Why does locking doors/gates not work?

I think the locks are supposed to stack? But in my experience they often don’t. I’ve had more luck with using “lock for everyone” and then unlocking for the Sims I want to be able to use the gate/door.

It also seems locks only apply to those currently in the household (or possibly on lot?) so if you lock a gate for all chickens but then hatch or buy a new chicken, the new one can still use the gate even though all the ones there when you locked it can’t.

Also, if a Sim is carrying a cat/dog/toddler who is not allowed through a door, they can carry them through the door. But if a Sim is riding a horse they can’t go through any gates the horse isn’t allowed to use on its own.

The locking and unlocking assignments for Doors and Gates needs an overhaul. With every new pack brings new needs. The current locking assignment system is confusing, wastes time and is severely unorganized.

There is currently no way to tell what locks have been assigned to a given Door or Gate. Some lots have many Doors and Gates, especially Ranches. Revisiting an old Save File means re-discovering or re-assigning locking preferences - taking time away from playing the game.

• What does All Pets encompass? Only Cats and Dogs? does that include Horses? Chickens? Sheep? Goats?
• Baby-Proofing applies to both Toddlers and Infants? Only Infants?
• All Employees = Includes Butler? Ranch Hand? Vendors? or only Hired Services?
  • Is a one-time Hired Mixologist considered an Employee?
  • Is a one-time Food Stall Vendor considered an Employee?
  • Are only Maids and Gardeners considered Employees?

Some solutions

1. Hover-Over Listing: Hover your mouse over a door or gate, the choices for Locked are shown in a list.
2. Assignment Toggle: Same as the new Sink Assignment. Unlocked options are an open circle. Locked assignments are a filled circle.
3. Unlist from Lock Options: If All Cats is chosen from the Lock For... category, then unlist All Cats from the Lock For... category. Lock For... All Cats has therefore been assigned and need not be chosen again.
4. Pop-Up Form: Check and Uncheck from a list of options.

Personally, I'm a proponent for a one-click, all-in-one listing Pop-up Form. This option would provide a clear listing of what locks have been assigned to that door, what allowances have been made, and any other preferences have been chosen. It takes out the guesswork. This listing would allow for growth with future DLC.

Here is what a possible Pop-Up Form could look like and function:

NOTE: This example Pop-Up Form shows two new features that I think would be welcomed inclusions for Doors and Gates.

• Invite Only - Your Sim can "Invite [Name] into home or room or yard
• Knock To Enter - If the door is locked, a visiting or Locked-Out Sim must knock (like the Front Door knock)
  • Dialog Pop-Up: [NAME] would like to enter. Accept or Decline
  • Accept: This is a instance-session option. Once the visiting Sim leaves the Locked room, they would need to knock again.

@Vyo4   Wow!  I love your idea and really hope the team considers this!  Thanks for sharing!

@Vyo4Yes, a whole new menu is something I would love to see too! The current system is just like it was trying to find a specific friendly social interaction from the dialogue menu before the current, updated system. I really like your mockup menu otherwise but having tick-boxes for locked AND unlocked is unnecessary and confusing. When trying to find out the lock configuration of a specific door/gate I need one question answered: Is it locked for subset x of sims? Yes or No? --> I want to see just one tick indicating "Yes, it's locked for subset x of sims.". If the box is unticked, I know it's not locked then. (Not "yes it's locked" AND "no it's not unlocked" at the same time so it's easier )

Also, it would need to be able to manage and communicate all the exceptions we want to set for doors. So for example, I want only a certain employee to be able to get through a specific door (gardener can go to the shed but I don't want the nanny there) or I'll allow only a certain pet through a door (my indoor cat can sleep on my bed but I don't want the dogs to get on the bed) so it should be possible to set the locks as such and later see how they are set up.

Therefore I'd have it set up as groups and then you could set exceptions. Maybe if there was a second tick then it could be for exceptions so if you check that too, then it would open a menu for selecting specific sims.

The biggest problem with the current system is indeed that there is no way of knowing how the lock configuration is set currently so it's incredibly hard to find out why, for instance, my sheep keep escaping. 

On a separate but related note, I feel like the gendered toilet doors aren't functioning properly either. I hate it when teen boys enter girls' shower rooms in my highschool build, it feels like harassment honestly. So I'd love too see a gendered lock too to be able to have proper "no boys allowed!" areas.

edit:
Other suggestions for improvements:

- Have it accessible from build mode. For the very least, I should be able to see the lock configuration by hovering over or clicking on the door in build mode too. Doors should retain their locked state even if moved around.

- Doors should be able to save their lock configurations so that the door could be temporarily unlocked if necessary. This would really help with all sorts of routing bugs as well as unusual or unexpected yet "normal" gameplay situations. Also it seems there's some sort of a bug with doors unlocking themselves after travelling so this should also help with such issues. A door could easily be reset with its proper lock configurations by unlocking it and then resetting the locks. Managing locks would be a lot less tedious if we only ever had to set them once. (Have you watched James Turner's Horse Ranch a.k.a. Door Lock Simulator let's plays? It's a good demonstration on how frustrating it is to deal with these locks that unlock themselves and are confusing to deal with in the first place!)

- With saved locked configurations it would be great if we could apply that configuration to another door by copying and importing the list.

- Locks should be possible to be set for invited and surprise guests alike (surprise guests being those that just come to your door knocking) 

- Locks should be possible to be set based on gender. I suggest females, males and custom gender to be the options.

- It would be great if doors/gates could be locked all at once or just that level at once. This could be used as a shortcut for setting many doors for the same or almost the same configurations.

@siirysiir  LoL what a Duh! moment, of course there'd need be only one column for Lock. I fixed that in this new mockup.

I've made some changes:

1. Simplified wording. Realized that the wording could be further simplified by removing the need to say ALL of something. It's assumed that ALL Chickens would be locked out. So just listing "Chickens" should suffice.
2. If the box for Everyone is checked, then all subsequent boxes should auto-check. Then the player can uncheck exceptions.
3. Added submenu, the same seen as the Select Sim pop-up.
4. Added Ages. Personally, I think specifying Ages would be good for some situations. Like, if someone wanted to create a Child Only clubhouse on the lot. Or a Toddler Only play area at a pretend Day-Care. I read more about Baby-Proofing (I usually don't bother with it) and learned it locks for Infants and Toddlers, but allows an older Sim to come and go freely. Added a Helpful Hint Hover-Over icon for user-friendly explanation.
5. Added Visitors section. This would be great for home businesses, like Yoga Instructor, or Stay Over Guests. Included Club Members too, so you're not cornered into just using the Club Door if the room you're meeting is temporary.
6. I tested the gendered doors and they did work for me, so I left off gender in this new mockup.

• Accessible from build mode. AGREED! -- Same with Lighting. Would love to adjust Lighting color and brightness while in Build Mode.
• Save locked configurations... apply to another door by copying. AGREED! -- However, I can see this as being coded as a temporary Save To Clipboard with the intent of copying the lock settings and pasting it onto another door(s).

Here is an updated version of the Lock Door Pop-Up mockup. This lists all the possible options for locking. Didn't know where to catalog Celebrities, so I put them under Occult. Keep out Judith Ward!

@Vyo4  Your mockup looks absolutely brilliant!

1. I absolutely agree with the simplification! I basically worded it the same on my paper mockup including the animals being just one category. Partly because I didn't know which animals are considered pets anyways but it got me thinking.. that's basically something the devs know but us players don't have a clear distinction in the game! So why should we even have them in separate categories, why not just have everything under "Animals" as it's the simplest solution. I'd like to think that categories that seem intuitive to players would be the best solution.

2. I'd love to see options greyed out when they're not applicable as it is in many of the UI choices already in the game but ofc I can't come up with any examples right now. 😅 What I mean is that if you check Cats under Animals then the option All Animals would become greyed out, just for clarification.

6. I feel genders would be helpful not only because inevitably the bathroom doors sometimes bug out but because the only ones we have are very modern and don't suit any other styles. They don't look good on more traditional onsens. It would be consistent to have the gender options on all doors, not just a few. I also want the peace of mind knowing that, for example, my teenage girls can change & shower in peace at school without the possibility of an older male teacher walking in to look at decor in there.. It just.. creeps me out. :/

I feel like another section, perhaps Other Sims might be needed as we still have some other groups of sims, the most recent addition being Tenants. I'd probably categorise it so that we'd have animals, household, clubs, employees, other sims, occults, ages, genders and guests. Probably not in this specific order but anyways! I'd have it something like:

Other Sims:

    Roommates
    Tenants
    Landlord/lady (not sure if they follow employees categorisation and it makes sense to me to have them separate)

    Teachers
    Celebrities

I could see Other Sims including visitors and clubs as well. I'd personally prefer them separate though.

Another category could be Service Sims that are not hired. These would include Vendors (I'm aware they can be hired but the issue is usually with the ones that spawn independently in the world), Mail Carriers, NAP Investigators, Master Gardeners etc. I'd love to stop the mailman entering homes to judge décor, it's creepy. The Landlord/lady would optionally fit this category too.

I see a design strength in having these clear, separate groups because it's a) clear and easy to understand for the player and b) it would be easy later on to expand these categories with additions from new DLCs! Like if we got something like news reporters as NPCs I'd put them to Other Sims, but nurses who visit to take care of elder sims, they'd obviously go to employees same as... chimney sweeps. :D (Burglars don't go to any group because they can get through any door, right?😉) I hope the Sims team would consider these suggestions! 

@Vyo4   I love how you snuck Fairies in there AND made Celebrities an Occult.  lol

@siirysiir  Great suggestions and feedback! I've updated the mock-up, attached.

Thought of more scenarios where Gender specifications would be useful such as having a Male/Female wing at a Boarding School or Prison. And we already have Male/Female wall decals in the game. Added genders to the new mockup.

Did some testing as well on a new category: Hired Staff, see my findings at the end. This category is different than Hired Services as Hired Staff are hired by clicking on an item or hired through a Social Event.

Sprinkled in some Questions needing feedback within some of the categories.

(?) = Tooltip

Global Choices

• Apply to All Doors
• Apply to All Gates

Restrictions

• Invite Only
• Knock to Enter
• Baby-Proof (?)
• Male
• Female

(?) Baby-Proof: Restricts Infants and Toddlers from exiting. Allows Caretakers to enter and exit. Toddlers may try to escape.

Lock For...

• Everyone
  
  • All subsequent boxes become checked
  • When an exception is made, the Everyone box becomes unchecked.
• Household Members

Categories:

• View ALL
• Ages
• Visitors
• Hired Services
• Hired Staff
• Pets
• Occults
• Miscellaneous

Specific Applications: (by Category)

Ages

• Infants
• Toddlers
• Children
• Teens
• Adults
• Elders

Example of Use:

• Make the EZ Exit Window only accessible by escaping Teens.
• Child-only clubhouse.

IDEA Click > Sneak Out Window - The EZ Exit Window should have the option to Click > Sneak Out Window. Otherwise my Sims will ignore the EZ Exit Window and exit via an exterior door. All doors of the room have to be locked to make the Sim exit out of the EZ Exit Window.

Visitors

• Invited Guests (?)
• Stayover Guests
• Club Members
• Roommates

(?) Invited Guests: Social Events invitees, visiting family, visiting friends, visiting neighbhors, stay-the-night dates.

Animals

• ALL Animals
  
  • All subsequent boxes become checked within category.
  • When an exception is made, the ALL Animals box becomes unchecked.
  • ** This rule would apply to each "All" option within each category.**
• Cats
• Dogs
• Horses
• Chickens
• Mini Sheep
• Mini Goats

Hired Services (?)

• ALL Hired Services
• Gardener
• Maid
• Nanny
• Butler
• Ranch Hand
• Eco Inspector

(?) Hired Services: One Time or Reoccurring Services hired through the phone.

Example of Use:

• Gardener only in yard or farm.
• Nanny only in nursery.
• Ranch Hand only in barn, corrals.

Hired Staff (?)

• ALL Hired Staff
• Caterer
• Mixologist
• Entertainer
• Comedian
• Violinist
• Pianist
• Organist, Vampires
• Vendor (Cafeteria), High School Years, Discover University
• Vendor (Boba Tea), High School Years
• DJ, Get Together
• Barista, Get Together
• Chef, Dine Out
• Yoga Instructor, Spa Day
• Message Therapist, Spa Day
• Animal Tender, (Social Event) Horse Ranch
• Grill Master, (Social Event) Horse Ranch

(?) Hired Staff: Staff hired through an item or Social Event. Not to be confused with Employees (Retail, Vet Clinic, Restaurant)

Example of Use:

• Caterer restricted to Kitchen.
• Staff Entrance - Staff can only come through the side door.
• Staff Quarters - Staff only bathroom.
• Stage entrance/backstage - Musicians only.

IDEA Staff Only door. Similar function as the Club Door in Get Together or the Wolf Graffiti Industrial Door, Werewolves.

Occults

• ALL Occults
• Vampires
• Werewolves
• Spellcasters
• Aliens
• Mermaids
• Fairies :-)

Miscellaneous

• Celebrities
• Tenants
• Landlord
• Patchy
• Flower Bunny

Example of Use:

• Flower Bunny stays outside to drop flowers.
• Patchy stays in the garden.

QUESTION: Should Celebrities be included? They are really only a Community Lot problem. Can't lock doors on Community Lots.

Public Service

• Mail Carrier
• NAP Civic Inspector

QUESTION: NAP Civic Inspectors are supposed to enter the residence? To check that appliances are up to code?
QUESTION: Bug? Might be a bug where Mail Carriers enter the home? I've personally not had that happen, but I've seen Let's Plays with it happening.

NOTE: Didn't include Public Service on this mock-up version.

Experiment: Hired every available Staff at one time.

Observations:

• Certain types of Hired Staff will wander away from their post. Sometimes they will leave to watch another Hired Performer (DJ), play on the computer, or just... cross-stitch.
  
  • Caterers wander off after cooking a dish.
  • Musicians might wander after finishing a song.
  • Comedians might wander after finishing a routine.
  • Oftentimes the wandering Staff will return to their post to perform another song/dish/routine.
  • A staffed DJ Booth will pull away other Hired Staff from their posts.
• Staff that tended an object did not leave their post until their shift ended.
• Stall Vendors didn't leave their post until their shift ended.

BUG: The DJ Booth remained on after the DJ ended their shift. No option to Click > Turn Off. Had to Reset Object to turn off effects.