Routing !!!

[SaraMK]

When I place two single doors side by side, the arrow helps me get it so the door handles are both in the middle. Otherwise I have to zoom in close, and in tight corridors this doesn't work very well with walls up.

Anyway, back to routing.... How hard would it be for Maxis to at least change the code so that sims would quit going up or down stairs to use the same object that is also available on the same floor? I mean, how hard is it for them to code sims to know which floor they are on? To me, it seems like it should be fairly simple, and Maxis is just lazy.

[Inge]

Gwill!  Your avatar!  I think you have just surpassed Motoki there in horrific old ladies :0

[Gwill]

Gwill!  Your avatar!  I think you have just surpassed Motoki there in horrific old ladies :0

I finally found a good use for Exnem's realskins:
She's my neigbourhood's telescope shover and resident crazy cat-lady.

[J. M. Pescado]

Anyway, back to routing.... How hard would it be for Maxis to at least change the code so that sims would quit going up or down stairs to use the same object that is also available on the same floor? I mean, how hard is it for them to code sims to know which floor they are on? To me, it seems like it should be fairly simple, and Maxis is just lazy.

Pretty tricky, actually. Pathfinding, while a fairly trivial exercise to a human, or even a rat, is something which stymies computers. Just the simple change you propose is likely to render many otherwise functional buildings nonrouteable. Picture a castle with multiple towers. If you start in top of tower A and want to go to tower B, you're going to have to climb down to the bottom of A, walk across to B, and then climb up B....something which is not allowed by your rule. Like I said, nontrivial. Most creatures can instinctively understand this, mostly because those that couldn't got stuck on trees and were eaten by tigers.

[lordrichter]

Yeah, unfortunately, the lack of learning behavior being passed to future generations of Sims negates the possibility of evolution in the game. 
I would gladly have my Sims be eaten by tigers if that would make future Sims smarter.

[GayJohnScarritt]

Yeah, unfortunately, the lack of learning behavior being passed to future generations of Sims negates the possibility of evolution in the game. 
I would gladly have my Sims be eaten by tigers if that would make future Sims smarter.

   The one draw-back to having our sims learn from their mistakes, is that eventually, they would get too smart, and start ordering US around.   

[V]

We have many hacks to prevent that nonsense now. I am sure those hacks could be upgraded for the evolution of sims.

[J. M. Pescado]

The one draw-back to having our sims learn from their mistakes, is that eventually, they would get too smart, and start ordering US around.   

Because in Soviet Russia, you do not play game, game plays YOU!

[ElfPuddle]

Quick and easy fix for routing....don't use doors that open. Archways are good enough for "privacy", but as they don't swing, my sims don't do stupid "what is the longest route from A to B" tricks.

Just a thought.

[Inge]

'Fraid not, Elfpuddle.  The sim that prompted me to post in the first place had just also walked from the corridor into the front vestibule via an arch and back into the corridor through the matching arch the other side of the stairs, all the way round the stairs to about one square away from where he started, before going out the back door and in the living room garden door.

[ElfPuddle]

Drat. Well, sorry, Inge. They always behave for me with the arches.

[Strangel]

I actually find it kind of fun.. I see them going the long way round and build them a rat maze..

I open build mode and start plunking random furniture in their way till they give up or change directions.

[Inge]

I do that too!  I made a dorm where the students had to get a lift to the ground floor from their bedrooms, go all the way through the communal rooms, up another lift to the one single bathroom, and their bedrooms were equipped with PYplants set to fill the bladder of anyone in the room.   So they'd go to bed, jump up bursting to pee, have to wait for the lift another student had just dashed into, and then finally make it to the bathroom which was now occupied.

The funny thing is, that only my controllable sim actually stayed and put up with the consequences.  The dormies used to actually leave the lot with shower icons over them, only to be immediately regenerated nice and clean.

[Strangel]

OOoooooo.. I have a dorm I'd love to do that to.. -grin-

Where might I find the PYPlant?

[Inge]

Someone updated it to work with robots.  Dolphin[numbers] at MTS2 I think.   Or you can get the non-updated one from my site.

[eamethyst]

You know I thought of this thread as my dogs were going around through the back bedroom and into the small bath off the kitchen to run into the backdoor, which blocks the door into the bathroom when opened, on their way outside this morning, instead of simply going through the kitchen for a clear unobstructed path to the back door.

[miros]

Does that mean Dogs are dumb as Sims or Sims are as smart as Dogs?

[eamethyst]

I choose to believe that the dogs are still learning their way around the house we've only lived in for a couple of weeks.

[dizzy]

'Fraid not, Elfpuddle.  The sim that prompted me to post in the first place had just also walked from the corridor into the front vestibule via an arch and back into the corridor through the matching arch the other side of the stairs, all the way round the stairs to about one square away from where he started, before going out the back door and in the living room garden door.

You use an arch on a vestibule? Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose?

[Inge]

Maybe when Seasons comes out I will have to get some double-glazed doors fitted, but in the eternal summertime we've been enjoying up till now it's not a problem

[ElviraGoth]

One thing I've noticed about routing and doors is that it makes a difference which side of the door the hinge is on - like left- or right- opening.

If you've ever played the Grunt house in Strangetown you'd know what I mean.  The downstairs bathroom has a door to a one-tile wide hallway.  I couldn't figure out why they would come out of the bathroom, then walk through the bedroom and living room to get to the kitchen, when it's a straight shot from the bathroom to the kitchen.

It turned out that the bathroom door's hinges are on the side of the door that is closest to the kitchen.  So when they exit the bathroom, the door blocks their passage in that direction.  They therefore HAVE to go the other way, since they don't close the door themselves.

Could there be something about the way the door is facing or where it's positioned on the wall that is making your sim do the walkabout?