Bathroom Controller: In Soviet Russia, Bathroom Uses You!

[Magicmoon]

Free will is on. Seek is not. With the exception of the girl doing the homework everyone was runnng around doing whatever they wanted. Since downloading the latest 2.51, everyone is being called to the bathroom with very green bladders. I had a party awhile ago and it called almost all the sims at once. I had a line a mile long! (There were 8 sims + 6 visitors-only 2 sims were not called and they were at the 50% mark while the others that were called were above 50%)

The sim that gets called to the bathroom while in orange or red will be the sims that have been sleeping, but not until they actually wake. Everyone that is awake keeps getting called frequently. Much, much more than in any previous version.

Umm...I forgot to check before I left the game, but I believe that you have to turn seek on. I just left them at default when I replaced the rolls.

I tried to take a picture of what was happening with the girl doing homework, but I don't know how to get the picture to show her queue and status bars.

I wonder if there's something else that is affecting the BUY.  I wonder if it would help to remove all the macrotastics stuff except the BUY and see if the same thing occurs?  Or, in fact, to remove all hacks except the BUY.

Everything was working fine until I updated to 2.50. That's when it began. Then when I updated to 2.51 it got much worse. I have not changed any mods since then with the exception of updating macrotastics.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, I rolled back to the 28/5 which was the earliest one I still had, but the problems are exactly the same.  And the most annoying thing is, you have a sim who needs to go to work in half an hour, and the kids, (it's a Saturday) all go and join the queue, when they really do not need to go!  and you have to mess about cancelling the action to get dad back in the BR!  And then the BUY queues the kids up yet again!

[RainbowTigress]

Magicmoon:  To get the queue and status bars and such to show in a picture, you'd need to take a screenshot by pressing Print Screen, which copies your screen image to the Windows clipboard.  Then you can paste it into any graphics program, such as MS Paint or Photoshop, and save it to a file.

[Magicmoon]

Thanks Rainbow. I didn't even know that button did anything on my keyboard. I've never used it before.

[J. M. Pescado]

Well, I rolled back to the 28/5 which was the earliest one I still had, but the problems are exactly the same.  And the most annoying thing is, you have a sim who needs to go to work in half an hour, and the kids, (it's a Saturday) all go and join the queue, when they really do not need to go!  and you have to mess about cancelling the action to get dad back in the BR!  And then the BUY queues the kids up yet again!

As far as I can tell, it's not BUY that's doing the constant usage, it's your sims choosing to do it on their own, for lack of you giving them something better to do? I am consistently unable to reproduce this effect. But try this new update, I tried adding a few more restrictions to it.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Maybe I'll sell the gnome!  Trouble is, their fun bars are too high!  And it happens when they're on macro skillinate , too - first thing that does is send the whole lot trooping off the the BR whether they need to go or not!

[J. M. Pescado]

Maybe I'll sell the gnome!  Trouble is, their fun bars are too high!  And it happens when they're on macro skillinate , too - first thing that does is send the whole lot trooping off the the BR whether they need to go or not!

Macroskillinate likes to charge up, often rather aggressively, before initiating a skilling action, to minimize the interruptions, as constant interruptions result in increased handshaking losses.

[ZephyrZodiac]

So it's best to avoid it when you have four sims sharing one BR?  Just queue a skill in the normal way?

[J. M. Pescado]

So it's best to avoid it when you have four sims sharing one BR?  Just queue a skill in the normal way?

No, just get used to the queues. The fact that you have inadequate facilities is ALWAYS going to be a bottleneck.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, I just tried the ne update, and it's definitely an improvement, although the queue is still causing the sim in the BRm if they have nor queue, to stand there stock still while the BR icon trembles and cannot be erased from their queue, which is a problem when it's a visitor (or a dormie).

One thing I think which might be causing sims to get "caught" by the BUY is they have a sudden urge to talk to the sim who is in the BR.  Instead of being thrown out, they are getting queued.

[J. M. Pescado]

Well, I just tried the ne update, and it's definitely an improvement, although the queue is still causing the sim in the BRm if they have nor queue, to stand there stock still while the BR icon trembles and cannot be erased from their queue, which is a problem when it's a visitor (or a dormie).

I am definitely not able to reproduce this issue, both on paper and in-game. This wouldn't happen unless it was impossible to leave for some reason, and the controller had given up trying as a result. The issue will either time out if the controller is left unmolested for a bit, or you can try replacing it. Make sure that there IS, in fact, a valid door to expel through, and that it's not some manner of strange locked, inaccessible door as the exit. Or even a non-door.

[witch]

I've lost the 'use bathroom' option under the sim's personal macrotastics menu - straight after I updated all hacks to the ones in the \ofb folder. Anyone else had that happen?

[ZephyrZodiac]

It's a 3x3 bathroom, all plumbing at the rear so 2x3 clear space in front, and the door isn't locked. Maybe I'll try adding another door.

[J. M. Pescado]

I've lost the 'use bathroom' option under the sim's personal macrotastics menu - straight after I updated all hacks to the ones in the \ofb folder. Anyone else had that happen?

The option may temporarily disappear if your sim has no need of the bathroom.

[witch]

No, it was the whole family that lost it. I can still click on the toilet paper and select 'be used' for the sims. I'll check some of the other lots tomorrow night. Well actually later today, I just noticed it's 1.30am and time for bed.

[Magicmoon]

I downloaded the new update. So far for me everything appears to be working correctly now. The sims are being called to the bathroom when they actually have the need to go. Thank you.

I am not experiencing the other problems that are on the board at the moment, but then I do not have OFB either.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Adding an extra door seems to have solved the stuck sim problem, although they still use the original door.  However, all seemed fine for a while, until three got called at once, and kept going in, using the loo, being ejected, and then, byt the time their turn came round again, their bladder was not entirely empty, (around 2.5% full!) so they went to the loo again, and again, until finally the BC decided it was time to start showering them instead!  With no BUY installed, I could have got each one in and out of the BR in about half the time, plus one of them would have cleaned up!  Incidentally, these sims were all in Power Idle.

[J. M. Pescado]

Yeah, but what would you have gotten them in and out FOR? Obviously they weren't doing anything anyway. You're going to get thrashwars like that when you don't have enough facilities to adequately handle your sims. No one was harmed, in any case.

[ZephyrZodiac]

No, they weren't harmed, and it's definitely better now than it was, and it wasn't happening before they were in Power Idle, so I guess I just shan't put more than one or at most two sims into PI at once.  The funny thing was, though, the Bathroom was unused for at least three sim hours, then suddenly they all got called at once!  Just wish I hadn't overwritten the one I originally had!

[RainbowTigress]

If you get an icon, whether it's BUY, Macrotastics, etc. that seems to "tremble" or "flash" and you can't delete it, try pausing the game.  I've always been able to cancel them out of the queue that way.  What happens is that the icon cycles on and off so fast that it's hard to click on it when it's "on."   Just for fun, one time I tried clicking really fast a few times and was able to cancel it, but it's a lot easier to just pause the game, and then click the icon to cancel it.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Thanks for the tip, Rainbow!  It's not so bad now that my sims have managed to build a second bathroom, but with two elders in the family, the BRs get a lot of use!

[jsalemi]

It looks like the latest version of the BUY controller pretty much solves the 'run to the bathroom because you don't have anything better to do' syndrome, at least in houses.  I'll try playing a dorm later to see if the same is true there.

[Magicmoon]

Tonight I had a strange problem, but it occured on only one lot. Every time a sim got done with BUY they would stand in the bathroom and quiver. Just kinda shake all over while the BUY symbol stayed in their queue flickering quickly.

Figuring that it had to be something specific to that lot, I started deleting things to find out what was causing the conflict. Turned out to be a Maxis bathtub.

I had set up an old age home and set the room just outside the bathroom as a treatment room containing among other things a bathtub with no corresponding controller. I wanted them to use this when they had the "bubble bath" want or just to soak for some comfort. It was never intended for use by the BUY.

I've done this before in houses, but that was a few updates ago. I just set the BUY controller for room-not radius and it would see the items in that room only or in other bathrooms that had the controller. The tub in the other room had no effect on the controller and vice versa.

I experimented for quite awhile. Bathtub in another room=sims that can't leave the bathroom. Take the tub out and all is normal.

I found it a little weird because if their hygiene was low the BUY would shower them in the bathroom and never sent them to the tub. But when it came time to kick them out, whether after using toilet and not needing hygiene or after toiilet and showering, sims would always get stuck in the shivering/flickering condition if the tub was present in the other room.

[ZephyrZodiac]

They normally get stuck in the bathroom because the BUY has queued up another sim, and the route is thus blocked.  Try adding another door to your bathroom, this sometimes helps.

[Magicmoon]

I had added 3 doors to the bathroom before I started deleting stuff. That wasn't the problem. They were stuck standing where they finished. If they just left a stall and didn't need a shower, then they stood outside of the stall. If they took a shower afterwards then they stood next to the shower and quivered. The BUY icon flickered very quickly. I tried many, many things before deleting the tub in the other room. Once I got it working right I put the tub back. Same problem. Remove tub, works ok. I took the tub in and out several different times checking results each time. It was definately because the tub was in the other room.