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

[coralleane]

Child/teen sims pop back onto lot when they get special things like money from winning a spelling bee and are at school.
Locking of doors doesn't seem to be working properly. (people locked out still barge in)

Hardly extensive testing, and these were both on 'standard' lots, not apartment, so that might have an effect:  I had a child win the spelling bee yesterday and he returned as usual, and in another house the door to the baby's room was locked to non-household while a party was on and everyone was screaming at me about the fact that they couldn't get in to attend to the crying baby.  

I've noticed this, and I'm not sure if it's hack-related or not and it's hard to reproduce it:  

Three times now, I've seen Sims roll two *identical* wants.  I didn't manage to fulfil any of them so I've no idea if you'd actually get twice the aspiration points.  I *think* all three were at University, although I've been to sleep since then so I might be wrong.

The hacks I have are mostly Awesome ones, and snagged from the AL folder:

antipeeobsession
bedsidefix
customerselector
ffsdebugger
nohobbyspam
nohumble
noservochores
orchardtreefix

I also have Lord Darcy's:

LdDarcy_SP7KBIDObjectsFix_FT.package
LdDarcy_TSSObjectDataFix_FT.package

..nothing there that *obviously* influences wants as far as I can tell.  It's possible it's not an AL bug at all, but it's a bit suspicious not having had it previously and then twice the day I install. Unless it's a symptom of something worse happening under the hood, as it were, it's not a huge problem.  


Edited to add:  I have been having the disappearing cellphone problem, as well. 

[IAmTheRad]

Direct from the mouth of the readme:

Neutral spells don't necessarily make Sims better—or worse. They also don't alter your Sim's alignment one way or the other. Neutral spells include conjuring up food, magically cleaning oneself, and teleporting.

And you know what? This is NOT true. It effects your sims' alignment. So much that a few teleportation spells can, and will, take a evil sim out of evilness and make them good.

[Rissa]

FT False platinum bug is reportedly back as well as the negative memories for sims who shouldn't get them? Such as family sims getting bad memories of getting engaged. I pray this is from someone who hasn't patched their FT game.

I have this happen as well, and I have a patched FT game.
It was pretty annoying to see this happen to a sim who was  a knowledge/family sim.

I have played at college yesterday for several simdays and didn't have the hug problem happen. I don't have any hacks in my game right now.

[Alex]

He said it on the BBS. I should have mentioned that!

Ahh! That explains it. I never go there because it annoys me and is non-awesome.

Yeah, some of the posts there are nauseating... Example (from just the other week):
"Apartment Life is an expansion"
"ZOMG!!11 I had noe ideaz hAve a bene!!1one!1

After reading your post, simkat, I went to check my sim files for my neighborhood. Before installing, I know I had no more than 430 sim files. Now, about 24 hours and 2 play sessions after installing, I have 561. Surely this expansion shouldn't add over 100 new sims?

ETA: Exactly 96 files were last modified today. About 25 were at 2:31 pm, and the others were in chunks at 6:58 and 8:58. Mind you, I'm playing my Uni hood, which I haven't in a long time, but all the professors and NPCs were already spawned for it. I wonder what's going on.

By default, the game adds approximately 106 character files to each neighborhood.

And I've also been getting the false memories even with patches and fixes.

[Lord Darcy]

I also have Lord Darcy's:

LdDarcy_SP7KBIDObjectsFix_FT.package
LdDarcy_TSSObjectDataFix_FT.package

K&B FT fix became obsolete by FT patch 2. AL broke K&B dishwasher again (no compost), and FT version cannot fix it.
TSS fix is fine.

New SP objects fix for AL is on the way.

[witch]

And I've also been getting the false memories even with patches and fixes.

I had Dark Trepie getting one of those scratchy nonsense thoughts the other day - I've played the hood less than a sim week. That's not a good sign.

[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.

[witch]

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.

Hmm. I wonder if the backyards can be ON the foundation, like the back porches that work for the Crossroads building.

[nowhereme]

Hmm. I wonder if the backyards can be ON the foundation, like the back porches that work for the Crossroads building.

I'll have to give that a try today. Not ideal but I'd hate to have to give up on all my work.

[Mandapotpie]

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.

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?

I have only updated awesome hacks in my game.

[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.