chelsearaerae and sholom, for both your issues, have you tried saving and quitting, then reloading? that fixed those issues for me. Also, sholom, you often need to wait several Sim days for spawners to activate.
Mcrudd, thanks!
I don't think I was actually asking about a specific issue above, just reporting findings related to understanding the relationship between water where the water surface is and the ocean floor height, and how the game imports a dive lot in relationships to the ocean floor elevation elsewhere.
Regular lots that are partially in/out of the water (docks, beaches, islands) use the WATER LEVEL to guide placement pretty consistently in my tests. Dive lots use the ocean floor. You can correct for this when placing a lot by either having controlfloorelevation on or off (if it doesn't place the way you want it to with one, bulldoze the lot and replace it from world editor, turn on cfe, place again). I'm having no problem using that trick to get dive lots placing where I want them to in relationship to the surrounding sea floor elevation. What isn't working now is the relationship to water height... not distance between the sea floor of my lot and the water height, but the water height as calculated by the game as the playable water surface. I sometimes have to lower the ocean floor of my dive lot in order to place the dive buoy on the surface of the water, otherwise it may be just floating in air... something we can fix by tweaking in our own games, but if we are set on importing a specific dive lot (or building one for export) this is really tricky. I would LOVE to know if there is a cheat to reset where the playable surface is. Or maybe this is a glitch?
To illustrate:
The lot I'm working with, a divable blue hole edited from what I posted earlier... here placed with controlfloorelevation TRUE. I was able to place this in Monte Vista where the water is much deeper using controlfloorelevation FALSE, and it placed correctly in relationship to the sea floor, meaning that this lot was then deep under water, not near the surface:
In some instances the lot placed correctly in relationship to the playable water surface/where the dive buoy sits. In some cases it did not: (note floating sims, boat, dive buoy)
I was able to fix by lowering the elevation of the ocean floor, but that meant editing my dive lot in ways I didn't want. but at least the sims know where floating at water level:
Can we figure out a cheat to reset where the game thinks the water level is? I thought it was just the dive buoy, but it isn't. You can delete/reset the dive buoy but it will still go to the same floating place in the same position in the dive lot, and moving it elsewhere in the dive lot where it will snap to the water surface still leaves spaces where the actual/playable water surface does not match up...THAT is what I'd like to know
blewis823,
sorry I didn't see your post before mine loaded.
how to use CFE (Please someone say if they have figured this out better than I have):
per what I wrote above regarding water level relationship to ocean floor, CFE may have to be set to FALSE in order to place a lot how you want it. I would place the lot, then check if the imported elevation is what you want. If it isn't (either sunk down way deep or floating about the ocean), delete the dive lot, bulldoze the empty lot, replace the empty lot in world editor, enter CFE FALSE, and try place the lot again. If you had CFE false on when you placed the lot and you don't like it, toggle it to true.
and I am really trying out how to get the water buoy/sims not to float/sink below the surface when placing lots... anyone else get this/working on how to figure this out/have it solved?
Too many people to reply individual this time, but basically I found that the darker the water the better the chance to not have the floating issue even in Sunlit tides with its shallow water. Also if you flatten the lot then go into edit town and demolish it once and then rename it to diving area then you get all your little hilly surfaces back, which is a bonus, because build mode under shallow water is very tricky since the camera bobs back up again.I have had more success starting a lot from scratch in each world than placing an existing one, some work and some don't, very tricky business, I think that is why they told us its not possible, they knew what a hassle it will be. So my suggestion is basically try, try and try again, try with different lots sizes, different spawners and so on.
What might be a good suggestion is to do a print screen of where your lot is placed in a world if it was successfull, so others might use the same spot
It's ok...figured it out! My lot was too shallow. I was creating one from scratch and had to lower terrain a lot to make it work. Thank you everyone for your info!
If anyone makes a lot in the University town, you should let me(or anyone else interested) know, because I'd like s apot for my divers/mermaids to explore when they get to that point in their lives!
blewis823,
sorry I didn't see your post before mine loaded.
how to use CFE (Please someone say if they have figured this out better than I have):
per what I wrote above regarding water level relationship to ocean floor, CFE may have to be set to FALSE in order to place a lot how you want it. I would place the lot, then check if the imported elevation is what you want. If it isn't (either sunk down way deep or floating about the ocean), delete the dive lot, bulldoze the empty lot, replace the empty lot in world editor, enter CFE FALSE, and try place the lot again. If you had CFE false on when you placed the lot and you don't like it, toggle it to true.
and I am really trying out how to get the water buoy/sims not to float/sink below the surface when placing lots... anyone else get this/working on how to figure this out/have it solved?
I had the same problem with my sims floating above the water when I tried to import Rocky Reefs into Dragon Valley. I then tried using CFE FALSE and then went to build mode and used the Flatten Lot terrain tool. I still had the buoy and one spawner above water level at this point. I used the sledgehammer to delete the floating objects and immediately after hit the UNDO button. Normally this will reset the floating objects to the proper level. My sim was then able to swim to the dive lot at water level, scuba dive with no issues and resurface at the proper level. I am going to go back tomorrow and see if everything works properly when I reload the game. I am also going to try to import the other dive lots to see if I can successfully bring them into DV without any issues.
When following the instructions provided, I am encountering the same problem over and over.
I place the lot in Aurora Skies and all is fine. The problem I get is that the buoy and the shark spawner float in the air. I use CFE to flatten the lot, remove/move the buoy and spawner and then get get the floor to the previous state. Everything looks the way it should - the buoy and spawner float at sea level, but when Sims come to dive they float right up into the air. The same goes for boats too.
I also have the problem that if I do move the two items, when I click on them to go diving, the action cancels itself out. If I click on the map tag they can dive, but they still float in the air.
I also tried this in Sunlit Tides with the same results.
I have been able to create additional dive lots in IP per the instructions but whenever I direct my sims to boat/dive there the interaction cancels. Since the lots are in IP would there still be a lot depth issue or is there some crucial, and probably painfully obvious, step I am missing?
I followed this guide to add a Dive Spot to Appaloosa Plains in the following position:
It was a 30 x 30 lot as I wanted to test it to see if it worked, added some objects and spawners a long with the buoy that set the Dive level to 0. The dude in the ranch on the left of the marker swam out to the edge of the lot space, but when I asked him to Dive the action cancelled immediately on me and he kept having the "I can't get there" icon above his head so is this place entirely unroutable..? Even though I could place a lot there?? I lowered the terrain as stated in some of the replies as well.
If anyone else has tried in AP let me know how you got it working!
Kez
P.S: Sorry you need to click the photo to see the marker, won't show on Thumb for some reason.
I haven't tried adding any dive spots or docks to my game yet, but for those of you that want to simply try adding existing ones from the game, I've added a few to my studio. This is original game content; I make no claims on creation of them. I've simply copied and shared original content here. Since I haven't tried any of the steps for placement of docks or dive spot creation, I have no idea what they'll do to your game. I would suggest you proceed with caution (we all know how bad glitches and bugs can be in TS3)! Even still, they're there if you want to use them.
I followed this guide to add a Dive Spot to Appaloosa Plains in the following position:
It was a 30 x 30 lot as I wanted to test it to see if it worked, added some objects and spawners a long with the buoy that set the Dive level to 0. The dude in the ranch on the left of the marker swam out to the edge of the lot space, but when I asked him to Dive the action cancelled immediately on me and he kept having the "I can't get there" icon above his head so is this place entirely unroutable..? Even though I could place a lot there?? I lowered the terrain as stated in some of the replies as well.
If anyone else has tried in AP let me know how you got it working!
Kez
P.S: Sorry you need to click the photo to see the marker, won't show on Thumb for some reason.
Setting the dive level at 0 may be your problem- try setting at 1. I have not tried AP, but I have successfully added two dive spots to DV. There may be a few worlds where the water is not coded as ocean and the dive lots are not operable.
I have a question about the steps. Number 8 says you have to demolish the lot once in edit town. Why do you have to do this :?:
I don't know exactly, but I did notice that you flatten the lot the first time, so lose all the hills, if you demolish it once and go back, then you have all the hills back again, so perhaps its for that reason. I only translated the tutorial so have no idea what it actually does, I just followed all the steps, some lots work and some don't LOL
I have a question about the steps. Number 8 says you have to demolish the lot once in edit town. Why do you have to do this :?:
I don't know exactly, but I did notice that you flatten the lot the first time, so lose all the hills, if you demolish it once and go back, then you have all the hills back again, so perhaps its for that reason. I only translated the tutorial so have no idea what it actually does, I just followed all the steps, some lots work and some don't LOL
Comments
Mcrudd, thanks!
I don't think I was actually asking about a specific issue above, just reporting findings related to understanding the relationship between water where the water surface is and the ocean floor height, and how the game imports a dive lot in relationships to the ocean floor elevation elsewhere.
Regular lots that are partially in/out of the water (docks, beaches, islands) use the WATER LEVEL to guide placement pretty consistently in my tests. Dive lots use the ocean floor. You can correct for this when placing a lot by either having controlfloorelevation on or off (if it doesn't place the way you want it to with one, bulldoze the lot and replace it from world editor, turn on cfe, place again). I'm having no problem using that trick to get dive lots placing where I want them to in relationship to the surrounding sea floor elevation. What isn't working now is the relationship to water height... not distance between the sea floor of my lot and the water height, but the water height as calculated by the game as the playable water surface. I sometimes have to lower the ocean floor of my dive lot in order to place the dive buoy on the surface of the water, otherwise it may be just floating in air... something we can fix by tweaking in our own games, but if we are set on importing a specific dive lot (or building one for export) this is really tricky. I would LOVE to know if there is a cheat to reset where the playable surface is. Or maybe this is a glitch?
To illustrate:
The lot I'm working with, a divable blue hole edited from what I posted earlier... here placed with controlfloorelevation TRUE. I was able to place this in Monte Vista where the water is much deeper using controlfloorelevation FALSE, and it placed correctly in relationship to the sea floor, meaning that this lot was then deep under water, not near the surface:
In some instances the lot placed correctly in relationship to the playable water surface/where the dive buoy sits. In some cases it did not: (note floating sims, boat, dive buoy)
I was able to fix by lowering the elevation of the ocean floor, but that meant editing my dive lot in ways I didn't want. but at least the sims know where floating at water level:
Can we figure out a cheat to reset where the game thinks the water level is? I thought it was just the dive buoy, but it isn't. You can delete/reset the dive buoy but it will still go to the same floating place in the same position in the dive lot, and moving it elsewhere in the dive lot where it will snap to the water surface still leaves spaces where the actual/playable water surface does not match up...THAT is what I'd like to know
sorry I didn't see your post before mine loaded.
how to use CFE (Please someone say if they have figured this out better than I have):
per what I wrote above regarding water level relationship to ocean floor, CFE may have to be set to FALSE in order to place a lot how you want it. I would place the lot, then check if the imported elevation is what you want. If it isn't (either sunk down way deep or floating about the ocean), delete the dive lot, bulldoze the empty lot, replace the empty lot in world editor, enter CFE FALSE, and try place the lot again. If you had CFE false on when you placed the lot and you don't like it, toggle it to true.
and I am really trying out how to get the water buoy/sims not to float/sink below the surface when placing lots... anyone else get this/working on how to figure this out/have it solved?
EDIT: managed to get it to work.
thanks for posting the tutorial
But, registration is required to read the post...
You are welcome!
What might be a good suggestion is to do a print screen of where your lot is placed in a world if it was successfull, so others might use the same spot
congrats on figuring it out it took me ages.
Greetings Kosmo
I had the same problem with my sims floating above the water when I tried to import Rocky Reefs into Dragon Valley. I then tried using CFE FALSE and then went to build mode and used the Flatten Lot terrain tool. I still had the buoy and one spawner above water level at this point. I used the sledgehammer to delete the floating objects and immediately after hit the UNDO button. Normally this will reset the floating objects to the proper level. My sim was then able to swim to the dive lot at water level, scuba dive with no issues and resurface at the proper level. I am going to go back tomorrow and see if everything works properly when I reload the game. I am also going to try to import the other dive lots to see if I can successfully bring them into DV without any issues.
EDIT: typo
I place the lot in Aurora Skies and all is fine. The problem I get is that the buoy and the shark spawner float in the air. I use CFE to flatten the lot, remove/move the buoy and spawner and then get get the floor to the previous state. Everything looks the way it should - the buoy and spawner float at sea level, but when Sims come to dive they float right up into the air. The same goes for boats too.
I also have the problem that if I do move the two items, when I click on them to go diving, the action cancels itself out. If I click on the map tag they can dive, but they still float in the air.
I also tried this in Sunlit Tides with the same results.
Thanks for the tutorial btw!
It was a 30 x 30 lot as I wanted to test it to see if it worked, added some objects and spawners a long with the buoy that set the Dive level to 0. The dude in the ranch on the left of the marker swam out to the edge of the lot space, but when I asked him to Dive the action cancelled immediately on me and he kept having the "I can't get there" icon above his head so is this place entirely unroutable..? Even though I could place a lot there?? I lowered the terrain as stated in some of the replies as well.
If anyone else has tried in AP let me know how you got it working!
Kez
P.S: Sorry you need to click the photo to see the marker, won't show on Thumb for some reason.
Setting the dive level at 0 may be your problem- try setting at 1. I have not tried AP, but I have successfully added two dive spots to DV. There may be a few worlds where the water is not coded as ocean and the dive lots are not operable.
I don't know exactly, but I did notice that you flatten the lot the first time, so lose all the hills, if you demolish it once and go back, then you have all the hills back again, so perhaps its for that reason. I only translated the tutorial so have no idea what it actually does, I just followed all the steps, some lots work and some don't LOL
Thanks for the help.