Twinkle, twinkle, little BAT...

[madhatter106 3,905]

timcravey - thanks for the comment; glad you appreciate the humor and the BATs!  I have been messing around with motel BATs, but haven't been able to get anything I like enough to show.  But I haven't given up yet, hopefully I'll have one done soon...

---

Taking a second while I am posting in my thread to give a slightly more long-winded "thank you" speech for the recent Trixie Awards.  I'm still a little stunned that I managed to wrack up eight nominations and two wins...

Being chosen as runner-up to Cockatoo-210893 for Most Improved BATter is a surprise and an honor - I don't feel like I've improved too much, but I'm guessing others did.  And Cockatoo should be commended for racking up a total of eight Trixies, including this one; truly an achievement to be proud of!

Serving as a runner-up to bixel for Quickest Quality BATter is also an honor, as I hadn't even considered myself in the running for that one.  But, looking back over the past year, I am a bit amazed at what I've been able to output since picking up gmax again after my initial attempts; I can't believe I cranked out so much stuff!  At last count, I have done 50 individual BATs in a series of over ten different packs since the end of last year, and that's just the stuff that made it to the site.  However, none compare in terms of the scale of quality which bixel achieved, and he truly deserves that Trixie!

Being also nominated for Most Useful Creation, BAT of the Year, and Best Recreation was also a surprise, though I can't imagine for which of my BATs it might have been.  And to be in the same category as those nominated for Highest Overall Quality in Custom Content is mind-blowing.  When I see the stuff you guys release, it makes me want to work harder on my stuff; you're all an inspiration.

Thanks to all of those who nominated me for Best Novelty Beyond the Buildings - I am so glad to have won this one, and I'm glad my upload descriptions and all the silly details in my BATs have garned that attention.  It makes laboring over all those tiny little things worthwhile.  But the biggest thank you from me is for all the nominations that won me STEX Community Favourite.  Of the few Trixies I was hoping to get nominated for, this was my most coveted, but to actually win it is a sheer delight.  It makes the dozens of hours I put into each pack of buildings that much more special, to know there's such a receptive audience out there to what I upload.  Sometimes just reading through the comments section of one of my uploads seems prize enough for me, but to have been given this tremendous honor is icing on the proverbial cake.

So, enough of my mushiness - one big last thanks to all of those who may be fans of my stuff, and who enjoy experiencing the content which I enjoy making, and a big thanks to the admins who run this site.  It's a win-win situation in my book; many blessings this holiday season, and looking forward to what 2010 brings to us here at Simtropolis!

[mightygoose 92]

congratulations on the trixies, and we look forward to more great work from you in the new year

[Jasoncw 11,933]

Congratulations!!  I'm glad you got some trixies, it's common for people who make small buildings to end up under the radar.  If you hadn't won anything I might have suggested making a 70 story pay-by-the-hour hotel (or better yet, a motel). 

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Oh yea, congratulations on your trixie award.

[Francis90b 748]

Congratulations, and happy new year!

[madhatter106 3,905]

mightygoose, Aaron Graham, Francis90b - thanks!

Jasoncw - thanks; I'm glad that my little BATs didn't fall "under the radar" as you said; a 70-story motel would be kinda weird, hahaha!  Congrats on your Trixie as well

---

Well, I'm thinking of moving away from NIMBY for a little while, though it's something I would like to come back to.  I think there's another little pack of those naughty buildings deep down inside my twisted psyche.  However, I realized that I still never released the drycleaners I did waaaaay back when; I had made another drycleaners model as well, which still needs to be textured, so I'm thinking the next pack of buildings will be a laundry/drycleaning pack.  I did a coin-op laundromat as part of my second set of low-wealth commercials, but I think I'd like to add some more variety in that vein.

So, here's Flo's Fluff and Fold - most likely a low wealth...

Kinda fitting to go for a clean theme, after all that NIMBY...heheheh

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Looks good, and a great idea on making laundry/drycleaning pack because my poor people those who does not own a washing machine and/or dryer needs a place to wash their clothes.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Lookin' good! There is a dry-cleaning place by the name of Wilson cleaners a few miles from where I live, it reminds me of your work every time I see it. Opened in the 40's I believe

Google streetview.

There are a few neat little places in the area, its just a matter of getting some pictures of them

[madhatter106 3,905]

Aaron Graham - thanks.

SimHoTToDDy - normally I don't do recreations, and most of the buidings I research from are changed in such a way as to only vaguely resemble their source material, but this one was too good to resist.  Here's Wilson's Cleaners, or rather my slightly modified version of it.

I tweaked the front windows to slope upwards and made the back building a little more shallow.  I do like the outcome, and the shape and configuration of this building is nothing I would have dreamt up or thought to have modelled in a million years.  Thanks for posting it to inspire me - it's the exact sort of building that catches my eye in Los Angeles and makes me say, "hey, that would make a good BAT..."

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Wow, its beautiful! This really put a smile on my face! The gently worn wall texture adds a lot of interest, it really turned out nicely

Glad I found something you enjoyed making, there aren't to many places like this in this part of Jersey, but I'll let you know if I spot anything else good in my travels.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Wow, I love it! It's small and generic, and yet it's not quite your average shoebox shape. I like how you tilted the windows slightly; it makes for a nice 60's / 70's touch and adds visual interest.

Weathering etc. are top-notch as usual, too. I don't have any suggestions - this looks like it's ready to be packaged and uploaded. Congratulations on yet another fine BAT!

[DazzaDazza 29]

that is some nice stuff madhatter 10/10

[spa 970]

That's a nice little shop. I too like the slanted windows. Very retro. If the back were shrunk down I could see it also being a hole and the wall restaurant. Kind of place with only a counter and a few tables.

[BIWDC 2,296]

Well done.I think it would make for a nice donut shop.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

BIWDC:

Originally posted by: SimHoTToDDy

Lookin' good! There is a dry-cleaning place by the name of Wilson cleaners a few miles from where I live, it reminds me of your work every time I see it. Opened in the 40's I believe

Google streetview.

There are a few neat little places in the area, its just a matter of getting some pictures of them

quote>

[Delecto 941]

Looks good, Typical American but I'm going to use it with pleasure!

Regards___DEL!

[Faded Glory 13]

Oh goodness. This is amazing. I use your low wealth shops excessively, and to know that there is more on the way... Wow. Anyhoo, enough rambling. Keep up the good work; my never-ending small towns enjoy it!

[madhatter106 3,905]

SimHoTToDDy - glad that Wilson's brought a smile to your face; I'm planning on doing a good prop sign for it as well, something fitting for such a great little building.

T Wrecks - yeah, I do hate generic Maxis shoebox buildings; hopefully this one will sprout up enough to dilute them.  I've been very tempted to do a whole bunch of 1x2 office buildings to supplant the Rivello Building and all those other dull, stupid Maxis shoeboxes that grow.  I agree that the slanted windows do add a visual appeal to Wilson's.  Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

mrdazza_460 and BIWDC - thanks!

spa - yeah, this one does look a bit diner-ish; the front is very similar to the Valentines diners I was doing earlier last year.  In fact, I could probably hack off the front and turn it into its very own diner BAT.  Hmmm....the wheels are turning...thanks for the comments!

Delecto - heheheh, that's my style - "typical American"...

Faded Glory - glad you find good use out of my little commercial packs; I enjoy making them, I enjoy sharing them, and I love seeing them pop up in my cities.  Here's hoping these little laundries end up in your cities sometime soon, too!

---

Okay, I've been driving past a little dumpy laundromat for the past few years here in Los Angeles, and when I saw it for the hundredth time last week, I thought it would be a perfect addition to my upcoming pack.  So, I give you Juanita's Washateria...

Methinks the side texturing needs to be dirtied up a little bit; it needs some more variety, and some stains and whatnot, to put it at 100%.  And a touch more piping or roof junk or whatnot...now that I look at it, it seems a bit lacking.  Oh, well, easily fixed...

 

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Looks Great, but you are right the walls need to be dirty. Im use to see your walls on your models being dirty and old looking. Im not trying to tell you what to doing sense im not a great BATer, the Washateria sing on top of the stor are you going to make them light up at night like you did the Flo's Fluff & Fold. I like it when you have some letters lit and others not lit the so real life.

[nofunk 1,933]

That's the name of a real business?! Awesome.

Your BATs make me happy, Madhatter.

[His Divine Hand 244]

One thing I have to say about your laundrymats, you need a lot more roof vents in them for the dryers. Usually there is an entire line of them where the dryers are placed.

[Utvaw 45]

Just want to say. I love your bats, they add a lot of character to my neighborhoods.

I also like Aaron Graham's idea of having a light up sign with some letters burnt out. It's little stuff like that that adds a lot of realism to the game

[Jack_wilds 550]

hey mad hatter, javk wilds here...

...another set of well done building bats... don't over dirty Juanita's as it appears that Jaunita attempted to paint and freshen up the building using a city block grant that ran out paint and monies before it was finished...

also before the creative juices ebb again could you also create a couple of grocery stores (aka IGA), ethnic grocers, and neighborhood pharmacies with the soda fountains before that fell out of fashion... thanks

well food for thought

Jack

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Hi, I hope you don't mind me interrupting with something a little bit off topic, but since I had taken some days off, I finally managed to take a few steps towards my final plugins folder for the new region I'd like to build. The sub-folder for low-rise commercial BATs now looks like this (just a section shown):

As you can see, you are very well represented there, and that's for a reason!  I might add that I had a few good laughs when I was testing your BATs and tweaking them, although that particular humor and the allusions to typically American stuff made them pretty hard to translate in some cases... I changed the lots to remove a few dependencies I don't use, tweaked the occupant numbers to match the rest of my plugins, removed the Euro tileset, made them grow on low-density lots only, and I did my best to translate the names and  the statistics to be displayed in the query UI into German, or invented new names to keep alliterations etc. All in all, I spent some hours on your little BATs, but now they are ready to grow in my towns, and I already feel that it was well worth the effort. 

 

[Andreas Roth 614]

"Zoohandlung Schwanz & Schuppen"

Being another native German, you definitely succeeded in translating the humorous innuendo - too funny! I don't even know if that unintended innuendo which my naughty mind is seeing was deliberate or not.  Great work on those, T Wrecks, you certainly made my day!

[madhatter106 3,905]

Aaron Graham - yeah, some grime may be added, I am on the fence.  We shall see.  It will be a low wealth commercial, so there should be a little more wear and tear.

nofunk - actually, the real name of this place is "Amigo Lavanderia," but I changed the name to Juanita's.  I am a fan of alliteration.  Glad these buildings of mine make you happy. 

His Divine Hand - I think I need to add some more side vents in the building; the real deal has a few more, but it will be a fine line to not make it look checkered or too patterned.  There were a lot of silly candy-caned shaped vents on the roof of the building, which didn't work well in translation in gmax, alas...

Utvaw - thanks, glad you enjoy these!  I don't know about the light up signs, sometimes they look right, but on this one, I am not entirely convinced.  Maybe I'll play around with it a little...thanks for commenting, and glad you enjoy my stuff.

Jack_wilds - don't know if I have a grocery store in me - I used to work in an IGA as a teenager, it may bring up too many bad memories. LOL   Maybe I'll get around to doing something like that eventually - but it probably wouldn't be a known name, I'd make something up.  Thanks for commenting...

T Wrecks - that screenshot of your low wealth plugins folder is a scream!  Too funny!  You should add Ed's Diner, too...and who is this SG person?   heheheheh  This pic you posted made my day, I'm happy to hear you took my stuff and tweaked the names and stats to fit your playstyle.  Glad you felt they were worth the effort!

---

Here's one based on a local drycleaners that's in my area; I am a bit "meh" on the color scheme, but this BAT was sitting on my now-defunct laptop's hard drive for a while, so I figured I would dust it off and see it done...here's the Regal Cleaners...

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Originally posted by: madhatter106

You should add Ed's Diner, too...and who is this SG person?quote>

Ed's diner is medium-wealth, and that's where I have it in my plugins folder.  Other stuff (like the naughty NIMBY packs) is in the pipeline.

Btw, does it show much that I'm a control freak?

Oh, that SG guy... by numbers, he's still in the lead, but you're getting nearer. By quality, I'd call it a tie. And by humour, too... after all, we're talking about the inventor of the famed Fukitol® capsules.

[_Atticus 10]

Hey I haven't stopped by here in a while. Needless to say your stuff is as good as ever; just keep em coming. Some suggestions the future... maybe some video rentals, tanning parlors, hardware stores. Perhaps you could even make bigger stores like grocery stores, toy stores, arts and crafts. It think it would be awesome if you could make high quality medium sized stores with your unique character. Just my honest opinion! Keep it up.

-Pingangster

[madhatter106 3,905]

T Wrecks - some of my best friends are control freaks!  Yes, you're correct, I had forgotten that I made Ed's Diner a medium wealth.  I should make a low wealth lot version of it.  Glad you're going to use the NIMBY packs, too - a little vice never hurt any Sim...   Thanks for the comments, as always...

pingangster - thanks for the kind words; video stores, eh?  Do those still exist in this broadband day and age?    I do have an arts and crafts hobby store in the back of my mind; don't know when (or if) I'll get to large scale medium wealth stuff, as there are so many others out there creating stuff much better in that vein than I ever could.  Hope you enjoy these little laundries when they're finished and released, too!

---

Another little low wealth to add to the pack - here's LaunderLand...

It's where socks go to get whiter, and brights go to get brighter...   I think there's another in store that I have yet to BAT, this one being a corner store.  Stay tuned...

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Great job on both of the models.