What settings do I put on an Apartment Life door......

[hedgekat]

in order to keep apartment neighbors from walking in while still allowing invited sims to enter?  That includes invited visitors from off the lot?   I'm hoping there is some way to set it that is better than what I've been doing. 

My sims calls a friend or relative to come visit.  They show up and knock on door.  Sim goes out to greet them and goes back inside.  Visitor stays outside until door is unlocked and sim calls him inside. Sometimes I have to make them selectable to get them in.  Meanwhile half the apartment neighbors standing on the porch invite themselves inside to eat, watch TV or go to the bathroom.

 (No, I don't have apthack installed as my sims can't afford the extra deposit, even though the only furniture inside is kitchen cabinets and appliances and bath fixtures)

[rufio]

Seeing apthack was specifically designed to fix this sort of thing, you're probably not going to have much luck here.  If your sims can't afford the deposit, make them work harder, or cheat.  When you get the apartment without the deposit it's sort of cheaty anyway.

[hedgekat]

Cheaty?   Who in the world does it cheat?   I am not playing in any kind of competition so can not possibly be cheating anyone.   

It could be said that using any kind of hack at all is 'cheaty', since it changes something that the game was designed to do.  Whether said design was sensible or not. However I use innumberalbe hacks,  most of them from here, to make the game do what I want it to as much as is possible. 

I don't object to my apartment neighbors standing on the porch building up their relationships with each other since they are all playable sims.  (I have no social group townies in my apartments.)  I just object to them entering the currently-being-played apartment as if it were their own.  As far as I can tell the only way apthack can accomplish this is by keeping them in their apartments all the time which is not what I want. I was trying to find out if any of the several door settings could accomplish this. 

What function does 'disallow lot visitors/allow lot visitors' on the door supposed to do? It doesn't keep off lot visitors from coming onto the lot so what does it do?

[Tarlia]

Cheaty?   Who in the world does it cheat?   I am not playing in any kind of competition so can not possibly be cheating anyone.

Then you might as well just use familyfunds to give them the extra money they need.

[rufio]

Cheaty?   Who in the world does it cheat?   I am not playing in any kind of competition so can not possibly be cheating anyone.

It is "cheating" in the sense that "cheating" has always been used in sims games - it gives your sims more money.  If you rent an apartment and then sell the bathroom fixtures, your sims get extra money they did not have before, and it will not be taken away when they move out of the apartment.  The way apthack fixes this is to charge the sims for the bathroom fixtures before they move in, in the form of the deposit, and then give it back when they move out.  My point here is that if you are ok with the game treating the bathroom fixtures as it does, then you will no doubt be ok with kachinging your family up to a point where they can afford the deposit.  Obviously no one is going to tell you that you're playing your game wrong, but it seems silly to be concerned about one form of "cheating" and not another.

I don't object to my apartment neighbors standing on the porch building up their relationships with each other since they are all playable sims.  (I have no social group townies in my apartments.)  I just object to them entering the currently-being-played apartment as if it were their own.  As far as I can tell the only way apthack can accomplish this is by keeping them in their apartments all the time which is not what I want.

It does not.  If you leave certain things out of the apartments when you build them (such as sources of fun and social) apartment neighbors will frequently come out of their apartments to fulfill those needs.  If you put a big game room in the common area of the apartment, they will all gravitate there and spend all their time socializing and playing games.  RTFM.

What function does 'disallow lot visitors/allow lot visitors' on the door supposed to do? It doesn't keep off lot visitors from coming onto the lot so what does it do?

I have no idea, honestly, since I just use APO now.

[J. M. Pescado]

apthack causes sims to come out of their apartments for reasons that make sense. Otherwise, they would come out of their apartments for no reason, lag the crap out of your game standing around in an empty hallway with nothing to do, pee on the floor because there's no bathroom in the hallway, and then go back to their rooms having accomplished nothing.

[PhantomNeko]

My game has always had the "Who are you, why are you in my apartment, and why did you just randomly falcon punch a pregnant sim?" syndrome. Random people walking in and getting in fights with my household.