More Awesome Than You!

Does anyone else have the problem of stairs becoming corrupt on lots on occassion and having to delete them all? Well, I do, and in the normal and downtown homes everything is fine. Burnate those bastards and place new stairs, VIOLA, back to playing. Well in college there is a small problem. YOU CAN'T ADD NEW STAIRCASES! So basically, you're screwed to either deleting the stairs and removing all things on levels above first story (Including burnating dormie doors) and adding beds into a area for the dormies (or laughing with evil as you watch them all slowly waste away from lack of sleep).

This is mostly caused by Maxis made stairs, in which they don't use the normal staircases, but those retarded porch stairs that seem highly unstable and go corrupt constantly when used for anything other than porches!

Is their a way to fix this? Someone has had to have this happen to them once (Or many, MANY times).

you can use this cheat to enable build mode

boolProp dormspecifictoolsdisabled false

I didn't know about that cheat. Thanks, I will enjoy it! XD

Maybe you can do:

boolProp testingcheatsenabled true

and shift-click on the stairs to reset them.  I notice my chairs in dorms often become unusable and this fixes them.

Also try to avoid distracting a sim who is about to go upstairs/sit down/ etc. as this is what causes the object to become unusable.  So, if you want to get rid of a visiting sim who is being a pain, use the Visitor Zapper or the teleporter, don't just delete them.

Since installing NL, a lot of my staircases flash red all the time.  It's only certain ones, such as the one in the Goth house, but it's extremely annoying.  I've also had stairs suddenly become unusable for no apparent reason and have had to delete them and replace them.  And why is it that with some staircases, the sims will follow each other up or down with no problem at all (I often have 3 or 4 of them on the staircase at once), but with other staircases they scream blue murder and cancel out whatever reason they were going up/down the stairs?

Ancient Sim.... i think you  can have more than one sim on modular stairs, and have them pass each other to going up and down, but on the normal stairs you can't
i might be wrong though, but i'm sure this is the case

There's no problem with modular stairs, provided the sims are friends - it's the solid stairs that are the problem (at least in my experience) and then it doesn't matter whether they are friends or not, they won't use the staircase two at a time.

As to the flashing red, I've never seen it, but maybe the stairs in question are recolours?

I've noticed a good way to stop this from happening, but it involves having two sets of stairs next to each other. That way it is far less likely that sims will have problems causing the stairs to spazz out.

What I'd like to know is why the relationship between 2 Sims should matter when it comes to using a set of stairs at the same time.

Me too, because I've never had it matter in my game. Sims will follow each other just fine up modular stairs if there is not a sim on the module they are trying to step on at that moment.

My sims will only share staircases if I'm using the porch stairs. Any "normal" staircases is for one sim at a time. Maybe they're afraid of fire hazards and life-saftey codes? Is there a Sim OSHA?

I have always two pair of stairs, to prevent jam and complaints.

You can replace everywhere the stairs (hood, downtown and Uni), if you first remove the roof. If the roof is on - you can't replace the stairs. After that, put the roof again.

Sims will always share if the stairs are modular (the porch steps that extend to whatever needed length). They will never share stairs if they are the single-object stairs (fixed length); these stairs are one object and can only be used by one sim at a time. The modular stairs can be used by more than one sim at a time because they are a bunch of separate modules, each one being an object. You'll notice that if you send a sim up modular stairs just as another is going up, they'll complain and then start going when the other sim is five or more steps up.

I have an even dumber problem, and if anyone can enlighten me, I'd appreciate it.

I can never, ever get modular stairs to show up as a "regular" staircase. That is, I can get modular stairs to connect, say, a porch with the ground, but I cannot get a legitimate (green) modular staircase to connect two floors of a house. The most common problem is in a pre-made house I will have to delete the pre-existing modular stairs for some reason. Fine. When I go back to replace the stairs I cannot get a modular staircase to be anything other than red even if I place them exactly where the old staircase was! In every case, I've had to replace the modular stairs with a full staircase.

Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? If someone could stand it, I'd love a painstaking rundown of how to do it. ("There should be exactly x squares open on the floor, the cursor commanding the stairs should be placed on the upper floor, etc.) If no one wants to bother, I totally understand.

I don't recall the exact number of squares, but the modular stairs DO need more space than the regular stairs.  That's probably your main problem.

The premade houses were sometimes made with odd cheats, and sometimes the roof gets in the way. You may find that if you remove the roofs, you can place stairs more easily.

As for placing them in the first place, I've found that I have to have a tile placed where they begin, and then five or more tiles empty ahead of that for the stairs.  You can cover up that fifth place after the stairs are placed but not before, and it has to be removed if you delete the stairs to put different ones in. There needs to be the same amount of room on the bottom, but offset by one - so the tile just in front of the stairs must be free. I think they take up one more tile than the single object stairs do.

What I often do when placing modular stairs is place one tile for the landing, and then the stairs, and finally the rest of the floor for that storey, and then build from there. It means you may need to plan ahead a fair bit, but it makes it easier to get the stairs placed at all. Just be aware that if you delete those stairs to place different modular stairs, that they will need five tiles free, not four.

Thanks, gjam and renatus. The extra space is probably the issue. If the pre-made houses were cheated, that would explain why I can never delete the stairs then put them back in the exact same place. I've certainly made the roof mistake before, but not all the time. Since I had no idea modular stairs take more space, that's probably the culprit.

Thanks! *breathes sigh of relief*

I had a problem with stairs becoming unusable in the Frat house at Sim State.  Shift-clicking will not work on stairs.  They are the solid, one-piece type.  If you play this house, you know there are two sets of stairs going up from the foyer--one to the left, and one to the right.  Both of these became blocked for some reason, and I never could figure out why.  I just noticed that my sims were unable to go to bed or use the bathrooms upstairs for some reason.  They would get a thought bubble about the stairs when I tried to send them.  Sims who were upstairs could come down just fine, but they could not go up.  If I teleported them upstairs, they could use the bathroom, sleep, come back downstairs, etc.   I even tried buyable fire to burn anything that might be blocking the top of the stairs, but that didn't work.  So I had to delete the stairs and replace them every time this happened.  This was right before NL was released, and I noticed that after NL, I wasn't able to replace the stairs after deleting them unless I enabled moveobjects.  I'm not sure why this was.  I posted about this at that time, and the suggestion was to use the modular stairs.  I tried doing that, but I had to remodel the house to accommodate them since they require more room, as Renatus mentioned.  After that, something else messed up and I had to move them out and bulldoze the lot.  I replaced it with the same house from another Sim State, and it seems to be working fine so far.  I haven't gotten around to redoing the stairs again, but I haven't had the problem occur again.

I had a problem trying to place stairs in a different place when I was remodelling the house next door to the summerdream lot - the one with the maze in the back garden.  After I took the original stairs out, (the roof was off at this time)  I was unable to place any floor tiles in the gap left in the floor.  With moveobjects on I could put objects anywhere on the gap, but not tiles!  I ended up not bothering to use the house!

On the other hand, the European town house has modular stairs that only have three spaces, but I've replaced the existing stairs with different modular stairs with no problems.  I think I had to delete the tile over the fourth space, but was able to put if back afterwards.

But I've still found that sims won't follow others up them unless they are well known to them - maybe it varies from sim to sim?

I didn't know about the cheat for enabling the rest of the build mode tools in dorms; that will come in handy. 

I've had dorm stairs become corrupted once before, and it was every staircase in the dorm except the modular stairs leading into the dorm itself.  All other staircases were the single-unit kind, and the second flight was outside the dorm.  Nevertheless, they were all unusable in one direction only:  sims could go up them, but not down.  I've no idea what caused it; I had used the dorm before and was trying to move a new batch of sims in, and I've re-used dorms many times without this problem.  There was nothing blocking the base of any of the stairs.  I moved my sims out, bulldozed the dorm, and replaced it with an identical one from the bin.

Sounds like we had the same thing happen to the same dorm; I ended up using the dorm building cheat to delete the stairs and replace them, and then everything was fine after that.

Sometimes you may have to save your lot, exit and reload to get the cheat to work.

Block stars can be slotted into any house with 3 or more empty spaces on the second floor. Modular stairs always require 4, and will furthermore refuse to place if the 5th square is not empty, UNLESS you turn move_objects on when placing them to silence the whining.

Sometimes you also have to remove a wall or a balustrade.

Yes, and once the stairs are placed you can put the wall back :)

Just so darn fiddly!   And I don't know about you, but it always annoys me when you put a wallpaper on the walls, that it doesn't go where the stairs are!  You have to remember to do it separately - and if you don't, the room score for the hall and stairs goes WAY down!

Haha yep-I always forget :D

Well, so do the Maxis builders!

Do they? Which houses have they screwed up then? I never play in their houses, and have deleted them all.

One of the Uni houses is like that, can't remember the name though.  I don't delete a lot of them, I just redesign them - I find it satisfying to make a Maxis house liveable!  But some I just find impossible!

*Cough* summerdreamhouse *cough*

Well yes, rather one of those than a screechy violin any day.  I can't stand them, especially when there are about 50 of them going garrity when a movie's getting to the exciting bit.

Don' get me going about the Summerdream House!  Not to mention Capp Manor!  And the house next door to the Summerdream House where you can't replace the floor when you move the darn stairs!!!!!
Ooh, Inge!  You never make typos? ;D

There's a three-story house that comes with the game in the bin - it's not the farm house although I want to call it that - that I found was impossible to replace the uppermost set of stairs. I fiddled endlessly with the roof, floors, and walls, and finally came to the conclusion I was better off sticking to the ugly cheap wood modular stairs, or even better, building my own damned house.

The only prebuilt bin house I play with anymore is the yellow victorian, which I have an inordinate fondness for. It's cramped and the layout isn't that great, but for some reason I've been really attached to it ever since I first played a family in it.

Speaking of violas, how do you tell if one is out of tune?  The bow is moving (har-de-har).

I've remodelled the Maxis houses so much that they're hardly recognisable, and for similar reasons:  unpleasing layouts.  The Craftsman house that came with the original game might be the one Renatus is talking about; the stairs to the attic were built with the moveobjects cheat.  At least, that was the only way I could place the stairs I wanted to use. 

I quite like that house, once it's had a few modifications!  But why this obsession they seem to have with long thin bathrooms stuck in the middle of the living room?

I quite often use the European Townhouse too, but again I change it a lot!  But it's a good house for making changes to as the family grows.

I totally delete all the stairs in my sims multi-level homes and put in elevators....works great!!!! ;D tgdrysix

How can you tell if the concert stage is level?
The violist is drooling out of BOTH sides of his mouth.


A man walks into a club and sees a beautiful woman in a black concert dress at the bar. "Of course", he thinks to himself, "this place is across the street from the city symphony hall." Figuring he has the perfect line, he sits down next to her and says, "Excuse me, I see you just came from the symphony. I know a great viola joke!" The woman glares at him and responds in an icy voice, "I AM a violist."
"Oh...okay, that's fine," the man replies, "I'll tell it VERY...SLOWLY..."

What do a SCUD missile and a viola player have in common?

They're both offensive and inaccurate.

I like it too; I think it's the best of the supplied houses.  I did make several changes, including relocating the bathroom and finishing the attic properly.  I don't like the bathroom slot in the living area either:  it's a home with some aspirations to graciousness, not bachelor apartment.

I think I had the same problem as you yesterday.  I noticed at just before midnight that the maid's van was still outside the dorm I was playing.  When I checked in Merola's mirror to see where the maid was, I found him right at the top of the dorm in the vanishing room, together with half-a-dozen dormies, a couple of visitors and a cow mascot.  There were also two visiting SS members pacing up and down near the stairs, one of them with the icon "Leave" and most of his stats almost fully red.  I tried everything, including the burnator thingy, but nothing worked.  When I teleported one of my Sims up and right-clicked on the stairs then told him to go down, he went down with no problem, so there was NOTHING blocking those stairs.  However, all the Sims stuck upstairs were convinced there was.  In the end, the only way I could sort it was to delete the stairs and replace them. 

There were funny aspects to this.  When the maid finally went downstairs, he started cleaning again, and at 2.30 am declared everything was clean (it wasn't) and he was leaving!  On top of that, one of the visiting dormies never made it to the portal and collapsed with no energy right across the path.  This meant that the dorm cook got stuck (see pic) and couldn't leave.  He just kept moving his head and upper torso backwards and forwards continuously in a rocking motion (not also the maid's van behind him!).  The game spawned a new one at 4 am (by which time quite a few dormies were almost dead of starvation), but I teleported her off the lot because I didn't want a fourth dorm cook.  I also got rid of the stuck original cook, assuming he'd come back, but he didn't, so I had to buy a new oven to get him back. 

The problem I had with the stairs is very similar to the problem I had some time ago in my original Pleasantview when something that didn't exist was blocking the fridge.  I know for a fact there was nothing blocking those stairs, so all I can think of was that someone had been teleported out mid-flight or something and it had corrupted them. 

If you have the visitor zapper, you can just ban them all from the lost, the dormies would reappear, i would imagine through the front door.

Oh I know I could have teleported them all out, but then I'd not have been able to watch them suffer.  This is dormies and a cow mascot we are talking about.  I did teleport out the SS guy who was nearly dead - he started sobbing his heart out and ... well, he IS rather good-looking ...

I haven't run into stuck stairs untill recently, so I thought it was a NL problem.  And I've only had them happen in dorms.  So I figured that it was the same thing that caused the chairs to get stuck:  High traffic areas.

It only gives me another reason to perfer smaller, single story dorms.

I used the Stuck Object Remover on the tile at the top of one of these stairs and the entire staircase went away.  I ended up just moving my sims out of that dorm and into another.
Are you talking about Craftsman's Pride?  I rather like that house.  Played it quite a bit.  But I haven't played it lately since the need for driveways in NL.  Prehaps I should start using street parking.

I havn't used normal stairs since I discovered that modular stairs could be used indoors like normal stairs. For some reason this wasn't obvious to me until I saw it done in on-line tutorials (sometime around getting TS2U).

Guess you never played Pleasantview!  All the lofts have them!

Correct. The only pre-made buildings I've played in are the university and downtown ones. In the original game I quickly (and possibly erroneously) concluded all the houses were designed with maximum inefficiency in mind - traffic jams and such (and that being in the bad old days of hissy fits for route blocking). And besides, building houses is 63.2% of the fun.

I'd also avoid 2 story houses like the plauge (but slightly fond of basements). And, I confess, build borderline "pyramid roof" houses :D.
It was actually with the modular stairs that I got more interested in advanced dwelling design.

I used to loathe 2 storey or more houses until I discovered the 'Ascension Elevator Stairs' made by Targa over at MTS. They take up only one tile space and I have very few problems with them. Except of course trying to remove the invisible ones!

Every now and again some stupid sim will stand and play kicky bag on them and then I have to move them on, but it's a small price to pay for going upstairs rapidly!

It's erroneous to imply that pre-made buildings were maximized for anything. That implies a process of optimization, or perverse anti-optimization (pessimization?), that Maxians simply don't do. Undoubtedly, the houses were designed by the janitorial staff after hours, which is why they look nice but are nearly completely unplayable: The janitors don't actually play the game. There is a persistent rumor that they also double as the beta testers.

EA Beta testers are a myth. EA Games' beta testers are their customers, who are responsible for finding and eliminating any bugs the developers a) did not find, b) consider features, c) left in because EA Games demanded an unreasonable shipping date and did not leave the developers any time to debug (or eat, or sleep). Once the developers are deinstitutionalized, dehospitalized, declared sane, or replaced development of the first of many bugfixes starts unless development time is needed for the first of many expansions or sequels.

I have no problem with more than two storeys.  A lot depends on the number of sims in your house and the size of the lot, and therefore how large the house area is likely to be.  The house I've just built has a swimmingpool on the ground floor, next to the garage, then living room/kitchen, two bathrooms and the adults bedroom above, then Uncle Pops and the kids have rooms and a bathroom on the floor above.  Work fine.