Lost in time

[Norm35]

I took a close look, for the first time, at the game time that elapsed when a Sim commutes to and from work. It is appalling.

This Sim, named Julia Darby, lives in a Sky Rise apartment building and works a few blocks away in an office building. I timed how long it took to get to work and how long it took to get home.

First I set game speed at Normal. Nothing happened for a long, long time. The time remained at 1100 AM.

Finally, I set the game time to the lowest Fast setting. Still nothing happened so I moved the speed to the next higher Fast speed.

Finally things started to move.

Friday Midnight Sim left workplace.

0200 Arrived at subway station (directly across the street from the workplace.) It took two hours to cross the street.

0300 Left subway station across the street from the Sim's home.

0400 Walked across the street and entered home. This took an hour.

0600 Left home to go to work.

0600 Walked across the street and entered subway station.

0700 Left subway station across the street from workplace.

0900 Walked across the street and entered workplace. This took two hours.

Now, what the ... is going on here? Two hours to cross the street!

Why doesn't anything happen at normal and the lowest Fast speed?

Why do the Sims seem to run in place and get nowhere?

It may be my imagination but I got the idea that a number of Sims were running in place because in one case it could not figure out how to step around a street pole that was standing in its way and in another it could not figure out how to step around another Sim that was standing in front of it.

Now I don't expect super-intelligence from these Sims but this is ridiculous!

[Herodotus]

Norm,

It's been said before that making the sims walk is the best option for reasonably short distances or even medium distances because they will take the shortest direct route. Roads just get in the way because they try to use junctions instead of jay-walking, and pathfinding using subways and buses seems to be slower. They really need a pedestrian crossing in the game. You can force one with a "stubby junction" but it wastes space and you need a lot of them.

Trouble is this leads to cities that may not resemble what you had in mind.

I'm working on an answer to the other thread but I need some time to do it, so I'll get back to you when I can

[Norm35]

What's a, "stubby junction?"

While I'm asking questions, what's a. "tile gap?"

[Herodotus]

If you try to place any building, you can move it a certain minimum distance to the next position you can place it. This distance is a "tile" or "microtile".
(Also each building will have a footprint of a number of A x B numbers of tiles.)

If you leave a space of a tile then sims can walk round the sides of buildings and can get to a building behind without walking or commuting all the way round

If you notice the sims at a crossroads they walk to the corner and use the 4 pedestrian crossings to cross then walk back again. You can put in a short cross road that leads nowhere (except protrudes 1 or 2 tiles on one side) on a main street. so the sims can use the crossings at this point, so it is like a crossing with a stub on it half way along. Like this.

-----------+-----------

I wouldn't bother, because I have seen sims directly crossing a road, so I think it depends on how long the road is.

[Norm35]

After reading your comment about roads getting in the way, I did some limited experimenting with removing roads from in front of the workplace and home buildings. I also removed all the bus stops and placed subway entrances right next to each building. I am not yet sure whether this solves any problems but think it may be worth more experimentation.

Since the fire trucks need roads to get to the buildings, I have been wondering if it would work to place roads behind the buildings instead of in front. The roads would only be used by the fire trucks, not the Sims.

I have also noticed that the presence of roads and time speeds seem to interact. Sometimes the time gets stuck until the road in front of the building is removed???

[MidrealmDM70]

0700 Left subway station across the street from workplace.
0900 Walked across the street and entered workplace. This took two hours.

Now, what the ... is going on here? Two hours to cross the street!

That does seem high, but back in my fire test I pointed out it took the fireman about 2 hours to run the equivalent of 2 city blocks.

The game is very abstract on time, and scale of distance. But this does go back to my points about allowing time to visit the venues.
I am curious as to how long it takes to make a bus ride or subway ride, and if it is constant irrelevant of distance.


Why doesn't anything happen at normal and the lowest Fast speed?


No idea


Why do the Sims seem to run in place and get nowhere?

It may be my imagination but I got the idea that a number of Sims were running in place because in one case it could not figure out how to step around a street pole that was standing in its way and in another it could not figure out how to step around another Sim that was standing in front of it.


I've never seen it for a light pole, but I have seen it for each other. If two sims collide, they will attempt to push each other out of the way. If they are both pushing they may hang up for a while, but the game has a built in feature that eventually one of them will get tired of pushing and take a break, and then the one who is still pushing will then be able to procede.

If you have a lot of foot traffic maybe they are hanging up on each other?


Now I don't expect super-intelligence from these Sims but this is ridiculous!

It may have to do with the collision detection more than intelligence, if you have sims walking in place they may be running into things that they shouldn't be.

I have noticed that game cities that are left running for long periods develop glitches and problems such as floating buildings, etc. Have you allowed this city to run for more than 24 or 48 hours (real time) without a break?

It could be something akin to the floating building where the game is thinking there is an object in the way.


I have also noticed that the presence of roads and time speeds seem to interact. Sometimes the time gets stuck until the road in front of the building is removed???

Hrm, maybe the roads have a bug of their own, you could try deleting all of the roads, then replacing them.

[SCSocietiesRulz]

I have been kind of having this problem too. Sometimes my sims look like their doing the moonwalk! They walk in place and then the move really quick to where they were supposed to be!