Downloading "starter" regions with transit already laid out

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

The idea of a prebuilt region has the usual objections of dealing with copyright infringement, however informal. 

 

It also has the drawback of the size of the transfer necessary.  For example, one of my regions has 148 files occupying 164.5 megabytes.  This same region when imported is 1.4 MB.  Even compressed into a *.zip this region is 136.2 MB.  Not much is gained by compressing graphics files.  Many users have strict data limits imposed by their ISP.  This kind of thing can certainly help use up one's quota.

 

If you should find a co-operative member who was willing to do the work to set up such a thing, you might well be disappointed by his choices of transportation network.  For example, if you are trying to cash in on someone's RHW creations, my regions wouldn't help you because I don't use RHW.  As RHW grew into the monster it has become, it has become too tedious to use since the attention it needs removes game play for a considerable time when in the construction phases.

 

I suggest that if you really want a complex transportation network, there are so many options that you are better off to do it yourself.

[Major from Bajor 24]

Nonny, I had a visitor from Canada last summer and I couldn't believe my tatooed/blinged ears

how bad and expensive internet is in Canada. It's downright criminal. It would be sad if it wasn't

hilarious. Or other way round?

 

Anyway, the rest of the known universe, even here on Bajor, we have cosy flat internet for peanuts

(compared to your prices) warping at 100 Mb/s, so upload-download wouldn't be an issue

for most users. I have at least 50 gigs of download in a month in which I think I behaved.

Far more when I'm "collecting". And none of those "pay additional for mobile tethering" bullcrap btw.

 

Regarding some unruly Ferengy being dissapointed with someone else's creation/choice of

NAM elements, it's criterion for instaban. From...everything.

 

Someone went through the pains of creating something for my lazy ass? Nothing but eternal

gratefulness/live long and prospers/so say we alls.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Well, I guess I am not most people.  My Internet is flat rate over TV cable from my cable provider and runs at 100 MHz.  No limits.  I get a small discount because I have a couple of services with them, and the provide my e-mail and my private web space as well.  From what I learned years ago, there is some spare bandwidth between regular channels 5 & 6 that is used for Internet.  Did a test not long ago and found my download rate to be very close to 100 MHz.

 

Here in Deep Rural Ontario, I have a cable provider who runs out of a small town nearby providing better service than you probably get out there on Bajor even with the boosters on DS9.  I suspect the regenerative dilithium crystals are not that great.

[crishy 57]

Nonny, I had a visitor from Canada last summer and I couldn't believe my tatooed/blinged ears

how bad and expensive internet is in Canada. It's downright criminal. It would be sad if it wasn't

hilarious. Or other way round?

 

Anyway, the rest of the known universe, even here on Bajor, we have cosy flat internet for peanuts

(compared to your prices) warping at 100 Mb/s, so upload-download wouldn't be an issue

for most users. I have at least 50 gigs of download in a month in which I think I behaved.

Far more when I'm "collecting". And none of those "pay additional for mobile tethering" bullcrap btw.

 

Regarding some unruly Ferengy being dissapointed with someone else's creation/choice of

NAM elements, it's criterion for instaban. From...everything.

 

Someone went through the pains of creating something for my lazy ass? Nothing but eternal

gratefulness/live long and prospers/so say we alls.

 

Economics is unfortunately not that simple. You have to account for purchasing power of the money, among other things, one earns in different countries. I remember hearing a Brazilian tourist remarking on the street in Toronto how expensive his 8 CAD or so boxed supermarket salad was; of course, it is true that if I went to Brazil that a similar salad box would be cheaper there, but the average Brazilian earns less than the average Canadian to begin with, which is offset (to a point) by the lower average cost of living in Brazil.

 

Of course, if I could live and earn Canadian wages while having the cost of living of Brazil, that would be awesome! Barring electronics and other imported things, courtesy of Buy in Brazil taxes, my PS4 would have cost me 1800 USD there...

 

That being said I pay more for internet in Toronto than I used to pay when I used to live in a small town in Northern Ontario in the middle of nowhere a few years ago... Service was pretty good too. But that just reminds you that price discrepancies exist even domestically, in more specific circumstances, like price of real estate for example.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Maybe we should return to the topic, or does everyone think it has run its course?

[crishy 57]

OP has not replied in a while so I would be inclined to agree.

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

Since Indiana has referred to this thread (with author's permission to use Madison Region) from elsewhere and offered to return to the project, I'll exhume its corpse from the cold ground to make a suggestion:

Besides NAM, the builder could install a slope mod suited to large-scale network building. That's because slope "mods" are all overrides of existing Maxis exemplars, so everyone has them, even if they have other versions. The slope-mod used in building the nets can be named in the upload description (or even included in the zip, if it's the builder's own), but it need not be a "dependency" since each downloader may substitute his or her own slope exemplars for the town-development phase of play.

With an ideal slope mod in place, the network builder (in this case Indiana) will control prices, gain ease of bridge and tunnel placement, smooth over lumpy terrain etc etc reducing the effort needed to produce a good-looking result without bankrupting any of the city-districts.