Old World Expansion Project Request

[Heblem]

This is a dream I had for Sim City 4 last night, what about in making big expansion pack project like sim mars but for old world, i mean making stuffs and make sim city 4 looks like a city before XIX century. No skyscrapers, just old style buildings, stone roads, dirty roads, carts, people, etc.

I don't see this project difficult, just changing some properties of the game and ready 

We could make old cities of different styles, maybe Europe in middle age, romans, Aztecs, Chinese, Arabian, etc... if a project like this exists of course i will help to improve making bats and stuffs. Like fox example, making a prop pack of Aztecs stuffs and constructions, and the same for another culture.

What you think in making something like this? 

[Diggis]

Sounds like a great idea, but to play devil's advocat for a second after seeing how long it's taking Peg to do the Mountain theme pack, which works much like you are saying, it's not an easy task.

[Heblem]

but if we work together we can do it "easy"

[Diggis]

Well, I can't bat, but can texture, so will help out if you need. 

I wasn't bagging the idea, as I do think it's a good one. 

[Heblem]

Also I was thinking if we complete a project like this, we could "expand" the CAM into 30 levels  and the new and first 15 levels include the old world style buildings for it and the others 15 levels for the actual CAM

[andisart]

Having worked on SimMars I can tell you that this is not too difficult but a project on a large scale. The major and most time consuming parts of a conversion project like this are:
-creating the new BATs, there are about 60-80 of them needed to replace MAXIS ones until you get a basic set together
-creating new UserInterface graphics
-creating new network textures
-creating new automata mods
(although for a old age mod there would probably only be few networks & automata anyway)

The groundwork for mods like this has been done with SimMars I'd say. The mods to remove MAXIS menu icons, stop MAXIS BATs from growing, altering the UI graphics, replace loading texts etc. can either just be used or adjusted to a new theme.

You have my support for this 

[Heblem]

andisart: thank you very much, if this project gets started ill contact you for help 

Here is my new ideas for this request.
-Essential Prop Pack - A prop pack of files must be done, this will include several prop of a different ages and civilizations, can be anything.
-Texture Pack - A set of textures for lot
-Eliminate All Maxis "Modern" stuffs
-Eliminate I-tech, CO $$ and $$$ at this one
-Eliminate highway, avenues, train, subway, system
-Eliminate Power
-Change the water system to a new lake or plopable water...
-Change Street and Road styles. (some props like in middle age uses to be)
-Like SAM (by jplumbey) different road styles for each wealth (stone, unpaved, dirty, etc)

Make a examplar propriety in blank for a future civilization styles, i mean for a R$ there will be wood homes, and for R$$ stone home and R$$$ a castle or something bigger (differences in culture) also for CS, Industry and agriculture.

Different civ styles:
Europe in Middle Age.
Asia in middle age.
United States (civil war, old west, etc)
Roman Empire
Arabian Style
Prehispanic (Aztec, Mayan, Inca) style

For each civ there must be many bats done as possible and different uses of automatas....

I hope to get enough support 

[BarbyW]

Diggis spoke the truth when he said it is a mammoth undertaking. I worked with Pegasus on the replacement MTP but it has never been finished. It requires serious modding to eliminate the Maxis files unless you just remove them completely and only use custom content. If you do that the amount of custom work required is then the big factor as replacements need to be made for all areas.
I wish you well with this, Heblem, but feel it is far too big an undertaking.

[zero7]

Part of the problem with SimMars has always been that it placed too many restrictions on those who might have wanted to get involved.  A wider Sci-Fi theme would have gathered far more interest and resulted in faster and better progress. 

Peg's MTP is very niche and is again not big enough to generate interest across the community except as a released mod.

An expansion aimed at extending the normal game into the past may well have more potential than either of these in terms of generating interest. 

The key to getting people interested would be overcoming  a couple of key problems:

- The problem of transport.  Until you can show a city street teeming with horse-drawn traffic and have demonstrated how other transport modes are going to work people will not see it as an expansion that can fully work.  Get the transport gurus interested and you've got a project!

- The second is animated props and pedestrian automata - until we have a tool that makes it easy to get a max animation into the game we are limited by the degree to which we can get away with the Maxis content. 


One of the nice things about this idea that makes it slightly easier than others is that, in the case of taking Europe back to pre-car days, many of the existing buildings are either reusable as they are (on new lots) or would need minimal tweaking by the original creator.

If we could get horse-drawn traffic and decent steam locos (i.e. with tenders) a Europe/US of the late 19th/early 20th century could come together pretty quickly and generate the momentum for the more ambitious areas of your list.

[andisart]

If you look at SimMars Beta 2 which has been released on Simtropolis recently you can see that it comes pretty far as a conversion.
MAXIS menu icons are disabled for most part (expect some in the transport menu which are hard to remove), so what we did is just add the new BATs in the according menu. Dusktrooper provided us with a mod that keeps all MAXIS BATs from growing, so only the custom stuff appears (works great).
For water and power you could easily avoid this by modding the BATs either to have no consumption or to produce the resource.
I suggest having a look on SimMars Beta 2 and it's mods, as I said they can either just be used like they are or easily be adjusted to new theme.

[SimNation]

Im not a modder or a batter or anything just a player..and I find this idea to be real good. Personally ive always wanted sim city to incorporate 3 different time periods. Past (Roman/Colonial/Chinese,JapaneseDynasty),Modern (1900s-present),Future (like sim mars). Your mod if you make it will pretty much put to life that. So please do make it...however I fear sc5 will probably be in out by then  good luck.

[Heblem]

many thanks to everyone for the comments! as im thinking i dont know if i can do this alone (a possibility probably never) but if i get help will try to make some BATs or take from another existents BAts and try to cover that request of 60 models (of pure custom content, blocking all maxis). About the transport i also could make some new textures but cant modd them.

I don't see this project difficult, just by getting other creations with permission and making a mod for all those.

[Diggis]

Heblem,

As part of the SAM we have Street textures which could be used for this.  Namely the dirt and cobblestone paving ones.  I can extend these to road textures easy enough, although not till the SAM textures are finished (I do like to finish one project before starting another) Other than that I can't help too much sorry.

[kwakelaar]

This is the kind of project that have been talked about many times, but never came to anything yet.
Like Barby and Diggis is saying it is a massive undertaking to change the game into something that would look like a city from the Ancient times.
I have been thinking about changing the game into something that would make it possible to let a city develop from around the year 0 until the Modern Era. It is not exactly the same thing, but it is something that I belive could make the game very interesting. There are ways to achieve this, but not as one mod, but rather a combination of different mods, which also allows for more flexibility.
There is also the question whether you would aim for realism or stay true to the game. This choice will dictate which elements of the game you would need to change.

[Pat]

WoW hab for snooping around tonight i found your thoughts here... I do like the idea alot and i could offer some help in lotting items and that would be about it... I could bring this up to blam to see if the team would like to jump on and also help in anyway possible... will let you know - pat