Building Your Own Apartments: Late Night

[The_Goddess]

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.

[The_Goddess]

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.

[tizerist]

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.

[Rubyelf]

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.

[Claeric]

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.

[Painkiller]

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?!

[J. M. Pescado]

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.

[immortelleMuse]

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?

[daisylee]

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.

[Nalia]

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.

[daisylee]

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.

[kiki]

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.

[J. M. Pescado]

We gonna get a Mr. Assgrabber to go with your Assgrabbyness?

[cwurts]

Snob would go with the racist trait as well.

[kiki]

Snob would go with the racist trait as well.

Wrong thread retard.

[uknortherner]

I wonder how he finds the time to post on any thread with 130+ sims on the go...

[Claeric]

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?

[Blech]

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.


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.

[Claeric]

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. :\

[Cyberdodo]

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.

[Claeric]

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.

[jezzer]

Ah, now I see what your issue is, Claeric.

One in a series, trust me.

[Blech]

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?

[witch]

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?

[Blech]

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.