@MiaSkywalker What's funny is, being from the PNW, I *love* the rain! Gloomy to some, but an excuse to stay inside and be cozy with tea and cats to me! Also, I associate the rain with our lovely greenery, and I love the music it makes on my roof
I lived in the PNW for six years. No, I didn't live; I existed. I moved there for work; after six years I got laid off, so I moved back to my childhood home. And boy, was I glad for it. I have friends here, and an actual social life (what I want of one; I'm fairly non-social, so don't go out much), and am actually HAPPY here. I'm one of those who needs lots of sunshine or I get depressed.
Occasionally I will play a game where I only turn on Spring and Summer. Sometimes I will play all four seasons, but I set the temperatures and climate (using Nraas Tempest) to temperate, to match what I'm used to in real life. Other times I will play with all four seasons, and just turn off rain and hail. (But leave snow and fog turned on.) My Christmas game is set so that all of the seasons except winter are short. Part of that is mood, part of that is the fact that those weather types tend to make the game hard to see for me. (I also think they really overdo it on the rain. EA is in SoCal, so I really don't get the overdone rain. Maybe it was someone's wishful thinking, since we've been in drought mode here for years.)
Yes, the PNW is lovely and green. In fact, that was why I was initially willing to move up there; I visited to see the place I was going to work at, and fell in love with the area. But... I'm not one of those who does well without much sunshine, as I learned while living there. I really need the sun. Maybe it's my Greek heritage, maybe it's because I'm part American Indian. I don't know, but I do know that I've been a lot happier back here again.
The building part is DONE **tosses confetti**
Now I have to thoroughly test & take pictures... with a week to go before gifting, I'll be done and caught up with you super fast builders soon! LOL
@ADWilson LOL! It helps that my build was also super-small, so don't worry about that. You're cramming a ton of stuff into this build, it's going to take longer!
Also, I'm still play testing mine and reconsidering a thing or two, which reminds me again, @ciane did you want any upgrades done to fireplace/appliances or did you want me to leave that for you?
@Ciane: I checked, and you're absolutely right; using the basement tool costs absolutely nothing. Thinking about it, I believe I've figured out what my problem is. When I'm building, I try to go for efficiency whenever possible. Most stairs, if you have multiple levels, take up a lot of space. Me being the pragmatist that I am, I prefer the circular stairs, because they have the smallest footprint. First off, they only use four squares, where the regular staircase uses six, and has some peculiar requirements for spaces at each end. To me, the landing points on the spiral stairs are more logical. Also, they stack, so you don't lose even more space when building multiple floors. Of course, I could use elevators, but the regular elevator uses six squares, and they aren't appropriate for the historical types of builds I usually build.
What I've found over time is that the spiral stairs have an odd glitch, and you can't really stack them going downward. If you have a spiral stair on your main floor going to the second floor, for instance, you can't usually place the exact stairs right below them, if building a basement underneath. Sometimes I can do it, but usually I can't, even when the stairs are facing the same direction and lined up perfectly. So what I've found is that it's simpler to start at the bottom and stack going upwards.
The problem with this is that this means I have to plan my basements in advance, at least if I'm considering expanding downward eventually. So it makes sense to create basements going all the way down, then placing each of the stairs starting at the bottom, and using the shift key to duplicate them as you go up. But me, being the OCD person I am, always paints floors, walls (both sides), and ceilings on every level. I can't leave them unfinished; it would bother me too much. It's THAT which costs the extra funds.
What I could do in the future if I am really concerned about funds is to only make a tiny basement on the lowest levels, just large enough to fit the stairs in. Then I won't worry about expanding until my Sim is living there and earns sufficient money. After all, that's usually what those levels would be waiting for, anyway; that, and additional family members.
@MiaSkywalker Yeah, with spiral stairs you have to start at the bottom and go up, weird how they did that. You can stack straight stairs but there are two things to pay attention to - the direction of the arrows on the empty lot when placed factor in, so if you stack them directly on top of one another you have to face them in the direction of those arrows which is a pain to remember which way they went so I never do that. Instead I offset the bottom stair by one square so they stack over three of the four segments, so a bit more compact than otherwise. Not as compact as the spiral but sometimes straight just works better in the design.
@Ciane:
What I've found over time is that the spiral stairs have an odd glitch, and you can't really stack them going downward. If you have a spiral stair on your main floor going to the second floor, for instance, you can't usually place the exact stairs right below them, if building a basement underneath. Sometimes I can do it, but usually I can't, even when the stairs are facing the same direction and lined up perfectly. So what I've found is that it's simpler to start at the bottom and stack going upwards.
The problem with this is that this means I have to plan my basements in advance, at least if I'm considering expanding downward eventually. So it makes sense to create basements going all the way down, then placing each of the stairs starting at the bottom, and using the shift key to duplicate them as you go up. But me, being the OCD person I am, always paints floors, walls (both sides), and ceilings on every level. I can't leave them unfinished; it would bother me too much. It's THAT which costs the extra funds.
What I could do in the future if I am really concerned about funds is to only make a tiny basement on the lowest levels, just large enough to fit the stairs in. Then I won't worry about expanding until my Sim is living there and earns sufficient money. After all, that's usually what those levels would be waiting for, anyway; that, and additional family members.
I use the basement tool all the time and I usually make the basement as large as possible because you can always divide it into rooms and drag it to make it smaller (and vice versa make it bigger if needed) just like rooms above ground. Also, if you use some of the free wall papers that cuts down on costs and I use the free wooden floors in basements, that also cuts down on costs but you end up with a finished space and...it's all free! aside from the cost of the stairs.
@MiaSkywalker I'm done !!!! YAY!!!!!! Pictures taken, lot tested (and fixed some really weird things happen in this game!). Found a name YAY!!! Now I just have to switch out the exchange pics, make a photobucket spread and get ready to upload! I really hope you like it. I had fun doing it and learned a few things along the way.
I did make some changes, it's on a slightly larger lot now, 30x30 to accommodate the cows, chickens and garden. The top most floor is not accessible because I used friezes to raise it up so the roof lines would work and forgot to leave a spot for stairs or a ladder so that is just storage. I added a few little surprises here and there for you to discover yourself
@hannahc1023 - you only have 11 posts. You need to be a bit more chatty. I think you need 30 posts to be a full member. Just leave little comments on threads saying you like a story or a sim or how nice someone did on a build.
BTW - I found this house I wanted to sim for you, and wondered if you liked it:
I'll get busy simming it if you like. All I have left to do with Kgaff's is play with colors. Everything play tested fine.
@hannahc1023 - you only have 11 posts. You need to be a bit more chatty. I think you need 30 posts to be a full member. Just leave little comments on threads saying you like a story or a sim or how nice someone did on a build.
BTW - I found this house I wanted to sim for you, and wondered if you liked it:
I'll get busy simming it if you like. All I have left to do with Kgaff's is play with colors. Everything play tested fine.
That is a beautiful home. I love the combination of rock and wood. That house has a mixture of natural and modern that is very aesthetically pleasing.
@hannahc1023 - I am not sure how many posts you need - Ciane is probably right about the number - but I think you may also need some Likes as well, or they can help count towards your member level. Posting on threads and commenting on and giving constructive criticism on builds will increase your post count, and you will gain likes. People here are pretty nice; no one will bite you. I promise.
@ciane
I made the tiniest of changes here and there from what's in the pictures. I put a small window in the sauna (read that fresh air access is very important) and hid it under the back 'shelf' so it isn't noticeable from the outside.
Deleted a light, a plant (routing issues), changed the mailbox (now that I know how!), changed the direction of flooring in one area... but aside from all that....
Ok, so I completed Addy's build, and decided to try out @ciane's instructions for the walk-in basement. I decided to make a hobbit hole, because... well, just because.
So, here's the start of it. I'm still in the same save of HS spring's as Addy's build. That way I can always go back and modify her build if I think of anything new. I was confused at first, because some of the directions seemed like they were telling me to do something that didn't make sense, but once I did them, it made sense. I had to follow the instructions in the link Ciane gave me from Carl's website as well; they were rather critical.
I ran into a weirdness in the walls. I think I might not have done the leveling quite right at first, and I was never able to fix it. That's why I'm just as glad that I'm not doing this for one of your builds the first time. See, no matter how I had leveled it, I had this weird result in the walls. First the section didn't seem to take the wallpaper; then I found out that it had (I made a wall one space away to block that wall out, and the wallpaper suddenly showed), but there's this weird shadow here.
Now, I had wanted the basement to go all the way out to all of the walls in the exact shape (that's what I usually do in my wizard towers), but I get this strange thing with the walls. I tried fixing it by turning CFE off and/or on and leveling the terrain again, but usually either it didn't do anything, or things became worse. So I just gave up on it, and squared off the basement walls at that point instead of following the diagonal.
This is the other corner. See, this one worked fine. But to make it symmetrical, I ended up squaring off both.
So, now I'm decorating. I've decided the first floor will be the living room, kitchen, and dining room, and the second floor (going down) will be the library and the bedroom. Because I'm using spiral stairs and I plan on being able to expand downward, I've gone ahead and created all of the basement levels. Ignore the things on the lawn; I prefer only having to go into misc decor once (if at all possible), so I tend to pull out everything that I plan to use, and then put them somewhere to use later.
Please note my OCD of having to wallpaper both the outside and inside of all of the basements, even if I'm not using them yet.
@ciane
I made the tiniest of changes here and there from what's in the pictures. I put a small window in the sauna (read that fresh air access is very important) and hid it under the back 'shelf' so it isn't noticeable from the outside.
Deleted a light, a plant (routing issues), changed the mailbox (now that I know how!), changed the direction of flooring in one area... but aside from all that....
Phew!!
Wow, amazing build! Gotta love the views, especially the one from the bedroom. I love waterfalls.
You did several things it would never have occurred to me to do. The shower - is it on a platform? Or is that just the way the floor of that shower works? I love how you got all the tile to match that way. For some reason I have never thought of doing that. It makes the shower look built in, which is very cool.
I love the stark black and white colors in the bathroom, with the pops of blue. While that shade of blue isn't my favorite color, it works extremely well there. Plus the decor and colors are very masculine, which would be great for a single male Sim. Not that it wouldn't work for a female as well, but a guy wouldn't be embarrassed living there.
I absolutely adore that you used the beanbag chairs and strings of lights from the Bohemian set. Those are a couple of my favorites. The only reason I didn't use the beanbags in my build for Addy is because werewolf + beanbag = beans-on-the-floor.
All in all, I think Ciane is getting a wonderful build. It's fabulous!
@MiaSkywalker Re: the shower - I swear, I don't think I'll ever go back to the game showers again!!
I do my walk-in showers two different ways, this is the first. I put a wall or half wall where the shower faces and a window to hold in the water, then I add the stream of consciousness fence and recolor to match the floor so it looks like a threshold!
The second way I do them is to completely enclose a 4X4 section with walls and add three windows and one glass door, and in those cases I may add a platform but not always
I've also done a 4X4 with an open side entry that sort of combines the two! I *adore* walk-in showers! Even if my sims have to shower with their clothes on, just the look of it makes it seem so much more real to me! Especially in a master bath!
@MiaSkywalker Re: the shower - I swear, I don't think I'll ever go back to the game showers again!!
I do my walk-in showers two different ways, this is the first. I put a wall or half wall where the shower faces and a window to hold in the water, then I add the stream of consciousness fence and recolor to match the floor so it looks like a threshold!
The second way I do them is to completely enclose a 4X4 section with walls and add three windows and one glass door, and in those cases I may add a platform but not always
I've also done a 4X4 with an open side entry that sort of combines the two! I *adore* walk-in showers! Even if my sims have to shower with their clothes on, just the look of it makes it seem so much more real to me! Especially in a master bath!
I am intrigued. I think you're going to have to show pictures of how you build that; I am terrible at visualizing things, and I can't visualize this. (Ironically, if it comes to computer tech things, I am very good at visualizing. That may have to do with how familiar I am with the innards of a computer, though.) It sounds so intriguing, I know I'm going to want to try it. Any way you can show how you do any of that?
@MiaSkywalker Okay I hope these pictures make sense! (note that the second house is for something upcoming that isn't actually posted yet so don't go throwing this around
Recoloring the stream of consciousness fence to match the floor means the floor has to be a pickable thing from the CASt instead of a floor pattern, if that makes sense? Otherwise it won't match.
For the platform, place it first so you can recolor the edges before you put the walls up, then add the windows and doors like normal. I don't remember if I have to MOO the shower into place, but I don't think so.
And obviously as I can't count, I did of course mean THREE windows and a glass door... *doh*
@MiaSkywalker Okay I hope these pictures make sense! (note that the second house is for something upcoming that isn't actually posted yet so don't go throwing this around
Ohhh so it is sort of like a tiny room with just a shower (or tub) in it. I really would never have thought of doing that. I know what you mean by a pickable thing to CASt; my most common floor type is "simple flooring" which I then recolor. Same with walls; I often use the flat wall, and CASt it, particularly when making medieval or fantasy homes.
The platform gives it a nice effect, and I can see why you use the stream of consciousness fence. That gives it the lip of the shower. Is there a door? It's not just open at that point, is it?
The platform gives it a nice effect, and I can see why you use the stream of consciousness fence. That gives it the lip of the shower. Is there a door? It's not just open at that point, is it?
The one for ciane is open, yes. The second one with the platform has a door. I like doing them both ways depending. I've done 1x2 showers with a door but I have also done 4x4 showers without a door, like here for a Build n Share challenge (I LOVED the house I ended up making but omg that budge was brutal and the furnishings were so sad! lol):
Those dark walls are usually caused when something else is in the same spot like when MOO is used or a roof is there. Sometimes using the sledge hammer to get rid of everything in the area and rebuilding will do the trick. Other times, the game is just funky sometimes and you can't figure out why lighting is so different in one spot.
Here's an example with no MOO or CFE. I was stacking different roofs because that half gable won't stretch across a section longer than its width:
So, above the tall red window, under the stacked roof sections, you see dark wall. This is in my build for Kgaff. On the one section where I changed out the shuttered window, it sits farther back and needed additional roof coverage. That added extra shadow to the wall there.
It just isn't as obvious there because the whole wall is set back and should be in shadow.
You'll also notice in my WIP that one garage door is vastly lighter than the other. I didn't use MOO to place them; but because the wall is angled, the meshes are stretched and do overlap each other. I THOUGHT that caused this shadow effect, but it turns out I managed to grab two different colored garage doors.
So, I had to delete the sections where one roof overlapped another, though I kept it on the garage for now.
Testing is going well. Found a few things (mostly re-colors and ceiling tiles) so those shouldn't take too long to fix.
Came across one thing that I know how to fix (delete), but wanted to learn why it happened in the first place.
Floating tiles.
Answers via Google search mentioned it had to do with CC (I do NOT use) or ConstrainFloorElevation code (NOT used).
I did use MOO so am wondering if that plays any part in this oddity.
Not sure when this floater showed up because it wasn't noticeable while working in this area... perhaps something I did later on caused this.
Not visible unless view is from the ground looking up (discovered this while taking pictures)
@ADWilson LOL Oh I get those all the time! I don't know what causes them either, and I remember them being there long before I learned how to use MOO!! Pain to find them but at least getting rid of them is somewhat easy!
LOL Oh I get those all the time! I don't know what causes them either, and I remember them being there long before I learned how to use MOO!! Pain to find them but at least getting rid of them is somewhat easy!
In a way, glad to know it's not just me. LOL
Will carefully go over the entire build from all directions to make sure I catch 'em all
Yes, they are a MOO side effect. Always turn on MOO for just what you need and then turn it right off again. I think it has to do with moving the cursor over that area with MOO on (like MOOing in a window or door will effect a window you touched as you placed the new item).
The way to fix it is easy. You use the sledge hammer and hit it from its bottom. If that doesn't work, and it doesn't always, you have to go above and add and delete floor tile until it disappears.
What also happens where I MOO an item closer to the wall (like a hamper), is that floor tile below will disappear. So I end up moving the item I MOOed. Delete the floor tile underneath and add the floor tile and item back. Then I can safely turn MOO back on. Move the item and then turn the code back off.
Came across one thing that I know how to fix (delete), but wanted to learn why it happened in the first place.
Floating tiles.
Answers via Google search mentioned it had to do with CC (I do NOT use) or ConstrainFloorElevation code (NOT used).
I did use MOO so am wondering if that plays any part in this oddity.
Not sure when this floater showed up because it wasn't noticeable while working in this area... perhaps something I did later on caused this.
Not visible unless view is from the ground looking up (discovered this while taking pictures)
Feedback is much appreciated
I seem to encounter those more often after I've painted the ceilings on a build. Before I do that, I rarely get them. Since I've never used CFE before this week, it is definitely not that for me.
The irritating thing about those floaters I've found is that there have been occasions when I haven't been able to delete one or more, and I get a message saying the tile is necessary for another object. Then I have to find the object causing the issue (which is NEVER something obvious) so I can get rid of the floater.
ETA: I thought I would mention: Occasionally I will download a build from the Exchange, and find not only floaters like that, but floating objects in the air! Once I saw a "ladder" of objects in the air in one corner of a lot, about three stories off the ground. It cracked me up!
Those dark walls are usually caused when something else is in the same spot like when MOO is used or a roof is there. Sometimes using the sledge hammer to get rid of everything in the area and rebuilding will do the trick. Other times, the game is just funky sometimes and you can't figure out why lighting is so different in one spot.
Here's an example with no MOO or CFE. I was stacking different roofs because that half gable won't stretch across a section longer than its width:
So, above the tall red window, under the stacked roof sections, you see dark wall. This is in my build for Kgaff. On the one section where I changed out the shuttered window, it sits farther back and needed additional roof coverage. That added extra shadow to the wall there.
It just isn't as obvious there because the whole wall is set back and should be in shadow.
You'll also notice in my WIP that one garage door is vastly lighter than the other. I didn't use MOO to place them; but because the wall is angled, the meshes are stretched and do overlap each other. That causes that shadow effect.
So, I had to delete the sections where one roof overlapped another, though I kept it on the garage for now.
It could have been something in the roof. That was about the only thing actually on/in the house at that point. I wasn't doubling my roofs like you are; I'm using a standard octagonal roof to simulate the round roofs of the hobbit houses in Tolkein. (Not using the domes, because those are WAY too tall.) Because the house isn't perfectly round but kind of wider at one end than the other, there's a large amount in the back that hangs off. I kept it because it helps to blend with the hill better, the way hobbit roofs are supposed to.
I really think I did something wrong with the CFE somehow. Looking closely at my images, I can see where I didn't flatten all the way out on that side like I had for the other side. The shadow only appeared on one side, and the large hang off for the roof was equal on BOTH sides. When I tried to fix the leveling later, I caused more problems, so I had to undo it. Squaring the first level basement fixes the problem, and it's one of those situations where I'm willing to shrug and not worry about it. I figure it is part of my learning curve.
Yes, they are a MOO side effect. Always turn on MOO for just what you need and then turn it right off again. I think it has to do with moving the cursor over that area with MOO on (like MOOing in a window or door will effect a window you touched as you placed the new item).
The way to fix it is easy. You use the sledge hammer and hit it from its bottom. If that doesn't work, and it doesn't always, you have to go above and add and delete floor tile until it disappears.
What also happens where I MOO an item closer to the wall (like a hamper), is that floor tile below will disappear. So I end up moving the item I MOOed. Delete the floor tile underneath and add the floor tile and item back. Then I can safely turn MOO back on. Move the item and then turn the code back off.
Ah, that totally makes sense! Lately I've been turning MOO on only while I need it, and I haven't been getting as many of those floaters, either. I used to keep MOO on for an entire build, and I used to also see them a lot. So that makes a lot of sense!
Comments
Occasionally I will play a game where I only turn on Spring and Summer. Sometimes I will play all four seasons, but I set the temperatures and climate (using Nraas Tempest) to temperate, to match what I'm used to in real life. Other times I will play with all four seasons, and just turn off rain and hail. (But leave snow and fog turned on.) My Christmas game is set so that all of the seasons except winter are short. Part of that is mood, part of that is the fact that those weather types tend to make the game hard to see for me. (I also think they really overdo it on the rain. EA is in SoCal, so I really don't get the overdone rain. Maybe it was someone's wishful thinking, since we've been in drought mode here for years.)
Yes, the PNW is lovely and green. In fact, that was why I was initially willing to move up there; I visited to see the place I was going to work at, and fell in love with the area. But... I'm not one of those who does well without much sunshine, as I learned while living there. I really need the sun. Maybe it's my Greek heritage, maybe it's because I'm part American Indian. I don't know, but I do know that I've been a lot happier back here again.
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
The building part is DONE **tosses confetti**
Now I have to thoroughly test & take pictures... with a week to go before gifting, I'll be done and caught up with you super fast builders soon! LOL
Sims 3 Blog: Have I Got A Story For You!
Sims 4 Blog: Addy Plays Sims 4
Also, I'm still play testing mine and reconsidering a thing or two, which reminds me again, @ciane did you want any upgrades done to fireplace/appliances or did you want me to leave that for you?
What I've found over time is that the spiral stairs have an odd glitch, and you can't really stack them going downward. If you have a spiral stair on your main floor going to the second floor, for instance, you can't usually place the exact stairs right below them, if building a basement underneath. Sometimes I can do it, but usually I can't, even when the stairs are facing the same direction and lined up perfectly. So what I've found is that it's simpler to start at the bottom and stack going upwards.
The problem with this is that this means I have to plan my basements in advance, at least if I'm considering expanding downward eventually. So it makes sense to create basements going all the way down, then placing each of the stairs starting at the bottom, and using the shift key to duplicate them as you go up. But me, being the OCD person I am, always paints floors, walls (both sides), and ceilings on every level. I can't leave them unfinished; it would bother me too much. It's THAT which costs the extra funds.
What I could do in the future if I am really concerned about funds is to only make a tiny basement on the lowest levels, just large enough to fit the stairs in. Then I won't worry about expanding until my Sim is living there and earns sufficient money. After all, that's usually what those levels would be waiting for, anyway; that, and additional family members.
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
I use the basement tool all the time and I usually make the basement as large as possible because you can always divide it into rooms and drag it to make it smaller (and vice versa make it bigger if needed) just like rooms above ground. Also, if you use some of the free wall papers that cuts down on costs and I use the free wooden floors in basements, that also cuts down on costs but you end up with a finished space and...it's all free! aside from the cost of the stairs.
@MiaSkywalker I'm done !!!! YAY!!!!!! Pictures taken, lot tested (and fixed some really weird things happen in this game!). Found a name YAY!!! Now I just have to switch out the exchange pics, make a photobucket spread and get ready to upload! I really hope you like it. I had fun doing it and learned a few things along the way.
I did make some changes, it's on a slightly larger lot now, 30x30 to accommodate the cows, chickens and garden. The top most floor is not accessible because I used friezes to raise it up so the roof lines would work and forgot to leave a spot for stairs or a ladder so that is just storage. I added a few little surprises here and there for you to discover yourself
BTW - I found this house I wanted to sim for you, and wondered if you liked it:
I'll get busy simming it if you like. All I have left to do with Kgaff's is play with colors. Everything play tested fine.
Store Install
Unlocked Stencils
random legacy
@hannahc1023 - I am not sure how many posts you need - Ciane is probably right about the number - but I think you may also need some Likes as well, or they can help count towards your member level. Posting on threads and commenting on and giving constructive criticism on builds will increase your post count, and you will gain likes. People here are pretty nice; no one will bite you. I promise.
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
I made the tiniest of changes here and there from what's in the pictures. I put a small window in the sauna (read that fresh air access is very important) and hid it under the back 'shelf' so it isn't noticeable from the outside.
Deleted a light, a plant (routing issues), changed the mailbox (now that I know how!), changed the direction of flooring in one area... but aside from all that....
PICTURE DUMP!!
Exterior shots (split in half, there are a lot)
Main floor
Bed
Bath
Basement and sauna
Phew!!
So, here's the start of it. I'm still in the same save of HS spring's as Addy's build. That way I can always go back and modify her build if I think of anything new. I was confused at first, because some of the directions seemed like they were telling me to do something that didn't make sense, but once I did them, it made sense. I had to follow the instructions in the link Ciane gave me from Carl's website as well; they were rather critical.
I ran into a weirdness in the walls. I think I might not have done the leveling quite right at first, and I was never able to fix it. That's why I'm just as glad that I'm not doing this for one of your builds the first time. See, no matter how I had leveled it, I had this weird result in the walls. First the section didn't seem to take the wallpaper; then I found out that it had (I made a wall one space away to block that wall out, and the wallpaper suddenly showed), but there's this weird shadow here.
Now, I had wanted the basement to go all the way out to all of the walls in the exact shape (that's what I usually do in my wizard towers), but I get this strange thing with the walls. I tried fixing it by turning CFE off and/or on and leveling the terrain again, but usually either it didn't do anything, or things became worse. So I just gave up on it, and squared off the basement walls at that point instead of following the diagonal.
This is the other corner. See, this one worked fine. But to make it symmetrical, I ended up squaring off both.
So, now I'm decorating. I've decided the first floor will be the living room, kitchen, and dining room, and the second floor (going down) will be the library and the bedroom. Because I'm using spiral stairs and I plan on being able to expand downward, I've gone ahead and created all of the basement levels. Ignore the things on the lawn; I prefer only having to go into misc decor once (if at all possible), so I tend to pull out everything that I plan to use, and then put them somewhere to use later.
Please note my OCD of having to wallpaper both the outside and inside of all of the basements, even if I'm not using them yet.
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
You did several things it would never have occurred to me to do. The shower - is it on a platform? Or is that just the way the floor of that shower works? I love how you got all the tile to match that way. For some reason I have never thought of doing that. It makes the shower look built in, which is very cool.
I love the stark black and white colors in the bathroom, with the pops of blue. While that shade of blue isn't my favorite color, it works extremely well there. Plus the decor and colors are very masculine, which would be great for a single male Sim. Not that it wouldn't work for a female as well, but a guy wouldn't be embarrassed living there.
I absolutely adore that you used the beanbag chairs and strings of lights from the Bohemian set. Those are a couple of my favorites. The only reason I didn't use the beanbags in my build for Addy is because werewolf + beanbag = beans-on-the-floor.
All in all, I think Ciane is getting a wonderful build. It's fabulous!
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
I do my walk-in showers two different ways, this is the first. I put a wall or half wall where the shower faces and a window to hold in the water, then I add the stream of consciousness fence and recolor to match the floor so it looks like a threshold!
The second way I do them is to completely enclose a 4X4 section with walls and add three windows and one glass door, and in those cases I may add a platform but not always
I've also done a 4X4 with an open side entry that sort of combines the two! I *adore* walk-in showers! Even if my sims have to shower with their clothes on, just the look of it makes it seem so much more real to me! Especially in a master bath!
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
For the platform, place it first so you can recolor the edges before you put the walls up, then add the windows and doors like normal. I don't remember if I have to MOO the shower into place, but I don't think so.
And obviously as I can't count, I did of course mean THREE windows and a glass door... *doh*
The platform gives it a nice effect, and I can see why you use the stream of consciousness fence. That gives it the lip of the shower. Is there a door? It's not just open at that point, is it?
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
The one for ciane is open, yes. The second one with the platform has a door. I like doing them both ways depending. I've done 1x2 showers with a door but I have also done 4x4 showers without a door, like here for a Build n Share challenge (I LOVED the house I ended up making but omg that budge was brutal and the furnishings were so sad! lol):
Here's an example with no MOO or CFE. I was stacking different roofs because that half gable won't stretch across a section longer than its width:
So, above the tall red window, under the stacked roof sections, you see dark wall. This is in my build for Kgaff. On the one section where I changed out the shuttered window, it sits farther back and needed additional roof coverage. That added extra shadow to the wall there.
It just isn't as obvious there because the whole wall is set back and should be in shadow.
You'll also notice in my WIP that one garage door is vastly lighter than the other. I didn't use MOO to place them; but because the wall is angled, the meshes are stretched and do overlap each other. I THOUGHT that caused this shadow effect, but it turns out I managed to grab two different colored garage doors.
So, I had to delete the sections where one roof overlapped another, though I kept it on the garage for now.
Store Install
Unlocked Stencils
random legacy
Came across one thing that I know how to fix (delete), but wanted to learn why it happened in the first place.
Floating tiles.
Answers via Google search mentioned it had to do with CC (I do NOT use) or ConstrainFloorElevation code (NOT used).
I did use MOO so am wondering if that plays any part in this oddity.
Not sure when this floater showed up because it wasn't noticeable while working in this area... perhaps something I did later on caused this.
Not visible unless view is from the ground looking up (discovered this while taking pictures)
Feedback is much appreciated
Sims 3 Blog: Have I Got A Story For You!
Sims 4 Blog: Addy Plays Sims 4
In a way, glad to know it's not just me. LOL
Will carefully go over the entire build from all directions to make sure I catch 'em all
Sims 3 Blog: Have I Got A Story For You!
Sims 4 Blog: Addy Plays Sims 4
The way to fix it is easy. You use the sledge hammer and hit it from its bottom. If that doesn't work, and it doesn't always, you have to go above and add and delete floor tile until it disappears.
What also happens where I MOO an item closer to the wall (like a hamper), is that floor tile below will disappear. So I end up moving the item I MOOed. Delete the floor tile underneath and add the floor tile and item back. Then I can safely turn MOO back on. Move the item and then turn the code back off.
Store Install
Unlocked Stencils
random legacy
The irritating thing about those floaters I've found is that there have been occasions when I haven't been able to delete one or more, and I get a message saying the tile is necessary for another object. Then I have to find the object causing the issue (which is NEVER something obvious) so I can get rid of the floater.
ETA: I thought I would mention: Occasionally I will download a build from the Exchange, and find not only floaters like that, but floating objects in the air! Once I saw a "ladder" of objects in the air in one corner of a lot, about three stories off the ground. It cracked me up! It could have been something in the roof. That was about the only thing actually on/in the house at that point. I wasn't doubling my roofs like you are; I'm using a standard octagonal roof to simulate the round roofs of the hobbit houses in Tolkein. (Not using the domes, because those are WAY too tall.) Because the house isn't perfectly round but kind of wider at one end than the other, there's a large amount in the back that hangs off. I kept it because it helps to blend with the hill better, the way hobbit roofs are supposed to.
I really think I did something wrong with the CFE somehow. Looking closely at my images, I can see where I didn't flatten all the way out on that side like I had for the other side. The shadow only appeared on one side, and the large hang off for the roof was equal on BOTH sides. When I tried to fix the leveling later, I caused more problems, so I had to undo it. Squaring the first level basement fixes the problem, and it's one of those situations where I'm willing to shrug and not worry about it. I figure it is part of my learning curve.
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!