Enabling Build/Buy In Apartments

[J. M. Pescado]

Try one or all the following:
boolProp aptSubLotSpecificToolsDisabled false
boolProp aptBaseLotSpecificToolsDisabled false
boolProp apartmentBuildBuyRestrictions false

Lemme know how it goes. All of the information I have found so far has been liecake, so I ripped through an error log to find it.

[Aner-Dyfan]

boolProp aptSubLotSpecificToolsDisabled false = seems to allow access outside of apartment
boolProp aptBaseLotSpecificToolsDisabled false = seems to allow wall changes
boolProp apartmentBuildBuyRestrictions false = cannot find any changes in the build or buy tabs

[Alex]

boolProp apartmentBuildBuyRestrictions false seems to have absolutely no effect on either vacant or inhabited apartment lots. It does accept the cheat, it just doesn't do anything.

boolProp aptBaseLotSpecificToolsDisabled false didn't seem to have any effect. EDIT: Tried it again and it enabled full build mode functionality. Looks like you have to go into Live mode for it to take effect (I went into Buy mode).

boolProp aptSubLotSpecificToolsDisabled false allows you to edit things outside of owned apartment space.

Hm. Have we finally discovered the difference of the base and sublot cheats? Sublot is the rest of the lot around your apartment, the base lot?

[blackcat]

boolProp aptBaseLotSpecificToolsDisabled false = lifts any restrictions from build mode

[Roux]

I replied and then immediately deleted, realizing I had confused myself.    After a double-check, here's what I found:

Vacant lots: Both boolProp aptSubLotSpecificToolsDisabled false and boolProp aptBaseLotSpecificToolsDisabled false had to be entered to open the lot for build/buy changes. They can be typed in any order. Just entering one didn't do anything for me.

Occupied lots: Only boolProp aptSubLotSpecificToolsDisabled false needed to be entered to open up the grid. The BaseLot cheat didn't do anything on its own. You can modify other apartments (though they remain dark) and common areas. Changes stuck even when another family was loaded.

[J. M. Pescado]

Occupied lots: Only boolProp aptSubLotSpecificToolsDisabled false needed to be entered to open up the grid. The BaseLot cheat didn't do anything on its own. You can modify other apartments (though they remain dark) and common areas. Changes stuck even when another family was loaded.

This does not match observed behavior. Build mode structural modifications like floor retiling and possibly walls stick. Bought items, however, behave oddly: Any items you add outside your area (common or otherpeople) do not appear when those areas are loaded and played. Any acts of vandalism(add/move/remove) performed to a neighbor's apartment are undone when the lot is reloaded. Vandalism may also carry the risk of hanging your game, although the exact circumstances which prompted this are yet unclear.

Attempting to modify the lot by using "LoadLot" will modify the "base" only. Effects will not propogate to already used units.

It is not recommended that these cheats be used outside of construction on an uninhabited existing apartment or the retrieval of a wayward date reward.
Research into why apartments selectively defurnish themselves and how to counteract this behavior are ongoing.

Some evidence suggests that evicting and moving sims into and out of an apartment contribute to "Lot ID Creep", where the lot numbers in use continue to grow steadily until they eventually reach 32767, whereupon bad things presumably happen. It is similar to lot ID creep caused by creating and destroying lots, but more insidious.

[witch]

Yesterday I found it easier to change lot zoning to residential to make construction and buy mode changes. (Lot needs to be exited and re-entered for zoning changes to take place). Changing the zoning back to apartment keeps the changes. Interestingly, the change of letterbox type now happens automagically. Of course, this method only works on uninhabited lots.

Research into why apartments selectively defurnish themselves and how to counteract this behavior are ongoing.

Good, this is the biggest annoyance I have found with the game so far. If anyone can fix it, you can. Mind you, complaining neighbours are rapidly heading for a smiting.

[J. M. Pescado]

Good, this is the biggest annoyance I have found with the game so far. If anyone can fix it, you can. Mind you, complaining neighbours are rapidly heading for a smiting.

Preliminary evaluations call for a 1 square buffer strip between apartment blocks as part of Awesomespec.

[Lonesome Dove]

Good, this is the biggest annoyance I have found with the game so far. If anyone can fix it, you can. Mind you, complaining neighbours are rapidly heading for a smiting.

Preliminary evaluations call for a 1 square buffer strip between apartment blocks as part of Awesomespec.

I don't understand what that means. You're not saying apartments can't have common walls, are you? Cause that doesn't make sense, how can you bang on a wall to complain about noise if the walls aren't connecting? I must not get what you're saying.

About the vanishing furnishings, WTF is up with that? I just spent the better part of the day playing around creating a two-unit duplex in residential mode, then changed the zoning to apartmentbase, saved, went to the neighborhood and came back in. Everything was just as I'd left it, furnishings and all. I moved in some Sims and poof! Everything but the bathroom fixtures, the kitchen counters and large appliances, and the wall and ceiling light fixtures had disappeared. Except, a few decorations in the bathroom remained. All the outside stuff stayed put.

So is it that if you create and furnish a lot in residential mode, then change it to apartment zoning, the only stuff that stays is what you'd expect an unfurnished apartment to have? If that's true, how come some purely decorative items remained in my bathrooms when everything else went phhhtt?

Anybody else experiencing this so far?

[jsalemi]

Yes, that's what he's saying -- if the apartments don't have a common wall, then the neighbors can't complain (which they do excessively, it appears). Hence, that's the solution to reducing the complaints right now.

As for the disappearing furniture, it's been discussed extensively here.  I suggest you check the thread on AL borkedness in the 'Oops! You broke it!' forum.

[J. M. Pescado]

The complaining is both a symptom and a problem. Without a common wall, the noise won't propagate in the first place.

[Lerf]

I mentioned this in the borked AL topic in "Oops you broke it".  Someone had noted that boolprop testingcheatsenabled true brings up a rent furnished apartment option when a vacant apartment door is shift/clicked on.  But they hadn't tried it to see if it works.

I have and it did.  Apartment was empty, but after choosing rent furnished apartment and saying yes to popup query, the furnishings reappeared.

[witch]

I run with testing cheats on continuously. I was not offered an option to move into a furnished apartment.

[BastDawn]

Did you shift-click on the door?

[witch]

Ta, I did see that in another thread after I posted here. That will certainly make a big difference.

[KLGFCG]

I wonder why the furnished apartment feature didn't make it as a regular option? Stupid backwards Eaxian logic... default furnished apartments would  have made so much more sense if they were only going to give one option. It's much quicker to go around sledgehammering than it is to redecorate the whole derned apartment. Especially since you should decorate if visitable NPC's are going to live there (as opposed to dorms that need nothing). Stupid. I vote for ApartmentsNeverUnfurnishThemselves or some other better named hack.

On the bright side, the correct cheat for moving stuff outside the apartment is win, even if it's a VBT to do massive rearrangements due to the parallel universe nature of apartments.

[Lonesome Dove]

Yes, that's what he's saying -- if the apartments don't have a common wall, then the neighbors can't complain (which they do excessively, it appears). Hence, that's the solution to reducing the complaints right now.

As for the disappearing furniture, it's been discussed extensively here.  I suggest you check the thread on AL borkedness in the 'Oops! You broke it!' forum.

Thanks for clarifying. I didn't realize it was to keep neighbors from complaining. I like that feature, though, it makes it more realistic. I sometimes have to stomp on my floor or bang on the wall to get my own neighbors to crank down their stereo or TV. I'd like a hack that would reduce the frequency of complaints but not totally eliminate them.

Thanks too for the heads up on the other thread. I had checked it out earlier but didn't see the unfurnishing bug addressed. Probably overlooked it or misread it, I do that sometimes when I'm very tired. My eyes go wonky.  I'll go check it out again. But the info in this thread is very good too, I'm going to go back in today and try all the suggestions.

Anyone else noticed that when you move a new family into an apartment, the landlord is different? One of my families has an old lady landlord and the other one has a young guy. I wonder if this might be related to the redundant travel guide problem in BV, where they keep spawning new NPCs every time. It wouldn't get as serious as the BV bug I guess, but it could be an issue. A hack to make the same NPC the landlord for the whole lot every time would be great, also more realistic.

BTW, has anybody else had "Christian Love" show up as an NPC on their lots? He disappeared from MTS2 a while back, I wonder if he went to work at EA? Just a thought.

[witch]

BTW, has anybody else had "Christian Love" show up as an NPC on their lots? He disappeared from MTS2 a while back, I wonder if he went to work at EA? Just a thought.

Yeah. I was tempted to move him in and make him an evil witch.

[Inge]

CL is back and updating lately.

[Lonesome Dove]

CL is back and updating lately.

Oh good! I love some of his hacks and cringe with every new EP worrying they won't work anymore.

[Roux]

According to the Prima Guide chapter that Snooty posted, lining shared walls with objects is supposed to prevent noise controllers from spawning. But we all know the guides are full of L&P, so I'm playing around with it to see if it works.

[Zazazu]

Another confirmation:
After using just "boolProp aptSubLotSpecificToolsDisabled false", I was able to add a rear door to an occupied apartment leading to a fenced-in yard. I also added playground equipment. Lot was saved and reloaded. Playground equipment was still in existence. Only issue is a bit of psychic ability on the part of the sim kids who live next door (that all-kid bin family). They want the equipment, and badly, when they get off the school bus and tend to block traffic off the bus being annoyed at the door in their way.

[SnootCB]

Some evidence suggests that evicting and moving sims into and out of an apartment contribute to "Lot ID Creep", where the lot numbers in use continue to grow steadily until they eventually reach 32767, whereupon bad things presumably happen. It is similar to lot ID creep caused by creating and destroying lots, but more insidious.

Wait, what?  How likely is it that someone might actually hit 32767?  I've never heard of "lot ID creep" before, and I'm always putting down empty temporary lots and then deleting them for one reason or another.

[Roux]

Some evidence suggests that evicting and moving sims into and out of an apartment contribute to "Lot ID Creep", where the lot numbers in use continue to grow steadily until they eventually reach 32767, whereupon bad things presumably happen. It is similar to lot ID creep caused by creating and destroying lots, but more insidious.

Wait, what?  How likely is it that someone might actually hit 32767?  I've never heard of "lot ID creep" before, and I'm always putting down empty temporary lots and then deleting them for one reason or another.

I've heard vague references, but never caught an explanation before. Is that 32767 per neighborhood, or per something else?

[J. M. Pescado]

Wait, what?  How likely is it that someone might actually hit 32767?  I've never heard of "lot ID creep" before, and I'm always putting down empty temporary lots and then deleting them for one reason or another.

It is not regarded as a "serious" problem at this particular point in time, since it is unlikely that you will be able to blow up the game in the 6 or so months remaining, but if you get REALLY hogwild moving people in and out of apartments repeatedly, it's an issue which may occur. Also, doing it will bloat your neighborhood save files, even if you don't manage to reach 32767, as it will leave dangling textfiles for the lot.