EMT's BAT thread

[EMTechie 6]

Well, since I plan to start making a ton of SimCity 4 custom content, and uploading as much as i have time to, I decided to open this thread for my BATs...the one just uploaded today is a small municipal center (town hall + tiny police office, basically) for small towns...seeing as i start my cities with small towns and then grow them out from there, I find this very helpful for keeping it somewhat realistic.

I have also created a small mobile-home BAT, which is not uploaded yet but will be part of a set (hopefully) eventually:

feel free to leave your comments and requests...though i will try to work on any requests, i can not make any promises due to working on my own BATs as well as work, school, etc...but I will do what I can

[madhatter106 3,903]

Looks too shallow.

The edges of the roof should extend slightly past the walls.

No mullions in the windows?

No window sills?

Textures repeat badly, looking tiled.

Preview renders gives us more information than screenshots of the gmax interface; let's face it, it could look fantastic in gmax, but that wouldn't matter, because the downloaders will only see it "in-game," hence the necessity of posting preview renders.

I see you're enthusiastic - before you start making your "ton of custom content," really dig in and perfect one single building - take it to the furthest possible level of completion and detail and finish and polish.

Yes, it's going to take time. Lots of time. Hours. And hours. And more hours. But you'll learn a great deal.

[Crackdtoothgrin 0]

Originally posted by: madhatter106

Yes, it's going to take time. Lots of time. Hours. And hours. And more hours. But you'll learn a great deal.quote>

I concur.

Although, mobile homes don't need overhanging roofs. They have a gutter, sometimes, that hangs over, but more often than not that is part of that squared edge. I've lived in trailers a large portion of my life. They usually also come in lengths of 70 to 80 feet. 72' seems to be the guideline, although I lived in an 84' for a couple of years.

If you wanted to specialize in trailers, you could literally make dozens of variations.

And, for laughs, watch this video.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xavq2d_painfully-honest-and-epic-mobile-ho_fun

[EMTechie 6]

I see you're enthusiastic - before you start making your "ton of custom content," really dig in and perfect one single building - take it to the furthest possible level of completion and detail and finish and polish.quote>

Yeah, i understand that that is how most people learn best, but unfortunately that's not the case for me, it works better for me to work on many and advance with each one until i can get better and more detailed, hence why i'm starting with small ones and working my way up as it goes (i mean, seriously, how often to one-tile residential lots develop in the game?) 

thanks for the advice and i will try and follow it, also want to point out, like i said in the STEX with the one i uploaded, i chose not to put window sills / mullins on that building because, for whatever reason, most of those types of buildings have the windows basically go right into the wall with no visible windowsill...weird, i know, but that's how it is

[Timmystwin 201]

I suggest you make the buildings, but dont release them. Once they are made, post them here. Then you can improve them however you want with the critisizm provided and you will improve greatly untill you can eventually release good BATs.

[EMTechie 6]

thanks for the advise, and i will try and keep that in mind, timmystwin...and with that, here's a building i have been working on most of today and durring the few hours i had free yesterday...yeah, i know the colors / textures clash, but they're supposed to as this would be a low-wealth house:

UPDATE:

  well, seeing as having no responses to the house above, i've continued working on BATs to put into my game, and figured I'd see what people think....the first is another small R$ house, or more like a hut, which would maybe hold one family (if they didn't mind being a little cramped):

Also, I have a firestation design, which has actually been split into two seperate versions, but i'm only showing the later...this i have made as a volunteer fire station (in-game is cheeper, less trucks, smaller lot, etc...), for which the building has the main garage and a small office in the back.  The one shown below is a small fire station with the office part expanded to be the same length as the garage and to hold the living quarters for on-duty firefighters.  In-game, this one will have/has the same stats as the small fire station:

   

[jj88 23]

Looks interesting

I will be trying out your hydro electric plant btw, nice concept even though it does look a bit bland.

[EMTechie 6]

thanks...i know the main thing i have a problem with doing is the roof junk, and a bit with the textures...i just always feel that it looks too cluttered when i start putting the roof junk on...ofc, i don't spend much time looking at buildings from the top, so that may just be me XD

[Jasoncw 11,840]

imo, buildings don't really need much roof junk on them, I think it's more about the roof texture.