Screw Pile Developments - SC4 South Pacific Down Under Division

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Screw Pile Developments - SimCity 4 Down Under Division

Well gosh everyone else seems to have their own site these days, and exchanges, ending in -EX; so I thought hey why can't I have one as well...

Welcome to the official (cos that makes it sound well... official) ... 

Screw Pile Developments - SimCity 4 South Pacific Down Under Division

... or just 'screwpile' for short, because that is quite a mouthful and no one would ever remember it!

Well actually, while all this might sound grand, and it certainly is a lot grander than what I had in mind originally, (just a basic public file sharing page), in reality, this is still just a few file sharing pages prettied up with a cool WordPress template. It also provides my own online backup for my content, which I just so happened to have now made available, for anyone that would like to use it.

Most importantly though, it does contain all the custom content that I have released so far for SimCity 4 Rush Hour in one place, currently just over 30 files.

All of my content on the Screw Pile Exchange is also available on the PLEX on the STEX. Share the love around I say. 

The only difference is that all the in game images have been removed from the zip file folders to make them 'lighter' to download. In game images for the lots can be viewed on the STEX. 

The files on the Screw Pile Exchange or SPEX (well I was hardly going to call it anything other than some thing ending in -EX, right?) ...all contain a readme file which should, (strangely enough) be read before installing any of the files on your computer.

Dependencies

Virtually all of the files on the exchange are 'lots'; that is they normally require other files called 'dependencies' that contain the actual building models and props, to be downloaded from the various SimCity exchanges. The links to these files are found in the readme file.

Maxis Files Dependencies and Updates
Edited - 15 August 2019 

The original purpose of the Screwpile was to provide a place to download the extensive library of extra Maxis files, following the closure of the official EA SimCity.com site.  For a time it did serve that purpose well, however the best place to now get all those files is right here at Simtropolis.

Support

The best place to get support for any of my custom content here.

So what are you waiting for... head on over to my little corner of the web and have a rummage around... who knows you might even find something useful!

*No registration or anything prissy like that is required!

Cheers!

Craig-Abcvs

[sejr99999 8,379]

your website looks good

it's nice to have the links for the maxis files as I will soon get a new computer and will

need to reload all those files have always enjoyed your contributions to the game

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Updated links in first post.

  Edited July 7, 2015 by Craig-Abcvs  

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Updated links.

No links?

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Well I have splashed out a little on a shiny new domain name...  may I introduce to the interwebs:

http://screwpiledevelopments.com/

 

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Pfft... Pfft... Is this thing on?

Ah yes, there we are!   The Screwpile still standing strong, on its screwed into the rock foundations since… um… I think 2012.

I know I have made more than one vauge promise over the last – few – years – to well update the broken links in the SPEX   (may the prop pox of a thousand camels be upon you Dropbox for messing with the public download folder, which was working perfectly fine until you faffed with it.)  Well, anyway I am pleased to announce that finally…  finally I have now updated all the links so that they actually point somewhere useful, like…

Drum roll please…

The SPEX on the STEX!

Oh… well to be completely honest that will basically bring up the complete content list for all of my lots here at Simtropolis – but good old ST has been going for a pretty long time now and  it is still going pretty solidly strong.

It could be reasoned that the 'pile site isn’t really needed anymore, – yes it did serve a very useful service in the interim period after the EA SimCity.com site was closed and before all those important Maxis files were uploaded in one place on Simtropolis.

But… hey I am kinda fond of my little site and I have also just paid the mapping, domain name fee again which will keep us good for another two years at least.

As well as updating the broken links, I have been in and had a good tidy up of the pages, created a couple of new ones – in particular there is a new Download SimCity 4 page.   No, its not free, but the price is pretty reasonable and it comes all patched and ready to go.

I am also fixing up some of the images that I had hosted at Photobucket – again a while back they decided that you can only now upload 250 images for free – um well I have over 5000 images on my Photobucket so unless I want to pay for one of their reasonably pricey plans, all my PB images now have their lovely (not) watermark all over them.

Also updated are the New Carpathia tabs, which now includes the current Carpathia IV and Tales stories.   Mr. Fox still uses SimCity 4 images in his stories for terrestrial and city scenes, so entirely worthy of a menu tab on the ‘pile.

Anyway you all would be very welcome to take a visit over at Screwpile Developments, my little corner of the sim-universe.

 

[catty-cb 4,413]

14 hours ago, Craig-Abcvs said:

.....I am also fixing up some of the images that I had hosted at Photobucket – again a while back they decided that you can only now upload 250 images for free – um well I have over 5000 images on my Photobucket so unless I want to pay for one of their reasonably pricey plans, all my PB images now have their lovely (not) watermark all over them

Its looking good ... also its worth checking over at the Wayback Machine as your tutorial here

https://screwpiledevelopments.com/tutorials/recessed-culverts/

Obviously has the watermark on the pictures

But if your webpage has been archived by the wayback and its got previous snaphots of it

https://web.archive.org/web/20160404121526/http://screwpiledevelopments.com/tutorials/recessed-culverts/

then your pictures are available without the watermark on them

-catty

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Well I still do have access, to all my images on photobucket and they are not watermarked there, it would just be a case of finding them in what ever folder I uploaded them to, downloading them, and then uploading them directly to Wordpress (which hosts the site).    I'll need to check what the storage limit on Wordpress is, as it is currently on a free plan there.   It seems all the file hosting places are now all pretty much going down the paid route, I guess that is economic reality - but it is a bit of a pain when you have invested your content heavily in one site like photobucket.   Nothing lasts forever - especially when its free.

Edit - checked at Wordpress..

"You are currently using 13.5 MB out of 3.0 GB upload limit (0%)."

Ok well no need to panic there just yet.

[catty-cb 4,413]

12 hours ago, Craig-Abcvs said:

Well I still do have access, to all my images on photobucket and they are not watermarked there...

Which is great and you are still active .... the wayback tho does mean it might be possible to retrieve pictures where tutorial or city journal has got badly damaged due to changes with the picture hosting

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

SPAM Generator and Gas

Well...  so um...  I kinda made a new lot...  SPAM gas and diesel stop.    Re-lot of the PEG container power generator, so it still functions to produce power.

Ya know... even after all these years you still get a little kick out of whipping something up in LE, and seeing it in your game.

You will get a random couple of pickups, and billboard sign, bulldoze and plop again if you don't like what you get.

Dependencies: Log Town Container Generator, MTP Superpack, SPAM resource.

Here ya go - nothing fancy, stick in with the PEG container generator folder or something:
MTP_SPAM_Generator_Gas_0a6dca59.SC4Lot

 

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Oh For Crying Out Loud - Its a Crowd!

This falls into one of those - "I can't believe no one (well me that is) ever thought of this before" kind of things.

Ever want some animated Sims away from other lots just kinda standing around, hanging about on undeveloped terrain?   A simple little 1x1 lot without a base texture, so that it doesn't matter what terrain mod is installed - and can then be terrain detailed just how you like?   

Well I dragged the Loteditorbetamaximizer^TM  out of the cupboard again, and this time I had to even crank up the old Reader... (to get rid of those pesky base textures)...  that was a mission, I kinda had forgotten how to do it, but I managed to find an old tutorial by Paeng buried in one of my dropbox folders...  so anyhoo...

These lots will provide 6 different animated 'crowds' that can be placed anywhere on undeveloped terrain.   They have no base textures so will blend in with any terrain mod.  They can be terrain detailed with any Mayor mode flora.

This pack contains six 1x1 lots:

*Three's a Crowd
*Small Crowd
*Medium Crowd
*Large Crowd
*Random Walk Crowd
*Random Kids Crowd

Menu: Park near the top by the grass park.

Stats: Same as grass park

Installation: Documents/SimCity 4/Plugins

No dependencies.  Yay.

Click here for zippy.

 

 

Crowds.zip

[catty-cb 4,413]

pictures look great and I see there is someone on a bike

... was just reading David post over on the Caringbridge site and you can certainly see from the pictures he's posted how the accident happened

8 minutes ago, Craig-Abcvs said:

... that was a mission, I kinda had forgotten how to do it, but I managed to find an old tutorial by Paeng buried in one of my dropbox folders...  so anyhoo...

Paeng passed on to me a number of his tutorials and I'm hoping to eventually get them all on the omnibus (DAMN tutorial is already on there), feel free to add it to the omnibus .... I know its a mess at the moment but long-term we are hoping to have something that people will find useful.

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

There is a lot of stuff still on our "secret laboratory"  aka dropbox files...   Paeng had it pretty well organised it will just take time to sort.

[catty-cb 4,413]

15 hours ago, Craig-Abcvs said:

.... aka dropbox files...   Paeng had it pretty well organised it will just take time to sort.

yes same here ... thru dropbox was a problem as Paeng had set up his SC4 site using dropbox for downloading the files, so unfortunately while his website still exists you can't download anything from it

http://paeng.e-workers.de/gallery/city_journals/index.php

Hopefully they should be on the STEX, but I have copies of all of them, including all of Krio files that Paeng was hosting on his site, he also has a Banished website but I'm avoiding it, as its been taken over by Tapatalk and the last time I logged on I got bombarded with emails from them .... telling me I was now a tapatalk member and could I confirm my log and password details .... eventually stopped but it was pretty annoying while it lasted.

Anyway looking at the tutorials, I've got

there is a folder of smileys in there as well, also got a number of logo's and I would say one of those folders belongs to you

Also got

Spoiler

3pontoons
Abandoned_Parkinglot_99a8a6bc
AutShredder_expanded
Background3D
Bikepath_Extenders
Castle Walk v100
CleanerMaxisFarmFields
Cranes_MMP
Diagonal_Ind-Fillers_and_extenders
El Rail Embakments
Embankments_v3a
English_Oak_RT01_MMP
FarmEquipmentMarket
Faux Walls
FBI_Downtown
flag_plaza01_9a9000c2
Grungy Ind
Horses MMP
House-on-Rock
IllegalFarm_9c95ab74
InterIslandWaterTaxi
Intro_Agriculture
Intro_Dreamscapes
Intro_Logging
Intro_Mars
Intro_MountainTheme
Intro_Tropical
Island_Air_b100
Llamas
Mars_Rocks_MMP
maxis_farm_MMP
Modern Water Treatment Facility
Modular_Industrial_Plaza
Modular_Truckstop_Pack_v100
MTP_LoggingFreightStation_RR
Newman_IND_Relots
NoReward_Landmarks
NoTrucks
Offroad_MMP
paeng_breakbulkstation
paeng_CityWalls
paeng_fishing_guys_v100
paeng_fix
paeng_Gated_Entrance
Paeng_Grunge_Concrete
paeng_Hangglider Generator_5ac220b2
Paeng_Hospital_Modular_b100
paeng_Lexington
paeng_mtp_old_mine
paeng_MTP_Rail_v101
Paeng Pocket Plaza
paeng_Pond_Park
paeng_PrivateSchool
paeng_Sandstone_Booster
Paeng_SG_Nimby
paeng_SG_Rural_Homes_Mod_beta
paeng_small_stand
paeng_SpirulinaVats
Paeng - Three Pontoon Boats (park)
paeng_U3x3_Incinerator_v2_ddd20bfa
paeng_UrbanCanals
Paeng Urban Scrapyard
ParkAdministration
Park Bridge Extender_Pack_v100
ParkingLots_Vol02
Parks Administration
pasture-airport-patch
Path_simple
Pa_Yellow_Garden
Pa_YG_AddOn1
PEG_FortPegasus_fire_police
PE MM Tents
Playgrounds_205
ploppable
Pocket_Parks
rec_campsite_beta
Rich Bandstand
Round_Playground_205
RT01_Waggons_MMP
sandbox_regions
sandstone_parks_beta
Sanomatalo_Offices
SAT_COM
scarecrow_b8d8b54f
Security Fence
SG_9x7_GooberGenConventionCenter
SG_Flowers_pub_MMP
Shedd_Aquarium_1ba67f68
SimCrowds
Simple Forest Paths
SmallBoats_MMP
somy_relots
SPAM_Accessories_Paeng_Vol01
SPAM_Accessories_Paeng_Vol02
SPAM_Fillers
SPAM Irrigation Canal - PPond-Transition v a101
SPAM_Museum_101
Sports Stand
Spotlights
SSTP_White_PreBeta
StreetSideDiagonalParking
Surfshacks
Surfshacks_pub
Tall-IND-Fence_b100
Texture_Pack
tg_sanomatalo
The Bondell Bandshell Park_rondell_notrees
The Bondell Bandshell Park small_7bfe4264
TouristBusParking
Tracks_rural_public
Turbulences_Vol02
Turbulence_Transition_102
Urban Funicular
zPaengSandstone_SVPlazzaPak1_Override
zz_LTC_AddOn_low-job-patch

@Tyberius06  should have copies of them, and also they should be over in my club.

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Good lawd - a folder with my name on it!

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

MTP-SPAM Growable Commercial 

Well...  you know how for years we have been doing the 2x5, 3x5, and 5x5 for the MTP-SPAM residential log cabins et al... 

I had an idea.   It'd work for commercial too right...  right?   Wouldn't it?   You know - like a country cafe selling orange juice or lemonade from their own orchard kind of thing.

Just two very alpha variations so far - Organic Oranges and Organic Lemons   (prop families for variation).

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Oranges and Lemons, Tomatoes and Hops

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Dirk's Organic Dairy

This evening's CS$ offering from the Loteditorbetamaximizer^TM is a 3x5 dairy with small store to sell organic milk direct from the farm gate.   

Look who I found lurking in the Simgoober SG_Vol01 prop pack...!   I mean really...

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

General Store, Gas & Mechanical

This evening we have for you the local 3x5 general store, with gas and a mechanics workshop.

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Make That a Double

I have not used the prop family shop front building model or the rear building prop family this time as I wanted the doubles to have the same front and rear.   I figured that they would have been built at the same time, and the builder would have used the same plans for both buildings.

Next on the list are triples for the 3x5 versions...  do we want all the shop fronts and backs all the same or do we want variation?   Or maybe one of each?   I don't want to go crazy with the set - we are up to twelve lots so far.  I picked lemons and tomatoes for the 2x5 doubles, I will probably do oranges and hops for the 3x5 triples...  probably, maybe.

[CorinaMarie 29,899]

3 minutes ago, Craig-Abcvs said:

do we want all the shop fronts and backs all the same or do we want variation?

I'd go with variation. I suspect the builders knowing they are going to be building three buildings in a row would prolly mix them up a little bit.

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Just now, CorinaMarie said:

I'd go with variation. I suspect the builders knowing they are going to be building three buildings in a row would prolly mix them up a little bit.

Yeah, that is what I was thinking, doubles it made sense to match (maybe - that could just be the control freak coming out in me), but triples yeah I think that could be a bit more random.    In small town 'anywhere' those shop facades are usually an eclectic mix of styles.   Especially once you get into the main street shopping strip.

I have always liked liked this set of rural shop facades and stores by Pegasus; they are originally from the MTP CS$ replacement mod.  I always kick myself if I forget to click historical, and they develop into something else - or the tile develops beyond CS$ and all you can get to grow is CS$$ or CS$$$.

[CorinaMarie 29,899]

4 minutes ago, Craig-Abcvs said:

I always kick myself if I forget to click historical, and they develop into something else - or the tile develops beyond CS$ and all you can get to grow is CS$$ or CS$$$.

Seems you need NKO.

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

4 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

Seems you need NKO.

Really?   I am most intrigued.  I am a rural player - spread out - low population - that one advisor guy hates me for it lol.

I don't mind a few posh high wealth sims moving in, but I do like my commercial areas to retain a level of rustic aggie charm.

[CorinaMarie 29,899]

3 minutes ago, Craig-Abcvs said:

Really?

Really.

 

3 minutes ago, Craig-Abcvs said:

I don't mind a few posh high wealth sims moving in, but I do like my commercial areas to retain a level of rustic aggie charm

With NKO it let's you decide where the elite snobs R & C $$$ move in.

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Just a sec...  Make that a Triple

Well here we go - triples - 3x5.   Decided on an orange orchard and apple orchard at the back.   The gravel road is not functional, and I'm not aware of anyway to TE a growable lot.  Random prop families for the shop fronts and rears.  I am having a little problem with SGs pickups, with that banding showing underneath - any ideas?   Should I try raising the prop up a little bit?   I would like to use SG pickups if I can as it provides a little more variation.

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Banding Shadow Fixed

Before - banding shadow under SG pickups:

After - SG pickups raised up 0.5 m:

Well other than the fact that the damn things keep disappearing, cos they are timed props - I do believe I have solved the banding problem.  The SG pickups have a more generic shadow underneath where the SPAM pickups generate the full outline shadow.

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

I'm Figgering on Biggering!

OK, folks because you asked, well actually no you didn't but hey, I did kinda say at the beginning that I was gonna go 5x5, so here we are - two 5x5 lots done so far, I reckon another two will round this little CS$ set rather nicely.

Groceries and Gas

Steak on the Hoof

Scene detailed - although the road in the middle of the lot is not functional, I have used my TE driveways to connect visually to the game streets:

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Clevedon Valley - Revisited

Clevedon Valley was one of my more important tiles, one like many of us, that I had put hours of work into, built a replica of the Raurimu Rail Spiral, and yeah - put - hours - and hours - of work into.   To cut a long story short, a few years ago it got prop pox.  At the time I quietly deleted the tile, and re-imported a non poxed tile from a back up.  However I was then very cautious about developing it further, especially with any prop heavy lots like SPAM - those seasonal crops use a lot of props.   Eventually I stopped developing it further as I did not want to risk going over the 6 mb limit on the save file.   Time passed, and I stopped playing SC4 for a few years, but as you can see the last few weeks I have started playing again, (digital download version of SC4), reloaded by plugins and regions from a external hard drive back up, and wandered back here to ST.    Then I found out that prop pox had been cured.   Wow.   With the fix installed I now feel confident to revisit some of my favourite tiles, and continue developing them without the worry that they will tip over the edge and get the pox.

First things first though you need to open the tile and...

Yeah get over it Fairbanks...  I play rural.  Spread out. Low density.  You can take your medium and high density and...   [insert PG13 appropriate burn].

Anyhoo..  yup, large tile, lots of SPAM farms, with their prop heavy crops.   Note the large areas of pines, yes I like my pines, but they are flora, and apparently the game engine treats flora differently in the prop count thingy whatever - yeah I don't really understand it, but I'm just trying to sound intelligent.    (Rail spiral top right corner, see here or more on that).

Anyway, fast forward a RL few years, a couple of computer deaths, but an external hard drive back up later...    (don't worry I fixed the power problem over on the left)

Yup, I still have a rather nice space left in this tile to develop further.

If you have been reading this thread, you will know that I am currently poking about in the Loteditorbetamaximiser^TM again, and I'm cooking up some new SPAM commercial growable lots.

WELL Houston - We have a problem.

Interlopers!

My cunning plan to make 2x5, 3x5 and 5x5 CS$ growable lots - well apparently - IT IS NOT ORIGINAL!!!

Lolz.

Well OK - reality check it was indeed Pegasus who came up with the custom 2x5, 3x5, and 5x5 growable MTP residential lodges in the first place, which of course the resource file is used for my SPAM re-lots.

A less known MTP mod is the MTP CS$ commerical replacement mod which is available on the STEX, but it appears that the CS$$ and CS$$$ which were still officially in beta on Simpeg, never made it to the PLEX on the STEX, following the demise of Simpeg.   However I do have those mods in my plugins and have played with it extensively.    What I did not realise, was that there were indeed 3x5 lots included in that mod - probably 5x5 but haven't seen any yet.

So when I zone the custom 3x5 lots in a developed tile with demand for higher wealth commercial...

 

Ding!    Well - I never knew those lots were in there.  Amazing.   

Still a rookie eh.

BTW, what exactly is this thread?   Community Goings-On thread to promote my www.screwpiledevelopments.com site?   A development / lotting thread?   A CJ?   A secret plot to overthrow the Dirktator and gain world dominance of the SC4 world?

Dunno.   But I'm having fun, and I guess that is what counts.

[catty-cb 4,413]

Great to see Clevedon Valley back again

Quote

A less known MTP mod is the MTP CS$ commercial replacement mod which is available on the STEX, but it appears that the CS$$ and CS$$$ which were still officially in beta on Simpeg, never made it to the PLEX on the STEX, following the demise of Simpeg.

The peg-MTP CS$ Replacement Mod and peg-MTP CS$$ Replacement Mod by Pegasus are on the CAM - inCAMpatible Mods list which is a real shame

https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=1925.0