Smack Sim

There were some Stage 8 building lists floating around. Anyone know if there is a current database online? Not the defunct one here... -Smack

Interesting to learn that cities in the U.S. only approves the architects! Does that mean they have free hands to come up with whatever silly construction they can think of - while locals stand beside and can't do nothing about it? Well, that's not really the whole picture. We have fairly complex zoning laws in the U.S., that are really the purview of each individual state. Legislators seem to come up with all kinds of new zones and laws that change frequently. But in general, yeah, U.S. zoning generally doesn't care much about the style of building. It's all about 'land of the free', and such. One notable exception I can think of off hand is Santa Fe, which has some pretty strict laws on building style and height in it's downtown, which is all adobe! The capital, Washington, has a height restriction as well, so that the Washington Monument is visible from anywhere in town. These are rare laws though. But for the most part, the U.S. is an ugly clutter of raw individuality. No cohesion. Personally, I think it's a shame. I'm sure that living in strictly zoned areas is also painful though. My friend in Denmark says he needs to get city approval to do any construction on his house, even an interior closet! If the city thinks it's Un-Danish, it won't get approved. Here, if it's not a fire or safety hazard, it's o.k. to build. Personally, I wish individual cities would come up with their own styles, that zoning was more invasive. There's nothing to be proud about in every town that has identical strip-malls and subdivisions that have no style other than flashy billboards. -Smack

Agra, I'd love to see some close-ups of the rowhouses along the steep road in the foreground of your last picture. They look pretty nifty! Tunnels Side-by-Side. As a mayor who has gotten this to work on occassion, I think a missing element of trying to explain the difficulty is that 'proper terraforming' of the entrances is crucial. The only time I've gotten this to work is when the first tunnel doesn't change the terrain around it almost at all. Then the second tunnel doesn't have a problem forming. The huge difficulty is finding the right depth and slope for the tunnel entrance such that the terrain is un-changed by the first tunnel. Hope that makes sense, and if I figure out the elevation formula I'll definately post it. I don't think there is any tolerance for variation on this. The entrance has to be 'just so', or it'll change the landscape. Aim for that perfect first tunnel, and it'll work. -Smack

langem13, to continue our side discussion (this thread is full of them!), I like that idea of a foundation lot that is able to be built over. I wonder if it could be done with maybe a special type of lot, like god-mode trees? Something that's usually built over. As to PEG's lots, I think the problem he's relating is that the lot orientation is parallel to the pathway, which means it doesn't get it's cue from the road for elevation. -Smack

langem13, I don't think such a tile-lowering mod is possible. The terrain tools all seem to work on the corners of tiles as points. There is however the 'extra terrain tools' mod, which has a sinkhole tool. It's steep, but not perfectly steep. I think your idea is a good one though. While were at it, how's about a 'perfect slope' tool, from point A to point B, at differing elevations? That'd be great. -Smack

I wonder, would pedestrians cross over to a passenger rail like you have in your second picture? I bet they would. If you use the route query tool, maybe we can get a picture of them crossing from the street -> 'Well-train' -> passenger train. I'll see if I can manage it soon. Right now I'm too busy having fun with a huge park I'm making. Great new pics and angles Agra. - Smack

---------------- On 1/25/2004 5:48:28 AM fgottes wrote: So basically the rail station shown above sorounded by lot is nonfunctioning. Visually its incredible and putting a road tile on it would disturb the effect. Although the bus stop in front may seem like a good idea sims cannot pass from one transit enabled lot to another, so placing a bus stop would not be functional. How do you solve the problem of road crossings? P.S. there is a tutorial for transit enabling your lots out there. Personally I haven't had the time to look at it and I don't know how to transit enable lots either.---------------- Sounds like you answered your own question! I don't make lots, but i know there are some transit enabled ones out there. Try PEGs latest fountain-plaza things. Should work as a lot to start with. And Agra, I was kidding a bit, and your explanations are getting better as time goes by. I think you must be realizing that people are really interested and that it's not so easy for those of us not used to real 'fine-point' terraforming. Custom lots do help a bit, especially with the foundation trick. -Smack

---------------- On 1/25/2004 2:03:06 AM fgottes wrote: Agra the one prob I see with the ground level El rail is how can sims can't get to the station and hence be functional since its seperated from the road by one of Pegs lots? Very cool idea ---------------- Well, if they were PEG's lots, they'd probably be transit-enabled, and the pedestrians wouldn't have a problem dashing out of their car, across the plaza, over the fence, and into the speeding well-train. On the other hand, as Agra pointed out, the 'leveling' lots are really extraneous. Any foundation-building thing would work, including a busstop! Agra, simply superb! Wowies. Your mini-tutorials are great too, even if they take several readings to get the message. I think most readers will find that if they just give it a try, it isn't that hard, it's just slow to get it right, and takes some experimenting. I'm looking forward to more tutorials, etc.. -Smack

Thanks Teirusu, I think I'd forgotton the regular Snow-capped mod. -Smack

Could we get a re-cap of what files we need to use the snow-capped version? It's been crashing my game when I've used it. -Smack

Yeah Minotaur and Sandrasim, I know what you mean, but it's not for everyone, this 'super-realism'. It takes bags of patience and can get a bit dreary if not mixed with some good-old zone and forget play (just my perspective). I've found a fairly good balance wherin I expand my region and then go back and re-do one or two areas that seem promising. I've even gone back and obliterated whole large map cities that were in too important an area to be left 'uglified'. I say, 'start large', as large a region as your 'puter can handle. Then back it up. You can always go back and improve your first cities later. Just look at Eddiesville, Terracina, Nairobi, etc.. They kept going, even on 'boring' terrain. It's the mayor, not the landscape, that makes for fun regions! -Smack

Verra nice region, and even better custom graphics! My reqest is that you post some of your responses to peoples questions with their comments. Here's a question: How did you make the newspaper graphics exactly? I've been looking to do the same with my CJ as I prepare to clean up the journal. -Smack

Valadimir, nice work, especially so fast. You want comments? O.k., slow down! Once you get 'enough' sims, go back and try to pretty up some areas with park complexes, natural beauty, etc.. And I like the avenues. -Smack

Well you don't have to enter the contest Agra, I'm sure someone would enter your pics for you. And fire##### and others, there have been some contests already, and even Trixie awards. Agra will get a Trixie this year, I'm sure of it, but what kind of contest were you thinking of? How's about: 'most breathtaking and eye-catching close-up of a city'. That's how I think of Agra's pics. And Agra, no matter how many times you say 'and it's not that difficult either!', noone is going to believe you. You are just on another level of 'meticulous' than most people. For SC4, that's a good thing indeed. I don't think most people read the City Journals and think 'Most mayors don't pre-terraform their roadways properly'. For the most part, people just wing it. Please, never visit my region! No, I take that back. How about developing a city for me, pretty please? I've got 108 of them.. If that's not a possibility, how about loading up a small or medium city to Simtropolis? I'd love to plop a city of yours down and work from there. Just some ideas. Keep on brother... -Smack P.S. Spelling stuff (though I misspelled meticulous and others). aesthetics is belonging to the appreciation of beauty ascetics is about leading a simple life. sloop is a ship slope is a gradient -Smack

Whohoo! more pictures from the master. The only one that bugs me is the downhill to tunnels picture. The line is kinda sharp compared with your other efforts. Using the walkways gives the sense of slope more character and definition, and is a really nice touch. More more! -Smack

Agra, so that end-of-tunnel loop is a lot? Very nice. It would be unnerving to then reconnect the avenue/road though, or is it? If reconnecting is fairly straightforward, it's a very useful lot indeed. One could even 'make historical' to prevent accidental tunnel implosions. Keep up the great work. We're all waiting with dropped jaws. -Smack

---------------- On 1/11/2004 3:27:17 PM Agra wrote: There's only one problem though; time I spend a lot of time developing my region, (although the main city is the one that attracts most attention due to its central position), and to add a tutorial on top of this...well, I don't know! In fact, even a tutorial would be very hard to do since many steps works differently depending on sometimes very small or minor issues involved in certain aspects of city building. Still, that doesn't mean a tutorial is impossible to work out, but it'll have to be a future project since I want to put my effort into my region right now! On another note, a tutorial initself isn't necessarily what's gonna help creating realistic city styles. For the outmost it's about practice, testing and trying, and so on. It certainly helps a lot if a project is established in ones mind before starting out in the city - even though the project itself gets rewamped both once or twice With this said I don't reject the idea, but as stated; it'll have to wait a while due to major mayoring attention required Understood, and anyways, while you're being so prolific on the creative end it would be ashame to stifle that with writing textbooks . I agree that a lot is just experimenting, yet, some can be learned step-wise. You probably can't see it, but many of your areas would be downright impossible to recreate for most players without some clues. I love the new pictures btw. Nifty how you can see the boardwalk underneath the bridge. You are a great reminder to focus on the little things. After all, what good is a big city if you can't take pride in any one area? -Smack

Agra, Fantastic stuff. I too love playing with transit to get tunnels and bridges over each other, but I've not had the aesthetically pleasing results you are getting. It's really quite amazing to look at. On every road you wonder: Where the **** is that going? Request: If you can find the time I think many people would appreciate a more detailed tutorial on any one of your techniques. I think it would really be worth it to a lot of simtropians. It's fine to say Just use the lot alignment and the road height to do x,y,z but I think that might be a bit beyond some of us to imagine (I do understand this one, but not other explanations). Here's how I'd break down such a tutorial, if it's any help/nudge for you.... 1. Planning transit networks in hilly terrain: Analyzing slopes, making test roads/bridges, using steep peaks to 'hide' the ends of things like bridges. Determining which areas should be developed, which left alone, etc... 2. Hand re-terraforming for best effect. Canals, rivers, waterfalls, slopes. 3. Adding transit networks 'in order' so that bridges can go over road tunnels, etc.... order of height and tunnelness... 4. Using road height to determine lot height. Use to hide foundations or raise lot. 5. Bridge over land (with or without bridgeheight mod). 6. Advanced results analyzed. And fill each tutorial with step-by-step pictures. I know you'll do it! -Smack

Well, that nails the issue: Deserts are probably the most varied landscape in the world, color-wise. I've been to most of the deserts in the USA, and many of them are more like scrub-forests than what we think of as desert generally. So I guess it's either make a bunch of different looks, or settle on one general desert that is kinda in-between. Some deserts are green by the water: Some are like the great basin (though this pic is in Peru): Some really are barren: But most are variously green: Anyways, hope the pics are inspiring. -Smack P.S. The Sonoran/Chihuahuan deserts found in NM and AZ do have plenty of grass. It's just not usually green....

---------------- On 1/10/2004 12:47:51 AM DarkMatter wrote: Mmmm....looking good Teirusu. More sandy at the lower elevations though...it looks a tad too dark. ---------------- Funny, that's the part that I really like about this scheme. The lower elevations look like some scrub or seagrasses while the upper areas look like drying clay. While talking about various shades of green, has anyone else been bothered that low-density low-wealth houses have a mismatched and ugly shade of green for all their lots? I don't mind building trailer-parks, but that shade of green conflicts heavily with the default terrain green. Keep up the great work Teirusu -Smack

Teirusu, don't chuck that color set just yet! It looks somehow mediterranean to me....o.k., it doesn't look like any real place on earth, at least nowhere common, but it's a nice scheme, very olive drab and khaki. -Smack