I'm running into a problem where the game requires so much space to do certain actions that the sims almost always choose to go outside or up several staircases to the roof (!) to perform them. Interactions like playing the guitar, interacting with a pet, or even interacting with another sim. I get that the game wants to clear space so other sims won't have routing issues but it's kind of ridiculous. Is there a mod that changes how much space the game requires for certain actions?

I'm getting the problem a lot in the Odds 'n' Ends household in Boroughsburg. The game considers the living room, music room, and kitchen too crowded to play the guitar or pet a dog in, and I've even seen the sims opt to have a conversation on the roof instead of the kitchen they were standing in when I told them to chat! When I tell someone to play the guitar (whether it's in their inventory or sitting in the room), they either pick it up and put it back down again without even trying to play it (when they're upstairs), or they pick it up and take it outside or to the roof (when they're downstairs). (I also don't know why the routing issue manifests in different ways on different floors!) I finally managed to clear enough space in Trish and Roger's bedroom for the sims to actually play the guitar in it once (you can see in the picture how much space I had to clear), but the next time I told him to do it he again preferred to leave the room to do it!

(Also I just want to say I'm not blaming the person who created the lot for this, I know it's an issue with the game and it's hard to build around!)

Is there any fix for this? A mod to make a sim prefer the first space they're directed to do something instead of finding another one or something?

Pics:
1. Music room, not enough room to play a guitar
2. Living room, not enough room to play a guitar
3. Bedroom, finally spacious enough to play a guitar! (maybe)

I could be waaaay off (as usual), but I suspect it's because the guitar is also accounting for the space needed for the audience's Give Tips interactions and such, where other sims stand around and watch you play guitar. So if the space is too small, the sim will move to a space big enough just in case you Perform for Sims/Tips (or whatever the interactions are called).

I swear, the main thing I hate about TS3 interactions is that sims can't just sit down and do things, like play guitar.

Now I wonder if there is a way to delete whatever jig or joint/bone it is that triggers the Tips/Audience, so that sims can just play guitar without them. Or better yet, if there was some sort of Play Guitar Right Here rug/coding or something to force sims to stand in one spot and do what you tell them, regardless of routing issues in tight spaces.

The over head lights maybe. Briefly try swapping out the over head lights in the bedroom for either lamps or the invisible lights from debug mode and see if that works.

Thanks for this tip! I did find one dog/person social jig on the lot and deleted it but unfortunately it didn't fix the problem.

I tried moving the guitar around in the bedroom but it doesn't matter if it's in the middle or the corner or anywhere else, they just take the guitar out of the room to find another spot. :-/

I was finally able to get a sim to play the guitar in the music room by deleting the middle archway (on the long wall), so I guess the archway's pathway was the issue! Deleting that wall also worked. And now the sims can just pet the dog in the music room instead of walking up five flights of stairs to pet him on the roof in the middle of a thunderstorm. :')

Yeah, I think it's that too. :-/ A mod to let sims sit and practise the guitar would be amazing!! It's so funny because a guitar is such a compact instrument in real life, perfect for a shoebox apartment. But in the sims universe you need the same amount of space you would for a grand piano.

I tried this but the lights don't seem to be the issue. :-/ Thank you!

Oh, that's enraging! It's so silly that an archway requires so much free space when a knocked out portion of wall doesn't, even though they're functionally the same.