Leveling out some land in a neighborhood

[sopye]

I have a small neighborhood, maxis built, that has one large corner of land in the middle of the neighborhood that I cannot put anything on. I have tried empty lots, large lots, small lots, etc. Nothing will go there. I found a cheat in Wiki for modifying terrain in neighborhood, but I can't seem to get it to work. I put my cursor there, and I get the square that is supposed to be leveled, but when I push the P key, or any of the others, it doesn't do anything. This is very frustrating, am I doing the cheat wrong, or is the cheat itself wrong? :blink:

[Simster 57]

what's the hood template called?

[sopye]

It is the Twikki template, and it is the corner section furthest inland, opposite the hot springs

[Mootilda]

Neighborhood decorations can block placement of lots; have you checked whether there's any deco which is blocking the area?

[sopye]

sorry, I checked the template, and there are no decorations or markers of any sort in that area.

[Mootilda]

Slopes can also block placement, especially when you are placing next to a road (ie, a corner lot) or next to another lot. A sloped road at the front of the lot can also block placement, if the game is unable to flatten the road within parameters.

If you have the ability to edit the neighborhood terrain (shipped with one of the later EPs... can't remember which one right now), then you could try leveling the terrain before placing the lot. You have to type in the cheat "modifyNeighborhoodTerrain on", then select the area of the neighborhood that you want to level and press the "\" key. Sounds like you've already tried this, so you may not have the appropriate EP.

There is also a parameter in one of the configuration files which specifies the maximum slope allowed; changing this parameter can allow placement of lots which refused to place before. I seem to remember that niol has posted some information about this; I could try to find it if you believe that it might help.

Is there any possibility that there is a hidden lot at that location in the neighborhood? I seem to remember that the vacation neighborhoods have some hidden lots.

The LotAdjuster will allow you to move a lot into place from somewhere else in the neighborhood. I could try to help you with that, if you want to try to force the lot into place.

Other than roads, other lots, neighborhood deco, and slopes, I can't think of anything that would cause problems when placing lots; does anyone else have any ideas?

Are you trying to add the lot in the location shown by the attached screenshot? What size of lot are you trying to place?

[sopye]

the area I am talking about, is the corner on the other side of the ruins. Where the big rock sculpture is. I actually removed both decorations, and the lot where the ruins are. I have tried all sizes of the lots, empty and with buildings. I guess there could be a secret lot there, or maybe the terrain is just corrupted to the point it can't be flattened. I will keep messing with it, maybe just throw some trees on it and call it a day.

[Mootilda]

I tried adding a lot to both corners of the road, one next to the ruins (only two squares wide, to match the road) and the other kitty-corner to the ruins (maximum-sized lot), and had no problems adding a lot in either location. So, I'm out of ideas.

It would be fairly easy to add your lot as shown in my picture, then use the LotAdjuster to move your lot to the other side of the ruins. You just choose the advanced option "Move Lot" and select the number of squares to move the lot.

[sopye]

My other problem,lol. For some reason, when I open the Lot Adjuster, it shows Twikki, but when I open it, it says no lots available. I was playing with it last night, and using the cheat was able to level out some other parts of the landscape, so I am doing the cheat right, but it wouldn't do it for that section.

[Mootilda]

Would it be possible to zip your neighborhood package and attach it here? I'd like to understand why you're not seeing any lots using the LotAdjuster. Are you using Twikki as a vacation spot? If so, I might need both the main neighborhood and the Vacation package.

This might also help me to find out what's blocking your lot placement.

[sopye]

Nope, using the Twikki as a regular neighborhood. How do I zip it, just zip the N011 file and attach here? I can try.

Hmm, the upload would be 258 mb, way passed the rules. Would that be okay?

[Mootilda]

I only need the N011_Neighborhood.package file, not the entire directory. Hopefully, that will be a lot smaller.

[sopye]

Here, Mootilda, think this is the right file. Was a little less,lol.


hMM, will keep trying, but for some reason, my file won't upload. Okay, I must be doing something wrong, it starts to upload, says please wait, then like after a long time, IE says can't find web page. grrrr.

Also, do you know why the Lot Aduster would show all my lots for another neighborhood, but I can't access the nh in the loading screens? I have 3 legacies on that nh, that I thought I lost forever, but maybe not.

[Mootilda]

The LotAdjuster starts by searching the standard path for all directories which match known neighborhood naming conventions. If your neighborhood isn't listed, you should be able to use the Browse button to select the appropriate neighborhood package directly.

Are you using the AnyGameStarter, or some other program which uses a different location for the saved games?

[sopye]

No, it is still in the right place. Documents/documents/eagames/sims2. Unfortunately, for some reason, it won't let me upload, it says it is, but then I get an error. The neighborhood file is only 1.6 mb, under the limit, so not sure what is going on.

[Mootilda]

I'm not sure why you're having problems. Perhaps this forum won't allow attachments. You could try attaching it to the LotAdjuster thread:
http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=282409

Or try using a free file server, such as www.mediafire.com.

[sopye]

Mootilda did have the link on the previous post, but not sure if you saw it, so I am posting here in a new one. Let me know if your able to find anything, please, and thanks for even looking.


http://www.mediafire.com/?zdnjdzanurd

[Mootilda]

No, I can't see the other link. However, I've downloaded from your latest post and will look at it today to see whether I can figure out what the problem is.

[Update:]
The first thing that I notice about your neighborhood is that the road is not flat. The game can (usually) handle the road being uneven along the road (ie, the direction that the cars travel), but it can have major problems when the terrain is uneven across the road (ie, from one sidewalk to the sidewalk on the opposite side of the road). I suspect that this is what is causing your problems when trying to place a lot.

So, you have two options: keep your uneven terrain and expect to have problems placing lots, or level out your terrain, especially around the roads.

I know that you've said that you can't flatten the area using the neighborhood editing tools that come with the game. If you can use the LotAdjuster, then you might be able to flatten out the neighborhood terrain and roads by flattening the appropriate lots. If that doesn't work, you could always try using my HoodReplace program to replace the bad terrain and roads with the ones from the original SC4 file.

Next, I'm going to see whether I can determine why you can't see this hood correctly in the LotAdjuster.

[Second Update:]
I am not having any problems seeing your lots in the LotAdjuster; which version are you running?

[sopye]

Says the edition is 2.6.0.0, with a download date of March 09

[Mootilda]

I reread your post and realized that I misremembered your original post about your problems with the LotAdjuster.

The LotAdjuster has less stringent requirements than the game does when opening your neighborhood, so I suppose that the hood may be corrupt, but not in any way which the LotAdjuster cares about.

I don't suppose that you uninstalled an EP or SP? Or, perhaps you uninstalled some custom content that was used in the neighborhood?

Sounds like you may be experiencing this problem:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=180053

[sopye]

Thanks Mootilda, I just spent most of the day reading the thread, and it does sound like maybe I have some of the same problems. I haven't gone on the sims2 in a few days, guess since I lost my 2 biggest nh's I have kind of lost interest for awhile. I still think Riverblossom is there, I am just missing something that would make it clickable in the main menu. This was my legacy hood, Twikki, actually started out from my shipwrecked challenge,lol.
Will keep playing with it, what is the worst that can happen right?