Testers Wanted: Less Autonomous College Assignment (Updated 4/11/2006)

[syberspunk]

Edit: 4/11/2006
Yet another bug. This one was actually preventing dormies from autonomously doing assignments due to erroneous retrieval of max grade points. I've tested this and it should be fixed now.

Edit: 3/29/2006
It looks like there were actually bugs that I never caught before. Hopefully it should be fixed now.

Ok, I'm posting this here as well, since some of you don't go over to MTS2.

Edit2: I forgot to mention, the "new" fix for the bathrooms should work when sims try to create New assignments. So, from this point on, sims should never attempt to do assignments if they are standing in a bathroom. However... if an assignment Already exists in the bathroom, they may attempt to do/finish it. You can either let them finish it, or move it manually. But after that, sims shouldn't be doing assignments in the bathroom. Please test/play with this and let me know if it works properly (so far it has in my game, but needs more testing). Thanks!

Edit: I have placed this in the EP2 - Nightlife Category only because I wasn't completely sure if it would work in just University. That's why I want testers to tell me whether or not it does work. I suspect that it should, since the BHAVs for this were introduced in Uni and most likely have not changed since.  If anyone is willing to test this out and report back, as soon as it is confirmed to work in Uni, then I may edit the category as well.

This hack was made to fulfill a little request made by CuriousSpurious over at the MATY forums. I decided to give it a try because I wanted a small, hopefully somewhat easy project to "cut my teeth" so to speak on modding. Upgrading Risky Woohoo was good practice, but it was pretty easy to do having a template to pretty much copy (Thanks sweatm. ). I wanted to do something pretty much from "scratch" and (mostly) on my own. This "simple" hack represents the fruit of my labor.

What this hack does:

• Autonomous college assignments are restricted to dormies/YAs who live on the current Dorm lot.
  
• Autonomous college assignments are disabled for all visitors. This includes YAs who "live" elsewhere (another Dorm, Residence, limbo i.e. the magical space from which randomly generated passerby YAs appear from and disappear to...) as well as any YA NPC (Cheerleaders, Mascots, Streakers, etc.)
  
• Autonomous college assignments are disabled on Residences, Greek Houses, and Secret Societies (to prevent visitor litter).
  
• Autonomous college assignments are disabled if a Party (of any type: House, Sports, etc.) is in progress.
  
• Autonomous college assignments are disabled if the Sim has fulfilled their maximum grade.
  :new:
  
• Autonomous college assignments are disabled if the Sim is currently in a bathroom (which is defined as being in the same room as a Terlet, Showah, Bathtub, or Showahtub).
  
  Note: Maximum grade is the current possible maximum, so if you have not upgraded your meter yet, and the meter has been maximized at that current level, this hack should prevent your sim from trying to do an assignment.
  
  Note 2: It is sort of pointless for dormies to do assignments anyway, since they are essentially "frozen" in time. But of course it is meant to give the illusion that they are "normal" like your playable sims. Dormies usually always have a fully upgraded meter. With that in mind, this hack will pretty much stop dormies from doing assignments once their meter is full. So if you have the same dormies in a particular dorm through several generations, they may no longer do assignments, unless you make them playable some how (by moving them in or with some hack) or if you use some hack to reset their grade point status.
  

Exceptions:

• Playable (selectable) sims will still be able to do college assignments (if user directed i.e. the player selected/clicked on College.../Do Assignment or clicked on an existing Assignment and chose Do Assignment).
• Dormies/YAs who live on the current Dorm Lot who are very serious (Playful < 300) will still autonomously do college assignments.
  
• Dormies/YAs who live on the current Dorm Lot who are very shy (Outgoing < 300) will still autonomously do college assignments.
  
• All YAs will be allowed to autonomously do college assignments IF the current lot is a Community Lot in a University Neighborhood (for libraries, student centers, etc.)
  
• Any sim that has been influenced (i.e. the influencee will obviously do the college assignment of influencer).
  

As usual, sims should be in a relatively good mood (Mood > 0 = essentially "in the green") in order to autonomously do assignments.

User directed playable sims should always still do assignment if ordered to do so.

It should still be possible to influence almost any sim to do your own sim's assignment.

This mod is meant to help reduce the number of assignments that created, so that the only assignments littering your Dorm Lot are the assignments of your playable sims and the dormies that live there. It was the original intent to prevent excessive clutter, especially from visiting sims and NPC sims who end up leaving unfinished assignments all over your dorm. This specific issue may already be dealt with by the latest patches, which I believe cause those types of assignments to essentially "magically" evaporate. Nevertheless, I really hated seeing visitors and NPCs do their assignment at my dorm and leave it behind and unfinished. So, hopefully, this prevents that from happening in the first place.

Caveat:
However, because of how this mod works, it pretty much will also prevent valid visitors from doing their assignments on your dorm (as intended to prevent litter). So... you can't really have a "study date" or "group assignment" scenario when you call/invite/greet other YA sims to your Dorm Lot. These sims will be unable to create new assignments for themselves, and you can't really "ask" them to. Perhaps, if I ever get that advanced and figure out how to add interactions, I may consider that for a possible, future upgrade. But I'm lazy so don't hold yer breath.

Additionally, I believe the restrictions during a Party go into effect when the Party Controller gets created. This probably happens when the dialog box with the countdown timer pops up. So... any sims that are already autonomously doing assignments will continue to do so until they stop on their own. In other words, this mod does not STOP sims from doing assignments while in the middle of the interaction. It merely prevents them from attempting to start. Once a sim stops, if the party is going, and they meet appropriate criteria, then they should not try to go back to the assignment. Only after the party ends, dormie/YA sims will be able to autonomously do assignments again. Certain sims (very serious or very shy) will still autonomously do assignments.

INSTALLATION:
These MUST be in your Downloads folder, typically found under:

C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\Downloads

Possible further updates:
I am also working on a similar, related mod for group research (i.e. no group research during a party). It will probably have looser/fewer restrictions. I also have possible plans involving tutoring and teaching how to study requiring the "Learned How to Study" memory. I am also considering a mod that may force sims to try and find all existing assignments on the lot before starting/creating a new one if they attempt to do assignments autonomously.

Compatibility:
Nightlife
University - possibly, currently untested (as I will not uninstall and reinstall just to do so). However, this hack requires University (since College Assignments only make sense in Uni ). This is where Testers Wanted comes in. If you only have Uni, please test it and let me know. I can't imagine why it shouldn't work, but to be on the safe side, I need testers.

I have tested this in several lots on in my game, and it appeared to work in all situations as described above. The appropriate sims were able to do assignments and the appropriate sims were restricted from doing them. I was going to try and include screenshots, however, since there are far too many variables - how would a picture of sims doing or not doing assignment for certain prove that it works? The screenshots don't really do this justice anyway. I tried to show that dormies were doing assignments as normal, but when there was a party on, no one did assignments. However, the dialog box with the countdown timer did not show up in the pics that I took in-game. Anyways, this is the kind of a hack that you would probably have to observe over a length of time to really see if it is working for you. This is why I am requesting Testers and hoping for some positive feedback as to whether it really works in other people's games or not.

So please, help me out and let me know if you have any problems. If you do have a problem, please try to describe what you were doing before and after the problem occurred. Please try running the game in debug mode (using the boolprop testingcheatsenabled true cheat) and posting your error log (if you get one). If you encounter an "error" where a sim wasn't supposed to do assignment but IS doing it, try shift clicking and forcing an error on that sim, and posting the log.

Before you do this, please make sure that the situation meets the criteria for NOT doing assignment:

• Current lot is a DORM in a UNIVERSITY neighborhood
• Sim is NOT a YA
• Sim DOES NOT live on the current DORM Lot
• Sim has NOT been influenced to do assignment
• Sim has reached current maximum grade
• There is a Party in progress
• IF there is a Party in progress THEN Sim is NOT VERY serious (has 3-10 Playful)
• IF there is a Party in progress THEN Sim is NOT VERY shy (has 3-10 Outgoing)

If the situation meets any combination of the above, then a sim should NOT do an assignment autonomously. If they DO meet the criteria, but are STILL doing assignments autonomously, then there might be something "wrong" (either the mod doesnt work properly and I missed something or you may have another mod that conflicts with this one).

This hack is compatible with most, if not all mods by MATY crew (Pescado, TJ, and CBoy), dizzy, and probably more. Again, up to you to help me determine any possible conflicts. This should not conflict with JenFlower's "homework sometimes faster fun" mod, since her mod does not affect Univeristy assignments.

:!!: REMINDER and fine print (to cover my ass ) :
Remember to ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR DATA BEFORE INSTALLING NEW HACKS. By using this hack, you agree to absolve me of any responsibility or liability for any potential loss of or damage to your data. You have been warned.

:!!: HOW TO REPORT: Conflicts, problems, or errors
I would appreciate any constructive criticism and feedback that is actually helpful. With that in mind, it would be helpful, when reporting any conflicts or issues, that you include the following:

1) thorough but reasonably brief description of what you were doing
2) clear, comprehendible explanation of your problem
3) list of hacks that may be related to college assignments
4) archived (.rar or .zip) of log produced by error

Posts which do not include a clear description of what your problem is will be pretty much ignored. (i.e. posts such as "This does not work! I am taking it out! You suck! Nice try! etc.") I can't and won't help you if you don't explain what's wrong.
 
Please be nice when trying to explain your problem and I might be nice and help you.

:grouphug: Finally, my Thank Yous go to:

CuriousSpurious for the request over at MATY. J.M. Pescado, twojeffs, dizzy2, and jase439 for being excellent tutors and providing excellent models in their mods. And thanks go to them again, as well as Inge Jones, ebruere, christinalov, and Flyby for putting up with and answering all my annoying questions. As always, thanks to those creators who've put out some excellent modding tutorials, Quaxi and co for SimPE, and dizzy2 for disaSim2, and the finally letters T and S, and the number 2, all of whom, without which this mod would not be possible.

If I left anyone out, I apologize in advance. You know who you are and you deserve my thanks.

Revision History:
v1.01 - Fixed possible bug regarding missing stack object
v1.02 - Converted format to 8007 to ensure backwards compatibility for users with Uni Only (No need to update if you have NL)
v1.03 - Added Fix to Prevent Autonomous College Assignments in Bathrooms
v1.04 - Fixed bug concerning Error: Missing neighbor for data access.
v1.05 - Really fixed possible bug regarding missing stack object, I think... *crosses fingers*
v1.06 - Fixed issue preventing sims from doing assignments due to erroneous retrieval of max grade points

[Marvin Kosh]

I picked this up a little while ago over at MTS2.  It was infuriating to invite a friend over to a Uni lot and spend half of the time trying to coax them into having fun instead of whipping an assignment out every hour or so.  Thanks for mitigating the problem

[syberspunk]

Fixed a minor bug concerning Error: Missing neighbor for data access.

Sometimes a sim, while doing homework, will pop up an error, especially if running in debug mode. I am not sure if the error silently fails if you debug mode is not on. That may be the case why I did not catch this bug earlier.

Simply redownload the file and allow it to overwrite the previous version. And as always, please report any problems you may encounter while using this mod. Hopefully this fix works with no further errors.

Ste

[C.S.]

Obviously not anywhere near awesome since I'm asking this potentially stupid question : does this error occur only if a sim tries to do homework? Back in the base neighbourhood, I had Darleen Dreamer use Monique's pc to mass-email, she kept resetting and 'jumping' out of her chair. I turned on debug mode and got the 'Missing neighbor for data access' error message. She had Darren's dead father in her thought balloon everytime it happens, and I guess she was somehow able to email the long dead unlinked sim that had no character data. I looked in her relationships panel in SimPE and saw that indeed, she had gained some daily relationship scores with her late father-in-law. I thought the error had something to do with the hacked pc though, I've somehow managed to fix it and it hasn't happened since that one time. See? Not anywhere near awesome at all as I can't tell what caused that error .

[syberspunk]

Obviously not anywhere near awesome since I'm asking this potentially stupid question : does this error occur only if a sim tries to do homework? Back in the base neighbourhood, I had Darleen Dreamer use Monique's pc to mass-email, she kept resetting and 'jumping' out of her chair. I turned on debug mode and got the 'Missing neighbor for data access' error message.

Not at all a stupid question, at least not to me, since I'm still learning/figuring things out anyway. And no, this error isn't isolated to this mod in particular. It could happen to any mod that uses a BHAV but provides the wrong type of input/parameter. Many BHAVs expect a certain type of parameter, and often when modding we *I* (can't exactly speak for everyone else can I ) tend to steal borrow code from existing hacks or other Maxis BHAVs. However, if you don't check that the parameters you are passing actually match the type that is expected, you can get errors. This is what generally causes most errors, in addition to improperly declaring the # of parameters, locals, or constants (which results in errors such as "stack out of range" or "invalid constant").

So... if this did happen with another mod, maybe you should report it and/or include the error log that you got because of it (assuming you still have it). In some cases, these errors might crop up because a modder just didn't expect a certain scenario, and thus wouldn't have thought to handle that specific case, which would lead to the error. As in your case, how your sim "magically" developed a relationship with her dead father-in-law. I would think that many bugs in general pop up because the game doesn't seem to be "thoroughly" tested enough, at least for long term effects. If, for example, Maxis had bothered to test in-game play for a long while, I can't imagine how they could have never experienced the very first "jump bugs" that had to do with exponentially growing numbers of sims and sim memories.

Anyhew, this is probably more than enough of an answer than you wanted. Hehe. As for this specific error in my mod, I hope it fixes it. I hadn't experienced the bug before hand, but then again, I hadn't played in a long while. My original testing was in several different house holds, a couple old, and a couple new, and I usually let it run for a few sim days and it all seemed ok. So it might very well be just a rare case, where this particular sim's info might have been screwy.

Ste

[C.S.]

Not that I understand anything that has to do with coding, but ok, still good to know . When it comes to pinpointing what caused an error in the game, it's usually a hit-and-miss with me. I was convinced it was the hacked pc as the error occurred when I directed a sim to use it, then read your update and became uncertain as I had been using the pc for quite sometime without any incident .

Talk about messages from the beyond, haha.

[syberspunk]

I've noticed a minor issue with this after finally reinstalling everything and visiting Uni. As with any new EP, sims tend to get reset, especially those that were saved off lot. In my game, I had several dormies who were away at class, and upon return, they were reset back on the lot. I thought nothing of this, but later on, I started to get a pile up of returning dormies near the mailbox.

I'm not exactly sure how or why this happens, but I beleive the problem has to do with certain object ids getting mixed up. This may or may not happen in your game. In my game, I had a couple of food bowls that were laid out by the cafeteria worker, but the only options I had were to Clean Up or Resume Cooking. If I tried to Resume Cooking, the action just fell out of queue. I figured it was just a weird quirk probably due to adding OFB, but then it turned out that, when I turned on debug mode, the pile up of dormies were generating stack object errors. They were all trying to do their college assignments, but the object ids got fubared somehow, and instead they were trying to use the food bowls. Maybe somehow the object ids got mixed up, at least that's my guess. *shrugs*

Anyways, the solution was somewhat simple enough. I turned on the moveobjects cheat and I deleted all the existing unfinished college assignments on the lot. The dormies carried on as normal. After saving, exiting, and returning. The dormies were once again able to do college assignments like before. So far, I haven't had any other problems. If you run in debug mode, I don't think choosing Cancel or Delete will work. Choosing Reset definitely does not work, as the sim only tries to attempt to do the college assignment again. Cancel will probably only cancel that interaction for now, but if the sim tries to do their college assignment, you will get the same error (it will look like a 'jump bug' or like your sim is frozen or 'jumping' in place). Choosing Delete will probably just delete the sim in question, and not the college assignment (because it is the sim throwing the exception, not the college assignment itself, from trying to use the assignment but it is using an erroneous object id).

Unfortunately, this means that you have to be diligent in hunting down all the college assignments and nuking them manually.

Sorry for the inconvenience, but it shouldn't be that difficult to deal with.

Ste

[jrd]

Can it be correct that the new download files are dated 23-12-2005?

[syberspunk]

Can it be correct that the new download files are dated 23-12-2005?

The last update I made was Dec 23rd. However, it turns out that there are still bugs in this hack. This was one of my first hacks that I made, when I was still figuring things out. There are certain lines that I have not used properly. A fix is currently being tested...

I'm not sure why the error seems to go away. The bug(s) is specifically related to not finding the correct object stack ID. I think this may be brought on by installing EPs or patches, but I can't be sure. The problem is that, whenever a dormie does NOT have a proper Major, this hack should cause your sims to 'jump' or possibly 'freeze' in place.

Now I'm not sure what causes a sim to lose their major. Up until I installed OFB, I didn't seem to have this problem. I (and presumably other uses who have downloaded and are using this hack) might have just been lucky that all my dormies had valid majors assigned to them. Now... I don't know why, after installing OFB, I came accross a couple of dormies who had blank majors. I recall this being a problem before, with other hacks like the college adjuster and lot debugger, which were all fixed after making sure that majors were set to some default.

In anycase, I think I have that part fixed for my hack as well. However, I am currently testing this, and I have noticed a drastic reduction in doing college assignments. This may be due to a couple of things:

a) I am finally seeing the long term affects of dormies who have constantly been building up their semester meters, and thus once those are full, they will no longer do college assignments (which is supposed to be a feature of this hack)

b) I am testing another hack for allowing autonmous use of computers for certain situations, including dorms, since I want my dormies to "act" more lifelike and allow them to Play SSX. I got tired of seeing them all cranky, with low fun, especially in dorms where I hadn't managed to rake in enough loot to purchase stuff. Since computers are already present, why not let them use it as well? Only now... I think the fun advertisement may be such a huge draw that they will prefer to play computer over doing assignments... I'm trying to tweak this now.

I will release the fix now (so far, I have not experienced any 'jump' or 'freeze' bugs yet... *crosses fingers*). I hope that everyone who has downloaded this hack, will download the new version and test it out and report back any problems.

Ste

[syberspunk]

Yet another bug. This one was actually preventing dormies from autonomously doing assignments due to erroneous retrieval of max grade points. I've tested this and it should be fixed now.

I noticed this after I managed to clean up the code and figure out how to properly set the opcode operands for the RTBN call. However... I set one of the bits incorrectly, and as a result, it was returning garbage when trying to check the maximum grade points possible. So, essentially it was preventing dormies from doing assignments completely, even in a brand new dorm.

This should be fixed now. Please redownload, override, and test. Thanks.

Ste

PS. Sorry for all the constant updates. This was one of my first mods, and I was still pretty new to modding. I still pretty much am. It's a constant learning process, but at least I'm learning from my mistakes.

[BlueSoup]

Ste, 'tis better that you constantly update rather than ignore it and move on to your newer stuff. 

[MissDoh]

Since I am planning in spending a lot of days playing the Univeristy part, I will download this one and report if I notice any bug.

Just want to make sure that it is OFB compatible?  I am guessing yes since in a post you are referring to OFB but I just want to make sure since it is not specify in the original post.

[syberspunk]

Yep. Pretty much all of the mods I've made should be compatible with OFB, unless otherwise specifically stated. I think I've updated everything that needed updating, and anything else should still be compatible for OFB.

Ste

[notveryawesome]

Hey Ste. I know that necromancy is bad, but I didn't see the sense in starting a new thread for this. You mentioned possibly doing a similar hack for group research. Are you still planning this? It's great that the YA sims no longer whip out their assignments during a party, but now they all head to the bookcase for group research as soon as they walk through the door. It's making me mental. Sure, I can just shoo them from their studying, but it would be great to have a nice shiney hack, so it didn't happen in the first place (hint hint), though with a 'group research is fun' hack, the studying can actually boost party ratings.

Edited to add: I do have a 'noautonomousresearch' hack, but it only seems to affect playables, not guests.

[syberspunk]

Hey Ste. I know that necromancy is bad, but I didn't see the sense in starting a new thread for this.

With these type of threads hosting mods, I'm sure necromancy really isn't a big concern.

You mentioned possibly doing a similar hack for group research. Are you still planning this?

I did have something in the works along whiles ago, but pushed it to the backburner.  I dug it up again, and thought that I might be able to easily "plug in" the current "code" I was using for the college assignment one, but it's a bit messier than I remembered.  I'm hoping to have some spare time tonight to tinker with it, and possibly release it for testing.

Sure, I can just shoo them from their studying, but it would be great to have a nice shiney hack, so it didn't happen in the first place (hint hint), though with a 'group research is fun' hack, the studying can actually boost party ratings.

I do like this idea. I'm glad *I* thought of it. Hehe. Actually, that would be kind of a neat idea. I think I will look into this, and possibly do something similar, along the lines that JenFlower had done originally with her homeworksometimesfasterfun hack.

Ste

[miros]

Note 2: It is sort of pointless for dormies to do assignments anyway, since they are essentially "frozen" in time.

Has anyone heard of a hack to "unfreeze" dormies, so they'll have some sort of accomplishment showing if you make them playable?  I hate having a Sim decide he's in love with a Dormie in the middle of Junior year, so they move out and in together... and she's a first semester Freshman, although she's been living "with him for 2.5 years"!

[jsalemi]

Check out TwoJeff's College Adjuster -- it'll let you change a sim's skills, and adjust their semester and grades to whatever you want.

[miros]

That feels a little too "cheaty" to me, but I guess I can convince myself that it's just a bug fix...

[syberspunk]

Alternatively, if you use the move-in all hack, you can move that dormie in and make them playable while you are at Uni.  This even works if the dormie lives in the same dorm as your playable.  Essentially, it's just a sort of non-cheaty way to make them "legitimately" playable rather than just making them selectable.  Of course, this means you would actually have to play them... and I know Uni can be a chore and a bore for some.

Ste

[miros]

I wait til my Sim falls for one of the Dormies, then have them move out of the dorm and take their lover with them.  They can then move back into the same dorm or into a private house. 

It just annoys me that I've then got to cheat to get the Dormie "up to snuff" so he or she can graduate with the original playable Sim.

[syberspunk]

Well... if you have comm skilling for all... at least your dormies can gain skills.  I attempted to see if there was a way to assign majors to dormies and actually make them go to exams.  It appeared to work... but then, somehow, dormies will also get reset, and end up losing the majors that you might have assigned them, or the semesters that you had them earn, getting set back to 1st semester freshmen.

Which is crappity because they would end up stuck with false memories.  I haven't had time to figure out why this was happening, much less how I might fix it. It may be a similar issue related to why other hacks to make townies age don't seem to work properly.

Ste

[notveryawesome]

Sure, I can just shoo them from their studying, but it would be great to have a nice shiney hack, so it didn't happen in the first place (hint hint), though with a 'group research is fun' hack, the studying can actually boost party ratings.

I do like this idea. I'm glad *I* thought of it. Hehe. Actually, that would be kind of a neat idea. I think I will look into this, and possibly do something similar, along the lines that JenFlower had done originally with her homeworksometimesfasterfun hack.

Ste

Actually, there is already a 'group research is fun' a hack (by Squinge?), which I have - sorry I didn't make that clear in my earlier post. I have found that, with the hack installed, group research does indeed boost party ratings, but not as much as eating, socialising, dancing, etc, and this is why I would like a 'no group research at parties' hack to go along with the 'no party assignments' hack.

[syberspunk]

Actually, there is already a 'group research is fun' a hack (by Squinge?), which I have - sorry I didn't make that clear in my earlier post. I have found that, with the hack installed, group research does indeed boost party ratings, but not as much as eating, socialising, dancing, etc, and this is why I would like a 'no group research at parties' hack to go along with the 'no party assignments' hack.

Ahhh. Ok, that's good then. Because I can be lazy and not have to delve into it myself. Lol. There's just so many hacks over there, it's sometimes tough to wade through the flood in order to cull the few "gems" that I'd actually be interested in.   Anyhew, I kinda threw something together the other night, and haven't really tested it out yet.  For now... theoretically, it most likely will prevent studying from starting while a party is in effect.  However..., for any sims that started studying before a party begins, they most likely will continue to study until whatever it is that makes them stop, well... makes them stop. (Usually sims should stop due to motives, but I've seen/had dormies like stuck for days studying. Heh, I guess they really really needed to pull an all-nighter Or they just really really liked whatever it was they were studying. Hehe. Actually, it probably was just a bug with them gettin frozen or whatever). 

Anyhew, I could possibly change the interaction itself to check if there is a party going and halt, but then that most likely would conflict with squinge's hack.  What you could do then, is suggest/request that squinge include this in his hack.  All you would have to do is, once every reading loop or whatever, just check if the Party Controller has been instantiated on the lot, and if so, then exit.  You could do something fancier and base it on personality and/or aspiration, so the more outgoing or Popularity and Pleasure sims will tend to always stop studying.  Whereas, the more shy and serious or Knowledge sims will continue to study.

I'll try and test my hack out sometime tonite, and if it at least doesn't cause any jump bugs, I'll toss it up on the Peasantry for public testing or what not. The thing is, depending on how your sims are, it's kind of one of those hacks that you'd have to do several trials with parties to see if it's actually working.  That is, you'd have to keep track that no sims are starting to study while a party is going, with the caveat that, any sims who have already started studying will most likely continue to do so.  I suppose you could also manually break up the study session by shooing them or calling them over maybe.

Ste

[C.S.]

It's great that the YA sims no longer whip out their assignments during a party, but now they all head to the bookcase for group research as soon as they walk through the door. It's making me mental.

Dumb party guests turning to group research because they can't do assignments with LACA installed was driving me crazy too. But if you do the routine of sending the YAs to final exams and putting them on macrotastics>college rampage upon their return, you can try this solution - pick up the bookcases and place them facing the wall to stop the stupid party behaviour. You can turn the bookcases back as and when your YAs need it. The stupid party guests may still try to grab the books off the shelves but at least they can't actually get to it.

It's not a foolproof solution since it requires you to remember to turn the bookcases back and forth, but at least it'll save you the annoyance of stupid party behaviour.

[notveryawesome]

Ste, I am willing to give up my 'group research is fun' hack in exchange for the 'no group research at parties' hack, and I really appreciate that you are working on this. Many thanks! Oh, I mean 'Baaaaaaaaa'