Changes to pathfinding (patch 36)

[Silent Ember]

Hi, all.

I've recently returned to Project Hospital after an eight-month hiatus. I was happy to read about improvements to pathfinding in the patch notes (woo-hoo!), as pathfinding was one of my biggest gripes with the game.

When I was playing eight months ago, I got into the habit of adding small bathrooms and water dispensers in offices and labs to minimize staff walking time (and therefore become more efficient). That worked out quite well in most cases, but sometimes a little rearranging was necessary to make sure that the doctor's chair was really close to the toilet and the water dispenser, otherwise they would go to their neighbor's office.

However, in my newest playthrough, I noticed that my pharmacist is taking this path to go to the bathroom, despite having a bathroom next to his chair:

https://imgur.com/wkqi7Gb

Could this have been caused by the changes to pathfinding in patch 36? Is there a way I can fix this behavior?

Thank you!

[Oberkampfkater]

Heyho,

maybe it's an issue with the zoning of the bathroom. Is it set to 'staff only'? Since the pharmacist chooses a bathroom in another department (the one in the ED doctor's office) I suspect the bathroom right next to him/her is zoned as patient accessible. Staff members alway choose a staff bathroom over patient bathrooms. And bathrooms of their own department always have priority. To counter this, I've zoned every single bathroom in my hospital as an 'admin department' bathroom ... that way the staff members use the nearest available bathroom.

[Silent Ember]

Hiya! Nice to see you again.

Actually, these office bathrooms weren't zoned as bathrooms all. For zoning purposes, they were part of the doctor's office and the pharmacy.

Oddly enough, doctors have no problem using these bathrooms. Even when there are proper bathrooms zoned in their department fairly close, they will always use the bathroom in their offices.

This problem seems to affect only technologists, which seem to have a different priority/decision making code when it comes to deciding which bathroom to use.

I've decided to take on your tip to have all bathrooms (and by extension, all common rooms) zoned within the admin department.

On a new map, this even more ludicrous situation happened:
https://imgur.com/a/uYtqBO3

(1) My radiologist completely ignored the bathroom in his office,
(2) proceeded to walk past two all-access/patient bathrooms from the admin department,
(3) and did a convoluted turn to use the bathroom inside a doctor's office (which wasn't zoned as a bathroom at all).

Here's some info that might help shed light:

• I couldn't zone the bathroom inside the x-ray room as a bathroom because of the size limitations (I would lose the zoning for the x-ray room). I'm now changing the code in RoomTypes.xml to decrease the minimum size for the x-ray room, which will allow me to zone the bathroom and see if there's any change.
  
• There are no bathrooms zoned within the radiology department.
  
• All zoned bathrooms so far (it's still early) are within the admin department and set as all-access/patient (green).

I appreciate you taking the time to share your experience. It would be great if we could get a dev to look at this too.

Cheers!

[Oberkampfkater]

Working in HR (and much more into 'organisational' things) I can assure you that employees do really strange things in real life all the time. :D

I did a little bit of testing myself.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2449368153 I've added two bathroom-zones (admin department, 'red' ... staff only) into the radiology department. The technicians used them as intended: they chose the nearest unoccupied one. If you zone them 'green' (patient access) your technicians will avoid them if possible ... even if the nearest 'staff bathrooms' is on the other side of the hospital.

Oh, I've tweaked the bathrooms a while ago. It bugged me that I couldn't do 2x2 rooms and the the emergency department insisted on having their own departmental bathrooms! :)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2417005385

[Silent Ember]

You're the real hero of this forum! :D

I had similar results. Zoning the bathroom as you instructed solved the problem.

Still, I remain curious as to why non-zoned bathrooms inside doctor's offices take priority over zoned patient bathrooms in your own department. Or what's special about doctor's office zones that register toilets, whereas x-ray rooms and pharmacies don't. I'll scour the .xml files later and edit this post if I find the answer.

On another note, since you mentioned bathrooms. Do you let people take the -5 penalty "couldn't dry hands" with 2x2 bathrooms, since there's no space for a hand drier?

To be honest, when I read the description for the new Sanitary Equipment (Infectious Diseases DLC) and looked at the visual, I was kinda hoping that it would function as both a sink and a hand dryer. Unfortunately, however, it functions just as a normal sink. That would have been a great help to 2x2 bathrooms.

Thank you for your help!

[Oberkampfkater]

I think the logic goes like this:

'Equipment inside the same zone' (f.e. doctor's office)

>>>

'Equipment inside appropriate zone + own department + staff only' (f.e. toilet in 'bathroom' of the radiology department that is 'staff only')

>>>

'Equipment inside appropriate zone + own appartment + all access' (f.e. toilet in 'bathroom' of the radiology department that is accessible to patients)

>>>

'Equipment inside own department' (f.e. toilet in 'cleaning closet' of the radiology department)

> 'Equipment anywhere in the hospital' (f.e. toilet in the admin department)

Edit: Yes - I'll take the -5 hit. But I think it should be possible to add the hand dryer in the same field as the the wash basin.

[Oberkampfkater]

Hmhmm, maybe the sanitary equipment can act as both a sink and a dryer.

You could try it by adding a few lines to the DLCObjects.xml of the Infectious Diseases DLC:

<GameDBObject ID="OBJECT_ISOLATION_SANITARY_EQUIPMENT">
        <AbbreviationLocID>OBJECT_ISOLATION_SANITARY_EQUIPMENT_DESCRIPTION</AbbreviationLocID>
        <TextureRef>ASSET_TEX_DLC_OBJECTS</TextureRef>
        <TextureAtlasLayout>LAYOUT_16_X_32</TextureAtlasLayout>
        <SpriteShape>SHAPE_1_X_2</SpriteShape>
        <TextureIDNW>24</TextureIDNW>
        <TextureIDNE>25</TextureIDNE>
        <TextureIDSE>26</TextureIDSE>
        <TextureIDSW>27</TextureIDSW>
        <IconIndex>2582</IconIndex>

        <AccessPositions>
            <AccessPosition>
                <m_x>-1</m_x>
                <m_y>0</m_y>
            </AccessPosition>
        </AccessPositions>
        <PlacedToEdge>false</PlacedToEdge>
        <AttachedToWall>false</AttachedToWall>
        <AttachedToObject>false</AttachedToObject>
        <Placement>INDOORS</Placement>
        <UseOffsetXNW>-0.8</UseOffsetXNW>
        <UseOffsetYNW>0.0</UseOffsetYNW>

        <AllowsObjectsOnWallsAbove>false</AllowsObjectsOnWallsAbove>
        <UseAnimationsStart>
            <Animation>wash_lab_sink_in</Animation>
        </UseAnimationsStart>
        <UseAnimations>
            <Animation>wash_lab_sink_idle</Animation>
        </UseAnimations>
        <UseAnimationsEnd>
            <Animation>wash_lab_sink_out</Animation>
        </UseAnimationsEnd>

        <UseAnimations>
            <Animation>wash_dry_hands</Animation>
        </UseAnimations>

        <Tags>
            <Tag>lab_sink</Tag>
            <Tag>sink_ward</Tag>
            <Tag>clean_hands</Tag>
            <Tag>washing</Tag>
            <Tag>ui_equipment</Tag>
            <Tag>ui_sink_def</Tag>
            <Tag>ui_clean_hands</Tag>
            <Tag>ui_isolation_ward</Tag>

            <Tag>dryer</Tag>
            <Tag>ui_handdryer</Tag>

        </Tags>

        <SoundEventUseStartRef>SFX_ENV_SINK_METAL</SoundEventUseStartRef>

        <Durability>20</Durability>
        <Cost>599</Cost>
    </GameDBObject>

[Celtic Bhoy David]

My pathing is pretty much the same way. I've had doctors leave their own GP office (where I've installed a bathroom) to go halfway along the corridor to go use either the public restroom or even another bathroom in another GP's office. It's not just doctors either as other staff members (lab techs, receptionists etc) will completely bypass the closest public bathrooms and go straight into a GP's office and use the bathroom in there.

It's been going on for a while I've noticed so the pathing in this game seems very strange.