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~Quick stilted foundation guide to fitting lots onto water~

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JoolsterJoolster Posts: 6,417 Member
edited March 8 in Nominated Threads
How about that new patch, eh? It brought stilts among other awesome stuff like the ladder stairs and pretty patterns and terrains!

Despite my excitement, I was quite disappointed with how the stilts/terrain level interact. They are really not that different from normal foundation in this respect - if you download someone's beautiful stilted house and decide to place it on water, you'll be faced with ugly raised ground because chances are you will not choose the same exact slot where the creator built their house.

I'm sure a lot of you skilled creators would not have an issue with fitting the lot onto water, however, for my less builder-savvy friends out there, this is a quick guide to leveling any lot (built on new stilts) onto any piece of "water" land.

I've prepared this random little hut trio thing on a 20x20 perfectly leveled ground, on top of wooden stilts.

[img]http://imageshack.us/a/img7/218/tzo3.jpg "width=640" "height=480"[/img]

Now if I want to place it on a random water lot, this happens:

[img]http://imageshack.us/a/img853/7168/ot3f.jpg "width=640" "height=480"[/img]

I tried to use the "SetImportedTerrainOffset" cheat to lower the lot but it refused to work. Plus I'd have to manually soften the terrain since it's sloping anyway, so it's not such a big deal.

Grab the "level terrain" tool and drag it across the entire lot, starting from one of the corner tiles.

[img]http://imageshack.us/a/img268/1158/7fid.png "width=640" "height=480"[/img]

[img]http://imageshack.us/a/img850/5621/9yr3.png "width=640" "height=480"[/img]

It looks a bit better but still a little crazy. Grab the "lower terrain" tool and softly lower the ground.

[img]http://imageshack.us/a/img839/7020/yck.png "width=640" "height=480"[/img]

Almost there. Now grab the "soften terrain" tool and work your way through the entire lot, making the as close to the original water level.

And voila! It looks so much better. :D

[img]http://imageshack.us/a/img18/8302/ryfs.jpg "width=640" "height=480"[/img]

[img]http://imageshack.us/a/img191/9515/qbwj.jpg "width=640" "height=480"[/img]

~

And if your chosen lot happens to place a bit too low on a water land piece, choose the "soften terrain" tool and work your way through the whole lot again.

[img]http://imageshack.us/a/img845/5006/nhy.png "width=640" "height=480"[/img]

[img]http://imageshack.us/a/img833/9199/c0o.png "width=640" "height=480"[/img]
Post edited by EA_Solaire on

Comments

  • judywork1957judywork1957 Posts: 6,594 Member
    edited June 2013
    Wow Thanks so much for that info and guide! I hadn't even thought of that problem?!!! I was too excited about getting the option to do it, hadn't even worried about how it was going to work yet! :?
  • JoolsterJoolster Posts: 6,417 Member
    edited June 2013
    No problemo, I was going to re-build a certain Sunlit Tides community lot on stilts instead of the old foundation and decided to see how the stilted foundation looks on a water lot if it's originally built on a smooth surface. :mrgreen:
  • sunsetsorbetsunsetsorbet Posts: 3,171 Member
    edited June 2013
    Thanks for the tutorial. Can't wait to see what you build!
    My SimblrMy ShowcaseMy StudioMy Page
    tumblr_inline_ncxfq7fK9U1t2rf78.png
    (no ts3 wishlist, because I own the store)
  • GraceyManorGraceyManor Posts: 20,079 Member
    edited June 2013
    That's a cute lot. :mrgreen:

    And that's kind of dumb how it works, obviously if someone is downloading something they either don't like building(such as myself) or don't have the time to build their own.
  • JoolsterJoolster Posts: 6,417 Member
    edited June 2013
    That's a cute lot. :mrgreen:

    And that's kind of dumb how it works, obviously if someone is downloading something they either don't like building(such as myself) or don't have the time to build their own.

    You're totally right, I was a little annoyed by this. I can see someone downloading a lovely lot, placing it on water, getting raised ground and thinking "Well, never mind, this looks ugly" and deleting the lot. :(
  • yanti68yanti68 Posts: 19,017 Member
    edited June 2013
    Thanks for explaining that Joolster. It would help a lot of people who will be downloading houses on water. :D
  • k2m1took2m1too Posts: 3,128 Member
    edited June 2013
    Thanks for the info! :thumbup: Raised/Lowered lots are enough of a pain on dry land!
  • springfallsspringfalls Posts: 961 Member
    edited June 2013
    Great tips Joolster :D
  • SnowmoonSnowmoon Posts: 3,437 Member
    edited June 2013
    Thank you, thank you!
    Find my builds under Evie_Snowmoon in the Gallery!
  • GreenCatsGreenCats Posts: 9,318 Member
    edited June 2013
    Thanks very much for this, Joolster! xx
    You can still find me on my old My page (http://mypage.thesims3.com/mypage/GreenCats), and see more of my game-play pictures and CC-free uploads at gcsims.com
  • JoolsterJoolster Posts: 6,417 Member
    edited June 2013
    You're welcome guys. :D
  • simhead70simhead70 Posts: 614 Member
    edited June 2013
    Thank you Joolster. This is most useful. :D
    b141edb2-262e-48c6-a432-99db802758b0_zpspfbmwyih.jpg
  • KariussaKariussa Posts: 968 Member
    edited June 2013
    Thanks for the guide!! :-)
  • NanatoriumNanatorium Posts: 3,445 Member
    edited June 2013
    Joolster wrote:
    That's a cute lot. :mrgreen:

    And that's kind of dumb how it works, obviously if someone is downloading something they either don't like building(such as myself) or don't have the time to build their own.

    You're totally right, I was a little annoyed by this. I can see someone downloading a lovely lot, placing it on water, getting raised ground and thinking "Well, never mind, this looks ugly" and deleting the lot. :(

    First, thanks so much for this info! It will help immensely!

    For now, I think if I'm uploading a stilted lot placed on water to the Exchange, I will include the World and Address that the lot was originally built on, as well as a link to this thread in the description. Hopefully that will help people who don't otherwise know about this issue.
  • KarritzKarritz Posts: 21,900 Member
    edited June 2013
    joolster

    Thank you. I can't tell you how excited I am to learn a new cheat. SetImportedTerrainOffset does exactly what I was looking for.

    I spent a few days making a wonderful castle high on a mountain top in Dragon Valley. Then people were asking me to load to to the Exchange so I put it onto a flat lot in Sunlit Tides and disaster. It was sunk about 3 levels down and constrainfloorelevation did part of what I wanted but it just made a mess. So I spent a day trying to dig all the lost objects out of the depths of where they'd vanished to until I finally worked out that it wasn't going to work. Then I spent a few hours yesterday rebuilding on a flat lot. But the rebuild was never going to have the character of the original.

    Then this morning I came across a link to this thread in crinricts IP Bug thread and found out about SetImportedTerrainOffset cheat. I knew there had to be something that would do the job.

    I found instructions that worked for me on a blog by oumamea-the-sims3

    It was a combination of constrinfloorelevation and SetImportedTerrainOffet cheats.

    Now I will play with my castle and see what else I can do to it and test it by putting it into a few other worlds. If all goes well it will go onto the Exchange in a few weeks.
  • KarritzKarritz Posts: 21,900 Member
    edited June 2013
    I hit a problem that I think may be a bug. Is it something that is known about as I'm new to this.

    I got my castle into the lot and all was good.

    I moved my family into the castle from the library bin, and all the objects in it sank below ground (or floor) level.

    I tried again several times with different sims including a freshly made sim. Always the same result. All objects sink below ground level as soon as sim in on the lot.

    So I tried placing my Sim into a different lot and used the phone to move the sim into my castle and it worked. All objects appear to be fine. I did find one rock wall floating - but everything else seems good.
  • marystarbrightmarystarbright Posts: 2,859 Member
    edited June 2013
    :P Hi joolster,

    :mrgreen:Love your build it is gorgeous and Thank You for the guide :mrgreen:.

    I wanted to ask if you figured out what this means "Holding down the Alt key while dragging out a foundation will now make a single step height foundation."? I can not figure out how to get it to work
    :P
  • JoolsterJoolster Posts: 6,417 Member
    edited June 2013
    Nanatorium, good idea. I personally will just be including the link to this tutorial in the description of all my stilted lots I think.

    Karritz, objects should automatically adjust to the height of the terrain. What happens if you select the hammer tool and drag it all over the lot, removing everything, then undo? Do the objects return back to their normal places or are they still sinking?

    Mary, thank you. :D

    Yap, the single-step foundation looks exactly like "Platform". It's super low, but as a foundation, it should work better on ground if the terrain is uneven.

    If you select the foundation tool, press ALT (and keep it pressed) and build a foundation, you'll notice that it's creating a very low foundation.

    hoq.png
  • BakingNerdBakingNerd Posts: 3,932 Member
    edited June 2013
    Hi Joolster! Thanks for this really helpful tutorial! I have just built my first lot on the new platforms and was worried about downloaders finding it hard to place the lot. I've linked to this wonderful tutorial in the description of my lot in case they do have trouble. :)
  • JoolsterJoolster Posts: 6,417 Member
    edited June 2013
    Glad you found it useful BN. :D
  • KarritzKarritz Posts: 21,900 Member
    edited June 2013
    Joolster wrote:
    Karritz, objects should automatically adjust to the height of the terrain. What happens if you select the hammer tool and drag it all over the lot, removing everything, then undo? Do the objects return back to their normal places or are they still sinking?

    I had to wait all day to try this out. Of course I have a castle that is 5 floors high above ground and has 2 basement levels.

    I tried the hammer tool but I was never going to remove all of that in under a dozen attempts. So I gave up.

    Then I tried the series of cheats again. TestingCheatsEnabled True followed by ConstrainFloorElevation False and SetImportedTerrainOffset 2.3 Then turned off the ConstrainFloorElevation and TestingCheatsEnabled cheats. The placed the castle onto the flat lot. This resulted in the castle being placed on the lot level with the surrounding lots. Without the cheats there is at least one floor level drop from the street to the lot ground level. Sims can't negotiate that.

    I turned off the SetIimportedTerrainOffset cheat and moved my sims in from the Library bin and it all seems to have stayed normal this time. With the exception of the floating rock barrier wall. So I deleted that as they don't need it.

    There was even some cooking partly done in the kitchen that I couldn't delete. I told one of the Sims to clean it up and she did - so it is all good.

    I didn't do anything different that I did previously on two separate days and over and over again for a couple of hours each time. So I don't know why it works now and didn't then.

    Thank you for your suggestions.

    BTW: This is some of the stuff that's been sinking below ground level. Plus whatever is inside the buildings and hanging on the walls. It's been very frustrating for a few days. I hope it really is fixed now.

    Screenshot-8_zps1a3827fe.jpg
  • JoolsterJoolster Posts: 6,417 Member
    edited June 2013
    Hmm I'm not sure how I can help, I've never had anything like that happened. I sometimes have an issue with odd roof/window raises but it's always due to the terrain level being off after CFE use.

    Is rebuilding the castle from scratch an option? It must have taken a whole lot of time to build in the first place, but perhaps that's the way to go to ensure you objects don't keep sinking? Make sure you build it on the flattest surface possible and with CFE cheats off completely (unless needed for building something) to attempt to avoid the sinking bug.

    I can't really tell what's going on exactly from the screenshot and I'd offer to look at it in my game but I do not have DV so half of the objects would disappear.
  • CatherynBlueCatherynBlue Posts: 1,550 New Member
    edited June 2013
    Thank you very much for posting this, Joolster! It will help a lot of people out! :D x
  • GlenkarriGlenkarri Posts: 2,181 Member
    edited June 2013
    Thanks so much for sharing this with us all :D
  • yanti68yanti68 Posts: 19,017 Member
    edited June 2013
    Here is a useful guide for houseboats both in game and in CAW. Posted by SimguruGraham. :D Thanks SimguruGraham!

    http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/690014.page

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