More Awesome Than You!

Seriously...now why does everyone think bad thoughts about the poor guy just because he's using the bathroom?

I have Uni installed, plus the latest patch.

This is the first time I've noticed that they all get the thought bubble of the person using the bathroom, with an "X" over it, EVERY time ANYONE goes to the restroom, anywhere in Uni.  I haven't tried it in the regular 'hood, but it's quite prevelant in both the Uni dorms now and on the Uni community lots. 

It also happens when they are going to take a shower as well.  The showers and toilets are all in enclosed bathrooms, with doors on them.  Below is a closeup of the thought bubble that appears very strange, like there is more than one bubble there, stacked on top of each other.

And I must say, this is highly annoying!

[attachment deleted by admin]

Yeah I've noticed it, and it continues in NL with the patch.  It happens not only in the home neighborhood but downtown as well.  JM commented on it once, and he said he couldn't figure out why.  But it is annoying.  Everytime I see one of these, if I check the bathrooms, sure enough it will be that sim.  Strange how sims can be telepathic when it comes to things like this.  They know who is in the bathroom even if they aren't anywhere near the bathroom and they have never met the person.  Weird.

I had assumed they had those thought bubbles because the Sim is gone or has left, hence why they have an X over the Sim's face. As long as the thoughts tend not to degrade the relationships between Sims, I have no real problem with them.

Well, depending on how many Sims are on the lot at once, I have noticed when all those thought bubbles pop up at exactly the same time, there is a bit of lag.

It is still continuing in the game, after a restart.

Glad to know I'm not the only one with this weirdness!

:) :) :)
Ivy

I think it's a case of "I want to talk/dance/play etc with him but I can't until he comes out of the bathroom!  (Or lets me in.......) ;D

Every single time anyone goes to the bathroom ever though?

It was one of the first things I ever noticed in the game. I was at my friend's house watching her play, and every time a sim went to the bathroom, some other sim would have the red x thought bubble. I remember asking her, "why's that guy so pissed his kid's going to the bathroom?" At the time, I thought it was hilarious. Now, not so much.

Nope, it's not funny when they do it *every single time* they go pee.

And it just started happening that I noticed it since I patched the game earlier today.

Earlier, my Sim's mouths were moving just fine after patching as well when they were talking on the phone.

Now, it's back to static faces yet again.

I fear another unfortunate re-install is in order...

This is just *not right* ...

:( :( :(
Ivy

Well, I still haven't installed the Uni patch and my game seems just fine without it, so I'm wondering if I'll bother!

As to the thought bubble, just remember, peeing is the dominating factor in any sim's life!

Well I haven't seen this happen myself, but I'll definitely be looking for it now.

On the other hand, I was distracted by watching the antics of an NPC the other day while I had a playable sim out for the evening at Midnight Flows.  When I finally remembered to check up on him, I found him standing in the doorway of the men's room staring at another male Sim he was attracted to who was using the toilet.  And all he did was just stand there and stare with occasional thought bubbles about him (no X's).

A little creepy and funny too!  ;D

Deeply annoying. They'll even get the Big Red X if the toilet-user is miles away at the other side of a lot, and if they don't even know each other.

It's a great mystery, since scanning the toilet code reveals no particularly enlightning evidence of why this happens.

Perhaps it's in something else's code?

When I check these sims' bladder, a lot of times they are nowhere near having to go.

Do you mean the ones with the Xs or the ones on the loo?   You know the "homeworksometimesfasterfun" hack?  What we really need is a "toiletsometimesfasterfun" hack - sims spend so much times there they must enjoy it, so why not make it a fun thing?

LOL!  Wouldn't that lose the T rating of the game???  Hehe!

Hook

Well, I dunno, after all toddlers normally ENJOY going to the bathroom (once they've learned their potty training).  My cat PURRS happily when he's in his litter box!  Seems to me that something so totally NORMAL shouldn't be subject to that kind of censorship - after all, unless you have a no-censor patch, it's all blurred anyway!  And in Sims 1, the loos you could get from C&C where newspaper reading on the loo began, they got fun while they were there - from reading the paper! (Plus interest points, of course - hence "interesting toilet")

And an afterthought, ever seen an ad for Pampers, Andrex, Huggies etc etc etc!  they don't get censored!

I was always under the impression that the "X out face" bubble that appeared when a sim was in the bathroom was a result of the nudity emitter. Of course, it was at least originally only something that people actually able to see the sim in question got. Perhaps said emitter has gone screwy? Perhaps related to the clothing state emitter changes made for Nightlife, with Turn Ons and Turn Offs? After all, it would be kind of silly if chemistry flucuated based on whether you could see the person (clothing based attraction is silly enough, it doesn't need any more help) and perhaps this has led to unintended consequences for nudity?

I think you're reading too much into this.  Because it happens regularly, I've always assumed it was a message from the pathfinder.  Rather like the "broken path" dialog bubble, only indicating the Sim can't reach the destination because the bathroom is locked by the displayed Sim.

As for why J.M. can't see it in the bathroom code, I'd suggest looking in the pathfinding instead.  You'll get the same thought bubble if the action being cancelled isn't bathroom related at all, like a command to use a mirror or the sink.

 - Gus

Thanks for the suggestions on this.  I am going to uninstall and reinstall and test to try and see if its one of the haks now conflicting with the patch.

I'll look at the noroutefail and manualnavigation haks first.

Thanks,
:) :) :)
Ivy

I noticed this happening last night, I also noticed that my controlable sim had endless "go here" interactions being qued up. It stopped as soon as the other sim left the bathroom.

oh yes, and I dion't have either the noroutefail or manualnavigation hack in my game.

Andy...okay since you don't have those, let's compare then and see if we have anything else in common then, eh?

Here is the list of what's in there now from JM:

abortbedmaking
amnesiafix
antibabylecture
antiprankhack
autosoc
autoyak
badbirthfix
bdaypartywantfix
callover
captainhero
carpoolfix
chatbugfixv1
coffeecuphack
collegeclock
comm-skilling
computerchatfix
continuouspaint
dailygardener
deathfix
doorbell-quieter
easybreakup
encouragificator
fasterbuyclothes
ffsdebugger
firemod
fratfix
frontdoorhack
housepartyfix
hugginghack
lesswhiny
ltwvariety
macrotastics
manual-navigation
marriage-postmortum
moneyorder
moveoutbugfix
nmefix
noagediscrimination
noaplusspam
noassignmentlitter
nobabyharassment
nobogartingswings
nobuskers
nocollegeobsessions
nocorruptdeath
nocrybabies
nodeanspam
noeatcrap
nofraternization
nogreekmadness
noinfluenceobsession
nomoveamnesia
nonpcspam
noplagiarism
norabbitspin
norandomcrush
norandomflirtwants
noresurrectwant
noretiredjobspam
noreunionmemory
noroadpillows
noroutefail
noshockforoutgoing
nosmartmilkdrag
nossrespawn
nostrangerdance
notelepathy
noteleportpuddle
novanishindorms
novelprogress
nowhatsthis
phonehack
pianofix
poolhack
punchcuphack
romancemod
runtoclass
savethetrees
scannergunhack
ssfriendcountfix
sshack
stereohack
thefightclub
tippingfix
toastinghack
togafix
weddingpartyfix

And I have the following haks installed from VariousSimmers:

notalkthrubunnybear
age transition fixes - teens keep loves
always flush toilets - wash hands
baby wants fix
breakfast at midnight
call to chat - invite over fix
congrats fix ver 1.1
diploma repo - stolen fix
dorm gender controller
food already available
go steady critical fix
handheld & MP3 no autonomy
homeworksometimesfasterfun v1
lazy anim fix only
no autonomous hang out
no autonomous napping
no belching or farting ver 1.2
no class or exam credit fix
no indoors kicky bag
no instrument want spam
no personal electronics wants
no plant want spam
no resurrect want spam
no sports party wants
no cops and robbers
reduced play in bathtub
school bus - bring friend dialog
students move away from the portal
teasing fix ver 1.1
teddy bear no talk through
teleprompter no autoplay
toddler toy death fix
toddler play with toilets fix
triplets & quads mod v2 3a
visitor snacking fix


Again, I have the base game + Uni + patch installed.

I have not yet removed any mods made redundant by the patch, as I was under the impression that was not necessary.  Though I will at some point get around to doing it, I want to try and sort out this issue first.  I do believe something is conflicting, because when I take ALL of them out, it doesn't appear to happen.  Note that my Sims talking on the phone still don't have their animations back either, no matter if all the haks are there or not now.  (I think that has to do with replacing the objects.package yesterday and not saving a backup of the one that was there first.  Well I did that to try and fix a Sim who had missing want icons...yes, post-patch...**sigh**)

Well that's my list.  If you have any other suggestions as to which one may narrow it down, it would be much appreciated.  Otherwise I'll work on uninstalling, reinstalling later today.

Thanks,
:) :) :)
Ivy

hmm..
I also have

deathfix
lesswhiny(the NL version that Crannyboy(I think) made)
thefightclub
abortedbedmaking
noinfluenceobeseession
moveoutbugfix
nl no handheld MP3 automony
toddler play with toiletfix
novelprogress


and I think that's it.

I have NL and the patch.

Andygal, was your sim on an outing or date with another sim?  If so, this is normal behavior because they follow the sim who initiated the outing around and the game gives them "go here" commands.  I noticed this with my first outing that Mortimer got invited on and he took Cassandra.  She kept getting those, and I finally realized it was because she was being told to go wherever he was.  I have also seen this when I take control of other sims in a casual group.

The X in the thought bubble has been occurring since before NL.

ah, now that I think about it she was on an outing. Somebody had invited her boyfriend out and she tagged along, then I sent them home because she was pregnant and very hungry and tired but the auting continued.

I remember bringing this up quite some time ago on this forum, way before Nightlife. If I can find it, I'll put the link here. Sims who are otherwise occupied, i.e. playing pool, etc. will also have this thought bubble about sims in the bathroom.

Okay, I have uninstalled Uni and reinstalled it, plus the patch, and have no haks at the moment in my game.

So far, it doesn't appear that everyone is suddenly thinking about the person going to the bathroom.  (The thought truly just disgusts me...let them do their own business in there, geesh...)

The animations for the moment are back when they are talking on the telephone.

Now the fun begins trying to narrow down where the conflicts are...ugh.

Ivy

The red Xs have always happened for me, even before University. It was one of the first things I ever noticed in the game. Probably because it's so stupid and irritating.

I have always had the thought bubbles with the red x when one of my sims is in the bathroom whather they are useing the toilet or the tub or shower. Even the toddlers get them.

Okay...I've noticed that it's most prevelant when in the dorm...seems they all think about it when someone goes.  All at the same time.  Highly annoying, but not caused by a hak.  Good to know I've ruled out a hak as the cause of this issue.  When in a normal residential lot, they don't all do it all at the same time, nor do they always do it.  Seems rather sporadic.  Now can someone make a hak to make them stop thinking of it all at the same time? That is just creepy...lol.

And about the talking on the phone...I am running no haks at the moment and the Simmies are animated on the phone again.  So its possible either a) a hak does conflict with that code now or b) my earlier instal was somehow fubar'd.  Wish I know which it was, but can only find out thru process of elimination.

Thanks everyone for helping sort this out :) .  Makes me feel better knowing others have experienced it too.

Ivy

The Bathroom Red X thing isn't related to pathfinding at all, because it will happen even whenother  sims are stationary or even doing something else which is nonmobile. It is a mystery.

I noticed this too.  I took out all hacks and the face and hand animations while talking on the phone were back.  I had a hunch it might be the phonehack, so I added that alone back to my game, and the sims are once again frozen while talking on the phone, except for a small amount of hand movement once in a while and walking around like it was before NL.  After I installed NL, they were very animated, but after the patch, they weren't anymore.  I was thinking it was the patch that did it, but after reading your post above, Ivy, I tried it myself and I am pretty sure it's the phonehack that's doing it.  At least it's not totally broken, so maybe JM can fix it soon.  It's still in testing anyway.

You know, there are just some people you don't wanna have to use the bathroom after them.  At least until it airs out a bit.  In public restrooms you sometimes hear "Fer gawd's sake, give us a Mercy Flush!"

Are the Sims using the bathroom and causing the red X's really low neatness, by any chance? :)

Hook

It's all sims, every sim who uses the bathroom, no matter what.

Andit's not post patch, post NL, it happens in my game and I've only got Uni and still haven't bothered with the patch - in my humble opinion, after what I've heard, Pescado's fixes are safer!

I hadn't even thought about the facial animations on the cell phones, but I paid attention tonight. I wouldn't let my sims have cellphones in Uni, but with NL, I'm taking the chance. When one of my sims missed work tonight, his cell rang. When he answered it, he was quite animated! It was work calling to tell him he missed work today (no kiddin'), and he was acting irritated by the call. Like he was saying "Oh, shutup!".

Those animations are normal.  I'm talking about when they are calling "friends/family" via autoyakyak or just chatting on the phone.  They barely move their mouths, and their arm that's not holding the phone seems permanently stuck at a right angle except every now and then they'll wave it a bit.  Other types of phone anims are fine, such as inviting a sim over, calling college for scholarships, etc.

Ah, I haven't checked those out, yet since installing NL. They've been calling friends, but I haven't been watching their expressions. I do know what you mean about the lack of facial expressions with the cell, though. I posted on a thread about that on MTS2 right after I got Uni. That wasn't your thread, by any chance, was it?

No, I hardly ever post there, and I don't think I've ever started a thread over there.  But someone commented that the animations were back with NL and I rather enjoyed them.  I always thought it was a huge improvement over Sims 1 where they would just stand right by the phone with their face toward the wall and hardly move.  In Sims 2 they walk around and seem more alive and natural.  But with Uni, that changed.  NL was supposed to have fixed it, but after the patch it's back like it was in Uni.  But I took out the phonehack and it seemed to go back to normal.  I have it in right now because I like the features, but I would love it if JM could look at it and see (that is if he EVER gets NL :P).

Since installing the patch I've noticed the red x's when somebody is in the bathroom as well.  More so than what was ever there before.  Maybe I'm just noticing it more after browsing this thread? lol  In my game it doesn't seem to be every single sim..but its still a lot more than normal.

I just wish they could programme it so a sim on the phone for a long time would go and lounge on a chair or sofa while chatting!  Isn't that what people do?

No, no. Absolutely not. All normal people spend several hours talking on the phone while wandering around - 'tis abnormal behaviour to wish to be comfortable while yakking on the blower. Obviously.

Seats are for wimps!

Speak for yourself - when you get to my age you might feel a little differently!

Brynne, I know I put my two cents in that thread as well.  Don't remember who started it.  But yes, it was installing Uni that made the facial animations stop in the first place.

Hook, I haven't noticed a correlation between the two, but I will pay attention and verify next time I play. I never noticed it before the patch either, which is why I had thought that it was a hak conflicting.  You'd think one would notice if every single Sim had that thought bubble every single time someone went to the loo...lol.

I always noticed the red x thought bubbles, but learned to tune them out. Until after reading this thread, of course. Thanks, guys.  ;)

Just seems to me another stupid thing about sims!  Doesn't really bother me!  Better anyway than standing outside the bathroom door and throwing a tantrum because they (the maid) can't get in to clean the loo that the sim is actually occupying!

It has always happened here since I installed UNI some time ago.

It's not an irritation, I figured they didn't want those other sims stinking up the bathroom.  :P

"Hey! Mortimer! Turn on the fan when you're in there!"

Hey ZZ - I think that was a joke, Joyce.  ;)  I detected heavy amounts of sarcasm throughout that post.  I have often wished they could curl up on the sofa or bed while going through their friends list catching up with old buddies or whispering sweet nothings into the phone with their sweetheart.  But Sims can't do two things at once, even eating and talking at the same time.

Re the bathroom stink, I've never seen a sim go in the bathroom after another sim and do that "Smells Bad" animation.  Maybe that's what we need, and some Glade or something on the back of the toilet they could spray around the room, or a candle to light.  The envoronment score would bottom out for a while after the other sim had been in there until it airs out or someone does one of the above.  I always wondered why sims didn't get fun from reading their newspaper on the toilet, or why they weren't able to read a book in there sometimes instead of always the newspaper?  I never read the newspaper and I certainly don't carry one everywhere with me to read on the toilet.  I usually have a book with me though, hehehe.  Have to make those unavoidable delays productive, as Frank Gilbreth called them.

Well, C&C Enterprises had an Interesting toilet for Sims 1, and when sims went, they read the paper and gained interest points!  Only on certain occasions, though!  They also got fun from going and their hygiene level went up!

I've noticed that toddlers who are potty trained lose hygeine a lot faster and have to be bathed at least once before they grow up.  This is a problem in houses where I only have showers.  I've had to put a tub in just so they could give the toddler a bath.  But I digress.

Well, mum or dad isn't talcuming their nether regions at the changing table!  Even though i always have a flamingo around my house to keep their motives up, the toddlers still need bathing.  (I only ever use the lowest level except for five minutes in a dire emergency!)

Have you ever noticed that the newspaper they read in the can is actually clickable?  It has all the normal newspaper interactions.  I keep trying to click on Do Crossword but no matter what you click on, it just cancels out when the Sim sticks the newspaper... well, back wherever they got it from in the first place.

Yeah, they should get fun and logic.  Comfort.  Bladder, of course.  And if the potty has a bidet, hygiene too. :)

Hook

Maybe they are just thinking bad thoughts because they are afraid that sim is going to make the bathroom stink and they dont have a fan in there. ???

Yep, tried that too.  Tried to get them to look for a job once but he wouldn't do it.  I thought he should do at least one useful thing while he was sitting on the toilet that morning.

Well, quite a few of my sims have a bidet - they get fun from it, but not much else!  (It's simGedoehns and it's decorative.  Have you noticed how much fun they get from "view"!)  And playing Red Hands builds fun faster even than kicking those poor downtrodden flamingoes!

No, Flamingo-whomping is definitely faster, but the hand game has the collateral benefits of relationship building and social boost, at the obvious drawback of having to locate and possibly interrupt somebody who will accept.

They can gain logic from doing the crossword while on the loo.

It's happened to me on more than one occasion.

:) :) :)
Ivy

JM, have you ever had flamingoes get worn out or get blocked?  I have had problems lately in some of my lots where everything has been going fine but suddenly they can't kick the flamingo.  They complain like something is blocking them with a thought bubble of the flamingo, and I usually have more than one, so they will run to the other and do the same thing and back and forth.  I've tried moving them, and sometimes it will help for a while but sometimes it won't.  I ended up buying new ones, and that seemed to fix it for now.  Some of them sold for $5.

I've seen evidence in the game that suggests the flamingo can break, although there's not a special graphic that shows it.  Have you ever notice that the environment score goes down a bit whenever the kicked flamingo falls over?  What's weirder, the environment score will go back up in time on its own.

I had a case once where my Sim couldn't kick the flamingo, but it turned out the maid was coming out to stand the thing back up at the time.

I usually keep a flamingo around for emergencies :) but without the automated kick/stand-back-up, using it is more trouble than it's usually worth.

Hook

Your poor sims must be poverty stricken indeed if their only means of gaining fun is flamingo-kicking!  Besides, it's mostly visitors, like ignored townie teens who've invited themselves after school and then expect your teen sim to concentrate on them instead of getting homework out of the way!  And I personally couldn't care less how low townie teens get, just so long as they stay away from the trashcan!

I have taken to sending a sim to run out and water balloon anyone that kicks the trash can over, I have yet to see any one of those same sims return to kick the can again. Half the time the sim getting water bombed laughs it off. Prank for a prank I figure.

This has also been happening to me. I tried replacing them, moving them, but no go. Sometimes it helps, but more often than not it didn't. I finally got frustrated and placed a gnome, and voila! It kinda worked again. The sim will try to kick the flamingo, but when they can't, they go kick the gnome.

Tried kick stuff later on, and they were able to kick the flamingo again without issues  :-\

Love it!  I'll definitely try that next time it happens!!!!

Okay, back to the red x thing, I definitely notice it more than before either NL or the patch, and I'm pretty sure it's not just the power of suggestion. I had a bunch of sims over at one of the smaller houses, and they were all hanging out in one room. There was a sim in the bathtub, and one using the toilet (throwing up with morning sickness). Not only did every single sim, including toddlers, have the thought bubble with the x, some sims were having double thought bubbles of it. And they weren't just a fleeting thing like they were, before, either. The bubbles stayed there for a while. They were all picturing the guy in the tub, too, and not the sim who was actually using the toilet. And I checked motives. I had actually just refreshed everyone's bladder just before, so their bars were all a solid green. Very irritating. And spam-ish.

My current theory on the Bathroom Red X phenomena is that it is part of the detection code for "lose bladder control at party" scenario.  But I don't know what controller object would be monitoring bladder changes so closely.  I may have to go poke around in some BHAV code now...