The opposite was planned, but the lead AI programmer of The Sims 4 revealed why it didn’t work out.

Sims are hedonistic creatures that satisfy their needs moment by moment and are unable to think through a sequence of actions. According to one of The Sims 4’s developers, this is due to the game’s design. However, he has always wanted Sims to approach their own lives more thoughtfully by acting independently. Graham is currently the director of game programming at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and is developing his own as-yet-unannounced game. More than a decade ago, he was the lead AI programmer for the original release of The Sims 4. In an interview with PC Gamer, Graham discussed the challenges involved in making simulated characters more autonomous.

A player can fill a Sim’s action queue with tasks in a logical order, but the character cannot independently decide to go to bed early to have time to exercise on the way to work the next morning, as a real person would. They’ll play until 2 a.m., which is realistic but not intentional. The lead AI programmer for The Sims 3 tried to come up with a few plans, and then Graham himself gave it a shot in The Sims 4. Graham recounted seeing someone get on the escalator ahead of him. Once they reached the third floor, they immediately turned around and went back down the escalator.

According to Graham, a player would need to see the character show some kind of reaction – for example, a speech bubble or line of dialogue saying “Oops, I’m on the wrong floor!” – to believe it was intentional. Figuring out how to convey the thought process behind a Sim’s sequence of actions seems like a huge task. For example, if a Sim were to plan an early morning workout, how would we show the player that falling asleep before the character became fatigued was intentional and not a mistake? Furthermore, excessive autonomous planning by Sims, even if executed perfectly, can diminish players’ enjoyment of the game.

“Sims don’t plan anything. They run on a cadence of AI and ask, ‘What do I want next based on my motives, traits, and so on?’ I’ve always wanted Sims to have some level of planning. But it’s always been shot down, rightfully so, because the problem with game AI is that it has to be obvious. In a game, someone would laugh about the escalator and say it’s a bug, or that the guy’s job is to ride the escalator forever to create the illusion of life in a city. In reality, though, that guy was probably just thinking, ‘Oh, I’m not supposed to be on the third floor.’ A big part of The Sims is players telling stories. As soon as Sims have too much autonomy, what’s the point of playing? It’s like watching a fish tank,” Graham said.

He considers himself the kind of player who focuses on storytelling in The Sims. He turns off aging and plays through his character’s life at every age until he’s ready to move on. This is why he understands why players wouldn’t want the game to take too much control away from them. He believes there is likely a middle ground between a simulation that’s like an aquarium and a situation in which Sims have absolutely no ability to plan ahead. However, he understands why this idea hasn’t caught on.

Source: PCGamer