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In a major milestone for Simtropolis, the STEX has now reached a grand total of 100 million downloads! Over the past 12 years, members of this community have shared and continue to share content of dazzling and diverse quality. Join us in celebrating this remarkable achievement! There may be a few surprises in store over the next few weeks (all will be revealed)... Click to view the discussion thread. Click here to read the interviews with BATters.

Cities: Skylines is a modern take on the classic city simulation. The game introduces new game play elements to realize the thrill and hardships of creating and maintaining a real city whilst expanding on some well-established tropes of the city building experience. From the makers of the Cities in Motion franchise, the game boasts a fully realized transport system. It also includes the ability to mod the game to suit your play style as a fine counter balance to the layered and challenging simulation. You’re only limited by your imagination, so take control and reach for the sky! Main features: Multi-tiered and challenging simulation: Constructing your city from the ground up is easy to learn, but hard to master. Playing as the mayor of your city you’ll be faced with balancing essential requirements such as education, water, electricity, police, fire fighting, healthcare and much more along with your citys real economy system. Citizens within your city react fluidly, with gravitas and with an air of authenticity to a multitude of game play scenarios.Extensive local traffic simulation: Colossal Orders extensive experience developing the Cities in Motion series is fully utilized in fully fleshed out and well-crafted transport systems.Districts and Policies: Be more than just an administrator from city hall. Designating parts of your city as a district results in the application of policies which results in you rising to the status of Mayor for your own city.Extensive modding support: Build or improve on existing maps and structures. You can then import them into the game, share them as well as download the creations of other city builders on the Steam workshop.

"Cities: Skylines is a great city builder. I still think my personal favorite is SimCity 2000 but at this point I can confidently say that's more because of nostalgia than because Cities: Skylines doesn't measure up. It does. Gigantic areas. Pretty tilt-shift post-processing. Offline mode. Curved roads. Interesting pollution and water simulations. Steam Workshop support. Plenty of information overlays pertaining to everything from wind to population happiness to noise pollution. And there are some features I haven't even mentioned, like the fact you can create districts in your city and then assign them unique policies like high-rise bans and small-business tax breaks. Is it perfect? No. The end of the game is just as mindless as any other city builder, including SimCity 2000, and certain simulations could be more involved or at least more communicative. I'm still delving into the traffic system for instance and trying to figure out whether certain quirks are actually broken simming or just my own incompetence. But overall this is the city builder I've been waiting for. Time to get back to it—my city's in another window waiting for its mayor to return." At a Glance Cities: Skylines somehow lives up to the unfair expectations heaped upon it, presenting one of the best city builders in years. Pros Massive area to build inEasy to get started, but plenty of depth for those who want to dig into systemsCons End-game is mindless, as you might as well have infinite moneyTraffic simulation can be intimidating to newcomersRead the full review at the source.

Cities: Skylines sells more within 24 hours than any previous game in the Paradox catalogue! STOCKHOLM – March 12, 2015 – Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order, currently gaming’s proudest parents, have today revealed that Cities: Skylines, the critically and commercially acclaimed city simulation game for PC, Mac and Linux, has sold an incredible 250,000 copies, including pre-orders, in its first 24 hours on sale, shattering sales records for every previous game in the Paradox catalogue released within the same period of time. Commenting on the success of Cities: Skylines, CEO of Paradox Interactive Fredrik Wester said, “We would like to offer our deepest and heartfelt thanks to the community for their passionate support and to let them know that we are committed to supporting this wonderful game for years to come, in the same way that we have for our Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis communities. We knew that we had a great game on our hands and so to be able to continue to provide fans of the game with a multitude of new content for it going forward is fantastic.” Wester then went on to talk about their relationship with developer Colossal Order. “Our congratulations and thanks must also go to developer Colossal Order for making what is being widely described as the new benchmark of the city building genre. We have forged a strong partnership with them over a number of years through the release of Cities in Motion and Cities in Motion 2, and I am happy to see such a talented team now being widely applauded for their unmatched passion and skill.” CEO of Colossal Order Mariina Hallikainen commented, "We at Colossal Order are absolutely thrilled to see so many players enjoying Cities: Skylines and that the Steam Workshop is filling up with amazing content from the modders. We are feeling very happy and proud and can't wait to continue working on Cities: Skylines together with the community!" Cities: Skylines is now available for purchase for $29.99, with a deluxe edition available for $39.99 that includes five in-game historical monuments.

In a major milestone for Simtropolis, the STEX has now reached a grand total of 100 million downloads! (As of 17:35 GMT, 13 Feb 2015) Over the past 12 years, members of this community have shared and continue to share content of dazzling and diverse quality. From buildings to mods, the games we play continue to be improved and expanded. 18,848 files later, reaching this figure is really a testament to how strong the member base is, and how influential custom content is for a game’s longevity. Also, special thanks must go to our Dirktator for providing this website -- the foundations which have made this landmark a reality. Join us in celebrating this remarkable achievement! There may be a few surprises in store over the next few weeks (all will be revealed)... Interviews #01: MandelSoft - Transit modder & member of the NAM Team #02: Heblem - Content creator & founder of the LBT Team #03: Glenni - Tower block & ghetto BATter #04: madhatter106 - Commercial building BATter #05: paeng - Lotter & founder of NightOwl Productions #06: mrbisonm - Content creator & founder of Nexis #07: rivit - Transportation & automata modder #08: Aaron Graham - New York apartment BATter & member of the NYBT #09: Seraf - BATter & member of the NYBT #10: Tarkus - Transit modder & member of the NAM Team & NHP #11: T Wrecks - Industrial / residential lotter & modder #12: Sabretooth78 - Buffalo New York building BATter #13: nofunk - Midwest USA BATter & member of mipro (originally the BSP) #14: bixel - Hong Kong BATter & original member of the HKABT #15: Jasoncw - BATter & member of mipro (originally the BSP) Celebration Uploads [View List Here] Thanks to all interview participants, and SimCoug & NMUSpidey for organising them.

Dear Friends; It is with great sadness that we inform you of the permanent loss of the simpeg website. Pegasus has confirmed that the site has been critically damaged beyond the point of recovery. This is a huge blow for the simcity4 community as the vast majority of the simpeg knowledge-base and documentation has been lost as well. Many of you have expressed concerns over what happens to the content that was hosted on the PLEX. The good news is that Pegasus was never a believer in exclusivity and simultaneously released his content to both the PLEX and STEX as a failsafe, and the simpeg staff has followed this model over the years. This means the vast majority of simpeg content is already here on simtropolis and has been preserved. With Pegasus' blessing and Dirktator's kind help we will be creating a PLEX Legacy section here on the STEX, re-uploading and updating content as needed, as well as organizing it all into an more structured and easy to navigate whole to mirror the PLEX of old. This will be a long and tedious process, but we anticipate that 99% of the content that was on the PLEX will be maintained. We will also be attempting to update the omnibus here with what articles we've managed to save from the simposium. However, that is currently only a bare handful of what was lost. The greatest loss of all, though, is one that can not simply be re-uploaded. For many of us the Simpeg community was our electronic home. It was a tight-knit group whose interests and discussions transcended a simple game to encompass many aspects of our lives. Simpeg was a special place, not because of mere content and knowledge, but because of the people who made it greater than the sum of it's parts. So while we thank Pegasus for giving us a house all these years, it is with deep appreciation that we thank each and every one of you members of simpeg for making that house a home. What we had will well and truly be missed. It is our sincere wish that you will all find a new home, either here in the rest of the simcity community or elsewhere, and that it brings you happiness. Once again, thank YOU for making simpeg the place it was. Best Wishes, The Simpeg Staff

Update 46 1884 Previously on New SorGun… The system that has kept New SorGun moving forward is hitting a few bumps on the road. Kitty Timworthy has brought together a coalition of various groups with the sole interest of bringing down Eastman T. Finch and the other elites who run the town… While Kitty’s movement was gaining momentum, Finch and his supporters couldn’t seem to catch a break. The recession of 1882 was beginning to be felt in New SorGun. A number of businesses were shutting their doors for good and the current leaderships promises of growth and prosperity began falling on deaf ears. Kitty saw the shifting momentum as a sign that her cause was just, but something happened on November 23, 1883 that even she couldn’t believe. After many previous attempts, the Territorial Legislature finally passed a bill that gave women the right to vote. Only the Wyoming and Utah territories had enacted women’s suffrage prior to the Washington territory. Finally, Kitty and the rest of her sisters would have the same voice in the polling booths as their husbands, brothers and fathers. Almost immediately, Kitty was approached by a number of supporters begging her to run for Mayor in next year’s election. It was no secret that Mayor Walker, now almost 70, was stepping down after almost two decades of service to the little frontier town. In that time, Walker had seen New SorGun grow from a few shops along Main Street, to a lively commercial center. (animation) Until now, folks didn’t give too much thought as to who would replace the well-loved retiring mayor, but with the events of the past few years it became apparent that the future of their town could hinge on the upcoming election. As winter gave way to the spring of 1884, Kitty finally caved to the pressure and announced her candidacy for Mayor as the ‘Peoples Candidate’. (click for full) There was an immediate wave of excitement throughout town. Suddenly, disenchanted groups of citizens finally felt they had a real representative who would fight for their interests. Women, workers, prohibitionists and other groups from across the political spectrum all celebrated the possibility of capturing the highest political position in the region. However, not everyone was leaping on ‘The Peoples’ bandwagon. Some of Kitty’s supporters, including the Knights of Labor held a spiteful reputation for rabble-rousing and causing trouble. Many in town, including business owners, investors, farmers and others feared ‘The Peoples’ ticket and the harm they could do to New SorGun by pursuing their reforms. Despite what many of Kitty’s supports claimed, New SorGun had achieved amazing growth and prosperity under the guidance of the businessmen who made up the current political administration in town. (click for full) After Kitty’s announcement, the business leaders in New SorGun realized they would need to nominate a strong candidate to have any chance of retaining the mayor’s seat. A number of names were batted around, but in the end only one man had the charisma, expertise and popularity to challenge the People’s Ticket. “Mr. Finch, some gentlemen are here to see you…” Eastman T. Finch was reluctant at first. Politics usually made his skin crawl and he always managed to keep his distance from the ‘great circus,’ as he usually called it. But he had seen first had what a savage band of citizens could do, and he was fearful of the ‘People’s Ticket’ and their agenda. When Finch faced a difficult decision, he was in the habit of reaching out to his good friend Anthony S. Myers. Myers always knew that he was more of a sounding board to Finch’s thoughts and rarely had any meaningful sway in his decision making process, but it suited Myers just fine – he actually enjoyed his friends company. On a beautiful spring morning, the two men met by the docks, which was Finch’s favorite place to be in New SorGun. (click for full) Finch sighed as he leaned over to feed the birds, “I've never enjoyed politics… I’d much rather create something with my own to hands than step into that mud pit.” Anthony Myers laughed as he looked out on the harbor, “Your suits are too nice to be soiled in mud. I don’t blame you for staying out of the fray.” Eastman gave a smirk. “Besides, I’ve never seen a politician build anything but their own ego,” Mr. Myers continued. “Unfortunately, my friend, I don’t think we can build our way out of this one,” said Finch sullenly. Myers listened to the gulls circling above docks. “The thought of a free meal sure whips them into a frenzy…” Finch sighed, “Yes, the gulls are similar to people in that respect…” “Perhaps, but some would say birds are more civilized,” replied Myers. Finch watched quietly as the seagulls clashed over the last crumbs of bread. A week later Finch held a gathering of his friends and associates next to the new town hall, which was still under construction. “My friends,” Finch began, “thank you for coming. As we stand here today, we can look across this marvelous patch of land and be proud of our little town. I first stepped foot on Yarahi’s pier nearly twenty years ago – I still remember the day fondly. It was only a few shops and houses then, but New SorGun was bustling with energy, and it electrified me. Today that energy continues to build and together we have erected a shining beacon that illuminates the region.” Finch paused as the gathered crowd nodded and clapped in approval “Now, Most of you know that I have little patience for politics, but I believe we have come to a crossroads,” Finch continued. “There are some who believe our great achievements are not worth the price and everything we have built constitutes a sin against man.” There were grumbles of disapproval from the crowd. “I, however, will not be shamed into exodus,” Finch bellowed. “I hold my head high and look around this great town with pride in my heart. I accept your nomination and on Election Day I hope to humbly stand before you as the next mayor of this exceptional town.” Anthony Myers clapped loudly in approval along with entire crowd. He believed in his friend and his principles, but he couldn’t escape the worrying feeling that had been nagging him since Finch informed him of his intention to run. Anthony knew Finch would be a highly capable Mayor, that much was certain, but Myers understood his friend better than most, and deep down he was worried that a highly public and vicious campaign would break Finch. His friend’s public persona was always steadfast, but behind closed doors Eastman Finch would brood and fret over personal attacks and unflattering gossip. Myers could only hope that Eastman would grow a tougher hide over the coming months, otherwise he feared what would become of his friend. (click for full) I want to send a special ‘thank you’ to C.P. for graciously allowing me use some of his unreleased 19th century models. These will be popping up in New SorGun with more regularity in the future. If you have a second, I would strongly recommend taking a look at his BAT thread over at SC4Devotion – its chock full of amazing SC4 treats. Replies to the last Teaser... Urban Constanta, Mymyjp, SylvioJ: Thank you for the compliments and support! Ln X: How do you plop MMPs on streets? That is actually the result of some excellent T21 modding by vortext. I haven't really looked into T21 modding yet, but he was kind enough to share his work with me. Ultimate727: As always, wow! You are doing this for years and it still doesn't get any close to boring! Thank you for the kind words - I try my best to keep every update fresh and new. Huston: That's quite the crowd! I can only image what'll happen. Thanks - we haven't seen the last of unruly crowds yet ModyMentos: Can't wait for the next update, and its will be the 100 one !!! Hope you enjoyed it - I will try to do something special for the 50th full update nas786: This is amazing. I am learning some american history as I read through these entries lol. Such a great job of not only capturing the era, but also showing the progression. Can't wait to see how these shady railroad guys effect the area. Thanks for stopping by. Don't worry, we haven't seen the last of the railroad barons

STOCKHOLM – April 14, 2015 – Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order, the city building genre’s new ‘It’ couple, have today revealed that Cities: Skylines, the monumentally successful city simulation game for PC, Mac and Linux has smashed through the 1 million sales barrier since its release on March 10. Widely hailed as the new benchmark for the genre, Cities: Skylines has captured the gaming public’s imagination with a staggering 33,000 mods having been created to date and made available via the Steam Workshop, with an average of 21,000 concurrent players continuously online since launch. Commenting on the continued success of the game, CEO of Paradox Interactive Fredrik Wester said, “We continue to be amazed at just how players have embraced Cities: Skylines. The game is still selling at a steady pace, which is remarkable for a game that has been on sale for well over a month. Once again, we want to thank everyone that has supported and continues to support this game.”

Some new interchanges from me, most of them are standard designs. Sorry, no grandes complications today. Normally not really a fan of cloverleaves because of the weaving, I nonetheless like the design of them. So here we go: Not quite as symmetrical as before, but this one is completely de-weaved instead: A 2-quadrant cloverstack with a narrow footprint. Not meant for heavy traffic though: Diagonal Pinavia style: A simple T-interchange that I like for its FARHW branch: While we are at FA: Not a full interchange this time, but a junction with a local network: And last but not least, a windmill:

This is a highly experimental fix I developed to attempt to fix the crash that occurs when hovering a puzzle piece over a transit-enabled lot. I'm not sure what practical purpose this serves for regular users but I hope this is a valuable resource for modders and other community members nonetheless. How it works This mod can now be downloaded from the STEX. The files for this fix can be located on GitHub and is just a DLL which is unzipped to the Plugins folder. The DLL first overwrites code in SC4 that would normally unload the DLL for being nonstandard. The DLL then overwrites other parts of SC4's code to take control of potentially broken portions and catch and resolve issues that would normally cause crashes. Source code can be found on the release page, and the GitHub repository as well. Visual Studio 2013 is needed for compiling. Limitations Originally, this mod only worked with DRM-removed copies of retail SC4. However, as of recent updates, this mod will now work on any fully-patched copy of retail SimCity 4 (i.e. update 640) and on the Steam version of the game (update 641). Presumably, GOG and Origin will work as well as they also use 641. It should be safe to use this mod on unsupported versions as it'll give you a nag message and just not do anything. For retail SC4, testing was done on SKU 1, but I have no reason to believe that SKU 2 (European) EXEs are actually different. Demonstration This video shows the normal CTD behavior of hovering a puzzle piece over a transit-enabled lot: This video demonstrates how hovering behaves with the fix in place: More technical details The puzzle piece CTD is caused by a null dereference, though I haven't reverse-engineered the game enough to figure out what exactly it's trying to access. The fix acts like the Detours library in Windows and relies heavily on modifying the x86 assembly instructions of the game on-the-fly. The DLL overwrites the crashy code with a jump to one of the DLL's own functions. These functions first execute whatever instructions were overwritten by the new jump instruction. For the puzzle piece issue, the fix checks to see if certain pointers (stored in x86 registers) are null, and if they are, executes the proper instructions to resolve the issue. To reference the three functions in the source code: Hook_Sub96D8E9 — if the pointer in question is null, it skips an instruction that would try to increase whatever would normally be there. Hook_Sub65EBA0 — if the pointer in question is null, it jumps directly to a piece of code which cleans up the function being called and returns out. Hook_Sub65EBA0_Pt2 — if the pointer in question is null, it sets another pointer (which would normally dereference the bad pointer) to null as well, which is handled properly by the game. I wasn't aware of other CTD issues that would be as simple to replicate, though I have heard of issues with plugin conflicts and excessive plugins causing CTDs. However, this requires significantly more time to test, catch, and resolve. A couple of minidumps posted in technical issue threads didn't indicate much, and other posts in technical issue threads were capped to 20-ish lines since it had been thought that without debugging info, these crashes couldn't be solved. It'd be useful to have more of these. With crashdumps, the EIP address can be used for finding the address of the crash, and provided it occurs within the SimCity 4.exe module (you'll have to refer to the crashdump to see if this address is between the base address and upper limit address for the game), the registers, stack frames and instruction dump can be used to try to deduce what went wrong. What now? The code for disabling SC4's DLL unloading allows modders to create DLLs which can remain in memory for as long as SC4 is open, and while it's not as versatile as a DLL with a proper framework that SC4 recognizes, it's the next best thing. This fix also provides a good basis for further excursions into the game's internals, and could be more widely distributed and used to fix more issues in the game once the problems regarding digital copies are resolved.

Are you ready for a little heat? Our next STEX legend brings some flavors from Central Mexico to Simtropolis and his Latin American themed BATs ushered in an entirely new city building experience for players. Heblem (AKA Hableurg) was one of the founding members of the LBT (Latin American BAT Team) which has produced countless models and mods aimed at giving SC4 cities a Central American twist. But his BATing talents go far beyond Latin American themed buildings. Terrain mods, lush flora, suburban retail giants and even downtown NY skyscrapers can be attributed to his creative prowess, and with over 400,000 downloads, he has distinguished himself as a STEX superstar. Please give a warm welcome to Heblem! ST: When did you first get SC4, and what do you remember about your first experiences with the game? Was SC4 your first involvement with SimCity, or did you already have a history with the sim games? Heblem: My first contact with SC4, was in the coming months after it released in 2003. My father bought me a copy in a Sam’s Club store because I got good grades in school (I was 13 back then). My experience playing the game was mixed, I wasn’t really satisfied with the original SimCity 4 compared to SimCity 3000 due to its limited flexibility in modding. Later in 2005, bought the expansion pack Rush Hour and my experience with SC4 changed due the ability to make more transportation options and custom content. My first overall contact with SimCity was in 1994 when SC2000 came out for SNES, I received it as Christmas present. Ever since I was a child I loved to make cities with cereal boxes, toy cars, Legos, Hotwheels and such. But honestly the only SimCity I have enjoyed most was SimCity 3000. ST: What aspect of SC4 do you enjoy most – what keeps you coming back? Heblem: Actually what I enjoy most is the ability to make huge cities in regions in a relatively short time, something impossible in recent games or other program/engines, as well as the endless possibilities using custom content. What gets me back, honestly, is all the hard work done in last 12 years of custom content. ST: Before we jump into the all the custom content questions, I’m curious… what is your favorite Maxis lot/BAT? Heblem: My favorite Maxis BAT is Chrysler building, due how it was detailed, and its correct size in game. Even today, over 12 years later, no one has made a better Chrysler building to replace the original one. That BAT helped me once in making The New York Times building, to compare both buildings in game, since in RL both buildings are similar in height, only about 2-5 meters of difference. ST: Do you recall the first plugin you installed? Heblem: Honestly can’t remember, however my first experience with custom content was looking for how to install custom maps. ST: What led you to Simtropolis at first? Can you remember your initial impressions of the site? Heblem: My first contact with Simtropolis was in 2005, after I found out I could install such buildings into the game. The first sites that I visited looking for custom content were the original Simcity exchange, the Spanish SimCity forums (CSC), and of course, Simtropolis. I only used those sites to download (but not for forums or collaborate). My initial impressions of Simtropolis were great, since its exchange was much better than the EA exchange. Later in 2006, I finally register to forums, to show my city creations (city journals) and my first BAT. This is the only image I found of me using Simtropolis in 2006 as Hableurg account. ST: Describe your progression into the world of SC4 custom content. Was it a particular lot or BAT that inspired you to take the first step? Heblem: The creations that inspired me to BAT were the lots and BATs made by SimGoober. I loved how realistic and detailed those are, and they made my city look more alive and suburban themed. However it wasn’t until one year later that I made my first BAT. At first, I looked at how to install custom maps, and then realized I could easily make my own custom maps by just editing the PNG grayscale file as my desire. Later, I saw in the forums how people make great buildings using the BAT tool. Initially I thought it shouldn’t be too difficult, because in SimCity 3000 the BAT tool was easy to use and from there you could easily put your own custom buildings into your city, which was something I often did in SimCity 3000. I decided to give the same effort to creating SimCity 4 buildings, however I was disappointed at first because the SC4 gmax BAT tool was too different than the SC3000 BAT. My second try in gmax BAT was in 2006, after looking at tutorials in different sites on how to do BAT modeling, lighting and export, and finally came up with my first creation, but never uploaded it. ST: Do you remember what the very first thing that you modeled using the BAT? Do you still have a screen shot? Heblem: The first thing I modeled was what I been instructed in the BAT tutorial, which basically is this (only image I found of it) But as for my own, could be this office building, never released it due it poor aspect. Later my first BATs released at STEX were the and a (under Hableurg account, which lost password long ago) ST: You were one of the founding members of the LBT (Latin American BAT Team) which produced a wide range of very popular BATs for the SC4 community. How did that collaboration come about, and do you still keep in contact with anybody from the team? Heblem: The initial goal and idea was to create custom content from Latin America, which were non-existent at that time. The team was set by Berethor07, Tcxalapa and VictorGonzales at CSC forums in doing BATs themed from Latin America. Later, Debussyman, and a few others joined. The original idea and founder was Berethor07, who made some interesting landmarks from Mexico City, myself and Berethor. Initially we teamed up for MBT (Mexican BAT team), later VictorGonzales joined and suggested we change the team name to LBT, due to the fact that he was Venezuelan. The main project idea was to change every SimCity maxis growable to look like Latin American slummy homes, but as of today, we actually never achieved our goal. The proposed project is still getting dust in my computer. However, buildings models such as homes, department stores, offices, and commercials packs are available on STEX without lots since 2009. Unfortunately as today I haven’t hear anything from Victor Gonzales nor Berethor07 since 2009, currently sometimes I still in contact with tcxalapa. Since 2009 I rather do creations by my own under HBS tag, which it’s a shorten name of Heblem’s, Heblem, my real name Eblem, H for Henry, Henry Eblem. ST: You created a number of very popular BATs, including the Treasure Island Casino, the Super Walmart, and many other famous retail outlets, but your has proven to be one of your most popular creations. Did you ever expect flora props to become such a big hit with the SC4 community? That pack also contains plopable sand/dirt – I don’t think that had been done before, so what gave you the idea to create such a versatile MMP? Heblem: I didn’t expect so many people would use my ploppable sand/dirts. When I made those for a tropical region, I was looking for something that could decorate missing details over the repetitive texture pattern of the terrain mod. My first thought was to use alpha textures as BAT/props, which was a great idea to implement. After testing it myself, I then had the opportunity to share it (I still have some other ploppables for my own personal use). Thankfully, with those MMP’s I could make realistic SC4 landscapes like this one: Many of these props are by my own, including the creation of new terrain mods, water mods, rock mods. Many extensive tests were conducted in mid-2009, but as of now I haven’t gone back to that topic. However, my future MMP (not released) project will be a different set of MMPs that can recreate different earth biomes. I am still considering making more in the future. But overall my most popular and detailed BAT that I have ever made was the New York Times building, which took 2 months to create and as of now has over 30k downloads. ST: Your BAT library is very extensive, but you also managed to create a number of terrain and rock mods, maps and even a stoplight replacement. Many BATers like to stick to what they know, so what motivated you to step out and try your hand at other types of SC4 mods? Heblem: Well, most of my motivation in doing different things comes from what I see that’s missing in game. For example, one day I wanted to recreate a So-Cal city (Southern California), but the only stoplights I could find out were some Dutch-European and the original maxis one. I wanted some So-Cal curvy stoplights, which were nowhere to be found, so I decided to BAT one for myself. I found out how to replace the old one, which was as simple as changing an instance number using the iLives reader program. Later I decided to share it, including some simple props like a stop sign. Another example is the PWG lots I made some time ago. Those lots were very personal for doing a city fast, but I thought it could be useful to others by sharing it. Eventually I decided to remove it (including many of my creations, such office buildings and gas stations), due a compatibility bug reported. As of today, I haven’t taken the time to re-export and upload again. ST: I think most custom content creators would consider their work a hobby, but like anything in life, some parts are more fun than others. What do you consider your least favorite part of the BATing process? What about your favorite? Heblem: My least favorite part of BATing it’s of course waiting for exporting and the darn export code error 6, hah! lost many hours and projects due the exporting procedure, mainly because of my old computer specs were insufficient, especially in memory. Initially I used a 2005 toshiba laptop, and many projects took over 20-30 hours to export. Many times the computer would overheat, turn offs, or the process failed due to an export error. I’ve lost many projects, such as the Bellagio casino, nighlight of Treasure Island, Old design of Burj Dubai Tower, office skyscrapers and many BATs due that reason. I now own a better and more powerful machine which I hope to use to complete projects and never again see the export code error, but unfortunately as I get older, other priorities are first. As a hobby, my favorite part of creating BAT’s it’s the ability to project something you see, and you like in RL to the game. To give it its correct textures/materials, lighting and modeling, properly match as it is in RL and share and see what others think about your creation is exciting. ST: Since this is a sort of hobby (in the sense that custom content creators are not paid for their work), what keeps you motivated to continue releasing new creations for the SC4 community to enjoy? How much do comments in the download section mean to you? Do you get a thrill seeing your models pop up in CJs? Heblem: Of course it motivates me seeing peoples comments, and watching my creations get used in their CJs. It means a lot to me. Almost every two or three months I do an extensive search at Simtropolis or other sites about how people uses my creations. I do a search of HBS, Heblem or simply looking at CJs, for example, Basted69008 - he has an amazing CJ diary called San Theodoros which mostly uses my old creations from LBT and some exclusive BATs and props I sent to him. ST: You have been BATing wonderful models for over 6 years now. Is there any one of your creations that you are particularly proud of? Are there any fun stories or facts relating to some of your works that we don’t know about? Heblem: Well, I have been active in the community since 2006, and since then, I have created hundreds of models, mods, maps, textures for over 9 years, including my old account of Hableurg (2006-2009) and currently Heblem in Simtropolis. In those years I have made a few CJ’s such as (small mini cities of the world), Canatlán (a Mexican city using LBT props) and much better and personalized city and of course my https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azYEvtKjbvw, a totally eyecandy American town. I’m proud of making many of these creations, including top quality BATs and lots like the recently uploaded commercial stores, restaurants and such. Over these years, there has been many funny moments and collaboration with different people who share their knowledge. For example, making detailed 3D maps, general modeling help, rendering, seamless textures and many aspects to be better and create better custom content. ST: Has your experience BATing had any influence on your personal or professional life? Are there any skills that you have developed over your BATing career that have helped you beyond the world of SC4? Heblem: It has definitely influenced me over my professional life. Many BATers around might be going for architecture or civil engineer careers for their professional life. In my case, video game development influenced me, and I just graduated in August 2014 with a degree in Game Design thanks to family and friends. The BATing career gave me the opportunity to be a better 3D designer, and it made it possible to learn many new things that I can apply to SC4, other games or even new games. ST: What advice would you give to a new member of this community who was planning on creating their firstBAT or mod? Heblem: My best advice to them, just never give it up. Give yourself a second chance, or maybe a third, the third always scores. Ten years ago I was in the same boat as you. I just gave myself a second chance and finally made it. Once you know how to do it, you’ll want to learn and do more. ST: Simtropolis is organized into ‘player’ and ‘builder’ categories. Regarding the ‘player’ section, do you have any favorite CJers that you enjoy following? What are your favorite SC4 ‘scenes’ (i.e., towering metropolises, urban sprawl, rural landscapes, etc.). Heblem: Honestly I only look at few CJs once a month because lack of time. I do especially look for those who use my custom content, such as, Bastet69008’s San Theodoros, whom I mentioned before. And for those who are asking for me to take a look into their CJ, I will gladly look at and comment. But as for myself, I don’t really use the forums often or comment much (if you see my profile I have less than 400 post in 6 years). Mostly I just visit Simtropolis to look at new comments in my mailbox, do searches, post something in my BAT thread and upload something (rarely). There was a time in which I used to be more active here at Simtropolis, back in 2006-2009, using the Hableurg profile. My favorite SC4 scenes are landscaping, using MPPs, mountains, river streams, trees, etc. Basically because it reminds me of nature (I love nature). But I also enjoy looking at urban sprawl, but not really a fan of towering metropolises. ST: On the ‘builders’ side, do you have any favorite BATers that you enjoy following? If you still play SC4, what was your most recent download from the STEX? Heblem: Recently, the lots by nos.17 have attracted my attention because of the quality he puts into so many detailed lots. I even sent him an old commercial file stored in my computer for him to lot and upload, and honestly he did a great job! That’s my most recent STEX download. Lately I haven’t played SimCity 4 due lack of time. Last time I opened the game was for doing some lot testing at Mall del Sur (my latest creation), but overall in last 6 years, I haven’t played as much as I should. Most of my SC4 spent time is spent on custom creations such mods and bats. Additionally, I have been attracted to other games instead. ST: SimCity 4 has been out for over 12 years now. Are you surprised that this community is still going strong all these years later? What do you think is the secret to its longevity? Do you think there will still be new content being created 12 years from now? Heblem: Yes, I’m surprised it keeps going on after 12 years. It’s longevity is mainly due to its strong community in the creation of daily new custom content, and currently it’s the only game capable of making a huge “realistic” city than any other city building game. I think there will be new content even after 12 years, but it depends on those who still play, and if those kids who play today will learn to BAT and contribute more into the game. Even if a new better “Sim City” like game comes out in a future and convinces us to change over to it, I don’t think it is going to kill SC4 after more than 12 years of custom content. It will be a hard to kill for years to come. ST: Other than SC4, what types of games are you involved in? Heblem: Before I got involved into the SC4 modding and bating community, I used to make campaign scenarios for Age of Empires II (from 2000 to 2006). I made famous TD games, like Warriors Defense, Empire Defense, fixed and improved many active maps, like AN’s world map, castle bloods, and cooperative. Strategy games have influenced me into pursuing video game development as a career. Some other games I play include Far Cry 4, Banished, Minecraft, The Crew, AC Unity, Sanctum 2 and many other games from Steam. And recently I’m collaborating in doing Huntington City in Minecraft, (not all work is mine) Take a look to Huntington Surface map, I think you’ll love it. It’s like SimCity but in Minecraft! Also I do projects with Cry Engine and Unity 3D, I have city creation projects in 3D within Unity 3D. ST: What are some of your favorite hobbies or activities away from a computer screen? Heblem: As a hobby, currently I like doing 360° panoramas of the environment and nature of some public spaces. ST: Will we see any new SC4 content from you in the future? Heblem: If I get enough time, I hope to create some more content for SC4, but eventually I plan to stop doing so.

Thanks everyone Twrecks - I thought Scotty did this one already! I looked before I started and only saw the in Sydney (MLC Centre is the 2nd building Scotty based his BAT on - now you know both ). I didn't notice he also did an 'inspired by' version a few years earlier. Sorry Scotty (if you're still around?) hope you don't mind Correct, Nauru House sits above a sunken plaza, which I need to do a bit of artistic license on to fit into an SC4 lot size (3x4 btw). Yep TCD, it will have more furnishing once completed Roger - You have prompted me to do a WiP list (A.K.A Shame file ). I've left a few BATs behind in my wake of destruction... 321-333 Flinders Lane: Needs texturing. Not sure why I haven't got to it yet. I haven't made it a priority. 162-186 Collins Street: As above. 459 Collins Street: This one is in Stex-Phobia-Limbo* Yarra River: I lost a bit of motivation when I lost one of the sections in a crash. Hope to pick up again soon. Crown Metropol: I blame Roger for pointing out the roof and entry are completely wrong . Hopefully I'll come back to it again soon. Federation Square: Only in really early stages of build. Trying to muster the strength to face it again... Forum Theatre: I lost motivation when all the detail got lost in the render. Hope to pick up again soon. That futuristic building I made: Unlikely to be completed. Sorry Grand Hotel: Started but shelved. Hopefully pick up again soon. Hogsmeade Station (Harry Potter Project): The method of batting every brick individually did my head in. Hope to pick it up again soon. Parliament Station: This one is in Stex-Phobia-Limbo* Prima Pearl: Prototype stage only, trying to work out how does one model a building that is concave at the base but convex at the top. Hoping Roger can get some Near Maps for me soon PWC Building: This one is in Stex-Phobia-Limbo (Although, I'm starting to think the glass is too dark so might do some more work on this one) Russell Street Police Head Quarters: I lost motivation when all the detail got lost in the render. Hope to pick up again soon. Southern Cross Station: In progress. I've done the roof but not sure I like it... Give me some encouragement please St. Paul's Cathedral: Slowly working on the statues. They take ages to make but they're barely visible in the renders so its not very motivating. Yarra's Edge: Towers 1,2 & 3 are completed. Tower 4 is mapped out just need to keep going with it. * Stex-Phobia-Limbo (Trademark pending) : A state of existence in which a BAT is ready for release but it's author can't bring his (or her) -self to publish their BAT on the STEX due to the insidious troll infestation. Hopefully I'll get over it soon and release some more stuff (or less likely, the powers-that-be might abolish that hideous rating system )

Now I'm honored to present you the final version of downtown Coos Bay! And you may be interested in the skyline view from far away. And here's function distribution map for this CBD And here's a commercial plan about one building under construction And this height map clearly indicates the height control effort adopted to this moderate height CBD. I'd give special thanks to the great BATters in SC4 community, to name a few, Reddonquixote, scotty222, PBGV103, jasoncw, Darknono35, kellydale2003, DmScopio, darn42, girafe, on001222... So far I'm quite satisfied with the result but I'll still hang around and make possible improvement for this CBD, so any suggestion is appreciated in whatever means.

EA has shut down Maxis Emeryville, the main Maxis studio and longrunning developer behind SimCity and Spore, among other games. Though the Maxis brand will carry on, the studio that most people knew as "Maxis" is no more. "Today we are consolidating Maxis IP development to our studios in Redwood Shores, Salt Lake City, Helsinki and Melbourne locations as we close our Emeryville location," an EA representative said in a statement. The news comes smack in the middle of the Game Developers Conference, where developers from across the world are congregating in San Francisco for various meetups, lectures, and sessions. It's poor timing, to say the least. I've been hearing rumblings about a shake-up at Maxis for a few days now, but official word first came this afternoon from former Maxis designer Guillaume Pierre, who wrote on Twitter this afternoon that the studio would be shutting down. Originally founded in 1987, Maxis was best known for the Sim franchise, which began with Will Wright's SimCity and expanded to include a number of other games, including the popular The Sims series, which is handled by a separate developer called The Sims Studio. In 2013, Maxis released an online reboot of SimCity that was plagued with all sorts of problems, which may have been what led to this final closure. Neither SimCity nor the recent release of The Sims 4 performed very well, according to a person familiar with goings-on at the studio.

Degree of freedom is amazing in this game...

Update 45 1851-1883 Well, it’s been over a year since there was any regular update activity, so I thought I would refresh my memory before we get going again. Feel free to join in. Let’s go back to the summer of 1851. A group of pioneers set sail from Portland Oregon hoping to start a new life and make a few bucks while they are at it. The Pacific Northwest was sparsely populated, and our band of adventurers intended to start a town that would one day become the San Francisco of the Oregon and Washington territories. The going would be tough, but they set out with a vision and had the fortitude to see it through. New SorGun was founded that year, and through hard labor and determination the group of settlers made a small village where a forest of evergreens once stood. Along the way they made friends with a local tribe of Native Americans, and slowly the jumble of cabins become a hub for traders, trappers and other wayward adventurers. As the town expanded through the early 1850s, other settlers move in and start their own settlements. Junction, Materburg and Porthaven also get their start around this time. Logging becomes one of the prominent industries of the region and each town suffers its economic ups and downs. The growth and expansion of the early settlements doesn’t come without its costs. In the winter of 1856, a war party of Native Americans strikes through the region after a number of violent incidents leads to armed conflict. Fortunately for the citizens of New SorGun, the town was saved, but Junction was put to the torch. By 1860, Porthaven was growing steadily with Nicholas J. Delin at the helm. Through his leadership and the towns’ proximity to the new Army fort, Porthaven was already overtaking New SorGun as the principal settlement in the region. However, nothing could have saved the region from the crippling depression and stagnant growth that would result from the devastating American Civil War. Even during the worst of times, intrepid individuals find a way to create opportunities, as was the case with Eastman T. Finch. As the recession of war faded away, the other towns in the region began to grow as well. By 1870 the entire region was profiting from the continued migration of Americans heading west. Mr. Fredric Stevens even managed to tally the entire region in the census of 1870. By 1873 the rumor of a railroad terminus in the area was creating a firestorm of activity. The Northern Pacific Railroad commissioned a poll to determine the best site for the terminus of their trans-continental rail line. Unfortunately for the participating towns, the big wigs in charge of the railroad agreed that it would be financially beneficial to themselves to create a town out of thin air, and laugh all the way to the bank. Almost immediately, folks began moving to Steamer Bay from the other towns in the region, including New SorGun. Business was booming in Steamer Bay, and the railroad bosses had every intention of shutting down any town in the area that dared get in their way. But Mr. Finch wasn’t going to give up so easily. The little town was hanging on, despite the concerted efforts of the Northern Pacific to erase New SorGun from the map. And with the help of a new friend, Mr. Finch devised a plan that would keep New SorGun chugging along. Fredric Stevens would make his return to the region for the 1880 census. Steamer Bay was growing like gangbusters, and a number of other towns were popping up in the area as well. Unfortunately for Mr. Delin, the Northern Pacific got the best of him and gobbled up nearly the entire town of Porthaven. Stevens continues his census tour with a rugged Scotsman and learns about some shady activity by the Northern Pacific Railroad. He finally reaches New SorGun and is shocked to see how much the little town has grown since his last visit, despite the appearance of some political disagreements among the populace. The surrounding countryside has seen changes as well, including the booming quarry business and large swaths of farmland. The 1880 census concludes in the small town of Materburg, where Fredric Stevens decides to finally put down stakes and live out the rest of his days in SorGun. After 30 years of growth, one might want to catch his breath, but the 1880’s roared ahead at breakneck speed. Grumblings about immigrant workers began to rise to the surface in Porthaven, and political struggles were taking shape in New SorGun as Kathleen ‘Miss Kitty’ Timworthy rose to prominence. Finally, a criminal incident in 1882 set up a political firestorm in the town of New SorGun, pitting Kitty Timworthy’s People’s Party against Eastman Finch and the Businessman’s ticket. Will the Northern Pacific Railroad continue its dirty dealings and finally wipe New SorGun off the map, or will New SorGun self-implode under internal strife? What will happen to Lee Shao and his fellow Asian-American immigrants? Have we heard the last of Nicholas J. Delin? Or Fredric Stevens for that matter? Are you ready for more New SorGun?

15/9/1941 - A downed Stuka dive-bomber in Reki Fontanki. Taken down by anti-aircraft fire the plane has fallen on the ground and slided several metres before crashing into a street light. A military truck full of soldiers hurries up to examinate the wreckage. Most Soviet aircraft in Leningrad were inoperative and recuperating parts from the fallen enemy planes was an important task for the engineers. 26/9/1941 - Hospitals were a common target for the German aviation during the war. This one in Sadovaya street has received a direct hit and 42 people have died. Most of the facade is destroyed but we can still see a Soviet poster in the corner reminding everyone that every man is a soldier in Leningrad. 6/8/1941 - Food rationing began in July 1941. In this picture we see a crowd of people in Turgeneva Square waiting to receive their ration cards. Several soldiers are present to guarantee security. Each ration consists of 800 grams of bread. 12/9/1941 - Nazi heavy artillery has opened a crater in Kanala Griboyedova. Soldiers and volunteers are using pumps to drain the hole. Few metres to the right another shell has caused damage to the pavement. Nearby a wall poster reads "Death to child killers!". Soviet propaganda was common in the most devastated areas of the city. In this example we see a mother holding her dead son in her arms; in the background several houses are burning. The claim is the same than in the previous picture: "Death to child killers!". Disclaimer: This CJ includes original photos taken during the siege. To my knowledge none of them is protected by copyright, but if I were wrong I'm happy to delete any picture that infringes the law.

So I thought I'd turn an old city that I made back in early 2012 into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Here's what used to be a downtown sunken highway, now flooded and overgrown. The embankments and overpasses crumble, creating new safe havens for animals. A "behind the scenes" of this little microcosm. Hope I didn't ruin the mosaic above by posting this.

ST: When did you first get SC4, and what do you remember about your first experiences with the game? Was SC4 your first involvement with SimCity, or did you already have a history with the sim games? MandelSoft: SimCity was not my first introduction to the simulator genre. I once got two sim games for my birthday: Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 and Transport Tycoon Deluxe (yes, the original DOS game). Back then, RCT was already hard to install 135MB on a 4GB hard disk on a Windows 95 PC (boy, those were the times). I had many hours of fun with Transport Tycoon (including the chiptune music in all its glory) and I still play OpenTTD today. More people on this website are familiar with OpenTTD, but I don’t think many have played the original game. My first introduction to the SimCity series was SimCity 2000. Since I never really got track of that game (I was really young then, probably 6 or 7 years old), I ditched it aside pretty quickly. SimCity 3000 felt a lot better and I enjoyed that game, though I made some quite beginner mistakes. Then SimCity 4 came along in 2003. I had the vanilla game, but I didn’t got the hang out of it at the first try and I ditched it aside. Yes, a fan like me ditched aside SimCity 4 once for quite a while. But I was just 11 years old back then, and I was probably not old enough to really “get” the game… Then 2006 came along. I picked up the game again and I finally got how the game works. And I have loved the game ever since! In 2007 I bought Rush Hour (second hand, best purchase ever!) and in October 2007, I discovered Simtropolis. Since then, SimCity 4 has never been the same for me... ST: What aspect of SC4 do you enjoy most – what keeps you coming back? MandelSoft: SimCity 4 offers you a toolkit not just to make any city, it offers you the tools to make YOUR city. There are so many ways you can construct a city, how to design the layout, what services you offer, what style of infrastructure and architecture you're going to use and more. With the amount of custom content we have today, the possibilities are endless! I can see that most familiar SimCity 4 players have a distinct style. ST: Do you recall the first plugin you installed? MandelSoft: I think it was either the Streetlight Colour Mod or the Network Addon Mod, I can’t recall… ST: What led you to Simtropolis at first? Can you remember your initial impressions of the site? MandelSoft: The custom content, of course! I was searching for more possibilities, and especially to make my cities look more Dutch. At first, I only was here to download, but after a while I started browsing the forums. I never could have imagined that I would ever become such an integral part of the community. Everybody has to start somewhere. ST: Describe your progression into the world of SC4 custom content. Was it a particular lot or BAT that inspired you to take the first step? MandelSoft: Pffft, I don’t know anymore. I think it was the possibility alone that adding custom models to the game was enough inspiration for me to do my own work. I had some troubles getting gMax to start BATting, though. ST: Speaking of first steps, what was the very first thing that you modeled using the BAT? Do you still have a screen shot? MandelSoft: My first BAT was my own house. But it looked horrible, and for a few years I tried to clear them from my cities. My first serious BAT was a Dutch signage pack (and this was released, and deleted again). This one was overscaled quite a lot and poorly modelled. I don’t have pictures of it anymore, but it took me another three versions to get the proportions right. ST: Your list of uploads is populated by a large number of road mods. Are there any particular reasons for choosing to direct your efforts in this direction, beyond just general roadgeekery? MandelSoft: Most of these things are easy to model. Most signs only use basic geometry, especially boxes and cylinders. By combining them in a clever way, you can still get a large variety of shapes. One thing you do have to take care of is texturing, which is important with signage. Streetlights are a bit harder to model, but these things are small props, so one model is not really that complex. However, I didn’t do just easy stuff. Road texture sets are a lot of work. Not because it’s hard, but because there are so many textures to modify. It took me three and a half months to prepare the RHW Euro Texture Set for the RHW 3.0 ready. The Ontario Texture set took me a month (because I had the basic set ready in vector format). ST: What do you find fascinating about roads and their signage, lighting, etc? MandelSoft: It’s hard to explain. I just have that odd twitch in my head ST: What is the thought process behind choosing what to create next? MandelSoft: There is not much thinking about it. I just choose whatever I like to do next, whatever I can motivate myself for. In some cases, it’s about what I feel missing in the game and what I am able to make. ST: I think most custom content creators would consider their work a hobby, but like anything in life, some parts are more fun than others. What do you consider your least favorite part of the BATing process? Your favorite? MandelSoft: Some would say rendering is the least favourite part of the BATting process, but my least favourite part of the process is the finishing of the lots. This means getting the lot descriptions right and adding icons to the lots. Keep in mind that I usually make signage packs of dozens of signs, which means a lot of icons. This becomes a huge pain to make everything look right. My favourite part is the modelling itself. Just like in SimCity 4, I like to create stuff, to see things come from the mind into reality, regardless if this reality is virtual or not. ST: Since this is a sort of hobby (in the sense that custom content creators are not paid for their work), what keeps you motivated to continue releasing new creations for the SC4 community to enjoy? How much do comments in the download section mean to you? Is it exciting to see your models used in the CJs of others? MandelSoft: I really like to see my stuff coming back in other people’s CJs. Then you see that other people really appreciate your work, and that gives me satisfaction. This is also what motivates me to make new stuff, other than the fact that there are some things I really like to see myself in-game. I usually don’t read many comments, but I do want to take action if somebody comments on a bug. ST: You released your first file in 2008. Is there any one of your creations that you are particularly proud of? Are there any fun stories or facts relating to some of your works that we don’t know about? MandelSoft: The thing of quite a few of my creations is that no one really took the effort to do something similar. The Light Replacement Mod (not just replace the light cones, but the lamp posts themselves too) , the Stoplight Replacement Mod, the ploppable streetlights, the Highway Re-Styling Mod. No one has ever really tried and released such a feat. Also, there were a few signage sets in the past, but I really expanded the choice with a lot of European signage styles. I’m also very fond of my NAM creations, but that’s pure teamwork and I never got that far without help of my wonderful team mates. I’m also particularly proud of the Pactagon building. It is a funny looking building, but not too unrealistic. It is a quite original building design to fit on a roundabout center. A worthy headquarters for the NAM Team! One fact people may not have known before is that one of my mods was inspired by a mod that turned out to be a hoax. There was a project called the M25 Project. Basically this was a quite beautiful looking reskin of the Maxis Highway. At one point, development just stopped. I decided to start over again and make my own set, the Highway Re-Styling Mod. Later, it turned out that my inspiration was a Photoshop hoax. The member who pulled that off has made such a bad name that it may never be mentioned ever again. The same member also worked on a streetlight mod which inspired my Light Replacement Mod. So two hoaxes were eventually realised “properly” by me. Some other fun facts about some of my other downloads: Everything in the Frickinhuge Signage Set is either a pun or a reference. My latest release, the Carthamia Imperial Tower, was made for a friend. There is a brony advert on the Pactagon Building, as well as a PacMan advert. ST: Has your experience BATing had any influence on your personal or professional life? Are there any skills that you have developed over your BATing career that have helped you beyond the world of SC4? MandelSoft: SimCity 4 had one big influence on my life: I became a Civil Engineer because of SimCity 4. I completed a Bachelor degree in Civil Engineering in 2013 and I’m getting my Master’s degree in the specialisation Transport & Planning this year. Thus far I’m the only NAM member with a degree in the field ST: What advice would you give to a new member of this community who was planning on creating their first BAT? MandelSoft: I would give three important points to remember: Start small. Before you can make full-scale buildings, it’s best to start with small stuff like props. This will let you get to know the tools better. If your first project doesn’t succeed, you are more likely to quit. Larger projects often have a larger chance of failure than smaller ones. Therefore, start small. Never cease experimenting. Change some settings and see what it does, try something new, or just do things without knowing what you are really doing. Experimenting is an important way through which I learned all the skills I have. By experimenting, you get to understand the tools better. Failure is an option. Yes, you will fail quite a lot along the way when experimenting, but that’s all right; failure is an option. Each failure brings you one step closer to success, since you know what works and what doesn’t work. You have truly failed if you didn’t learn from your failures. So try a lot, fail a lot, but eventually learn a lot. ST: Simtropolis is organized into ‘player’ and ‘builder’ categories. Regarding the ‘player’ section, do you have any favorite CJers that you enjoy following? What are your favorite SC4 ‘scenes’ (i.e., towering metropolises, urban sprawl, rural landscapes, etc.). MandelSoft: My favourite SimCity landscapes are old cities and night scenes. I have a weak spot for both. In SimCity 4, it’s quite hard to make a city look centuries old. People who pull off that trick earn my deepest respect. These old cities have a very strong own unique character, I like that. I also like night shots, since this shows how the city is alive at night with all the pretty light effects. I don’t really follow CJs; I usually look around at the “show us your …” sections. I have some people that have inspiring creations. McDuell is completely mad when it comes to building interchanges; he builds one mind-blowing interchange after the other. Haljackey’s “Building a City from Scratch” is a huge undertaking that helped with popularising SimCity 4 again. Both of them should get a lot of respect, but let’s not forget all the other CJers out there that make great and unique content! ST: On the ‘builders’ side, do you have any favorite BATers that you enjoy following? If you still play SC4, what was your most recent download from the STEX? MandelSoft: I still have huge respects for the NYBT. The team still produces some high quality BATs for everyone to admire. I also respect Reddonquixotte’s work a lot. Each release of his is a masterpiece! ST: SimCity 4 has been out for over 12 years now. Are you surprised that this community is still going strong all these years later? What do you think is the secret to its longevity? Do you think there will still be new content being created 12 years from now? MandelSoft: I think the secret of the longevity of its community is its general attitude. From what I’ve seen, the SimCity community is highly tolerant, intelligent and respectful. Everyone respects each other, mods are rarely stolen, people have intelligent discussions, not a lot of people ask obvious questions answered hundreds of times and aside from members who have really misbehaved, no one is really hated here and there is always someone there to help you if you have a problem. This is what keeps our community strong. The custom content for this game stretched out the life span of the game too, and the creators are backed up by such a great community! I still would like to come back to SimCity 4 one day… ST: Are there any games you play besides SC4? What other hobbies do you have away from BATing and SimCity? MandelSoft: I haven’t played SimCity 4 lately, due to my work at ProMods for Euro Truck Simulator 2. I’m still building cities and roads, I’m still modelling streetlights and signs, but just for another game. The good thing is that this game offers you a completely different perspective, namely of a driver. This is a quite relaxing game, and I’d recommend to play this game with the ProMods map mod. I’m also a music producer in the trance genre. I have quite a passion for music making. My work can be found on YouTube and Soundcloud under the name MandelSoft. I have quite some tracks I’m proud of. I can most definitely recommend “Aurora Borealis”, “Moonrise”, “Day of Pi” , “Waves” and “Drifting in Dreams”. I’m also working on Geofiction projects. Geofiction is the art of creating and maintaining fictional countries. I’m part of a Dutch geofiction-community who share a geofiction-world together. I can use my InkScape skills for various aspects, like drawing maps, flags, infographics, etc. It’s an unusual but interesting hobby. I have met these people in real life and we are a fun group. ST: What question have I not asked that I should have? MandelSoft: Maybe what “player” project I participated with I’m the most proud of? That would be the NORO Co-operative. This is a huge multi-player region on SC4Devotion.com with the crème de la crème of the SimCity 4 building community. It’s a high-quality region with a lot of challenges. I’d recommend everyone to take a look over there. You’ll find some great inspiration how to make your cities look a lot better! Best regards from your head-banging NAM-Pony, Maarten (MandelSoft) Interview questions by SimCoug and NMUSpidey (but mostly SimCoug), MandelSoft interview conducted by NMUSpidey

Our next interviewee calls Norway his home. Glenni has brought us all a taste of the world'S finest and most interesting buildings and BATs, with a list of downloads ranging from brutalist W2Ws to tunnel entrances/exits. There are design o' plenty to fit just about any playing style, so we feel confident in assuming that you probably have at least one of his works in your plugins folder. And if you don't, why not give his work a look? Glenni has made us all plenty of good stuff. Now let's take this chance to get to know him a bit better... ST: When did you first get SC4, and what do you remember about your first experiences with the game? Was SC4 your first involvement with SimCity, or did you already have a history with the sim games? Glenni: I bought the game around 2002, or thereabouts. I had already played SimCity 3000 World Edition, and SimCity 2000 before Simcity 4, so I was by then used to the series. My first thoughts were, “Oh my god, this is SO difficult compared to the previous!” For those of you who never played SimCity 4 without any expansions, let me just tell you, it was absoletely brutal! Everything was hard. The best I managed to get, before moving on to Rush Hour Expansion pack was 110 000 people in a city. And just that one growable high rise - that one high rise alone felt like a proper acchievement. Another thing I noticed was just how smooth the animations were. And the street life, wow. With SimCity 3000 I was used to cars moving at a choppy pace. Pedestrians were there, but didn't do much but walk awkwardly. Suddenly we had cars driving, stopping, going around bends and pedestrians standing, sitting at tables, walking, doing tasks and chores, people in pools, kids on trampolines. It was quite the sight for me back then. ST: Do you recall the first plugin you installed? Glenni: I don't remember much of them specifically, but i found EA's now defunct SimcCity 4 website. Simcity.ea.com I think it was? It used to have a lot exchange. I downloaded the standard EA landmarks and then tried the exchange. I just remember that one of the first I installed was some office called MSNBC. It was basically just the wren insurance, with a huge logo saying MSNBC slapped on the side. The problem is that with the official exchange, you had no way of telling what exactly it installed. So it installed that building, and a few custom versions of existing lots, with that sign popping up everywhere in my cities. ...We're off to a great start! One the plus side I did find Mikeseith's ( the automata dude) earlier work there, that was some of the best I found find there at the time. ST: What led you to Simtropolis at first? Can you remember your initial impressions of the site? Glenni: Having finally had enough of simcity.ea.com's rambunctiousness I began looking for other sites. After some googling for Simcity 4 mods, I found Simtropolis. It was amazing. Wow, good buildings, wow, cathedrals, wow, new cars! Where have I ended up?! I think one of the first mods I downloaded was one of Xannepan's JENX cathedrals, and some Simgoober hotels. ST: Describe your progression into the world of SC4 custom content. Was it a particular lot or BAT that inspired you to take the first step? Glenni: It wasn't as much the BATs and mods, as it was the people. I started at Simtropolis as a lurker, but eventually I started hanging out at the chatroom. From there I got help to get started, Ill Tonkso, N747 and NintendoMaster128 were some of the guys that inspired me and helped me get up and going. They helped me with textures, they shared some of theirs, taught me how to start with scale, etc. ST: Speaking of first steps, what was the very first thing that you modeled using the BAT? Do you still have a screen shot? Glenni: Oh lawdy. Well, what confused me with Gmax/BAT at first, was that I was used to BAP/Ba+ from SimCity 3000, BAT's predecessor. So I thought that all I had to was make a basic shape, and then texture that. Boy was I wrong. I learned the hard way that Simcity 4 had some simple, but rigid design rules: - Detail the building. - Maintain a general 4 metre floor height. - Exagerate the vertical scale. - Exaggerate the scale of ornaments - Textures are what make and break the models. My first attempts were truly dreadful, but here's a shot of one of them: http://i579.photobuc...od.png~original ST: You have a very wide range of buildings in your list of BATs. What is the thought process behind choosing what to create? Glenni: For most part it's the desire to create realistic, and non descript buildings. The stuff people tend to forget about, the non-shiny or glassy every day buildings. High rise 1960s residentials, down and out tenements, etc. But of course, I have made some non-grungy stuff too. Another reason was to create more Norwegian and Scandinavian content in general, content that there isn't all that much of. ST: Many of your BATs have been released under the BLaM and NDEX banners. For those of us (including myself) who may not know much about BLaM or NDEX, can you elaborate on what you guys were about/how you were organized and what your role with them was? Glenni: BLaM and NDEX were, and are two teams devoted to creating content under a common banner for SImcity 4. In the past, NDEX and BSC were the two main teams - you could say rivals if you wanted, but I never saw it that way. NDEX has a special interest in big, bold, and spectacular skyscrapers, made by people like Dusktrooper, Eburess, N747, Superstar, and in later years me, Ill TOnkso, and Dragonanime, whereas BSC focused more on game beautification, mansions, chateaus, vinyards, that sort of thing. BLaM was founded by Mike Dixon Kennedy, alias Onlyplace4, who sadly is no longer with us. (God rest his soul.) He was a very good, competant leader for the team. I forgot the exact names on some of the other founding members, as I lost contact with most of them, but Mightygoose and I held somewhat central positions in the team. In both BLaM and NDEX, I was and am just the BATter, all though I did and do for most part my own lotting, because I have more of an actual interest in it, whereas other BATters just wanted the damn things out, and not have to worry about it. ST: Since this is a sort of hobby (in the sense that custom content creators are not paid for their work), what keeps you motivated to continue releasing new creations for the SC4 community to enjoy? How much do comments in the download section mean to you? Is it exciting to see your models used in the CJs of others? Glenni: For most part I just like sharing, and knowing that someone actually has a use for something you create does feel nice sometimes. Comments are generally not a neccesity, I don't need comments just to keep on making and releasing stuff, although I should admit, that If I've had a bad day, and see rude or nasty comments, it does of course affect me a bit. ST: Has your experience BATing had any influence on your personal or professional life? Are there any skills that you have developed over your BATing career that have helped you beyond the world of SC4? Glenni: They haven't had all that much of an influence other than making it easier for me to step into the modding community for other games, such as GTA, Mafia, Cities XL, and SecondLife. Those games are where I have dabbled since. ST: What advice would you give to a new member of this community who was planning on creating their first BAT? Glenni: Start simple. Don't go for the tallest, most detailed, and most spectacular skyscraper you can find. Aim low. Make a small house, or a store. Maintain a general height of 4 meters per floor. Detail it with air condition vents, pipes, and chimneys, etc on the roof. Model the actual window frames, set them back in the walls like in most buildings real life. Make the walls 0.3 m thick at the minimum. But first and foremost, have fun, and enjoy what you are creating! ST: Simtropolis is organized into ‘player’ and ‘builder’ categories. Regarding the ‘player’ section, do you have any favorite CJers that you enjoy following? What are your favorite SC4 ‘scenes’ (i.e., towering metropolises, urban sprawl, rural landscapes, etc.). Glenni: I must admit that I haven't had a very close watch on the latest CJs, but the ones that I remember, and particularely liked were as follows: Thames by Frogface: A little piece of the UK, the first serious attempt at a proper British CJ, and boy was it good! An old CJ made by the Swedish member SAS: I forgot the name, but some oldtimers might remember it. Wooded hills, huge bridges spanning gorges, impressive lot work, etc! BurroDiablo's Sakhaliyan Peoples Republic: This one was a killer, dark dinghy soviet style, with his neat photoshop skills made this a fun CJ to look at, it made you want to pop some anti depressants just looking at it, and that's a good thing! Ilikihotdogsalot's World CJ: This was a CJ, where he would recreate one city per post, and then move on to the next one. Some of them got freakishly close to the originals! There were a few others, but it's hard to remember the exact titles of the CJs and the members behind them. ST: On the ‘builders’ side, do you have any favorite BATers that you enjoy following? If you still play SC4, what was your most recent download from the STEX? Glenni: Yep, most of my favourites are the ones that did good down to earth buildings, Odd From Sweden, Erdmoebel, Ferox, Ill tonkso, Jestarr, Simhottody, Jasoncw to name a few. I haven't played simcity since 2011, and therefore have not downloaded any buildings, but I plan to go back to this. I really want to get myself a desktop for it, though. Laptops are a bit awkward and jerky to play Simcity 4 on. ST: SimCity 4 has been out for over 12 years now. Are you surprised that this community is still going strong all these years later? What do you think is the secret to its longevity? Do you think there will still be new content being created 12 years from now? Glenni: I am a little bit surprised, yes. The fact that new buildings get uploaded every week even after the game was released 12 years ago is actually pretty amazing. Part of the success is because of the blatant failure that SimCity Societies and SimCity 13 were, though. If anything, it just brought even more fans to SimCity 4. The reason for the success I'd wager would be the wide variety of stuff you can find for this game, just the STEX alone has 14 000~ uploads. And then there's SC4Devotion, and several other sites that add their own content to the game. One good example would be toutsimcities.com if you are interested in French buildings and mods. I ventured a bit into simcity.cn, too, a Chinese SimCity fansite. I managed to find some gems there, too, that are not found anywhere else. I'm pretty confident that this game still has a lot going for it, but if it will be around in another 12 years we'll never know. But at this point it doesn't seem too unlikely. Grand Theft Auto 3 was released over 13 years ago, and that's also going strong in its mod community. ST: Are there any games you play besides SC4? What other hobbies do you have away from BATing and SimCity? Glenni: I play a few games, like Garry's mod, Cities XL, S.T.A.L.K.E.R - Shadow of Chernobyl, Grand Theft Auto V, Mafia II, and Tropico 4 is what I play the most. I don't have many hobbies, I sometimes enjoy hiking, photography of urban landscapes - and I recently picked up an interest in making some models devoted to Secondlife. Interview questions by SimCoug and NMUSpidey (but mostly SimCoug), MandelSoft interview conducted by NMUSpidey

The question gets batted around often enough, “I’m looking for city ideas, what CJ’s should I look through?” – The answer is usually a resounding “Journey through Paengia”. With almost 250,000 views and nearly 2,200 comments (not to mention the trophy case full of Trixies), Paengia is one of the most popular City Journals on Simtropolis, and it’s no coincidence that it’s author has been filling the STEX full of amazing creations since 2009. From scenic parks to modular truck stops, or grungy industry to behemoth nuke plants, Paeng has turned lotting into an art form. And with over 400,000 total downloads, chances are his lots reside somewhere in your plugin folder too. So without any further delay, please welcome Paeng, as the next member of our STEX 100 million interview series. ST: When did you first get SC4, and what do you remember about your first experiences with the game? Paeng: I got it right off the shelf on release. Then I got annoyed with it and put it back on the shelf. Until RH came out, now that was quite the day... ST: Was SC4 your first involvement with SimCity, or did you already have a history with the sim games? Paeng: Nah, I played on and off since the very first version... but it was always more of a seasonal thing - none of the early versions could put me in a trance like SC4 does... not even the fabled SC3000 ;-) ST: What aspect of SC4 do you enjoy most – what keeps you coming back? Paeng: In the beginning it was clearly the region play, then with RH the network stuff... Then, later again, MMPs and all the green stuff... ST: Before we jump into the all the custom content questions, I’m curious… what is your favorite Maxis lot/BAT? Paeng: Maxis defaults are quite underrated - actually I like most of it... well, after some cleaning up, I'll admit ;-) The main reason why I don't use much of it any more is the inconsistent scale. I guess I like their grungy industrials best, and still use them a lot, too. ST: Do you recall the first plugin you installed? Paeng: Nope. Actually I was off the grid for quite a long time in the early 2000s, until about 2005 or 6... lots of RL, two sons in puberty... you know ;-) So basically I slept through the early custom content era... and when I woke up to it, I started downloading with a vengeance. ST: What led you to Simtropolis at first? Can you remember your initial impressions of the site? Paeng: Well, by the time I was getting interested in city builders again, I quickly realized that there had been a lot of batting, modding and lotting going on - behind my back, so to speak LOL... so I started some in-depth research that quickly led me to places like ST, SC4D, SimPeg and many other fan sites and repositories in all corners of the world... I pretty much stayed in lurk mode then - there was so much to catch up with, so many different 'philosophies', opinions, emotions... So for the next year or two I dug in quietly, reading tons of material in all the forums, while polishing up on my playing skills and building up a first collection of custom content - really without any plan to ever start producing stuff on my own. ST: Describe your progression into the world of SC4 custom content. Was it a particular lot or BAT that inspired you to take the first step? Paeng: No, it was more a lack of particular lots and Bats - when I started building cities using more and more custom content, I kept hitting snags and dead ends, where I just could not build things the way I envisioned them. I spent endless hours on the exchanges looking for that one piece that would fit. On top of that I was already drifting away from large city vistas, tinkering with more rural settings. ST: Speaking of first steps, what was the very first thing that you lotted using the LE? Paeng: Tehehe... I had this sleepy rural town, and there was supposed to be a bus stop with a pedestrian overpass - fit for small town... but all the textues, props and lots I found were too urban for my liking... that's when the bubble burst, I hit the forum wailing: "How the hell can I get this the way I want it?!" You guessed it - all answers were like "Get the Lot Editor", "Use The Reader", "Learn how to Bat"... So I started with the easiest obstacle to overcome - the Lot Editor. ST: Your first STEX upload was a in June of 2009. You started your now famous ‘Mountainview/Paengia’ City Journal about a month earlier. What prompted you to begin sharing your creations with the SC4 community? Paeng: Well, the moment I started lotting, I knew this is just my thing... so I started to look around for stuff that I can turn into lots... the security fences were basically a lotting exercise, and the fence props were there, hardly used - because they were "just" props. Then someone said, hey - this is a useful little set, you should put it up at the Stex... So I did, and to my surprise folks started downloading and indeed found it useful. ST: You have created and shared a wide range of lots over the past 6 years, but they all share some common characteristics. For one, you have a keen eye for the right details and a knack for eye pleasing designs. You also tend to focus on sets that have modular capabilities. How did this ‘Paeng’ style come about? Paeng: I strongly dislike the grid. I hated the fact that everything is forever bound to squares and rectangles. Now I can't change that basic SC4 principle... but I can do a lot to at least break that appearance. I can combine a couple of 1x1s with a 4x4 - it is still made up of squares, but it appears to be an irregular shape. That is the simple approach I took, and it continues throughout almost all the lots I created. Not everybody uses them that way, but if you look closely, most of my pieces can be combined any which way with other pieces, even if they come in seemingly unrelated sets... That's why I also use as few "dependencies" as possible - basically I use the same set of "essentials" in all my releases... Of course there are exceptions to that, certain specialty items would just suffer if I don't add special ingredients as well... but I rarely 'splurge'. As for my keen eye - thanks :-) Indeed I'm a stickler for details and not satisfied before I get that tickle in my gut... ST: A large number of your lots are influenced by the prolific BATer Pegasus. How did you come about to work so closely with one of the top SC4 custom content creators? Paeng: As mentioned I was drawn early on to rural settings... so the style of Pegasus held high appeal for me, aside the fact that he is a fantastic Batter (and taught me the ropes with the Reader). Add to that the fact that the Simpeg community is smaller and generally more quiet and relaxed than others - something I need for my mental make-up, I'm over 60 by now and the brash vigor of the very young does not always sit well with me ;-)... you can see why Simpeg.com became my home base. My early work is based on the 'Mountain Theme' - I probably turned every Bat and prop of that set inside out at least once... At some point Peg and I worked close together on a re-launch of the Simpeg site --being a (former) web-developer, my skill-set happened to match the needs-- and during that time we decided to finally tackle the Agricultural Mod - something that had been a long-time topic with some members of the Simpeg community, like Rebecca and Craig, plus a host of others volunteering for work and input and beta testing. The result was the - Pegasus doing the Bats and most of the modding, Becca and Craig most of the lotting, myself doing some lotting and modding as well as the documentation and packaging. Many addons followed, like Becca's Irrigation Canals, my Access Roads, Craig's Agri Industrials and many more... Regretfully, Pegasus has since retired from producing Custom Content - but he left us the simpeg keys... So Craig and I are sort of commissary webmasters, fortunately supported by a whole bunch of great people to help. Visit Simpeg and you'll know who they are :-) ST: I think most custom content creators would consider their work a hobby, but like anything in life, some parts are more fun than others. What do you consider your least favorite part of the Loting process? Your favorite? Paeng: I start with my favorite... The greatest fun is to work with other people having a similar mindset for custom content. I seldom lack ideas - but it's all so much richer and rewarding when you can do it with a bunch of people who enjoy it as much as you do. Brainstorming, throwing ideas around, solving problems together, continuously learning from each other, or just generally shooting the s*hit - that's what makes it worth all the time we sink into this... passion. Hobby does not really fit :-) Then of course the actual lotting process - slowly seeing your idea taking shape, pulling together all the right ingredients until there is harmony - very zen. My least favorite? Probably the time between packaging and release. That time when you're all alone and need to check every lot one by one to tweak little things, finalize LTexts and Descriptions, remove the ballast, make icons, write the readme - the nitty-gritty stuff... that's time-consuming and concentration-eating WORK. ST: Since this is a sort of hobby (in the sense that custom content creators are not paid for their work), what keeps you motivated to continue releasing new creations for theSC4 community to enjoy? How much do comments in the download section mean to you? Do you get a thrill seeing your lots pop up in CJs? Paeng: The motivation - that this game is still alive after all these years, still attracts new players, and is still not depleted as far as new discoveries and new techniques are concerned... and that it still attracts people to pick up Custom Content Creation and come up with amazingly unique stuff... Comments - I had to learn not to let them get to me... I have spoken to producers who were about to leave it all behind (and some who actually did), just because some jerk made a snide remark, or because some troll pulled the ranking down... On the other hand it's uplifting when a comment is really "speaking" to you, taking the time to form at least a full sentence. But I can fully understand that not everybody has the time or is in the mood to do this all the time. So naturally - seeing one of our items pop up in a CJ is always thrilling - it's the best applause we can get. ST: You have been loting amazing creations for almost 6 years now. Is there any one of your creations that you are particularly proud of? Are there any fun stories or facts relating to some of your works that we don’t know about? Paeng: Since you ask for one personal favorite, then it has to be my & - if only for versatility and size, it has something for everybody... and there are countless hours in that one, both for me and any player ;-) Though most credit must go to those who provide us with a sheer endless stream of models - they are the true heroes. Personally, I can't Bat if my life depends on it. Funny stories you don't know about? Not really - It's All In The Lots... LOL ST: Has your experience with loting had any influence on your personal or professional life? Are there any skills that you have developed over your SC4 career that have helped you beyond the world of this game? Paeng: No. ST: What advice would you give to a new member of this community who was planning on creating their first Lot/BAT? Paeng: Go into Lurk Modus. Get a feel for the community. Read up on the tools - everything you need to know is out there. Search for answers yourself. If you have questions left, ask them in a precise manner. Download lots of files and analyze them inside LE. Don't upload your first lot to the Stex. Have Fun! ST: Simtropolis is organized into ‘player’ and ‘builder’ categories. Regarding the ‘player’ section, do you have any favorite CJers that you enjoy following? What are your favoriteSC4 ‘scenes’ (i.e., towering metropolises, urban sprawl, rural landscapes, etc.). Paeng: To be honest - I basically rely on BTT + 10... without that fantastic resource I'd probably miss out on a lot of CJs... so if you look at BTT plus its yearly top 100, then you know what I'm looking at - as much as time permits. Well, it's no secret that I much prefer rural settings. Once in a blue moon I get the urge and build up some "Towering Inferno", though even that will usally be a seaside resort, or a rich enclave in the middle of nowhere LOL... But mostly I like to zoom in on bucolic settings. ST: On the ‘builders’ side, do you have any favorite BATers that you enjoy following? What was your most recent download from the STEX? Paeng: Same as on the player's side... I'm an avid collector, and with the roughly 15Gb I have collected so far, I daresay I have seen most of it - so I know who the good Batters are, if they put up something on the Stex, it's an automatic download... If I tried to list them all, I'd surely forget half of them. Of course I have a soft spot for all these guys who concentrate on the smaller buildings - mid- and lowrise COM and RES, so guys like MattB or Madhatter come to mind, or the guys who make great series of props, like NBVC or Murimk or Shokthrpy... but again - I can't really single out anybody, there are just so many who make fantastic content available to us... My latest Downloads are - The latest ST: SimCity 4 has been out for over 12 years now. Are you surprised that this community is still going strong all these years later? What do you think is the secret to its longevity? Do you think there will still be new content being created 12 years from now? Paeng: No, I'm not surprised - we have to remember that this game's history goes back much farther than SC4... all in all we're talking about what? Almost a quarter of a century? There is a reason for this long-time appeal - something no ego shooter can ever get near... probably because it is constructive, not destructive? 12 years from now? Hard to say - there may still be small groups of afficionados everywhere, but the community as a whole will be totally different. Just imagining what technology can do in 2027 is kinda... mind-boggling.

Welcome to the 12th Annual Trixie Awards Ceremony! All of your 2014 Trixie nominations have been tabulated, perused, inspected and stamped with the official approval of Dirktator, so it's on with the show! If you're new to Simtropolis, Trixies are awarded in three general areas - Custom Content Creators, City Journalers, and Community. The city-building games we love to play would not have the variety of beauty, form and function if it weren't for the amazing community of creators who give their free time and effort to share their works with the entire Simtropolis community and beyond. The Trixie for Best Modding Tool (SimCity 2013) goes to... The award for Automata Aficionado goes to... The nominees for Best Behind-the-scenes BAT Support are ST BAT School Team and Toothless Stitch. And the Trixie goes to... The Trixie for Best Civic BAT goes to... The award for Best Modding Tool (SC4) goes to... The winner for Best Post-war BAT is... The nominees for Best Pre-war BAT are IDS2 and nofunk. And the winner is... The award for Best Recreation of a Modern Building goes to... The Trixie for Best Lot Designer goes to... The winner for Best Nature Creation goes to... The nominees for Best SC4 Residential BATs are Aaron Graham and andisart. And the winner is: The nominees for Best SimCity 2013 Mod are: CapTon, SUGCTeam, oxide and Yayie. And the winner is: The nominees for Highest Quality in Custom Content are Aaron Graham, darn42, Don Miguel, FrankU, Huston, Jasoncw, Magneto, mike_oxlong, paeng, Parisian and Reddonquixote. And the Trixie goes to: The nominees for Merit of Team Spirit are NAM Team, NYBT, Tarkus and tony. And the winner is: The nominees for Most Creative Map are blunder and mrwheel. The Trixie goes to... The award for Most Imaginative BATer goes to... The Trixie for the Most Important Modding Discovery goes to... The winner for Most Improved BATer is... The nominees for Most Useful Creation are: Aaron Graham, FANTA1990, Historic Harbor, Jasoncw, and rivit. And the winner is... The award for Old School BATer goes to... The Quiet Yet Productive BATer is... The Rustbelt Preservation Society award goes to: The nominees for Mod of the Year are: airman15, blunder, MasterDwaine and NAM Team. And the Trixie goes to: The Trixie for BATer of the Year goes to... And finally, the nominees for BAT of the Year are: Aaron Graham, Chris M, darn42, Huston, Jasoncw, JP Schriefer, Historic Harbor, NYBT, Reddonquixote and spa. And the winner is: The City Journal section and forums at Simtropolis allow players of the games we all love to showcase their creativity in planning sparkling cities, developing grungy industry, crafting natural habitats, and telling imaginative stories. Thank you for the City Journals that have amazed and entertained us. The award for Most Realistic SimCity 2013 City Journal goes to... The Trixie for Best SimCity 2013 City Journal is: The nominees for the Most Awe-inspiring SC4 City Journal are: Huston, InvaderNat, Kisa Atsuko, Ln X, MilitantRadical, paeng, Schulmanator, SimCoug, and Tonraq. And the award goes to... Nominees for Best Asian SC4 City Journal are: jmsepe and Tonraq. And the winner is... The nominees for Most Attention to Detail in a SC4 City Journal are: Bastet69008, gigius76 and takemethere. And the award goes to... The winner for Most Chaotic SC4 City Journal is... Nominees for Best SC4 City Recreation are elavery and kelistmac. And the Trixie goes to... The Trixie for Best Bonus Content in a SC4 City Journal goes to... The winner for Best Custom Lotting in a SC4 City Journal is... The award for Best Grimy SC4 City Journal goes to... The winner of Best Historical SC4 City Journal is... The award for Best Journaler of City Journals goes to... The winner for Best Newspaper in a SC4 City Journal goes to... The Trixie for Best Public Transit in a SC4 City Journal goes to... The award for Best Recreational Area in a SC4 City Journal goes to... The nominees for Best SC4 City Planner are:art128, bakercity, BelfastSocrates, Kim Sunwoo, Kisa Atsuko and takemethere. And the Trxie goes to... The award for Best SC4 Science Fiction City Journal goes to... The nominees for Best Story in a SC4 City Journal are: NMUSpidey, SimCoug and Tonraq. And the winner is... The award for Best Suburbs in a SC4 City Journal goes to... The nominees for Best Use of Custom Content in a SC4 City Journal are: Ln X and SimCoug. And the winner is: The nominees for Most Aesthetically Pleasing SC4 City are: BelfastSocrates, feyss, Huston, juliok92012, kelistmac, Kim Sunwoo, Ln X, MilitantRadical, Mymyjp and Tonraq. And the Trixie goes to... The nominees for Most Entertaining SC4 City Journal are: jmsepe and Schulmanator. And the winner is... The Trixie for Weirdest SC4 City Journal goes to... And for the final award in this section, the nominees for Best SC4 City Journal are: gigius76, Fox, Kim Sunwoo, Ln X, MilitantRadical, pink industry, Schulmanator, SimCoug, and Tonraq. And the Trixie goes to... This section of the Trixie ceremony recognizes the immense contribution of Simtropolis members who make this place what it is. Whether quietly acting behind the scenes to be helpful, leaving useful and friendly comments in the forums, or helping to keep the place running smoothly, the recipients are deserving of their awards. The nominees for Friendliest Chatter are: Haljackey and meister1235. And the winner is... The nominees for Friendliest Former are: _B, A Nonny Moose, Benedict, MandelSoft, Titanicbuff, and Ultimate727. The award goes to... The nominees for Most Helpful Forumer are: Hamish, rsc204, T Wrecks and Yarahi. And the Trixie goes to... The award for Funniest Member goes to... The nominees for Highest Quality Poster are: A Nonny Moose, Aaron Graham and T Wrecks. And the winner is... In Memoriam. The award for The Masters of Ceremony goes to... The Trixie for Most Engaging Off-topic thread goes to... The member Most Likely to Wield Thor's Hammer is... The award for Most Outstanding Member Who Always Finds Out if a Picture Shows a Town goes to... The nominees for the member Most Welcoming to Newcomers are: jmsepe and Tonraq. And the award goes to... The SimCity 2013 Forum Dedication award goes to... The award for the member who is the Spearhead of Change goes to... The winner of the Simtropolis Triple Crown is... The Token of Endurance is awarded to... "STEXie" Awards - for Supremely Tracking the EXchange - go to... The Staff Appreciation Awards go to... The Awesome Admin Awards go to... In a surprise vote, the winner of Best Dirktator is the one and only... And our final award for the evening is the We Miss You; Come Back category. The members we missed in 2014 were Craig-Abcs, Darknono35, Delecto, dk1, mntoes, PBGV103, Reddonquixote, SimFox, SimRico, Skimbo, spursrule14 and TPB. The one you missed the most is...

Representing Eastern Europe, let's welcome Seraf and his wonderful BATing skills to our next interview! Seraf's list of files includes a very unique selection of BATs, from gardens and greenhouses to some very classy NYC-style buildings circa 1900. If there were a BAT Olympics, his creations would always get high marks from the always very strict and severe East German judge. If there were a BAT Bowl Series (like American college football) his BATs would always play in the Rose Bowl because you can find roses in gardens like the ones he makes. If there were a BAT art gallery- wait, that's kind of what the STEX is, to a certain extent. Anyway, Seraf! ST: When did you first get SC4, and what do you remember about your first experiences with the game? Was SC4 your first involvement with SimCity, or did you already have a history with the sim games? Seraf: I vaguely remember that I stumbled upon SC4 (I think it was SC4) when I was still in primary school. It was installed on one of the computers in the computer class; I tried to play this strange version of "the Sims" as I called it back then but didn't succeed in anything more than spending money. The next time was when I was a little older - fifteen, maybe sixteen. I think I borrowed it from someone. This time the gameplay was more productive. But my first sim game was "The Sims", I absolutely loved building and decorating houses, in fact I still do but rarely have time for this. ST: What aspect of SC4 do you enjoy most – what keeps you coming back? Seraf: I don't really know, in fact for the last few years I only turn on the game when I need to test my BATs. But I always enjoyed building beautiful cities, full of great plazas and vistas. ST: Do you recall the first plugin you installed? Seraf: Oh, not really, I remember that one of the first was the Library Tower form LA. I knew this building from the Independence Day movie and liked it so it landed in my plugin folder. ST: What led you to Simtropolis at first? Can you remember your initial impressions of the site? Seraf: I think what led me to ST was STEX. I couldn't enjoy other aspects of the site since I didn't really know English. And I think my first impression was probably something like: "dammit, everything's in English. How am I supposed to find anything in here?" ST: Describe your progression into the world of SC4 custom content. Was it a particular lot or BAT that inspired you to take the first step? Seraf: Not really. I remember that I wanted to recreate New York City, so I downloaded everything that I could find onSTEX. But it soon became clear that I need more of the characteristic buildings to make my city even remotely similar to real New York. And that's how I discovered BAT. And you know what they say: "need is the mother of invention" but also: "if you want something to be done right do it yourself" (and the second sentence pretty much describes my approach to BATing most of the time). ST: Speaking of first steps, what was the very first thing that you modeled using the BAT? Do you still have a screen shot? Seraf: Apart from some random walls with holes that were supposed to be windows - my very first BAT was Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower. Which is still (unfortunately) available on STEX. I have a few screenshots; I seldom delete any previews so I suppose that back then I just didn't make that many. You can see a mosaic of the renders below (I must say I'm still quite proud how the clock turned out, it still looks good). ST: Many of your BATs are released under the NYBT banner. For those of us (including myself) who may not know much about the NY BAT Team, can you elaborate on what you guys are about/how you are organized and what your role with them is? Seraf: Oh my... better sit comfortably because this one will be long So, just looking on our group's name you can tell that we focus on the buildings from New York City area, although I think at some point we expanded it to the whole New York State. As far as the organization goes...I don't think there's much of "organization" per se. We try to keep up with what others are doing so we don't end up having two people working on the same thing - but that's about it. My role... well, I don't think I have one. Or if I do it's probably "this columns-and-cornices guy" I enjoy making classical or eclectic buildings and since it seems that there's not that many who want to model this kind of buildings - I make most of them. Manhattan has many great buildings in traditional styles so I think I'll never run out of potential BATs. ST: Your list of uploads includes a number of plazas, gardens, and greenhouses. Are there any particular reasons for choosing to direct your efforts in this direction? Seraf: Yes. You see, when I finished MetLife Tower and Macy's, my eyes turned to Central Park. If I remember correctly I was just recreating it in game, I looked at some photos of Bethesda Fountain and thought that it isn't that difficult and I could make it, just to make my Central Park a bit more real. Then I made the seats around it, then started making the terrace. And somewhere along the way I got hooked. At the same time I started making Temperate House from Kew. I intended to use it as an entrance to Olympic Ice Rink in my CJ. The Rink never made it to the game but I finished Temperate House and meanwhile I grew to love the subtle elegance of iron-and-glass Victorian greenhouses. I think the plazas, fountains, gardens - all of them are an important part of the space around us. We can't live in cities consisting only of streets lined with buildings, it would be unbearable. They are like paintings or figurines we place in our homes, they beautify our cities. And I have a soft spot for beautiful things. ST: I think most custom content creators would consider their work a hobby, but like anything in life, some parts are more fun than others. What do you consider your least favorite part of the BATing process? Your favorite? Seraf: I can never decide which one I like the least - texturing or modding. But recently I learned that if you plan the texturing when you model then it can be a little less unpleasant. As for the favourite... I think the end of work. When you upload your work for others to use and you know that you did a good job and it looks great. ST: Since this is a sort of hobby (in the sense that custom content creators are not paid for their work), what keeps you motivated to continue releasing new creations for the SC4 community to enjoy? How much do comments in the download section mean to you? Is it exciting to see your models used in the CJs of others? Seraf: I have no idea. I suppose I just like to do it. But I must say that because I usually model the buildings I like, by modelling I can really get to know them, or at least their exterior. So I guess that's important too - I learn something about things I like. I appreciate the comments, it's nice to know that people download (so probably like) your work but it's even nicer to read the comments (and here I'm a terrible hypocrite because I can't remember when I commented someone's finished work...). It's definitely exciting to see my BATs in CJs, it really tells you that people like your work and use it to make their cities which is even more rewarding than comments. I remember seeing one of my old BATs (the Waterlily House from Kew) in one of the CJ. I was grinning like an idiot. ST: You released your first BAT in 2008. Is there any one of your creations that you are particularly proud of? Are there any fun stories or facts relating to some of your works that we don’t know about? Seraf: I think that I'm proud of all my BATs in some way. My most recent work - the NY University Club, I think it's a great BAT in many aspects. I learned much while doing it. Another BAT that I'm exceptionally proud of is the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial - for me it marks a new stage in quality of my BATs. Fun stories... I must say I can't really think about any, unless you count me getting pissed when some of the details I was sweating over aren't even visible on render ST: Has your experience BATing had any influence on your personal or professional life? Are there any skills that you have developed over your BATing career that have helped you beyond the world of SC4? Seraf: It had huge influence on my interests. As I said, while making Bethesda Terrace I got to know this structure pretty good. All the intricate ornaments and reliefs, the planning and scale of it made great impression on me. That's what started my interest in historic and traditional architecture. I started to study it on my own. Over time I noticed that some of the buildings look graceful and proud while others do not. I started to study principles of classical architecture so I could know why. From there the road to designing things of my own wasn't very long. As for now I designed a few monuments, started developing a scheme for grand opera house and some other things. And while it is all in terms of my hobby - I don't think of it any less than if it would be part of my job. As for the skills - I think BATing taught me how to look at classical architecture, at least in part. Most people looking at the building see just columns, random lines or parts of figures that make up a cornice. They rarely see the scheme that architect had in mind when he designed the building. Also - staring long hours at the photos of a cornice trying to determine its profile is a good exercise in classical design ST: What advice would you give to a new member of this community who was planning on creating their first BAT? Seraf: Don't rush it. Take all the time you need. Also - don't choose something that would be difficult to make even for seasoned BATers, it will only discourage you if you fail. And above all: choose something that you like - your favourite building or place. ST: Simtropolis is organized into ‘player’ and ‘builder’ categories. Regarding the ‘player’ section, do you have any favorite CJers that you enjoy following? What are your favorite SC4 ‘scenes’ (i.e., towering metropolises, urban sprawl, rural landscapes, etc.). Seraf: Oh yes. I enjoy SimCoug's CJ and Schulmania is also great. I remember seeing many good CJs but my problem is that I see some good CJ and then can't remember its name. And of course I won't think about bookmarking it either because I'm just me. I like historical scenes but also representative spaces in the city. With government buildings and plazas (what a surprise, isn't it? ) ST: On the ‘builders’ side, do you have any favorite BATers that you enjoy following? If you still play SC4, what was your most recent download from the STEX? Seraf: Hmm, there is JasonCW and darn42. Aaron, Vlasky and Paul from NYBT. I always enjoyed the Nofunk's and Amthaak's threads but sadly neither of them is active now. ST: SimCity 4 has been out for over 12 years now. Are you surprised that this community is still going strong all these years later? What do you think is the secret to its longevity? Do you think there will still be new content being created 12 years from now? Seraf: Maybe a little? But I think it's still a great game which doesn't have many worthy opponents in category of city-building (among new games that is). And that would be one of the reasons why it's still popular. Another one would be that there's so much custom content. And the quality of CC is still being improved. But will it be still being created in 12 years? I have no idea, maybe it will be, maybe not. Maybe there will be a miracle and EA will decide that it's better to come back to SC4 and improve it rather than make new games that mostly fail to meet the expectations of the gamers ST: Are there any games you play besides SC4? What other hobbies do you have away from BATing and SimCity? Seraf: Yes, my favourite genre is adventure games. I like spending time solving various riddles and puzzles. But I don't shy away from shooters either, although the ones set in WWI or II repel me very much. The last game I played was Watch Dogs, I got it for free so I thought - why not? It was ok. I have many hobbies. I draw and paint (although the latter only digitally). Ironically - mostly humans rather than architecture. I like designing buildings (or parts of them) so I guess I do draw architecture a little after all. I'm an aspiring writer so I spend much time improving my writing skills. I've been learning to sing for a few years now and recently I started training figure skating. So I have my schedule full. ST: What question have I not asked that I should have? Seraf: I have no idea Although I think I'm glad that you didn't ask about unfinished BATs or plans for future ones. The former could upset a number of people ( ) the latter is an ever-changing matter.

Its been almost 10 years since I've been active here but I just can't stay away from this game. Here's my interchange with traffic generators. Wish the people would actually use it though.

58. Sunset Coast - Nehalum River *puffffffffff* /blows dust off *cough* *cough* *hack* *cough* *PUFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF* Alrighty then. Let's call it like it is: 2014 sucked. Now that that crap excuse for a year is out of the way, let's start this one off a little better and post some stuff. As you may have noticed, i finished my final map, named after this CJ, and uploaded it some time ago. I know i've got it around here somewhere.... ah yes. This is likely to be the last map i'll ever use, as i designed it to have a little bit of everything. And it's so flippin huge it's impossible to finish. Maybe. But anyways we're going to start out in the very bottom left corner of it. Yes, that's really the population of the region right now. And yes, that's especially pathetic considering i started working on this map when i finished it (about 11 months ago) well before i released it. Such a fantastic year last year was. Despite the population i've got more than what you see here done; i've been laying out the transit networks of the urban center and rendering and treeing some large sections. But we were talking about the pacific coast. The Sunset Coast, and this time we're focusing on the city of Nehalum, where the Nehalum River drains into the vast Sea of Storms. The Nehalum River itself is pretty small. It's merely a small drainage flowing down from the Windward Hills, like all the other rivers along this stretch of coast. The River is only a dozen or so miles long, and the length of the valley that's flat is farmed just like the coastline. The city of Nehalum isn't especially notable for anything. Although it is the largest town south of Half Moon Bay, the reason for it's existence is solely that it was a very desirable location to the early settlers, being on a small flat of land high enough above the sea to provide a nice view (and be safe from tsunamis) and it had a constant supply of fresh water flowing through. The modern town is pretty typical. As is the surrounding coastal areas. Just a quiet place to live and work next to the sea, without the modern distractions of a huge metropolis. And when summer turns to fall the native folliage turns spectacularly. It's like that all along the coast. As anyone who lives along this stretch of the sea will tell you; august may be the tourist season, but sunny beach days in september are to die for. Hwy 1 along the coast crossing the Nehalum River through town. And that's the city of Nehalum, along the Sunset Coast of the Ring of Fire. So welcome back everyone. Not sure what i'm going to do next, but we'll have to make sure it comes a lot quicker than this one did. ~cheers.

NAM… Tarkus… Do we really need more of an introduction? Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past 12 years, the NAM (Network Addon Mod) is the single most famous addon for SC4… ever. And considering there are tens of thousands of SC4 custom files, that’s quite an accomplishment. Tarkus, who has been a part of the NAMsince 2007, was kind enough to take a quick break from his busy life in the great Pacific Northwest and answer a few questions in commemoration of the STEX 100 million celebration. ST: When did you first get SC4, and what do you remember about your first experiences with the game? Was SC4 your first involvement with SimCity, or did you already have a history with the sim games? Tarkus: I first picked up SC4 in the spring of 2004, sometime after SC4 Deluxe was released. I had intermittently had some experiences with the SimCity franchise before that, first with the SNES version in 1991 (my dad pulled an all-nighter with it!), and sometime in the late-90s, with Streets of SimCity, which happened to include SCURK (a stripped down, sandbox SC2000). I wound up spending more time with SCURKthat with Streets (which was notoriously buggy, sadly) and meticulously plotted out a multi-tile region over several years, using TXT files to map out the coordinates for neighbor connections. When I ran across SC4 by chance at the store, and saw they had actually implemented multi-tile regions, it was instantly a must-purchase. After that, it was a game where I went through spurts of intense play. I didn't know there were mods out there until I ran across Simtropolis by accident in December 2005, and the rest is history. ST: What aspect of SC4 do you enjoy most – what keeps you coming back? Tarkus: I think the two biggest things are the open-ended and (for all intents and purposes) infinite nature of the gameplay, plus the massive amounts of custom content out there, and the ability to add even more yet.SC4 isn't one of those games you “beat”, and I've never really considered any of my cities “completed”. While the advisers may try to push you in one way, I've always found it's ultimately up to the player to decide the goals, and that's something I find appealing. Believe it or not, I've never built a city over 350,000 population, because I've never really had the desire to build a skyscraper jungle. ST: Before we jump into the all the custom content questions, I’m curious… what is your favorite Maxis lot/BAT? Tarkus: That's a good question. I'd have to say it's probably tied between a few of the high-tech buildings, like the Accelerator and Cryo Testing. They're probably the shiniest buildings in the Maxis defaults, and I was always happy to see them pop up back when I played vanilla. ST: Do you recall the first plugin you installed? Tarkus: It was NAM Version 19, which I picked up about two months after its release in late 2005, shortly followed by the first RHW alpha. Absolutely blew my mind to have all that transportation functionality added. ST: What led you to Simtropolis at first? Can you remember your initial impressions of the site? Tarkus: I recall getting bored one day in December 2005 and browsing the fansite listing at the official EA Maxis SimCity 4 site. I had run across SimCityCentral and a couple other sites quite some time prior, but there wasn't much there on the custom content front, and I had kind of forgotten about my search for mods and such until I decided to look again that day. Eventually, I found and clicked the link to Simtropolis, and it was like SC4 Disneyland, with a bunch of custom content I had only dreamed of—like the NAM—plus a forum that seemed way more level-headed than some of the ones I'd followed for other games. Eventually, I bit the bullet and officially joined the site in February 2006. ST: Describe your progression into the world of SC4 custom content. Was it a particular mod, lot orBAT that inspired you to take the first step? Tarkus: It all started with the NAM. From there, I downloaded quite a bit of custom content, mostly BSC Team stuff in the suburban vein. I was really fond of building suburbs, but found Maxis' building selections on that front lacking. It was probably the potential of the then-brand-new RHW mod (the “R” still stood for “Rural” then), and the burgeoning roadsign development stuff, like artforce1's Generic Highway Sign Development Project (GHSDP) and Ryan B.'s stuff that got me thinking of getting into the content business myself. ST: Speaking of first steps, what was the very first thing that you attempted to mod? How did it turn out? Tarkus: My very first upload was a pack of roadsign lots, with Oregon-style “speed” signs—without the word “limit” as has been the practice in my home state for many years (though ODOT now seems to have a Commie plot afoot to convert us to the standard “Speed Limit” verbiage). They came as standalone grass lots, plus “space saving” transit-enabled lots. They ultimately got a couple thousand downloads, as I recall. I eventually deleted them as “youthful indiscretions”, as they weren't modded all that well, and there had been some controversy about the effect of TE lots on traffic simulation in the late-00s. ST: The NAM team was founded way back in 2004, and you joined shortly after in 2007. What was it like being a new member of the team? As a freshman on the High School swim team, we had to run through the school in nothing but shoes and our speedos. Was there any NAM initiation of the new members? Tarkus: Being brought onto the NAM Team was just like the sense of “SC4 Disneyland” I felt when I first discovered ST. I had actually been working on RHW content for about 4 or 5 months before I got added to the team. One day in February 2007, I looked in the old private topics area that used to be on the site, where I had an ongoing thread with jplumbley, Ryan B, and beskhu3epnm about this crazy thing called an NWM, and I noticed the sudden appearance of a “NAM Private Discussion” in there. I was basically added to the team without a peep, which made it a very pleasant surprise. That silent addition is still a tactic we'll sometimes use when adding new members to the team—most recently with Durfsurn. ST: What was your first contribution to the NAM? What motivated you to spend the hours digging through the inner workings of SC4, attempting to make it a better game? Tarkus: The RHW project had really caught my attention when I first arrived in the community. At that point, it was still in what we know today as Version 1.2—a rough alpha with a very limited feature set, but I could tell it had potential. At that point, it wasn't even technically part of the NAM, but a loosely affiliated side-project. There was pretty much just one thing I really wanted to add to it—an Avenue-over-RHW-4 piece—and maybe a couple more along the same lines. Eventually, I ended up releasing those pieces as part of RHW Version 1.3 in April 2007. I found that once I had invested the time into learning the ropes, I got quite a bit of satisfaction out of it, so that one puzzle piece turned into 8 years of NAM development for me. ST: I think most custom content creators would consider their work a hobby, but like anything in life, some parts are more fun than others. What do you consider your least favorite part of the moding process? What about your favorite? Tarkus: As far as a least favorite part, I don't think anyone enjoys bugfixing, but from a personal standpoint, I've gotten to the point where I don't really enjoy making standard puzzle pieces anymore. That process has become rather tedious. Fortunately, because we're on the cusp of getting the FLEX stuff dialed in, and I haven't had to make one in some time. As far as favorite parts, it's always things like getting the first prototype of a new override network or FLEX piece into functional shape—enough that I can use it in an actual city. It's been quite fulfilling getting the new elevated ramp interfaces in place for our upcoming NAM33 release. ST: Since this is a sort of hobby (in the sense that custom content creators are not paid for their work), what keeps you motivated to continue releasing new creations for the SC4 community to enjoy? How much do comments in the download section mean to you? Do you get a thrill seeing creative uses of the NAM pop up in CJs? Tarkus: What's kept me motivated is my vision for projects like the RHW and NWM that I had right as I was first starting to mod. There's still stuff I'd like to add to the game, and there probably will continue to be for some time. Most of the comments in the download section we get now for the NAM are tech support-related, but looking back over my infamous April Fools' upload, the , I really get a kick out of those comments. I still get a thrill out of seeing people playing around with stuff I designed in “Show Us” threads, CJs and MDs, and I still remember how ecstatic I was once the RHW's Modular Interchange System first starting showing up there. Especially once McDuell got a hold of it. ST: You have been moding for the NAM team for over 7 years now. Is there any one of your creations that you are particularly proud of? Are there any fun stories or facts relating to some of your works that we don’t know about? Tarkus: It's 8 years this month, which I still find hard to believe. I'm probably the most proud of the modular interchange concept for the RHW. Before that time, just about every other post in the old NAM Requests thread was asking for new highway interchanges, but the problem was that the process of making the big pre-fab interchanges for the default highways was ridiculously labor intensive. With the clean slate of theRHW, it made sense to build up a new approach, which did everything differently from the Maxis Highways. Rather than spending 6 to 12 months developing a single interchange to add to the NAM, the modular approach broke things up into smaller chunks that could be easily produced, and then assembled by the users into thousands of different combinations. This allowed all the would-be highway engineers to take matters into their own hands, creatively, rather than sitting around in the request thread. While some folks out there may not be fond of the RHW's complexity, once the RHW 3.0 release in 2009 added elevated components (thanks to the modeling efforts of my good friend Swamper77), and true RHW-to-RHWinterchanges became possible, without having to fudge things with tunnels or one-way roads, the whole request backlog fell away. We only see maybe one Maxis Highway interchange request every couple years now, and the lessons we've learned from RHW development have paid dividends with implementing the NWM and other components, so I feel that it's been an enormously successful transit modding initiative. And we could probably keep adding to it for many years to come. Probably the funniest fact I can think of relating to NAM development was the nickname we had for the RHWneighbor connector pieces. Before we added those, the only way to get commuter traffic to continue onto the next city tile with a multi-tile RHW system was to build a loop connector, a visible perpendicular stretch of road that went between the two halves of the RHW and broke the override, in order to get around a limitation in the game's simulation engine. It did the trick, but it was rather unsightly. Internally, on the team, as the present-day NC pieces you know today were being developed, we called them NREEs: Nicole Richie Effect Eliminators, as Ms. Richie was well-known at that point for driving the wrong way on a California freeway, much as the sims using loop connectors did. ST: Has your experience moding had any influence on your personal or professional life? Are there any skills that you have developed over your moding career that have helped you beyond the world ofSC4? Tarkus: As far as my personal life, not really—pretty much no one in my RL know about my SC4 activities, and I actually keep that on the downlow for the most part. Professionally, my experiences with modding actually inspired me to take about two years of computer science coursework while working on my doctorate, and I've been putting some of those skills to use of late, developing Java-based music theory utilities. ST: I understand that you delved into the world of local politics recently. Do you think your interest in city simulations has played a part in that? Tarkus: Yes, I ran for a city council seat in my home town, and while I didn't get in, I was pleased with getting 10% of the vote as a virtual unknown. And I'd say it's the other way around for me—I think my interest in local politics, and particularly, in transportation and land use policy, was what got me into SC4. I spend quite a bit of time researching those issues in my spare time, looking over a lot of technical documents—transportation system plans and the like—and that's heavily influenced my approach to the game, as evidenced by Tarkusian Cities. I'd also say that the policy research I did during my campaign will influence my approach to the game going forward—for starters, discovering the dismal safety records for Oregon's multi-lane roundabouts will cause me to steer clear of those in the future. ST: What advice would you give to a new member of this community who was interested in joining theNAM team? Tarkus: The way that most of us have gotten onto the team is by virtue of starting on transit modding passion projects on our own, and then invited to the team once we've shown enough skill. My advice is to find something you're interested in seeing in-game, reading up on the various modding tutorials and the like (which are far more abundant than when I started), and learning how things work. We're usually happy to provide some technical assistance and answer questions for new transit modders giving it an honest go. That's how I ultimately started out—Swamper77 and qurlix were two members who helped me out as I was first getting going. Also, if you find a buddy in the community who is also giving it a go—as happened with me and jplumbley—that can also make the experience more enjoyable. ST: Simtropolis is organized into ‘player’ and ‘builder’ categories. Regarding the ‘player’ section, do you have any favorite CJers that you enjoy following? What are your favorite SC4 ‘scenes’ (i.e., towering metropolises, urban sprawl, rural landscapes, etc.). Tarkus: Admittedly, I haven't been able to follow CJs as much of late—heck, my own has gone MIA—but I've typically enjoyed the ones that kind of get heavy on planning and roadgeekery. and are two authors on ST today that I think do a good job with that. Going back in time, things like dedgren'sThree Rivers Region, haljackey's , , and pickled_pig's Travels Down I-85 appealed to me. I'm normally drawn to the more suburban settings, but really, anything that's done well and focuses on thinking about the game stands a good chance of piquing my interest. ST: On the ‘builders’ side, do you have any favorite BATers that you enjoy following? If you still playSC4, what was your most recent download from the STEX? Tarkus: I'd say that probably the most distinctive BATer for me nowadays is Bipin. He's got some interesting ideas, and executes them well. I've also been pleased to see Bobbo662's lost work coming to light, through nos.17's efforts. As far as all-time favorites, I like a lot of the old BSC stuff—SimGoober and mattb325, especially. Most recent STEX download for me, technically, was this month's challenge region. I've been considering a strictly exhibition entry for it, with the idea of siccing some new toys on it. ST: SimCity 4 has been out for over 12 years now. Are you surprised that this community is still going strong all these years later? What do you think is the secret to its longevity? Do you think there will still be new content being created 12 years from now? Tarkus: I'm maybe a little bit surprised, mostly at the fact that it's been 12 years, but I've always pegged this community as being in it for the long haul. It's crazy to think that most of the pioneers of the SC4 modding scene, from the 2004-2005 era, thought we'd have “jumped ship” to the mythical SC5 by 2007—and we're 8 years past that date. I think there's been a few things that have led to the longevity. First, there's just so much custom content out there, and it's still coming. The rate of production isn't nearly what it was in the mid/late-00s, but it's still coming. The game's still readily available and is selling well on Steam and other digital retailers, and that's bringing a steady stream of new players in, which is astonishing for a game of this age. Also, the other attempts at making city-simulators haven't quite captured the balance of SC4. People find the new SimCity, and that actually becomes somewhat of a gateway to SC4. As far as 12 years from now goes, that'll be 2027. I'll be turning 42 that year (yikes!). Retro gaming is a huge phenomenon—one I'm into, personally—and as this generation gets older, provided Steam and the like are still around, SC4's going to become a big nostalgia trip for people. Consider that SC4 will be the same age then that Super Mario World and the original Sonic the Hedgehog are in 2015. I could see at least some diehards continuing to make content then. ST: Cities:Skylines... have you played it yet? If not, what are you first impressions based on the mountain of feedback available here on Simtropolis or around the web? Tarkus: I have not played it yet--RL has been absolutely insane recently--though I am certainly curious about it. A lot of people in this community, whose opinion I trust, some of whom are as hardcore about SC4 as they come, have had very positive things to say. And I've been impressed with what I've seen. ST: 12 years later, many are calling this game the 'successor' to SC4 and the city building genera. What are your thoughts? Tarkus: Colossal Order and Paradox have been very smart about how they've handled things, and while I haven't personally been able to play it yet, the approach they've taken and the widespread support they've gotten seem to suggest that Cities: Skylines may in fact be "the mythical SC5". As soon as I heard they were entering the market, I had a feeling about this game. Being a smaller operation with a proven track record, who seem to learned from SC4, I think really allowed them to avoid the pitfalls that plagued the other post-SC4 city simulators. They didn't try to make it an MMO or an online game, or build it around some other sort of gimmick. It actually fits with the current direction in hardware and OS development by properly supporting multi-core processors and 64-bit architecture, which is really critical if you're going to produce a city simulation platform that can handle the sort of complexity and depth that many of us enjoy. And it's very fairly priced--the standard edition is only $10 more than SC4's MSRP, which is pretty astonishing. I don't think SC4 is going to die off--there's still people playing SC3000 and earlier out there, and the NAMTeam still has the gears turning for NAM 33--but this game is getting an unheard of adoption rate among the real core of the SC4 community. I have no doubt it is going to change the face of the community across the board, here at Simtropolis, on Reddit, and over at SC4 Devotion. In fact, it already has, in just a week after release. ST: It will take plenty time before C:S can rival the amount of custom content available for SC4, but the developers have really encouraged modding, and there are already many new buildings and 'assets' that can be found on Simtropolis and the steam workshop. Are you encouraged by the leap into C:S custom content? Tarkus: I think that the content side of things, and how it's already exploded in just a week's time, shows that Colossal Order really gets what made SC4 tick, and they were smart in getting Steam Workshop set up for the game. And consider that it took the SC4 community sometime to really crack that game open. NAM Version 1 didn't see the light until over a year after the game's release, and the content development scene didn't really resemble what most of us recognize today until the second year after release, when you had the BSC, the NAM Team, NDEX, and Pegasus firing on all cylinders. Given that the developers seem to be indicating they'll be opening up more stuff in the near future, I think the C:S community may very well have an accelerated trajectory, compared to how things unfolded with SC4. As for whether or not you'll see me enter the modding scene with C:S, it's too early to say at this point, especially as I don't yet have the game. I'm also not normally one who buys games with a predetermined intention of modding them--it was 2 years between when I purchased SC4 and when I started developing content. But the way things are integrated, as far as I can tell, the way they've done it, the modding is kind of a seamless part of the game with C:S. I'm certainly interested to see how it all works in practice, firsthand. ST: What question have I not asked that I should have? Tarkus: Just kidding on that one—I could certainly go another 12 years without hearing it, as could about half the site. Thank you for the interesting questions, and to ST and its staff for continuing to foster the SC4 community—congratulations on this significant milestone!

Simtropolis’ very own AutoSaurus… T Wrecks is a giant in the SC4 custom content world (he even has his own ). From recent hits like the game changing Industrial Revolution mod, to his prolific work with kurier.simcityplaza.de and NDEX, T Wrecks fingerprints can be found all over the STEX, and almost certainly in your very own plugin folder. He has quietly been planning sim-world domination one lot at a time, but before that happens, we’ve been lucky enough to get a chance to sit down and pick his brain for the ongoing STEX 100 million interview series. ST: When did you first get SC4, and what do you remember about your first experiences with the game? Was SC4your first involvement with SimCity, or did you already have a history with the sim games? T Wrecks: I think I first borrowed SC4 (pre-RH) from a friend a short time after its release, liked the graphics, but had a hard time really getting something going. It was before even the first patch, and I guess the radical change in terms of cost management made things difficult for me initially. In SC3K, if you could afford zoning/plopping something, you could afford its upkeep easily. In SC4, all of a sudden plop/zoning cost was nothing, but maintenance cost... jeez, a few basketball courts too many could break your neck. Then I lost SC4 from my radar somehow. When the RH addon came out, I wanted to get both finally, but while the basic game could be bought anywhere for a few bucks, RH was incredibly hard to come by. I finally managed to buy both in 2004, though, and immediately started to get really involved in the game. I know SimCity right from the start - played the original SimCity first with a friend on his PC/XT with amber monitor, later on my own Amiga 500 - and even later on my first PC. Naturally, SC2K followed. I also liked a "multiplayer" edition of SC2K where you could buy land on which to build your city. The SCURK (SimCity Urban Renewal Kit), which enabled you to replace in-game buildings with your own (or other peoples') hand-drawn stuff is also the first time I discovered custom content for SimCity. I dipped my toe in it a little, but it didn't amount to much. SC3000 was the logical next step, and SC3K. I also got the BAP (and later the BAP+) to make custom buildings. SC3000 marks the first time I went hunting for custom content on the 'net in addition to fiddling around with it on my own PC. I didn't contribute anything, though. ST: What aspect of SC4 do you enjoy most – what keeps you coming back? T Wrecks: What I like most about the game is that the city behaves almost like something alive. You control many parameters, and yet a city can always surprise you. Turn your back on a totally uninteresting spot to take care of something, only to find something totally surprising has developed in the meantime. That, and the fact that it is totally not based on levels, scenarios, a story, fixed goals or anything - you have zillions of possibilities, and the resulting cities and regions are as individual as your handwriting. I also like how relaxing it can be. Sometimes I like to sit back and just look at those tiny cars driving around in my city. Last but not least, the vast modding possibilities keep me coming back more than the actual game these days. There is always so much more you could add... ST: Before we jump into the all the custom content questions, I’m curious… what is your favorite Maxis lot/BAT? T Wrecks: Phew, that's a difficult one. I don't think I have THE favourite building. I like several that are very well done IMO, even if they are not too spectacular. Many of the small family homes are really decent IMO. Other buildings I (almost) always like when they pop up include White's Clothier, Brown & Sons (a very rarely growing building), Mace Co., Schnittjer Printing, Strang Deeds Office Tower, Kanarowski & Co., Futa Consulting, Goldman Building / Hourvitz Accounting (really pretty much the same building), West & Co., The Pratt, Hi-Rise Apts (Chicago tileset), Simon Manor, Jolly Manor, Wallace Manor, The Long Building, Butts Condos, Russo Condos... The lots are mostly pretty poor, but Maxis had to make ends meet with a severly limited amount of props and textures - not to mention that RCI lots needed to accommodate several buildings of a family. When you mass produce, you can't work wonders... I know that myself because some of my projects (such as the IRM) also involved a high degree of mass production. ST: Do you recall the first plugin you installed? T Wrecks: No, I'm afraid not. No idea, really. ST: What led you to Simtropolis at first? Can you remember your initial impressions of the site? T Wrecks: I was looking for custom content, of course! I must have visited Simtropolis long before I registered, because when I finally signed up, I know I had vague memories of the site, even though it looked much different back then. I don't remember any particular first impressions (it was more than 10 years ago, give me a break!), but I do remember that I found not only a place to download stuff, but also a promising community. When I commented on a CJ posted by an Austrian player, michi5, he invited me over to the German-speaking community - an involvement that would lead me to becoming a member of the SFBT. However, I'm no longer active in said German community, but I never felt like leaving ST. ST: Describe your progression into the world of SC4 custom content. Was it a particular lot or BAT that inspired you to take the first step? T Wrecks: I don't think so. It was probably more the sheer possibility. As I mentioned above, I also tried my hands at the SCURK for SC2000, the BAP / BA+ for SC3000 / SC3000 Unlimited, and I also tried other custom stuff before. After playing through Duke Nukem 3D, for example, I was more interested in the level editor. I have also made waypoints for a Counter-Strike (1.5/1.6) bot before, and the Half-Life level editor is not unknown to me, either. Guess I just have a tendency to get fascinated by editors and their potential. It's not so much about any particular item. ST: Speaking of first steps, what was the very first thing that you lotted using the LE? Do you still have a screen shot? T Wrecks: I don't have the slightest idea, let alone a screenshot, sorry. :/ ST: You’ve been creating unique and beautiful lots for quite some time, but if members were to search your library of STEX files they would only come up with about 2 pages worth. Yet, you are constantly creating the lots for many of the great BATers on this site. So best guess, how many of your lots are on the STEX? T Wrecks: Argh, another difficult one. Counted in STEX uploads (and not in actual .sc4lot files), I guess there may be up to 100 in addition to what I have released under my own name. Add to this a further 50 or more over at kurier.simcityplaza.de, where I used to be involved in the modding, lotting, translation, and packaging of uploads. All the NDEX files you can find there, for example, have been tweaked and often re-lotted by me. In the end, I don't care about numbers that much. I'm rather glad that I could help several great BATters to get their stuff on the STEX! ST: As a lotter myself, I find lotting can put me in a peaceful Zen state. What do you enjoy about lotting and what keeps you firing up the LE after so many years? T Wrecks: Peaceful Zen state? Hmm... I don't really know if I share this feeling. I guess it can be close to that if you're not doing a boring routine task, and if things are going together all right. Other times, it can be tedious and a bit boring. The actual act of lotting is pretty ok, I guess, but what motivates me most is when I see how I can make the lot complement a building as seamlessly as possible, and - in the case of a re-lot - when I check out the lot in game and see how it's much better than the original lot, at least according to my taste. Ultimately, it's not the process of lotting itself, but the satisfaction of getting a result that conforms to my taste and liking that motivates me. ST: I think most custom content creators would consider their work a hobby, but like anything in life, some parts are more fun than others. What do you consider your least favorite part of the lotting process? T Wrecks: Sometimes it's the very beginning: Sitting in front of an empty lot and not knowing what to do with it, trying out many designs that don't work... sometimes it's repetition: one down, five more versions to go... However, the parts I like least in general are all the activities that don't have to do with the actual lotting: determining stats, recording them in my ever growing database, fixing file properties, and worst of all: documentation, packaging and uploading. I really hate that part. Did I mention making menu icons? No? Well, then: making menu icons. ST: Since this is a sort of hobby (in the sense that custom content creators are not paid for their work), what keeps you motivated to continue releasing new creations for the SC4 community to enjoy? How much do comments in the download section mean to you? Do you get a thrill seeing your lots pop up in CJs? T Wrecks: Hm, I figure since I have taken so much and since I mod the heck out of my plugins anyway, it would be only logical and fair to give something back and share some of the stuff that I have on my HD anyway. It's nice when you post a question because you're trying to do something, and people not only help you, but also take interest in that project of yours - that's how it started for me. That's what convinced me that my stuff may be interesting for others initially. These days, what I enjoy most - more than STEX comments, although I do appreciate these! - is players actually using something I made. It shows me that I haven't uploaded those files for nothing, and as a bonus it's often interesting for me to see how players will use my creations. Sometimes I see applications that I would never have thought of myself. ST: You have been lotting for almost 10 years now. Is there any one of your creations that you are particularly proud of? Are there any fun stories or facts relating to some of your works that we don’t know about? T Wrecks: Hm, I kinda like the relots of . IDS Offices may also be one of my better lots. But that's only the optical side of affairs...On a larger scale, I'm most proud of the fact that I contributed a little bit towards taking more care of the stats of BATs and lots, and I also think the is not too shabby because it has expanded into an entire lot family - and a big family at that! Now that I think about it, those low-wealth mega lot sets I made based on 645978's buildings were pretty popular in their time, and my first modular set of lots. I still have fond memories of them - and even a screenshot from the day the first one became a STEX feature! I hope you can excuse the crappy quality and low resolution: Fun facts or stories? I'm afraid there are none that I remember, and if I don't remember them, they probably haven't been all that interesting in the first place. It's really boring work, haha. ST: Has your experience with SC4 custom content had any influence on your personal or professional life? Are there any skills that you have developed over your lotting career that have helped you beyond the world of SC4? T Wrecks: Yes, there has been some degree of influence. The German SC4 community has brought me into personal contact with several people, and I mean not only contact over the 'net. What began as a pleasant, but absolutely unintended side product evolved into a chain of acquantainces and friendships up to and including a girlfriend - these days, we're no longer together, but still good friends even after many years, although she's the only one who remains from that time. So much for personal life... As far as my professional life is concerned, I'd say that there have been indirect influences. Obviously my incredibly spectacular skills at pushing props around in the Lot Editor and clicking on boxes (*gasp*) have not led to my running a blue chip company now, and neither has my ability to convert from decimal into hexadecimal on a very low level (2A = 42) without using a calculator resulted in a position as CIO. Lotting IS a pretty trivial task, after all, and there's not much "RL carryover", as you might call it. However, hanging around in an English-speaking community for 10 years is certainly not detrimental to your language proficiency, and as a professional translator, I can always use that. In this respect, my hobby lotting/modding has certainly been more helpful than jazzdance or collecting stamps. Private life and job life aside, such an international community also gets you into contact with a very broad variety of people and widens your horizon. This may not result in any direct benefits, but I still think it can be an important lesson for life in general. ST: What advice would you give to a new member of this community who was planning on creating their first lot? T Wrecks: Three words: Start a thread. Next to that, be prepared to read a lot.There's vast knowledge floating around, but it's not very well catalogued. Old hands may be able to direct you towards useful resources, or they may point out stuff that's hard to find in writing out there. Starting a thread is very useful to gather feedback, and if you're doing it right, you will learn more than by merely asking. How so? Well, if you ask something, you'll get a solution - hopefully. If you present your progress in a thread additionally, people may suggest things and mention stuff you haven't been aware of before. They may cause you to consider solutions that you wouldn't have considered by yourself or that you didn't even know about. Ultimately, however, you should take care to do what you like best, or you may end up being torn between different options favoured by your thread followers and not knowing which way to go.By the way, the Lot Editor comes with a manual. It's in your root SimCity 4 directory, and Maxis doesn't really rub its existence in your face, but it is there. This should be enough to teach you the basics. The rest is patience, ideas, and some hints found here and there and/or provided by other community members. You should also be prepared to use , and possibly as well.Finally my catch phrase: Always start with an empty plugins folder! Get to know your props and textures, and use them sparingly. ST: Simtropolis is organized into ‘player’ and ‘builder’ categories. Regarding the ‘player’ section, do you have any favorite CJers that you enjoy following? What are your favorite SC4 ‘scenes’ (i.e., towering metropolises, urban sprawl, rural landscapes, etc.). T Wrecks: I don't really follow anything in particular. If it's on the frontpage and catches my interest, I'll take a look. Otherwise, not so much. It's not that I don't respect the CJers' work (many of them are amazing!), but I'm simply not into that "following a CJ" thing. I do find myself taking a look into Ln X' "" pretty often recently because we now have CJ features, this particular CJ is often featured these days, and Ln X often uses stuff I made. It's a good way for me to check out some of my stuff "out in the wild". If it wasn't for the features, however, I might not even know that this CJ exists. ST: On the ‘builders’ side, do you have any favorite BATers that you enjoy following? What was your most recent download from the STEX? T Wrecks: All of the above! Seriously, if there's a BAT thread, then I'm following it. Usually when I turn off my notebook and go to bed, not a single BAT thread here on Simtrop has unread replies.I don't exactly remember the most recent download because I don't download that regularly these days - no need to because I haven't actually played the game in years. I do download whatever is relevant to my interests every now and then, but the intervals tend to be long. One person I'd like to highlight is C.P. aka Cycledogg. Especially from a lotter's point of view, his work is awesome. In addition to great BATs, the use of custom foundations for slope-friendly buildings and the "invention" of shaded props (which I like to use a lot), he has organised his props into hundreds of prop families, making it so much easier to add variation to a lot. There are cars that appear and disappear at certain times of the day or have a certain probability of appearing in general, there are prop foundations, there are seasonal props, there are angled versions... and he even took it upon himself to go through most of his flora props again, re-render and re-organise them, updating the packages, and even making cohort files for the prop families so that a proper name shows up in the list instead of a hexadecimal ID. That's an insane amount of work, and I can only begin to imagine how much dedication, diligence, and persistence must have gone into that. He's by far not the only one who has made valuable contributions for the community, but I think he deserves particular praise from the perspective of a lotter. ST: SimCity 4 has been out for over 12 years now. Are you surprised that this community is still going strong all these years later? What do you think is the secret to its longevity? Do you think there will still be new content being created 12 years from now? T Wrecks: Not that surprised, actually. Open up a game to additional custom content, make that game one that ages well (i.e., a game that doesn't depend on visual effects that much), fail to release a successor deemed worthy by the fans, and you have a pretty decent chance of a fan community taking things into their own hands. I'm also thinking of Chris Sawyer's Transport Tycoon right now, a much older game than SimCity 4. It has been "re-released" as fully open source software, OpenTTD, and the community keeps making great mods, just like the SimCity crowd. These can't be the only examples, either. Another aspect that certainly helps is the attitude that all content is offered free of charge, made by fans, made for fans. This eliminates barriers, helps to attract newcomers, and ensures good circulation of the files. Otherwise we may have a situation where downloads rot away behind paywalls on several private websites that become inactive as soon as their owners disappear from the community, and eventually vanish as well. I've witnessed some pretty nasty quarrels over paid downloads for the Sims games. That was quite a shock for me because I thought all custom content communities were like the SimCity crowd more or less.12 years from now? EA will surely have released a great successor in the vein of SC4 by then! Ok, silly jokes aside: 12 years are a lot, so there really is no telling. I see more than enough strength in the community to last for another 5-6 years, that's for sure. We'll see about the rest. With C:S being out now, I sometimes get that sad feeling that the SC4 community might fall apart sooner than we think. While I'm happy for all those players who eagerly anticipated a true "3D SimCity" experience and wish them tons of fun with this new game, I have always had other priorities for a SimCity successor (deeper regional concept, non-rectangular lots, procedural lots, shopping and tourism traffic, surface water, mixed-use buildings, defined W2W areas and other zone-specific regulations, non-rectangular maps / definable city limits, to mention just a few ideas). This is why C:S is not simply a great relief for me: "Finally 3D!" "Finally no longer SC4!" - just like many players may think. For me, however, it also marks the possible departure from something that I have always liked, and that ended up playing an important role in my free time. It marks what may be the autumn in SC4's life cycle, and this thought makes me a little sad and nostalgic. I know I will miss the discussions in BAT threads when it's finally over. But here's to hoping that we'll be able to keep SC4 alive as a long-time niche game! ST: Speaking of Cities:Skylines... have you played it yet? If not, what are you first impressions based on the mountain of feedback available here on Simtropolis or around the web? T Wrecks: I don't even have a PC capable of handling it, and won't have for several months. Even if I had one, my primary goal is getting back to actually playing SC4again after a long hiatus. So no, no first-hand experience with C:S yet. From what I see, it looks rather different. So far, the overall aesthetics don't really appeal to me since I tend to prefer highly detailed 2D over low-poly 3D. This may change as further mods are being made, but for now it's not causing me to hyperventilate. It is, of course, one of the games on my "watch list"! ST: 12 years later, many are calling this game the 'successor' to SC4 and the city building genera. What are your thoughts? T Wrecks: Apparently the creators did a much better job than even EA themselves and managed to accommodate many of the primary wishes of the SimCity fan community. So yes, I guess it could be called a "successor" in spirit - just like the Age of Wonders franchise can be called a "successor" of Microprose's Master of Magic, or Freelancer a "successor" of Wing Commander: Privateer. We'll know more once the dust settles, and I won't comment very much without having played the game myself. ST: It will take plenty time before C:S can rival the amount of custom content available for SC4, but the developers have really encouraged modding, and there are already many new buildings and 'assets' that can be found on Simtropolis and the steam workshop. Are you encouraged to leap into C:S custom content? T Wrecks: Not in the foreseeable future. I got a few months' worth of SC4 content on my 'to do' list, and then I want to PLAY some SC4. Afterwards, and when I have a better PC (if I even buy one instead of rediscovering yet another retro game that captures my limited free time!), we shall see. The retro gaming aspect really holds some importance. You see, the last time I bought a game was in early 2014 - and it was a retro game! The last halfways up-to-date game I bought? I don't even remember that. More than 5 years ago for sure. This is just to explain what some may perceive as an odd lack of enthusiasm. I just have a tendency to enjoy old games with a high replay value, and since I don't have much time on my hands, me buying a new game is something of a snowball in hell event. I must say, though, that the possibility to build intersections and turn the entire structure into a pre-fab element strikes me as an admirably smart move by the developers. Looks like they also thought about the aspect of getting these assets into the game, with some user-friendly features such as using the editor itself to take a screenshot of the finished asset and introducing it into the game as the menu icon for this new asset - quite a progress compared to the tedious process of making in-game icons forSC4 content! I can guarantee, however, that you won't see my name attached to a C:S upload any time in 2015. Maybe later. ST: Are there any games you play besides SC4? What other hobbies do you have away from lotting/modding and SimCity? T Wrecks: Although I did play first-person shooters when I was younger, I always had a liking for round-based RPGs and strategy games, 4X games, occasionally some RTS. Notable examples of other games than SimCity that I really liked are Master of Orion 1 and 2 (round-based 4X in a sci-fi universe), Master of Magic (think of Civilization 1 with heroes, spells and magical creatures) and its inofficial successors, the Age of Wonders franchise. Transport Tycoon (these days, OpenTTD) certainly deserves a mention, as does the Earth 2150 franchise (innovative 3D sci-fi RTS with modular units, research, experience system, ammo, etc.). I'm so retro! In my defense, however, I can say that they just don't make them like this any more, and that's not a lie. What I'd give for a subtly improved Transport Tycoon with up-to-date graphics! And don't even get me started about SimCity... Away from my SimCity-related hobbies, I occasionally build scale model ships - non-military stuff like ocean liners or tug boats because they're more colourful and involve fewer repetitive tasks. I have enough of that in the Lot Editor! As a counterpart to that indoor stuff, I really like to ride my bike out of the city and go swimming. I prefer lakes over pools because I like to be out in nature, and preferably not surrounded by people. Too many people around me make me aggressive in the long term, so it's a great way to recharge my batteries. I also like to go hiking. Doing sports in a way that's focused on performance (faster, longer, higher) is not my way at all, but I need to be on the move occasionally.I also like music, so I go to live concerts and festivals a lot. ST: What question have I not asked that I should have? T Wrecks: Hm, maybe about my future plans or my goals in terms of SimCity. Tucked away deep inside my mind is that little hope that one day I might actually play the game again. But the way I know me, after a few days I'll find that something is sorely lacking, and go back to the drawing board...

Replies: 1131989: Sure jmsepe: same hope for me, as we would need new southeast asian CJ Mymyjp: Thanks! JP Schriefer: Thanks!. NMUSpidey: Yep it keep raining here.... thanks! +---------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Author Note before reading: - This update contain 90 images, may take a while to load all - Play this background song for better atmosphere of update - Sorry for a bit spelling and grammar error

Redfield My first entry in a long time (August 2013). This one features two teasers of Redfield, a regionally important metropolis based on North American ones. The Eastern portion of downtown and the Toronto Terminal, the largest and main station of Redfield-Kent Metro. A few suburbs, a slum/industrial area and part of the downtown, depicting one of the city's many contrasts. Indeed, it is a very short update. Hope you've enjoyed.

Hello everyone, So incredibly excited to get my hands on this game I thought I might as well show you around in the town I've made sofar. Welcome to the fresh new little town of Forkton. Named after the fork in the river that's the lifeblood for this new development. With the recent construction of a new highway, and Dutch style water-engineering to make sure the river doesn't flood anymore, these flood plains are prime real estate! edit: Decided to add a list of all the custom assets I've personally made for this city here in the first post for easy reference: - irrigation ditches set (of 4) for the farming area: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=410391936 - 8x8 median park (works great when plopping a few in a row): http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=408366479 - 4x4 parking lot for industrial zones: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=406213099 - 8x8 parking lot for the Stadium: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=408733322 - 5x1 waiting area for bus stops: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=410372973 - 7x2 waiting area for train station (next to pedestrian overpass): http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=410373233 Here's an overview of the town: and the intersection that connects the town to the highway. The main route leading into the town. As you can see, Forkton is a perfect place. No sign of trouble at all here... nope... that's just the eeehhhmmm, firworks.. yes the fireworks Let's take another look at the glorious fireworks that were organized to thank the wonderful mayor of this town. Also, the farmlands in the back. The industrial section in the front has been called 'Stink Strip' by the local of Forkton. I guess they have their reasons. The farmlands here on the fertile flood plains are the lifeblood of this town. The farmers were fighting over the land so much. The mayor decided to dig ditches between the fields. Only one case of 'attempted landgrab by drowning the other farmer' has been reported sofar. You can also see the railroad and the river in the back. Our scientists are currently trying to figure out how to take advantage of these things. We're not too smart here in Forkton.... This strip of prime real-estate along the riverfront has been called Riverfront Road. We don't have too much imagination here either Here are some pictures of 'Old Forkton'. A pleasant place to live in. Also note the pedestrian overpass. It was constructed after an unfortunate accident involving, a tractor, a chicken, and for some strange reason a rubber duck. Here's a look at 'New Forkton'. The fact that the newer people arrived at least 2 weeks later warrants the difference between old and new Forkton clearly. A different angle on the central commercial and park section. And another of the little neighborhoods. The population doesn't seem to mind that the rich people on the cruise liners seem to gawk at them like they were in a zoo _________ OOC: i'm SOOOOOO happy to be playing this game! Currently enjoying it a LOT. Thanks CO and Paradox for a great game. I think it can only get better from here

Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! How I wonder what you're at! Up above the world you fly, Like a tea tray in the sky. Alice in Wonderland’s Mad Hatter was quite the poet, but he probably couldn’t BAT his way out of a paper bag. Fortunately for us, madhatter106 eschews the poetry (at least as far as we know) and instead, dazzles us with his twinkling BATs (the SC4 model kind). He hails from the City of Angles, and the cities sprawling suburbs and gritty atmosphere can be seen in the massive collection of buildings that reside here on the STEX. If you browse the forums, his name continues to pop up when new members begin looking for custom content because his creations mix so well with the standard Maxis fare, and his ‘no dependencies’ lots are a welcome bonus. With almost 150,000 total downloads, it’s easy to see how popular his creations have become. So follow us down the rabbit hole and spend a little time with our very own madhatter106. ST: When did you first get SC4, and what do you remember about your first experiences with the game? Was SC4 your first involvement with SimCity, or did you already have a history with the sim games? madhatter106: I remember getting the original SimCity for the Commodore 128 back in the spring of 1990. I've played that and SC2 and SC3 a bunch, in college and afterwards. I like sandbox style games, so SC4 was a definite buy; I think I picked that one up in 2005 or so when I was on a hiatus from work. ST: What aspect of SC4 do you enjoy most – what keeps you coming back? madhatter106: I think seeing a great new BAT pop up in the game, especially if it's very cleverly done or perfectly modeled or textured. Those are the moments I enjoy. I must say that IBAT much more than I play the game - I would guess that 90% of my time is spent outside of SC4, making content for it. I think I'm more of a content provider than a player, because I like making the kind of stuff I like to see in-game – that is, in those rare moments I am actually playing. ST: Do you recall the first plugin you installed? madhatter106: It must have been off the original SC4 Exchange on the Maxis site. I remember looking for carwashes, so it was probably something along those lines. I still haven’t found a carwash plugin that I really like; maybe I’ll make one someday. I'm guessing that I might even still have those early downloads somewhere on a backup hard drive, now that the desktop I originally used is long gone. ST: What led you to Simtropolis at first? Can you remember your initial impressions of the site? madhatter106: I don't remember how I found Simtropolis. I do seem to remember finding it soon after using the original Maxis exchange. I don't recall my initial impressions, but I'm sure I spent more time surfing the STEX than I did in the forums. I was searching for good plugins, rather than reading about the game and its intricacies. ST: Describe your progression into the world of SC4 custom content. Was it a particular lot or BAT that inspired you to take the first step? madhatter106: I remember getting and installing gmax/BAT when I first started with the game. And then I didn't use it at all. It sat on my computer for a couple of years, and I kept thinking, "oh I'm never going to use that, I'm not playing SC4 at the moment, I should just get rid of it and save some hard drive space," but I never took it off. And then I picked up SC4again after a long, long hiatus, and on a lark started reading the phillipbo tutorial and then thought, "why not give it a try?" There were a couple of BATters whose style I admired (and probably inadvertently emulated at first), so I guess that was also a push. ST: Speaking of first steps, what was the very first thing that you modeled using the BAT? Do you still have a screen shot? madhatter106: I messed around a little bit in gmax to learn the interface. Making piles of standard primitives with very basic manipulation, you know that sort of thing. I do remember sorting through the phillipbo tutorial as I was making my first BAT; I didn't want to create that specific tutorial BAT, but did want to apply what I was learning to what I was creating. That finished BAT did end up getting uploaded to the STEX, and it was my first upload. ST: Skyscrapers tend to get all the glory in SC4, and many BATers gravitate to them as well, yet your first upload on Simtropolis was a tiny CS$ shop called You followed it with a number of small commercial packs, including a massively diverse set of low wealth commercial shops. What led you to take this ‘road less traveled’ BATtrajectory? madhatter106: It's partly because those are the kinds of BATs I like seeing when I am playing the game, and it's partly because of how I play. I start lots of small cities all the time (I’m a total Aries that way), and I usually don't end up with a population that is too high, so I rarely see the tallest buildings growing on their own; I think the highest population city tile I may have ever made is in the 80K range and it amazingly only had a single incarnation of Wren Insurance. So when you play like that and build like that (lots of smaller areas and towns), the Maxis content gets very, very repetitive. The Sim IQ rating is really low when you start a new city tile, so you don't see a lot of offices or high tech industry or high wealth residential growing at first, and so there's a lot of industry and low wealth commercial that is needed. That means that you could have a plugins folder full of skyscrapers, but you won't see them for a good long while - so you need to have little guys, the low wealth commercials and smaller buildings to get you going. Also, there's a lot of stuff that hasn't been really explored by other BATters - some types of businesses are sorely under-represented on the STEX, and those are the ones that really interest me. I mean, I was amazed that not many liquor stores existed on the STEXbefore . Likewise, no one had done surf shops, so . Ultimately I make the types of buildings that I like to see grow in my cities; skyscrapers don't interest me that much, as so many other (and better) BATters have those covered and those BATters are working in better software than i am (ie. 3dsMax). ST: One aspect of all your creations that I really like is the unique names and descriptions that you include for each of your models. Your models and lots are already colorful in their own sense, so what possesses you to go the extra mile? madhatter106: I don't know; it's just part of my nature and style. I rather appreciate anything that's clever, so when I create stuff like this, I like to include little "in-jokes" or sideline things or Easter eggs to give them a little extra layer or meaning. A lot of the time it will whiz past people's heads, and that's fine. The goofy stat response curve that is included with all my uploads is straight-up Maxis style, whose humor I find similar to mine; and since I like keeping in the vein of some of the Maxis stuff, including those in my uploads seemed like a given. Anything a custom content creator can do to give you a laugh or breathe life into the game is good by me; there are lots of boring buildings out there, and you want to make your stuff memorable. The office packs have each had an underlying theme given to the names - mysteries and cryptozology were one of my interests since I was a little kid, so a whole pack of references to those seemed fitting. The old Leonard Nimoy-narrated program In Search Of was probably (for me) the greatest thing on television when I was eight years old, as well as the history of old silent era Hollywood, true crime, etc. At one point, I was tempted to do a more modern true crime pack, but I think I shelved it because I thought it might be in bad taste; I think naming BATs in a building pack after serial killers or mass murderers or truly despicable people would be glorifying their deeds in some way, so I scrapped that idea. I had also done a paper on the Lindbergh kidnapping in high school, so famous kidnappings and disappearances seemed like a fitting theme for a pack. I might do a pack with naming conventions around the idea of exposed and discredited hoaxes - the Hitler diaries, the Piltdown Man, etc. ST: I think most custom content creators would consider their work a hobby, but like anything in life, some parts are more fun than others. What do you consider your least favorite part of the BATing process? Your favorite? madhatter106: My favorite part is the first few hours of a BAT. When you get the modeling and the proportions right, and when it starts to really come together, that's a good part. The texturing is hit or miss - sometimes I can sail through it and sometimes it's a long slog to get all the balances right; is this too dark, or is this too light? What happens when I change the contrast on this texture, does it mess up the other two? Is this too blue or is this too red? Too saturated? Not saturated enough? Thankfully I am pretty quick with Photoshop and I have a good library of standard textures from which to build, but sometimes I can't get the right effect without a lot of swings and misses. Nightlighting is the least fun, and this is partly because I'm working in gmax; it's a lot of trial and error, and a lot of preview renders, particularly if it's a multi-story building. The little buildings were easier to nightlight, but the taller ones (the offices in particular) were usually a bit of a hassle. I must also say that by the time I am at the testing stage, I'm kind of over it; luckily with the small commercials, they're easier for me to test. Sometimes these are affected by the way the BAT is modeled - there are different ways of doing things were the modeling is messy but the texturing goes quickly, or there are situations where the modeling can be very clean and precise, but will require lots of work when it comes to textures. (Minimizing the number of objects and polygons will make for a great precise BAT but will mean that I will spend forever making the textures and unwrapping the UVW maps.) I think the last great joy once all that is done is dropping in all the details and little tidbits that give a BAT life and personality – vending machines, window signage, payphones, HVAC equipment, and all that. These kinds of details can really make a difference, and I wish newer BATers would pay attention to that; but since I come from a theatrical design background, where those details mean character and story and that fancy word “verisimilitude,” that stuff is second nature to me. ST: Since this is a sort of hobby (in the sense that custom content creators are not paid for their work), what keeps you motivated to continue releasing new creations for theSC4 community to enjoy? How much do comments in the download section mean to you? Do you get a thrill seeing your models pop up in CJs? madhatter106: Truth be told, I rather appreciate the commentary in the BAT thread for my stuff more than the comments sections on my uploads. The comments section is fun, and I appreciate everyone's enthusiasm. It's difficult to read something silly or dopey that's written as a comment, but I try to ignore those sorts of things. I'm a small business owner, and it's really difficult to read critiques of your business online, so it's a similar situation. I do like seeing my stuff in CJs, though I rarely spend time in the CJ section (partly because there are so many and partly because I don't have lots of free time.) People usually relot them and they look even better (because I’m not much interested in lotting), so that's a good feeling. ST: You have been BATing wonderful models for over 6 years now. Is there any one of your creations that you are particularly proud of? Are there any fun stories or facts relating to some of your works that we don’t know about? madhatter106: , as is the teriyaki joint in the same pack. I love , but I should mod it so that it grows more often; it doesn't show up nearly as much as I'd like in my cities. The surf shops are all fun, too, because of their details. I love the front details of - they take a boring building and really give it life and vibrancy. I made a property rental shop that I haven't uploaded yet, and that's another case where the details make the building sing. I usually have a favorite or two in every pack; some of the offices turned out really well. A lot of my inspiration comes from just going about on my normal day-to-day business. Buildings like , , and the were inspired by buildings that I would encounter while driving around Los Angeles (where I live). I also associate certain BATs with certain movies or pieces of music that I was listening to while I was making them. The movie theaters, diners, and coffee shops I will always associated with certain work projects, because I would do a ten or twelve hour day at work, then go home and decompress and BAT them for a couple hours. ST: Where do you draw your inspiration from? madhatter106: Apart from driving around Los Angeles as I had already mentioned, I have a huge "swipe file" of stuff that I find online that I think might be good to include in BATs. Everything from HVAC units to windows and whatnot, as well as folders of building types - the office packs had a lot of buildings that were based in part on stuff from my swipe file. I usually don't recreate things exactly as shown in the pictures; I'll use a shape or size or window configuration, but change the ground floor design, or I will shorten the height of the mezzanine, or something along those lines. Rarely do I ever completely recreate something I've seen. ST: Why is your stuff made in gmax? Why not make the jump to 3dsMax like so many others? madhatter106: It’s partly the time to learn something new (though there’s a lot of carryover from gmax to Max) and partly the expense. And partly the fact that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks – I’m dug into working with gmax; it’s a deeply ingrained habit. And since SC4 is over a decade old, if archaic gmax was good enough for it back in 2005 or 2006, it’s still good enough for it now. I suppose I could learn it if I picked it up and applied myself, but that’s more determination or discipline than I can muster. Of course, when I see all the cool tricks you can do with Max that you can’t get with little old gmax, that’s frustrating. But I make out all right with gmax, I guess. ST: Has your experience BATing had any influence on your personal or professional life? Are there any skills that you have developed over your BATing career that have helped you beyond the world of SC4? madhatter106: I don't think so; if there are any aspects along those lines, it's something of which I'm unaware. I do look at buildings differently, and am always figuring out, "how would IBAT that?" when I see something interesting. Or I will think, "oh that's a different window detail, I should remember that on the next BAT," or some such. ST: What advice would you give to a new member of this community who was planning on creating their first BAT? madhatter106: Start small - you're going to want to follow the tutorials out there, but try making something small, like one or two stories max. You're going to be working incredibly slowly, since you're learning the ins and outs of the program, so getting bogged down in a super tall building means it's going to take forever. A short little one story commercial shop or office is the best aim, and see it through to the very end - modeling, textures, nightlights, modding, etc. Then once you get the hang of things, you get faster - I bet I could knock out a small commercial shop in a few hours now, as I know what I'm doing and I know my way around the program, versus taking all day to do one when I first started out. Also, I'm saying it constantly (and even made it part of my Simtropolis signature) that "good textures are made, not found." You rarely can take an image from an online source and have it 100% perfect and ready to be added to a BAT without some form of change. Textures can make or break a BAT, and for many things I’ve seen on the STEX I’ve liked the modeling, but have not pressed the download button because the texturing is substandard or too extreme. ST: Simtropolis is organized into ‘player’ and ‘builder’ categories. Regarding the ‘player’ section, do you have any favorite CJers that you enjoy following? What are your favoriteSC4 ‘scenes’ (i.e., towering metropolises, urban sprawl, rural landscapes, etc.) madhatter106: I don't really read the CJs, partly because of what I mentioned before. I wish I could, as there's lots of lovely stuff in there; I just don't find myself there very often. ST: On the ‘builders’ side, do you have any favorite BATers that you enjoy following? If you still play SC4, what was your most recent download from the STEX? madhatter106: As far as I'm concerned, jmyers2043 (of the BSC) is the best BATter there is; hands down, without any question, jmyers2043 is the king. I love his style, I love what he chooses to BAT, I love his textures and details; I don't have a lot of BSC stuff in my plugins folder, but his stuff is essential. His stuff is so thoroughly modeled and tested and lotted and perfectly crafted; if there were a BATter whose career I would replace my own with, it would be his. , , , and uploads that he did. I can’t sing the praises of jmyers2043 enough – just about every BAT he’s created has made me say, “I wish I made that.” He’s another custom content creator who does top notch textures; he also has his stuff modded very well, but that’s not surprising as he is a charter member of the BSC. Some of JBSimio’s stuff makes me swoon also; there are a couple of his BATs that have really been inspirations for my later stuff. The great thing about this feeling and what I come away with in my own work is the inspiration to try my hand in a similar vein; maybe partly out of emulation but also partly out of trying my own “spin” or take on it. ST: SimCity 4 has been out for over 12 years now. Are you surprised that this community is still going strong all these years later? What do you think is the secret to its longevity? Do you think there will still be new content being created 12 years from now? madhatter106: I think it's a testament to how good the genre is in general, and this iteration of the game is in particular. It's like a model train set, but in digital form; we can create these great scenes - small towns to sprawling metropolises. And with all the custom content and mods that people have created over the past 12 years, it really doesn’t surprise me that this game has had such a good shelf life. It doesn’t even seem to have abated – there are newcomers proving their worth every year; the STEX hasn’t dried up and the NAM hasn’t stagnated. I can certainly see new content being created years from now ; we have such a dedicated community for the game in general and on Simtropolis in particular, it wouldn’t surprise me if we see other BATers and modders coming along in the mold of SimGoober or Pegasus or SimFox, so it’s exciting to see what they could come up with. And I do hope that groups like the BSC and NYBT and the NAM team are going to continue to provide us with all manner of goodies to make the game look, feel, and play better. ST: What are you working on now? And what else might be in the pipeline? madhatter106: I have some more offices to do or finish; I wanted to get some 2x3 office buildings, as there aren't a lot of those available on the STEX to compete with the Maxis ones. The ones that come with the game are fine, they're just repetitive unless you have a bunch of plugins to help dilute them, so that's part of my next goal. Like commercial services, I don't think I could ever tire of doing offices, and you can never have enough of either type in your plugins folder. I have some industry that I was working on a long time ago which I haven't picked up in ages; there's the from several years back, which is still waiting for its nightlights. (I think that's probably partly the reason I put it down and haven't picked it up since. Nightlighting for me is the least pleasant in gmax.) ST: Is there anything you haven't BATed yet that you would like to? madhatter106: I would love to do some packs of medium wealth commercial shops - along the same lines as the earlier packs of low wealth, but offering services like plumbing or electrical, bookstores and little mom-and-pop shops, that sort of thing. I have tried my hand at pawn shops, but every time I get one worked up it just doesn't coalesce - there's something that just doesn't make it happen, as much as I might like to do some. There’s a whole host of other packs I would love to try my hand at, should I ever find the time; I would love to do some Mexican restaurants (ranging from taco stands to more flashy places), and I’ve been thinking of doing a pack of car repair places – auto body shops, places to get your transmission repaired or your windows tinted or oil changed, etc. I've always wanted to do what I call the Burbs Pack, which would be a set of American style Craftsman homes and small suburban houses, to add variety to the Maxis ones; jmyers2043 did it far better than I ever could have with a pack along the same lines released a while back on the LEX. One day I might try to do some larger apartment buildings, but the folks over at the NYBT do them so well already; I look at theirs and think my stuff can’t even compete. And I'd love to do a pack of tiny industrials, to add variety - sheds and storage units and weird machines and tanks and whatnot, but I would have to do a lot of research and dig up a lot of pictures to make them seem authentic. ST: Are there any of your BATs that you might like to redo or remake or improve upon? madhatter106: If I were doing them now, some of the low wealth commercial shops would be much better. I would definitely load in more details on some of them, though they kind of work in a generic, non-specific sense. I don’t think I’ve ever released a BAT on the STEX that I didn’t like; if I didn’t like it, I doubt I would have ended up sharing it with others. When I was doing the first office packs, I was making them look similar from all angles (that is, the elevation was practically the same on all four sides) but that’s not how a lot of buildings are designed, so there’s room for improvement there. Though with a lack of free time in general, I doubt I would ever remake any of them; but I am diligent about hanging on to the original gmax models in a folder labeled “Done,” so they are always available to me should I ever get the urge to do so.

Filling a much-needed niche, our next BATer focuses his energies on midrise, medium density apartment buildings. A man who calls Aaron City his home (or at least who calls his home Aaron City- it could just be a cute name), Aaron Graham's buildings are finely detailed and have proven popular over the years. His files collect reputation points like my floors collect crumbs and the variety of designs and variations of his uploads help to ensure that repetition becomes a thing of the past, a most noble effort. And now, Aaron Graham! Click here to view the interview in the Omnibus.

Our next interviewee continues to provide A+ top notch content to this day, and he has been around SImtropolis from the beginning. As a founding member of mipro (formally the BSP), he has represented the American mid-west well with BATs from hard working towns like Detroit and Milwaukee. Kid Rock, Eminem and RoboCop all list him as their favorite BATer… please welcome nofunk! ST: When did you first get SC4, and what do you remember about your first experiences with the game? Was SC4 your first involvement with SimCity, or did you already have a history with the sim games? nofunk: I must have bought the game soon after it was released, because I've been on Simtropolis since August of 2003. I remember finding the game much more challenging and realistic than SimCity 3000. In fact, I seem to remember being a little turned off by it, because I struggled initially to grow a successful city. I've played every version of SimCity except for Societies. I even have SimCity BuildIt on my iPhone. I've been playing SimCity since it's original incarnations on the PC and Super Nintendo -- I'm a veteran SimCity player! I've also played other Sims games, but none of them has kept my interest like SimCity has. ST: What aspect of SC4 do you enjoy most – what keeps you coming back? nofunk: Hands down, the custom content is what keeps me coming back. I love the fact that you can take all this amazing content developed by some really creative individuals -- and even create your own buildings and lots -- and make your city truly unique. There are so many great maps, BATs, lots -- the NAM!! -- that together make the game so much more dynamic and exciting. ST: Before we jump into the all the custom content questions, I’m curious… what is your favorite Maxis lot/BAT? nofunk: Some of my favorites are Cameron Cameras, Brown & Sons, Buechner Apartments, and the Long Building. Of course, they're all Pre-War buildings similar to what I BAT. ST: Do you recall the first plugin you installed? nofunk: I don't, but it was probably something by Pegasus. There wasn't much in the way of custom content when I first joined Simtropolis. ST: What led you to Simtropolis at first? Can you remember your initial impressions of the site? nofunk: Haha -- that was so long ago! I remember feeling sort of unsure of what to do on the site; at that time I didn't really know forum etiquette, so I laid pretty low. It was also a much quieter site back then. I'm also not sure what led me to the site initially: I'm sure it wasn't for custom content, because I didn't even know what that was when I first started playing and first joined Simtropolis. ST: Describe your progression into the world of SC4 custom content. Was it a particular lot or BAT that inspired you to take the first step? nofunk: I remember thinking about creating buildings long before I actually started doing so. And I experienced quite a few false starts before ever making something that bore any semblence of the thing I was trying to create. I'm not sure there was any particular BAT or lot that inspired me to start creating; I think it was more just a general desire to have in the game some of the buildings I really loved in real life. I eventually ended up joining one of JasconCW's BAT Schools and making it most of the way through. That gave me enough technical know-how to start learning and creating on my own. The rest is history! ST: Speaking of first steps, what was the very first thing that you modeled using the BAT? Do you still have a screen shot? nofunk: The very first thing I modeled using the BAT was a really terrible attempt at the Burton Memorial Tower on the University of Michigan's campus. And I do have a screen shot! I guess it wasn't so bad for a first attempt, but I've come a long way! ST: Tell me a bit about the Barry Sanders Project (BSP). I know that you and Jasoncw have been the caretakers of this group (and it has since been renamed mipro) for some time now, but I believe it got started all the way back in 2004. When did you become part of this BAT group and what are some early memories of the BSP? nofunk: The Barry Sanders Project was probably one of the first BAT groups organized around a city, but it took a long time for the group to actually produce anything. I think it was started with a lot of ambition, but when I first began posting in the thread (sometime in 2006) it had pretty much become a social forum. There was a lot of talk about making BATs, but very little action. When I really starting participating in the BSP, I think Jasoncw had just released his Detroit Free Press building, and JBSimio was working on some things as well. Wolverine was working on Ford Field or something similar. And I started small on a few buildings in and around Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I spent most of my time. Since then the BSP has died out, been resurrected by me and Jasoncw (and later SimHoTToDDy), and then reincarnated as mipro. Since then there have been 56 uploads by the BSP/mipro! ST: Most of your BATs focus on buildings found in the Upper Midwest (US). What is it about the area that draws you to recreate some of the great buildings found there? nofunk: Well, I've lived in metro Detroit most of my life, and now live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Both are old, post-industrial, rust-belt cities, with a deep sense of history and culture. I guess I just really love the feel of old rust-belt cities -- the pre-war architecture, the grit and grime of the old factories and rail lines and infrastructure, and the determination and eternal optimism of the folks who still live here. I've thought about moving out of the Midwest a few times -- to Seattle or Boston or Washington, DC -- but my heart will always be in the Midwest, and I'll probably always find myself back here! ST: Even though you focus on one region, you have BATed a wide range of buildings, from towering skyscrapers to small apartments, and from W2W shops to industrial behemoths. How do you end up choosing projects? Are you inspired by walking around a town and seeing the architecture up close, or is as simple as seeing a picture on the web? nofunk: Occasionally I'll get talked into BATing something I wouldn't normally pick on my own, or I'll BAT something that fills a need in my game, but most of the time I just BAT what I like. I find inspiration everywhere, but particuarly from visiting cities and walking around and discovering buildings that really stand out to me. It's certainly easier to recreate a building that I've seen in person, been able to study, and take reference photos to capture all the little details. ST: I think most custom content creators would consider their work a hobby, but like anything in life, some parts are more fun than others. What do you consider your least favorite part of the BATing process? What about your favorite? nofunk: Least favorite is definitely lotting -- it's just such a tedious process searching through all the poorly labeled Maxis props to find what you need for a lot. On the other hand, my favorite parts would be the excitement of first picking out a building to BAT, and then that moment near the end when the modeling is done and the textures are coming together and I run a preview render and it actually looks like the building I was trying to create! ST: Since this is a sort of hobby (in the sense that custom content creators are not paid for their work), what keeps you motivated to continue releasing new creations for the SC4 community to enjoy? How much do comments in the download section mean to you? Do you get a thrill seeing your models pop up in CJs? nofunk: The Simtropolis community is absolutely what keeps me going. I enjoy spending time developing a building from scratch and seeing it come together, but what I enjoy even more is the amazing feedback and responses I get on Simtropolis when I'm working on something! I've been pretty quiet on Simtropolis the past few years, but we really do have a great community here and it means a lot to me to be a part of that and share in the excitement of such a great game. And I sure do get a thrill when I see my BATs in people's CJs! ST: You have been BATing wonderful models for almost 9 years now. Is there any one of your creations that you are particularly proud of? Are there any fun stories or facts relating to some of your works that we don’t know about? nofunk: There are three BATs that I'm particularly proud of, all three because they required me to persevere. Cadillac Tower I started not once, not twice, but three times before finally getting it right. I also think it has some of the best texturing I've ever done. I'm proud of Carew Tower because it was such a huge undertaking -- by far the biggest BAT I've ever made -- and it required so much attention to detail in terms of both the modeling and the texturing. Finally, I'm proud of One Detroit Center, which was another big project that also forced me to step outside of my comfort zone of usual pre-war BATs and work on a building with a completely different architectural style and need for new textures and materials than I was used to. ST: Has your experience BATing had any influence on your personal or professional life? Are there any skills that you have developed over your BATing career that have helped you beyond the world of SC4? nofunk: I work in the urban planning field, and BATing has definitely helped me become more familiar with architectural ideas, terminology and the design process, which comes up more frequently than I had expected when working in a big city. So much of city planning is focused on site development, which means constructing buildings, and requires you to review plans and renderings and in those cases, having some understanding of how they come together helps. ST: What advice would you give to a new member of this community who was planning on creating their first BAT? nofunk: Stick with it! It takes time to develop the skills required to create really good BATs, and at times the process can be incredibly tedious and frustrating (I can't tell you how many times I've had to just walk away from a project for a few hours... days... weeks... before revisiting it). And keep learning and trying to improve! My BATing process and the quality of my work is dramatically different from when I first started. And I'm still learning new things! There's always room for improvement. ST: On the ‘builders’ side, do you have any favorite BATers that you enjoy following? If you still play SC4, what was your most recent download from the STEX? nofunk: Of course I really love the BATs that Jasoncw makes, although he has a modernist streak that doesn't always appeal to me. I also really like Aaron Graham's work -- his work has improved so much since he started BATing! I've also always loved Odainsaker's work -- he hasn't put out much, but what he has released has been just impeccable. And Spa has been making great content for smaller city and neighborhood commercial districts for as long as I can remember! ST: SimCity 4 has been out for over 12 years now. Are you surprised that this community is still going strong all these years later? What do you think is the secret to its longevity? Do you think there will still be new content being created 12 years from now? nofunk: There have been a few times when I thought that maybe Simtropolis was running out of stream, but ultimately I'm not surprised how long it's lasted: when you have a group of people who are this passionate about something, that something doesn't die easily. As long as people stil care about the game, the community, and creating for it, I don't see any reason why Simtropolis can't be around for 12 more years! ST: Cities:Skylines... have you played it yet? If not, what are you first impressions based on the mountain of feedback available here on Simtropolis or around the web? nofunk: I have not played Cities:Skylines yet, but I’ve seen plenty of screen shots from it and it looks amazing! I’m excited to install it and start building my dream city. ST: 12 years later, many are calling this game the 'successor' to SC4 and the city building genera. What are your thoughts? nofunk: It certainly seems like the game could be SC4's successor: it’s really the first city simulation game we have seen since SC4 that actually intends to be a city simulator and not some strange Sims offshoot or awkward foray into social engineering! The graphics and gameplay seem realistic, and the opportunity for modding is exciting! And I’ve heard you can even plan out bus routes! It seems to me Cities:Skylines has many of the elements we all love about SC4 with even more realism and detail. ST: It will take plenty time before C:S can rival the amount of custom content available for SC4, but the developers have really encouraged modding, and there are already many new buildings and 'assets' that can be found on Simtropolis and the steam workshop. Are you encouraged to leap into C:S custom content? I've already talked to some folks who are actively working to develop custom content for C:S so I think the potential is huge for the game! I can't say whether or not I'll end up making custom content for C:S, but I also never imagined I'd make so much content for SC4, so who knows!

ST: When did you first get SC4, and what do you remember about your first experiences with the game? Was SC4 your first involvement with SimCity, or did you already have a history with the sim games? Jasoncw: My first involvement with SimCity was the original. I had to have my brother start the game using the command line in DOS. I’d start a new city (usually Jasonville or something similar), plop the airport, and then fill an area with roads, because a cluster of 4-way stops looked like a parking lot. And then I’d have no money and that would be the end of it. For SC2K I was old enough to actually play the game. Before SC3K came out I was so blown away by the graphics that I told my friend the resolution was so high that you could even see inside the windows. That wasn't completely true, but compared to SC2K's graphics it might as well have been. I had a demo of the game where you could build a city, but only for about 20 minutes before it would kick you out, making you start over next time. I played it for hours on end before finally getting the full game. ST: What aspect of SC4 do you enjoy most – what keeps you coming back? Jasoncw: Considering how rarely I actually play the game, the answer would be BATing, but the truth is that if it weren't for the community I wouldn't be BATing, so it’s the community that keeps me coming back. ST: Do you recall the first plugin you installed? Jasoncw: I don’t, but I do have fond memories of certain early plugins. The and by Sabrethooth78, the by Prepo, and by ONeil_1. Pegasus’s was both very useful and very funny. ST: What led you to Simtropolis at first? Can you remember your initial impressions of the site? Jasoncw: Despite being an active SC4 player and a lifelong SimCity fan, my reason for coming to Simtropolis had nothing to do with SimCity! I wanted to learn 3d modeling and found gmax, and needed the BAT gamepack in order to render things. I came to Simtropolis for gmax tutorials. ST: Describe your progression into the world of SC4 custom content. Was it a particular lot or BAT that inspired you to take the first step? Jasoncw: SimMars was close to my original intention of modeling science fiction stuff, so I started making things for SimMars, but it didn't take very long for me to start making normal buildings. ST: Speaking of first steps, what was the very first thing that you modeled using the BAT? Do you still have a screen shot? Jasoncw: I’m pretty well organized and I keep everything, but somewhere along the line I lost a lot of my early stuff. Below are the earliest things I was able to find, I believe from fall and winter of 2004. My first upload was in spring of 2005. The BATs to the left were intended for SimMars. ST: Many of your BATs are released under the mipro (originally BSP) banner. For those who may not know much about mipro, can you elaborate on what you guys are about/how you are organized and what your role in it is? Jasoncw: mipro is dedicated to recreating buildings from the US State of Michigan, including Detroit. During the time that I was getting into BATing I was also getting into Detroit’s architectural history and development news, the BSP thread was very active, and a lot of the early BSP members were the same people I was interacting with on other urbanism/Detroit forums. So a lot of different things converged, and it was inevitable that I got involved. Unfortunately by the time I was producing BATs the original group was pretty much gone, but nofunk came along soon after, and JBSimio did our early custom queries. ST: Your list of uploads is populated by a large number of buildings from the Midwest. Are there any particular reasons for choosing to direct your efforts in this direction? Jasoncw: To be honest I didn't realize that until you pointed it out! Obviously my mipro BATs are from the Midwest, but the rest I think are just a coincidence. A lot of my fictional BATs are loosely based on buildings from outside of the Midwest. ST: What is the thought process behind choosing what to create next? Jasoncw: It’s a combination of how much I like the building (or a style, if I'm going to make a fictional building), how well it fits into the game’s 16x16 meter grid, and how easy it would be to make. ST: I think most custom content creators would consider their work a hobby, but like anything in life, some parts are more fun than others. What do you consider your least favorite part of the BATing process? Your favorite? Jasoncw: I hate lotting, and I avoid projects where I have to do it. When I make a BAT I start off with the facade, which is the fastest, funnest, and most immediately rewarding part of the process. After that there’s a point where the entire building is modeled and the BAT is no longer a cluster of floating facades, and it’s nice to see the building come together as something close to its final form. I also love seeing the transformation from an untextured BAT to a textured BAT. And of course I like plopping the building in the game for the first time. ST: Since this is a sort of hobby (in the sense that custom content creators are not paid for their work), what keeps you motivated to continue releasing new creations for the SC4 community to enjoy? How much do comments in the download section mean to you? Is it exciting to see your models used in the CJs of others? Jasoncw: You’re going to throw me into an existential crisis! Why do I BAT?? I absolutely appreciate the positive support I get. BAT releases are like a party, and comments, ratings, and downloads on the STEX are like confetti. In my thread, comments and upvotes can be encouraging when I’m struggling to be productive. And then there are times, especially during the Trixies, when people go beyond typical commenting and write very kind things. Most people go through their entire adult lives rarely experiencing the good will and appreciation that I experience regularly. People have been very generous to me. ST: You released your first BAT in 2005. Is there any one of your creations that you are particularly proud of? Are there any fun stories or facts relating to some of your works that we don’t know about? Jasoncw: My early BATs. For those, each one I worked very hard on, learned a lot, and I was improving a lot from BAT to BAT. My first uploaded BAT was and I probably spent 6 hours in Photoshop just trying to make a peach color that was similar to ones used in the game. was similar, I spent absurd amounts of time literally matching my BAT’s facade with Maxis’s Fisk Insurance. I’m also proud of Fisk Insurance (and some WIPs that never made it) where I first developed my glass texturing technique. After my early BATs, I’m most proud of the Penobscot Building. I started it in 2006, restarted it several times, and finally pushed through the difficult task of finishing it in 2014. Even counting my early BATs it’s the most hours I've put into a BAT. ST: Has your experience BATing had any influence on your personal or professional life? Are there any skills that you have developed over your BATing career that have helped you beyond the world of SC4? Jasoncw: There were things like LEGO and drawing, but SimCity most specifically lead me down the path to pursuing a career in architecture. But unfortunately I’m very unemployed. If you work in architecture, are located somewhere in the world where I can get by with English at first, and would like to consider hiring me, please contact me (I’m not joking!). I bring the same dedication to quality and personal engagement to architecture as I do to BATing. On a personal level I've become friends in real life with Nofunk and a few others, and I've enjoyed online friendships as well. If you get along well with someone here and live in the same area I recommend meeting up. ST: What advice would you give to a new member of this community who was planning on creating their first BAT? Jasoncw: The most important thing is that you have to feel it in your heart that you are capable of making great BATs. Then you have to understand that at first you’ll be bad, but you need to be patient and keep working and learning until you’re good. You can’t accept ‘bad’ as your final result. And then, more practically, start a BAT thread, follow other people’s BAT threads, and learn how to find existing information (be a resourceful self-learner). And don’t be afraid to ask questions. As long as you've done your due diligence, BATers won’t mind helping you out, and it’s a nice way to build relationships. ST: Simtropolis is organized into ‘player’ and ‘builder’ categories. Regarding the ‘player’ section, do you have any favorite CJers that you enjoy following? What are your favorite SC4 ‘scenes’ (i.e., towering metropolises, urban sprawl, rural landscapes, etc.). Jasoncw: Over the years there have been certain CJers whose work I've enjoyed, but I don’t follow city journals closely enough to be able to list names without the risk of leaving out great CJers that I’m simply oblivious to. I like CJs that contain realistic urban areas, and that do a good job of using my BATs. I've never been able to get into story-based CJs though. You've probably noticed that most BATers don't follow city journals, and that most CJers don't BAT. I respect the few that are able to do both well. I enjoy seeing my BATs used, so if you’re happy with the way you've used one of my buildings, you’re welcome to post it in my BAT thread. ST: On the ‘builders’ side, do you have any favorite BATers that you enjoy following? If you still play SC4, what was your most recent download from the STEX? Jasoncw: When I see Odainsaker's BATs I think I get a glimpse of what it’s like for other people to see my BATs... especially those years-long “almost done” WIPs! Nofunk is an obvious answer to this question. Aaron Graham is very important to my cities. Vlasky does a great job. Don Miguel was very influential early on. My plugins folder is in a perpetual state of disrepair, but I don’t think anyone would be surprised about the types of things I have in there. ST: SimCity 4 has been out for over 12 years now. Are you surprised that this community is still going strong all these years later? What do you think is the secret to its longevity? Do you think there will still be new content being created 12 years from now? Jasoncw: If you’d have told me all those years ago, I would be surprised. But moving forward from year to year there’s never been any indication that the community was about to die. At this point SimCity 4 has gotten so big that even when the day comes that it’s not very active, I think it will still linger on for a very long time. ST: Are there any games you play besides SC4? What other hobbies do you have away from BATing and SimCity? Jasoncw: I mostly play older games, a lot of RPGs on the SNES. The Earthbound/Mother series is one of my favorites. I play StarCraft 2 casually. I play the guitar. I like architecture of course. I used to draw and it’s something I’d like to get back into. Thank you very much for your time and for your great answers!

MushyMushy- Thank you, I would love to make a building similar Eyrene Apartments, I've been wanting to do that because the buildings are taller, the reason why I made the Eyrene Apartments that tall is because there are not enough of non-corner w2w buildings that like that and that faces the avenue. the reason the way the Gracie Manor and Dover House are they height is because they are on streets, and the taller they are the more shadows they will cast of small Manhattan streets.. T Wrecks- Thank you, and your right. __B- Thank you!!! cmdp123789- Thank you!!! Beekman Hotel Tower I have did a little work on the Beekman today the roof still need some work, the ac units below the windows need texturing, and I need to work on a few things on the ground floors. I hope you guys like what you see.

ow crap. I forgot to post what the final design of interchange was I settled on I think I build, and bulldozed 2 intersections before I came up with this one. This one is GREAT! The traffic flows soooo well. I love it.

REPLIES for journal "Destination Unknown" Warning!!!!! There is a lot of picture in this one!!!! lol ************************************************************************************************ Once upon a time, a little girl was dreaming of flying. She promised herself one day, she would have her own airport. When she turned 15, while milking a cow, she tough of that dream again and told herself one day.....one day... Today, almost 30 years old, she is the mayor of Dashin and finally, her dream came through... This picture shows the overview and where the future train station, bus station and parking area will be. A little lake area that survived construction...no fish tho... Warehouses and airplane parking Every airport need a rescue center! A Heliport is mandatory for those rescue missions and invasive news reports!! First section of Dashin International Transit Terminal Dashin International Transit Terminal I have a big favor to ask...next time I am thinking of undertaking such a project, someone slap me across the head..lol Hope you enjoy this entry! As always, comments and feedback is always appreciated. I do hope to finish my parking / train and bus station and a bit of my downtown area in my future updates! Have a wonderful week guys and thank you so much for your support!!!

Replies for journal "My City...Your Home" Hello my dear friends and welcome!!!! A new city has been created: Falshin (in order to preserve the little bit of sanity I have left). The mayor, Frida Cakubara, is a baroness and she is a wild one. Since she doesn't like to attend the nobility court at the royal palace, she asked her cousin (the King) to give her something meaningful to do (with the passing of her husband, she needs to keep busy). He therefore gave her the responsibility to establish Falshin. And so it begins... The usual overviews...As you can see, it is truly just the beginning... Construction of some of the residential homes. Not much to see, but I thought it looked cool...lol Chapel and cemetery..question: why so many tombs for a city of less than 8k? reply: that is a good question...I will get back to you on that one... The main interchange at the entrance of the city. Not massive, but efficient!!! SUBURBS GALORE!!!!!!! Let the frenzy begin... Now, if you love fishing and canoeing, this is the place for ya!!! Celebrate good times COME ON!! Let's celebrate... Now I know, this is the regular, city stuff...but let us face it...It it so much fun to create!!!!!! LOL Hope you enjoyed my entry! A big thank you to all our creators of bats, textures, mods, etc. A very special thank you to all who continuously follow my journals and provide encouraging comments that allows me to continue this awesome hobbie!!! As always, feel free to comment and share your comments with me! It is always appreciated!

Ok.. I've been working really hard and have hopefully a nice surprise for some of you. As anticipated, the BATed ground didn't look that crash hot in the game and even more hideous at night. So I've relented and spent many horrendous hours making a custom foundation for the platform. This entailed making the platform taller, closing in some gaps, separating the stairs, making custom LODs, many grueling hours spent in the lot editor lining the platform up to the foundation, re-exporting everything on a slightly different pivot point, re-doing all the above again.. making a separate lot for the stairs, many tedious tweaks to get it to line up with the platform... kill me now... but here's the result: You can see I've used Girafe's beautiful Parasol Pines, downloaded just for the occasion As promised, there's a standalone version as well: And of course all the night coloured variations as well (These are Darknite, I still have to do the Maxis Night: I've also finished all the seating on Engenhão Stadium, but will post an update another time Huston - these are looking great. I also prefer the right-hand side version, but I can't help but feel like the all the colours are a bit over-saturated at the moment. The model is great though Edit: Oops.. I forgot one...

My downtown:

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Welcome to Zenebach, a beautiful alpine city nestled in the heart of Neu Westfalen Population: 525,711 Zenebach is the capital of the state of Zeddenick, and the third largest city in Neu Westfalen. A city of just over half a million inhabitants, it lies along the western spine of Neu Westfalen's alpine divide. located along the southern bank of Lake Evehalden, Zenebach has long been a magnet for international tourists. Zenebach in Neu Westfalen, also shown is the capital Evelstadt. The city's iconic water fountain. You may remember Voss Arena from the 2014 AINVision held in the city, this 15,000 seat arena is also a newer addition to the city having been completed in 2010. The adjacent marina has existed since the city's founding in 1882 and serves as the largest mooring on the large alpine lake. Several smaller marinas have since sprung-up around the lake's inlet, reflecting a growth in the popularity of boating and water pursuits in the region. An old park and church located next to Arena Zeddenick and it's training grounds. A large parking garage and adjacent light-rail also serve the stadium and sounding areas. The old Germanic bridge still crosses the river that feeds the lake. It is a popular spot for tourists to take photos and 'selfies'. Zenebach's city park is a significant area of greenery that serves as a relaxation/break spot for the busy employees of the surrounding downtown area. Underneath it lies the large parking complex of the Alverna Spire. The city council building (with the blue, glass roof) sits parallel to the downtown marina. The historic quarter is home to Zenebach's oldest church, musical and movie theaters. But still blends in seamlessly with downtown's newer structures. Central park is a sprawling area surrounding a large natural lake, it also functions as a barrier between the noisy city center and the residential buildings on the opposite side. The city's main library can found just below it. Some outer suburbs, small shops and manufacturing facilities. (Below) The Zeddenick State parliament building (center, parallel to the river) and HSR terminus (the large blue glass building below it). A small business and industrial zone on the other side of the river. (Above) The city's outer limits. (Below) A polytechnic university and convention center. The park strip in the middle divides the apartment blocks from the suburban houses. Zenebach University, sports facilities and surrounding dormitories. A bridge spans the entrance to the lake inlet. The large forest acts as a wind-break between the (sometimes very cold) lake breezes and the inner-city. Likewise the sheltered beaches it creates become excellent summer bathing spots. Some overviews of the city. Zenebach at night, I will make some more night-time images at a later date too. That's it for now, I hope you like Zenebach.

"Rise up, mighty land, rise up for the deadly battle... Let noble anger boil like a wave" - Red Army song 18/9/1941 - Cruiser Maxim Gorky moves up the Neva river to provide artillery support for the Soviet forces. As we scroll down the picture we see some of the warehouses and buildings of the Admiralty Shipyard. Mist also make an appearance in this September morning. Doesn't matter how many buildings have been destroyed or how many lives have been lost. Zhdanov has asked the people to defend every neighborhood, every street, and every house. The enemy will not enter. 24/7/1941 - Unfinished heavy cruiser Lützow in the dry docks of the Admiralty Shipyard (also known as Soviet Shipyard No.194). The ship was purchased from Germany in 1940 and Nazi technicians were assisting in its construction prior to the attack. Destroyer Opytny fires one of its main guns at the enemy. The whole of the Baltic Fleet has entered the Neva river to support the defending troops. 15/9/1941 - City Psychiatric Hospital No.2 (Hospital Dedicated to Saint Nicholas the Miracle Worker for Mental Patients) has suffered heavy damage in the left wing due to its proximity to the Admiralty Shipyard facilities, a sweet target for the German aviation. Disclaimer: This CJ includes original photos taken during the siege. To my knowledge none of them is protected by copyright, but if I were wrong I'm happy to delete any picture that infringes the law.

Nominations are now CLOSED! Thanks to everyone who contributed, with the final total standing at 289 nominations! The counting and validating process now begins, with the awards ceremony following shortly... In the meantime, check: For all the latest news & anticipation.

Hey guys! I'm talking with Jonathan, a community manager for Paradox Interactive to answer questions we might have about the upcoming Cities: Skylines. First, thanks for taking the time to talk with us! I'm going to kick things off with a few of my own burning questions... Dirktator: Was there a deliberate intent to address feedback and criticism of EA's SimCity 2013 with Cities: Skylines? How closely were the developers following and listening to the SimCity community? Jon: Our intent wasn’t necessarily a reaction to the success or lack of success of SimCity 2013, but rather a response to the overwhelming amount of passion and interest we saw from fans of the city building genre. When Colossal Order started development of Cities: Skylines, they weren’t just trying to make a better game. CO wants to make the best city building game possible, regardless of what other games in the genre are doing. In order to do so, Paradox and CO are actively reviewing feedback from city building fans wherever it can be found. That’s part of the reason why we’re reaching out to Simtropolis, a community primarily dedicated to the SimCity series. TL:DR - We hear you! Dirktator: What do you think is the biggest demand for a city-building game today? What's missing from current city-building games? What do you think city-building players desire most? Jon: In one word: flexibility. The freedom to create. We’re working with a sandbox type game, one that taunts your imagination and creativity. Players in this genre are builders and creators, and they all have unique ideas on how they want to make their own city. A lot of game developers think it’s about the shiny features. But we knew from the beginning that we could never compete with the creativity, innovativeness, and sheer numbers of community content. So the goal of Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order was to make Cities: Skylines into a platform that was sturdy, yet flexible enough for you to build off of and make it yours. This is your game, play it your way. Dirktator: How much will Cities: Skylines cater to simulation players and to those who just want to craft beautiful cities? Jon: Cities: Skylines offers a rich and engaging simulation that really makes your cities feel alive. We think this is important to gameplay even if you are more of a creative builder type who just wants to make a utopia. And when it comes to making the city of your dreams, well, we’re not going to get in your way. Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order have provided a solid set of systems and tools that should cater to your creative needs. With the community’s help, Cities: Skylines will become more and more diverse when it comes to buildings, decorations, and styles. Dirktator: As a total city-building experience, what would you say is the one thing Cities: Skyline hopes to get right with the players? Jon: A smooth launch that leaves you happy with your purchase, and excited for what lies ahead. Buying a new game can be a bit of a gamble. Sometimes you aren’t sure if you’re getting a polished product that you can enjoy right from the start. That’s why Paradox and CO strive to make sure “what you see is what you get.” We want you to get the game and think: “This is an enjoyable game, and it will be even more enjoyable as improvements are made and new features are added.” Not: “This game is broken, and will only be enjoyable once it is fixed and content is added in that was intentionally left out at release.” There will certainly be things that you don’t like in the game. But Paradox and CO feel confident that you’ll enjoy the game at release. And we’ll be following feedback closely so that improvements can be made. A lot of hard work has gone into making Cities: Skylines a great game from the start, because we know that we’re pitted against a decade’s worth of devotion to Simcity 4. We’re just starting our race, but I think you’ll like our starting point and the energy we’re bringing to this race! Dirktator: Historically, SimCity players tend to get the shaft with post-release support. How does Colossal Order and Paradox plan to keep interest in the title alive and to support the players that want more from the game? Jon: I think the best answer to this question is to review our track record with our other games. Paradox Interactive has a long history of providing continual upgrades and improvements to our games. I’m not just talking about DLC and expansions. We are constantly making free patches, content, and additions. Cities: Skylines is just going to get better and better the more we all put into it. Dirktator: How committed are the developers to provide tools for modders? Will modding be tied to just Steam Workshop or will places like our STEX (Simtropolis's Exchange) be able to share creations as well? Jon: The phrase “will support modding” seems to be used over-generously by game developers these days. As you are probably aware, the term ‘support’ could mean as little as not getting banned if you modify things, so long as it doesn’t change the game too much. So let’s use some different terminology and paint a clear picture of what Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order mean by this phrase: Fully functional modding tools will launch with the game. Sharing mods and content is highly encouraged, and has been made simple and easy through the use of Steam Workshop. Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order actively encourage modding, and our community management staff strives to answer all questions with straightforward transparency. We can’t promise that you can modify everything, but we won’t hide the facts from you. Our developers are continually working with modders to make modding easier and better. It’s not plausible to get it all right the first time, but we love working with modders to open up new possibilities. Or, if you want to hear directly from Colossal Order’s CEO, Mariina Hallikainen, check out this article: http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/news/a617010/how-city-builder-cities-skylines-is-being-made-with-player-freedom-in-mind.html#~p4Glbs9EtQLbfS We’ll be releasing a lot of detailed information about modding and our asset creation tools very soon, so stay tuned for even more information! As to the second part of the question: Yes, you can host and share your mods and creations on the STEX. Dirktator: And lastly before I hand the thread over to the community for questions of their own, what might be something you would say to SimCity players feeling a little disenchanted with SimCity 2013 that might get them pumped for Cities: Skyline? Jon: Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order are committed to making this the best city builder game ever. We’re out to prove it too! Our community managers are devoted to addressing your concerns and feedback. We believe in transparency, honesty, and open communication with our communities. You’ll be hard pressed to find a community team that operates the way we do at Paradox Interactive. So in conclusion… Bring it on! PS - For more information about Cities: Skylines, visit our FAQ Guide at: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?836421-FAQ-Guide Dirktator: Thanks! I'll hand the thread over to the community for questions they might have, please post your questions below!

Hello everyone! I hope you are well. As far as spring days go, today was a good one. In local sports news, I went for a bike ride and then I ate a donut. There must always be balance in the universe. Today we are going to visit a picturesque northern Michigan town: Petoskey. (Pronounced Pet-os-key, ok now say it really fast out loud, nope that's too fast, one more time, but slower, yup you've got it, moving on.) Petoskey is one of many Michigan resort towns that gets busy in the summer, then becomes a pleasant getaway in the fall and winter. Notice I didn't mention spring. This is Michigan people, spring isn't a real season here. Let's have a look at the downtown area. There is plenty to see and do here. Yup, that is downtown Petoskey. An excellent walkable neighborhood. Need a book? Head for Hemingway's Corner. How about some new threads? Northern Exposure Outfitters has you covered. Do people even call clothes 'threads' anymore? Who cares. I'm a Millennial, I'll do what I want. Isn't that a nice downtown? Let's head over to city hall. This is the first stop on our walking tour. There is a statue of Chief Petosega, one of the founders of the village, in the park. The statue faces out over Little Traverse Bay. A large plaza and roundabout mark the entrance to downtown from US-31. We'll walk through the plaza as we head for the waterfront. Now there is a pretty sight. The waterfront has seen major redevelopment in the past several years. New condos and a multi story hotel have been built. This was once an industrial waterfront, but the boom times for lumber and fishing are long gone. A few industrial buildings remain, but shipment by boat has ceased. That's the Bear River as it reaches Little Travers Bay in the middle of the photo. You can find many Petoskey stones, the state stone of Michigan, in the water. Let's see what is going on to our west... Well here is one of the worst kept secrets in town: Cottage Bluff. The few cottages here are prime places to spend the summer. It's only a short bike ride from here to downtown, and the beach is right out your backdoor! Let's head back to the river. Just upriver from the bay is this piece of local history. Several mills once occupied the space at the mouth of the river. This is the only one that remains. The river is a great place to go trout fishing, or kayaking. Let's take a look at how industry has changed in over the years. Great Northern Iron & Metal was once one of the biggest employers in the area. With the changing economic climate, the factory has long since closed. Local investors recognized the potential of the building and cleaned it up using brownfield redevelopment tax credits. The result was condos, shops, and a restaurant called the 'Boiler Room'. An open air market was also started. This has become one of the most popular spots in town. It's a busy one there today. There are several other businesses in this old industrial neighborhood. Bear River Lumber in the anchor business that can be seen here. Several other local manufacturing and supply companies have seen an upturn in the past few years. Some businesses haven't been so lucky. What you're seeing here is all that remains of Allied Chemical & Mineral. The site is heavily contaminated and there have been a few arson fires here over the years. The city is desperate to have the building taken down and redeveloped similarly to the Northern Iron and Metal property. Just south of Allied C&M is the Little Traverse Furniture company. The business is doing very well. Visitors to the area often enjoying checking out the architecture of the homes in this neighborhood. Let's head back for downtown. Here we are at the Petoskey Brewing Company, located at the corner of Hemingway and Water Front Drive. The building once housed a wire factory, but it was converted to this restaurant about 12 years ago. The business has won several awards for their beers and burgers. Well that's all for this tour. Time to call it a day. Book a room at 'The Perry', one of the finer hotels in the area. The hotel and train station are two well known historic landmarks in town. The train station once welcomed travelers from all over the Midwest. It now mostly sees local instate tourist traffic. Looks like there is quite a party going on at the courtyard of The Perry. They're probably celebrating what a nice day it has been. Hope you enjoyed the tour. Petoskey is one of my favorite towns to visit. The area is very scenic. This entry is the first in a series about the harbor towns of northern Michigan. Thanks for reading! I hope you all have a good safe week! Let's all hope for a Spartan victory on Saturday!!!

Hello, everybody! You may say a CJ? So soon before the game is released? Right, folks. Our benevolent Dirktator got some exclusive early access to the game and a group of privileged players will be testing and playing CSL to show you guys what this game is capable of! These are some interesting plays, the sensation of "I have no idea what I'm doing" which invaded us playing SC4 seems to be back! Without further ado, let me show you the first update! And there I was. In a village I didn't know, surrounded by a dozen people I had never known. My job? Let's say it wasn't a typical 9-to-5. I had been chosen Mayor of the Town of Springsteen. At the time I took the office, Springsteen wasn't larger than a nutshell. It had only two roads that derived from the nearest highway. But still I learnt that running a village so small has also its challenges. Lots of basic infrastructure had to be built, and fortunately, we had recevied a generous amount of money from the funding agency for development. Sooner than expected, the water tower was erected right at the gates of Springsteen. I'm sure it will be the tallest building here for a long time! Electric power took a bit more to reach Springsteen. The power company constructed a pair of windmills not too far from here, and these are in charge of keeping our light bulbs on and the beers ice cold on the fridge. Residents were attracted because of the beautiful and quiet setting, but what about job providers? We had to "convince" some companies to settle in Springsteen with some tax advantages. I would say that they didn't regret having established here... We have water, power, jobs, roads... What else do we have to care for? Sewage! I almost forget about it, this explains why our fellow neigbhours shouted outside of the "office" (you know, my garage) all night long before we installed the disposal facility... It looks like everything is finally set to have a decent life here in our small village, for the moment! Due to our size, we still have no right to have health or education facilities, we have to go to larger cities to go to the doctor, for example. But what we have is some healthy, pure air and nice neighbours to spend the life with! Stay tuned for the next chapter!!

My dear friends, First, I would like to express my gratitude for all your wonderful comments to my journals...I never take anything for granted and knowing that my hard work is appreciated means a lot to me. This journal is probably one of favorite. A lot of work went into it and I do hope you enjoy it as much as I do. I am not sure when my next entry will be as I have been convinced to try out the City: Skylines game. I am not sure if I will enjoy it as much as SC4, but I won't know until I try it! In this journal, you will see my first attempt at a mosaic (be kind lol), the hotel, parking and bus station areas near the airport. Enjoy! A huge thank you for the individuals who have the amazing talent creating the wonderful tools used in my journals!!! And a very warm, heartfelt thank you to you guys! (Sunwoo, no bombing my city.. ) ***************************************************************************************************************************************** The usual overviews One of the entrance to the main parking area A small section of the elevated and ground parking areas 47Plymish Station - (facing the ground parking area) Going to miss those night shots.... Tonraqsun Train Station (facing hotel) Jameslin Bus Station Sunwoobloom Plaza facing Schlumack Hotel Schlumack Hotel and part of Hustonia Garden Hustonia Garden My first attempt at a mosaic! Thank you and see you soon!!!!

4 years later... nearly done, just some dirt details, roof junk missing, also night model. Also working again this one... still lot to do