SC4 Devotion Forum Archives

I was thinking that since I have this entire section to play with now, I ought to try and clean some things up around here a little bit.  (OK... in reality, I've had this board for a while, but just haven't gotten around to doing much with it yet.  But what can you do?)  The other BAT thread is getting awfully long and full of stuff, so maybe a little organization is in order.  Let's start with a new thread dedicated to the school packs, shall we?

Just to kind of keep things together... a quick recap of what we have right now is in that first post up there.  I'll add any other releases up there as that time comes.  But for now... let's skip ahead a little bit to what I have in the works at this time. 

School Pack - Volume Four will include five (I think) new elementary schools.  I have two models completely finished so far and one more that is very close to being done.

Helen Krump Elementary
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FSouthElem_Preview03.jpg&hash=73c817ea1ca75a92b7d17f11f94f0fc8c645597f)

Westwood Elementary
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FWestwood_Preview04.jpg&hash=51fd42db87ac4362f43b13e58b4d689c3b93281b)

Eisenhower Elementary
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FEisenhower_Preview02.jpg&hash=05d9049237ba93ffeb7e31fc5e4fca2f30f0cce8)

And just in case this "catch up" post isn't quite long enough yet, here is the latest update on Reed High School, which will be a (ridiculously) large start to School Pack - Volume Five.

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FReedHS_South03.jpg&hash=ac5f382ecfa590118fd182740afca190b71f0b21)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FReedHS_West03.jpg&hash=83fb12f4b705867eda50f06bcd6926223081fa9f)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FReedHS_East03.jpg&hash=1d7ff9dbf0f2b1b74766d178e97a8231254ea7bb)

I think that's enough for one night... I've stayed up entirely too long anyway!  Have a great night (or morning for half of you already!)

JB

JB, all this time I have been using Vol 1 & 2, didn't even realise Vol 3 existed. You're schools are my favourites and figure prominently in my MD. Vol 3, I have a few more to play with now  :)

And the proposed Vol 4, looking good. What I really like about your schools is that they not just the same lot made a bit bigger or altered a little, they are all unique, makes a city look more realistic. And can't wait for Vol 5, that modern looking HS is going to look great in Balnavia.

Great work  :thumbsup:

Dave

Wow JB, great work! Looks like school pack 4 gonna be a great addition to the game, those models looks fantastic!And that high school, omg!    :thumbsup:

I'm giddy, can't wait to get to play with #4 :D If feel like such a fanboy having everything you've uploaded :-[

Would it be possible to make the last one a "Reed Elementary School" for School Pack 4? :) My elementary schools are always overcrowded due to the rather low capacity in my highrise districts, while the high schools in my suburbs are pretty much empty due to the size.

 &apls  i didn't realize there was a volume 4 (and 5!) coming out. I love your schools, and the new models look fantastic.

Great new schools! I know of a great school for suburbs... that I go to! Maybe you could BAT if you have nothing better to do. (like that's ever going to happen)

ps. School is boring... until you have lots of projects to do!

I'm so excited about your new School Pack! I hardly ever use the Maxis schools anymore - yours are far superior.  ;D

Not bad! Personally I'd change the Helen Krump elementary to a high school, but otherwise it's awesome!

These school look awesome my friend  :thumbsup:
It's very splendid  &apls
absoluty great work my friend :thumbsup:
looking forward to the development !
Arthur

Once again Fantastic work.   I love the new high school.  Did you ever think of making some sort of true modular school system that you could add buildings/lots as your city grows? 

Dave:  Thank you!  Volume Three has been out for quite a while, but I'm glad this helped you find it!  (Better late than never, after all)  The variety of buildings is definitely the major reason I keep making these.  I thought three packs offered plenty of different choices until I started my own MD and quickly realized that there just weren't enough yet.   :D

Geronimo:  Thanks!

XiahouDun:  Thank you!  I love having fans... air conditioning is over rated anyway!  ;)

Andreas:  The short answer would be "no."  Reed is definitely going to be a high school.  The next elementary will be similar in style and larger than the others, though.  Although, reading between the lines leads me to think you'd prefer the larger elementary to be more urban in style?  Or am I just reading that wrong?

Edge:  Thanks!  I started thinking about adding a couple more packs over the summer.  I'm just now starting to find some real time to do something about it.
Sim-al2:  Thanks!  I'm always looking for inspiration pictures, so feel free to PM me if you have some.

Girlfromverona:  Thank you!

Nerdly_dood:  Thanks!  Helen Krump is meant to be an older urban school.  In reality, it would probably be more of a middle school... but that's not really an option in the game.  So elementary it is.  ;)

Arthur:  Thank you!

Scottott:  Thanks!  I'm not quite sure what you have in mind... could you explain a little more?

A little bit of an update for tonight.  I spent most of my time finishing up the east additions today.  I got most of the major trim work done, and a fair chunk of roof junk and detailing done.  I'll come back later for a little more "standard" details (those little odds and ends that aren't really unique to the building)... but I think this side is just about wrapped up.

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FReedHS_South04.jpg&hash=8427afe9f6890916e07a071e7ed60a29082cd1a1)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FReedHS_North04.jpg&hash=d5e80c5fb2ba34c6f168f9b9f7a73a442afdb489)

Most of this isn't textured yet... and even the few parts that are may very well change later.  I'm still not sure about a couple things, but we'll see what happens.  I'm hoping to get a start on the west additions next time.

JB

Excellent work JB! Your schoolpacks really do add to the diversity of the game. If you're considering doing a fifth; what I believe is also missing are downtown schools. Wall-to-wall schools in high density urban areas, something that would fit excellently next to for example Jasoncw's W2W bats.

For example:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nypost.com%2Fpagesixmag%2Fissues%2F20080629%2Fimages%2Ffeatures%2Frejected%2F2.jpg&hash=f1e2ff82a9af224b080853409f4173a83b2c7390)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm2.static.flickr.com%2F1021%2F1034806408_1e0ace84bb.jpg%3Fv%3D0&hash=70526f0bc08b6f8953fa9f5f891aaeb247c59719)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nrvlowdown.com%2Fimages%2Fblog%2F41_school.jpg&hash=e9415e4d3ba64d164f17df6a4e492fcb9843e75a)

I hope the images work :)
What do you think?

Quote from: JBSimio on October 28, 2008, 11:22:24 PM
Andreas:  The short answer would be "no."  Reed is definitely going to be a high school.  The next elementary will be similar in style and larger than the others, though.  Although, reading between the lines leads me to think you'd prefer the larger elementary to be more urban in style?  Or am I just reading that wrong?

The style doesn't really matter as long the capacity of the elementary school is high enough. What I need is something that doesn't get overcrowded in no time when I place it in an area like this. ;)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg512.imageshack.us%2Fimg512%2F9859%2Fmonolakeridge03lg3.jpg&hash=ee62053fedf1b4217b6f3d63291a150c0359dc1f) (http://imageshack.us)

oh wow...

that really really large high school is coming along well...

except i wonder... it was a small school which was updated right? i wonder if you can make one new-construction one... =O

And also... hmm... I've rarely schools that are so high and designed for downtown areas... sadly Vancouver isn't big enough actually to even create such demand...

- Allan Kuan

Perhaps an urban school might be a w2w building with a rooftop playground or bball court, depending on the students ages.

I have never seen a school like that but I figure they must exist in Manhattan, Tokyo, Paris, for sure?

Quote from: Zaphod on October 29, 2008, 02:55:53 PM
Perhaps an urban school might be a w2w building with a rooftop playground or bball court, depending on the students ages.

I have never seen a school like that but I figure they must exist in Manhattan, Tokyo, Paris, for sure?

There are lots of urban schools, including here in Amsterdam where I reside now. They tend to have courtyards at the back. As with normal city blocks with lowrise buildings around the edges you'd see gardens in the middle. I've scoured MS's Live Earth for some examples from New York, these were all from Harlem alone - there are far more. Note how the building's streetside and the playground/square area is at the back - though I noticed they border on the street on the other side of the block. There's also a public school without a playground really - one that looks a lot like the one from that Die Hard movie.

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg227.imageshack.us%2Fimg227%2F221%2Fcityschool2uz4.jpg&hash=611145f77e58e450ee25bfe700d9d43dd43ace69)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg291.imageshack.us%2Fimg291%2F1738%2Fcityschool3kq0.jpg&hash=2bd7eacd2761cfe3707629c3fab3917ed12c89ee)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg291.imageshack.us%2Fimg291%2F6876%2Fcityschool4oy2.jpg&hash=daaaa08c92a40125551907ce4bb89a6c4a9bc57a)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg291.imageshack.us%2Fimg291%2F259%2Fcityschool1na7.jpg&hash=74acdf10ca45785c7a8eaf3fa4f9a53fd643980c)
^ Not so sure this last one is actually at a school :D

[rambling]Well, there is an older semi-urban school not two blocks away from my house that used to look like what Helen Krump probably looked like before the gym and cafeteria were added... (Built in 1922) If it had been renovated sooner, the building style of the time would have made it look more like your Krump school, but since its latest renovation was in the 90s, their similarities are now limited... [/ramblimg]

Aaaannywaaayyy... Nice to see some more urban educational facilities in the works! :thumbsup:

the new schools are looking very nice, as all your work is. looking forward to downloading these in the future.

Quote from: allan_kuan1992 on October 29, 2008, 03:59:49 AM
oh wow...

that really really large high school is coming along well...

except i wonder... it was a small school which was updated right? i wonder if you can make one new-construction one... =O

And also... hmm... I've rarely schools that are so high and designed for downtown areas... sadly Vancouver isn't big enough actually to even create such demand...

- Allan Kuan

Depends on the area.. Burnaby alone has.. what... 7 highschools? I know for a fact that Burnaby South Secondary was only built to house 1200 students and by the end of the 90's it was already pushing 3000. I remember having all but one class that wasn't in a portable building during my senior year.

BTW.. nice to see some more GVRD folks around.

Surrey's schools are large and getting even larger. I'd be ecstatic if one of the new ones was recreated in SC4 BAT.

I can't say the same however for most schools in Vancouver (including DT which is the school i currently go to). Maybe only Magee qualifies... it's quite recent...

- Allan Kuan

That curved school is very interesting. Your BATs are excellent JbSimbio!

ahhh this is where you have moved to Jon lol.... looking real sweet here with the new school pack!!!

Howling:  Thanks!  I've seen a lot of very urban schools, but I'm not real familiar with any actual W2W schools (other than commercial buildings that were later converted to something like a community college.)  I like the idea, but that will actually have to wait for Volume Six.  Four and Five are already spoken for with 5 elementary schools and 3-4 high schools.  I appreciate the pictures and will definitely keep them in mind for the future.  :thumbsup:

Andreas:  Hmmm... looks more like an urban style lot to me then.  I think one of the other two I have planned should fit what you're looking for.  ;)

Allan_Kuan:  Thanks!  I really only have one of the other three high schools planned out so far, so anything is possible at this point.

Zaphod:  Manhatten and Brooklyn were the first places that came to my mind as well.

Nerdly_dood:  Thank you!  There should be a fairly decent mix of styles in these two packs.

Jmdude:  Thanks!

Wes.janson:  Thanks for stopping in!

Cubbies:  Thank you!

Pat:  Thanks!  Yes, I decided the original thread was getting a bit too messy.  (As a complete side note... I actually spent a long time reading back over the entire thing!)  So I figured I'd move the school stuff here.  I'll probably start separate threads for Smalltown, SHUR, and University things as the times come.  I'll mail you a map if you need one, my friend!  :D

Always nice to see some interesting discussion and I'm always a big fan of new ideas, so thanks everyone!  For now, let's get back to the matter at hand, though.  I made a pretty fair amount of progress the last couple nights.  I can now say that the entire footprint is essentially done.  The building alone is about 9x4 tiles... so the lot will probably be in the 11x6 range (possibly more)!  Anyway, the idea was for the west additions to house the athletic facilities.  So we have a gym and a pool with whatever else might be around them.  Here's a look:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FReedHS_NorthWest05.jpg&hash=d3a75a88a0d7d339c254bd61122fd5374857d052)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FReedHS_South05.jpg&hash=a5dff6cf474184e9cdd358ce9d42c05539e7bcfe)

There are definitely some changes to be made.  The most obvious is the roof over the pool... I thought that would make for a nice change or distinction, but it just looks distracting and out of place to me.  So that will be fixed.  I'd also like to find a way to get more plaster/stucco on the west side (represented by the cream colored walls right now) just to balance the two sides a little better.  I'm just not sure how I'll do that yet.  And of course there are a lot of details and such that still need to be added... but the bulk of the building itself is now finished.

See you next time,
JB

JB, the school's scale... sadly... is off...

the pool looks much smaller in comparison to most of the doors of the school O.O

And also... I was expecting something much larger for a school of this size. I was wrong I guess however.

- Allan K

Nice schools!
I use your old packs extensively, so I am always willing to receive another.  ;D

The new schools look fine.
The last school is a bit of a mess. It started as a small symmetrical brick building, but now it turned out as almost completely consiting of additions. That is quite realistic, because that is what happens to schools.
It would be nice if you could also make some schools with temporary rooms in the yard.

that's a great school  :thumbsup: &apls

LoL Jon that would do me some wonders right now as I seem to be a tad bit confussed lol... anyways looking darn good!!!  :thumbsup:

Allan:  If the scale of the entire school is depressingly off, then why not say so sooner?  If you just mean the pool... well, if you can find me a "properly" sized olympic swimming pool somewhere else in the game (which would be roughly 1.5x3 tiles), then we can talk.   ;)

FrankU:  Thanks!  Deadwoods once made a bunch of props for temporary school classrooms and things... I'll have to dig around a little to remember exactly what was there though.  Either way, it's the kind of thing that could easily be done to any of the lots when that time comes.

Arthur:  Thank you!

Pat:  Thanks... I've mailed you a map.  Unfortunately, it's a map for Sonoma county so I'm not sure if it will really help or not!  :D

The high school obviously still has a long ways to go, and I'm still tinkering with a bunch of different things.  But rather than spend forever on something that isn't even needed just yet, I thought I'd go back to Volume Four and work on the elementary schools again.  I think I've basically finished off Eisenhower Elementary now... here's a look:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FEisenhower_Day01.jpg&hash=41723d314acd348c75c88b427c0bf0295db7f2bb)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FEisenhower_Night01.jpg&hash=e825e4edde148ac4d7f9e12933f60a0c5be2f904)

Maybe a few tweaks here and there, but that should pretty much wrap this one up.  That brings us up to three schools for Volume Four... two more to go.  I may be back tonight with a preview of one of those... we'll see how things go.

JB

Just got caught up here Jon :thumbsup:
Wonderful stuff simply wonderful.

Guess I'll be using a lot of these real soon :D

I really like all the various styles, shapes.  Oh yes indeed ;D
Take a break, you've earned it
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg204.imageshack.us%2Fimg204%2F116%2Fteapotandcup183e331wj9.png&hash=b61c4e111f892c1e1457d7305b8e6f55d43fc7cb)

:satisfied:
TTC

LoL Jon its all good it will help out at least a small bit if I decided to go to sonoma county!!!  :thumbsup: I am liking the progress on the school there and the textures are perfect...

What ever happen to your university bats? Will they be released?

Yes, they will - keep watching. :)

Rember one thing Fantnet, everything good comes to those who wait!!!  :thumbsup: and also a favorite qoute from NAM "It will be released when its released"...

Derry:  Thank you!  I enjoyed the tea immensely... but I'm afraid I failed to take any type of break.  :D

Pat:  Thanks!  If you ever do make use of the map be sure to stop by!

Fantnet:  University...  ()what()  Hmmm...  &Thk/(  That's a good question, actually.  While I don't have a completely precise answer for you, I can say that you will definitely see a lot of information about the University of Clayhurst sometime in the next week.

Andreas:  It's true... they really will!   &dance %BUd% &dance

Pat:  And goodness knows the wait has been a long one!   ::)

Here's another small update on Volume Four.  I started in on the fourth of five elementary schools.  This will be more of a historic urban building... which, as you probably all know, I prefer making anyway.  I was kicking some names around (mostly because I didn't like the real name of this one) and finally decided to make a little tribute out of it.  If you've seen the readmes for the first three school packs, you know that I get a LOT of help when it comes to finalizing these and actually making them work.  There is no question that these packs would never see the light of day if it weren't for a number of people who jump in to make these things work.  So much happens "behind the scenes" for these that I almost feel guilty about putting my name on them.  One of the earliest and still one of the biggest supporters of this series has been none other than Andreas himself.  So... while this may or may not be exactly what he's hoping for in a larger elementary school... this one will be Roth Elementary.  Here are the humble beginnings:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FRoth_Preview01.jpg&hash=173d8388b3c6565be01fd369c491623895baa9b2)

More to come,
JB

oooooooo Jon that is sooo wonderful so far, i like that fascade so far!!! So are saying we are getting ever so close to getting University of Clayhurst?  I will make good use of that map if I am in the area for sure and you can gurantee you would need to put a pot of coffee on for me and vicki lol....

upon further thought... there may not need to be modifications... but it's hard to imagine how stuff in the BAT compares to RL stuff... >.<

all the schools look great so far... =)

- Allan Kuan

Now when will the 'Making education better one building at a time' be converted to a true CML?

Seriously, you're doing a great job here. I've been using your school packs from my first days I played SC4 with custom content, and you keep on doing these awesome schools. I can't wait already.  :)

Looking good JB. Roth Elementary is fittingly named and looks to be off to a good start. Eisenhower Elementary turned out fairly well. The only thing I might consider doing is scaling down the size of the roof vents. They seem kind of large. Other than that I have nothing to add.

 &apls i love eisenhower elementary. the style looks perfect for an early 60's school building. nice work jon.

Pat:  Thanks!  We'll be really close when you start seeing a University of Clayhurst thread here... ;)  I guess I'd better buy a coffee maker since I never touch the stuff.  :D

Allan:  Thanks!

Caspervg:  Thank you!  A CML would be nice, but if that time comes I'd much rather be surprised by what it says... I think it would mean more if I didn't "write" it.  ;)

Spa:  Thank you!  You have a point about the air vents on Eisenhower... although I'm not sure why.  I've never changed the size of those for any building... strange.  Simple adjustment to make though.

Edge:  Thanks!

Well, this one is basically closed up now.  It should sit on a 5x3 or maybe 5x4 lot... which is a little bigger than most of the other elementaries but not really by much.  I think the height and the mass of this one should give it a pretty decent capacity though.  I'm still debating one or two minor changes in the back for this, but after that we'll be down to roof junk, textures, and lighting.  Here's the latest...

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FRoth_Preview02.jpg&hash=a3ff2ed9a7a61c4c20c811ea7a543642098f3d6b)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FRoth_South02.jpg&hash=ad720e06cd3815ff856fdf79a4c296e74f292e2d)

More later (maybe tonight... but that depends)

JB

Yep looking good  :thumbsup:

As Usual  :D :D

Nice work once again &apls

:satisfied:
TTC

Derry:  Thank you!

I made the a first pass with the textures this evening.  I'm not entirley sure if I like it or not... here's a look:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FRoth_Preview03.jpg&hash=56d0539f0b60baaf253610c36c55298c0f4f2c14)

I can't even really say what may or may not be wrong with things but there's just something that doesn't sit right at the moment.  Could be nothing... who knows?  I guess there's really not much else to say at this point, so we'll just revisit things tomorrow!

Have a great night,
JB

Very nice. &apls Reminds me of this school near me. It is actually was abandoned, and is now a paintball field :D Maybe have a gym as a freestanding prop to go with it?

Hey Jon,

I think the texture is looking good there.  When you say there's something that doesn't sit right, I guess that's because you've had a picture of this in your mind for some time now, and this texture doesn't match it.  So I guess I'd say what was in your mind??

To me it's fine.  I guess if enything it may be just a bit too uniform.  It looks quite an old design, and yet the bricks all look pristine.  Maybe it's a high wealth school, so they can afford to keep it looking spick and span.  But if this was a state run school, then you can bet that at sometime some of the bricks would have been paineted, or had stuff screwed into them, or other such "vanadlism".  But seriously, it's fine and would certainly grace many a city in SC4 world.

Hope all good with you btw.

Tale care,

Paul

The textures look good to me, I like the brick walls a lot  :thumbsup:

I haven't posted in here yet Jon, but all of these schools look fantastic! We always need more variety with school buildings. This elementary school is great as well, I really like the brick texture. It kinda gives the school that old-ish urban look. Perhaps you could make the texture "grungier" like what paroch said.

-- John

XiahouDun:  Thank you!  A free standing gym is a nice possibility... the only problem being that I've never been to a school that has one.  So I really don't know what kind of form it should take.

Paul:  Thanks!  Actually, the texture matched fairly well with what I had planned... I think it's the roof that was throwing me off.  After all the multi-level, "messy" roof lines I've had on the past several buildings, this simple one just seemed lacking.  I added some "patches" although I may have to redo a couple of them.

Tag_One:  Thank you!

John:  Thanks!  I always have trouble making this brick color "grungy"... my tendency is to end up with something way too dark.  I'll toy around a little more though.

I made a few small changes.  I added a little bit of red to the brick and then threw in some newer patches here and there.  The patching wasn't difficult to do, but it was very time consuming.  Some of them could probably use a couple tweaks still.  I also changed the window frames to something a little lighter.  I did save the original textures, so going back to them would be pretty simple if need be.  Here's a look...

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FRoth_Preview04A.jpg&hash=f5b5cd9b763d202e8c5f197fc3ecae112de9dfc7)

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Better?  Worse?  Fix this one or go back to the first one?   :-\

JB

I like it.  :thumbsup: Looks like the schools still in use in Detroit, minus the bobbed wire fences. ;)

I think it's fine. I prefer the warmer brick color anyways, I think it will look better when you lot it. You know looking at your BAT renders with a black background might make you get a different impression of your color choices...

Anyways just something funny about the previous comment about the pool...say you swam 6 laps back and forth in a pool, something that most people can do, would be 12 times across 1.5 tiles, or 18 tiles, which is approximately one quarter the distance across a small city tile.

This only brings up more about relative distances in the game. For example, if you travel a total of 6 miles on a bicycle during a normal day, that would be riding across 4 and a half large city tiles.

I think if we could warp ourselves into the game we'd all be star triathelets :D

Ooh, I really like both, but the second one that's ore red is perfect.

And the school kinda reminded me of a building, but I couldn't remember what building it was until now. It used to be Austin High School, but now it's the home of one of the local community college's campuses. Here's what it looks like on Windows Live Local: Link (http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=p1cg7b6vmxsx&style=o&lvl=2&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=9888445&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1). If you want an idea for a gym, there's one on this campus, it's to the northwest of the big building on that map (near the boiler's smokestack). Now it's an auditorium, but it used to be a gym when it was still a high school.

-- John

Papab:  Thanks!  I found a great batch of pictures with Detroit schools recently... but this isn't one of them.  :D

Zaphod:  Thank you!  I was never overly concerned with the color itself... more of an unknown feeling that something wasn't right but I couldn't pin down what it was.

John:  Thanks for the link!

A couple more changes and some lighting...

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FRoth_Preview05A.jpg&hash=19cf3d8c77f29a18474a95e9508181f3eb9aa4fe)

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I added some skylights over the stairwells... call it part of a more recent remodel if you like... mostly just to give the roof a little more interest.  I may still change a thing or two, but this one should be just about done.  One more to go!

JB

later...  And here's a very early look at it.  This will definitely end up as the largest elementary school of any pack so far.  Not quite as big as the high school, but probably not very far off either.

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FNovak_Preview01.jpg&hash=a267a7a2414ec6fff4de74141ba915aca2cecda5)

Just a teaser for now...  :D

I didn't quite manage to get as far with this as I had hoped today, but it is slowly taking shape.  On the same note, the overall size of this is quickly getting out of hand.   :D  I'm already pushing 10 tiles wide... although the good news is it wouldn't go any further than that.  I may take out a glass panel or something to shorten the wings, but I'm not sure yet.  It might just end up being ridiculously big...  ::)  Anyway, here's a look:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FNovak_Preview02.jpg&hash=172a99cbc2325f64487bfd6fc69b00ff101d4dee)

The roof textures are just temporary, so ignore that for now.  Still no front entry, but it should be fairly plain where that's going to be.  I really just ran out of time to really start in on it.  Once I get past that, I really don't have any idea where I'm going with the rest of it though...  %confuso  Should make for a nice surprise for all of us!   :D

Til next time,
JB

Jon where do I send a bill to for a new keyboard lol.... great job here wow!!!!!

I'd like to quote a well known song: "I'm so excited!" And yes, I cannot hide it :D  &apls

Pat:  Thanks!  You can send the bill to a large YMCA camp in Michigan.  I'm sure they still owe me a few things...  :D

Howling:  Thank you!

Another somewhat small update... I made a few size adjustments and made a very small beginning on some of the back areas.  Most of it is just roughed in and will undoubtedly change, but I'm still just trying out some ideas at this point.

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FNovak_Preview03.jpg&hash=effc64f1c4d663c797cd1e0523c3d76c9be53aa4)

I'll try to get more done tomorrow when there isn't so much happening on CNN... ;)

JB

that school look awesome my friend  &apls

Yupp, lookin really good! Great work so far!  :thumbsup:

Arthur:  Thank you, my friend!

Geronimo:  Thanks!  I'm glad you like it.

Well, this is coming together a little bit at a time.  I'm quickly learning that my choice in angles for this has made things much more difficult.  I keep having to rotate things around... check the fit... rotate them back to work on them some more... and over and over and over again.   ::)  So here's another small update:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FNovak_Preview04.jpg&hash=735966947b86c20509bcaabbdd873c2ff456b959)

In other news... I decided to start exporting these and getting a couple lots done.  South Elementary was the first to go... so here's a look at that:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FSouthElem_LotFront01.jpg&hash=c47533750333ddb03731b4fe59225326b26e97c6)

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Not a whole lot to say on this one... it's a pretty standard "Maxis like" lot to match the earlier school packs.  This is 4x4, but with the extra height from the second floor, the capacity is almost double what Lincoln or Parkside have (which are also 4x4 lots for those of you keeping score at home).  That's about it for tonight...

JB

Quote from: JBSimio on November 02, 2008, 12:29:51 PM
XiahouDun:  Thank you!  A free standing gym is a nice possibility... the only problem being that I've never been to a school that has one.  So I really don't know what kind of form it should take.

I can get you a satalite shot of one, and try to find some pictures if you'd like :D

That's a grand entrance for the new one. It almost seems like it could support a 3rd story, but it looks great as it is. Glad to see you put a fence around the South Elementary lot (keep the kids on the playgrounf instead of the parking lot. The end result is very nice. Sorry I haven't posted here in a while, but I've been watching the development.
-Matt

And the progress continue .... with as always, an awesome look  &apls

Oh I really like the look of this one :thumbsup:

Superb shape. Already I can see the potential this bat has.
magnificent work Jon. &apls &apls
(I envy your skills  :D )

Till the next time
regards

Derry

Jon very nice progress here wow!!!

XiahouDun:  I'll always welcome any pictures you want to share... just send me a PM or a link.  ;)

Matt:  Thanks!  You have a good eye... the height for much of the center section would indeed be enough for a third story.  I had to go a bit higher than normal to accomodate the sloped roof sections on the classroom wings.  I'm still a little concerned that it might be too high to match up in the game, but we'll see when I get that far.  For now, I'm using the argument that they just left a lot of "attic space" for duct work and such!   :D

Arthur:  Thank you!

Derry:  Thanks!  I've almost started a theme with interesting shapes for these two packs...  ::)  At least they won't all start to look like repeats!

Pat:  Thank you!

I got another lot started and maybe finished (or nearly so)... Eisenhower Elementary was next on the list:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FEisenhower_LotFront01.jpg&hash=9cdf919c16af6b8357f0f51b8e0f26cb0de1f452)

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I still have to make a prop for the sign out front... which means that is missing at the moment.  (Brilliant deduction, wasn't it?)  I'm also still debating a chain link fence along side of the driveway and possibly closing in the playground area by continuing the wooden fencing the rest of the way around.  I'm not sure about either one just yet, so I'm certainly open to suggestions about that or anything else.

More later,
JB

Jon all I got to say is simply yet very good!!!  :thumbsup:

Pat:  Thanks!  Some of it may still change... but we'll see.

I figured I might as well keep this little exporting party going, so I finished up Roth Elementary as well.  Unfortunately, the lot looks very bare in this picture because aparently it was 1AM game time, when I took the shots.   :D  You'll have to trust that there are some cars, people, and kids playing four square and tether ball.  At the same time, it is still a very simple lot... I wanted to make it as urban as possible without completely eliminating the grass.  So here's a look:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FRoth_LotFront01.jpg&hash=735ea1a0f7aeccf8d11bf7d646be3a91c4258900)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FRoth_LotRear01.jpg&hash=a5bf846ed0b09819d1f51132178627053f16b371)

Just for the sake of comparrison... here's a look at some of the stats for each one so far:

[tabular type=1]
[row][head]Building[/head][head]Lot Size[/head][head]Plop Cost[/head][head]Student Capacity[/head][head]Coverage Radius[/head][head]Total Jobs[/head][/row]
[row][data]Eisenhower Elementary[/data][data]4 x 4[/data][data]500[/data][data]750[/data][data]576[/data][data]31[/data][/row]
[row][data]South Elementary[/data][data]4 x 4[/data][data]600[/data][data]950[/data][data]576[/data][data]39[/data][/row]
[row][data]Roth Elementary[/data][data]5 x 3[/data][data]1700[/data][data]2450[/data][data]640[/data][data]88[/data][/row]
[/tabular]

These were all done with the X-Tool (which was not the case for the first three packs, by the way)... there are a few things that seem a little out of line (like the plop cost for Roth), but most of them look to be fairly close to what I would have expected.  The good news is that even without the X-Tool, the stats of School Pack Vol. One elementaries seem to line up pretty well with these too.

That's about it for this time...
JB

LoL Jon not bad for being 1 am lol gezzzs...  I wonder what Roth Elementary would look like with some activity hehehe  during the day time *snickerin*  Anywho Jon I trust you and I know you make it work and make it to be damn good no matter what!!!!

Looking good! All of them!

Thanks Jon, I think I'm finally starting to develop my BATter's eye. Partly from my own stuggles with scale and seeing a building in game dwarfing what should be a larger structure... yeah, there a reason I'm sticking to bridges right now,heh heh. If you could pull it off, I think a row of a few smaller winodws (skylight sorts) along the 'third' floor might fill in the wall nicely.

As for Eisenhower Elementary, I would suggest carrying the wooden fence (or some form of wooden fence) around the play area to the front. Looking at the present setup I don't see a closer door than the one on the right. I think they would have a fence there to keep the wee ones out of the street. I like how you left most of the lot open though. It'll make it easier to blend with fields and such.

I like the satellite dish on Roth (teacher's breakroom?) and the whole building turned out quite well. I think you managed a building/lot that could be used both in urban, and less urban areas. I would add a few more pieces of play equipment in the back, especially considering the increased capacity.

Great work on this stuff Jon.
-Matt

Pat:  Thanks for the vote of confidence!  My guess is that Roth Elementary would still look like an old brick building... but with more kids playing nearby.   :D

FrankU:  Thank you!

Matt:  Thanks!  I'm not sure about the idea of a third row of windows really.  My thought was that most of the ducting and such would be sandwiched in that attic type of crawl space... but that's just my imagination which is always subject to change!  I've actually made a couple changes to the Eisenhower lot already, and there may be a few more yet... so I'll update that picture next time I work on it.  I'd like to put a few more things behind Roth Elementary, but there just isn't a whole lot of room back there.  My only other choice would be to add another tile's worth of depth to the lot.  I'd rather not do that or the lot will start to feel too "open"... so I'm not sure about that one yet either.  Basically, I guess I'm saying I don't know what I'm going to do with anything just yet!   %confuso  :D

Well... I went back to John Novak Elementary today.  I think I've basically finished most of the major modeling for this one!  I can now say that the overall lot size for this should be 9x6 or maybe 9x7... somewhere in there.  Here's a look at all four sides:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FNovak_South05.jpg&hash=5a585cf85e449814195570f7de072505f1880494)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FNovak_North05.jpg&hash=d253f21bf6b43a5acf9433e24c2ccac619c0b0d2)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FNovak_East05.jpg&hash=87dc5c80a77fdf207a355a19ee3e564a6258e038)

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It goes without saying that I still have to add the roof junk and some other small details.  (Hmm... if it really goes without saying, then why did I just say it?)  There are also one or two minor things that I might still change, but I'm not entirely sure.  If anyone sees something that just doesn't make sense or looks like complete garbage, speak now or forever hold... um... I don't know what you should hold.  I may start trying to texture this tomorrow... but that's going to be a job and a half all by itself.  On top of the dread I feel in taking this all back apart... I should also really do the lighting first so I can keep the rotations all nice and properly lined up.  Anyway... I'm just rambling now, so I think I'll shut up and say the usual

Til next time...
JB

I really like it &apls The shape of the building really provides a lot of interesting lotting options.

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FNovak_North05.jpg&hash=d253f21bf6b43a5acf9433e24c2ccac619c0b0d2)

I don't get what's going on with the second floor at the central building... like... the shape of the right side is totally odd and different compared to the left side. &mmm

I'm not very sure if i like the addition (the one-floor building that is sticking out of the yellow central building)... and such a large school tells me they might need another gym as well... so I dunno... maybe replace that with a second gym? Then again it might be just my pure distaste for anything non-symmetrical $%Grinno$%

Other than that the building looks really really good ;)  I think it could even be added to in height and be designated as a high school as well. Or even maybe some portables or an addition, considering there's a lot of play space to occupy. :D

In the end I don't mind if there is variety of the same building. Vancouver did something similar when it came to building our high school and the neighbouring ones as well, as they needed a lot of schools in a short time in the 1950s. Not everything is the same... as there is variety in the layout of the buildings, but some of the schools look similar exterior-wise to ours.

- Allan Kuan

This is looking great Jon.   That yellow Stucco will really stand out in my cities.  :D

Contrary to Allan's views, I like the low building sticking out the side.  Says cafeteria to me, although that may be because I had a school with a cafe like that.  $%Grinno$% 

Thats going to be a massive lot.  Could I suggest a couple of stand alone buildings be done and make it massive school?

XiahouDun:  Thanks!  Yeah... I have a feeling that lotting this one may be a bit of a challenge.   %wrd

Allan_kuan:  I completely understand what's going on with the back of the building... but that's probably because I designed it.   :D  The picture below should help explain things a bit more (at least I hope so!).  The front of the building is intentionally very symmetrical, but then around back is where function sort of overtakes form a bit more.  I'm not sure about adding a third level... this one is already quite a bit taller than it "should be"... but I may make a second lot for high school use.  Not sure about that just yet.  Thanks for the comments!

Shaun:  Thanks!  Caffeteria is a good guess!  ;)  I may end up using some outbuildings on this one... but I'm not sure what they might be yet.  I could ressurect the maintanence garage for use off the parking area.  I also have recently noticed a number of schools with "learning gardens" where the students actually grow vegetables and all that fun stuff.  (Then again, that might be one of those California things... they seem to love their organic stuff around here!)   :D

I've always had a lot of comments about my arrangements of these schools.  I thought it might be interesting to show just what my mind goes through when I make some of these things... and given Allan's comments, this seemed like a good example to use.  Now, I'm not going to lie and say that I always have these things in mind... but more often than not, I at least keep a lot of these ideas in my head as I go along.  Here's a little "floor plan" view of John Novak Elementary:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FNovak_FloorPlan.jpg&hash=dc504c2c449ccd6d4a55baa68380b2d4046d8329)

Most schools are designed in a way that various areas and sections can be closed off, particularly during events when the building might be open to the public (basket ball games, commencement concerts, etc).  In this case, public areas would include the gym, auditorium (which I suppose could be a second gym if you want it to be), and the immediate surrounding areas like a set of restrooms, canteen (gotta sell popcorn and hot dogs to make money somewhere!) and connecting hallways.  They could be accessed from either the main entry or public entry (which would be closer to the parking lots).  The caffeteria could easily be included or not depending on the event in question.  Everything else could be easily closed off to limit public access.  In the same way, during the school day, all the common areas are centrally located.  This isn't always a huge issue, but in a building this size it would probably be taken into consideration just to keep the walks a little shorter.

Naturally, if you really started to pick apart all the schools I've made so far, you'll find plenty of exceptions to this... but it is a rough guide I use.  If you start to look, you'll generally find some sort of main entry near the gym.  You'll usually find a caffeteria and kitchen combination somewhere... and I usually tend to bundle the classrooms into wings or blocks.  At the same time, the game that we're all using these for presents limitations that I always have to make exceptions for.  For older buildings, there is usually a lot more conformity to the exterior look as a whole... for newer buildings, there is a bit more flexibility as the "rules" of design have changed.  So what's my point?  I don't really know...  ::)  I guess I'm just saying that I really do put a lot of thought into these and rarely just start throwing a bunch of rectangles together in the hopes that it will look like a school once I've finished.  Or maybe I'm just trying to distract you from the fact that none of these are completely finished yet!   :D

But they will be...
JB

this school look really nice my friend, for sure you can see it in my MD  :thumbsup:

You made it rather easy to "read" the functionality of the building in that case, I think - when I had a closer look at it after reading Allan's posting, I guessed everything right and even took the "second gym" into consideration. Ok, my eyes are "architecturally trained", so I probably can guess more than the average Joe, but you did a nice job with defining the shapes. In RL proportions, the gym would be way too small (esp. compared to the cafeteria), but then again, Maxis did the very same after all by making the gyms just a tad larger than a regular classroom. Most schools I know from this area have a dedicated gym building which is detached from the rest of the school (both old and new ones), which is probably easier to build because of the different ceiling heights and such.

Whoa Jon - this latest creation is awesome.

I like your logic applied to it as well, makes sense to me at least!  I can't wait to plop this baby and build the playing fields around it (one of my favourite SC4 activities).

All the best,

Paul

That's a really small gym... elementary school wise it's okay....

However, secondary schools usually have two gyms that can be converted into one large one (like my school) and possibly an additional gym in addition to the large main one.

I like how you took many different factors into consideration when building some of the larger-format schools... there is potential for making it symmetrical through a realignment the walls of the central building :D but that's just my opinion $%Grinno$%

- Allan Kuan

My old highschool had two gyms as well, one for the girls and one for the boys. The second story had a 200m indoor track running around both gyms. Needless to say, whenever we ran around the girls gym we all ran a bit slower.

Hmm... floor plans... here we go xD

Attached below is my proposed symmetrical floor plan. Feel free to maybe make an adaptation of the school with this design...

- Allan Kuan

Quote from: wes.janson on November 14, 2008, 06:37:47 PM
My old highschool had two gyms as well

$%#Ninj2 3 Gyms, a pool, and a weight room :D

lucky... we don't have a pool xD

but enough off-topic i think xD

- Allan Kuan

Hello JBSimio,  Jack wilds here... I've been a fan of your work for some time now and figured that with the anticipated release of the next school pack I'd chime and give my kudos  :thumbsup: on all the good work. 

The attention to detail and quality is amazing, you'll have to have a a few webcast classes to share your methods and 'tricks' to getting such cool looking properties.  The means to creating the layering to getting such textures that appear to have a depth to 'em -really cool.  I also like the nostalgic-aged appearance of the structures too. 

The next pack looks very promising... I'd keep the Novak elementary as is, just add some detail and texture here and there... the concern about the right side vs the left... I think it makes since with this type of structure and its design, it lends to its architectural and depth characteristics.  Besides there is school here in the valley similar in appearance so its not an odd thing, there is precedent.

I was looking at the other JBSimio pages(?) and saw a 'component-ized' college with dorms and instruction halls, plus there is bus housing-parking facilities... what ever became of these projects?  are they available?

See you the halls of campus... ;D

Jack

Arthur:  Thank you!  I'll be looking for it... ;)

Andreas:  Thanks!  But you've always been good at "reading" these as I recall.  Yes, the gym is definitely too small for reality... but, as you also pointed out, some of these things are just dictated by the game.  I really think at this point that anyone who is adamant about realistic and consistent scale recreations should probably just stop playing this game and consider model railroading instead.   :D  I keep getting comments about these outbuilding gyms... and yet I've only seen a few pictures of them.  I still have never been to a school with that arrangement anywhere.  I guess it's one of those things that just doesn't happen in the upper midwest (maybe due to the winters?)... I don't know.

Paul:  Thank you!  I guess I need to get these finished up so I can start seeing them in MDs sooner!  :D

Allan_kuan:  Small gym... already covered that part... and since this is indeed an elementary school, apparently it's all OK then.  ;)

Wes.janson:  Geez... my high school had (well, still has actually) one gym with a mezzanine!

Xiahoudun:  Wow... no pool either, although we did have a weight room.   ::)

Allan_kuan:  I appreciate the thought, but if I had really wanted to make the back squared off and symmetrical, I wouldn't have spent as much time making what I made.

Jack_wilds:  Thank you for all your kind words!  I don't really see myself doing any webcasts anytime soon though.  :D  Just to clarify, none of the wall textures have been added to John Novak Elementary yet... in fact the only textures that are there so far would be the glass, window frames, and the sloped roof sections.  The University of Clayhurst is available on the LEX DVD right now (and will be uploaded publicly sometime in the future, although I haven't decided for certain when).  The bus garages that you mentioned are part of an add on pack which also included some (American) football fields, and a few other things.  I never really finished that one and I'm not even sure where it might be at the moment.  I'd have to look around, find it, and try to remember what still needs to be done with it.

I haven't had a whole lot of time for these in the past week, but things are progressing.  The big hold up at the moment on Novak is really its design.  Because of the angles I used and the way I made them, I actually need to light this building before  I take it all apart and start texturing it.  Then, after it's textured, I need to go back and adjust all the lights to compensate for the actual textures.  (Usually I texture everything and then do the lighting as the absolute last step)  Anyway, I have gotten a start on the lighting... but there just isn't anything worth showing until the textures are on and the lights are actually finished.  Hopefully, I'll be able to get an update here sometime in the middle of the week.  In the meantime, I just wanted to pop in lest people start to think I'd gone off on some kind of unauthorised vacation.  ;)

JB

Quote from: JBSimio on November 23, 2008, 11:04:47 PM
I keep getting comments about these outbuilding gyms... and yet I've only seen a few pictures of them.  I still have never been to a school with that arrangement anywhere.  I guess it's one of those things that just doesn't happen in the upper midwest (maybe due to the winters?)... I don't know.

Well, this is just what I am used when I went to school, and it's certainly not a standard, since it always depends on the actual location. I made two screenshots of my former schools in Google Earth and commented them, so you might get an idea. The first screenshot shows my elementary school, located in a village of about 2500 residents.

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg246.imageshack.us%2Fimg246%2F435%2Fschule2xg7.jpg&hash=d44647bbc749b3ec4c2d176babb4cac94e5f1c7d) (http://imageshack.us)

As you can see, there's also a kindergarten right next to it, and the soccer field is used by the local soccer club. When I went to school there, we also used it for some sports, but these days, there's a fence around it. I assume the gym teacher has a key for the doors, though. The school gym on the left was built after my time there, so I always went to the old gym at the bottom of the pic, which was also used as multipurpose room for the local gymnastics club, the community, for exhibitions and more. Today, most, if not all sports activities were relocated to the new gym, which is also used by the local clubs now. BTW, my old home where I grew up is on the pic as well, just right of the kindergarten. Man, was that great to go just across the street for school. :)

The next pic shows my old Gymnasium (one of the school types after elementary school in Germany, not to be confused with "gym" as in "gymnastics", but similar to high school). The lot is actually used by all three school types, the Hauptschule (lower secondary school), the Realschule (more advanced than Hauptschule) and Gymnasium (grammar school; most advanced of all three school types). There's no fence in between the lot, so don't be confused by the colored lines - I just added them to show the different school yards and such.

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg141.imageshack.us%2Fimg141%2F4046%2Fschulesv4.jpg&hash=5853d65ebdbae38889b53645bc677d1787e8ea20) (http://imageshack.us)

As you can see, the gyms (labeled "Sports") are not connected to the school buildings, except for the Hauptschule (to a certain degree). The gym for the Hauptschule is rather new, and it's also used by local sports clubs, as far as I know (the same goes for the Realschule gym). The local soccer club stadium is located a bit north, across the river (not shown in the pic), which also features facilities for athletics and such.

We have a similar arrangement back home too.  This is my old school.  In NZ, in the rural areas we have Area Schools.  They go from age 5 to age 18 and draw from the surrounding community.

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It's not too clear, but the red is the primary school classes, except for the centre of the upper left one, which is Admin.
The green is the intermediate classes (ages 11-12ish) and the blue is the secondary school.  A lot of the blue classes are multi aged.  There is the Art Room, Science Lab, Home Ecomnics and Wood work classes in there.

The school functions very much as a focus for the community (the pub is over the road so you can drive in with the kids, leave at the pool and get smashed  :D) and a lot of the 'school' buildings are owned jointly with the community.  The Gym, community room and pool are all like this.  The squash Courts and tennis club rooms are owned by the clubs I think, but the school have some access to them.

If you get bored of doing traditional american schools let me know and I can supply photos.  I would love to see this in game.  :D (and yes I know you can't do mixed age schools but there is a good break to the school so it's not a big issue.

Thank you both for showing those... it's very interesting.  To me, these are set up more like full fledged campuses which is pretty unusual, at least to me.  I've seen similar arrangements beginning at the high school level, but rarely (if ever) in the elementary schools.  But there again, this is just based on what I've seen, and I'll be the first to admit that my list of palces visited is pretty limited.  While I've been to a fair number of different schools, most of them have been in the upper midwest... or an area that only covers 4-5 states.

Well... I finally had enough time to get John Novak Elementary lit up and textured.  This is a first pass on both so there are a number of things that will definitely change, but I'm also looking for feedback on the things I may have missed at this point.  First, a look at the daytime views...

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For starters, I know that the bricks are definitely too small and don't show up very well... so I'll make those bigger.  I already fixed the piece of roof trim I missed on the gym.    ::)  I'm wondering if the plaster and/or roof textures are maybe a bit too dark?  It's supposed to be a newer school, so I don't want it to be too weathered... but I don't want it to be so clean it looks like a cartoon either.  So I'm not entirely sure about the brightness levels just yet.  I'm also still a bit undecided about the little logo on the back.  (I didn't put it on the gym wall because I figured that was so close to the loading dock, it would probably be more of an out-of-sight area anyway.)  I'm not sure if maybe I just need to clean it up a bit more and paint it in a different color... or maybe just get rid of the idea all together.   &Thk/(

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For the most part, I'm pretty happy with the lighting.  I need to get the upper window over the front entry to light up better and fix a couple spots where the light spills a bit too much (like near the back entry)... but I think that's about it as far as I can tell.

Depending on what I end up doing tomorrow, I may have time to take a second pass at all of this before another group arrives and keeps me at work for too long.  :D  But if not, I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it in your part of the world)... or just a great day tomorrow!

JB

Wow.. this is looking quite fantastic. I love the green roof texture, it works really well with the colour of the bricks.

I think the plaster and roof textures look fine as they are. I've seen a number of buildings that look like that and they are fairly new too. I think some exterior lighting at the front to light up the cental section might be neat (if not a bit impractical/luxurious). Not sure about the logo, but it is a nice detail. Quite an impressive building.
-Matt

Wonderful building Jon :thumbsup:

JB, that's looking pretty damn good.  :thumbsup:  That green roof just screams school, what is it with that colour. I think you could find a school in any country in the world with a roof that colour. Must have a suppresive value   $%#Ninj2

Dave

Great school here. Very nice.
And the green roof: my guess is that it is copper.

Quote from: FrankU on November 27, 2008, 06:13:00 AM
And the green roof: my guess is that it is copper.

Nope. as copper is.. well... copper coloured when new.  It doesn't go green till it's aged some.  ;)

Jon wow looking very good!!!!

very excellent school, as always, great work  &apls :thumbsup:

Hello, Jon.

It has been quite some time since I've had the pleasure of commenting on a JBSimio work of art.  Your latest "school" building is beyond beautiful and pratical.  It has entered the world of master arts.  Jon, I am so impressed with this beautiful model you've created.  it is going to be such a joy to use it.

Thank you so very much for sharing your talents with the SimCity Community.  You are truly an artist.

Regards,

Gary (Vandy)

Wes.janson:  Thank you!

Matt:  Thanks!  I tinkered with some flood lights aimed at the main entry, but I didn't like the look much... so I just made the necessary adjustments to the lighting in that area and moved on.

Tag_one:  Thank you!

Dave:  Thanks!  I don't know why green seems to be such a common trim color for schools... but I've noticed that as well.

FrankU:  Thank you!  Not copper (although admittedly the texture is very close to the one I use for aged copper), just that nifty metal roofing.

Shaun:  Yeah... what you said  ;)

Pat:  Thanks!

Arthur:  Thank you!

Gary:  So nice to see you around again!  I hope all is well.  Thank you for such kind words and thoughts!

Alright... I made a bunch of small adjustments here and there.  Fixed the bricks... fixed the lights that I didn't like... added a few more things here and there... and whatever else I did.  I'm also including a look at two color ideas for the logo in the hopes that I can decide which one to use.

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FNovak_South07.jpg&hash=5804d67cd3c3ff5497ddeb4cd17af461b081f54a)

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And now I have to get going before I burn the turkey that I'm not cooking for the huge Thanksgiving feast that I'm not preparing...  :D

JB

Jon whats that I smell did you burn that bird that you wasnt cooking lol hehehehehe.... OK my honest thoughts here Jon and well not that often I give it but the color in the logo in the circled version is soo much better then one you have on the full version... I believe it looks like a brownish version in the circle right? If that is the case it gives off the right feel of the building and matches the brickes honestly... OK enough of my babbling see you in Waterfalls lol...

Amazing work here JBSimio!  &apls &apls :thumbsup: ;D
Maybe I will relot those in the future. :P

-un1

looking good =)

- Allan Kuan

It's fascinating how different schools are. Campus style is pretty much how it's done here in Australia, and in most cases (at least here in NSW) Primary schools (Years K-6) and High Schools (Years 7-12) are kept separate (though there are exceptions).

In general, high schools are considerably larger, with several primary schools around the area for each high school in an area. Sorry about flooding the forum with these pictures, but I thought some folks might be interested to see how schools are here.

My Primary School:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg246.imageshack.us%2Fimg246%2F4125%2Flspsbl1.jpg&hash=6698b73d0d5807a181bf89f4cb4b1737e5bdc81f) (http://img246.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lspsbl1.jpg)
All images hosted at ImageShack (http://www.imageshack.us/).

The one above is my primary school. It wasn't exactly huge. I seem to recall it handled about 500 students, which sounds about right for the number of buildings (the one to the bottom left on this picture had two floors.

I've coloured the outlines here:
Hot Pink: School hall and Admin building. The white thing to the left of this was a shade cover for the assembly area).
Brown: Senior Primary classrooms (Years 3-6).
Orange: Junior Primary classrooms (Years K-2). As I recall, the block next to the tan ringed building were set aside for Kindergarten (Year K).
Tan: Canteen
Blue: Toilets
Green: Equipment Stores (I think)
Yellow: Library

The school had (and probably still doesn't, it's not common in primary schools) no gym. PE was generally done outside (which I hated when it rained in particular for obvious reasons).

My High School:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg134.imageshack.us%2Fimg134%2F642%2Fphhswn4.jpg&hash=e253cb1c511a6a5f193df3064dc3e68ad3ae739b) (http://img134.imageshack.us/my.php?image=phhswn4.jpg)
All images hosted at ImageShack (http://www.imageshack.us/).

I've also labeled various areas (as I remember my high school much more clearly, although I see they finally built the new Library they'd been planning to).

Hot Pink: Various facilities. (Exposed: Locker area, Canteen, toilets. Lower level: 1xx rooms Level 1: 2xx rooms Level 2: 3xx rooms. The Library used to be on the top level. This is probably now classrooms.)
Orange: Maths block. Numbered in the 4xx range. About 10 rooms in total.
Yellow: DT (Design Technology - woodwork, metalwork, IT - the new building appears to have two floors, so IT has probably been moved). Classroom range numbers: 5xx range
Brown (southern part: Dance Studio, New Library, possibly IT). Probably has been assigned the 6xx range of numbers.
Blue: Auditorium (was always far too small for the size of the school).

In addition I've labeled some of the outdoor areas:

1: Main Quadrangle. What looks like a green roof for a building is actually just a shade cover. It used to be material but the cover actually flew off, with one of the supports breaking in the process (!) one year while I was there. Needless to say everyone was amazed by this.
2: Senior Quad: Only year 11 and 12 (Preliminary and HSC students) were granted access to this area. Although we went into this area various times before year 11 during music classes (which were held in the rooms near the door to this area)...  :D
3: Basketball courts.
4: Tennis Courts.
5: Cricket Pitch and oval. This is actually used on weekends for local clubs.
6: Soccer/Rugby League/Union pitch
7: Hockey field.

You'll note there's a small road to the right of the hockey field. That's a bus bay and was used to get folks to sport (and probably still is).

And yes - that IS the local megamall to the lower right. half the school ended up here at lunch even though it wasn't allowed (the vast majority of teachers turned a blind eye, lol).

EDIT: finalised post. Sorry for the gargantuan post.

Quote from: cammo2003 on November 28, 2008, 06:26:07 AM
EDIT: finalised post. Sorry for the gargantuan post.

No need to be sorry; this is very interesting, actually - and it could help us in building more realistic school campuses in SC4. :)

Quote2: Senior Quad: Only year 11 and 12 (Preliminary and HSC students) were granted access to this area. Although we went into this area various times before year 11 during music classes (which were held in the rooms near the door to this area)...  :D

LOL, we had that too in the Gymnasium. The dark square that is surrounded by several building wings was used by the seniors as smoking area. I guess smoking at school isn't allowed anymore these days, though. ;)

In case it might interest you, said wings around the square held the specialized rooms for science and arts, the three main wings (with one more floor) held the regular classrooms, and the annex on the left includes the library, auditorium and music (combined). SimGoober's large high school (the one with the dark red brick and the white window frames) is actually using the design of this school. :)

Hello JBSimio, Jack wilds here...

I am liking the progress and the graphic,  :thumbsup: also did you consider a mascot graphic/name instead? will there be a mascot for there sport team?  will it be represented some place?  for instance my grade/high school are known as the 'blackhawks' with a screaming blackhawk swooping in on the prey.

Also  ()what() I am having an issue with flags on your lots and jasoncw lots,  I have peg's flag mod but all the flags in my cities are 'peg opps'ed' out?  what the issue you think? is thee an other dependency I'm missing?  &mmm

have blessed Christmas

Jack

Pat:  Thanks!  The more I looked at it, the more I agree with you... and stuck with the paint scheme that matches the brick color on that logo back there.

Un1:  Thanks!  By all means... lot away!  ;)

Allan_kuan:  Thank you!

Cammo:  Thank you very much for that post... I really enjoyed looking at all of that!  I guess I just never realized that things were quite that different in other countries.  It looks like I may have to start gathering some ideas for Volume Six already!  :)

Andreas:  Very interesting, indeed... I feel a whole new set coming on already.  ;)

Jack:  Thanks!  Actually, the graphic is a mascot name... it says "Go Tigers."  The lines are meant to look as if the tiger took a swipe at the building.  Maybe not the best... but then again, neither are my photoshopping skills.  ;)  Concerning the OFMN mod... I do remember that there is a dependency to Peg's mod listed in his download.  I believe the mod requires the "Day of Peace" pack from the official site or something like that.  Check the readme that came with Peg's files for the exact name... but I know there is something like that required.  I hope that helps!  Thank you for the Christmas wishes... I hope you also have a wonderful one!

Well... I got a little sidetracked this month.  Things have been extremely hectic, both in the land of Covington and in the land of Occidental, CA.  :D  I really haven't had a whole lot of BAT time at all lately.  The time I do have has been going towards trying to wrap up some of the apartment complexes that I started so long ago.  Anyway... all this is just my long and rambling way of saying that I don't have anything new to show at the moment.

That being said, I am exporting John Novak on my desktop as we speak and Westwood Elementary is ready to lot as well.  That means that all five schools for Volume Four will be in their final model files by the end of tonight.  I'm planning to have a little bit more time in the next couple of weeks to work with the lots and modding... I may even start lotting a little bit on the plane tomorrow.  Either way, Volume Four is looking like a January release if all goes well.  Just thought a little progress report was in order... ;)

Talk to you soon!
JB

Well... I sat on planes and in airports for pretty much the entire day yesterday.  I can't begin to explain how much fun that was!  Why do people have to get so worked up and agitated all the time?  It's a week before Christmas... you know the airport is going to be busy... stop whining about the lines and smile for cryin out loud.  ::)  I couldn't decide if I wanted to smack some of these ignorant people or give them a hug and tell them it would be alright...  :D  Anyway... annoying people or not, I did manage to make it into Chicago and then Michigan before all the snow arrived, so all is good.  During all the sitting around (and in between the moments of laughing at other people), I managed to get a little bit of lotting done and a fair bit of modding finished.  Here are some of the latest pictures...

Helen Krump Elementary - added a sign and flag (OFMN mod... the flag can be the country of your choice as always), changed the driveway slightly, and added a little wear around the back door.  I just need to go back and center the flag better and this will be completely finished.

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FHelenKrump_LotFront01.jpg&hash=e7b1963c180ec362930d4a06ba13bbfa9fb61082)

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Eisenhower Elementary - added a sign and flag (same as above... also still needs to be centered), removed the fence and expanded the play area in back, need to make a final decision about adding a back door leading directly to the play ground or not.   :-\

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Westwood Elementary - this is the first pass at the lot (which is 5x4 by the way).  I'm mostly happy with it, although I'm still considering wrapping the parking around the right side to connect with the bus drop off area.  I also need to make a sign for this one... but there probably won't be a flag.

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Roth Elementary doesn't look any different, so there are no new pictures of that.  John Novak Memorial School still needs to be lotted and I may have an update on that later.

Any thoughts or suggestions for these?
JB

They are looking real good there Jon.

I think the trouble with lots is that you can't please all the people all the time.  For peeps who like to just plop the school lot and move on then having a fence all the way round the grounds makes sense.  But you know me...... I like to personalise it a little and generally I will add some green space around the school, be it a footie pitch, a running track, tennis or maybe just a large field with a path.  For that you don't really want a fence around the grounds.  Not sure what the compromise is though Jon!!

And the other thing is car parking.  Helen Krump and Eisenhower have front entrance to the car park (sorry, can't bring myself to use the term parking lot!!!) which you know will always work.  Westwood however, has parking to the side - which is great becasue it adds some variety - but what if it's plopped in amongst housing and the cark park entrance aligns with a back garden of a house?  Personally I'd plop the SFBT park paths up to it so it has access - but it just shows the problem again of how to please all the people all the time.

In reality Jon they are three fantastic lots that do great justice to the buildings you've created.  They'd all sit proudly in West End (and will do!) so I'd say you've got them cracked.  My personal favourite is Eisenhower, hard to pinpoint why exactly - maybe it's that it has the balance right with the number of props - not so few it looks barren and not so many it looks crowded.

All the best mate,

Paul

Quote from: JBSimio link=topic=610javascript:void(0);4.msg209042#msg209042 date=1229717964
need to make a final decision about adding a back door leading directly to the play ground or not.   :-\

I'd suggest doing it, because otherwise it looks like kids would have to go either through the parking lot, or the street to get there.  I'd also extend the fence around the back of the school, at least to the end of the concrete part of the play area. 
I'm also for the idea of wrapping the parking around the right side of Westwood Elementary, because that would make the entrance be on the same side as the bus drop off, and make it look better visually when plopped on a corner.  As it is now, it would look a little odd if plopped with only two sides to the street (no matter what, you'd have at least one side that looks like it should have street access, but doesn't) so you're kind of limited to plopping it the way you have it placed now.
The Helen Krump lot is, as they say, a keeper.  It could use maybe a couple more cars in the lot, but otherwise it looks great. 

EDIT:
Just something to consider.  Something about John Novak Elementary just speaks "high school" to me.  I think it might be the "go tigers" mural but, to me at least, it definitely looks more like a high school than an elementary school. 

Paul:  Thanks!  I'm well aware that pleasing everyone would mean making about 18 lot versions for each school... thankfully more and more people are becoming comfortable enough with the LE to do that for themselves!  :D  I ended up reconfiguring the driveways and parking areas (does that phrase work for you?) on Westwood, as well as a few other small changes.  I'm really pleased with how Eisenhower has turned out as well... which kind of surprised me, considering that I originally considered it the "throw away" of the five.

Bwatterud:  Thank you!  I probably will add a back door to Eisenhower... simply because it's been mentioned often enough and there really is no other good alternative.  I understand what you're saying about Westwood, although one could easily argue that nearly every lot I've seen has something to "ignore" when it comes to placement.  There's always a driveway or parking lot or path that ends up leading to nowhere for somebody.  There's plenty of cars in all the lots, it just depends on the time of day and the randomness of the game.  John Novac will remain an Elementary School.  Helen Krump and Roth both have a number of features that could scream high school as well depending on your point of view... but then I wouldn't have anything to make for Volume Five... :D

Alright... I made a few changes to Westwood.  Added some fencing but chose something with gates that open and close in the back in case you want to add a sports field or something later.  I also added the sign, bike racks, and changed the driveways around.  Unless there is something horribly wrong, I'm considering this one finished.

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FWestwood_LotFront02.jpg&hash=5168485f0ccdde74b94546e12f2de7c2e4e4428b)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FWestwood_LotRear02.jpg&hash=922e175b671c2d50ec91a91b677e884566cef82b)

I've also gotten far enough with John Novac Memorial to consider this a decent first draft.  For the most part, I'm fairly happy with it... but there are still a few things to change and much is still open to suggestion here.

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FNovac_LotFront02.jpg&hash=e8bbd3e1c18931d16fee7f72ac1106c6f14e7904)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FNovac_LotRear02.jpg&hash=26f1245e7171b05e9dfaacf40794fa0fee6f1853)

My big areas of question at this point are the courtyard area with the tables... and then just the various groups of people milling around.  Both of these things seem to add to that high school look, despite that fact that it isn't going to become one.  I'm just stuggling to find different "child" like props while avoiding repetition.  I'm finding that there just aren't that many different playground type things out there unless I just haven't looked in the right places.

Anyway... that's about it for now!
JB

Hello JBSimio, Jack wilds here...

It all looks good I am impressed with the Westwood and Roth elementary, I like how they sit on the lot.  

I think a door on Eisenhower would be in order making more sense to the over all flow of the lot.  Concerning wrap around bus access to the parking... have one wrap around for a corner lot and the other to remain as is.  

As for the thought from 'bwatterud' that John Novak feels more like a high school... make an elementary version and a High School version with minor differences, so as to, not take too much more time to complete the pack.  Go Tigers!  :thumbsup:

Question, what do you use for a scale, measure, what is is the sliding rule of scale for the game -is there one?.  It appears to me that its all over the board as far as all the bats are.  In one of the packs a high school -Schultz I think, that is done to act as a in city High and it looks smaller scale wise compared to the other schools in the pack.  Is changing a bat scale set on a model or is it a simple thing to change?... just wondering.. I have created numerous architectural- presentation models.

As for the airport observations... its so easy to get all wrapped in one self when all things SEEM to be going out whack, when its out of ones control anyway, so as you did -take in stride, get home in good frame of mind.  Be very careful who you chose to comfort-encourage with a hug -ask first or you'll be grumbly over something else. ;)

A blessed and heart felt Christmas

Jack

Wonderful lots Jon. Personally I'm not fond of the maxis trees, but as there are some replacement mods you won't here me complain  :thumbsup: &apls

Hello Jon,

You're making some swift and great progress here.  The "new" Westwood is spot on - the differences are quite subtle but I think they make a hell of a difference and I'd say that one is surely complete now.

As for Novac - I can understand why people are thinking it's a High School.  It just has quite a size to it and also it looks just a bit more "intimidating".  Not sure if that's the right word - but I just picture a 6 year old kid strolling into that friendly looking Westwood much more comfortably than the more formal entrance to Novac.  But hey, civic design committees come up with all sorts of ideas and there is no doubting that Novac is a beautiful building (architecturally I think it's the best of the pack) and maybe it would work best as an Elementary serving a large high density residential area.

I know what you mean about the seating area outside - again it has a more "formal" feel to it and I'm not sure I can picture the younger kids using it.  At the junior (elementary) school my kids went to they had a small gardening area that the kids looked after - maybe some floer/vegetable beds on that patio could work???  As for playground props - in the BSC Park Set there is a selection that fit both the 1x1 and 1x2 playground lots.  Maybe some of those would work???

You know that there is the same issue with the "parking area" entrance - but as you correctly pointed out, ya cannae please all the people all of the time!!

And one side question.  If I wanted to relot a school, what's the best way of doing it and not scre up the "education properties" of the lot?  In the past I have done this with Maxis schools and end up with a school where you never get more than 5 or 6 students attending.

Cheers Jon, all the best,

Paul

well... technically you could make this a K-12 school for rural or suburban places that need education but don't have the demand to build seperate schools.

- Allan Kuan

Jon looking good here and speaking of repetition hmmm??? Well I know SG has playground equipment or there is that old saying if you cant find it, make it.. There is that possibly maybe?

You know, Westwood could just as easily pass for a community centre, some sort of performance space (with the second level area being audio and lighting control) or even a museum. Am I the only one to see that?

For the record I do actually like that about it, given that it is common for parts of schools to be retasked on weekends or at night.

Novac's looking great. Personally I'll probably mod it into a high school as well, though (with the lot made larger and the playground replaced with a sporting field of some description (with a small lot expansion a soccer field would fit).

Beautiful BATs and LOTs!
I'll use them right after you have released them.
I also use your former packs excessively. I edited the values though, so that I can use smaller amounts of schools. I hope I don't insult you by that?
I am just too lazy to place a school every 20 tiles and manage their funding all the time, so I gave the elementary schools a radius of about the secondary school etc...

Jack wilds:  Thank you for all your input!  I did in fact add a rear door to Eisenhower Elementary.  I stuck with the latest lot versions on Westwood and John Novac.  Volume Four is all elementary schools... so it didn't take much more to complete the pack (more on that in a minute)  ;)  As far as scale goes... in general, you're absolutely right about it being all over the board.  I've had that discussion numerous times, really.  Maxis made residential scale much smaller than commercial scale and larger structures are also much smaller than what would be realistic.  Specifically to my school packs, I've tried to keep the scale within some general guidelines that carry across all of them.  Schultz High School is indeed a smaller high school despite having an urban feel to it, but from a scaling standpoint I used the same measurements in that one that I did in the others.  (It was also based on a middle school which is part of why it's a smaller building overall).  Changing the scale is easy to do while still making the model, but once it has been exported to a game file it is much more difficult.

Tag_one:  Thank you!  I'm no longer very fond of Maxis trees either, but I kept using them just for the sake of a little continuity.  :D  I'm a big fan of the tree replacement mods myself!

Paul:  Thanks!  I ended up keeping Novac the way it was.  I'll definitely look into some of the park sets for additional props in the future though.  I do really like how it came out and I picture it as one of those large suburban schools that pulls students from a pretty large area.  We discussed the relotting comment a bit yesterday, so I won't go into that again here.  I will mention, because of your low attendance, that there is a "bug" in the game that may be playing a role.  It seems that placing two elementary schools (or high schools) next door to each other creates some issues where everyone will go to one school and ignore the other.  You can place a high school next to an elementary... but apparently not two of the same type all that close together.  (This doesn't seem to apply to universities either by the way)

Allan_kuan:  The more I thought about it, the more the idea grew on me... so there are now two versions of Novac.  One is a standard elementary school and one is a consolidated K-12 version.  Thanks!

Pat:  Thank you, my friend!  Yes... I could always make some more playground equipment too, I suppose.  Because my list just really isn't long enough yet... :D

Cammo:  Thanks!  I remember adding a sports area to Central High School.  I debated between a baseball diamond and tennis courts for quite some time before deciding on tennis courts.  To be honest, I've always sort of regretted doing that.  Looking back, it strikes me as a bit limiting in the end and I've tried to avoid doing that ever since.  I'd much rather leave the sports fields off and let you all decide what you want to place nearby.

FrankU:  Thank you!  I don't mind your editing the coverage radius at all.  I always thought the Maxis standard was too small anyway.  I did make mine slightly larger, but I didn't want to get too carried away.  ;)

Well... quite a bit has happened here in the last week or so.  School Pack - Volume Four is officially finished and being tested as we speak!   %BUd% :satisfied:  It doesn't look like we'll make it in time for a New Year's release, but it shouldn't be very far off at all.  Maybe a week or two.

In the meantime, some of you may have noticed that I uploaded BSC MEGA Pack_JBSimio_Vol03 (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1891) recently.  Much like my other recent prop packs, this one fixes a few (and the final remaining) glitches I made in uploading some of my earlier stuff.  This pack consolidates some smaller prop files that were included in School Packs - Volumes One thru Three... and it contains some new material for the future.  Because it does change some dependencies, I've also updated the first three school packs.  You may want to check those to confirm that you still have the right props after updating with this new prop pack.  You shouldn't really need to download the old packs again, but the readmes have been updated if you do.  If not, just check the Lex Details screen for each pack and the new dependency list is right there as well.

We'll be moving on to the high schools of Volume Five in the not too distant future, so stay tuned here for more.  Oh, and don't expect this to be ending anytime soon... I'm well into Volume Seven with plans already!  :D

JB

Great stuff Jon - It's nice to know that all your hard work has reached an "almost" finish point with volume four - good luck with the testing and I hope it does not uncover any nasties!!

Rest assured I'll be here watching volume five develop and seeing as you have volume seven ideas already flowing I guess I'll need to think of some things for volume eight  ;) :D ;) ::)

Paul

LoL Jon sorry to put the monkeys to work lol.... that wasnt my intentions at all  ;)

How long is the University of Clayhurst going to be on the DVD?

I did take a closer look at mega prop pack 3 and found some interesting models inside. :D

- Allan Kuan

Paul:  Thank you!  No nasties discovered... ;)

Pat:  Hey, no problem my friend!  The monkeys need to earn their keep!  :D

Allan_kuan:  Um... it will always be on the DVD.  Why would I want pull it off?

Let's close out 2008 on a high note, shall we?


Have a safe and happy New Year!
JB

Yay.  I've been really looking forward to this pack. I look forward to clearing some space for John Novac Memorial ,

&apls

Whooooo!  &apls &apls I was waiting for this also.  ;)

-un1

That's a fabulous present for the new year Jon   ;D &apls &apls

Thanks for that ! 

Bravo sir  &apls &apls

It is official - you are the SCHOOL MASTER!!!!

What a way to round out the year Jon.

It's been a pleasure meeting you this year and also to see Covington and your BATs go from strength to strength.

All the best my friend,

Paul

Yay! It is out!

Thank you for creating these fabulous creations for SimCity 4 users =)

- Allan Kuan

Hey JBSimio, Jack wilds here...

Wonderful  :thumbsup:, good to look at, something worth a back slap or two...
Since I can't reach thru the net, take off your cap and do it to yourself for me.  :D
They even make my towns look better...

Happy New Year! :)

Jack

Jon fantastic job here wow sweeeeeeeeet!!!! I got my copy!!!

Congratulations Jon. These things are amazing, and they'll be working their way into my region very soon. Looking at the differences between the buildings in this pack alone, you are a very versatile BATter. Each one has its own style and character. Well done.
-Matt

That new school pack is incredible, once again!  &apls

I love all your schools and cannot wait to use these new ones.

Just out of curiosity, I seem to have a problem with a few of the schools from the first couple of packs. For some reason on a few of the lots I have both the school building itself but also a brown box. I am not really not sure what I am missing. Any thoughts?

Quote from: kant01 on January 07, 2009, 07:01:23 AM
That new school pack is incredible, once again!  &apls

I love all your schools and cannot wait to use these new ones.

Just out of curiosity, I seem to have a problem with a few of the schools from the first couple of packs. For some reason on a few of the lots I have both the school building itself but also a brown box. I am not really not sure what I am missing. Any thoughts?

Hmmm... that seems odd, especially because the first couple packs used primarily Maxis props.  Could you please post some screen shots of the troubled lots here so I can take a look and possibly figure it out that way?  There were some very recent updates made to Volumes One through Three concerning the dependency lists, so you could also try a fresh install with the updated versions and dependencies.  It's shouldn't be necessary, but it's possible things got mixed up somewhere along the line.  Otherwise, just post some pictures and we'll get it sorted out from there.   :thumbsup:

JB

Wes.janson:  I'm glad you like them!

Un1:  Thanks!  I'll be watching to see if you relot any of these, too... ;)

Arthur:  You're most welcome!

Paul:  Thank you so much!  It really has been quite a year.  I guess I've bounced all over the SC4 world... from the BAT section to the MD section to England.  :D  It was so great to meet you too, my friend!

Allan:  Glad you like them!

Jack:  Thank you!  I tried a back slap or two... which seemed appropriate at first, but then I think I may have pulled something.   &ops  Oh well... it will stop hurting when the pain goes away!  :D

Pat:  Thanks as always for all your support!  I really appreciate it, my friend!

Matt:  Thank you as well.  I always appreciate your thoughts and insight.

Kant:  Thanks!  Since I haven't heard back from you, is it safe to assume your problem has been solved?

I was trying to think of a clever transition of some sort, but so far I've failed to come up with anything at all.  So, who wants to move onto Volume Five?  ;)  This one will be all high schools... I can pretty much guarantee that there will be four of them.  It's possible I may end up with five, but we'll see how that goes.

Somewhere in this thread, somebody requested a smaller high school.  While Schultz Memorial HS (from Vol. 2) isn't all that large, it's still too big for rural areas... so I decided it would be a good idea to have at least one of these be a smaller one.  I think there may be a second smaller one as well with a more modern look, but we'll come back to that later.  I've also always wanted to make an H shaped high school.  Don't ask me why... I have no real reason or explaination for this urge... it's just something I've had in my head for quite a while.  So...

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FEdwinHS_Preview01.jpg&hash=8646dbc1e067919d1341bc83d30348997b69fd14)

Here's the beginning of it.  There's obviously a fair bit to do yet, but you get the general idea.  I still need to fit the back together and come up with a central entry of some kind, but I think it has some potential.  This would also probably work pretty well as a W2W option that a couple people mentioned somewhere else in this thread.  It should fit on a 4x4 lot by the time it's all said and done.  The style is a pretty generic one... very similar to the Helen Krump Elementary (Vol. 4) or the original sections of Washington HS (Vol. 2)... and I'm thinking of using colors similar to Helen Krump on this one as well.

On a little side note... I noticed that sometime in the last day or two (I'm not sure exactly when it happened) that Volume Four passed the 1000 downloads mark already... and I just passed 50,000 downloads overall!  Thank you all so much for playing along with this little creative outlet of mine!  I'm always humbled by the comments and truly appreciate the support from all you great people!

JB

Jon you know its my pleasure to always support ya's!!!!  Now about this H shaped High School its looking rather intresting and a W2W concept hmm now that something else!! I like that idea...

umm... any recent update on the upcoming pack 5 (high schools)? =O

- Allan Kuan

I have a question on the entire set of school packs. I was wondering if it's possible to get the query box to show up where you can adjust the student capacity. I always prefer this over the interface included in the budget tool.

Meanwhile, with or without the query box, I am most pleased with your creations. They really improve things by adding variety to the game. Very, very nice work!

— Don

JBSimio's query UIs should be included in the latest version of the BSC Essentials.

That "H" design is something. Good job :thumbsup:

Pat:  Thank you!  To be honest, I'm not sure if I like this design or not.  I still like the idea of an H shape... I'm just not sure if this is it or not.   ::)

Allan:  Umm... not really.  Rest assured that if there were updates to give, you'd definitely see them here.  I kind of got side tracked by the Hunter-Dulin building and then the university stuff.  At some point, I'll get side tracked yet again and be back on these.  Such is the nature of my ridiculously short attention span.  :D

Homefryes:  If you meant that you just weren't seeing any query boxes, then Andreas already pointed you in the right direction.  Glad you like the schools and thanks for stopping in!

Andreas:  Thank you for catching that one for me.  I initially read the question in a completely different way and probably would have wasted all sorts of time trying to answer something that nobody even wanted to know!  :D

Citycapitalizer:  Thanks!  It is indeed something... time will tell if it's the right thing or not.  ;)

Sorry for the silence around here lately.  As most of you know, I always seem to have more projects than I really know what to do with.  This means I tend to skip around a little bit, which is what I've done again lately.  It usually means I got stuck on something and needed to just let it sit while I think about it for a while... which is exactly what happened here.  I'm just not real happy with the preview I posted last month, but I didn't really have any other concrete plans yet either... just general ideas.  I've gotten a couple new thoughts recently, so I'll probably be back to this before too long.

In the meantime, thanks for stopping in!
JB

Is this pack going to be 1A, 2A, and 3A types of schools? If it isn't, can you make a pack of small, tiny schools?  ;D

JBSimo,

I am not sure if you had fixed this problem or maybe it cropped back after release of the March 2009 NAM. I redownloaded all four School Volumes, checked all my dependencies they use (and I have them all). But this still happens and it didnt happen before which is strange. Its in one of the older school volume schools (Washington Highschool I think). This never happen to me before.

All there other schools work fine.But look at the lower right
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg14.imageshack.us%2Fimg14%2F1557%2Fjbsimoschoolproblem.jpg&hash=0de623f8f7212eec70a923c67816314e8142e16c)

Here a close up of the school. I have plopped it in a city with nothing on it and it still happens.That rail viaduct appearing on it is the problem. Any suggestions?
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg17.imageshack.us%2Fimg17%2F3420%2Fjbsimoschoolproblem1.jpg&hash=7b87a6306db7d9d37c38b4a0d3e0f60c2ca2920e)


Recap: I have all dependencies (none have been updated since I last downladed)
          Re- Downloaded all of the School Volumes March 19,2009
          No duplicates of the files exist (I double checked)

SimNation:  I won't be able to check into this with any certainty until tomorrow afternoon because of the work schedule I have going right now.  My initial thought is that there is indeed an IID conflict with the static school bus props used on Washington High School.  Swamper actually made these for me based off of the game's bus automata, so it's not an area I know a whole lot about to be honest.  The busses used on the John Novak and Reed Elementary schools are actually timed props with new IID's... which is probably why they're working fine on one school in your second picture, but not on the other.  I'll try to have a look tomorrow... but in the meantime, perhaps Andreas and/or Swamper will stop in with a better explaination as well.

JB

*EDIT:  To confirm that it is indeed the busses, can you check the Peace Church and School (found in Volume Three) to see if those busses display properly?

I forgot about those 2 reward styled ones. Yea you hit the nail on the coffin take a look.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg242.imageshack.us%2Fimg242%2F3610%2Fjbsimoschoolproblem2.jpg&hash=de203936de7060e11de14065f946f241413c924c)

Samething as the Washington school. Hope you will be able to fix it.

This issue is MY fault. If you downloaded my Raised Rail Conversions before 02/06/2009, please redownload them. I set the prop Instance ID to the wrong one on the first upload. I forgot I made the school bus prop exemplar for JBSimio, and hadn't written it down when I created it for him. &ops   The issue should be fixed if you redownload the Raised Rail Conversions. Sorry for any issues that I caused &ops

-Swamper

Swamper77,

Sorry to say this but I already have your updated raised rail shops installed (my last download of them shows march 06,2009) and it did not fix the problem if thats what was causing it. Also I am not sure if you are aware...but the files in your zip for it still say 2/6/2009. I just downloaded again today to check to make sure I had your updated one and the files in the zip have the same date that I have in my plugins folder.

Swamper:  Thanks!  Now that you mention it, I do recall seeing that issue somewhere else around the forums but had forgotten about it.

SimNation:  Hmmm... that is a bit puzzling.  I'll certainly check into it more tomorrow afternoon (I'm posting from work today)... it will give me a good excuse to update to the March 2009 NAM anyway.  :D  Worst case scenario, I could always update the lots to use the timed bus props which seem to work just fine.  (It would probably make more sense than using busses that sit there 24/7 anyway)  As a complete side comment... I've never actually put all the schools into one screen shot like that.  It's kind of cool to see!  ;)

JB

Quote from: JBSimio on March 20, 2009, 03:51:37 PM
SimNation:  Hmmm... that is a bit puzzling.  I'll certainly check into it more tomorrow afternoon (I'm posting from work today)... it will give me a good excuse to update to the March 2009 NAM anyway.  :D  Worst case scenario, I could always update the lots to use the timed bus props which seem to work just fine.

I hope the timed bus prop don't have the same ID as the static one I made you. Might lead to the Prop Pox if they do.

-Swamper

Nah... I wouldn't do that  ;)

Quote from: JBSimio on March 20, 2009, 08:41:21 AM
The busses used on the John Novak and Reed Elementary schools are actually timed props with new IID's... which is probably why they're working fine on one school in your second picture, but not on the other. 

JBsimo + Swamper77

After doing a second search in my plugins folder I found old files of swampers raised rail lots. The search in XP musta missed it somehow. Anyway I removed that and then re-re installed swampers newer one that I downloaded again yesterday to triple check and the problem is now indeed gone. Sorry for the inconvience I was unaware that the search did not find all the files last time I deleted them. Swamper's patched Raised Rail does indeed fix the conflict and the viaduct thing is gone and the bus's are back.

Quote from: SimNation on March 21, 2009, 08:32:54 AM
JBsimo + Swamper77

After doing a second search in my plugins folder I found old files of swampers raised rail lots. The search in XP musta missed it somehow. Anyway I removed that and then re-re installed swampers newer one that I downloaded again yesterday to triple check and the problem is now indeed gone. Sorry for the inconvience I was unaware that the search did not find all the files last time I deleted them. Swamper's patched Raised Rail does indeed fix the conflict and the viaduct thing is gone and the bus's are back.

Don't relay on Windows search, you always miss something. Before I pack my plugins with DatPacker, I always run 3 little aplications, Cleanitol, then NoClone (http://noclone.net) and RED (Remove Empty Directories - http://www.jonasjohn.de). I wish there was a single tool to do this job, but, it doesn't consume too much time anyway, just 3 or 4 minutes more. ;)

Where can I get this longitudinal parking on street?
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi199.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa104%2FJBSimio93%2FWestwood_LotRear01.jpg&hash=fd8dc06e7f86dc80e3edc189cbf38778b62493af)

Dominik15, http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1196

Thanks man  :)

Installed everything from the school pack vol 4 except the PEG One Flag Many Nations Mod dependency, which doesn't seem to exist. Can someone help? Thanks.

https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/27711-peg-one-flag-many-nations-mod/

In fact, if you run into any PEG dependencies, they are being hosted over at Simtropolis since the demise of the PEG website.