A Guide to Apartment Building

By Hatshepsut, 6 October 2008

A Guide to Apartment Building

Introduction
Ok, so youve excitedly rushed out and grabbed a copy of Apartment Life, taken a look around
and gasped in awe at all the new features and items and now you want to build your own
apartments. However, this EP like many before it comes with its own set of new pit falls,
challenges and opportunities. In this walkthrough I hope to guide you through some of the most
common mistakes, teach you how to deal with some of the strange quirks that this EP throws at
you and hopefully help you achieve your goal of building your dream multi-family residences!
Planning
An important part of any lot building and with apartments being semi-communal theres a few
extra things to consider before plonking down your building!
First of all choose an appropriate sized plot for you apartment. Perhaps even sketch something
out on some graph paper before you start building. Theres nothing more frustrating than getting
half way through building a row of houses and not having enough space left to place that last wall!
Similarly it can be awkward to fill acres of empty space with a small building stuck in the middle!
It might also be tempting to build huge skyscrapers busting at the seams with apartments, but
keep in mind that only 4 playable families can move into any apartment lot. Although any
remaining unoccupied apartments would be taken by NPCs your game might well slow down to a
crawl!
Any open area will be considered a communal
area. Once the lot is zoned and occupied you
will be unable to add or move any items in this
space (without resorting to cheats) so plan
these areas carefully and decide exactly how
you want them to be used.

Communal areas can be fun!

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A Guide to Apartment Building

By Hatshepsut, 6 October 2008

Some basics
To start building an apartment lot it is best to choose a residential zoned lot.
Dont forget that the main door into the apartment needs to be the Unique
Separator apartment door with the door mat facing outwards.

To rezone a lot to an apartment, once its built to your satisfaction open up

the cheat menu (shift + ctrl + c) and enter the cheat changelotzoning
apartmentbase. Save your lot and return to the neighbourhood screen.
When you re-enter the lot it should have the apartment mailbox and most of
the build tools will now be disabled.

Here are a few examples of enclosed and unenclosed areas and how they work.
This picture shows the ground floor of a
multi storey apartment block. The blue
indicates a main front entrance. This
can be any type of ordinary door, NOT
the Unique Separator door.
The red indicates an apartment door.
Notice there is no other entrance into
the apartment itself.
The communal area to the rear may
appear to be enclosed by fencing but
there is a gate causing a break in the
fence leading to the street area so this
would be considered by the game to be
an open communal space.

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A Guide to Apartment Building

By Hatshepsut, 6 October 2008

This is the upper floor of the same apartment

block. Again the red indicates the apartment
door. (Note the doormat always faces
outward) This time the apartments have
another opening onto a balcony. This works
because the balcony is fully enclosed by
fencing with no breaks or gates etc. and so is
seen by the game as just another room to the
apartment.

Beach Lots and Home Businesss Noooo!

Unfortunately beach apartments are a no no. Rezoning a beach lot to an apartment can cause
serious corruption so DONT DO IT!
Another limitation of apartment lots is that theyre not intended for business use. Building a row of
shops with apartments over might seem like a great idea but unfortunately wont work. Bummer!
Were back to the principle that the shop door would be treated as an unenclosed 2nd entrance to
the apartment and therefore the shop treated as a communal area, not associated with the
owners apartment.
While its not really possible for your sim to run
their own business at home, it is possible to
have some community based items on an
apartment lot in the communal areas and they
will work such as the diner. To do this you
need to rezone your lot to a community lot
changelotzoning community, add the items
you wish to use then rezone the lot back to an
apartment changelotzoning
apartmentbase.
I did try to add a shop building with the
intention of having it operated by a townie by
installing the cash register but to my dismay
that didnt work out. The townie failed to
appear behind the counter and I was left with an unattended shop!
Apartment lots cannot be placed into vacation hoods or a university campus. I guess dorms will
have to suffice!

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A Guide to Apartment Building

By Hatshepsut, 6 October 2008

On the Level
As we saw earlier one of the quirks with Apartment life is that there can only be one unenclosed
doorway into each unit. Not usually a problem unless you also want a door that leads to a back
yard. If your property is built without a foundation then all you need to do is enclose the back yard
entirely with fencing or a half wall (no gates).
Things become a little more complicated if your property is
built on a foundation and you want a door into the back
yard. Enclosing the yard with fencing will not work in this
case as the game sees the fencing as being on a different
level to the doorway and thus the back door is seen as a 2nd
unenclosed entrance into the building which is not
acceptable and you may get this error when you try to
rezone the lot:
One work-around to this problem is to
enclose the back yard with a section of
foundation and add a 2nd enclosure of
fencing on top. While this method works ok,
it can look rather bulky and unattractive and
cause the back yard to be cast into
darkness.

Using the stage tool will allow in light but still

ooks rather unappealing:

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A Guide to Apartment Building

By Hatshepsut, 6 October 2008

We can take this method a step further though by removing the foundation from beneath the
fencing on top and replace with another fence type to produce a more attractive combined fence.
It is the upper section of fencing that is providing the necessary enclosure. Again dont add any
gates. *Note - If you have used the stage tool to enclose the backyard you will be unable to
remove the stage from beneath the fence on top so its best to use the foundation for this method.

This game sure does have its little quirks and Ive found that sometimes if you have several
detached houses in a row built on foundations only one of the houses needs to be fenced in this
way. The others can be fenced normally without causing any problems. However you may lose
this setting if you decide to rezone the lot again after zoning it as an apartment.
Garages and car ports
If youre building a row of properties with
garages then the entrance to the apartment
needs to be on the same level as the garage
associated with it and share a common wall
with that garage.

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A Guide to Apartment Building

By Hatshepsut, 6 October 2008

Annoyingly garages built underneath

apartments whose doors are on the 2nd floor
will be treated as communal areas and
rendered unusable. However, this also has a
work-around. You can insert a stairway from
inside the garage directly into the apartment
above and the garage will be functional so long
as there arent any other doors leading out of it.
Ive found this method to work quite well and
doesnt appear to cause problems with visiting
sims using the wrong entrance or strangers
wandering into the apartment from the
stairway.

Garages on foundations also prove to be

problematic. The apartment door is seen as
being on a different level to the garage door so
when rezoning the lot it becomes invalid.
As car ports and open driveways are generally
unenclosed these will also be considered as
communal areas and so be unusable.

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A Guide to Apartment Building

By Hatshepsut, 6 October 2008

Eeek! Where did all my lovely furniture go?

Im sure many of us have experienced this by now. Youve built a lovely apartment block, got it all
beautifully decorated and landscaped and spent the last umpteen number of hours carefully and
lovingly furnishing each and every apartment. Youre so excited when your 1st sim family moves
in; you cant wait to see them applauding all the neat things youve filled their new home with
when shock horror all youre left with is a few measly kitchen counters and the odd light fitting!
While it is true that many apartments in real life are rented out fully furnished many are not and
Apartment Life takes it upon itself to decide that unfurnished apartments are the way to go! But
do not fear, all is not lost.
Once youve moved in your family open up the
cheat box and enter boolprop
testingcheatsenabled true. Hold down shift
and click on the door of the apartment you
want your sims to occupy and select rent
furnished apartment. Let your sim sign up
with the landlord then open up the cheat box
again and enter boolprop
testingcheatsenabled false to deactivate the
cheat (very important to do this). What would
you know, all that lovely furniture has reappeared! Yay!
Living on the Ceiling and Up the Wall
Finally we have ceilings so for goodness sake use them! Its very easy to forget when youre
building lots with uneven walls that the bits that stick out will look a whole lot better from the inside
if they have ceiling tiles applied and dont forget the area directly underneath the roof too.

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A Guide to Apartment Building

By Hatshepsut, 6 October 2008

Another nice new feature is the ability to move objects up and down the walls, very handy for
creating interesting picture collages and multiple shelving. However, this ability does not apply to
all wall based objects such as windows, mirrors, curtains and wall based TVs.
To move an object up a wall 1st place it
against the wall and use the [ key to move
the object upwards or the ] key to move the
object downwards. To place more than one
object on the same section of wall hold down
the Ctrl + Alt keys together and place the
object.

Odds and Ends

Just a couple more things to bear in mind before you run off to create your architectural
masterpiece.
First of all be careful if youre considering dividing
rooms using the Great Divide fence tool. A friend of
mine used it to separate her living room from her
kitchen and accidentally turned the kitchen into a
communal area!

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A Guide to Apartment Building

By Hatshepsut, 6 October 2008

Also be careful of placing walk-in closets against external walls:

Looks fine on the inside...

But looks silly on the outside!

Another thing Ive seen asked about is whether the pipe work/air shafts are required to make the
air conditioners/radiators & garbage shoots work. The simple answer is no, they are decorative
items only.
Summary of useful cheats
AL Cheats
boolprop
aptsublotspecifictoolsdisabled
false/true
boolprop
aptbaselotspecifictoolsdisabled
false/ true
Some other useful cheats
changelotzoning residential /
community / apartmentbase / hotel /
dorm / greek / secretsociety
sethighestallowedlevel *
moveobjects on/off
boolprop
snapobjectstogrid
true/false

Enables full buy/build mode in occupied

apartments. (Use with caution as any changes
you make will only affect the family/apartment
you are playing.)
Enables full buy/build mode in
unoccupied apartments.

Changes lot type

Allows you build more than 5 stories high.

* number of stories you wish to have.
Allows you place objects anywhere.
Allows you to place objects without the
grid constraints. Very useful when used
in conjunction with the moveobjects
cheat.

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A Guide to Apartment Building

By Hatshepsut, 6 October 2008

boolprop
allow45degreeangleofrotation
true/false
boolprop
showcatalogepflags
true/false
boolprop
constrainfloorelevation
true/false
roofslopeangle 15-75
individualroofslopeangle 15-75

boolprop
testingcheatsenabled
true/false

Allows objects to be turned at a 45

degree angle.
In build/buy mode shows which EP/SP
items come from.
Allows you to manipulate the ground level
even underneath buildings.
Adjusts the angle of the entire roof.
Adjusts the angle of individual roof sections.
Choose the degree of angle you wish and hold
down ctrl + alt while clicking on the roof section
you wish to alter.
Opens up a wide selection of options.
Use only when necessary and with
caution and always deactivate the cheat
when youre finished using it.

Credits and stuff

I hope this little bit of guidance has been some use to you in planning your
apartments/duplexes/condos etc and helped with a few of the why doesnt this work? moments
you might have been experiencing. Of course I couldnt have done it without a little help myself
and a huge plate load of cookies goes to estatica for pointing, no, shoving me in the right
direction. Some jaffa cakes go to swmeek for the dresser tip and a bar of chocolate goes to sww
for not nagging me too much to get the job done!
Happy building!

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