New Guides Sentiments are Free for All Players. You can also learn about the Snowy Escape Expansion and explore our pages on Climbing Mt. Komorebi, The new Lifestyles system, get Snowy Escape Cheats, and see the three new skills: Skiing, Rock Climbing, and Snowboarding. More Coming Soon!

New Patch!: Learn about the new Platform tool, which came with Sentiments and rental lot types in a free update.
Top 50 Mods: Top 50 Best Mods in The Sims 4. They are not ranked, but these are my favorites.

The Sims 4 Island Living

New Build/Buy Mode Options Like Stilts and Clear Floors

A house with stilt foundation is now possible for all players, but looks best out over the ocean.

Given the Island setting of Sulani, The Sims 4 Island Living naturally comes with a ton of new build mode items to complete that whole, "Tropical Paradise" look you might want. New stilt foundations are available to all players, and there's a new type of "floor" that can be used which is see-through. Here's a quick guide to using the new build mode features and dealing with problems that might come up.

Using Stilt Foundations (Free for All Players)

The Sims 4 Island Living: Where the foundation button is found

You can find the foundation button down at the bottom of the house diagram used to navigate build mode.

Rather than leave Stilt Foundations for beach houses locked behind a purchase of Island Living, the developers have given it to base game owners as a free treat. Taking advantage of this is not very difficult if you know where to look. Head to Build Mode (F3). There you'll find that the base of the house in the example picture bottom left of the interface has a click-able "Foundation" spot.

The Sims 4 Island Living: Separate rooms are required for separate foundations on your home build

Separate rooms, separate foundations. It's that easy.

Simply click the wooden stilt foundations and hover over your own foundation. A problem that might come up is if you are building the shape of your house but not rooms. Separate rooms can have different foundation types. It looks bad with all stilts, but..

The Sims 4 Island Living: A house with stilt foundations

A home with the new stilt foundations over the ocean and a separate solid foundation near land.

...If I separating the rooms, I now have an area with a regular foundation and a stilt foundation.

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Using Ocean Ladders

The Sims 4 Island Living: A ladder to help you get into the ocean to swim.

If you think placing ladders is annoying, wait until you've tried the boat. Ladders require a space of 3 blocks for the small one. I don't know what the big one does yet, if it does anything. It looks a bit more "professional" though.

A new, longer type of ladder is available if you own Island Living. These are much bigger, and because you're likely to use a fence on the deck, they can be somewhat hard to place. They're great as they give you the ability to do cannonballs or climb up them to get back up on your deck.

In the case of the smaller one, you can simply use the Sledgehammer Tool (K hotkey) to destroy enough fence once you've already placed them. An annoying thing about this is the fence tool will overwrite the ladder if you attempt to use it again, so it's better to figure out exactly how many fences need cleared for small (3) and large (5).

Glass or Clear Floors

The Sims 4 Island Living: Glass see through floors

Well, you can see through them... not sure why they are in misc decorations, but there they are.

We saw evidence of clear floors before the launch and couldn't find it initially in the build mode area with floor coverings. This is the wrong place to look. See-through floors are available in a 2x2 called Crystal Clear that is found in Decorations > Misc. It's better to just search the name as that clutter category is very cluttered.

Outrigger Boats

The Sims 4 Island Living: Buying an outrigger boat/canoe for your Sim

Outriggers/canoes/boats.. whatever you want to call them. They can go in your Sim's quite large pockets, yet they have to be placed in the perfect spot. Meanwhile, floating devices can sit on water just fine. I'm still salty.

About boats... well, docking them isn't really a thing. On many lots they can be an absolute bitch to place. One of the best things you can do is leave at least a 4x6 full blocks of space if you'll want one of these. It must also be in shallow water that doesn't have too steep a hill. Finicky, I tell ya... it's really annoying that way. Something that helped me was to rotate my camera. The game can't quite figure out what elevation it wants to place them at, so moving about a bit while you're struggling to buy the damned boat is highly recommended.

Other Island Living Guides

The Sims 4 Island Living Expansion Pack
Mermaids in Island Living New
Island Living Cheats
Features to Know About in The Sims 4 Island Living
Features in Island Living (Video Format) NEW
Conservationist Career Guide
Conservationist Video Guide
Cleaning Up The Island - How it Works and What's Best
Child of the Islands Trait New
Child of the Ocean Trait New
Using New Foundations, Clear Floors, and Other Build Mode Items

Other Building Guides

Sims 4 House Building
Building Cheats
Counters and Islands
Decorating Inside Homes
Decorating Outside/Landscaping
Island Living (Stilt Foundation, Glass Floors)
Roofs
Split Levels and Lofts
Stairs and Basements
Terrain Tools

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Comments (1)

New

Olasays...

Hey, those bigger ladders can be used to dock your boat. Get on the boat and then click on the ladder, you'll see "dock" or sth like that. I use Polish version of the game so I have different names for options.

Essentially your Sim will get the boat to your lot if it drifted somewhere else.

2nd April 2020 5:28pm

Sims 4 Snowy Escape

The Sims 4 Snowy Escape launches November 13, 2020 and my coverage has started. Until I get my review ready, you can learn about the following:

Snowy Escape Cheats
Lifestyles in Snowy Escape
Climb Mt. Komorebi
Sentiments in Snowy Escape
Rock Climbing
Skiing Skill
Snowboarding Skill

Sentiments & Platforms (Free Patch!)

I've released a guide to Sentiments in The Sims 4 & Snowy Escape.

There is a new platform tool in The Sims 4. There's also a new Sentiments system, but it'll take some time to create a guide to that. Players can also use rental lots in any world now by changing lot types of builds in manage worlds.

Best Mods in Sims 4

I've created a massive List of The Best Mods in The Sims 4 that should be very helpful to new players and those who have not yet explored modding and how much it can do for your gameplay.

Secrets and Other New Stuff

New - Secrets I have a new guide to secrets in the game. If you prefer, you can also watch a video about secrets in Sims 4.

Nifty Knitting is now available. Learn all about the stuff pack on my guide page here.

NEW - Nifty Knitting Cheats

New features in the Sims 4 June 2020
The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle Guide
Eco Footprint: How it Works
Neighborhood Action Plans
How to Cheat in Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle
Civil Designer Career
Insect Farms & Bio Fuel
Fabrication Skill in Eco Lifestyle
Juice Fizzing NEW
Traits and Aspirations in DLC
Gameplay Ideas for Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle

Updated
Trait Cheats Updated
Traits List Updated
Aspirations List Updated

Search my Sims 4 Site

Island Living

Support Us

Readers who use adblock or those who'd like to thank me for my efforts can now pledge $1/$5 monthly via Patreon. This helps a lot with server costs and provides some stability for my business.

Super Sim Checklist + Other News

Super Sim Text + Checklist and Video Guide! Here is my Super Sim Challenge Guide and Checklist to accompany my video guide to making Super Sims in The Sims 4 that you can view on Youtube.

This is inspired by a new series in which I start at toddler and gradually take on the major bonuses. Here's a link to the full playlist!

I now have a guide page to Tiny Living Stuff where you can learn about Murphy Beds, the new death, as well as the lot bonuses you'll receive if you manage to keep the size of your lot down with this new pack's Tiny Home Lot Type.

Let's Play Playlist

New I now have a guide to Making Super Sims in The Sims 4. Look for a text version within the next 72h. It won't have THAT much more info but it will help out as a checklist.

This was inspired by a series, "Let's Play a Super Sim" in which I start at toddler and gradually take on the major bonuses. Here's a link to each part for people who are interested. You can also see the Let's Play as a Playlist on Youtube.

Latest Videos and Guides

Discover University Expansion

The Sims 4 Discover University has been announced for November 15 for PC/Mac and December 17 for Xbox and Playstation 4 consoles. Click to learn more about the pack, see my summary of the livestream or read our FAQs below.