Revision 6

Autonomy and Interaction Queue

Autonomy (also called Free Will) determines whether Zois act on their own or wait for player commands. When autonomy is enabled, Zois go about their daily lives without constant direction, eating when hungry, sleeping when tired, going to work on schedule, and following urges driven by their personality. When autonomy is disabled, Zois do absolutely nothing unless the player tells them to.

The Interaction Queue is the visual interface at the bottom of the screen that shows what a Zoi is currently doing and what they plan to do next.

Toggling Autonomy

Each Zoi's autonomy is controlled individually. There are two ways to toggle it:

• Keyboard: Press T while the Zoi is selected.

• UI Button: Click the flower-like toggle icon next to the Needs display at the bottom of the screen.

A visual indicator appears above each Zoi's head to show their current state: a white, open cat's eye means autonomy is ON; an orange, closed cat's eye means autonomy is OFF.

There is also an "Enable by Default" option in Settings > Gameplay > Free Will, though some players report this setting does not reliably apply to existing Zois. Autonomy is a binary toggle; there is no slider or intensity setting. Your Zoi either manages themselves entirely or does nothing at all. The community has requested granular controls (adjust autonomy for flirting, cheating, routines separately), and these are planned for a future 2026 update.

What Autonomous Zois Do

When autonomy is enabled, a Zoi handles their own survival and daily activities:

Need Fulfillment

Autonomous Zois address their eight needs as they decline. Physical needs (Hunger, Sleep, Hygiene, Bathroom) and mental needs (Fun, Social, Recognition, Energy) each deplete at rates influenced by the Zoi's trait. An Adventurer's Energy drains slowly, while a Dreamer's Sleep gauge drops fast.

Need severity is shown by gauge color: white means safe, yellow means significant decline, and red means severe shortage. Autonomous Zois tend to wait until needs reach the yellow or red range before acting, rather than proactively maintaining green levels.

Schedules and Work

Autonomous Zois attend work and school on schedule. When it is time for a shift, the Zoi travels to the workplace and performs their duties. Zois leave home approximately 1 hour before their shift starts (e.g., leaving at 8 AM for a 9 AM shift). However, if the Zoi is in the middle of another action when the work hour arrives, they may stay home and miss the shift. Three unexcused absences result in termination. Scheduling conflicts between queued actions and work obligations are a known inconsistency.

Urges

Urges are temporary impulses driven by personality, preferences, and values. When autonomy is on, Zois attempt to fulfill active urges alongside their needs. Up to four urges can be active at once. Fulfilling an urge rewards Meow Coins and a mood buff. Unfulfilled urges expire after 12 in-game hours. The v0.4.0 update added over 140 new urges and redesigned approximately 120 existing ones to be personality-based. The v0.5.0 update added 77 situation-based urges plus special relationship-triggered and fear-based urges.

Social Behavior

Autonomous Zois can initiate conversations with other Zois, though these interactions tend to be brief (lasting only a few seconds before the Zois walk away). Building meaningful relationships autonomously is slow and shallow. Players who want deep social connections typically need to direct conversations manually. The "Call Over" feature in the relationship panel lets you summon other Zois to your location for directed socialization.

The Interaction Queue

The Interaction Queue is the row of action icons displayed at the bottom of the screen. It shows the Zoi's current action and any upcoming queued actions in order.

Queue Controls

The queue can hold up to seven actions. For Smart Zoi, a separate Queue Limit setting (recommended value: 8) controls how far ahead the AI plans tasks.

Interaction Types

Actions are queued through a context-sensitive menu system. What you click determines what options appear:

A white circle appears on every interactable object or person in the game world. Using WASD keys for direct movement cancels any queued autonomous action, while left-click movement commands preserve the queue.

How Traits and Values Drive Behavior

The 18 traits (based on the Enneagram personality framework) are the primary drivers of autonomous behavior. Each trait sets:

• Need decay rates: Different traits make specific needs drain faster or slower.

• Urge triggers: Each trait generates personality-appropriate urges.

• Skill affinities: Traits push Zois toward activities that level certain skills.

• Social style: Some traits (Explorer, Go-Getter, Individualist, Visionary) make Zois avoid conversation. Others (Entertainer, Charmer, Socialite, Volunteer) make them seek it out.

Values add a second layer. There are 10 values (Accomplishment, Authority, Autonomy, Challenger, Coexistence, Love, Pleasure, Rule-Abiding, Safety, Traditionalist), each scaling from 0 to 100. Values develop dynamically through gameplay rather than being locked at creation. Once a value reaches 60 or higher, it begins actively influencing the Zoi's autonomous decisions. The highest-scoring value becomes the Core Value, which provides gameplay rewards and shapes daily routines, career choices, and life decisions.

Smart Zoi and Advanced Autonomy

Smart Zoi is an experimental AI feature that adds a more sophisticated autonomy layer on top of the standard Free Will system. Powered by NVIDIA ACE technology (a 0.5 billion parameter Mistral NeMo Minitron small language model running on-device), Smart Zoi gives Zois the ability to:

• Generate Inner Thoughts throughout the day, revealing their reasoning and feelings.

• Write diary entries at the end of each day that influence the next day's schedule.

• Make personality-driven decisions (e.g., a compassionate Zoi buying food for a stranger).

• Accept player suggestions through the Zoi Pen (100-word text input tool).

Without Smart Zoi, autonomous Zois use traditional AI and queue somewhat random tasks. With Smart Zoi enabled, behavior becomes learning-based and personality evolves daily. Smart Zoi essentially turns NPCs into co-playable characters (CPCs) that simulate human behavior.

Smart Zoi requires an NVIDIA RTX GPU (minimum RTX 3060 with 8 GB VRAM) and 12 GB RAM. Activating Smart Zoi automatically lowers graphics settings by one level when active. Players can adjust the application range (how many Zois in the city use Smart Zoi) and the queue limit for AI-planned tasks.

Multitasking

The v0.5.0 update (December 2025) introduced limited multitasking. Zois can now perform certain action combinations simultaneously:

• Talking while eating

• Talking while using computers

• Eating while watching TV

• Checking smartphones during other activities

Multitasking is currently limited to these specific combinations. Zois cannot perform unrelated complex actions at the same time (e.g., cooking while exercising). Autonomous multitasking is primarily limited to talking or checking smartphones alongside another activity.

Grouped Zoi Behavior

The v0.5.0 update also introduced group mechanics. When multiple Zois are grouped together (via the group button in the HUD), they prioritize interacting with each other over other Zois. Grouped Zois are more likely to eat together, travel together, and engage in shared activities. This makes managing families and friend groups significantly easier, as grouped Zois naturally gravitate toward the same locations and activities.

Employee Autonomy

For Zois who own a small business, the v0.5.0 update added employee autonomy. Hired employees at your business perform their assigned tasks independently, serving customers, stocking shelves, and managing their own needs during shifts. The business owner does not need to micromanage each employee's actions; they handle their responsibilities based on their assigned role.

Leaving Zois Unattended

What happens when you step away depends on the autonomy setting:

When all household members are asleep, the game clock automatically advances at 30x speed (added in v0.3.0), fast-forwarding through the night.

Known Issues

The autonomy system is actively being developed, and several issues have been reported by the community:

Patch History

Planned Improvements

The 2026 roadmap includes several autonomy-related improvements:

• Adjustable autonomy rules for flirting, cheating, and routines

• Group autonomy toggle from the HUD

• "Areas of interest" where Zois naturally combine compatible interactions based on context

• Smarter movement (side-by-side walking, better positioning during conversations)

• Reduced action interruptions

• Enhanced hunger, seating, and idle animation systems

• Deeper romance and breakup systems with multiple outcomes

• Animation styles reflecting personality traits

Tips

• Toggle autonomy off when you need precise control: directing conversations, managing photo sessions, or ensuring a Zoi completes homework before bed.

• Toggle autonomy on when managing multiple household members. Focus on one Zoi while the others handle their own needs.

• If the queue wipe bug affects you, try queuing only one action at a time instead of stacking multiple actions.

• Use the Zoi Pen (Smart Zoi feature) to steer autonomous behavior thematically rather than micromanaging every action.

• Check the Interaction Queue regularly. Autonomous actions can interrupt player-queued tasks without warning.

• When leaving Zois unattended, keep autonomy on and make sure the home has a well-stocked kitchen, functional bathroom, and a bed for each Zoi.

• Group family members together using the group button to keep them interacting with each other rather than random NPCs.

• For large households, consider toggling autonomy off for the Zoi you're actively controlling and leaving it on for everyone else.

Related Articles

Interactions | Urges | Traits | Values | Needs | Smart Zoi | Emotions | Multitasking