TEASER : New tool in the hood

[Fred_Ginger]

Gee, it's tough being technophobic, I have no clue what you people are talking about, are you sure you don't type this in some foreign language?  Oh well, you all sound so excited, I'm happy for you all - don't mind me sitting here in the dark not knowing what the heck is happening and don't try to explain, I'll never figure it out anyway!

[callagrafx]

 

Vicki, in essence it's a replacement for the Maxis Plugin Manager, the LOT Editor, LEProp and iLive's Reader...sort of like a Swiss Army knife, without the little tool for removing horses hooves.

[Diggis]

...sort of like a Swiss Army knife, without the little tool for removing horses hooves.

Pffft. What's the point if it doesn't have that tool? 

[Fweet]

This is extremely impressive. Can't wait to try it.
Gives me something to look forward to after vacation, rather than simply dreading returning to work.

[kimcar]

Gee, it's tough being technophobic, I have no clue what you people are talking about, are you sure you don't type this in some foreign language?  Oh well, you all sound so excited, I'm happy for you all - don't mind me sitting here in the dark not knowing what the heck is happening and don't try to explain, I'll never figure it out anyway!

Don`t be upset , i did have no clue either  Hope this is gonna be easy for old timer like us.. No offense .<
Anyway Wouanagaine always have good tools to use. Great job my friend .

[BigSlark]

I just realized that this tool creates lots. I am amazed. Completely and totally amazed.

Cheers,
Kevin

[sebes]

Vicki - I am so with you..... I have no clue what this tool can do (and what the lotters, especially our Lex Goddess will do with it goes totally beyond my imagination  ) but something tells me that even us blonds will notice the enhancements - somehow

[wouanagaine]

and what the lotters, especially our Lex Goddess will do with it goes totally beyond my imagination 

I'm with you on that, this actually boost me to finish it asap

[mjig_dudy]

Very nice, To automatically compute Stats is hellishly useful. but i must still ask;
Will it be just as easy to change the stats?

I know you say the calculations are as near perfect as can be, but what about if the model is an odd shape,  making it seems bigger (to SC4) than it is? In some cases there will be need for you to manually change certain Stats. Its not such a big problem, because we can always just fire up the Ol' reader to do it, but it would be nice to have an 'All-In-One' tool

[jplumbley]

Technically mjig.... You will still have iLive's Reader.

But why would you want to edit a building given stats by a near perfect program designed by our awesome member wouanagaine?  It wont be all that necissary.

[mightygoose]

so are you saying jplumbey that we won't be able to manually edit stats with this tool. in certain city environments individuals may wish to edit the stats provided by the X tool. maybe to personal taste.... say you want a particular building to grow less often, or more often. twice now this question of ease of manual edits has been asked and twice, no real answer has been supplied.

[callagrafx]

twice now this question of ease of manual edits has been asked and twice, no real answer has been supplied.

The creator of this tool will tell you more about its functionality....in his own time.  No-one has to provide you with answers until when (or if) they are good and ready.

[vester]

What is the meaning of "Teaser" ? 



When you see a teaser for a film, do get the whole plot spelled out ?

EDIT: Corrected spelling.

[mightygoose]

sorry i am not trying to force more information out of wouanagaine, i apologies if i sounded rude.

[wouanagaine]

Don't make me wrong, the tool is made to ease the process of creating examplar that don't screw the game, beeing building,prop,flora,foundation or lot, obviously it is more targetted to basic user than experienced modder, but the experienced modder will get the benefit of having only one tool instead of running 4 or 5 tool to get the data ready to be uploaded
Regarding odd shaped building, the calculation take care of this with a bit of help of the user because as I'm sure you know the data for a model in sc4 is roughly a box even on a triangular building. You just have to specify that 50% of the bounding box is used
Of course you may think that I'm a little dictatorial on this issue, yes you're right, I don't want stage2 skyscrappers. Most of the stage2 skyscrappers I downloaded were made by unexperienced modder, that is what that tool will prevent. Experienced modders that want stage2 skyscrapper for specific purpose can still do them with reader.
And about editing properties, how can you think you'll change the name of the building, its description ( for plop ), building style if there is no way to edit properties ?
That said, the tool will prevent you to do some modding I consider inappropriate.

and btw:

a police station straight from the tool, icon generated by tool also, same 4 steps as the growable one

[Fred_Ginger]

@Lee, thanks for trying to explain it to me, but I never understood those tools either (well, except for the hoof removal tool!)

@Kimcar and Sebes, I don't feel so alone anymore, thanks guys!  There was a time when I understood technical things but since I retired and technical things give me a headache I've given up trying to understand them.  I guess if I really wanted to I could figure it all out, but with our great BATers and Lotters out there it would be like preaching to the choir!   

[mightygoose]

ok thankyou for your response. the example i was thinking of is something like the CN tower being very tall with very few occupied floors. if i was to give mod it as a ploppable with cs$$ jobs for example i would prefer a realistic number like "With a core staff of approximately 450 exceptional employees the CN Tower recruits approximately 150. additional employees for the summer season" instead of the many thousands that even checking the 50% LOD fill box would bring.so to do this i would need to use the reader?

[BarbyW]

Of course you may think that I'm a little dictatorial on this issue, yes you're right, I don't want stage2 skyscrappers. Most of the stage2 skyscrappers I downloaded were made by unexperienced modder, that is what that tool will prevent. Experienced modders that want stage2 skyscrapper for specific purpose can still do them with reader.
And about editing properties, how can you think you'll change the name of the building, its description ( for plop ), building style if there is no way to edit properties ?
That said, the tool will prevent you to do some modding I consider inappropriate.

Read that again, MG. If you want to have buildings that are unrealistic from a game POV - that is not from an RL POV - then fine, you can but please do not let them loose on a community that deserves buildings that fit into the Maxis standard. This has happened far too often in the past and has caused imbalance for many people who cannot modify the stats.
The object of this program is to make lots from BATs that address some of the inherent problems of the Maxis PIM - ie excess garbage etc - and provide balanced game assests.

[wouanagaine]

so to do this i would need to use the reader?

No the 50% I use as example. You can see it as how much of the building bounding box is relevant to the game ( beeing job or residential ). So in case of the CN Tower, you may come with 1% of the bounding box is actually relevant to the game. This way all further properties will be computed based on that. Contrary to Maxis PIM which solely uses the bounding box in conjoncton with crappy factors to produce crappier values.
Another reason to not use Reader in this case, is that the tool not only computes the number of jobs/res but also most of others properties ( worth, power consumed, garbage pollution etc... ) which are all interrelated. Using the reader you'll have to change all of theses values or it will produce an unbalanced building.

[Gaston]

Hmmm,   this tool sounds like it should come in a yellow and black box that is titled "SimCity 4 for Dummies".   LOL   I love it  It is gonna be prefect for me.  LOL


---Gaston