CHEF! September 16, 2026 CHEF! Day 4 Iteration 41

Waiting Your Turn at the Door

People now take turns at one-tile doorways, like the front door. Nobody steps into a doorway while someone is coming through it the other way; they wait on their own side.
If two people reach the door together, whoever is already in it goes first, then guests on their way out, since they free up tables. After four seconds of waiting, turns alternate, so a long stream of people leaving can't hold arrivals back forever.
Someone waiting outside a door also leaves room in front of it, so the people coming out have somewhere to step.
The line of guests waiting to be greeted no longer stands inside the doorway. It now starts just outside, on the sidewalk.
Two safety nets stay in place: after twelve seconds a wait gives up and normal crowding rules apply, and the four-second squeeze-past from Iteration 36 is still the last resort.
Over 40 games of 15 minutes each, the moments with people going both ways in the front door dropped from about 4,700 ticks to about 190. Waiting costs a little: about 61 guests served and 9% lost, where the same games served 62 and lost 7%.
The before shot (098) shows a leaving guest, a party walking in and guests in line piling into the door together. In the after shot (099), the leaving guest has the door to themselves while the arriving guest waits outside. The animated clip (105) was recorded later, on v0.0.50, which adds Iteration 44's step-aside fix.