Can't build higher (but it's not a number of floors issue!)

[mapamunobr]

:alarm: I was building a tower in my lot, and suddenly I couldn't build higher anymore! It's not a floor problem, I set the level to 15 (sethighestallowedlevel cheat), but I'm still on my 6th floor. I had already built higher on this same lot, but it wasn't what I wanted, and now the game doesn't let me place more walls on my 6th (highest, so far) floor! Does anyone know what to do? :!!:

[JLonier]

I'm going to move this to the build forum where the builders are more likely to see it. Mean while I'll poke about. I've seen this before. :)

[HystericalParoxysm]

Could this be a wall limit issue? If you're able to remove segments of wall and then put back that same number of segments somewhere else, that's the problem:

http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Wall_Limit

[bluetexasbonnie]

If it isn't a wall limit problem, then the dormer trick should work. Go to build mode, select a dormer and click to place it on the uppermost floor. Just the attempt to place it should generate the next level of buildable tiles.

[mapamunobr]

If it isn't a wall limit problem, then the dormer trick should work. Go to build mode, select a dormer and click to place it on the uppermost floor. Just the attempt to place it should generate the next level of buildable tiles.

Sorry guys, but it's not a wall limit problem. I'm able to go up many floors I want to, and I can place walls on lower floors. The problem is that when I place the wall on the highest floor (the grids ARE there) it gets cut below the middle, and the game says I can't elevate the terrain higher and the wall disappears. Any sugestions??

[bluetexasbonnie]

Don't think I've ever tripped that particular limit. Just out of curiousity, how high are you trying to go?

[mapamunobr]

I'm not going that high. I'm just doing a Tolkien based lot, so it needs towers. Probably I'll go just to the 8th floor, tops! But what bothers me is that I've already built higher in the same lot, but I erased the stuff, and now I can't go up!

[niol]

mapamunobr,

I guess you have no modified wall mod, or Mikeinside easy wall or Numenor's custom walls or the alike...
And the grid layer there can be somehow fixated there. I can't know the real cause of it with the present infos, but it can be some objects left on it that, or the related file(s) can have corrupted, or something else.

BTW, have you set 15 again with that cheat "sethighestallowedlevel"?
it seems possible that the userStartup.cheat (...\EA Games\The Sims 2\Config\userStartup.cheat) may have a preset for this cheat.
May set it lower and then higher again?


If not, at least a pic to show, please?

[mapamunobr]

Problem solved (kinda). The good part is that now I can build normaly. The bad is that I don't understand why.

I built a mountain. On top of it, I built a little mount. On the mount, I built my tower, up and up, as far as I wanted. But then I decided to raise my mount, and removed my tower. After the mount was a little higher, I tried to build the tower but the game said I couldn't elevate the terrain higher. What I didn't understand is that, after I left the lot without saving and reentered it, in the lower mount, I built a 10 floor tower without any issue. And the tower was even higher than the one wich I couldn't elevate! My problem is solved, but I just don't understand this madness of not being able to go higher, when later I can build an even higher tower!

[bluetexasbonnie]

I have seen such a probem. If you have your tower/building/etc. too close to the mountain the game sometimes will have problems when it suddenly realizes that a lower level (like level 0 on the mountain top) is higher than level 4 in the valley. (Level 4 is just an example of a higher level. As far as I know, there is no specific upper level that triggers the problem.)

[niol]

mapamunobr,

A likely cause I have in mind right now is that since you first built the tower that got the grid layers out and saved. Once the grid layers are out, their values are saved in the invisible temporary lot package file. Upon a successful save in-game, the saved lot will have those values and so the upper grid layers are already there.

After you removed the tower, the grid layers are still kinda fixated there.
And as you raised the ground up to make the mount higher, that in turns could raise the right above grid layer up by the default wall 1 wall tool.
After a few trials of raise-up as you rebuilt the few stories until the story you could build up to and the next 2 grid layers are all already pressed together with 4-click-high/-step-high/0.75 apart from one another/each other..

Then, why can that be a problem?
it seems the wall build tool can only act on the the 2 grid layers only while by the game interface default every grid layer has to be at least 4-click-high/4-step-high/0.75 apart from one another/each other (Am.).
The wall tool cannot raise the grid layer right above the two grid layers it's interacting simply because that's how the build tool was designed. :P And, it can be that grid layer that limits the upper grid layer the wall tool interacts with. Since I assume you have no modded wall configuration, you can't build wall in its standard height due to that.

If that's really the case, you may have to expand the last lower stories (the ones on the "mount") out probably starting from the last second story's floor, assuming you haven't built or levelled on those expanded regions before (so, their relative height values should still be the same as the default).
1. Expand by 2 grids for each side (except when the side(s) be close to lot border(s)) and expand the last story's floor.2 more grids further out.
2. Build more stories starting from the edges to your desired story number first.
3. Then, use the levelling tool to flatten all the grid layers for all those new stories.
4. Then, build the walls of the tower you intended.
5. remove the expanded walls and floor tiles.

[porkypine]

I've not tried to build that many stories, HOWEVER, if you fake the number of floors by building a high hill and use the foundation tiles for the first few floors, then remove teh ground around the base. you can fake those as lower level floors. THEN you can build walls on top of that foundation and skirt the number of floors issue you are having.

You may also want to make sure you have view range LONG DISTANCE set on your limits. I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but it can't hurt to set the view lot range to maximum. I'm not at my game computer right now so I can't give you the exact game words. sorry....

[niol]

mod the in-lot camera setting in the camera folder then in that case. one can mod it and test in-game without game reload. it's dynamic while savable.