It's a really weird thing, and it's been going on for a couple years if no more. I'm pretty sure it was not in the game from the beginning.My sim prepares a meal, then walks into the living room to place the plate on the coffee table. It would be much smarter placing it on the dining table, or on a counter in the kitchen. But no.Right now a sim was standing in front of the kitchen fridge eating. When done, she could have left the plate on the kitchen counter 2 floor tiles away, or the kitchen dining table (6 floor tiles away). But no, she chose to walk 15 floor tiles into the living room, because that is where the only coffee table is in this house.How do you work around this bug that I don't think they will ever fix?Placing a coffee table instead of a dining table in the kitchen?Stop eating food, and rather fill their hunger bar with cheating?

That's one reason my sims can't have nice stuff, or a somewhat realistic house. I remove or don't add coffee tables because I know they'll walk through the entire house to put something there, instead of the available surface right next to them. Especially annoying with empty plates, because if the table has stuff on it, the plate can be difficult to spot, behind something.Now, lacking a coffee table, they resort to putting empty plates on fireplace mantles (?) instead :|Also, and maybe relate I don't know, I'm removing dining tables as well. My sims are wasting so much time with those around. I always tell them to grab food and then watch cooking show. Instead, they grab food, sit down at dining table, get up, sit down on sofa, then watch tv. I had to cut out the middle man, so to speak.

I’m not really seeing this in my game. My Sim eats at the kitchen snack bar or dining room table and leaves the dish there or puts it in the dishwasher. The only time he takes food into the living room is when he wants to enjoy the fireplace or if the cat’s in there and he wants to interact with it. He will leave dishes there, in that situation. I think sims gravitate to the items of higher value. Could that be it?

I've only seen a sim place a plate on a coffee table once. I had her baking every flavor of cupcake and she ran out of counter space before I moved all the cupcakes to the fridge.

The only time I have the coffee table issue is when my sims BBQ. They come in the back door and place the platter of burgers or whatever on the coffee table. This makes a sort of sense to me since at that point the coffee table is closer than the kitchen. When they cook a meal in the kitchen, they either place in on a counter or the counter island.

Maybe they want to watch TV while they eat dinner?

Why do sims prefer coffee table over dining table and counter?

Kathykins
Seasoned Newcomer
3 years ago
That's one reason my sims can't have nice stuff, or a somewhat realistic house. I remove or don't add coffee tables because I know they'll walk through the entire house to put something there, instead of the available surface right next to them. Especially annoying with empty plates, because if the table has stuff on it, the plate can be difficult to spot, behind something.

Now, lacking a coffee table, they resort to putting empty plates on fireplace mantles (?) instead :|

Also, and maybe relate I don't know, I'm removing dining tables as well. My sims are wasting so much time with those around. I always tell them to grab food and then watch cooking show. Instead, they grab food, sit down at dining table, get up, sit down on sofa, then watch tv. I had to cut out the middle man, so to speak.
cyncie
Seasoned Veteran
3 years ago
I’m not really seeing this in my game. My Sim eats at the kitchen snack bar or dining room table and leaves the dish there or puts it in the dishwasher. The only time he takes food into the living room is when he wants to enjoy the fireplace or if the cat’s in there and he wants to interact with it. He will leave dishes there, in that situation. I think sims gravitate to the items of higher value. Could that be it?
simgirl1010
Hero
3 years ago
I've only seen a sim place a plate on a coffee table once. I had her baking every flavor of cupcake and she ran out of counter space before I moved all the cupcakes to the fridge.
FatTribble23
New Scout
3 years ago
The only time I have the coffee table issue is when my sims BBQ. They come in the back door and place the platter of burgers or whatever on the coffee table. This makes a sort of sense to me since at that point the coffee table is closer than the kitchen. When they cook a meal in the kitchen, they either place in on a counter or the counter island.
crocobaura
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago
Maybe they want to watch TV while they eat dinner?
LovegoodOddity
3 years ago
Sims also love to leave their empty dishes on empty shelves and coffee tables. I try to place clutter on every available surface because of this. But it's not always effective.
babajayne
3 years ago
This drives me crazy. I think the attraction depends on which coffee table you have. For example, I had the industrial style (base game) coffee table in the living room. My sim was canning in the kitchen. Despite having multiple surfaces available in the kitchen, she insisted on bringing the jars to that coffee table every time. So then I added a coffee table to the kitchen, but she ignored it and continued using that industrial one. I changed it to a different coffee table and it wasn’t a problem anymore.

I can think of another time when my sim carried laundry from the second floor down to the first floor, on the opposite side of the house to put the folded laundry on the coffee table. That was infuriating. I can’t remember which coffee table it was, but I deleted it and the laundry stayed in the laundry room from then on.
LovegoodOddity
3 years ago
It's not only empty dishes. I have dragged birthday cakes and other full plates back to the right surface.
Cinebar
3 years ago
I don't know if TS4 content is still created the same way as in older games, but every object has a bhav code. This tells the game how the object will be used. Is it a particular table? If not, then it's possible the gurus coded coffee tables to also use the bhavs of counters etc. And or they just cloned a counter and textured it to be a coffee table (custom content can be created that way) and didn't think to remove the bhav code. Maybe someone should ask them if this is what they have done or if another cc table is messing up your game.
Simmerville
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago
"Cinebar;c-18021312" wrote:
I don't know if TS4 content is still created the same way as in older games, but every object has a bhav code. This tells the game how the object will be used. Is it a particular table? If not, then it's possible the gurus coded coffee tables to also use the bhavs of counters etc. And or they just cloned a counter and textured it to be a coffee table (custom content can be created that way) and didn't think to remove the bhav code. Maybe someone should ask them if this is what they have done or if another cc table is messing up your game.

Hopefully someone can bring this n, because if it's a matter of one wrong code is should be very easy to fix. I tried to understand what purpose it could possibly have to make coffee tables more attractive when placing say a group meal, I'd think there was a specific feature added along the road that caused this all, but I can't really think of any reason why/how this could be done deliberately, so I think you are right about another object being cloned without fixing coding accordingly.