I know it's prolly fruitless asking for help as not alot of people have recieved their game yet but it's driving me mad, so maybe someone can think of something I haven't tried...

I built an apartment this afternoon. 3 storys, 3 apartments.

I furnished the ground floor apartment whilst in build/buy mode before changing the lot zoning, I left the two upstairs apartments unfurnished.

When I was done building and decorating I changed the lot zoning to apartmentbase, then I got a pop up saying one of my apartments was not correct and to change the lot zoning back and fix any architectural defects and try again...

I don't get it...each apartment has an apartment door, stairs go all the way up to the third floor, there's a main door at the front of the building, all the apartments are...well, normal.

I thought it might be because I used a double height main door so changed that, made no difference, re did the apartment doors with moveobjects turned off so I could be sure they placed properley, they did...re did the stairs to make sure they could be walked up, they could....removed the pond incase they weren't allowed on apartment lots, made no difference...the only thing I never tried was unfurnishing the ground floor apartment..

Just to make sure I wasn't going mad I made a new apartment, same shape, same floors, same lay out and threw a few furniture items in the ground floor again...changed the lot zoning and it worked first time...I don't understand what I've done wrong and I really don't want to start again and make the same mistakes....any ideas?

Also, I noticed, after I'd changed the lot zoning on the second lot, when I went to neighbourhood view it said 3 apartments and the rent price, on the first it says no apartments available and I can't move anyone in, but I also noticed that neither of the lots mailbox changed :s

I know it's prolly to early to get help, but any ideas would be appreciated...maybe the lots have to be similary furnished to be priced the same rent? I'm lost for ideas now

I'm patiently awaiting my copy. Hopefully tomorrow. One thing I do know is that you can only have 1 door leading into the apartment. You can't make a back door out to, say a courtyard. I'm not sure if the mailbox changes when you change the zoning, or when you move a sim into the lot.

Hopefully someone will come along with more info.

Thanks I didn't place a back door and havn't actually moved a sim in yet, so hopefully that bit will sort itself out, just noticed that the empty Maxis apartment lots have the new mailbox :s

As you do not have your copy yet, I don't know if you can help yet, but when I installed Apartment life, the new neighbourhood that it is supposed to have is not present. How can I fix this? any ideas?

Vanilla, you might want to make your own thread, since your problem is different than Jonesi's.

I just received my Prima Guide of Lies, and am in the process of reading. I see that the 'Mailbox' is just listed as 'changes to old objects'...not a -new- object. :/ I assumed that when you changelotzoning it would morph..but apparently not.

I did find this in the build forum: http://www.modthesims2.com/showthre...ewpost&t=299120 The first poster says that you need to move a family in for the change to take place. Apparently everyone is have a spot of trouble. The Prima guide has no section on how to build an apartment (other than placement of the doors) and how changing the lot zoning affects the mailbox. Pretty scanty if you ask me.

I wish I could help you more on the other problem: lot zoning not working. Until I get my copy installed, I'm pretty much helpless.

Jonesi, the first apartment block you built, were all apartments furnished?
You need to furnish all apartments for it to work, at least, that's what i read somewhere.

I'd assume you need to furnish all apartments...

You also need to have only one way into the apartment (through the front door). You can have a courtyard attached to each unit, but it needs to be fenced in.

You also need to make sure that you don't have those revolving bookshelves between apartments... they count as secondary entries to apartments.

A few things I have gleaned from cruising the web:
The wall/fence dividers (found under fencing) that came with pets cannot be used in an apartment. Apparently the game thinks the area defined by those low dividers is 'common' area and not part of the apartment.

Date rewards cannot be picked up, sold or moved. And of course, they are deposited in the common areas so they can block tiles. Nice job Eaxis.

The buyable mailboxes may cause the new apartment mailboxes to not work correctly. If you have those in your downloads folder, try removing them to see if that helps.

I'm sure the list will grow. Just throwing this out to see if it helps anyone.

Maybe this is just me, but the date rewards I've received can be picked up and moved. I haven't tried to sell them yet. Just fyi.

Yeah, in my game date rewards can be picked up.

I did have to wipe my downloads folder completely when they were causing me to not be able to have roomates, to not be able to pay bills etc etc.

I've been able to use just fences to block off a courtyard, but it only works with the brick wall fences, not with the trellis sorta fences.

They can be picked up all right (at least flowers can), but some other things can't : the genie lamp can't for instance. And believe men I've tried a few things. And it was my fiiirst ever !

Aha! I had those flat fences dividing the floor between the kitchen and living room, only one apartment was furnished and I had mailbox recols, lol

Have now removed my mailbox recols and will try again with a new apartment, I got so infuriated I ended up deleting the last.

One thing I've seen somewhere is that if you furnish an apartment before you move a family in then the furniture disappears? Is this true? I really don't want to furnish 3 apartments for example and then it all vanishes once I move a family in, that would REALLY annoy me!
But then I moved a family into a completely empty, unfurnished apartment and when the neighbours moved in they never furnished their apartments...they were completely empty :s

I agree..it's silly that the furniture vanishes. You should furnish the neighbor apts, so if your sims visit they can use the facilities (kitchen, bathroom etc.). I'm still patiently awaiting my copy of the game. :/

The Prima Guide of Lies is very sketchy about furnishing apartments etc. They only tell you to furnish them. I have no idea what on earth the guide writers were thinking when they didn't provide detailed instructions on how to build/edit an apartment lot. I'd like to know what kind of drugs they were on and if they would share them..as they are obviously very good. heh.

And yes, those little room dividers/fences that came with Pets will cause anything enclosed by them to revert to 'common' area. What were they thinking?

The apartments of townie sims -should- be furnished once the townies move in. Certainly, the furniture is still considered there by the game.

You can build furnished apartments and move into a furnished apartment by using boolProp testingCheatsEnabled true and shift-clicking on the door before renting it and choosing Rent Furnished. Just make sure your sim is standing right in front of the door and has nothing else in their action queue or it'll fall out of the queue.

Also (and I would have to test this more), it appears using the stage tool to make split stairs causes anything past the stairs to not disappear, but still is part of that apartment.

After driving myself nuts for two days trying to build apartments, I can see why the Prima Guide people didn't give a more detailed explanation: it's complicated, stupid, and if you actually go into it in detail, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Kinda hard to write a guide when you keep wanting to go "What?! What the hell?!!!"

Well basically what the guide says (and it's true it wasn't perfectly clear to me too) and what I've experienced too is this : you should furnish the appartements because if one of your sims move in, the only furniture from the buy mode that they'll see when visiting are :
- plumbing
- appliances & smoke detectors
- counters
- wall and ceiling lights
And obviously they/you'll also see all things from the construction mode
And if they actually move in in an apartment, all the masqued furniture will be deleted to allow you to furnish it.

But though masked, the furniture you've taken so much trouble to put in your apartements are still there as long as no sim has moved in, and if it's a townie who moves in, then it will stay and you'll be able to see it when visiting him.

All furniture on common areas also stays, of course, but not cars & garage lanes though, as far as I've tested it in my game.

And while I'm at it, they also say to make room for a common area in which the inhabitants can gather and barbecue and danse and things like that (which I didn't but will...) Because the landlord is not only there to mend things and collect money...

I discovered something about building appartments with foundations. I had 4 townhouses with foundations and enclosed backyards, but kept getting the architectural error when changing to apartmentbase. !!If the door leading to an enclosed area is not on the ground level, the lotzone wont switch!! As soon as I eliminated my foundations, the appartments swiched over correctly <SO STUPID>

I've discovered that after placing closets, sometimes they work and sometimes they dont. anybody else have this problem? One time I actually had the closet just dissappear out of the wall.

I'm going to go ahead and close this as we have building threads all over the place, and I've done up a basic tutorial on the known concepts, linked in a new sticky. I've linked to this thread for previous info that can be incorporated as it's fully verified.

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=299623