Sims Not Using Road

texansky

In Alryne Valley, my custom world, Sims taking the car cut cross-country from the dead end to another road as it eliminates part of the trip and is more efficient.

Carpools and taxis pick up and drop off at the house just fine. I just added the school, so I don't know what the school bus does yet.

I want my Sims to use the road in front of their home for all travel. Is there something I can change in CAW to force them to use the road from their house?

In this image, the red line shows the path that the Sims take to get into the car on the other road.


This image shows the roads around the dead end so you can see the distances. The road going off the screen at the top left goes to the military base, science facility, junkyard, and fishing spot.

ts1depot

The only thing I could think of was to place some routing paint, plant a large rock or create a lake in between the two roads to discourage sims from taking a shortcut.

Or...you could move that road farther away to keep it from becoming a magnet for sims.

I think you'll still have issues, though. The problem with routing is that sims are designed to be "lazy." They will route down the path of least resistance. So, the more creative you get with road layouts, the harder it is to make them route the way you want them to without resorting to routing paints, fencing, etc.

If I'm reading the screenshot and your comments correctly, that big circular road that the paths run to leads to the military base, science facility, junkyard, and fishing spot. Unfortunately, that's what's causing the shortcutting. The sims living at the dead end are too lazy to use the other road to get to those locations. It would mean going down that long sweeping curve to the right, turning at the intersection, then going back up the road they keep shortcutting to. So, they are just cutting across instead.

texansky

I guess I could just go with it and put in a sidewalk between the roads since it looks like I'm not going to resolve it easily anyway.

suzses

Can you do unroutable terrain between the dead end and the road they go to?

ts1depot

Something that you can try is to have another road on the dead end street connect to that main road, like below. There are two alternatives, marked by the green and blue dash.

Damienf519

@texansky If you don't want to add more road and keep that as a dead end, you should probably just add some Sim nonrouting paint like @ts1depot suggested. Just make sure you don't put any lots or collectable spawners in that area

texansky

These are all great suggestions. Thanks for replying!

Adding a side road would work, but it defeats the purpose of a remote trailer park.

If I were to add a road, I would probably just extend the dead end with a road that leads straight to the other road. I'm trying to remember where I have breaks in the other road to add an intersection. This option could be a challenge.

Painting the area is an option. I don't have any spawners or anything else in that area. I'm not sure how far I'd have to paint to keep them from just running around the painted area.

I thought about adding rows of fencing, offset from one another, to "lengthen" the distance they would have to travel to get to the other road.
Like this:
******************
.............******************
******************
.............******************
******************
I can't add multiple spaces, so imagine the periods are empty spaces. The *** is the actual fencing. However, that might look out of place.

Could I just add a fence along the road in both directions? It could even be a fenced pasture for cows or horses. I don't even know if there are static animals available in CAW that can be placed in a pasture.

* I noticed that all of the residents, regardless of which mobile home they live in take that shortcut, so some run the length of the dead end before cutting cross-country to the other road.

Damienf519

@texansky If you have room, you could also make the area in between the houses, the other lots and the road a lot less flat. After that, make the tops of the mountains / hills un-routable for sims. You don't even necessarily have to have a fence, a natural barrier like a mountain range could work as well. Just make sure you use sims non routing terrain paint so they can't go over the mountain. It would also have the benefit of making the trailer park seem even more isolated

texansky

@Damienf519
That sounds like a good solution. I'll hop into CAW and see if I have enough room in that area. If not, I will put in a pasture surrounded by a fence.

Or maybe I could do both. We'll see.

texansky

@Damienf519
I opted for the hill separating the trailer court from the road. It works great in beta 1.1 and is not out of place at all.

Damienf519

You're welcome @texansky. Glad I was able to help