simmars-forum-threads Sim Mars, a SC4 Conversion

[flamesrock 6]

Whether or not this project succeeds has nothing to do with interest in the community. It only depends on the commitment of the leaders.

If you set the right example, you'll have a following. Saying that the project is 'possible' doesn't give people confidence. And so they're bound to be pessimistic.. Declaring that the project is started, that 'these' are the leaders and that it will be done with or without help is the only way to accomplish anything. You have to establish goals, like Dirk said: planning phase, coordination, preliminary building, testing, building, testing, building, testing -> final project.

I'm not advocating false confidence here. The opposite: A headstrong leader can make anything happen. So are you prepared to make the jump, GouRou? Do you *really* believe it can be done? I still smell some doubt..

If I had the time I would volunteer to help lead myself, but I'm commited to SimCitySphere right now. If there's any small ways that I can contribute, ask. Being involved in the planning phase for example, is something I could do.

[GouRou 2]

I think we need a few SimMars only buildings, but I see no reason why many of them, and other things, be modds for the normal simcity, we will debate this carefully. and no, no time soon, I have had to restart them, due to a HD failure, I will work on them a lot tho, they will be ready in a few months.

[Djohaal 121]

Great Idea, I could help in the logistics (planning) since I suck in programming-modding https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/3.gif>

 

For this mega project, I think an entire NEW forum should be opende and only people who are working may be able to post in it to avoid SPAMhttps://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/22.gif>

 

If it is gonna be made, the first thing to do is aa pop up made when Sc4 is loading to ask if you want to play it modded or normal.

Here is a MEGA bunny to everyone

 

https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/24.gif width=17>

 

 

[Dirktator 2,311]

TheeLord, sorry to hear your project failed, but I wouldn't pass that off as the whole community doesn't have the ability to work together.  Major projects like this will have to thrive on publicity.  I was not even aware you were trying to get a community project off the ground.

 

Naturally, as mentioned a dedicated section of the site will be created to manage and coordinate the project.  To minimize extended bouts of bickering, any dispute will simply be arbitrated upon by a project leader.  It is important to set the milestones and see how we meet them.  This project is too large for one person to systematically tackle as I doubt there is one person who is proficient enough with eveyr aspect of converting the game (I may be wrong!)... but a team of people including testers and feedback-givers will help us along...

 

Right now, we're just tossing the idea up the flagpole and seeing who salutes... https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/22.gif>

[GouRou 2]

Flamesrock, if you smell doubt, it's emanating from yourself, not from me. We're still probing all of the ideas here, this is the introduction phase, everyone is allowed to have doubts, but that wont stop this project from pushing forewards. We will need a crew of planners, these planners will need to work amongst themselves and with me. I will look into a way to make it so teams can talk amongst themselves and with others without being disturbed. real time communication will greatly enhance the speed with which things will get done. the chat is always open, and a password protected user created room is always open to you, if needs must, we can create more rooms, and use stickies in the forums for meeting times. We will manage the managing. As I have just tried to explain, any situation can be dealt with.

 

Given 50 modders, this project will take several months to a year, depending on depth of detail, but I believe we have many more than that hiding in the woodwork, all they need is a suitable project, a singular goal to apply themselves towards, something well defined, rather than an arbitrary thing like a 'modd' a mod is not well defined, but this will be.

 

We will need to set a time and place for a meeting, some research has to be done at the outset to draw up lists of things that will need to be done. these things will need to be divided into manageable tasks. once the lists are done, that is what the planners are for. I need planners with some idea of modding, so we can give realistic time frames to getting the work done. it may be voluntary, but we need dedicated people that wont mess around and slow the entire project down. by the time the research and planning are near completion, we should have some project infrastructure, I dont know what it will be, or how it will work, and I wont speculate, but I imagine we'll all be able to work with it.

[Carpman 0]

*Salutes*

 

A mega-project, hmm, I like! Modders and Batters united indeed, along with everyone else becoming a rather large Community Think-Tank. Such a conversion is feasible, no doubt about that, I reckon, it is if people are ready to commit.

 

If it ever is made though, well, it will be a grand day for the conversion community, and if it is of sufficent quality to become a game in its own right? Who knows, comrades, who knows.

[MrVegetable 2]

I see a problem. How are we gonna make this SimMars if the community is spread all around the world? Chances are we can't send it through e-mail or this BB. And only 100-200 may actually have any skill on making games. Sure, if I find time between school and revision, I may be able to help with testing, but I dunno how it can be done. Maxis might not like it either.

[Simguyuk 0]

I would like to help in any way I can but I am not exactly a 'Gifted' modder or batter, but are there any other ways to help?
Plus, I also agree with Mr. vegetable, in that, we need to know we arent going to get in trouble withmaxis for doing this.

[GouRou 2]

it will be assembled in pieces, Dirk and I are formulating pieces of the infrastructure, we are brainstorming to find a solution to such a problem as you proposed. each group will be responsible for the perfection of their own piece, once those pieces are finalized, they will be inserted into a master dat file and checked again and again, the beta's probably wont be distributed as a large dat file, but stay as pieces, and only late all put together into one master file, so any one piece should be well manageable by anyone.

[Carpman 0]

EDIT: I'm taking too long to type. Bah.

 

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On 3/3/2004 11:53:41 AM MrVegetable wrote:

I see a problem. How are we gonna make this SimMars if the community is spread all around the world? Chances are we can't send it through e-mail or this BB. And only 100-200 may actually have any skill on making games. Sure, if I find time between school and revision, I may be able to help with testing, but I dunno how it can be done. Maxis might not like it either.

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I see no reason why Maxis should have any problem, I'm going to use Half Life/Counterstrike as an example (If I am wrong, correct me) Counterstrike was an extremely popular modd even now popular. Such a conversion could boost popularity for Simmcity, even.

As for people with no modding skill, they could help by contributing ideas, or by testing Alpha/Beta versions.

As for trading files, this is more of a problem, but stilll small. The only way I can think of is an upload/download server somewhere, accesable to all on the Conversion Team.

[GouRou 2]

the lex and bex are already hosted somewhere other than simtrop, keep this in mind, a seamless solution can be found if we are creative enough, never fear.

 

we will always need people that dont modd themselves, because they might notice something we forgot!! as a person works with a system, they inherently gloss over parts they are familiar with, that's why we need people that arent so familiar with something.

If you have no skill at modding/modeling/programming at all, but still want to help, why not try to learn about one of those things? the people that know got there by learning, and there are a lot of them, so it is possible. I'm not sure exactly how far this can be taken in terms of depth and changes, I dont know what can and cant be done by modding alone, but that's why we need creative people to find out! learn about modding, then go looking into how to change something that nobody has changed before, then tell us if it's possible. that's research, we're advancing on that step right now, and the more people that contribute, the less work there will be per person.

 

Counter Strike worked because the team was on good standing with the game maker, I like to think that this community is too, if maxis says we cant use that exact name, then we wont, we'll use whatever we can, if they say we cant use the existing props, then we wont! but then again, when they see that this is going to be a massive boon to the longetivity to the game, they just might be willing to make a few concessions, in the same way that CS is a longetivity modd for Half Life. things often work both ways, we just have to find a happy medium.

[Simguyuk 0]

I would like to contribute Ideas, for example, I think most mass transit need to be changed. Like the el-trains should be levitated trains or something futuristic like that, and hover buses!
My 50th Post!!! Just 1950 to go!

[GouRou 2]

simguyuk, I hereby give you the first job. open notepad, and put down every good idea you can come up with. make a list, we'll want them later, they will be read, compiled, thought about, judged, and maybe written up as projects. that goes to anyone, if you have ideas, voice them now, but do it orderly, not one post per idea, write up a file then attach it, keep this organized.

[Simguyuk 0]

Should I post them here when I have enough?
I'm on a program design team, well thats one of my life aims off the list!

[GouRou 2]

you can edit your attachment I do believe, so just keep revising.

[Simguyuk 0]

Shall I concentrate my Ideas on one area of design? I could probably get more done that way. I would like to be ideas team for Transit and Mass transit.
Oh, and will we get special titles like the Bat squad, modd squad etc.? That would be cool!

Oh and BTW, I will post my first notepad attachment when I get home, I am at my dads office right now.

[Simguyuk 0]

Whats going on with the thread thats ghosting this thread?

[GouRou 2]

Mars Squadd...

 

We may or may not create 500 buildings. it is certainly possible to do in several months, as we have a hundred in just a couple months. how many buildings get created is up to the builders, how dedicated they are. I would imagine this will be a continuing sort of thing, as time goes on we'll release a new version, perhaps once it's out we may release a new version with that months updates. more than likely we're looking at dozens of vehicles, hundreds of buildings, loads of textures for roads and whatnots, also new models for bridges and mass transit. we'll need new renders for underground also, and this may be one place that we can do it better than sc4 did, each building can have a vast underground component to show underground life. if we are sufficiently industrious, we may just be able to create a whole new way of designing cities, connected by cheap subways, etc.

[Aronion 9]

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On 3/3/2004 12:43:29 PM Simguyuk wrote:Whats going on with the thread thats ghosting this thread?

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It's not ghosting.  Someone, whom shall remain nameless https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/2.gif>, named her thread the same thing.  The purpose of that thread is to redirect people to this discussion.  I renamed it to clear up any confusion. 

[MrCinatit 30]

i'd kind of like to add onto something Carpman stated about earlier - this is possible and this has been done before. there is the counterstrike/half-life mod (very nice), but there are others: there is a very nice Star Wars mod for Battlefield 1942, which is breathtaking. the Thief series has many user made maps, as well as a couple of Thief vs. Guards games which saw some popularity.

Unreal Tournament has had several very good user made mods, including a couple of Thief mods, as well as a very popular and well done TacticalOps mod (which, in my opinion, was almost better than the game itself). i remember one game (can't remember which one) featured on TechTVs XPlay which had a Matrix modification - they called this one MUCH better than the game.

obviously, i am not going to say the Mars project will be better than SimCity, but i believe that with the talent in the community, as well as the respect the community has from Maxis, this could be one of the better mods of gaming history.

[Simguyuk 0]

Will the cities have some sort of protected atmosphere around them. If so, we would have to have special transit to pass out into the martian atmosphere ( I dont know if that is possible though)
Also, If that were to be an element to the game, it probably have to be incorporated into the budget somehow, how much you pay depend on the amount of atmosphere you need, so the size of the city would need to be taken into account(again, I dont know if this is possible either)

[JoshuaC 8]

I don't have any skill with Code and Programming But I am getting better with BAT and I have A lot of free time on my hands So I would Like to Volunteer my talent for this project.

 

I think If we had good quardnation and Teams we could pull this off but it would take a strong team leader of each team to do it.

Here's my idea's for teams

 

Modding team Does all of the Modding work

 

Architecture team Makes the buildings

 

Transportation Team Makes the Vehicles and Misc. Transportation

 

Testing Would be done by all that use the game and is involved with it.

 

These are just idea's Popping into me head and just that but I really think if we want this too work it wont be much different from what's up there.https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/1.gif>

[GouRou 2]

the cities themselves would be nothing more than individual buildings. huge domes might happen, but would be very expensive r$$$ or c$$$, with vast communities. buildings already support a monthly cost, that can be an all encompasing cost, and since cost is so out of proportion anyway, all we have to do is keep the prices of things about the same.

[GouRou 2]

aron, you should rename the other 2 while your at it https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/9.gif>

I'll let you track them down, shouldnt take too long https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/22.gif>

[The Great Chozo 34]

I was just thinking about something. There is only one thing that could stop this project from getting off the ground immediately. That is if Maxis were to come out and say that they are already working on a project like this. I think that this would discourage a lot of people from giving their time. As far as I know Maxis is not working on this kind of project. Of course I could be wrong. I am going to go home later tonight and whip up a few easy and rough models of elevated transportation lines, and maybe a few small huts, and see what it will look like. If they come out fairly decent, I will post some pics, but should I do that in this thread or start a new one?

Chozo

[GouRou 2]

if maxis decides to discourage SimMars, I will move this project towards SimMoon, or anything else we can come up with. but until we hear about it, it will stay SimMars.

[GouRou 2]

you might as well use this one, anything can be moved later, and I image this will all get sorted properly later anyway.

[Aronion 9]

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On 3/3/2004 1:32:34 PM GouRou wrote:

aron, you should rename the other 2 while your at it

https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/9.gif>

I'll let you track them down, shouldnt take too long

https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/22.gif>

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Naw, I'll let you.  I just took care of the one because of the scare you put these poor, innocent members through.  https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/3.gif>

[Simguyuk 0]

I'm back, and i've got my first ideas list (see attachment)

[MrVegetable 2]

Hey, if this is going to be, like, in the future, if any of you have watched a cartoon called Dragonball Z they have really thin buildings with massive 'ball' structures on the top.

Also you could have an air re-fill station to stock up on air (avaliable in utilities).

Think these are good enough for the game?