Modding school - from the raw model to the complete package

[Rayden 7]

I disagree when you say you don't deserve that much credit, because you really do. jasoncw might deserve the credit for the idea, but he isdoing the bat one, you're doing this one, so, you deserve all the credit for this one. I'll make David's words mine as well. Great work and thanks for you time. I'm ready as well for the next lesson.

[tchaos713 5]

I am also ready for the next lesson. And you do deserve a lot of praise for your work on this site...

[moganite 4]

Twrecks we are all standing on the shoulders of geniuses. if i can learn from a great then hopefuly I will be able to do great things too. You are handing down not just your experince but their experiences and tools to the next generation hopefully one of us will do the same. I have a bad concsince as I still haven't done the assignment yet as RL just bowled me a bouncer.

The reason you deserve the credit is you are teaching all comers the art of modding

[moganite 4]

Done now for the next lesson

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Oh, good timing. I wanted to ahve it done by yesterday, but I only reached ~80% completion, so I hope I'll get chapter 3 finished today...

This will be an entirely non-theoretical chapter; it covers the actual basic modding process (landmark, growable, plop with jobs) as well as the strategy of making a test lot and copying lot designs between lots, plus three appendixes containing some help with hexadecimals, a note on more or less suitable situations for the lot design copying technique, and some hints for the Lot Editor. It's pretty long and already features more than 30 screenshots, still counting.

[Skyfire2275 23]

Yeah! Although I think I figured a lot of it out for myself on the Shun Hing Square project... Let's see if I did it right... or did it the best way, and not just some long cruddy time consuming way... I look forward to reading this one!

[T Wrecks 10,210]

I'm currently proof-reading and tweaking the chapter, and some of the appendix texts are still missing. I'm afraid I won't quite make it today.

@ skyfire: At least you will get to know some things you might not have known yet, and this might enable you to do stuff a different way or to understand some contexts a tad better than before - at least that's what I hope.

[jplumbley 5]

Yay!!!! How many more chapters do you expect there to be?

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Let me think... I'm not sure yet how to distribute the stuff that's left to explain over chapters... topics still to be discussed are:

Getting an icon for ploppable stuff, importing the icon, making a description and adjusting landmark query sound with LEProp,

Making a building overhang a lot,

Putting two or more buildings onto a lot, modding a building as prop,

Basic transit-enabling with SC4Tool,

An advanced merging method for growable lots

and possibly some more advanced transit-enabling stuff and/or at least basic notes about modding civic stuff and/or transportation lots.

All in all, there shouldn't be more than 6 or maybe 7 chapters. The current chapter should be the longest by far.

[Rayden 7]

I'm looking forward for all those chapters. If all goes well, that would be nice if I could do something on my own when my holidays start in January I'm sure I will

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Ok, I have just sent PMs to all 24 participants. That was a lot of text this time, not to mention the 48 screenshots.

I think I'm gonna spend the rest of the evening with something brainless and relaxing.

[Rayden 7]

Wow, that was a lot of work. You really deserve a big rest. I've just printed it out, on landscape paging, 60 pages.

Thx for all the effort put into.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Whaaaat, 60 pages? I had no idea I was writing a novel when I was at it... Then again, the material is probably too dry and boring to be a good novel.

[moganite 4]

Any how thankyou this will be very useful and it will take me about 3-4 weeks to digest it thoughly and experiment.

i have already applied what i have learnt in my recent uploads to the STEX.

You need and deserve a rest twrecks, the article would make a great tutorial to go onto the omnibus.

[jplumbley 5]

I have been playing around and finally after about 3 tries got my first lot to build in SC4... It took some time but it built and I am happy for that. It also had some custom stats for it. I had a problem though with the a few of the base and overlay textures. I had 2 Overlay textures for parking lots and 2 Base textures that were just grass, then I had a couple of the BSC Overlay path textures and the BSC brick Base textures with them. The BSC textures worked fine in game but the Parking lots and the grass textures didnt show and seemed to default to something else if pictures are needed I can provide them later. I attempted replace the parking lot textures with 2 different ones, it defaulted to the same texture once again. Any ideas?

I also used some props of cars and trees with the particular textures, all 6 cars worked fine, but the trees (CP - Junipers) didnt show, there were 3 of these.

Thanks, chapter 3 is great.

Edit:  I have done a few more lots for playing with...  They have been working fine and I am having fun revamping my plugin folder with my own lots and stats.  One problem I have just occurred though.  I am looking at Deadwoods - Servo Stations, I am not quite sure how to make new descriptors for it as the models are not included, as they are a prop pack.  How was this done?  And how might I go about making a new descriptor with my own stats so I can make my own lots?

JPlumbley

[jplumbley 5]

Hey Twrecks...

Wondering if we are gonna get a look at chapter 4? Its been a while without any word. Are we scrapping this maybe? If so i wouldnt mind knowing. Not trying to push you or anything.

JPlumbley

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Nah, we're not scrapping this. I'm just terribly busy with other stuff, and I had actually expected to see some results posted here in the shape of pictures, according to the assignment at the end of chapter 3.

Meanwhile, I was contacted by 2 more people who'd like to join, so there will be a chapter 4, definitely. We aren't missing that much anyway.

[moganite 4]

Well I have been busy with production for NHP BATing, loting, modding and a bit of mapping. I have achieved a rather unusual mod though it is not part of the assingment and modded a set of airports. I think it wont take me long to get a growable made.

[jplumbley 5]

Sorry Twrecks... I have no pictures as I dont have alot of time while in school right now but I did read Chapter 3...

[bat 6]

I will try to post some pictures tomorrow next weekend.

(I'm currently at the beginning of part 3 of chapter 3)

bat

[Katharina 0]

I sure wish I could have joined this. . . are the lessons still available anywhere?