On Modd-Ability

[Penguino 0]

Well, after reading the news ticker of SCS, and remembering how great the silly reports were in SC4, I got thinking; Why not just add new comments to the ticker?

Sure enough, it's EASILY possible. In fact the game ITSELF is very moddable. And very open-ended.

So, are there any requests as to new ticker items? I'll add a bunch and release it on the exchange, if there's a demand.

[City Planner 121]

The thing that is missing in SCS THE MOST to me, would be the creation of new buildings.  Sure they can be repainted but that really doesn't change them enough to make a city feel different.  The game would best to be called something like SimNeighborhood: Societies.  Simply put the game looks very nice in screenshots of neighborhoods, but city wide it's severely lacking.

With out a tool provided by TM that is somewhat easy to use for those that want to use it, the game is definitely Not "very moddable", it is only "somewhat moddable".

Anyway, to your request, why not put in any tickers that you found in SC4.  Maybe that will bring it closer to peoples hearts, or perhaps it might have the opposite effect and people will be outraged about it.  Only one way to find out I guess, gotta do it.

[Penguino 0]

I don't see wy new buildings shouldn't be possible. Surley something like 3dsmax could open the model files, right?

[City Planner 121]

No, people have tried opening them with 3dsMax to no avail.  They do however appear to be 3dsmax 9 files as it's in the files header when viewing them in a text editor which probably means that we need a plugin of sorts for 3dsmax to be able to import/export the buildings.

But if TM wants to go all out then they need to create a plugin for gmax or any of the other "free" 3d modeling software packages out there as only the elite can afford 3dsmax with it's couple thousands of dollars price tag.

They say they are looking into it, but that was close to a month or more ago that they said that and they have been strangely silent since on the subject which leads me to believe that they will not be producing that program or plugin unless there is enough push from the community which unfortunately SCS doesn't appear to have a very vocal modding community like SC4 does.

Even FSX (Flight Simulator 10) can be creating new models with their free SDK and gmax. But TM has not given near enough thought to actually modding new buildings into the game when they say that it's moddable to the n'th degree, that sort of leaves out creating new bulding models.  Like maybe I say already, repaints are nice and all but I can only tolerate so many of the same diner looking building in a city regardless of what color it happens to be.

The game has very odd looking buildings to begin with, very few are realistic looking, we need more common styles of homes such as the American Ranch home, or the simple stucco home, or a plain jane stucco apartment building, needs more supermarkets, and retail shops, and walmarts and sun tanning salons etc.  The game ships supposed with like 500 buildings but very few of those buildings even look remotely like their real life counterpart they are all exaterated too much.  The bank is one of the worst offenders, with it's stately columns, and we need more average square or rectangle banks like what is seen in the real world.