SimTower: The Phantom Horror
Made by Mental.Man@excite.com
Version 1 Finished 5/27/00
1. Introduction
2. Walkthrough
3. Emergencies and Special Events
4. The Non-Existent Cheats
5. Credits
Introduction
SimTower is a very good, addictive game (at least, until you get to 4
stars). It is also frustrating, hard and confusing. This walkthrough
will get you through the worst and best of this game (mainly worst).
However, this is not supposed to be used as an alternative help guide.
In fact, before you start the game, I recommend reading the entire help
file. This explains a lot, but not everything… Also, try fooling around
with the game before you read this, because I am NOT going to go into
detail over every little thing…
This is my first walkthrough. I chose an easy, stupid game that no one
has done before because this is my first walkthrough. So now you know
why this is so bad.
Walkthrough
Starting out: How to construct, double your funds, and get a decent
population!
Doubling Your Funds: When you first start out, you have money, one
star and a really fast clock. Slow down the clock by clicking on
"Options" then "Fast Mode". Now, go to the absolute bottom-left of the
screen. Click on the "Lobby" button on your toolbar, and try to build a
lobby. Your funds automatically double!
Now, build a lobby by clicking on a spot on the ground. Once you have
done this, go and build an underground fast food place, and at lest one
story of offices. Use stairs to connect your offices, lobby, and fast
food place. Remember, your occupants only want to climb FOUR sets of
stairs to get to their destination. This means that you should only
start out with one basement level, one lobby, and a maximum of 2
stories of offices (which, by the way, are your major sources of
income… and stress). If you leave the tower minimized, it still runs.
This means that you can start up your computer, load your tower, and
leave it minimized the rest of the day while you work! Since no one has
heard of overtime in SimTower, no Sim works on the weekends (signified
by the red WE in the info bar… You know, the one with the star on it!),
which means that on a rainy weekday, more people come to your cafй than
on a sunny weekend! You can alter this by adding a floor of condos,
which means you have to add an elevator, which costs $100,000 a quarter
(Note: People only get mildly stressed when they take the stairs, but
it normally doesn't get out of hand…)
Getting Your Stars: How to Get More Facilities!
To get two stars, you need a population of 300 people. Easy, right?
Nope. It is a complicated thing, and you do NOT get two stars just by
slapping on another 15 floors with condos (which are your major source
of population, but don't get you any money after someone buys them).
Instead, you need to go through a long and rigorous process involving
elevators, floors, and the fast mode function.
First, you need to get your first four floors established. Then, you
need to get your elevator system working by fooling around in the
control panel, working towards eliminating stress. After this is done,
you need to add floor by floor of condos ONLY! Mixing condos, offices,
and fast food places on the same floor is generally a bad idea because
everyone complains about the noise level; unless you have two spaces
you equal to the space a condo takes up. Also, try not to get your
tower 30 stories high before you even get two stars, because it is
better to build out instead of up, even though it means more elevators,
because it generally reduces stress.
Once you get to a lot of floors of condos and offices that are all
near the lobby, and an elevator shaft, you may find people are getting
stressed (turning pink or red), or your elevators have big fats "F"s on
them most of the time (they are full). This means that you should add
another car in your shaft. Before you add that last condo to get a
population of 300, remember that your population ebbs and flows. This
may make that last condo unnecessary.
Two Stars! What Now? (To Get Three Stars)
Well, by now you should have 300 population, a couple floors of
offices, a fast food place, two or more elevator cars, and lots of
condos. Now, you can add security, service elevators, a single hotel
room, and housekeeping. Start off by adding one security on the bottom
and top floors of your building. Now, put in housekeeping and a bunch
of hotel rooms. If the last two are not on the same floor, connect them
with a service elevator. Add a shaft so guests don't have to use a busy
elevator. When the rooms are finally bringing in cash, check the
finance window to make sure that they make more money than Housekeeping
spends! Remember, Housekeeping can support up to 6 floors of hotels, as
long as the hotels are fairly close to Housekeeping.
Once again, if people are stressed out waiting for the "lift" (as they
call it in Great Britain), add a new car or shaft. Keep on expanding!
To get to the big three, you need at least two security offices, and a
population of 1,000. Ouch! Don't worry, though: just add lots of condos
and hotels. It will bring up your population. Still, your tower is
going to go through some drastic changes…
Get all of your elevators and make them go up to your highest level.
Add shafts if necessary. Add as many condos as you can, but don't get
another cluster of hotel rooms just yet. Also, don't worry about
evaluation unless it is red. Then, you should bulldoze the unhappy
people!
When terrorists loom, you generally want to find the bomb. Yes, the
bomb can explode, but the ransom is much larger than the repair costs
(probably). If your tower is the maximum width, you probably want to
pay him, though, because unless the bomb is on the left side of the
tower, your security will never get there on time.
If your population is around 600-800, it is time or another cluster of
hotels! Place the hotels on the 3rd through 8th floors so you can use
stairs to get to some of them, and place the Housekeeping on the 2nd
with some more offices.
Three Stars = Trouble!
Three Stars: The messiest most unrefined part of the game. One star
was easy. Two stars were challenging. Three is a complete disaster. By
now, all of your space has run out. You people are unhappy, and your
elevator/escalator strategy is horrible. Whatever you do, don't blame
me! To get 4 stars you need a population of 5000, medical and recycling
needs met, and a favorable VIP rating.
First, you have to get one hotel suite on the second floor. Give it
its own elevator and housekeeping. Add at least one parking spot per
suite. When the VIP comes, watch his evaluation very carefully. If it
is yellow, lower the price of his room. That takes care of one
requirement for 4 stars (favorable VIP rating). (Note: If your other
single hotel rooms have a good elevator system, and they are clean when
the guests arrive, you do not need to isolate your suite. Now, all you
need to do is add on about 4,000 condos (seriously) and have at least
two medical and recycling centers. This may sound easy, but it isn't.
All your tenants get PO'ed at you and move out. After they move, lower
the price so others can move in.
Add about two movie theaters and one party hall.
And here's one final tip: Screw money. You are going to lose so much
it won't be funny. So forget about it!
4 Stars = Run Away Screaming
4 stars should not happen. Your entire hotel is shunned, but people
still stay. This is pretty hard. Add a metro station (Yes, it costs
money but it brings tons of people to your tower. And you need it to
get 5 stars.) Get 10,000 people. You will need every square pixel of
space for this physical improbability, but it isn't really worth it.
This is where the game becomes a nightmare, because of the billions of
screaming tenants and unhappy residents. Just ignore them.
5 Stars… Shoot me now.
This is it. No, it's not the end of the game. Maxis wants to brainwash
you into playing a decent game like SimCity 3000. Unfortunately, if you
are playing this, you cannot walk away from this for more than a day,
so get 15,000 people and a Cathedral. Than you get a rating of "Tower"
Whoopee.
Emergencies and Special Events
Fires: The most dangerous thing in existence. Fires eat away at your
facilities, and there are only two ways to stop them: The quick,
expensive way or the slow, cheap way. The quick way is to call in the
copter for $500000. It works, but it doesn't get there in time to save
the first two buildings that burn down. The slow way is to wait until
Security comes. It works, but it probably won't save the floor that is
burning.
Bombs: Psychopathic terrorists like to call you up and ask for 2-30000
bucks. The catch? If you don't pay them, they will nicely start up a
timed bomb. Your Security will try to find the bomb. If you have a huge
tower that is the maximum length and width and stuff, you will probably
want to shove the money down their throats. Otherwise, your Security
will probably find the bomb in time. It helps, though, if your security
is spread out so you don't have 5 rent-a-cops going along the same
floor.
VIP Visits: See the 3 Stars Section
Santa Clause: As far as I can tell, this does nothing. Santa shows up.
Whoopee. Maybe he takes all those grumpy tenants and throws them out
the window?
The Non-Existent Cheats
What has Maxis done!?!? Contrary to almost all of their games, there
are no decent cheats for this game! There is only one, and it lets you
start out with 400000 instead of 200000 bucks. See the Walkthrough
section
Credits
Written by me( mental.man). Maxis made SimTower. My e-mail is
mental.man@excite.com. If you hate this, let me know. I
you have anything that I didn't mention, let me know. If you like this
game or you work for Maxis, don't let me know.
This document copyright Mental.Man Stuff. Don't reproduce any part of
this without my permission.
The Unofficial FAQ (Frequently Asked Question)
Hello, my name is Steve Novicki. I am a gigantic fan of Yoot
Saito's masterpiece SimTower, and I will be narrating this FAQ, which
took me approximately a full two days to write, so you better
appreciate it! Also, this FAQ is legally Copyright February 15, 2000
by Steve Novicki. Do not rip off of this FAQ, I can and will take
legal action against you, meaning that I will sue you and easily win.
With that boring crap said, let's get to the FAQ!
CONTENTS
---------------------------------------------------------------------
1 - A SimTower Day's Schedule
2 - Tower Transportation
3 - Shops, Fast Food Places, and Other Places of Commerce
4 - Offices and Condos
5 - Hotels, Suites, and Housekeeping
6 - SimTower's Method of Evaluation
7 г When VIPs Come For a Visit
8 г Star Requirements
9 - And Of Course, Last But Certainly Not Least, Cheats
---------------------------------------------------------------------
1 - The Time Schedule of a Normal Day (weekday) in SimTower
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Every building in SimTower starts and stops at a specific time,
as they do in real life. I have compiled a list of all of the
starting and stopping times that different buildings open and close.
5:00AM : Dawn.
6:30AM : Hotel guests begin to check out, continues until noon.
7:00AM : Garbage pickup.
9:00AM : Workday begins (Offices open.)
10:00AM : Shops and Fast Food open.
12:00PM - 1:00PM : Lunch hour.
1:00PM - 4:00PM : Movie runs in the theaters.
5:00PM : Offices begin to close.
Restaurants open.
Income from Party Halls.
5:00PM - 8:00PM : Movie runs in the theaters.
6:00PM : Dusk.
8:00PM : Movie Theaters close.
Income from Movie Theaters.
9:00PM : Shops and Fast Food close.
Income from Fast Food.
11:00PM : Restaurants close.
Income from Restaurants.
There you have it, a complete listing of a SimTower workday,
either the first or second weekday. It is always like this, no
exceptions. Also, I'm not sure, but I think that it's at 5:00PM that
your Hotel guests begin to check in, either five or 6:00PM. Check for
me, will ya?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
2 - Tower Transportation
---------------------------------------------------------------------
In SimTower, your transportation system MUST be completely
perfect and bug-free, or else it will crumble and fail when your
tower ages. Fortunately, I am here to help you achieve this :)
When you start out, you should have at least one elevator
spanning all of your floors, at the most, fifteen floors. This helps
ease congestion when your tower is older and more populated. Also,
keep in mind that your Sims can only change elevators ONCE PERT TRIP.
This means that if a Sim rides an Express Elevator up to floor sixty,
and wants to get to floor sixty-eight, he can change elevators only
once to get to floor sixty-eight. Keep his in mind when designing
your elevator system. Also, the Sims cannot change elevators at just
any old floor, they must ride up to a Sky Lobby and there they can
switch. Shafts cannot be placed over other objects like stairs,
escalators, and stuff like that, so be careful when planning them.
One last thing for elevators, the shafts cannot overlap when they
don't have at least eight floors of free space on either side. This
frustrated me many times, so keep it in mind. There is a maximum of
twenty-four elevator shafts allowed in a single tower.
Stairs are SimTower's most primitive mode of transportation.
However, they provide an excellent means of elevator congestion
relief, such as at lunch hour. With a few well-placed stairs, you can
alleviate almost half of your elevators' congestion. The Sims are
only willing to walk at the most four flights of stairs to get to a
certain destination, this is about the only rule to follow while
placing stairs. You can have a maximum of sixty-four total stairs and
escalators. They also cost a mere $5,000 per set of stairs, not that
much at all.
Escalators are special. They can only be used in commercial
areas, like shops, restaurants, fast food, etc., but can also be
placed in just blank floor sections. They, like stairs, don't cost
much at all, just a lot of commercial space to use them in. You can
have a maximum of sixty-four total stairs and escalators.
This concludes the Transportation section of my FAQ. I hope
that it has been most useful to you.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
3 - Shops, Fast Food Places, and Other Places of Commerce
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Places of commerce are very important to your tower in the
manner of money and population. They all have set amounts of daily
income, like $-5,000, $0, and $5,000, and these are very important to
your tower's funds. They also boost your population to be able to
graduate to higher Star ratings.
Fast Food Places -- These are available at the beginning of the
game. They generate a pretty good source of income, however have a
very bad environment, but this isn't very important to you. If I were
you, I would only build three or four of these at the beginning just
to generate some income, but then stop building these when
restaurants come around. Fast Food places cost $100,000 each.
Restaurants -- Available at the three-Star rating. These are
VERY hard to achieve the Good and Very Good evaluation, mainly
because not that many people patronize these, they are all at the
Fast Foods instead :) Restaurants open at night, and usually lose
money unless they are far developed. Build most of these when you get
the chance, because they generate far more income than Fast Food
places and are all around better than Fast Food places, the only
downside to restaurants is their very large price.
11:00PM : Restaurants close.
Income from Restaurants.
There you have it, a complete listing of a SimTower workday,
either the first or second weekday. It is always like this, no
exceptions. Also, I'm not sure, but I think that it's at 5:00PM that
your Hotel guests begin to check in, either five or 6:00PM. Check for
me, will ya?
4 - Offices and Condos
Offices in SimTower, as in real life, are the primary building
block of any good skyscraper. They are pretty much self-sufficient,
but let's go over some basic facts about them, shall we?
1. Offices cost $40,000 each.
2. Offices require any kind of transportation, except
Escalators, for obvious reasons.
3. Offices fork over their rent on a quarterly basis.
4. Offices can hold a maximum of six workers.
5. They do not need to be placed in any specific area of
the tower.
6. They have three different rent rates.
The facts listed above should pretty much answer all of your
questions about Offices, but I'll go into some more detail. Each
Office forks over their rent promptly at 5:00AM every morning of the
first weekday (pretty different from real life, huh?) Offices start
to open at 9:00AM every weekday morning, and start to close at 5:00PM
every afternoon. But some workaholics leave their lights on well past
8:00PM. Also, you should never place Offices after 1:00PM on the
second weekday. They do not sell until the next weekday, therefore
cheating you out of a rent. The only times they do sell is on the
first weekday, 9:00AM - 12:59PM, and the same for the second weekday.
Last, since there is no limit to the amount of Offices you can have,
you could build only commercial areas the first five floors around
any Sky Lobby, and then use a mixture of Offices and Hotels to fill
up the rest of the space.
One last thing about Offices; they don't mind being next to
other Offices. Some places, like Hotels, get cranky if they're placed
next to a noisy place like an Office or a Restaurant; Offices don't
care one way or the other if they're next to another Office or place
that makes a lot of noise. It's just that Offices are the place that
is noisy so you should place an entire floor of just Offices to
ensure that people don't get cranky.
Condominiums (Condos) are different from other buildings in
SimTower; they do not generate a quarterly, daily, or yearly income.
Instead, when a condo sells, the money is forked over to you in one
large amount; there is no income. I think that this is kind of bad,
because it costs money to keep those condos in working condition. And
these figures add up fast in your account. Therefore, only place
condos when you're completely financially secure. Condos cost
anywhere from $40,000 - $200,000 each (please, don't make the mistake
of selling a Condo for half of its initial building cost!), and like
Offices, the price affects the happiness of the Condo's inhabitants.
If you're not careful, the happiness of its inhabitants deteriorates
due to an expensive price, so keep that in mind. And if you place a
Condo anytime during 9:00AM г 12:59PM on either of the two weekdays,
it sells almost immediately, so keep this in mind as well. I think
that's all there is on Condos.
5 г Hotels, Suites, and Housekeeping
Another form of excellent daily income are Hotels and Hotel
Suites. Both of these provide a very good source of daily income to
ease your budget (and, in the early beginning of all my towers, I use
this income to live upon) and live on sometimes.
There are two kinds of Hotels: Single Hotels and Double Hotels.
Single Hotels are just what they sound like: single hotel rooms. Same
for Double Hotel rooms, they are double hotel rooms. But double rooms
bring in more income with less complaining. Single hotels take up
less space, therefore fitting more in a given amount of space, but
double rooms take up a larger yet smaller amount of space, and have
more "bang for their buck". Single Hotels are available in the two-
Star rating, Double Hotels in the three-Star rating. These are both
adversely affected by noise from Offices, Restaurants, etc. and
simply will not put up with the noise. If you let the problem go on
too long, they will eventually pack up and boycott the rooms. Suites
are like Single Hotels, but much, much more luxurious, therefore more
expensive. But the Sims who stay in these Suites don't seem to mind.
If the transportation system is good, they like it. Also, VIPs who
come and stay in your tower only stay in Suites. (See more about VIPs
in section 7 г Dealing with VIPs.) All Hotels, Suites, included,
require some kind of transportation, in case you haven't already
guessed.
However, someone needs to clean up these dirty rooms after
people mess them up, and the perfect people to do so are the
Housekeeping staff. When you place a Housekeeping unit, you
automatically have six housekeeping people to tend to all of your
dirty Hotel rooms. They are crucial to your tower, because if you
leave your Hotel rooms dirty for more than three days, they become
infested with cockroaches, rendering the room useless and inhibiting
other people from staying in that room. Destroy cockroach-infested
rooms as quick as possible, because they spread horizontally to other
Hotel rooms, regardless if they're clean or not.
Getting back to Housekeeping, you need at least one if you have
Hotel rooms in your tower. They also require transportation in the
form of Service Elevators, a special kind of elevator available from
the three-Star rating and on. You will know if you have enough or not
by looking at the Map window under Hotel at five or six o'clock in
the evening. If there are any dirty rooms, you clearly do not have
enough Housekeeping staff. One last comment on Housekeeping: once you
place a unit, you cannot bulldoze or get rid of it. Period.
6 г SimTower's Method of Evaluation
One thing that I believe would be frustrating to new SimTower
players is the seemingly complicated method of evaluation the game
uses. I was building many different buildings and they were all
getting red (bad) evaluations. Why is this? I wondered. Well, I found
the answer from SimTower: The Official Strategy Guide from Prima
Publishing. Read on to find this out.
First of all, whenever you first build something, it has a Red
(bad) evaluation. Then, as the customers start coming there and
patronizing the place, its evaluation slowly increases. The highest
it can increase to is Business Is Very Good. This means that whoever
came to the store while there is a Good or Very Good evaluation will
be very pleased with the store. So pleased, in fact that the next
day, they will come back to that same store with a friend. If they
encounter no transportation problems, and get to the store while
there is a Good or Very Good evaluation, the same thing happens. For
instance, maybe you have just built a Men's Clothing shop. Its
current patronage is maybe three people, and it has a Red (bad)
evaluation. As people come and patronize the store, the evaluation
slowly builds up to Good, and the Very Good. The customers who
visited the shop when there was a Good or Very Good evaluation will
like the store so much, they will come back the next day and bring a
friend. So in other words, if you have a shop that is more than a few
days old and it still has constant Red (bad) evaluations, maybe you
should look into it more closely.
Offices are simpler. See, Sims hate to wait for anything. The
only thing in your tower that would make them wait is your elevator
system. Therefore, if an Office is suffering from a constant Red
(bad) evaluation, that means only one thing: poor transportation.
One rectification for this major problem is to personally name
one Sim from the Office that is suffering. Follow that Sim around
throughout the entire workday, or workdays if you have to. If he/she
encounters any elevator that makes him/her wait, that could possibly
be the problem, so fix it. Another way that Sims get mad and suffer
from Red (bad) evaluations is that maybe a bunch of Sims from the
same Office encounter a ad elevator, making them wait. If a bunch of
Sims get mad and turn red, the evaluation of the Office that they're
all from goes down very quickly. All Offices that have Red (bad)
evaluations for en extended period of time eventually boycott their
Office and seek another Office elsewhere.
7 г When VIPs Come For a Visit
When VIPs were coming for visits to my tower, more often than
not were they giving me bad evaluations. In case you do not know, you
must have gotten a good rating from the VIP who stays in your Hotel
Suites in order to graduate to a four-Star rating, then to five and
Tower.
VIPs come to your Tower once every nine years, giving you
chances to make up for your mistakes of the past. Your job is to make
their stay in your tower as comfortable and leisurely as possible.
Listed below are some strategies to accomplishing this.
1. When the VIP arrives, quickly scan the parking garage and
all elevators to see where he is, he's a bright yellow Sim.
2. Once you find him, pinpoint which elevator(s) he is going to
take.
3. After this, find out exactly which Hotel Suite he is going
to.
4. Once this is achieved, deactivate all elevator service to
all floors except the one where the Suite he is staying in
is located on.
5. Make sure that every, single, picky, little thing in your
tower that he might use has a perfect transportation system.
6. Pray.
Following these steps will almost guarantee you a successful
VIP visit. At 11:00AM promptly the next morning, he will depart your
tower. A message box will pop up on the screen, the box deciding your
fate of whether you can graduate to a four-Star tower or not.
8 г Star Requirements
In order to achieve certain Star ratings, you must meet certain
criteria to graduate to higher ratings. Listed below are the six Star
ratings possible of achieving, and exactly what you need to get them.
One Star г none
Two Stars г A minimum population of 300 people
Three Stars г Minimum population of 1,000 people
More than one Security office
Four Stars г Minimum population of 5,000 people
Recycling Center
Parking
Medical Center near ground floor Lobby
More than one Hotel Suite
Favorable rating from a VIP
Five Stars г Minimum population of 10,000 people
Metro Station placed
New Recycling and Medical demands met
TOWER г Minimum population of 15,000 people
Cathedral placed on 100th floor
There you have it, the complete criteria for graduating
to higher Star ratings.
9 г And Of Course, Last But Certainly Not Least, Cheats
So ya wanna cheat, do ya? Just keep in mind that with cheating,
you are not playing the game to its fullest extent, therefore not
getting your moneys' worth out of the game. But if you're like me and
get the game's fullest amount of fun out of using cheat codes, this
section is for you, my friend!
NOTE: THERE ARE NO EASTER EGGS FOR SIMTOWER. NONE WHATSOEVER.
But there are a few cheats anyway.
1. Start a new tower. Then click on the Lobby tool WITHOUT
clicking anywhere else in the screen. If you do, you must
start a new tower because clicking anywhere else than you're
supposed to deactivates this cheat.
2. Scroll the screen down so that it shows the very, very
bottom of the screen. Scroll all the way to the left.
3. Click ONCE in the far bottom and left area. You should
double your starting funds from $2 million to $4 million.
There, but I don't really consider this a cheat. I say a
cheat is a cheat when you can get infinite funds if you
want. But here is another that does not relate to money.
1. Start a new tower without a Lobby.
2. Click on the Lobby tool.
3. Build a new Lobby on the ground floor, but while doing
so, hold down Control while you click to get a two-
story Lobby.
4. Likewise, hole down Control and Shift to get a three-
story Lobby.
While this is not very healthy for your funds (it costs a
lot), it also drastically reduces the amount of anger Sims go through
while waiting for an elevator in the ground floor Lobby.
This concludes my SimTower FAQ (Frequently Asked Question). I
hope that you have enjoyed it to its fullest extent, and that it has
somewhat helped you to become a better SimTower architect. I had fun
typing this FAQ, and will probably type more to come. Look for other
FAQs from me in the future, I love strategy/simulation games like
SimCity 2000, Theme Hospital, SimFarm, and games like that. Farewell,
my friends.
+++
| Brad Stuart
| brad@cfar.umd.edu
| URL: http://www.cfar.umd.edu:80/~brad/
| SimTower FAQ, Diplomacy, Pinball links, and even some real work.
+++
SimTower FAQ version 0.5
Please send corrections/contributions to Brad Stuart .
This is the unofficial FAQ file for SimTower, including material from the
Macintosh version 1.1.
Contents
========
15 What are the system requirements?
14 "But the manual says ..."
13 What are the star level requirements/capabilities?
12 Where's the VIP?
11 How many stairs (or whatever) can I build?
10 Where can I get the Updater?
9 How can I contact Maxis?
8 The installer doesn't work on my Mac! I have a 68030!
7 Room Types
6 Elevators
5 Service Elevators
4 Express Elevators
3 Disasters
2 SimTower Demo
1 Easter Eggs
B1 Trivia
15. What are the system requirements?
SimTower requires a 68030 Mac or better to run. A 68040 is
"recommended." SimTower runs *native* on a PowerMac. 256 colors
are required. System 7.0 or above is required. SimTower is
compatible with System 7.5. The program uses up 4.5 meg of RAM.
RAMDoubler / SimTower are not compatible. I would place the blame
on the former, personally.
14. "But the Manual says ..."
The manual for SimTower gives many good guidelines, but many of the
figures are just plain wrong. The manual, no doubt, had to be printed
long before the game was ready, and many of the details of the program
changed right before release. The figures in this FAQ come from the
README files that come with the game, with the updater, and from
playing the game itself.
13. How do I get N stars?
The following table lists the requirements to reach a given
star level, and the new things you can build at that level. You start
the game with one star and $2,000,000.
Stars Population Other Requirements Building Enabled
===== ========== ================== ================
1 0 none Lobby,Stair,Floor
Office,Condo,Fast-Food
Elevator
2 300 none Single Room
Housekeeping,Security
Service Elevator
3 1000 1 security station Double Room, Suite
Retail, Restaurant
Express, Clinic,
Parking, Ramp, Recycling
Ballroom, Theatre
4 5000 VIP favor, 2 Suites, Metro
Medical, Recycling OK
5 10000 Metro placed, Cathedral
Medical, Recycling OK
TOWER Cathedral placed on 100
12. Where's the VIP?
In order to get from three to four stars, the VIP must rate your
building. But first, he must get there! He will want to stay in a
suite, so you should build at least two. You must also have
underground parking available for the hotel customers who pay the big
bucks. Putting the Suites near an express elevator, and serving the
underground parking with the same express elevator is sometimes a good
idea. If you don't like your express going underground, change it back
after you get your rating!
After you have everything in order for the VIP's visit, you will just
have to wait. After all, he's the VIP!
(As far as I know the VIP is always a *he*. MAXIS, you did that with
the mayor of SC2K, too.)
11. How Many Stairs (or whatever) can I Build?
The simulation has the following built-in limits (presumably to
make the game run at a tolerable speed).
Elevators (all kinds) 24 shafts total
Elevator Cars 8 cars per shaft
Stairs + Escalators 64
Named Sims 20
Security Stations 10
Medical Clinics 10
Theatres+Ballrooms 16
FastFood+Restaurants+Shops 512
Parking Spaces 512
Metro Station 1
Cathedral 1
Named Sims 20
10. The SimTower Updater
The SimTower Updater can be found on the Maxis BBS or the Maxis FTP
site. See "Contacting Maxis."
The updater takes care of :
1) Metro placement problems
2) Graphic glitches (the "metro crash")
3) Small monitors
4) Increased elevator capacity (from 17 to 21)
5) Rename businesses!
9. Contacting Maxis
The maxis FTP site is at: ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/ma/maxis
WWW access: ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/ma/maxis/http/maxis.html
Telephone access: 1-800-33-MAXIS
E-mail Access: ???
AOL Access: ???
8. The installer doesn't work on my Mac! I have a 68030!
From the "Read Me" that came with the updater:
SYSTEM 7.5 AND 68030 MACS: If you are running System 7.5, the SimTower
installer may report that your Mac is not a 68030 when it really is.
If the installer warns you of this, simply click the Continue button.
This will not affect the performance of the game.
SimTower won't work with RAMDoubler.
7. Room Types
The unit of width here is the size and shape of the "floor" tool.
Income and expenses are either daily (D), quarterly, (Q),
yearly (Y), or once only (!).
Type Width Price Income/expense Population
==== ===== ===== ============= ==========
Floor 1 500 0 0
Lobby 1 5k 0/0/-3/?/? (Y) 0
Stair 8 5k 0
Escalator 8 20k 5k (Q) 0
Office 9 40k 2-5-10-15k (Q) 6
Condo 16 80k 50-100-150-200k(!) 3
Single 4 20k 500-1500-2k-3k (D) 0-1
Double 6 50k 800-2k-3k-4500 (D) 0-2
Suite 10 100k 1500-4k-6k-9k (D) 0-2
Fast Food 16 100k (-3k)-2k-5k (D) 10-50
Restaurant 24 200k 4k-6k-10k (D) 10-
Retail Shop 12 100k 4k-10k-15k-20k (D) 20-50
Party Hall 24x2 100k 20k (D) 50
Theatre 31x2 500k ??? (D) 120
Cathedral 3 Million
Housekeeping 15 50k -10k (Y) not included
Security 16 100k -20k (Y) not included
Medical 26 500k 0 not included
Parking 4 3k 0
Ramp 16 50k -10k (Y)
Recycling 25x2 500k -50k (Y)
Metro ALL 1 Million -100k (Y)
Elevators: Capacity
Standard 4 200k+80k/car -10k/car (Q) 17 (21 in update)
Service 100k+50k/car -10k/car (Q) 17 (21 in update)
Express 6 400k+150k/car -20k/car (Q) 34 (42 in update)
7.1 Lobbies
Lobbies can only be placed on the first floor, and every fifteenth
floor after that. Residents will only change elevators on a lobby
floor, and even then, they will limit themselves to one change of
elevator. Your express elevators will stop in lobbies only. I have
experimented with putting shops on a lobby floor, along with part
of a lobby: it doesn't work well at all. It is much better to just
make the lobby the full width of the building.
At the higher star ratings (3+), you must pay to maintain the lobby.
I guess the Sims in the high-rent district want a new Van Gogh every
quarter.
The two floors above and below a lobby (13 - 17, for instance) are
prime real-estate for shops and fast food. Theatres and ballrooms can
be placed just outside this range.
Lobbies cost $5000 for a section the size of the floor tool. Add
another $500 for the floor itself. The lobby tool actually places 4
sections of lobby. Lobby sections can be built by dragging, but cannot
be destroyed.
7.2 Floor
The floor tool builds the basic structure of your building. Use it to
even out sections that didn't come out quite right, or to build whole
empty floors for later development (as retail space, for instance).
When you build other rooms in areas that haven't been built up before,
you are charged for the floor sections required, automatically. If you
have enough money to build the room, but not the floor it requires,
you will be told so by the program status bar.
Floor sections cost $500 for that little narrow piece the size of the
floor tool. Once built, floor sections cannot be destroyed.
7.3 Stairs / Escalators
Stairs are very useful for reducing the burden on your elevators.
They are even better when they are stacked up neatly, so Sims can
travel them with a minimum of frustration. Sims will go up or down
*three* flights of stairs to get where they want to go. A building
without elevators is very possible, but limited to four stories. One
quick way to get your second star is with a long lobby, one floor of
fast food, and two floors of offices. Put staircases every third or
fourth office, and away you go!
Staircases cost $5000, and can be built over the top of other types
of rooms (not over other transportation, though). They can support
a fairly small amount of traffic, but continuously.
Escalators become available with your third star. They can only be
erected between lobbies and retail levels, but, once erected, they
stay put regardless of what you do to the surrounding areas. They support
a large amount of traffic, and Sims prefer them to elevators when they
are available. The SimManual states that Sims will take the escalators
up to seven times, but I guess this number is closer to 5.
7.4 Office
Office space will be your bread and butter, making much of your cash
in the early parts of the game. Each office holds 6 workers, who like
to eat out at lunch time, and to leave work on time. Most of the work
of the game consists in getting people to and from their offices.
Office workers will complain about the noise if you mix them with
commercial establishments, such as fast food, retail, etc.
7.5 Condo
Condos are not rented, as offices and hotel rooms are. Instead, they
are purchased by their residents, giving you a big chunk of cash all
at once. Condos are also the lowest density use of your space, with
only three residents in a 16 meter piece of floor.
When you tear out a condo, you must first buy it back from its
owner. You are also obliged to buy it back if the residents move out.
7.6 Single / Double / Suite
Single and double hotel rooms can give you the most income for your
space. Single rooms are available once your tower gets 2 stars; the others
can be built after your third star. Suite rooms require one parking space
each.
7.7 Housekeeping
SimHousekeepers are very efficient, presumably because they want to
get back to their "soaps" as quickly as possible. Because of this,
they are also very reluctant to leave the housekeeping area to get out
and clean the rooms. Each housekeeping area has enough supply carts
for six housekeepers. These cleaning demons will fan out through your
hotel rooms, one per floor. Once finished with a floor, a housekeeper
will go to another floor, but only if there is not another housekeeper
from the same area on the floor. They gossip enough back at the base.
A housekeeper will not go to a floor which is more than 10 floors away
from the base.
(This last part needs to be double-checked. Anyone building maid
quarters in the basement?)
Your cleaning staff goes home at 5:00 on the dot. Any uncleaned rooms
will stay that way until the next day. Messy rooms are likely to be
infested with roaches, and require you to call the
bulldozer/exterminator to get rid of the problem. Housekeeping
sections cannot be demolished.
(How many singles can a housekeeper clean in a day?)
7.8 Security
I don't worry much about security, since I have only had one fire, and
no bomb threats. Since the game limits you to 10 security offices, I
think 1 for every 1000 residents is plenty. In the long run, I think
it's cheaper to pay the fire department when the time comes. Security
offices cannot be demolished. (One security station may prevent your
entire building from burning to the ground. You need one to get the
third star, anyway)
7.9 Fast Food / Restaurants
Fast food shops begin with 10 customers. These customers are
considered part of the population of your tower when the shop first
opens. When the shop closes at the end of the day, the income you
receive depends on the level of patronage that day in the shop.
Level Customers Income Population
===== ========= ====== ==========
Poor 0 - 24 -3k Decreases
Average 25 - 34 +2k Stays the same
Good 35 - 80 +5k Increases
Fast food income is posted at 9:00 p.m. Population from fast food is
calculated at 10:00 a.m., when the shops open. Placing a fast food
shop in the afternoon will cause the shop to post a loss of 3k for the
day. Place shops in the middle of the night or the early morning to
avoid this loss.
Restaurants cost more, hold more customers, and generate more profits.
7.10 Retail Shops
7.11 Ballroom
7.12 Theatre
7.13 Medical Clinic
7.14 Ramps / Parking
7.15 Recycling
After you reach the third star, you will need to do something about
removing the trash your sims generate. Since this is a modern tower,
you need to put in Recycling centers. At 500k each, and with a 50k/yr
maintenance fee, you won't be placing more of these than you need.
Does the service elevator need to reach the recycling center?
cbranson@gate.net (Craig Branson) Says:
I've tested this several times. Basically, place [recycling] out of
the way (I usuaully place it on B8). The only thing it requires is
placing a floor holder underground for it - no service elevator is
required, no road for the garbage trucks, no nothing (except
$500,000). Every once in a while, a garbage truck will come and pick
the trash up and leave. After a while, you'll need to build more
centers.
7.16 Metro
7.17 Cathedral
6. Elevators
As the foreword to the manual says, this game is a simulation of
elevators, and their use in getting people where they want to go.
Each elevator shaft can hold up to eight cars, and each car has a
limited capacity.
If people start getting on your elevator, going a few floors, and
getting right back on the elevator (only more angry), they aren't
finding a way to where they want to be. You may have just disabled
access to a floor, or removed a key staircase. Click on the people
with the magnifying glass, and see where they are trying to go. Then,
either make their way to the destination easy, or, if they are
"supposed" to be taking a different elevator, disable the problem
elevator's service to the floor where the sims are getting on. They
will go to the other elevator immediately. You can restore the
service if you want, or just leave it off.
5. Service Elevators
Service elevators are used to get your cleaning staff to the hotel
rooms. The manual claims that a service elevator must reach the
recycling center, but apparently, this isn't the case. See
Housekeeping, Recycling. "Civilians" will not use the service
elevator for any reason.
4. Express Elevators
Express elevators stop at the ground floor, all basement levels, and
every fifteenth above ground floor (1, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90). Sims
will take an express elevator to the sky lobby nearest their
destination, and take a local elevator from there. They won't change
elevators more than once. Many times, you will see a message like
"Sims on floor 66 need a path to floor 3." Sometimes, you can solve
these little problems by adding stairs from the nearest lobby;
sometimes there is nothing you can do about it.
3. Disasters
I have only had a single fire in one of my largest towers. I would
like to know how bad a fire/bombing can be.
2. SimTower Demo
I have not seen a demo, nor do I know of any in existence.
1. Easter Eggs
1.1 Hold down "option" as you place your first lobby section.
B1. Trivia
But a great game. You can tell its Japanese origin as the
language can be hear spoken during the office sound effect.
Something "gozaimasu."
David Lee at University of Washington
Loads of money
Start a new tower, save it, then exit to DOS and change to sim tower directory
(cd.., cd maxis,etc.). Then type debug[name of tower].tdt, now type "e 100 00 24
0* 00 85 ff ff 00" (replace the * with the star rating you want. finally, type w
then q to exit.When you reload your tower you should have tons of money, and the
star rating you wanted. Have Fun!
This Cheat works only for the Windows version Of Sim Tower.
It is a truly despicable way to get 5 stars & a little over $16 Billion in
cash. To use this cheat you must have a tower that is already saved.
Exit Windows and get into your C: prompt.
Go into your Sim Tower directory.
At your Sim Tower prompt type the following:
debug [name of tower].tdt
-e 102 5
-e 106 ff
-w
-q
Return to Windows, load the tower you just modified, and you now have the
world at your feet.
Несмотря на то, что вы работаете с изображением в разрезе, здание имеет и
глубину. Вы это легко заметите когда будете располагать на этаже ну скажем
офисы,
службы, а за ними другие службы. А лестницы, проходящие как бы через эти службы,
находятся перед ними, где коридор.
Также вы не должны забывать, что не сможете строить ничего больше чем "Холл".
Конечно вы сможете в любое время увеличить его размеры(Естественно финансовая
часть здесь играет далеко не последнюю роль).
Не забывайте также про аварийные лестницы! Это не просто дополнение к вашему
зданию, а скажем просто "помощь" вашим службам по борьбе с пожарами и поиском
заложенных террористами бомб.
То, что вы можете построить практически зависит от трех факторов: 1 - размера
холла; 2 - наличия наличности; 3 - "звездного" рейтинга. Повышение рейтинга
позволит строить вам большее количество различных служб.
СТРУКТУРЫ:
*
Lobby(холл) - 5000$ за секцию(4 секции одновременно если это возможно)
Empty Floor(пустой этаж) - 500$ за секцию
Stairs(лестница) - 5000$ каждая
Standart Elevators(стандартные лифты) - 200.000$ каждый
Office(офис) - 40.000$ каждый
Fast Food Place(пункт быстрого питания) - 100.000$ каждый
Condo(квартиры под продажу) - 80.000$ каждая
* *
Service Elevator(лифт обслуживания) - 100.000$
Singl Hotel Room(одноместный номер) - 20.000
Security(служба безопасности) - 100.000$
Нousekeeping(пункт обслуж. здания) - 50.000$
* * *
Escalator(эскалатор) - 20.000$
Express Elevator(экспресс-лифт) - 400.000$
Restaurant(ресторан) - 200.000$
Retail Shop(магазин) - 100.000$
Movie Theater(кинотеатр) - 500.000$
Party Hall(зал для вечеринок) - 100.000$
Twin Hotel Room(2-х местный номер) - 50.000$
Hotel Suite(номер-люкс) - 100.000$
Medical Center(медиц. центр) - 500.000$
Recycling Center(пункт обработки отходов) - 500.000$
Parking Spot(автостоянка) - 3.000$
Parking Ramp/Gate(съезд/въезд на автостоянку) - 50.000$
* * * *
Metro Station(станция метро) - 1.000.000$
* * * * *
Cathedral(cобор) - 3.000.000$
Следует учесть, что эти цены не включают в себя стоимость самого этажа, который
стоит 500$ за секцию. Когда вы помещаете структуру туда, где не был построен
этаж, вы автоматически оплачиваете всех нужных секций этажа.
ПОЛУЧЕНИЕ ЗВЕЗДНОГО РЕЙТИНГА:
Для перехода с 1 на 2 звездочки нужна заселенность 300 человек;
Для перехода с 2 на 3 звездочки нужна засел. в 1000 человек плюс более 1 службы
безопасности;
Для перехода с 3 на 4 звездочки нужна засел. в 5000 человек + более одного
номера-люкс, удовлетворение потребностей в мед. центрах и пунктах обработки
отходов, рейтинг одобрения "очень важной" персоны(VIP);
Для перехода с 4 на 5 звездочек - заселенность в 10.000 человек + станция метро
и удовлетворение всех запросов арендаторов;
Для перехода с 5 в рейтинг "TOWER" - заселенность в 15.000 человек и Собор, в
котором прошла свадьба(они бывают только в конце недели).
ОГРАНИЧЕНИЯ:
Максимальное количество служб и структур:
Шахты лифтов - 24
Количество кабин на шахту лифта - 8
Лестницы/эскалаторы - 64
Пункты быстрого питания/магазины/рестораны - 512
Автостоянки - 512
Медицинские центры - 10
Службы безопасности - 10
Театры/залы для вечеринок - 16
Станция метро - 1
Собор - 1
Люди, которым вы можете дать имена - 20
Заведения, которым вы можете дать названия - 20
Такие структуры, как пункты обслуживания здания, обработки отходов, служба
безопасности, станция метро и собор - после своего размещения не могут быть
удалены со своего места!
Александр Тураев.
Two-story lobby:
Hold [Ctrl] when placing the first lobby section.
Three-story lobby:
Hold [Ctrl] + [Shift] when placing the first lobby section.
Start with $4 million:
Begin a new game and attempt to place a lobby section all the way to the
bottom and the left of the edit screen.
Automatic removal:
Hold [Shift] when placing a new unit over an existing item.
Extra money:
Use the magnifying glass to click on the condo that is marked "For Sale". A
message similar to "The conditions are terrible" will appear.. Click on the
current price, and lower it to $4,000. The comments will disappear, but do not
exit. Immediately after the price has been lowered, increase it to $20,000.
Note: This trick can also be used with other rooms, such as offices, hotel
rooms, and the small retail shops.
Treasure chest:
Place three adjacent stores on level B3 to collect a treasure chest with
money.
Nudie bar
Go to level 69 and type nudie when you build a lobby there, then click on the
building to double the amount of money you get from it.