Apartment Life: Obligatory Hate/Love Topic

[Menaceman]

So many errors! I expected a few as per usual but not this many.
I got the game three days ago and haven't had chance to play as I've been too busy downloading the fixes for stuff people have found so far.
I've found some stuff too that I haven't seen mentioned.

- The gold and silver textures on the 'Eloquent Divinity Living Chair', 'Curvaceous Love' love seat and the 'Riveting Rivets' sofa don't work properly. They deform the shape of the rivets and poke through where they shouldn't. The bronze recolour works fine.

- The molded belts and cornice outer corner pieces can't be used because of the placement restrictions. They have to be placed against a wall but they are designed so that they need to be placed where there is no wall.

- 'Vim's Ventilation Small Wall Vent' and the large version too, can't be placed over floor objects as although it is a wall object it seems to need to occupy a floor tile. It can be placed above kitchen counters but then it raises itselve into the room above!

- The two 'Pipeline Decoratives' that touch the floor can intersect with other floor objects as they are classed as wall decorations.

If I had any idea on how to fix these issues without a compatable version of SimPE I would give it a shot but I haven't really got the necassary knowledge. I only hope somebody else out there can correct them or that an AL compatible version of SimPE comes out soon so that I can try and utilise that.
Is SimPE still alive btw?

[EsotericPolarBear]

The witches out of the box are severely underwhelming. There are only *TWO* potions that are actually NEW to the game, the rest being repackaged shit that they've already sold us. Of the spells, most of the are duplications of things we either already have, or could easily make. Most of the rest are just useless.

I was (stupidly) expecting actual useful spells...or at least entertaining spells. 

You can't even use the "start fire" spell on people or in comm lots, so what's the point?

Only the good witch gets a house cleaning spell...or a love spell?  What's that about?  I'm pretty sure that magically seducing someone is evil.

Also, I was hoping for potions that affect personality...I mean, sure, you can do that with cheats, but still...

and what about spells that either fulfull wants (good) or fears (bad)..that's where some real fun would be...instead, you can just make people sick?

[SnootCB]

So... has anyone tried building an apartment lot with cars already in place before moving any sims in?  So, say you planned to move in 2 families; then you should be able to place 2 driveways and 2 cars before moving those families in.  I don't know how well you'd be able to claim those cars for one particular sim though, or even if you'd be able to use them properly.  Anyone?  I don't have AL so I can't check it out yet.

[Zazazu]

I'm thinking you should be able to hack this similarly to the method Goggalor used to make yards off foundations work. Invisible walls/fencing. Place the driveway extension piece at the sidewalk using the moveobjects cheat. Use invisible fencing/wall to seal off any areas you want to appear open. Seal off the rest using fencing or half walls. Sims should then be able to place their own cars as well as use them.

You'd have the animation issue present with street parking. Cars would fade in and fade out. No biggie. Will test.

EDIT: Works!

[HomeschooledByTards]

So... has anyone tried building an apartment lot with cars already in place before moving any sims in?  So, say you planned to move in 2 families; then you should be able to place 2 driveways and 2 cars before moving those families in.  I don't know how well you'd be able to claim those cars for one particular sim though, or even if you'd be able to use them properly.  Anyone?  I don't have AL so I can't check it out yet.

Yes. I used witch's 8 Bedroom Monster and turned it into a boarding house of sort, and my playable was able to use either of the two cars already on the lot.

[Simsbaby]

What is the largest you can make an apartment, four separate apartments?

[Chain_Reaction]

What is the largest you can make an apartment, four separate apartments?

I think the limit is 10 apartments, but you can only have 4 playable families on it. The rest will be taken up by townies.

[id]

Love the fact that we finally have magic.  Am underwhelmed with the amount and execution though.  In the WTF category:  My good witch and evil warlock are camping on their vacation lot (they didn't have much money, so the building itself is basically enough to hold the bathroom and a small kitchenette, and they were sleeping outside in a tent). 
A burglar cometh.....  So of course immediately they wake up and run out of the tent (nono idiots, stay in there, then at least the tent will be occupied and he can't take it...)  Anyhow, I figure I have an evil warlock, let's have him actually get some use out of his evil spells - but nooooooooo. the warlock tells me such and such is currently busy, better not disturb him with a spell.  What's the point of HAVING the evil spells if you can't use them because - oh the burglar is too busy STEALING MY STUFF!!!  Wouldn't that be exactly the moment when you'd WANT to use the bee chasing spell or the attack spirit??? 

So - hint, hint:  can any of you awesome people come up with a hack that lets me use spells if the sim I wan't to use them on is "too busy"?   I can't for the life of me think of what the logic behind not letting you use spells when you see a sim doing something your evil warlock won't like. 

So now my evil warlock will have to train with Echo's magic wand - I bet that won't have any problems interrupting the burglar's queue - and now the next burglar will simply have to DIE instead of being chased by bees.  Are ya happy now EAXIS!?!?!?!

Also: my god, hope someone writes some additional useful spells.  I mean - oh cool, I can set my own house on fire!  so what?  Oh and I can spend lots of time and effort to make spell ingredients so I can cause a bug infestation.  Yay!  The evil spells don't actually do anything for the evil witch.  I can see the good witch not getting too much personal gain (oh god, been watching too many charmed's here) -  but the bad witch should definitely have spells that let them gain preferably while causing loss to some one else....


Other than that like the fact we finally have apartments, but think it's waaaay too late in the series.  that should have come right in the beginning when it was still more difficult to make money, more difficult to meet enough friends, and we didn't have small and cheap enough lots yet. Instead it comes in the end when most of our Sims are already part of a long line of sims and have the accumulated wealth of generations...

[Cappuccino]

I mean - oh cool, I can set my own house on fire!  so what?

Oh, but don't forget, it's EAxis that we're talking about, setting your own house on fire and/or peeing your pants is SO FUN!

[Menaceman]

Has anybody else noticed how rediculessly small the neighbourhood powerplant ploppable seems to be compared to the skyscrapers? Its tiny, the plant loading bay doors are only as tall as the skyscraper main doors!

[maxon]

Well, having finally got the thing loaded after it turned up yesterday (thanks so much play.com for getting it here so promptly), I can at last add something to this thread.  I have hardly played yet but had a good look at the skins and objects. 

My personal favourite object so far is the new fish tank and I like the vending machines, ducting and playground equipment - for different reasons obviously - too.  Did anyone else notice there's some new bedding and it's not too hideous?  It's not very interesting, but it's not hideous.  I like many of the new neighbourhood objects including the power station even though it seems a bit small - approximately the same floor area as one of the alleys.  I like the fact you can see the alleys from the lot view.

As for the skins, I like quite a lot of them though there are a number of issues.  Mesh conversions - so many.  Like others, I quite like many of the elder adapted meshes - the gypsyish outfit works quite well - and there's some quite nice new stuff like the loose jacket and trousers but the skirt, jumper and socks (converted from FT teen?) is meh.  Some clothes suffer from over-decorated-itis (plain is good, tasteful and classy EAxis) and there are some adult male clothes with the distinctive authentic Eaxis GAH! effect.  And those hairs: ain't it great to have so many variations: you can have any colour of hair clip you like?  (My eyes, see how I roll them).  The main thing about the new meshes for me - the main bad thing - is the feet.  What's with that?  Here's a pic of one of the teen dresses. 



Now, I admit I have my monitor on some weird setting at the moment (owing to Vista arguing with the video card - I really need to sort that out) but even so those feet are enormous.  They're as long as her shin is high.  And that's not the only mesh with great flaps of meat for feet.  The other main skin issue to my mind is this: WTF?

[Cappuccino]

^ That's one from the 3-4 football-fan outfits added in AL. There's no shirt, it's body-spray, and there's matching face-paint too.

[maxon]

I can see that - it's still WTF?  If that had been made by someone at TSR, it'd be in one of the More Awful Than You threads.

[Cappuccino]

Oh, sorry then, I thought you were wondering what that might be.

I won't disagree with you though, it's typical EAxis crap that is bound to be rarely used by any players.

[msalwaysright]

I plan to populate a cemetery with any townies who show up in that face/body paint.

[MidnightVoyager]

I plan to populate a cemetery with any townies who show up in that face/body paint.

I plan to make them into pet zombies, dress them properly, and use them as butlers/maids/bodyguards/nannies/etc.

You KNOW their ghosts will probably show up in that...

[somnambulist]

Has anybody else noticed how rediculessly small the neighbourhood powerplant ploppable seems to be compared to the skyscrapers? Its tiny, the plant loading bay doors are only as tall as the skyscraper main doors!

Yeah the lack of scale really irritates me; hopefully someone more skilled than I will scale it up to a more suitable dimension. (And then line it up just so with the pig balloon)

[Sigmund]

I won't disagree with you though, it's typical EAxis crap that is bound to be rarely used by any players.

Luckily, fanseelamb's got some default replacements up on MTS2. They're here if anybody else hates the EA originals as much as I did: http://sumomo.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=299307.

[Menaceman]

It would seem that the difficult and awkward use of the decorative cornices was intentional!? Why am I surprised?
I've just read an apartment building tutorial created by the Sims 2 team available at their site in the 'Get Cool Stuff' section and they point out how you have to use cheats and place floor tiles where you don't want them just to place the corner pieces.

[Zazazu]

That's kind of normal for most decorative objects excepting wall hangings. Of course, smart coder would have coded them like wall hangings.

[kutto]

The only one that you need to place a floor tile one is for the corner piece. I can see why that one couldn't be a wall hanging.

[Alex]

Has anybody else noticed how rediculessly small the neighbourhood powerplant ploppable seems to be compared to the skyscrapers? Its tiny, the plant loading bay doors are only as tall as the skyscraper main doors!

Maybe, you know, enslaved smurfs are forced to work in there?

[Menaceman]

I've actually managed to make a replacement package for the Powerplant now so that it is double the size. The only problem is I have no knowledge of how to relocate the smoke effect so it now comes out of the roof! 
If anyone can explain to me what to do then great. I know I'll be missing part of the package file needed as it only contains the GMDC and SHPE at the moment but I don't know what the other bit is that I'll need to extract and alter.

I'm also trying to create a text replacement for the "So-and-so has finished a 'regent name'." but can't locate the text.

[spaceface]

Is the smoke effect not separate?

[Menaceman]

Probably. I don't really know what I'm looking for though.