Neighborly Sims--TS2--Tutorials--Upward-Sloping Driveway

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Tutorial: Upward-Sloping Driveway

	Greetings! We are the Alberga family--Abraham, Afraima, and Edlyn. I'm Afraima. We've just moved to this lot after purchasing it unseen...which may have been a mistake. We have a minivan, and we'd like to be able to have a driveway and garage for it. However, this hill that Abraham is staring at might make that a bit hard (and somewhat expensive).
	Abraham tells me he thinks he knows how to do it. "Are you sure, Abraham?" "Not to worry, Afraima...trust me...it'll be a piece of cake!" Oh boy...where have I heard THAT before? Seriously...I'll give him a chance. If it doesn't work out, we can always sell the land and buy something flatter.
	Once we took a little walk up the hill, I could see that things were probably more hopeful than I'd thought at first. There's plenty of room at the top to build our home. We just have to figure out the best way to get that driveway to go up the hill! This might be a good time to note that it would be wise to choose a similar lot to this one, the first time you try to build this type of driveway. It's one of the largest lots, with a slope in front, that levels off just about halfway into the lot.
	We're going to let the construction crew do their work, but I'll try to explain the process to you, the way it was explained to us. By the way...that's the house across the street out there in front of our land. We haven't met those neighbors yet, but we're looking forward to it. Driveways in this country don't just conform to the lay of the land, unfortunately. They create huge holes in hilly land (see above). For now, that's OK. Our construction crew knows how to fix things...later.
	The first part of the driveway is in.
	Once the initial part is done, extensions must be placed...
	...until there are enough (four, in this case--each lot is different), to reach far enough into the LEVEL part of the land at the top of the hill so that the garage may eventually surround the final extension.
	The contractors realized (because they've done some research and had some trial and error) that upward-sloping driveways work better if the land at the TOP is at the height of a multiple of a regular wall height. To measure the land, you need either some stacked up walls or some columns. Columns are easy to stack if you use the cheat "moveobjects on" which can just be left on for now. As you can see here, our land is above two walls high, but not three walls high. Some adjustment needs to be done. We COULD leave the top just as it is, and the driveway will work. However, it will be a bumpy, enough ride for the minivan, anyway, and we can make it better by doing some leveling right now. The leveling shovel will not work for this purpose.
	Using any floor tile, you will need to put tiles toward the land area, from the top of one of the columns, like this.
	That will cause the land to be adjusted to the height of a foundation UNDER the tile level. If you add a third tile...
	...you can see the level of the land a bit better, then you can move around a bit until you can see "how the land lies." By looking at this, it looks to me like it might be easier in the long run to RAISE the land at the top just slightly, than to dig a bunch of dirt away and lower the level. So that's what our contractors decided to do.
	Undo the placement of tile until you get back to just the three columns standing there.
	Well, my gosh! I was off in my calculations! It seems as though when I lay some tile on top of the third column, that the land goes DOWN just a little bit! So we'll have to lower the top of the hill, but not very much.
	From the area that the floor tiles leveled, use the leveling tool to go out to the back corner of the property.
	Now you need to level 11 more squares out in front of that. That will be enough for the garage area and a couple more squares at the top of the driveway in FRONT of the garage, to all be at the new level.
	As you can see, that worked very well. Now we need to do the other side.
	Starting at the front corner of the area that was just leveled, drag the leveling tool all the way to the back corner at the other side of the lot.
	There! The land at the back of the property line is just slightly lower than the edge of the lot, but it looks good. Over at the right, the land is been raised slightly, but we can adjust that later...or not...depending on what we decide to do over there while building the house.
	To begin on the rest of the driveway, the floor tiles and columns need to be removed. You can use the cheat console again and type in "moveobjects off" because we're going to be working with the driveway skins, and that can be tricky with that cheat turned on. However, you must now open the cheat console and type in: boolprop constrainfloorelevation false This will enable us to move the driveway area around with the leveling tool (which was NOT happening before, as you noticed, since there is a substance covering the land in that area).
	After you have turned the cheat on, set the leveling tool as shown here--lined up with the last square of the driveway extension.
	Then drag it across to the corresponding tool on the other side of the driveway, and forward, so that you have selected only SIX squares forward.
	Let go, and the LAND rises up, but the driveway skin stays down at the bottom...which is why we only dragged forward six squares. The extensions are 8 squares long, and that cliff is one grid square, so that's 7 squares.
	We need to have one grid square left at the bottom, to select with the DESIGN TOOL (the lighter area shown here).
	Once you click with the Design Tool, a box will pop up. You then just click the checkmark (you don't have to do anything else--we don't want to change anything). After clicking the checkmark, the extension will rise up to meet the changed landform. Notice that the grid does not come back on. We need that, so click on the Hand Tool...
	...and it will reappear.
	Select another 6 grids out toward the front, stopping right wither the hill-leveling stopped.
	The ground will rise up again, leaving the driveway skin behind.
	Select the extension as shown. Click, and click the checkmark.
	The extension pops up to the top of the hill.
	Click the hand tool to get the grid back.
	Use the leveling tool and drag it from the top left corner (of the green) shown here, ONLY 6 grids out toward the front, ending as shown.
	The extension stays down under the land.
	Now we are going to start lowering the land where the next-to-last extension will end up. Using the lower terrain tool, dig down 2 clicks, at the spot shown here (3 grids forward, and 2 grids out to the side of the lower right corner of the last extension.
	Drag the leveling tool across from the point where you dug, as shown, to the end of the level spot you made just before, as shown.
	There we are down two steps. Now set the lower terrain tool as shown, and dig down 2 clicks.
	Drag the leveling tool across as before.
	We're down another 2 steps. Continue like this until you've reached the last line again.
	Drag across. Be SURE that you end up with the tool as shown, on the FORWARD corner of that last square, or you won't go down the 2 steps.
	There we go...down the last 2 steps before the next part.
	Click the Design Tool down on the next extension as shown. Click the checkmark.
	This is what results.
	Now click right at the top of the cliff, and you will get the very end of the next extension. Click the checkmark.
	There's the nicely-slanted next-to-last driveway extension in place where we want it.
	Click the hand tool to turn on the grid.
	Now we'll start to bring up the next extension. Using the leveling tool, start at the top left corner of the green area, as shown (on the level strip that we left from the last part), and drag the tool forward and right NINE grid squares toward the sidewalk. You can see that there are just 8 squares left down in the initial part of the driveway (after the sidewalk).
	There's the raised land.
	Now we're going to start sloping it, just like we did the last extension area. It's important to set your digging shovel on the same line as the end of the driveway that you can see, because we want to lower that last line by 2 clicks.
	Drag the leveling tool out to the corner of the raised area, as shown.
	Now the end of the driveway up there on top got slanted, just like it should be, and the rest of the raised area is down 2 clicks.
	Place the digging tool as shown and go down another 2 clicks.
	Drag across.
	2 steps down completed. Proceed as before, until you reach the last strip.
	Dig down 2 clicks.
	Drag, being sure to end up at the forward corner of the last square, as shown.
	Complete. Now it's time to raise the extension.
	Select the front end of the extension, as shown, click, and click the checkmark.
	Up comes the extension. Uh oh! See the gap? That's OK. Remember...we slanted that last piece on purpose, so it got buried.
	Select that gap with the Design Tool, click, and click the checkmark.
	There it is! The top three pieces of the driveway are in place.
	Click the hand tool to turn on the grid. Before we raise the final area, be sure that the "moveobjects" cheat is turned OFF (open the cheat console and type "moveobjects off"). You may have already had it turned off, but this is just in case. We are doing this because we want the bottom few grids of the driveway to end up absolutely level with the sidewalk.
	Place the leveling tool at the lower left corner of the flat line at the bottom of the extension we just raised, and drag it down to the right, ending up "in the red" down by the sidewalk, as shown.
	The land is raised.
	Be sure you're on the same line as the end of the extension, and dig down 2 clicks.
	Drag the leveling tool to the front of the previously-leveled area, as we've done before.
	Done. Continue as before, until the land levels with the sidewalk.
	Done. Hooray! The initial driveway is now showing through the land, and the bottom four squares after the sidewalk are level.
	Select that part with the Design Tool. Click, and click the checkmark.
	Up comes the driveway. There's the same type of gap as the last time.
	Select it with the Design Tool, click, and click the checkmark.
	There! The driveway has a flat spot at the bottom, and it slopes gently upward to the flat spot at the top where the garage will go.
	After turning on the grid again (by clicking the hand tool), you can see that before we're done, the hillside will need a little adjusting, but let's test the driveway with our minivan, first. You'll have to do something to help us, though. The car will need to be placed at the top of the hill, because it doesn't know where it has to go until you place it there. We'll just pretend that Abraham drove it up there, OK? :-)
	OK...the car is in place. In a little while, the garage will be built over it.
	Some neighbors have stopped by, and we had a good time meeting them.
	Abraham is going to drive down the driveway and out to get the car alarm installed. This is going to look a little funny, but it's going to work.
	The car kind of jumps over the edge...
	...into a place where it looks as if it's wedged in the hill.
	Then it makes another jump...
	...and wedges itself into the hill again.
	Then it jumps and wedges itself once more.
	Then it goes on out onto the street from the level spot at the bottom...sort of strange progress, but, hey! It got down there, didn't it? Now let's see what happens when Abraham comes back with the car alarm installed.
	Up he comes...into the first wedge.
	Then the car jumps into the air and wedges itself in again.
	Another step.
	And another one.
	And there's the final jump...
	...up onto the level spot where the garage will go. One could wish for a smoother ride up and down, perhaps, but this is about as good as it gets until the Maxis people figure out that cars go up and down hills, rather than just level...if Sims can go up and down hills, cars should be able to, also! :-)
	Now all that remains is to fix the hillside on either side of the driveway. I'll go ahead and do that (one click at a time or by using the new terrain tool we got in NightLife). I'll show you the end result. Oh, yeah! One VERY important thing! You MUST open the cheat console and type in "boolprop constrainfloorelevation true" before you start messing with the hillside, or you'll end up undoing all your hard work on the driveway!
	There. The hillside is fixed pretty well. We may do a little more landscaping later, depending on how the house-building goes. For now, though, we are done. We'll show you some more pictures when the house is built. Oh, yikes! I almost forgot! In order for the driveway to show up in photos taken in the neighborhood, you must put some matching floor tiles underneath it. That could have been done earlier, but it would have been harder to see the steps for making the driveway slope. So before we go, I'll show you how to fill in the tiles.
	The easiest way to find the matching tile, is to go to the Collections folders, then find the one that has the picture of a car on it. Inside that folder you'll find the matching floor tiles, right at the end of the list. Use the one that matches the driveway you put in.
	Remember, you need to do this using the "boolprop constrainfloorelevation true" cheat (the normal mode). If you have the cheat in "false" mode, your driveway will be ruined. Just drag the tile from one bottom corner at the sidewalk edge to the diagonal top corner, up past the front of the car. As you can see here, little ridges will appear in the way the driveway looks, but the slant is not altered. There's nothing you can do about that, so don't worry about it. Once you have covered all the tiles between the sidewalk and the end of the driveway, go back and put tiles under the little strip out by the pavement, too.
	Placing the bricks under the driveway skin worked. The long driveway shows up in the neighborhood view. If we hadn't placed the tiles, you would see nothing of the driveway in the neighborhood view. Well...that's the end of the story. We have to go now, to build our house, now that we can get trucks up the driveway to bring materials! Goodbye, and happy driveway building! :-)

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