Request: Turn off Queue Option for Bathroom Uses You with Communal Bathrooms

[syberspunk]

I only just noticed this, and I'm sure your solution will probably be for me to just rebuild the Maxis default dorms... but I'm posting this anyways, risking a lip ripping, with the remote hope that you might consider this.

I kind of like the idea of communal bathrooms as that is part of the college experience, for some people, and I don't want to redesign the dorm if I don't have to. But, as it works, it seems that Bathroom Uses You only allows one sim to use the bathroom, even if there are several toilets and showers. While I absolutely love this option for dorms and houses where there is only one bathroom or shower, it makes perfect sense for sims to form a queue in those cases.

However, when there's more than ample bathroom objects, it would be more efficient to process more than one sim at a time, and therefore the bathroom should be using more than one sim at a time when sims need to be used.

Hopefully the fact that this would more efficiently make use of such items would be enough to support my appeal for such an option. Perhaps it could be a togglable feature, just like Seek and Radius. Something to turn off/on queuing.

Anyone else interested in this? Yes? Please? I hope!

Ste

[J. M. Pescado]

Are the number of controller nodes less than the number of toilets? I've never observed the queueing problem unless the number of users exceeds the number of controllers, which should be allocated, like in real life, one per toilet. The controller is meant to be used both functionally and decoratively in such a manner: The number of nodes, and therefore, toilets, is signified by the number of controllers: When the number of users exceeds the number of valid controllers, then the controller will queue the remaining sims in order of bladder and place them in a holding pattern.

[syberspunk]

[Edit: Actually, I just thought of something. What about the male urinal objects? Typically those don't have toilet papers next to them. If I have urinals, I assume they also count as a separate object?]

Are the number of controller nodes less than the number of toilets? I've never observed the queueing problem unless the number of users exceeds the number of controllers, which should be allocated, like in real life, one per toilet. The controller is meant to be used both functionally and decoratively in such a manner: The number of nodes, and therefore, toilets, is signified by the number of controllers: When the number of users exceeds the number of valid controllers, then the controller will queue the remaining sims in order of bladder and place them in a holding pattern.

Ahh... I was unaware of this necessity. I guess maybe I should read the rtfm?

Ok, I shall rectify this issue by adding more toilet papers. The thing is, the way the bathroom is arranged, there are two bathrooms, one for ladies and one for men on the 2nd floor. Each bathRoom has two public toilets (the toilets with the green stalls) and two public communal showers (the standalone shower thingie you can place on a wall). The two public communal showers are, in turn, enclosed in a smaller sort of sub-room with an archway opening up to the main room of each bathRoom.

So... when I simply configured the controllers to seek... sex (one for male and one for female, in the appropriate bathRoom of course ) the toilets were being used, but the communal showers were overlooked. To fix this, I had to rearrange the toilets and both controllers to Radius ... 3, so they would Only find the objects within their respective bathRooms. This was necessary because a larger radius would result in the female bathroom controller finding the objects in the male bathroom and vice versa. In anycase, since I managed to get the controller to find all the correct objects in the correct room, I just assumed that meant one controller was sufficient as it found all those objects in the room.

Anyways, thanks for clarifying this. I will go purchase more toilet papers right away!

Ste

[cyperangel]

yep, i missed that part as well....

For optimal results, place them at least one per bathroom minimum, preferrably
one per toilet. For optimal results, the "stall" toilets are recommended.

TAken directly fromt he RTFM. I hereby consider myself lipless

[jrd]

Unless you're on a community lot, don't use the urinals. They can't be cleaned.

Also, don't use the Grand Trianon bidet in a mixed gender or female bathroom. Female Sims can't use it since it appears to be cloned from the urinal, but the Stalin TP doesn't care.

[syberspunk]

Unless you're on a community lot, don't use the urinals. They can't be cleaned.

Also, don't use the Grand Trianon bidet in a mixed gender or female bathroom. Female Sims can't use it since it appears to be cloned from the urinal, but the Stalin TP doesn't care.

I was told by the grand pubah hisself, that if a female is pushed onto a controller where there is a urinal, she should supposedly be told to queue instead and wait for the next available "right" object. *shrugs*

Urinals can't be cleaned, like at all? Hrm... I should check this. Anyhew, Pescado says he's working on some updates soon anyways.

Ste

[jrd]

Maybe the GT bidet is bugged in another way then. Facts are females can't use it, and the controller won't realize this. Objects give me a headache, but a quick look at the package looked suspiciously like the code for the urinal (it sure isn't a normal toilet).

[J. M. Pescado]

Maybe the GT bidet is bugged in another way then. Facts are females can't use it, and the controller won't realize this. Objects give me a headache, but a quick look at the package looked suspiciously like the code for the urinal (it sure isn't a normal toilet).

It's not so much a bug as it is the fact that the game does not include any capacity for identifying a urinal expect by hardcoded GUIDs. Therefore, an object has no way to distinguish a urinal as a seperate class of item.

[Ancient Sim]

I recognise this dorm, I have had the same problem in it.  I didn't realise it was one toilet roll per toilet, either!  I think it's also the same dorm I have the shower problem with, where the females are constantly sent to the male showers even when they're within inches of the female ones.  I've even stood them next to the female ones and it sends them running out to use the male ones next-door.  Tried every which way to configure the damn thing!  The fact that you've managed it is promising, I will try again.  I think knowing I can have more than one toilet roll will probably make a big difference.

[Marvin Kosh]

You don't actually have to make the shower room separate from the toilets.  I make an enclosure but leave a one or two-tile gap in the wall depending on how many it has to serve.  This means that, if you have an equal number of toilets and showers, there won't be a jam so long as there are enough controllers, and you can leave the range set at Room only.

[syberspunk]

The thing was, I wanted to make as few changes to the layout as possible, and without necessarily having rebuild/redesign/remodel what currently exists. Partly because I'm talentless when it comes to that, partly because I want it to remain as close to the original design since we technically can't remodel anyways (what with those tools being disabled by default) and partly because I'm lazy.

Anyhew, I mostly rearranged the bathroom objects and managed to get the toilet controllers to recognize only the objects within the each individual sex bathroom, and was able to do so using seek/radius to still recognize the showers in the mini room contained within the overall bathroom. I kind of like that it has the archway/doorway and I didn't want to have to be forced to delete doors and leave a gap just for the controller to recognize those showers.

Ste

[RainbowTigress]

You don't actually have to make the shower room separate from the toilets.  I make an enclosure but leave a one or two-tile gap in the wall depending on how many it has to serve.  This means that, if you have an equal number of toilets and showers, there won't be a jam so long as there are enough controllers, and you can leave the range set at Room only.

Yeah this is what I did, after struggling with radius, which never quite worked right.  I also used moveobjects on to be able to place the toilet paper in the stall under the window, since it wouldn't let me put it there normally, although it never has a problem occupying the same space as the toilet, shower, or sink.  I've been lazy about design, but I'm learning more about it, and it sure makes life easier when things are designed properly.  I just get worried about something bugging the lot and having to bulldoze it and start over.