Is it bad to flatten a beach lot?

[Lana B]

Having tried the place, delete, replace with a beach template, the lot maintained its original contours (little hilly bits in the middle). In build mode I used the flatten lot tool which may or may not have been the cause of my non-functioning beach. It was not possible to swim and the sand did not advertise seashell hunts or sand castles. The same family is now happily engrossed in the beach next door and I deleted that lot.

[Emma]

I have flattened an empty beach lot, built a house and decorated it and it works just fine.

[Zazazu]

It should be fine. I've done a lot of terrain editing on my placed lots, deleted and replaced. The issues you can run into is when you place the lots out of order. How to explain...*racks brain* Ow.

Say this is a grid of your hood "squares", just the road and the squares directly off of it:

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	8
R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R

If you place a lot encompassing 1-2-3, then one at 7-8-9, then try to place a lot in the middle space, say 4-5-6-7, it seems like you are even more likely to encounter problems in being able to place them. It's really best to place out the lots first, then build. And place them straight in a line.

Needless to say, don't move built on beach lots around and expect to be able to place something next to them afterwards. I screwed up a fair portion of beachfront property that way in my 'hood.

[J. M. Pescado]

"Flattening" a beach lot with the flatten tool while constructing it is a dangerous game. Sims can only tolerate a certain level of slope when moving about, and since the beachfront area CANNOT BE TOUCHED and will not flatten, what you will instead create is a steep plateau effect at the line of untouchability, which can result in non-transitable terrain slopes and thus an unusable beach that you have cut off with a steep cliff.

[Emma]

That's why I place modular stairs. Mind you, my beach lots are flat to start out with, mostly.

[J. M. Pescado]

That's why I place modular stairs. Mind you, my beach lots are flat to start out with, mostly.

Beach lots can never be TOO flat, and the flatten tool will always create at least some "cliffing". Modular stairs can help, but are not a perfect solution for all cases. It is a risk you take when using the flatten tool wholesale.

[Lana B]

I did place modular stairs which they were able to use when I forced them to, but there were no waves. I must have broken the beachness somehow as except for me being able to see it, it wasn't there. Flattening the lot was the only thing I can think of that might have done it. This was in a brand new 'hood, the non-beach was the only placed lot and I didn't move it. The only playable sim (until he married and had kids) was resident. The beach did work for a while but I wasn't watching closely enough to know what killed it.

[Emma]

Beach lots can never be TOO flat, and the flatten tool will always create at least some "cliffing". Modular stairs can help, but are not a perfect solution for all cases. It is a risk you take when using the flatten tool wholesale.

Ooh, I may have misunderstood, I didn't mean use the flatten lot tool, I meant the click & drag lot levelling tool. I usually stop the gridsquare before the bit where you can't place anymore foundation. On re-reading I realise the lot flatten tool is what Lana was talking about too. Sorry. I still place modular stairs though as I like the look of them leading down to the beach and I usually fence the beach off anyway.

I haven't ever used the lot flatten tool as I haven't had any need to.

[veilchen]

I always used the leveling tool, but I will try the click and drag one from now on. Sounds safer, thanks Emma. After all, you're the one who knows about building, far more than many others. That JM thinks the leveling tool could be unsafe doesn't fill me with confidence either.

*Emma has beach lots?*

* veilchen goes off in search for Emma-beach lots

[Emma]

I haven't made any for download yet veilchen-soon, I promise!

* Emma hugs veilchen

[Zazazu]

Beach lots can never be TOO flat, and the flatten tool will always create at least some "cliffing". Modular stairs can help, but are not a perfect solution for all cases. It is a risk you take when using the flatten tool wholesale.

Ooh, I may have misunderstood, I didn't mean use the flatten lot tool, I meant the click & drag lot levelling tool.

So did I. I'm surprised it let you use the flatten-whole lot tool, Lana B. Well, then. Ignore that portion of my earlier statement. Placement, though, that can screw you up. I like the rock placement I had to do to make my terrain look less crappy after FUBARing the section, but more beach lots would have been nice...especially since it's in the richer section of the island.

[veilchen]

* veilchen hugs Emma back.

Good. That is, after all, the way I build. I get the neighborhood terrains from talented people (Zazazu, SC, for example) and the buildings from other talented people (Emma, Reg, etc). Then I cruise around to check on JM's advise/warnings and I'm done. That way I end up with great neighborhoods. Add the elves (thanks Witch, Ancient ), and I'm content. That is, until Eaxis reveals/throws in their assorted monkey wrenches.

[Lana B]

This calls for testing. Perhaps it was the flatten lot tool which killed the beach. For a while I wondered if maybe it was just that the waves were season dependent (I noticed in Autumn). If I can get at the game (on wrong 'puter) I'll check.

On the subject of placement, I have some amusing screenshots of how not to place beach lots. I was checking my custom SC4 terrains for beach compatibility. Will try and remember to post some for entertainment purposes.

[witch]

I have a kiwi beach bach lot just about ready to upload Veilchen. (Bach in the North Island, crib in the South Island.  )

Unfortunately it has custom content, so I'll be making a post here, can't upload to laverwinkle, I'll PM you when it's ready.

[Emma]

Good. That is, after all, the way I build. I get the neighborhood terrains from talented people (Zazazu, SC, for example) and the buildings from other talented people (Emma, Reg, etc). Then I cruise around to check on JM's advise/warnings and I'm done. That way I end up with great neighborhoods. Add the elves (thanks Witch, Ancient ), and I'm content. That is, until Eaxis reveals/throws in their assorted monkey wrenches.

EAxis really do spoil the game don't they? They have really great ideas but they end up half-assed and borked. Good job there are plenty of 'fixers' in the community. If I didn't have internet access I'd have stopped playing long ago.

[KatEnigma]

I had a beach lot that suddenly stopped allowing people to swim in the ocean, for no apparent reason. I'd never flattened the lot, and although I dragged up bits of it, I stopped well before the beach. It also had been perfectly usable until the point that it wasn't. I moved the family out and deleted the lot.

I'm not sure whether or not I'd ever used the debugger to remove the stuck sandcastles on that lot, or not. I'm wondering, now, if maybe it was a side-effect of either having used it or needing to have used it.

More testing is needed, obviously.

[Lana B]

Put 2 beaches in a corner and they don't agree.
The view from one:

and then the other:

Where did the water come from?

A view of the ravaged coastline.



I just flattened a lot with the tool and the occupant happily swam, autonomously sunbathed (during a thunderstorm) and combed for shells. Any suggestions?

[J. M. Pescado]

The lot flattening tool is not guaranteed to destroy anything, but like I said, if you use it, you run the risk of creating an impassable ridge when the flattenable terrain meets the unflattenable.