Apartment Building

@blindude  I believe that you can only have one real family (i.e. not NPCs in hibernation) living on the lot at a time, even if it is an apartment building.  But I'm not much of a builder myself, so I can't offer anything resembling an expert opinion.

You might get a better answer over on the official Sims forums.   There are a number of players still active who are skilled at building, and they're usually happy to offer advice.  You can try the builders section or general discussion.

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/categories/builders

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/categories/general-discussion-en

New members can't start their own threads, so if you don't find an existing thread that's reasonably on-topic (and not two years old), I can start one for you.  Just let me know your username there and where you'd like the thread to go.

Thank you for the advice. I've been on that board for two years now, but they don't let me post anywhere (don't see the button). Anyway, there was going to be just one family physically living in the building with apartments in the rest of the building(s) to be used by NPCs. I am just wondering if I put three buildings and three callboxes would it work properly.

@blindude  You won't see the "new discussion" button if you're considered a new member.  Even if you've been there for years, you need 25 points and 15 posts to get full member status.

You can certainly build whatever you want on the lot.  If you place NPC hidden room markers inside the other buildings, they should work as normal.  I don't know about the callboxes, but you can always build a version without the extra ones, test it, and then add them and see if it messed anything up.  You should be able to tell pretty quickly if you watch the sims' behavior.

Thank you. 

Also so in regards to building custom balconies, would it be considered “public?” Should I only mark neighbouring NPC balconies?

@blindude  Normally, anything not marked with either a public or NPC hidden room marker is considered part of the active family's apartment.  That's how some builders get into trouble—they build a game room or something downstairs without marking it as public, and their bills skyrocket.  But I don't know how the game would treat balconies specifically, since they're technically outside.

You could experiment a bit more with the markers, though.  Any time you start a new save and move a famiy in, they should get their first bill the next day just after 8 am.  If you save right before, you could fiddle with the building and see what happens to the bills.  If adding a massive balcony to the NPC apartment doesn't change the amount due, you'll know it's public.

I also wonder if you can't build properly (that is, without cheats) in public areas once your sims have moved in.  I'm not sure about this, but if not, that would be an even easier way to figure out what the game considers public.

Also another problem. In one corner there is a hole in the grid. The far left side of the lot slopes downward and I think that’s the problem. I’ve tried CFE and leveling the terrain but nothing works. Would the slope remain if I moved my building onto a flatter lot?

@blindude  CFE can cause more issues than it solves, so unless you're comfortable with how it works, I'd leave that one alone.  You can always try building in a new save; Sunset Valley has a few completely flat lots to play with.  (You could also bulldoze an occupied lot and build on that, since you don't need to save the game.)  When you're satisfied, you can save the building to the bin and place it in your existing town.  Just be sure not to use a lot that's bigger than the one you eventually want to use for your apartment, or else you won't be able to place the saved copy on the smaller lot.  And be sure it's smaller along both sides—that's tripped up a few players.