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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 1st Jan 2019 at 4:24 AM
Default Couple of practical gameplay questions
Here's something I feel I should know after 8 years, but don't:

Firstly, I'm having a group of Sims sit at a table, where I want them to have a conversation. But when I direct Sims to sit down they will pull out the chairs, sit down, and then won't scoot the chair back into position. They're all sitting at an angle, away from the table. How do I get them to actually sit AT the table?
Secondly, how do I change the emotional state on a Sim's face when they're idle? I need them to have a neutral facial expression as much as possible.

Thanks

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#3 Old 1st Jan 2019 at 2:12 PM
With the facial expressions, I think you'd have to replace most facial animations with a neutral face. And as far as I know, I think Sims only have the function of scooting in when they are going to eat.

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#4 Old 1st Jan 2019 at 5:35 PM
Pose packs?

I have successfully used Move objects to move a chair with a sim in it into the proper position, although I don't remember if I was ever putting them at a table. As a precaution, save first (twice, once with a new name) and don't save afterwards.

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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#5 Old 1st Jan 2019 at 8:18 PM
Hm, interesting. Never knew the game could be this lacking in functionality. Seems like everytime I need to shoot a scene, I need to do it 3 or 4 times over just to get the footage I need.

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Field Researcher
#6 Old 5th Jan 2019 at 4:46 AM
Quote: Originally posted by GrijzePilion
Hm, interesting. Never knew the game could be this lacking in functionality. Seems like everytime I need to shoot a scene, I need to do it 3 or 4 times over just to get the footage I need.


Ye gods, yes. I find I have to use pose packs to get my little pixellated SOBs to sit at the table properly, even then, it's fiddly. Danjaley has some good seated pose-listed convo poses; I use them a lot, but again, sometimes I have to fiddle with heights (on an OMSP) to get them to a proper height. Takes me forever, and sometimes I have to take shots from different angles due to clipping.

I feel your pain, I do. Of course, I'm doing stills, and you're not, if I remember right? I don't know of any sitting conversation animations, sadly, other than using AnimationPlayer to get them seated and talking, and even then, you may still have the pulled out chair issue.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help than that.

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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#7 Old 5th Jan 2019 at 6:07 AM
As it stands now, my best bet is to tediously shoot a crap ton of footage and hope I end up with enough to build up a scene around it. It's all going to be worth it in the end but everything about this episode has been a colossal pain to me so far.

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Scholar
#8 Old 5th Jan 2019 at 10:47 PM
I wish I could help. Getting sims to converse at a table has had me pulling my hair out in frustration many times. If you are shooting a scene outdoors you could try using the picnic tables - those can't be scooted anyway. I was trying to shoot three sims talking at a table in a pub and I was using those modular corner seats, which again are unscootable. That works fine for conversation, but the trouble was I wanted them to have drinks in front of them and to be seen occasionally with a glass in their hands. But when I told any of them to drink they'd get up, take the drink to another table and drink it there. Sims is stoopid!

Your approach is precisely the one I use, for the most part: I'll sometimes take as many as a hundred shots for one short scene and end up using maybe ten of them.

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#9 Old 6th Jan 2019 at 12:12 AM
At least they are a bit smarter than they were in Sims 2, where "Hang out" made them get out of the perfectly good chair they were in so that they could sit on the floor...

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Mad Poster
#10 Old 6th Jan 2019 at 12:54 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Ghost sdoj
At least they are a bit smarter than they were in Sims 2, where "Hang out" made them get out of the perfectly good chair they were in so that they could sit on the floor...

On contrary, hang out interaction only serves for Sims to talk in groups in chairless situation, oppose when seated on chairs which they do talk to each other naturally in such manner whenever there is a Sim present in the room. So yeah, they do talk when sitting on their own without player intervention.

P.S. Sorry for my bad english.
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#11 Old 6th Jan 2019 at 4:36 PM
Yes, they talk with each other while seated in chairs, but the conversation stops when whatever has them sitting in the chair stops. If someone is eating and someone else comes with their own plate about halfway through the meal and they start chatting, the conversation ends when the first sim finishes eating.

And then there is the whole problem with sims you don't control, who refuse to sit at all unless you do something like invite them to watch tv. (Or, in Uni, Group Research...) Hang out is the only reliable way to have a conversation between more than 2 sims without having most of them leave as soon as you turn the tv off or they stop eating. But if they are in a chair or a sofa and you tell them to hang out, they get out of the chair to sit on the floor.

It's also good for getting someone to talk to your sim when they otherwise are not on speaking terms, if your sim is already hanging out with someone they like better. (Handy for those times when a sim got furious over losing a game.) Just keep inviting them to hang out as soon as they stand up, and the "furious" timer drops every time the relationship improves.

I am Ghost. My husband is sidneydoj. I post, he downloads, and I wanted to keep my post count.
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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#12 Old 6th Jan 2019 at 9:09 PM
I've stopped trying to reason with non-active Sims, it's just not realistic. If I want to have a Sim on-screen, they'll have to be part of the active household. That means I need to keep records of who came from where, why they're in this household, and when I'm done with them. For a series I originally hoped would consist of actual impromptu gameplay with pre-planned elements, it's getting less and less spontaneous. I only get to have real, spontaneous gameplay after I've run through the whole ~7-step process of setting up a scene. And since the 7th step is now "add everyone on the lot to the active household", that means there's no spontaneous gameplay whatsoever. If only I could toggle autonomy on a per-Sim basis.

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Inventor
#13 Old 7th Jan 2019 at 2:04 AM
Quote: Originally posted by GrijzePilion
As it stands now, my best bet is to tediously shoot a crap ton of footage and hope I end up with enough to build up a scene around it. It's all going to be worth it in the end but everything about this episode has been a colossal pain to me so far.


You could try the attention getter at ATS3. She has a flower pot one you could put on the table..I think it's supposed to mimic a TV or if you have the http://modthesims.info/d/592332/the...pt-changer.html I think you can change something into a TV (if the flowerpot doesn't work for you) I use this mod constantly and turn things into different objects all the time. So you could put something on the table (scripted as a TV) tell them all to watch TV and they should start talking to each other..

Hope this helps.
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