Cannot edit apartment balcony in Evergreen Harbor

For the time being until they issue a fix for the balconies, for those who don't mind mods, TMex's TOOL mod allows you to edit the 'uneditable' areas of the world including the balcony, and as you can see, the objects are still usable.
https://i.imgur.com/4ZnNAiz.png
https://i.imgur.com/QSYiqU5.png

Hi all, I have info regarding the balcony of Pinecrest Apartment #404 from SimGuruPaul:

Thanks for playing Eco Lifestyle, Simmers. We want to address your feedback on the balcony of Pinecrest Apartment #404. Some of you might have seen some early videos in which Game Changers were building on balconies. They were playing on an Alpha build that had the issues described below. When we initially designed and built that apartment, we planned for the balcony to be buildable space to make up for the real-life limitation of not having a yard. We ran into some challenges along the way and we’d like to share with you what happened.

We learned during production that the tech for swapping the apartment exteriors with gameplay could not accommodate this due to complications with the apartment exterior dynamically changing with the neighborhood. The balcony also had a bug in which neighbors looking for the front door would walk through the apartment uninvited to get to the balcony and then knock on the sliding glass door. How rude! We tried a fix that enabled items to be placed on the balcony, but this resulted in more bugs:

• When the town enacted the Modern Development Neighborhood Action Plan (NAP), the balcony wall did not update to match the wood paneling from the rest of the building. If you tried to fix the pattern manually, the wall did not respond predictably.
  
• That NAP caused the window and the door to disappear erratically.
  

We explored and attempted multiple fixes, but when they didn’t pan out, we decided the best option was to return to a static balcony and adjust the logic for determining the front door. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused and we hope this at least gives some insight into what went into the decision.

SimGuruPaul

That’s disappointing but understandable. Lilsimsie seemed to have some massive issues with the balcony after one of the development NAPs was activated. Thanks for the info @SimGuruFrost

Thanks for the information @SimGuruFrost . After noticing this I went and looked at the City Living apartments and saw at least one where you could edit the balcony. Maybe due to the packs being different there's some technical issues in making it work but if you can edit balconies with those apartments why doesn't this work with the new ones?

That’s disappointing. But, I appreciate that you took the time to give a clear explanation, thanks @SimGuruFrost

"alexspoom13;c-17532761" wrote:
Thanks for the information @SimGuruFrost . After noticing this I went and looked at the City Living apartments and saw at least one where you could edit the balcony. Maybe due to the packs being different there's some technical issues in making it work but if you can edit balconies with those apartments why doesn't this work with the new ones?

He explained why it doesn't work. Basically, the exterior of the apartment buildings in EL are dynamic, they change depending on your neighborhood action plan. Altering the balcony made this not work correctly and they were unable to find a way to fix it that didn't result in more bugs.

The apartments in CL are not dynamic.

I can understand if the walls, windows and doors have to be locked because of the different shells for the building, but it would have been nice if they would allow us to place furniture like a table or a bbq so it could be actually usable. :(

Question is if they intend to fix it for the future or just leave it as a failure?

That's disappointing and definitely not understandable. This is a feature that should have been addressed before release. Apartments were certainly a selling point in this pack for some, including myself. They were also showcased by game-changers actually using the balcony. This should have been a statement that was released before the game was released. Transparency after the fact is not transparency at all.

"Atreya33;c-17532940" wrote:
I can understand if the walls, windows and doors have to be locked because of the different shells for the building, but it would have been nice if they would allow us to place furniture like a table or a bbq so it could be actually usable. :(

Have you tried using portable furniture? You might be able to put things on the balcony using Place In World if the game can find enough room for them. I think all the bbq's are portable.