EffTheGrid

This is an open invitation. Let's team up!

After a long hiatus, I'm returning to BATting! 

I have developed various skills casually over the last few years, resulting in an ability to model using Sketchup and render my projects using BAT. But that is where my knowledge of BATting basically ends.

I am looking to team up with members who are interested in primarily in lotting, 3d model salvage, folks who enjoy creating content generally and anyone with any creative or technical knowledge are welcome to collaborate.

• Do you enjoy lotting projects?
• Do you want to create new sets that improve the look and feel of the game in new ways?
• Do you wish your favorite architectural style was more heavily represented in your game? 
• Do you want to influence new BATs?
• Do you want to create custom diagonal and FA buildings for yourself?

If these things sound exciting to you, I hope we can touch base and begin working together! 

I would love to collaborate with others, either one-on-one or in a team, whichever you all prefer on an individual basis. We'll figure things out as this either gains interest or not. But I'd love to link up with people actively creating new projects.

I believe that getting some dedicated (active) folks with different strengths together, will help us streamline our processes, and perhaps release better quality sets more quickly. For example, I enjoy the 3d process. I have a backlog of 50+ builds, sitting around 80% finished because I don't want to lot them. I'd be excited to finish them but I have NO motivation to lot them. Perhaps someone might be interested to get these builds into the game, better and more quickly than I could. Then we're able to release a nice set jointly, and everybody is proud.

Similarly, I know many folks who have a great idea and a basic 3d model that they'd like to improve upon but don't have the experience, or just can't translate what's in their head into 3d. It would be nice to have a few heads to rub together, and be able to hop on a call and figure it out. I know sometimes reading old forum posts for help can lead me down rabbit holes, whereas a friend's thorough guidance can't be beat.

This is a reciprocal relationship because we each get to do more of the parts we "like" and yield more results. I also find collaboration breeds a healthy competitive spirit, as when I'm releasing something to the crowd to be scrutinized, I take extra care to carve it into the most perfect version of itself I can make.

I'm excited to keep refining my work and I hope others would be open to sharing their ideas and methodology. 

I would like to add---I was new to this recently, and I still am very new to it. We all have different strengths and capabilities at the back end of this ancient relic game. I hope anybody who wants to put an idea into the game will feel welcome to message. I love this old game and the people who are still dedicated to it. I hope we can make some really cool stuff!

-Joey (FTG)

Hey everyone,

I am sorry to have stepped away so suddenly and completely back in May. 

I offer sincere, extra apologies to my dedicated batch of Patreon subscribers, whom I will be contacting individually to issue refunds for the month that they were charged. If you see this post, please give me a shout because I have been struggling within Patreon to find you. (read ahead)

Around Memorial day my laptop's battery failed catastrophically, destroying my computer and hard drive. I lost most of my projects, except for some backups I have, and lots of personal saves and other data that I had stored. When that happened, I was locked out of my Google account and also lost many of my saved passwords (inc'l Simtropolis) which had a ripple effect that is still affecting my accounts. I was able to get a new computer this month but I don't have my Sketchup suite up anymore, and frankly in the summer I don't have a lot of energy to work on big SC4 projects. I'm not going away---but I don't have the means to stay active as a modder right now so I will be shutting the Patreon down and quietly lurking on the STEX instead.

I hope everyone has been well and is staying motivated. This forum is a fabulous community of talented individuals who dream to envisage the world differently, through their own lens, by their own hand. What a beautiful thing we do, capturing and reimagining our favorite pieces of our built world into a format in which we can both preserve, and nurture it back to virtual life. Our creations are often Rorschach images of our lives and experiences, as such they are deeply personal... maybe that is why we push this old game to its limits, collaborating and competing with one another to create a the best versions we can. I am so excited to see what you will create next. 

Thank you for many years of immersion in this world, and many to come.

I love you, ST. All of you so much.

Joey