Bathroom Swarming Has anyone else noticed that for no particularly comprehensible reason, sims love to swarm the bathroom? They do this several times in one party, which is utterly baffling, because even my elder sims never need to use the bathroom more than once in a party in the absence of heavy drinking. So why do they keep swarming the bathroom? Often the same sim makes 3 or 4 trips in the same party. It sometimes is bad enough that I have to barricade the bathrooms just to cut off the swarming, if the house wasn't designed for partying, meaning, "line of resistalls in the front hall".
Everyone in the bathroom To me this makes sense. If everyone is generally eating the same amount, drinking the same amount, and at the same approximate activity level then their bladder bar will fill at nearly the same rate. So you'll have people who really gotta go at the same time.
JM's saying that the same Sim goes to the bathroom several times per party. I've noticed this too, both with parties and regular visiting sims - they seem to use the bathroom far more often than is necessary. If the only bathroom in the house is currently occupied (bad idea), I get Sims left, right and center complaining about how someone is using the bathroom. Some of the gripers are Sims WHO WERE JUST SHOOED OUT AFTER DISPOSING OF WASTE THEMSELVES. That is downright ridiculous. That Sim literally took care of business 10 seconds ago, and now he's complaining that he wants to get on the toilet again. TOILETS ARE NOT PARTY OBJECTS!
If you can manage to constantly keep them occupied, then they only go when they absolutely have to. Bored sims=many potty trips.
I have read somewhere that items "advertise" to Sims. It's almost like they call out, "Use me! C'mon, it's fun!!" and the Sims can't fight the feeling. I think that toilets have a high "advertising quotient" that makes all the Sims want to use it at once. I get very amused that even a toddler sim who is not potty trained will become annoyed at someone using the bathroom. I guess he just doesn't want them messing up his or her favorite playtoy! LOL
Yeah, thing is, I didn't provide them with any of that. By all of my tests, all Sims are thus capable of outlasting a foodless, drinkless party without having to go more than once. I think the bathroom obsession is something Maxis really should look into.
Perhaps it's purely psychological..like a long flight with limited facilities. One is always occupied by someone puking. People start lining up for a turn at the remaining ones before they need to go..because if you wait until you do..you're s*** out of luck! lol With Maxis obsession with bathrooms, I'm surprised hoards of women can't go at once. In my experience, most women go with buddies or groups to gossip at parties and restaurants!
I've never paid any attention, I always just wait until the plane lands at the airport before concerning myself with going to the bathroom: There are plenty of toilets at an airport, and the flight is only about 18 hours, tops. You can hold it if you just don't drink anything. It's not such a problem since I don't really use caffeine on really long flights, since there's nothing to do anyway, so why not pass out? At least if the plane crashes, your survival odds will be better when you're all limp anyway. Well, if you have a large public bathroom, they do! Of course, all Sims do, but that's not the point. Just hope that the men's room isn't the closest bathroom, or they'll instead opt to stomp their feet in front of the door and pee themselves rather than use the adjacent ladies room. Unisex bathrooms are the rule in TS2: Sure, you can put the doors on the rooms, but that's only for traffic flow control: They'd better actually lead to the same bathroom.
