More Awesome Than You!

I was really looking forward to the lifts - or elevators for Americans. ;) I put one in my vampire castle tonight and what a pain. Straight away I knew the constant dinging of the bell would irritate me, then it took ages to go through the whole performance, not to mention the fact that the damn thing went wrong the first day!

There's no option to repair, it's probably a programming error as I have two sims on the verge of energy exhaustion pushing the button, getting in, getting out, pressing the button in an endless cycle.

When I got the vampire to fly up to the mezzanine, expecting him to go through the gaping hole on the floor, he went up in the lift!

I'm putting Shaklin's elevator back, in one floor, out the next, no mess, no noise, no breakages, no fuss.

Well, Maxis elevators have this mystical ability to always be on the wrong floor. Even if you just got off of it, when you try to turn around, it's on the wrong floor and you have to wait forever for it to show up. Go figure.

They look horrid too.  It took my sims1 board friends more than a few days complaining before someone realised you can put walls all around them so you don't see the actual elevator at all.

That's sort of what you're supposed to go. The guts of an elevator were never supposed to be pretty!

Quite.  It's a "Duhhh" when you figure it out, but it took them nearly a week, so maybe someone reading hasn't worked it out yet.  Now we're waiting for our first elevator crash.

Oh they're THAT good eh? Well, no OFB yet, but when I get it I'll keep Targa's Ascension stairs. It's replaced each and every floor-to-floor staircase in my neighborhoods!

Edit: you'll find the Ascension stairs here (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=97367) . 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!  ::)

Good I'll try those too, Shaklin does a great elevator but I like the spacey look of the ascension stairs.

I used Shaklin's elevator too at first, but placing it was a bitch! Targa's stairs are a breeze! Plus you can pile one on top of the other (don't remember if you could do that with Shaklin's). Trust me, once you've tried the Ascension stairs there's no going back!

(mumbles to self: "now, how much did he say he'd pay me for this...?")

Nah, you can't place Shaklin's elevators on top of one another to make it like a real elevator shaft, or it won't work at all. I like the little panel thingy for it but I didn't like how fiddly it was. I'll have to try Targa's - I do really like the ladder he made.

Disappointing to hear that the OFB elevators are screwy. I'll make sure to only use them for appearance flavour and keep a set of fire-stairs in the back of any building that uses them for anyone who is in a hurry.

Hm, here's a thought - do sims who die of elevator-related deaths have a different colour of ghost?

I make a 4 square elevator room and put shaklins stairs in on alternate sides on each floor, that works fine with doors in front, sims go in, up, down and out, no problems on all three floors. Yes, can be fiddly to place initially.

As a general rule, elevators are slower than stairs for anything less than a journey of 3-4 floors. I.E., most of them, since most of the traversal time appears to be tied up in the fact that the damn thing is always on the wrong floor, even if you try to get back on right after getting off.

Also, only one sim can board the elevator at a time per floor. Anyone else drops from queue. Meaning for optimal service, you need a minimum of a double-shaft, which begins to eat into the space savings an elevator has over stairs! A staircolumn tends to consume a minimum footprint of 2x6, a doublecolumn elevator is 2x4, and has less transmission bandwidth. Once you have to resort to triple-column, you've essentially erased the advantage.

I dunno, I barely notice the elevator-related hit. Death is probably unlikely. They do fail constantly, though. I'm sure if a real elevator broke this often, the company that made it would be sued out of existence.

Oh, bugger that.  >:( I was hoping that maybe, just maybe, it'd be something a little dangerous for once. Something worth putting in an abandoned factory or mad scientist's mansion. At this rate I am going to have to go against my playing style and start engineering accidents...

Well, I'm sure somebody can get killed by it, it's just not something that will happen with sims that stay green as well as mine do.

I have the new lifts in just one house at the moment, they're in the business side of a double-fronted townhouse.  Took me quite a while to work out how to use them - I was putting one on top of the other, but they couldn't get to the top floor.  Turned out I had to put one on the ground floor with one above it on the first floor, then another at the opposite end of the first floor to go to the second floor - in other words, you can't have 3 on top of each other, so if there are more than 2 floors, you need to lots of lifts on the 2nd floor (I think that's right!).  Anyway, they're so big that using two like that takes up a lot of space.  I also didn't realise you could put walls round them, so I'll be doing that forthwith.  I use some sort of ladder in the private part of the house rather than stairs.  I had to do this because whoever built the house put a staircase on top of a staircase to go to the third floor, but the Sims refused to use it for some reason.

You can stack elevator shafts on top of each other to form a giant column as long as you want, no funny monkey dance, but one thing you cannot do is stack a shaft portion on anything other than an elevator "door" section, so you have to build from the bottom up.

Sims will die in the elevator if it fails when their needs are low. It's quite comical to watch. I just had to try it out to see what it was like (using testing cheats and shift+clicking on the elevator shaft while a sim is in it).

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.

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

I don't care if they are broken- I just want the sims to have another place to woohoo!

As far as lot building goes, I will continue to use Targa's ladders.

I haven't seen a busted elevator yet, but as far as I know, the getting in, then out, then pressing the button again in an endless cycle problem is related to JMP's sleep clock, as mine have only ever done that when called to bed by the clock. Does it happen for others under different circumstances?

Because of all the problems with the Maxis elevators, I too use Targa's Ascension V2 elevators, which work great. A little too great, actually, as travel between floors is virtually instantaneous. But I'd prefer to use the Maxis ones if there weren't these problems with them. And yes, another place to woohoo is a bonus as well.

I use the invisible recolour. It's one of the recolours that's been packaged in. Put a wall around it and voila! Instant elevator w/out the hassle. Doesn't clash with any decor b/c it's invisible. :)

Has anyone tried CycloneSue's elevators at TSR?

do you have to put a wall around the ascension stairs?

Nope

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.

Only time my simmies have used an elevator was to whoohoo in it. I just bought one and placed it outside and then deleted as soon as they were done.

I'm now going to make a two-storey house with at least three elevators just to spite you.

;)

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

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.

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.

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

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.


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.

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. :P

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

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.

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

;)

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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 :D

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  :P

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

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

Did you see this thread?

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.

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

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

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.

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. ???

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.

Ok, good to know! When I finally have a Servo, someday, I will have to try it. Two of the robot skins on MTS2 I am very fond of and would like to have them be actual robots - or rather, as close as we can get in this game.

It's pretty lengthy, especially when you consider that in the same amount of time, you could have taken the stairs.

On the same general subject, has anyone found the plummetation odds, and the amount of need damage it does?  Are the odds more like abduction, or more like (oh, say) a Cooking 9 Sim burning the furshluginer spaghetti (again)?

The expensive elevators have less of a chance of falling from what I can tell. The cheap elevators fall often. The odds are much greater than being abducted. The damage to needs is roughly equal to getting electrocuted.

Without an elevator, the vampire flys up the stairs instead.  That's one of the annoying things about them, that the vampire can't fly up to the roof or through a hole in the floor to the basement.

The "guts" of the elevator show through the walls in neighborhood view (if there's an elevator next to an exterior wall, the same way the most expensive staircase kinda shows through the wall).

Practice meditating and you can teleport anywhere you like.


Yeah, ugly huh? Like the sunken land around homes with "basements".

Yeah, I thought it would be like meditation teleporting, only with flying animations instead, and without the gym clothes and the delay (it takes about a half hour of sim time between sitting down to meditate and being able to teleport).

Yeah? I thought it took days and days of meditating before a sim could teleport, I tried once and wasn't patient enough to wait till the sim could do it. Or are you talking about something completely different?

You have to get the sim's hidden meditating skill up to a to a certain amount before you can use it. Then each time after it takes a half hour.

what, to recharge the skill it takes half an hour?

So first it's learnt, then it needs recharging?

Ta for the answer, I've never managed to be patient long enough. I usually have such large families it doesn't matter if it takes them a while, I'll have something else going on with another sim. Plus there's 'run'.

It takes roughly 19 hours of meditation to be able to learn how to levitate and an additional 22 hours to learn how to teleport.

But now we're not talking abut elevators. :P

But OT on the uplifting theme of things...  :P

Touché! :)