Tutorial: Apartment Building

[Jonna]

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

Nope!  Just place the hidden marker.

[Joria]

@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.

Thank you.  I think the bottom line is I can only have ONE liveable apartment though, right?  Can't just let it be two apartments that random Sims could move into, right?  I hadn't planned on one of my families moving in there but I guess I could do that, only if I put two households in they would probably wind up wandering from apartment to apartment as they wished since it would more function like a house.  It bothers my logical mind to know you have this ginormous building, (high rises), but only ONE apartment a townie or one of your SIms can use and the rest has to be npc black out.

Now, what about the case of using a large building, (Waylon's Haunt which is actually two buildings on the same lot and not conjoined inside), with several stories available that COULD become an apartment, or apartmentS, on top of a bar or perhaps some sort of store?  I was thinking of using the second building as boutique type stores, or maybe executive lounge type building, with "hotel rooms" above. 

[Jonna]

Right, only one livable apartment per lot.

You can make any building look like both a home and a store/club, but the lot will only function like what you have it set up as in Edit Town.  So if it's a residential lot, then you can have sims living in it, and they can use the areas you designate as public (and so can other sims) but you'll never get notified, for example, that your venue is bumping tonight because the game doesn't see it as a venue.  Likewise, if the lot is designated as a club, your sims will be able to sleep in the beds like they can do at any other commercial lot, but they won't actually be able to live there.  You cannot mix lot types.

[Joria]

Stomps foot in frustration!    So, if I have an apartment over my laundromat, the laundromat will not attract townies to use it as a laundromat?  I don't care about it being a venue, I just want it to be useful but have the "owner", live upstairs.

Ok, 'nother question or three. (lol)  Does an apartment built over a place like a laundromat, if the lot is designated a residence, would that count as living in an apartment or do you HAVE to have one of the high rises from BP?  I dislike most of BP buildings as they are a waste of space since you can only have one apartment per building.

Next question:  Suppose you have a spot like Waylon's Haunt.  It is a Dive bar but it is in one of two buildings on the lot.  The second building is all blacked out, (except I removed the markers so I could see if I could work something in it).  If you designate the lot as Visitors Allowed, will the game accept whatever you put on that lot as being what you intended it to be?  In other words, would Waylon's still be considered a Dive bar and if I put shops or a different lounge in the other building would that building also be accepted as that lounge.  Does the lot name have to be specific to the type of lounge or can it just be visitors allowed and still work?  Lounges aren't considered the same way as venues are but are considered more like fishing holes are, in other words, they are property, (or maybe it's real estate).  To collect funds from a venue you just go to that venue and get your money.  To collect funds from places like a lounge you have to click on the building, select real estate, and then select get simoleons.  So potentially having more than one lounge on a lot could increase the value of the real estate unless it doesn't count if you use visitors allowed. 

[Hosfac]

There are a couple of apartments in Bridgeport that have used a standard build style and not one of those massive shells, so yes:  It would count.

From what I understand, the designation of the lot will determine how the townies will interact with it.  For example:  if you designate Waylon's Haunt as a gym, when sims go there they will want to work out, and they'll have that moodlet you get from being in a gym.  While I'm not entirely sure what all the Dive Bar designation does for a lot, I'm guessing it has something to do with a mixologist showing up to tend the bar, fulfilling mixology based opportunities and whether or not it becomes a hotspot.  I also know that you can't apply two different designations to a lot, regardless of how many buildings there are.

[Hosfac]

Ok, I've built my first apartment building.  I did it the same way Joria did in her example (meaning I didn't use a shell, but built it like a regular house).  I'm almost ready to start placing the markers.  I didn't bother to use elevators.  It's a 3 floor structure with 4 apartments, and so it wouldn't take a lot of time to leave for work/school I put the livable apartment on the 2nd floor.  I'm almost ready to start placing the room markers, but before I do, I have a couple of questions:

Since I didn't use an elevator, where do I place the call box?  Can I set it up so that the front door of the building is only accessible to people who live there or are buzzed in?  Or does it have to go in the lobby?

Also, I think the regular residential mailbox looks silly on an apartment building.  Is there any way to get one of the mailboxes from the skyscraper apartments?  And if the front door is inaccessible, would it have to go on the outside of the building?

[Jonna]

Since I didn't use an elevator, where do I place the call box?  Can I set it up so that the front door of the building is only accessible to people who live there or are buzzed in?  Or does it have to go in the lobby?

Also, I think the regular residential mailbox looks silly on an apartment building.  Is there any way to get one of the mailboxes from the skyscraper apartments?  And if the front door is inaccessible, would it have to go on the outside of the building?

I don't know about the call box.  Place it where ever you like.  I would imagine that anyone can come into the lobby regardless of call box location, but if not then let us know.  I'm not even sure that you'd need it if you don't have an elevator.

There is no way that I know of to get the apartment mailbox.  Even with all the cheats on, you cannot clone them (so that means they aren't in buydebug).  Sorry!  You'll just have to make do with a silly looking mailbox.

[Hosfac]

I did some experimentation with the two different call boxes and the testingCheatsEnabled true code.

First, I placed the wall mounted box in the lobby.  Then I made some friends with the mailbox, and invited a couple over, one at a time.  Without exception, they all came into the lobby to buzz the box, but wouldn't come into the apartment unless I buzzed them up.

Then, after exiting to the main menu and starting fresh, I deleted the first call box and placed the pedestal style call box outside the building.  Again, I made some friends and invited a few over.  Unless I buzzed them up, they wouldn't come inside the building at all.  And the building has some very enticing amenities in the lobby.

Now while testing this apartment complex I built, I noticed something weird.  With the apartments in Bridgeport, you get the option to "Ring Bell" on the other apartments, and when there's nobody living there, it's grayed out like it is on an unoccupied house.  But with the apartments in my complex, the only option that comes up is to lock it.  The sims can't enter the doors like they can in tombs with hidden areas, but it doesn't seem to be set up for other residents.  Did I forget to do something?

Edit:  I even went into Bridgeport and looked at how the apartments were set up there, and really I don't see anything different.  Could it be because I still have the cheats activated?

[Jonna]

Hmm.. I suppose my first question would be: Did you mark the doors as NPC?

[Hosfac]

I guess I did forget something.

How do I go about doing that?

Edit:  I figured it out.  While I looked through the entire thread, I didn't see that information, but it's possible that I missed it.  So just in case you forgot to mention it:

While in Build Mode, hold CTRL+Shift and click on the door.  It will bring up the options to set the door as an NPC door.  I the codes I have active are testingCheatsEnabled true, BuyDebug, and RestrictBuildBuyInBuildings off.  While I'm not 100% sure, I believe it's testingCheatsEnabled true that activates it.

[Jonna]

it's possible that I missed it.

Lol, you did!  It was in the first post I made with the pictures.  You actually don't need any cheats activated, as long as you do it before you place your markers.  It should work with just shift+click, but holding ctrl doesn't hurt anything.

[Hosfac]

With just shift held down, the only option that came up was to clone it.  Which brings me to another thing I'm wondering about...

I was just messing around with an apartment in Bridgeport, and I was actually able to clone the apartment mailbox (I did it by accident).  However, I'm not sure if that helps me at all, because I still don't know how to get it to where I need it.  

Edit:  My apartment complex is fully tested and completely functional, even if it is rather ugly lol.  The only thing that bugs me about it is that I don't have the apartment style mailbox...but it doesn't bug me enough to want to use mods to get them.  It is currently one of those things I can't change, but I'm working on an idea to possibly change it (it won't be for this one, but possibly for a future building).  In order to satisfy my sense of style, I merely hid the mailbox behind the hedges near the front door.

Just to show you what I came up with, I present the Whitemore Apartments!  

Why "Whitemore?"  Because the building is mostly white, and it's more than you typically get from Late Night apartments lol.



It's a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment than can accommodate 4 people as easily as it can 1...



And it has a 4 car garage...



A laundry room...



A game room right across the hall to entertain you while you wait for your clothes to get done (with free internet!)...



And in the enclosed back yard is a playground with a picnic area...



And a pool with a hot tub!  



There's also an area set aside for a small garden between the pool and the playground.

How much does this apartment cost?  $10,997 fully furnished, and $7,225 unfurnished.

And I discovered as I was taking the screen shots that visitors will make their way to the back yard and game room if they're ignored.

[RubyLovesSims]

That is one cool apartment, Hosfac!
Can you actually plant things in the garden? If so, how?

[Hosfac]

Yes you can!  The whole back yard is designated as a public area.  In a public area, you don't own anything (which is why it's so cheap with 3 arcade games, 3 high end washers, 3 high end dryers, a hot tub and a full playground), so you can't alter it at all unless you put the cheat codes in.  Likewise, when you move, you can't take any of that stuff with you, even if you "pack furniture."  But other than that, you can do whatever you want in it.

One thing I noticed about Bridgeport is that if you had any intention on raising a family, you weren't going to be doing it comfortably in an apartment.  There is one really good one, but it starts out occupied by the "Art Central" crew.  There are some larger, more expensive apartments available, but they're all 1 bedroom, and even with the expansive size, when your family grows from 2 to 3, things start getting cramped.

This was an experiment for the most part.  I wanted to see if it was possible to make a family oriented apartment, and to see how much it would cost in the end.  And it was a lot cheaper than I expected it to be.  I went bare minimum on the furnishings, but I could upgrade a lot of the appliances and the furniture and it would still be affordable by a single sim fresh out of CAS.  But most of all, I wanted to familiarize myself with the process.  And I learned something very important:  once you actually try and do it, you find out it's easy as pie.  Really, anybody who has ever built a house and has even a minimal knowledge on using cheats could do it.  It's literally that easy.

While I was just messing around, I actually made a very workable apartment.  Plus, it gave me dozens of ideas for my next one.

Also, I was careful not to use anything that didn't come from the base game or the 3 expansion packs (no store downloads or stuff pack items), and it was done on a 40x30 lot.  The landscaping is terrible, but if anyone wants it, I'll upload it to the exchange or submit it to the swap shop.  And you don't even have to feel guilty about altering it.

[mtglady]

Hosfac, I would be interested in downloading your apartment.  I think Carl could use an apartment or two at the Swap Shop and I'm sure many others will appreciate your hard work too.

You did an excellent job creating it and I know it would look better in SV or RV than the huge ones LN gave us. My 'money-challenged' Sims will really appreciate having a nice place to live while they struggle to keep up with the 'Jones' - lol!