Well so much for the elevators!

[anelca]

It's a shame that these elevators don't work properly, a lot of people probably just bought the game to get these elevators.  I haven't even used an elevator yet because I find that ranch style homes are much more efficient and are cheaper since you don't have to pay an astronomical amount for an foundation as you would with a real ranch.

Those ascension stairs look like they might work better than an elevator, but I doubt I'll ever use something like that.  Essentially, unless you have a load of floors in your house you shouldn't use elevators.

why shouldn't you? is there some unwritten rule about this? personally i would rather use targas ascension stairs to zap my sims between floors rather than wait for them to troop up and down, especially the elderly

and as for real elevators failing often, JM, try where i  work...bit unfortunate as its a hospital where they are pretty essential but as no-one has died yet from stuck elevator related reasons, suing probably isn't an option

[Motoki]

Edit: you'll find the Ascension stairs here . Save yourselves the hassle of the stairs and zoom between the floors at ease! Oh, Motoki, you haven't seen this post. It's all in your imagination! It does not exist! 

I actually don't think it's much of a cheat. It saves what, a few seconds? And it's not much different than teleporting and the game lets you do that.

I just can't see myself ever using it though unless it's in a futuristic or alien themed house. Otherwise it just seems too odd and out there for me.

Stairs don't bother me too much. Sometimes they end up with traffic jams, but so do doorways. It happens.

[Lion]

I have a lot to complain about the elevators too. One of my sims bought the "Papaya something" clothing store, and there is the elevator.  I hired a sales person and a cashier. The sales person only wants to ride the elevator, up and down, in and out, even there is no body on the second floor. Or if there is somebody, she would go up and come right down without any intention to interact. And you all said it, it is so slow and stupid, you have to wait every time, and only one person can get in even though there are two people waiting. Just plain stupid.

[J. M. Pescado]

and as for real elevators failing often, JM, try where i  work...bit unfortunate as its a hospital where they are pretty essential but as no-one has died yet from stuck elevator related reasons, suing probably isn't an option

I'm sure they merely stop functioning, as opposed to crashing to the ground in a flaming heap and possibly killing someone.

[witch]

JM: Two of them can use it at the same time, but it's a rare occurrence and usually ends up with one of them walking through the door when they get out. Also, I have no problems with them landing on the wrong floors.

One buggy issue: If you have a home with one of these, click on a bed located on another level and tell the sim to sleep or relax. They'll get upstairs, stand next to the bed and do nothing. It seems like their path gets jogged a little bit and they can't get in.

Yup, both those statements are true for me, I have had two sims in a lift and the exit wasn't graceful.

Also both sims trying to get in when it fubared, were under JM's sleepclock orders.

Witch: You don't think it's funny when the bat presses the button with its nose? 

Oh I didn't see that - I didn't know the bat used the elevator until it flew out the top. I wondered how it could call the lift. Sonar maybe? 

Edit: thanks idtaminger, I'm going to try the invisible recolour of the stairs, a single square 'elevator' would be great.

[Lerf]

I've definitely had two Sims get on the elevator at the same time, in the one building (a dorm) I've used them in.  And I've had Sims go in and out of the elevator a couple of times, but not endlessly.

OTOH, the fact that the damn things don't drop is driving me nuts.

[radiophonic]

OTOH, the fact that the damn things don't drop is driving me nuts.

Give them time, they'll drop, or force them to! It's slightly comical.

[skandelouslala]

My elevators are working great.  I put them in a large three story house.  Much faster than the huge amount of stairs there were in that house.  My sim hopped in and a split second later was at the next floor.

[J. M. Pescado]

My elevators are working great.  I put them in a large three story house.  Much faster than the huge amount of stairs there were in that house.  My sim hopped in and a split second later was at the next floor.

As long as you ignore the mystical ability of the elevator car to always be on the wrong floor, and therefore take forever to arrive before you can get in, sure.

[Klaatu]

As long as you ignore the mystical ability of the elevator car to always be on the wrong floor, and therefore take forever to arrive before you can get in, sure.

If only there were someone around who could fix annoying problems like this... If only...

[Lerf]

OTOH, the fact that the damn things don't drop is driving me nuts.

Give them time, they'll drop, or force them to! It's slightly comical.

Wrong kind of drop.  I should have said, "drop out of sight".  In other words--never ever place them in the center of a room.

[radiophonic]

No? I'm not having any problems with them not "being there" when I need them and I've been using them quite a bit unless the issue has to do with them getting in and getting out right away on the same floor. That's annoying.

[skandelouslala]

My elevators are working great.  I put them in a large three story house.  Much faster than the huge amount of stairs there were in that house.  My sim hopped in and a split second later was at the next floor.

As long as you ignore the mystical ability of the elevator car to always be on the wrong floor, and therefore take forever to arrive before you can get in, sure.

I still haven't noticed this.  Maybe I just don't pay close enough attention..err maybe it hasn't happened in my game yet.  I've only use it in that one house.  I'm sure not trying to make lots big enough that elevators are common.

[Hitch]

The elevators have worked quite well for me so far. I haven't used them much, but they don't seem entirely useless.

I put one in Cold Issue Clothing to access the pointless balcony. I put a dresser up there (with a community enabled dresser hack) so my sims could change into their new outfits without having to go home. It's not really a popular part of the store, so there haven't been any traffic jams and sims seem to get there as quickly as they would with stairs, if not a little quicker.

The other is a community lot I built some time back being silly. I put a floating room on what would be the fourth level with four flights of  smoke and glass stairs leading up to it supported by nothing. I put that damn bubble blower sims seem ridiculously attracted to up there just to watch them trudge up and down all those stairs. (and they did) I decided to see how an elevator worked there, so I took out the stairs and put an elevator in. It works fine and cut out the trudging. (but that was getting old, anyway)

It seems elevators have their place, but they aren't necessarily a good replacement for stairs in most cases.

[idtaminger]

=
I just can't see myself ever using it though unless it's in a futuristic or alien themed house. Otherwise it just seems too odd and out there for me.

As I said, the invisible recolour works great. A little fixing, and you have a makeshift elevator. I use it in my Lothario house, which is decorated to the hilt - hence not as easy to navigate. There are a lot of teenagers, so the elevator makes sure they all get to the bus on time.

[linolino]

My elevators are working great.  I put them in a large three story house.  Much faster than the huge amount of stairs there were in that house.  My sim hopped in and a split second later was at the next floor.

I was so afraid to test the elevator since everybody is saying it is incredibly ineficient... Funny is that i just tested it for a while and i liked it! It has worked just fine.

I've seen the issue that JM mentioned that the elevator is always on the wrong floor, even if your sim just walked out of it. However i don't consider this a problem. Actually, this fact would almost pass unnoticed by me since the waiting time for the elevator to arrive is merely 3 Sim Minutes (about 2 seconds!)

How much time are you guys waiting for the elevator to open its doors?

[veilchen]

I just can't see myself ever using it though unless it's in a futuristic or alien themed house. Otherwise it just seems too odd and out there for me.

I did just that, what a great suggestion that was, thanks for the idea, Motoki. I'm now building a whole futuristic neighborhood. I read somewhere that if you use the 'agesimscheat' and age the robots to elders and then back, they retain their 'human' look and the robot features. I tried it, and so far it works. I have a bunch of androids, which I like much better. Now I only have to find some bodypaint that I can slap on them and it'll be complete.

My androids can't use the mirrors to 'change appearance', so anyone who wants to try out androids, you need another way to re-dress/repaint/make-up your 'droids. One option would be the 'you know what'. I'm not saying it out loud, my cat might hear me

[witch]

I've always been someone for function before form - if these Targa's stairs work fast and efficiently, I'm in! Sims do things far too slow compared to RL, so every second gained...

3 sim minutes? - far too slow 

Hey Veilchen - cool idea for androids, just gotta get my sims to make robots now...

[simmiecal]

I just can't see myself ever using it though unless it's in a futuristic or alien themed house. Otherwise it just seems too odd and out there for me.

My androids can't use the mirrors to 'change appearance', so anyone who wants to try out androids, you need another way to re-dress/repaint/make-up your 'droids. One option would be the 'you know what'. I'm not saying it out loud, my cat might hear me

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=3451.msg100520#msg100520

Did you see this thread?

[veilchen]

Thanks Simmiecal, but my 'droids can go clothes-shopping and change clothes via the dressers. The option to 'plan outfit' comes up just fine for me (unless I'm misreading the posts in that thread, which is entirely possible). I just couldn't change their appearance in the regular mirrors. I agree with Angelyne though, I would love some android skin. You know, somewhat human, but not quite.

I agree with you Witch. I used to love that dizzy2 mod where a maxed sim could teleport anywhere. It saved a lot of time. I like the Targa stairs, but then, I'm all for saving time too.

[Motoki]

There's some nice skins at MTS2 and the Exchange for robots but you really have to dig.

[veilchen]

The Exchange? The exchange you say? I thought you were my friend Motoki.  ;)

But seriously, thanks, I'll look around. At MTS2 when I have a lot of time, at the exchange when I'm drunk.

It would have to be something I can do in-game though. SimPe doesn't let me do skin surgery to replace maxis skins with custom ones, it always crashes when I try. Happy hunting to me. :D

[Motoki]

Oh well then I don't think you'll find what you're looking for. I suppose someone could make a 'nude' outfit that's a robot skin and face makeup, but I haven't seen anything like that.

[Renatus]

Veilchen, if you have NL installed you can change the skintone DNA of a sim to whatever skin you want and it will change their skin in appearance, too. The catch is that you have to know the DNA number for it - what I suggest for an odd skintone like a robot one is make a test neighborhood with one CAS sim with that skin. Shut down the game, open SimPE, look at that sim's genetics and copypaste that number someplace safe. Open your other neighborhood in SimPE and copypaste that number over your Servo's DNA for skintone.

Err... assuming Servos even have DNA.

[veilchen]

Thank you Renatus, yes, I do have NL. My android's DNA file shows this:

Dominant Gene
Skintone  00000001-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

Recessive Gene
Skintone  00000001-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

Skintone Range   00000001-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

So I'm assuming that because it's there, it can be altered. That's definitely worth trying.