More Awesome Than You!

I know this is available in Power Idle mode, but is there a separate stand-alone hack to stop Sims autonomously using desk chairs to read, or eat pizza, or whatever?  This is very annoying on Uni lots, when often they can only afford one computer and someone needs to use it to write their term paper.  I finally had enough of it today when one of my YA's who needed to study FAST (as well as eat, shower & wee-wee) used-up his last influence points to get a dormie to write his term-paper while he did an assignment ... well, you can guess the rest.  Although there were two computers, one of them was already occupied by a termpaper-writing Sim and the other ... well, another of the YA's had sat on the chair to read a stupid book, so the dormie shrugged her shoulders and went off to play the piano.  I ended-up having to use the clock to postpone the exam, which I don't like having to do unless I'm forced.  I'm sure I saw a mod for this somewhere, but if there is one I can't find it.  What gets me is, there are nearly always far more comfortable chairs either nearer to the bookcase or almost as close.  Sometimes it's as stupid as one being on the left and the other being on the right and them choosing to go the wrong way.

You have to put the computer desk as far as possible from the "using chairs" objects, such as bookcases, or kitchen counters.

Usually, I put all the bookcases outside, together with the chess tables - no bookcases in the rooms.

Also, I put a counter near the mail box, to ease the pizza eaters, which will go to the nearest counter to put the pizza, and will use the sofa, or the chess seats to eat it, or read a book.

No one will go to the room with the computer, unless they want to play SS3, or you send them to write their term papers.

You can just 'shoo' them-they move pretty quick ;D

I find the whole thing of sitting at random chairs to eat irritating.   It used to be irritating in Sims 1 where they couldn't eat at all unless there was a dining table, but they still do that silly musical chairs thing where if you tell them to eat a meal at the table they are already sitting at they have to stand up and find another chair to do it at.

The secret to manipulating chair behavior is that Sims love to sit in the most expensive chairs, even if it is actually further away than the obvious logical alternatives, like the couch. Therefore, when you want to discourage sims from sitting in the computer chair, buy a crappy one that has a poor comfort rating. That'll discourage them from sitting in it nearly as much.

That's just it, they go to the crappy chair in favour of the more comfortable armchair a few feet away!  I think they're just plain lazy.  As for that musical chairs thing Inge mentions, how come sometimes they will pick up a meal that's next to a vacant chair (which doesn't need error forcing) and go sit on another, but not put the meal on the table?  They will only eat from the table if the meal hasn't been moved, otherwise they have to hold it in their hand.  What's with THAT?

Observe the sims: they always go to the nearest object.

In TS1 I always put a counter near the mail box for the mail.

Once I put the outside counter closer to the stove, that the inside counter which was for putting the meal on it after the cooking (all the sims had to grab a plate, so I put it between the stove and the dining table).
My cooking sim put the cooked meal on the outside counter. Then I had to move the outside counter more far from the stove. After that they continued to put the cooked meal on the right counter.

This is true of ordinary surfaces, in that if not restricted, they'll make wall-piercing searches rather than prioritize the current room, but not entirely true of chairs: There's definitely a bias towards the most expensive chair, even if it may be slightly further.

This happens to me too and it really ticks me off. No person I know eats at a table but holds their plate. Makes me wanna go there and whack them in the head!

It sounds like the food object is designed to avoid race conditions in a rather unsophisticated way.

Look at it this way: If you send two sims to kick a flamingo at the same time, you'll see the flamingo exhibit some strange non-exclusivity. The food object, at the very least, avoids this problem. It just probably needs a little more thought put into it to make it behave correctly in a clear placeholder-priority situation.

I do. Otherwise the plate is not close enough to my mouth for me to eat the food. I'd get really horrible gas if I tried to inhale my food from that far away.

Even when you need a knife and fork?

I dont know it just looks weird to me.

In the army, the only utensil you need is one big spoon.

How do sims define the "most expensive" chair? Sounds like a stupid question, but I'm thinking of multiple-occupancy seats. Do sims go for the bare price, so a sofa at $700 is worth more than a chair at $300, or do they "divide through" the price of loveseats & sofas by the number of people that can sit on them?

Lol, baratron, it's not the price - it's the COMFORT rate...:). And the comfort rate correlates the chair's price. The more expensive the chair is - the higher comfort rate it has...that's what JM ment to tell...:).
I always buy chairs/sofas  with 8 comfort - not less. Now they will go to the nearest chair/sofa.

Guilty is not the right word.  Peter and I eat while programming too, I consider it a virtue :)

*angel*

My IT guy at work has a box of spare keyboards for me, I'm not even kidding.  I just come up and get another one after my latest one is trashed.

I wish he would follow me home where I actually have to pay for my crumb and coffee incidents.

"Guilty" works in my case.  ;D