Apartment Life: Obligatory Hate/Love Topic

[BrokenRobot]

Stuff that may or may not have been introduced with FT:

Like:
How it counts the tiles for you in build mode.  No more squinting and counting identical squares of grass!
BFFs. I know it's silly, but it makes the daily grind of maintaining friendships much less of a hassle.

Do Not Want:
The Lifetime Aspiration meter.  This is one of the reasons I chose not to get FT, and here it is cluttering up my control panel anyway.  At least it isn't as easy as I thought it would be to get an accidental permaplat.

[Devonian]

I have a problem with AL that I have not seen a post about yet.

My apartment dwellers cannot call each other on the phone or invite each other over for a visit by personally greeting.  They have high relationships scores.

This is very disappointing for me.  I had looked forward to inviting neighbors over for all the interactions you might have with sims not living on the same lot.

I use some hacks.  Mostly MATY, but also homework-on-the desk, and the power espresso by SimCutie.

Is this a "working as designed" feature?  If not, has anyone seen a hack that will give me these social options?

I am a first-time poster here.  I have read the forums carefully.  Please, I don't need a slapdown, I need an answer. 

Thank you

----------------

Yes, I know I am a noob.

Just to clarify.  I did try out my phone problem with other apartment dwellers, in other neighborhoods, both with sims already in place and sims that I created.  In the boxed lots and also CC apartment buildings.

It doesn't seem to matter how many people they know or whether they have gone to work, or a community lot.  They cannot call their neighbors or ask their neighbors to visit.

Sorry to annoy the moderators.


Edit by moderator:  You don't have to double-post.  You can edit your own posts at any time you like unless you are canned and exiled to Retardo Land.

[geekgirl]

Make sure your MATY hacks are up to date, and try loading up the game without the other hacks, just to check and see if there's a conflict. 

[Angie Baby]

Has anyone else played a rented house on its own lot? I built a town house on one of MaryLou's minilots and changed the lot to apartment. Because it's an apartment lot there is no neighbourhood welcome wagon and because it's a single 'apartment' on its own you don't get the apartment welcome wagon either. Pure bliss.

[Liz]

Stuff that may or may not have been introduced with FT:
BFFs. I know it's silly, but it makes the daily grind of maintaining friendships much less of a hassle.

BFFs did come with FT, and I detest it muchly. Thank Jebus and the FOJ for 'BFFsAreFor12s'. Hell, just the few each of my sims manages to rack up within that time is enough to drive me fricking batty. Oy, the endless self-invites! If a BFF would invite herself over, maybe, once a week or so, I'd be fine with that, but I have one house where no less than 3 BFFs wander in every. single. day. That's way too damned much! Especially since relationships are supposed to be decaying more slowly, so why do these nimrods need to come over every damned day? Especially when all they're going to do is plop themselves down on the couch and hog the telly Watching Movies while I'm trying to get my sims to pay attention to the Yummy Channel and get a skill point or two?

[Bleached]

Stuff that may or may not have been introduced with FT:
BFFs. I know it's silly, but it makes the daily grind of maintaining friendships much less of a hassle.

BFFs did come with FT, and I detest it muchly. Thank Jebus and the FOJ for 'BFFsAreFor12s'. Hell, just the few each of my sims manages to rack up within that time is enough to drive me fricking batty. Oy, the endless self-invites! If a BFF would invite herself over, maybe, once a week or so, I'd be fine with that, but I have one house where no less than 3 BFFs wander in every. single. day. That's way too damned much! Especially since relationships are supposed to be decaying more slowly, so why do these nimrods need to come over every damned day? Especially when all they're going to do is plop themselves down on the couch and hog the telly Watching Movies while I'm trying to get my sims to pay attention to the Yummy Channel and get a skill point or two?

Wow... I've never had that problem with BFFs. Mine call a bit, but they don't come over constantly. Maybe it helps that I only let my sims make friends with people in the college they went to...

[Liz]

Wow... I've never had that problem with BFFs. Mine call a bit, but they don't come over constantly. Maybe it helps that I only let my sims make friends with people in the college they went to...

My most annoying household is the result of a lot of progeny (some related, some not) growing up together. Then a couple of kids came home from school with 'em 2 or 3 times, which meant they all had a gaggle of BFFs among themselves before the lot of them went off to Uni. And since I (apparently unwisely) chose not to house them all in the same dorm, it meant that in addition to the usual Cheer Menagerie popping by to Verbits and/or belch at everyone I also had the assorted BFFs dropping by ad nauseam. This routine continues back in the main 'hood, though mercifully without the costume brigade.

[Alex]

Especially since relationships are supposed to be decaying more slowly, so why do these nimrods need to come over every damned day?

I'm guessing that's the exact thing that is supposed to "make relationship decay slower".

[Zazazu]

I like that BFFs are over all the time. With bffsarefor12s, that means it's mostly family that's over in each others' homes all the time. Since I like close-knit families (reminds me of how mine used to be before my grandparents died) this is a good thing.

[Millie]

Zazazu, was it you that was talking about homeschooling one of your sim kids? How do you do that please?

Or is this going to be a bunny/pancake moment 

[Millie]

Thats great Tashafaun. Thanks. It'll stop my adopted lad getting hauled back by social services until the issue with the schoolbus is fixed!

[Millie]

No. I tried doing that. He is only a child, and by the time he's supposed to go to school, his mum has already gone to work, and so can't take him.
I may be missing something, but if I click on the 'walk' sign, with him selected, there are no options, and by clicking on him, there is no option to walk to school.

[Dragon Slave]

I still have qualms with the bff thing, even after the hack.  I really wish they wouldn't roll wants to be bff with family members.  Don't get me wrong, close knit families are great,  but it's still family.  In real life, I don't refer to my cousins as friends, no matter how much I think of them that way.  It just seems strange to call them "friends" when we're family. 

So I keep removing the bff tags, but they continue rolling the wants.  Darn kids.   I wish they wouldn't always get along.  Sibling rivalry is incredibly lacking in my game.

[Liz]

Especially since relationships are supposed to be decaying more slowly, so why do these nimrods need to come over every damned day?

I'm guessing that's the exact thing that is supposed to "make relationship decay slower".

Oh, buh. That is so lame, but you're probably right.

With bffsarefor12s, that means it's mostly family that's over in each others' homes all the time.

Yeah, I would like it a lot more if it were the parents who stopped by more often; unfortunately, in the 2 homes where the BFF traffic seems neverending, both parents have already done the Reaper Hula. And the other adult from my newly-adult male's childhood home isn't actually related to him, and she's started heartfarting for him big-time. That always creeps me out. I'm all for a healthy appreciation of age differences, but those who've changed your diapers just shouldn't ever be allowed to get heartfarty. Diaper changes and getting bottles need to, like, set a flag or something. Euugh.

[Zazazu]

Zazazu, was it you that was talking about homeschooling one of your sim kids? How do you do that please?

Or is this going to be a bunny/pancake moment 

http://www.simlogical.com/sl/Sims2Pages/Sims2_Schooltypes.htm

That. I'm not using the homework objects she has yet, just using the school changer to set them to flexi-school. Monday-Friday the kids had to learn at least two things plus practice a trade. They usually had some sort of skill want, so they'd get a couple skill points and learn fire safety or somesuch. For trade, they were gardening. They went on nature hikes and the plan was to take them to hobby lots for hobby instruction. That's when I hit the bug.

I almost never have kids in public school for the first stages of a 'hood because I like to start mine from one house and build from there. Doesn't make sense that there would be a public school system when there isn't another house in sight.

[rufio]

I don't think anyone has mentioned it yet, but I love the fact that you can now take more than one sim, but not every single sim currently in the household to a community lot.  I've found it really annoying not being able to take two teenagers clothes-shopping without their younger siblings, and not being able to have two adults drive to their community lot business without dragging their kids along.

However, I am also peeved about the residual FT clutter which doesn't actually do anything since I don't have FT installed.

[BrokenRobot]

I don't think anyone has mentioned it yet, but I love the fact that you can now take more than one sim, but not every single sim currently in the household to a community lot.  I've found it really annoying not being able to take two teenagers clothes-shopping without their younger siblings, and not being able to have two adults drive to their community lot business without dragging their kids along.

I'm pretty sure that came with BV.  I agree, though.  It was a much needed feature.

[Dragon Slave]

Just now, when my sim was in her apartment, one of the other tenants wandered in, so I made her say goodbye to him, and they grasped each other for the most romantic kiss I'd ever seen two sims with 3/3 relationship give each other.  So apparently she has a two lightning bolt attraction score for him, but for what it's worth, they are strangers!    

Well, needless to say, I've never had that happen before under those circumstances.  Something borked by al, I wonder? 

[Diala]

Like:

-Apartments. I always wanted them since I first got the game. These are great for Sims who just got out of college and CAS Sims.
-The ability to move paintings and such up and down the walls. This expansion is worth it for that alone.
-Shelves.
-Magic. I haven't done much with it, but I have a feeling I'll like it quite a bit.
-Vending machines. These will be useful for community lots.


Meh:

-Playground equipment. They are somewhat useful if the spawn have nothing else better to do, but otherwise they're a waste of space.


Dislike:

-The start-up music. It is too sleepy and slow, in my opinion. It may just be me, but I expect game music to be bouncy in some way.


Loathe:

-The fact that you cannot control ALL the families in an apartment, you just get to select one. Perhaps I wouldn't mind it if the other families are inactive while I am playing with one, but they aren't. I figure I could use the mind control mirror, but I worry that time is kept differently for each family, plus I could inadvertently do a VBT. I will have to test this out, but it simply irritates me to no end.

If I can't figure out a way to control all the families at the same time, then I'll have to restrict one family per apartment building.

[Millie]

Well that's odd. I think you may have a hack conflict going on because when I click my kids they get the option to "walk to school". Have you tried taking your hacks out and making sure everything is updated?

Tasha, I only have the directors cut and ACR. I'll try taking out ACR and see if that helps. It's unlikely to be the DC. They are all updated - I binned my DL folder totally when I installed AL, and have only put in up to date hacks since then.

I apologise if there area any typos etc in my posts today - I have an eye infection and things are a little on the blurry side 

[BrokenRobot]

Loathe:

-The fact that you cannot control ALL the families in an apartment, you just get to select one. Perhaps I wouldn't mind it if the other families are inactive while I am playing with one, but they aren't. I figure I could use the mind control mirror, but I worry that time is kept differently for each family, plus I could inadvertently do a VBT. I will have to test this out, but it simply irritates me to no end.

If I can't figure out a way to control all the families at the same time, then I'll have to restrict one family per apartment building.

I've seen some people saying this on the BBS, and I just don't understand it.  What would be the point of having an apartment feature with special doors if you still had to control everyone at the same time?  That's the way it worked before if you tried to make apartments.  You could still do it that way if you want to.

[Halloweenscorpio]

I must need to yank something, I only show about 12 of my downloaded skins, out of a huge amount. Did anyone else notice that? I am thinking I missed a hack. I reinstalled to get this much:( Upside is, I guess I have to go clothes shopping again?

[kemowery]

The biggest thing which I'm kind of torn on is making a witch character high enough level to build a throne.  At that point, I'm playing that character in God mode.  Witch sims with a throne don't need to eat, or sleep, or talk to other people, or do fun things.  They can just sit in a chair and skillinate 24 hours a day.

[Ayana]

The biggest thing which I'm kind of torn on is making a witch character high enough level to build a throne.  At that point, I'm playing that character in God mode.  Witch sims with a throne don't need to eat, or sleep, or talk to other people, or do fun things.  They can just sit in a chair and skillinate 24 hours a day.

Eugh, especially with the Education bookcase. Really, the thrones make me feel like I'm cheating horribly. =\

[rufio]

The biggest thing which I'm kind of torn on is making a witch character high enough level to build a throne.  At that point, I'm playing that character in God mode.  Witch sims with a throne don't need to eat, or sleep, or talk to other people, or do fun things.  They can just sit in a chair and skillinate 24 hours a day.

Eugh, especially with the Education bookcase. Really, the thrones make me feel like I'm cheating horribly. =\

Sounds like another feature I'll just have to pretend doesn't exist, like the elixer of life, the energizer, and the thinking cap.