"New Install" packs idea

[Buggi 684]

Okay, it's been awhile since I've played SC4, I admit. But recently I have been itching to get back into it. Only, with the hoard of new bats and stuff that have come out, I have a daunting challenge ahead of me. What to use?

I have the DVD collection (because I support Dirk!) and it's got a nice collection of content, but it's just not easy to get everything installed. There's no pretty install feature.

The SimCity file system is made in such a way that multiple packs could be consolidated into major add-ons. Think of them as mini-expansion packs. Why has no one done this yet? Time? Patience?

Take all the top rated commercial buildings, package them into one install, then offer that file on simtrop, or better yet, BitTorrent. Then all top industrial, residential, and civic buildings. Dependancies could all be packed into one, as all the non-conflicting transportation stuff. Not everything fits this methodoligy, but most of it fits nicely.

This community needs some organization. And I know there are dedicated people out there able to fill this void. I want to start fresh, on a fresh region, but have hundreds, if not thousands of objects to shift through before I can even start, and I think that deters many people. It's certainly had me thinking "there has to be a better way."

(And Dirk, damnit, where's my monkey icon!?!) I attached it, please update?

[Andreas Roth 604]

We had this discussion before, but there are several things that would arise:

1.) Permissions - You would have to contact every person and ask if he's ok to include his work into such a mega pack.

2.) Maintenance - Huge DATs are virtually impossible to maintain; for fixing one error, you'd have to repack and upload some 100 MB or more.

3.) Piracy - A torrent is not controlled by a website like ST or SC4D, but will "roam freely" once it has been released. The creators won't have any control over the distribution anymore.

4.) Bandwidth - Since torrents are probably a bad idea, the website would have to host those huge files, which would drain a lot of bandwidth. And as I mentioned before, everyone would have to download 100+ MB files again for fixing an error.

[spectrumtech 15]

I have often thought the same thing.  Ultimately, I settled that it JUST doesn't work.  I have DATpacked 30 MEGA packs of files on my own PC.  My workaround for the update problem is that I am working on a program that can easily open DATpacked files and insert/update/delete.  Someday soon, I will release it.  Then  it just might work.