n74704

Oh man, how long has it been since I've been here! Well I have been very off and...not as off about this new SimCity for many of the reasons you've mentioned. The excuse that 'traffic is an added challenge' only holds water IF traffic was at all intelligent. I've tried so many things to avoid sheer gridlock and every time, the city seizes. See, I naively thought that glassbox was going to allow you to do some amazing things with customizing your city. But all it has done is turn my sims into a mindless herd of cattle that traverse the street, block up my intersections for hours on end, and keep my essential services stuck. I didn't even care that city sizes were smaller - I love a logistical challenge and it seemed that SimCity was going to deliver that with each agent represented in this tiny cog and wheel machine. It's a new game aesthetic and I still believe if it worked...it would have been exceptional. But it hasn't worked at all and has made me distrust the game so severely that I can't actively change my strategy because of some impossibly stupid omissions. 1. Left-hand turn signals? Really... How does a modern transportation simulator omit an entire lane of traffic flow. This is by far the one thing that seizes my cities. I should not have to design in endless Ts to avoid oncoming traffic because the simulator is too stupid to draw rules for intersections. But even if I do, come morning the city is gridlocked because I cannot control how left hand turn signals are interpreted. If a perpendicular street never clears, that lane of traffic never clears either. 2. Signal Cascading programs. To combat increasingly poor signal patterns in downtown rows, cities smartly create cascading patterns that program an entire avenue of traffic signals to quickly move traffic through the centre in an organized, sane fashion. If I could control signal patterns in my most impacted areas, I could keep the flow of traffic moving in rush hour by writing my own rules for who goes when and how long. I am the intelligent being and as such, I should be able to fix the problems. This kind of tinkering is what is lacking severely in SimCity. If this is supposed to be a fine tuned machine, then why do I have to demolish large stretches of road to try something new? 3. Road rule exceptions for emergency vehicles - I mean cmon... This needs no explanation - the cars don't collide with one another, why have emergency vehicles adhere to reality anyway? 4. Custom Bus Routes. What use is a bus if the sims using it don't actually get to the stop they need? Because of the global herding mechanism in this game, busses don't run linear, planned routes - they just follow aimlessly picking up people without ever dropping them off in the right spot. This sadly goes for streetcars too...which is just mind boggling...If I could plan my routes, as once again, I am the intelligent being with a complex brain, then I could better move people around the city without wasting time getting stuck in traffic snarles. 5. Trade Depots are abysmal. Part of the allure of a 1:1 simulation is watching goods move through your economy. But because everything is automated and all tinkering mechanisms are wrapped in a thick layer of bubble wrap (oh goodie, I can add another truck that won't deliver anything), the excitement of running a trade empire falls flat. If this is really my business, I'd like a more active role in how I send my trucks out to deliver goods. But instead, I don't get to plan routes - and so my goods sit waiting to be picked up while my refineries close up shop because the petroleum hasn't been delivered - or worse, the power plant hasn't received a shipment in time. Now that SimCity introduced freight to this awful mess of a game, I now have to have industry in every damn city plot just so that I can collect freight. Why oh why can't I just have trade depots import freight in like any other resource?! 6. Increasing land value strictly by placing parks is incredibly dumb. I just wanted to have a nice park - now I have R$$$ moving in and I don't have work for them. Who thought this was a good idea? Wealthing up to the next level should be organic and based on many factors. The first - a job market to support wealthy peeps moving in. The second - increasing land values over time. The third? Ok, maybe parks. Because of this limitation, if I want a fountain in my city, I must have R$$$ around it because it quickly and predictably alters everything immediately surrounding that park - as if by magic. Add to that, there is no feeling of a patchwork neighborhood because everything levels up too quickly - and like everything in SimCity, theres no feeling of permanence and no way to get attached to any one area. 7. Increasing density based on street type is EXCEPTIONALLY stupid. I get the idea of streamlining, but this forces your hand in a rather ugly way - you CAN have avenues, but you cannot control density. If it were up to me, I'd like to use more avenues to manage traffic, but honestly I don't want a canyon of high rise towers on every avenue. I like in urbia (not quite as disconnected as suburbia), and two streets surrounding me use 6-lane avenues to create thoroughfares in low density neighborhoods. In SimCity, I'd have to use 2 lane streets...with an endless array of stop signs. 8. SimCity has created a system that solely relies on the success of its weakest component. Everything moves through roads...power mindlessly joggs through your patchwork, water and sewage do the same, all emergency services use your roads, all people use your roads, all mass transit uses your roads, garbage and waste management uses your roads, trade and specialized freight use your roads...because of this, the game repeatedly fails in an unmanageable way to the point where the gamer simply gives up. Because the roads are so wild wild west with no complex rules or organization, they set the player up by encouraging them to continue to expand without thinking of the consequences. And since there are no tools to further manage your transit system ( bypasses, toll roads, elevated ramps or sky bridges (the elevate tool doesn't count...it still creates intersections)), you're destined to fail as soon as you move into the next leg of expansion. These are core game issues - not even mentioning the bigger maps debate because honestly...what good is more if what is there doesn't work? Sure you can spread the mess out over a larger map, but that doesn't solve the problem of a fundamentally unintelligent simulator.

Ghery is at it again. Now this design...is classic ghery...in a wretched way. As he put it, blankets with holes: https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//ghery2.jpg align=baseline> the sad thing is...its an alzheimers research center. I guess he REALLY wanted people to remember this. Its almost as if surrealism has become real...

man, collectively if you all had your way - every modernist structure on the earth would be demolished! Seagram, mentioned earlier - was the first great example of the modernist skyscraper. Its material consists of black tinted glass and copper beams, to deflect light and change subtle colors as the day wears on. It was a highly thought out design for the city, and paved the road for the modernism movement - art is dead. However, stainless steel beams became the norm and the box was born. Devoid of any additional ornamentation, the building you see on the street, is the building you see inside - modernism is seeing a building at face value - no hidden materials, no cladding. Its why you notice the box appear so many times. The box is pure. what you see is what it is. pure Modernism fizzled out in the late 80's and energized the post modernism movement, bringing back architectural elements of the past. Brutalism was also a rebellion against ornamentation - however, i dont know too much about how/why it came into existance! and now, deconstructionism has taken hold - personally, any deconstructist building seems wayy too strange for me, as i'd rather not step into a structure that looks like its melting. However, the Gehry curves are quite interesting to look at and have become a mainstream symbol of museum or performing arts. It has a sort of kinetic energy, as if the art is flowing out. The Ghery curves DO NOT make for great townhomes/skyscrapers/stations/businesses/ or schools. But until the starchitects subside, we'll be seeing a good chunk of new deconstructionist structures arise. too bad arsen is considered a felony... As for the WTC reconstruction - no one will ever be happy with the decision made. When the tower goes up, it will be loved by half, hated by half - give it about 30 more years and when the skyline of New York has caught up - it'll be accepted. For every landmark tower, this has happened - its no surpirse that its happening in New York. As for keeping it a memorial... its not possible - Lower Manhatten needs that space as do the Port Authority. If we left the whole of the center untouched as a memorial, it would be like saying to Europe after WWII - dont rebuild, it's now a memorial. bottom line - unless you're an architect making these structures, theres no gain in bashing them - every style developed for a unique reason, and just like music, it'll always be changing...or re-emerging under a different name. but for ugly buildings - the new Ghery Los Angeles proposal is exceptionally hideous: https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//ohgoodlord.jpg align=baseline> yep, dont adjust your monitors, that tower is actually melting!

wow, looks great - now i do have a few more ideas. as the first set of problems recess, i can start to see a few more things that might need altering. >> the corner details are making the structure look blocky - i would suggest either something more ornamental, or nothing at all - preferably, i would go for ornamental, you could even make some rounded sections with a good deal of intricacy. >> the windows on the building look all too structured and repetative. to break from this - you may want to recess your details back into the wall a bit. this will help out a bit. >> another way to make the building look a bit more real is to have the bottom floor windows large, and the other story windows visually smaller. >> another way is to not have the same amount of windows, the same size, on the same floors. get rid of a few of them to make it a bit more random. >> the doors look great, BTW this is what i would start to hone in on after the first bits of revision.

haha, you work very fast! shutters are pieces of wood that cover windows. they can also have slats to diffuse light coming into the buildings - they also serve as a method to keep the hot/cool in/out of the building. like in summer, you open them to keep the room cool. or in winter, you close them to hold the warmth in. shutters also protect windows in storms, keep rain out, keep wind out - all that junk. can't wait to see you progress some more!

haha, critisism can only go as far as the critisised will allow - im very glad there are still people in this community who love to be challenged. thats the spirit of a great BATter, and you are well on your way to making some fantastic models no doubt. like i said, your texuring is top notch - you understand how colors work with other colors...how to dirty up a roof, or a wall, you know how much detail there is in a building and your accent choices have to be inbred. you have an extreme advantage in that sense, because textures are the life blood of the model. what i would work on most is randomizing the design - especially because in this style of architecture, there is little to no symmetry for the majority of the buildings. but i can't wait to see how you improve upon your hospital!

my God, this is the most original work since gascooker hit the scene. these buildings are fantastic! and to top it off, you have an awesome attitude towards critisism and compliments - not too many have that open attitude - and as i've flipped through this thread, your work has improved exponentially. I used to be a BATter myself, so it makes me happy to see that detail is still taken into consideration with modellers other than the BSC - these models are detail rich and have a warm feeling to them. maybe its the tuscan sun, who knows. your latest building is a step up in difficulty from your previous models, and you've executed it really well - not fantastic, but really well. to get it to the point of fantastic, here are the things i noticed and you can either take these suggestions or leave em: >> i would desaturate the roof texture about -20 (if youre using Photoshop), at about -20 it takes the cartoonish edge off. >> it seems you have a mirroring texture error that happens in gmax - to fix this, you have to remake the walls affected. this will let your stucco texture apply right. >> your balcony columnade seems pretty open, i would say fill in twice as many ballisters and scale them down a bit. >> every door to the balcony doesn't need to be opened - to get a real nice look, have most of the doors closed, maybe 3 half open, and the rest open to feature different interiors, that is, what you can actually see in the view angle. detail randomness makes the building lived in and thats what you want with these gems. >> the same can be said if you had shutters - just randomize their placement and you'll have a better lived in scene. >> try to differentiate the two main sections of the building - right now, its obvious they're carbon copies of each other. and that may be why you're having texture difficulty with the left section. to make it seem seamless, maybe add in a higher tower to the righthand box. something to make it seem less symmetrical. >> the thinner section of the building is pretty thin, i would bulk that section up a bit - which will also help to unify the whole structure. >> the white corner detail strips have a mapping error on them - you can see the seam. >> for a historic building, i would make a custom parking garage mimiking the old style to blend in, but keep it modern enough to tell that its a parking structure - and this way, you're not bound to the size that Maxis has laid out for you. >> i must say, the rooves look fantastic! >> for night, your spot lighting is way too harsh on the back face of the hospital - it looks like you placed an omni in the center courtyard. >> your light fixtures are so beautifully decorated, however it seems that you placed the _night tag on the whole thing. to get a realistic look, only tag the light inside the fixture so instead of having one large glowing fixture, you can see the light inside, partially obscured by the light's fixture detail. >> to light a hospital, i would use very dim spots on the building - and dim _night windows for the rest of the structure. the nightlights give another lived in aspect to your model. the most vibrantly lit thing should be the red cross sign, to signify its a hospital. __________________ thats everything i could notice in a few hard stares - and in all reality, thats quite good! you have a fantastic talent and your texturing is top notch. the only thing i would say is work on randomizing your buildings and randomizing your lived in details. its those things that will ultimately sell your models. fantastic work mike EDIT - aha, i see you cleaned up a few things like the spot lights - good job