More Awesome Than You!

I keep wanting to click on my sims when they do something smart or stupid again and praise or scold them :D
Like praise for actually using the toilet or scold for yelling at me without a reason for the millionth time.

If only you could train your sims as you can train their pets ;)

I actually believe that there is a way to train Sims, but it's to a much smaller degree than pets. If I remember correctly, you can teach them to put their homework on a desk when they come home, or something. Thankfully we don't have to housebreak Sims, well, most of the time.

Sims put their homework on the One Desk if there is nothing on it.  No training involved.
There are mods for assignable desks and such, but there is no sim intelligence involved.

Meh. I remember hearing a long while ago that Angela Pleasant put her homework on her desk on her own, or something. I also remember someone making another Sim do this as well, but I don't know if that was true or not. At any rate, I know the One Desk would make the whole process much easier.

dizzy has a hack where Sims will go to their bedroom with their homework, and use the closest surface to that. So that usually means the bedroom desk (as long as one tile right and one tile behind is free of course). Still WFM in Pets.

The problem with that is that the bedroom is usually a very LONG way away from the front door and since they *WALK* there, it would take HOURS to get there. This is bad, and The One Desk is definitely a better, more manageable answer.

I have and LOVE Dizzy's homework to bedroom mod, if there isnt a desk then the sim will drop it in their room, they will even choose an empty desk (usually theirs) if there is more than one in the same bedroom, couple that with do homework at 1900 by Monique and I am a happy camper. I dont care how long it takes them to go to their bedroom to drop it there, besides for teens, it stops them from doing something else annoying in the meantime since they usually have to go to work an hour after school. Drop homework on desk run to front door, kick the cheat a couple of times and viola there is the carpool - just in time!

The homework trek is a major annoyance. I usually just have my sims do their homework on the front lawn.

Pes: good point. Someone should look into the mod and see if they can be forced to run...

Ditto -- if I catch them in time, I just queue up the macrotastics 'do homework' and cancel the school icon right after they get off the bus.

My Sims like to do their homework right inside the front door (or right outside on the porch) so the adults can't get out to go to work.  Sometimes I hate those little Maxis one door houses!

First thing I do when a family gets pretty solvent is to find a place to put a second door, even if it's through a bedroom.  I don't like the idea of a single 'escape route' in RL, so I like my sims not to be stuck with one too.

I guess I just like the realism of the two mods. In my home, homework goes in the bedroom not on the front lawn or at the front door or anywhere else, and it is started at around 1900, after dinner and whatnot.

I guess we all follow our RL routines. In this house, homework gets done immediately after school.

and if they don't finish it before the carpool arrives then they will have to be late for work.

I always have children do homework early the next morning - that way they get the want to do it, and go off to school in platinum.
Maxis coding means that kids will generally put homework on a desk if it's reasonably close, with two problems
1. All kids coming home at the same time try to use the same desk, leading to whining that they can't get at it.
2. They seem unable to tell that a desk is occupied, so will attempt to put homework on the computer desk.

Speaking of desks.  I've noticed that only teens try to (and fail) to put their homework on the Glamour Life desk, while children completely ignores it and leave the homework on the front lawn.

Alright, I am going to be the dork that asks. I searched here and at MTS2. What is this One Desk thou dost speak of?

Maxis coding. The One Desk is the desk where any Sim wants to place his or her homework (and bills, and deliveries, and pizza). Once The One Desk has been decided, any other desks will be ignored until The One is sold, at which point another desk becomes The One.

Due to sadorandomness this will typically be the desk that is farthest from the mailbox, on the third floor.

Yea, I have a greek house where everyone decided the One Desk was in a bedroom on the second floor, even though it has a computer on it. They'll walk right past the kitchen with empty counters to put the pizza they stole from campus on the desk.  I finally got them to stop by putting a lamp or plant in the empty area on the left side.

jsalemi... it's the urele-oresha-cham, isn't it? I would bet....

The kids in all my families put their homework on the floor (my desks hold a computer and a phone).  Oddly, in some households they like to go upstairs and and drop it there.  Hard habit to break.

I read on some message board or other that The One Desk is the first desk that is placed on the lot, but there may or may not be any truth to it.

My One Desk has always been the first desk I put on the lot.  I always make sure it's close to the front door and that there is no computer on it.

You'd lose. :)  It's actually a new greek house I added -- I used the Brixham greek house from starling's Brixham collection over on MTS2.  I haven't felt like playing the maxis pre-mades in the existing greek houses, so they've lived in 'suspended animation' for a year now.

Darn! :D
I asked because in that greek house happens exactly the same.
Anyway, since the base game I ended up placing something on every damn free eligible surface in every house. This is the only way I found out to force sims to drop bills and crap on lawn near sidewalk. :/

The One Desk is the desk on the lot with the lowest object ID. Object IDs tend to increase as objects are placed on the lot, but are recycled when objects are deleted. If objects were deleted and then a new desk bought, that new desk could take up the role of The One Desk as a result, but otherwise, the first desk bought typically becomes The One Desk.

That explains it in my greek house, then - there was already a desk on the lot, but they kept using the one I added to give them a second computer.

Greek Houses do not have children, and therefore do not manifest obvious signs of The One Desk as University assignments differ in their desk-location mechanisms.

Not as far as assignments, but as far as them insisting on walking right past empty kitchen counters to put a pizza on the empty side of the desk on the 2nd floor, yea, they treated it as a 'One Desk'.

I don't think they'll put it on a kitchen counter. It's always a desk or coffeetable, and seems to ignore the "One" effect. Try putting an appropriate pizzadrop surface (NOT counter) closer.

I've seen pizzas on the counters if there's no other available surface.  Also on the little shelf provided by Windkeeper's mailbox cover.

They do prefer desks over counters, tho.

Now that I've blocked the open spot on the desk with a plant, they do put the pizza box on the kitchen counter.

Pizza and bills are always seems to get put on the closest surface in my game, so I always keep a few of those spindle coffee tables outside the house; one by each end and one close to the mailbox.  I used to have a lot more of them for thinking caps, but now I use the thinking cap hat stands for that.

It soudns like you need the Hacked Windkeeperian which disallows sims from putting pizzas and other nonbills on it.

I'd rather have the pizza on the mailbox shelf than lying on the ground next to the car.  That really grosses me out!

I also have a nice marble endtable (I think I got it from a link from here; if not, MTS2 somewhere) that matches the marble columns.  Works nice for houses where I don't want the mailbox cover for some reason.

It won't end up next to the car, it will just end up going for another surface other than the Windkeeperian.

Well, it hasn't ended up on the ground lately, but I know there are several things that will make them "drop" it...

1) Person bringing pizza home (PBPH) is exhausted and falls asleep standing next to the car.
2) PBPH is starving and drops the pizza to get to the "gorging on pizza" bit quicker.
3) Child wants to hug PBPH. (Yes, I have this hack now.  It hasn't happened since.)

Yes, I send my Sims to work and school with ridiculously low motives!