TUTORIAL - Static Commodities (Patreon)
Content
These are simple. We met them in one buff once, added there to make the sim play the violin. I'm going to explain how they work, because I'm going to completely break down one of my mods for ye in the next tutorial.
As you can get from the name, Static Commodities are rather similar to commodities, except they're really... not.
Let's look at an autonomous interaction the sim can perform, for starter:
This interaction is Start Cooking Group Meal Autonomously, it can only be performed by the sim autonomously. You cannot direct it, it's not the same interaction "Cook Group Meal" you see in the PieMenu.
A sim who has a commodity has the desire to satisfy it autonomously, in order to direct the autonomy, the autonomous interactions (and the interactions the sim can perfom autonomously) tell to the AI what commodity they satisfy.
This is this false_advertisements for example.
This interaction stays there, waiting to be performed autonomously, and tells to the AI:
If the Sim has
commodity_Motive_Role_Caterer,
commodity_Motive_Role_DinnerParty-Host,
commodity_Motive_MakeOneGroupMeal,
commodity_RoommateNPC_Autonomy_Mealmaker
I'm here ready to satisfy them. I'll give the sim 10 points of satisfaction (this is a false advertisement, a lie... the interaction will not deliver)
It makes more likely for a sim who has one or more of these commodities on them (associated to a buff, or to a trait, for example) to pick this interaction to perform.
This same interaction also call a bunch of static commodities:
And they have the same function, make a sim who has these static commodities (in a buff, for example) more likely to pick this interaction to perform. Way more likely. They'll get almost obsessed by doing it.
A static commodity is basically a FAKE commodity, it doesn't go up, it doesn't go down, it doesn't even have much tuning:
The only purpose they have is trick the autonomy. Make the sim "think" that if they perform an interaction, they're going to satisfy this desire they will NEVER be able to satisfy.
They're used, for example, in Autonomy Buffs:
If I want a sim to do one thing, focus on that thing, and mostly ignore everything else.
They're the best way to make a sim do what you want them to do. To behave the way you want. By putting one in an interaction, and one in the buff, you can be almost sure the sim will perform that interaction you made, and probably get obsessed by doing it, depending on how you tune the buff.
Usually, they're not used in buffs of personality traits, those use normal commodities to affect autonomy:
With the same purpose, but they're actually commodities a sim can satisfy so they'll not get obsessed by doing the same interaction alone...
But they're used in buffs like the maid buff:
'cause... grabbing snacks, watching tv, socializing, is not a behaviour you want from the maid... you want the maid to do their job and then fuck off (the maid has this buff only when on role)
Beware: autonomy is not 100% predictable with these methods either, but it can be directed a bit.