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TS3/TSM: The Pudding => Facts & Strategery => Topic started by: myskaal on 2010 October 28, 02:11:45



Title: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: myskaal on 2010 October 28, 02:11:45
I was incredibly disappointed with the "apartments" of Late Night. Fortunately, we can build our own.
The following was ripped directly from some random SimGuru on the official BBS.

Quote
Before you start, you'll want to enter the cheats for "testingcheatsenabled true", "buydebug", and "rbbb off". This will allow you to purchase the markers that allow apartment functionality, and allow you to edit the portions of a lot that are considered public space within an apartment.

When you create an apartment building, there are three important markers within buydebug that you'll want to use...

1. Public Room Marker - This marker should be placed in any room that you want any Sim who is visiting the lot to be able to walk around in, consider it as public space within a building such as the lobby. Unless cheats are entered, when you enter build / buy mode on a lot, any room that has a Public Room Marker can't be edited. The Public Room Marker is also the object that flags a lot as an apartment lot. Once one of these has been placed, any outdoor areas on the lot will automatically be flagged as public space. One special note: If you place a parking space in an area that is flagged as public space, your Sim can still purchase a vehicle and park it in that spot.

2. Hidden Room Marker - This marker is similar to the tomb room marker from World Adventures as some people have noted. It will turn a room completely black and hide the contents from the player. There is no way to unhide a room once this marker is placed inside it. You should place this marker inside the rooms that other Sims who will populate your building live inside, thus hiding it from view as your Sim can't visit their living area. If you hold CTRL + SHIFT and click on the hidden room marker, you can also set ambient sound for the building. You should only set this on one hidden room marker per lot, and it should be the marker closest to the player's apartment. Finally, any door that is connected to a room with a hidden room marker inside it should be flagged as an NPC door if you want another Sim to live inside it as if it was their apartment. Hold CTRL + SHIFT and click on the door, and select the "Make NPC Door" option.

3. Level Skip Marker - This marker isn't essential, but it can come in handy. For example, if you build a four story building, and your Sim's living area is on the top floor, you may want to add a level skip marker on the second and third floor if your Sim has no reason to ever visit those floors. When this marker is placed on a floor, moving the camera up or down a floor will automatically skip past a floor that this marker is placed on.

For your Sim's private living space, aka any room that makes up their actual apartment, don't place any markers in those rooms at all. Any room without a marker will be considered as a room that the Sim living on that lot owns, and they will be able to freely edit it in build / buy mode without cheats. Additionally, areas without a marker are the only areas that count towards the lot value or environment score.

On a final note, every building that you want to have function as an apartment should have the Callbox object placed in an area that is considered public space. This will allow other Sims to visit and to call the NPC Sims that live in your new building!


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Rubyelf on 2010 October 29, 02:02:29
Thank you for this, however I am experiencing a slight problem. When I CTRL+SHIFT click a door to set it as an NPC Door, I do not get the option to do so, any clue as to why?

Also on another note, I cannot for the life of me find the mailbox that you see in most of the other apartments (the wall mailbox).


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Claeric on 2010 October 29, 02:41:14
Thank you for this, however I am experiencing a slight problem. When I CTRL+SHIFT click a door to set it as an NPC Door, I do not get the option to do so, any clue as to why?

Also on another note, I cannot for the life of me find the mailbox that you see in most of the other apartments.

NPC doors have to open into an enclosed public area. Are your NPC doors external? If they do not open into an enclosed area (like a hallway, or a fenced in external hallway), it seems they cannot be set as NPC doors. The only non-shell apartment building has doors enclosed by fences- every single door is in an area that is enclosed, and when I built an apartment building, the doors wouldn't give me the option until I enclosed them inside a fence and marked the area inside that fence as public.

(http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/3849/screenshot86fs.jpg)

See how each door opens into a fenced off area?

(http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/3186/publicmarkers.jpg)

And each fenced off area has a public marker.

If your doors ARE enclosed, remember that the hallway or whatever they open into may need a Public Room Marker.

Edit: Sorry, I thought you were looking for the callbox, but I now see you said mailbox. I don't know the answer to that one.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Rubyelf on 2010 October 29, 03:01:06
Thank you for that Claeric, that wasn't really clarified anywhere I could find, managed to fix my apartment to work with the doors now. The Callbox is not the object however that I am looking for, I am looking for the wall Mailbox, the one which is seen in other apartments.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Claeric on 2010 October 29, 03:19:34
The Mailbox looks like it's completely hidden, just like all the trash chute and all the skyscraper shells. So for now, use the one that sticks around on the lot when you build from a residential lot.

I've tested it in the past, and Mailboxes work in a very particular way. When there's one on the lot, the game notices it. When there's two, only the first works. If you delete the original and replace it with any other kind of mailbox- for example, one of the World Adventures mailboxes- the game realizes that it is there, and it takes on the functionality that it should. Because of that, the original mailbox functions properly on an apartment lot- the game doesn't know the difference.

So once someone unlocks the mailbox, placing it should be as simple as deleting the normal residential one and placing one down. Despite how complex mailboxes are and how deleting them can explode your lot, they work really smoothly this time around.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Rubyelf on 2010 October 29, 03:37:14
Yeah, for now I am using a cheat method. I am going to clone a current apartment lot, remove all the "crap" that I dont want, put the mailbox and chute to the side, build it up and place them where I want them. I am guessing to destroy the original mail box (for when someone manages to unhide the chute and apartment mailbox) you have to Nuke it using AwesomeMod?


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Claeric on 2010 October 30, 02:18:44
I've got apartment building down, but has anyone managed to get other people living in a custom apartment? Nobody seems to automatically move in. Is there something special you have to do to get someone going in and out of those doors?


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Rubyelf on 2010 October 30, 04:09:31
I've got apartment building down, but has anyone managed to get other people living in a custom apartment? Nobody seems to automatically move in. Is there something special you have to do to get someone going in and out of those doors?

I don't know, I spent a good 2 hours playing around with it last night. Of course my issue was trying to find a spot to actually FIT the apartment lot. Your apartment is using the Communal Mailbox right?


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Turd Ferguson on 2010 October 30, 18:53:18
I'm just rather annoyed that we can't have multiple households in a building. You really can't add in a couple of lines of code EA?


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Claeric on 2010 October 30, 19:27:00
It's pretty asinine to imply that adding other households to the building would just be "a couple more lines of code". The game is not set up, in any respect, for lots to function as anything but one household locations. Lots themselves are an object. Two families on one lot, as separate, loadable save files would be pretty complicated. It would split that one object into two. It's really unlikely the reason there's only one household per lot is due to laziness.

As apartments are right now, that whole apartment is still "owned" by your sim, but the markers use fancy tricks to make it look like it's a separate area that they're a small part of. The markers are what makes your apartment the only thing you pay for when moving in, the markers are what keeps the rest of it black and invisible, the markers are what makes NPCs move in and out of the doors- it's not as simple as "The lot itself is the apartment", because that's untrue. The whole lot is still the whole lot. And splitting one lot into two is probably a huge deal coding-wise. It goes against how the game is built at a basic level.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: wizard_merlin on 2010 October 31, 00:15:40
It's pretty asinine to imply that adding other households to the building would just be "a couple more lines of code". The game is not set up, in any respect, for lots to function as anything but one household locations. Lots themselves are an object. Two families on one lot, as separate, loadable save files would be pretty complicated. It would split that one object into two. It's really unlikely the reason there's only one household per lot is due to laziness.

Given that TS2 apartments could contain multiple playable families, I would say it is just laziness on the part of EAxis to not do the same thing for TS3, even if they games save differently.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Inge on 2010 October 31, 10:47:18
I disagree. Look at how apartments in sims 2 were implemented.  The other apartments were in seperate lots that overlaid each other.   The other "playable" sims were not really living their lives while you were playing one family.  In fact they were acting the same as the NPCs in the new apartments.   And although you could visit their apartments and go inside, didn't you notice that when your in-play sim was there, *he* could use their fridge etc as if he owned their apartment, while they could not!   It really didn't work lol.  Under those circumstances it would have been better if they didn't allow visiting.   At least the new way keeps some sort of realistic synchrony.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: wizard_merlin on 2010 October 31, 12:46:50
With a special lot type and maybe an apartment marker, I don't see why they couldn't make each apartment appear as a separate lot.  If someone who has read the coding and says impossible to do, then so be it, but I wouldn't put it past EAxis to have just taken an easy option rather than apply a little extra effort.  While there was alot wrong with the apartments in TS2, at least they were reasonable, these ones just seem like a high rise house on rather an apartment block.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Rubyelf on 2010 November 01, 03:53:09
Well I've been playing around with this for awhile now. So far I have only used the apartment pictured by Claeric above to make my own, however they just don't function the same. No idea what is missing here, but I have everything set up correctly the apartment is priced right, public and room markers set, however the issue is what was mentioned a bit earlier. NPC sims do NOT move into the apartments that you make yourself, which beg's to ask why? What have EA done? I am wondering if perhaps it has something to do with the doors, they are set as "Make Usable by NPC" etc, but no NPC's ever move in, so there has to be something hidden here.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: brownlustgirl on 2010 November 01, 04:44:28
I wonder if the expense could be a problem for my apartment complex. Just finished building one and it seems to be working fine, but I furnished all the apartments the same as my active sim. Her apartment cost a little over 26k simoleons (two bedrooms and one and half bathrooms), so I might not have any sims able to afford the apartments.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Claeric on 2010 November 01, 05:39:02
Apartments don't work that way. NPCs either pay nothing or they pay the full price of the lot, because the only thing that makes YOUR apartment cost *anything* is the fact that it is neither hidden or public. Any apartment room that is not hidden or public applies to the cost of rent, nothing else is considered. NPC rooms are hidden, and are intended to be empty, so I doubt they pay for the contents.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Rubyelf on 2010 November 01, 10:22:47
I wonder if the expense could be a problem for my apartment complex. Just finished building one and it seems to be working fine, but I furnished all the apartments the same as my active sim. Her apartment cost a little over 26k simoleons (two bedrooms and one and half bathrooms), so I might not have any sims able to afford the apartments.

By "working fine" you mean that NPC's are moving into empty apartments correct?

As for the cost issue it could be due to the fact that you may not have set a public marker where one should be one, or hidden room markers too. If it is those excess objects, try removing them from all the "spare" apartments and then seeing if the price drops.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: brownlustgirl on 2010 November 01, 14:21:57
I figured out the public spaces and no need to provide cars for NPCs, they will add to the cost for my active sim. When I removed the other cars, the cost of the active apartment was around 18k.

No, don't have any NPCs yet, I hope the doors to the NPC apartments are set right. "Working fine" meant that my sim can move around the apartments well and nothing is blocking their way. I will be play more today and hope NPCs will move in.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: OmegaStarr on 2010 November 01, 14:23:57
The apartment mailbox and trash shoot do show up using S3OC, but even with new room/function tags they are still not showing up in game. Unless I'm doing it wrong, I'm assuming it would be as easy to clone object, tick new function tags and save.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: brownlustgirl on 2010 November 01, 14:50:11
Jynx released the hidden 31 shell buildings and the hidden mailbox and trash chutes.

http://www.customsims3.com/smf/index.php?topic=3044.msg27730;boardseen#new


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Claeric on 2010 November 01, 16:21:07
Oh thank god.

Note that the shells, like WA shells, can't have fences built through them. So you may have to do some planning before placing them. This one, for example, fits on a 20x20 foundation.

(http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/5893/screenshot154a.jpg)

Unfortunately, I can't seem to build on the first floor, rendering the lot useless. Maybe they can't go on foundations. :\ A more likely solution is that I used the alt key to precision place it on the foundation, and it resulted in a useless insides- since, of course, the walls can't line up with the door properly.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: brownlustgirl on 2010 November 01, 19:45:38
I think for newly built apartments to have neighbors, you need the apartment mailbox. I just plopped the one Jynx unhidden on my apartment complex and the regular mailbox disappeared, then my sim had neighbors move in.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Claeric on 2010 November 01, 21:15:46
Yep, that immediately calls new neighbors.

I've got an apartment completed except for the first floor. I can't figure out how you do the door. I tried putting a wall in front of it with a door on it on the inside, but it wasn't routeable. I ended up removing the walls in front of the door and it works, but it doesn't look right.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: wizard_merlin on 2010 November 02, 00:13:09
The apartment mailbox and trash shoot chute do show up using S3OC, but even with new room/function tags they are still not showing up in game. Unless I'm doing it wrong, I'm assuming it would be as easy to clone object, tick new function tags and save.

Do you think you could get it right?  Somehow I don't think there is a gun range where you get to shoot trash in the game.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Rubyelf on 2010 November 02, 09:16:53
I think for newly built apartments to have neighbors, you need the apartment mailbox. I just plopped the one Jynx unhidden on my apartment complex and the regular mailbox disappeared, then my sim had neighbors move in.

Unusual maybe I did something wrong, I did have the chute and the apartment mailbox down in my apartment but it still did not allow neighbours to move in. I will try the unhidden ones and see if it works :)


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: jezzer on 2010 November 02, 13:22:24
Jynx released the hidden 31 shell buildings and the hidden mailbox and trash chutes.

http://www.customsims3.com/smf/index.php?topic=3044.msg27730;boardseen#new

Ugh.  This quote from that site makes me cringe:

Quote
Just a suggestion: Maybe, in the first post, you could upload a new rar/zip minus those buildings that you find unsafe, because people don't always read. Sometimes they just download in a hurry.

Which is why you PUNISH THOSE PEOPLE.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Rubyelf on 2010 November 02, 14:15:03
Hm still no luck for me, plopped down the apartment mailbox, of course the older one vanished, moved my sim into the apartment once I'd finished making it, however no new neighbours have spawned yet. I am trying to work out where I am going wrong. I have a public marker set for each closed off area (this apartment is 3 floors high, there is a public marker outside each main hallway). There is a hidden room marker in each of the places I don't want to be seen. I have a callbox, a chute and of course the specific mailbox, but I can't seem to get any neighbours!


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Claeric on 2010 November 03, 02:01:13
Noticed something fun about apartments built with Jynx's placeable shells.

The shells look completely fucking different in low detail mode. The aqua-ish one looks white, the fancy one with the deck and two stories on top goes almost COMPLETELY white, and the one with the plain black "windows" all over it looks like the aqua-ish one. It really looks terrible.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: immortelleMuse on 2010 November 03, 02:32:42
Hm still no luck for me, plopped down the apartment mailbox, of course the older one vanished, moved my sim into the apartment once I'd finished making it, however no new neighbours have spawned yet. I am trying to work out where I am going wrong. I have a public marker set for each closed off area (this apartment is 3 floors high, there is a public marker outside each main hallway). There is a hidden room marker in each of the places I don't want to be seen. I have a callbox, a chute and of course the specific mailbox, but I can't seem to get any neighbours!

Have you marked the doors going to the hidden rooms as "Usable by NPC"?


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Rubyelf on 2010 November 03, 02:52:26
Hm still no luck for me, plopped down the apartment mailbox, of course the older one vanished, moved my sim into the apartment once I'd finished making it, however no new neighbours have spawned yet. I am trying to work out where I am going wrong. I have a public marker set for each closed off area (this apartment is 3 floors high, there is a public marker outside each main hallway). There is a hidden room marker in each of the places I don't want to be seen. I have a callbox, a chute and of course the specific mailbox, but I can't seem to get any neighbours!

Have you marked the doors going to the hidden rooms as "Usable by NPC"?

Yes of course. I even tested by moving a sim into the apartment's made by EA (the one which does NOT use a shell, it's near the water). No sims moved in at all, however I did replace it down again after I deleted it to make my own. I am going to remake the neighbourhood and see if it works now.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: basbas on 2010 November 03, 13:52:22
Ugh.  This quote from that site makes me cringe:

Quote
Just a suggestion: Maybe, in the first post, you could upload a new rar/zip minus those buildings that you find unsafe, because people don't always read. Sometimes they just download in a hurry.

Which is why you PUNISH THOSE PEOPLE.

Heh. Guess who didn't read it. (http://fuzzylogicdishwasher.blogspot.com/2010/11/basics-20x30-high-rise.html)


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Claeric on 2010 November 03, 18:57:08
I read it. There was no "These look hideous in-game" warning when they were first posted. It also didn't mention (and still may not mention) that they apparently cause blue lots. Excuse me for not going back and regularly re-reading the download info for things I already downloaded.

Even with a warning, how hard is it to not include the broken ones in the damn package to begin with?


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: uknortherner on 2010 November 03, 19:39:54
Just going back to the NPC neighbours - I noticed that when meeting these new neighbours in a freshly started game, and querying what they did they were all service NPCs. One was a butler, another was a mixologist and the third was a maid (the fourth door was empty). Could this be the reason why newly-placed apartment blocks fail to generate NPCs once a hood's been played? Perhaps the game is only using these empty "apartments" to house already generated service NPCs.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Claeric on 2010 November 03, 20:21:39
Try hiring a maid until you get one you haven't met/that you know doesn't live in your apartment. If it is indeed simply housing service NPCs in the NPC apartments, shouldn't you be able to find their house and go visit them? Or try until you get the maid you already met, and see if she just wanders from her house to yours.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: MegAnne on 2010 November 04, 09:11:53
Is there any way to remove a Level Skip Marker from an existing building? I want to add a public area and hidden rooms to intermediate floors.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Rubyelf on 2010 November 04, 12:28:25
Is there any way to remove a Level Skip Marker from an existing building? I want to add a public area and hidden rooms to intermediate floors.

Find it and use RestrictBuildBuyInBuildings False so you can pick it up and simply delete it, fixes the problem :)

Still having the problem with no neighbours moving into my Custom Apartments :(


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: uknortherner on 2010 November 04, 20:49:30
Try hiring a maid until you get one you haven't met/that you know doesn't live in your apartment. If it is indeed simply housing service NPCs in the NPC apartments, shouldn't you be able to find their house and go visit them? Or try until you get the maid you already met, and see if she just wanders from her house to yours.

Tried it with the maid and butler. The game generated new ones every time and ignored the NPCs already resident in the building. When fired, I followed them to see where they go, and they simply did the usual vanishing act outside a residential lot.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: J. M. Pescado on 2010 November 05, 16:28:24
Service NPCs do not live in buildings, because they must be conjured forth from the ether to serve. If you ever see an NPC drive off, they basically just ride off into the sunset.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Rubyelf on 2010 November 08, 01:23:29
Anyone yet to figure out why NPC's will not move into custom made apartment buildings?


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: immortelleMuse on 2010 November 08, 22:50:22
NPC's have moved into my (completely) custom apartment no problem. Although, I have totally restricted/turned off story progression, made sure that every house that isn't occupied did NOT have a bed/refrigerator (which means NPC's cannot move into those homes) and so, most all NPC's have flooded the apartment complexes (Seriously, like 20 of them are jammed up in 2 technical rooms, the same thing with the other two pre-made apartments in my neighborhood.)

So, what you might want to do is check other houses in your neighborhood and make sure NPC's can't move in there. I had placed the apartments after playing the neighborhood, though I did do a "killallhumans" which probably caused the game to generate new NPC's who then decided to live there. There are other commands like that using Awesomemod like "Rapture" and whatnot, after setting your preferred families as sacred. That would force the game to generate new NPC's as well. Of course, do all these with caution, back up your save yadda yadda...


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: freckles on 2010 November 09, 22:11:28
NPC's have moved into my (completely) custom apartment no problem. Although, I have totally restricted/turned off story progression, made sure that every house that isn't occupied did NOT have a bed/refrigerator (which means NPC's cannot move into those homes) and so, most all NPC's have flooded the apartment complexes (Seriously, like 20 of them are jammed up in 2 technical rooms, the same thing with the other two pre-made apartments in my neighborhood.)

So, what you might want to do is check other houses in your neighborhood and make sure NPC's can't move in there. I had placed the apartments after playing the neighborhood, though I did do a "killallhumans" which probably caused the game to generate new NPC's who then decided to live there. There are other commands like that using Awesomemod like "Rapture" and whatnot, after setting your preferred families as sacred. That would force the game to generate new NPC's as well. Of course, do all these with caution, back up your save yadda yadda...

I had the same problem with the butler. I had made my own apartments and called to get a butler and 20 of them showed up and stood in front of the elevators all day. 



Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: MegAnne on 2010 November 09, 23:01:07
Is there any way to remove a Level Skip Marker from an existing building? I want to add a public area and hidden rooms to intermediate floors.

Find it and use RestrictBuildBuyInBuildings False so you can pick it up and simply delete it, fixes the problem :)
The issue is that you can't see the Level Skip Marker in the intermediate floors, even with RestrictBuildBuyinBuildings disabled. I ended removing the floors of the stories above to find the silly thing.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Rubyelf on 2010 November 10, 04:00:42
Is there any way to remove a Level Skip Marker from an existing building? I want to add a public area and hidden rooms to intermediate floors.

Find it and use RestrictBuildBuyInBuildings False so you can pick it up and simply delete it, fixes the problem :)
The issue is that you can't see the Level Skip Marker in the intermediate floors, even with RestrictBuildBuyinBuildings disabled. I ended removing the floors of the stories above to find the silly thing.

Yes in some apartments it is quite tricky to find. I had no problem finding mine in the Plaza apartment though.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: tizerist on 2010 November 10, 18:36:12
About homeowners association rules. Is there any way to bypass this? I've freshly plonked down the highest high rise, with the red top. It's got three puny floors. Under the middle one there is a dark floor, clearly not intended for use. Its even got some weird pillars down there which would restrict building.
So is this an invisible hidden floor marker job, or is it truly out of bounds? I don't really need the whole floor (although that would be nice) but seeing as its just sitting there in darkness I could at least put a hot tub on the liveable floor above. So is there no current way to disable the busybodies association. Not even with an AM code? :/


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: tizerist on 2010 November 10, 19:47:07
Why would I want apartment markers when I clearly stated that it was a fresh shell, and I wanted to edit the darkened section, something which is clearly not public space?


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: The_Goddess on 2010 November 10, 20:00:22
Why would I want apartment markers when I clearly stated that it was a fresh shell, and I wanted to edit the darkened section, something which is clearly not public space?

Because it is the markers that cause the space to be blackened in the first place.  You need to find them and move or remove them in order to use the space.  Going into BuyDeBug mode makes them visible. You might also need to turn off RestrictBuildBuyInBuildings if you are trying to alter an area that is not part of your apartment, such as adding a second floor to your penthouse.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: tizerist on 2010 November 10, 20:07:28
Okay, fine.
You have to enter the fucking code to edit anything outside of the sim's fucking apartment.
What apartment would that be fuckwit? Its a fresh shell. A fresh shell. What part of that flew over your neanderthal brain?

The_Goddess
I already have those cheats upon startup. Here is the section I mean. You can see a pillar type object under there.
(http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg160/tizerist/TS3EP032010-11-1020-11-41-53.jpg)


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: tizerist on 2010 November 10, 20:22:23
Like I just said, the cheats are on automatically. If you know how to do it, you know which building it is, post a picture of you modifying that area. Otherwise, shut up.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: The_Goddess on 2010 November 10, 20:23:58

The_Goddess
I already have those cheats upon startup. Here is the section I mean. You can see a pillar type object under there.



Yes I see it.  I'm not sure what you are having trouble with.  You could try moving it with ‘Moveobjects on', if it is yelling at you when you try to remove it.  You might try nuking it in game mode.  Using "RestructBuildBuyInBuildings false" should turn off the restrictions. Double check to make sure the cheat is actually turned off


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Rubyelf on 2010 November 13, 03:37:12
Tiz, as soon as I have completed my essay for University and finished studying for my exam, I will go and have a look into this for you and will get back to you.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: The_Goddess on 2010 November 13, 19:07:18
I went and tried this in my own game and I found your problem.  The pillar you are trying to remove is not a pillar at all.  It is part of the shell itself.  If you use the eyedropper on it you will see that it does not select a pillar at all, it selects the whole building.  I couldn't tell you why it won't allow pools and hot tubs on this level.  My guess is that it is treated like any other bottom level.  You can't put a pool or hot tub in the lowest level basement of a house either. 
You might have to rethink your design plan and put the pools and tubs on the second level.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: The_Goddess on 2010 November 13, 20:33:01
I went and tried this in my own game and I found your problem.  The pillar you are trying to remove is not a pillar at all.  It is part of the shell itself.  If you use the eyedropper on it you will see that it does not select a pillar at all, it selects the whole building.  I couldn't tell you why it won't allow pools and hot tubs on this level.  My guess is that it is treated like any other bottom level.  You can't put a pool or hot tub in the lowest level basement of a house either. 
You might have to rethink your design plan and put the pools and tubs on the second level.

I could swear you already made this post. Where did it go?

 I did.  It got eaten in a technical error.  I deleted it and reposted.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: tizerist on 2010 November 13, 22:53:25
I went and tried this in my own game and I found your problem.  The pillar you are trying to remove is not a pillar at all.  It is part of the shell itself.  If you use the eyedropper on it you will see that it does not select a pillar at all, it selects the whole building.  I couldn't tell you why it won't allow pools and hot tubs on this level.  My guess is that it is treated like any other bottom level.  You can't put a pool or hot tub in the lowest level basement of a house either. 
You might have to rethink your design plan and put the pools and tubs on the second level.

Yeah I know, its an inner part of the shell. The initial plan was to have a hot tub cutting into that floor. Claiming the actual floor itself was only an afterthought and would probably involve hacking the shells somehow.
Nevertheless, its a good thing elevators work properly in oldskool illegal highrises, so thats a bonus. I had quite a few that I always thought would be just decorative, but now I can use them.
(http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg160/tizerist/TS3illegalhighrise.jpg)


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Rubyelf on 2010 November 14, 01:12:26
Found the same problem as The_Goddess. Still trying to get NPC's to move into my self made apartments, for now I've just given up on them.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Claeric on 2010 November 16, 19:29:10
Is a callbox necessary when the sim's door opens into the public outdoor space?

In Sims 2 I used to build lots with 2 houses on them (20x30 lot) so that I could make suburbs look more loaded with houses. i figure I can do this but make the other house an NPC apartment. But if I do this, will the "apartment", in this case a completely regular house, need a callbox?

Additionally, do sims actually USE the callbox, or is it an object that simply has to exist? If it's necessary, I'd like to hide it somewhere, but that won't work if the sims physically have to be able to route to it to use it.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Painkiller on 2010 November 16, 22:26:30
Additionally, do sims actually USE the callbox, or is it an object that simply has to exist? If it's necessary, I'd like to hide it somewhere, but that won't work if the sims physically have to be able to route to it to use it.
I thought you made apartments. You haven't played them or what?!


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: J. M. Pescado on 2010 November 16, 22:34:35
The callbox is used by visitors to call people you are visiting, so yes, it has a use. How ESSENTIAL this use is, I do not know.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: immortelleMuse on 2010 November 17, 00:27:04
Well, just note the callbox, from my experience, is used if you have another Sim that wants to visit the complex in a different level than the lobby/an NPC that may not have a formal apartment door or is on another floor.

The method with two houses, and the NPC door being visible as well as the Sims' apartment being on the main floor, should be able to work without the callbox. Of course, if it doesn't work, you can just buy one and place it after the fact... right?


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: daisylee on 2010 November 18, 01:40:21
I just had a ghostbuster have a job in an apartment building. I had to have him go down the list of the many people in the call box one by one before he could be let in the apartment to handle the haunting.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Nalia on 2010 November 19, 13:29:12
The callbox is used by visitors to call people you are visiting, so yes, it has a use. How ESSENTIAL this use is, I do not know.
The callbox is related to Celebrities mostly: the residents are being informed who is asking entrance and they can refuse or allow the visitor in. I think that if you want to lock paparazi out in the street or, to monitor who is entering your house (when you actively play a family) it is essential. It also works on houses: use the new LN fence and door in your lot, and place a callbox next to the mailbox. No more peeping toms.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: daisylee on 2010 November 19, 14:47:43
No, it is also needed to contact anyone who lives in the apartment buidings. That is why my ghostbuster had to use the one in the lobby to find the client for the job. I had hoped as he was there for a job, that he could get in automatically, but he could not. He had to be allowed in by the non-celebrity clients.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: kiki on 2010 November 28, 09:09:21
I've discovered that basements make awesome apartment bunkers and work perfectly with elevators. I built one tonight for Sim Kiki and hubby and they've been living quite happily underground in their apartment building - the lack of windows don't seem to bother them at all, provided there is enough light and environment to pacify them. If anyone's interested I'll upload.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: J. M. Pescado on 2010 November 28, 14:41:38
We gonna get a Mr. Assgrabber to go with your Assgrabbyness?


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: cwurts on 2010 November 28, 18:41:59
Snob would go with the racist trait as well.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: kiki on 2010 November 28, 18:51:50
Snob would go with the racist trait as well.

Wrong thread retard.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: uknortherner on 2010 November 28, 19:43:26
I wonder how he finds the time to post on any thread with 130+ sims on the go...


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Claeric on 2011 June 16, 17:06:20
Necromancy is one thing, but this thread is only a few topics from the top.

I have recently started a new game in an updated Sunset Valley with more roads and such. This leaves room for apartments, but I've got a problem- rent on all of them is atrociously high. I took a default house, added markers to make it an apartment (all rooms but bedrooms public, bedrooms private, so it seems like a shared home with roommates), and the rent is...3,000 simoleons. A total of 6k per week. Now, this is with my own bill multiplier mod, but even without it those bills are ridiculous for *one single room* that is barely furnished.

Apparenntly this is because bills work differently for apartments in non-city hoods- you end up paying for the entire lot's value rather than just your apartment. SO I made the neighborhood a city...and the bills got WORSE, jumping to almost 9,000.

Anyone have any idea what's going wrong?


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Blech on 2011 June 16, 18:40:41
In my experience, when building apartments in Bridgeport, items placed that went toward the rent seemed to be given at a discount, (sorry, can't remember how much) but in Riverview, you pay full price for all items placed in a private room. So, this "one single room" apartment was originally almost 5k until I wanded it down to about 2500.
(http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/8928/oneroom.png)

I'm pretty sure that if you've placed all the markers correctly you won't end up paying for the whole lot, as I've got a bunch of crap in the public areas of this place, way more than 2500 worth.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Claeric on 2011 June 16, 18:55:24
I stuck markers everywhere, even redundant markers. The household Value in build/buy mode is only about 7000 simoleons, and when buying the apartment w/empty room the sim had to pay for the land and what I assume was a week of rent, but nothing else. House price dropped from 40k or something like that to 11,000 or so.

I dunno if I'm just missing something, or what. I'll try again with a simpler house built from scratch.

Tried again. Built a house, stuck a foosball table in each room (4 rooms, totalling around 26,000 simoleons), made two public, made two private, left one alone. House cost after that was 11,000 Furnished- I assume taking the land into account.

In map view, the house only cost just over 6,500- meaning the sim was only paying for the room! But then the bills came and they were 1,418 simoleons. That's almost 1/4 the price of the room. :\


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Cyberdodo on 2011 June 16, 20:50:08
Ah, now I see what your issue is, Claeric.  It would seem that the initial purchace price is based primarily on just the private area, but the bills you get in the mail are calculated based on the value of the whole lot.

Actually, that makes sense to me. It prevents people from having a pauper living in a mansion by making everything public except a broom closet.

So, to reduce your bills for your "rented room" apartment, decorate with cheap crap throughout the house (including cheap wall/floor textures), and keep hidden rooms empty.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Claeric on 2011 June 16, 21:52:35
Well, now that I think about it, if I use RBBB, I can basically make a normal house- where my sim pays for all the non-NPC furnishings- and itwould be just like having room mates, which is what I wanted anyway- I just wanted it to be more like a dorm house than anything.

I guess I just used too expensive of a house to begin with. At least I know the concept works- just add an NPC door and proper markers to any apartment and bam, instant roommates.

The thing is, roommates still can totally raise their motives just by going into their door, since the game pretends theres an apartment in there, so they never really come out and hang around the lot. :\

I can't understand why EA didnt just bring back roommates. Probably since Sims 2 Roommates used Pets programming as a base.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: jezzer on 2011 June 16, 23:52:25
Ah, now I see what your issue is, Claeric.

One in a series, trust me.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Blech on 2011 July 07, 21:07:51
I built 2 identical homes, side-by-side, on one lot and made them into apartments. My problem is that the front and back porches count as public space no matter what I do, while the the front and back yards are correctly labeled as private. Does anyone know what changes I should make to this to make the porches count as part of the unit?

(http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/9826/topdownlower.png)


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: witch on 2011 July 08, 00:06:49
I haven't played with apartments much, but it looks from your picture that the only public parts of the porches are the three-tile rooms on the porches. Maybe if you put the marker on the porch itself?


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Blech on 2011 July 08, 00:56:20
No, placing markers on the porches has no effect at all. The 3-tile rooms were necessary in order to make the option appear to "mark as NPC door". I think it's just impossible with a foundation. It seems that, no matter what, the game will not recognize a raised porch as part of the unit unless it is completely enclosed without any stairs. Placing stairs automatically makes it a public space. Good to know for future building, I guess.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: feistyredhead on 2011 July 24, 21:56:28
The link doesn't work for the call boxes and such. Is there another link we can use?


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: kissing_toast on 2011 July 24, 22:03:41
The link doesn't work for the call boxes and such. Is there another link we can use?

Didn't Ea fix this? I think they did when they fixed the shells, also MTS.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: feistyredhead on 2011 July 27, 07:45:27
The link doesn't work for the call boxes and such. Is there another link we can use?

Didn't Ea fix this? I think they did when they fixed the shells, also MTS.

Apparently not or I wouldn't be here asking about it. Found them there, thanks.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: jezzer on 2011 July 27, 15:18:37
Because we're supposed to assume you know what you're doing at face value?


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: feistyredhead on 2011 July 28, 01:09:22
Because we're supposed to assume you know what you're doing at face value?


I got a pocket full of fucks and I cant be bothered to give one to you, sorry. You got me confused with one of those folks who actually gives a shit what y'all think. I don't post but I am not a newbie, perhaps you should do some research before you go running off  looking like a damn fool ..

Oh and FYI since you love to say SEARCH MOAR , it would behoove you to follow your own advice.

 ME- Date Registered: 2006 April 15, 16:32:35 yes that right, NOT a noob which any one of you could see by clicking the profile,
YOU Date Registered:    2008 September 03, 02:30:44 

GTFOHWTBS!


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: Jeebus on 2011 July 28, 01:48:00
Because we're supposed to assume you know what you're doing at face value?


I got a pocket full of fucks and I cant be bothered to give one to you, sorry. You got me confused with one of those folks who actually gives a shit what y'all think. I don't post but I am not a newbie, perhaps you should do some research before you go running off  looking like a damn fool ..

Oh and FYI since you love to say SEARCH MOAR , it would behoove you to follow your own advice.

 ME- Date Registered: 2006 April 15, 16:32:35 yes that right, NOT a noob which any one of you could see by clicking the profile,
YOU Date Registered:    2008 September 03, 02:30:44 

GTFOHWTBS!
Having been registered at this forum for a long time is no assurance that you're not an idiot.  I mean, look at the Whale.  She's been here for years and is still as stupid as she was the day she beached onto MATY's shores.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: kissing_toast on 2011 July 28, 03:30:11
Wow, butthurt much?


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: jezzer on 2011 July 28, 04:35:50
So your cunning plan to show you're not a noob is to fly completely off the handle with butthurt and act like Paden crawled up your ass and started manipulating you like a ventriloquist's dummy?  Interesting tactic, that. 

"Feisty."   I don't think it means what you think it means.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: feistyredhead on 2011 July 28, 11:01:44
I am butt hurt?  No,its called letting no life having folks who have nothing better to do than to post snark AFTER the question was asked and answered that I am not the one to be fucked with, pure and simple.  Get it ? Got it? Good. Since the issue was resolved, you had NOTHING to contribute other than anonymous fuckery that may fly with other folks, just not with me. If you do not want a smart-assed response, don't make smart-assed posts that contribute nothing to the topic of the thread. It's really that simple, and you wont look like a complete asshat still trying to get the last word in.

Oooh! snark about my name, how cute...Run along now.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: bitterquill on 2011 July 28, 13:10:22
...look like a complete asshat still trying to get the last word in.

The total lack of self-awareness in this statement is truly a thing of beauty.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: J. M. Pescado on 2011 July 28, 13:12:03
Well, you will note that it is a stupid F, so that sort of thing is expected of it.


Title: Re: Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night
Post by: jezzer on 2011 July 28, 15:13:10
I am butt hurt?  No,its called letting no life having folks who have nothing better to do than to post snark AFTER the question was asked and answered that I am not the one to be fucked with, pure and simple.  Get it ? Got it? Good. Since the issue was resolved, you had NOTHING to contribute other than anonymous fuckery that may fly with other folks, just not with me. If you do not want a smart-assed response, don't make smart-assed posts that contribute nothing to the topic of the thread. It's really that simple, and you wont look like a complete asshat still trying to get the last word in.

Oooh! snark about my name, how cute...Run along now.

You should probably look into your RAEG issues there, tiger.  It's not healthy to let the internet get to you like that.  I understand butthurt can lead to polyps.