they get jobs, have babies etc?
I’ll be reporting on the activities of the Sims. Though, at this point I haven’t decided whether it will written as a story, or a personalised diary report, a factual log or any combination of those.
But before I can do that, there are several things I need to sort out first…
First, I need to design and create the 8 Sims.
I figured, that I’d generally go with the very stereotypical type of Sims, even throwing in an angelic and demonic Sim to make sure both sides of the good/evil spectrum were covered.
You can find out more about the Sims by clicking here.
Secondly, I need to build them a house that caters for them
The building of the house is not my favourite part of Sims 3 which is probably why I left it till last. I toyed with the idea of using a pre-made house, but there wasn’t any big enough considering I need a house with 8 single bedrooms, a few bathrooms and toilets, a games room, a study, the double-bedded Woohoo room, plus all the other rooms, a garden and a pool.
If you want to have a look at the house, which I’m actually rather proud of now it’s finished, you can click here.
Finally, I need to set up the ground rules for myself.
I needed to set up some guidance for myself, about what level of interaction would be allowed and what should/could be done in the various circumstances that may befall my Sims, such as making sure they have money, should they get jobs or leave the house, what about lifetime wishes and opportunities etc?
So, here are my 10 rules
- I will not add, change or delete any Sim actions in any circumstance
- The ‘motherlode’ cheat can be used at anytime to give the household as much money as required.
- wishes will not be chosen for any Sim.
- Opportunities will not be accepted or undertaken for any Sim.
- No Sim will leave the country for any reason unless they do so autonomously. In which case, the traveling Sim runs entirely autonomously until they return home.
- Any pop-ups in relation to joining groups, chatting to or being invited out by external Sims, should be refused.
- Any visitors to the site, should be left. If they are invited in by the house-guests, this should not be interrupted. Parties will never be attended.
- Bills will be paid by clicking on the last day to pay button when it pops up (Assuming they have not already been paid)
- Any created items paintings/statues etc, should be displayed around the lot and not sold, as this would constitute modifying a Sim action.
- *Any broken equipment will be left for 3 days until replaced, unless this item is partly fixed by a Sim in which case it will be left until fully fixed.
* Unless every plumbing object in the house decides to break over two days, then I can call a plumber in, as long as I wait for a Sim’s action queue to be empty. (Unless, you haven’t figured it out, this actually happened. See Day 6.)
“The Golden Rule: If a Sim does something autonomously, whatever it may be, this is acceptable and it should not be interfered with.”
If you want to read more about the experiment, either click on the tab at the top of the page, or click here.
