Tutorial - Above Ground Basements

[norenegonc]

Hello and welcome to a guide on advance utilizations of basements, namely the above ground basement techniques. The first is the technique I utilized in Chez Hobbit. The second is a bit more detailed and is for a basement that can show above ground. It was utilized by naver muler84 to create a basement that came out on a mountainside and likely this is the best use for this technique, to create basements that show on the sides of hills and mountains. The first technique, however, is not for mountainside basements but rather for builds where you would like to form the terrain around the actual structure. In any case, let’s get started with technique one.  Quick note, as with some of my other tutorials, I did a few things wrong so you could see how to fix various scenarios you might find. This will be useful since I do not imagine you are going to create the exact structure in the tutorial, but are meant to utilize the techniques to create anything your imagination can think of

For now you can find the tutorial at my blog –
http://thebuildersummit.blogspot.com/p/advanced-utilizations-of-basements.html

I am going to also make the tutorial on the forums here but at the moment I am trying to work with the table code for the forums here so I can create a much cleaner looking tutorial. Or if Carl would like, I could just send you the HTML code from the blog. I am a total novice when it comes to HTML but I imagine since it is just text and images it should be similar. You can also send me the template for the site here and I can write the HTML since I know you must be busy with tons of other things. Or I can just write it the way I did all the others if you like. Whatever is the least work for you is okay with me Cheers.

[norenegonc]

Edit - I finally wrote this up in the correct format for this website. Sorry it took so long, enjoy!

Hello and welcome to a guide on advance utilizations of basements, namely the above ground basement techniques. As I mentioned in the Chez Hobbit creation, the credit for this technique belongs entirely to naver muler84 and his or her wonderful blog and teeheehee over at MTS. I am merely writing what they discovered into a tutorial. In this guide I am going to be discussing two different basement techniques. The first is the technique I utilized in Chez Hobbit. The second is a bit more detailed and is for a basement that can show above ground. It was utilized by naver muler84 to create a basement that came out on a mountainside and likely this is the best use for this technique, to create basements that show on the sides of hills and mountains. The first technique, however, is not for mountainside basements but rather for builds where you would like to form the terrain around the actual structure. In any case, let’s get started with technique one. Quick note, as with some of my other tutorials, I did a few things wrong so you could see how to fix various scenarios you might find. This will be useful since I do not imagine you are going to create the exact structure in the tutorial, but are meant to utilize the techniques to create anything your imagination can think of

-   You can start on a flat lot as seen here or you can start on uneven terrain, it makes no difference for this technique.
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-   Start by raising some terrain by however many clicks you would like your ground to be. I chose 8.
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-   Level off an area for how big you would like the entrance hall of your house to be.
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-   From there, create a basement at this new height. I covered the entire area, but you can of course make the basement smaller. Just make certain one side (the front) of the basement reaches the edge.
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-   It should look like this.
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-   Now CFE false.
-   After this build a basement from the ground level and connect it to the front of the raised basement.
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-   The lower basement will create a curve underground as so.
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-   From here you can build a front wall for your house, where you can throw a door later on.
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-   Now we are going to level off some of the terrain in the front so we can see the front wall above ground.
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-   After this you want to relevel the area behind the front wall.
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-   Now we are going to level an area for the entrance walkway. You must leave one tile unleveled on each side.
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-   This is going to make the ground above uneven so level that off.
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-   After that you want to level off 2-3 tiles to either side of the front of the walkway so you can create stairs for the entire length, in this case 8.
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-   It should look like this.
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-   Again this is going to create uneven ground above, so level it off.
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-   Now we are going to utilize the first advanced basement technique which is the void created by underground stairs. Anytime build stairs in a basement that is less than normal wall height, you will get a 4 tile long void above ground for the length of your stairs. Knowing this, you are going to create stairs that are exactly as wide as your front entrance. If you have an entrance larger than 8 tiles, you can utilize extra stairs. The stairs must be exactly 4 tiles away from the front wall so the void they create is exact.
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[norenegonc]

-   It is going to look like this above. Notice the void that was created reaches exactly to the front wall.
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-   To fix the uneven ground above we are going to need to level the terrain in the basement to the old low height as so.
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-   Now because we couldn’t level outside the boundaries of the basement doing the above created a level beyond what we could use. Thus we are now going to leavel one tile back to the normal floor height.
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-   It should look like this now.
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-   Again this is going to create uneven ground above ground so level off the ground above.
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-   Now the next task is to create side walls that curve like a hill or mountain might. In order to do this I am going to use two tiles, although you can use more. So I am going to level off an extra tile in the basement by the front wall.
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-   As you can see here this is going to create an extra tile I can then curve.
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-   To do so I am going to just use clicks with the lower terrain tool. You can of course also create a straight line using exact click numbers and the level terrain tool (see the guide on basic wall curving if you do not understand). As you can see in the following image I already curved the left wall. In order to curve the right in the same manner I am going to lower the terrain at the indicated location by two clicks.
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-   Now I am going to create another layer to the curve by lowering the terrain at the next location by another 2 clicks.
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-   It should now look like this. If you had leveled off more tiles earlier, you can create extra degrees to your curve if you wanted.
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-   Now we can level some terrain around the house so we can form the hill or mountain area. For this you want to set CFE to true so you do not mess with the basement structure.
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-   You want to make certain to also level the terrain around the front wall to create a ceiling.
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-   It should now look like this.
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[norenegonc]

-   I started to soften the terrain a bit but as you can see in this next image, you cannot soften or lower terrain on the areas where there are basement walls when CFE is set to true.
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-   So now we are going to level off some extra terrain so we can soften the edges.
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-   Now soften the terrain around the edges again.
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-   Now you are going to notice some uneven ground around the sides. Set CFE to false again for this and level a single tile back to ground level as so.
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-   You might have noticed by now that the front area is dark, so feel free to toss some lights on the front wall so you can see it above ground.
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-   As I mentioned in Chez Hobbit, the lights underground won’t be seen above ground. Only build mode objects and not buy mode objects will show.
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-   Now I am going to just color the hill or mountain a bit.
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-   You might notice the hill or mountain is a bit flat so now I am going to create some texture. As you see in the next image, sometimes the front wall goes dark, but to fix this just go down a story and back, like you would with windows that get covered by a wall when you use moveobjects on.
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-   That’s it for technique 1!
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[norenegonc]

-   Ok now onto technique two. Instead of starting over, I am just going to level everything hah. I know… lazy right…
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-   Now instead of stairs in the front, we are going to create the stair void in the back.
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-   You now are going to create basement at ground level on all sides so that every side has the same downward curve.
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-   This is what you are left with.
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-   As you can see I didn’t turn off autorailing so we are going to go down and delete the rails on the stairs.
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-   Now we are going to utilize the second advanced basement technique. Whenever you delete a section of basement with a curved floor it cannot rebuild the wall that was there.
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-   Now level off the area of the basement to the stair’s level.
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-   It is going to look like this.
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-   We are again going to level some floor on the sides of the stairs so there is an even area the width of the stairs.
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-   Now create a wall around the stairs.
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-   As you can see this wall will show above.
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-   Now create a wall above ground in the same way. You can see the two walls collide and create that weird effect.
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-   Now go ahead and create some foundation away from the basement.
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-   Now level off the new wall height to foundation height.
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[norenegonc]

-   You can also level the uneven ground in the front.
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-   Now lower the ground in front a bit to show more of the basement, I chose 4 clicks.
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-   You can also delete the extra basement in the front (to make it cleaner) so it looks like this.
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-   Now level off the area of the basement to the new lowered height.
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-   Now level the above ground wall back to the foundation height. Notice that I raised the foundation by 2 clicks because I started with a basement that was not on ground level.
-   Go ahead and throw the windows you like onto the front wall.
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-   As you see above ground the wall we created is going to block the windows.
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-   Thus we are going to go ahead and close off that room with a fourth wall so we can create flooring on the roof. Then level the wall back to foundation height.
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-   Now you can go ahead and delete the wall above ground where it collides with the basement below. As you might have guessed the basement below shows instead so it still looks like one smooth wall!
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-   Now color the walls in the basement.
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-   One last time level the flooring (roof floor) back to foundation height.
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-   You are left with this.
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-   You can level the terrain to make it smooth and then soften it.
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-   I was just kidding before! Leveling the terrain means we need to level the floor back to foundation height again! Yay…
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-   This is what is left.
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-   I am now just going to color the walls and ground so it is clearer.
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-   Note that you can also create the above ground wall to be smaller than the area of the basement. This way you can hide some extra basement. You can hide the awkward indent around the basement using a techniques like rocks or fauna or anything you can think of really.





-   That’s it for the advanced utilizations of basements tutorial. Have fun and enjoy!