Capital Constructions And Development - C.C.D.

[sam_kan 1]

Hello there, Thanks for supporting me and one of my first lots, hence it's first one to do and modify, i had made it long time ago, so i guss its ok for first timer, Newbie at this LOTing, but it may not be a 100% satisfaction to some,but hey we all do learn from our mistakes and thanx for all of the comments, looking forward for the others, i wanna ur help guys if u dont mind, all ur comments critisim about my work, i want ur help with LOTing and BATing if that wasnt a problem for seeking a better LOTing and BATing ... i'll take all the points into considerations and will be applied in my later LOTS and BATS ... anyways hope you enjoy it...and yet more to come...

[sam_kan 1]

Please have a look at my first LOT at https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=19801 or in this thread attachement,  this lot acts as a tennis court, with the same effect and appears under your parks menu...and its statistics are as follows:

Building Statistics

Cost to Bulldoze:10 simoleons

Building Wealth:High ($$$)

Power Consumed:0 MWh

Cost to Plop:500 simoleons

Water Consumed:0 gallons

I have few questions involving the LOTing, 1st is that how to change the name of the lot inside the game as here it just give me the name tennis court not the Sim Nation Tennis Country Club, the 2nd is that how to change the finicial status from monthly costing to monthly income, 3rd is that how can i improve its graphics, any ideas ... looking forward for your answers and help, thanx in advance...

Sim Nation Tennis Country Club.zip

[sam_kan 1]

here r the pictures of it, and i have another Q how to change the setting of the ingame building statistics like its name its monthly costing its water and power consuming etc... leave u with the pictures looking forward for ur help

[mrbisonm 1,622]

First of all, the lot is way too large, not many large lots are really wanted, until it is a *Stexy* new BAT. As I see it, it looks like a 6x5 and it could have been done better looking with 5x4 or 4x4 with less playgrounds. Then there are too many useless props on there, also some grass (lawn) would enlighten the lot up instead of a cementy *floor to floor* ground. Maybe only one or two props and some flowers and trees. Maybe a Parking with some cars on the side etc. A fence around the playgrounds and maybe a lightpost or two. Never repeat yourself nor place two of the same props on the lot unless it is for a strict purpose such as in bulks, bunches, piles etc or a hedge of bushes, flowers or a fence.



The best way to make good looking lots (and believe me I know what I'm talking about as the hirarch of lotmaking..), is to look around in real life what things look like and make them like this. Don't exagerate, it usually gives us (the downloaders( a negative impression about it.

I have a Lot-thread also, go and have a look.   HERE.  I only use Maxis textures and props and they come out quite nice, interesting and real looking. It might help you.

Good luck. waiting to see some improvement.....

mrbisonm

[Sam 163]

Hi sam_kan, welcome to the lot editor and plugin manager forum. You'll find that lot makers tend to have very different styles and ways of doing things but this means there's almost always some tips and ideas that they can learn from each other.

Firstly its best to get the layout and lotting out of the way before you start looking at the modding. The reason is that some alterations during the modding process may mean that you can't go back into the LE later if you find you need to make some changes to the layout. Sometimes some modding changes don't save very well in the LE or some of the more advanced changes mean the file can't or mustn't be opened in the LE after they are done.

So best thing is to get the lotting right first and finish up with the LE before you start modding.

There are a few things that I find help me in the lotting.

First is to start a project folder called [Lot Name] - inspiration. eg Tennis Club - inspiration. (my project later has subsequent phases which get additional folders, eg lotting, modding, scrutineering, production, packaging and finally, upload. The project moves through each folder as it progresses until it gets to the upload stage) Then I go to google image search and research what I'm going to make and collect different pictures and information that I think might give me ideas. ie the first step is Research. Often what I find is that there are different styles even in the one thing, eg a tennis club might be a very English style, or it may be a local style or a sports complex or resort style. So I need to decide what style I'm going to use, or my resulting lot might end up a mish-mash not looking like anything in particular at all. The style you choose might be dependent on whether there are suitable props available. Eg an English style tennis club is a possibility, as there are a lot of English style props. This helps provide a consistent look for the lot and makes it hang together.

The second thing I find useful is to make a prop lot where I just gather together all kinds of different props relating to the lot I'm making. Then I look at them together and see which ones go well together, eg have matching colours, are in scale with each other and generally complement each other. This lot gets discarded later, its just a prototype for messing around.

Thirdly I try to start with smaller lots. If you start too big it can be difficult to fill the lot without either being repetitive, or conversely, mismatched. You can make the lot bigger if you need to. Secondly larger lots need their stats scaled up appropriately in the modding process later.

As to your question, you will find a little tool called LEProp very handy for basic modding, such as changing ingame names and descriptions, menu icons and some very basic stats. That one is the best to start with. If you find you need more complex modding later then the next step is the Reader. But you should probably avoid that one for now, as LEProp is nice and simple. You can get both in the Modds and Downloads section.

Another tool you should really get your hands on is SC4Tool. There is a help thread stickied at the top of this forum (https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=121&threadid=62826&enterthread=y). If you look at Andreas' signature in the first post you will see the link to get the tool from. This tool is very useful in tracking dependencies your lot uses and producing a readme automatically.

I would also suggest you get a copy of SC4 StartUp Manager (there is a sticky in this forum about it: https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=121&threadid=70989&enterthread=y This little program makes it easy to swit