Sims2 Waterslide Tutorial 1

for creating neat, evenly sloped slides

by Tiko

There are already some great tutorials on adding waterslides to your pool.   Check Snooty's or MikeInside's tutorials for some brilliant work. 

But the slides are single-tile, fairly rustic rough-and-ready waterslides.  The method we're using here allows you to develop a sequence of slides over many levels, like the one in this screenshot.  (And yes, Sims can swim up slides as well as down!!!)

Using the pool tool, start by marking out a simple pool, say 7x7.

Add the slide.   This is done by holding down Ctrl+Click (left mouse button), marking the rectangle by clicking on one corner and dragging to the opposite corner, letting go Ctrl, then Click, then immediately clicking the mouse button again on the corner you are at.

The game still works with a one-tile-wide slide, or two, but three-tiles-wide channels give Sims room to swim properly.  In narrower channels their arms and legs disappear, poor guys! ...

... as you can see in this screenshot!

Presto! the slide's basic layout.

This is 6 rows long and 3 wide.  Because you'll probably be adding stairs to get to and from the top, and stairs work in multiples of 4 clicks/steps, it's better to make a slide which gives you a total height of clicks/steps that can be divided by 4. 

In this slide we'll have 6x2 clicks = 12 steps.

Now bring in the terrain cheat.  Hold down Ctrl+Shift and tap C.  In the white Commands window that opens at the top of your screen, type exactly

boolProp constrainFloorElevation false

and press Enter.  If you've got the words right, the window will close.  (The capital letters don't matter - it's just easier to read with some in somewhere.)

Using the raise-terrain tool, raise one corner of a tile one row along the slide by 2 clicks.

Repeat the procedure, raising 2 clicks at the next corner (see how the white arrow and centre circle has moved)...

... and the next ...

... and the last corner.

(For a more dramatic slide, raise it 4 times, but here we've just done it by 2 clicks.)

(By the way, experienced builders and modders would be cross that I've done it corner by corner!  They prefer to use the level-terrain tool once on the whole tile after raising one corner only, selecting the tile with level-terrain, then clicking near the raised corner and dragging the staff of the tool to the opposite corner, then letting go Click. 

Try it - it's a more skilled method.  Then do it whichever way you prefer.)

You could now raise each tile in the slide by clicking on each corner, but it's easier, neater and quicker to raise the whole slide by levels.

So use the level-terrain tool to select the raised tile ...

... and cover the remainder of the slide + one row further back.  (This extra row of ground will be the base for the upper pool.)

Let go of Click.

You should now have this result.

Repeat the sequence, going 2 clicks up on the next row ...

... and levelling off from the second row to produce this result.

Keep going, raising each row+the rest until the last row, when, by including the extra row of ground each time, you should have this result.

Notice that the slide is raised smoothly and neatly.

Then use the level-terrain tool to raise the ground behind the slide at least two tiles wider and longer than the upper pool you want to create.  Here we are creating a 7x7 upper pool. 

Add the pool with Ctrl+Click again, as at #2.

Now have a close look at the top of the slide.

You will see that adding the top pool has jerked the top row of the slide into a flat shape.

Use the lower-terrain tool to click twice on the nearer side of the row ...

... not forgetting the water corners in the middle of the slide...

... and after lowering, you should have this result.

Add diving boards and / or ladders to the lower pool.  To add them to the upper pool, you will need to turn on another cheat.  Open the white Commands window again, and type in

moveObjects on

This allows you to put objects into unusual places and positions.

The moveObjects cheat also allows you to add lights to the upper pool, and even to the sides of the slide.

This can be slippery ... to get the light fixed on properly, always rotate the ground so that the poolside is facing you.

Here's the result you should have.

To finish, it's essential to cancel the terrain cheat and objects cheat.  If you don't it can seriously mess up your buildings and lots!  Open the white Commands window again and type in

boolProp constrainFloorElevation true

Press Enter and then open the window again and type in

moveObjects off

Well done!  You've made a really cool waterslide.

If you want, you can add a second slide to the first, and so on ...   The park we saw at the beginning is one I made with 4 slides and 4 pools.  It's called Aqua Libra and you can download it from the Community Lots pages at TSR or ask me for it directly.

By the way, sometimes the water table (the water level for the plot) can suddenly appear above part of the whole pool, as you can see in this screenshot.  Sims in the game don't mind it, but it's annoying for us to live with! 

In all the above screenshots before this one you will see it at the bottom of the lower pool, where it should be.

28

I didn't know the foolproof way to get rid of it.  The aim is to keep it in the lowest level.  However, the wonderful MikeInside - a great tutor and builder - has recently worked out how the game reads extended pools.  It draws an imaginary rectangle around the whole pool plan!  Here's what he says about the water table:

"Be very careful when changing the height of the terrain at the corners of the rectangle.
I am still not sure what causes this, but sometimes it will make the water-level of your pool appear either above or below the pool, depending on what you raised it to.
The easiest solution seems to be to flatten the ground at these areas, save and quit to the neighbourhood, then go back into the house."

Tiko