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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 17th Sep 2013 at 8:17 PM
Default Building Hotels and secret lots in a custom Vacation hood
I HAVE looked all over, and only found old/contradictory stuff. I have Bon Voyage of course; I want to build a Vacation hood, with my own lots. I started by picking the template "create custom Far East"; I had read that this will cause it to automatically create a secret lot.
Is that correct? What if I want to create my OWN secret lot? I have created the same sort of thing before (Uni. secret society), but have had mixed results with a vacation "secret lot".

My only other question sounds like it should be the easiest! When I build a hotel, I NEVER can get it to change lot zoning correctly. To get the items I want, I start with Residential, change the lot to Community, then change to Hotel. But mail box/trash doesn't change correctly, and sometimes the "tour guide" does not show up even if the hotel functions correctly. One source said start with community lot, most others say start with residential (I have made LOTS of community lots). Some say when change the lot zoning, SAVE, then exit. Some say it matters whither you enter the "changelotzone" when in build or buy mode. I've tried every possible thing I can think of, with results ranging from CRASHING, to...a few times, a functioning hotel... can't figure it out.

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#2 Old 17th Sep 2013 at 10:39 PM
Always start with a community lot, change to a residential if needed and then to a hotel. If you start with a community lot it places the phone box for you. So you don't need to change or mess with it at any stage unless you just want to move it slightly. If you change zoning to residential at some point to grab some items there is no need to mess with the phone or mail box. You don't need a mail box as no sims are moving into this lot ever. If you want to test it, make sure it's a community lot when you send sims in to test. If you are building it to upload play test a copy as a community lot and then again as a hotel. I downloaded a hotel from here and found after I had sent my sim there that it had a residential mail box and no community phone. Luckily I know how to cheat and place one or I would have been stuck. Hotels need the community phone not a mail box and rubbish bin. If you place a mail box it won't change as it has nothing to do with hotels. You place and have the mail box change when you are making an apartment not a hotel.

Place a community lot-build- change zoning to hotel-save-exit-reload the lot.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
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#3 Old 17th Sep 2013 at 10:50 PM
I believe that hotels also need a hotel podium and hotel doors.
Needs Coffee
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#4 Old 18th Sep 2013 at 3:55 AM
Yes they do, and you need to make sure all the special hotel doors are placed the correct way around.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#5 Old 18th Sep 2013 at 4:00 AM
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
Hotels need the community phone not a mail box and rubbish bin. If you place a mail box it won't change as it has nothing to do with hotels. You place and have the mail box change when you are making an apartment not a hotel.
Place a community lot-build- change zoning to hotel-save-exit-reload the lot.


So when I start with a community lot, the "Public phone" that is on it is the SAME as one on Hotel lots. When I "replaced" the mail box, it was with a community phone booth; I think changing the lot to residential made the phone change, then I couldn't get it to come back. So (as your last sentence says) I should go from community to hotel, without changing to residential.
ALSO--- do you know about the secret lot (in vacation hoods)? Does it automatically get generated depending on what VACATION template you use? Then how can I create my OWN secret lot?

And thanks!

Stand up, speak out. Just not to me..
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#6 Old 18th Sep 2013 at 4:14 AM
Changing the zoning should do nothing to the community lot phone or the community lot bin, it should stay there unchanged after making it residential because you are in build and buy mode the entire time, but yes I would always start with a community lot and it's the same phone needed for your hotel.

I've never tried making a secret lot and it's been so long since I built in a holiday hood I can't remember if any special lots came with it. Hopefully someone else knows about those.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Site Helper
#7 Old 18th Sep 2013 at 9:20 PM
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#8 Old 20th Sep 2013 at 8:41 AM Last edited by grammapat : 22nd Sep 2013 at 3:32 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
Yes they do, and you need to make sure all the special hotel doors are placed the correct way around.

Took me a minute to figure out you ment the doors on the hotel ROOMS.
As for the secret lots, I know they have some requirements (like appliances that can break - I forget which one that goes to; or a radio for Big Foot). I've built them before, but I actually thought if you used a vacation template, the secret lot would automatically be created. BUT the vacation hood I made with the Oriental template does NOT have a secret lot. I sent someone there who had a map to Pagoda in the Shadows, but there was no option to go there.
But I saw my first people doing Tie Chi! And discovered what happens when a plant sim goes into sunlight desperation: everyone left the vacation community lot, and she just stood there - not exactly frozen, but she wouldn't move till an hour after the sun came up.

Links helpful; thanks. They say Secret lots in Oriental vacation should be STARTED as community, but other two as residential. Sounds odd.
I have more notes I'm looking for. WHY is this process (building Hotels and secret lots in a vacation hood) not a tutorial somewhere?!
==================
Well, THAT didn't work! In Far East vacation hood I created, I made Pagoda in Shadows as community lot, saved, changed to secretVacationLot, and saved again (per instructions). THIS FROZE THE GAME - the "save would not stop", and since you can't do anything else, I "pulled the plug".
========
After copying the lot to a file, I re-entered lot, changed lot zoning to "secretVacationLot", just hit enter, then exited and put lot in bin. Placed lot, but since it did not disappear the zone change must not have worked. I guess you HAVE to save; but you CAN'T!
****^%&*@()))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
PPPS: so do I get a prize for stumping everyone? Or (more likely) everyone got bored and wandered away...

Stand up, speak out. Just not to me..
Site Helper
#9 Old 27th Sep 2013 at 7:06 PM
I suspect that I'm not the only one who missed your edits.

I'm sorry that I can't be more help... I've never done this before.

I gather that you get no errors when you change the lot zoning. Perhaps you should try adding both the residential and community portals (mailbox and public phone).
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#10 Old 29th Sep 2013 at 12:32 PM
Thank you Mootilda. "changing lot zoning" did not produce error msg ...because it would not save! I DID discover this:
1) The option to visit the secret lot was not in the list of lot TYPES; I expected to find it like this "community, residential, secret lot", but it was listed as a community lot.
2)When I had someone go there it was the DEFAULT secret lot. THIS MEANS that when you create a vacation hood, the secret lot MUST be automatically generated (for whatever TYPE of vac hood you started with).

THEREFORE, I would think you CAN'T create a secret lot...but this is not true either! I KNOW it's possible, I even did it once upon a time. But how CAN it be possible if the default one ALREADY exists?! And why can't I save the lot-type-change?

Stand up, speak out. Just not to me..
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#11 Old 29th Sep 2013 at 1:00 PM
I didn't see this as being posted to again until just now.

I would assume number 2, but I know nothing about secret lots apart from visiting them occasionally. I notice the Wiki does not include the lot change cheat for that so maybe it isn't possible.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Site Helper
#12 Old 29th Sep 2013 at 4:27 PM
Quote: Originally posted by grammapat
THEREFORE, I would think you CAN'T create a secret lot...but this is not true either! I KNOW it's possible, I even did it once upon a time. But how CAN it be possible if the default one ALREADY exists?! And why can't I save the lot-type-change?
Probably because the lot already exists. You certainly can't have two.

Have you tried deleting the existing lot, then changing your lot?
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#13 Old 30th Sep 2013 at 1:15 AM
How do I delete an invisible lot?

Stand up, speak out. Just not to me..
Needs Coffee
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#14 Old 30th Sep 2013 at 1:26 AM
I found a post by Mootilda. http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=462172

Quote:
To unhide lots, subtract 0x00000010 from the value in U0 of the Lot Description in SimPE. Be sure to backup your neighborhood first, just in case.

Reference:
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...pic,9750.0.html

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#15 Old 30th Sep 2013 at 9:08 PM
Thanks joandsarah; although I've never used SimPE, this sounds easy.

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