Walls closer to the lot edges...

[Doc Doofus]

Is there any cheat (or other trick) that will let me build walls or foundations closer than the 2-square limit to the edge of the lot?

[Gwill]

Simply put: No.
People have been begging for it since the base game, but the answer is still no.

You can put fences on the edge, and greenhouse walls go as close as one square from the edge, but that's it.

[ZephyrZodiac]

You can, however, build right up to the pavement (or sidewalk, if you prefer) and your upper story can protrude over it - I think with moveobjects on it would be possible to build a "floating" upper floor  right out into the road, although I've never tried it.  Also, you can put outside staircases at the side of the house, which effectively means you are using one of the two tile widths for your house.

Also, if you are aiming for a terraced effect in your hood, you can extend the front wall to the edge, and put an archway in it - a lot of terraces have passages between them and doing this looks quite realistic.  I've done it with 1x1 lots to create 2-up 2-down terraced cottages, and then divided them with the high wall (the old, broken brick type wall, not one of the fancy ones, can't think offhand what it's called.)

[Doc Doofus]

Ah, okay... 

I am working with 1x1's and 2x1's.  The opportunity to own vacation homes in BV  makes it appealing to try to design the cheapest house available.  It seems as though a half-decent cheap furnished vacation home will run about 8000 unless you get extra clever about it.

[LadyLiberty]

Hello Doc Doofus,

While there might not be a mod for building to the edge of a lot, there is a method in testing.  I recently read through the thread by Mootilda who has been working with the Andi LotExpander and has updated that for BV.  In that thread at MTS2,

http://modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=175884

the link is given for the general discussion and within that discussion, the link for the discussion of the work being done by plasticbox toward being able to build to the edge of the lot.   

Please find Mootilda's  'Discussion: Lot Size, Orientation, Rotation, etc' thread here:

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=250693

Please find the plasticbox thread here:

http://www.modthesims2.com/showpost.php?p=1801416&postcount=527

Great discussions. 

[Emma]

Plasticbox has also posted a tutorial about this-I can't wait to try it!

Tutorial

[cwykes]

Are you going to run into any problems building to the edge of the lot?  Is it going to help speed up routing or make things works?  How about portals?  any danger of screwing them up by blocking or building over them?

I'm working with 1x1 and 1x2 lots at the moment as well - I've been using that concrete wall to join adjacent houses.  My current practical problem is that I'm working in base game with the BasegameStarter and am having trouble installing the MTS2 empty lots into the game - they end up in my main game teleport folder! Moving them to the correct teleport folder seems to crash the base game.  Also, the base game system of moving lots out of the lot bin rather than copying them sucks if you are wanting to build 10 houses on a template in the lot bin!

[Emma]

Cwykes, first of all check your teleport folder is empty for the main game. Install the 1X1 etc, lots. DO NOT RUN YOUR MAIN GAME! Open your teleport folder for your main game. Copy and paste all the files in there. Paste them into your 'Base Game' teleport folder for the basegamestarter. If there isn't one there, create a new folder, it won't matter. Run the basegamestarter. Voila, your nice empty lots will be in there, base game compatible.

Are you going to run into any problems building to the edge of the lot?  Is it going to help speed up routing or make things works?  How about portals?  any danger of screwing them up by blocking or building over them?

I haven't got a clue. I think there is a link to a hack that shows portals in the lot expander thread, but haven't read all the threads yet. I know there is a problem with the pizza delivery guy, he just walks up and down and you can't greet him, he just puts the pizza on the floor. The sims still pay for it though.

[ZephyrZodiac]

If you use Clean Installer you should be able to redirect anything you want where you want anywhere on your PC.  Just uncheck the default box and browse.

[pbox]

Are you going to run into any problems building to the edge of the lot?  Is it going to help speed up routing or make things works?  How about portals?  any danger of screwing them up by blocking or building over them?

Yes you can totally screw up the portals if you want to  but as of v1.2.7.8 (or .7?) of the LotExpander, the whole procedure has become much easier -- LE now moves the portals for you when you shrink a lot, so you never need to touch them at all, and they seem to work perfectly from what I've seen during testing. The only unresolved issue I currently know about is the confused pizza dudes -- but there may be other still undiscovered problems; I've just uploaded a row house on mts2 and am begging for feedback here.

The latest supported test version of the LotExpander is 1.2.7.8, available here.

Inge Jones has posted a portal revealer here -- you can use this to mess around with portals to your heart's content.

In the tutorial I posted, there's a summary on possible problems/things to keep in mind when building wall to wall.

(That tutorial, and a few row houses, is the only thing that's *my* work btw -- I wasn't even able to help out with testing very much, due to lack of time. The new LotExpander, with the shrinking feature, is basically a gift that fell in my lap .. I'm only using it, I didn't write it -> kudos to Mootilda and the other testers, not me!)

[Zazazu]

Cool. I'll play with it tonight, although only for three sim days. Lynn & Antwan need to move out of their respective parents' houses, and Queen's Cove needs a semi-urban section to cushion the Badger Square from the sticks.

[baratron]

Hehehe - having literally just seen the posts on MTS2 a few minutes ago, I came here to post that it seems that someone's found a way to make terraced housing in Sims 2, but this thread has beaten me to it. Ah well .

[LadyLiberty]

Thank you so very much for clarifying things, plasticbox.  I sincerely appreciate it.  I saw the very first brief post from Mootilda some time ago and was totally blown away with what I found in this recent thread of what was discovered and shared since.  I couldn't tell from the post other than it looked like you were making it a bit easier for others to begin to experiment with the methods Mootilda had found by way of your row houses.  One way or the other, I felt it was brilliant work by all involved and that it needed shared here as soon as possible, especially since Doc had asked the question at a perfect time. 

I agree, it sounds like an awful lot of fun ahead with these.  This opens up a new world, at least for this one.

I have been having some issues with my game cannibalizing itself, so I am trying to put things back together in a useable form, but when I have it finished, I am dying to try your row houses.  Seems for me the trouble began with the installation of Celebrations to an otherwise stable game.  I really want to try your houses, so I may bag the whole thing and start anew...  and it will be your and Mootilda's fault I couldn't wait     

Commence the fun!

[Zazazu]

It's a good house so far. Just slight issues with changing wallpaper on the shortened sides (you can't put windows on the ends either. To be expected. I posted a bunch of feedback for you at MTS2, Plasticbox, and will put up some more when I next get a chance to play...tomorrow or Saturday, but I think I'm out for the majority of tomorrow night.

[Doc Doofus]

I posted a note over on S2c about this...  but the Lot Expander is telling me that my 3x2 lot is a 3x3, before I even do anything.  LE is wrong.  My lot is definitely a 3x2.  Double-checked it.    I'm going to wait for more feedback about that before I do any shrinking.

[Mootilda]

I posted a note over on S2c about this...  but the Lot Expander is telling me that my 3x2 lot is a 3x3, before I even do anything.  LE is wrong.  My lot is definitely a 3x2.  Double-checked it.    I'm going to wait for more feedback about that before I do any shrinking.

The LotExpander isn't wrong.  It says that it is including the space for the road.  Thus, a 3x2 lot becomes a 3x3 lot, including the road.

[Doc Doofus]

OOoookay...  Going to test it now...

[cwykes]

Cwykes, first of all check your teleport folder is empty for the main game. Install the 1X1 etc, lots. DO NOT RUN YOUR MAIN GAME! Open your teleport folder for your main game. Copy and paste all the files in there. Paste them into your 'Base Game' teleport folder for the basegamestarter. If there isn't one there, create a new folder, it won't matter. Run the basegamestarter. Voila, your nice empty lots will be in there, base game compatible.

That's what I've been doing Emma and the lots appeared in base game just fine and I placed one and built on it.  Unfortunately the whole thing crashes at the hood screen next time I try and change hoods or load the one I was working on, so I figure it's probably that.  Guess it could be something else, but that was all I did!

[Doc Doofus]

It worked!  Fantastic!  Followed the directions to the tee....

It's absolutely essential that you get all the windows and walls (including INSIDE walls -- I missed that) just the way you want them before you shrink the lot.  After you shrink it, you can't move or change the windows off the outer walls.  You can't connect inside walls to the outer walls -- they are still subject to that two-square limit pain in the ass.

Going from 3x2 to 1x1 chopped about $2500 off the price of the lot, although it took a couple of saves for that to register.

I did all my work starting on an empty vacant lot and got it how I wanted it before moving in a Sim.  Played the lot for hours, no problems at all!  Well one...  Because it's a 1x1 lot, Sims arriving in vehicles don't always get out using the animation but, instead, just pop up.  No biggie, though.

[Mootilda]

You can, however, build right up to the pavement (or sidewalk, if you prefer) and your upper story can protrude over it - I think with moveobjects on it would be possible to build a "floating" upper floor  right out into the road, although I've never tried it.

The released version of the LotExpander (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?p=1747180) has an advanced "over the road" option which will allow you to place an upper floor over the road.

[pixiejuice]

That tutorial, and a few row houses, is the only thing that's *my* work btw

Pbox, you say you've made a "few" rowhouses?  Do you have any others posted on MTS2 yet?  (I mean the individual side-by-side ones.  I obviously know about the whole Backdoor Lane series )  I've only just seen the one, Backdoor Lane 42.  Love it, btw.  I can't wait to try making my own. 

This is slightly OT, but related to the shrinking feature in the new LE - has anyone tried shrinking beach lots yet? 

[pbox]

Pbox, you say you've made a "few" rowhouses?  Do you have any others posted on MTS2 yet?

There are two *experimental* *test* downloads in the R+D thread at mts2. Links are in post #1. I'm probably going to repost them somewhere else though -- if you download them, please don't post in the R+D with feedback, please use the row house tutorial thread for now .. the R+D thread is getting too cluttered with build mode stuff. Thank you!

This is slightly OT, but related to the shrinking feature in the new LE - has anyone tried shrinking beach lots yet? 

Check the R+D thread, I think Inge posted about it a few times -- I don't have BV so the beach lot stuff doesn't really register.

[Mootilda]

This is slightly OT, but related to the shrinking feature in the new LE - has anyone tried shrinking beach lots yet? 

Someone had some success shrinking a beach lot on the side, but (as far as I know) no one has tried shrinking the depth of a beach lot yet. If anyone would like to try this, I'd be happy to help in whatever way I can.

Update:
Inge Jones just succeeded in shrinking the depth of a beach lot:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showpost.php?p=1804821&postcount=630

[Doc Doofus]

I would share my 1x1 row house here if I could figure out how to get around this 640kb limit on attachments.

[Zazazu]

Sweet. I hope she shares.

Doc Doofus, MTS2 not an option? I use 4shared.com for alternative file saving.