Great Big Gobs of Goober

SC4BOY · October 06, 2009, 06:47:09 AM

Ok I came across an incidence that illustrates what I was talking about on the Water Control Board

Notice the building shown (1.) with the "no water" zot By looking at the water graph, one would think I had TONS of water available and could not possibly be short, yet here it is short water. Looking at (2.) in the graph, that was the point where I added the WCB. Note that it appeared to approximately double the available water at that time even though I added no other "water supplies" at that time. Looking at (3.) you can see that as the building is running out of water that the water supply shown is approximately double the actual supply (judged by the green line and the water shown .. I have added another water source along the way (between 2 and 3), but that's not involved.

Just thought since I had it come up "in game" that I'd show you what I'm talking about.

SimGoober · October 06, 2009, 07:04:50 PM

Ok..digging deep below the surface on this one, I have found a ton of weird stuff in this building that doesn't make sense. I made this a while ago, and then it was re-released as part of a package while I was in-active, so I am not really sure how the modding was done for it. I think I origonally copied the exemplar for the in game water treatment plant, and edited a few fields, but I could be wrong. According to what I found, it does produce water, and a ton of it. And it acts a little like a power plant, but generating no power....

So I did some severe editing to it, and it should now strictly reduce water polution. No other stuff. zilch.

I will play with it a couple days to see what it does. I am guessing the new version will casue a CTD if it already used, though I have a way around that.... I have very special MoJo to use that will keep that from happening...

BarbyW · October 06, 2009, 11:52:15 PM

I didn't change any of the modding for the Water Control Board when I posted it as part of theWater utilities pack. I took one look at it and decided it was far too complex to make any changes

SC4BOY · October 07, 2009, 12:04:26 AM

The odd thing to me is it only APPEARS to show water increase.. as you can see from the dry building above, it actually doesn't.. It only makes the "water available" graph go up. I have it in several cities, so if you want me to give you anything from my stuff, let me know. It's waaaay over my head, but let me know if I can do anything..test or whatever.. And if I have to delete and replop the building it really isn't an issue to me.. I'm sure if anyone can dig through it, you can..

SimGoober · October 07, 2009, 06:52:36 AM

Thanks Barby; didn't know if it was run through PIM-X or not. Never played with most of the Utilities in there yet...

Had a request for a full size shot of the new Fukitol Ultra! Plant. So here it is...

The mech areas on the roof were origonally going to be animated, but me and BAB had several arguments, which BAB won. So I gave up and made them "normal".

RippleJet · October 07, 2009, 02:26:09 PM

Quote from: SC4BOY on October 07, 2009, 12:04:26 AM
The odd thing to me is it only APPEARS to show water increase.. as you can see from the dry building above, it actually doesn't.. It only makes the "water available" graph go up.

SC4BOY, SimGoober's Water Control Board also functions as a Water Pump, having a production capacity of 100,500...
In order to be able to use that water, you would have to connect a pipeline to it though.

That pipe connector may not be so easy to find, as it might be hidden directly beneath the building:

On the left-hand lot you can clearly see the connector, on the right-hand lot you cannot.
The connector always appears in the middle of the lot.

However, as in this case, if the lot is and even number of tiles wide and deep (4×4),
then the connector appers on the northwestern side of the dead centre of the lot.
Compare the placement of the connectors in the image above to the compass arrow in the corner.

SC4BOY · October 07, 2009, 03:23:27 PM

Hehe.. I DID hook up the water.. yes it shows water, but try to use it..

I have experienced the "find the connector" thrill, but I think I've hooked them up properly.

edit: hmm I got to thinking about this.. I use SG's water towers very often since they are "cuter" than the maxis one

However now I think back on it, I find that putting the pipe to the "connector".. the round "spigot" thingy.. I still sometimes don't get water to work.. I have to run the pipe under certain other parts of the lot... I've never investigated exactly what part of the tower or if its position is predictable.. I just run the pipe until it connects.. hehe, but this may be the case for the WCB too.. I'll have to look at it sometime when I get a chance.

SimGoober · October 07, 2009, 06:29:50 PM

Yeah, I just usually fill the whole lot full of pipes... that works...

You might also be interested to know that the water purification plant appears to have a number of useless settings in it. A little experimenting, and some input from other BSC members, and the best guess is that Maxis intended to have a sewage system of sorts in the game, but never implemented it. So all this lot really does is lower water pollution in a defined area around it. All the other stuff is just fluff... I intend to rework this lot (again), to simplify it, and remove the fluff. It will end up doing for water pollution what my GooberGen Air Purification plant does for air pollution.

CabraBuitre · October 07, 2009, 09:59:58 PM

Quote from: SimGoober on October 07, 2009, 06:29:50 PM
Yeah, I just usually fill the whole lot full of pipes... that works...

Yep, me too. I like to plop my water "stuff" and forget it... so I do everything in my power to hook it up right so I don't have to search through later!!

SC4BOY · October 07, 2009, 11:26:38 PM

Anyone know why hooking to the connector doesn't always work? Sometimes it does. All the Maxis lots seem to work like that. I'm not a lotter.. does the lot have a predetermined "hookup" or does the person making it have to put it in?

hmm.. I just realized I"ve kind of hijacked SG's thread.. anyone want to move this stuff to a new thread? Sorry

RippleJet · October 08, 2009, 01:09:10 AM

Quote from: SC4BOY on October 07, 2009, 11:26:38 PM
Anyone know why hooking to the connector doesn't always work? Sometimes it does. All the Maxis lots seem to work like that. I'm not a lotter.. does the lot have a predetermined "hookup" or does the person making it have to put it in?

The connector comes automatically from the building having the Occupant Group set to 0x1401, Building: Water
Unfortunately there's no way to control it's placement.
That is controlled from within the exe in quite a similar way that the subway connector appears for tube stations.

Quote from: SC4BOY on October 07, 2009, 11:26:38 PM
hmm.. I just realized I"ve kind of hijacked SG's thread.. anyone want to move this stuff to a new thread? Sorry

I don't think SimGoober minds this. After all, it concerns his Water Control Board.

SC4BOY · October 08, 2009, 04:33:04 AM

Quote from: RippleJet on October 08, 2009, 01:09:10 AM
... controlled from within the exe

You'd think then that it would work when you connect to it.. LOL

SimGoober · October 08, 2009, 05:37:32 AM

Actually, quite the opposite... lol... There is a lot of stuff Maxis put in that doesn't quite work right. If they had taken another week or two to polish this one off, we'd have a lot fewer bugs to deal with I am guessing.

"Error Handling? Oh yeah, we need that. Schedule that for... huh? Release it tomorrow? Well,.... ok...."

imperialmog · November 20, 2009, 09:19:15 PM

I have to say great job on the content you have made by the way for adding a lot of content making cities have a familiar feel to them. Now if I can only find a Target and Steak'n Shake it'd be set but that's another story. I have noticed something that has appeared in your mega residentals, it concerns the low value-low density ones. I have noticed that a number of them are persistant and will not upgrade to higher value regardless of desirability or demand. It seems to be something that occured recently since earlier there are no problems. It seemed to of started when I added more houses that appeared recently so I don't know if that set caused something to occur. I wanted to make sure you were aware and if this has occured to other people.

SimGoober · November 24, 2009, 08:08:45 AM

Not sure of any "problem" there.. sounds more like you don't have any buildings for them to upgrade to. They are rather high capacity...

And coming soon to a LEX near you... my latest monster project...

The Merchandise Mart of Chicago....

In the final phases.. should be uploaded in a day or two

io_bg · November 24, 2009, 08:26:17 AM

Wow, this is hu-u-u-u-u-u-uge!

And very nice at the same time

SC4BOY · November 24, 2009, 09:24:37 AM

Nice recreation

SimNation · November 24, 2009, 02:19:30 PM

Freaking sweet Goobs..I hope you make a few of these kinds of monsters in the future...reminds me of my home town o NYC.

Opkl · November 24, 2009, 02:35:50 PM

Quote from: imperialmog on November 20, 2009, 09:19:15 PM
I have to say great job on the content you have made by the way for adding a lot of content making cities have a familiar feel to them. Now if I can only find a Target and Steak'n Shake it'd be set but that's another story. I have noticed something that has appeared in your mega residentals, it concerns the low value-low density ones. I have noticed that a number of them are persistant and will not upgrade to higher value regardless of desirability or demand. It seems to be something that occured recently since earlier there are no problems. It seemed to of started when I added more houses that appeared recently so I don't know if that set caused something to occur. I wanted to make sure you were aware and if this has occured to other people.

There is a Target on the STEX that I downloaded from someone whos screen name began with a J. Its pretty nice too. Just needs a larger parking lot tho.

Opkl · November 24, 2009, 02:38:48 PM

Quote from: SimGoober on November 24, 2009, 08:08:45 AM
Not sure of any "problem" there.. sounds more like you don't have any buildings for them to upgrade to. They are rather high capacity...

And coming soon to a LEX near you... my latest monster project...

The Merchandise Mart of Chicago....

In the final phases.. should be uploaded in a day or two

Nice job SimGoober!!

Im from Chicago and would love to see this building in one of my future cities.

News:

Great Big Gobs of Goober