Social Meals

Social Meals makes everyday meals in The Sims 4 feel more natural, with smarter food choices, table talk combined with calmer seating with general preference for dining tables and automatic coordinated cleanup of dishes afterwards, without any necessary intervention by the player. Get Together EP users can download an additional file that will make Sims' behavior in cafes and nightclubs more realistic.

Main functionalities:

1: Sims prefer available leftover breakfast and brunch foods in the morning, lunch foods at midday, and dinner foods in the evening. Other food remains an option if nothing appropriate for the time of day is available. Sims will still cook a time-appropriate meal or have a quick meal like normal if no more leftovers are available. Sims also still cook a meal when they feel "Inspired".

2: Stronger dining-table preferences help reduce standing meals and unnecessary trips to sit near other Sims.

3: Call to Meal much more reliably interrupts (or ends) activities such as reading and homework. Books are put into inventory, and umbrella users can put their umbrellas away to join the meal. If a Sim was reading a book on the dining table, there is still a chance the Sim will not put the book in its inventory but the Sim does properly end the activity to grab a meal. Make sure to remove the book from the table yourself until I have a fix for this. IMPORTANT: If the first call to meal attempt fails, for example, some Sims refuse to get a portion, they get a retry automatically in a few Sim-minutes. So wait a short while before you interrupt for the best result!

4: Conversation adjustments aim to reduce unnecessary seat switching. The chance of Sims standing up to greet other Sims is significantly reduced. The Sim will still greet or introduce itself to others with the seated animation variant. Sims strongly prefer to start a conversation during meals instead of eating in silence, especially with Sims they have a strong relationship with. Intervention by the player is still possible like normal without issue.

5: After a shared meal, one available participant is selected to clean up later automatically. Other Sims will keep chatting or move on to other activities. The Sim who gets selected by the script to clean up the dishes, may also first leave the table to do something else, for example going to the toilet, take out the trash or watch tv for a short while. The Sim will still clean the dishes afterwards. This only affects Call To Meal. If Sims eat individually, they still often choose to clean their dishes individually. After a shared meal, Sims are allowed to put away leftovers if the player forgets it. They will only put away leftovers and leave untouched platters on the counter/table to make multi-course meals possible. Shared foods from the baking category and pizza's will not be put away automatically.

6: The mod significantly reduces repeated servings caused by the lingering Call to Meal eating incentive. No immediate second servings have been observed in testing so far, though they may still occur in situations that have not yet been tested.

7: Sims will now first grab a meal only from the food platter with which the player initiates the "call to meal" interaction. This way you can have a 3-course meal (or more) on the table without Sims choosing a meal you didn't want them to pick. They will still choose something else if the platter is empty. Sims with dietary restrictions are allowed to take from different platters if the meal doesn't match their preferences. If there are no alternatives, they won't eat.

8: EXTRA FILE FOR GET TOGETHER EP USERS ONLY: Sims will now behave realistically in Cafes and Nightclubs. In Cafés they will limit their orders significantly. Also the Barista will remember all the orders in the right order so Sims will now wait for their order until it's ready without constantly trying again. Sims will also remember whát they ordered and other Sims are not allowed to take other orders. If a Sim leaves the lot without eating or drinking their order, the order becomes free to grab so no orders will litter up the cafe unwanted. In Nightclubs, Sims will now divide their attention better to activities other than just watching the DJ Booth.

This is a full autonomy mod, make sure autonomy is not turned off in your gamplay settings. Functionality 3, 5, 6 and 7 initiate after the "Call to Meal" command is given. You can still override the dish cleaning autonomy like you normally can by choosing a Sim yourself to clean the dishes after everyone is finished. (for example during multi-course meal). Functionality 1, 2 and 4 apply to all types of meals, whether autonomously initiated by the Sim or commanded by the player.

Please remember that this mod might conflict with other mods that change Sims eating behaviour. Try this mod on its own to see if you find it sufficient for home (family-)meals to prevent the usage of multiple mods that change the same XML files. This is an ongoing project. Successful gameplay tests show more relaxed family meals, but results can vary with the situation and other installed mods. Please let me know in the comments if you run into any glitches or bugs so I can fix them! 

Manual installation:
Extract the zip file in your Sims 4 Mods folder. Make sure the .script files are a maximum of one folder deep.