The Pause that Annoys

[jwaas]

Agreed, I had the same hack, but to me it seemed to break about half a dozen patches ago.  His Awesomeness had made a crappy XML tweak (his words, not mine) to address the same issue, but it is rather old.  I can't remember if I've tried it, so I'll give it another try the next time I fire up my game.  I'll report back if it doesn't asplode my game.

Since the conversation has gone to mannerisms that annoy us, can I add mine?  The stupid nose-holding when they jump into a pool.  I mean, really.  At least let the 12-and-older Sims jump in without holding their nose.

Back on topic, pausing the game when a Sim hesitates to change outfits or strip for the shower does indeed seem to help -- if I can get to the pause button before they actually change.  It seems the worst to me when I start up the game after clearing caches.

[Claeric]

I got really pissed off with the routing issues, so I messed around with the .ini file so that these morons simply walk through each other. I had my concerns the moment I saw some of the demo videos and developer walkthroughs where you saw loads of sims standing around, moaning about route failure and tapping their feet. Hell, EA even used that bloody animation to make it look like they were tapping in tune in one of their promo videos (the candy-stealing one)!

Would you mind packaging this up and uploading it? The idea of sims walking around freely just walking through each other is really damn exciting. I do not give a crap if they're gonna walk through each other, just that they won't mind it is amazing.

[uknortherner]

Actually, it'll be better (and safer) for you to make changes to the file yourself. You'll need to navigate to /The Sims 3/Game/Bin/Sims3.ini and change the settings for [Config] to read:

Code:

[Config]
DynamicAvoidance_FieldRadius = 0.0
DynamicAvoidance_InactiveFieldLength = 1.5
DynamicAvoidance_MinNonIntersectingDistance = 0.12
DynamicAvoidance_FieldLengthPad = 0.3
DynamicAvoidance_StopDistanceMultiplier = 0.925

It's actually an old tweak I'd seen on here before, except with DynamicAvoidance_FieldRadius set to 0.0. This forces those braindead sims to simply walk through each other without all the routefail crap that normally ensues. Unfortunately, I haven't found a way to get this to work properly for stairs, where they'll still do that foot-tapping crap, but even these settings help to reduce the congestion that normally happens near stairs.

[Claeric]

Changing ini files isnt encouraged, because it causes patches to fail and claim files are broken.

I dunno about the sims3.ini though...

[jwaas]

For what it's worth, I gave this tweak a try, and I have no experience making mods whatsoever.  I just expanded my Sims' house, so it took a few hours of play time to notice, but lo and behold, finally I saw two toons walk right through each other.  One of them paused momentarily, but there was no foot-tapping or any such thing.  I should mention that I disabled JMP's "crappy XML tweak" first, since for all I know the two tweaks might have conflicted.

Claeric's point is well-taken -- I did save the original .ini file, and will switch the files back with each patch, just like I do with the .exe file that has the no-CD crack.  Actually, it might even be necessary to throw out the tweaked .ini file, put the old one back where it was, patch, then store a copy of the .ini file, and THEN make a new tweaked .ini file.

Either way, my game just got about 6.5% more enjoyable.  I think what I'm supposed to say here is BAAAAAH.  

ETA: Don't forget to click the "thanks" button for added lulz!

*clicks "thanks" button*
I have now been edumacated. 

[uknortherner]

Yeah, I forgot to add, keep a backup of the original Sims3.ini and drop it back in before applying any new patches. The patcher will kick up a stink otherwise.

@jwaas, I use this .ini tweak and Pescado's mod without issues.

ETA: Don't forget to click the "thanks" button for added lulz!

[Claeric]

I think I have a mod which alters something else in the ini file, because it isn't working.

Should they ALWAYS just walk through, or only if there's no path around? I was hoping they'd always just walk through, so I could pretend it was "sliding by" but without an animation, but if there's another way around they run right around.

[uknortherner]

It only does it when there's no path around. There is a way to force them to walk through each other all the time regardless of space, and it involved changing one of the other [config] settings to 0 in addition to DynamicAvoidance_FieldRadius, but this had a knock-on effect of trapping sims in doorways where they wouldn't move at all. Eventually, you'd end up with a load of sims getting trapped in the same door.