Guide to Houseboats in game & in CAW «123456789...Next Go

diddy12

I have a quick question, in the trailer, it shows a sim holding a toddler and letting them splash in the water, How do you do that??

kece73

How do you build on the houseboat? When I click on walls, it gives me the message can't intersect water?

elanorbreton

kece73 wrote:

How do you build on the houseboat? When I click on walls, it gives me the message can't intersect water?

Same way as for a normal house. Click on the build/buy button.

You either need to be owner/occupier of the boat or go into edit town to do it.

ldmarko

SimGuruSemedi wrote:

Why can't I add a houseboat to the lake in Twinbrook from The Sims 3 Ambitions?
One of the requirements for a houseboat is that they're built on a water surface that's considered an ocean. In The Sims 3, any body of water that exists as sea level is considered "ocean", which is why you can add houseboats to places like the river in Riverview or the lake in Lucky Palms.
Unfortunately, because the large lake in Twinbrook is above sea level and thus is not considered to be ocean, houseboats can't be built on it.

I found the same issue in with the river in Appaloosa Plains.

JmsBnd567

Thanks Graham! Now my Sims in Sunset Valley can have more fun in the water.

honeygirl25

SimGuruSemedi wrote:

honeygirl25 wrote:

My houseboat won't dock at any ports.

How do I return my houseboat to its port?
There are a few ways to return a houseboat to its port when it's out at sea. You can...

• Click on the button next to your Sim's picture. This is normally "Return Home", but switches to "Return Houseboat to Port" when on a houseboat. There is no button there when they are on the houseboat

• Click on the helm, hull, or wall of a houseboat and select "Return Houseboat to Port". That option doesn't show up. Only move boat and foghorn that's it.

• Switch to map view, click on the map tag of your port and select "Return Houseboat to Port". option doesn't show up

• Click on the ground at your port and select "Return Houseboat to Port". Option doesn't show up

Hi Honeygirl. If you clicked "Abandon Port" at any point, then you'll no longer get the option to "Return Houseboat to Port" because your houseboat isn't assigned to one. Click on your helm and select "Change Port" and then select an open port in the world. Once you do that, the options to "Return Houseboat to Port" should be available once again.

When I click on the helm, I only get move boat or foghorn. I don't get Change Port.

JudySims

Can we hope for a guide to putting the ports and houseboats into CAW soon? I tried it in EIG and made the port fine, but can't get the houseboat lot to work. I just get an empty hull that I can't build on. I noticed there is an icon to place a boat lot in CAW, but haven't tried it yet. Thanks

Dargon

very useful info. Just trying figure out now on how to Shape the House Boat to give it a feel so Looks like normal boat kinda with Bow Pointed Front not sure yet how to do that.

vicaddict

There is buildung related question I have to ask. It is about stairs. In the following picture you can see that the builder built stairs at the border of the boat, yet the stairs have those walls beneath them. How can I recreate that? I always thought walls beneath stairs are only created when the stairs are enclosed by walls. You can enclose the stairs by building the walls at the border of the lot, however that would not result in the way shown in the picture. Any ideas?



Is there are cheat that forces these beneath the stairs walls?

MizzRoseBud

vicaddit - I have not build a houseboat yet, but on land, if I want the space under the stairs closed, I build walls all around the lot and then place the stairs. That works for me. And I think that it looks like there is a space between the building on that houseboat and the edge, so it might have been done the same way.

vicaddict

If you look at the fence in the back, it is built directly into the corner of the lot and from there goes straight to the staircases railing.

Wreck_Diver

Excellent guide, Graham. Thank you for your efforts, and for your continued updates to the thread.

I've enjoyed the construction of my vessel the Pinthis and all of the new adventures that the vessel provides...



... but I am a little aggrieved by the chronic intrusion by other NPC Sims.

Will it eventually be possible to purchase ports so that we can add gates to the dock and set access permissions to allow only family members onto the dock and the houseboat?

YellowJane

I have a few Q's:

Can Sims dive directly off a housboat?
Can Sim go diving in worlds other than Islo Paradiso?
Other than Twinbrook, is there any other worlds you cannot have houseboats in?
And if a Sim expires on a houseboat that's driving out in open water, will the Grim Reeper arrive as normal? Because I once had a Sim expire on the pavement, not on a Community or Home lot, and the Grim Reeper couldn't get to them.

Thanks for putting this guide together! I have just ordered Island Paradise now... I'd really appreciate answers

elanorbreton

vicaddict wrote:

There is buildung related question I have to ask. It is about stairs. In the following picture you can see that the builder built stairs at the border of the boat, yet the stairs have those walls beneath them. How can I recreate that? I always thought walls beneath stairs are only created when the stairs are enclosed by walls. You can enclose the stairs by building the walls at the border of the lot, however that would not result in the way shown in the picture. Any ideas?

If you place the stairs down first, before you do anything else, then it will auto-add those walls:



You can then redecorate them with different wallpaper

Liziann1

Help!

Seriously, how do I sell my houseboat ?
I have bought and built it so I own it, & its at a port.
I've tried moving the family within the neighbourhood to another lot and they now have a large island lot but I need the funds released from the houseboat sale, to build a new home!
is it even possible ?

Many thanks in advance x

mds424

Go to your cell phone. Select Real Estate. From there you should be able to get the option to view and sell real estate holdings.

vicaddict

Thanks. You kind of freaked me out when you said not to do anything else, but removing the second floor and the roof was all I had to do. Luckily it was only a couple of chairs and the helm

vicaddict

sorry, double post

elanorbreton

If anyone has had any success in putting ports in other hoods, I would be really pleased if you could give details of locations.

silvercandy79

This is awesome, thanks so much for all the information! This is what I miss about having a physical game guide to read, because there are so many details about the Sims that you may not be aware of.

ldmarko

I think some sort of map or guide to what worlds will support houseboats, where the best places to place ports would be helpful. So far I've only had success in placing them in Barnacle Bay, and not all locations there (the large beach with the pirate diner wouldn't take one). I spent all day yesterday trying with all 16 EA worlds and one travel world (France).

It's a waste of time to place the lot then build the dock, only to discover you can't place a houseboat there.

ClairkP

Thankyou for your tutorial, absolutely marvellous. Built a houseboat at the island and everything worked beautifully. However, went to the world I am playing, (one of my own creations) build a Port, following your instructions exactly. Put the houseboat I had built on it. my Sims couldn't get off the boat, they just stand there, stamping feet waving arms and yelling. So, I deleted the houseboat, and (again using your instructions) built a houseboat. Same thing happened, tried to get my Sims to go to town and they couldn't get off the boat. Any suggestions?

SimGuruGraham

JudySims wrote:

Can we hope for a guide to putting the ports and houseboats into CAW soon? I tried it in EIG and made the port fine, but can't get the houseboat lot to work. I just get an empty hull that I can't build on. I noticed there is an icon to place a boat lot in CAW, but haven't tried it yet. Thanks

I'm going to try and get it done sometime this upcoming week - depends when I can find the time to squeeze it in.

Wreck_Diver wrote:

Will it eventually be possible to purchase ports so that we can add gates to the dock and set access permissions to allow only family members onto the dock and the houseboat?

That's a nice idea, but at this point it'd be a feature request that'd be unlikely to happen for a game we've already shipped. As it currently stands, a docked houseboat shouldn't attract any more Sims than any other normal home lot, and when out at the ocean the only Sims that should visit (unless you call them to come over) are service NPC Sims that have to be there.

YellowJane wrote:

I have a few Q's:

Can Sims dive directly off a housboat?
Can Sim go diving in worlds other than Islo Paradiso?
Other than Twinbrook, is there any other worlds you cannot have houseboats in?
And if a Sim expires on a houseboat that's driving out in open water, will the Grim Reeper arrive as normal? Because I once had a Sim expire on the pavement, not on a Community or Home lot, and the Grim Reeper couldn't get to them.

Thanks for putting this guide together! I have just ordered Island Paradise now... I'd really appreciate answers

Most of your houseboat questions should be answered elsewhere in this guide, but a quick note about death... yes, if you die on a houseboat the Grim Reaper will show up there!

ClairkP wrote:

Thankyou for your tutorial, absolutely marvellous. Built a houseboat at the island and everything worked beautifully. However, went to the world I am playing, (one of my own creations) build a Port, following your instructions exactly. Put the houseboat I had built on it. my Sims couldn't get off the boat, they just stand there, stamping feet waving arms and yelling. So, I deleted the houseboat, and (again using your instructions) built a houseboat. Same thing happened, tried to get my Sims to go to town and they couldn't get off the boat. Any suggestions?

Sorry to hear about the difficulty, it'd be really difficult for me to diagnose the issue on a case by case basis like that though. My best suggestion would be to ensure that there is plenty of room for the Sims to route on each side of the gangway, that the gangway/dock were built at the proper height, and that the ocean depth is deep enough in that section of the port to not cause any interference.

The other thing you may want to check is if you have a basement or hot tub on the deck of your boat, players have had problems with route fails when fishing off the side of the boat. I don't explicitly know if it may cause issues with routing off the gangway as well, but it's something to potentially consider.

happyjme

OK, here is a random question for you Graham about houseboats. Will a houseboat labeled as a park or fishing spot spawn wild horses and unicorns? And if it does, what may happen? I was thinking for creating a small park/community garden on a houseboat with all the harvistables in planters! lol

And I'm sure that you've been asked this already, but do you still have any of the other lots your created for the previews like the trash barge? There was also a boat with horses and other pets on it that looked liked like Noah's Arc that I thought was awesome But I'm not sure if you created that or not

Ryuzaki5

Thank you so much for all this information! It will really come in handy (especially for converting that old pier in Sunset Valley into a functioning dock. I have ALWAYS wanted to do that but, until now, haven't had the tools).

I do have a question however; Can my sims get abducted from their houseboats? Also, can aliens even visit a houseboat?