simpeg-forum-threads SPAM - SimPeg Agricultural Mod

[simgod45177 0]

So, is this gonna consist of ploppables and growables?  And what about rewards, surprises and Landmarks?  I dont want you to give away too much, but juicy tidbits of info like that are good to dangle in front of our faces.

I havent seen this info posted, so I thought I'd ask the question.

[citiesxlfan42 27]

Wow! This looks really cool! I can't wait for release.

I have a suggestion. In the very first post, you have farm houses there. I know they are supposed to be kind of rural (but aren't all farms) but they look too run down. Here in Eastern Wisconsin, we have very nice farm houses. We have a few like that and the ones with the barns falling apart, but most of them are like taking a suburban home and putting them on a farm. My suggestion is to make one or two more classy homes for the farmhouse set. But anyway, great job!

[Pegasus 2,814]

Originally posted by: simgod45177

So, is this gonna consist of ploppables and growables?  And what about rewards, surprises and Landmarks?  I dont want you to give away too much, but juicy tidbits of info like that are good to dangle in front of our faces.

I havent seen this info posted, so I thought I'd ask the question.quote>

What we call "the core" SPAM" will be focused as a complete replacement for the game's default IR (Industrial Resource) farming lots... which are all growables.  Once the core SPAM is installed, it then becomes the primary dependency for a flood of add-ons... that will include more growable lots, optional mods to alter some aspects of the SPAM... and plenty of custom ploppable lots which will be developed by the SPAM team and, hopefully, by anyone who wants to create and share them.

Of course, the details of the ploppable SPAM Irrigation Canals (SPIC) have already been mentioned. We also have a new ploppable item called SPAR... which I'm not at liberty to discuss at the moment.

Along with those, many of the ploppables planned are SPAM versions of basic, functional lots such as freight stations designed as large grain elevators, fruit packer plants and cattle shipping yards. These will all have reduced capacity & costs so that several can be plopped in any given area or city... and can be strategically located to reduce the length of freight trips.

Another example would be the SPAM Water Treatment plant... which will also be smaller and have lower costs and capacity. For some reason, the game-default farm lots are among the worst water  polluters in the game. The SPAM will be cleaning that up substantially... but it will still be nice to have an appropriate water treatment plant suitable for both the SPAM and the MTP.

As to rewards... none are planned as part of the initial core release. But there is certainly an almost unlimited potential for extra toys and goodies... both conditional and non-conditional.

By default design, the farms in the game were intended only as a temporary form of development to help you get your town growing early on. Everything in the game, we have discovered, is designed to literally destroy all desirability for farming as your town grows.  So conventionally, it would be difficult to make conditional farming rewards when all aspects of your farm development are steadily decreasing... not expanding.

The SPAM changes that, though... re-engineering farming to be continually as vital as any other industry type. So the door will now be open to conditional mods and rewards for an ever-expanding agriculture community.  

[kolnikov inc 1]

damn i cant wait till this comes out...i'll have to rethink everthing about rural/farming communities.

[buckbeach 8]

Originally posted by: Pegasus

We have all been very busy these past few days with the SPAM mod and I just realized that we haven't issued any progress reports or even a shameless plug or two.  So here you go...

Although we can get pretty excited about what's on the menu, the development  agreed that we do not want to reveal too much of what will be included in the SPAM when released. If you'll pardon the pun, we don't want to give away the farm.  [drum hit]  

But I can tell you that we have had some recent modding successes and many of the aspects that made using the farms a PITA... have just gone away. Most of the city conditions that deterred farm demand and development have either been eliminated or reduced significantly.

When the SPAM eventually breaks out (probably in about 2 weeks ), it will change forever how you may have used the farms in the past. The player will have far more control over what develops... and no longer are farms just something to get that starter city going.

We continue to appreciate all of your support... and patience... in this endeavor. We are globally working 24/7 to get it completed and released as soon as possible.

 quote>

PEG, this reply is a shameless bump to an idea I came up with in Nov 2008. It seemed to generate interest at this site, SC4 Devotion and with your own, but the end result seem to be "you go guy" and do it yourself .  I do not have "talent on loan from God"  (to quote a phrase)  and I can't seem to do the simplest items with the Lot Editor, etc. 

Please bear with me as I copy paste the original post and your then reply. 

This post is more than just a request for new lots or BATS, it's a concept, so I thought I would start this here.  After seeing a new creation (can't remember whether it was a lot or BAT) of a rather nice power plant that was under construction, I started thinking that it would be nice if somehow the jobs needed in RL to construct such a large complex project, were assigned to it.  After all these RL projects sometime take many years to complete.   

This got me thinking (dangerous for my old shunken brain).  There are many Industrial plopables that have been create that do have functional jobs but the problem is they do not generate freight.  Well, construction and other labor service industries do not generate much freight in RL if any, only the manufacturers.  Why not have these workers captured for use by creating a series or class of Industrial Plopables. Examples:  carpenters, plumbers, air conditioning and heating workers, iron and sheet metal workers, etc, etc.

These companies could be large ground up builder's (residential, commercial, civic and industrial buildings, bridges, road/street, tunnel, railroads), or smaller service outfits.  They could capture the carpenters, plumbers, air conditioning and heating people,  iron and sheet metal workers, oil well diggers, agricultural support companies, on and on.  The list of this class of mid-level educated working citizens is sorely missing from our game.

Here is the part I do not know, are there any other game issues that are skewed (screwed up) when you have these type of Plop Industrials, like taxes.

Your Relpy:

I believe you have hit on a great idea.      

Although many of the occupations/service oprganizations you mentioned could be argued to be commercial, not industrial...  I suspect you have revealed how we can turn a negative into a positive.

The negative of which I speak is the missing element of custom industrial and commercial ploppables. For industry, that is freight. For commercial, it's customers.

Technically, all custom ploppable IND & COM lots still generate freight or attract customers... but those lots can't make a connection to the network. So all freight trips are long... and all customers are low.

Traditionally, I have cheated my way around this by altering the queries.... so that Freight Trips would read as "Productive" or "Profitable", etc...  and Customers would always be "Happy"... or I would just omit that stat altogether.

The positive then, would be to embrace that negative as a desirable feature for a custom industrial lot that does not normally generate freight... or a commerical lot that does not normally attract customers. Edit out the productivity stat from the queries... and we can embrace the lot as fully functional and glitch-free... instead of considering it as just "mostly functional".

Of course, you will have to give these new types of lots a catchy name and acronym... so they can be easily identified by the downloading community as fully functional ploppables. Remember... marketing is everything.  Give them less and convince them its more... that sort of thing.

Something like:   ZOP (Zero Output Ploppable) or NOP (No Output Ploppable).

* You'll probably want to dust off the old thesaurus and come up with something better as neither of those are making me want to rush and buy it...IMO. 

I hope that maybe some form of this idea can/will be incorporated with this project.

Having worked in and around agricultrual communities many of my working years (eg  Imperial Valley region of California), I know that there are many local jobs that can not be just thrown into the service (commercial) secture or do not actuallly result in freight. 

While originally  I started thinking of this for your MTP,  this new project of your team may be a natural home for it.

That's my pitch.

Buck

[crewsgw 0]

Wow!! Great work, like everyone else I'm pretty excited about this release. I'm especially excited about the grain elevators, being from a rural area in southern Indiana, I try to make my rural towns and cities as realistic as possible with a good grain elevator. For a while I've been modeling one of those big concrete elevators, but work and other things keep getting in the way so I have no time to finish. I would love to see more of those in SC4.

[Spoti 1]

you chaps are just awesome

[JayStimson 211]

I'm still waiting. Are we there yet ?

Oh yeah. And I want a pony too.

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

We are still alpha testing the crap out of the SPAM...

I have been running a "plugs-in' test... basically testing the alpha SPAM with all my normal plug-ins installed...

I am pleased to report that nothing has exploded yet.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Originally posted by: abcvs

We are still alpha testing the crap out of the SPAM...

I have been running a "plugs-in' test... basically testing the alpha SPAM with all my normal plug-ins installed...

I am pleased to report that nothing has exploded yet.quote>

Soooooo... About two weeks?

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Originally posted by: SimHoTToDDy

Originally posted by: abcvs

We are still alpha testing the crap out of the SPAM...

I have been running a "plugs-in' test... basically testing the alpha SPAM with all my normal plug-ins installed...

I am pleased to report that nothing has exploded yet.quote>

Soooooo... About two weeks?

quote>

Absolutely...   definitely two weeks.

...sorry about the lack of images...  I really must see if I can sneak any more pics out of the development workshop...   gets all a bit Weta Workshop, Peter Jacksonish in there...   hush hush...  "don't be hasty"...

[IrvingTwoSmokes 10]

Cant... wait... much... longer...

[The_City_Builder 299]

Im guessing with this mod, it'll be a lot easier to create rural farming communities. Can't wait for its release, keep up the good work.

[guystupois 1]

uhh so how long? two weeks? too long. its been more than a few mondays for you. Go Pegasus!

[SlashFan2000 1]

Love your work Peg. Looking forward to this one too. So, if this one is nearly finished, what will the next project be? Are you taking requests?

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

SPAM Beta Test

The SPAM is now ready for beta testing in the PCG (Prefered Customer Group) forum at www.simpeg.com.

If you are already a member of SimPeg and the PCG, you will be able to see the PCG forum, and download the pre-release SPAM beta for testing.

If you are not a member of the PCG, and would like to be part of the beta test, please send a PM to:

abcvs, Becca, Paeng or Vab423 over at Simpeg, and we will add you to the PCG team.

*Pegasus is currently busy under the hood of the SPAM with grease up to his elbows so please PM one of us, rather than him.   

All we ask in return for being a PCG member is that you will download, test the crap out of, and report back any issues with the beta version back in the PCG Forum at Simpeg.

We are now at the point where we would like as many people who are willing, with different set-ups and plug-in configurations to see if we are ready to release to the masses.

So if you are up for it, what are you waiting for?  Get on over to www.simpeg.com...  

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

SPAM meets SPAR meets SPAM-IC meets PPOND meets MTP   

 

[JayStimson 211]

abcvs: I'm guessing that's peg's plopable transparent water your using ... correct ?

Is there a lot to interface the irrigation canals with the peg stream or pond lots ?

BTW, beautiful pictures.

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

I am using the PPond ploppable water for the lake and larger streams. The SPAM-IC also uses the PPond water texture.

There is no transition yet, that I know of, however plopping a straight or the floodgate next to the lake and then detailing in with PPond flora water worked just fine.

[Liberater444 11]

Looking good! I'm not a real farm type of guy, but this looks like great work!

[TheCityCentral 33]

So, is their any new news on the SPAM? any idea on the public release date?

[drudruenos 0]

so much for two weeks. After 4 months still no sign.

[paeng 2,510]

well... sometimes Real Life is just like a big fat rock sitting right on your path... nothing to do but take the long detour...

[joshriddle 29]

I'm being patient.

However I am starting to get antzy for the release of all this.

[Threcria 0]

As am I, when does it come out again?

[alexis101 4]

any news? Is it out yet?

[His Divine Hand 244]

I heard it might come out. . . in two weeks

I think SPAM is like the NAM.  It will come out when it is done.  The boss man of the project had been busy irl, but has been seen a bit more often around his haunts, so maybe work will begin again on this project.

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Originally posted by: His Divine Hand

I heard it might come out. . . in two weeks

I think SPAM is like the NAM.  It will come out when it is done.  The boss man of the project had been busy irl, but has been seen a bit more often around his haunts, so maybe work will begin again on this project.
quote>

Yup...  thanks for being patient everyone..  unfortunately the SPAM did get severely delayed due to a RLS.

...and just like the NAM it will come out when it is done.

However the gossip does have a shred of truth, and the Pegabossman has been around again a bit more in  the last couple of weeks...

So without promising anything...   we are hopeful that we can get a public beta out soon.

We will let you know as soon as it is available.

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

I heard it might come out. . . in two weeks

I think SPAM is like the NAM. It will come out when it is done. The boss man of the project had been busy irl, but has been seen a bit more often around his haunts, so maybe work will begin again on this project.<br type="_moz">

Well... I appreciate that it seems like the SPAM has been a long time coming, and yes it has been a very long 'two weeks' for all of us.

The good news is that Pegasus, has now given the rest of the PEGPROD team the green light to release the SPAM as a public beta.

I can now confirm that the SPAM is currently at this very moment as we speak... (do we speak on a forum?...) This means that the SPAM is now being actively worked on and our 'two weeks' is now looking more and more like a really really real 'two weeks'.

Stay tuned for more news... coming up... in the next... two weeks!

[buckbeach 8]

Craig-Abcvs- I appreciate you reporting this to us here. I look forward to a workable SPAM, but, quite honest the two weeks tongue in cheek references is/are waring very thin (to me) and are far from humorous at this point. Sorry to be such a grouch but I would prefer a more serious approach, even if it means no time table at all.

Buck