Hallo Ellatrue,

nina did figure out what to do for her purposes including using the fake pool layer for sims swimming as if on the sea (graphically simulated by the lot skirt water layer as seen in Eedgan's How to make an Island tutorial).

Maxis implemented lot skirt water layer to connect the neighbourhood waterline to a given lot, so they can look smooth for that purpose.
Now, nina said she uses the fake pool layer for sims to swim in the sea. she actually meant to use the same method on the lot skirt water layer instead of the pond water tool water layer.

As good as it sounds, that should work out in my opinion.

As for sims unable to exit the swimming actions or else,
1. hacks or mods, expecially those about bhav.
2. the sims swam past the boundry as in terrain-paint-based swimmable regions. http://www.modthesims2.com/member/s...ad.php?t=131752
In this case, a >4 click height difference is suggested or an invisible fence can be used to limit where a sims can swim to.

Hello!

I've been experimenting with this tutorial, and having lots of trouble in the same way Ellatrue and others have reported - the stairs from the 2nd level platform to the land will not place.

I have tried every trick I could, from this thread and Ellatrue's offshoot, and nothing helped. I have base game only, in case that makes a difference.

Yesterday, I finally got it to work! Although not with quite the same process as this. I am wondering if perhaps it has something to do with the default water level in the neighbourhood where you are building, which might explain why some people find this tute works great, and others can't make it happen.

In my game, I have built one swimmable pond, where I have had to attach the second platform to the first, and then that one to the ground, with a mostly-invisible slope where the underwater platform has to come out of the water to make that work.

Now, I have made another lot which is better, with the two levels of platform like JusttheBast said, only they won't work for me at 4 clicks high, and they won't connect directly over the edge of the water/land.

I think that might be because the water level is too close. I found that 8 clicks works, and building floortiles out over the land, placing the stairs and then re-building the pond under the platform and stairs.

I don't have a good pic of the first lot, but here are a couple of shots of the better version - one shows the stage when I built a set of guide platforms, and kept reducing the height of the top deck and seeing whether stairs would still place. At any less than 8 clicks, either the water level dropped, or the flooring created a canal underneath itself. The other photo is of the finished pond and decking, with sims using the stairs.

I can do more explaining of my process with more photos, if anybody wants me to. Sorry for the long post, but I thought it was worth sharing what worked for my game. Maybe it is useful to somebody else too.

aelflaed,

1. connecting/modular stairs have to form from a plain upper location to a plain lower one.
2. may build the c./m. stairs along with the cheat "moveobjects on"
3. Modular stairs can form in less than a grid but in this case it has to be at least a grid away and so at least 4 click-high/step between the higher end of the platform/deck and the ground.
eg: the higher end is 4-click above the ground --then-> the lower end is 7-click lower than the the upper end; the ramp is to connect the upper and lower ends togher as the same level; the swimming level 1-click lower than the water surface is 4-click lower than the lower end of the platform/deck and so 11-click away from the upper end of the platform/deck.

Why 4 clicks? that's because it normally takes a grid for connecting/modular stairs to form and a grid holds 4 steps. Every step is 1-click-high. This is used for connecting the upper end to ground and the lower end to the swimming level right under the water surface.

Why 7-clicks between the ends? That's because 4-click (for differences used to connect the upper end to the ground) pluses 3-click (the height 4 clicks right above the
swimming level)

So, it's 7-click down from the ground to the swimming surface while 6 for the water surface.

For references, may read:
Tutorial more property-infos for connecting/modular stairs updated 1st May,06.
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=151575

Since this tutorial was made before V1ND1CARE's
Tutorial on Wall Height Reduction Under 4 Clicks
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthre...ewpost&t=190663
the lower end can be lower then and probably the upper one as well.

I'm having trouble at the very beginning of making the swimmable lake. Just as I build the last piece of the scaffolding, my game crashes. Any ideas why?

Niol
Thanks for your info - it's always useful. How come the four-click stairs work in the tutorial then? I am absolutely sure my platforms were four clicks, level with the ground, and with a flat grid at least two levels above that point. I was able to have four-click stairs from the deck to the swimming platform, no trouble, but they won't place for the ground - unless they are minimum 8 clicks high, as I said. And they won't cross that border between water and land. Move objects cheat was no help in this case.

I have seen both the above links in the past, but might do with re-reading them in this context.

I will check out your post and links more carefully later, I'm due to go out now.

Chippie, maybe you have installed something new, that is crashing your game?

chippie,

Sorry, I've no idea either , but if you post pix showing the state before crash, the probability to have someone be able to guess what happened may increase.


aelflaed,

For connecting/modular stairs to form, the ground has to plain first. Thus, builders deform the ground with the water tool after the stairs were made probably along with the cheat "boolprop constrainfloorelevation false" when necessary.

Surely, ensure to reserve some grids for re-levelling after the the above doing.

I've gotten it to stop crashing. I don't know how, but I'm thankful. Could it have had something to do with my neighborhood being a bit crowded? Or maybe the fact that I might have been messing around with boolprop earlier on the same lot? Anyway, thanks for the help.

The ground where the bottom of the stairs was to go WAS flat - sometimes for several tiles around the area. I also tried placing them from different sides of the platform, and with platforms wider and narrower, so there were empty flat tiles either side of the stair tile.

Do you mean that the tile just under the edge of the water (under the body of the stairs) has to have a flat bottom? I didn't think that was possible at the edge of the pond, without leveling it to ground level. Which is effectively what I am now doing, although it still has to go 8 clicks above the ground.

I don't know that I tried deepening the water under that tile.

My version is working fine, it would just be good to know what the tutorial is not telling me, that was needed to succeed.

chippie,

building a lot has nothing to do with how populated a neighbourhood is, I think.
But, some cheats may cause more instability.
Still, from your description, I see no clue.


aelflaed,

Before building the connecting/modular stairs from the 2nd level to the ground, ensure both the ending grids of the stair are flattened. Then, may well build the stairs from the higher end to the lower end occasionally probably with the cheat "moveobjects on".

If that doesn't help, I don't know. I can always make the stairs, so probably this's a new case to me, too.

Honestly, I did similar things just as JustTheBast did in this lot of mine. http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=73214
But, I just added the pre-NL swim pool as well to create the wavy look back to the pre-NL era.

So, I'm pretty sure this tutorial thread does tell all the necessary infos...
I wouldn't make a tutorial for this technqiue coz it's too long for me to make one unless I've got a lot of spare time and healthy fingers at the same time . So, we should thank JustTheBast for his hard work.

Niol, thanks for all the time you've put into this. I think we will have to put it in the 'who knows?' pile - I can't see that I am missing anything, it just doesn't work for me the way it is described, but it DOES work if I make the platform higher. Whatever.

I am very grateful to JusttheBast for making the tutorial - after all, mine may not be quite like his, but it works, and that's because of his discovery. I didn't mean to sound critical, just trying to find out what was happening.

Thanks again - I'll continue on as I was.

Now I understand what everyone's said about placing the stairs to the platform. It took me nearly an hour of fiddling to get them to place. And when they did, they weren't exactly where I wanted them. Is there a more reliable way to place stairs? Does anyone with the same problem have any suggestions, other than fiddling?

Chippie, did you try my version above? If it isn't clear, I'll describe more about it. However, if you did get the stairs to place eventually, maybe you need to concentrate on Niol's useful suggestions for making them work. Especially the bit about using the move objects cheat - if the grid has been messed with, it often helps to use the cheat even if the grid looks flat.

Hope that helps.

If the stair is not facing the proper direction, then tile 1 grid for all the unwanted direction.

To ensure a grid is totally plain/flat, may do a click with the levelling tool.
May read tip3 carefully.

Further tips:
1. may first create a pond/lake/else of levelled/flat/plain bottom to help facilitate building the swimming layer and the platform(s). Plain grid-linings (whether visible or invisible) are often easier to handle with. May shape the bottom after the swimming region(s) and the platform(s) are done.
2. May outline the swimming region(s) and the platform(s) as reminders.
3. Leave a grid row/column untiled for the swimming region away from the platform. If the grid layer right under and 1-grid-around the platform is tiled, surrounding visible and invisible grid layers can be fixated. Such fixation can interfere with formation of connecting/modular stairs. And, I don't know why. This can happen to other build features, too.


For references,
Tutorial more property-infos for connecting/modular stairs updated 1st May,06.
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=151575

Niol, I'm remembering something I think you suggested earlier, to build the stairs first and then do the rest. I did try that, and ran against the problem that it looked right, but the sims couldn't access the upper level. From the link you just posted, it's clear that those stairs remained fixed to the wrong level, although visually they were correct. Fair enough. I guess I should have done excavations before building the lake, making a pit on half the lot to get the correct two-platform level to connect to the street level. Remove all that, leave the stairs in limbo and do the lake and everything.

Tip 3 might possibly have been affecting my lots. The lower platform probably had a floortile, invisible or not, on the decking. Nothing on the surrounding tiles.

Looking at that link, you have stairs less than four clicks high - have to try that! Shame the thread has been closed.

Good Luck, Chippie.

I've tried using moveobjects on and have leveled the surrounding area and added floortiles on the decking to make sure the surrounding invisible tiles were level. Even with it all level, it wouldn't place the stairs. It doesn't even show the red stairs that indicate that there's a landing problem, it just shows a red tile. Guess its just a problem. I eventually got it to work by making the deck higher than it should be and having more stairs that stretched two tiles to the land.

Chippie, sounds just like my experience. But you did get it to place once, didn't you?

I guess you could say I got it to place. It just didn't get placed where I wanted it too. The decking is about 8 clicks above the ground rather than 4. No matter what I tried, I could not get it to connect at a height of 4 clicks. You can see what I mean in a new lot I've just submitted, where the lake is included.

Cool, I've been looking for more building ideas! Thank you, in fact, I am going to try this the next chance I get as my experimenting looked nice, but no swimmin' sims! Great job!

The another possibility is that for some reasons, for a given lake, the deformation of a platform is just not matching the ratio even though the tutorial was followed, then, just readjust the platform height down a bit or up a bit.

Oh well, an another trick to solve this is to delete the deck block from the ground to the swimming layer leaving the upper deck alone. Then build the stairs and go back to re-build the previously deleted deck block with "undo-crtl_delete", as suggested in these 2 tutorials:
http://www.modthesims2.com/member/s...ead.php?t=87464
http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/sto...ory&user_id=370


The attached are 2 examples. Surely, they show more than just the problem & solution .
The Maxis rugs, I've been wondering about its properties after reading its material sources, are, just like the dance tiles, integrated into the floor grid layers !
So, rugs get deformed along with the floor !

And yes, I'm making my wavy bloody terrain water !

I think I tried removing the lower layer of platform, but perhaps I didn't - it's all getting confused by now.

lol, just hold on, will get there...

I've given up fiddling for now, and will upload two lots with swimming platforms. Assuming they pass, you'll be able to see how they came out. One is better than the other, but they both have their points. And neither is quite according to the tutorial.

Thank You!!! ever since I downloaded the houses with swimmable lakes I have been battling my brain to figure out how to do that! excellent tyvm for the tutorial.

Thanks a lot! It works great except for one thing: Connecting it to the ground. I've tried it three times and each time the upper foundation is about two clicks too low to add stairs to the shore, and lowering the shore either screws up the water or it becomes part of the water. I ended up putting a foundation on the shore, and leveling that to the upper foundation--except two clicks higher, which is as low as it would go. Next time I'll try the upper level a couple clicks higher and just connect the two with stairs.

This works well... thankyou. And i think using one of Numenors old creations could help in this case. But i'm too lazy to look up the link and download.