u/kayrq

This thing has been on my mind for ages. I've been playing ts4 for years, I look at my sims as if they were tiny people living in my own world. But it never actually feels like it even with any "lively sims", or "realistic autonomy" type of mods. I've seen a recent one named 'sentient sims' where the sims interactions were supported with AI and even that feels so simple and fake, and to be honest I wouldn't want to use it anyways.

Some of you may know about the 1996 video game Creatures. I am still amazed with the idea and how they managed to make it back in that time with so little technology in their hands, yet the fact that there's still nothing that came close to the brain structure of 'norns'. I still see arguments about if norns might actually be sentient, an actual life created inside of a computer. For those who don't know I am going to explain it shortly.

There wasn't a huge database of scripted responses for norns instead The developers built an actual simplified biological and neural system and then let the creatures behave according to it.

The norns (the creatures that you take care of) actually had complex brains, with 10 lobes and about 900 neurons. Neurons were organized into lobes such as perception, decision, concept, attention, noun and verb, drive, combination. They were able to learn, remember, understand and just so much more.

They were capable of learning from their experiences, meaning that what happened to a Norn could actually change how it behaved in the future. Their neurons could strengthen or weaken their connections based on what they experienced.

They also had a biological system simulated alongside their brains. They had different chemical levels and internal drives that constantly changed depending on what was happening to them. Hunger, pain, boredom, loneliness, fear, etc. could affect their behavior, rather than simply being animations or moodlets.

They could also associate things with each other. A Norn could learn that a certain object, creature, or situation was associated with something good or bad and change its behavior accordingly.

And then there was genetics. Their brains, instincts, physical characteristics and other traits could be influenced by their genes, which were passed down to their offspring. So breeding wasn't just about changing how the creature looked,, you could actually end up with descendants that inherited behavioral and biological differences.

And what I'm wondering is if such a thing would be possible for Sims 4? Overwriting the whole (or some parts of the) structure as a mod and giving them actual simulated brains where sims feel like they're actually alive. If they were able to do this back in that time why can't we now?

Maybe what I'm thinking could be too big of a project and would take a lot of time to actually settle with the game structure itself,, or maybe it could be more of an experimental mod outside of the game's concept of 'playing a sim's life'.

I honestly think it would be revolutionary for the game itself if such a mod was done. Would love to hear your thoughts

If you don't understand the dynamic I suggest you look up some videos on youtube about the game. I kinda suck at explaining lol, you would also understand how different it works if you had the thought of "what would this change"