Tutorial: Apartment Building

[Jonna]

I'm glad you all liked it and found it helpful.  As for putting it up on Carl's Guide, it should probably be done by someone who can actually build a nice looking apartment, and then the tutorial apartment could be available to download from the Swap Shop!  

@Jonna The thing I like about those apartments is the spaciousness. Really I've had space issues with my last apartments. But for that one its big enough for changing around furniture.

For many of the apartments that came with LN, you can use the cheat restrictbuildbuyinbuildings off to move walls and give yourself more space.  Just try to move the Hidden Room Markers farther away from your own apartment.  I believe there are a couple apartments that take up the entire floor, so using that cheat won't get you any extra space, although you could use it to add items to other areas of the building.  For example, there is at least one apartment building that has a public space with a pool table and some other things I can't remember offhand.

[lyst83]

I'm trying to build a duplex apartment, looking like a regular house, but I'm having problems.

I mostly figured out what to do on my own, then came here for what I didn't know. I can't get the other apartment's door to activate as a NPC door. Shift+clicking does nothing, testingcheatsenabled true is already on, RestrictBuildBuy is already off. No matter what I've tried to do, it won't recognize it as an apartment for a NPC. It just says that my sim is not allowed to go through the door.

I took all my  markers out, tried to change the door and didn't have that option, put all my markers back and tried to do it and didn't have that option. Shift+clicked on the call box. My door, the main door, the other door of the apartment. I got nothing. What am I doing wrong??

[Jonna]

Hi lyst83 and welcome to the forum! =)  I don't have my game up right now but the next time I do, I'll make sure to check out how to build a duplex.  Right now my idea is to make an enclosed lobby/entryway and to have the two doors to each side, then try to change the other door to NPC.  I know it's not like a real duplex (with the front doors leading straight into the front yard), but I'm sure with a little creativity, you could make it look okay.

[Hosfac]

I just posted a similar question in the LN forum, so since you appear to be "in the know" somewhat, I'll pose it to you:

The high rises don't fit well into the other towns at all.  As I now know that you can change the interiors, I wonder if it's possible to change their position on the lots as well.  Many of them are extremely odd sized lots, so you'd be required to put them in an oversized lot, so is it possible to put them into a more reasonable position after they've been placed?

[Jonna]

@lyst83: I tried making a regular duplex and it won't work for me either.  Looks like you're going to have to make a lobby or enclosed porch of some sort, mark it as Public, and then set the door as NPC.  The enclosed part is very important!  You can use an archway, but it does have to be walled in.  

If that does not work for you (aesthetically I mean), you'll just have to mark the other side of your house as hidden and pretend an NPC lives there.

@Hosfac: The high rise shells are available in buydebug.  There are several that fit very comfortably in 30x30 lots.  Once you set them down, however, you cannot move them again so make sure you put them in the right place (like, if you want to have parking spaces, make sure you place them or leave enough room before you put down the building).  I suggest looking at the buildings in BP before you start messing with creating one of your own.  They're pretty tricky, especially the walls and windows.  You'll notice on the EA high rises, the "outside" walls and windows don't actually show when you have the roof up (or are on a higher floor) -- you only see the shell building.  Pay attention to how they do the lobbies as well.  There is the outside shell building door, and then they use a walkway to get to the actual in-game lobby doors.  That is to say, there are two sets of "main" doors: one to get inside the shell, and another to get to the actual playable lobby.  

So to answer your question, yes you can move the high rises around, but not after they've been placed.  

[Hosfac]

So to answer your question, yes you can move the high rises around, but not after they've been placed.  

That is precisely what I wanted to know.  Thanks!

[lyst83]

@Jonna, Thank you for your help. I did make a little lobby and placed a public marker down, but I'm still not able to make the other apartment an NPC apartment. It's just hidden and for some reason that really bothers me. I simply do not have the option of Make NPC door. Do I have to do this before I place the hidden marker down? I will double check, but I think I've tried that and still don't have that option. Do you think that [mod name removed - ds] could be the problem?

[Jonna]

I know nothing about mods, I'm sorry.  We're not even really permitted to talk about them on the forum.

I'm not sure why you're having your problem.  I would start over on a fresh lot to see if you can do it, instead of messing around again with the one you already have.  If you can do it on the fresh lot, I'd suggest deleting all your markers on the real house, replacing them, and then try to mark the door as NPC.  If you're still having trouble, though, I can take some more screen shots and try to do a step-by-step for you.

[Joria]

Jonna your posts are fabulously informative and very clear and easy to follow.  So here is what I wanted to do.  I don't want high rises.  I want to take an existing building that is more "houselike", like the large laundromat that has two or three floors above it with stairs leading up.  My thoughts were, forget the stairs, replace with elevators to save space, but now how do we get those floors to be apartments?  Sure you can divide the floors up into rooms to make huge apartments, or even into two apartments, but how do you get them to be usable, purchasable by Sims, separate living quarters?  First start by putting public markers in the laundromat itself?  But then what?  I don't necessarily want npc apartments in the building, just places other Sims can buy/live and call home.

[Hosfac]

Once I place the building, it won't let me build anything else on the lot.  It says that I can't alter anything outside my living area (or something to that extent), so I think I'm missing a step somewhere along the lines.

Obviously, I have to use "testingCheatsEnabled true" and "buyDebug" to get access to the shell, and I need "moveObjects on" to place the shell on the lot.  What else do I need to do?  Do I need to place a marker or something to build?

[Ausette]

After activating 'testingcheatsenabled true', make sure you put in the cheat "RestrcitBuildBuyInBuildings False". You should be able to edit the rest of the lot after that.

[Jonna]

@Hosfac: You need to input restrictbuildbuyinbuildings off into the cheats console in order to continue modifying the lot.  [Edit: Ausette beat me to it! Thank you much.]

@Joria: Thank you!  You are very kind.  What you're asking for is pretty simple (at least to me! Lol).  Build your laundromat/apt the way you want it to look, and when you've got everything complete, then place your markers.  Placing markers should probably always be just about the last thing you do.  Add a Public Space Marker to any room you want to be accessed by any sim (so the laundromat; the lawn - actually not sure if you have to put one there, but I do; the lobby/hallway; etc.), then any space you don't want to be your sims living quarters and you don't want to be accessed by the public, you can mark as hidden.  If you want normal non-NPC sims to live in the other apartments, unfortunately you're going to be disappointed, because the only sims who will live on a lot are the sims you control, and NPCs.  But if that's not what you want, and you just don't care about NPCs living next door, you can simply skip marking the other doors as NPC.  If you'd like, I can post some screenshots of the first lot I made into an apartment - it's actually what you describe (laundromat on the bottom floor, apartments above).

Anyway, another way of looking at it - in the little tutorial I made, the lobby area could have just as easily been a laundromat - all I'd have to have done was add washers and dryers.

[Hosfac]

After activating 'testingcheatsenabled true', make sure you put in the cheat "RestrcitBuildBuyInBuildings False". You should be able to edit the rest of the lot after that.

@Hosfac: You need to input restrictbuildbuyinbuildings off into the cheats console in order to continue modifying the lot.  [Edit: Ausette beat me to it! Thank you much.]

Aha!  Yeah, I remember reading that somewhere, now.  I knew I was forgetting something.

Thanks!  You two have redefined awesome!

[Jonna]

@Joria: Wow, I just re-read your post and realized I completely skipped over the "existing building" part of your question.  Sorry!!  So to answer: Change the lot type to Residential in Edit Town to make it livable.  You'll want to fix up the building however you'd like it to look, then place your markers like you would as if you'd created the building from scratch (and how I described above).  So public markers in public areas, hidden markers in the extra apartment(s) that you won't be playing in.

[Hosfac]

Do you need to furnish the hidden apartments for NPC's to live in them?