As I vaguely recall, I did a walkout basement in Sims 2 by building a foundation, then hollowing out that foundation so that it formed a U one tile wide on each side (I can't remember if this was before or after building on the first floor, but I think before.), then closed it off with a regular wall that I could put doors in. And, of course, raising or lowering the terrain as necessary. I loved doing this on beach lots.
As for what they're doing with the ground on top, that's way out of my league, period. But I agree, I can't figure how it would be possible in TS2, given that there is no way to build entirely below ground in that one.

OK, I've been messing with this for like 2 hrs, but for some reason I CAN NOT get it to work. Whenever I try to lower the ground with stairs, the basement doesn't change at all. And when I try to place the stairs and make the cut-out, instead of making a hollow space, the dirt just comes up and slopes next to the wall. I'm seriously about to cry here. Am I just that dumb, or has something changed since this was first created?

It can be a real hassle to get it right. Your use the footprint of the staircase. So you have 3 or 4 tiles you need.
You need to put the stairs down just at the edge, so it lands on the higher part of the basement. No obstacle there.
The room also have to be long enough for the footprint.
I also seem to remember some trouble if I didn't put down the staircase at the tip of that tile.
I hope this is what you need?

I am actually trying to do somewhat the opposite of what is being taught here. I'm trying to create the building I live in in-game and I'm having trouble with the underground garage. I've tried many things but it doesn't look like the real deal. What I need to do is built an underground garage with a slop ramp that goes up to ground floor, so that cars can enter the garage through ground floor, go down and park on the garage (as they should if Sims actually drove their cars into the parking lots other than just doing that annoying teleporting magic trick xD). I tried to just buil a regular garage with EA's basement tool and then raise the terrain where I wanted the ramp to be but that didn't work at all. I was wondering if this trick could be used to solve my problem and if so, how.

edit: By the way, is there a way to build foundations inside a garage made using the cave tool?

You can try using this technic, but you would have to make it a fake one. The garage is fake anyway, since the cars don't use the driveway.

http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=446081

Thanks Volvenom, I'll try working around this issue (I'm having A LOT of issues building this house for some reason)

I'd still like to know if it's possible to build foundations inside a basement created with the cave tool, but I guess not since I can't do it (unless there's also an hidden trick for that one xD)

I would make it's own thread for that problem, Minaki.

For the walk-in-basement technic in this thread I have made this video on youtube. I hope it's good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_ZamoY6lWI

16 months no reply.. Hmm but I think I can ask this cause I do still wonder about something

Is this trick possible to have multiple garage door entrances to let's say 3 level basements? So it all fits together with the terrain as well as elevators?

Like this but then with 3 garage doors next to eachother all on different basement levels and connected to a standard elevator with acces to the upper (living) levels





Thanks

The floor levels will always be the same place according to the ground. You can't move them. The lowest it can be is 1/4 regular wall.

For multiple level? Mmmmm... Probably not.

But for one. No problem.

I made that for a Grand Hotel.





Very easy to doing.

And for the connection of the elevator you need that:

http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=465660

Isn't that just a normal underground garage with foundations?

Supreme leader. What I thought about for you was the ramp in post 56 by Simsample. I tried this yesterday though and it's been so hard putting down that staircase lately. It may have something to do with the orientation of the lot and garage relative to the world or something. I didn't try turning it 90 degrees though. It looked like you did get the staircase down.

If you don't mind using a staircase down, you can have 2 floors sort of at least. I have never seen anyone twisting the floors position relative to the ground. That seems to be stuck. It will always be 1 to 5 floors above ground and then 1 to 4 or perhaps 5 below. the walls can be minimum 1/4 and very high. Below ground there is a few differences in how it works though.

Ah yes, that looks exactly what I need for my multi floor garage. Seems like I missed out on how it worked in that picture. But yes something like that is what i'm looking for.

If you can't make multiple stories underground multiple stories above ground would do just fine, as long as my houses aren't at least 50x50 to fit alot of cars in

I've been playing alot with constrainfloorelevation, I will definately look into this way from Simsample as well, looks really beautiful and realistic

Yep it is.

Since 1,50 I haven't been able to put any staircase not full wall height down like I need to make this partially exposed basement with lights in it. I like to use it if I need 1 extra floor "above" ground or wants to have the "floating" affect. It's annoying. I have tried putting the staircase down from lower ground into the higher basement, but I get a basement's not high enough message or something. I can't use cfe there, because I can't get the exposed effect then. Has anyone found a solution yet? I tried from all 4 directions on a lot, and several different places from where I wanted it to land in the basement. I even tried the hold down shift approach. Still no dice.

I have 1.50, but not installed uni yet.

I've not had any problems with this technique since the 1.5 patch and I'm currently patched to 1.50.56.021017 with university installed. How odd that it has stopped working for you!

Hm ... ok. I'll have to check out other possibilities then. Thanks.

My brain can not handle this. Holy crap! It's pretty awesome though. Big thumbs up to you guys! I need to read on, so I can figure this out a little better. Good job!

do you guys think it'd be possible to use this technique to make a walk in basement on a sloped land? kind of like having a "balcony" open on the slope and the rest of the house hidden in the land, so that the only thing you see on the outside is this kind "balcony"-entrance.

Keggle its very possible to do that, but your problem becomes hiding the basement walls or the gap under the terrain.

Hi, Tee Hee She! Thanks for replying!
I'm not sure I follow what you mean. I thought I'd have the opposite problem, namely managing to make a hole wider than 4 tiles, as I only need the facade to be open and the rest of the house will be hidden (so I don't need the slopes). I attached a screen of what I thought I'd do but I don't think it can work this way.

You have to remember that you have two different floorlevels here and you just have to make that work. You could perhaps have it 4 steps og perhaps even less. You can make the hole as wide as you like with 4 or more staircases wide or even just one. Your problem will still be the transition between the staircase and the ground, on each side of the staircase. You have to find a solution to the black holes and visible ground you end up with on each side.

If you just want an open hole with a few staircases like an eco house or something, you can hide the area around the staircase with plants. You have to be prepared for a bit of fiddling with cfe to make the black voids as tiny as possible.

I tried once and it kinda worked but I'll have to try again; I think I understand what I should do though. Thanks!

I must be missing something. I've got two problems...one for which I found a work-around.

1st problem...the basement tool doesn't reset the basement walls/floors to a lower level as shown in the tutorial:

I raise the entire terrain 16 steps. No problem.
I make the basement. No problem.
I use the stairs to go down 4 steps. I drag the leveling tool...I get a nice slope. No problem.
Here comes the problem - When I use the basement tool (dragged just to the slope as instructed) to lower the basement walls, it only raises the whole damn thing right back to the original level!

So FINE. I get around that. I drop into the basement, and I use the stairs and level the terrain from there. I lower the basement from inside.

My second problem...I can't seem to break into the basement. I NEVER get a wall! I don't get anything.

I make a slope 16 steps down...so when it gets to the point I'm supposed to be able to break in using stairs...it just doesn't happen. At the bottom of my steps is a steeply sloped grass wall !! Not a wall in sight. Nothing to put window onto, let alone a door.

What is it that I'm missing?

p.s. It reads that it's 5 months since this thread has been replied to...but since it's a tutorial, I'm going to assume that it's not inappropriate to post here. :D

This thread wakes up from time to time when someone want's to try it, so it should be fine. The tutorial was made in a much previous patch. I tried it again making the Cella house, just to refresh my knowledge.

I made this tutorial, it's not that short. I could perhaps have made it shorter, but it can be a bit complicated. I hope it's still understandable.
Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGXPwD7eVVk

I had to use cfe to make the staircase fit, and making the exact right place for the staircase can be a bit tricky.