[Tutorial] Building Custom Apartments

[HugeLunatic]

This tutorial is located on the wiki.

:here:Tutorials:TS3_Sims_3_Apartments

[JSTODD12344]

I'm not sure if I missed something, but how do you build apartments inside the high rise buildings?

[HugeLunatic]

Shells are very similar, your just editing the existing buildings rather than building a new one.

To edit the shell buildings you will need to enter the building and enter testingcheatsenabled true followed by restrictbuildbuyinbuilding in the console. This will then let you move/delete walls, add/remove levels, and change windows. Those buildings already have the hidden/public room markers, but this will make those visible so that you can move them around. You still need to have the apts designated for NPCs to have the hidden marker in them, and the lobby as well as the space outside your apt door must have the public markers. The shells come with the trash chute, mailbox and callbox; be sure to not delete them.

[simsjeanie]

I installed Late Night a few days before Christmas and had not really time to enjoy. But the last days of 2011 I gave it a try and was really sad because I had no clue at all how to build there. But with your tutorial it worked like a charm! I've never used the testingCheatsEnabled true not to speak of the restrictBuildBuyInBuildings false. I was always afraid of crashing something. But it worked perfect! Many many thanks for that as great as plain tut! I could build a gorgeous public lounge and change the apartment the way I liked it. It wouldn't have been possible without your help! :gjob:

[SkullJune]

Can you edit a current high-rise building already in bridgeport :!: :!: :p

[HugeLunatic]

Yes you can, please see my previous post. =)

[lore715]

Is there any way to move in NPCs that I want specifically? For example, say I want a neighbor named Penelope Clearwater to live in the apartment below me, is there any way to do that?

[FreakAboutSims]

I found this tutorial on Google and it said to ask my questions here.

Should I be receiving "I gotta go, see you soon." messages whenever a NPC resident leaves the lot?

[HugeLunatic]

lore715 - You can't choose which NPCs move into your apartment.

FreakAboutSims - I think this is normal behavior when NPCs visit.

[tonlynski]

I made a custom apartment for my Sims and followed this tutorial. My Sims are able to enter and use their unit, but when I send them home, they don't go into their apartment. Instead they go through the lobby, past the elevator, into the backyard, up the fire escape, and finally stop outside the door of an NPC apartment (which is one level down from where my Sims live). When I click on their front door, I get the action "Ring Bell" as if the unit belongs to someone else, but it is greyed out and says "No one lives here." They don't try to enter the NPC units and will go into their apartment to do things. I didn't mark their door for NPCs, and their apartment has no markers placed inside of it. They will use the door to exit their apartment sometimes, and will enter through the front door as well, except when they "go home." I set all of the interior doors to the NPC apartments as NPC doors and as fair as I can tell using the tutorial, I've correctly used the hidden and public room markers. I did put exterior doors outside of each unit leading to the fire escape, which comes out onto the ground floor in the gated backyard, where I've placed a public room marker. Removing the exterior doors didn't help. The interior doors are within hallways that need to be accessed via the elevator. I placed public room markers in the hallways, and level skip markers on the NPC levels (one unit per level).

I can't figure out what I did wrong. The only thing I can think of is I made their unit two levels, with a staircase leading to the second level. The second level is only accessible from the first level of their unit.

It's not a huge deal, because like I said, they can access their apartment just fine, but it is annoying.

[simsample]

tonlynski, if you can show us an aerial view of the rooms, we might be able to help. It's hard to guess the problem without an image!

[tonlynski]

Yeah, I should have figured my description alone wouldn't be sufficient enough. Sorry about that; hope the attached images make things clearer.

Well, it seems I did something right, as they're now entering their unit when I send them home. I'm not sure what fixed that since I was removing exterior doors and adding more public markers (I placed some more on the outside, on each level) and was only checking to see if the door still said "nobody lives here" after making changes instead of testing to see where the Sims went when I sent them home. The "nobody lives here" message is still there, though. I forgot to mention before that I don't think any NPCs have moved into the other units, so that's another sign that I screwed up somewhere.

*The level in the second image is where my Sims would go when I sent them home (they'd stop at the top of the staircase when they reached this level).

[HugeLunatic]

You have public room markers and level skip markers on the same level. Not sure if this is the issue, but that might cause some sort of conflict. I've never used both because I typically want to ignore those levels completely, which is why I use the level skip. The stairs and fences could be creating two separate areas on the balcony. I know that fence will, but not sure if the way the stairs snug the fence will also do that. You also have a public room marker on the first level of the sims apartment, but I don't see one on the next level above, yet you have stairs going up to it. And there is nothing gating that area as private, which could cause an issue.

[tonlynski]

You have public room markers and level skip markers on the same level.

Okay, I thought I needed the public room markers so NPCs could go on that level.

The stairs and fences could be creating two separate areas on the balcony. I know that fence will, but not sure if the way the stairs snug the fence will also do that.

I'm not sure if I understand. I tried removing both the stairs and the fences (I assume you mean the fences surrounding the stairs since the balcony is composed from half-walls) since they were only there for aesthetic purposes and nothing changed.

You also have a public room marker on the first level of the sims apartment, but I don't see one on the next level above, yet you have stairs going up to it. And there is nothing gating that area as private, which could cause an issue.

Again, I'm a little confused. The public marker is in what is supposed to be the exterior hallway. I thought I would need one there so inactive Sims could go there (ie. if my Sims have visitors). I didn't put one on the above level because I thought I wasn't supposed to put them inside the unit.

I removed all of the public room markers in the hallways where the elevators are, the stairs inside the unit, all exterior doors, but no difference.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what the public room markers are used for. I just put them in every area that I wanted inactive Sims to be able to go outside of my active family's unit.

[HugeLunatic]

Level Skip vs. Public Room - I think your understanding the difference. The public room marker will allow all non-playable and playable sims access and lets you see it. The level skip (afaik) darkens the area just like the private marker, and your sim will skip walking up any stairs or in any hallways that has that marker. If you want to see that area, and direct your sim through it, then I think you can't have the level skip marker.

There is a public marker on the 3rd floor outside your sims apartment but I'm not seeing one on the 4th floor. I know that you can have two doors leading into your apartment from public areas, but it doesn't look like you've marked the 4th floor as public. From all my tests stairs do not act as a wall/fence to enclose an area, you still need a wall/fence/halfwall with gate/door. I think the 4th floor balcony needs to have a public marker. If you removed all the stairs and fences though, this should have solved the issue.

[tonlynski]

Hmm, my Sims are able to go to the levels with the level skip marker if they take the elevator to that floor, and it's not darkened; I just can't view the levels without focusing on my Sim when they're there. Not that I would ever need them to go there, unless they wanted to knock on a hypothetical neighbor's door.

I see what you're saying about the 4th floor needing a public marker now. I didn't realize you meant the outside. I wasn't sure if I needed any public markers since taking the stairs all the way to the ground floor leads to the backyard, which is fenced and has a gate. But yeah, I deleted the stairs and the doors anyway.

Interestingly enough, I don't get the option to set the front door of my Sims' apartment as an NPC door like I do for the hidden units, even though it's not being recognized as their door (or at least it isn't when I click on it). I guess I should just be glad my Sims are going into the apartment when they go home, but I would like to have other Sims "living" in the building as well for the sake of realism. But maybe there is another reason no NPCs have moved in.

[simsample]

I agree with HL that you should remove the level skip markers- that is probably the reason why no NPCs are moving in- the apartments are being ignored by the game if they have skip level markers there.

Also remember that the elevator shafts should have a public room marker in them too, so that the NPCs can enter the elevators.

If you want to, you could mark your balconies as public space- this will mean that NPCs can enter them, but it will have the advantage that it will reduce the cost of your apartment. Anything not marked as a skipped level, public space or hidden room will be added to the bill! This includes enclosed areas such as hedged flower borders (as I found out). You can test whether you need a public marker somewhere by plopping a marker down and watching the lot value- if it decreases then you need one!


Interestingly enough, I don't get the option to set the front door of my Sims' apartment as an NPC door like I do for the hidden units, even though it's not being recognized as their door (or at least it isn't when I click on it).
That is correct- you will not get an option to make an NPC door unless there is an enclosed public space on one side of the door and a hidden room marker on the other side.

[FreakAboutSims]

I downloaded an apartment lot here and everything works fine, except nobody lives there except for my Sim. Whenever I goto ring the doorbell of an apartment, it is greyed out. How do I get NPCs to live on the lot?

This (http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=431645) was the lot I downloaded.

Could the problem be that there are no homeless sims? I placed the lot in Bridgeport.

[tyana]

ok So i have built an apartment with the markers and the big building thing and its seems right but I cant get my elevator to work they can go into it and when i click on it it just gives me the option to change the light color or something like and they can woohoo in it but no go up... :/ then also the shell is like the Aquarius so I built the apartment floor and up top in the rimed area and next level is an outdoor bar like place and that's all and the elevator wont go to either of those levels from the lobby i made and I did mark public and the hall and the bar thing I also made public

[simsample]

Did you also make the elevator shaft a public space?

[tyana]

They weren't but i just labeled them public and it still doesn't work. Its something wrong with just the bottom one in the lobby. If I teleport my sim to the second floor I can get to the roof from there but not go down

Edit: okay so I just added another elevator on the lobby and it works fine.... :| so I don't understand hm..

[Dididodo]

Hey,
I made an apartmentbuilding but I think I`m not doing the moving of the npc part right because nobody lives there. Do the npc move in soon as je start living there? My version of the sims 3 is in dutch so when CTRL SHIFT click I see other things but if I translate them it says make front door instead of make npc door but the 3 others things are the same.

When I click on the door during live play I cant ring but I can lock it and use it as a front door or not.

And when I decorate my apartment I can look in the other apartments is that normal?

[globalprincess]

I also see other apartments when I'm decorating mine.

What I'm really have trouble with is the NPC door too. Is it alright to have Hidden Room Marker (inside the house) and the public room marker (outside the house) on the same level? I thought it would be okay.
I downloaded a lot from here and converted it into an apartment(was a good idea when I thought of it.) And I edited the lot and followed the instructions and got the mailbox and all, BUT alas, Can't make the NPC door. I thought moving the door to a new level would help (since the markers where on the same level), but really there would be two markers on every level no matter what. On the bottom level(where I moved the door to) I have it fenced in, but still not really working.(http://i55.tinypic.com/2eurk48.jpg) This is where the door should originally be, but I moved it down a level because I thought it would help..(http://i55.tinypic.com/2u4ltlu.jpg) the garage was there before, but I deleted it and placed the door. Am I a lost cause? ;o

[HugeLunatic]

dididodo - Your picture is really hard to see, it would be better if you could attach one taken during the day and bigger. From what I can see it doesn't look like you have the doors enclosed by a fence on the foundation. If you get "Make Front Door" instead of "Make NPC Door" then make sure all doors are enclosed by fences/walls and that your in buy/build mode when trying to assign doors.

globalprincess - Yes you want a hidden room marker inside and a public room marker outside. But it looks like you don't have the doors enclosed by a fence. The door must be enclosed on the same level.

If you look at the second picture in the tutorial you can see the small house is on a foundation. That is enclosed with a fence and gate on top of the foundation, which is the same level as the door.

[Dididodo]

Hey, I was finally able to make it a npc door, but when do they move in?
Thanks for your help!

[xdeadmanzbabiix]

The only way that I can make "Make NPC Door" come up is if I'm doing an apartment that's inside a building.. kinda like this (http://images.mocpages.com/user_thumbnails/[email protected]/www.legogh.com_MOCpages_LEGO-Hey-Arnold-Sunset-Arms-Apartment-Building.jpg_SPLASH.jpg) (for lack of a better picture) when I wanna get it like this (http://a367.yahoofs.com/ypost_re/pacman_76a3975fdc66c4c1b3d53b8062b89ef7_task_201005170125_956296_m_000008_0_601_1289296497/63d6e414-9822-445a-9223-e88576dc4522.jpg?reAa60QBDaZTmgws) How would I get the "Make NPC Door" option with the doors on the outside, and not surrounded by walls?

[mochamogie]

I've had some good luck and some bad with editing apartments. I do everything the same each time I edit an apartment, but sometimes, for whatever reason, when I go to play the family that lives in the edited apartment, there is no life-bar... no anything. The screen just shows the building, and won't let me actually enter the apartment or play my family. The screen looks as if it is paused, but it won't let me unpause. I don't know why this keeps happening, but it is very frustrating! Any thoughts??

[OSUTINDIIN]

Just a quick question, hopefully. I feel a bit dumb for asking this, maybe I am, but how do you design/build your apartment buildings more than 5 stories, and how large can you design/build your apartment buildings (how many stories is the maximum).

[shockme]

I have made my apartment and put in the wallmail box and chute and assigned the NPC doors but nobody is living there i checked on every door and it says nobody lives here is there something wrong? Also my sim doesnt use the chute she justs goes in the evelator and comes without the rubbish bag

[deksimfan]

Hi! it's my first time to ask. I read the TS3 apartment tutorials. When I tried doing it, I couldn't find the hidden room, public room, and level skip markers in the ? function miscellaneous folder in the buy mode. Can you still make apartments this way when you have expansions? I only have WA.

[OSUTINDIIN]

Hi! it's my first time to ask. I read the TS3 apartment tutorials. When I tried doing it, I couldn't find the hidden room, public room, and level skip markers in the ? function miscellaneous folder in the buy mode. Can you still make apartments this way when you have expansions? I only have WA.

If I'm not mistaken, you need the late night expansion pack to be able to do this.

[LE102071]

I'm trying to make an apartment, like where I lived in Texas. So far it's turned out very nice.. 8 unit building with outdoor pool area and public exercise and laundry room...

I am curious about one thing.. with the 8 units, is there any way to have more than one unit be playable with differing families? Or does it have to be one player, with the rest being NPC?

I can click on each of the apartment doors and get these options:

Lock
Clone
Make NPC Door
Set as Front Door
Add the ability to add triggers and activated behaviors


Thanks in advance for any reply.

[Sephrenia34]

I have the the NPC problem too, i read the tutorial, have made some apartments, i have used the public / private markers, i have marked the NPC doors correctly, i can play on my sim in the building with no problems but no NPCs have moved into the building... quite annoying...

[HugeLunatic]

You can only have one playable family on a lot. With your options given you choose Make NPC Door, this will allow NPC's to move in. After a period of time you will be able click on the door and choose visit (or something like that) and a list of NPC sims comes up. Time wise in my game it has gone from one sim hour to one sim week before NPC's move in, I have no idea what defines this time. It could be the size of your town, I really don't know.

The game limits to 5 levels, but you can build up to 25 with cheats. http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=360606

[deksimfan]

Thanks for the reply to my question.

[globalprincess]

Thank you very much! <3

[LE102071]

You can only have one playable family on a lot. With your options given you choose Make NPC Door, this will allow NPC's to move in. After a period of time you will be able click on the door and choose visit (or something like that) and a list of NPC sims comes up. Time wise in my game it has gone from one sim hour to one sim week before NPC's move in, I have no idea what defines this time. It could be the size of your town, I really don't know.

The game limits to 5 levels, but you can build up to 25 with cheats. http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=360606

Thanks for the reply!

[dorothy_zbornak]

The only way that I can make "Make NPC Door" come up is if I'm doing an apartment that's inside a building.. kinda like this (http://images.mocpages.com/user_thumbnails/[email protected]/www.legogh.com_MOCpages_LEGO-Hey-Arnold-Sunset-Arms-Apartment-Building.jpg_SPLASH.jpg) (for lack of a better picture) when I wanna get it like this (http://a367.yahoofs.com/ypost_re/pacman_76a3975fdc66c4c1b3d53b8062b89ef7_task_201005170125_956296_m_000008_0_601_1289296497/63d6e414-9822-445a-9223-e88576dc4522.jpg?reAa60QBDaZTmgws) How would I get the "Make NPC Door" option with the doors on the outside, and not surrounded by walls?

I'm having the same issue as you. It's like the apartment thing just doesn't work with the townhouse concept.

I'm thinking we might need to enclose the row of buildings within a contained wall and mark the area around it as a public marker.

[cameranutz2]

I'm having the same issue as you. It's like the apartment thing just doesn't work with the townhouse concept.

I'm thinking we might need to enclose the row of buildings within a contained wall and mark the area around it as a public marker.

The door must be completely enclosed, either by a wall or fence on the same level.

You can not designate a door in an open stoop/area as an NPC door.

[lukeyyysss]

do you install a mod for a public room marker if you do which one?

[HugeLunatic]

As the tutorial states, the room markers are all found in buydebug.

[paleblueeyes]

The door must be completely enclosed, either by a wall or fence on the same level.

You can not designate a door in an open stoop/area as an NPC door.

I can't even seem to designate a door enclosed in a fence for NPC only. :cry:

Sort of messes up my pretty townhouses.

[Gurgilxix]

I'm trying to use one of the Apartment shells, but after getting the lobby set up I move to the next floor up and it won't let me build to the edge of the shell. It leaves 1 row of tiles around the inside of the shell unbuildable. I've tried putting in temporary pillars, flooring to see if it expands that last tile out, walls, everything I can think of to make that outside row available, but to no avail.

I'm basically trying to remake one of the 64x64 Bridgeport buildings and not including the "yard" associated with it so it will only be a 40x30 lot, so if there is an easier way to do this I'd love to know. :)

Thanks in advance for any help!

[HugeLunatic]

paleblueeyes can you please provide a screenshot? A top down view with walls up?

Gurgilxix - I really have no idea about shells, I don't use 'em and I don't like 'em. Plus, this tutorial is about building custom apartments in custom buildings. :) Maybe someone else knows, but I think you will find a discussion thread about apartment shells in social.

I've also updated the first section of the tutorial. I've found if you create a fake room inside the door you want for NPCs and place public markers inside and outside that you don't need a fence enclosing the door.

[TaCob0b]

Ok, so I was inspired to build an apartment in the Aquarius building after watching a YouTube video. I've read and studied all the tutorials and how-to I can possibly find on the internet.

I successfully built a fully functional apartment in the Aquarius building where 6 of my Sims now reside.

But one thing is missing from my apartment...NPCs.

On the floor above my apartment I built an entire floor dedicated for NPCs to reside. Although not all doors are active as NPCs doors I did activate 5 to become a NPC door. I marked the front door of the enterance of the Aquarius building as the Front door. I placed a Public room marker in the lobby, in the elevator room on every floor with an elevator, and a public room marker on the NPC floor. I placed a hidden room marker inside every NPC apartment room (2x1 room size).

I have a callbox in the ground level. I have trash chutes in the NPC floor and my Sims floor. Both are working.
I have built a wallmailbox in the Main Lobby, also working paying bills and donated money.


I am now able to ring the door bell to every active NPC door, but the problem is... no one lives there.

Now I read that it would take a sometime for a NPC to move in... but it's been an entire week and still no progress on new residents.

My Sims are able to be move around freely and their NPC friends, repairmen, mixologist... so on.

*At one time the Elevator got stuck and all my Sims were unable to go up and down floors (I found this to be a problem for the Aquarius building) So I build an extra 2 elevator for the building, saved it, bulldozed it and replaced it. Now my Sims have 3 elevator doors for high traffic events.

Even after that NO NPCs are MOVING IN.

Is there something I am doing wrong... or that I am missing?

I am at work but if you need screenshots to get a clearer picture I will be happy to provide those and label everything just so I can get this to work.

Thank you in advance!!!

[Alizatina]

So I am making a custom apartment, I follow all the steps, have all the markers in the right place and everything seems okay but I have had a few problems when I tried to play test it. Weirdest of them being that all the NPCs that moved in were these crazy Sims, that looked like sims, but their voice, movements and all of their mannerisms were very much the same as Simbots :blink: ... I was just wondering if it had something possible to do with the apartment or some gameplay glitch because I was building in a Pleasant View world...

[heaven]

I followed the instructions but somehow, I keep getting random sims spawning in my backyard. It is completely fenced in, only way in is through the house, it doesn't even have a gate. And the sims that spawn are ones like "tattoo artist", "paparazzi", etc. I can't seem to figure it out. I have hidden room markers everywhere I need it. The interior 'other' door is marked NPC, I have tried marking my front door as such and not marking it as well. Also have tried moving the lot to a different spot in town and tested it with and without the apartment mail box. I cannot possibly figure it out.

Here is a picture of the front:
http://www.modyourpanties.com/hosting/27150_110423055539Front.jpg

Here is a picture of the layout:
http://www.modyourpanties.com/hosting/27151_110423055939Total Layout Paint.jpg

EDIT: Have also tried deleting all CC and cache, still sims spawning.

[Anners04]

Hey, i' new to the forum. I read the whole tutorial and the posted messages here but i couldn't actually find one with the same problem that i'm having: i moved my sim to the apartment, set the NPC doors all correct but somehow i get "Ring Bell" on my own apartment door!
I couldn't find any help regarding this issue on the internet and i have no idea why this happens. Help?
Thanks a lot for reading!

Oh, btw, if my sim goes to town somewhere and i click "go home" it enters the apartment, still the ring bell doesn't go away! I can't lock the door and it bothers me a lot.

[Firefighter]

So do you really "build" your own apartment or you "edit" existing apartments? and in the guide, you said something about the twelfth floor. Isn't there a building limit?

[HugeLunatic]

Alizatina - Your issues are not related to the apartment, but seem to be a game problem. If you continue to have issues please post in Help.

Heaven - I noticed your lot has been uploaded so the issue is resolved? This sounds like a bug and not related to apartments and probably should be in Help. I think Twallans overwatch would fix the NPC spawning issue.

Anners04 - Please provide a top down pic with walls up. But in the meantime verify that you have public markers in public areas, and no markers in your sims private areas.

Firefighter - Yes you build custom buildings, this tutorial has nothing to do with using the shells provided by EA. I don't recall saying anything about a twelfth floor in the tutorial. There is a five floor limit with normal building, but there is a tutorial (link above) for going over that with cheats.

[elazgar]

Hi there, I've created a masterpiece, but there is a problem I didn't see addressed. Do i have to make every room in the apartment npc? when I go into the area the only thing dark is the main area, the bathroom and bedrooms are still fully visible.

[clickchick]

I built an old fashioned courtyard style grouping of apartment homes. No problems making one of them NPC, but my main family can't enter their home or any of the non-NPC homes, for that matter. They just stomp their feet and show they can't enter. Ideas? The exterior has a public area marker and I've installed a call box and mail box.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_nLulw43gO_M/TboujpXOijI/AAAAAAAAJB4/qBoL_lvd8rg/s640/Screenshot-30.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_nLulw43gO_M/TboulzghBpI/AAAAAAAAJB8/bXHMFHnzpe4/s640/Screenshot-31.jpg

[Anners04]

Alizatina - Your issues are not related to the apartment, but seem to be a game problem. If you continue to have issues please post in Help.

Heaven - I noticed your lot has been uploaded so the issue is resolved? This sounds like a bug and not related to apartments and probably should be in Help. I think Twallans overwatch would fix the NPC spawning issue.

Anners04 - Please provide a top down pic with walls up. But in the meantime verify that you have public markers in public areas, and no markers in your sims private areas.

Firefighter - Yes you build custom buildings, this tutorial has nothing to do with using the shells provided by EA. I don't recall saying anything about a twelfth floor in the tutorial. There is a five floor limit with normal building, but there is a tutorial (link above) for going over that with cheats.

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h144/anita_annie/Random/screen1.png

Here's the picture of the house with walls up. The black ball left to the main entrance is a public room marker, same with the one behind the elevator.
There are no public markers within my sim's private areas, i have no idea with what's wrong. I feel like it's probably a minor detail that i'm missing haha.

[HugeLunatic]

clickchick - Try moving the door over, making sure there are no ceiling lights inside/outside, and make sure the whole area is flat. If one part of the foundation is higher by a bit it could prevent sims from using the door. There was a post in help ages ago with the same issue, but I think they just ended up rebuilding. So try the door in another spot.

Anners - I see a staircase on the bottom right, but where does it go? Are the areas at the top/bottom of the staircase part of the apartment? And are they enclosed? I can't tell from the pic what that area is.

[Anners04]

clickchick - Try moving the door over, making sure there are no ceiling lights inside/outside, and make sure the whole area is flat. If one part of the foundation is higher by a bit it could prevent sims from using the door. There was a post in help ages ago with the same issue, but I think they just ended up rebuilding. So try the door in another spot.

Anners - I see a staircase on the bottom right, but where does it go? Are the areas at the top/bottom of the staircase part of the apartment? And are they enclosed? I can't tell from the pic what that area is.

That staircase goes to an enclosed area, a studio actually. It's all enclosed and the only door that goes outside is facing an enclosed balcony.

[Anners04]

Oh and I have noticed that a NPC Firewoman appears at the door of my house and disappears as she "enters", like it was her home. She also appears in the callbox.

[HugeLunatic]

Anners - it sounds like your apt is open somewhere that connects to a hidden room or maybe a public room.

dreamcatcher - The doors for NPC apts must be enclosed, and looking at your picture they are not. Try making a small vestibule just inside the NPC doors and place a public marker inside that.

[Anners04]

Anners - it sounds like your apt is open somewhere that connects to a hidden room or maybe a public room.

dreamcatcher - The doors for NPC apts must be enclosed, and looking at your picture they are not. Try making a small vestibule just inside the NPC doors and place a public marker inside that.

could it be the public room marker that I placed in the entrance hall, or the one on my elevator level?

Thanks!

[Anners04]

I deleted both public room markers and the "Ring Bell" option is still there. :(

[HugeLunatic]

Do you have a ceiling in your apartment? I wonder if the space is still considered open to a neighboring floor that is hidden because of a missing ceiling. Or what about friezes? If you have used those (or cfe walls) and didn't include the same interior walls? Try removing the stairs temporarily and replacing the floor tiles just to rule that out.

[Anners04]

I deleted the stairs and filled the "holes" with floor tiles, i deleted the door to the enclosed balcony, still "ring bell" option. all the room left around the house, the one with no walls or construction on it is covered by flat ceiling tiles. Any ideas?

[Daiyu]

I have question regarding making NPC doors/apartments on community lots. Is this possible?

I was hoping that my consignment store could also house NPC apartments on the top floor, but even after placing the public and hidden room markers correctly (all enclosed), it won't allow me to assign the doors for NPC use. I'm guessing that because the lot isn't zoned residential it won't allow this, but would like to know if anyone else knows something different.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Deaso]

Hey Guys,

I have basically the same problem as ClickChick, I have a 5 story apt. building with my sim's apartment being on the fifth floor. If I teleport my sims into the lobby they can take the elevator up to their floor just fine, but if they are outside the building and I click "go home" or just click "go here" in the lobby they look at the door, stomp their feet, and will occasionally walk around the apartment, but never enter. There are no lights, uneven land, etc near the lobby door of the apartment. I also used Twallan's debug enabler and checked the lock status of the lobby's front door and it said, "You are not allowed through this door." I have tried replacing the door, putting doors in, etc to no avail. The only solution so far is to delete a segment of the lobby wall and allow my sims to just walk in to the elevator without going through a door. I can provide pictures if you guys need them, but as I said the problem is basically the same as ClickChick's except that I have a lobby with an elevator.

Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance,

[Tee Hee Hee]

Hey Guys,

I have basically the same problem as ClickChick, I have a 5 story apt. building with my sim's apartment being on the fifth floor. If I teleport my sims into the lobby they can take the elevator up to their floor just fine, but if they are outside the building and I click "go home" or just click "go here" in the lobby they look at the door, stomp their feet, and will occasionally walk around the apartment, but never enter. There are no lights, uneven land, etc near the lobby door of the apartment. I also used Twallan's debug enabler and checked the lock status of the lobby's front door and it said, "You are not allowed through this door." I have tried replacing the door, putting doors in, etc to no avail. The only solution so far is to delete a segment of the lobby wall and allow my sims to just walk in to the elevator without going through a door. I can provide pictures if you guys need them, but as I said the problem is basically the same as ClickChick's except that I have a lobby with an elevator.

Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance,

Are you sure the lobby is marked as a public room? (ie has a public room marker placed in it)

[Deaso]

Are you sure the lobby is marked as a public room? (ie has a public room marker placed in it)

Yes, all my rooms are appropriately marked. I triple checked them all. haha. It's really strange. The only other thing I know is that the front door worked fine at first, but I later used the Restrict B/B in Buildings command to add a basement to the apartment. Now while there's a definite possibility that I could have messed something up doing that, I checked everything and then went over it all again for good measure.

Right now I just have holes in my lobby walls and it works ok

[Liz865]

Having the same problem! My Sim just stands outside the lobby (with a public room marker) and stomps her feet. No one can go in or out! She also got stuck in the elevator..what is wrong?!

[pyrochemist]

I found this tutorial on Google and it said to ask my questions here.

Should I be receiving "I gotta go, see you soon." messages whenever a NPC resident leaves the lot?

I am also having this problem. I noticed that the callbox lists hundreds of sims! From A-Z and it seems like when any one of them leaves I get a message. Any ideas what I may have done wrong?

[golfhog]

I am new to the whole apartment making process but I placed the markers correctly but there seems to be something wrong with the elevator.

[Midori-kun]

Just a quick question, does the stuff in the "public" rooms of my apartment lot count towards the bills I receive? The family in my custom apartment is receiving bills larger than many of my mansions! It is somewhat ridiculous.

[donovon.koch]

Hi There,

I'm trying to customize the Off Ramp shell, and I've been successful using RBBB, Buydebug and MoveObjects.

I've set up all my doors, public and hidden areas. I have no public/hidden/skip levels in the living space, and both the lobby and upper foyer of the apartment are set as public space.

The elevators are enclosed on four sides with walls on the ground and apartment floor, with public markers on both levels inside the cabs.

My sims have no problem getting into the lower foyer, but the only option when I click the elevator is WooHoo. I can teleport them up, but I want the elevators to work... is there something I'm missing? I feel like I've spent the past weekend searching forums and google for a straightforward guide to elevators in TS3.

Help?

[pinkbills]

After I did this, I can't edit whats in my sim's apartment. I didn't put any public or private room balls in my sim's room. Do I need to do that, or change her door type? Thanks!

[cameranutz2]

This problem with the feet stomping at the elevator made me curious. So I had to give it a try.

- I built a 5 story apt building with the playable apt on the top floor
- Added public room markers
- Made NPC door on second floor
- Marked floors 3,4 as level skip
- Added elevator to floors 1,2,5
- Added elevator shaft to floors 3,4
- Added call box

Put a sim on the lot, clicked Go Home while she was outside the building and she took the elevator straight up to the top floor, no problem.

Sent her to the lobby, clicked elevator, got the option to "Go To floor..." options level 2 or level 5. no problem.

The building also has NPCs coming and going.

Maybe try moveobjects off, delete the elevators, then add again. The Sims usually only stomp when something is in the way.

[cameranutz2]

After I did this, I can't edit whats in my sim's apartment. I didn't put any public or private room balls in my sim's room. Do I need to do that, or change her door type? Thanks!

You don't need markers inside the playable apartment nor do you need to change the door.

Make sure you have the restrictbuildbuyinbuildings false cheat activated.

[b.ray-xx]

Is it possible to have more than one family living in an apartment block, in seperate apartments? or can you only have one family and the rest have to be NPCs?

[Katkabaal]

I'm building an awesome apartmentcomplex, but am wondering if it's gonna go okay. When I read the tutorial I get the idea that I can only create one place for my Sims to live in. All the other places have to be either Public or Hidden (NPC) Is this correct?

I read somewhere else that when you move into an apartment, you get to choose which floor you want to live on. I can not remember seeing this before, but if above statement is right, then every apartmentlot has just one playable home.

Which is correct?

[Diandra_S]

I NEED HELP, PLEASE!

I have finished building the apartment complex from scratch. I have put in the hidden and public markers and have closed off the designated NPC doors. My problem? I CANNOT ASSIGN DOORS TO NPC'S. I don't understand what I have done wrong! I've read the tutorial over and over again, tried different things, and STILL nothing works! Someone pleaseeee help! :(

[cameranutz2]

Did you put a Public Room Marker in the enclosed area with the door?

[addict12]

Okay, I did everything correctly I believe. I made the NPC doors and such. However whenever my active sim (the sims that lives in the same building) visits a NPC's apartment, the sims or sim living there will spawn outside and I am unable to enter their apartment. Is there a reason for this?

[Mama0607]

Are troubleshooting questions still available for asking?

[Menaceman44]

addict12, if you read the info earlier on in the thread you will find that playable Sims cannot enter the rooms of NPC residents as they are effectively empty black boxes. There is nothing to see in there. You can only interact with other NPC residents in the public areas or within your own playable room.

[kcsplaza]

This question has been answered>> Thanks

Hello fellow sims lovers.. I am new here to modthesims forums. I am how ever not new to the sims. I have been playing since the first sims came out. But I am new to Sims 3, I got burned out on the pc and am just now getting back into it. So I have The Sims 3 base game, High End Loft, Outdoor Living and Town Life These are the only ones that was at the store when I went to buy this game.

Ok so my question is:

#1. Can I build and have my sims live in an apartment with just these stuff packs? I have already gotten the apartment built and have the markers set up.. But I can not find the "Call Box" that I have been reading about or am I able to find the correct download for the replacement for the mailbox...

#2: If the answer to #1 is yes, Do I really need the "call box and replacement mail box"

Thanks in advance,
Stormy :cool:

[Pinkpills]

Okay I am having a problem setting the other doors in my custom apt to NPC doors.

I built a three level, 6 room apartment, placed the hidden markers inside 5 of the rooms, then put a fence inside the NPC rooms, around the door, and placed a public marker within the fenced area. I then placed public markers in the 3 lobby/laundry rooms and in the fitness area, along with placing the public markers on the balconies (that are only accessed from the apartments there attached too.)

When I try to set the doors to NPC doors, I ctrl+shift left click the door while I'm in buy mode while playing my test sim. When I do click the door, the only options that appear are: Lock, Delete, Clone, Reset and Add Triggers and behaviors etc. If I click on Add Triggers I get a second menu that have a few things along with "Make Unusable by NPCs".

I just don't get it, I do have random NPCs walking into the first floor lobby, using the pool area etc but when they get to the elevators, they stand in front of the door waiting for it, then they disappear, like the game sends them "home" then remembers that none of the doors are set and deletes them. I added a screen shot of one of the rooms, its of the NPC apartment on the second level, the other apartment across the hallway is where my test sim lives. The fence that is outside in the hallway isn't suppose to be there, I was just messing around to try to get the doors to work.

Edit: I just checked the callbox to see if there were any sims listed, it says there are over 40 random NPCs in the building, but there are only 6 rooms on the lot! :faceslap: :lol:

[Menaceman44]

I have exactly the same issue as Pinkpills with the spawning of tons of NPC Sims but I CAN designate NPC doors.
Apartments in Bridgeport work fine but none that I've placed or built in other worlds do.

[bluebear88]

Hey everyone,

I saw above that someone had a large number of NPCs move in, and in the small apartment building (7 units) I just made, over 60 NPCs immediately moved in, which seems a little extreme. Did anyone else have this happen? Did it hurt gameplay at all to have that many sims in the same complex?

[Jarret98]

Why wont NPC's move in??? And what essentials do they need to move in???

[monkeygal027]

I downloaded a neighborhood the had apartment buildings, that were actually just house with rooms for rent, that were made by the creator. I want to revert one of them back into just a house, how do I do this? I have deleted all the spherical room makers, call box, and mailbox, or so I think. What else do I need to do? Thanks for your help :)

[shinkamalei]

I'm having the same problem as pinkpills in that I can't assign them. It's weird. I have tried in buy mode and live mode. Neither works. Would you like a screenshot?

[Maylilyx]

I just made a custom apartment and put in all the hidden room/public room markers already but I forgot to put in a callbox. I already when into edit town so now I can't click the reverse button. What can I do to edit again? Everytime I try it says something on the lines of: You can't edit out of your room/home owners do not allow this. Also one door that leads to an npc room doesn't do anything when I crl+shift+click it. Nothing at all shows up. I made sure there is a public marker outside the door and a hidden room marker on the outer side just like all the other doors and the others I can make it an NPC door.
How can I put the call box in? It won't allow me to edit.

[HugeLunatic]

As is listed under Tips in the tutorials, to edit your apartment again you must enter RestrictBuildBuyInBuildings off in the cheat console. Moveobjects will not allow you to edit the building.

Doors can be assigned to NPCs without Sims living on the lot. Make sure that the room around the door is enclosed. A picture will always be helpful in troubleshooting.

[Maylilyx]

I tried the cheat but do you have to be in live mode, because I was in the build/buy mode that you enter while in edit town. Maybe I just typed it wrong.

[Menaceman44]

You may need to use TestingCheatsEnabled true before the game will accept the building cheat.

[Cloam14]

i did just what the tutorial said and added the fence and public markers and the lobby and everything but when i control shift click the door it doesnt come up with the option it says "DELETE IT" "RESET" "LOCK" "CLONE" "ADD THE ABILITY TO ADD TRIGGERS AND ACTIVATED BEHAVIORS" and i tried everything to do it though idk what to do plz helpp ASAP!!!!! :help:

[katiesauerkraut]

Hi there, hopefully someone can help me. I've made a townhouse row, 2 NPC apartments and 1 playable. I've done the markers and everything right. I put the fence + gate up on the same level as the NPC door, which have been set as NPC doors. Hidden and public markers are in the correct spots. However, when I try to get my sim to move from, say, the street to inside her apartment, she walks to the gate of her place, stomps and says she can't go through it. Am I missing something? I feel like I've done everything I could.

Thanks for any replies or tips! :)

[Menaceman44]

Pictures of the setup would be most useful here.

[katiesauerkraut]

Pictures of the setup would be most useful here.

http://llnw.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000//shard000/713/512/010/00/screenshot_original.jpg
This is one of the NPC apartments. There is a hidden marker inside of the house, and on the outside I made the "room" that the tutorial said to do using a fence and gate on the same level. All the markers on the outside are public room markers.

http://llnw.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000//shard000/712/512/010/00/screenshot_original.jpg
This is outside of my Sim's apartment. You can see she says she can't go through the gate to get inside of her apartment. There aren't any markers inside of her apartment and all the outside markers are public room markers.

[HugeLunatic]

I see a second door for that NPC apartment, where does that go? I'm not sure you can have two doors into one area for NPC apartments.

Also, Buzzler has a mod, Builder Tools, that includes one for NPCs where you no longer need to have that fence out front.

[katiesauerkraut]

The back doors go to a small porch with steps to an enclosed yard. Is that the problem perhaps? I have the porch and yard marked with public room markers on all of the houses.

[springfairy556]

Hi there, I'm having issues.

I did everything correctly, but no NPCs are moving in.:(

[jheirawro24]

how do i assign public room marker?

[simsample]

You don't need to assign them, just place them from buydebug mode.

[Shadowstroem]

So I followed the guide step by step, the front and back doors of the npc apartments are enclosed in a fenced yard and have public room markers while the apartments themselves have hidden room markers...and I don't get the 'Assign NPC' mode to it. The apartments are hidden like noted, etc, I just can't move anyone in.

**Edit: Yes, both doors in each unit are enclosed. I've checked eight times. I've also tried deleting the back door on one of the units and clicking and it still didn't work. The apartment is a very simple tri-plex with three studio one-bathroom apartments. They have a french sliding door on a small (fenced) patio in the back and a simple door onto a larger front yard, all enclosed. There are hidden room markers in each of the two apartments and their respective bathrooms, and public markers on the common area of the triplex as well as on each patio and in each yard. I added trash chutes, a callbox, and the wall mailbox to see if that helped and it didn't. At this point I'm more or less at a lost and nothing before has been really helpful so far with this particular issue.

Could it be an issue with my CC?

I only have the Woohooer, a few outfits, the nosparkles mod, the no intro video mod, and now the wall mailbox/trash chute mod.

[randomness10101]

in a two story apartment are you able to have walls the height of 1 3/4? like a foundation size as the first floor.

[gears7667]

Can I make NPC apartments on community lots, like over an art gallery?

[adinda1987]

He,

got a question: can you add multiple families to one apartment complex? I mean, like you had in The Sims 2 that you can place more families into the complex instead of one that we have now?

Also, another question. I build an apartment complex from scratch and now I want to use the NPC door-trick. But...all the doors have this option except the door next to the apartment of my sim. Instead the door of my sims apartment is given the option to add the NPC and front door but the door next to the apartment isn't given the option NPC door only front door which I don't want. The whole apartment next to my sim is empty, like any other NPC apartment in my complex.

Now all the NPC's are walking into my room and I can't send them away as it gives the apartment is not mine. Can't even add lights etc. :s
Has somebody any clue what I need to do or is there a limited NPC-door?

[Menaceman44]

He,

got a question: can you add multiple families to one apartment complex? I mean, like you had in The Sims 2 that you can place more families into the complex instead of one that we have now?

Also, another question. I build an apartment complex from scratch and now I want to use the NPC door-trick. But...all the doors have this option except the door next to the apartment of my sim. Instead the door of my sims apartment is given the option to add the NPC and front door but the door next to the apartment isn't given the option NPC door only front door which I don't want. The whole apartment next to my sim is empty, like any other NPC apartment in my complex.

Now all the NPC's are walking into my room and I can't send them away as it gives the apartment is not mine. Can't even add lights etc. :s
Has somebody any clue what I need to do or is there a limited NPC-door?

First bit, you can only have one active family living on each apartment lot.

Second bit, have you made sure to mark all of the public areas with Public Area markers and NPC rooms with Private Room markers?

[adinda1987]

First bit, you can only have one active family living on each apartment lot.

Second bit, have you made sure to mark all of the public areas with Public Area markers and NPC rooms with Private Room markers?

Yup I did, I even changed the building next to the apartment of my sims so the whole building is empty (no walls and floors, only the oudside walls with windows and a front door and back door which is leading to the yard that's also closed in)

I added a screenshot of the place. I need to NPC the door on the left, the apartment which is empty but it doesn't give me that option.

EDIT: I think I know what I did wrong...I also placed public 'ball' in the apartment where my sims are living =) I think that's wrong!

[Tarante11a]

Hello there, I hope you can help me. :)

I'm trying to build an apartment block, with four units, each with it's own garden. I thought things were working fine, until an NPC suddenly appeared in my playable family's back garden, at their back door. There is no gate in the back garden.

I then noticed all the ground floor outdoor foundations seem to be linked, even though they are enclosed and separated by walls (I've used the 'Bi-partisan Wall'), so for example when I change the tiles on the different garden foundations while holding down the Shift key, all the outdoor tiles change.

In the images below, the rooms with the green tiles are HIDDEN, the brown tiles inside are PUBLIC, and the grey tiles show my sims usable apartment. I hope you can see where the red outside tiles have been changed to yellow.

Anyway, what I'd like to do is make my sims garden private and separate from the rest of the building.

Hope I haven't made this more complicated that it actually is!! :)

Many thanks!!

P.S and I really hope my screenshots show up - not done this before.

[HugeLunatic]

Have you tried removing the public balls from the other apartment yards? It's possible you've marked them as public (guessing) and where the foundation and fence meet isn't really creating a connecting boundary.

[Tarante11a]

Have you tried removing the public balls from the other apartment yards? It's possible you've marked them as public (guessing) and where the foundation and fence meet isn't really creating a connecting boundary.

Ah! isn't it? I didn't know that. I will remove the public markers and see if I can cheat it in some way. Thanks so much!

[dreamanjel]

How do you edit the outside of an apartment. because says home association will not allow that. Is there a way to bypass so i can change things outside my apartment?

[Menaceman44]

How do you edit the outside of an apartment. because says home association will not allow that. Is there a way to bypass so i can change things outside my apartment?

Enter the cheat "testingCheatsEnabled true" and then enter the cheat "rbbb false".
This should remove any building restrictions on the lot.

[hikari_mochi]

hi!!
i want to ask if there is some way to choose sims we want to move on the other unit not used by our sim?? or is the other unit only for npc's?? this apartment is sort of a family compound/duplex where i can let my sims' relatives live on the other unit even if i don't really play them.. is this possible?
i hope someone will say something about this, i noticed that no one bothered to reply to these two (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?p=3571301#post3571301) posts (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?p=3581818#post3581818) related to my question.. :p

i also have this paint version of my supposed to be apartment for my sims.
(i already placed the mailbox on one of the walls of the octagon room, the one for apartments)

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/uu293/gracemarie_2009/untitled-7.jpg

idk why i can't select the door at the left to be for npc.. there are those other options from ctrl = shift click but no 'make npc door' option.. as i saw in other apartments, the octagon space (sort of public living room) can act still like a lobby of some sort, right? (btw, the whole place is on a foundation)
should i select it during live mode, when my sim has already moved in?

[Menaceman44]

hi!!
i want to ask if there is some way to choose sims we want to move on the other unit not used by our sim?? or is the other unit only for npc's??

Other apartments can only be lived in by NPCs. The only way to have your Sims living in them would be if you can somehow turn them into NPCs. You can have no control over Sims "living" in other rooms at any time.


i also have this paint version of my supposed to be apartment for my sims.
(i already placed the mailbox on one of the walls of the octagon room, the one for apartments)

[image snip]

idk why i can't select the door at the left to be for npc..

You can't select it because you have placed the wrong room marker inside. You need a Public Room marker in the shared common room in the middle, and you need a Hidden Room marker for the NPC room. The way you have it set up at the moment is telling the game that ALL Sims on the lot should have access to that room as well as the middle one.

[hikari_mochi]

Other apartments can only be lived in by NPCs. The only way to have your Sims living in them would be if you can somehow turn them into NPCs. You can have no control over Sims "living" in other rooms at any time.



You can't select it because you have placed the wrong room marker inside. You need a Public Room marker in the shared common room in the middle, and you need a Hidden Room marker for the NPC room. The way you have it set up at the moment is telling the game that ALL Sims on the lot should have access to that room as well as the middle one.

too bad for the other unit, would be really useful for my other sims.. :p
and about the hidden room marker thing, i think this part (http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=File:AptTutorial07.jpg) of the sims wiki tutorial is a little confusing?? XD
anyway, thanks so much for the help!! :)

[Menaceman44]

too bad for the other unit, would be really useful for my other sims.. :p
and about the hidden room marker thing, i think this part (http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=File:AptTutorial07.jpg) of the sims wiki tutorial is a little confusing?? XD
anyway, thanks so much for the help!! :)

That bit is to trick the game into allowing a NPC door when the door leads to an outdoor area that isn't enclosed by a wall or fence. For instance, if you want other apartment doors to go straight out onto the street and not into a common area.
Buzzler actually has a fix for that available here on MTS that means you don't need to use that trick.

[arielthequeen]

This tutorial is located on the wiki.

:here:Tutorials:TS3_Sims_3_Apartments


i read through the complete wiki and this whole thread and my apartment still wont give me the npc option

i have hidden room markers in all the other apartments. they are closed in by hallways marked with public markers. and still i only get the "LOCK" option.

[Menaceman44]

Are you remembering to Shift-click on the doors?

[geerchsim88]

I have playable resident sims falling into an NPC apartment one floor below.

The building is a 5-story block, two flats per level. Stairs only, no lifts. There are seven NPC doors and one main door to a furnished playable flat on the second level.

Public spaces include a car park on ground level, all the staircase hallways and the whole flat roof (b-b-q for them grown-ups and sandbox for the sprogs).

Symptom: Every family that moves in has at least one sim falling into the NPC flat below, where it gets trapped and will eventually starve. I notice they're trapped when a pop-up says "So & So is late for work/school" and reset it, but they tend to teleport back into the void!

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[ShizukaAmea]

Hello,

I am having an issue within my own constructed apartment unit.
I have placed a 'Public Room Maker' outside every front door, each of which is contained within a fence with a gate. (Refer to screenshots)

I have placed 'Hidden Room Markers' throughout the units (except the one my characters will be living in). They are located on the balconies, inside every room in the unit, as well as outside in the backyards. (Refer to screenshots)

My issue is this: All the doors have been able to turn into 'NPC Doors', except the one beside the fully furnished apartment. I am positive that I have enclosed the doors properly, but would like a second opinion on the matter. (Refer to screenshots)

Any help you could give me would be most helpful; thanks!

[ShizukaAmea]

Hello,

Nevermind! I tried deleting the door and putting in a new door, and it was able to become an 'NPC Door'.
Thanks for your time anyways, and I hope this helps out people in the future :).

[dear_dori]

Since a few days I cannot set NPC doors. At all. I checked ten times I did everything right, but the option to make a door an NPC door just won't pop up. The only option I get is "Object"->"delete". Existing NPC doors are working and NPCs can use them just fine, but I can't do anything with them either except deleting them.
I have testingscheatsenabled true, restrictbuildbuyinbuildings off, buydebug. I tried shift-click, shift+ctrl-click, and ctrl-click. I tried several buildings where I already had working NPC doors, deleted them, put a new door back in and tried to make it an NPC door again, nothing. For testing, a took a small lot, and built a 12x12 room, which I then divided into an 12x3 aisle with two 9x6 rooms next to it. Each of the two rooms has one door facing towards the aisle, which has one door to the outside. I put a pubic room marker in the aisle, a hidden room marker in one of the rooms, and none in the other. Got a sim move in an guess what! No NPC door option :(
I use the Any Game Starter, and a few days ago I unchecked Night Life in one of my games to try if it is true that you can build working appartments without the EP. That's when the problem started! I thought appartment building isn't possible without LN on, and reactiveted it - but the problem is still the same. I tried in an existing as well as in a fresh new save.
Might I have exploded somtheing in my install permamently? Or am I overlooking some simple detail?

Edit: I just tried with a completely new game (new setting in AGS) with all EPs and without mods or CC, and started Bridgeport. I typed in all the cheats and chose an existing household with one Sim in a highrise. First thing I did was shift-click on an existing NPC door, and HOORAY all the options were there, unmake NPC door and so on. So I divided the hidden room behind this door with a staight wall, copied the hidden room marker into the new apartment, and put a door to the new room. Went into play mode and tried to make the new door an NPC door, but ... no option :( Can only delete it. And now it gets interesting: On the original door the options are suddenly gone, too. They stayed gone when I deleted the new wall and door, and even when I exited without saving and started a new game in Bridgeport, all new and existing doors won't cooperate. What on Sim Earth have I messed up?

[Dabih]

Hi there, I know that I can only have one playable family per apartment block. However, is there any way that I can control which NPC's live in the other apartments? For example, if I want a family of young females and want my NPC neighbours to be young males is there a cheat that would enable me to do this - such as an Nraas mod?

[hsuttling]

I must be stupid if i cant understand this right, but... ive tried my damned hardest to sort this out. ive built the whole of my building and ive moved in my household. ive marked my public rooms but as soon as i try to mark my NPC rooms im stuck. i have the testing cheats cheat on and ive placed a public marker inside a closed off room before you enter the apartment and on the other side of the door where the foyay is. I then go into Buy mode, hold down shift and ctrl. it seems i get every other option except the one i want. ive read this wiki over and over and still cannot seem to understand it... any helps?

[cameranutz2]

The Public Room marker does not go inside the NPC apartment, you need to use the Hidden Room marker in there.

[dreamcatcher2009]

I have npc spawning in the back corner of my pool area. It is fully fenced off and has a public space marker. So what is causing them to show up here?

http://i720.photobucket.com/albums/ww210/fireymidget2009/Screenshot-16-2.jpg

All so I have many NPC's showing up to the front part of the lot and then they just fade out. Don't know why that is either.

There was a dog to that showed up but bugged out.All sims can go in and out of the gates with no problems.

http://i720.photobucket.com/albums/ww210/fireymidget2009/Screenshot-17-2.jpg

[Sluie92]

I need help!

I'm having my first go at making an apartment lot, I thought it would be cool to build a few little beach huts on the same lot, so that they weren't all part of the same building. I have the lot enclosed by a gated fence and each individual house has it's own little vestibule inside the main door to allow proper placement of the hidden/public markers. I'm pretty sure that I have done everything right but I still don't get the option to set a door as an NPC door. I've read thread after thread and the entire wiki article but I can't find anything to explain the problem I'm having. I'm probably missing something but by this point I'm so frustrated by it that I can't see straight. I have every expansion and stuff pack, as well as a load of mods and cc, so perhaps something there is affecting it, though I'm not sure why that would be the case.

If anyone can help I'd be eternally grateful.

[1551KANGA5115]

This tutorial is located on the wiki.

:here:Tutorials:TS3_Sims_3_Apartments


I did what you said, but when I put sims on the lot, they say there is no door or they say its unroutable so they won't enter the apartment, they just stay outside. I don't understand!! I have set all the doors to NPC other than the door to the apartment I want to give them.

What do I do to make them be able to enter the room?

More info:
I have a fenced off area outside the bit I want them to go in and this area has a public room icon.
The apartment is a house on a foundation and the fenced off area is on the foundation.
The area I also made public that has the mailbox in is outside and not on a foundation, the sims also say there is no way in, but there is a door. :cry:

[simsample]

1551KANGA5115, a picture might help us to see the problem.

[lolotte89]

I did what you said, but when I put sims on the lot, they say there is no door or they say its unroutable so they won't enter the apartment, they just stay outside. I don't understand!! I have set all the doors to NPC other than the door to the apartment I want to give them.

What do I do to make them be able to enter the room?

More info:
I have a fenced off area outside the bit I want them to go in and this area has a public room icon.
The apartment is a house on a foundation and the fenced off area is on the foundation.
The area I also made public that has the mailbox in is outside and not on a foundation, the sims also say there is no way in, but there is a door. :cry:

I think I had the exact same problem just the other day. Spent 2 full days building a townhouse for my sims attached to two other townhouses for npc's, added all the apartment hidden/public markers and moved in my sims to playtest, only to have my playable sims routefailing and stomping their feet about the front door, and the gate into the pool area.
I had a previous version of the apartments saved without any markers placed yet, and my sims went right into their apartment and through the gate to the pool, so I knew it was the markers and not something structural that was wrong. So I started adding the hidden and public room markers back in a few at a time with my sims living in the building, and tested it each time I added more.
Turns out the problem was that I had placed a hidden room marker in the attics of all three townhouses, which were not walled in, just had a gable roof built right on the floor of the attic, so to speak. I guess the game read that as the hidden marker just being outside or something, not in a room, so it thought my sims shouldn't be allowed to go through any doors outside, maybe? You might want to check and make absolutely sure you didn't place any hidden room markers out in the "open" (not entirely enclosed by WALLS, or fences your sim can't walk over, I guess) even if it's on the fourth floor of the building (floors or levels don't seem to make any difference)...
(Just a side note: It seems you don't have to have a ceiling over a "room" though, because I put hidden room markers in the back gardens of the npc townhomes, which are entirely enclosed by a tall fence and no gate, and I can still see everything in them, but my sims don't throw tantrums wanting to use or "view" that stuff, and I haven't had any issues with those hidden room markers in place.)

[junceda]

Hi,
I´ve made an apartaments building, my unit is totally functional, I have plenty of NPCs living in their ap. (26 neighbours besides my household) I´ve got my unit to be an starter one, it cost under 11K and I have all the facilities of the public areas and everything is working, wanderfull, isn´t it? But when the bills arrived they were sky expensive ones, am I paying for all the public area´s expenses? how can I make the NPCs pay their share of the bills? I have a gym, a pool, a library, a garage and a dinner in the public areas and I have paid a 5.000 $ bill, is it normal?

[SapphireSparx]

I'm late to the party, as per usual, but I wanted to know if I could put foundation on the penthouse level of an apartment shell in Late Night.

[klingklang]

After I've made my apartment, do I turn the cheats off before I save (go to Edit Town mode- save neighborhood), or do I turn them off at all?

Thanks,
klingklang

[Kabuto]

Someone know how to assign the UL apartment lot type to a lot from an existing world without using CAW ?

[nikel23]

Someone know how to assign the UL apartment lot type to a lot from an existing world without using CAW ?
Doesn't Edit Town do the trick?

[Kabuto]

Sadly no !

Edit town can't create UL apartment and UL apartment lot in the lot bin can't do it .

The world lots must get UL apartment lot type assign to them.

That means you can assign it only if you create your own world.

[Menaceman44]

It's not like assigning a Dorm is it? For some reason dorms are classed as community lots, not residential as far as I am aware.

[danacnbrett]

In my game the option to switch a lot to an apartment can be found in the residential dropdown menu. I assumed that was part of the base game. But I do have many of Twallen's mods. So if the option is not there for you, you may want to check out NRass. I would assume it is the same mod that allows you to choose a base camp in the community dropdown list (Traveller).

[Volvenom]

After I've made my apartment, do I turn the cheats off before I save (go to Edit Town mode- save neighborhood), or do I turn them off at all?

Thanks,
klingklang

You should always turn the cheats off before saving. It has happened that like moveobjects on has been saved on a lot I've made.

On the world and uni discussion, It wouldn't surprise me if the world export you're using needs to be made in a uni game. It looked that way with Seasons, but then there was a bunch of problems with Seasons. I can make a lot Dorm in CAW, but it has no effect on the EIG or beta stage as far as I can see. I don't have uni.

[Kabuto]

It's not like assigning a Dorm is it? For some reason dorms are classed as community lots, not residential as far as I am aware.
Apartment lot is a subtype of Residential lot like Ownable Lot and Townie lot of EP1 World Aventures

Dorm, Fraternity and Soronity are subtype of Community lot.

In my game the option to switch a lot to an apartment can be found in the residential dropdown menu. I assumed that was part of the base game. But I do have many of Twallen's mods. So if the option is not there for you, you may want to check out NRass. I would assume it is the same mod that allows you to choose a base camp in the community dropdown list (Traveller).
The option isn't available in Los Aniegos, I didn't try in another world.

[ObiWan_Kunz_T]

Ok .. So I followed all the instructions given from the sims 3 wiki on how to build an apartment building .. and thing is that I don't get the option to set the doors as NPC doors .. I have enclosed them with fences and all .. But still I get nothing .. How can I fix this ??

Screenshots:
(http://lvlt.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000//shard000/440/095/015/00/screenshot_original.jpg)
(http://lvlt.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000//shard000/439/095/015/00/screenshot_original.jpg)

[Kabuto]

I read in the SimsVIP guide (Screenshot below) : "When selecting any residential lot in Edit Town Mode, simply choose the new residential lot type from the drop down menu."

But this option is always grey and disabled (Second screenshot) for any empty lots, any existing lots in custom worlds and any existing lots in EA worlds.

It's IMPOSSIBLE to create an EP9 apartment ! University Life Limited Edition is ... limited or only english players are allowed to use this feature :(

http://i81.servimg.com/u/f81/15/54/71/55/85535710.jpg

http://i81.servimg.com/u/f81/15/54/71/55/ep9apa10.jpg

[danacnbrett]

I have no problem changing a residential lot to an apartment lot in my game. Do you have any hacks or mods that may be affecting it?

[Kabuto]

I found the problem, Apartment lots are not allowed in Downtown/City worlds.

That's why I can't use it in Los Aniegos (my current stories), my own worlds (my tests) and Bridgeport (my EA world tests).

It works in Suburb worlds like Moonlight Fall.


I didn't try the other world types : France, Egypt, China and University.

[Menaceman44]

I suspect then that it should be moddable to change that. Hopefully.

[elliottcable]

So, I'm trying to build my first high-rise penthouse; and I'm having trouble right at the first stage.

I've successfully (i.e. the cheat-entry-box went away, instead of reporting an error, after typing them) entered each of the requisite cheats (testingcheatsenabled, buydebug, moveobjects on, RestrictBuildBuyInBuildings off), but I'm still running into the following problem:

Immediately after placing the shell (I've tried this several times, with different shells), I *cannot draw walls on the ground-floor that intersect the shell itself*. Every tutorial I've seen has directed me to draw walls through the shell itself, then to place a front-door *in* that wall at the front of the shell. Trying to draw walls tells me "Cannot intersect objects."

There's no other objects on the lot, than the shell. Every cheat is enabled.

[Menaceman44]

You may need to draw the walls first and then place the shell.