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TS3/TSM: The Pudding => The World Of Pudding => Topic started by: MTSiren on 2015 February 05, 05:48:43



Title: "Can't create above highest level": Roof tool workaround?
Post by: MTSiren on 2015 February 05, 05:48:43
My apologies if this is posted in the wrong place, if I should not have started a new thread, or if I otherwise inconvenience those More Awesome Than Me. I've Googled this issue about a dozen times, and searched MATY for all results through 10% relevance, and did not find my specific issue addressed just yet.

I'm building the Fire Nation Palace (see below for reference) from the cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender and have run up against a roofing issue. In order to build the shallow steps up the palace and the number of levels needed based on screen shots from AtLA, I've had to use the cheats "constrainFloorElevation false" and "placeFriezes on" to build beyond the usual five floor limit. (I believe my highest level is technically 7.)

My problem is, this being the FIRE NATION palace, it needs a pagoda style roof, which cannot be placed using AutoRoof. (AutoRoof resulting in generally simplistic and ugly roofs besides.) This means I cannot place a pagoda roof at all, because the roofing tool will not work above level 5. I only ever get the "Can't create above highest level" tool tip. This has prevented me from completing the exterior of the palace, as shown in the second pic down:

(http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj135/aureliale/FireNationPalacePreview_zpsc93689f4.png) (http://s271.photobucket.com/user/aureliale/media/FireNationPalacePreview_zpsc93689f4.png.html)

I've tried a few workarounds, including using "constrainFloorElevation false" and terrain tools to raise level 5 even with the desired roof line. I've laid the roof on the new higher level, then used the Level Terrain tool to fix my interior levels (they need to be livable/usable in the long run). The roof stays where I've placed it for the play session, but when I reload the game, the roof has sunk back to level 5, sitting two levels too low and cutting through the walls.

I've also searched (and searched and searched) for objects I could use to mimic the roof line. The Sultan's Sleeper tent from WA worked well enough for the smaller roof segments, but I am well and truly stumped on the steep, almost Mansard-style center roof. I've tried using the Apartment Life Mansard roof pieces converted for Sims 3, as shown below. But I have to resize these to get anything approaching the scale I needed. And the results were, imo, not comparable to the pagoda roof. (It also crashes my game when I attempt to save, likely because the pieces are resized 3x.) I don't feel this is an adequate match to the roof as shown in screenshots from AtLA below.

(http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj135/aureliale/FireNationPalacePreview2_zpsrhubieqx.png) (http://s271.photobucket.com/user/aureliale/media/FireNationPalacePreview2_zpsrhubieqx.png.html)

(http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj135/aureliale/FireNationPalaceScreen_zpszhgerdq2.jpg) (http://s271.photobucket.com/user/aureliale/media/FireNationPalaceScreen_zpszhgerdq2.jpg.html)

(http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj135/aureliale/FireNationPalaceScreen2_zpsrzcpinsa.jpg) (http://s271.photobucket.com/user/aureliale/media/FireNationPalaceScreen2_zpsrzcpinsa.jpg.html)

screen shots courtesy of Avatar Spirit.net

So my question to all those More Awesome Than Me is this: Is there a mod, hack, cheat, or any other workaround that would allow me to place a pagoda roof above the highest (allowed) level 5? I used SimPE often with Sims 2, but have fallen out of the habit with Sims 3. Are there any changes I (or you) could make to the game to get around this coded limit? I am running out of options for this roof, and hoping you might help me.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can offer insight, advice, or (I am hoping) a solution.


Title: Re: "Can't create above highest level": Roof tool workaround?
Post by: J. M. Pescado on 2015 February 05, 12:31:21
I can't think of anything, or I'd have long since gutted this arbitrary floor count limit, so the way I would recommend would be to essentially cheat the floor level count by using constrainfloorelevation to make the floor higher, thus allowing you to place the roof at a greater elevation to APPEAR to be a 5th floor, without actually being so. The functionality of the levels you warp in this manner may be slightly impaired, but I cannot really think of a good reason why you would actually need a working interior so ludicrously large, so this is probably not a huge loss.