Eco Lifestyle

The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle: An Update Regarding The Pinecrest Apartment

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06 08 20 2 17 02 PM

Many players may have noticed that since the release of The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle, the balcony in the Pinecrest Apartment #404 is no longer an area in the apartment that can be used.

When we first saw the apartment in the Early Access videos from Game Changers, they were playing on an Alpha build of the expansion pack. This meant that some aspects of the pack could change. Usually, this would be in the form of fixing any bugs or issues that have cropped up. As a result, the balcony from Pinecrest Apartment #404 was one of the aspects of the game that had some issues.

The image below from SimGuruPaul/SimGuruFrost goes into a bit more detail about the issues with the apartment.

via Answers HQ

Hi all, this is a design decision and I have more info from SimGuruPaul to share on why:

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

The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle: An Update Regarding The Pinecrest Apartment

About the author

Krista

Hey, I'm Krista! Long time Simmer and Sims Community Staff.

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jaks
jaks
4 years ago

what a bummer :/

Simsam
Simsam
4 years ago

I like how quick they are to try to pinpoint and fix these problems. Nothing is perfect, but at least they make an effort to to what they can when they can. I love the Sims and will definitely be a player for life! Thank you all Sims creators!

Amy
Amy
4 years ago

Seems like a weird chain of excuses considering there are playable balconies in San Myshuno.

Ratlochet
Ratlochet
4 years ago
Reply to  Amy

Anyone who knows anything about code knows that it can be a fickle beast. What works in one scenario might not work in another; just the same as life. 🙂

Gato
Gato
4 years ago
Reply to  Amy

Exteriors of buildings in San Myshuno do not change with gameplay like they do in Evergreen Harbor, though. It’s specifically stated that those changes are related to the problems with balconies in Eco Lifestyle. So it’s not actually the same situation.

JT
JT
4 years ago
Reply to  Amy

Those apartments didn’t go through an overhaul though.

Kybel
Kybel
4 years ago

Spaghetti code strikes again

Donald Holland
Donald Holland
4 years ago

Haven’t been able to play the game since last update. So I deleted the game. Between the EA and origin can’t load into the game. So I won’t put another dollar into EA.

internet troll
internet troll
4 years ago
Reply to  Donald Holland

damn, she snapped.

Divachic16
Divachic16
4 years ago

What about the Rest of the apartments we should be able to use them as well. In city living, we get to choose from different apartments but here it’s only 2. And how do I get the voting board in the other towns.

Briana
Briana
4 years ago
Reply to  Divachic16

I think the voting board only shows up in neighborhoods from the new pack! Otherwise you have to place them yourself or use the mailbox to vote.

Blackofhearts
Blackofhearts
4 years ago

The whole games needs ironed out bugtopia

Karlee
Karlee
4 years ago

i had my sim living in this apartment and everything was working fine and then the next day it had patterned question marks and i cant play when i load that game or any other games and i cant start a new game either. 6/10/2020-6/12/2020

Laila
Laila
4 years ago

do we know if access to the balcony will be available in the future?

anonymus
anonymus
4 years ago

everyone grow up! they tried their best use tool mod if u have an issue

Laila
Laila
4 years ago

do we know if access to the balcony will be available in the future?

jaks
jaks
4 years ago

what a bummer :/

Simsam
Simsam
4 years ago

I like how quick they are to try to pinpoint and fix these problems. Nothing is perfect, but at least they make an effort to to what they can when they can. I love the Sims and will definitely be a player for life! Thank you all Sims creators!

Amy
Amy
4 years ago

Seems like a weird chain of excuses considering there are playable balconies in San Myshuno.

Ratlochet
Ratlochet
4 years ago
Reply to  Amy

Anyone who knows anything about code knows that it can be a fickle beast. What works in one scenario might not work in another; just the same as life. 🙂

JT
JT
4 years ago
Reply to  Amy

Those apartments didn’t go through an overhaul though.

Gato
Gato
4 years ago
Reply to  Amy

Exteriors of buildings in San Myshuno do not change with gameplay like they do in Evergreen Harbor, though. It’s specifically stated that those changes are related to the problems with balconies in Eco Lifestyle. So it’s not actually the same situation.

Divachic16
Divachic16
4 years ago

What about the Rest of the apartments we should be able to use them as well. In city living, we get to choose from different apartments but here it’s only 2. And how do I get the voting board in the other towns.

Briana
Briana
4 years ago
Reply to  Divachic16

I think the voting board only shows up in neighborhoods from the new pack! Otherwise you have to place them yourself or use the mailbox to vote.

anonymus
anonymus
4 years ago

everyone grow up! they tried their best use tool mod if u have an issue

Donald Holland
Donald Holland
4 years ago

Haven’t been able to play the game since last update. So I deleted the game. Between the EA and origin can’t load into the game. So I won’t put another dollar into EA.

internet troll
internet troll
4 years ago
Reply to  Donald Holland

damn, she snapped.

Kybel
Kybel
4 years ago

Spaghetti code strikes again

Karlee
Karlee
4 years ago

i had my sim living in this apartment and everything was working fine and then the next day it had patterned question marks and i cant play when i load that game or any other games and i cant start a new game either. 6/10/2020-6/12/2020

Blackofhearts
Blackofhearts
4 years ago

The whole games needs ironed out bugtopia