Valiko87

Looks similar to a post you'd see on the official site...

I don't imagine that the Grand Traverse Resort would be too hard to BAT, building-wise. It's pretty much 10 stories of glass with a slanted roof. When it warms up a little, I might take the ferry out to Mackinac Island and snap some photos of the Grand Hotel. I think it may be a bit beyond my own personal BAT-ing level, but the photos would help out whomever was willing to tackle to the hotel itself.

I know most of the attention on this thread is dedicated to Detroit (as it should be), but I was wondering if anyone would be interested in some BATs from the northern part of the state? Since I've been living up here for a while, I thought I could take a crack at one of the forts in Mackinaw or on the island (Mackinaw City's about a 20 minute drive from my house), or even just a few of the generic fudge shoppes that spam the small towns up here. So, if anyone thinks there's anything in the north worth BATing, I'm willing to take a crack at it. I've been practicing with the BAT for a while now =)

So, using the overhanging prop method, would one be able to accomplish the following: If, say, I've created a custom Suspension Bridge model...if I were to make it an overhanging prop, with a little screwing around with bridge height and such, could I conceivably plop this massive prop on top of a normal Maxis bridge (ie, something like the level bridge, it obviously wouldn't work for a suspension or cantilevered)? If so, I may have finally found a way to make the Ambassador Bridge workable in-game, at least by appearance...

In answer to your bit about the bridge being 4 tiles long, Jason: The bridge actually isn't 4 long, it's four wide (from cable to cable) at the moment, so it has two center tiles to match the highway, and then the other two for the cables and suspension towers. I have no idea how many tiles long it is at the moment, I need to get around to figuring just how long it needs to be so as to nearest match the length of the actual Ambassador. The somewhat circular layout of some of the streets downtown is going to be hard to do in SC, with its grid-based system...I imagine Circus Park is going to look a bit odd in-game, but I'm sure the minds on this project will be able to figure out how to make it workable. Any idea when the Free Press Building will be on the STEX?

Gotta go with Andreas and T Wrecks here...it looks great, and you should render it. My lust to have it in-game is nearly incontainable. Also, if anyone's interested, I've pretty much got the Ambassador model finished...need to texture it. I wanted to grab direct photos from the bridge, but I don't think I'm going to get a chance to head to the D this month, so I'll have to figure something out. I'm kinda worried that I might have to entirely re-make it...I've been following a couple threads on custom bridges, and it sounds like if you want a custom draggable bridge, you have to render it in 1 x 2 or 1 x 4 sections for every piece of roadway =\

That building is an abomination -.o There are some modern-style buildings I can stand, but that is certainly not one of them...and yes, I think it is entirely possible to still build in the architectural styles of yesterday. Something like the second building you've shown would have looked far better. Nothing on that building contributes any sort of rythm or flow to the design . It's there in parts, but there's always some feature ready to step in and screw up whatever flow it had going. I think Louisville is entirely right about modern architects being scared to build with stone...with the cost of a lot of these new (and usually ugly) buildings, it would be entirely possible to build a stone structure, and it would likely end up looking far better.

The Free Press building is looking really great, Jason. I agree with the majority of the other opinions that the roof discolorating should either be made into much smaller squares or blended better, but your main building looks great, the coloring is especially good. Hopefully you can get back to BATing soon, I'm excited with how close the building looks to release, model-wise.

I'd say a mix between the two would be best, as the real building is a bit lighter than your BAT. You've done a really good job modeling it, though. I was just thinking, I know I don't have the skill to create it, but do you think any of you on the BSP team would be able to BAT the Spirit of Detroit? I'd rather see the skyscrapers first, but the sculpture would definitely be a nice inclusion. Hard to model, however.

I'm not really requesting a particular building, but rather a particular style. I don't if anyone else would be interested, but I have always had a certain liking for neo-gothic architecture, and I think it would be great to see some buildings in that style, like some of the old New York skyscrapers. Some more Art-Deco would be nice as well. They don't have to be high-rises, mid-rises or smaller buildings would be nice as well. And if anyone does take me up on this, how about the commercial skyscrapers being CO$$ instead of CO$$$?

Real world cities: Constantinople, London, and I think for a 'feeling' of power and pride, you can't beat Rome. SimCities: Regal River, San Toreno, and I'm particularly fond of Rivera Bonita (which I know is not proper Spanish, but Rio Bonito doesn't sound as nice), because it sounds very...um..bonita =P

I actually just saw a CJ with a custom bridge, but I can't remember the name of it I'm going to look around for it, because it would be possible to maybe get some help from the person who created it. However, Jason's idea sounds good too, and would require less modding, it would just be extremely hard to get the bridge the perfect length, and even then, it could only go over a span of a signle length. I'm willing to do the work to get the bridge working, because I also want to BAT the Chicago-style drawbridges by River Rouge, so it would be worth it to learn how to get this right. How's the Free Press building going, BTW? The screenie on the previous page looked quite good. I wish we could get an update on Comerica Tower as well, that looked like it had been coming along nicely =\

I'm not yet sure on how I want to finalize the bridge, I'm going to need help getting it in the game and functional no matter how I end up doing it. Right now, I want to concentrate entirely on getting the model right. Speaking of the model, I've tweaked the main span cables so that they're actually round now, and not blocky like they were before. I need to work a bit on reducing the overall polygon count, as well. Thanks for the congrats and the feedback =) And I cannot believe that Kwame won -.- This makes me feel very depressed-like. Oh well, you never know, he might actually decide to try and be a mayor this time around.

For my cities... Fitzpatrick County is a fictional county located in Ireland, so that just has the Irish government. San Toreno is an American city, and the city government is run soley by an elected city council, with no mayor. The council is made up of representatives from each of the major districts of the city. Fordston's city government is an elected city council with a mayor, but since the 1970s crime has been rampant in the city, the police are corrupt and brutal, and at least half the c ity council is controlled by one gang or another, and the mayor likes to use city funds for his own personal pleasures, and there's already precious little money to go around. So, the city government is so corrupted, it's more like a despotism than a true council/mayor setup.

Here's my (incomplete) model of the Ambassador Bridge. As you can see, it's still untextured and still has a few more parts to be added, but the overall look is there. The problem is still trying to find a way to get a bridge functional, or something akin to it. @Jasoncw: I'm going to get around to checking out Underworld's CJ when the model is around 90% complete, and when I have decent textures for it. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//AmbassadorBridgeRender.jpg align=baseline>

I enjoy seeing the progress made on Detroit landmarks! If I can figure out how to make my bridge model transit-enabled (and therefore effective), I may just have to check in with you all in the BSP and see if you would be interested in the Ambassador Bridge? I'm currently about 70% done with the model...It still needs some work on scaling it to its real-life proportions, but it's alright so far. I was also wondering if after you BAT'd a few existing Detroit buildings if anyone would be interested in taking on some of the unbuilt buildings from the depression era? Example: The original plan for Book Tower Just mere human curiousity =) Keep up the good work, I look forward to seeing Detroit represented on the STEX!