More Awesome Than You!

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.

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

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?

boolProp aptBaseLotSpecificToolsDisabled false = lifts any restrictions from build mode

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.

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.

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.


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?

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.

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

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.

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

Did you shift-click on the door?

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

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.

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.  :o 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

What six months remaining? You mean until Sims 3 comes out? What's that got to do with it?

Is there any fix for this dangling textfiles problem? Not that I have a clue what that means.

 :P  At first, I thought you wrote dangling testicles  :o   my bad   ;)

Snooty Sims has a buy, build cheat  http://www.snootysims.com/cheatsindex.php?id=cheats

under AL cheats that is

ApartmentBuildBuyRestrictions (on/off)
Definition: enables build/buy mode tools in apartment lots.

I am installing tonight and think I will give it a try.

Twink

Read page 1 of this thread and don't bother.

Do not change a lot's type to "sublot", or it will disappear. You can attempt to "loadlot" it by name and then changelotzoning it to apartmentbase, but NEVER, EVER, EVER change a lot's type to sub! Try doing:
Then changelotzoning it to base and NEVER DO THAT AGAIN.

I can confirm that bought items sometimes don't stick. I played the Cho family, and added windows to the windowless room. I also placed lotdebugger and macrostastics outside beside the playground. Next I loaded and player the Riley family (the one apartment above the Cho apartment - those apartments are also visible at all times), and the lotdebugger and macrostastics was gone aswell as the window I had added in the Cho family - it looked pretty silly with only a curtain on the wall.

Using the cheats, I managed to break down a wall inside the apartment and it worked ok.

However, I once tried to add a wedding arc and a telescope to the common ground. The arc married the sims ok, but the telescope (both cheap and expensive ones) caused a jump error. The sims never started the animation to stargaze, BUT a pop-up said I discovered a new planet and gave me 500 bucks. Happened every time, kinda amusing since I really needed the cash, but still.

Eventually, I chickened out and remove both things before saving and exiting. Married sims still married and deleted wall still deleted, so yeah.

I have all but Petz and FT. My stuff packs are Glamour Life, Celebration and K&B.

@%$^@^&%*^&$$%^$%^

Okay, now that's out of my system, it is very, very annoying that you can't have a yard for an apartment, especially when its a townhouse apartment.  Its....maddening in the least.

I guess I'll need to wait and see if someone with some skill can fix this glaring oversight on the part of EAxis, since there is no logical reason why you couldn't have a door leading out to a yard that is completely fenced in.  Anyone have any knowledge yet on whether this affects balconies?

I've posted methodology elsewhere (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,12828.msg367321.html#msg367321). Currently about 60% done to see if my method will stick upon packaging the lot.

EDIT: No-go.

Well, you say tomato, I say tomahto. Didn't mean to imply that El Presidente is well hung.  ;D

As far as I can tell, it doesn't, because balconies are on the same level.

I have a question - I'm making an apartment and I want to have a little porch from each apartment that then leads down to each apartments basement... So my question is: If I surround the porches with half-walls will it still work as an apartment?

In the guide it says: "The apartment door must be the only way to enter the apartment. If you want to put in a back door, surround the are with a wall. Without the wall, this lot wont work."

Are half-walls considered walls is what I'm getting to.

Yes. If the edger fences can be considered "walls", then half-walls definitely can.

Tabbs, I've done balconies/porches surrounded with fencing or half walls. Both work.

On the other hand, I did back yards with no other entry into them, only way into the whole area was the apartment door.

And apparently, the same thing is happening with the more traditional apartment building I just finished - says one of my apartments isn't valid, but damned if i know why.

[[False edit]] Apparently the penthouse apartment is borked somehow....back to the drawing board.

I just posted a possible solution in the apartment borkiness thread (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,12828.msg367457.html#msg367457).

Also found one custom door that made it impossible to turn a lot into apartment, so if you can't see anything wrong, try replacing cc with regular stuff.

I used both boolprop cheats to get rid of spiral stairs and add an elevator (that apartment where the guy with the adopted teenager daughter).  I turned them off right after (and did not experience what the above poster is experiencing).

I've experienced a few weird things after, and I don't know if it's related to these cheats, so I'm asking:

The landlord won't garden, there's no option to make her, and there's no Gardener listed on the Service area of the phone.
Homework placed on a desk is inaccessible, so I have to go into Buy mode and move it to the floor.
I invited a Sim over.  She went up the elevator, looked at the snow outside the "window" (there was no window in that room), turned around and left.  I called her back when she left the lot and invited her back over and everything worked fine.

Are any of these things at all related to using the cheats?  I'm running AL;DC with a few hacks taken out.  I'm just at a loss about this stuff, especially the Gardener.  I would like at least THAT to work.

"Homework placed on a desk is inaccessible, so I have to go into Buy mode and move it to the floor."

I have had this issue with this since I first installed AL.  I place an object such as a lamp or plant on the table so they can not put the homework there. 

Good idea.  I'll do that for now.

I rarely have the patience for sims children [ well, with my sims in general ] so I usually only play with one in my house at a time - unless I've gotten platinum mood, whereupon, I'll risk it.

To the person having the problem with yards: I found that the only way to have a real yard is to not have a foundation. If you have a foundation and then put stairs leading down to the yard, it won't work even if it is completely fenced in. That's how I just made a couple of townhomes with backyard gardens, they have to be ground level. I've never had a problem with balconies, though.

Now, my problem. I built 2 regular homes on one big lot, and made it into an apartment lot. I've been playing the first one for quite some time, but left the second one to be rented by an NPC. I made another family and moved them onto the lot, had them rent the second house, and then discovered that somehow, their kitchen is considered a community area. I'm pretty sure it's because I used the room separators. Upon discovering my error, I exited without saving, hoping to go back in and edit before moving them back in. However, they are still on the lot, they just haven't rented the house, and there is the other family on the lot, so I don't think I can just change the lot-zoning. So, my question is, can someone tell me which of these cheats to use, which family should I load up to use the cheat, and does it make a difference if I have the second family go ahead and rent or leave them in apartment limbo?

There's a tutorial on how to enable backyards with foundations in apartments right here at this site. Searching would be maaaaaaaaaaaaarvellous.

It's seriously not that hard. Even I could understand it.

Back to the topic at hand, the enabling of build/buy was the thing that finally made me take the plunge & hack my global startup cheats file.

If it was a problem for me, I would have searched for it. Since my solution of trial and error worked fine for me, I felt no need to go off searching for another one. But thanks for the tip, now that I know that there is a better way, maybe I'll look for it before my next project.

Does that actually work in AL?  I tried putting both "boolprop aptbaselotspecifictoolsdisabled false" and "boolprop aptsublotspecifictoolsdisabled false" in my userstartup.cheat and it doesn't seem to have any effect.  They reset every time you enter a new lot and you have to enter them all over again.  Or is putting them in the GLOBAL startup.cheat file rather than the USER one, what makes the difference?

If you know of a way to do this that actually works without having to retype the cheats on every lot you go to, I would really appreciate it.

Karen

EDIT to add:  I don't have any trouble enabling build mode in apts using the cheats, what I am looking for is a way to automate this in a startup file so I don't have to do it every single time I go into an apt lot.

I don't think you can permanently set them in userstartup.cheat; you can, however, alias them so it's easy to turn them on and off as needed.  Here's how I have it:

#------------------------------------------------------------------
# New Cheat Aliases - AL
#------------------------------------------------------------------

alias ab  "boolProp aptBaseLotSpecificToolsDisabled false" "apartment build on" "apartment build on"
alias ab- "boolProp aptBaseLotSpecificToolsDisabled true" "apartment build off" "apartment build off"

alias ax  "boolProp aptSubLotSpecificToolsDisabled false" "apt external build on" "apt external build on"
alias ax- "boolProp aptSubLotSpecificToolsDisabled true" "apt external build off" "apt external build off"
#------------------------------------------------------------------

i didn't like how the game manage the camera, in few words, when the camera is out of the floor, it fall down.
On this way it's a bit uncomfortable to play with a 4 levels building  :P

*thnx for the alias jsalemi :)

 Open the userStartup.cheat file found in your, " .....Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Config," folder using Notepad only

to enable cheats at start of game but this in
alias bbon "apartmentBuildBuyRestrictions on" "Enables build/buy mode tools in an apartments lot"
alias bboff "apartmentBuildBuyRestrictions off" "Disables build/buy mode tools in an apartments lot"
alias base "changeLotZoning apartmentbase" "Changes lot type to Apartment Base"
alias sub "changeLotZoning apartmentsublot" "Changes lot type to Apartment Sublot"
alias witch "changeLotZoning secretwitchlot" "Changes lot type to Secret Witch Lot"

n99 has a thread with all of the usercheats   http://starlightsims.yuku.com/topic/32684

Do not EVER change a lot type to sub.

Isn't "apartmentBuildBuyRestrictions off" the cheatcode that doesn't work?  So what's the point of putting it in our startup files?

I made a beach lot apartment which I'm quite happy with after fixing the sinking problem and moved a couple of my MATY Inverted families in. So far so good until the single bloke in the upstairs 1 bedroom apartment gets pregnant with twins. Being too lazy to move him out I used the two cheats mentioned (boolprop aptsublotspecifictoolsdisabled/aptbasespecifictoolsdisabled) to expand the apartment upwards to a second floor and added some spiral stairs. It all saved fine and the sim can access the new rooms in his expanded apartment so I disabled the cheats only to find that I can't place any bought furniture in the new upstairs. It seems to be treating the upstairs as if it's a communal area but it can only be accessed via that apartment entrance. Is there any way to have the game redetermine the extents of an apartment?

EDIT: I found a recalculate rent option on the apartment front door (debug mode - shift/left click) and I can now place items as normal.

Do Not Do This. Making structural changes using the buildcheat to an inhabited apartment is *BAD* because the changes do not properly save themselves, resulting in inconsistent lot behavior as the changes are not properly committed to the "base" lot.

I assumed that by enabling both base and sublot tools that changes would be propagated. When I checked the other occupied apartment it did have the newly extended architecture so the change must have propagated at least some way. It's an idiotic limitation as I constantly tweak the structure of my lots.

I used aptBaseLotSpecificToolsDisabled False to replace some spiral stairs with an elevator in one of the EAxian apartments.  (The Sentinel one I think).  This was before I moved anyone into it.

Had to use all three cheats later on to add room dividers in a bed room to keep twin toddlers from waking each other though.

The game is very inconsistent about propagating any such changes. you may want to "loadlot" the base lot to see if it took correctly. If it did not take, you should stop doing this and perform the process properly. One of the perks of apartment-based lots is that if you're performing furnishing at the base-lot level, you won't lose all the stuff anyway.

The logic seems inverted too. If you turn on restrictions then you disables the function don't you.