Building

Why is building so confusing? There is no tutorial for building on this game! Ive never been more confused in my entire life! I don’t know how to rotate, why can’t my stairs be placed at the side of the wall, there’s so much I don’t understand!

gameplay issue

JonaO703
4 years ago
@GLJGunner Hi! I thought I would just add a couple things to @ValFreya13 's suggestions. I agree that it would help to just spend some time playing around with build mode in a test save before trying to build your sims' forever homes.
If you're playing on console, you can find a list of controls, tips and tricks at the below link.
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Consoles/Controls-for-The-Sims-4-on-consoles/td-p/6446759
If you're on PC or Mac, everything can be done by using your mouse. However, I find using the keyboard is sometimes easier for rotating things, especially stairs. Once you have a staircase (or object or room) selected and you can move it around freely with your mouse, use the keyboard and press the , < OR . > keys to rotate.
If you're like me and prefer some visual cues, I made this video showing some basics about placing stairs.
https://youtu.be/ZmfLe7Nkv24

4 Replies

Purple_Tragedy
Seasoned Veteran
4 years ago
@GLJGunner There would have been tutorials when you first load into the game, unless you turned them off. I believe you can turn them on in settings.

As for the camera issue, you can turn on Sims 3 camera, which will make things much easier for you.

Stairs can be places at the side of a wall BUT they cannot intersect with another wall/fence or a door so make sure nothing is blocking the top 1 square or bottom 1 square out from the stairs or anything in between.

Once you have placed your stairs, then you can build any walls/fences or place doors that you need as you will now know where they can be place around the stairs (until, of course, you become familiar with stair placement and building in general).

Play around with it a bit and familiarize yourself with the mechanics before trying to build something - have some fun!
JonaO703
Hero
4 years ago
@GLJGunner Hi! I thought I would just add a couple things to @ValFreya13 's suggestions. I agree that it would help to just spend some time playing around with build mode in a test save before trying to build your sims' forever homes.
If you're playing on console, you can find a list of controls, tips and tricks at the below link.
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Consoles/Controls-for-The-Sims-4-on-consoles/td-p/6446759
If you're on PC or Mac, everything can be done by using your mouse. However, I find using the keyboard is sometimes easier for rotating things, especially stairs. Once you have a staircase (or object or room) selected and you can move it around freely with your mouse, use the keyboard and press the , < OR . > keys to rotate.
If you're like me and prefer some visual cues, I made this video showing some basics about placing stairs.
https://youtu.be/ZmfLe7Nkv24
GLJGunner
4 years ago
I’ve been watching tutorials messing about and within a day I’m already an amazing builder, I’m making extremely detailed builds. Ty
JonaO703
Hero
4 years ago
@GLJGunner Awesome! I was going to suggest some tutorials; there are so many. When I didn't find one that really explained how stairs work, I decided to make one. I'm glad you were able to figure things out. Have fun playing! :-)