This file contains some important corrections and last-minute information for SimTower. Please read it—it'll make playing SimTower easier and more fun. The information in this file is organized in four sections:
I. Manual Corrections (a couple of last-second changes)
II. Simulation Information (more on what's going on inside the computer)
III. Civil Engineering 101 (how to build a biiiiiiiig tower)
IV. Technical Hints (memory and system hints)
*** I. Manual Corrections ***
Here are a few corrections to the SimTower documentation:
On page 44 (Tenant Window), the manual shows you how to rename a person in your tower. It neglects to mention that you can also rename the spaces that are leased in your tower. Try it! Click on an office to open the Facilities Window. Click the "Rename" button, and type "Maxis." By clicking the "Rename" button again, you will have named your office Maxis.
Pages 51 and 52 (Elevators) refer to the maximum capacities of elevators. Due to customer feedback, we decided to increase the capacity of the elevators. The maximum capacity of the Standard Elevator is now 21 people, and the Express Elevator is 42.
On page 58 (VIP section), the manual refers to a yellow box around the suite that the VIP will visit. There is no yellow box...but the VIP will be marked by a yellow silhouette instead of the normal black, blue or red one.
On page 20 (Tutorial), it says that the Housekeeping room is located under the security button. It moved when nobody was looking. The Housekeeping button is now located under the single hotel room button.
The first page of the addendum says that SimTower will not run in "native mode" on a PowerMac. Not true! SimTower takes full advantage of the PowerPC chip inside PowerMacs, and is significantly accelerated.
*** II. Simulation Information ***
LIMITS TO NAMED SIMS: In the Find Person Window, the maximum number of Sims that can be named at any one time is twenty. This also applies to the number of spaces that can be named.
LIMITS TO CERTAIN FACILITIES: In Simtower, a giant skyscraper requires a lot of variety in the types of rooms and facilities it has. There is, however a limit to the amount of some of these facilities that can be placed. Here's a list of the upper limits of facilities:
Medical Center - 10
Security - 10
Elevator Shafts - 24
Cars Per Shaft - 8
Stairs/Escalator - 64 Total
Theatre/Party Hall - 16 Total
Fast Food/Restaurant/Shops - 512 Total
Parking Spaces - 512 Total
Cathedral - 1
Metro Station - 1
PRICING INFORMATION: Here are the prices of items and actions available in SimTower:
Bulldozing: Free!!!
Lobby: $5,000 per section
Empty Floor: $500 per section
Escalators: $20,000 each
Stairs: $5,000 each
Normal Elevators: $200,000 each
Service Elevators: $100,000 each
Express Elevators: $400,000 each
Offices: $40,000 each
Fast Food: $100,000 each
Restaurants: $200,000 each
Shops: $100,000 each
Movie Theaters: $500,000 each
Party Halls: $100,000 each
Single Hotel Rooms: $20,000 each
Double Hotel Rooms: $50,000 each
Hotel Suites: $100,000 each
Condos: $80,000 each
Medical Center: $500,000 each
Security: $100,000 each
Housekeeping: $50,000 each
Recycling Centers: $500,000 each
Parking Spots: $3,000 each
Parking Gate/Ramps: $50,000 each
Metro Station: $1,000,000
Cathedral: $3,000,000
*Note* These are the costs if you place the item on an existing empty floor. They don't include the cost of the floor itself (which is another $500 per section). When you place an item where a floor has not yet been built, you are automatically charged for the necessary floor sections, which depend on the size of the item you place.
*** III. Civil Engineering 101 ***
This section is filled with helpful hints on building towers bigger, better, faster and easier. It was compiled from the experience of our group of SimTower testers.
WARNING: If you're one of those people who likes to figure everything out by yourself, don't read this and skip to the Technical Hints section below! (Or give it a try on your own first, then come back and read this.)
Upon obtaining a three-star rating, your tenants will ask for Parking Spaces and Medical Centers. As a rule of thumb, you'll need:
1 Parking Space for every 4 Offices;
1 Parking Space for every Suite; and
1 Medical Center for every 10 Offices or Condos.
VIPs won't visit until you reach at least a three-star rating.
Terrorists only do their dirty deeds to buildings with two-, three- and four-star ratings.
Fires occur only after your building has enough people in it that might become careless—a 3-star rating or above.
Lobbies, Cathedral, Security, Metro Station, Recycling Centers and Housekeeping cannot be destroyed (bulldozed) once they are placed.
In the early stages of tower-building, try to keep your initial normal elevators to only fifteen floors. Beyond that, use the express elevators to move your Sims to higher levels, and connect those levels with normal elevators that service only the 15 floors between express elevator stops.
Since you are limited to 24 elevators in a tower, it is possible to run out in a really huge tower. If this happens to you, you'll need to replace some of your elevators. Use express elevators strategically to cover the full height of the building, extend normal elevators to their maximum of 30 floors and space them out carefully.
In addition to reaching the population marks, promotions to higher star-ratings require additional items or situations (milestones) to be fulfilled. Here's a complete breakdown:
STAR RATING POPULATION MILESTONE
1 to 2 300 None.
2 to 3 1,000 More than one security office placed.
3 to 4 5,000 More than one suite room;
Recycling and medical demand met;
and VIP rates your building favorably.
4 to 5 10,000 Metro placed; and
Recycling and Medical demand met.
5 to Tower ------ Cathedral placed.
Condo owners and Hotel visitors are really sensitive to noise from other facilities on the same floor (there is good sound insulation between floors). Unfortunately, even one-pixel ear plugs are too big to fit into Sims' ears. The best way to keep your Condo and Hotel tenants happy is to build floors with nothing but Condos and other floors with nothing but Hotel rooms. (Condo dwellers and Hotel visitors even bother each other.) If you must mix Condos and Hotel rooms with other facilities, then you'll need to leave some empty floorspace between them. A space of 120 pixels keeps Hotel visitors happy, and 240 pixels keeps Condo dwellers isolated enough.
The cost of Lobbies can be confusing. The Lobby price is listed as $5,000, but when you place it, you are charged $20,000. This is because each Lobby section costs $5,000, but when there is room, four Lobby sections are placed at once. This lets you build your Lobbies quickly. The ability to place only one or two Lobby sections at a time lets you fill in those small blanks.
*** IV. Technical Hints ***
MEMORY TRICK: The Preferred Memory Size is set to 4500 KB. This setting will work on computers with as little as 4 MB of RAM if virtual memory is in use. If you have a computer with 8 MB or more, you may want to increase the Preferred size (to 5000 KB, for example), which will give SimTower more memory so you can build bigger towers without sacrificing the speed you lose when you use virtual memory. To increase the Preferred size:
Single-Click on the SimTower icon in the Finder.
Open the File menu and select Get Info to open the SimTower Info window.
Highlight the number 4500 in the box next to the words "Preferred size."
Type in a new number (5000).
Close the Info window.
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.
RAM DOUBLER: There seems to be a conflict between SimTower and a utility called RAM Doubler. RAM Doubler "fakes" your Macintosh into believing that it has more RAM than is really installed. Unfortunately, it does not seem to "fake" SimTower. If you experience problems playing SimTower with RAM Doubler installed, we recommend that you remove or disable RAM Doubler. If you find that you do not have enough memory (RAM) to play SimTower, use the Memory Control Panel to turn Virtual Memory on. Please see the SimTower Manual Addendum for more information about Virtual Memory.
