Outdoor Sports -- Many are not represented in SC4

[stevenpete]

I was surprised to find no lots, or very amature lots for the following sports.

Water Skiing
Rock Climbing
Snow Mobiling
Cross Country Skiing
Kayaking
Canoeing
Ice Fishing
Fishing, on a lake, from the lake shore, on a pond.
Camper or Trailer Camping
Jet Skiing
Quad Runners, ATVs
Mountain Biking
Ice Climbing
Rappeling
Zip Lines
Sailboat Dinghy Racing
Sailboat Racing --- This is my favorite sport and my most sought after BAT or LOT.
Scuba Diving
Snorkeling
Trapp or Skeet Shooting


I suppose, I don't want my sims to get fat.

[M4346]

Well, I suppose the water sports are very difficult to recreate successfully in the game due to the in-game limitations themselves.

But I'm sure that if you put some thought into it you can recreate some of the above-mentioned, such as mountain biking and ATV courses by using already available custom content.

[Kitsune]

Whats lacking is a Cricket Stadium........

[Serkanner]

How about this one:

CAL_Pratts Bottom

Not a stadium, but with the lot editor you should be able to turn this into a very nice crickett stadium

[Kitsune]

How about this one:

CAL_Pratts Bottom

Not a stadium, but with the lot editor you should be able to turn this into a very nice crickett stadium

Except that I have 0 batting skills, or drawing skills for that matter. All my art talent is in creative writing.......

[M4346]

I don't think you need to BAT, there are many already existing props that you can use. 

[figui]

Scuba Diving
Snorkeling

that would be very difficcult to recreate..

[stevenpete]

The simplest way to do scuba diving would to take an existing boat prop and put a Scuba Diver Down flap in the water, put a few tanks on board, and preferably, have a person with a wet suit at the end of the boat.

The hard way would be to have the boat be an automatea generator that would spawn divers in the water.

Snorkeling might be a little harder since that is seldom done off the end of a boat. Possibly the automata generator for that could be a reef that is pushed up above the water. Have a few snorkelers standing on it and then have it generate the snorklers in the water. That would be cool.

[zero7]

Anything that involves new people props is always going to be difficult - even someone with a copy of Poser is going to find it hard to come up with good poses, dress the people correctly and the keep them looking good at game scale.  Which is why most of the Poser stuff in SC4 is in the form of statues.

Generally it comes down to the modelling skills available.  In 3D modelling terms buildings are really easy compared to things like vehicles or sports equipment or animals (human or non-human).  There aren't that many people with that sort of skill in the SC4 community - and if there were they'd probably be making Frank Gehry buildings  .  Most models that aren't buildings that have made it into SC4 have been adapted from free models downloaded from the net.

Having said that, there are sports that could be done relatively easily, or which should attract the attention of some content creators.

From your list:

Boats are appearing, so yacht racing could be represented (we need some buoys to sail round though!)
Kayaking is hinted at through the ploppable boats, but there's none for open water
I thought there was a water-ski boat spawned from the marina(?)


Others that should be possible:
Quads and bikes - needs the right models.
Motorsports - F1, Indy and rallying.  I'm guessing a draggable racetrack would now be possible (either that or puzzle pieces that fit together like scalextric) and rallying just needs a dirt road.  The only other thing needed would be the vehicles and a lot to spawn appropriate custom automata.  The track is isolated so you shouldn't end up with racing cars mixed with general traffic.

Angling is represented on one of SGs pond lots - don't know whether it's part of the pond model or a separate prop.  If it's separate there's no reason not to add it alongside your rivers or canals.

Sea fishing - needs appropriate boats.

Winter sports - there's a lot of scope here.  Skiers shouldn't be too difficult and a ski-jump would be cool.  A bobsleigh/luge course isn't that different to a canal to model, thoug it would need to be slope compliant.  The only thing with this is that most players don't tend to have the snow-covered mountain areas to make use of them.

Climbing - that's a good one - could be done with a prop that overhangs from a lot plopped at the top of the cliff.


It's probably a good idea to see how much genuine interest is gathered in this thread, but an 'Outdoor Pursuits' project may just get off the ground ... 

[Pat Riot]

to make a ski resort all you need is a snow mod, pine trees, chair lift (thers one on a japanese site) and lodge. i started it before but never finished.

[zero7]

to make a ski resort all you need is a snow mod, pine trees, chair lift (thers one on a japanese site) and lodge. i started it before but never finished.

Yea, but without any skiers it's going to look like the least popular ski resort in the world   

[stevenpete]

I've actually found a modular ski resort where they used the skateboard automata on the slopes. It looks odd to have people bouncing around, but not actually going down the slopes, but it's better then nothing.

I'll search for Simgoobers anglers.

PEG is releasing a set of harbor lots for sport/recreatonal boating.

I suppose I should make some of these lots myself, since I have over a decade of graphic design experince. Sadly, I don't really enjoy Graphic Design and none of my experience is in 3D. But, I'm being lazy in my haitus and after 11 months of unemployment, I've done little more than raise a kid whom I have guardianship of and, now that I have time, install and play SC4.

[stevenpete]

Whats lacking is a Cricket Stadium........

Here is another cricket stadium: Distric Cricket Ovalhttp://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=14902