For Rent Residential Rental Preparation Thread

"RedDestiny92;c-18330033" wrote:
For some reason thought this was named something else and couldn't find it anyways, we are so close but still too far so I opened ts2 to see if we could make our own apartments because I never had. I found a tutorial and it had the cheat in it I didn't know we had so I made something that I may try to recreate now when for rent comes out.

I is weird we need a cheat since the door is in build mode whatever, anyhow it said what to include and was clear enough when I realized I had the wrong door I changed it back to fix that and when I moved in I got to click on the unit I wanted then everything disappeared. I'm assuming that's what they meant it'll be like in for rent.

Spoiler

https://i.imgur.com/6UvttADh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/HeRltQ3h.jpg

Glad you found this thread!

Oh hey! An experienced TS2 apartment builder here! I might go somewhat technical here, but if you'd like, bear with me.
Yup, most lot type conversations require that special cheat. When you make a brand new lot, you have to either choose residential or commercial. Then you have to build it ready and then change it. Residential lots can be made into dorms and apartments, commercial lots can be made into hotels.
The reason I guess is strict coding, which may also be the reason why most of the build tools are disabled (and the cloning tool in dorms too for some reason). Though I'm not an expert on the exact coding.
One thing The Sims 2 did is using the lot you built/placed as a base, a template to the sublots: the hidden copies of the apartment lot the game would make for each family moved in. That is why you can't rename apartments that already have a family in it, why everything gets wiped and get reset back to the state it was in the beginning, and why it is highly inadvisable to have your last sim die in an apartment. Plus, it is also a reason why it is advisable to build apartments on flat terrain and never make beach apartments. Here's a post I have made about it in a different thread (under spoilers).
Both posts are in The Sims 2 Discoveries thread.

"EgonVM;c-18224200" wrote:
Today the test lands have opened up!

So, some fun things to share. And I warn you, it's picture heavy.

I have seen places that tell that you shouldn't rezone a beach lot into an apartment lot as you will have issues with the lot. So, I tried it out to see what issues there are. And...



The terrain goes into the level of the ocean terrain, causing floating ocean and the apartment being in the hole. And it only applies to apartment sub-lots (the one you rezone is apartment base-lot), meaning that if you move your sims out and then take a look, that issue isn't there.
It happens most often when you build your apartment on a very mountainous terrain (picture example below).


There is one way you can solve it: move the lot in the neighborhood screen. However, do be warned that you will have to do that every time you move a new family into the apartment. So I still wouldn't recommend rezoning a beach lot into an apartment base lot.

But if you don't mind, good news is that you can still swim in the waters. :)

"EgonVM;c-18224513" wrote:

"Ellupelluellu;c-18224229" wrote:
@EgonVM , in case you are curious, here is more info , by late Mootilda , about beach/uneven terrain apartments :)
https://modthesims.info/t/302405

That's interesting... So, when an apartment sublot is created, it gets lowered to the lowest point of the base-lot.
This post is long and picture heavy, so I'll put all that under spoilers.

Spoiler

So, interested, I went ahead and dug the deepest hole possible near an apartment to make it sink.


After changing the lot type and moving sims in, the result is... nothing...


So then. Let's make the hole larger. And make it more useable! Aren't I a great builder?


This is fun! And it will leave behind a large hole temporarily when moved!


The result again is nothing...


But the last plan was to move out the family and move the lot on the higher ground. After moving the family in, I got the results I wanted!


The moral of the story. The apartments won't sink below the sea level. That's because first the apartment was on the flat ground near sea level and this happened on the higher ground.
But let's repeat the one small hole experiment on the higher ground. The result: nothing.


So, to have this bug happen, you need to have a lot of lower ground. One small hole doesn't make it happen.

So yeah, only one certain door is allowed and only one entrance to a unit is allowed. Should you have multiple entrances, the game will literally warn you that there's an invalid apartment and suggests you to rezone the lot back and correct the mistake. Plus players must be careful over using fences sims can step over, as fencing something off can make it into a shared space.

So yeah, unless you are using creative workarounds (which I'm a little afraid to use), you must be careful when building apartments in The Sims 2.

The Sims 4 promises to bring apartment building without cheats and more relaxed units. We'll see how it'll look like when the pack releases...

About the other units.
Yes, everything in other units disappear. They are not hidden (as going into build/buy mode won't reveal them like in dorms), but simply not there. However, when your sim visits another unit, the objects will fade into existence room by room (with the room your sim is entering being revealed first), suggesting to me that the game is loading the objects in the unit without a loading screen. Once all your sims have exited the unit, it will unload, becoming hidden again. Your home unit will always be seen and should another sim in your family visit a different unit, that one will be shown too.
What we understand is that in The Sims 4, visiting another unit will trigger a loading screen and only one unit can be active at the time. Though one benefit I see there is that sims living there will be doing something, not standing near the front door as if everyone was expecting your sim.

Whoops... That post went long. And I'm planning to do another big showcase soon too, so yay, more big posts coming!