This tutorial will guide you through the steps of creating a simple boat for your Sims to use for a house, community lot, or anything else you can think of! This tutorial provides you with step by step instructions on how to create a boat that actually has the bottom deck partially submerged under the water. The CFE function is used in the tutorial but prior knowledge is not necessary.

Level: Basic

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Introduction

Are your Sims pirates? Do they enjoy spending time on thewater? Have you always wondered how to make a boat or ship? This tutorial willgive you an overview to the basic techniques of creating a simple boat (such asthe one shown below). Your Sims will enjoy the variety in their housing andyou’ll have fun creating something new.

This tutorial will be using the CFE command; however, itis not necessary to know anything about this command in advance. I will betaking you on a step by step journey towards your completed boat. As weprogress through the tutorial, keep in mind that if you mess up, you can alwaysuse the “undo” button to correct things.

Step 1.

To begin, we are going to needan empty lot to work with. For this project, I chose a 3x3 lot to keep itsmall; however, this method will work on any size lot. After you’ve chosen andentered your lot, the lot will need to be flattened.

You can do this by using the “Flatten Lot” tool (if youhave the required expansion pack) or by dragging the leveling tool over theentire lot.

Step 2.

Next, you are going to need ashape to begin working with. Pick the foundation of your choice (I prefer thedecking foundation for this project but any foundation will work). Next, makethe general outline of your ship using the decking. This will eventually be thebottom level of your boat.

 

 

Step 3.

Now, we are going to be usingthe CFE function for a while. Open your cheat window (CTRL+shift+C) and type inthe boolprop constrainfloorelevation false. This turns on the CFE function.While we are using the CFE function, keep in mind that the undo button can behandy if you make a mistake.

Step 4.

Now, we are going to beginadding water to the lot. You will need to select the water tool and beginplacing water all over your lot. The depth of the water doesn’t matter, as longas the entire lot is covered. As you do this, the shape of your boat willchange. Do not panic – we will fix this in a moment. It is doing this becauseof the CFE function.

 

 

 

 

Step 5.

Continue filling in your lotwith water until the bottom of your boat is submerged under the water. Onceagain, the depth is not important at this point.

 

 

Step 6.

Now, we are going to fix thatlittle problem that we encountered earlier. Pick your leveling tool and find alocation in the water to use as a starting point. Drag the tool out to levelthe rest of the water. You can level the entire lot or you can level just thearea under the boat. For the purpose of this lot, I will be leveling the entire3x3 lot. Only level parts that show up in green. If you attempt to level thered parts, you will lose the water on your lot. If this happens, click undo!

 

 

Step 7.

Once you have done this, yourboat should appear flat once again. It should also be submerged under water.The depth of the boat will vary depending on how deep your lot is. If your boatis too far under the water for your liking (such as mine is), the next fewsteps will help you raise it to a reasonable depth.

 

 

Step 8.

To raise your boat back up, wewill be using the “raise ground” tool. Choose the medium or large version ofthis tool and place it under your boat. Next, raise the ground a few clicks untilyou think you’ve raised it enough.

 

 

 

Step 9.

As you raise the ground belowthe deck, the deck above raises as well. You should periodically check to seehow far up you’ve raised it. Once you have it submerged under water at theheight that you want it, you can stop raising the ground and move to the nextstep. You can either have your decking sit directly on top of the water orallow it to be partially submerged (I prefer the way this looks and the bottomlevel is still playable).

 

 

 

Step 10.

Change to the level terraintool and place the level in the center of the raised underwater mound. Drag itout across the lot using the same method as in Step 6 to insure that your boatis once again level.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 11.

Once again, view how thebottom of your boat is coming along. As you can see in the picture, the bottomof the boat is a little bit under water. Now, I don’t like the way that thepoles of the decking look since this is going to be a boat so I am going to getrid of them. You can do this by clicking on the pool tool and deleting thepoles as though you were deleting a pool. So, that means hold CTRL down whileusing the pool tool and drag it across where the poles are.

 

 

Step 12.

Now, it is time to beginbuilding our boat. Enclose the decking with walls to form the bottom level ofyour boat.

 

 

 

Step 13.

Continue building on your boatuntil it has started looking how you want it to look. Railings and half-wallscan be used to make your boat more interesting and eye-appealing. Make surethat you leave an opening on the street side where you want your Sims to enterthe boat from.

 

 

 

Step 14.

Once you have a general boatgoing, it is time to make the dock and pathway for entering the boat. To beginwith, level a few spaces near the street so that we can place our dock. Itneeds to be at least two rows long, but it can be as large as you wishdepending on the way you want your boat to look.

 

 

 

 

 

A note about Dock Building

For the purpose of thistutorial, I am using the minimum amount of space. You can build your dock oneither side of the boat as well if you were building your boat in a differentdirection. The most important thing to remember is that the path for the dockneeds to be at least two spaces in width and the opening of boat should be onthe same side as it (I would recommend keeping the opening two spaces wide aswell to prevent traffic jams).

 

 

 

 

Step 15.

Now, pick the foundation thatyou wish to use for your dock. In this case, I will be using the solidfoundation tool because it will look best on this lot. Start on the grass anddrag it out a little ways towards the boat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 16.

Build a little room over thefoundation. If the entrance of your boat is taller than two levels, you willneed more “little rooms” over your foundation.

 

 

 

Step 17.

Now, place your leveling toolon the ship level that your Sims will be entering on and drag it across thedock. Make sure that all of the dock is level with the boat or things will looka bit off.

 

 

 

 

Step 18.

If you have built your dockclose enough to the ship, then you will be able to build a walkway out from thedock and ship and allow for them to meet. If you wish to have a longer pathway,you can build your foundation and wall closer to the ship and then delete themonce the pathway is in place.

 

 

 

Step 19.

Continue decorating your shipand dock. Make sure that you include stairs on your dock so that your Sims canaccess it. Also make sure to include stairs, doors, and windows on your ship.Decorate your ship the way you would like. Don’t be afraid to play around withdifferent things. You can always undo them later. This might also be a goodtime to turn off the CFE function by entering boolprop constrainfloorelevationtrue.

 

 

Conclusion

You did it! You made it through the tutorial and youshould have a boat (or ship) of your own to use in your games. Imagine the newthings your Sims will be able to do. While there are many tutorials out thereon a variety of things to do and explore with Sims, I want to encourage you toplay around with some of the building functions yourself, including the CFEfunction. You might discover something new and exciting that you can share withthe rest of us! That is how this tutorial game to be. I look forward to hearingfrom you and would love to see screenshots of your boats. Happy simming andhave a great day!