FrankU's Lottery - Space Center update

[Lowkee33]

Civ 1 textures.... Oh, that would be nostalgic fun. Did you actually play the game? I did extensively and even made a Dutch translation of it. It must still be on some backupdisc.

Cool.  I'll see what I can do.    Perhaps a game that old actually has image files for textures, I know the units are images to be edited in MSPaint.

I sure did play it, although when it was new I hardly could understand it.  I remember my first game, where I couldn't figure out how to change the things that cities built.  I had hundreds of militias walking all over the place (and one chariot... I think my older brother made that for me).

For SimCity:  Here is a link to a post I made about the construction textures. Link.  You can see the CP house lot to the left does not have this problem, and that is because it has an overlay texture.

The word "seemingly" is important in this kind of immortal.  A large discussion was had here.  NAM's auto-complete puzzle piece feature seems to cause this as well, which happened for that post.  My experience was with the residential lots.  I could demolish the building and the overlay texture remained.  Or, if I de-zoned, then the overlay might go away, but the props and building remained.  Demolishing that removed only the props,.  Plopping a lot seems to do the trick in all cases.  It has something to do with textures, but the cause doesn't follow a simple pattern, so I say growables should always have base textures.

[FrankU]

Ah,now I know what you mean by construction texture.
So your advice is to add a basetexture to my lots in image 5. OK, I don't want to cause serious problems with my lots, so I'll change them.

And that makes my decision a lot easier.

And to Jmyers: thanks for your advice too. I don't think I want to know exactly what I should do to use terrain textures on my lots. I fear there will be lot of repetition. I just go about the way I did.

[FrankU]

So finally I finished my own farm fields to go with the self made farm lots.

I had the fields for the flowers ready for some time already.
When I was making the crop fields I came across the opportunity to make them seasonal. I could not resist that challenge. I succeeded, but did not yet find the time to remake my flower fields. There are thirteen different flower fields and I want to do something different the next few weeks. Like making the stage 3 lots.
But probably I cannot resist the pressure to remake the flower fields too.

I based most of my crop farm fields on Simgoober's revised farm fields. I did dislike the way they were reaped though. So I edited that aspect. In game you will see that the crops pop up and grow in some random order. The flowers or fruits appear also in random ways, but the reaping is done on one day (a bit optimistic, but anyway). I'll show you.
The Triticum Aestivum (wheat, tarwe) is made with MJB's wheat rows.
The Rubus Fruticosus (blackberry, bramen) is made with the grape vines by MJB.
The Ribes Rubrum (currant, aalbes) I made with some flowering bush by CP.
The Malus (apple) I made with the same flowering bush. I just put some of them together and raised them a bit above ground, so they look like small trees now. I also changed the dates of reaping.
Furthermore I made: Asparagus Officinalis (asparagus, asperge), Beta Vulgaris (sugar beet, suikerbiet), Brassica Oleracea (Brussels sprouts, spruitjes), Cucurbita Ficifolia (pumpkin, pompoen), Rheum Rhabarbarum (rhubarb, rabarber), Solanum Tuberosum (potato, aardappel) and Zea Mays (corn, mais).

The flower fields are based on D66's flowers. I named them Gladiolus and Lilium. Why always these stupid tulips? There are more nice flowers in the world and SC4 is the place to make our own little utopia. So I took the chance to make the farm flied I felt like.

Let me show the images.

Image 1 - The Ribes Rubrum farm


Image 2 - Malus and Ribes Rubrum


Image 3 - And the apples and currants grow


Image 4 - A flower farm


Image 5 - A farm field in early spring


Image 6 - Something pops up


Image 7 - Now it's growing all over the place


Image 8 - Another empty plowed field


Image 9 - Wheat pops up


Image 10 - It grows


Image 11 - And is ready to be harvested


Image 12 - Blackberry shrubs in nice rows like we see in the Netherlands region of the Betuwe


Image 13 - In autumn and winter they are brown (they should be empty in winter, but I did not find a suitable model)


Image 14 - A meadow with cows (surely bad landscaping, but this is just a quick illustration)


Image 15 - Early spring


Image 16 - It pops up


Image 17 - It's pumpkins!


Image 18 - All are ripe now


And now I could show image 15 again: in late autumn the fields get reaped and remain empty

Image 19 - Corn


Image 20 - And Gramsbergen Groente, one of the farms.


So, what do you think?

I have a question.
Now I have made these growing farm fields with Pim-X. This program also gives me the opportunity to make a ploppable lot from the same model, but this is an enormous amount of work.
I'd like to make ploppable farm fields that are neutral park lots to fill in the impossible corners without jobs or any effects. What is the best way to do this, without starting all over again from scratch? I hoped there was a quick way to change the growable lot into a ploppable one, but it did not work that way.
The flower fields I made again from scratch, because this was the only way that seemed to work, but maybe I overlooked something better?

Next task: stage 3 farms.

[Jack_wilds]

luv the variety... pics 14, 18, 19, 20 particularly

concerning making plopable fields; its your call... personally, I'd like to see what your doing -the current farm project, completed and uploaded to the lex first, then pursue a ploppable set of fields... your call on game plans

its a well done  as far as I can see 

[Lowkee33]

Hi Frank,

Looking through SimCity Dat there is a grapevine $$$ prop.  Don't know if it fits in with the blackberries at all, as I saw it through fast scanning.  The general shape looks similar... 

The CP prop fields look nice, although I would say that the shaded models should all be oriented the same way (the shade in someplace brings out the repitition).

All of the LotConfigProperties (other than the Object, the building) can be copy/pasted in PIMX.  You make your plopable, select and remove the default textures, then copy/paste them from your growable field.

[mave94]

I like the farm fields a lot. The way they are seasonal too.
It's very realistic and the apple farm fields are way better than the Maxis ones...
Bit by bit the game looks more "dutch"
Hope you could make the farms fields ploppable.
Good luck and I'm looking forward for your creations

-Matthijs

[Buzzit]

what  lovely looking farms
can't wait to make some nice rural areas with them!

[peter007]

Yes great farms. 
But I miss the pet   

-Ernst

[FrankU]

What Pet?

[peter007]

The dog.

[mrbisonm]

What dog?


I guess I will have to clean out some plugins to make room for these, geeeez....they're great, luv them!

Fred

[FrankU]

Thanks for the encouraging replies.

The dog: if I find one, I can put it on the lots.

Has anyone of you seen the SPAM release by Pegasus? It has some beautiful textures and props, like farm fields. I am considering to redo some of my lots with these textures and props.... I am not sure what to do.
If I do that I will not make these lots SPAM compatible, but leave them as they are: CAMpatible. They will grow in a SPAM environment anyway. I tested that. It's just the looks I consider.
And besides that: don't wait too eagerly. It may take some months before I finish the set!

[Jack_wilds]

Hello Franku...

To spam or not to spam; that is a question ... as I too like the textures and variety -dairy farms, granaries, of the spam mod... personally I'd recommend that you would finish what your doing now  ...  then pick and choose what to 'spamerize' for a later release...

yet; again,  your call as how to proceed... what your are doing would look very good in the spam mod... so I'm I as clear as a politician campaigning or should I elaborate like a college professor    ....

Jack 

[mrbisonm]

I agree with Jack_wilds on finishing what you're doing now first and then take the time and handle some SPAMfields.
I will not use the SPAM, for the simple reason that I have had bad experiences with a few of Peg's stuff, as if they are not compatible with the stuff that I have in my plugins. They once messed up my 14 gb plugins so much that I had to redo the whole thing (took me a week) and I don't want thais to happen again. Nothing against it at all, but not for me, nor the CAM, but if you make regular growable farms with those beautiful SPAM textures and models, then I and many others will appreciate it.
If not, then I might make some ploppables for myself.


Fred

[FrankU]

Hi,

I am considering already what you advise me: just go on with what I am making. Stages 3 up to 5 in the same way I made the first two stages. So I'll do that.
If you don't use CAM, though, Fred, you will not be interested very much in my stages 4 and 5.
SPAM lots and farm fields are not very interesting to me: I try to make Dutch looking farms, and we don't grow most of the crops SPAM has. Also the farm buildings, elevators etc are non-existent in this country.

[supremec]

I like your farms   
And if it will be in download, i'll download it 

[mrbisonm]

I am sure that I will like your stage 4 and 5 farms and everything shown on this page and before. Download these? ....ha, you bet!!

Keep it up whether it's dutch or anything else. I like dutchfarms too, because I was raised in Aachen/Monschau, not very far from Holland and I will surely use these in my MD and game.

Fred

[FrankU]

Hi Fred,

My grandmother lived in Schleiden, Eifel, near Monschau as you probably know. Ever been there?

Anyway: I got a tip about CAM 2. I will scrutinize what that can mean to my lots. Maybe I can prepare them for CAM 2, which seems to be a promising thing.

When I find time..... I'll go on with my farms.

[mrbisonm]

Hi Fred,

My grandmother lived in Schleiden, Eifel, near Monschau as you probably know. Ever been there?

Yes, Schleiden is well known to me, although I lived in a small town closer to Aachen (Stolberg/Buesbach) at the beginning of the Eiffel National Park, my aunt lived in Simmerath (inside the Park), just beside Monschau and Schleiden and I spent a lot of time in the summer there..., but that was 45 years ago.....lol. Now I'm in Québec/french Canada since 42 years. What I have visited most in Holland is Maastricht, not far from Aachen. I used to go there everyweekend with my father, doing random shopping. Loved it there. I went there last year for a day only, just to wake up some memo's, hasn't changed that much.


Anyway, good luck with those lots.

Fred

[huntingfire]

Excellent farm lots!  SPAM lots are also not my taste "yet". Leaving aside CAM or SPAM, stage 1-3 will grow anyway, so please do more!
BTW for your info, I have SPAM core but remove the farm lots, I use mickebear farms and they do grow well.