City Squad

[trixin 2]

I had a revolutionary idea a few days ago. Here at Simtropolis, there's a mod squad, a map squad and several BAT teams. But no group here makes cities. I was thinking of have a city squad, a group of people who makes cities for other citizens. For more information, please read the FAQ below.

Frequently Asked Questions

So what's the point of this proposed City Squad?

The object would be to have interested users to make cities for others.

How could this be helpful for Simtropolis?

It could be helpful in many ways. Certain users have trouble getting their cities on their feet. City Squad could help start out cities for those troubled users and help them understand better about the concept of city building. Other users may be interested in downloading unique and interesting cities just to add to their regions or to play around with. It also adds more download options for people who are tired of downloading BATs or lots.

How many members would City Squad contain?

City Squad would probably contain a maximum of 20 members but that number may change. Every member would have a certain speciality. For example, certain members would have expertise in creating rural towns, suburban towns or cities, industrial wastelands, large cities, giant metropolises or more.

What would be the qualifications to join City Squad

A user would PM me or someone else in the City Squad for a request to join. They would state their speciality (rural, suburban etc.) and why they want to join. Then I would contact him/her and ask for them to send me at least two of their cities in the style they wish to build. If they don't have two cities available then he/she would have to construct them and then send them by email. All of the City Squad members would then decide if the cities are good enough. Another PM will be sent to the user infoming them about if they have been accepted or not. More information about joining will be known if City Squad is approved...

What about dilapidation and neighbouring cities?

City Squad members who build cities would have no other connecting cities attached to their's so neighbour deals, demand, budget and dilapidation would not be affected.

Isn't the STEX only meant for BATs, lots and related things?

If this City Squad idea is approved, a seperate category will probably be created in the STEX. A board room may also be created but this is all up to the administrators.

Won't this eat up Simtropolis bandwidth big time?

The City Squad will have upload restrictions implemented. A city will be no larger then five megabytes unless special permission has been given otherwise. Uploads will be made no more then twice a day to save bandwidth. The cities will be no larger then five megabytes and will be hosted offsite. More information to come...

What about the custom buildings and lots?

Every City Squad member would have to remove their plugins folder while making a city to ensure that not too much custom content is used. Custom content will be allowed in certain cities but only up to a maximum of ten custom buildings/lots will be permitted. The required BATs/lots will be listed as the dependancies when the city is uploaded.

Anymore questions? Please post them here and I may include them in the FAQ. Your feedback is greatly valued.

[Shadow Assassin 336]

Hmm, this sounds like a good idea, but how would the people be chosen?

[trixin 2]

If someone desires to join, they simply would PM me for a request to join.

[Deathtoall 28]

i would create surbubian house but the type on the very edges of cities, with lakes and ponds and streams

but like Shadow said how would it work?

[jessyka who? 1]

This is definently a great idea! I'm pretty sure it's been thought of before, but it looks like you have a lot of potential for it. I probably wouldn't be able to join, because I am busy with quiet a few other game experiments, but maybe I can look back into this in the future. Hopefully this will fly with the Admins, and be able to let this happen!

[Shadow Assassin 336]

In my opinion, this really should be invitation only - the best of the best...But then again, it's only my opinion.

[trixin 2]

Date: 7/12/2005 10:32:56 PM
Author: Deathtoall

but like Shadow said how would it work?

quote>
Citizens would PM me for a request to join. Then I would ask to see their work. Everyone on the City Squad team would help me judge their work and if they can be accepted. Its explained in more detail in the FAQ.

[Meg 368]

This would be a form of a city exchange, wouldn't it?  Last time I checked, we didn't have the bandwidth for a city exchange. 

[Shadow Assassin 336]

Hmm, looks like I may need to look off-site for the city exchange, but would be based here? Would that be better?

[trixin 2]

It would be a form of exchange but the number of uploads a day and the size of the files would be about the size of BATs.

A city will be no larger then five megabytes unless special permission has been given otherwise. Uploads will be made no more then twice a day to save bandwidth.

quote>

Would that eat up too much bandwidth?

[Chris M 406]

This seems like a good idea, and it would be better for the site if it was hosted off-site.

[Shadow Assassin 336]

Maybe a text file with the link released on the STEX?

[General Gunfire 0]

*coughs and steps in again*

I have more than once offered a server that I have to be used for things like this.

It will have 108gb of 10,000RPM SCSI on a 2.0ghz P4 w/512 of RAM.

 

If not interested, I still may be interested in joining eventually. Perhaps a technical advisor?

[Superstar 69]

Sounds like you've really thought this over! Sounds like a great idea yet I agree that it's best for the city files to be hosted off site

[Compromise 1]

Sounds like a great idea aslong as it is hosted off site.

[srcldennis 0]

That sounds like a great idea. I can understand about not including custom lots, but what about the mods? The NAM for instance?

[the_new_simman 5]

Great idea! I would offer to host them on imgCity but we have lots of bandwidth situations already. I hope this takes off like the map squad did. Ohh, and btw, it will eat up bandwidth.

 

Say you uploaded a 5MB file than 100 people downloaded it. What's 100 x 5? 500 MB just ofr 100 downloads. See how fast bandwidth gets eaten away? I bet I could see 1000's of people downloading cities, meaning 1 GB of bandwidth. That's a ton.

[Compromise 1]

Date: 7/13/2005 4:29:37 PM Author: the_new_simman

Great idea! I would offer to host them on imgCity but we have lots of bandwidth situations already. I hope this takes off like the map squad did. Ohh, and btw, it will eat up bandwidth.

Say you uploaded a 5MB file than 100 people downloaded it. What's 100 x 5? 500 MB just ofr 100 downloads. See how fast bandwidth gets eaten away? I bet I could see 1000's of people downloading cities, meaning 1 GB of bandwidth. That's a ton.

quote>

Is that how it works, I thought it just copied itself when you press the download button. It will certainley add up then.

[trixin 2]

Date: 7/13/2005 2:48:29 PM
Author: srcldennis
That sounds like a great idea. I can understand about not including custom lots, but what about the mods? The NAM for instance?

quote>
I think that the NAM would be a standard dependancy for all of the cities because it is so helpful with transportation. But other mods could make a difference in game play.

Date: 7/13/2005 4:29:37 PM
Author: the_new_simman
Say you uploaded a 5MB file than 100 people downloaded it. What's 100 x 5? 500 MB just ofr 100 downloads. See how fast bandwidth gets eaten away? I bet I could see 1000's of people downloading cities, meaning 1 GB of bandwidth. That's a ton.

[Superstar 69]

Definitely could possibly be that 1,000 people will, though obviously not all at once

[the_new_simman 5]

Date: 7/13/2005 5:58:55 PM Author: trixin

Date: 7/13/2005 2:48:29 PM Author: srcldennis That sounds like a great idea. I can understand about not including custom lots, but what about the mods? The NAM for instance?

quote> I think that the NAM would be a standard dependancy for all of the cities because it is so helpful with transportation. But other mods could make a difference in game play.

Date: 7/13/2005 4:29:37 PM Author: the_new_simman Say you uploaded a 5MB file than 100 people downloaded it. What's 100 x 5? 500 MB just ofr 100 downloads. See how fast bandwidth gets eaten away? I bet I could see 1000's of people downloading cities, meaning 1 GB of bandwidth. That's a ton.

quote> I see your point. Currently, I'm working with Shadow_Assassin to organize a possible off site download forum. But do you really think that 1000s of people would download cities?

quote>

Yes, I do. Have you seen some of the BAT downloads, some of them have 2000 downloads each. So imagine 10 cities on an exchange and each are 5 MBs. 5 x 100 = 500 MB for one city. Then multiply that by 10. 500 x 10 = 5 GB. Even though they're only 5 MB per download, and even if they only have 100 downloads, if you have a lot of cities on the STEX it will still add up fast.

[General Gunfire 0]

Simman: On a server like mine at my place, monthly bandwidth is not an issue since we run on a free connection with no bandwidth cap.

[srcldennis 0]

How soon can we start?? Downloading that is. LOL,,,

[huskerman007 26]

I would let you host it on simvision but I would want the downloads in the Simvision Exchange though.

[trixin 2]

Date: 7/14/2005 8:32:11 PM
Author: srcldennis
How soon can we start?? Downloading that is. LOL,,,

quote>
My idea still has to be approved be administrators, the STEX will have to be modified slightly and off-site forums would have to be setup. Until then, you'll have to wait.

Date: 7/15/2005 7:42:32 AM
Author: huskerman007
I would let you host it on simvision but I would want the downloads in the Simvision Exchange though.

quote>
Huskerman, I will inform you as soon as City Squad is approved. Then I'll talk to you about off-site hosting.

[Compromise 1]

Well I hope it is approved but we will see.

[Cjah 15]

Hmm this sounds most excellent....

I will send you a detailed reason why I should be able to join your squad.

 

But if I do join the main dependancies would be mostly NDEX for all who care.

 

I love NDEX and yeah it would be in all my cities.From small shops by DT to big Towers by....DT,SS,Oneil and many others.

 

I also think the NAM is a most have for these cities.

 

Well I can't wait for more to be said about this....

[the_new_simman 5]

Here's a problem with a City Exchange. Lots of people have modds or BATs in their cities, and when people download these cities and don't have the modds or BATs it will corrupt the game and freeze.

The only way to be able to have a city exchange would be to either:

 

1. Don't use plugins in your cities

 

or

 

2. Put the plugins up for download on your server.

 

The problem with #2 is that you would have to get permission from the creators...so technically the only way the would really be affective would be option #1. See what I'm saying...there's much more problems than just bandwidth and space.

[trixin 2]

Date: 7/12/2005 10:18:29 PM
What about the custom buildings and lots?


Every City Squad member would have to remove their plugins folder while making a city to ensure that not too much custom content is used. Custom content will be allowed in certain cities but only up to a maximum of ten custom buildings/lots will be permitted. The required BATs/lots will be listed as the dependancies when the city is uploaded.

quote>

I had already mentioned about that in the FAQ as seen just above.

I'm still waiting for a response from Dirk. If I don't get a response from him, I'll probably contact another admin in a few days.

[the_new_simman 5]

Date: 7/28/2005 5:39:56 PM Author: trixin

Date: 7/12/2005 10:18:29 PM

What about the custom buildings and lots? Every City Squad member would have to remove their plugins folder while making a city to ensure that not too much custom content is used. Custom content will be allowed in certain cities but only up to a maximum of ten custom buildings/lots will be permitted. The required BATs/lots will be listed as the dependancies when the city is uploaded.

quote> I had already mentioned about that in the FAQ as seen just above. I'm still waiting for a response from Dirk. If I don't get a response from him, I'll probably contact another admin in a few days.

quote>

 

Sorry about that. I guess I missed that in the FAQ.

 

Since we don't have to use plug-ins I'd be happy to be apart of the city squad and create cities.