More Awesome Than You!

I have been experiencing some "problems" in some of my houses since I installed Nightlife. For example, I will direct someone to use the computer to write their term paper. They stand next to the desk waving their hands, complaining and the thought bubble indicates that there is something blocking their path.  But - the computer, desk and chair are in the same position that they were in prior to NL and never had problems before. After they have their little fit, the action cancels out.

I thought it might be a stuck kicky bag, but here's the strange thing I've noticed: after they have their fit and the action falls from the queue, if I immediately re-direct them to perform the action, they will do it without complaining. Before, if I had a stuck kicky bag or something like that, I could never get them to do the action no matter how many times I queued it. On several lots now, they will complain if I tell them to do something, indicate a blocked path and drop the action from the queue but they will do the task if I immediately re-queue it.

Anyone else having this strange problem?  Not sure if it's a bug or a "feature" since it seems that the action will be completed when re-queued.

I have notice this problem in my game before nightlife; it started for me in university. It seems to happen mostly with the computer desk, dinning tables and chairs for me. And like you said they will do the tasks if immediately re-queue. I don't know why this happen. I have notice that some times the chairs get out of position and sometimes it will repositions it self sometimes it won't.

No, it's not a bug. If you direct your sims together to perform some task, and they touch each other on the same spot, they complaint and wave their hands. But if after that you give them the same order, they'll perform it.

It happens too if you have only one computer, and order one of your sims to find a job; the other sim is in a standby position, playing something. The first sim found the job, you give him another order to move him away from the computer, and you give the second sim to find a job too. Almost always the second sim will complaint that he can't sit on the chair, but after repeating the order - he will sit on the chair without problems. This means you sent him too soon to sit on the chair (probably you used the "pause" before it).

I have had this problem, but i figured out how to get them to use the chairs almost every time.
I will always direct them to walk right next to the chair on the left or right, and never directly behind it...
It always works for me....
If i direct the sim to sit in the chair without pointing them to "run here" or "go here", it is hit or miss. But if I direct them to "go" directly next to the chair, and never behind it, it almost always works.  Even if the action is cancelled out, just redirect them to "go" or "run" to either side, and it will most likely work the second time around.
The only time it doesn't work, obviously, is when you influence someone to do your term paper or assignment...since you have no control over that sim's route, it is hit or miss as to whether they will actually be able to use the chair.  I believe it all depends on the route which they take to get there....In my experiece, that is.
Hope that helps...
-RabidAngel

Also, this has happened in my game since University...long before Nightlife.

Yes, and it happens to me without any expansion. I do the same as RabidAngel, direct them to run to a spot in the general vicinity, then to the chair.

The key word, as RabidAngel correctly states, is NOT BEHIND the chair. I've often found out that if they're standing directly behind the chair they get the "path is blocked" bubble (nope, no fits thanks to JM and his hacks - and no NL installed yet!).

Interesting. I never noticed it, but now that I think about it, it makes sense.

If you pay attention between buying the chair and switching into live mode, you'll notice that the chair performs the pushed in animation. Note that it still occupies the tile, but for routing purposes, sims can pass "through" the object.

If you direct a sim positioned "within" a chair to sit there, the interaction has to perform a special check called "Chair - Shoo Sims off Tile" and a sim obviously can't shoo themselves. That will fail and perform the route fail because a sim is blocking me routine.

These routines are all a bit more complex now with Nightlife (because sectionals have to be handled in a special way), so that would take some work to fix.

what are sectionals? why is it included with NL? what does it do?

Sectionals are special sofa-type chairs that are used mainly in commercial settings. Getting in and out is a bit more of a pain for the AI considering they handle a wider range of configurations than your garden-variety chairs and sofas.

I almost posted my experience with sectionals in the original post as well. So far, my sims don't have any problems with the sectionals that are in the community lots. In my "retirement home" which I have set-up similiar to a dorm, I used sectional seating in the kitchen area - made it look more like a restaurant. Individual sims have no problem sitting down with their meals at the table, but forget trying to clean-up at the table or for one sim to serve all the rest. I tried configuring the seats several different ways and just finally gave up and put in a regular dinig table.