Sim Tower FAQ - Guide for SimTower

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Walkthrough/FAQ for SimTower				
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------------------[1]Table of Contents----------------------
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Section 1             Table of Contents				
Section 1a            Updates
Section 2             Controls
Section 3             Diclaimer
Section 4             How to Start
Section 5             Tranportation Systems
Section 6             What you can build(and where)
Section 7             Some are good, some are bad(or events)
Section 8             How to get those Stars.
Section 9             Cheats(one that is)
Section 10            Lil tidbits O' Info
Section 11            FAQ
Section 12            Creds
Section 13            Contact Info
Section 14            Copyrights
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--------------------[1a]Updates----------------------------
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Version 1.0June 12 06: started FAQ.  
This should be a short FAQ to write.  

Mid June 06: Just about finished it.  This is only about 50 
characters or so wide, gets Wider in section 7.. Donno why.

August 9: Edited a lot of stuff because it wasn't right or 
at least didn't actually fit what I had done because I 
guessed(D'oh)

August 17: Fixing minor problems, too numerous to mention.  
Good News finally got uploaded to GameFAQ's and Neoseekers.
GameFAQ's It was uploaded on
Neoseekers It was uploaded on August 15.
(First FAQ uploaded anywhere!!)
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---------------------[2]Controls---------------------------
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Easy section... One control.. the mouse!! thats it no arrow 
buttons not even the right mouse nor the mouse wheel!!
The LMB..

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---------------------[3]Disclaimer-------------------------
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This FAQ is meant for PRIVATE USE ONLY This FAQ may not be 
redistributed for profit by anyone!!!						      		
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-------------------[4]How to Start-------------------------
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Start up Simtower.  Load new/old tower.  In the new tower 
you start with a completely blank screen it has a dirt brown 
color in the bottom and a darkish color for the 
top of the window.  It starts out at 5:00 in the morning on 
wd1/1q/year one  the only importantance of this 
is wd1/2 and we which means weekday 1/2 or weekend some things 
happen only on wd1 or we.  There are 3 
days a week and 4 qtrs a year so that means a year is only 
12 days long... before you do any building though with a new 
tower click the Lobby button and have a full lobby section 
in other words have a whole square down in the very lowest left 
hand corner and you get double your money(the cats outta the 
bag, this is the only "Official" cheat...)
Or load an already started tower.
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----------------[5]Transportation Systems------------------
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Escalators
This method is the first method of transportation searhed
for by the sims.  These can be used for up to 6 floors
Only 64 can be placed

Express Elevators
This is the next method of transport.  Has many limitations
I usually put one in the middle.42 sims per car 8 cars max 
24 shafts per tower.  Goes every lobby and all 10 basement 
floors

Elevators
Sims use this most often but get very very mad when they are
not picked up right away.  They go every floor, can only 
reach 30 floors on one shaft 21 sims per car 8 cars per shaft 
24 shafts combined with express and service elevators 

Stairs
Will be used but the very last system to be used hold 21 sims
per stair well 4 sets of stairs will be used by one sim per 
trip

Service Elevators
Only used by Housekeeping counted toward shaft max with the 
other shafts

Emergency Stairs
The outside stairs used by the Security people and possibly 
by people in emergencies.. not sure.
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----[6]What you can build(and where and the prices)--------
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* means the building is needed for next star

1 Star
all of the building rooms that can be built at level 1
Lobby            5,000 dollars per section(four sections 
placed if possible) Only above ground and only every 15 
floors, 1 through 90
Empty Floor      500 per section I usually dont do this 
unless the floor will be not all the way finished... only 
available above ground all 100 floors.      
Stairs           5,000 each avaliable above or below ground
Standard Elevators  200,000 per shaft /80,000 per car. available 
above/below... only goes 30 floors including B1 to B10 which 
is basement 1 to 10.
Offices          40,000 each only above ground 6 people per 
office
Fast Food Places 100,000 each (5 different types)above or 
below ground... usually the best spots are below or above the 
lobbies.
Condos           80,000 each available above only... 3 
people per
2 Stars
Service Elevator 100,000 each... above needed only and only 
for hotels if you put them in, I haven't been.  Only put in
a hotel suite when needed incase of bomb or fire.(stupid screw
up of whoever is in the hotels when this happens stay.. messes
with the population.)
Single Hotel Rooms 20,000 per..  above needs to be cleaned 
every night by HouseKeeping income from them when they leave 
1 person per night
Security *         100,000 each... needed for next star they 
check for bombs, and combat fires(Bombs and fires not good.  
Ive had all now, fires go up so have plenty of security or pay
the 500'000, and bombs blow up a 5 floor area, so be warned.)
HouseKeeping       50,000 each    Needed for hotels to clean, 
use Service elevator only.
3 Stars
Escalator   	   20,000 each   above or below better then 
stairs and can be used in blank spots of building and then
 used by offices and all else
Express Elevator   400,000 each goes every lobby and 
all B floors only
Restaurant	   200,000 each above or below like the 
fast food but more expensive and more income Five types of this
Retail Shop	   100,000 each above or below  like the 
fast food and restaurant but are sold to renters then you get 
rent money.  11 types of this.  I thought there were ten but I 
found out it is actually 11.

Movie Theater	   500,000 each  above or below only good when 
they have good movie sales
Party Hall	   100,000 each  used for weddings and 
every other day parties or so
Twin Hotel Room	   50,000 each a bit better then the singles and 
hold two people
Hotel Suite*	   100,000 each  for the business people who pay 
people to haul luggage and is needed for star 4
Medical Center*	   500,000 each  used for offices mostly
Recycling Center*  500,000 each all stuff from 
resturants/and retail go here
Parking Spot	   3,000 each    for offices or hotel suites
Parking Ramp/Gate  50,000 each   Has to be attached to the Lobby!!
below the tower only needed for cars to park in spots
4 Stars
Metro station*     1,000,000  People who come on this only shop 
underground. You only get one and you can't destroy it and 
nothing gets put under it so build it on the 
bottom floor, B10
5 Stars
Cathedral*         3,000,000 Only needed when you have he 15,000 
people because you need a wedding in it and it will happen on a WE 
day, Not Destroyable.  Can only be put on the top of a 100 story 
building.
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--------------[7]Some are good, some are bad(Or events)------------
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The good, Santa!! He comes every year in the fourth quarter.  No he 
doesnt give you anything though.. I hoped(rather thought)he gave 
money but he happens to come at 9 when the fast food places 
close... :P 

The bad, Fires and Terrorists.  Both can be fought against with 
security teams but apparently not very well the bomb of the 
terrorist is usually found.  I had my first fire a few days ago 
in the game and I dont think my security ever even got to it.. 
so I had to pay the 500,000 for the Sim Copter to spray...
(I have that game too!!);) Terrorists as long as its not too big of 
a tower yet usually the bomb can be found.  Also I dont know how 
long that goes on.. usually after I get past the third star nothing 
much happens(just about every freakin person  leaving the building 
because I used to suck at the elevator system....)

The secret... Hold Crtl down before you build the ground lobby and 
you will get a two story lobby(if you do the lobby tool cheat you 
have to do this with the cursor at the very left side of the 
screen, it can be done, according to another FAQ for this game I 
found/have it says you cant.. Ha I did it in the last game I started)
Or hold Crtl & shift for a three story lobby... fyi more expensive 
but kinda neat lookin.  

V.I.Ps Very Important to get...You thought I was gonna type 
person.. Ha Ha(Nelson Muntz of the Simpsons..)VIPs only stay in 
Hotel Suites, and if you dont get a favorable stay message from 
them(which you need to get to star four) you will get more chances

Underground Event!! Somewhere under your tower will be a 500,000 
simolean treasure!! Randomly placed I think.. Even though most of 
the time I find it its on the left

Rain!  Very sucky random event, usually slows down business at the 
food places and has made some of my retail shops become unrented 
because of bad sales... :(
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------------------[8]How to get those Stars.-----------------------
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Star 1 is easy... You start with it... ;)
but to get to star 2 is not

If new tower, do the old cheat of course... then start building lobby 
area for a bit at least a few offices length, I used a lot of offices 
so far in my last game as a matter of fact I have not used a single 
Condo I have used hotels and other things because you almost have to, 
then use stairs for the first two floors or so because they don't 
have an expense but elevators do.  For now, go for a while... I did 
about half the screen so I did scroll a bit.  should be for enough for 
about 20 something offices or so. A nice bit of population. 
Build that all the way across though so you should be able to get 
about 41 or 42.. I think I have 41. Do offices from floor 1 to 
floor 13 then put food places on the floor below 
(or above the lobby...) then the lobby put lobbies on every lobby 
floor.. if you dont the Sims will get confused...with the tower I 
did this with... I got about 492ish or so people just in offices.. 
not to mention the food and others.  So by the 13th you should 
definitly have Star 2.  Actually you should be on your way to 
star 3...  

Star 3... before the first Lobby!! I think I had it by then with 
the way above then.
Lobby 15 to 30.  Im up to 6031 people, but thats not including 
the half dozen or more (lot more) of offices that are having 
"Terrible Conditions"** FYI Im up to Star 4.. From here up you will 
probably start having a lot of TC problems.  Here's a help for you
when they say TC as soon as they do click the eval button and info 
click one of them you will see the TC problem and the red bar.  You 
simply lower the price of the building then put it right back to where
it was and poof no more TC problems.  I usually have way too many of 
these, but when you click the room I think the price changer is default.
If you have this condition in Condos get ready for a big hit of a loss 
of money though, because condoes are bought out right not rented thats 
why they have no income.  You get it when it is bought the first time
and you lose the amount it was bought for because you buy it back from 
the tenants.  Yet another reason offices are better.  Yeah I basically 
will tell you that just build a crap load of offices and here's the 
key!! When building Elevators build them four across the building 
trying to space them evenly and the really important part.. I know 
the elevator shaft window is confusing but all you gotta do is, or 
at least what I did was make the them wait 30 seconds and put the 
floor button(what ever the top number is)to 7 and only put them 
up 15 floors and spaced the elevators every other floor and of 
course had all elevators possible.. (I have the game on right now 
but in Eval mode the first 15 floors are absolutly perfect... and 
so are some of the next between the lobby floors.. the very top 
left corner and right corner are having problems but thats ok.. 
you cant have everyone like you all the time..
So if you happen to do all offices and have the elevators like I 
described.. particularly the 15 floor part they should like it 
better... after I fix the TC Problem I will let it go, Im sure 
it will have more of them in the next week but thats ok.

Star 4 By Lobby 30 floor!! 
Yes I have it!! For proof I will have a screenie up at a download 
site that I have.  If you keep using offices until about 
between floor 60 and 75 you should have over 15000 this is of 
course using nothing but offices all the way across. then after 
floor whatever when you hit 15000 it be a lot easier to 
use condos Im sure.

Star 5 is by floor 45. I have finished this tower as of this writing 
so I know.  I fixed the dang TC problems.  From floor 15 to about 
floor 65/75 or more you will probably need 4 elevators across but 
after you get done with the 15000 then just start puting in condos, 
they dont get as mad at the elevator system as the offices do.  I 
think you should fit about 20 or so condos.  By floor 60 I had 13,500 
or so people just in offices, after whic I gave up on offices and stuck 
in condos.  Less headache more instant cash(that leaves every week 
because they don't like my elevators :D) 

Tower rating should be by floor 
75 or very very close to it.(oops last sentence should say 75 floors 
with 15000+ because you have to have at least a 100 story building and 
cathedral and wedding to happen)
If and when you get here YAY pat yourself 
on the back... I've gotten it at least four now!!  
Quite a bit of continuous play and many many mouse clicks later.  I
Found the secret, that I forgot about, and this should take out a
elevator for each section too!  Any section of floors with Offices 
build Escalators as many as the sims will use(that is 6) in the very 
middle of the building next to Express elevators, multiples of those
elevators help later.  
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----------------------[9]Cheats(one that is)-----------------------
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The only official one is this, when building a new tower click the 
lobby tool then go to the very very bottom left corner and click 
the spot with the widest possible lobby (four spaces of floor) and 
you get double the money... thats all
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--------------------[10]Lil tidbits O' Info------------------------
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All Fastfood/Restaruants/Retail Shops have evals too.  This you know 
becuase they show the color in Eval mode but, if they have 1 to 19 
patrons that is red eval not doing good you lose(-3000 for FF -6000
for R) some money each day this happens.  20 to 24 is average or yellow 
you get money(2000 for FF 4000 for R) for this eval.  25 to 49 that 
business is doing good and you get (3000 for FF and 6000 for R).  
50 and up you get business is doing really good and you get(5000 for 
FF and 10000!! for R but then again most of the time I havent gotten this
except on non rainy weekends and when Condos are in place the families like
either place).

My Fastfood Places are constantly getting 100 and 200 and up patronage
because of the amount of offices(and I think the people get counted 
twice one for the office and for the restaruant bonus one counts for 
two!! adds to Pop total!!)

Metro people only shop in the B floors and only hang in the B floors

Parties happen every day in the party halls!! 

This is from the Manual under the Inside the simualtion link...

This section explains some of the technical aspects and "behind the 
scenes" calculations of your Tower. The actual numbers in this 
section are for modeling purposes to provide a relative base of 
understanding. They do not represent the precise, acutal formulas 
used by the program.

The "frame" is a unit of time within your tower. One game time 
(from day to day or from weekend to day) consists of 300 frames.

Stress is calculated by the number of frames it takes for a tenant 
to move from one destination to another. The color of a tenant 
shows the level of that tenant's stress. If the tenant is black, 
stress is less than 80. If the tenant is pink, stress is between 80 
and 120. If the tenant is red, stress is between 120 and 300.

The quality of life in your tower is calculated by the average of 
all the tenants' stress. The highest quality a tower can have is 
300, so the Quality = 300 - (total stress amount/number of tenants). 
When the quality is more than 200 (which means that the average 
stress is under 100), the evaluation of stress is "A", and is 
represented by a blue bar in a facility information window. This
 means that current inhabitants will bring a friend to occupy any 
available vacant space. If the quality is between 150 and 200 
(which means average stress is under 150), the evaluation is "B", 
and the evaluation bar is Yellow. Tenants won't brings friends, but 
they won't leave either. If quality is under 150 (which means average 
stress is over 150), the evaluation bar is red, and tenants will 
leave.

If you have this problem solved you will see less CT** signs in the 
rooms and many many more blue rooms.. which is what is happening
 with my Elevator section for me...

Right now I am working on a tower that only has
Two elevators one on each side and then escalators in the middle.. up
to the 75 floor and 5 stars, and few headaches only very far edges that
dont have close access to the escalators I think are the only problems!
I have  only ten regular elevators and four express and the one for 
service of course most of the good evals are because of the fact of
using both escalators and elevators.. having the elevators go every
other floor is a good idea and there is the fact that the very middle
(one floor on the first 15 floors, and the middle 2 after wards) won't 
be reached so the elevators have to do both floors, in this game there 
are only two so the elevators swap floors one elevator does even floors 
including both middle floors, the other elevator does odd floors and
both middle floors.  So far not many complaints ;)
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----------------------------[11]FAQ--------------------------------
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--------------------------[12]Creds--------------------------------
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In the Tidbits Section from: This is from the Manual under the 
Inside the simualtion link... down is from the manual... giving 
credit here so no plagurism problems come up.
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------------------------[13]Contact Info---------------------------
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Rules about contact:
NO SPAM!!!! Getting tired of having it sent to me already
(and I havent even put this anywhere)
I may have some FAQ's that Ive thought of already but if you have 
one send it to one of the following, I'll probably answer it..

Allowed on:
GameFaqs
Neoseekers

Emails:
[email protected] 
[email protected](hardly check so use the first one)
[email protected](Same as above)

IM IDs
furdude2 on it all the time you should be able to see me..;)
[email protected]
[email protected](may be hotmail.com don't use it that much though)
ICQ number 328036880

Other...
Admin of Forum for All Occasions http://furdude2.proboards43.com
Member of sunflowers board member ID 2004 nick furdude6 
http://forum.sunflowers.de/
Member of TTD forums http://www.tt-forums.net/ nick furdude6
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--------------------------[14]Copyrights---------------------------
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Maxis Games
Copyright of Sim Tower
Chris(me) Copyright furdude2 2006
Copyright of Sim Tower FAQ