SimTower Building Tips

For step by step instructions on how-to build a happy, no-cheat tower (similar to the PM_Grand) click below.

SimTower Statistics

Questions, Suggestions and Comments

 

Metro Station (Subway)

B-10 must be completely empty before you can place your Metro Station. (The only thing that can be on B10 is Blank Walls and the Mechanism at the bottom of an elevator.)

 

. . . Is this a problem for you??

• If you're at the 2 Star level, keep your tower less than 30 stories high and expand sideways, not upward.
• At the 3-Star level, you have Express Elevators, so you can grow upward.
• SIMs will only switch transportation once during a trip.
• SIMs will only switch from one elevator to another elevator in a SkyLobby (or in the main Lobby.)
• SkyLobbies can be placed on 15, 30, 45, 60, 75 and on 90.
• Express Elevators will take the SIMs from the Main Lobby to the SkyLobby, then the SIMs walk through the SkyLobby to get on a Local Elevator going upward from the SkyLobby.
• The SkyLobby must be continuous (with no gaps) and must touch all Elevators that stop on that floor.
• You can put in a Medical Center, a Party Hall or anything else at the end of the SkyLobby, if you keep your Elevators away from the edge of the tower. The SIMs will NOT walk through anything to get to an elevator (but they will to get to an escalator)

. . . How about this problem?

• This means that there is something on B3 that your Sims on 64 want to got to. It could be a Parking Spot, a Fast Food or usually a Medical Center.
• The first way to fix this problem is to provide a path for your Sims to travel from the one floor to the other floor that only requires changing transportation once. This is not always possible.
• The other method is to give your Sim on 64 what he is looking for on a floor that he CAN get to with a maximum of one transportation change.
• If your Sim needs to go to a Medical Center, put another Medical Center near that Sim's SkyLobby. In fact, for Office Workers, there should be a Medical Center near each of their SkyLobbies. Do the same for Fast Food.
• If it is a Parking Spot that the Sim wants, the first method should work. If not, you may have to do something drastic, such as:
• Moving all the Parking Spots to floors that are accessible.
• Moving Sims that need Parking (Office Workers & Hotel Suite Guests) to floors that are accessible.

Conditions are Terrible

You get this message when your Sims were so unhappy that they moved out.

• In order to improve the conditions, you really have to find out why your Sims were so unhappy that they had to move out. (The problem is usually related to the elevator; try reading the rest of this page to get elevator strategies.)
• If you just had a few Sims move out, then the "Conditions are Terrible" message will go away on its own in 1 or 2 weeks.
• You can destroy, and then rebuild the place to remove the message. But if the last Sims were unhappy, then the new Sims will also become unhappy, unless you fix the underlying cause.
• To reset without destroying the place, click on the place. Lower the rent to the lowest. Raise the rent back to normal. Press OK. Someone should move in.

Elevators - Max: 24 shafts available/ 8 cars per shaft

• GOOD, efficient elevator service is the key to success.
• Always put 8 cars in each elevator shaft.
• Do not let elevators stop on floors served by escalators.
• If the Elevator shaft and numbers are visible, just click on the floor number that you want to turn off. The floor number will disappear.
• If the Elevator shaft is invisible, go to the Elevator Window by clicking the magnifying glass on the mechanism at the very top or very bottom of the shaft. Click the floor number that you want to turn off and you get a red X over the number. If an Elevator car is parked on that floor, you have to move it first.
• If your tower is only as wide as 20 condos, then 2 local elevators can serve an entire floor. If your tower is wider, then 3 local elevators are needed. Lots of Offices in a section also require more elevators.
• Although a local elevator can be stretched to 30 floors, don't do it. Keep them to less than 15 floors. The only exception would be on a narrow tower section (about 5 condos wide).
• Always start a local elevator at a lobby or sky-lobby and go upwards (or to the basement). A local elevator should only stop at one lobby. i.e. 1 - 14, 15 - 29, 30 - 44, etc. Sims don't like to go up to get to a SkyLobby in order to go down.
• Keep most of your elevators out of the basement. If you have all your express elevators stopping on 90, 75, 60, 45, 30, 15, 1, -1, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6, -7, -8,and -9, they will spend a lot of time stuck in the basement. An elevator is not much of an express if it stops on 16 floors.
• Try to have a separate express elevator for each sky-lobby. For example, have 1 express that stops on 1 and 45 only. For elevators to the upper sky-lobbies, use a 30-sec delay to give the elevators time to fill up before leaving.
• I usually have 1 or 2 express from the skylobbies to the parking. I keep this elevator(s) off the main floor. I also keep all the Parking Spots on 2 or 3 floors, so that the parking Expresses do not have to stop on all 9 basement floors.
• I often have 1 Express that goes from B-9 to 1 only. This way all the other elevators (except the parking) can stay out of the basement.
• Express-to-Top or Express-to-Bottom on a local elevator is no good if you have a mix of tenants in a section. Express-to-Top or Express-to-Bottom on an Express elevator is no good at all.
• The fewer floors that an elevator has to stop on, the more efficient it is. Therefore, most floors that are served by escalators do not need elevator service. Turn the elevator off so it doesn't stop on those served by escalators.
• Don't park all the elevator cars on the same floor. Park 2 in the lobby, then park the rest on the 3 busiest floors above the lobby. [Floors with offices are usually the busiest.]
•  

Escalators and Stairs - Max: 64 available

• Only use stairs before escalators are available. Once you have escalators, replace all your stairs with escalators. The only good place to use stairs is for housekeeping - see notes under 'Housekeeping'
• According to Maxis, escalators can only be used in commercial spaces. Escalators can be used to service offices, condos or parking provided the escalators go in first.
• If your tower is only as wide as 20 condos, then 2 escalators can serve an entire floor. If your tower is wider, then 3 escalators are needed.
• Sims will travel on 3 flights of stairs, but they prefer only 1 or 2 flights. Each flight gives them more stress. It is best to use only 1 flight of stairs.
• After you go to three Stars, you should replace as many stairs as possible with escalators.
• Sims will travel on 6 flights of escalators, but they prefer 3 or 4 max. Each flight gives them more stress. It is best to use no more than 3 flights at a time.
• NOT RECOMMENDED You could actually have escalators form 1 to 7 and from 9 to 15 and an express to 15. With this set up, only the 8th floor would have to be served by the local elevator; all the other floors in the local elevator could be turned off.
• The above case is extreme, but you can easily have escalators from 1 to 4 and from 12 to 15 and an express to 15. With this set up, only 7 floors, 5 to 11 would have to be served by the local elevator; all the other floors in the local elevator could be turned off. This makes the local elevator a lot more efficient.

Offices

• I don't put any hotel suites or offices, between 1 and 15, whenever possible. If you do then you need to provide extra transportation to parking and also to a medical center.
• Some Office Workers use the Medical Centers every day at lunch. If you have a Medical Center near each SkyLobby or at the end of each SkyLobby, the Office Workers have easier access & therefore are happier.
• Have several Fast Foods near the lobby & every sky-lobby for office workers. For office workers on the upper floors, if there are Fast Foods, they will usually go there for lunch. If there are no FF's, then they have to leave the building for lunch. This means extra elevator trips and more stress.
• I like to have 1 Fast Food joint for approx. every 10 office. This put about 60 office workers into each Fast Food at lunchtime. Fast Food population is based on the number of customers on the previous day. If all your office workers have lunch in the tower, the program actually counts these office workers twice when calculating your population.

 

Condos

• Condos need a medical center below them somewhere, but I've never seen them go to it. Put a medical center in the basement (anywhere)
• Have restaurants at every lobby below any condos. The condo people go to the restaurants every weekend.

Hotel Rooms & Housekeeping

• Some Hotel Guests use the Restaurants every day, so have a least one restaurant near every SkyLobby.
• Housekeeping is only needed for the hotel rooms.
• One maid will clean 18 to 19 rooms. Each housekeeping unit holds 6 maids, but if there is no access to stairs or a service elevator, only 1 maid will clean. If the housekeeping unit has access to at least 6 floors, then all 6 maids will come out & clean (approx. 110 rooms). (I prefer to have housekeeping on each hotel floor & use my elevators & stairs/escalators in more useful areas.)
• You don't need to use any service elevators, despite what the Maxis manual says. If you do use service elevators, you only need them if you want the housekeepers to go to different floors to clean the hotel rooms.

Lobbies

• To get a 2 Story Lobby, press CTRL while building the first lobby section.
• To get a 3 Story Lobby, press SHIFT and CTRL while building the first lobby section.
• These cost 2 or 3 times the normal lobby and don't really help your Tower. BUT they do look nice.

Recycling Centers

• You do NOT need Service Elevators.
• You do NOT need to be near a Parking Ramp.
• Recycling Centers are emptied every morning if they are not too full.
• If they get too full, you get a brief message in the Info Bar saying the Recycling Centers are Full. BUT it is easy to miss this message.
• If they get too full, you cannot change to a higher Star Level until they are emptied.
• When they do get full, just add 1 or 2 new ones touching the existing ones. They should all get emptied the next morning.

Misc.

• A trick that I was just told about: If you want to destroy something and rebuild the same thing or something else in its place. Hold SHIFT while building something to destroy whatever it in the way (providing the item can be destroyed).
• Each of the following should be kept on separate floors. Do NOT mix.

• Condos
• Offices
• Hotel Rooms (& Housekeeping)
• Everything else (except Security & Medical Centers, which can go anywhere.)
• It is helpful to mix various floors of the above stuff within a section of the tower. This mixing helps keep the elevators moving. For example, in the section between 15 & 30, you could have the following layout.

• 29 Restaurants, Fast Food & Shops (serviced only by escalators from 30. The local elevator does NOT need to stop here.)
• 28 Hotels & Housekeeping
• 27 Condos
• 26 Offices
• 25 Hotels & Housekeeping
• 24 Condos
• 23 Offices
• 22 Hotels & Housekeeping
• 21 Condos
• 20 Offices
• 19 Hotels & Housekeeping
• 18 Condos
• 17 Offices (This should also be serviced by escalators from 15, with no elevator service. Put the escalators in before the offices.)
• 16 Restaurants, Fast Food & Shops and a Medical center (serviced only by escalators from 15. The elevator does NOT need to stop here.
• For maximum population, use lots: Fast Food, Shops, Restaurants, and Party Halls. Use some: Offices, Twin Hotel. Use few: Condo, Suite, and Single Hotel.
• Movie theatres are money losers. You have to keep changing the movie to keep the happy. Party halls are cheaper and make money. Max. 16 Party halls or Movie theatres Movie Theatres DO NOT attract more people than a Party Hall.
• Be sure that your Party Halls (or Movie Theatres) are NOT serviced by a local elevator. They put too much stain on the local elevator. Use only Escalators and Express Elevators to service these places.
• Make sure that skylobbies are continuous with no gaps. You can place things at the edge of a skylobby, but not in the middle.
• The best time to check for maximum population, is WD1 about midnight after all the hotel guests have checked in.

 

Evaluation

• Do NOT lower the rents just to try to keep Sims happy. With normal rents, it is easier to see where a problem is developing. Then if you know where the problem is, you should have an easier time trying to fix it.
• The best time for an accurate evaluation is WE about 11 PM.
• At 10 AM, when the Fast Food opens, they are always red. They improve during the day if they get customers. After 9PM when they close, the evaluation doesn't change again until 10AM.
• Restaurants are the same as Fast Food, except they open at 5PM and close at 11 PM.
• Any Offices, Condos & Shops that are red on WD1 at 5AM move out. All the rest start are reset to "excellent". When Sims moves out, if the conditions around them are terrible, they will stay red and empty.
• One way to evaluate your elevators is to just LISTEN to the elevators. By midnight, all the elevators should have stopped running. On some really bad towers, I have seen office workers still GOING to work as well as trying to leave WORK as late as 4 AM. If your tower is this bad, all the Sims, that are still trying to use an elevator at 4 AM, just disappear (but they are VERY angry). On a smooth running tower, the last people to use the elevators are the hotels guest returning to their room after eating in the restaurants.

Disasters

• Security should be kept at the edges of the tower so they have quick access to the outside stairs when looking for a bomb or fighting a fire.
• Bomb threats and fires always happen on the WeekEnd.
• A bomb doesn't destroy a lobby.
• A fire doesn't destroy housekeeping.
• It never rains after you reach 5 stars.
• When you have a fire (& maybe a bomb scare), all the hotel guests leave the tower without checking out & therefore are not subtracted from the tower pop. These "permanent" guests don't occupy rooms but show up as extra pop.

Questions, Suggestions and comments are welcomed.