Nofunk's BAT Thread

[harishna 847]

While you are into tweaking textures and materials I would probably look at the black base it has a smokey feeling to it, I'll think something more homogeneous would benefit the overall look of the base.

You can always intrude the shops a bit to give the appearance of depth (the interiors not the glass).

[tcx 170]

I think is perfect. not usually my style of builging but I'll download it.

[nofunk 1,933]

Oh my gosh! The Trixies have finally started! I'd better get cracking on Carew Tower, huh?

I have been working on it, but it's been slower going than I expected. In any event, I hate to keep teasing you all, but here's a little something to look forward to...

Hope everyone is doing well!

[Francis90b 748]

The floodlights...the damn floodlights...
  Edited January 21, 2012 by Francis90b  

[Jazzmaster 716]

Heh, it almost looks like something out of NYC...well done my friend.

[Jack_wilds 550]

I have already 'called' it my 'most anticipated',

BUT I am having issues with the trixies and i wish I could redo what I have done as I made a couple errors... for one it says I already nominated you but what/ where... and then I wanted a couple of other but I was prevented as one was individual and the other was a team effort same guy...

where to find help I would just like a redo...

ANYwho I trust all is well with you and I am anticipating a good send-off for the Carew-complex its looking real good

[art128 4,618]

Now, these are some nice lightings!

[Vlasky 1,803]

:O

looks AMAZING! show more show more you big tease

[Andrey km 304]

Great job. I want to download it!! :thumb:

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

WOW!! I like it.

[Kendiecasttsoi 209]

teasing is not a crime, especially when you will eventually finish the project and release it to the STEX, even if it is a few year's of waiting time

[Kendiecasttsoi 209]

Sorry for overcrowding but I simply have to share my fantasies and my hear t attacks with y'all:

If people want to see most of the bats seeing the light of day, then stop giving perfectionist feedback.

Unless the uploader is intending to be a perfectionist like Simfox, then you know we don't need to lobby for changes.

I think there is room for minor problems when it comes to a massive bat, so relax and enjoy releasing your work to the STEX, even if it is not up to aspired level of quality.

[_marsh_ 1,117]

Sorry for overcrowding but I simply have to share my fantasies and my hear t attacks with y'all:

If people want to see most of the bats seeing the light of day, then stop giving perfectionist feedback.

Unless the uploader is intending to be a perfectionist like Simfox, then you know we don't need to lobby for changes.

I think there is room for minor problems when it comes to a massive bat, so relax and enjoy releasing your work to the STEX, even if it is not up to aspired level of quality.

Some people don't just upload their work to the site for sim city. Some use their work in their portfolio for future jobs whether it's pertaining to architecture or even video game design. If there's a flaw, why not fix it. It will make you stand out so much more than someone else.

Nofunk: Amazing work. I just admire these buildings so much. Not just the detail and modeling work, but the architecture you decided to make.

,marsh

[harishna 847]

Kendiecasttsoi: I Know your intention is good but I couldn't disagree more with you. Stop giving perfectionist feedback, well why don't we stop giving feedback at all then? you would have more buildings released if that is what you want but the quality well you don't seem to care to much. The "perfectionist" feedback as you called is usually intended to give the BATer perspective to help him see things that he may missed or advice on how to improve things. Without this many BAters wouldn't have had improved their creations including for example Aaron whose work you praise so much (and with good reason). At the end Kendiecattsoi these are only suggestions and more importantly the BATer decides if he follows and advice or not.

Nofunk: The lighting looks really good!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

If people want to see most of the bats seeing the light of day, then stop giving perfectionist feedback.

Unless the uploader is intending to be a perfectionist like Simfox, then you know we don't need to lobby for changes.

I think there is room for minor problems when it comes to a massive bat, so relax and enjoy releasing your work to the STEX, even if it is not up to aspired level of quality.

This is an unacceptable way to look at things in a community that helps people to grow and be the best they can be. I wouldn't be where I am, and many others may not have started if we all thought like this.

The whole BATing community is built upon constructive criticism, and there is never anything wrong with giving it. Please don't ever give this kind of progress stifling advice ever again, it gives people the wrong idea entirely. If Nolan wasn't a grizzled veteran, he might actually listen to you. Imagine a new BATer stopping half way to a good product because he took your advice to ignore issues! Problems are problems, and as long as the creator is willing to fix them they should be dealt with. Everyone should aim for a perfect upload, otherwise why bother at all?

You get a rage face:

/rant

Lookin' Good!

[nofunk 1,933]

Haha I like the idea that I'm a grizzled veteran. Grizzled...

I think that feedback and constructive criticism are vitally important to the BATing process and it helps BATers to grow and improve on their abilities. I think this is especially important for newer BATers. As long as the criticism is substantive, and given in a respectful manner, it's in the best interest of the recipient to at least consider the advice being given.

I for one welcome ALL feedback and criticism, and many times it has made the difference between me releasing something that I'm just OK with, and releasing a better product that I'm truly proud of. When I'm working on a BAT, I tend to get really anxious towards the end to just finish everything up and release it, and the people who follow my thread always do a good job of putting my eagerness in check long enough to make real, tangible improvements to my BATs before releasing them. I'm sure that I wouldn't be as happy with my finished products if it weren't for the process of feedback and discussion I receive in this thread.

That said, I don't always take all the advice people give me. And that's part of the balance too.

[Andrey km 304]

I want these two buildings

Nofunk: Beautiful work as always!

[Jazzmaster 716]

As a professional or 'grizzled veteran' one must always understand how to stand on their own two feet. They must make their decisions independently with their own knowledge and experience, but they should never shut away the advice that others are giving them. Sometimes we always want to do things on our own, but we always need to consider the other stakeholders in our decisions. If we want to share our artwork in a community like this, we must always take into account how the art will be perceived by the community itself. No, we will not always please every single person...BUT we can do our absolute best work and just keep improving, and people will see this and pick up on it, and acknowledge it as well. This is simply how the world works.

[nofunk 1,933]

It's in the game!!!

  Edited January 23, 2012 by nofunk  

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

The badonkadonk is in game, the end must be nigh!

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

[Cockatoo 2,256]

Nofunk, that's just brilliant. Well done.

---

I'm really sorry to be interrupting even more into this thread, but I also want to give an opinion on the Kendiecasttsoi post.

Believe it or not, at some level I agree with what he's saying. Not the part about giving less crit, but the sentiment that too many good BATs go unfinished because of this idea of perfection.

Under no circumstances can a designer ever produce a perfect design. No matter how much dedication and time you put towards it, there will always be room for some further improvement. Much in the same way, there will never be a perfect BAT or a perfect upload, you'd be kidding yourself if you thought in any other way. No matter how much refinement you go through, how much nit-picking we do, how many revisions are done, there will always still be room to improve. Award winning architecture is not perfect. Even the Lippo Center BAT is not perfect. The idea of what perfection is can also differ greatly from person to person, especially with ‘creative’ things, making it even more of an impossibility. Jasoncw’s idea of what makes a perfect BAT could be totally different from Mattb325’s.

The key here is knowing when to say: enough is enough. I'm satisfied with what I've made and I feel that to the best of my ability, it's finished. That isn't an easy thing to do, but if we didn't do it, we'd all be modelling right down to the level of atoms. And even then we still wouldn't be satisfied.

At no point am I advocating that we stop giving each other constructive criticism, in fact I think we should be doing it more! Generally speaking, the more feedback anything can get, the better it will be. At the other end of the scale, people like me need all the constructive criticism they can get because they are sometimes too eager to finish things and if not pushed, may end up settling for second best.The point I'm trying to make is that it's up to the creator to read and understand this criticism, take it on board, make a decision and then act on it. If you feel the suggestion is excessive or unwarranted, you should choose ignore it.

Kendiecasttsoi’s correct in his observation that too many high quality works go unreleased. The author gets bogged down in their own doubts about their creation, working on it becomes less and less fun and eventually the author loses their motivation to finish it. Possibly hundreds of hours wasted without a thing to show for it.

In the real world, it doesn't work like that. You finish your project no matter how frustrated with it you are. And you finish it on time. Or you're fired.

For those of us who are using BATing to assist with the development of a professional portfolio, or most likely the other way round (as Marsh correctly pointed out), learning how to interpret constructive criticism, think for yourself and know when to say enough is enough are skills that are just as important as correct technique and a passion for what you're doing.

Tl;dr: You’ve gotta know when you’re finished. If you can’t do this, you’ll never be satisfied with what you make and more importantly, you’ll never be finished.

[gutterclub 2,729]

I agree with both sides to certain extents..Cockatoo makes an excellent point.

Now, the Carew..wow! Looks stunning in game sitting alongside a nice big avenue. Exception work my friend.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Excellent post by cockatoo, I just had to click +1 on that.

It's valid not only in terms of SimCity, either. You know, I'm currently piecing together a model kit, and even without any external scrutiny and critique, I sometimes have to force myself to let it be as it is and continue even though I'm only 80% satisfied because otherwise I'd never finish the darned thing at all. I generally find that those who produce quality work thend to be their hardest critic. This doesn't mean that they can't benefit from other people's input, because others may contribute a different perspective or a technique or approach the creator himself didn't see. However, as Nolan said, an experienced person must also be confident enough at some point to come to an end even if there are still objections.

A less experienced person might need more encouragement, but also more help in the form of critique. Generelly, those who are less careful tend to release too early, and those who are more careful sometimes tend to leave things 90% finished and never release at all. Sometimes it can be hard to find the balance that leads to the best result a creator can achieve with his current skills and tools.

I believe it's always good to strive for perfection, to aim for those 100%, but at the same time to learn to be content with 95%, because a 100% effeort, 95% result release is better than a 100% effort, 100% result unfinished BAT that just gets lost.

You can always go back to your own stuff, overhaul and improve - a release doesn't take this opportunity away from you. On the other hand, if you never release, nobody will ever have the opportunity to enjoy your stuff.

============

Back to topic: I think you really nailed the limestone this time! Every detail looks crisp, but not exaggerated and cartoonish. I can't wait to catch a glimpse at the entire building in all its glory. This is the biggest BAT you've ever made, isn't it?

[Mack The Finger 34]

Every new release is welcome! Good or bad. This is a ten year old game and it's amazing how well supported it still is.

Truth be told, minus games that have a certain 'cult' following, there are not many games this old that still have this kind of dedicated community attached to it. And we're lucky to have that because SC4 should have had a proper sequel years ago. It should have hade more expansions. But the community didn't 'make do' with SC4, the community didn't get 'stuck' with until the next one rolled around. It embraced it.

It continues to support and expand it. Where the transportation was lacking, the community completely overhauled it. Where the parks were uncreative, the community built hundreds of different flora and trees. And where the game was lacking buildings, the community made thousands upon thousands of new lots.

The community has always strived to expand this game for everyone who still cares about it, and really, the great batters here and elsewhere, didin't have to!

It has never been an obligation, it has always been by choice. And So I think every new release is a treat whether I use it or not, because someone will, and that continues to preserve the longevity of the game.

So, I guess my point is, take your damn time! This game isn't going anywhere, you have all proved that yourselves. This game will still be here when nofunk decides to finish this bat. And if he doesn't, well he still tried where he didn't have to. What more could you ask for?

[Jack_wilds 550]

...all I know is that I like what nofunk is making and anticipating a sooner than later stex release... high marks for a good work well done

[wolverine 12]

There it is!!

Lol I love how people call the back the badonkadonk...kind of makes me glad I said it way back. But she's beauty all around.

[nofunk 1,933]

Get ready...

[Jazzmaster 716]

Seven a.m., waking up in the morning

Gotta be fresh, gotta boot the PC

Gotta have my OS, gotta have my hard drive

Seein' everything, the time is goin'

Tickin' on and on, everybody's rushin'

Gotta log onto Simtropolis

Gotta check the STEX, I see an upload (an upload)

Lookin' at the Darknite

Lookin' at the Maxisnite

Gotta make my mind up

Which .zip can I take?

It's Sunday, Sunday

Gotta download on Sunday

Everybody's lookin' forward to the upload, upload

Sunday, Sunday

Gettin' downloaded on Sunday

Everybody's lookin' forward to the upload

...

Yesterday was Finch & Co., Finch & Co.

Today i-is Cadillac, Cadillac (Detroit)

We-we-we so excited

We so excited

We gonna play SimCity 4 today

Tomorrow is Carew

And Trixies comes after ... wards

I don't want these uploads to end

It might not be as clever as Badonkadonk, but I wanted to try my hand at spinning some lyrics.

  Edited January 29, 2012 by Yoshiisland  

[Fargo 542]