Terraform Advice - Two-story house with dungeon

[Elicea Igaly]

I'm reaching out because this is my first terraform effort and new to being an estate manager. I have a large house 2-story house with a basement/dungeon, rezzed on flat land--a full homestead to which I have estate manager rights.  I want the house to be raised on top of a flat hill so that you have to walk up about eight stairs to the front and back entrances.  A snap of the rear view house from three years ago is attached.  It somewhat shows the effect I want to achieve.  Someone else did the terraform.  I no longer have that helper and I'm reading to learn.  Today, without terraforming and the house raised a bit, the dungeon is  75% accessible.  The remaining 25% is in the water.  The water height of the estate is 20.00, the terrain raise limit is 100.00, terrain lower limit is -100.00.  What is the best way to approach this, please?  

Edited November 12, 2019 by Elicea Igaly
I forgot to add "rights" after "estate manager".

[Lindal Kidd]

1. Set the height of the basement floor above the height of the water.
2. Terraform around the outside of the house to raise the ground to the base of the first floor.
3. Go inside the house and start lowering the land, "digging out" the basement dungeon.

NOTE:  You may need to tweak things back and forth a few times.  Land cannot be terraformed so as to produce a completely vertical face, so you'll need to compromise.  It may be necessary to put prim walkways or some such items around the house to hide an unsightly excavated area.

[Mollymews]

a simple approach is:

1) subdivide/cut a large rectangle parcel on which the house and stairs will fit

2) raise this parcel up and flatten it

3) then subdivide the raised parcel, by cutting another parcel inside it, with a 8 meter border. Inner parcel + outer parcel border

4) lower the inner parcel down to the water level

5) stick your house on the inner parcel, dungeon in the hole, house on top

6) then lower the outer border parcel  down to house floor level

7) fill the gaps around the house between it and the outer border parcel with prims (apply grass texture to the prims similar to the region terrain texture)

8  ) from here you can shape the outer border parcel terrain to smooth better with the rest of the region

9) shaping the outer border parcel terrain also as you rez/mount the stairs, balustrades, etc

when all done then join the parcels back together

the reason for parceling is so that when we make a mistake it only applies to the subdivide parcel and not to the whole region

 

[Lindal Kidd]

That's a neat approach, Molly.  You could do the same thing without subdividing the land by setting the land tool size and being careful not to move it.

[Elicea Igaly]

Thank you both, Lindal ♥ and Mollymews ♥   

What Lindal described reminds me of what I saw when the kind helper set the house three years ago.  I remember going to the basement while the helper was outside to make sure all the land was cleared from all the little corners of the dungeon :)  ;  and the first part of Mollymews, step 9 sounds familiar.  I don't think, but I don't really know if my helper subdivided the parcels. 

Mollymews,  the subdividing sounds a daunting but I understand.  I'll read it a few times and let it sink in before try :)  One thought, on step 5, the dungeon is not separate from house.  it's all on the same rezz box.... 

One other thought: Do estate rights allow me to lower the water?  Is that possible?  If yes, is that a smart thing to do?  There's also a small lake on the homestead and a beach front.....  

[Mollymews]

Elicea, subdividing into parcels is more a safety thing for when we are new to terraforming.  As sometimes when we touch the terrain using the terrain tools we can sometimes inadvertently select the whole region, press Flatten and the whole region gets flattened when is all one parcel, destroying all our previous work

going off what you mention about watching your friend do it before.  Being experienced they probably set the building on the terrain. then raised up the terrain around the outside of the building to match the floor level of the house then went inside the dungeon and lowered/smoothed any terrain poking thru the walls

so you can do the same:  Use the rezzer to rez the building as is, then go round the outside raising up the terrain, smoothing as you go.  Then go inside and lower/smooth any terrain poking thru the walls

 

[Lindal Kidd]

You might be able to lower the water, but I don't recommend that.  For one thing, it can make the region edges look funny if there are any adjacent regions.  You have the ability to move the land level a HUGE amount...just stick to that.  Standard sea level in SL is, I believe, 20m.

[Elicea Igaly]

PERFECT LADIES!   Many, many thanks, sincerely.  I'll be reading all this again to digest it this weekend, then take a big deep breath and start--using low strength movements--grins and giggles.  

Lindal, thanks for the insight on lowering the water.  Not prudent. Not smart to do.  Got it! 👺

Mollymew, thanks for the additional procedural tips insight.  I'm feeling more comfortable and courageous.  

I'll check back with both of you here soon--most likely late Sunday--if I've made an attempt and encounter a situation where I think I should stop before moving forward  😼 and/or I get the job done.  Of course, if that's the case, I'll post a snap here!

Love you both madly.  Thanks for being here.  

Ciao-Ciao for now \(*_*)/

 

[Elicea Igaly]

Well, Ladies.  The dungeon is clear and the house is locked in place.  It's Friday, 9:45 p.m. SLT (Saturday, 12:44 a.m. U.S. EST.) after at least 4 hours...LOL!  It was not a perfect installation.  I practiced first on the Here Sim Torley where Torley has a Terraform Box set-up and got enough courage to try on the homestead.  I did not use the subdivide feature.  I was not sure what it was going to do--based on the different messages I got.  I'm not on flat undeveloped land.  Sometimes it said I had the entire region selected.  I'm not sure how I did that.  Another time, it had a different message, so I lowered the house below the land surface but above the water.  After about an hour, I de-rezzed the house  re-rezzed it, and started over.  I also tried to re-create the land arrangement in the original site with the elevated steps.  That did not happen. LOL! After that I ended up using the revert tool All Other The Place.  LOL!   Even places in the front of the house where I was NOT editing terrain.  LOL!  So I understand the benefit of using subdivide process; AND I learned a lot about using the tools even though I did not master them by any means (smiles).  I believe mastery of the tools clearly requires a "nebulous and gentle" touch and an exquisite eye for form and shape.  I ended up dropping the house down as far as I could and removing land from inside the basement and one very small spot in the first floor.  As you can see from the attached photo,  I won't need the stairs. 

I'm very pleased that I tried; but I'll be relieved whenever I come across a professional.  It was a great experience for me.  I'd do it again in a heartbeat but I'd also pay a pro's fee in a heartbeat too...LOL!.  I've saved your tips.  Thanks for being here.  

Happy Holidays.  All the Best to you and yours \(*_*)/

[Elicea Igaly]

P.S.  Over the next couple of seasons, I'll still try to even out some nooks and cranny spaces around the perimeter of the house and place a few shrubs and/or wildflowers around the it.  The homestead is winter now, but it has a HUD-driven four-season changer too.  Many thanks....

Edited November 16, 2019 by Elicea Igaly
corrected spelling of the word shrubs

[Elicea Igaly]

P.S.S.  You can't see it in the picture, but my fundamental hesitancy in using the Subdivide feature is because the lot for the house sits between two lakes.  

[Lindal Kidd]

Good for you, Elicea!

There are two ways to use the land tools.

You can use them as a "brush".  Use the area and strength sliders to change the size of your "brush" and how strong the effect will be.  Then choose your tool...raise, lower, etc.  Place your cursor on the land, and it changes to a square of vertically aligned arrows.  You can just click on the land, and the area under these arrows is affected.  You can drag the patch of arrows, holding down the mouse button, and it will act like a paintbrush, but raising or lowering the land as you pass it over the ground.

You can also first use the Select button.  Drag your mouse cursor over the land to drag out a selection rectangle.  It becomes highlighted with a yellow border.  Now, click another land tool like raise or lower.  Set the strength with the slider.  When you click your mouse cursor inside the selected rectangle, all the land inside the selected area is affected at once.

The technique of first subdividing the land works a bit like this second method, but it's even safer, since no matter which of the above methods you use, the effect is limited to the parcel of land you're working in.

If you have further terraforming to do, give me a call in world.  I am always happy to go mess up someone else's land!

[Elicea Igaly]

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH LINDAL ♥  for the HUGE Technique Tip! 

I knew nothing about a "brush" and the step-by-step for using it and the "selection rectangle" are now duly recorded in my new composition notebook for "SL Tech". (grins)   I had tried to use the rectangle but I was hung up  on trying to get the right touch to make it bigger.  HA HA HA!  I was slightly successful, but I had NO IDEA how to tell myself to do it again.  LOL! 

I will look you up in SL if I need help messing up land...HA HA HA!  

Best always,

"E"