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Fantozzi's Lotting Adventures

Started by fantozzi, March 01, 2018, 06:14:08 AM

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fantozzi

Hm, lately I lost a little motivation for playing/creating instead being a pain in the neck in the forums.

There are a few things still on my project list, I'd like to discuss and to get some idears. My skills are limited to lotting, a little modding and doing very simple things in B.A.T. (mostly I took free models from www and brought them into SC4)

My personal list of things I'd like to create:

- making a set of lots that unifies paeng parks with diggis streams, so mainly park pieces with bridges and water connectors for the streams.

- making a different, expanded version of my 'Mass Tourism' based on nos17 parking textures, including roadside and median parking (for 2x OWR3), inspired by the boulevards of Rome and to create touristic areas. But I still miss some diagonal bus props for this project, matching girafe's car props (and nos17 textures) in scale.

- A Vogons-lyrics book store? So far no idea about the building/bat, would need something strange of course.

- Fantozzi's Confusion Mill. I'm thinking of a civic lot/bat that spreads confusion. I imagine the lot should have a funny querry window that gives feedback how much confusion was generated in the city.

Could be like:
Confusion of sims about their gender: 50,002%
Confusion of sims about this is real life or only some sort of simulation: 72%
Confusion of sims about the language of gouvernement actually in use: 33%
Confusion of sims about how to travel to work: 12%
Confusion of sims about the meaning of life: 99,8%

Well, maybe this building/lot made more sense (haha, Fantozzi, great punch line) if it was also giving rewards, don't know - for every task completed (confusion is 100%) you'd get some absolutely useless reward, some ugly statue, the Volgon-lyrics book store, a museum displaying emptyness etc.

But it seems, this is far above my skills, no idear how to do the modding, would need some bats too.


So far my own list of idears. But please feel free to give some feedback, if those ideas seem usefull to you or will be a waste of LEX bandwithh and there are better things I could do. Suggestions are welcome.

Thank you.

EDIT:

Sorry. forgot:

- something to bring summer olympics into town - a modular olympics park you have to build and when completed there's fireworks and the games start and there is economic boost. Don't know, how to do the modding.

- An aerospace museum, or actually something like the one I know (https://sinsheim.technik-museum.de/en/aviation.

bombardiere

Hhhmm I would like to have simple parks.  :D I am using your Paeng park s and I really like those, but often I am just playing functional city and I just want to plop simple park to boost growth. Too tried or busy to bother with planning a beautiful park and hunting right path lot or plop a park just to notice that I did not have that particular dependency.

So I would love a pack with generic, but improving Maxis parks, in standard size such as 1x1, 2x2, 2x3, 4x4 etc with common props such as flora from Girafe and CP.  So I would want a Head and Shoulders park pack. Just Plop and Go.    :P

Linus van Pelt

#2
You could try to bat your own Vogon building instead of looking for a matching one. Vogon architecture is quite simple (if i remember correctly) therefore it should be a good start in learning gmax.

edit: Nevermind, I didn't notice (until Vortext's reply) you had batted before. But some Vogon architecture would be cool anyway.

Seaman

That Vogons-lyrics book store would be hilarious!

Also, an aerospace museum would be cool. You could design the lot to be connected via RMIP to an actual airport to get something like this or this.

vortext

Well the props in Colossal Farming are pretty neat so I for one wouldn't mind seeing you make more BATs.  ;D :thumbsup:
time flies like a bird
fruit flies like a banana

Indiana Joe

If it ends up being a Vogon Poetry Book Store, I wanted to point out that is was in fact poetry and not lyrics.  Such a masterpiece would deserve to be done accurately.

Terring7

My favorite ideas are the unification lots, the expansion of Mass Tourism, the Vogon building, and the aerospace museum.
"The wisest men follow their own direction" Euripides
The Choice is Ours
---
Simtropolis Moderator here. Can I help? Oh, and you can call me Elias (my real name) if you wish.

fantozzi

#7
@ Vortex. Thanks, I should take the opportunity to name myself a great batter. But instead all those models are free content from the web. And maybe those to name me a genious robber aren't polite but true.


@ Indiana Joe. Right. I used a german word for english talk. It's poetry. Seeing there is quite some expertise in this community about Vogons and expectation on such a book store are high - maybe to put this to the end of the list. The past shows, with every project I did, I gained some skills and got a little better. So the present may not be the right time to do it.


@ Terring. Many thanks. I tend to do the unifications lots next (which would also be the second expansion pack to the 'Big Paeng Theory'. All content I need for that is already there, it seems the idea most easiest to realize. On mass tourism I still need to find some nice bus models to violate.  The aerospace museum - it was an idea by airman17 on another site. First I thought: There are plenty of aircraft models already available, this should be easy to lot. But then - you need historical aircrafts.
So if someone knows some aircrafts props (already done for SC4) that should be present in this museum, please feel free to drop a note here.


Once a guy on another site, in another thread wrote, he's missing truck stops. So I lotted truck stops. And regarding downloads they became a much bigger success than the ideas I had in mind on my own.

In the starting post I listed my own ideas. But if you miss or wish something else, please feel free to post it. This thread I opened, even isn't my private property nor am I some kind of director of this thread. If I was in charge, I would generally forbid ownership on ideas. On lots and bats - of course.
But ideas should be as free as the air we breathe. Sometimes different ideas blend into one, sometimes from one old idea arises a new one like a child-idea. It's like the laws of nature, of evolution are working on ideas. The more freedom they have to grow, the more diversity they will create. And ownershp on ideas is like barbwire and fences and cloches on nature to me.

I can't say if I get hooked. Sometimes someone writes something and suddenly my brain is full of ideas. Sometimes someone writes something and my brain is as empty as the space between two galaxies.

That's not because the idea was bad or it's the fault of the person that made some suggestion - it's more like weather. Sometimes there's rain, sometimes it's sun. Well, seems there is weather also inside my brain.

But the change of weather shouldn't hold you back in any way. Feel free to share your ideas for lotting.

I have a thousand silly ideas a day. Most are garbage. Totally unimportant.  As I forget them very soon.
But amongst those thousand is one that takes shape. And this one makes it worth to think those other 999 too.



mrbisonm

I don't know if there are enough materials (Props) available, but I love ruins and abandonned lots (or burnt down) or industrial lots that are mainly used for scrap and unused or unsold/unsellable stuff. We have them almost in every city, town and even villages and countryside.
And there' s a serious lack in these. (ploppables)

Fred



....Uploading the MFP 1.... (.........Finishing the MFP1)

fantozzi

#9
Quote from: bombardiere on March 01, 2018, 08:02:25 AM
Hhhmm I would like to have simple parks.  :D I am using your Paeng park s and I really like those, but often I am just playing functional city and I just want to plop simple park to boost growth. Too tried or busy to bother with planning a beautiful park and hunting right path lot or plop a park just to notice that I did not have that particular dependency.

So I would love a pack with generic, but improving Maxis parks, in standard size such as 1x1, 2x2, 2x3, 4x4 etc with common props such as flora from Girafe and CP.  So I would want a Head and Shoulders park pack. Just Plop and Go.    :P

There are some lots in the Big Paeng Theory you can use standalone, smaller and bigger (the included pdf has pictures of every piece) - but yes, it is very time consuming to puzzle a bigger area together with mixing elements by paeng and me - even me, as I forgot what I had in mind by then partially, have difficulties to find the right pieces. If I had to rate the usabillity of my own creation I had to rate it "masochist level". But did you see the latest Packs by Kingofsimcity? Très, très cool.


@mrbisonm - oh, yes. When I was a child those were the most interesting places in the world. My first cigarette I smoked in a rotten construction site trailer on a junkyard where the pale yellow gras between rusty construction machine grew as high as we were and we could get in there and stay there without being noticed by adults. I think almost every batter who did industrial stuff did also some 'grunge' stuff. Gascooker, Simmer2, bipin ... but they are widely spread across the download areas. Imho would be an excellent idea for a themed prop pack: 'Forgotten places'. I'll keep this, maybe I get some idears browsing through prop packs.   

fantozzi

#10
May I ask here: is there a topic/thread where I can post my content description before release (so someone can have a look on it (spelling/grammar/logic)?

And may I ask where to put the word 'also' correctly:

a) This can also be regarded as the second expansion pack.
b) This also can be regarded as the second expansion pack.
c) This can be also regarded as the second expansion pack.
%confuso

Thank you.



twalsh102

I would think that you could create your own development topic in the SC4 Content Developers forum, maybe under Independent Lot Editor Projects

As far as the sentences, grammatically, none of the three are wrong.

Placement of "also" may cause subtle differences in meaning in the sentences.  Note that the following is how I interpret the sentences.

a) implies that in addition to its primary intended purpose/usage, "this" can be regarded as a second expansion pack.
b) might imply that while "this" can be regarded as a second expansion pack, other things can be regarded as a second expansion pack as well.
c) is similar in meaning to a), but is slightly awkward sentence construction in my mind.

I'm sure there will be people who would argue the opposite of my interpretation.  In the end, I think it all comes down to context of what precedes this sentence.  If what precedes the sentence is a description of the primary purpose of "this," then most people would probably get the meaning you intend, regardless of where you placed "also."  Of course, if someone is not an English (or substitute any other language) speaker at all, and must rely on one of the translation tools available on the web (or worse tries to translate the hard way - word by word), there is no way to know exactly what meaning might come out the other end of the translation process.

fantozzi

Interesting. None of the above I really wanted to say.

You know, it's a feeling of extreme helplessness, when you can't express yourself. It's embarassing:

"Doctor, doctor, please help me."

"Shure, what hurts?"

"Emh...err...my...dingbat?"

"It was done with the intension, to be an expansion pack to one of my former releases. But - less convenient - it can be used independent from that former release." Is there a more elegant (less complicated) way to say this?

Trying to express myself, my post always get terrible long and I'm incredible jealous on those, who manage to express my walls of text in a little sentence with a handfull of words. As people might think, my intend is 'much ado about nothing'. But instead I appreciate being short. Truth on this problem might be ... a lack of talent.

vester

I have uploaded a pack of powerstations, that still hasn't been lot (except one)


fantozzi

@ vester. Can't believe. You did right to mention it. On the chimneys offhand I think, with a shed in front, they could make great distillery lots. I guess for the buildings - energy plants would be quite simple lots with the building covering most part of the lot and therefore not leaving much room for ideas. Most custom power plants I know, they made the subject interesting by making it a special form of energy 'nuclear fusion', 'dark matter' plant, something like this. Don't know. I need an idea what kind of energy production it could be. As the lot most probably can't offer something special except for the building itself it has to be the subject. Maybe something funny? What about a burning-witches-energy plant? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrzMhU_4m-g

I defenitely put it on my list. But I need ideas about the treatment, the type of energy plant. I guess, the most devious will be my favorite. What about a bicycle melting furnace? Some kind of recycling of strange objects ... maybe some plant where administration can burn classified documents in case of emergency?

vester

#15
The only one I can say for sure is the Small Power Plant.
It was running on Diesel. Its house the biggest diesel engine of the WORLD for, if I remember right for 60 years and some.
It was mostly use as a back up power plant is case of peak usage or power outs.

The Swan Mill was running on coal, but at time I batted it, with to small extensions (zinc covered) it was running on naturally gas.

Not the faintest idea the Hudson & Manhattan or the Bristol.
Best guess coal.

twalsh102

Quote from: fantozzi on March 09, 2018, 10:43:40 AM
"It was done with the intension, to be an expansion pack to one of my former releases. But - less convenient - it can be used independent from that former release." Is there a more elegant (less complicated) way to say this?

Trying to express myself, my post always get terrible long and I'm incredible jealous on those, who manage to express my walls of text in a little sentence with a handfull of words. As people might think, my intend is 'much ado about nothing'. But instead I appreciate being short. Truth on this problem might be ... a lack of talent.


How about:  "While this package is intended as an expansion pack for <name of former release>,  it can be used on its own without needing <name of former release> as a dependency."  That should remove any ambiguity as to your intentions.

FWIW, don't be so hard on yourself!  Having less than complete fluency does not equate to lack of talent.  Any of us capable of attempting to do the same thing (trying to express ourselves coherently in a language other than our native language) could only do the best we can, as I'm sure you are doing.  One should never be embarrassed about doing the best one can.

I was going to say a lot more on this subject, but decided it was starting to turn into a lecture.

fantozzi

#17
Diggis-Paeng-Unification lots, very early development state. Somehow I used the wrong pathway texture again - overwriting doesn't work. Still a lot to do. 

And there is a new image hoster.




fantozzi

#18
Lake Andreas

This is just the basic layout, no plants, rocks, no timed boats, no people, nothing jet on the lots. Lake Andreas has 3 parts, west lake, 9x10, Andreas Bridge, 7x3, and east lake,9x7 (so total length is 20 tiles). I'll try to make other lots fitting to the separate parts, so there will be different layouts possible.

Lake Andreas was formerly just a pond. It got his new name when it was dewatered completely in 2012 for sludge removal and enlargement. To the big surprise of whole Simunoty 58 completely unknown SFBT artefacts were found on the bottom of this lake. They were discovered and fondly restored by Prof. Andreas and now can be seen in an annual exhibition during Advent at the LEX Museum.



mrbisonm

Honestly, to me this is too small to be a Lake, I have a pond about this size (2 and half acres big) at my home, and no way to call it a lake. If so, then I own 3 lakes on my farm......lol.

Fred


....Uploading the MFP 1.... (.........Finishing the MFP1)