Question: Basements

[naughtydolphin]

Newbie builder here wants to know: Is it possible to build and conceal a basement that has a larger footprint than the structure above it? The basement tutorials I've seen require the use of foundation, so the ground-floor structure must be at least the same size as the basement.

Comments

[goodliest]

After playing around in build mode some more, I can answer my own question: Technically, yes. There are actually two ways to do this (so far), with and without foundation:

[1] Lower the terrain and enclose the space. There will be a tile-wide gap between the basement and ground-level flat terrain. The ground-floor must extend over the gap; adding flooring to this level will lowers the flat terrain slightly one tile over. Connect the ground to ground-floor with modular stairs, then use the constrainfloorelevation cheat around the stairs to level the terrain again. Use the moveobjects cheat to place retaining walls to cover the gap, add a flat roof or flooring over exposed basement sections, and the whole thing should be completely hidden. Floor tile recolors or landscaping would help this effect. Sims will clip into the ground to access the stairs, but everything is accessible.

[2] Build a basement as you normally would, and delete the foundation walls on one side, replacing with a regular wall. You may need to use the constrainfloorelevation cheat to make this section level with the foundation again. Two tiles from the newly enclosed basement, lower the terrain by two clicks and level the ground, going away from the wall; enclose this space to make a separate basement room. There needs to be a minimum two tile-wide strip between the foundation-style basement and this one to accommodate a gentle slope. You cannot place stairs on this slope, but sims can walk over it. Place doors, retaining walls, etc. and you will have two basement rooms. You cannot use a regular wall to connect these rooms without creating a bump on the terrain at ground level. This leaves you with a (minimum) two-tile wide exposed corridor between rooms. During the day, this corridor will be sunlit.

Remember that sims cannot walk on top of the retaining wall, so even though the terrain looks perfectly flat, the tile-wide sloping gap prevents sims from traveling across the area directly above your concealed basement. This may be a little awkward for gameplay when sims above-ground must route around the perimeter, but you are now able to create an underground bunker/speakeasy/whatever on what looks like a flat lot!