offamychain

The Amish should have never even been brought into this discussion. There is ZERO comparison & it's an insult to their fine religion. A large group of Amish moved into this area several years ago & they are some of the finest individuals I've ever met. I can VERY quickly think of SEVERAL groups of people that wouldn't make nearly as good of neighbours as they are. I'm not sure where you all are getting the "isolation" part from. Amish are encouraged to socialize with the community & are often seen in town, at farm auctions, hardware stores (they build those little barns that Lowes sells), fairs, stuff like that. They are also encouraged to attend nearby churches every 2 weeks, since they often do not have weekly services of their own, but just every 2 weeks. This is on purpose, to encourage the Amish to mingle with the community, so the people they live nearby won't be ignorant of their way of life, thus scared or leery of them. Sounds like some of that is happening here.

I'd like to withdraw my request for the above requested BAT's of the Stephens Building, TCBY Tower, & Little Rock Nat'l Airport. The CJ that they would have been used on, Little Rock & the Suburbs, is no longer being updated on this site. This was previously stated in the appropriate thread, but that announcement was deleted by a mod & the thread locked. If anyone wants to do the BAT's, great, I'd love to have them. But I thought it would be nice to just tell anyone who might have been considering them that they won't be posted on this site.....so you don't waste time if you wanted to see them in a Simtropolis CJ. If anyone still wants to, please PM me when down & I'll tell you where you can now see the CJ at with your buildings included. Thanks to anyone who considered Bat'ing them & also thanks to all who made nice comments in the CJ. I can't thank you over there, since it was locked, so will use this post to do that.

Originally posted by: MicahAnyway, the main reason for the growth according to the article was home prices and a strong economy. Well, that's where they are right and wrong. I'm completely shocked the article did not cover illegal immigration. It's one of the major reason, probably even above the reasons given in the article, for the massive boom.quote> There's 2 huge facts that statement overlooks. The first is one that you answered yourself...."illegal" immigrants aren't the cause because of that very word...."Illegal". I seriously doubt if enough of them were counted to account for the tremendous population boom. That wouldn't be too smart...."Hey, don't forget to count me. I'm not really here, but I still want to be counted." The second is that the NORTHERN cities (not states though) have dwindled in population during the same time. Although the staes themselves have all gined population, with the sole exception of Washington, D.C. (it's regarded as a state for census purposes), the increase isn't enough to account for the increase in total U.S. population during any given period. So, by your theory, this could only be explained by all the illegal immigrants moving out of the northern cities & into the southern cities....just ain't so. In reality, as has been known for several decades to those who study demographics & population, the U.S. center of population is rapidly shifting south. Even with the large growth of California cities & Phoenix, the center of pop. is still heading straight south, because this is balanced by the growth of population in Florida & the Carolinas. The chart that I put together shows this. Not one single major northern city as experienced increased population growth in the last 50 +/- years, with the sole exception of NYC...which is to be expected. On the flip-side, not a single major SOUTHERN city has LOST population during the same period of time, other than New Orleans....and that was going on BEFORE Katrina. Yet other interesting facts can be seen above also, including how many slots previously held by northern cities have been replaced by southern cities. Another is that the explosive growth rate of some of the southern cities, specifically Houston, Phoenix, Jacksonville, & Austin have NEVER been matched by a northern city in the history of the U.S. Of course, there are a couple of examples above which could be debated if one wanted to get REALLY technical....such as if Columbus, Indianapolis, & Charlotte are in the north or the south. I count them as neither....just in-between, which is exactly where they really are. Besides, if one wanted to try that, then he would also have to include Cleveland & St. Louis, which have lost population. Wouldn't really make much difference either way because of that. No....there simply hasn't been 500,000 illegal immigrants move out of Detroit in the last 50 years & shack up in Houston, along with another few hundred thousand of their relatives. It's just not the cause of the population shift occuring in the U.S. The South is where it's at nowadays...no denying it.

Originally posted by: Deever By the way, I got the title from that new wave song which happened to be playing when I was thinking of a name.quote> Wouldn't be Spandau Ballet's second 1-hit wonder would it?? "True" was great....."Gold"....well, I heard it a couple times.

Originally posted by: spectrumtechAll of the lots I have made have had NO dependencies. Why! Why! Oh, the humanity!quote> I looked at some of your lots & they are rather good.....comparable to any out there. This shows that massive amounts of dependencies AREN'T necessary to make good content. That type of considerate thought for the person who will be using the content is very much appreciated.

"Offamychain" is, for those who do not speak Southernese, a form of "Off Of My Chain". It's a pretty unique nickname & I usually have no problem registering with it....no one else uses it. Many have commented upon seeing it the first time, that it probably means that I'm recently divorced. Naaa...happily married to Laura & have 5 children...all little girls. Truth is usually stranger than fiction, which is the case here. I served over 13 years in the military, covering 2 conflicts (Panama & Desert Shield/Storm). During the latter tour I was a Platoon Sergeant in a sniper unit. But snipers don't go to war as a complete unit, they are attached out to other ones. We are a fairly popular lot to have around, because of the obvious skills we bring. So I was always treated really well by the Australian & British troops that I served with. Being young, dumb, bullet-proof, & made of rubber in those days, I often got myself into stickier situations than I had initially perceived them to be. (Being a strong Type A personality with a bit of obsessionism thrown in, this wasn't that hard for me to accomplish). These are the times that my buddies would comment that "he's off his chain again", "who let him off his chain", "looks like he broke his chain again".....or something similar, while they were attempting to formulate a plan to get me out of the mess that I had gotten myself into. (Thanks guys...you all did a great job, it was all my fault.) This type of self-destructive behaviour did finally catch up with me when I found myself on the opposite side of a wall that played host to a mean RPG, shattering my shoulder & knocking out 3 teeth, before my buddies could get to me to drag me out of another unwinnable situation I had created for myself. So, now I'm a retired & disabled veteran at under 40 years of age, being kept "on my chain" by 5 beautiful ladies. But the story behind the name stuck to me like glue. And now you know.

Originally posted by: JSNK000 I feel your pain. I uninstalled SC and deleted everything because I was bored,getting impatient waiting for SC5 and frustrated with some of the issues with the game.quote> Yup.....almost the same right here. Dependencies have the potential to RAPIDLY make the game completely unenjoyable. While I truly do appreciate the efforts of the ones who build content, relying on dependencies to make content has the potential to quickly become self-destructive. There is simply NO easy way to download dependencies.....even if you put common ones in "MegaPacks". These MegaPacks seem to change about every month or so, there's often a half-dozen DIFFERENT MegaPacks from the same source, & each separate artist seems to release his own Mega-Pack, completely different than any others. It's a vicious cycle & doesn't have to be that way. It would be GREAT in my opinion if each person who commonly designs content would come together with each other & vote on about 100Megs of textures, trees, water, props, etc....that they liked the most & put this all together in one pack....the ONLY dependency pack!!!! One big download & you'll never have another brown box show up. 100Megs is tiny compared to the dozens of separate dependency packs I have downloaded the last few days trying to make something work. And often, 90% of each pack is the same....just 1 or 2 files are different.....the ones that I need. If a decent prop or texture can't be found in a 100Meg pack, then it probably doesn't really need to be built. Is it really THAT important that the sidewalk be 1/2 of a shade greyer than the next guys......no. Please THINK about what you are publishing before you do it. If the largest part of your readme is a dependency list, then most likely you need to re-think what you just did & make it easier on the community. And if the dependencies that are required to download are 10X bigger than your file itself, then it's probably not a good idea to publish that particular addition.

Not sure if this is what this thread was designed for, but thought I'd try this as a last resort. Can anyone locate these files, which are dependencies for some buildings I want to use.....or are dependencies to make the dependencies work, so the ACTUAL file will work. I can get close by a search, but that only counts in hand grenades & hydrogen bombs. Don't you just LOVE massive dependency lists?? SNM Essentials – to be included in the Support Files BSC Mega Texture Pack PEG_MTP_RESOURCE_vol1 SG_RLS_Extras – installed with most simgoober RLS Homes BSC BAT Props D66 Vol07 SNM SNCG Rescue Station BSCBATProps RT SNM Vol01 BSCBATProps RT SNM Vol02 BSCBATProps RT SNM Vol03 BSCBATProps RT SNM Vehicles Vol01 BSCBATProps RT Emergency Vehicles Vol01 SNM Support Files BSC MEGA Props - MJB Vol01 BSC MEGA Props - Misc Vol01 BSC MEGA Props - NewmanInc Vol01 CSX MEGA Props - Vol02 CSX MEGA Props - Vol03 CSX MEGA Props - Vol04

Originally posted by: Hahayoudied That reminded me of that one time I really wanted to download this one building. When I looked at the dependecy list, there were 12 of them. 10 of them I couldn't find, so I gave up. Can't we put all the dependenices into one giant mega pack? That would greaty reduce the hassle of trying to find the correct dependenices.quote> Yup....I know the feeling....."Volumn 1 & 2 have been included in the new Volumn 4. AB-Pack is now called CD. Mega 1 & 2 are now Mega-Mega Pack, but only 1/2 of Mega 1 is in there. The remainder has been renamed to Mega-Half. Pack A1B2 has been discontinued & Pack-Zero has been lost." It's just a vicious cycle that doesn't have to be. Pretty sure I'm gonna have to give up on the buildings I downloaded & go find some others. Sad.

A view from a newbie here, but definitely not a newbie to these type of simulation games....dependencies are simply a pain in the behind. It's easy to say, "I'll just include 1 or 2 of them".....but did you check if THEY had dependencies?? And did you check if the file was even still available.....or is it one that you've had on our computer forever?? I've ran into both of these problems very quickly & very harshly during the couple weeks that I've been back into SimCity4....it's almost, but not quiet, enough to make one want to just use the stock content. It has the potential to easily develope into a chain of destruction. I recently downloaded about a dozen very nice buildings from the same artist. He WAS nice enough to provide clickable links in the readme, but 40% of them led to "Content not found" pages on the STEX. 25% of the rest needed dependencies for the dependencies. So, what I got in the end, was 4 or 5 good buildings out of about 12. Now i'm stuck with hunting down the ones that have been moved somewhere else, or now included in "Volumn 2" or "Volumn 3"....and also having to track down the dependecies that the dependencies need. Very quickly produced nightmare. My personal opinion on anything that I might make & put on a site like STEX is that I made it for the community, I had fun doing it, I hope others will have fun using it, & ANYONE can use it HOWEVER they want....with, or without, mentioning my name. If I was that particular about my creation, I'd keep it to myself & put it on my own commercial site for sell. Maybe someone some day will come up with a dependency locater....you include a text file of the dependency name, plug it in the program, & it automatically searches for all of them & downloads the appropriate ones.....including any files that THEY need to operate. But even then you would have to hope & pray that the dependency is still the version that was used for the file & that it hasn't been updated so that it no longer even works with the one you're after. As others have also mentioned, I feel that calling this point of view "juvenile" is a bit harsh. That more-or-less invalidated the title of the thread. It's not a "debate" anymore, but a lecture about how you are wrong and/or childish if you don't like dependencies. I definitely look for the words "No dependencies!!" when I download. It shows that the author is really thinking about his audience & went out of his way to make a GOOD piece of content....but also one that is EASY. If you make a new piece of content & your dependency list is the longest thing in the readme.....you probably need to seriously consider trimming it down a bit. Keep it fun guys, that's why we're all here. Searching up & downloading 7 files to get one nice building just isn't that fun.....no matter how good they look. A possible solution to this could be, if you are just determined to use others content, ask EACH artist if you can include it in the download. Zip them all up in one package...problem solved for everyone. When the final user gets the product, it will work perfect the first time, as long as you've tested it before publishing. If one of the authors DOESN'T want to let you do this, then that should be a good sign that you don't need to use that specific dependency anyway. JMO

Originally posted by: Wrightguy0 I'm surprised, we have the BSP for michigan buildings, a Portland BAT Team, a few guys who are doing new york, but no one has even attempted Chicago> I hope I speak for many when I say we Need a Chicago Team.quote> I agree. I haven't been here long enough to figure out how many Chicago buildings are on the site, so my opinion is a bit uneducated. I do know that there are a few Sears Towers, which is to be expected. But there's lots of nice Chicago sites that could be included & the city itself would be a great CJ....with the lake shore & all that. Would love to see some of them, like Adler Planetarium. Isn't Chicago also where the old Ford Rouge River Plant is??

One more request for my Rock Cities/Little Rock map, which stays over here: https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=36&threadid=98307&enterthread=y Little Rock Nat'l Airport. Doesn't have to be exact, I'm not picky, just decent. The diagnal runways are what I haven't found a pre-made lot for & I'm curious if that can be done with BAT. A REALLY nice thing would be to make this in 5 or 6 pieces, rather than 1 big lot. Since the parking lots are wider than the aprons & tarmac at top, this would allow me to butt other taxiways & such to the upper part with the jetways. But I'm the beggar here, so I can't be choosy. I can supply other meaurements & such if you really need them, but I'll stress once more that I'm not looking for anything EXACT....just close. Would very geatly appreciate your help. Thanks in advance.

DT....if you like SMS, good for you. Everyone is different. However, this particular site is not filled to capacity with SMS lovers, so perhaps your thoughts would be better received at a place catering to SMS lovers. Your NOT going to convince anyone to trade something they love for something they have played & despise. Why try?? Just enjoy your game, if that's the one you like, & find a community of others that also have fun with SMS.

I played it at Max settings on an overclocked 64-bit AMD & overclocked 7900 Nvidia with no problems.....but I could have gotten by with a lesser computer also. The problem with SMS is that it is just BAD. I won every medal & award it offered except the Master Manipulater (something lke that anyway) in just a few days, no cheats, then it was just too repitive to go on. I quickly uninstalled it & reinstalled SC4.

In order to tweak my traffic network & some of the smaller buildings like clinics, it would be VERY nice to make all other bldgs, at least those over 5 or 6 stories, temporarily go away. (As long as I can get them back !! ) I'm not talking about the different methods of turning on map-views, such as traffic. I'm curious if there's a cheat out there that will just make everything but roads & little bldgs disappear until I ask for them back. Anyone ever saw anything like this?? I have the "Super Cheat" Mod installed, which has that big list of a couple thousand different cheats you can do....but none of them seems to describe what I'm wanting. I'm afraid to even try some f them cause I have NO idea what they do & if they are prmanent. Guess I could do that on a fake city.....just thought someone might already know how. Thans in advance.

Yeah....almost exactly what I wanted. Only thing missing is the little buildings, but I can easily work with this. It's been a couple years since I played with SC4 & forgot about this little setting. Thanks. Katamari....sometimes just a small piece of USEFUL advice is all that's needed. If you don't know the answer, just don't waste space with a comment.

I'd love to see the Stephen's Building & the TCBY Tower in Little Rock, Arkansas built. I have no artistic skills & these are my "home-town" buildings. Rather than list specifics here, I'll just link to 2 sites for each building which list all measurements & such. I'm not really particular as to being exact, as long as it's pretty. I would like them lit at night however. And a REALLY nice bonus would be for the TCBY Tower to change it's lights to match holidays......red, white, & blue for early July---red & green for late December---bright green for the week before St. Patricks Day---yellow, brown, green, & orange for Halloween---blue & white for January (cold & snowy). They accomplish this with outside lighting...strings of small lights along the edges I think...the inside lights don't change. Picture & Links. The picture is VERY deceiving. TCBY is taller than every other building in the city & the 2 unmarked banks are taller than the all-glass Stephens: http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=6504 http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=122470 http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=1191 http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=metropolitantower-littlerock-ar-usa Many thanks for anyone who wants to fulfill my wish.