Double story house on Split level ground !

[Dbnguy]

PLEASE HELP Im going mad with this 

I am trying to design my own house, as I figured this would be great when it comes to looking at all the construction ideas we have.

Problem is we have split level ground. a flat piece on the top with the main house, and the 2nd piece has the downstairs home cinema / party room, opening up onto the pool.

From the inside of the cinema room is a flight of stairs leading up to the rest of the house.

However the problem I am having when trying to get this part right, is that when I lower terrain, the angle of the tile from top to bottom is causing problems with my walls. Is there any way to make this angle of the grass tile 90 degrees as opposed to the slight slant that it is?

I have tried using the terrain constrain false cheat, but the "grass tile" slant, still comes up at a slight angle.

Any advice please? I really want to get this done :-)

One more thing, completely off topic: so far I have 3 kids. 2 of my own and one I adopted. Problem is they are all girls.

Is there any way I can get a boy? I mean a man would like a son to call his own, or is it something in my "genes" that will only make me spawn girls :-)

i even tried adopting, but nah ah, only option was girls !!!! HELP Im being outnumbered 10 to one in my own house LOL !!!!!

Thanks

Lee

[akatonbo]

Everything about a birth except the number of babies (single or twins) is randomized AT BIRTH. If you want a specific gender, then save shortly before the birth (as soon as the mother makes it obvious that it's about to happen by waving about it, basically), and if it's a girl, quit without saving and try again until you get a boy. (You should also re-randomize Sim generation data with the lot debugger once per playsession, but that doesn't have an effect on gender iirc.)

[Zazazu]

However the problem I am having when trying to get this part right, is that when I lower terrain, the angle of the tile from top to bottom is causing problems with my walls. Is there any way to make this angle of the grass tile 90 degrees as opposed to the slight slant that it is?

Unfortunately, no. It's always going to go at a slant. A possible visual solution is to conceal that spot from the outside with bushes. From the inside, stairs will of course hide the offense, but only where the stairs are.

[Hook]

Everything about a birth except the number of babies (single or twins) is randomized AT BIRTH.

Someone needs to give akatonbo that talk about the birds and the bees.

Hook

[kuronue]

One more thing, completely off topic: so far I have 3 kids. 2 of my own and one I adopted. Problem is they are all girls.

Is there any way I can get a boy? I mean a man would like a son to call his own, or is it something in my "genes" that will only make me spawn girls :-)

i even tried adopting, but nah ah, only option was girls !!!! HELP Im being outnumbered 10 to one in my own house LOL !!!!!

Thanks

Lee

Sorry, this is a game modification site, we can't help you with your personal life 

[Hegelian]

Problem is we have split level ground. a flat piece on the top with the main house, and the 2nd piece has the downstairs home cinema / party room, opening up onto the pool.

However the problem I am having when trying to get this part right, is that when I lower terrain, the angle of the tile from top to bottom is causing problems with my walls. Is there any way to make this angle of the grass tile 90 degrees as opposed to the slight slant that it is? I have tried using the terrain constrain false cheat, but the "grass tile" slant, still comes up at a slight angle.

With constrain floor elevation set to false, you need to play with the leveling tool and the raise terrain tool until you get an acceptable result. It may take some time before you find a technique that works for you (I think I spent a week messing with this before I got it right), and you may need to turn constrain floor elevation on and off as you go along (I haven't done this in some time, so I don't remember the details). Once you've got the foundation they way you want it, you flatten each level above that until your floors are flat and the walls are straight. You may need to flatten areas of the house several times over the course of the project. Also, there will always be some compromises on the ground floor regarding windows and such.

You need to do this using a foundation—you can't do it with just walls on the ground. Because the interior of the basement level will be on the ground inside the foundation, once you're done you can take out some of the foundation tiles in the back part of the basement and replace them with wall tiles, so you can have doors and windows.

It is difficult to explain in words, so you will just need to experiment. In the end you can expect something like in these pics. You can't see it in the pictures, but the sloping ground is contained within the inner and outer walls of the foundation. This is the trick:  To shift the sloped tiles from outside the foundation to within the foundation walls, resulting in exterior ground that is flush with your foundation instead of creating a trench around the house.

Note that this is one of my earliest building efforts; my decorating has improved significantly since then. Note also the trick I used for the attic room. With the roof on, the only windows are in the dormer, but in play mode with the roof not showing, all the windows in the attic work as if there were no roof. Of course, this wouldn't work in real life.   

[Dbnguy]

Hegelian thanks a mill. I was not using foundations, I think that might be just the solution actually.

Your house looks almost exactly like what I am trying to achieve, and it looks like it came out ok.

Kuronue, dont worry about not being able to help, Im going to therapy so in a few sim years I should be ok LOL !!!

Thanks all for your advice and help.

Lee

[Hecubus]

A tip for getting the lower ground to be at the right height:

Level part of the ground to the top level (front door). Then place stairs (the expandable ones, not the fixed ones)...they should lower the ground four clicks at a time. You need a total of 12 clicks (3 sets of stairs) to get walls that will build correctly downstairs.

I can provide pics if you need them.

[Dbnguy]

If you wouldnt mind, that would be great.

Ahh Ive also just seen you have a double wall, that is obviously is what you use to conceal the slnt. Ay, too clever huh :-)

Also could I ask if you could please provide a straight down shot of your 2nd pic? Want to see the layou.

Thanks a mill

[akatonbo]

Everything about a birth except the number of babies (single or twins) is randomized AT BIRTH.

Someone needs to give akatonbo that talk about the birds and the bees.

I got it from Gwill's sig.

[Gwill]

I got it from Gwill's sig.

Oh, god.  I'd almost managed to supress that image of the freaky blond grinning baby clawing his way out of his mother while the father and doctor stands there smiling.
Signatures are a bit like quit messages; you never notice your own.

[Hegelian]

Ahh Ive also just seen you have a double wall, that is obviously is what you use to conceal the slant. Ay, too clever huh :-)

Also could I ask if you could please provide a straight down shot of your 2nd pic? Want to see the layout.

If you mean me, the double wall is actually what happens when you use constrainFloorElevation false and flatten the floor above the basement to cause the foundation to stretch to wall height at the back of your house. They are the inner and outer "walls" of the foundation tiles. I just use wall coverings on the inner surfaces so they look better in the game. And yes, this is where you want the slanted ground tiles to be when you level the basement floor.

Once you have everything leveled and the terrain as you like it, turn constrainFloorElevation back on and take out the foundation tiles where they are exposed and replace them with walls. This lets you install windows and doors (You can see this in the lower left of picture 4). You can only do this a limited number of tiles into the slope of the hill because at a certain point you won't be able to place windows, and if you force them with the move objects cheat, you won't be able to see out anyway (again, see picture 4 for an example).

I am afraid I don't have any more pictures. The neighborhood was the first custom one I made, back in August 2005, and I nuked it a couple weeks ago. I happened to have the pictures I took in the neighborhood stashed in an archive, so I was able to post them.

Here is another house built on similar principles. I chose the other one as an example because the back yard is relatively flat, whereas this lot continues to slope away from the street. This house has been through several versions, so some pics are from a Maxis-only version, and some are from the in-game version.

[ElfPuddle]

There's a fantastic tutorial that I learned this from. It was actually for how to add a garage to a house with a foundation, but apply the knowledge, and it's a piece of cake.

Let me see if I can find it.

Here we go. That took forever. I hate searching the Exchange.

'Scuse me while I go shower with Lysol now.

[msalwaysright]

Another way to gauge ground level is to place the foundation, wallpaper a section of it, click until you hit the bottom of the wallpaper, then level your basement area from that point.

re: Gwill's sig,
That was so awesomely awful!  My phobia of pregnancy is newly affirmed.

[Dbnguy]

Guys you have all been incredibly helpfull. Thank you.

Will keep you posted. Will start on it today.

Wish me luck but above all - PATIENCE !!!!!

Lee