BCS_RPK

[ldvger]

Hello!

First of all, let me say that this is a magnifcent set of tools and I know it represents a lot og hard work by many people to improbe the visuals graphics of devoted players cities and regions.  I don;t want anyone to think I am dissing this work at all, becuase I am not.  I would, however, like to offer some, what I believe is, constructive critisism.

I have downloaded and installed the mod and all it's dependencies.  I have started using it in game.  These are my thoughts (keep in mind I know zero about how these mods are created, so have zero idea about the work or limits or difficulties involved):

1.  Water runs downhill.  It does not move at all across flat terrain, it stagnates.  I have found that while some of the PEG mods in this dependency have some small amount of slope tolerance, the BSC tiles have zero.  When I try to lay BSC water or rapids tiles on even the slightest slope, I get a break in my watercourse that shows through the texture below, rock or grass.  Peg seems to have been able to build in some degree of slope acceptance into his/her ploppable water mods...couldn't something like this be done with the otherwise gorgeous BSC RPK files?  Maybe there is another tool someone has made that will alleviate this problem?  I seem to recall seeing a slope shaping tool somewhere.  Do I need this tool and will it help me lay BSC RPK tiles across slopes?

2.  Natural water doesn't run in straight lines or turn at 90 degree angles.  I know the diagonals and fractional angles are a huge issue for everyone creating custom content in this game, but if anywhere it is a huge issue, at least for me, it's in the area of ploppable water.  I am seeing work done on fractional angle for roads and railways.  Has anyone addressed this issue when it comes to ploppable water?  I can make a zig-zag watercourse across a diagonal, but that's not the way real water runs.  And if there is slope involved, forget it.  At least, so I have found so far.  Again, I have just started using this set of tools, so there may be other tools out there that will help me that I don;t know about. 

3.  So far I am unable to get the BSC waterfalls to work at all.  I will keep playing around and will probably figure them out sooner or later, but for now I am getting underlying terrain coming through at my center tile or, if I lay the waterfall on steeper terrain, brown boxes.  I read a turorial by Dedgren a few nights ago about how to build waterfalls, so I will go back and read that again.  Also, is it possible to create a waterfall more than 1 tile tall?  My region is extremely mountainous and could be home to many gorgeous waterfalls is they could fall further than from one flat tile across a single vertical tile to another flat tile.  Also, not all waterfalls falls down vertical faces, so again the idea of slope tolerance enters the picture. 

4.  I know this must be covered somewhere, but how do I change the base of the riversides to match the landscapes they are being built into?  All my riversides have a brown undergrowth that stays year round and is in marked contrast to the green grass of the Columbia terrian of my region or the granitic rock of my mountain regions.  Is there a place for me to go to change this default? 

5.  Same question regarding the riverside trees.  The default BSC RPK trees seem to all be diciduous, which doesn't work at all for my region, which is supposed to be in Alaska.  I have lots of ploppable trees and the Columbus Trees Mods, which I would think would be more in keeping with my northern clime in that I would have conifers beside the streams and rivers instead of diciduous. 

6.  That being said, once the rivers reach the lower elevations, diciduous trees along the banks would be fine.  Is there a way to set the defualt waterside tree by elevation? 

Please don;t get me wrong, I love the tools and will use them extensively as they are, with deep gratitude to those who created them.  But...a gal can dream, can't she?

Lora/LD

[BarbyW]

The RPK does have slope tolerance but  due to the nature of the way this is made with a BAT along the edge it is minimal. To place these correctly you need to have a completely flat terrain under the pieces so you have to prepare the water course first. These are not made in the same way as peg's and so should not be treated in the same way.
The game limitations impose the restriction of placing waterfalls that have more than one tile drop so alternatives need to be found. I would suggest you have a look at Pat's MD here to see how he has developed using ploppable water rather than stream pieces. 3RR is an place where inspiration can be found and jacqulina has an excellent CJ at Simropolis where she uses water a great deal.
Regarding the edges and the trees, the dge is not changeable but the trees could be changed by you remaking the lots for your own use but you would have to make separate lots for deciduous and evergreens. Apart from that it is unlikely that any modifications will be made to this particular set.
We all have to make compromises in SC4 and working with a variety of lots and modds is the only way to achieve a reasonable result.

[ldvger]

Thank yopu for your reply, I appreciate your taking the time to respond.  I've played around with this set of tools again this evening and have to say that I am just not happy with my results so far.  I did visit Pat's MD and he has been able to achieve a much closer graphic to what I am seeking and I found this site originally because of 3RR, so I am familiar with the results of david's use of ploppable water, if not the actual mods he used or the techniques (yet). 

There are a couple of things I really like about this set of tools and would like to keep.  I love the rapids to calm water transition tile, it work very well both at the begining and end of a spot of rapids.  It's a shame you don't have a "center" piece for this tile instead of just a left and right edge, so folks could create rivers/streams more than 2 tiles wide. 

Until I learn better how to use this tool, I have decided to uninstall it.  My only question remaining is will the uninstall tool remove all the dependencies as well as it's own files, or do I need to remove them individually?

Lora/LD

[BarbyW]

The dependencies will need to be separately removed.