Bathroom Controller: In Soviet Russia, Bathroom Uses You!

[jsalemi]

Just stick a controller by each toilet -- they all then take/share the same settings, so you can't adjust each one individually.  Just adjust the settings on one (leave it at room), and the rest follow.  And yes, the number of controllers determines how many sims can use the room at the same time.

[Magicmoon]

I'm having difficulty with the BUY/sleepclock combo, starting sometime in the last couple of updates.

If a Sim is told macro/go to bed, or the sleep clock calls them AND it decides to send them to the bathroom before going to bed, the Sim will pee, then freeze up with the icons BUY/Macro bed/BUY in the queue. These cannot be cancelled in live mode. But if I pause the game and take off the Macro bed/BUY, leaving just the first BUY in the queue, the Sim will then finish by getting into the shower. Once the Sim is in the shower, it is again safe to issue macro-go to bed. OR I can cancel the first BUY in the queue and the Sim will go to bed without taking a shower. It's like the Sim gets stuck on deciding whether to take a shower or to go to bed after taking a pee.

No error is thrown.

ETA: After more testing, I realize that what is causing my problem is whenever I decided that a certain Sim does not need to run to the bathroom upon wakening, and so I cancel out the last BUY before the Sim finishes up the pre-sleep bathroom routine. So the above description is in error in the fact that the last BUY is no longer in the queue. So now I know how to avoid the problem. It's just that I never had difficulty in the past cancelling out the last BUY in the queue.

[J. M. Pescado]

Ok, thanks.  With the different toilet stalls, do I have to change the radius to 1 (so as not to include the other toilet) or can I just stick each controller on the wall next to a different toilet?  Is the number of controllers just how the bathroom figures out how many people can use it at once?

The number of controllers is just how many docking ports you have (ports may become unusable due to factors like privacy-blocking). You don't need to set a radius to exclude other terlets unless they are part of a seperate, unrelated complex. In fact, if all utilities are in the same "room", uncut by floor dividers or doors, you can just use the "Room" setting. All controllers in a room technically slave themselves to the one with lowest object ID anyway, and only the "master" actually performs pulse scanning to reduce loadage and duelling.

[lordrichter]

I'm having difficulty with the BUY/sleepclock combo, starting sometime in the last couple of updates.

...

ETA: After more testing, I realize that what is causing my problem is whenever I decided that a certain Sim does not need to run to the bathroom upon wakening, and so I cancel out the last BUY before the Sim finishes up the pre-sleep bathroom routine. So the above description is in error in the fact that the last BUY is no longer in the queue. So now I know how to avoid the problem. It's just that I never had difficulty in the past cancelling out the last BUY in the queue.

I am seeing a similar thing after the 9/15/08 macrotastics update.  I have not had time to look further, but so far I have noticed that upon entering a skillinator mode, if the first thing is to head to the bathroom, the sims will block on BUY until the game is paused and BUY and Skillinator are removed from the queue.  This repeated as long as skillinator sent them to the bathroom first.  I solved this by sending them to the bathroom first, manually, then sending them skilling after that.  Not sure this is a quirk or a repeatable situation yet.

[J. M. Pescado]

I am not seeing this result in testing. In my game, the linkup seems to work just fine in all cases. Are you certain you are using the latest everything? What are you doing to trigger this? Is everything properly configured?

[Magicmoon]

Using the latest update. Default configuration. Toilet and shower in same room.

To set this off, use a Sim with low hygeine and bladder. Macro>go to bed. When the Sim enters the bathroom, delete the BUY in the queue that runs when the Sim wakes up. The Sim will use the toilet then just stand there frozen.

Pause then delete the BUY that is currently being run and the Sim will go to bed, OR delete 'Go to Bed' and the Sim will finish by taking a shower.

ETA: I've also had a few queue drops after skillinator sends them to bathroom first, but haven't tracked it down to specifics yet.

[lordrichter]

I am not seeing this result in testing. In my game, the linkup seems to work just fine in all cases. Are you certain you are using the latest everything? What are you doing to trigger this? Is everything properly configured?

It is rather curious.  I am assuming that this is a macrotastics problem even though it is showing up in BUY.

I am in a situation where I downloaded the 9/15/08 macrotastics.zip package, installed macrotastics, skillinator, alfixes, and a SimWardrobe teleporter object, started the game, and the very next time I queued up the skillinator I ran into this problem.  I can recreate it with college rampage, also.

All lots I have tested this on are stable and have a long history of functional BUY and skillinator.

While the macrotastics.zip file is dated 9/15, the content is dated 9/10, so I am assuming I have the latest version and that there is not a problem with the ZIP file.  When I installed that package, it replaced the macrotastics.package file dated 9/8/08 (which I did not keep).  BUY is dated 08/30/08 and is the latest version and replaced a version from the same day but 10 hours earlier (which I did not keep).

I have tested both dorm lots and traditional residential lots.  What happens is that I will pause the game, queue up college rampage or skillinator on all sims on the lot (6+ sims), then unpause.  All sims that need to use the terlet first will queue up "Be Used" and then immediately freeze.  All other sims will do as they are supposed to do.  The FPS will drop from 20-30 to 1-3 and "Be Used" cannot be canceled.  When the game is paused, "Be Used" can be canceled.  If the game is resumed, the macro will re-queue "Be Used" and the sim will remain frozen.  This will repeat until the macro and BUY are canceled.  BUY can be issued independently of the macro and it works.  Once terlet needs have been satisfied, it is safe to use a macro.

I have Apartments.  I have tried this on a combination of lots that have not been played since installing Apartments and have been played since installing Apartments.  I have a dwindling selection of lots that have been played since installing Apartments but have NOT been played since installing the latest macrotastics.

I have a number of customizations installed, mostly stuff from TwoJeffs and MATY, but also some stuff from SimWardrobe and Inge.  Hacks have been checked for conflicts, if you place any trust that tool.  All installations into my Sims download directory are logged.

[J. M. Pescado]

I have tested both dorm lots and traditional residential lots.  What happens is that I will pause the game, queue up college rampage or skillinator on all sims on the lot (6+ sims), then unpause.  All sims that need to use the terlet first will queue up "Be Used" and then immediately freeze.  All other sims will do as they are supposed to do.  The FPS will drop from 20-30 to 1-3 and "Be Used" cannot be canceled.  When the game is paused, "Be Used" can be canceled.  If the game is resumed, the macro will re-queue "Be Used" and the sim will remain frozen.  This will repeat until the macro and BUY are canceled.  BUY can be issued independently of the macro and it works.  Once terlet needs have been satisfied, it is safe to use a macro.

Issue should be resolved by latest BUY and Sleepclock update.

[stormkeep]

With the newest bathroom uses you controller, I'm seeing occasional loops when showering for dormies (in university dorm lots).  They enter the shower, finish, you get the swoosh of changing back to regular clothes, and then they immediately woosh back to nude and start showering again...despite having full hygiene.  They are not even exiting the shower.   They continue to do this until I make them selectable (using testingcheats) and cancel the bathroom controller action.

I've only seen this, so far, in dorm bathrooms which are attached to a dorm room (i.e. not public).   It's happened 3 times on 2 different dorms.

The specific setup is, dorm room with private bathroom attached, dorm room is not locked, someone who is NOT the person who owns the dorm room uses their shower.  Shower type, if it matters, has been the  "Strut Your Stuff Communal Shower" in all instances.   I'm not using any hacks not from this site other than the inseminator OBJ version.  Let me know if I need to do anything else or provide any other information to help.

[keirra]

I've had the occasional loops when showering also, but, not in Uni. I was playing one of the premade apartment families last night and had the looping but not every time they showered, just sporadically. I had to cancel out the action to get them to stop.

I have all EP's, and all stuff packs except Glamour Life, Celebrations and Happy Holiday.

This didn't happen until I installed the latest update.

[J. M. Pescado]

Have you reupdated? I did a second update specifically to address that issue, as I changed how the flagging worked.

[keirra]

I updated yesterday, before I played. I also updated today, but, haven't played yet.

[stormkeep]

Have you reupdated? I did a second update specifically to address that issue, as I changed how the flagging worked.

I had updated right after the post over at the All Hacks thread indicated there was an update for it.   Was there another update after that I could have missed?   I did just notice that  the one in the moreawesomethanyou.zip file and the bathroomusesyou.zip file don't have the same time/date stamp.   One shows 9:07 a.m. on 9/17/08 with a file size of 53,775 bytes and the the other shows 6:59 p.m. on 9/17/08 with a file size of 53,774 bytes.   I'm using the one with the 6:59 p.m. time stamp now (which is in the moreawesomethanyou.zip file) and will let you know if I see the loop at all again.  DIdn't see it over about 2 hours of play right before posting this.

[rufio]

Just out of curiosity, is there any particular reason why after getting the latest version of this all the bathroom controllers in dorms had an error-throwing spaz attack and had to be replaced?  Should I be worried?

[J. M. Pescado]

No, you should update, though. Fat Gwilly People reported that and it was fixed.

[rufio]

Ah, thanks, didn't realize there was a more recent version up.

[rufio]

I feel kind of bad double-posting and necromancing at the same time, but this is a hack thread so it's exempt, right?

Would it be possible to have BUY not throw out sims who wander into the bathroom for the purpose of autonomously cleaning the bathroom fixtures, or at least not until they have finished the cleaning?  I am tired of 10 neat sims wasting their free will time running in and out of the bathroom.  I only ask because I have noticed that sims that wander into the bathroom to autonomously tub-pirate are not thrown out.

[sloppyhousewife]

I only ask because I have noticed that sims that wander into the bathroom to autonomously tub-pirate are not thrown out.

Strange - in my game, they are. As for the cleaning: I wouldn't mind them cleaning the terlet after using it, just like they unclog it if necessary. But I certainly wouldn't want them to be allowed to enter the bathrooms just to clean (unless user or macro directed).

[BastDawn]

But I certainly wouldn't want them to be allowed to enter the bathrooms just to clean (unless user or macro directed).

Why not?  If they try to enter the bathroom on their own, they must be standing around idle with no commands in their queues.  They might as well make themselves useful.   

[J. M. Pescado]

Why not?  If they try to enter the bathroom on their own, they must be standing around idle with no commands in their queues.  They might as well make themselves useful.   

Or, more likely, they've been forgotten and are now doing flappish, annoying things to obstruct things for other sims.

[sloppyhousewife]

Why not?  If they try to enter the bathroom on their own, they must be standing around idle with no commands in their queues.  They might as well make themselves useful.   

Or, more likely, they've been forgotten and are now doing flappish, annoying things to obstruct things for other sims.

Or they've run out of things to do for a second while "macro... garden"ing. I usually don't forget sims, because they tend to do things I hate when left alone.

[Lion]

Similar to the previous shower loop problem that got fixed, sims are pushed back to endless rounds of shower one after another IF they are programed to dress in towel, underwear, and swimwear after shower. If they are programed to dress in normal/casual as Maxis intends to, they are pushed out of the bathroom as usual. I used Squinge's underwearaftershower and dizzy's redress hack (separately) to program the dressing code. They both work fine by themselves in the download or with BUY also in, but no BUY paper roll placed in the bathroom. No conflict is detected between them and BUY.

I'm using the latest version 2009 Jan 02 20:28.

[jolrei]

Or they've run out of things to do for a second while "macro... garden"ing. I usually don't forget sims, because they tend to do things I hate when left alone.

This!  Especially troubling on a beach lot where they start doing things like sand castles that take forever to delete from the queue. 

I like having one ultra-neat sim on the lot.  In my game they do tend to clean autonomously, including the terlets.  Have not had autonomous bathtub pirates though.  I don't set BUY to exclude visitors usually, so occasionally a visiting townie will shower.  I should read the RTFM again and learn to use BUY properly.

[J. M. Pescado]

Similar to the previous shower loop problem that got fixed, sims are pushed back to endless rounds of shower one after another IF they are programed to dress in towel, underwear, and swimwear after shower. If they are programed to dress in normal/casual as Maxis intends to, they are pushed out of the bathroom as usual.

Bathroom Uses You is designed to use the shower as a quick and efficient method of fixing hygiene and simultaneously changing them into appropriate uniform. Don't install non-Awesome crap that alters useful standard behavior and expect it to work. Besides, if you implemented a dumb thing like that, sims would stomp around in their underwear forever unless you nannied them. Stupid. And non-Awesome.

[Lion]

Bathroom Uses You is designed to use the shower as a quick and efficient method of fixing hygiene and simultaneously changing them into appropriate uniform.

That's what I figured pretty much. I'm still experimenting with them.  I have a spa in mind where customers should be in their bathrobes (which is underwear), or a beach resort/swimming pool where they are mostly in towels, or a gym where they are in sportswear.  I can either use Fat D's clothes controller to strictly dress them on a per room basis, or dizzy's wood model/redress to let them change on their own.