Guide to Houseboats in game & in CAW
Houseboats! They're awesome, versatile, and totally fun... but they can also be tricky, especially when adding one to a world other than Isla Paradiso. Thankfully you've come to the right place. This ...
Forum Discussion
CAW Tutorial
Follow this step by step tutorial to learn how to add houseboats to a custom Sims 3 world built through the Create a World tool. The tutorial shows how to add a residential and a community houseboat to any custom world. Some basic knowledge of CAW is required before using this tutorial.
Note: This tutorial will not take you through every step necessary to create a custom world in CAW. If you aren't already familiar with the CAW tool, I recommend looking at a different guide to learn the basics of building custom worlds.
Use the following links if you want to download the files used to build this world, or see how this final world works in-game...
Exchange: Click here to download the Houseboat CAW Tutorial world from The Sims 3 Exchange which you can play with in-game.
CAW: Click here to download a .rar of the .world file that can be loaded in CAW. Simply unzip it to your My Documents/Electronic Arts folder.
1) Start a new world in CAW or edit one of your existing .world files. Your world will need to have water at sea level to be able to add houseboats to it.
2) I suggest adding two new layers under the World Layer to help your organization when building a world. I typically create one for Houseboats and one for Ports. This step is not necessary if you just want to add these lots to an existing layer.
3) Click on the Houseboat Layer, or whatever layer it is you want to add houseboats to.
4) Click on the new "Add a New Houseboat Lot" button from the top row; its icon is identical to the "Add a New Lot" button.
http://i.imgur.com/XBIemDr.jpg
5) In the window that pops up, select the houseboat size (for this tutorial, I'm selecting the "Small" houseboat) that you wish to place in your custom world and click OK.
http://i.imgur.com/pzlMDyS.jpg
6) Your camera will warp to where the houseboat lot was created. Note that the lot itself appears outside of the editable section of the world - this is correct and how things should look.
http://i.imgur.com/clp2ahH.jpg
7) Click on the "Add a New Houseboat Lot" button again if you wish to add another houseboat. For the purposes of this tutorial, I'm adding a second "Large" size houseboat that will serve as our community lot houseboat.
http://i.imgur.com/3e5sXKD.jpg
8) Click on the Large size houseboat lot that was created and in the "Property Browser" window select the "Lot Type" field and in the drop down select "Community".
9) Staying in the "Property Browser" window, select the "Commercial Lot SubType" field and in the drop down select whichever type of community lot you want to be on the houseboat. For this tutorial, I'm selecting "kEP10_Resort" to make a cruise ship resort houseboat.
http://i.imgur.com/5PGG29O.jpg
10) Now that you've added the houseboat lots, it's time to create a port for them to dock at. Click on the "Add a New Lot" button and drag out a new lot where you want the port to be. It should be partially on land and partially over the ocean, with enough room over water to place the Gangway object.
11) In the window that pops up, change the lot type to "Community", and the lot sub type drop down box to "kEP10_Port".
http://i.imgur.com/gpxFB63.jpg
12) Create a second Port lot for the other houseboat by repeating steps #10 and #11.
13) Click any of the houseboat or port lots that you've created and type in an address if you want to help identify them in-game. This step is optional.
14) Click the "Edit in Game" button.
15) Confirm that you do want to Edit in Game, and save your world if prompted to do so. Click OK on the window that appears confirming that your world saved successfully. If it did not save successfully, you've built something in your world wrong outside what this guide is covering.
http://i.imgur.com/9TkbJbQ.jpg
16) Wait for the game to load.
17) Once in-game, do not unpause. There should be no need to unpause at any point when editing a custom world.
http://i.imgur.com/nlLDFxw.jpg
18) Enter Edit Town mode.
19) Click on one of the port lots and select the "Build/Buy" button to edit the port lot.
http://i.imgur.com/VIJEQZG.jpg
20) Add a dock for your houseboat. To get the proper dock height, select a foundation and drag it out by starting over the water and dragging it back onto land. It's essential that you start over water or it will not be at the correct height. Refer to the "Edit Town Tutorial" on this same forum page for more detailed information on properly building a port.
21) IMPORTANT: Add a staircase to your dock. Adding a staircase in CAW is slightly different than adding a staircase in-game in that the staircase will always default to 4 steps in height. You do NOT want to use the default 4 step height stairs as this will cause the terrain to be pushed down below sea level at the base of the stairs. Instead, hold down the ALT key when attaching stairs to the dock. This will cause the stairs to be built with the minimum number of steps required.
http://i.imgur.com/p2IC8dz.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/gcESB8G.jpg
22) Add a Gangway object to your dock. Refer to the Edit Town Tutorial on this same forum page for more detailed information on the Gangway and how to place it without errors.
http://i.imgur.com/7Bt322Y.jpg
23) Return to Edit Town mode. You should now have one fully functional port that's ready to accommodate a houseboat. Repeat steps #19 - #22 to setup the second port lot for the other houseboat.
24) You now have two functional ports. In Edit Town mode, click on a Port and select the "Set Houseboat" button.
http://i.imgur.com/T9pJanZ.jpg
25) Use this to add a Small houseboat to one port, and a Large houseboat to another port (or whatever size houseboats you ended up creating back in the CAW tool in steps #5 and #7).
26) You'll notice that the ports now have an empty houseboat hull object in them with no actual lot. This is as expected.
http://i.imgur.com/VBqUdLf.jpg
27) Find each of the houseboat lots, click on them, and select the "Edit Details" button. Give each of the houseboat lots a unique name to help identify them in the following steps. You can also add a description if you want to.
http://i.imgur.com/mN4XOHC.jpg
28) Click on one of the ports and select the "Build/Buy" button to edit the lot.
29) Hold down the SHIFT + CTRL keys and use the left button on your mouse to click on the houseboat hull object.
30) In the pie menu that appears, select "DEBUG: Set Houseboat Lot".
http://i.imgur.com/Y5uUn0K.jpg
31) A list of houseboats will appear that are not already set to a port lot. For this tutorial, the two houseboats we created will appear there.
http://i.imgur.com/6Elz171.jpg
32) Select the houseboat from the list that you want to appear on that port.
http://i.imgur.com/BbwIkFx.jpg
33) NOTE: If you select the wrong houseboat from the list, or want to assign a different houseboat from that port at any time, it's easy to do so. Simply be in build/buy mode on the port, hold down SHIFT + CTRL and click on the houseboat hull object using the left mouse button. In the pie menu that appears, select "DEBUG: Unset Houseboat Lot". The houseboat lot will be moved back to its original position outside the world and you can now assign a different houseboat to the port.
http://i.imgur.com/fKh3JpA.jpg
34) Return to Edit Town mode.
35) Repeat steps #28 - #34 to assign the other houseboat to the second port lot.
36) Both houseboats should now appear on the houseboat hull objects docked at the appropriate port. They're now ready for any further editing you wish to do.
37) For the purpose of this tutorial, click on the "Show Empty Houses" tab in Edit Town, and select one of the Small size residential houseboats in the bin.
38) Select "Place Copy."
http://i.imgur.com/m2V7k5E.jpg
39) With the houseboat lot attached to your cursor, click on the map tag above the Small houseboat to place the lot on top of it. Accept the placement to continue.
http://i.imgur.com/nQSbJ7B.jpg
40) Back in Edit Town mode, click on the Large houseboat which is a community lot - in this tutorial, I'm creating a Resort Houseboat which can function as a cruise ship. Select the "Build/Buy" button.
41) Build on the houseboat however you like and add any objects you want to. Using my resort houseboat as an example, I added a resort tower and a lobby.
http://i.imgur.com/DgICrvI.jpg
42) Return to Edit Town mode when you're finished customizing your houseboats and port lots.
43) Click the "Return to Game" button at the top of the screen.
44) Open the Options menu and select "Save".
http://i.imgur.com/lqm2CXC.jpg
45) Wait for the save to complete, and click OK on the window that appears letting you know the save was successful.
http://i.imgur.com/HhVi5PY.jpg
46) Quit out of the game.
47) Back in CAW, your houseboat lots will appear to be detached from their ports. This is as expected and does not indicate any problem. The houseboats are still attached to their ports in-game.
http://i.imgur.com/AAiSncS.jpg
48) Edit the description of the world. There is a known issue where players without Island Paradise installed who play a custom world that includes houseboats do not properly get houseboats removed from the world when they load the world, which causes problems (see the FAQ on this same forum page for more information on this). Due to this, I highly suggest including the following information in your world's description:
"This custom world contains houseboats. Island Paradise is required for this world to function properly."
49) Save your world.
50) Export your world.
51) At this point you can install the world to play it in your own game and the houseboats/ports should be fully functional! Feel free to upload your new world to the exchange for all players who have Island Paradise to enjoy!
http://i.imgur.com/G7ECNZj.jpg
Follow this step by step tutorial to learn how to add houseboats to a custom Sims 3 world built through the Create a World tool. The tutorial shows how to add a residential and a community houseboat to any custom world. Some basic knowledge of CAW is required before using this tutorial.
Note: This tutorial will not take you through every step necessary to create a custom world in CAW. If you aren't already familiar with the CAW tool, I recommend looking at a different guide to learn the basics of building custom worlds.
Use the following links if you want to download the files used to build this world, or see how this final world works in-game...
Exchange: Click here to download the Houseboat CAW Tutorial world from The Sims 3 Exchange which you can play with in-game.
CAW: Click here to download a .rar of the .world file that can be loaded in CAW. Simply unzip it to your My Documents/Electronic Arts folder.
1) Start a new world in CAW or edit one of your existing .world files. Your world will need to have water at sea level to be able to add houseboats to it.
2) I suggest adding two new layers under the World Layer to help your organization when building a world. I typically create one for Houseboats and one for Ports. This step is not necessary if you just want to add these lots to an existing layer.
3) Click on the Houseboat Layer, or whatever layer it is you want to add houseboats to.
4) Click on the new "Add a New Houseboat Lot" button from the top row; its icon is identical to the "Add a New Lot" button.
http://i.imgur.com/XBIemDr.jpg
5) In the window that pops up, select the houseboat size (for this tutorial, I'm selecting the "Small" houseboat) that you wish to place in your custom world and click OK.
http://i.imgur.com/pzlMDyS.jpg
6) Your camera will warp to where the houseboat lot was created. Note that the lot itself appears outside of the editable section of the world - this is correct and how things should look.
http://i.imgur.com/clp2ahH.jpg
7) Click on the "Add a New Houseboat Lot" button again if you wish to add another houseboat. For the purposes of this tutorial, I'm adding a second "Large" size houseboat that will serve as our community lot houseboat.
http://i.imgur.com/3e5sXKD.jpg
8) Click on the Large size houseboat lot that was created and in the "Property Browser" window select the "Lot Type" field and in the drop down select "Community".
9) Staying in the "Property Browser" window, select the "Commercial Lot SubType" field and in the drop down select whichever type of community lot you want to be on the houseboat. For this tutorial, I'm selecting "kEP10_Resort" to make a cruise ship resort houseboat.
http://i.imgur.com/5PGG29O.jpg
10) Now that you've added the houseboat lots, it's time to create a port for them to dock at. Click on the "Add a New Lot" button and drag out a new lot where you want the port to be. It should be partially on land and partially over the ocean, with enough room over water to place the Gangway object.
11) In the window that pops up, change the lot type to "Community", and the lot sub type drop down box to "kEP10_Port".
http://i.imgur.com/gpxFB63.jpg
12) Create a second Port lot for the other houseboat by repeating steps #10 and #11.
13) Click any of the houseboat or port lots that you've created and type in an address if you want to help identify them in-game. This step is optional.
14) Click the "Edit in Game" button.
15) Confirm that you do want to Edit in Game, and save your world if prompted to do so. Click OK on the window that appears confirming that your world saved successfully. If it did not save successfully, you've built something in your world wrong outside what this guide is covering.
http://i.imgur.com/9TkbJbQ.jpg
16) Wait for the game to load.
17) Once in-game, do not unpause. There should be no need to unpause at any point when editing a custom world.
http://i.imgur.com/nlLDFxw.jpg
18) Enter Edit Town mode.
19) Click on one of the port lots and select the "Build/Buy" button to edit the port lot.
http://i.imgur.com/VIJEQZG.jpg
20) Add a dock for your houseboat. To get the proper dock height, select a foundation and drag it out by starting over the water and dragging it back onto land. It's essential that you start over water or it will not be at the correct height. Refer to the "Edit Town Tutorial" on this same forum page for more detailed information on properly building a port.
21) IMPORTANT: Add a staircase to your dock. Adding a staircase in CAW is slightly different than adding a staircase in-game in that the staircase will always default to 4 steps in height. You do NOT want to use the default 4 step height stairs as this will cause the terrain to be pushed down below sea level at the base of the stairs. Instead, hold down the ALT key when attaching stairs to the dock. This will cause the stairs to be built with the minimum number of steps required.
http://i.imgur.com/p2IC8dz.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/gcESB8G.jpg
22) Add a Gangway object to your dock. Refer to the Edit Town Tutorial on this same forum page for more detailed information on the Gangway and how to place it without errors.
http://i.imgur.com/7Bt322Y.jpg
23) Return to Edit Town mode. You should now have one fully functional port that's ready to accommodate a houseboat. Repeat steps #19 - #22 to setup the second port lot for the other houseboat.
24) You now have two functional ports. In Edit Town mode, click on a Port and select the "Set Houseboat" button.
http://i.imgur.com/T9pJanZ.jpg
25) Use this to add a Small houseboat to one port, and a Large houseboat to another port (or whatever size houseboats you ended up creating back in the CAW tool in steps #5 and #7).
26) You'll notice that the ports now have an empty houseboat hull object in them with no actual lot. This is as expected.
http://i.imgur.com/VBqUdLf.jpg
27) Find each of the houseboat lots, click on them, and select the "Edit Details" button. Give each of the houseboat lots a unique name to help identify them in the following steps. You can also add a description if you want to.
http://i.imgur.com/mN4XOHC.jpg
28) Click on one of the ports and select the "Build/Buy" button to edit the lot.
29) Hold down the SHIFT + CTRL keys and use the left button on your mouse to click on the houseboat hull object.
30) In the pie menu that appears, select "DEBUG: Set Houseboat Lot".
http://i.imgur.com/Y5uUn0K.jpg
31) A list of houseboats will appear that are not already set to a port lot. For this tutorial, the two houseboats we created will appear there.
http://i.imgur.com/6Elz171.jpg
32) Select the houseboat from the list that you want to appear on that port.
http://i.imgur.com/BbwIkFx.jpg
33) NOTE: If you select the wrong houseboat from the list, or want to assign a different houseboat from that port at any time, it's easy to do so. Simply be in build/buy mode on the port, hold down SHIFT + CTRL and click on the houseboat hull object using the left mouse button. In the pie menu that appears, select "DEBUG: Unset Houseboat Lot". The houseboat lot will be moved back to its original position outside the world and you can now assign a different houseboat to the port.
http://i.imgur.com/fKh3JpA.jpg
34) Return to Edit Town mode.
35) Repeat steps #28 - #34 to assign the other houseboat to the second port lot.
36) Both houseboats should now appear on the houseboat hull objects docked at the appropriate port. They're now ready for any further editing you wish to do.
37) For the purpose of this tutorial, click on the "Show Empty Houses" tab in Edit Town, and select one of the Small size residential houseboats in the bin.
38) Select "Place Copy."
http://i.imgur.com/m2V7k5E.jpg
39) With the houseboat lot attached to your cursor, click on the map tag above the Small houseboat to place the lot on top of it. Accept the placement to continue.
http://i.imgur.com/nQSbJ7B.jpg
40) Back in Edit Town mode, click on the Large houseboat which is a community lot - in this tutorial, I'm creating a Resort Houseboat which can function as a cruise ship. Select the "Build/Buy" button.
41) Build on the houseboat however you like and add any objects you want to. Using my resort houseboat as an example, I added a resort tower and a lobby.
http://i.imgur.com/DgICrvI.jpg
42) Return to Edit Town mode when you're finished customizing your houseboats and port lots.
43) Click the "Return to Game" button at the top of the screen.
44) Open the Options menu and select "Save".
http://i.imgur.com/lqm2CXC.jpg
45) Wait for the save to complete, and click OK on the window that appears letting you know the save was successful.
http://i.imgur.com/HhVi5PY.jpg
46) Quit out of the game.
47) Back in CAW, your houseboat lots will appear to be detached from their ports. This is as expected and does not indicate any problem. The houseboats are still attached to their ports in-game.
http://i.imgur.com/AAiSncS.jpg
48) Edit the description of the world. There is a known issue where players without Island Paradise installed who play a custom world that includes houseboats do not properly get houseboats removed from the world when they load the world, which causes problems (see the FAQ on this same forum page for more information on this). Due to this, I highly suggest including the following information in your world's description:
"This custom world contains houseboats. Island Paradise is required for this world to function properly."
49) Save your world.
50) Export your world.
51) At this point you can install the world to play it in your own game and the houseboats/ports should be fully functional! Feel free to upload your new world to the exchange for all players who have Island Paradise to enjoy!
http://i.imgur.com/G7ECNZj.jpg
