Any way to stop sims from walking by the closest phone?

[ElviraGoth]

This has been annoying me for awhile, now, and I've been looking for a hack that fixes it but I don't see one.

When a sim goes to answer the phone on their own, they walk right by the nearest phone and go to another floor to get it.  Same with things like bathrooms.  They have to pee?  Walk right by the nearest facilities and go to the next floor.  Same kind of phone, same kind of toilet.

I can understand if they prefer to take a shower in the expensive shower/tub over a bath in the cheap tub, but the toilets are both the same kind and phones are both the same wall phone, so why walk past one that's right there, unobstructed, not in use, whatever, to go to a different floor?

It's really been bugging me in one of the dorms.  I have a girl on the second floor, right next to a bathroom with shower, sink, toilet, and she goes downstairs and across the building to take a shower in an identical bathroom that's basically being shared by two other sims.  Then bitches when it's in use.

Does a hack exist that fixes this?  I'd rather they went to the nearest whatever than walk a mile for a camel, so to speak.

[radiophonic]

Maybe the area around the other phone has a higher environment score? Or (not to sound dumb) the other phone is blocked.

[Ancient Sim]

Apparently they go to the nearest item in terms of what's above or below them, rather than next to them.  So, chances are the bathroom your Sim is going to is directly below her and she therefore thinks it's nearer.  Quite why it's like that is anybody's guess.  I have the same thing happen in my game and it drives me crazy, too.

[veilchen]

Thanks Ancient. It used to drive me batty, but now I know why they behave that way. I wish I'd known about this earlier, it would have saved me a lot of trouble worrying over environmental issues, blockages, etc.

[ElviraGoth]

I know that when my uni sims come back from class they will go to the bathroom on the second floor, because it is the closest to the portal.  This is what I would expect.  There is one on the first floor, but it is on the opposite side of the building from the portal, so they see the one on the second floor as being the closer one.

What I'm talking about is this girl wakes up, wants to shower or use the toilet, and instead of using the bathroom that is in the room right next to hers, she walks across to the other side of the dorm and down the stairs, which then puts her almost below her room, then across the dorm again (to the opposite side from where she started) to use this other bathroom.  And there is another bathroom on the second floor directly above the one she heads to.

The dorm I'm using is the 6 room Maxis dorm.  Her room is above the cafeteria.  She goes downstairs and wants to use the only bathroom that's on the first floor.

And the phones are a mystery to me, too.  The sim comes home from work/school, hears the phone and goes to answer it.  The closest one is on the first floor.  The sim walks right past this phone, goes downstairs to the basement and answers the phone that is further away (in horizontal proximity) from where he/she started.

The phone thing may be because it IS in the basement, and the sim may see this as being on the same floor as where they started from outside.  But it's about 3 or 4 tiles further away horizontally from their starting point at the mailbox.  So if the sims at the dorm see the second floor toilet as being closer, I would think the sims at home would see the first floor phone as being closer as well.

[J. M. Pescado]

Most distance checks are "stupid" and only measure linear distance in 3D. This is why you get a lot of stupid behaviors when this happens.

[ElviraGoth]

So is there any way to make a hack that fixes this, like a smarter distance checker, or do I have to just live with the fact that my sims are total idiots?

[J. M. Pescado]

Well, you could stop answering the phone.

[ElviraGoth]

And taking showers and using the terlet?  I guess I need to use these sims in the email challenge and teach them a lesson!  (Tongue most thoroughly in cheek)

[miramis]

Give them Cell phones and they don't have to walk anywhere, of course if you don't have Uni you're screwed for that idea.

[ElviraGoth]

They all have cell phones.  If the phone call isn't for them (like the sim the call is for is at work or school) they answer the house phone.  I give them cells so I can tell who the phone call is for, so if a sim is skilling or building a friendship, I don't have to stop them from their task to answer the phone.

I could turn off the ringer, but I want to have an idea of who's friendhips are disintegrating so I don't have to monitor it constantly.  It's just the way I prefer to play right now.

Just had it happen again.  Even in 3D space, the phone they go to is further away.

Stupid Sims!