A question to the makers.

[Mister Giggles]

M4346: Reasonably speaking, it's bad show to encourage the growth of a brand new way of playing by stealing people's models. If I may go by Barby's comment, the reasonable discussion route has not been completely used up, however.

Though, of the same accord, I don't know the depth, length, or form said route has taken.

[M4346]

Excuse me? Encourage to steal models? 

The policy is that you can use any model file as a dependency, I don't distribute or encourage the distribution of the original files and create my own descriptor files for them. I don't touch the model files themselves.

That is and has always been standard practice in the community among all / most teams.

[Mister Giggles]

I was not aware. I apologize.

I'm not entirely aware of the 'society' I find myself in, my sheer interest in the CAM bringing me here...so excuse me if I make a gaff; it's not on purpose.

But, there's another question...if you can 'borrow' the model for your own purposes without the permission from the original creator, what's the major problem?

[RippleJet]

You can always relot somebody else's bat (building model) as long as you do not include the bat in your upload.

Instead, you need to point to the original creator's upload as a dependency.

The problem this brings into making CAMeLots is that the dependency model file is part of an existing lot.
And people often do not understand that they only need the SC4Model file from the original upload, and not the original lots.

Besides, those original lots are often inCAMpatible, growing at too low a stage and upsetting the development simulator.

[BarbyW]

As M said by having many models in many different uploads it causes a confusion of dependencies. I assure you that all reasonable routes were pursued in an attempt to make things as simple as possible.

[Mister Giggles]

Hmm, true, true...

Well, I suppose I could merely wait until this "X Tool" comes out, then I could in theory just make my own...

[xxdita]

Hmm, true, true...

Well, I suppose I could merely wait until this "X Tool" comes out, then I could in theory just make my own...

That's my plan. I even have a seperate "Waiting For XTool" subfolder in my download folder.
I like the fact that the BSC isn't just hijacking every model on other sites for the sake of CAM. If those creators choose to participate, or abstain, that should be respected, at least publicly. Though I'd think if they were to ever play the game with CAM, they'd insist on revamping all of their creations for it.

[BigSlark]

Though I'd think if they were to ever play the game with CAM, they'd insist on revamping all of their creations for it.

That's the hard part. A lot of people dislike dependancies (which as we all know are what make BSC's great BATs look so nice on their lots) and dislike BSC itself. I've been purging BATs that don't fit in with CAMelots and let me tell you that its been a right pain in the you know where, but I think its worth it to maintain uniform growth levels.

Cheers,
Kevin

[z]

The problem this brings into making CAMeLots is that the dependency model file is part of an existing lot.
And people often do not understand that they only need the SC4Model file from the original upload, and not the original lots.

Besides, those original lots are often inCAMpatible, growing at too low a stage and upsetting the development simulator.

When I first installed CAM last September, I knew virtually nothing about how anything worked, so I am one of those people who downloaded and installed the entire lots for all the dependencies, an not just the models.  I have built a number of large cities since then.  I have several questions:

1. Can I delete all the files except the model files from the dependency lots that I have installed?  What happens if I do this and some of the un-CAMmed lots have already grown in my cities?

2. Is there any easy way to tell which buildings are the CAMmed version and which are not?  There are various obvious difficult ways...

3. Some of the dependencies have prop files and custom queries that go with them.  I assume I should keep the prop files.  I also assume that the custom queries aren't necessary.  But are they desirable?  Do they hurt anything?  (They apparently don't do anything too bad, since I've been playing with them for eight months.)

[RippleJet]

1. Can I delete all the files except the model files from the dependency lots that I have installed?  What happens if I do this and some of the un-CAMmed lots have already grown in my cities?

You would be getting error messages saying you're missing plugins when opening such a city.

2. Is there any easy way to tell which buildings are the CAMmed version and which are not?  There are various obvious difficult ways...

If you query a building that isn't CAMified, you would first of all not get the CAMeLot query.

3. Some of the dependencies have prop files and custom queries that go with them.  I assume I should keep the prop files.  I also assume that the custom queries aren't necessary.  But are they desirable?  Do they hurt anything?  (They apparently don't do anything too bad, since I've been playing with them for eight months.)

No problem with having props and queries in your plugins that aren't used.

[z]

I have cleaned up all the un-CAMmed lots from the CAM model dependency files.  Things do seem to run a little smoother now.

I, for one, would strongly encourage the developers to make available more CAM lots that use other models (such as NDEX) as dependencies.  Perhaps these could be in a separate category, with suitable warnings to take proper care to load just the model files.  (I know this is already in the manual, but manuals often don't get read.)  It just seems to me that this would save a whole lot of time if this were done once, rather than have everyone CAM their own lots once the X tool comes out.  I would guess that it would lead to fewer user problems in the long run as well.

[xxdita]

New CAMeLots are constantly in the works. Some featuring buildings available in prop packs from the LEX, others requiring building models from elsewhere. If you have a request for a particular building to be made into a CAMeLot, you can always ask in the CAM General Discussions thread, or PM one of us.