Apartments w/o Discover University

I'm afraid you can't technically make your own apartments :( The closest you can come is creating something that looks like apartments on one lot and then separating them by locking doors for selected sims. This can work quite well, and make them seem like apartments.

I only dream of being able to make our own apartments!

The 'Rental' lot type is a bit different from apartments, in that it only lets sims rent out the property for a set vacation period (it makes any lot work the same way as vacation lots in vacation worlds - only in any world now). So, unfortunately sims can't rent them like a normal apartment. And if the sims stay there then they cant add or change the decor or furniture, like they would if they were renting an apartment in City Living or Eco Living.

Unfortunately, building apartments hasn't been included with City Living. This has been confirmed by SimGurus on Twitter.
Apartments seem to be part of a shell buildings, whose lot type cannot be changed. When you are building apartments, you can't remove doors and windows that are on walls that seperate your space and outside. Penthouses are a different story (these are in City Living and Discover University), which is just a lot on top of a shell building. You can build it however you like and change its lot type.

Rental lots are so called "Home away from home". These are the houses sims rent to stay in during their vacation. After Snowy Living's patch, every world can have rental lots, allowing sims to vacation in home worlds.

People have found ways around. For example, having one large household live in an "aparment" and using the door lock system to set their spaces.

"Auroraskies;c-17749350" wrote:
Perhaps it would help if you explained what you mean with apartment; and what gameplay you are looking to get from it.

If you have City Living, there are many so called apartments in San Myshuno world; the lots in Britechester world that comes with DU are more of the kind that in this thread are called penthouses.

Well apartments are buildings with individual residential units built into them so several families can live in one apartment complex. So I'm looking for something that allows me to have my living space for my family while having literal next door neighbors that are in no way associated with my own family. Therefore, just restricting/allowing access to members of my own household wouldn't work. Also I would only be paying for rent on my small apartment instead of trying to pay the bills for the entire lot. I would only be responsible for my own little apartment and not the entire complex. And finally, I would not be able to in any way change anyone else's living spaces unless I was playing as the tenants of that specific apartment.

Ah, thanks, that sounds like how the apartments are made to work in City Living pack world; San Myshuno. I like that gameplay too.

Like said though, that is the only world that have them; the buildings in EL and DU are not quite the same.

There are a couple of threads made in the Game Feedback section, wishing for more of this in game, and the ability to build ones owns apartment building complex through build mode; but right now it cannot be done through ordinary gameplay.

Like mentioned there are workarounds, and the roommate system could be used as well to simulate other tenants, but the build would have to be built and planned by the player.

If you want to limit access to build mode for some reason; Rental and University Housing cannot access BB mode when active sims live there. They can be changed in build mode in any way when no active sim lives there, and planned by the player to be whatever they want them to look like. Does that help?

Edit: I am not by my gaming computer, so cannot check for sure, but I think the lot assignment for the City Living apartments are: Apartment; and they cannot be changed, but is locked to that. The residentials that cover the whole upper floor, like penthouses, can be changed.

I think that the apartments in EL is also locked lot assignment-wise.

The lots in top of the high buildings in Britechester can be changed to any lot assignment.

That helps a lot. So I need to dl City Living to get more apartments or Discover University to get roommates?

Yup. :smiley:

"Auroraskies;c-17750041" wrote:
Oh, I like that, I would want that to. I have not tried it so this is just a guess:

I think spouses don't need to live together, when they marry, so when the move-windows comes up, keep them in different houses.

For someone to become a roommate, I think they need to be homeless, so evict one of the spouses from their home.

Then ask them to become a roommate in Friendly interactions menu. Your sim needs to know them and have moderately high friendship bar for them to accept.

The game have made the roommates system dynamic, so you need to make them feel good, otherwise they will leave (you can ask them again). They will need a bed and a surface for their cute items (a bed table for instance, and or a shelf); and good amenities. If they get pregnant they will leave.

They will also be assigned a random 'roommate trait' giving them some behaviour. This seem based on the idea of US roommates in a dorm. You can change them/give them others with a cheat. The cheat is not listed among the EA 'approved/supported' cheats.

Edit: Oh, and I would 'heart' them in the Manage Households menu in Manage World, to protect them from culling.

Very interesting information! But just to make sure I'm clear, the roommate option isn't available at all without Discover University?

Well, a roommate feature is added with the pack Discover University, that makes it possible to ask npc's to share your sim's living place; but I guess it depends on your imagination.

You could give your sim the satisfaction reward trait Always Welcome, and be the roommate yourself? Frictionfree living in other sims' houses!

Oh that's an interesting thought!