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The Sims 4: Building Underground – Creative Tips

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08 02 15 5 31 PM 2

Hi. I am a new contributor to The Sims Community and I will be writing articles on how to spruce up your building in The Sims 4.

I am Kai Chen at The Sims Community Social and kaichen04 at The Sims 4 Gallery. I hail from Macapá, a city by the beautiful Amazon river in the north of Brazil. I am a 32 years-old interpreter and, in my free time, one of my favourite activities is to play The Sims. I have enjoyed the franchise since 2001, when The Sims 1 caught my attention on the shelf, when I was around 18 and had gotten my first paycheck!

My avatar and my mug. :)

My avatar and my mug. 🙂

With introductions out of the way, let’s get to our first tutorial. We will build underground, using a few ideas that will allow your creations to really stand out and be places your sims can enjoy thoroughly.  I’ll go over the basics first, so everybody can follow, but, don’t worry: we will transition into more advanced tips in this article as well.

The Basics Of Basements:

So here we are, with a clean slate:

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Let’s go down one level:

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While you can build a basement from above using the basement tool, it’s easier and more intuitive to go down one level and simply build using the regular wall / room tools.

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You can make your basement shallower…

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…or deeper.

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You can change that at any time. Let’s go with the depth in-between.

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Shaping Up The Construction

You can add as many rooms as you want and shape and re-shape the walls, just as you would when building above ground. Perhaps one is in a hurry and just goes with a basic box shape, but, today, let’s think outside of the box, literally, and be a bit more daring. The Custom Room Tool (the third one in the previous picture) is great for flexibility.

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I think this space could be great for a couple of shops. I’m thinking a bakery – which will also need an adjoining kitchen – and a clothing shop with a photo studio attached. Let’s figure out where they could be and perhaps a set of restrooms as well.

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Time to furnish it and decorate it.

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The Entrance

I’m happy with the results. Now it’s time to consider how people will access these shops. The Sims 4, for the first time, allows you to create holes in the ground and I think we can make a nice entrance to our building using that feature. What you to is that you delete the ceiling. First you select the room whose ceiling will be removed.

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While the room is still selected, go to the floor above it. There will be a yellow outline. When you position the mouse on that outline, an option will appear: REMOVE CEILING.

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Click on it. A hole will be opened in the ground.

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Let’s add stairs.

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Maybe add some detail around the entrance, so it looks more polished.

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Pockets Of Light

The sims can now go in and out and enjoy the shops. Nevertheless, underground constructions can feel somewhat dark and claustrophobic and I suppose we would want our sims to have a better experience than that, when visiting. I think a great solution would be creating pockets of light. They are holes in the ground that allow windows placed underground to receive natural light. They really open up the space!

So, let’s use the Custom Room Tool and create a pocket of light right outside our clothing shop.

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Select it.

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Go above ground and place your mouse on the yellow outline. The REMOVE CEILING option will appear. Click on it.

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Now let’s add some windows.

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For this next shot, I removed all artificial lighting, so you can see natural light does come through.

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I think now we should turn the hole in the ground into a garden, so it’s more pleasing to the eye. I used the grass floor title and a stone wall paint. I added plants and a few lights, so it will also look appealing during night time.

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Let’s add one pocket of light to the bakery, too.

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This is what it looks like from above the ground.

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What about we use the same stone fencing we used on the entrance to finish it and add a few trees nearby? It will blend better and seem less dangerous.

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Some Suggestions Of Where You Can Use These Ideas

You might wonder why build underground in the first place. Well, perhaps you want a somewhat secret facility, like a Science Lab. Or a hidden Prohibition Bar! Or, more practically, you want to add shops to a residential neighbourhood without them standing out too much from the homes around it. You can do that by building a park above ground.

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Now you have your modern, sleek shops, but, to the outside world, it’s mostly a quaint park!

You can go into the opposite direction and have the underground shops be a part of a huge, cutting edge complex.

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You can even download the complex. I made it available in the Gallery. It’s called Health & Retail Centre and my ID is kaichen04. The download link: Health & Retail Centre.

It’s Your Turn Now!

I am eager to see what you all come up with, using these tips. When you finish your creations, please post them at The Sims Community Social My Gallery forum section. I cannot wait to see them!

About the author

Kai Chen

I am from Macapá, a city by the beautiful Amazon river in the north of Brazil. I have enjoyed The Sims since 2001, when The Sims 1 caught my attention on the shelf, when I was around 18 and had gotten my first paycheck!

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