FrankU's Lottery - Space Center update

[kelis]

http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/25681-murimk-bicycle-props-with-mmp-bikers/

This is the set which I use in all my lots, maybe this would work fine for you 

[gn_leugim]

if you let a book fall from that height you might know the weight of a word

[FrankU]

Good news! At least for me, but maybe also for you. 

This morning I wanted to log in into the LEX to see if there were new items for me. And although the logging in did not work I found out that my lots are LEX Certified now. So all of you can be sure: my work is OK to be used in your cities!

And furthermore: if the signals are correct Fred/mrbisonm is back on BATting, which might mean that the Nexis and FrankU Cooperation is being revived. That has the consequence that this thread will be silent for some time. Perhaps. Maybe. Probably.

We'll see....

Greetings,
Frank

[mrbisonm]

Yap, I'm back on BATting, have some minor problems to find this and that and remember all the details, but slowly I am getting back inot the beat. Last night I rechecked some of my silos and came up with another model that I started, while doing it.

While I am here, Frank, do you think it would be a good idea to make some more fence models of the same that you sent me? I mean, some gates, 45 degrees, corners etc......It should take only a few hours to do so.

Fred

[FrankU]

Yes sure! Barbed wire fences, you mean? These will be very welcome.
Could you add also fences with only pickets (you call them like that? the wooden vertical things you use to attach the wire to?) at the beginning and the end of the tile?
Gates are a not really neccessary, but always welcome.

[FrankU]

Let's not forget that this thread was about my personal Lotting project. At the time that is the replacement of all Maxis Rewards. I have done quite a lot already, But just now I counted how many I have to do....
Another 18 lots to go!
Don't know when I will finish this set..... 

But eventually I will....

But let's not be too negative. I already did 11 different rewards, and these contain three cemeteries, three ciy halls, 8 statues, 4 churches... So much more than 11 lots. So I presume I am about halfways.

And after the advice to add Murimk's bicycles to the dependencies list I changed the Ghent Library.

It's like this now. I added a large bicycle parking area. Still you will find loose bicycles here and there on the lot. Students just don't listen and throw their bicycles everywhere!

[vortext]

Nice lot! 

Though the red brick is, erm, very red indeed. Maybe through in some overlay paths to break it up a bit?! 

Students just don't listen and throw their bicycles everywhere!

Hehe, not just students!   

[FrankU]

Hey listen, Erik,

I have been working for more than a year now with this red brick. Indeed it is a bit more red than real life. As is every color in SimCity....
In order to keep my lots a series I stick to the color, because it is the best brick I have seen up to now. Although it could be a bit less saturated and a bit more brownish.... and some dirt addedd....
And as I think the building should be standing on a square/plaza of bricks I think paths are not good here. Or did you think of dirt overlays?

Bicycles: what I miss is bicycles lying on the ground, or reclining and almost falling over each other onto a heap of metal... what we can observe every day when we visit the train station areas in our towns. But I guess that is because the sims behave better than the Dutch.

Does anyone have a suggestion what ploppable lot I could add? For that one I will use the Belgian BNL query.

[vortext]

What I meant is it looks a bit monotonous atm, which makes the red really stand out. Maybe some overlays could break that. For instance some kind of concrete overlay for the bike rack at the right. Or perhaps more grass in front or around the base of the building?

[FrankU]

Yes....  monotonous.... you could be right.

I'll think about it.

About my previous reply: I hope I wasn't too rude, but I got kind of a bit irritated that after more than a year of lotting this series I get the message that CP's base texture is a bit too red.... It's obviously too late to change that.

[mrbisonm]

Adding my opinion.........


Yes, red it is a lot, but.....it is not the colour nor the texture, but the amount of the texture used, that seems to bother the aesthetical side. Maybe an extension of the grass patch near the tress just beside the bikes, and a patch of cement around the building itself would help breaking up the large patch of "red" a bit?

Fred

[FrankU]

Fred and Erik,

Do you mean something like this?
A city that takes care of its urban space will not put just some cement on the bicycle parking area of the central library. That city will make a clean brick layout, at least in Belgium or the Netherlands. I hope. That is my idea of Utopia. So no cement or concrete, but brick. I added more green, that is obvious.

You like it better now?

[mrbisonm]

Personally I think it looks a lot better now, having broken up the large "red" bare spaces. It does not look so "boring/monotone" anymore Good job!

Fred

[Jack_wilds]

I like it...  as it suits the tower very well... on another note, a tower for a library wold be so troublesome always the up-n-down in research  ... but like what you are doing so far 

[vortext]

Yes, this is better! 

[kelis]

Fantastic job Frank !! I like so much that parking 

[Flatron]

I like the Lot. Here, it would be granite of course, but that's the local differences that make europe what it is. The bike parking is great, as well.

[FrankU]

mrbisonm,
Jack_wilds,
vortex,
kelis
and
Flatron,

Thank you all for the kind words!

Now I have to admit something. The Booktower is ready and sitting on my HD. I have started the slightly boring job of finishing it: screencapture, photoshopping for the icon and the ReadMe, making up a not too funny story for the ReadMe, etc. You know, the bureaucracy part of Lotting and modding....
I don't feel like it at the moment. Sorry. You have to wait a bit until it gets up the LEX and STEX.
But I will publish it, no fear!

Edit: OK, so I uploaded it just now. So get it if you like!

But I did feel like doing the next Reward. And I chose the Marina..... ohhh, man, did I regret that!

First of all: I hate the Maxis Marina. It's almost impossible to find a location where I can plop it. And when I have found it and do the plopping, mostly the result is something like this:



This is stupid! Where is the boardwalk, where are the boats?
Do you recognize the problem?

So I opened the lot and saw what is the problem.
The lot is six tiles long. The first tile has a land "mark", so this tile must be placed on land. The second one is empty. The third, fourth, fifth and sixth have a water "mark", so they must be placed in water. And a real life SC4 city tile hardly has locations with smooth coasts where you can find a place to plop that. So I removed the water "marks" in order to be able to plop it on my coast.
I don't know if you do, but when a lot has at least one land "mark" it is possible to plop it anywhere on land and on water as long as the land "marked" tile is on land. So very versatile. You can plop your marina in the middle of a park!

OK, I had to do the removal of the water "marks" in LE, and hence I had to add a base texture, otherwise LE doesn't save the lot... And I was too lazy to remove the base textures, so now you see six tiles of concrete. But hey.... where is the boardwalk? Still not there?



So then I did some fooling around with upping and downing the seabed and the coast line until, after quite some time, I got this...



This is apparently what Maxis has in mind. This city tile has no power source, it's just an empty region for testing and plopping purposes. When I add a power source the Maxis automata boats show up. Ugly, as you probably know.
Now who of you is willing to spoil their grid with this ugly thing?

So it's time to make a better Marina. A small one, that fits in my Dutch theme, but one that is also useful for not too Dutch themed minds.
An there goes the problem. First of all: find props that fit into a marina with a Dutch atmosphere. There are many beautiful props and marinas out there: by PEG, nbvc, murimk, a small one by Goldiva, and two fishing harbours that could disguise as marinas by Somy and NOB.

But then I found a boardwalk by Marrast. I replaced the Maxis model by the Marrast model in the building file of this marina (I hope this is not too technical for you all) and I got this:



There is the stupid Maxis boardwalk! I had never seen it in LE or in SC4-Pim, so I already wondered where the boardwalk was... But now I understood: It's the base of the lot. No, I found out: it's the foundation of the building!
Now I understood why the building was 6 tiles long, where only the small house was visible in the Maxis marina lot: the boardwalk used these 6 tiles.
Things were coming together and I started to understand the working of this funny marina.

I had the feeling that this would have been possible in a much simpler way, but hey.. this was Maxis, right? I had to deal with it.

Then I found out I was able to delete the foundation and then the marina lost this Maxis boardwalk, but seemed to function properly. Can anyone confirm this? That deleting the building foundation is allowed?
But it was not very Dutch. I presume you agree with me.

So I had to think of something different.
Of course the Pegasus marina is brilliant. Why not use that one? Well for several reasons:
1. It's not Dutch enough.
2. It's too specific and hence it would not be versatile enough for all users.
3. It's not mine and I had promised myself to replace all Maxis rewards by my own.

Then after a lot of searching, lotting and replacing I ended up with this: mostly NOB and a bit of Pegasus.





What do you think? It's useful as a stand alone fishing harbour, ....ahem.... marina.
It's just a rough set up of the main props, lotting is in no way finished.
Would it be useful in a Dutch or European atmosphere?

Brings me to a question: I don't know if anyone of you ever opened one of my Reward lots in LE or in SC4-Pim. If yes, you might have found out that the size of the building square on the lot is not the same size as the model I use for the building. That is because I replace the model in the building file by editing the RKT1 property: exchanging IID's. I have no clue how I can change the size of the square afterwards. Whatever I try, I cannot get a lot to work properly. So if anyone of you can tell me how to improve on that I am very eager to hear from you.

So anyway.....
I am not too happy with the marina. Although the lot looks nice it is not a marina, and it is not Dutch....

And I left it aside and took a jump on the Lighthouse. This one was much simpler.
I thought of a lighthouse that is standing on the top of a dune, with the lighthouse keeper's dwelling next door. And I came with this. Simple, effective and not too bad, isn't it?



What is your opinion, would you dare to navigate on this lighthouse?

[kelis]

I like so much the ports by NOB ! Since I started play Simcity 4 I'm in love with all NOB's Stuff 

About the Dutch lighthouse I think you had a good idea, lighthouse are very common view from the Netherlands, but If I have to give you some advice, maybe you can make the beach texture "transparent" in this way anyone could plop the lighthouse in their natural beaches... can you understand me ?

Groeten Frank

[whatevermind]

Interesting findings about the marina. I agree the Maxis one is ugly, so good luck on a new version.

As far as your question about the "building square" size in the building exemplars, the property you're looking for is "Occupant Size", which defines the three dimensions of the box. Unfortunately editing this manually (in Reader) means you have to know the numbers, but I think if you pull up the .SC4Model file, the xml in there has these numbers. Otherwise you can always use the model to create a new descriptor in PIM-X, and it will automatically generate these numbers, then you can copy them to your exemplar.