Tutorial: Building stairs from the basement up through a foundation

[Joria]

Where I have a problem is with the spiral stairs!  They will go from the basement to the foundation level, with 4 squares of foundation removed, but then you can't add the next section from there to the actual first floor.  They neither stretch long enough nor can be short enough.  So you can get to the foundation but then what?  For me it's easiest to build my basement and put in stairs, then build my house around it leaving out foundation for the short amount between the foundation and the actual first floor or use any elevator.  Same problem if you use a fire pole.  It simply won't go between the first floor to the basement with a foundation and be usable.

[Twinmum]

The secret is to make the foundation deeper.. I've done it now with spiral as well as straight stairs. I'm writing up my findings to be included in an article I'm writing for Carl.

Norma

[Joria]

The secret is to make the foundation deeper.. I've done it now with spiral as well as straight stairs. I'm writing up my findings to be included in an article I'm writing for Carl.

Norma

Ahhhh!  So you would use that elevation cheat to lower the ground or make a double height foundation?  Can you even do that?  I mean make a double height foundation?  Wow!  That would open up a lot of possibilities wouldn't it?

[Twinmum]

No cheats, just turning the foundation into a basement level. No real secret in that, but what I've been testing is how easy it is to do in pre-existing houses considering how difficult the game mechanics make adding a few stairs within a foundation.

[Hillbilly]

Marklo4 back in Aug, 2010 had it RIGHT! Holding the shift key will let you place a stairway through a foundation...BUT!!! You may need to "level the lot" first.

(Was working with one yesterday, doing OK but slow to decide where to put things, then got interrupted. Saved the game. Today it didn't work anymore. Finally figured it out....)

1) Level area involved
2) Place basement
3) Top with foundation.
4) At that view level (looking down on foundation just created), select stair type, hold shift key and mouse over foundation. The stairs should drop through the foundation to the basement. Try moving the mouse around while holding the shift key.

Your Sim should be able to walk down this stairway in one motion without pausing at a landing before continuing.

[CowgirlBlues]

I read all the tutorials on stairs, basements, walkout basements, and finally made a walkout basement with a door leading from the bottom floor, and stairs inside as well. I had already made my own house, and I put the stairs leading down to the basement directly underneath the existing stairs that led to the top floor, like Norma's tutorial showed. But I must have some little detail missed because the Sims can't come up the stairs from the basement. They go down just fine. But when coming up, they turn around, go back down, and go the long way around -using the walk-out basement door, going outside, walking through the front door to come back inside. Very annoying.

When I delete the pre-existing stairs that were on top, they go up and down the basement stairs normally. Put the stairs back in, and they have trouble. Any ideas, anyone?

[Twinmum]

Are you talking about a spiral staircase or a straight staircase? Can you take a screenshot?

[CowgirlBlues]

Straight staircase. I don't have generations. Or world adventures.

[CowgirlBlues]

Also, I've submitted this household and house to The Sims Exchange, under the name CowgirlBlues - Stairs Problem, is anyone wants to take a look at it.

[Twinmum]

Also, I've submitted this household and house to The Sims Exchange, under the name CowgirlBlues - Stairs Problem, is anyone wants to take a look at it.

Just about to go and cook dinner now, but I'll have a look later and see if I can work out the problem

Norma

[Twinmum]

This is crazy, the Sims can use the stairs going down but not up. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before. Usually if there is something preventing Sims from using something, it's across the board, they either can use something or they can't use something. I've never had problems with Sims using stairs built in this fashion before. I wonder if EA have changed a bit of coding somewhere.

**edit**  I'm wondering if you lot may be bugged CowgirlBlues. I've just gone and built stairs like this on another block and my Sim can walk down them, wander around in the basement and then walk up the stairs. Did you use any cheats when building the house? I know sometime if you save a file while a cheat is still active, it can make the lot act in strange ways sometimes.

**additional edit** OK, I started on a fresh lot, built a foundation basement with stairs going down. Added a set of stairs above the lower stairs and sent in the building inspector. He was able to use the stairs in both directions. So then I went to CowgirlBlues house and built a copy of the basement next to the original house, brought in the inspector and he can't come up the stairs! So then I moved him to a different block where we built another foundation basement and again he can't come up the stairs. It's when the stairs are stacked, but what I can't understand is why on some blocks it works and others it doesn't. I do have a few thoughts, it could be something to do with blocks being bulldozed, but I need to test this a bit more before I make a decision.

[Twinmum]

First up sorry for a double post, but I thought it needed bring to the front again even for a short time.

I am beginning to hate stairs in the Sims 3 lol
I downloaded CowgirlBlues' lovely ranch to see if I could work out what the problem was that she was having with stacked stair cases and the answer is that there shouldn't have been a problem. I've built those stairs time and time again with no trouble. So I did some testing and found the results were less then regular.
First up, I did a bit of remodeling on her block and built a duplicate house next to her' and had the same problem. I tried a few things and when nothing worked, I thought that perhaps the lot might have been bugged from maybe saving while a cheat was still activated, but further testing showed that that probably was not the problem.
Next I built basically the same thing on a fresh lot and when I tried the stairs they worked. I did this on a few different lots and they all worked. This led me to think that the problem might have been something to do with the fact that when I placed the lot after downloading it, I had to bulldoze a lot to be able to place it. So, I began building on all the empty lots, but after a few, I ran into the problem that they didn't work.
My next thought was it was to do with the size of the block (Cowgirl's house was on a large block and I had also bulldozed a few large lots to try) but when I checked the size of the lots I had tried, it turned out that I had tried 2 20x30 original lots and on one the stairs worked and on the other they didn't work. All this testing was done in a fresh game file too, so they were not built on lots that may have had something before that I had demolished.
So the conclusion is less than conclusive. It seems that whether stacked stairs are usable or not is a bit of hit and miss. I'll do some more testing in different neighbourhoods and see if there is possibly some factor that determines if they work or not. No matter what the results, though, I'll have to make some sort of note to add to the tutorial on stairs so people don't tear their hair out thinking they did something wrong lol

[ciane]

Yeah, I know this is an old thread, but the issue was left unresolved, so...

I just thought I would pass on that Pes (of famous mod from another site) stated that the stacked stairs have an issue depending on their orientation in any given town. Imagine placing it so that the Sim walks up and down the stairs from north to south and vice versa and it works. However, place the same lot so the Sim must walk east to west and vice versa, then you'll have failure. The answer was to offset one set of stairs by one tile. In other words, the first space over the downward stairs will have no stairs overhead and the space directly under the stairs leading up will be floor rather than stairs.

[Joria]

Thank you Ciane and welcome to the forum.  I'm really glad to see you here.  Did you know you were the very first person to ever give me any help when I was totally new to Sims3?  Gave me warm fuzzies to see you here.

[PolarBair]

First up sorry for a double post, but I thought it needed bring to the front again even for a short time.

I am beginning to hate stairs in the Sims 3 lol
I downloaded CowgirlBlues' lovely ranch to see if I could work out what the problem was that she was having with stacked stair cases and the answer is that there shouldn't have been a problem. I've built those stairs time and time again with no trouble. So I did some testing and found the results were less then regular.
First up, I did a bit of remodeling on her block and built a duplicate house next to her' and had the same problem. I tried a few things and when nothing worked, I thought that perhaps the lot might have been bugged from maybe saving while a cheat was still activated, but further testing showed that that probably was not the problem.
Next I built basically the same thing on a fresh lot and when I tried the stairs they worked. I did this on a few different lots and they all worked. This led me to think that the problem might have been something to do with the fact that when I placed the lot after downloading it, I had to bulldoze a lot to be able to place it. So, I began building on all the empty lots, but after a few, I ran into the problem that they didn't work.
My next thought was it was to do with the size of the block (Cowgirl's house was on a large block and I had also bulldozed a few large lots to try) but when I checked the size of the lots I had tried, it turned out that I had tried 2 20x30 original lots and on one the stairs worked and on the other they didn't work. All this testing was done in a fresh game file too, so they were not built on lots that may have had something before that I had demolished.
So the conclusion is less than conclusive. It seems that whether stacked stairs are usable or not is a bit of hit and miss. I'll do some more testing in different neighbourhoods and see if there is possibly some factor that determines if they work or not. No matter what the results, though, I'll have to make some sort of note to add to the tutorial on stairs so people don't tear their hair out thinking they did something wrong lol

I got the exact same kind of inconclusive results when trying to figure out what sometimes prevents the Shift-Clicking of stairs through a foundation into a basement without requiring a landing at foundation level.

It seems some things in Sims3 are just like that hit or miss, sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. Which is why I always recommend doing the basement stairs first. Even though putting them in later should work there are no guarantees.