There is some great information in this thread, and I have been copying to notepad some that is most helpful to me. I want to build my own apartment building, not a shell from a tall building, but one that can have several sim NPC families to move in. What I am confused about, do I furnish the NPC apartment, with the basics, so they can refresh when they go home? I haven't read anything on that question, and I asked Claeric for advise cause he built a apartment complex and he said no need to furnish the NPC apartments, but no sims were moving in the complex with the active sim he was playing.

I think I can carry on with building a complex, if I knew more about the NPC apartments.

Lewis, as far as I know NPC apartments will never been seen, they will be blacked out if built like the shells.
If you choose to not black out the other apartments you can probably add furniture so it wont all look so empty.
The thing is, the computer made NPC's themselves live "inside the door", so you will never actually see them move around inside.
You can ring the doorbell and call them out, but not go inside.

Yeah, I understand the NPC will be blacked out and never will the active sim will go in the apartment, but I worry about the NPC ability to rejuvenate in the apartment. I guess it's my silly game logic.

I'm pretty sure you can only have one family per lot. The other apartments are empty areas with a permanently locked door. I think after seeing service NPCs (maids, repairmen, etc.) spawning from or disappearing at other "apartment" doors, that apartment doors serve as spawn points for NPCs. Also, if you "Ring Bell" the a service NPC comes out to talk to you. I'm not sure yet if specific NPCs are assigned to specific doors.

Added: Service NPCs automatically regenerate in service limbo, so you shouldn't have to worry about that.

Okay, so I was able to expand the apartment and all, change the windows, the doors, everything, but the problem is: when I'm done with that, and I turn off all the cheats and try to into 'live mode' it just keeps loading (that tiny circle) and it just wont change to 'live mode'.
Has anyone else experienced this?

I read that but I wasn't too certain if that was just for building medium-rise residential lots, like townhouses or small apartments (which will come in handy for some ideas I've had, too bad you can only have one family) in the same way you'd make a house or if it also applies to constructing our own apartment tower. I'm quite interested in how to go about doing the latter. Would it be CAW or the same method posted above but with cheats to allow the building to be 30+ stories high?

It happened to me each time I tried to delete the hidden apartment door next to my unit. As someone mentioned earlier in this thread, the "neighbours" are probably spawned from the special door. When I leave in the special door and add another door I can get avoid the neverending loading circle.

I can't seem to locate the skip level marker inside a building to delete it. I deleted all of the floor tiles on the floor above it, but I can't find it. Is it not a shiny orb like the others?

I moved windows and walls using "testingcheats..." and "MOO". I built a bedroom to the left of the bathroom in the loft,1 ba apt and made the loft space wrap around in a u shape. But later when I wanted to change it back I couldn't delete the floor tiles (even though they weren't there before I put them there). I'll try RBBB to see if that allows me to remove them.

Thanks for the info Srikandi, I want to have my own community of created Sims in LN but also didn't want to evict/delete all the ingame sims since they perform the service jobs and act as journalist/papparazzi. The housing was limiting the number of Sims I could place in Apts and this should rectify the situation. I'd like to build a few 3 bdrm apts and also add a room for the butler in some of the duplex apts. THis info is really helpful.

Has anyone figured out how to get the trash shoots and wallmounted mailboxes? I converted the Vamp building, the tall building with two story penthouse but i get a normal garbage bin and mailbox... just seems wrong...

Is it possible to hack CAW shells to make it available in buydebug?

Yes. They've been found, and I know at least one person who's working on it. The mod creation tools also have to be updated for LN though So give em time!

Hopefully when they find them and hopefully make them available, they'll also find the mailboxes and trash chute as those are MIA as well :S

I have the same problem. With all the cheats on if I remove all the floor tiles all I see below is a black room. If the skip level marker is there, then I can't see it.

Anything we are missing out? Any advise please?

The markers are all coloured pure black. What I did to find those bastard things is turn on the grid lines indoors and I'll just notice a circle easily in the black room.

Whoop whoop! My sims said thanks for the update

What is the purpose of the buildings shells in CAW when you can merely use them for decoration? Is EA out to annoy us just for fun?!?!?

I think there is a good use for deco-only buildings, they add to the ambience of a hood.

Quick question, I accidently deleted a "skip floor marker", and now my game is super slow and glitchy. I put it back but it's still the same! Any tips?

How do you turn that on?

I did find some skip level markers floating above the building that I thought might be what I needed, but it didn't seem to do anything when I deleted them. So I'm still stuck to editing one floor.

is there a way to add another few more floor from 5 floor? i tried to add more floor but all i get is can't create above highest level....

I have the exact same problem. I'm trying to makeover a club ( in french it's Le Brightmore, so I really don't know how it is called in english ) and everytime I try to edit the floor where the club actually is, I get this:


I tried by removing the skip level marker, but it didn't changed anything.

Does anybody succeed at editing a club ?

has anybody tried putting apartments in a basement?
i'd check, but i probably wont get a chance to play again until thursday.


sucks that you can't enter the npc apartments or even see them in them.
sometimes i wonder if EA does pointless things like that just to annoy people on purpose.

maybe they will add that ability in the next EP as a way to entice more people to buy it

Jynx over at CustomSims has unlocked the hidden highrise shells He has some interesting comments about working with them, too. Lots of research still to be done on this obviously, but now we have the means to do more of it

Also unlocks the callbox and mailbox!

http://www.customsims3.com/smf/index.php?topic=3044.0

That alone is worth a look.