Sanguine Towers - NO CC

Before you start playing this lot, READ THE NOTES IN THE LAST SECTION. They explain how to make a few of the tricks I've used here actually functional in your game!

SimCity Chronicle, October 13, 1922.

Sanguine Towers Completed in Parkside Neighborhood, Accepting Tenant Applications

The newest modern skyscraper to grace SimCity's skyline has just been completed. Designed by renowned neo-gothic architect Abraham Harker, this tower boasts all the latest in design innovations and staffing, from round-the-clock elevator operator service to modern plumbing in all apartments. At the request of the unnamed benefactors of the project, Mr. Harker has also worked with organists from the greatest musical conductors in the city to create one of the largest privately owned concert spaces in the city. This venue is complete with a full pipe organ for the entertainment of its residents, rivaling those found in the finest cathedrals of the old world. The penthouse has been reserved in perpetuity for the building's owners and benefactors, who wish to remain anonymous, but interested parties for all other units are invited to present themselves to the offices of the Sanguine Foundation. (N.B.: Due to ongoing scheduling issues, the foundation regrets that it is unable to be open during normal business hours, but invites clients to present themselves any time after 6pm.)



April 3, 1939

-To my dearest Elizabeth-

I have found the most wonderful flat to call home during my studies here. The windows look out east across the park and each morning I can watch the sun rising across the river before I leave for my classes. I have met many of the other tenants in the few weeks that I have been living here, and they seem the most delightful people. The building owners are the only ones to still seem a total mystery. I never see them, and neither it seems do any of my neighbors. But who can fathom the lives of such people as them anyway? They clearly enjoy their lives, as I often hear music echoing down the elevator shaft, and looking back towards here from an evening stroll with a gentleman friend (I'll tell you more of him in my next letter, mon cherie!), I saw lights and movement of a fine party. I look forward to your visit next season, there are several restaurants that you simply must visit!

-Your loving sister. Mary

(P.S. This is a wonderful flat, but I still fear I haven't grown used to being on my own in the city without a chaperone! Each night I feel as though footsteps are passing by behind the bookcase in my room! I'm sure I'm just being daft... there mustn't be anything behind it but the workings of the elevator... right?)



POLICE REPORT 31-10-1957

SimCity Police responded last night to an All Hallows' Eve party at the public house of Sanguine Towers after reports of a missing person. The public house was hosting a large gathering in observance of the holiday, and at approx. 11:25pm Mr. Abraham Stoker was reported missing by his friends. The group had been celebrating in one of the public house's 2nd floor booths for approx. 3 hours when Mr. Stoker left the table to purchase the next round of drinks. When he did not return, others in the group went looking for him, but he was not in the bar or the 3rd floor pool hall, nor in the Halloween Concert being held in the pipe organ hall located in the same building. Concertgoers reported seeing him waiting for the elevator with a pale individual in what was described as a very formal costume, but a search of the public areas of the building yielded no results. Police are asking anyone with knowledge of Mr. Stoker's whereabouts to come forward.

From the journal of Mr. Arthur Westenra, October 9th, 1984

I worry about these rent increases... it seems like the owners of this building are just intent on bleeding us dry if they can get away with it. Lucy and I chose this building because even though it was a little more expensive than some of the other apartments we were looking at, it's getting harder and harder to find a place that has this kind of historic character anymore. I mean, when was the last time you saw a new building going up with gargoyles or that kind of old-school Gothic spire that we've got TWO of? It used to be pretty great living in one of the buildings that was always featured in those tourist guides you always buy whenever anyone wants to visit SimCity...not anymore. And the worst part is, I think there's something wrong with the building, or at least the apartments on the south side. Lots of the tenants have been looking really pale and sickly as of late, and a few of them who've tried moving out have actually died before they were able to find somewhere else. It used to be a bit of a joke that this tower was cursed somehow, but with the fact that it's bleeding us dry to keep up with the rent, and it's literally making people sick to live here... I don't know, maybe there's something to it...



Transcription of Session notes of Dr. A. V. Helsing, M.D., D.Ph., D.Lett., etc, January 20, 2017 w/ patient R. M. Renfield, MMMC Psychiatric Dept.

Renfield appeared in even greater agitation than is his usual custom during our session this week. His anemia has improved dramatically since his admittance as an in-patient to the MMMC psychiatric ward, so there may be some medically legitimate concerns about the conditions in the Sanguine Towers apartment building. (N.B. forward to city health inspector) That being said, his claims are particularly outlandish, and as his physical condition has improved, his insistence on these theories has only grown stronger. Today he maintained that there was a cavern below the building in which some sort of dark rituals were performed, based on the fact that he could smell the incense and candle-wax through the air vents. I pointed out that living in as large a city as SimCity, one is likely to encounter all sorts of smells, and that there were many possible explanations for this other than the supernatural. At this he returned to his theory from our previous sessions, that the building owners were in fact vampires (he seems to draw much of his understanding of vampirism from classic literature) who only ran the building to ensure that they had a steady income and a steady supply of fresh blood, both from the building's tenants. (N.B. contact City Hall for building ownership records during business hours) I reminded him once again that many building owners retain properties because of their potential for rental income, and may not even live on site, so the fact that he has not personally met these anonymous owners is, once again, hardly evidence of supernatural activity. I recommended that we consider a different course of medication starting this month, as his current regimen is clearly not having the desired effect. This met with the expected resistance, and Mr. Renfield once again became almost violent in his insistence that he was perfectly sane and knew his business. (N.B. I will plan to visit Sanguine Towers prior to our next session so as to have a direct point of comparison with Mr. Renfield's claims. I hardly expect to encounter the vampires of which he speaks, but perhaps there is some psychological trigger we have yet to uncover.)



When vampires first entered into the cultural zeitgeist as more than a folk legend, with the publication of tales like Bram Stoker's Dracula, they functioned as a critique of Victorian attitudes towards sexuality and the profane. That allegory has dropped away but hasn't really been replaced by anything new, leaving vampires as just another supernatural being to people fantasy stories with. Yet it seems to me that the bloodsucking, life-draining forces of vampires, coupled with the immortality they are possessed of setting them above the laws of us mere mortals, seems to me to make them a perfect allegory for the super-wealthy, and so it seems to make a lot of sense to create a vampire's penthouse in a building suited explicitly for them to drain the lifeblood and bank accounts of the unfortunate mortal Sims who take up residence within.

To emphasize that point on this lot, some of what I've included should be pretty obvious. The overall effect of the building and its public spaces isn't exactly cheery- lots of gargoyles, gothic tracery, and gray stone on the outside, and red leather and dark wood on the inside, with lots of candles and red light. Pipe organs are likewise associated with the occult and so a pipe organ makes a fitting addition to the public space as well.

The more important aspects of the tower's vampiric leanings are more hidden, however. You'll notice the crypt in the basement right away. The trick here is how it actually works. To be considered part of the same apartment as the penthouse, it can't be directly connected by an elevator, so there is a spiral staircase running all the way from the penthouse down to the crypt. LOCK THE DOOR AT THE BOTTOM OF THE STAIRCASE FOR ALL SIMS. Your Vampire Sims should never actually use it to go between the penthouse and the crypt- instead, they'll use their- gasp PRIVATE ELEVATOR!!! That's right, I figured out how to make a private elevator work! All it takes is blocking off the entrance to the elevator with the AL floor edging! That way the game views it as not part of the apartment, but with the stairwell locked, your Sims will route right over the edging and take their very own private elevator!

A similar trick is used for the other subtle way in which this lot is specially tailored for bloodsucking fiends. You'll notice the top of the stairwell doesn't come to a door- instead, it's blocked by a revolving bookcase. Likewise, you'll notice revolving bookcases between that stairwell and every apartment on the righthand side of the building. On each side of those bookcases is that same old helpful AL edging, making the bookcases actually part of the "public" space in this lot, but is only reachable after entering either the penthouse or the appropriate apartment (this also means they always show up, rather than fading away like other objects do inside inactive apartments). In-game, this means that your haemophagic undead can actually sneak into the apartments of the tenants living below them without going through the indignity of using the door... say, late at night while their prey sleeps... (NOTE: Your Sims can enter the apartment through the bookshelves, but furnishings and Sims too (I think) won't appear unless they come through the front door. The reverse is also true though- if a Sim enters through the front door and then leaves via the secret bookcase door, the furnishings in that apartment won't DISappear. As a result, I recommend having a Sim from your vampire family introduce themselves to all the tenants on the righthand side of the building, and then leave their apartments via the bookshelves, so that you'll actually have things to interact with when your vampires are doing their nocturnal 'harvesting.')

Finally, not relevant for vampire-related gameplay, but the only 'bars' on the lot are those in the public bar off the lobby, so if you have any Sims hire a bartender through the phone, those service Sims will go straight to work serving up drinks downstairs!

And now to the technical details. Like so many others, this is a big lot (hard to make a skyscraper that isn't!), and especially if you're playing with half the apartments always visible like I've suggested, it'll be a lot to render for your GPU, so it may play a bit slower than other lots. The total value of the lot comes to $1,312,407, so there's a lot of stuff here just in general! I've tested all the unique aspects of this lot on a clone, and found no major issues with routing AS LONG AS YOU LOCK THE DOOR AT THE BOTTOM OF THE STAIRWELL. Because of the way the game defines apartments, the upper sections of the walkway in the penthouse are not considered part of the same apartment, so you won't be able to recolor walls or ceiling tiles once families are moved in- if you want to change anything, do it while the lot is still unoccupied.

As always, no CC was used anywhere on this lot, so there's nothing more you'll have to go hunting after to start playing with your Wall Street vampires once you've downloaded this lot! If you do run into trouble with anything, let me know and I'll do my best to address it!

Oh, and one final thing...

I'M BACK!!!

Lot Size: 3x2
Lot Price (furnished): $1,436 - $13,774