FrankU's Lottery - Space Center update

[Rayden]

....sounds good. If you add IM jobs, then I recommend 2 or 3 jobs instead 1.
One general mechanic to maintainance the lighthouse and its function, one gardener for the exterior surroundings (snowclearing in the winter) and one administrator and/or owner.

Fred

What about the wife and kids Fred?

[FrankU]

Ok, the number of jobs.

The owner: the seaport authority just owns and does nothing.
The Lighthouse keeper does the core job. OK, that's one job.
The Mechanic: I can see a purpose to this function. OK, another job. This one is for the wife. The job is 50%, the other half of the day she has a part time job in driving the children to school, to the tennis lessons and to the music teacher. The little boy still goes to the pool for his swimming lessons, but hopefully he will finish the course before the summer vacations.
The children are too young. They have no jobs and certainly not in IM! The daughter will perhaps find a small job in delivering newspapers in the village nearby.
A gardener? No no, the authorities are not going to pay for that. The lighthouse keeper can buy a lawn mower from his salary! And snow cleaning in the winter? We have no snow here! No job for that.

So I count two jobs.
But let's be honest: SC4 isn't that realistic. Let's find out what SC4-Pim suggests.

Is there any kind of question, request or advice? Please speak up. Now is the time that I can try to fulfill your deepest wishes. Lighthouse wise, I mean.

[cogeo]

So the lighthouse is a ploppable I-M lot? Why? If so then it needs access to a neighbour city or a seaport to prosper, and reduces I-M demand by the amount of jobs it (pre-) creates. It should also PAY taxes. The standard way to mod such a building is either make it a landmark w/o jobs, or make it like other civics, which typically require maintenance and may provide some civic jobs (and amenities equal to the number of jobs) and usually provide some landmark effect too. And second, forget what the PM/PIMX says, why necessarily calculate the number of jobs from building size, esp when the building/lot is a ploppable? The lot is quite special anyways, not only it's too sparse, it's special-purpose as well, and there is no comparable building either (to mod it on par with it). I think making it a landmark or reward (w/o jobs) would be OK, because it will have zero effect on demand, which is quite realistic indeed, because the lot is supposed to contain both the job(s) and the residence of its workers. Otherwise you must provide a road connection, and find extra homes for its workers.

[Buzzit]

Amazing progress on the lighthouse,  FrankU!
Keep it up ! 

[mrbisonm]

That's right, cogeo made a point. Forgot about that. With jobs, the lot will need a road connection............Not a good idea. Lighthouses are mostly in remote areas on peninsulas or islands, not the best place to place a road, right?

If you do add jobs anyways, I will simply delete them when I download them, so no difference to me. Think of what the other players might need.

Fred

[FrankU]

Cogeo and mrbisonm,

You have a point there.
It will be a Maxis Reward Replacement in the first place. Because that is what this series of lots is all about.
So the ploppable is an option, but I agree when you say this option should be as useful as possible. 
So what shall I do; just a landmark? Apparently that is the best option.
But then I am stuck with one question: where does the lighthouse get its power from? When I place it on a rocky island? But I remember mrbisonm, or was it Pegasus, once made a very small power plant for rural areas. Maybe I link to that in my ReadMe as an option for the players?

[vortext]

Perhaps use the neutral park lot with an invisible building option in PIM, iirc those don't require power nor a road connection.

[FrankU]

Hi Vortex,

But I suppose the lightbeam will only be visible when there is power present. Of course I should check this first...

[mrbisonm]

Why not just make it energy selfsupplying?

[FrankU]

Selfsupplying? By adding a diesel generator to the lot? Yes, I'd like that. Can I do that also with the reward, without screwing up the properties too much?
Please explain how I should do it. Or is it just a matter of clicking away in the power menu in LeProp? I guess it's more complicated. Am I right?

[mrbisonm]

Selfsupplying? By adding a diesel generator to the lot? Yes, I'd like that. Can I do that also with the reward, without screwing up the properties too much?
Please explain how I should do it. Or is it just a matter of clicking away in the power menu in LeProp? I guess it's more complicated. Am I right?

I can't explain it, but I once had a LM that I could plop out anywhere and it was selfgenerating without being a energy lot. So, I know that it is possible, but don't know how. I will jave to see if I still have that Landmark and then see how it can produce power on its own.

Someone else here should know that also..........

Fred


EDIT: I just thought, couldn't you just add the "power generated" Property and all the other properties that come along with it to the lotfile? I mean copy the properties of the windmill and make sure that the power used is less than the power produced.

[cogeo]

I don't know if it would be too much to ask to make a (relatively) small improvement to the BAT models: add night lighting. Sorry, but it's not looking very realistic as it is now, with just a light beam coming out of a dark lighthouse. It's not very much work indeed, just light the area on the top (some lights lighting only this area, you may need to set the cutoff parameters to limit them to this area only). And some simple (Maxis) nitewindows should be enough for those tiny windows. I would also say add some small light at the entrance, but this is not important at all.

As for the power being generated, I don't think it's necessary, because in the Rail Traffic Controllers I released on the STEX I'm using a rail signal prop, which does light up at night, even if the lot is not powered. Experiment a little, maybe you need to remove the Power Consumed property instead. A lighthouse however, does consume power, and therefore requires some power source.

Also I would prefer to not make it a replacement of the Maxis lighthouse - many players prefer to have both options). It could would just be an additional landmark or reward, with its own requirements and/or effects.

[mrbisonm]

I don't know if it would be too much to ask to make a (relatively) small improvement to the BAT models: add night lighting.

I know that myself. But sorry, there is quite a problem associated with this, since I cannot make nitelighting because the light patch does not install and I cannot see any custom lights in my game neither, but for myself it doesn't bother me because I never play with game with nightlights. And my gmax seems not to be able to make lights. I have this problem since the beginning of my BATting in 2004 and it was discussed many times before on different sites with never having found a solution, I even re-installed SC4 and gmax 4 or 5 times.
And at this moment, I do not feel like re-installing everything that concerns Simcity again. So I build my BATs without nightlights. For those who don't like it, well.....you know the song.

FrankU, could you try to install a domelight prop into the toptower without showing the cone on the roof. It should work since all is glass up there....worth a try. And put a streetlamp just beside or over the entrance door, the way it will only show the top part of the lamp and not the pole, which you can hide inside the wall. That will improve the nightscene a little, something I do all the time. ( I call it cheating) 

Fred

[c.p.]

The lighthouse project looks great

As far as the power goes, the Maxis police kiosk has a power generated and power consumed property in its building exemplar.  I'm not sure if you can plop it (i.e. the Maxis police kiosk) out of power range, but if so, that might be a good one to use as an example.

In my opinion, the lighthouse BAT will be fine without night lighting, since it will likely be plopped away from the city anyway.

[FrankU]

Hi guys,

I am working on a lot that can be placed in a seaport area. I will show some images today or tomorrow.

C.P. thanks for dropping in!

I probably will not make a power property in the lot, althought the option intrigues me... Maybe I'll give it a try anyway.
And I think power is needed for the lightbeam to appear.

The lot is meant as a reward replacement. First of all, because I detest most of the Maxis rewards (I guess you are with me in this opinion), and secondly, because I like to do some rewards, but do not know yet how to make my own ones. Everything at its time.... I will probably start making my own rewards some time. I have planned that for my Dutch farm project. When the growable farm lots have been released I like to continue with some additional lots and I would like to have some rewards too. But not yet.
But for those who do not want to overwrite the Maxis reward I will provide ploppable lots. Simple landmarks.

Fred, what is a domelight? Where do I find it? The streetlamp will certainly be possible. And I do not consider that cheating, but good lotting!

Greetings and I hope an image update will follow soon.

[mrbisonm]

Fred, what is a domelight? Where do I find it? The streetlamp will certainly be possible. And I do not consider that cheating, but good lotting!

Ouppps, my error. I wanted to write Lightcone, instead of domelight.Sorry, the brain was probably functioning on 20% only.

There are a lot of them, different colours and different sizes/shapes etc too, from the BSC. Just look for the "bsclight" in the LE. There are others too somewhere.

I was the first to develop this technique in 2003 after the LE came out. Then I used a lot those streetlights or lampposts when I wanted light. Later when the BAT came out and I couldn't make nightlights, some lightcones were available and I used them to lighten up my BATs.

Fred

[FrankU]

Ok, so I think I got the lots nailed. Please, all of you out there, lurking or not: give me your honest opinion.

The five models by mrbisonm are all in the prop variation stack, so if you want a certain model in your city you have a 20% chance you get it right when plopping. If you are unlucky you need to use the "you don't deserve it" cheat for replopping until you do succeed.

Lighthouse 1, for rural areas



Do you see how the house is on a wooden platform? I hope you like it. It's the way I solved the floating house problem. I resized one of the Maxis foundation models and put it under the building. So now I learned how to make dedicated foundations.
If I continue this way I will understand the whole game before the end of the century....

And

Lighthouse 2, for the seaport areas



Don't worry about the missing shadow of the lighthouse itself. It must be some kind of flaw in this region or city, because in other regions all is well.

I also found another flaw: sometimes I suddenly see the underground base prop that is under the lighthouse in Lot 1 floating in the air somewhere around the top of the lighthouse tower. I do not know when that happens and I also do not know why it happens. It's probably another stupid thing by Maxis. Did anyone ever encounter this flaw? I saw it in the original lightouse lot: the lighthouse itself, so the building exemplar, was floating.

I will add landmark lots and upload the set if they are approved by you who reads this!

[cogeo]

So the "main building" (gray rectangle) is the house, and everything else (the lighthouse and the underground base) are props? Keep in mind that the main building is always displayed above or at the ground level, or at the water level at least (for underwater lots), while props are ("should") be displayed at the elevation they were plopped. This works well actually, at least for the cases I can remember, eg fences or trees even on very steep lots. But there may be some game bug here, because the model is underground. Try to find out under which circumstances the underground prop is raised above ground, eg on very steep terrain, or when the lot faces north or south or what, or when it is below or above the level of the main building, etc. How is the underground prop implemented? Is it a model with all its LODshell put underground (Y vertex coordinates ≤0) and the prop rectangle put at ground level? Or instead it's an above ground prop, with the prop rectangle set underground with the reader? Most probably it is indeed a game "bug", or a situation the game developers did not provide for. So after you find the conditions under which the error occurs, you need to find a workaround. I would try reducing the prop's height (in the Occupant Size property) and/or make the prop rectangle smaller or larger than the lighthouse's one (in either case requires deleting the prop in the LE and adding it anew.

[kelis]

I like both versions, but I'm really interested to see progress on the Lighthouse for seaport areas, I like so much that idea.

[FrankU]

Now the Lighthouses are almost finished.

But I have a request. I hope someone feels like helping me a bit.

For the rural Lighthouse I made smaller props of the Beach Sand props that were released by Heblem in his Tropical Flora pack.
He made these props available as MMP's. But because these props were way too large for my paths I shrunk them with Model Tweaker.
I will make these props available for lotting, but I guess that certain people would be interested in having them as MMPs too.

Am I right?

I am talking about these props.
The leftmost ones are the originals by Heblem, the other two rows are the shrunken ones by me.



Now here is my question: who would feel like making MMP's for these props? I am certain I could figure it out by myuself, but I would like to spend my time on other things these days. mrbisonm's Farm Props are on their way and I want to spend all my available time on relotting and finishing the Dutch Farms Set once I got my hands on these props.

Pleas send me a PM if you feel like it.

Frank