True Sunken Basements in The Sims 3 - Work in Progress

[Flabaliki]

True Sunken Basements in The Sims 3

So I've figured out how to achieve a true sunken basement in The Sims 3. Of course I wouldn't have found this out on my own. Thanks to krd123 who found out you could place windows/doors in a pool with move objects enable. And then subsequently Syphon8 who found out how to empty a pool, which lead me believe there must be a simpler way.

http://thumbs2.modthesims2.com/img/1/0/6/2/9/4/MTS2_Flabaliki_967665_basement.jpg

Important Info

I must warn you this doesn't always work. You can't upload a lot with this because when the user places it all the furniture will pop back up to ground level and the pool will fill with water.

Also, going into Edit Town Mode and going back into the lot cause the pool to fill with water, but the furniture stays put. This is easily fixable.

When a sim moves about in a true sunken basement they walk up a steep (invisible) hill and walk down it again to the furniture. The animations are odd but it still works ;)

So at the moment true sunken basements are to keep to yourself. If anyone can find a way to stop it doing this, that would be great. But for now this is what we have.

Format: Adobe Acrobat PDF

[teizus]

Thank you :lovestruc
Exellent tutorial, very easy to follow.

[Syphon8]

You can remove the necessity of having a "loft basement" like in the OP by making a 4 click high split level the first floor, then you can fully put a floor above the basement, and regular floors for the rest of the house.

[Flabaliki]

Yeah I know Syphon8, I did that the first time round ;) Just for the purposes of this I just did a full level above, I think it looks kinda cool :)

[krd123]

wow this is great! good tutorial :) i just wish that there were no problems with making a sunken room :(

[Pelagato]

lol... Can you imagine... your sim is sleeping in a basement room and then all the sudden the watter spawn backs in lol!! and the sims doesnt wake up.... LOLOLOL!!!!

[Pilkly]

Very Nice and easy Tut xD
Respect ! :D

[plasticbox]

I'm moving this from the tutorials section back to the regular build mode forum, since it's unfinished / work in progress – it seems more likely it'll get the necessary input there, rather than in the finished tutorials section.

[eljamo]

Why do you have to use a pool to get it working, you can just use 3 staircases going into the ground to make space and then level it out (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6oaIDSyn08). I am going to try video today and will see if it works and then edit post to let you know.

[RobiBue]

Why do you have to use a pool to get it working, you can just use 3 staircases going into the ground to make space and then level it out (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6oaIDSyn08). I am going to try video today and will see if it works and then edit post to let you know.
If you look at the difference, the tutorial you mention uses foundation to cover the sloped ground. With the "pool basement", the ground is flush with the wall, without the need of the extra 1X foundation cover.

[Kribensis]

Aye. The fact that you can have a basement that is flush with the ground is a huge deal... underground houses, anyone?

Still, I hate to say it, but this isn't usable until the basement sticks through uploading and moving the lot.

One wonders how the new basement tool in the expansion is going to work. Does anyone know if it'll use the old-style one foundation level per basement, or be more like this?

[fluttereyes]

I'd prefer the basement to be a little above ground so we can get little windows on it and use it as laundry rooms, etc.

Aren't we getting the tool for true basements next month with the new EP anyway?

[ellacharmed]

The other current solution is to build an aquarium pool or use shrubs to hide the slopes.

If all that they claim is true and the EP would give us a basement where I can put windows and without any slopes then, it better not create new glitches.

I wouldn't hold my breath in anticipation. I'm waiting to read other players' reviews before I decide to get the EP or not; would at least definitely wait until they reduce the price. We're still waiting on the 'hood editor....lies!

[Kribensis]

The hood editor will never be free, even if they said it would be. That smells like one dev team member that said something off the cuff.

I'm sure they'll release a builder's expansion, and it will be in that.

[Sookielee]

Doing my Bunkers, building a house totally below ground was a pain. I hated trying to hide not only the roof, but the ravine that surrounded the house also. I am hoping the new basement tool will make this easier and allow for creating unique underground houses.

[frillen]

If all that they claim is true and the EP would give us a basement where I can put windows and without any slopes then, it better not create new glitches.
I have a feeling that the new Basement-tool won't allow slopes or windows - It will probably be 100% underground basements only!

Hopefully I'm wrong ;)

[Ryruh]

I tried my hand at creating a basement. At first I did some things such as utilize the moveobjects cheat, but after a while things started bugging out. My sim would start to walk through the floors, then they wouldn't appear when they were in the basement. Very strange things happened. Disappointing because it was only after I was done making the whole house over that it screwed up. I wonder why they didn't fix the issues with basements. GUH

[Kolya]

Cool, thank you!!! Exellent tutorial!!!

[yuyu123]

guys how to download the basement tool? pls tell me what version or whatever

[fluttereyes]

It came with the patch before WA was released, so if you have all the patches before WA or if you have WA then you have it. You find it in build up at the right hand side corner

[Darim]

This might still be useful for other purposes though. So great find! :D

[Kolya]

Super Tutorial!!! Пошли вы так что в жопу!!!

[Claeric]

Can anyone get this to work with deeper/shallower pools?

I tried to make an empty pool, that also had a shallow end and a deep end. Something about the process messes up the water and it can't be hidden beneath the pool when you've also got part of the pool floor higher than intended, it seems, unless I'm missing something.

[nanatoana]

Not sure if this is the place to put this, but I wanted a basement added to my existing home. Finally figured out how to do it. Here it is:

1. Clear a room enough to remove 6x3 of the foundation. You need a room of at least 8 x 4 for your room. If you don’t have a room large enough to share the stairs with the furniture in the room, make another room that can be dedicated to getting to the basement.
2. I placed the basement around the block—I made the basement all the way around the well; you can make yours however large or small you want as long as the stairs will fit.
3. Place your stairs from your home from the foundation edge to the ground.
4. Place the stairs for your basement. Easy peasy—no cheats required.

I made a "basement room" on one of my homes because I didn't have the space in my home for the basement entrance, so just added a mud room to the side of the house next to the kitchen.