SFBT Releases

[Andreas]

This topic will serve for announcing all SFBT releases on the SC4D LEX. Feel free to comment here or with the LEX comment feature.

SFBT Random Seasonal Woods by Andreas

These lots have been released on Simtropolis a while ago, but some people (including myself ) thought the lots have way too many rock props, so I reduced the number significantly. I also changed the standard Maxis park query sound (barking dog) to something more appropriate (tweeting birds). You don't have to bulldoze the old lots; however, the reduced number of rocks only shows on newly plopped lots. When installing this version, just make sure that the same installation path is selected, and overwrite the old files.

 

(Note: The pictures still show the old lots with lots of rocks.)


SFBT Random Seasonal Birch Trees by ArkenbergeJoe

ArkenbergeJoe created some seasonal birch props and made similar lots than the ones I created with Cycledogg's trees. The summer birch tree was already included in the SFBT Essentials (hence it's the [only] dependency), and this download inludes some props for the other tree seasons. The lot stats are similar to my lots, so they should blend in well.

 

(Note: The pictures still show the old lots with lots of rocks.)

[Andreas]

SFBT Garbage Shipping Yard by Andreas

This is one of the true classics, and actually the very first SFBT lot that has been released. My idea was to create a lot that visually represents a neighborhood garbage deal, which should have some facility that shows where the garbage is loaded or unloaded. But it's not only eyecandy, but a functional lot that works similar to a recycling center, and also a built-in "incinerator" that actually reduces the amount of garbage in a city.

 


SFBT Recycling Yard by Andreas

I made this lot before the Garbage Shipping Yard, but never got around to release it until lately. It's a rather simple lot that has similar stats as the in-game Recycling Center, and it both looks great alone or if you place it next to the Garbage Shipping Yard.

 

[Andreas]

SFBT Donutor Inc. by Spocky

Industry BATs were rather rare when the SFBT formed, and so it's not surprising that we wanted to change that. Esp. the high tech industry areas looked rather boring, so Spocky decided to create a rather unique I-HT facility, the Donutor Inc. The correct term of a three dimensional ring-shaped object is "torus", but most people might be more familiar with donuts, hence the name of the BAT. It comes both in a growable I-HT version, and since it's rather similar to a fusion reactor, as a small power plant lot.

 


SFBT H₂O Chemics by Mathe Man

H2O chemics was one of the first BATs by Mathe Man, released under his own user name on the STEX, some time before the SFBT was founded. Nearly forgotten, it has been updated to the current SFBT standards finally. The shape of the building resembles a water (H₂O) molecule, which was also the inspiration for the name. The download contains two I-HT growable lots.

 


SFBT High-Enthalpy Wind Tunnel by Mathe Man

Another early BAT by Mathe Man, this time a wind tunnel testing facility. It's one of the few SFBT BATs that has an external dependency (other than the SFBT Essentials), but I assume most people have the BSC Textures Vol. 1 (BSC Textures Mega Pack) anyway, so this won't be a problem. This is also an I-HT growable.

 

[Rayden]

Nice work Andreas, they're part of my plugins folder from now Thanks a lot

[Andreas]

SFBT Rural Power Lines by Spocky

Not everyone likes those large high tension power lines, esp. not in a rural environment. Therefore, Spocky created some rural power line props, which have been placed on lots with transparent base texture, so they will work with every terrain mod. Because the powerlines are props, you have to level the terrain to be perfectly flat, otherwise they won't line up properly. The lots make use of deadwood's preview props from the BSC Forest Lot series, which show up during the placement of the lot, and then disappear.

 


SFBT Rural Power Supply by Andreas

For those who can't use the rural power lines, this pack might be an alternative. It contains two lots, a power generator that runs on natural gas, and the SFBT Wonder Tree, a tree that produces power. Now this might be not the most realistic lot, but hey, since SC4 doesn't have underground power lines, we can cheat a bit, ok? The generator BAT was created by Mathe Man. BTW, the cabin on the right pic is a BAT by Pegasus, available as part of the Mountain Theme Pack series.

 


SFBT Solar Module by Spocky

The more modern orientated mayors might find this lot interesting - another power-themed lot with a solar module that produces a small amount of power, which should be enough for a small settlement. Other than the generator, it doesn't have an impact on the environment. The security fences are part of the SFBT Essentials and were created by Mathe Man. The birch tree was BATted by ArkenbergeJoe, another SFBT Member.

 

[Andreas]

SFBT Oil Storage Tanks by Mathe Man

An oil storage tank was one of the first industrial BATs that Mathe Man created back in 2004, and since there were some requests to release them for the English speaking community as well, he updated the textures, and rendered the model with several different real and fictional oil company labels on them. For the SFBT release, I created a prop family for the storage tanks, and two ploppable lots were added to the growable, which could be used in harbor areas, or next to a refinery.

 


SFBT Cooling Tower by Mathe Man

Another early BAT by Mathe Man which got a small facelifting for the SFBT release (which was also done by request from a member of the community). Originally, this cooling tower was supposed to be a part of a large power plant, but due to time constraints, the plant hasn't been made yet. This is only a growable, but you can easily plop it with the DLL that buggi released a while ago.

 


SFBT Klemmt & Sons Mechanical Engineering by Mathe Man

Klemmt & Sons is an I-M lot, which aren't that common when it comes to industrial buildings. At the time of the creation of this BAT, I-M BATs were incredible rare, so this one was more than welcome, obviously. "Klemmt" is actually a German wordplay, meaning "clamp" - probably not the best attribute for an engineering company, but it fits perfectly in the Maxis-style humor of the game.

 

[Andreas]

SFBT Park Set medium wealth by Andreas

I'll start with this set because it's the oldest one, rooting back to 2003, shortly after the Lot Editor was released. I always thought that the game lacked of a really large park, and the 3x3 thingy was merely a joke in my eyes - sure, enough to place a small green spot here and there, but of course nothing that you would call a "park" in real life. So I created three lots, a 6x6, a 6x8 and finally a 6x11 lot with similar layout, but still a few differences. Some months later, I discovered joerg's Golf Pack, which also featured a few path lots, as well as some open grass and tree lots that had the same base texture as the Maxis parks.

So I expanded the set continuously, and as of now, it contains 22 individual lots. A big thanks goes to ArkenbergeJoe, who created some excellent diagonal path textures, and he also created some new preview props that are now included in the SFBT Essentials. Those props will show up when you place a lot, so you can see where the path is, but never appear in the game, due to some tricky modding. The query UI was also designed by ArkenbergeJoe, it shows the wealth of the park lots with a nice tree icon.

 


SFBT Park Set low wealth by ArkenbergeJoe

Based on my park set, Arkenberge created two sets that should complement that one. They are not that extensive so far, but should fill quite some needs as well. The first set is intended for low wealth areas, such as the SFBT PreFab (Plattenbau) lots. Low wealth lots tend to upgrade quickly when you place some parks nearby, that's why this set has been stipped off any park and landmark effects. However, the air cleaning function remains, so the low wealth areas benefit a bit from those as well. The lots also feature the exact replica of an Eastern German lamppost, like they could be found basically everywhere in the former GDR. Also, keep an eye on the dead-end path circle for some seaonal surprises.

 


SFBT Park Set high wealth by ArkenbergeJoe

Finally, here's a set intended for the high wealth areas, with a lush green texture, fancy lampposts, asphalt paths and lots of flowers and other greenery. It mixes well with the in-game high wealth lots and the in-game open grass lot, and if you like, you can also mix it with the BSC Park Series, which has the same lush grass texture. All three sets have been updated to the latest SFBT standards and require the SFBT Essentials from April 2007.

 


Not shown in the images above are the new SFBT diagonal filler lots. Each park set has two lots, one with the green grass texture that shows up next to blank terrain and low-density zones, and the pavement texture that shows up at medium and high density zones.



Here's the situation without filler lots - doesn't look too bad in this particular case, but the jagged edges still don't look that great.



So we bulldoze the park lots next to the road again and place one of the diagonal filler lots. Note that the lot features a preview prop that should be oriented to the curb of the road.



Looks a lot better than before, huh?



As mentioned above, the filler with pavement texture works well with medium and high density zones. The "sidewalk" might be a bit wide in this case, but it still looks a lot better than with those jagged edges.

BTW, more diagonal fillers for other purposes will be released soon. Check out the "Upcoming BATs and lots" thread for some pictures.

[Glenni]

I love you....

[Yoman]

And so do I!

[callagrafx]

This is the problem with being monolingual...There's so much good stuff that I missed.  Many thanks Andreas for releasing them here...I must get out more 

[sebes]

What a great solution for the jagged edges 

[bat]

That are great lots!!

[Andreas]

Uploaded today: The entire SFBT Hamburg set that has been created so far by SFBT member stephenhh, who has been around since SC3000 times. He's currently developing several new BATs, but due to the omnipresent real-life syndrome, the progress is a bit slow at the moment.

Nevertheless, the new release of the Hamburg buildings marks some improvements over the previous releases, namely a new lot layout for most of the buildings, in order to make them compatible with other European wall-to-wall sets. This update was done by lot specialist T Wrecks. Also, a few minor errors have been fixed, and all Hamburg buildings now feature a unique occupant group, which makes them a trigger for future Hamburg landmark rewards.

The filenames haven't changed, so the installer should be able to overwrite the old files. There's no need to bulldoze existing buildings in the game first, but obviously, the new lot layout will only show on lots that have grown after the update. For some older releases, the installation path might have been changed a bit; all BATs are now installed in a subfolder of "My Documents\Plugins\SFBT\Hamburg", with individual subfolders for each building.

Depending on which buildings you have installed, the Hamburg BATs might grow rather easily, so if you think a particular building grows too often, try to remove some of the lot files. Most buildings come with lots for 1x2, 1x3 and 1x4 lots. To get them wall-to-wall, zone 1x wide lots with medium and high density in a checkerboard-style setup, this will prevent wider buildings to develop. And of course, make sure you have the European-Contemporary tileset enabled.


SFBT Hamburg Annenstraße 6 and 21-23 by stephenhh

 


SFBT Hamburg Brauerkneckgraben by stephenhh

 


SFBT Hamburg Ditmar-Koel-Straße 28 and 30 by stephenhh

 


SFBT Hamburg Gneisenaustraße 41-43 by stephenhh

 


SFBT Hamburg Hoheluft by stephenhh

 


SFBT Hamburg Martin-Luther-Straße 21 and 23 by stephenhh

 


SFBT Hamburg Martin-Luther-Straße 10 by stephenhh

 


SFBT Hamburg Pastorenstraße 12 by stephenhh

 


SFBT Hamburg Rehhofstraße 14 and 16 by stephenhh

 


Seilerstraße 30 and Simon-von-Utrecht-Straße 66 by stephenhh

 

[Serkanner]

Its great to see the Hamburg set again. Its a long time favorite of mine. One short question: has the pigeon effect been removed from the lots? Some of the original ones have them, but when the lots grow in abundance the game starts to lag a bit.

[Andreas]

I'll have to ask T Wrecks about this, but since he re-made basically all older lots, I assume he removed the effect.

EDIT: Well, I had a quick look at them in the Lot Editor, and I haven't found any traces of the pigeon effect.

[sebes]

Thanks for redoing these! I spent some time cleaning and searching, but I am sure it'll be worth it

Btw, I have some more Stepenhh residentials: Rehhof 6-10, Wandsbek, Huttrop and Bramsfeld. Will these be re-released too?

[Andreas]

Yes, they will be released as part of the SFBT large lot series, created by ArkenbergeJoe (together with the allotments and dachas, and the pre-fab buildings). My posting above should have read "the entire SFBT Hamburg wall-to-wall set".

[Serkanner]

Thanks for the quick reply Andreas. This is great news for all those ( thousands of ) w2w fans, of which I am one too.

[sebes]

Wunderbar, Danke Dir!

Besides the W2W, the Plattenbauten are one of my favourites as well!

[Vario80]

Great to see the Hamburg buildings being reuplaoded here. They all look very great, also can't wait for the datchas, you can find of these here in Bremerhaven too.