This is a thread for research into beach lots. Now that we've found the flag which controls whether a lot is considered a beach lot or not (see the LotAdjuster thread), the next question is: which functionality does that flag provide and what needs to be done to make a fully functioning beach lot?

Please note that I don't have any answers. This is a research thread. Once we've gathered enough research, we can create a tutorial thread for turning your normal lots into a beach lot, or for converting your beach lot into a normal lot. This may even turn out to be a good way to share beach lots, which are notorious for crashing if they don't like the neighborhood terrain.

The beach lot flag may only control the "anchors" on the lot, i.e. whether it requires a portion of the lot to be underwater. Normal lots are usually just anchored to a road at the front of the lot; beach lots have two anchors: the road at the front and the water at the back.

If I remember correctly, the average beach lot is 6 (neighborhood-sized) tiles deep:
- 1 tile for the road.
- 3 tiles of buildable space.
- 1 tile of beach activities.
- 1 tile of water.

When changing a normal lot to a beach lot, it probably makes sense to:
- Place your (3 or 4 tile deep) lot next to a beach area in your neighborhood.
- Use the LotAdjuster to expand your lot at the back, so that it expands into the water, and change it to a beach lot at the same time. Be sure to set lot edges to neighborhood.
This method makes sense because beach lots are particularly sensitive to differences in elevation. By creating the beach in the spot where you want it, you are decreasing the likelihood that your lot will crash because of a mismatch in elevation between the lot terrain and the neighborhood terrain.

When changing a beach lot back to a normal lot, you might want to reverse the process:
- Use Inge's Portal Revealer to remove the beach and wave portals.
- Use the LotAdjuster to shrink your lot at the back and change it to a normal lot at the same time. You might want to set lot edges to flatten at the same time.
This method will ensure that your new lot will not cause terrain changes when you move it away from the beach.

I do not believe that setting this flag will actually give you a fully functioning beach lot. If it doesn't, you may be able to get most of that functionality using mods. Here's a quick list of the things that I can think of. Let me know if we need to add anything:
- Beach portals so that sims can swim. Are they generated automatically? If not, Inge Jones has buyable beach portals.
- Waves. If they aren't generated automatically, I believe that Inge has those too (same thread).
- Sandcastles.
- Sunbathing.
- Beach and water terrain paints.

I've made a quick test:

Proccess:
1) I've placed a 1x3 lot near water
2) Expanded it using LA (new size) 5x3 (excluding road tiles)


Results:

• All beach activities are unlocked, including the "Get in" interaction [read below]

• The beach lacks ground cover (should be placed manually)

• "Get in" interaction is unlocked, but the sim just walks until one gets into the water.

• Portals are not generated automatically

Notes:
Probably the beach and wave portals should be placed manually, but I have the hunch that Inge's beach portals doesn't work...! The wave portals don't exist either, however this doesn't prevent Sims from "Watching Waves". Even though there are no beach portals the game can recognise the water in the lot.

Great information.

I'm curious why you say this. As far as I know, all that Inge did was to make the existing EA beach portals visible and movable on a lot.

I don't know, it may just be me who doesn't know how to use these specific portals [Inge's version]. My memory says that I had exactly the same problem when we were having some tests (long long ago if you remember).

This research is very interesting!
Do you still continue to test?

EDIT: This is my small contribution:

I've used Inge's Portal Revealer and I deleted all portals beach and wave effects, I elevate the terrain, can not build and the only options that appear are: get in / sunbathe.
here is a picture: http://i.imgur.com/l96NWpV.jpg

Also I used Inge's Portal Revealer in the sims castaway stories, shows no beach portal. The terrain is unlocked for the construction.
here is a picture: http://i.imgur.com/XwqrG7N.jpg

( apologize for my English )

Is this a standard beach lot, or a beach lot which has had the "beach" flag cleared using the LotAdjuster?

Castaway Stories uses a completely different portal system, and is not relevant for this thread. The Portal Revealer only reveals specific known Sims 2 portals, not portals in general.

Is a standard beach lot.
What I mean is that elevate the submerged terrain, you can not walk on it, the game still considering water.

About castaway, I mention it because the submerged terrain is not blocked for construction, plus the beach portal does not use for depth for swimming.
The beaches of castaway are beautiful, may be crazy, but if we make the beach portals castaways buyable and functional for TS2, not necessary depth into the ground.

Anyway, I'm just a newbie, but am very interested in this research. I can also do all kinds of tests.