Buy Mode Tips & Tricks
These are specifically buy mode related tips and tricks :)
, or . - Rotate Object
Holding Alt when placing objects will allow you to place objects without them snapping to the gridlines and have free placement (and combined with MOO cheat can make object placement completely unlimited!). Alternatively, holding Alt when rotating objects will do the same so you can put objects at really unique angles :)
Delete Key/Back Space Key - Delete Object
M - Used when placing objects on other objects (like shelves or tables) to move the object to the next available slot on the shelf/table
These are specifically buy mode related tips and tricks :)
, or . - Rotate Object
Holding Alt when placing objects will allow you to place objects without them snapping to the gridlines and have free placement (and combined with MOO cheat can make object placement completely unlimited!). Alternatively, holding Alt when rotating objects will do the same so you can put objects at really unique angles :)
Delete Key/Back Space Key - Delete Object
M - Used when placing objects on other objects (like shelves or tables) to move the object to the next available slot on the shelf/table
Build Mode Tips & Tricks
These are specifically build mode related tips and tricks :)
Shift+Left Mouse Click - (When placing wallpaper or flooring) will fill entire sections with wallpaper or flooring (it will only do sections that are connected and match the spot your cursor is over
Holding down the Shift Key when putting down walls or fences will create a box/room relatively quickly.
Ctrl+F - You use this when placing floors to switch the normal square-shaped floor tiles into a triangle shape which is the size of the smaller gridline squares (when you zoom in close) or a quarter of the square gridlines (when you aren't zoomed in)
, or . - You use these when placing floors or ceilings to rotate the tiles left and right.. This won't move the floor tile from where the cursor is, it just rotates the pattern/style that's on the floor/ceiling tile 90 degrees.
You can use Create-a-Style (CASt) on exposed edges of floor tiles (eg on balconies) so they match the surrounding walls, usually used to make the join less obvious or the decor look more realistic
Terrain Paint is usually a cheaper way of paving the outside of lots as it's free. I usually use the"Stream of Consciousness Wall" to outline the different sections of paint to make it easier as you can use it as like a colouring in kind of thing lol since the gridlines "helpfully" vanish when in paint mode. I generally use the square brushes for straight lines and the circular ones for diagonals or curves. I often switch the fencing when all the painting has been done, or often delete it altogether but it is only done at the end - I find that the fences seem to help keep the "joins" between the sections of paint a lot smoother.
Terrain Paint Brush Sizes and Softness - The sizes are self explanatory but I personally didn't realise what the softness bit meant until recently and I certainly thought the sizes meant something different than they do so I thought I'd explain it all since like everything, EA made it more complex than it really needed to be. There are 3 sizes of each type of brush, seems pretty simple? Well it is.. if you ignore the softness option but given how that bit is designed it's not really great. Basically,the brush size is how much area the paint is going to take up - even if its on the softest section the whole lot will still get some form of paint on it (from the games point of view the entire section where the brush has been has been painted, it will just be "blended" into the ground beneath it even if you can't see it) and this can cause issues I'll go into in a minute. For this reason, you should never use a brush that goes outside of the area you're painting. For example, if the area is slightly smaller than the largest size brush, you should use the medium size brush; if the area to be painted is slightly smaller than the medium brush, you should use the small brush. The smallest size is generally equivalent to the size of the grid squares (the large ones not the small ones you see when you zoom in) so if you want to go smaller than that you'll need a lot of patience and to use the softness setting and the eraser to make sure there's no excess paint invisible to human eyes where you don't want it..
Right, now.. Brush Softness.. the real chode among the terrain painting cocks.. If you zoom in and have the cursor "brush" hovering over a patch of land and adjust the softness on the slider, you'll notice a second square/circle (depending on the brush shape you're using ofc) getting bigger and smaller inside the brush-size square/circle. The centre of the brush, in the middle of the inner circle will always be where the paint will be humanly visible (unless you go too soft, in which case it's pretty much invisible unless you're some kind of hawk with superhuman eyesight which was clearly EA's target audience for this section...). The section between the inner and outer circles is how much will be blended into the terrain beneath it. It will do an automatic gradual blend which means the nearer the inner circle, the less it will be blended in. So if you have the softness at the hardest level (if that makes any sense - I hope it does lol) then there will be no blend around the edges and it will be a sheer edge of colour (easily disguised by fencing or landscaping)
Written by Georgina
These are specifically build mode related tips and tricks :)
Shift+Left Mouse Click - (When placing wallpaper or flooring) will fill entire sections with wallpaper or flooring (it will only do sections that are connected and match the spot your cursor is over
Holding down the Shift Key when putting down walls or fences will create a box/room relatively quickly.
Ctrl+F - You use this when placing floors to switch the normal square-shaped floor tiles into a triangle shape which is the size of the smaller gridline squares (when you zoom in close) or a quarter of the square gridlines (when you aren't zoomed in)
, or . - You use these when placing floors or ceilings to rotate the tiles left and right.. This won't move the floor tile from where the cursor is, it just rotates the pattern/style that's on the floor/ceiling tile 90 degrees.
You can use Create-a-Style (CASt) on exposed edges of floor tiles (eg on balconies) so they match the surrounding walls, usually used to make the join less obvious or the decor look more realistic
Terrain Paint is usually a cheaper way of paving the outside of lots as it's free. I usually use the"Stream of Consciousness Wall" to outline the different sections of paint to make it easier as you can use it as like a colouring in kind of thing lol since the gridlines "helpfully" vanish when in paint mode. I generally use the square brushes for straight lines and the circular ones for diagonals or curves. I often switch the fencing when all the painting has been done, or often delete it altogether but it is only done at the end - I find that the fences seem to help keep the "joins" between the sections of paint a lot smoother.
Terrain Paint Brush Sizes and Softness - The sizes are self explanatory but I personally didn't realise what the softness bit meant until recently and I certainly thought the sizes meant something different than they do so I thought I'd explain it all since like everything, EA made it more complex than it really needed to be. There are 3 sizes of each type of brush, seems pretty simple? Well it is.. if you ignore the softness option but given how that bit is designed it's not really great. Basically,the brush size is how much area the paint is going to take up - even if its on the softest section the whole lot will still get some form of paint on it (from the games point of view the entire section where the brush has been has been painted, it will just be "blended" into the ground beneath it even if you can't see it) and this can cause issues I'll go into in a minute. For this reason, you should never use a brush that goes outside of the area you're painting. For example, if the area is slightly smaller than the largest size brush, you should use the medium size brush; if the area to be painted is slightly smaller than the medium brush, you should use the small brush. The smallest size is generally equivalent to the size of the grid squares (the large ones not the small ones you see when you zoom in) so if you want to go smaller than that you'll need a lot of patience and to use the softness setting and the eraser to make sure there's no excess paint invisible to human eyes where you don't want it..
Right, now.. Brush Softness.. the real chode among the terrain painting cocks.. If you zoom in and have the cursor "brush" hovering over a patch of land and adjust the softness on the slider, you'll notice a second square/circle (depending on the brush shape you're using ofc) getting bigger and smaller inside the brush-size square/circle. The centre of the brush, in the middle of the inner circle will always be where the paint will be humanly visible (unless you go too soft, in which case it's pretty much invisible unless you're some kind of hawk with superhuman eyesight which was clearly EA's target audience for this section...). The section between the inner and outer circles is how much will be blended into the terrain beneath it. It will do an automatic gradual blend which means the nearer the inner circle, the less it will be blended in. So if you have the softness at the hardest level (if that makes any sense - I hope it does lol) then there will be no blend around the edges and it will be a sheer edge of colour (easily disguised by fencing or landscaping)
Written by Georgina