Apartment Life: Obligatory Hate/Love Topic

[Zazazu]

It's that time again, kids. Time to bitch about what we don't like, drool over what we do, and inadvertently find bugs that aren't super-obvious. I'll start, because I'm impatient.

Likes:

• New outfits are a definite win.
• New objects so far seem good, at least as far as looks go. Good variety of cheap & expensive.
• The few new greetings I've tried have been cute and well animated.
• Apartment move-ins are smooth. Neighbors are easy friends.

Dislikes:

• Everyone, I mean everyone, hangs out in the common area 24/7. Not only unrealistic, but I keep having to shoo playables away.
• More Maxis fug design. Some of the buildings in Belladona Cove aren't that bad externally, but the furnishings look like someone was on psychedelic drugs when they placed them.
• "Hidden" lot is total fail. Took, what, 5 seconds to build. Oooh, a suspended octagon! How awesome!
• Toy dog is a glorified hamster, with animation errors, that takes up more room.

[HomeschooledByTards]

I like that going into buy/build mode doesn't show you all of the stuff in your neighbors apartments. I usually can't stop myself from cheating in dorms by selling off the dormies furniture (they don't need a bed, they just stand there by the door).

I don't think I'm going to like having the "everything's ok" popup from the landlord every day, I assume he/she is coming over to fix broken equipment in the apartment and my stuff doesn't break often.

[Jelenedra]

I like the new outfits as well. I don't even play Elders and I am so very happy that all the new Adult stuff if available for Elders as well. While it is lazy, I appreciated a lot of the FT adult outfits getting conversions for Elders too.

The hair, the only one I really liked is the Betty Paige hair. More ponytails, yay. Even one is the same lazy Teen Stuff hair converted to female.

I haven't had a chance to check out build mode stuff yet. I am hoping that the microphone plays nice with the UNI instruments so we can has actually have bands now.

[msalwaysright]

Build mode has some really nice windows and doors, and although I'm too lazy to utilize them, an abundance of grates and ductwork for MOAR building realism.

Spiral stairs are kewl.

And, you can woohoo in the new closets, which I think is hilarious,
and will enable me to make mralways a funny video reeactment
of the time that I got really tipsy on martinis and we destroyed a hotel closet.

[Zazazu]

Spiral stairs also don't seem to be horrible traffic-jam creators that I had predicted them to be. They are overused in Belladona Cove, but I'll definitely be peppering them into my real 'hoods.

I haven't gotten to look at Build mode much (I only had about an hour to play last night) but ditto on the ductwork. Will go great in lower-income housing I have planned. I need a bunch of trailers and slums for Horseshoe Court in Coggeshall Village, right outside of the wealthy section.

I'm disappointed that they didn't add public toilet woohoo. It would be a relatively similar animation to the closet woohoo or changing booth woohoo.

[Jelenedra]

Maybe they didn't add it because no one wants a blumpkin? 

Do the air ducts do anything, or are they strictly decorational? I didn't get to play with my sims at all. I just took pictures of all the new clothes.

[jfade]

OK, I've got the game but won't be able to play myself till tomorrow night and I'm curious to find out something from the people who are playing already... Is the witch stuff made in a way like the computer from that Humble guy where you had no choice but to see and be annoyed by it? I don't personally want witches in my game and am wondering if I'm going to have to make an anti-witch hack like the anti-vampire, anti-humble, and anti-plant-sim hacks I made...

[Li'l Brudder]

Jfade feels that AL is offensive to wiccans.

[Process Denied]

OK, I've got the game but won't be able to play myself till tomorrow night and I'm curious to find out something from the people who are playing already... Is the witch stuff made in a way like the computer from that Humble guy where you had no choice but to see and be annoyed by it? I don't personally want witches in my game and am wondering if I'm going to have to make an anti-witch hack like the anti-vampire, anti-humble, and anti-plant-sim hacks I made...

I believe you have to ask a witch to teach you- you don't get infected by it.  You will still have the two witches from the game( you probably will need to de-witchify them) - bad thing will be the witch NPC's but I'm sure Two-Jeffs will update the Visiter Hack that will allow you to bannish them.

[msalwaysright]

OK, I've got the game but won't be able to play myself till tomorrow night and I'm curious to find out something from the people who are playing already... Is the witch stuff made in a way like the computer from that Humble guy where you had no choice but to see and be annoyed by it? I don't personally want witches in my game and am wondering if I'm going to have to make an anti-witch hack like the anti-vampire, anti-humble, and anti-plant-sim hacks I made...

When I played a house where the family already knew both witches, they came over on day one, but I have yet to see them while playing any other families.
I also didn't notice anyone popping up with any witch type wants other than the the first family.

[mildlydisguised]

Well I haven't played a large amount but I do really hate most of the EAxis apartment buildings, they are truly awful.  In fact I think it is putting me off playing a bit.  I'm starting to wish I'd built some generic ones pre-AL so all I would have had to do is update with correct doors etc. to make them playable.

I seem to have experienced some kind of jump bug on a few occasions with the spiral stairs - nothing proven yet though.

The More Awesome Than You bed, is that meant to have a vibrate option?  Or is it just assumed that it vibrates because it says it does in the description.

Had lots of stamping of feet from sims who wanted to talk to a sim that went through the sekrit bookcase.  I'd prefer there to be a 'where did they go' animation (a bit like the 'hmm what shall I buy/I am lost customer' OFB animation) as opposed to the feet stamping.

I was intrigued by the room mate going off to 'run errands' for about 5 sim hours and wondered what he was going to bring back.  Unfortunately it was nothing.  Also noted that the room mate did not seem to be responsible for half the bills just the rent.

My mean witch did not appear to turn green.  Perhaps you have to be evil as opposed to just mean in order for the greenness.

[KLGFCG]

Likes:
- Maxed out good witch (infallibly good witch) = pretty. The new skintone is subtle with the little sparklies and the sparkling effect is KEWL. The magic effects when casting a spell, making stuff in the cauldron... also purdy.
- Most of the objects are very nice
- So far, apartments don't seem too laggy
- New height variation for wall hangings without having twelve gajillion meshes designed to give that effect
- Playground stuffeths FTW. I especially like the "play on playground" interaction so they autonomously move amongst the equipment choices.
- New NH deco - power plant and pond are especially nice, alleys are so-so

Dislikes:
- Gee, Eaxis, great job, you learned how to make age conversions of your meshes. Too bad you did it an EP later so all the good FT clothes that were worth converting had already been converted by the community. Uhg. The teen gypsy clothes, sweater vest/skirt combo, male sweaters... already had those. But, ya know, thanks. Glad you learned something new.
- I'm about 50/50 on the new clothes... some are really nice, some are pretty fug. I'm not big on the whole "here is my midsection, let me show you it," trend, nor the super tight outfits.
- 30 new hairs, my ass. We need 6 different colored barrettes or ponytail holders WHY? Who plays zoomed in enough to actually make it that noticeable?

In all, so far I'm liking it muchly. I personally think it's a nice way to finish out TS2.

[Hecubus]

Annoyed by:
- the way you have to do the new roofs; it's not an actual roof, but rather pieces in Buy/Decorative/Other that you place
- the 45-degree view; clearly it's just to show off the ceiling cat

Amused by:
- the Sims3 poster (Buy/Decorative/Wall)
- the eerie similarities between new duct work and CycloneSue's duct work


So far I've just looked around... will play and do some building later this afternoon.

[Kyna]

I discovered I couldn't place my hacky boxes (batbox, macrotastics box, lotsynctimer) outside an apartment as nothing can be placed in a communal area.  I think of those as being "out of world" items, and normally place them outside the house.  I tried turning dorm build mode on (since that works for community lots and hotels) but that didn't allow me to place them either.

I played a pre-made couple with a child and toddler - and found that the child's bedroom is adjacent to the neighbour's wall.  She was woken up by noise, and by the time she woke up she wasn't tired enough to go back to sleep.  Fortunately the toddler was close to aging up, and I managed to squeeze 2 beds into his tiny room in a configuration that is definitely not realistic.

When I played a house where the family already knew both witches, they came over on day one, but I have yet to see them while playing any other families.
I also didn't notice anyone popping up with any witch type wants other than the the first family.

The Cordial twins, the remake of the Pleasant twins, right down to their grandparents' names - Sage & Coralia (Herb & Coral) and Jeffrey & Artemis (Jeff and Diane).  Faizah was playing them, and she said the house suffers from the "remove the roof and lose half the upstairs walls" issue, so we assume it's not weatherproof.  The design is a modification of the Pleasant house, and since EAxis were modifying the house anyway I don't know why they didn't make it weatherproof.  At least this time the twins both have black hair, as they should.

[J. M. Pescado]

The More Awesome Than You bed, is that meant to have a vibrate option?  Or is it just assumed that it vibrates because it says it does in the description.

It would naturally be ironic if the bed was, in fact, broken, and we had to fix it.

[Zazazu]

Well I haven't played a large amount but I do really hate most of the EAxis apartment buildings, they are truly awful.  In fact I think it is putting me off playing a bit.  I'm starting to wish I'd built some generic ones pre-AL so all I would have had to do is update with correct doors etc. to make them playable.

A lot of the unused ones also are only one-bedroom units. And ick, the color-clashing. I just put up a remodel of the House of Fail that works as a communal living building, one bed apartments. I'll probably throw together a quick lot tonight or get one of my packaged buildings that'll convert easily to play instead. I play smaller lots, so all the EAxis buildings are so ungainly to me.

Annoyed by:
- the way you have to do the new roofs; it's not an actual roof, but rather pieces in Buy/Decorative/Other that you place

I like that, actually, because I can see using it in unconventional ways.

I discovered I couldn't place my hacky boxes (batbox, macrotastics box, lotsynctimer) outside an apartment as nothing can be placed in a communal area.  I think of those as being "out of world" items, and normally place them outside the house.  I tried turning dorm build mode on (since that works for community lots and hotels) but that didn't allow me to place them either.

Did you try it with Moveobjects on?

[Kyna]

I discovered I couldn't place my hacky boxes (batbox, macrotastics box, lotsynctimer) outside an apartment as nothing can be placed in a communal area.  I think of those as being "out of world" items, and normally place them outside the house.  I tried turning dorm build mode on (since that works for community lots and hotels) but that didn't allow me to place them either.

Did you try it with Moveobjects on?

Argh, I didn't think of that.  I had Faizah in the other room telling me to come and look at what she was discovering about the game while I was setting up the lot for hackiness, and was distracted.

* Kyna wonders if that's enough post content to prevent this being moved to the Thanks, This is Great thread.

Thanks for that, I'll give it a try.

EDIT to add: Tried turning moveobjects on, and I still couldn't place the hacky stuff in a communal area.  They have to be placed somewhere in the limited space inside the apartment boundaries.  I assume the lotsynctimer should be inside the apartment boundary anyway.

[KLGFCG]

New DO NOT LIKE: Beach apartments = much borkedness. Apparently, this is mentioned in the read-me (who reads those?), I saw it mentioned on Sims2Community and just had to try it. Yeahhhh... hard to describe, but lots on any side and the ocean were way up above the apartment lot and kind of floating there with neighborhood sky blue underneath. Not pretty. Didn't seem to do any permanent harm once I deleted the lot, but definitely not playable. Booooooo.

[Aner-Dyfan]

Well you read the readme to find out what the new cheats are to allow for changes to outside of apartments of which there are none.

New The Sims 2 Apartment Life Cheats:
-------------------------------
(The Sims 2 Apartment Life Expansion Pack is required for these cheats)

changelotzoning [residential | community | apartmentbase]
This changes the zoning type of the lot. Before rezoning a lot using this cheat, make sure there are no Sims currently living in the lot. To use this cheat, enter the lot that you would like to rezone, and then enter the cheat, choosing one of these zoning options.

Note that zoning a beach lot into an apartment lot will severely corrupt the ocean and lot terrain and is strongly not recommended.

printLotClass
This prints the lot's class (low, middle, or high) as well as the corresponding numerical lot class value.

changeLotClassification [low | middle | high]
This changes the lot classification of the lot. The lot will remain this classification until the following cheat is used.

clearLotClassValue
This clears any "changeLotClassification" cheat used on the lot and sets the lot class to the correct calculated value.

[cyperangel]

I yanked all my custom stuff and am fooling around in one of the pregenerated neighbourhoods, and so far i am happy

I really like the new spell stuff, and i also like the apartment part of it

What ive found so far on the negative side, was, my sim befriended the evil withc, asked to be inducted, and went green instantly. Not what i had planned.
Also, for some reason my game keeps thinking theres mail in the mailbox all the time, but when a sim tries to collect it, the old mailbox from the regular houses turns up for a split second, and then the sim jumps.

Other than that, so far only thumbs up from me

[Alex]

Kyna, the cheat is apparently "boolprop apartmentBuildBuyRestrictions [on/off]".

I didn't realise the sisters were remakes of Angela and Lilith (I did notice the house was the same though). Interesting... Anyway:

Good
+ I like the premade apartments, and I like the sheer amount and variety we are given with apartments, houses and community lots.
+ Great clothes. Yes some of the elder clothes are conversions, but is that really a bad thing considering they had about 2 dresses and a potato sack to wear before?
+ Spiral stairs!
+ Magic seems interesting, from what I've tinkered with.
+ Belladonna Cove. They even thought to give us a cemetary, go figure.
+ My idea to exploit the game and have multiple working apartment entrances seems to work.
+ That god awful FT loadloop has been replaced with something MUCH nicer.
+ Subtle, rather nice TS3 L&P

Bad
+ Not so subtle, rather bad TS3 L&P
- The pre-made family trees are borked to the point where I have absolutely no idea what some of the reletives are supposed to be. Is the guy the father, son or brother? WTF?!
- That annoying redundant space that is now in front of every tooltip, and how the "Needs" text is insanely tiny. Things like these drive me demented.
- The fail that is Windoze Watervista.
- No beachfront apartments, but amazingly, they at least tested that.
- The usual culprits for bugs don't apear to be in AL (have they finally realised?), instead, we get shiny new bugs.
- I can't change my witch's portrait. It will change, then automatically change to something else!

Here is the "very cool hidden lot". It might make an interesting House of Fail one day:

[Batelle]

All I can think, when I see that hidden lot, is of the witch Baba Yaga and her hut with chicken legs.  That must be what they were going for, they even added the lame-o chicken feet scratches in the dirt.

I'm bummed about the beach lots, I made some really cute beach condos. 

For those who have played apartment lots, how nonsensical is the routing? 

[Gus Smedstad]

No question about it, it's Baba Yaga's house of the chicken feet.  Funny how that's filtered into American culture so thoroughly that it's immediatley recognizable.  Fits with the theme, but wow, it's a fairly small and trivial lot.

 - Gus

[Kyna]

Kyna, the cheat is apparently "boolprop apartmentBuildBuyRestrictions [on/off]".

- I can't change my witch's portrait. It will change, then automatically change to something else!

Here is the "very cool hidden lot". It might make an interesting House of Fail one day:
<image snipped>

Is that syntax correct?  Doesn't seem to be working for me when I try: "boolprop apartmentBuildBuyRestrictions off" (without the quotes), I also tried with using false since boolean properties are usually either true or false.

I found the portraits on non-witches also change.  Noticed a couple of them changing when they came out of the shower in the morning.

On that out of the way lot, I put a swimming pool under the building between the spiral staircases.  Haven't done anything else to it yet.

[Tsarina]

They're doing it wrong.
If it was Baba Yaga's house, it wouldn't have any windows. And it would stand with its back facing the road.