simmars-forum-threads Advertising

[timcravey 168]

I have read much of the project to date and this is what i have so far

This is a cover concept and marketing tagline.

Advice:  Subtle references to the Yi Ching would take this virus all the way back to the oldest known simulation in history.

This is an illustration of the virus applied in principle.   The structure is recycled from the Immigration ships (Daquo - the Great Passing, the name of the hexagram that appears to be the basis of the architectural design).  The name of the martian language is signaled i! or "communication" (possibly pronounced "yi") - notice the graffiti - the chinese name for the other hexagram, yí or jaw.  The pijjin message "I 1" makes the player feel good by creating a sense of community.  Accomplishment might be signaled by U1 or the meme "to aspire" by B1.  The hexagrams in those instances might be used to decide the lotting or modding that would be appropriate.

The virus could then be plugged back into the original material by self-referencing, eg

Here is a corporate logo blatantly advertising the connection to the games creator.

The Ad Unit will now return to the Giv Ú L0v ⁿ to relax with the beautiful uBots.

[timcravey 168]

This is a repackaging proposal for China internet market - someone will have to help me out with this, what are the characters for "mars simulation"- that's probably as close as we can get.  That ought to be animated in and the whole would fade into the intro video.

The title says (approx.) "Nothing wrong with doing this."  The tagline reads (approx.) "Wise management of resources leads to good fortune." Legal might want to look into whether its not considered poor taste to quote the Duke of Chou for marketing purposes.  I was trying for a Chinese watercolor look of cranes and a dragon with a pearl (Hellas) in its claws using the values of the National Geographic photomosaic to establish the shapes - I'm afraid I can't do justice to it. It looks like I scratched it on a rock!

associate freely

[timcravey 168]

The improved title concept:

[TimeMaster 4]

Looks good, this could probably help the team!

[paroxysm 2]

I'd like to help. Possibly we both could take some ingame inspirational video, put it together with the pictures and a couple few of the soundtracks, and we would have an intro video!

[JakeMD 107]

Sounds great paroxysim! ( We are currently putting that intro video on hold for now, as we have no way to make a .mad file.)

[timcravey 168]

I actually haven't downloaded the SimMars music (I deleted the SC4 music file to make the game load faster). I think Swat is right about the intro - it's probably unnecessary as most players skip it after the first time; but for marketing purposes it is still viable.

We should put together a short video for upload to YouTube (and other video sharing sites) to help raise public awareness.

Aprilboy posted some very early development video in Swat's Intro thread some time back; I wonder if those are still available. I've never shot in-game video before (saw a tutorial on it once but I don't recall how it was done). What is the filesize on something like that? And did you say you had editing experience? My video software is old but quite capable.

[JakeMD 107]

What is the filesize on something like that? And did you say you had editing experience? My video software is old but quite capable.quote>

The sc4 intro (the two .mad files combined) is somewhere around 14mb.

[timcravey 168]

I actually meant the filesize on ingame video. Also I wonder about the format of the game's video recorder. If it's gonna fill up a folder with 300Mb of individual .png frames for 15 seconds of footage that can only be played back by SimCity we may have to rethink the acquisition process. I suppose even that would be do-able though.

The region I'm playing right now is pop. 200,000 with main city pop. about 60,000. It's growing slowly because of the lack of ordinances, rewards, and transport-related issues like airports, (oh, and maybe because I'm busy with this project instead of playing!). It might serve for the medium development footage but it would look better with trains (hint hint) and so forth.

[paroxysm 2]

Okay. Well, if we find a way to convert the video to the .mad format, than this is possible. We do need an intro because we want SimMars to be as complete as possible. It wouldn't be that way if the original SC4 vid played at the beginning. Also, I am currently working on a mod to remove the video for now. It consists of just a blank .mad file writing over the old one. I will release it soon.

Also, we could just get a free online video recorder that is entirely seperate from SC4.  I think that would be the easiest way to do it.

I do have some video editing experience and I will try to track the video down, and attempt to make a short intro of my own with the music, video, and pics.  Tim, if you could take some short clips of your semi-developed region and send them to me, that could also help because my region is pretty basic.

[warrior 169]

There is no point even thinking of making a video for two reasons 1) We can't use 2) It will only show beta 2 (with some extras) but will be used in beta 3 so it won't show the game off properly.

Jonathan

[TimeMaster 4]

I can put together a video, I think, but I can't convert it to .mad .

-Time

[warrior 169]

None can convert a mad except EA. The intro is waste of time, disable the thing by doing what paroxysm said.!!

5th time I've said it.

Jonathan

[timcravey 168]

I think we can work that out. Right now we aren't talking about an intro video to be included in the beta - rather a marketing tool for raising public awareness and attracting new players (maybe recapture some that tried it and gave up). I promise it wont interfere with my BATing or studying of tutorials.

On a different note, warrior - you mod transit, no? Would you have a look at my PedMalls and tell me if you can fix them? They only rotate 90 degrees and some of them need the full 360. Pics are in the SimMars Transit thread and the work I did with Andreas Roth on them is posted in the CustomContent/Modding-TransitNetworks thread under "New Ped Mall Pieces". I'll understand if you can't do it yourself but I'ld appreciated any advice you could give me on the T21 exemplars.

[warrior 169]

Just TimeMaster said convert it to .mad so i assumed it was for the intro.

Yep I can, but my knowledge of T21s is limited I'll take a look at them and see if I can see anything.

Please call me Jonathan btw.

[TimeMaster 4]

That's a cool idea making an external video for SimMars...

-Time

[paroxysm 2]

Even though we can't turn it into .mad format, I am still going to make it.  We need something to foster public awareness.  Also, my mod will be released today/tomorrow.

EDIT- I have reached a setback with the mod.  The game crashes when it loads it.  The release will be delayed somewhat.

[Lahn266 15]

Nice trying on Chinese charachters.... but I think you may want someone who can do true brush writing for you? Or at least type them out = w =

[timcravey 168]

Trixie Awards were superb! We totally got everybody's attention. Now, how do we capitalize on this before their ardor cools?

Paroxysm - any news on the video? I haven't tried to shoot any footage yet but maybe we could get you a preliminary set of the new BATs to include in yours.

Another option - those of you who also frequent other SC4 custom content websites might consider mentioning SimMars in your posts and chat room conversations. Let them know a new add-on is coming out soon. If they bring up any problems related to the Beta 2 release, reassure them that we are fixing the bugs, filling in the blanks, and greatly increasing the variety of content.

I notice too, that posts to the SimMars forum do not show the word 'SimMars' in the Latest Replies box on the ST Home page.  I know it doesn't seem like much, but if we could get that changed it would increase our visibility and so our readership and participation.

[Cleaner475 150]

Another option - those of you who also frequent other SC4 custom content websites might consider mentioning SimMars in your posts and chat room conversations. Let them know a new add-on is coming out soon. If they bring up any problems related to the Beta 2 release, reassure them that we are fixing the bugs, filling in the blanks, and greatly increasing the variety of content.quote>

Any publicity is good publicity (Except when its bad ), I suppose if I didn't pop into the SimMars forum every now and then I'd have no idea a new add-on is coming. I still think SimMars needs a new proper website though.... any news on that?

Richard

[Evillions 552]

Originally posted by: timcravey I actually meant the filesize on ingame video. Also I wonder about the format of the game's video recorder. If it's gonna fill up a folder with 300Mb of individual .png frames for 15 seconds of footage that can only be played back by SimCity we may have to rethink the acquisition process. I suppose even that would be do-able though.

The region I'm playing right now is pop. 200,000 with main city pop. about 60,000. It's growing slowly because of the lack of ordinances, rewards, and transport-related issues like airports, (oh, and maybe because I'm busy with this project instead of playing!). It might serve for the medium development footage but it would look better with trains (hint hint) and so forth.

quote>

 

Remove Maxis Oridances mod and download other oridances. This should help. Why do you think I had all those skyscapers in my cities in my CJ?

[timcravey 168]

SimMars is on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/SimMars/270932077137?ref=nf

Please check out our page and feel free to comment or make suggestions about promoting SimMars.

Questions may be directed to me, timcravey, either here or on the Facebook page.

[AndisArt 2,067]

SimMars also has a presence on the Modd-Databank website moddb.com:

SimMars on ModDB.com