SimCity 3000 OFFICIAL THREAD

[colco2121 55]

Here is a new thread for discussion of SC3000,the BAP, and others. You can show off your BAP creations, show your cities, discuss issues, and more! All separate SC3K threads are to be moved here after I contact a moderator.

~~~~~~~Thread Rules~~~~~~~~

1. Do not discuss compatibility issues with modern OS's here. This thread is for all SC3K general discussion and support but not for compatibility. This will flood the forums

2. You are allowed to show your B.A.P creations here.

3. You can post pics, share cities, and discuss modding here. BUT you may not discuss SC4, SC2K, SCSocieties,SC classic, or any other version. Just SC3K, and Unlimited.

Please PM a moderator if things are not going well- Thanks Colco2121. :D NOTE: GENERAL DISCUSSION ONLY NOW.

Best,

colco2121.

[Moving the other threads here wouldn't make sense, as most of them deal with specific issues and thus aren't general discussion. I'll compile a list and link to them in this post at some point though - Astronelson]

  Edited July 23, 2012 by astronelson  

[sc3kufan 16]

still working on this city.. hope to be done with it soon. i think looks pretty good so far

 

[colco2121 55]

I agree, very unfinished. Likin' it still.

[AwkwrdPrtMskrt 22]

very rough and obviously unfinished concept here.. but this is the start of the first ever sc3000 cj which i plan on making sometime in the near future

Love this shot. BtW I see some custom buildings there. Care to share?

[shoptroll 20]

I've reinstalled SC3000 Unlimited on my computer, but it looks like the official landmarks won't install.  The installation .exe file won't quit and it doesn't look like the files are moved from the Windows temp directory to their proper location.  This is a Windows 7 x64 system.  Does anyone know where these files are supposed to go, so I can manually extract them from the .exe with 7zip?

 

EDIT: Figured it out.  Need to put extract the .PIN and .DAT file from each self-extracting archive (.exe) into a folder in Apps/PlugIn/<plugin name>.  Where <plugin name> is the filename shared by the .PIN and .DAT file.

[catty-cb 4,394]

The official SC3 and SC3K landmarks, manuals and updates, etc can be found on the City Builders site, now that EA Games has deleted the official sites for SimCity 3000 and SC3 Unlimited

 

http://citybuilders.co.nz/index.php/cbex

[catty-cb 4,394]

The original SimCity 3000 Exchange is still available via the Wayback Machine, and according to the front page

 

...If you are a SimCity 3000 Unlimited user, you should be pleased to know that you too can download and enjoy these fan creations ...

http://web.archive.org/web/20030417083104/http://simcity.ea.com/obe/Building_Exchange.html

 

I've been downloading files from this area and so far haven't had any problems downloading any of the buildings

 

-catty
 

[Morgan R 156]

Just getting back into the game after a decade away. Is there an alternate location to download the SC3KU landmarks from? I tried the City Builders site as posted above, but after registering there was immediately punted by the spamfilter, and blocked from accessing the site anymore. Cheers!

[catty-cb 4,394]

Just getting back into the game after a decade away. Is there an alternate location to download the SC3KU landmarks from? I tried the City Builders site as posted above, but after registering there was immediately punted by the spamfilter, and blocked from accessing the site anymore. Cheers!

 

Your account hadn't been blocked, the anti-spam program will send out messages if its takes against you for some reason, but it can't block your account only one of the admin staff can manually do that, and we haven't, I have put you into the anti-spam white list so you won't get any more messages from it.

 

-catty

[Huston 5,798]

Since this thread seems to be rarely used, I'll just add a few of my own photos of my cities. It's disappointing to see so few users still play SC3KU

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All grown cities Yet for some reason, only my European and Asian Cities seem to flourish. I go make an American styled city, and the budget crashes or stagnates

[catty-cb 4,394]

Lovely pictures thanks for posting them and yes it is a shame that so few users still play SC3KU, someone did start a SC3KU city journal at CB, but its been quite some time since it was last updated

 

http://www.citybuilders.co.nz/index.php/forum/city-journals/134-new-york-3000-unlimited

 

-catty

[Morgan R 156]

Thank you kindly, Catty, for the assist!

What really continues to draw me back to SC3KU is the incredible East Asian graphics set and theme, something totally missing from SC4. There is probably quite a bit of nostalgia too, given that I was playing it heavily during a very happy and exciting period of my life. Nonetheless, it can still hold its own, and I would probably recommend it to someone new to the city-builder genre, without worrying about the intricacies of later games.

[catty-cb 4,394]

Thank you kindly, Catty, for the assist!.

 

No worries, glad to help, I see you used the coupon code, if you need more points there is another coupon code on this site (...in fact all the main sites have them), see this post

 

 

The SimCity 2000 cities that were mentioned in that post eventually got deleted from the CBEX as no one ever downloaded any of them and we are in the middle of moving the site so was having a clear-out.

 

I'd recommend SC3KU to anyone, its a nice well thought out game and despite its age can still match newer games that have been released since then.

 

-catty

[nathanthemayor 1,261]

I assume this is the correct thread to post this, but I play SC 3KU a lot(And have since I was 6/7 years old), but one thing in the game that I still am puzzled about: 

 

Does anyone know how to beat the "Better Betterfield" scenario? Every time I play it I replace the power plants w/ fusion power, relocate industry and put in place all environmental ordinances and place country clubs to increase land value/aura yet I have never been able to win the scenario. Does anyone know how specifically to?(I'l get some photos of my sc3k cities up soon)

[catty-cb 4,394]

I never really got into doing the scenarios, but am feeling guilt yet another board I've missed updating the CB website links on when we moved hosts and web addresses, to download the SimCity 3000 or SC3K files go here

 

https://community.simtropolis.com/clubs/26-city-builders-website/cbex

 

The SimCity 3 group if you think mini forum, etc is here

 

https://community.simtropolis.com/clubs/26-city-builders-website/cb-groups/item/19-simcity-3

 

Not much in it at the moment, so I wouldn't worry to much about setting up an account to see what's there, the member currently on site is vinlansc3k which sort of suggests he may be worth asking.

 

-catty

[nathanthemayor 1,261]

Been wanting to post these for a while, but I didn't take the pictures until a few days ago;

 

This is a recreation of my hometown(Not current location) of Fresno, California. Pretty impressed with how it came out

This is a Dubai-style airport located outside a major city(I know the south runway looks close to the development, but planes are allowed to only takeoff to the left and it can only be used by small jets) in comparison to how Dubai is building a huge airport out in the desert

and here is the downtown of the same city. Note I had to plop the tall buildings because for some reason i can't get land values high enough for them to grow;

I have several more photos from SC3k i'm in the process of taking(Aka setting up conditions in the game, etc)

[catty-cb 4,394]

Very nice thanks for sharing, look forward to seeing more

[Huston 5,798]

Beautiful stuff! Btw, to shortcut to high-astronomical land values on SC3K(U), just plop a bunch of parks (line them up or cluster them) and add utilities in close proximity (safety, health, education). Really bumps it up quite a bit. Especially the parks (Sims on the game seem to love'em quite a bit, which is still understatement).

[nathanthemayor 1,261]

Hmmm well I dunno I tried it at the aforementioned location and still land values wouldn't get to acceptable levels. Also i hate to say this but it would have probably ruined the concept of a "Downtown"(Aka more services means less room for skyscrapers) 

But anyways, here's the rest of the images I put together from SC3k:

 

Here's my recreation of Washington, D.C. In my opinion, didn't turn out too bad but it still has some issues

Here's the downtown of a European-style city I made

Here is my recreation attempt at NYC; like with the Dubai-styled city, despite plopping lots of services and parks i've had trouble getting land values up to allow big skyscrapers(Also a bummer that highways cannot tunnel, hence the bridge)

A mosaic shot of my largest city to date(It is actually a heavily modified terrain version of the Riverfront starter town); at the max is has had around 575k sims and I continue to grow it out(But unfortunately it has been suffering through the so-called "Great Depression" of SimCity 3000)

And finally from another SC3k work, I recreated(To the best of my abilities) the town center of a famous movie town. Can anyone guess the movie?

(Hint look at the building on the square-that should give it away immediately) 

To wrap this up, I can't believe how long I have been playing this game(Since I was like 7/8 years old, now i'm a freshman in college), how great it is(IMO it is my favorite among the simcity games) and that the disc has survived this long without dying(

[EG0611 57]

God I missed simcity 3000 and I want to replay it. Anyone know where I can find it so I can post pictures too?

[catty-cb 4,394]

God I missed simcity 3000 and I want to replay it. Anyone know where I can find it so I can post pictures too?

 

you could try here   http://www.amazon.com/SimCity-3000-Unlimited-Pc/dp/B00004T1M7

 

Hi nathanthemayor

 

Great pictures I love region overviews so was pleased to see your Washington, D.C. and Riverfront starter town pictures they look great as do your other pictures

[EG0611 57]

The original SimCity 3000 Exchange is still available via the Wayback Machine, and according to the front page

 

 

 

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20030417083104/http://simcity.ea.com/obe/Building_Exchange.html

 

I've been downloading files from this area and so far haven't had any problems downloading any of the buildings

 

-catty

 

 

I have a question, I downloaded SC3 and it's working fine. Now I want to use these mods but I dont understand where to put .bld files. Also I did not find any bld file in SC3 documents.

 

Could somebody help me?

[catty-cb 4,394]

Well I've just tried downloading a few and all of them were .bld files (not all of the files can be downloaded), if you do have a .bld file then try saving it in your

 

C:/Programs Files/Maxis/SimCity 3000/Buildings/

 

folder, if you have downloaded a folder containing a .dat  and  .pin file, then try copying the folder over to here

 

C:/Programs Files/Maxis/SimCity 3000/Apps/PlugIn/

 

Its been a while since I added anything new to the game, so hopefully this works, but equally it may not.

 

-catty

[former_member 665840 125]

Been messing around with the BAP lately to see what it's capable of:

 

I'll be honest and say that I am not a fan of the overall design of the program and its UI, nor its method of rendering buildings (although I've been able to work around the latter somewhat via decals to simulate ambient occlusion).

[Huston 5,798]

I have to admit, that's a very impressive building to be made on SC3K's BAT tool. I had tried using it once several years ago, never could get a decent design. I'm really impressed with this

[catty-cb 4,394]

Been messing around with the BAP lately to see what it's capable of:...

 

 

They both look great, especially the skyscraper ... remember if you ever want to upload them somewhere as a member of CB you have 50mb briefcase available to you in the CBEX.

 

https://community.simtropolis.com/clubs/26-city-builders-website/cbex

 

Briefcases can only be seen by CB registered users

 

[Nesral Sredna 62]

Been messing around with the BAP lately to see what it's capable of:

 

Awesome buildings! 

[Odainsaker 2,134]

That is wonderful work, Yellowfin!

Building Architect Plus tool for SimCity 3000 was actually accessibly clever for what Maxis was trying to offer, a voxel tool almost decade ahead of Minecraft, but it was still a notoriously difficult and constraining program to work with.  Those who crafted sleek modern skyscrapers or low-rise modern European streetscapes were amazing.  Many real-world historic buildings were much tougher, and I only managed two satisfactory buildings...
 
Dàyàn Tǎ, Xi'an - Sony Tower, Osaka, Ōsaka:
 

 
I think just the signage on the Sony Tower were actually imported decals, and everything else was just bashing Maxis-provided decals and hoping they would stick.
 
After some fan cajoling, Maxis later released the SC3URK, which allowed players to instead actually directly paint, cut-'n'-paste, and import all four views of their buildings in a manner similar to the original SimCity 2000 SCURK.  We didn't have a popularized gmax at the time, let alone a lighting system tweaked for SC3000's look, so some of us just made buildings through brute pixel plucking.
 
Bullock's Wilshire Department Store, Los Angeles:


 
I admit, even though the coloring, lighting, and shadowing are far divergent from Maxis, I was very proud of pixel plucking Bullock's Wilshire for SC3URK.  I wasn't using a 3D program at the time, so everything had to be counted out in the isometric projection.  SC3000 did not have night lighting, but I did once color adjust these to look like night and created nightlights in Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro, just to imagine the pretend effect.  I one day do want to make this one for SimCity 4 with actual nightlights.
 
Russ Building, San Francisco:


I was stumped on how to fill out the block, as SC3000 did not allow non-square lots. I think I was gathering pictures of surrounding low-rise buildings with dread when SimCity 4 came out.  I think a Monte Cristo version of this building ultimately appeared in Cities XL, but it would be nice to see it properly in SimCity.
 
I admit, I was not too great of a fan of SimCity 3000, as I wasn't thrilled with some of their artistic choices.  Remember, Maxis was initially going to make it fully 3D, but it was painfully clear at the time that their ambition was greater than the available consumer market technology, and so they suddenly had to whiplash back and start entirely over with an alternative compromise graphic scheme and with little time left for development.  Still, it is amazing that they did give us tools like Building Architect Plus and the SimCity 3000 Unlimited Rendering Kit.

[catty-cb 4,394]

Odainsaker those are great looking buildings 

[former_member 665840 125]

Thanks for the kind feedback. Also, Odainsaker, I'm struggling to comprehend just how beautiful your version of Bullock's Wilshire looks.