Game guide:Creating a diving area

This is a tutorial of how to create a diving area in The Sims 3: Island Paradise. Scuba diving is one of the main features in Island Paradise, and diving areas are one of the main attractions that are exclusive to Isla Paradiso. With this tutorial, it's possible to create custom diving areas in any other towns (with some exceptions), so that scuba diving isn't restricted to only Isla Paradiso.

Please note that this tutorial requires an advanced understanding about creating a lot.

Preparation and notes
The following three cheats are normally required to create a diving area, so don't forget to enable them first.
 *   to allow  cheat, as well as to enable Ctrl + Shift + Click debug options in Buy mode.
 *   to unlock the diving area lot assignment.
 *   to unlock objects in Buy debug section.

Note that several worlds may not work by doing this method! This is due to the fact that the water body in the world is either too shallow or not considered as ocean. Worlds with deep enough ocean will work just fine.

Oceans that are deep enough for diving areas:
 * Isla Paradiso
 * Sunset Valley
 * Lucky Palms
 * Sunlit Tides

Oceans that may not be deep enough for diving areas:


 * Shang Simla
 * Champs Les Sims
 * Al Simhara
 * Bridgeport
 * Appaloosa Plains
 * Starlight Shores


 * Moonlight Falls
 * Riverview
 * Sims University
 * Barnacle Bay
 * Hidden Springs


 * Monte Vista
 * Aurora Skies
 * Dragon Valley
 * Midnight Hollow
 * Roaring Heights

Bodies of water that are not considered as ocean:
 * Twinbrook
 * Lunar Lakes
 * Oasis Landing

Creating a new diving area

 * Go to the Edit Town mode, and place an empty lot in the middle of the ocean, preferably the largest (64 x 64). The terrain will be raised to the surface, but don't worry about this.


 * Done! The basics of how to create a diving area ends here.

Saving and placing an existing diving area
It's possible to save existing diving areas, such as the ones in Isla Paradiso, and place them to a different world.


 * Go to the Edit Town mode, and click a diving area. The diving areas in Isla Paradiso are all locked, so it needs  to unlock and enables the players to save them to the lot bin. It will appear as blue-boxed lot in the bin.


 * Place an empty underwater lot. Then, place the diving area from the lot bin to the empty lot with sufficient size.


 * A common issue is that when a diving area is placed from the lot bin, the lot might appear messy as pictured above. This is just a graphical bug, and it will be fixed when the world is re-entered.

Setting required scuba diving level
Enter the Buy mode on the diving area, and place a buoy if it's not there yet. Hold Ctrl + Shift keys and click on the buoy. It will bring up several options. Choose "Set Required Diving Level" to set the required level for Sims in order to scuba dive in that lot. Sims with insufficient skill level are unable to dive there.

Setting up treasure chests
There are two types of Island Paradise treasure chests. One is for land, and the other is for underwater. These treasure chests are separate from World Adventures treasure chests, and will not have any functions that can be used to trigger tomb puzzles.

Place the treasure chest, hold Ctrl + Shift keys and click on the chest. The players can assign what treasures are on the chest. There are only 10 preset treasure rewards for both chests, unlike World Adventures chests which may be randomized. The players can also set the required Scuba Diving skill level for a little challenge for Sims.