We’ll be rowing boats before driving cars in this game, I guess.
We can all agree that the Sims 4 has a controversial *transportation* problem. Even if we got jet skis and canoes from Island Living, bicycles from Discover University, and even horses from the Horse Ranch pack, we still. WANT. CARS.
But we don’t talk about boats much, do we? Similar with cars, they’re still a decorative object in the debug menu. Until today! With this nifty build hack, you can make your own functional boats without the help of mods or CC.
Before anything, ensure that bb.moveobjects is on.
Table of Contents
Step 1: Laying out the foundation
Start off by making a sizable pond in your lot with terrain tools. Check out this tutorial to learn how.Build a room near the pond and add a 2nd floor on top of it. Delete the room below and the walls of the 2nd floor. Don’t forget to remove its ceiling too!
Adjust the height of the room on the 2nd floor to be closer to the ground by using the white foundation slider in the middle. Then move it it towards the pond by using the room arrow sliders one by one. Once it’s hovering above the pond, lower it down again with the white foundation slider until it’s at the water level.
To blend this floor with the pond, change the flooring to wood or to any brown tile. Also, add this inlaid exterior trim around it.
Step 2: Terrain manipulation
Now comes the part to make this boat functional – terrain tools! Toggle the yellow grid view by clicking ‘G’ to guide you in the next steps.
Choose ‘Flatten to Height’ and level out the surrounding land to the normal terrain height. Then, click Ctrl+[ four times to lower the terrain height setting. Click on the area surrounding the room that you placed to flatten it at the set height. After that, add stairs connecting the room to the lowered terrain.
Next is to smoothen the terrain to connect the lowered terrain to the normal height terrain. This will make a path that your Sims can access.
Step 3: Add the functional boats shell
To get the boat, type Ctrl+Shift+C to open the cheats bar. Type in ‘testingcheats on’ first. Then, enter bb.showhiddenobjects and bb.showliveeditobjects consecutively. To close the cheat bar, click Ctrl+Shift+C again.
In the search bar, search for ‘**DEBUG**’ and filter for Base Game. Look for this boat item.
Place the boat on the floor below and NOT on the same level with the 2nd room floor. Click Ctrl+9 to elevate it until it reaches the floor above.
Add any bench (preferably with a brown wooden swatch) on the 2nd floor. Size it down to its smallest size using the ‘]’ key and hold down Alt to place it just right by the boat seat. Make sure to leave a small part of the seat visible so you can click on it during gameplay.
Try to play test it and it should work like a charm!
Lastly, decorate the pond. Paint the terrain with a muddy brown swatch. Add natural foliage around the boat. You can also cover the stairs with a plant to make it less obvious.
Add pond animals especially fireflies to set the mood. If you own My Wedding Stories and City Living, add these gorgeous pond lights to make it even more whimsical.
And there you have it! A boat that your Sims can sit and nap on by the lake.
Video Tutorial
Here’s a quick tutorial to make basic functional boats:
Bonus Step: More activities in The Sims 4 functional boats!
Feel like sitting and pretending to row your boat is too basic? Try adding a telescope from Base Game or Werewolves and you can spend the evening stargazing in the lake.
Or add an easel to paint a landscape of your surroundings!
You can even add a picnic table in the functional boats! Include a picnic basket from Cottage Living too.
To blend in the table, search for ‘Wooden Plank Decorative’ from the debug menu. Go down 1 floor and elevate it using Ctrl+9 until it reaches the table height. Line them up by holding Alt to place four planks side by side.
Next, size down the picnic table with ‘[‘. Go down 1 floor again and use a wooden object to cover the table. Here we’re using a stool from debug, pretending that it’s a stem which supports the wooden planks.
Extend the floor to make the other side of the table accessible. Do this by adding a 3×1 platform beside the room. DON’T use the room sliders because it will move the other objects you just placed!
Go down 1 floor again and cover the extended floor with moss or lilies.
And that should do it! Have your Sims eat a romantic dinner or family brunch in the lake.
Video Tutorial
For the additional steps to make functional boats in The Sims 4, I have a YouTube Short that explains the building process in under just one minute!
What will you build?
Show us your functional boats that you’ve made in The Sims 4 in the comments down below! Yes, you can add images too 💜
