After spending about 16 hours building this blasted thing - I need some help!

EDIT - Everything is fixed except issue #4 - the land still sinks. And only when a proposed renter comes to the lot. If it is zoned residential and a sim moves in as if it's a house, then there's no land-sinking-problem. Oi!!!

EDIT #2: - Issue 4 is fixed. Now we're onto others... scroll to the end, if interested, please



So, (QUESTION 1) why doesn't' the N'hood blurb say 10 apartments? I had Julian, my tester, rent each apartment - all 10 worked.




Help!!! (QUESTION 2) Is this normal? NOTE: He's not stuck. He's just in a ditch. *shrug*




(QUESTION 3) ...But, for some reason the driveways won't allow cars. I just get a nasty red grid that won't place. No car or shadow of a car. I've built apartments with driveways before and had no problems ('course they were straight driveways - would that make a difference?) The 2 driveways at the front corners are straight and not sloped - but, still don't work. Gah! Why?



(QUESTION 4) This only happens when a sim is on the lot. Empty, in build mode, there is no inversion. Why does the land sink when a sim is present? I moved it to another lot further down the road, and there were NO rips/tears in the terrain - but, the sink-hole problem still happened when I brought a sim to the lot.

Any help, suggestions, ideas, etc would be most welcome! Thanks

I thought apartments were limited to only 8 units usable.

You moved the mailbox and it looks like it broke the portal to your lot.

Don't know - it might be that the game can't count into double digits for that.


The portal is usually attached to the mailbox - where is that?


Don't know sorry - not something I've ever bothered with.


This I think might be a game bug - the copies of apartment lots your sims live in can be affected by a bug that shifts the whole lot down some way. What you've got looks extreme but also, it looks as though the game is measuring the lot from it's lowest point. It's not supposed to - it's supposed to measure from the road. I'd say that has been affected by the bug and then something weird happened as the game calculated the final position. The good news is it can be fixed with SimPE.

I think broken portal as well. Grab the portal reviler and check and see that all are where they should be. Also did you delete the bin? I was told years ago that the bin, um trash something American's call it, has something to do with the lot knowing where the edges are.

Huh. Well. OK, that gives me something to look into...
I'll find the portal revealer and see what it says (I've had it forEVER and never used it before LOL!)
@Joandsarah77 - The trashcan wasn't deleted - it was moved to down by the pool area.
@Maxon - The mailbox is there in the middle - just moved to the inner side of the sidewalk. ...which I always do, and never had a problem before. (There's a first time for everything, I know!)

I thought I read somewhere that someone tested with over 50 apts on a lot - and it worked... lemme see if I can find that - BRB.
Yes, it's here: http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title...ng_an_Apartment
It says you'll probably only have 4 playable families move in. It also says you can move the mailbox and trash - just don't delete them.


@Maxon and @olc - you both mentioned fixing things in simPE. Can you direct me to a tutorial? Or give me some hints as to what to do? Thanks!

OK - thanks for clarifying @olc


Here's what the portal revealer says:

...which looks right to me. Right?

Oooooo! And looky what I found here: http://modthesims.info/t/334557
Add the cars before changing the zonng. Bingo! The'll be 'community' cars - but, that's fine by me!

So, now I just have to fix the sink-hole problem

@olc - That's the problem - they ALL work! All 10 apts are fine. I think @maxon was right when she said. "...the game can't count into double digits for that."

UPDATE:
I made sure the mailbox was on level with the street, and that fixed his 'landing in the ditch' issue. Now he spawns at the mailbox as he should.
The car situation is fixed (placed the cars BEFORE zoning to apt.) Julian can use the cars even before signing the lease. Silly sims!
So, they only problem left is Q #4 - the land sinking... I'm still researching - and open to any ideas! I haven't tried moving the trashcan back to street level yet. I'll try that tomorrow.
Thanks!

That's not the portal I was referring to - there is a sort of link to the mail box when you load sims onto a lot. The game will locate the mailbox and put sims at a point nearby where it thinks there is some free ground. Unfortunately for you, it's reading that spot as the nearest free ground. I don't know if there's a fix you can do with SimPE for that but you could try going back into the base lot (moving your sims out) and moving the mailbox around to see if you can force a recalculation - or just move the mailbox to another spot. Oh wait, I see you fixed it.

The fix in SimPE for the level calculation for a new sublot apartment is easy enough to do though I suspect it might not work here. I have to go out now but I'll come back later and post the info and tell you why.

PS, you know every time you write @maxon I get a PM? I don't think you need to do it more than once.

Look at this thread. http://modthesims.info/t/302405

Mootilda tells how to fix the sink-hole issue. It's written for beach lot apartments but it's the same for apartments on uneven terrains.

The number of apartments shouldn't be an issue. I've had my Eldorado Court apartments, with 10 units, on my downloads page for almost a year and have never had any feedback regarding any problems.
Eldorado Court also has the mailbox inside the lobby, which isn't a problem. There are numerous apartments and residential Lots available at MTS that have their mailboxes somewhere other than at the sidewalk and I've never heard that this is an issue. In fact, my own TS3 House #01, a residential Lot, has the mailbox set back somewhat from the sidewalk. All that happens in those cases is that Sims arriving at the Lot, along with their taxi, will spawn somewhere near the mailbox. The taxi drives away normally, which you may not see if there are visible obstructions (although you will hear it), such as a house. I've never heard of these things becoming an issue.
My Eldorado Court is also not on street level, but 8 clicks below it - and that includes the mailbox in the lobby of the building and the trashcan near the outside stairs. You can see both in the screenshots.

So to summarize, the location of the mailbox will not harm your game or Lot. It's just a graphical thing that happens when Sims first arrive at the Lot. You can put it anywhere you want with no problems. This has been discussed previously on MTS in various threads.
I've also never heard or experienced that the location of the trashcan affects anything.

As for the Lot sinking into the terrain, have you tried repositioning it after Sims moved in? I mean, just lifting it up and snapping it back into place in neighborhood mode? That might fix it. It's been a long time since I've actually played apartments, but I seem to remember something from a Mootilda thread where she said to try that, I think. So try it.

Edit: Yes, Jawusa linked to the Mootilda thread I was referring to.

Edit #2: I'm actually more curious as to why it says you only have 9 apartments.
Also, the info about the cars is too bad, as I was hoping to make some apartments with parking garages. I could swear though that I've read threads wherein people discussed cars on driveways as being useable on apartment Lots, so I will have to test this. Or maybe I just ASSumed they were talking about driveways, when they actually meant garages.

Edit #3: Are you able to place cars once the Lot is no longer sunken into the neighborhood? Please tell me you are.

Thanks for that link Jawusa - saves me typing out an explanation because that's more or less exactly what I was going to say though mine would have been less wordy and probably included no pictures.

Not the position of the bin but deleting it can affect the lot. Not always right away either.

Hey ya'll - Thanks for the continued help!
(Sorry about spamming your inbox, Maxon - I was pretty tired last night when I was typing... sorry)

Jo - I know better than to delete the box and bin So that is not the issue - thanks for the thought though. You are correct, deleting them causes big trouble!

Thanks you Maxon and JawUSA for Mootilda's thread link - I was looking for that last night... I knew I had read it before, but couldn't find it. Turns out, I moved my tester out before repositioning the lot I'll try it again with Julian/tenant in place.

@ScaryRob - Does the number of apts (10) show properly in n'hood view for your El D. apts?


EDIT: WooHoo!!! Success! The hills have receded and the sink-hole is fixed

Yup.


Are you able to place cars on your driveways after Sims move in?

All hail Mootilda! I really thought you were sunk on this...

@joandsarah77 - Oooooh... that was baaaad *groan* (Actually I loved it! LOL!)
And yes... all hail to Moo - again! I actually had tears in my eyes when I was telling my hubby how she helped me yet AGAIN


@ScaryRob - The cars need to be placed before you zone it for apartments. However, after I moved a tester in then out again - the cars vanished. BUT, I was able to replace them (straight from the catalog) without changing the zoning again. Strange... but, I'm ok with it

And, happily, my tester can use every car. When he takes it out for a spin, the animation of pulling in and out of the driveway is not there - the car just teleports to the road and takes off. (Which may be due to my driveway placement?)

I think the cars are thought of as communal property - I'm ok with that too!

I can confirm if you have garages that are solely attached to each apartment, then a renter can park their owned car in their garage. (See my Seaspray Apts)


Well, I wonder what's up with the number of my apts? They all work. It converts to apts without any hitches. Yet, the blurb insists there are only 9 apts. What's up w/that?

I couldn't resist.

@olc - I'd LOVE to have testers!!! Thanks!

Please find the problem Here it is: file removed

40 CC files?
Really?
I'll leave it for others to test that. Installing this without the CC will likely not leave anything at all, just an empty lot, LOL.

Oh, and will you folks please stop flagging me to this thread? I've replied, so I'm obviously subscribed.
Thanks.

I prolly should have mentioned this was built in AGS with everything. And, yes it has CC - all the doors/windows (except the apt doors) are CC from tbudgett's Pinegultcher completer set. (sorry, Rob)

OLC - did you try picking it up and moving it to a different lot? According to Mootilda - that should fix the flooding/sinking problem. It is a known bug.
So - the cars weren't there when you installed? I'm curious to know if you can place cars without re-zoning? (And, note to self, must include a link for invisible driveway and stairs!)
Thanks for checking it

The water is not caused by the Lot, it is caused by the hood being too low in relation to the water level. Distance from the ocean doesn't matter, elevation is what matters. Many Maxis hoods have this issue because they neglected to update the hoods after they released Bon Voyage. This is a well-known issue and easy to fix.
Either place the lot at a higher elevation, or raise the hood elevation first by using the modifyneighborhoodterrain cheat, and the water will go away.

I built this for the street along the cliff in Belladonna Cove - it was built to be put on high ground with a downward slope. So, the flooding makes sense, when it's put on flat ground-level ground.

The cars only vanish when I move someone out (I have not tried using the stay-thing shrub - don't know if that would make a difference on communal property; or if it can even be used on apts?)
You can see in the last pic I posted (post #17) my tester has just arrived on the lot (he spawned at the mailbox) and the first thought he has is to go drive one of the cars - which he successfully did.

I had him walk everywhere - try every car, swing on the swings, tinker on the old junker, swim in the pool - he can access everything without any stomping.

Flattening the lot with CFE will completely destroy it - as you saw. Thanks for trying it out though!

I'm going to bed - see yas on the flipside! G'nite ZZzzzzzz...

No problem, all one has to do is click on View custom content in your post #24 and it shows all the CC.
Never even downloaded it - sorry.

OK - gave it a brief try and here is a report of what I found. I'm sure there's a lot more but this is what I got. Pictures attached.

1. The most serious issue is the bottom left hand apartment (as you face the lot) which has no options on the door when you try to rent that apartment. It's something to do with the building process because all other apartments have the options and, furthermore, I fixed it by forcing an error and resetting it. I would suggest, as a first option, deleting that door and wall and rebuilding it. See if that fixes it. It will work, as my forcing an error showed (and my test sim rented that apartment), but the trick is going to be getting the game to accept that's a legitimate layout and apartment. Apart from that, the apartment lot filled up normally with neighbour sims.

2. The lower apartments in my game are very dark on first load - the windows are not letting light in because it reads those levels as being underground. It's so dark partly because I use a camera mod so not your fault. You could either look into fixes for that issue or use an invisible window (there is one somewhere) that 'artificially' lets lights through walls. Or just warn downloaders that's what it's like.

3. In my game, the sublot did drop just like it did in yours - as you know that's very fixable but again I'd include a warning and a solution on the download thread

4. Last two are CC issues - did you use custom walls and floors in the build? I ask because there were a lot of missing walls and floors when I loaded the lot.

5. Finally, I notice you used two items (showers) which are slave meshes to the Jonesi bed blanket. If you don't have the master mesh, this means they show up flashing blue. The master mesh isn't in your Sims2Pack file. I don't have the master mesh. I got flashing blue. There are two solutions here: either provide a copy of the master mesh or don't use slave meshes. Frankly, I would advise the second. There are two backless shower meshes by Huge Lunatic (on which those slave meshes are based, I think). Use those. Slaves meshes bloody annoy me. There was a good reason for using the repository technique at one time because they save on file sizes and space but that time has passed. We all have bigger computers nowadays with a lot more space. I can put up with master-slave sets where they are self-contained and available from the same source (though I don't like them) but cross-set slave meshes are just asking for trouble. You will get endless messages asking why those items aren't working and people like me who will get bloody irritated having to put things in my game I don't necessarily want and won't use and have to chase over the internet to find the requisite master file just so I can play your lot. That's a bit strong you might think but I think the repository thing has gone too far.

Foundations must be 6 clicks above the ground street level in order for sunlight to get through basement windows (and 7 clicks for sunlight to get through glass doors).

In regards to this lot in particular, this means that if the foundation is at a normal 4-click height at the front of the lot and then the ground drops away toward the rear, it won't matter, the basement windows at the rear of the lot still will not let in sunshine.
The foundation must start out 6 clicks above ground street level at the front of the lot.

Also, I noticed the pool table in one of Maxon's pictures. Sims will not be able to play properly at this table because it does not have 2 clear squares all around it.
When you test this table, all will seem OK because the Sims will start to play normally. But, what happens eventually is that they get in each other's way because there is no room for the non-shooting Sim to step back from the table to give room for the shooting Sim to shoot, and when they get in each other's way they will abort the game.

One can observe Sim pool-playing behavior by placing a pool table in an open area. The non-shooting Sim will always step 2 squares away from the table in order to allow the shooting Sim to walk around the table as necessary to make their shot. If a non-shooting Sim cannot step back 2 squares from the table and they get in each other's way, they will abort the game and thus not gain any fun points (or whatever they're supposed to get from playing pool). Not being able to play properly and becoming frustrated may even bring down their mood, I don't know for sure.
Bottom line is, pool tables require 2 clear squares all around them, except perhaps at the corners because I've never seen a non-shooting Sim move there.
Yeah, pool tables thus take up a lot of room inside a building.