Cliffside woes and water lots by cliffs...any ideas how to?

[bakafox]

Ok I'm at my wit's end, having a hard time searching up the old water lot threaeds, and this is a very specific set of issues I'm having AGAIN xD

I love building things on cliffs or by cliffs and on ledges. A LOT of my ideas for world building involve the terrain like this. However every world I am working on is having that problem with gray stone texture showing up if I build a lot, so I wanted to pick brains and see if anyone's sorted out this lot building yet...

My current trouble spot is this area (this picture shows it when I am trying using a pond tool for that above-sea-level water area):
http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc389/bakafox/Sims%203/Pendragon/Screenshot-228.jpg

I want a fishing area to be at that lake below the falls, I also have a dry lot above the waterfall that nestles into a curvy spot.

I could NOT remember how to really integrate CAW pond tool into a fishing area- and the fish spawners don't even actually sit on top of the pond tool without me altering the Y axis (and I didn't know if that caused problems?) so I tried to just make the lot under the falls like I did with Morikipo with the lot itself holding all the water/lake. However, Morikipo used gray rock for mountains. Trying it this way I got:

http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc389/bakafox/Sims%203/Pendragon/Screenshot-232.jpg

And for that matter my itty little lot atop the falls when I even just flattened a tiny bit more area- and added a basement- went gray ugly rock on me:
http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc389/bakafox/Sims%203/Pendragon/Screenshot-230.jpg

Is there ANY way to fix that gray rock? At all? I've tried re-altering terrain in CAW, I've binned the lot, deleted it, and when i delete the lot the terrain goes back to how it should be- BUT the gray saves *in the lot* so if I re-place the lot, the gray is back.

I don't even have that gray stone texture in this world file.

The tiny lot above falls isn't as big an issue since at least it's small and MAYBE I can hide things with trees/plants, but the waterfall base fishing area is something I really need ideas on how to best do it. Should I stick with pond tool water and the lot itself just on the shore somehow? I seem to remember the game not counting out-of-lot fishing spawners to make a fishing hole work, but it's been a few months since I was in any shape to work on projects and I can't remember.

So how should I go about this in the opinions of anyone who's made non-sealevel, waterside/cliffside lots? and is there a tutorial my search just isn't finding?

[auntielynds]

I've been working on some similar things HERE (http://ts3cc.forumotion.ca/t120p45-wild-west-caw-thread#8067) , but as you can see in the third pic, left side, I have the same issue. I've been meaning to go back and fiddle with it, you just reminded me. I recolored most of the rocks for this world, so I was going to use that big cliff rock to see if I can manipulate it into place to hide that rock texture.

The river sections I used the water planes method, but I have not placed any fish spawners in there yet to know if they work.

[missy harries]

Have you thought about not using a lot at all and just using a water plane with spawner's in CAW?


The river sections I used the water planes method, but I have not placed any fish spawners in there yet to know if they work.
Spawners are there in the Twinbrook water plane and fishing works fine :) It makes me wonder if we could have random fish floating about in the air :lol: a whole new meaning to fly fishing?

[bakafox]

Have you thought about not using a lot at all and just using a water plane with spawner's in CAW?


Well the area above falls is a hidden tomb, thus there being a lot.

The lower area I've been confused as to whether putting a lot BY a water plane will or will not allow Sims to fish. I remember in previous worlds if a lot didn't actually have the water in it, my Sims did routing fail angry dances and didn't autonomously fish.

[missy harries]

The lower area I've been confused as to whether putting a lot BY a water plane will or will not allow Sims to fish. I remember in previous worlds if a lot didn't actually have the water in it, my Sims did routing fail angry dances and didn't autonomously fish.

Try doing it without a lot. Place the water plane and add the spawners under it on the shoreline where sims can reach. That's how the Twinbrook one's were done.
If you feel you must use a lot though I'm afraid I'd be no help, the best I can think of is to disguise it like you've mentioned but I honestly think doing it all in CAW without a lot there is the way to go. Stick some of the more special spawners there and you'll have a secrect exprolable area that doesn't show up on the map :)

[simsample]

You can just make a default replacement for the rock texture to match your world terrain, and import it to your world file, so that it works with that world only.

Open [Install Location]\ Electronic Arts\ The Sims 3\ GameData\ Shared\ Packages\ FullBuild0.package in S3Pe. Find Rock_Shale_Base.
http://thumbs2.modthesims2.com/img/5/2/8/4/8/MTS_simsample-1305088-Bluefunk_0301-Jul-1212.36.jpg
Resource> Export that texture to a file.

Open it in your photoediting program. Change the color (or replace the texture) to match your CAW texture. Save as a DDS, DXT5 with mip-maps.

Backup your world file, then open it in S3Pe. Resource>Import from file your edited texture. Now delete your game caches and open your world in-game. You will see that when you make a mountain or valley, your rock texture is now the colour of your world rocks (in my case, magenta! :lol:)!
http://thumbs2.modthesims2.com/img/5/2/8/4/8/MTS_simsample-1305090-Bluefunk_01-01-Jul-12-12.33.jpg

You may find that, as you are overriding a basegame texture, that you will see this rock texture show up in other worlds if you load them in the same game session as your custom world. It's only graphical though, and will be solved by restarting the game- it's just a limitation of overrides, and won't permanently affect other worlds.