Hoo Ha's Parking Lots

bob56 · October 04, 2009, 10:44:30 AM

First, I really really like the drop-offs, especially the ones with the taxis and crosswalks. I think you are doing a great job on the set.
IMHO, I would get rid of the roundabouts completely, and leave with just the small lot. I havn't seen many parking lots with roundabouts on the end (maybe its a European thing...). Generally I see cars just back up and leave.

Great work though, this parking lot set is a much needed addition to the game

io_bg · October 04, 2009, 11:27:12 AM

Quote from: bob56 on October 04, 2009, 10:44:30 AM
I havn't seen many parking lots with roundabouts on the end (maybe its a European thing...).

It isn't, I've never seen such things

Nice lotting, Hoo ha. I especially like the drop off with the taxis

Keep up the great work!

hooha47 · October 13, 2009, 09:29:19 PM

Thanks for the comments everyone.

I've been working on the dropoffs. Since no one (including me) seemed to like the roundabouts, and since no one (except me) seems to have seen them in the real world, I've done away with them. So first I'll show some pictures. I've narrowed it down to 5 differents styles.

The bushes

Seasonal maple

Seasonal Oak

Seasonal Cherry Trees with semi-seasonal shrubs

Red flowers (the flowers don't show up well in pictures, they look much better in the game)

Each style has 5 pieces, two turn pieces (left and right) and three straight pieces (plain, crosswalk, and taxis). In addition, there are 3 additional pieces for connecting the dropoffs to the parking lots, which I made in both regular and shrubs versions, for a total of 6. So that's a total, if I release them all, of 31 lots (actually 62, because I'll do gray and black). If I do release them all, it will be easy enough to delete any styles you don't want. I know menu crowding is a concern (that's why I DAMN everything).

For the taxis, I used these props by mikeseith and created a prop family where each taxi is timed to appear for different parts of the day. Each lot has 3 taxis, so you can have anywhere from 0 to 3 taxis showing up at any particular time.

These are pretty close to ready for release but, as always, I'd welcome any feedback.

SC4BOY · October 14, 2009, 12:45:04 AM

Looks great.. you've turned this into an art ..

... These would lend themselves to MML's as well as DAMN as they have all the properties that make them amenable... ie.. they aren't used in large numbers and aren't used often.. you put em in and that's that.. hehe.. in fact you could master MML it so that only 1 MML would expose the full family of MML's and then the specific MMLs would reveal the exact set that you wanted.. Looks like you're going into the new frontier of parking lot families.. hehe

SimNation · October 14, 2009, 06:00:44 AM

These are lovely. With these the old parking lot sets of the past are not needed anymore

. I always felt modular parking lots were the way to go since you can make them any size or shape you want. The Shrubs make it even more usefull. Cannot wait til these shrubbery addons

hooha47 · October 15, 2009, 01:10:08 PM

SC4BOY, thanks for the compliment, I appreciate all your support on this project. I figured out yesterday how to make MMLs, so I will MML and DAMN these. I like the idea of a master MML. SimNation, thank you as well for the compliment. I'm not sure which shrubs add on you're referring too. I've released an add on for the modular parking lots with shrubs. The dropoffs that I just showed above will be ready for release by the weekend. I have one more add on I want to do, then we'll see what comes next.

debutterfly · October 16, 2009, 05:42:44 AM

Diagonals.

Larry (debutterfly)

tamorr · October 16, 2009, 12:20:16 PM

I'd like to say I've actually seen some of the roundabouts like that, however I do agree that not really worth time making em' since few have seen. The progress on the drop-offs look great, and awaiting the DL of this lovely addon in both Black N Grey...
I know prolly been asked before, but must one choose between the Black or Grey, or can both be used side by side?

I really like both versions, as I can see implimentations across a city, having a split view of the city. High class to Low class. Good work either way..

j-dub · October 16, 2009, 07:41:21 PM

Hooha, from what I've seen, the lotting details on those drop offs are lotted so realistic, it almost looks like the drop offs are not one modular tile a piece?

I could easily see those shorter or longer, based on what I have seen in reality.

hooha47 · October 17, 2009, 01:48:28 PM

Larry (debutterlfy), thanks for stopping by, I've thought about diagonals, but I think I'll leave that to someone else. It's more than I want to attempt right now. tamorr, you can use both black and gray simultaneously. I agree, I like to use both. That's why I made both.

j-dub, I will take that as a very nice compliment. They are indeed 1x1 pieces, so you can make them as long as you like, but they'd look funny if they were any shorter than 3 or 4 tiles. And, they are now available on the STEX in both gray and black. I will be back soon to show what I have in mind for add on 4 (probably the last add on).

froelich131 · October 17, 2009, 03:15:59 PM

Hello, i have downloaded your original parking lots, the day they came out, and now waiting for along while to download your newest ones, i have come to a concern. On simtropolis while looking at all your creations (by clicking on your name) i have found all these HHparkinglot(A) HHparkinglot(B) and so forth, should you download all?

hooha47 · October 17, 2009, 03:55:54 PM

froelich131, thanks for your support. Those lots you refer to (A, B, C, etc.) are separate from the modular lots. They are actually packs of complete parking lots in various sizes. If you downloaded the modular lots when they first came out, you should make sure you replace them with the updated version (version 2). That is the only set you have to use in order to use any of the various add ons.

froelich131 · October 18, 2009, 02:54:27 PM

Thanks, i had a hunch that thats what they were. And yes i just updated the parking.

FrankU · October 19, 2009, 03:14:31 AM

HooHa!

They are great. I downloaded them already. Have to wait until tonight to put them into use. My boss wouldn't allow me to play the game during office hours.

Jack_wilds · October 19, 2009, 03:29:35 PM

Hey Hooha, Jack wilds here...

Like the drop/pick-up zones alot and that they can be made any length... particularly like the seasonal tree lined versions -well done.

This was a good project and I have a few thoughts for an add-on before the 'asphalt falls' on this project... its been a good one.

As for the other things add-ons...

...how about down town parking to be placed between stores and streets and the stores wouldn't get those annoying 'no connect' zots

...or how about a few pieces that have rain drains, man hole covers

... or how about a few pieces of neglected, old, abused, cracked up pavement that may look better in IND areas and low wealth areas or in places where pavement tends to become neglected and can be interspersed in the 'newer' lots as well

... or how about entry/exit, directional arrows, 'pick-up/drop-off zone', other misc markings

... or how about a simple 'how-to' Manuel for student the 'lotters' yet to come

May you always find the best parking...

Jack

hooha47 · October 20, 2009, 09:35:03 PM

FrankU, thank you for your kind words, but I have to ask: What kind of crazy job do you have where you can't play SC4?

(And by the way, I'm really curious to see what you're working on. I'll be keeping an eye on your project.

Jack wilds, thank you as well. I want to address each of your excellent ideas:

Quote...how about down town parking to be placed between stores and streets and the stores wouldn't get those annoying 'no connect' zots

That's hard to do with modular lots. The full parking lot sets I released earlier do allow this, and that's probably the only way to do what you're suggesting.

Quote...or how about a few pieces that have rain drains, man hole covers

Yes, I think I may have had that idea at one point. That is a definite possibility.

Quote... or how about a few pieces of neglected, old, abused, cracked up pavement that may look better in IND areas and low wealth areas or in places where pavement tends to become neglected and can be interspersed in the 'newer' lots as well

I've been thinking about doing a small set like this. We'll see. I have a few other things I want to do first.

Quote... or how about entry/exit, directional arrows, 'pick-up/drop-off zone', other misc markings

That's another one I'd thought of doing. I could do different color curbs for the dropoffs ("The white curb is for loading and unloading only, no parking please." This may be an obscure reference.) I'm worried at a certain point it becomes overkill, death by overcrowded menus, etc. If there is some interest, I might do something like this.

Quote... or how about a simple 'how-to' Manuel for student the 'lotters' yet to come

I would be happy to offer help to you or anyone who wants to start creating lots, but there are a lot of other people on this site who are far better and have much more experience than I. I'll tell you what, it is addictive. I started doing these because I wanted some different parking options for a city I was working on. Since then, I haven't really played the game except to test my lots. I think I'm going to start playing again one of these days, but right now, creating lots, mucking around with Reader and SC4Tool, creating icons, etc. is keeping me quite entertained. I highly recommend it.

QuoteMay you always find the best parking...

And you too, my friend. Thanks again for your support.

Later this week, I'll post some pictures of the next few things I'm working on.

westamastaflash · November 01, 2009, 01:41:36 PM

Thank you! I've been looking for some nice parking lots and these do exactly what I need!

Silhouette Saloon · November 02, 2009, 05:57:58 AM

I'm having problems with the game freezing each time I try and plop the functional transit-enabled entrances, and I can't find out why. I've never had similar problems in the past with other such lots, and I have all the relevant dependencies. Can anyone suggest why this might be happening? (For reference, the parking lots were installed with File Juicer on a Mac)

Thanks, Silhouette Saloon.

hooha47 · November 03, 2009, 09:19:26 AM

westamastaflash, thank you for your comment.

Silhouette Saloon, I've been thinking about your problem. I really don't know what could be causing the problem. I don't have a Mac, but I don't know why that would be causing your problem. In all my tests, I've never had anything like that happen, and I've never heard of it happening with anyone else either. I'd be curious to know if any Mac users are using the lots without any problems. I'm sorry I'm not more helpful. If I come up with anything, I will let you know.

I got sort of side tracked off of this project, but it's not dead yet. I've been working on making some mayor mode ploppables, and I opened a LEX candidacy for them (there's a link in my signature). I have some more ideas for that project as well, which I may post here. I do promise I will post some pictures of the next (probably last?) add on for the parking lots soon.

thingfishs · November 03, 2009, 02:39:00 PM

Silhouette Saloon: I've still got my mac setup and I tested the entrances and they worked fine. Just to make sure I also tried the post filejuicer version without problems. With filejuicer what you end up with is 12 essentially untitled dats for eg. (HH Modular Parking Black[495246]-17) instead of the 1 dat and 11 sc4lots that come out of the pc version named thus (HH Modular Parking 4- Way Entrance Black_7789d9d6.SC4Lot) However all the icons and apparent functionality was present in both versions, however I only tested one release http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=22528
Which version do you have? (FWIW I am using a power mac G5 dp 1.8ghz)

Nice work on these Hooha, it's great to have customisable parking lots. Bring on the MML/DAMN version(s)!