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    Multi-tasking gone wrong.

    BatmanBatman Posts: 302 Member
    in The Sims 4 General Discussion
    Dear EA/Maxis,

    Not everything is a social activity. Multi-tasking is great, don't get me wrong. But not everything has to be a huge social gathering.

    I'm a generational player. I build families that grow with their home. After generations, they often have mega-mansions. Why should my teenager walk down 4 flights of stairs and go across a 60x60 lot to sit and do his homework while his dad works out in their gym so they can chit-chat? Especially when:
    • Homework study time is often done alone
    • Why would you realistically go down 4 flights to sit with someone? How would you even know they're there?
    • Why would someone working out want to chit chat with someone studying?

    /endrant

    Comments

    • So_MoneySo_Money Posts: 2,536 Member
      edited July 2017
      This is because EA/Maxis always use a sledgehammer where a scalpel is required. There's no subtlety or nuance to any of the game mechanics anymore.
    • MrMonty96MrMonty96 Posts: 1,715 Member
      So_Money wrote: »
      This is because EA/Maxis always use a sledgehammer where a scalpel is required. There's no subtlety or nuance to any of the game mechanics anymore.

      True.
    • starcrunchstarcrunch Posts: 672 Member
      Batman wrote: »
      Dear EA/Maxis,

      Not everything is a social activity. Multi-tasking is great, don't get me wrong. But not everything has to be a huge social gathering.

      I'm a generational player. I build families that grow with their home. After generations, they often have mega-mansions. Why should my teenager walk down 4 flights of stairs and go across a 60x60 lot to sit and do his homework while his dad works out in their gym so they can chit-chat? Especially when:
      • Homework study time is often done alone
      • Why would you realistically go down 4 flights to sit with someone? How would you even know they're there?
      • Why would someone working out want to chit chat with someone studying?

      /endrant

      Or you could cancel the talk interaction and tell your Sim to sit where you wanted and they'd do it without going more then a few steps the wrong way (they will complete any fight of stairs they've started though, as Sims never stop or reverse course in the middle of stairs).

      If you care about a Sim doing a task like homework at a certain spot order them to sit at the desk you want and then do homework and they'll do it there. Alternatively order them to do homework and if they start heading away from where you think they should do it order them to sit where you want and they'll head to that location instead. I've never had trouble ordering Sims to do homework at a specific desk or table. The same thing will work with food as well, if a sim goes the wrong way after grabbing food just order them to sit in the right spot and they'll take the food there instead.
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    • icmnfrshicmnfrsh Posts: 18,789 Member
      Yeah, something similar happened to me. I ordered my sim to eat and drink at the same time, but he refuses to do so on the dinner table because his brother is in the study, so he ends up dropping the drink action from his queue. It's a minor annoyance, but something that could use some tuning
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    • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
      So_Money wrote: »
      This is because EA/Maxis always use a sledgehammer where a scalpel is required. There's no subtlety or nuance to any of the game mechanics anymore.
      That's a perfect way of putting it, they so love overdoing basically good ideas.
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    • DeKayDeKay Posts: 81,590 Member
      Yeah, I hate that too.
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    • HalloMolliHalloMolli Posts: 2,720 Member
      edited July 2017
      Ehm, while I can agree with the message in your OP I have to disagree with the examples you brought up to prove your point. I, personally have rarely done my homework alone, especially in college I was used to meet with other students and it was just a part of the "learning" experience to socialize. So I would hate it if they disabled multi-tasking here. Same applies to Training btw.
      Why would you realistically go down 4 flights to sit with someone? How would you even know they're there?

      100% with you on this one. From another thread:

      Sorry for the mini-rant, but who on earth stated (after play-testing their ideas) that the Café-lot or retail System is "good enough" to release? Are coders really proud of their work? I am sorry, but adhs-sims, unrest, talking human-Clusters, musical-chairs etc. completely ruin the experience of going to a Café (a calm place) or owning a shop. Seriously, I am wondering: Do they even Play their games and actually like what they did there? There are so many design decisions which are really bad, even on paper. It is just beyond me how somebody could even come up with this plum (scientist Progression triggers a flood of Aliens in disguise... really?! People have been wishing for toggles to disable supernaturals since like FOREVER and they think that forcing a FLOOD upon us will be considered... fun!?).


      Post edited by HalloMolli on
      "[...] and everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, then it's not the end."


    • samemiesamemie Posts: 1,623 Member
      starcrunch wrote: »
      Batman wrote: »
      Dear EA/Maxis,

      Not everything is a social activity. Multi-tasking is great, don't get me wrong. But not everything has to be a huge social gathering.

      I'm a generational player. I build families that grow with their home. After generations, they often have mega-mansions. Why should my teenager walk down 4 flights of stairs and go across a 60x60 lot to sit and do his homework while his dad works out in their gym so they can chit-chat? Especially when:
      • Homework study time is often done alone
      • Why would you realistically go down 4 flights to sit with someone? How would you even know they're there?
      • Why would someone working out want to chit chat with someone studying?

      /endrant

      Or you could cancel the talk interaction and tell your Sim to sit where you wanted and they'd do it without going more then a few steps the wrong way (they will complete any fight of stairs they've started though, as Sims never stop or reverse course in the middle of stairs).

      If you care about a Sim doing a task like homework at a certain spot order them to sit at the desk you want and then do homework and they'll do it there. Alternatively order them to do homework and if they start heading away from where you think they should do it order them to sit where you want and they'll head to that location instead. I've never had trouble ordering Sims to do homework at a specific desk or table. The same thing will work with food as well, if a sim goes the wrong way after grabbing food just order them to sit in the right spot and they'll take the food there instead.

      That's all great in theory but the problem for me is it never works. Often my sims will continue to walk down the stairs even after I've cancelled the action and still go and sit down where they were going to before cancelling the action and going back to where I want. Also, it would be fine if all you had to do was redirect them and they obeyed but you have to cancel the action every few seconds it seems. When I'm playing a big household I can't babysit everyone like that. If I want two sims to eat but not talk (just because it takes so long) I have to cancel the social interaction every few seconds and it just gets annoying after a while.
    • KarilanKarilan Posts: 2,935 Member
      The ones that drive me nuts are going to the bathroom WHILE eating instead of after. Seriously Sim? You're disgusting.

      The other is doing pretty much everything while carrying a book. Carrying, not reading. Reading already takes forever, do you have to walk all over the place with it?!
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    • PiperbirdPiperbird Posts: 4,161 Member
      In the only game I ever played where I had a kid, for some reason the kid would do his homework at the desk in his room - UNLESS the father went to use the bathroom. As soon as he sat down, the kid would pick up his homework and walk into the bathroom and try to do his homework on the floor. This, of course, would freak out the father. Everyone would be embarrassed, it took forever to get the kid out of the room (where he would then be too embarrassed to do the homework), and by the time the kid was gone the father had to use the bathroom so badly that he had to do the 'I have to pee walk' (which is annoying, unnecessary, and takes LONGER to walk to the bathroom that way), and would sometimes have an accident. It was agonizing.

      Yes, you can cancel the order (if you see it in time), but even if you give them something else to do, often times they will cancel this on their own and try to do the thing you cancelled anyway. Constant drinking was a good example of this.

      This game has to be some sort of social experiment on behalf of EA to see how many people would still buy a game they put zero effort into.
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