I got started watching and then I wanted to see what happened next, it is my Curiousity thing. That is why I clicked on the link in the first place. That said I don't usually watch these things.

When I looked at the Bathroom I kept thinking how I would make it smaller and take the extra room for a Nursery or a bedroom. I never make my bathrooms that large and since I now have Veranka's Tardisian All-in-One Bathroom, I make them even smaller sometimes. Besides I always have to try to find room for an elevator when I play a house that I didn't build from scratch, so I ceratainly would not keep the bathrooms that huge.

The only Let's Play I've ever watched was one for The Last of Us, and even there it was only because I wanted to see the story (and get inspiration for some apocalyptic design aesthetics that I might be able to use in TS2 ). I don't understand the appeal unless you're looking at a game you can't get yourself for some reason...

I kind of agree with PhantomKnight, except I am an only kid, and I can't see the appeal of watching someone else play.

Like, watching my husband, yeah, cause we're talking and stuff at the same time. Watching some video of someone else, nope.

But I don't watch videos. The last video I watched was 1776, and that was three? years ago. (Which I intend to keep that way, because I have some friends on facebook who are all into the "The people in the last movie you watched are your squad to survive the zombie apocalypse" things, and putting up John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton NEVER gets old. If I watch anything else, I'll have to get 1776 off of my husband's Netflix again.)

I prefer watching speedruns to let's plays.

I once looked up speedruns for TS2 because I was wondering how the hell that would even work on an open-ended game. I found...this



Here's a great speedrun though. "Please, work as quickly as you can." (A lot of the tricks in this are pretty neat, too.)

How many hours of my life have I dedicated to telling sims to use the toilet?

Regarding Let's Plays:

The best one I ever saw (by best, I mean 'made me laugh the most'), but I also don't watch a lot was this one which is like the top vid if you search sims 2 apparently?

I love let's plays. I've watched thousands of hours of them but I've only recently found a Sims 2 one I enjoy. That's Pleasant Sims just because the way she plays and her gameplay rules are really interesting to me.

I've looked for more but so far haven't found any who play the game either well or with a unique/clever approach that's appealing and not frustrating to watch. Entertaining personalities really don't do it for me - it's the game and gameplay that interests me.

I enjoyed let's plays when I was younger. I don't and can't watch through them.

I imagine that there is some truth to this, but I grew up before the age of video games, I'm afraid, so it doesn't apply to me. My dad and I used to play Pong all the time, though. I got the console that hooked up to the TV for a birthday, my 10th or 12th or so, and my dad and I would have Pong tournaments all the time, involving lots of betting and trash-talking. My (younger, but only by 10.5 months) brother was never interested in video games, but my dad and I were BRUTAL with each other. And it had the added benefit of irritating my mom, which BOTH of us valued because we were partners in crime that way. Later, when I was off to college, I got an Atari 2600 and amassed a bunch of games for it, and when my dad would visit, we'd be whipping that thing out and having Space Invaders or Asteroids tournaments all night long. Ahhhhh, the good old days. Those were two-player games, though, so no waiting for the controller.

Sooooo, I think the reason why Let's Plays don't interest me personally is that I'm just more of a do-er than a watcher. I want to play the game myself, not watch someone else play it. Although I do think they'd be good for sort of auditing a game that I might be interested in buying, to get a better idea of whether or not I'd like it before I go and spend the money. That's sort of like watching extended movie trailers to decide whether or not to go see the movie. But I can't see myself ever sitting and watching someone else play a game that I already own/play, at least not for any length of time.



Elevators? Well, I suppose if you like them or maybe if you imagine that your Sims can't climb stairs for whatever reason... Me, I just like realistic houses that are tweaked a bit here and there to be more Sims-compatible for routing purposes and to reduce wasteful space. (Like, Sims don't need walk-in closets.) In real houses, most non-master bathrooms are small and simple, a space wide enough for a tub/shower and deep enough that you can sit a sink/counter, a toilet, and the depth of the tub/shower next to each other. In Sims terms, that's a 2x3 room. Or 2x4, if you want a double counter...which isn't really necessary with Sims. Maybe an extra tile somewhere if you want to stick a toddler potty or a litterbox in there, too...although if you put on moveobjects you can put a toddler potty between the big toilet and the counter and both it and the big toilet are still usable. That's really all you need. I see people complaining about Sims gathering in bathrooms, but...Well, if you don't build bathrooms that have room for Sims to gather, you won't have that problem. OTOH, I don't find the "all-in-one" bathrooms appealing because that's not very realistic, either. I just like...normal-sized bathrooms. I mean, I'll build big, fancy master baths in-game because IRL I love big, fancy master baths. I frickin' LIVE in my own master bath sometimes, can't drag me out of the bathtub, and I've got books and electronics for entertainment in there and a double-sided gas fireplace between the bedroom and the bath for ambiance and everything. If I had a mini-fridge and a microwave in there, I might never come out. I will often post to this very forum while in my bathtub, in fact. So, I'm all "Hell, yeah," on big, fancy master baths. (And I usually lock them so that only the person/couple/group who uses it can access it.) But for family bathrooms? Small and "normal," please. IRL AND in-game.

Let's Play's,

Jessa https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv...DulC5lezqd9n8uA
Honeywell who said nothing about her own up there ^ lol. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL...qibB_YnJGLWUfmw so I will give it a plug. I like the apocalypse challenge.
And Mara. https://www.youtube.com/user/MaraLetsPlay

Ah, see, you have it backwards. I build "large" bathrooms (my normal bathroom size is 3x4 or 3x3, which I don't think is that large but apparently some do, as I discovered in the Apartment Mania contest, lol) because I'm adapting to my sims' behavior. I've mentioned before about how toddlers can follow their parents into the bathroom and then the other parent thinks that's a good place for story time.

But, yeah, sims love to follow each other and chat in there, playful sims can often be found playing in the tub, and teens often hang out in the bathroom to check themselves out in the mirror or use acne cream. Then another sim who actually needs to use the facilities walks in, finds the place too crowded, tries to shoo people away, but no one can leave because the door is blocked, so then the sim gives up and just joins the party hanging out in the bathroom, striking up a new conversation.

And let's not forget the new baby bathroom parties! I don't even know how many times I've seen sims give birth in the bathroom, only to have the entire household, the maid, gardener, etc., plus passersby pile in to have a look at the new kid. In fact, I think this last reason was why I started insisting none of my bathrooms be smaller than 3x3 in the first place. It makes sense why it happens--pregnant sims have to pee/right their motives more often, so when they give birth, chances are they're in the bathroom or next to a bed.

So yeah, my sims just see bathrooms as a really good, all purpose gathering room with a top notch maternity wing. Rather than trying to combat this belief, I just accepted it and altered my building habits.

About bathrooms: there is a cure. Pescado's "Bathroom uses you" will keep the numbers down while in the bathroom, but there may be a lot of pixels running around waving their hands in the air for the bladder need. Which is always hilarious-especially if they don't succeed in controlling it after all...

Same!



That's one reason I don't have really small bathrooms. To leave room at the door for people to step aside so someone else can get out.

Bathroom uses you is a lifesaver imo - I've used it since Pescado made it.

@maxon, wanna share your story?

If you mean BUY, it's not very exciting, simply that I got SICK AND TIRED of sims in bathrooms all the time. BUY stops all that.

See, this is bizarre. I have never had an issue where Sims congregate in bathrooms, even before I had a lot of mods and fiddled around a lot with autonomy and all that. It just didn't happen, ever. Yeah, if a Sim happens to give birth in one (which doesn't often happen because I tend to make sure a preggo's motives are at a good place before they give birth), then the other members of the household will try to cram in there to watch the birth and all. Though in that case they can't because if it's a family bath there's not enough room for other Sims in there, so they can't get in, or if it's a master bath, I lock those so that only the "master(s)" of the house can use it. Sometimes a toddler will try to follow a parent in, but that's pretty rare. Mostly, my toddlers choose to play with their toys, if left to their own devices...which they always are, in my game. Other than that, they just...don't hang out in bathrooms. They go in, do their business, and get out to do something more interesting. Perhaps it's because I'm a child of the 70s and tend to decorate with mirrors? Teen Sims do like to look at themselves and all, but since there are mirrors all over the place, they can do that pretty much anywhere. Perhaps it's because I've adjusted advertising on things so that doing things besides hanging out in bathrooms is more attractive? Perhaps it's because I do a twice-daily "check-in" with each Sim for motives; if the bladder or hygiene need is yellow or lower, I'll send each one off to do their business as needed? That way, they don't all want to cram in there at the same time? I always assumed I didn't get bathroom crowding because there just wasn't space, but maybe it's a combination of things, I don't know.

I have Bathroom Uses You, but I tend to mostly use it for bigger households with a limited amount of bathrooms, because of the queuing.

YES!!! I figured out a way to make a private elevator work in an apartment! Thank you edging fences and locked doors!

I use it because of the throwing out of the room feature when they're done. I hardly ever use the queue feature. Usually they are not that desperate to go and they can go off and do something else while they're waiting.

I have few bathrooms in my houses - I find the one bathroom per bedroom thing so unrealistic and it really irritates me. Lots I download, I nearly always rip out the bathrooms.My sims are lucky if they get two bathrooms in even the larger houses. The Goths have two - it's a big house (modelled on the one from TS1) but BUY keeps them in order and the bathrooms empty though Cornelia snuck in the birth of Aleister in the blue one last time she gave birth. There's also only one door per bathroom because with BUY you don't need two.

That's interesting, maxon; I usually do one bathroom for every 2-3 bedrooms or for every three sims. I find that keeps the traffic jams down in the morning (I like everyone to use the Bathroom and shower before heading off to school or work, regardless of their needs). I also find it convenient for sims not to have to trek all the way across the house just to use the toilet.

Yeah - I would never do that. You don't see calculations done like that in RL for the number of bathrooms and you won't see it in my game.

I'm really happy to play Sims 2 again and keep feeding my CC addition.

Actually, you do! Just not where you live, apparently. Most American houses have at least two bathrooms these days. My husband's parents have a bathroom adjacent to the master bedroom; a bathroom between the two secondary bedrooms; and a bathroom in the finished basement. My farming aunt and uncle, who built a new farmhouse in the 60s to replace the one my mother grew up in (which didn't have indoor plumbing till the late 50s), only installed one bathroom between the three bedrooms upstairs; but they had a lavatory and a shower stall in the basement, where I believe they housed farmhands sometimes. And having a full bath near the bedrooms and a half bath or powder room near the kitchen and living area are almost de riguer.

We all build balancing between our own normal and the requirements of the sims.

But I'm not American.

Was about to post something similar to Peni; I thought a bathroom for every 2-3 bedrooms is the standard, and that, more often than not, when you don't see it, it's because the house is an older home where the layout doesn't allow for it. Even old starter homes like my own RL home have 1 and a half baths for three bedrooms (with the half bath right off the kitchen, just like Peni described), though not all of them will have the half bath.

But I can't think of a situation in which a modern builder wouldn't put in a bathroom for every 3 bedrooms, at least. In fact, some of the more expensive homes I see getting built in long island now often have a private bathroom for each bedroom--and this is for a 4 or 5 bedroom house, with the 5th bedroom being an optional basement layout.

ETA: Ah, that must be it, then. I live in NYC, so yeah, I guess in America we're more concerned about having lots of bathrooms.