Houseboat can sail normally in Sunset Valley but cannot dock / return to port
Hi everyone,
I’m experiencing a strange houseboat docking issue in Sunset Valley and I’ve exhausted nearly all troubleshooting steps.
When I choose “Dock to Port” or “Return to Port,” the houseboat sails toward the dock normally, but once it reaches the edge of the blue gangway docking zone, it stops. The docking animation never completes, the hull ladder does not deploy, and my Sim starts doing the foot-stomping animation as if something is blocking the path. There is nothing visibly obstructing the port or shoreline. The boat consistently stops at the same edge of the blue docking zone every time.
Ports place without issues. Houseboats place correctly. Sailing in open water works perfectly. The boat can leave shore without any problem. This appears to be specifically a docking interaction failure, not a general routing issue.
I have tested extensively. I placed ports farther into deep ocean. I tested completely straight docking approaches. I used smaller houseboats on 64x40 lots. I tested both EA premade houseboats and downloaded houseboats. I built ports in multiple locations near Old Pier Beach and Recurve Strand. I confirmed I did not use moveobjects when placing gangways. I tested multiple port widths. I even teleported the boat directly next to the port for testing. The result is always identical. The boat stops at the blue docking zone and will not complete docking.
To narrow this down further, I tested the exact same setup in Sunlit Tides. The water there is actually shallower than Sunset Valley, yet docking works perfectly in Sunlit Tides. However, I created a brand new Sunset Valley save and docking still fails in exactly the same way.
To completely rule out mods, I renamed my entire “The Sims 3” folder so the game generated a completely fresh user folder with no mods. I started a brand new Sunset Valley save and tested docking again. The issue still occurs exactly the same way.
So this does not appear to be water depth, port placement, boat size, shoreline clearance, or mod related.
Docking works in Sunlit Tides but fails in Sunset Valley, even in brand new saves with no mods installed.
Has anyone encountered world-specific docking behavior like this before?
