Tutorial: How to Make Your Own Apartments in Sims 2 Apartment Life

I finally got myself a new gaming PC after mine blew up, and one of the first things I was so excited to play on my new rig was the Sims 2 Apartment Life.

When I first started the game I loved the new aspect of being able to room up with other Sim families, or placing an ad for a new Sim roommate NPC.

However quickly into the game I began to feel confined to the small in game made apartments. Besides, my Sims are ritzy, they are rich, and they like the finer things in simland. However with the small apartments my Sims were limited to just a few basic things, such as a kitchen, a bathroom, small living room, and cramped bedroom.

My Sims are used to having pool rooms, party rooms, bar rooms, and a slew of other needful things.
I had not a clue though how to go about making an apartment complex for my Sims though. I went into regular build mode and added a special apartment door, and figured that would work once I came back out into the main menu. No such luck.

Then finally I discovered a way to make my own Sim apartments.

I went a placed a large lot, and without adding a family I clicked onto the lot to build it. I placed down 4 decent sized buildings, and added a few extra cool outside features such as a large pool, a bar, a gym, a game room, and a party room. All for my new residents to enjoy.

After gleaming up the apartment complex, I had to make sure I added the special apartment door to each of the units. That way Sims could rent that particular building. One door per building is the key.

Next I added my walls, and some simple appliances, seeing that once the Sims move in, they cannot rearrange the walls, or add doors or windows.

After I was finished making my complex, with doors facing the right way, and outdoor items where I wanted them, I then went into the Sim cheat box, which you get into by pressing CTRL, SHIFT and C.
Once the cheat box opens up I had to type this:

changeLotZoning apartmentbase. Next I simply hit return, and hoped for the best. No menu popped up to let me know if I did it wrong, so it was pretty obvious I did it right. Had you done things wrong an error box would pop up letting you know something is illegal. If something is illegal, you have to go back to the cheat menu by hitting CTRL, SHIFT and C again. Now you must type: chaneLotZoning residential.

Once you have that done, you can now go back and fix the apartments. Likely you will only get the error message if one of your apartment doors is not facing the right way. Now if you did get the error message, and you went back into residential zoning, you now have to try and plug the code into the cheat menu again to make sure you are in apartment zoning.

Hit the changeLotZoning apartmentbase code into the box, and hit enter. If no error messages come up, you did it right.

If you did it right, you can now leave the lot, and place any Sim or Sim family into the apartments. It will work exactly like the pre-made apartments that the game comes with. You can add as many families or Sims as long as you have enough units.

I think that it would have been easier for Maxis to just add in an easy click-able zoning link like they do when you place a lot. Usually it asks commercial, or residential. It would have been nice if there was also an apartment option. Instead though you are forced to add in codes. Adding codes is very easy, but may be a little tricky for new users to the Sims 2.

Hopefully this is helpful to those of you looking to make you own custom apartment complex, or units.