Disabling Seasions But Keeping its Stuff - Want to disable weather or make plants in season year-round? You can do so with my new Seasons Tuner Mod
Improving Sims 4: The past month, I've spent every day tinkering The Sims 4, making quality of life improvements, gameplay changes, and new difficulty settings for the game. If you'd like to learn more about my project, visit the post on Patreon where you can download it now.
Eventually, every builder in the Sims will have the need to make a building larger. When we run out of room on the lot, we can always build up or down. Building up, we can build up to four levels of enclosed rooms. A fifth level is possible, but this level can only be a deck. Building a ceiling or walls on this level is not possible.
We can also build down with basements. Two levels of basements are possible meaning that our Sims have seven levels of space at their disposal.
Click to Enlarge. Building up and down gives a Sim a lot more room
Building up is very easy, just use the wall or room tool to draw out the shape of the new room on the next level up. When using the room tool, the starting point has to be over an existing room or wall on the level below, but it can continue out over nothing. When using the wall tool however, all walls you build must at least start over an existing room or wall.
Click to Enlarge. An upper level can extend out into thin air-->
Although upper levels need to have something below them when being built, once they are complete, any lower building or supports can be removed resulting in an interesting look.
Click to Enlarge. Defy gravity with a floating room
Once we have an upper level, we need to add stairs so our Sims can reach these new levels. Stairs are added from the lower floor up and will automatically remove the necessary floor tiles for the stair well. We can also add stairs to an upper level from outside.
Click to Enlarge. Stairs can be added inside or outside
Select stairs from the build menu and hover over the different styles to select the color palate for each style. Once selected, just move the staircase around until it's in the correct location and click to place. If you want wider stairs, select the placed stairs and grab the side arrow and pull out or to the desired width. The game will remove any extra flooring for the wider stairs or add flooring if you make wide stairs narrower.
Click to Enlarge. Grab the arrow to make stairs wider
If you have built a set of stairs and decide that you want a different style, there is no need to remove the first set and rebuild. Simply select the new stairs and place over the top of the existing stairs and click. The new stairs will replace the old ones and you will be charged or refunded the difference on price.
When we add stairs, we need to remember that more space will be needed if we have higher walls. With the walls set at the lowest height, 3 spaces for the stairs is required plus an extra square at the top and the foot of the stairs for a landing. For medium height walls, 4 squares for the stairs is required and 5 squares is needed for the tallest walls.
Click to Enlarge. The higher the walls, more space for the stairs is required
An interesting thing to note with stairs, is that although they are placed from the lower floor up, if we increase the height of the walls after the placement of stairs, the top landing will remain in the same spot and the lower landing will be moved. This means that if there is no room for the stairs to move out to the required length, they will be removed with the increase in wall height and you will need to replace them.
When placing stairs, if there is a fence at the top landing, the stairs can still be placed and a piece of fencing will be removed to allow placement. This only works with fencing and not walls. Walls need to be removed before adding stairs.
Click to Enlarge. Even though there is a fence here, the stairs can still be placed
Building down into a basement is very easy and can be done in a couple of different ways. The first way is to select the Wall and Empty Rooms option in build mode and then select the basement tool. Drag out the size room you want and that room will be created on the level below. You can also draw your basement using the custom basement tool. This tool works the same way as the custom room tool and is handy when you want your basement to match the size and/or shape of the house or room above.
Click to Enlarge. Use the custom basement tool to trace around the outline of the room above
The second way to build basements is to go down a level (page down) and just build a room wherever you want on that level. Using this method, you can create different shaped rooms or import styled rooms from the catalogue or rooms from the gallery.
Click to Enlarge. Build rooms wherever you want in a basement or place a styled room
Basement rooms work in the same way as rooms above ground. Select the room and you can pull and push wall as well as add and remove floors and ceilings. Removing a floor in the basement will reveal the dirt floor or the level below if there is a room underneath. Removing the ceiling from a room on the first basement level will open that room to whatever is above it.
Click to Enlarge. Removing the ceiling from a basement can create an open pit in your backyard
It is possible to remove the ceiling from a lower level basement, however the game seems to react in strange ways when you try to do this. The easiest way is to remove the floor from an upper basement room that is over the lower level where you want to remove the ceiling.
Sims 4 House Building
Building Cheats
Counters and Islands
Decorating Inside Homes
Decorating Outside/Landscaping
Island Living (Stilt Foundation, Glass Floors)
Roofs
Split Levels and Lofts
Stairs and Basements
Terrain Tools
Platform Tool
We now have a Youtube Channel with over 50 guides in video format to go along with the huge site I've already created. Check it out and consider subscribing if you like my style.
The Sims 4 Seasons expansion now has options! Want to disable weather or make plants in season year-round? You can do so with my new Seasons Tuner Mod
The past month, I've spent every day tinkering The Sims 4, making quality of life improvements, gameplay changes, and new difficulty settings for the game. If you'd like to learn more about my project, visit the post on Patreon where you can download it now.
Cottage Living Guide! Here is my guide to new features in the Sims 4 Cottage Living Expansion
You can also find handy Cottage Living Cheats
I have much more to come, since you can actually write a few guides about this pack!
Blender has been incredibly useful in video production, so I made my own Physics and Simulation Improvement Addon that lumps a ton of unique tools into one compact interface.
Snowy Escape Cheats
Lifestyles in Snowy Escape
Climb Mt. Komorebi
Sentiments in Snowy Escape
Rock Climbing
Skiing Skill
Snowboarding Skill
I've released a guide to Sentiments in The Sims 4 & Snowy Escape.
There is a new platform tool in The Sims 4. There's also a new Sentiments system, but it'll take some time to create a guide to that. Players can also use rental lots in any world now by changing lot types of builds in manage worlds.
I've created a massive List of The Best Mods in The Sims 4 that should be very helpful to new players and those who have not yet explored modding and how much it can do for your gameplay.
New - Secrets I have a new guide to secrets in the game. If you prefer, you can also watch a video about secrets in Sims 4.
Nifty Knitting is now available. Learn all about the stuff pack on my guide page here.
NEW - Nifty Knitting CheatsNew features in the Sims 4 June 2020
The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle Guide
Eco Footprint: How it Works
Neighborhood Action Plans
How to Cheat in Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle
Civil Designer Career
Insect Farms & Bio Fuel
Fabrication Skill in Eco Lifestyle
Juice Fizzing NEW
Traits and Aspirations in DLC
Gameplay Ideas for Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle
Updated
Trait Cheats Updated
Traits List Updated
Aspirations List Updated
Readers who use adblock or those who'd like to thank me for my efforts can now pledge $1/$5 monthly via Patreon. This helps a lot with server costs and provides some stability for my business.
This is inspired by a new series in which I start at toddler and gradually take on the major bonuses. Here's a link to the full playlist!
I now have a guide page to Tiny Living Stuff where you can learn about Murphy Beds, the new death, as well as the lot bonuses you'll receive if you manage to keep the size of your lot down with this new pack's Tiny Home Lot Type.
New I now have a guide to Making Super Sims in The Sims 4. Look for a text version within the next 72h. It won't have THAT much more info but it will help out as a checklist.
This was inspired by a series, "Let's Play a Super Sim" in which I start at toddler and gradually take on the major bonuses. Here's a link to each part for people who are interested. You can also see the Let's Play as a Playlist on Youtube.
The Sims 4 Discover University has been announced for November 15 for PC/Mac and December 17 for Xbox and Playstation 4 consoles. Click to learn more about the pack, see my summary of the livestream or read our FAQs below.
Other Guides to Discover University:
New Lot Traits: Study Spot and University Student Hang Out
New: Discover University FAQ: Gameplay Features
New Video The Sims 4 Discover University Gameplay Tips Video
More videos coming soon!
Disclaimer This site is not endorsed by or affiliated with Electronic Arts, or its licensors. Trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The Sims and The Sims 4 Logo are trademarks of Electronic Arts, Inc. Game content and materials copyright Electronic Arts Inc. and its licensors. All Rights Reserved. All original Guides on this site © Carl's Guides
Comments (11)
THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I could not figure out how to get the stairs to rotate and they weren't doing it automatically like the couches etc. Your tip about the < and > saved my life!! :D
If you are trying to stack stairs on top of each other start on the lowest floor and place them up one floor at a time.
Hi i just downloaded sims 4 i saw ur tips then i attempted to make a really cool and big house thank u for these tips
I am building a bathroom right behind a staircase (which has diagonal walls on it) but the walls of the bathroom and the stair walls don't align. The stair walls are pushed in a little if that makes sense. Is there a way to fix it so the whole wall is flush?
I do know what you mean but the only way around that is to redraw the walls so that even the wall behind the stairs is drawn again - so almost like drawing a wall over a wall. Using the wall tool and not the room tool.