NPCs not going to their assigned bedrooms

[Vic 2.0]

Best I can tell they're not going to ANY of the beds I've placed. I put the name plates in the rooms I want them to go to, made sure they register as bedrooms, made sure they're assigned to that part of the island, etc. but they just stand there. Any ideas?

[genoforprez]

Assigning their rooms only indicates where they will sleep. If no rooms are assigned and there are no beds, they will sleep on the ground. If there are unassigned beds, they will just choose a random bed or sleep on the ground.

With an assigned room, they will go to their own bed to sleep at night, so you should mainly see them there while they are sleeping.

Making an NPC their own room will not force them to stay in that room, nor does it mean they will necessarily spend a lot of time in there. They will still mostly leave the room and wander around. (In fact, they need to if you want them to engage in activities that produce hearts, such as drinking at bars or buying things at stores.)

Animals are the exceptions. When you create a pen for animals, it is technically counted as a room, and if you assign an animal to it with a name plate, the animal should stay in its pen. Especially if the pen has everything it needs, like an animal bed and some food. This is really ideal for animals that produce materials (chickens, cows, sheep) since it makes collecting the mats a lot easier. Otherwise, the animals wander all over, making you hunt the mats like easter eggs. They also have a tendency to wander to the edge of the map and get stuck on the cliffs facing the ocean.

Sometimes if an NPC or animal gets "stuck", you can try using the resident register to move them to a different area and then immediately move them back to kinda "reset" them. For example, animals may not immediately go to their pen when you create it because they are stuck on a cliff somewhere, but if you teleport them away and back, they will appear right next to the resident register, so they won't be stuck on the cliff anymore, and they can then go to their pen. You could even try placing the resident register directly outside the pen/room to force the animal/NPC to teleport right next to it.

[Vic 2.0]

Okay, I'll try sending them to a different region and then bringing them back to see if that works. Because again, the issue is they won't sleep in the bed in their assigned room even if they're in that area.

Come to think of it, the specific ones I'm having an issue with are the soldier/guard types. I made the billet room which says in the description that they're supposed to go there to sleep but they never do. Is there a different sort of room I should try, or...?

[lilisaur]

Do they have a second room elsewhere on IOA in another area? Or rather, had one as when you create the new one it should unregister the first. I'm curious if something didn't deregister correctly, and you'd have to go back to old bedroom, assign them, then unassign (make it someone else's room or destroy the nameplate), then go to new room and assign there to straighten it out. Just an idea but I doubt its correct.

Above note that animals will stay in their sleeping and food areas if bed and food provided only applies to the livestock animals (chickens, chicks, cows, calves, sheep and lambs). Dogs, puppies, cats, and kittens will wander freely during the day. The sleeping area and food area for livestock animals need not even be the same room (but should be adjacent or nearby.) I have paddock full of wheatgrass next to a barn with pet beds for them, and my animals swap between the two at dawn and dusk.

Regarding soldiers, I believe they only sleep every other night, or randomly 50% each night. The rest of the time they are likely to be hanging out next to a door, standing at attention, or doing other soldier stuff like practicing in a training room. Britney is a special case - she never sleeps so assigning a bedroom to her is simply for fun.

[Vic 2.0]

Currently, I find that the only way to make the guard types go to sleep occasionally is by having a billet with NO nameplates, then they all take turns using the same two beds, lol.

As for this...

Originally posted by lilisaur:

Above note that animals will stay in their sleeping and food areas if bed and food provided only applies to the livestock animals (chickens, chicks, cows, calves, sheep and lambs). Dogs, puppies, cats, and kittens will wander freely during the day.

I kid you not, it is the exact OPPOSITE for me. The dogs and cats literally never leave their animal house whereas I can't seem to force the cows, chickens, etc. to stay in their pens and paddocks.

[genoforprez]

Hmmm, that's interesting. I know that when you put a haystack in there, the cows and chickens will often climb the haystack, which always weirds me out because it LOOKS weird (especially for the cow) but it also would make it very easy for them to just hop the fence and get out. I don't know that I've seen it happen, but I'm always kinda low key expecting it to happen haha. I wonder if that's a possibility.

[Vic 2.0]

Originally posted by genoforprez:

Hmmm, that's interesting. I know that when you put a haystack in there, the cows and chickens will often climb the haystack, which always weirds me out because it LOOKS weird (especially for the cow) but it also would make it very easy for them to just hop the fence and get out. I don't know that I've seen it happen, but I'm always kinda low key expecting it to happen haha. I wonder if that's a possibility.

Yeah my cows and chickens are always climbing the mountain that's right next to them. Dogs and cats just stay in their animal house though.