Tileset Expansion Project

[AndisArt 2,067]

Since Simtropolis doesn't have Groups anymore, I thought I'd reupload the information I collected from the community about what is missing most from the current availabe BAT pool on the STEX.

 

This can serve BAT creators as a guideline if wished.

 

 

[Huston 5,798]

Will definitely keep this in mind.

[cmdp123789 710]

I feel like the list is a reflection of what people want the most in order to improve the game. If you think about it, the more options we have, the more content our experts produce.. and not only as BATS or lots, but techniques and pictures... inspiration for new players, and old players too.

 

I still dont understand how come we have almost 100 buildings from Paris... we have probably around 100 New York buildings.. and for some reason, we dont have any important content on London.. I mean, we had illtonkso.. but how long ago? 

 

Im not demanding anything.. and I swear I would love to BAT, yet I tried several times and I just cant do it.. Im the type of person that learns by watching step by step videos.. and yet it would take me at least 2 years to get where some people like my friend above does in 2 weeks...

 

Trust me, if we want to keep things running, we need to go back to the basics.. go back to important cities.. cities everybody recognizes.. and start from there.. 

 

I remember back in the day, where you would see like 6 recreations of NYC at the same time... people trying Paris.. Berlin.. 

 

What we need, based on the list, if you take a closer look, is buildings that actually can "fill up" a city.. you dont need 4 empire state buildings.. but you do need fillers like the ones aaron does.. you dont need 5 eiffel towers.. but you need all the fillers xannepan does.. 

 

Its time to go back to that.. its time to give it a try at real cities again, and as it happened before, people will get interested again, and even if they are not trying to recreate the actual city, they will get the inspiration from it.

[MTYland 35]

I'm trying to working on the asian style; little houses low-rise and mid-rise ( HK, Macao, Gangzhou), latin american style and modern and futuristic style (houses low and mid-rise), but they will come very slowly. 

[Belfastsocrates 1,753]

Interesting list and I agree with a lot of it in regard to my own personal preferences. 

 

I think diagonal and buildings capable of fitting FAR and curves are important if we want to break the grid. They aren't easy to create but I do think they're very important. I'd love to see more 'generic' modern commercial and residential mid-rises as well as buildings that would be suitable for high-tech manufacturing, research and design and so on. I think we're missing that. Hence I'm loving the work that Huston is creating, it fits that perfectly.

[MushyMushy 3,618]

This list pretty much matches what I'd like to see in SC4 at some point.

 

While I would love to see some small commercial and industrial BATs, as well as some new civic BATs, I think the things I want most are more diagonal / FAR(2 & 3) compatible buildings. We hardly have any transitions between orth/diag/FAR, and there are probably less than 10 FAR buildings total. In addition to this, a good bit of the diagonal buildings we have are dated and thus (sometimes) of sub-par quality. If we got more buildings compatible with these networks, we could truly break the grid.

 

In addition to that, I've always noticed a distinct lack of schools... we have plenty of small ones, but we only have a few large ones (like SimGoober's high school or that huge HKBAT school).

 

Frankly, we could also use more billboards.

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

I'm trying to help with Latin-America architecture, actually I did only brazilian models of the area so far, so I will try to start something from other latin country too. 

Diagonal buildings I have no idea how to do and never found a tutorial about it... 

[MushyMushy 3,618]

Diagonal buildings I have no idea how to do and never found a tutorial about it... 

 

I think with diagonals you have to make the building a prop (and use a tiny invisible dummy as the building) and then use the Reader to reduce the size of the prop's footprint so it'll fit on a lot that's smaller than the prop actually is. At least, I think that's how it works.

[AndisArt 2,067]

I feel like the list is a reflection of what people want the most in order to improve the game. If you think about it, the more options we have, the more content our experts produce.. and not only as BATS or lots, but techniques and pictures... inspiration for new players, and old players too.

 

What we need, based on the list, if you take a closer look, is buildings that actually can "fill up" a city..

Yes, that seems one of the biggest needs in the community, BATs to fill up a city as you said. Not the prestigious projects and extravagants and supertalls, but more the normal, generic kinda stuff.

I think this also applies to other styles like Asian or Latin American, BATs are needed to realisticly create a living city, not just the tourist spots and attractions so to say.

 

 

As most of you said it is also the diagonal buildings and FAR compatible ones. We do need a good tutorial on this, because it is actually not that hard. Just more work.

It's one availble technique as you said, MushyMushy, to use the building as a prop. Another way is to decrease the size value of the building in the Reader, so that it can be moved hanging over the lot.

 

Another aspect is the search functionality on the STEX. I know it was discussed to possibly overhaul it a couple of years ago in the moderaters forum. I'm not sure what the progress is on that and I'm not a moderator anymore either.

The STEX search wasn't properly working always to find content but also the idea was to make the massive amount of content easily findable by adding more categories and tags to uploads.

 

Categories and subcategories would be a big plus to generally sort the uploads. Main categories  could be something like R-C-I, civic, utility, parks&recreation. Subcategories then i.e. Commercial-Office-$, Commercial-Service-$$ etc. Tags could be for instance "diagonal" or "FAR", "midrise", "highrise",  categories could be i.e. for styles like "futuristic", "asian" etc.

 

It would be much easier to find specific content if you could select the approprate tag or category for it in the STEX and the content we have already would be used more efficiently.

Instead of searching for a name or word you would just select the category / tag that you need, and say all buildings tagged with "futuristic" would be shown.

I hope this overhaul of the STEX is still coming. And btw, if a moderator should take note, I am still available to help with this.

[AndisArt 2,067]

What is everyone's opinion: should we collect lists of BATs created that fit the categories of the sought after types above, maybe in this thread or in a sister thread in the Custom Content forum?

[Adrianor 628]

IMO, I think it would be best if we create a sister thread with the lists there and have the main discussion right here so as to keep everything as organized as possible.

[Gn_leugim 858]

Eish, I remember this pooling, glad we are geting it back on work. I also agree on making a sister thread

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

I like how Andi is back and the entire BAT section is undergoing revolution.

[AndisArt 2,067]

9 hours ago, Toothless Stitch said:

I like how Andi is back and the entire BAT section is undergoing revolution.

hehe but please let us know your opinion on the question also

[T Wrecks 10,209]

On 27.10.2016 at 0:55 AM, andisart said:

What is everyone's opinion: should we collect lists of BATs created that fit the categories of the sought after types above, maybe in this thread or in a sister thread in the Custom Content forum?

Do you mean like a kind of "yellow pages"? For example, user Simmie is looking for modern W2W residentials, opens the list, finds the corresponding category, and can follow the links offered there? Is that more or less what you had in mind?

It's hard to state an opinion when you are not sure if you understood the idea correctly, therefore I'd like to make sure.

[AndisArt 2,067]

1 hour ago, T Wrecks said:

Do you mean like a kind of "yellow pages"? For example, user Simmie is looking for modern W2W residentials, opens the list, finds the corresponding category, and can follow the links offered there? Is that more or less what you had in mind?

It's hard to state an opinion when you are not sure if you understood the idea correctly, therefore I'd like to make sure.

Yes exactly, that's what I mean, an index specifically for the types and styles of BATs that came up in the data of the polls. Since these are areas where the people felt there is most lack of it would be beneficial to have a one-stop place to the available resource links. Also as new content is created this can be added. And then people can post in the thread when they know of existing files that fit a category and this way we can grow the list. Naturally this could be rendered obsolete should a proper tag system with sub-categories be introduced in the future on the STEX.

Actually I am interested to do my next BAT from this list, I would like to do a modern addition on an old building.   Any suggestions?

[Fantozzi 4,067]

Hm. Doing such a list by hand - I would be worried you spend more time with this instead with us. If this could be - at least partially - realized algorith based - so we can run a tool through our plugin folders and someone simply has to put the collected data together - then maybe a good idear.

 

Now my opinion about what buildings should be done.

 

My observation is, there are very famous monuments and buildings in the world. The Tour Eiffel in Paris, the Colosseum, the empire state building. If I plop the empire state building, my city becomes New York, if I plop the Tour Eiffel, my city suddenly becomes Paris. Or the statue of liberty ... There are buildings/monuments they are so much iconographic - they make the city.

Observing this I came to the opinion that the most versatile bats in SC4 are those who can be used in many contexts - @madhatter106 buildings are optimal for this. They don't dominate my cities I can use them in whatever region I play. For many of those iconographic buildings - they are masterpieces of 3d-modelling but I can rarely use them. Also you won't see them very often in the city journals.

So browsing through the city journals could be another method to get known what kind of buildings are prefered – also aesthetically, which can't be matched by lists.

And plopping five Tour Eiffels in your city - it looks absurd. Let 50 of madhatters mid rises grow - it looks good.

 

Second:

I like lotting - lotting is a big part of my gaming fun.

There are bats they don't give me much chances to relot them - as a police station, a school, a gouvernement, a commercial - but there are those immense usefull bats, you can use almost for every purpose. I can relot them several times with many different function. Those are my true heroes.

In my opinion - those are the really useful bats. And you will see them in many of the city journals on many relotted variants.

 

What I personally miss: modern small midrise residentials like you find on simcity polska or by LBT team.

Some from my hometown I posted here:

 

Also I miss this kind of more generic 'centers', explained that here: 

All in all: muti-purpose BATs fitting civic and commercial purposes the same time would be perfect.

 

But this is my personal wishing.

 

If you want to go for broad community interest – my personal advice would be, forget about the list. Browse the city journals instead. You will get a more visual impression what community seeks for.

[Adrianor 628]

1 hour ago, Fantozzi said:

Hm. Doing such a list by hand - I would be worried you spend more time with this instead with us. If this could be - at least partially - realized algorith based - so we can run a tool through our plugin folders and someone simply has to put the collected data together - then maybe a good idear.

I agree with this, I would volunteer to create a tool like you've mentioned...if only I would be tech savvy enough to create such a tool.  Otherwise, I can also help with creating this list by hand.

 

1 hour ago, Fantozzi said:

What I personally miss: modern small midrise residentials like you find on simcity polska or by LBT team.

Oh, what's this I found collecting dust in my hard drive?

 

 

[rsc204 21,815]

4 hours ago, Fantozzi said:

Observing this I came to the opinion that the most versatile bats in SC4 are those who can be used in many contexts - @madhatter106 buildings are optimal for this. They don't dominate my cities I can use them in whatever region I play. For many of those iconographic buildings - they are masterpieces of 3d-modelling but I can rarely use them. Also you won't see them very often in the city journals.

Couldn't agree more. Good quality, generic commercial and industrial lots are never to be sniffed at.

We have all the landmarks and skyscrappers we could ever need IMHO. For example I do think London is under-represented in the context of Landmarks. But whilst a year of work might bring us a new Palace of Westminster, which would be the centre-piece of a region based on London. It wouldn't be half as beneficial as content that can be used everywhere to diversify all cities.

[AndisArt 2,067]

Thanks for your input. Intersting points, Fantozzi. I have to please guilty on the iconic skyscrapers, I just love them so much though haha. But yea, those are probably not among the most wished for.

The more I think about it the more it doesnt seem like such a good idea to start a list. Probably better to invest time and manpower into the taggin and categorizing system for the STEX. The list would be obsolete anyway once the STEX has been improved.

Fantozzi, is it technically possible to create a lot that has civic and commerical functions?

[madhatter106 3,903]

On ‎10‎/‎28‎/‎2016 at 10:31 AM, rsc204 said:

Couldn't agree more. Good quality, generic commercial and industrial lots are never to be sniffed at.

We have all the landmarks and skyscrappers we could ever need IMHO. For example I do think London is under-represented in the context of Landmarks. But whilst a year of work might bring us a new Palace of Westminster, which would be the centre-piece of a region based on London. It wouldn't be half as beneficial as content that can be used everywhere to diversify all cities.

Speaking for myself, I think my BATting came about because of how I was playing and what I was seeing (or rather, "not seeing") in the game.  I think quite a number of BATters get into it because they want to create specific buildings or building types, most of which are on the larger, grandiose scale (ie. skyscrapers, one-of-a-kind know monuments in architecture). 

In my case, it was BATting from a player's perspective - what does the game need?  "More variety in the commercial sector?  I hate the way my commercial areas look, so why don't I BAT what I want to see there instead?"  If you play the game for even the smallest period of time, you would encounter what I did - and it's partly the limitations of the original vanilla game itself - there are only so many times you can see Bob's Grease Pit or Depiesse's Diner, before you say, "this is way too repetitive, we need some more variation to enliven things."  But very few BATters then tackle that kind of problem, which is not a bad thing - one should "do what thou wilt" and BAT what one wants to BAT.  What I wanted to BAT just arose out of a need from the game, and I like to think that the stuff I did is good on its own merits as well as serving the purpose for which I intended it.  I like to think that those two factors are what contributed to why people like my stuff - that it is a) well done, and b) serves a useful game function.

I know a number of BATters have done certain projects along those lines, but not nearly on the scale of which I have approached things from what I am aware.  Even when I was doing things like BATting the liquor stores and the Laundromats a long while ago, it amazed me that no one had ever done them - or if they had, there weren't that many to choose from on the STEX.