Created my own high-rise apartment-- How to "specify" my apartment unit

[shinxran]

Hello everyone! I'm new here and I recently started playing Sims 3 again after so long.

So I created my first high-rise building. The first floor is where I put the lobby area (with callbox and wall mailbox) and the laundry area. The second floor is the pool area, "spa", and 6 supposed-to-be NPC apartment units. The third floor is just a skipped level (used an elevator shaft here) because this is the *elevated* floor from the constrainfloorelevation cheat. The highest floor is supposed to be my entire penthouse unit. However, my Sims seem to not recognize that the penthouse is their actual home. I mean, they also consider the lobby and the second floor to be a part of their unit as well. I understand that these are public spaces (where I put the marker) but in their previous home (the premade high rise building), they only recognize the penthouse as their actual home, and not the lobby, etc. Is there a way to mark the penthouse floor as their actual home/unit? I'm worried also that if they have visitors, the callbox won't be used and the visitors would just wait at the lobby (or outside of the building) when they arrive, and I won't actually be notified that there are visitors in the building.

Also, I seem to have a problem with NPC doors. I initially assigned the 6 doors in the second floor as "NPC doors" while I was still in the process of designing my building. I read somewhere that assigning NPC doors should only be done when your sims have moved in the apartment. Yikes. I don't know if this is the reason for it.. But the first time that my Sims arrived on the building, I assigned them to go to the penthouse, but they just went to the 2nd floor and stood in front of the NPC doors (and there were thought bubbles on them about the door being inaccessible) even though I didn't direct them to those doors. So it seemed that they can't go to the penthouse on their own but they're like *attracted* to those NPC doors D: I just used moveobjects on them to transport them on the penthouse. I don't think that the elevator was the problem since the dog was able to go to the penthouse floor on his own. So I wonder if I should just delete those doors and reassign them as NPC doors again.

I apologize for the lengthy post and my bad English! And thank you for reading!

[MrsFlynn]

Here is a tutorial you can read over to see if it gives you any tips on how to fix the issues you're having.

Tutorial: Apartment Building
http://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=2455.msg54400#msg54400

[shinxran]

Thank you for the response! The link you gave me was actually one of my references before I built my building but I forgot to bookmark it, so thank you for that. I actually fixed the elevator problem- it has something to do with the floor.

Now, I still have my NPC doors dilemma. Is the correct "facing" of the NPC doors a very sensitive factor on this? The arrows are pointing outside (meaning away from the door). I've read somewhere that it may take few sim weeks before NPCs start living on these units so I have to be more patient, but I just want to make sure that I did everything correctly.

Also, I don't know why my bill is higher. I built the EXACT penthouse unit from my previous premade building, and my usual bill was around 1.5k.. now it is around 3.5k. I'm pretty sure I designated the public markers on the lobby and other amenities, so I don't know what made the bill higher.

I've also read on the link that you gave me, that OP puts public space marker on the lawn-- I don't know if that is correct, though. I think I can live with the game not detecting the penthouse as the actual apartment unit of my sims though (for instance, when I click the "home" button, it zooms to the entrance of the building, not to the penthouse floor *sigh*), but if someone knows how to fix this, I'd really appreciate your help.

So I attached the screenies of the 2nd floor where the NPC doors are and the ground level which is the lobby, for reference.

Anyway, thanks again for your help.

[MrsFlynn]

I don't know a whole lot on creating apartments in Sims 3.

I did find another tutorial that might be of help.

Tutorials:TS3 Sims 3 Apartments
http://simswiki.info/wiki.php%3Ftitle=Tutorials:TS3_Sims_3_Apartments

I'm not sure why the bills are higher unless the game is counting some items as yours when they aren't.

[shinxran]

Thank you for that link! I guess I should double-check the markers that I've put on some rooms then.

Thanks again for your responses, I appreciate them