SPAs Urbanist BAT Thread

[josefmayor 8]

Lookin sweet spa!

[Sim shady 12]

wow i really like your changes with Broken Plate, it looks much better. cant wait for that coffee shop on the stex

also congratz on joining BSC

[tag_one 133]

great buildings, the details are really amazing. I esspecially love the rooftextures on your last building

[T Wrecks 10,210]

That Perks Café looks wonderful so far! Beautiful textures, lovely detail. Comparing it with the real-life photograph, the only real differences I see are that the windows on the upper floor look too wide, and that the upper edge of the windowframes is further away from the roof in your BAT, but that's about it.

Concerning your Broken Plate, that's a huge improvement over the last version you posted, but IMHO the window textures need some Jasoncw / Don Miguel magic to make this one really shine.

I've rarely had your BATs growing in my cities so far, but every time they did, I was really pleased because they are just what the game needs.

[asturianu 4]

PERKS IS PERFECT!!! Sam, the last time I talk to you was in 2006. Now, in 2007 I'm still being your #1 fan, and Broken Plate, Perks and all looks NICE!!

And Garrison Woods in my city is in page 20.

Thanks!!

Cristian

[tankmank 853]

great work you have their keep it up

[spa 970]

Josefmayor: Thanks!

Sim Shady: Thanks. I too think it's a big improvement over the previous version. The BSC group is a good bunch. Lots of constructive feedback that has already proven quite helpful.

Tag_one: Thanks

T Wrecks: Thanks. I took your advice and I cut .2 off the total length of the upstairs windows. It's a small difference but it amounts to an additional .4 of wall in each of the two middle sections and it seems to have made a subtle but satisfactory difference. As for the Broken Plate, I know what you mean about the windows and what Jason and Miguel do with skyscrappers is amazing, but the Broken Plate is just something I'm not going to spend any more time on. I have kind of had my fill of that bat. You're right my bats dont' tend to show up all that often. I have noticed it in my play of the game. They do grow though now and then. I think they're uncommon because most of them are Cs$$ and thus take a back seat to Cs$$$, Co$$ and Co$$$. I have noted that Kensington Place tends to show up a lot more than the rest while Kensington Manor, for whatever reason, is very uncommon. Sim City's still a bit of a mystery at the end of the day 

Cristian: Indeed. You've done a nice job with Garrison Woods. I will have some more bats for you this month.

Tankmank: Thanks

So both Broken Plate and Jennifer's have been handed off to Barby to be packaged. They should be ready for upload to the stex shortly. In the meantime I have pretty much finished up Perks barring any final suggestions. Below is how it has turned out.

As you can see I did the inside details on the ground floor and the lighting. I also did some minor tweaking (windows shrunk slightly on the front, eaves trough added and roof trim reduced in size). Unless there are any final changes I'll get into the lot editor and then add it to Barby's pile.

[mightygoose 92]

very nice work...

[jacqulina 162]

these are very nice buildings excellent work

[Fledgeling 1]

A very visually engaging BAT and a pleasure to behold. Unfortunately in my city it will be competing with a whole army of corner BATs, so I do fear I wont see this one grow much.

[lrfox 2]

I think it's awesome.

A side not... reading your last post to T-Wrecks, I noticed you talking about how your lots don't grow too much in the game. i think that's fine. It's always a great surprise to have them pop up in game.

Also, i love to take your BATs, and use them to create a center of a neigborhood. when i zone a new residential neighborhood, i take your buildings and plop them together at what appears will be the busiest intersection of the neighborhood and it creates an AWESOME effect. especially with low and medium density buildings. It's just another reason why i love that these don't grow too much.

Jut my opinion.

Perks looks awesome, especially at night. nice work

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Originally posted by: spa T Wrecks: You're right my bats dont' tend to show up all that often. I have noticed it in my play of the game. They do grow though now and then. I think they're uncommon because most of them are Cs$$ and thus take a back seat to Cs$$$, Co$$ and Co$$$. I have noted that Kensington Place tends to show up a lot more than the rest while Kensington Manor, for whatever reason, is very uncommon. Sim City's still a bit of a mystery at the end of the day quote>

Just to clarify: They haven't shown up much in my cities simply because I added few of them at a very late stage. I don't know how things are if I start an entirely new city where more than just two or three of your BATs are in the plugins folder from the very start. I'm currently assembling a new plugins folder which will not contain a single building that has not been test-plopped, tweaked and translated wherever possible. I plan to make this my personal Plugins Folder to Rule Them All, hopefully weighing in at no more than 700 MB (compared to the 1.1 gig of its predecessor), and needless to say, at least 10-15 of your creations will be part of it. I expect to see them pop up here and there. However, making such a plugins folder is a mammoth task because I also edit lots e.g. to get rid of dependencies or to make corner buildings line up with rowhouses, etc etc.

Regardless of that, you are absolutely right in saying that SC4 is a mystery - for one person, a building grows like weed, whereas another person does not spot one of it anywhere in the entire region. Well, that randomness is also part of the fun, isn't it? It makes you proud when you finally get one of those "difficult" buildings, and it makes you envy other people who show stuff you have never seen... most of all, it causes that pleasant "what is it? what is it?" feeling when a construction scaffold is growing skywards. That's why I prefer growables all the way, too!

[spa 970]

Mightygoose: Thanks

Jacqulina: Thanks

Fledgeling: Ahh you might be surprised. I don't understand all the details of how the simulator selects different buildings. That said, the simulator does seem to prefer corner buildings on corners so you might be surprised. I'm going to render a right corner version too so that should improve your chances of seeing it

Irfox: It sounds like you use my bats in the same way that I do, minus the plop. I'm glad that you like them.

T Wrecks: Wow. I thought I was the only one who was obssessed! I'm honoured to have some of my bats make the cut! Between your plugins organizing and all the extra tweaking and lot work you do for people around here when do you actually have time to play the game?  

Indeed I too use growables. I don't use any plops at all. I find them boring. Things end up just too planned with plops.

So I haven't forgotten about Winsbys and Tims but I did get around to starting something new today that's a lot bigger than anything I have done so far or am likely to do ever again, here's a teaser.

When finished, this will be a 13 storey building and will fit on a 6x6 with a little bit of room to spare. A mega-building for downtowns but not one that goes very high compared to most other large buildings avaialble on the stex. There is still a huge amount to do, but perhaps on my next update the buidling's identity will start to become a little clearer  

[mightygoose 92]

awesome we need more midrise from the dowtowns, and this looks great already...

[Odd from Sweden 129]

YES, exaxctly the type of midrise office development that is missed in the exchange! Cant wait to see how this will turn out!

[6459978. 106]

Is that....!?? If it is what I'm pretty sure it is, it's a massive BAT project indeed!!

[spa 970]

Mightygoose: Thanks and I definitely agree.

Odd: Seconded! Thanks.

6459978: hehe I thought I might draw a comment out from you. After all you've already batted the building on the other side of the plaza. Don't get too excited though, I don't worry about making things exactly the same as the real world scale so I'm not sure how well it'll actually fit with Simcoe. I'm making this with the idea of a 6x6 lot.

So 6459978 has already guessed, I'm batting the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto. The Canadian Broadcasting Centre is home to CBC's English network. This is where a lot of CBC shows are produced. The iconic building sits below the CN Tower and is no doubt familiar to Canadians who haven't even been to Toronto because it appears on the introduction of CBC's National News every weekday night. Below is a photo of the real building's right hand side.

And what I have so far

You might notice that I have two fewer window banks going down the side than the real building has. I didn't want to cut them but to include them would have put this building on an 8x8 lot and I didn't want to go beyond 6x6. I don't think it's a big deal since the form and style of the building remains but it's worth disclosing before I raise the dander of any reality sticklers. Still a whole lot to do of course, but it's not a bad beginning. It's actually been easier than I thought it would be so far.... of course part of that is because I have become more skilled at operating gmax than when I just started out. Planning dimensions and keeping different pieces that will be textured the same colours are so important on something this size. Anyway, I'll be moving around to the back in the next little while. When the time comes, as the photo below indiciates (taken from the CN Tower), making the roof should be fun since there is a lot of detail up there

Anyway, I'll update again when I get some more done.

[spa 970]

Sorry forum bug.

[Andreas Roth 624]

...looks like the dreaded page flip bug again...

EDIT: Wow, it even takes two new messages already...

Anyway, now that I'm here, let me say that's a very ambitions project, and I'm looking forward to the result. Is there any reason why you decided not to make it 8x8? As you might know, you can make 8x8 growables with a little trick, contrary to the popular belief that 6x6 is the maximum.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Looking good.

I think you should make the size accurate to the real building.

[simdad1957 3]

Holy cow - it's the mother corp building. Are you going to BAT a model of Peter Mansbridge standing in the courtyard? On a more serious note, I support your decision to put this on a 6x6 lot. Space can be a premium when you are building a city and I think that this is wise to consider this with your models. Great job - keep up the good work!!

[spa 970]

Thanks guys. Yes it seems the forum page flip bug did grab hold fairly badly this afternoon. Anyway, my thought about making this fit on a 6x6 is that 6x6 is a much more game friendly size. An 8x8 13 storey building, I suspect, would look really out of place compared to most other bats and Maxis content. This one needs to be big, but I don't want to hold so close to reality that it becomes less usable in the game. On all four sides, I can cut it down to fit by eliminating a bank of generic windows. Basically there is room to snip slightly without sacrificing any of the buidings more unique features. The only real trade off with shrinking the building down is that it will end up being more square than rectangular in shape. Perhaps the solution is to make it 6x7?

Oh and Simdad, I don't plan on batting any people but maybe this box that makes up part of the front wall will do. You'll no doubt recognize the guy in the wall ad  (if you sqint that is)


One other thing, this is getting a little bit ahead of things, but I'm kind of thinking about it. Out of curosity, to any CBC viewers browsing this thread, does any have any ideas about a custom sound for the building that would fit with CBC? I figure it's a broadcaster so it's just crying out for something special like that. If I can find a clip of it or make one I was kind of thinking of the opening line to the National "From the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto here is Peter Mansbridge." Other options that have occurred to me is the O'Canada instrumental (the flying seagull piece not that new fangled version) that opened and ended every broadcast for years or Hockey Night and Canada's theme. Any other thoughts? Anything else that just screams CBC?

[josefmayor 8]

that building is pretty sweet.

[SimFox 804]

I perfectly respect your decision, but still want to say couple of words

I'm not sure what exactly do you mean when you say usability in game, if that refers to crime bug then I really have nothing to say as I don't know how or why it works but if you mean stylistic aspect of it then I think there is no point to do these cuts. Creation of custom content should ideal EXPAND the game! give new options, not just provide more of the same. Game is way to uniform as it is, and I would see it as a good thing to bring buildings of different sizes (baring the dreaded crime bug) and proportions to the game to really diversify look and feel of the cities. Integration doesn't need to be locked into such a restrictive approach...

And another consideration is that most characteristic feature any building has are it's proportions! Especially when you view it from the games viewpoint. And cutting one column of windows isn't as harmless as you think. it defines the very core of it's expressive nature. In this respect also practice of scaling things up is also a bit questionable to say the least. The very explanation normally provided for it - so that building wouldn't look squashed up (or down) is a bit of the nonsense - it suppose to look a bit squashed from this angle. But there you have it...

Anyway those are sort of theoretical ramblings..

but on more concrete side there is one thing I can note - the recess. You have made it quite symmetrical, while the real life version is not. I'm not sure if this is a conscious decision or not, just though to mention it...

[sparkythepenguin 90]

OMG! I love the CBC Building. They show some shots of it on "Puppets Who Kill", but I wasn't sure if it was really where the CBC did business or a generic building standing in for it. But everytime I saw it, I was like, "That is a COOL building!"

Is that Dr. Evil on theat cube thingy? Looks like it. Not too familiar with TV up there, whenever I'm in BC, I'm too busy to watch the tube. We get precious little Canadian shows down here.

Looking forward to seeing this one, great job so far Spa!

[mightygoose 92]

you should most definitely make it 8x8.... we need more midrise...

[spa 970]

Josefmayor: Thanks

Simfox: I don't know the details about the crime bug so I wasn't referring to it. I was referring to style elements. Given the near unanimous feedback in favour of the full size I have changed this one to 8x8 (might be slightly smaller, but I kind of doubt it). The cut windows are back and the CBC building now has the same proportions as the real thing. 8x8 isn't something I was particularly against, I just didn't think the community would like such a large office building! I do agree with you that custom content should expand the game, but, at the same time, the stuff I make is stuff I use. I personally don't want to put a lot of time into something I'll hardly use because it doesn't fit. I'm not really much of a revolutionary. I'm just trying to plug a few holes in the game and have some fun doing it. One other reminder, few of my bats (1 so far) are aimed at being exact replicas. In the process of creation I typically end up diverging from reality and I personally I have no problem with that. I'm not a recreation batter, I just use the real world for inspiration, textures and a starting place That said this one is a little different and will be a lot closer to the real thing than most of my bats.

Sparky: Yep it is where the CBC is based and I too think it's a really neat building. CBC's corporate headquaters is technically in Ottawa, but this building is where the real heart of it is. It's where almost all the broadcasting and production is done. I didn't realize it ever showed up on American TV. The guy on the cube is Peter Mansbridge, host of the National (10:00 news). Thanks for commenting.

Mightygoose: Thanks. The cries for 8x8 have been fairly unanimous. My worries that no one would want an 8x8 because it would be too big seems to have been incorrect so it's now been scaled up.

So as mentioned, I did put those missing window banks back in. The building will now fit on a massive 8x8. I have added some more details to the front and, more significantly, I have really got going on the back. Below is a picture. 

Not surprisingly, it's not going to fit inside my preview pictures for much longer (I'll have to move to thumbnails!). We're now up to the full 13th storeys. One of the roof top TV studios will actually end up adding on some more height but that's because of high ceilings not additional floors. One thing to note, the glass office block that hangs out from the building is on a 12 angle, it's perfectly square and exactly level. I don't know why it looks a little contorted. I think it's part optical illusion (I think it'll look better when the roof is on so that the eye isn't comparing to the walls) and part the evil bat playing mischief. I'll have to keep an eye on it as things come along. 

Anyway, I'm hoping to finish up the back of this one this weekend. As for my other bats, Jennifer's and the Broken Plate are in the BSC internal testing phase and, assuming that no showstoppers pop up, I expect to make them available on the stex and SCdevotion sometime next week. I'll update again soon.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Spa, it didn't show up on US TV.. I can't really remember anytime Canada was even mentioned on what passes for TV here. A friend of mine always finds cool stuff to watch and grabs episodes off the internet or through friends. "Puppets Who Kill" is a purely Canadian creation, my friend.

The episode I am referring to is quite funny. It is alleged that the CBC is keeping the brains of dead celebrities hooked up to a computer for new show ideas. One of the characters steal Al Waxman's brain.

[lrfox 2]

Off Topic.... Funniest Canadian television program i've seen here in the us is Kids in the Hall reruns on Comedy Central, but sadly those days are over.

On topic... i love the building, spa and i agree that you should size it down for gameplay reasons. it's a really cool building and it must be fun to BAT.

[spa 970]

Sparky: I didn't know that. I'm not a bit TV watcher. All I knew was Puppets Who Kill was on the Comedy Network so I just assumed it was American. Given the way the CBC has been run the last couple of years, they really need to steal some brains... although celebrities might be a bit of a dry well

Irfox: Kids in the Hall is really funny. It's not a show I have really watched as it was just a little before my time. Right now the best show that Canadian TV has to offer is Corner Gas. CBC's This is Wonderland, now cancelled, is probably the best and most realistic legal show ever made. I keep hoping that they'll release the rest of it on DVD, but the CBC has really washed their hands of it so I'm not holding my breath. In any case, batting the CBC has been fun so far.

So I didn't actually finish the back of CBC. I ended up playing Sim City instead. Sometime over the next few days, however, I'll have the back ready. I have uploaded my first BSC release though to the stex and to SC4devotion. You can find it either here https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=17663 or here https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=92