SparkleCity Dev Entries

[FoxieHikari 212]

Well it's here! With only 55 days to go, i thought i would bring a development update. Below is dev update 1. Beta 1 If you want to call it that. All dev updates will go here, and the final release will be in the actual City Journal Menu. (Between STEX and Gallery)

 

Without further ado, SparkleCity Beta 1

 

In fall of 1995, the population of Prowersville stood at only 32,000. This was already quick growth, since the city was founded as a US territory in 1994. By the kingdom's independence in October 2006,  the population reached over 1.5 Million. Eventually, ten years after that, the population stands at 2.4 Million. (2015 Census: 2,476,375) Below are three pics of the major centers of the city. Each dev update will contain three pics.

 

Part of Downtown Prowersville, A lot of companies have built large complexes consisting of the same building. Several buildings are even copy-pasted all over the place.

A large high school: Station Square High School located in downtown. It places the highest on the Sparkle Kingdom College Placement Exams (SKCPE)  with a 2270/2500 (91%) Average Score on the exams. Most of the highest placing students go to the University of Prowersville.

 

The Miles Prower Mall, located in the Jasmine Falls township. Since it is 10PM, the mall is closed to anyone under the age of 21. (21 is the legal

adult age in the SK) The mall contains a massive 374 stores, and is over 20 million square feet. Any minors caught in the mall after 8:30 PM can

be sentenced to up to 2 years in the Juvenile detention center. (With hard labor)

[APSMS 1,893]

Hi Steven,

You're back again. I remember that because RCIMulti was a demand mod, I advised against using it with the CAM.

What I did not remember was what was actually inside the RCIMulti mod. I actually use it for two things: Super Power Lines, and Super Water Pipes. Power extends across the entire city, and water pipes have an expanded radius (~8 tiles, instead of 4). I don't use any of the demand or job modifying tools.

My question to you is this: What parts, exactly, of the Super Demand mod are you using? I notice that it is a highly modular mod, with things like the No Traffic mod, which is not only NAM incompatible, but could, in theory, have disastrous effects on your commercial demand. This is because the Traffic variable is the same one that the game uses to calculate commercial desirability; a problem with the original Maxis traffic simulator was that buses did not contribute to traffic, which meant they eased congestion and were not counted in the congestion totals for a given road (only cars and freight). The side effect of this was that in high traffic cities, the simulator would dump massive amounts of Sims onto buses to ease traffic and commute time, and this would subsequently lower the "customers" of commercial buildings, and thus lower demand. The lower the demand of a given workplace, the less jobs it can sustain.

Similarly, the parameters for the no Caps mods, and the job modifying mods are all inCAMpatible because the CAM modifies how many jobs game buildings are supposed to have in ALL areas. If you have the RCI Multi mod installed, and have it set to load after the CAM, you may as well uninstall the CAM, because the vast amount of stuff it controls (including growth stages, but also job distribution) are overridden by the super Demand mod, and rendered useless.

I suppose if you wanted exceedingly fast growth, you could install the no CAPs mods with general safety, but even then I'd advise against it because of the way that the exemplar files are likely tied together (much like how slope mods not only contain the acceptable steepness of the network, but also contain the parameter that determines how quickly the build animation for roads takes--you can't download a mod that only affects one parameter, and have another mod that affects a different parameter and expect both to work simultaneously.

 

As for the pictures, I would recommend 3 things.

1. More Open space Downtown. This can be parks, or plazas, or even ground level parking lots/low level parking garages. Most cities do not look like New York in appearance, and even New York has its share of mid/low rises.

2. MMPs. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you are using tree lots, correct? I'd advise that you not do this, as most tree lots are very old and were not created with decent prop families, which makes for repetitive forests and unusually griddy layouts (I can see the lots on the curves, which was one of the giveaways. The other was that the trees didn't follow the curve).

3. Stop using Maxis Flora. There are a number of flora replacement mods on the STEX (one by @_marsh_ and the other by @Magneto come quickly to mind) which will help you maintain consistency for those Maxis lots and other lots still using Maxis flora. Your MMPs should utilize better trees, though, like CPs and Girafe's (VIP flora), because they cover the ground better and maintain a more consistent realism effect. The Maxis plants look particularly poor when put up against other CC, especially Girafe's work.

Anyways, those are my thoughts and questions. Hope they are helpful (somewhat), and I look forward to seeing your CJ realized.

[MushyMushy 3,618]

In addition to what APSMS said (all of which is good advice), I'd recommend getting the Yellow Pause Thingy Remover and the Minimize Button Remover. They are helpful in making images look better since it removes any scrap of the UI from showing through. I'd also really recommend turning off the UDI icons in the UDI menu...

I'm interested in watching this CJ grow. It's always nice to see new ones.

[FoxieHikari 212]

@APSMS Well, looks like i have to change all the flora. The problem with the flora texture i downloaded is the fact that if i put it next to the turnpike, it would instantly die. However, i have tried the peg tree textures in the rural areas. The tree lots themselves are made by SimPeg. As far as i'm concerned, there's no update for them, even though it says there is. I dunno if it was a PLEX exclusive, but atm, its gone. The demand mods seem to work perfectly, and I removed notraffic.dat, because sims weren't using the turnpike.

@MushyMushy Well, i've got two more plugins to download. They should be easy though, and i'll have those UI elements removed in Beta 2, later today. The next dev entry should show the rural areas of Fort Cream.

[APSMS 1,893]

Flora Texture, or flora trees (which are their own BAT models, and more of a mod, then a texture)? What do you mean by die? Most of the really good CC trees are seasonal, which means that when you plant them they start at their fall stage, which typically has fall colors (yellow or red leaves). Since flora aren't actually alive (in game), they can only die by disappearing. Tree lots are just a bad idea if you can avoid it. They used to be good, but we have better methods, and if you ask me using a tree controller or MMPs is way faster anyways.

Caveat being that if you are using seasonal flora without a seasonal flora mod patch (that allows such seasonal flora to show properly), then they will always stay that first Autumn color, and never change.

Obviously SimPeg is no more; did you check the PLEX files here on SimTrop? I doubt an update would mean anything anyways, but if you download the tree replacement mod, that should at least let you easily convert all your already plopped tree lots to more suitable alternatives without having to bulldoze all of them and then replant the trees. I'd start with that, and then in the future avoid planting any more tree lots, just use the supplied MMPs (easier to change out than a tree controller), or you could get a custom Tree Controller (to plant trees via God mode or the God Mode Cheat [CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+Terraform menu]). Tree Controllers come with the caveat that you must remove all traces of the previous tree controller if you want to avoid crashes in your already established cities, and this is done using the "FloraOff" cheat from Buggi's Extra Cheats mod (don't forget to "FloraOn" afterwards to restore the Flora cycle). Extra Caveat is that FloraOff destroys all MMPs as well, so don't make any grand rivers or parks (via MMP) until you know for sure what you want to do, because they will all be obliterated if you do the switch properly.

 

Also, you didn't actually say which parts of the RCI Multi mod you're using. I'm assuming you read the readme and are only using parts of it, but which parts specifically?

[FoxieHikari 212]

SparkleCity Beta 2 Is here! Featuring the early development of Fort Cream, north of Prowersville

The local Target store in Fort Cream has been obliterating Walmart's (below) sales for the past five quarters. In fact, there are only 22 Walmart Locations remaining in the Sparke Kingdom. With over 200 Target Locations, and the french company sprouting new locations every year, Walmart has been forced to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Say goodbye, people of Walmart. Your kind won't be here much longer.

 

Two major grocers near the dying Walmart. Costco and Kroger have been booming as grocers ever since the ecoli in Walmart's "Great Value" meat. Just one more reason not to trust Walmart Grocers.

 

An exit on the incomplete Simtropolis Turnpike. Since this is on the western end of the island, its exit number is not officially decided. The Transit Authority has predicted the number will be 86.

 

 

 

 

@APSMS I'm using the extra tools and nothing else. The only one of those tools i'm not using is the NoTraffic.dat and i'm sorry i didn't get the tree replacment mod before pushing Beta 2 out, but i'll be sure to have them implemented in beta 3 next week.

 

 

 

[jmsepe 2,039]

Looks good but you might want to remove that no power icon hovering over the signages I believe. 

[FoxieHikari 212]

I'll just use the tastyzots cheat to do that, @jmsepe. Signs irl usually don't need power. Bear in mind that this is not the full release of the CJ. It's only the beta

 

[APSMS 1,893]

Your signs need power if you want them to be lit at night. That's what the power requirement is for, otherwise they would be modded like parks (which have no power requirement and don't show zots when isolated in a forest).

[FoxieHikari 212]

Well... it has been a while... and my decision is made. SparkleCity is being delayed to November 9, 2016. The reason for this delay is I want to have something big to reveal... and not just have 8 city tiles done. (I have 660 now) So this delay will give me more time to nurse this project and make it amazing. I know its highly anticipated... and I want the best for it.