Apartment Life Borkiness, or how i ended the world in 1 hour.

[J. M. Pescado]

Please, you awesome people, tell me not to worry about AL townie-spawning! Because I'm afraid we can see another BV tour guide-spawning catastrophe.
After installing AL, the EP generated tons of new townies, including pre-made families and NPCs, that's OK, new social groups. My second gameplay day resulted 30 new townies (all adults and social group members). My third gameplay day resulted 8 new townies, again all adults and socials. My fourth gameplay day (today) generated 7 new townies, all adults, social groups (it was just a 1-hour gameplay day).

The Spawning of Social Group members is "correct", as there are a bunch of social groups that all maintain their own townie pools. Also, you get triplicate NPCs without antiredundancy. That's a lot of sims. But EAxis is probably unconcerned about this as there are maybe 6 months of life left, making it unlikely you can blow up your game in 6 months, at least to EAxis-thought.

[jwaas]

So far everything I've experienced with AL is fine, except for the apartments. 

The good news is that JMP was, of course, right about the 1xn "buffer zone."  I'm sure it will make its way into AwesomeSpec for apartments (assuming the rest of the borkenness can be fixed).  This works great to stop your Sims from being awakened by the rude neighbors.  I never did experience my Sims being the rude neighbors and getting complained at.  (Sorry for small pic size, I should have zoomed in the camera.)


The bad news is that defining what things inside apartments may and may not be edited, and indeed the problems with what exactly the definition of "inside" is, are killing everything else.  Imagine my surprise when Mary Gavigan suddenly started wanting a refrigerator, when they clearly already have one.


Of course I quickly found out that she wanted a fridge because that fridge-shaped object wasn't being recognized as a fridge.  Couldn't delete it at first until I entered boolprop aptsublotspecifictoolsdisabled false.  The replacement also wasn't recognized as a fridge.  Neither was the cheap basegame fridge I replaced the replacement with.  The only option I saw was Juggle Bottles.

That's when I moved out the Gavigans, as well as any other Sims I had in apartments.  They will be going into houses, there to enjoy a normal life where a fridge is a fridge, a terlet is a terlet, a fence is a fence, a nanny is a nanny, and Christian Love is a hazy memory.

Hopefully the regular houses aren't now borked also....

[Kyna]

I was playing that orphan family the Newsons or whatever and only the oldest teen boy acts as a teen. I was going to have the teen girl miss the bus to wait for the nanny, and told the teen boy to get on the bus but he wouldn't because he "can't bear to leave the little ones...blah blah fishcakes"

It was then I noticed the teen girl didn't have the option to teach the toddlers their skills but she could still change them and feed them. It is like she wasn't recognized as a full teen.

Is this just because she is a pre-made?

She was able to potty train the toddlers in my game.  I alternated sending the teen girl and the teen boy to school in my game, as it was only for three days before the toddlers were school age.  Whichever teen was going to school each day got that message.

[Soja]

It was then I noticed the teen girl didn't have the option to teach the toddlers their skills but she could still change them and feed them. It is like she wasn't recognized as a full teen.

Is this just because she is a pre-made?

I have the same problem with her.

[LK]

Others have mentioned this, but I'm going to do it again.

I tested this in a no-mod game so I know it's not a conflict.  Though running the game with the phonehack doesn't solve the issue.

When the phone rings and a Sim attempts to answer on their cell phone, the cell phone immediately disappears from the inventory.  Answering on the landline phone appears to work fine and calling out on both the cell phone and landline yields no issues.  Only answering on the cell phone.

I'm attaching a forced error log of the cell phone just because that's all I have.  I don't know if it'll do any good.

[Lerf]

I started a new neighborhood and got this.  The weird pancake things are those ugly ponds Maxis put in AL.  Apparently they've completely replaced one or more of the trees.  Any other reports of this?

[LK]

The only thing like that is that the condo building neighborhood decoration was replaced with the newer building in FT, so all instances of the condo building turned into the newer one automatically.

[JacquiES]

I started a new neighborhood and got this.  The weird pancake things are those ugly ponds Maxis put in AL.  Apparently they've completely replaced one or more of the trees.  Any other reports of this?

It's probably because instead of putting that pond into regular decorations, they put it in with the trees so the game must think it is a tree.  Whenever I make a new hood, I spend a lot of time deleting the enormous amounts of trees the game puts in.

[nowhereme]

Can't make apartments with backyards on foundations.

Srs? Bugger, I just started a large one, I wanted underground carparks.

I can confirm this. I spent some time last night making a really nice duplex on a foundation that had private backyards and I couldn't change it to an apartment until I removed the doors to the yards. Ugh.

The Guide says that the unique separator can be the only way into the apartment in order for you to make it an apartment.

You should be able to have a second door when the backyard is completely fenced in and would only be accessible from the front door (unique separator) which mine was. This works perfectly (having a second door, etc.) when the building is not built on a foundation. Build it on a foundation with steps leading down to a backyard which is all fenced in and it will not recognize the second door as being "protected" from the common area.

[Katuchan]

I started a new neighborhood and got this.  The weird pancake things are those ugly ponds Maxis put in AL.  Apparently they've completely replaced one or more of the trees.  Any other reports of this?

It's probably because instead of putting that pond into regular decorations, they put it in with the trees so the game must think it is a tree.  Whenever I make a new hood, I spend a lot of time deleting the enormous amounts of trees the game puts in.

I agree, I've been having that same problem, where trees will basically overrun every inch of land available (even the roads, wtf). I would be so pissed if it happened with ponds. But this is a pre-existing issue for me, I've had it since FT.

[Alex]

Hm. In my screwy test hood, I made Julien Cooke marry the Evil High Witch: Angel Smith. For some reason, the Spellbook and Cauldron in her inventory aren't hers. It belongs to some other chick!

Nothing major, just curious as to why it's done this.

And yes, the pond is a "tree", for some insane reason.

[KnowitallSim]

My borklist so far:

1. Aspiration awards seem to be broken.

With my one sim, he was in platinum aspiration and he got home from work at 3pm very tired as he was on a dream date with his boyfriend the night before and never went to bed. So I bought him the energizer, and it backfired! I tried it twice more and it backfired twice more! So then later he was in Platinum again and he needed to skill, so I put on the Thinking Cap. Backfired! He lost a Charisma point!

2. Also, when my sim used the energizer and it backfired, I was given 8 or so little pop up windows on the side informing me that I lost enthusiam in all 8 hobbies, even though he didn't have any in some of them! Not sure if it's a feature or glitch, but the note pop up spam is really annoying.

3. The main menu screen is very very choppy. It freezes and unfreezes every 3 seconds. This has been an issue since Bon Voyage.

4. I cannot find the medicine cabinet or the medicine cabinet mirror. I have checked every category, it does not exist for me.

5. How does magic work? I'm a bit confused about that.

6. One of the neighborhood decorations has been replaced by a new one. Downtown looks really glitchy because of this.

7. Roommates motives are always green. Every time they go to work or run errands they turn green as well.

8. The little portraits are changing every time sims change clothes. It's irritating, I like certain portraits for certain sims!

9. Messed up memories and genetics for new premades

10. Not a bork, but some really weird townie names in Belladonna Cove. Christian Love...

[LK]

New Bork (at least to me).

Warning: BBS Link.  Though it's pretty tame.

Upon receiving any NL mail like coupons or whatnot, the apartment mailbox reverts to a standard mailbox thus preventing apartment-based mailbox actions.

[Ellie]

I keep getting these "attribute number out of range" errors on apartment lots with only the AL director's cut as hacks. Anyone know what this is about?

[Zazazu]

Can't make apartments with backyards on foundations.

Srs? Bugger, I just started a large one, I wanted underground carparks.

You can, it's just tricky. I had to set up everything but the door to the outside partitioned yard, move the family in, invoke the "boolProp aptSubLotSpecificToolsDisabled false" cheat. Add door. Profit. The bad thing is that neighbors will be psychic about what you have in that area and crave it.

Basically, in the game's view fences = common areas. That's why the tiny flooring edge dividers are turning kitchens and the like into community areas.

If you add the door after switching the lot type to apartmentbase but before moving sims in, the lot reports having 0 apartments at $0 and you won't be able to move anyone in. My next building attempt will be a set of townhouses, so we'll see if I can set up attached yards, package, and have it still function. I don't have high hopes.

Lerf, that was classic.

[TashaFaun]

Upon receiving any NL mail like coupons or whatnot, the apartment mailbox reverts to a standard mailbox thus preventing apartment-based mailbox actions.

Well hopefully Pes can make a "mailboxfix" *pokes Pescado*

[Zazazu]

Picture of what beach apartment lots do (effects do not occur until move-in):




Yeah, it's bad. They still look okay from the 'hood.

[Crash]

There's something seriously wrong with the witch sparkles. First the sparkles disappeared when the witch came home from work. Now when I loaded the same lot again, the sparkles were suddenly there! Directly after load. Next time she went to work, she was sparkling as she should, but when she came back from work, the sparkles were gone again! I checked the alignment, and the good alignment bar was completely full. I bet when I load the lot again, the sparkles will be there again. Hmmpf.

[J. M. Pescado]

When the phone rings and a Sim attempts to answer on their cell phone, the cell phone immediately disappears from the inventory.  Answering on the landline phone appears to work fine and calling out on both the cell phone and landline yields no issues.  Only answering on the cell phone.

I'm attaching a forced error log of the cell phone just because that's all I have.  I don't know if it'll do any good.

Error is found and fixed. Will be in next hack updates. Do not force unsolicited errors, they never help.

I keep getting these "attribute number out of range" errors on apartment lots with only the AL director's cut as hacks. Anyone know what this is about?

This is some kind of test-tree issue with beds. I have no hacks pertaining to bed relaxation, so once again, I point the blame squarely at tight pants.

Upon receiving any NL mail like coupons or whatnot, the apartment mailbox reverts to a standard mailbox thus preventing apartment-based mailbox actions.

Issue is under investigation and will be fixed as soon as I figure out how to receive a piece of NL mail.

[Zazazu]

Dine at a whole bunch of restaurants. I typically get a coupon after three or four meals.

[jwaas]

Besides the broken cell phones, and my Sims' weird tendency to go to sleep before I would have told them to (just because it's nighttime), the only other glitch I'm noticing is in the house in the new neighborhood with a helicopter pad on the roof.  I moved the two single men into it, whereupon I noticed that the floor tiles couldn't be edited in the room in the rear right corner (with the mailbox and trash can directly facing you).  All other rooms are fine.  My guess is it's due to the very bumpy lot (I know AwesomeSpec requires a completely flat lot, and preferably a completely flat neighborhood), or else to this new thing with ceiling tiles.  I use walls-down mode, so I don't know whether there are ceiling tiles in the room, but next time I will check.

I am having no errors otherwise, as long as I keep my Sims in houses rather than apartments, and use regular landline phones rather than cell phones.  But I have yet to see how "Screen Calls" works, which may make me no longer need cell phones anyway.

I don't have SNS installed right now, but one thing we were worried about is the temperature control with the new central AC units -- has anyone noticed whether that's working?  Just curious.

Thanks for your hard work, JMP -- I know we all appreciate it!

[HystericalParoxysm]

Picture of what beach apartment lots do (effects do not occur until move-in):

Yeah, it's bad. They still look okay from the 'hood.

That was covered in the readme - said not to make apartments from beach lots.  Not that it's not stupid that you can't do that, just that... we were sort of warned.

[Zazazu]

Oh, we were. But some people wanted to see what it looked like when you tried.

[Alex]

Thanks for the pics Zazazu, I was wondering what it looked like.

As for the EAxian Downtown stupidity:


I wonder how this could be fixed effectively? It seems either Belladonna Cove or Downtown has to be all glitchy and ruined.

[Lonesome Dove]

4. I cannot find the medicine cabinet or the medicine cabinet mirror. I have checked every category, it does not exist for me.

It's in Decorative/Miscellaneous about 16 clicks in ($280). There are mirrored and non-mirrored versions. Never heard of a medicine cabinet without a mirror, but oh well.

10. Not a bork, but some really weird townie names in Belladonna Cove. Christian Love...

There are lots goofier townie names (Goopy Gils Carbo, anyone?) but I wondered earlier if Christian Love who used to upload mods at MTS2 has gone to work for EA. They seem to name some of their townies after EAxis slaves employees. Somebody told me CL is back updating his stuff at MTS2 though.