Evolving buildings

[arcan]

All buildings will be ploppable, that's a fact ok. But one thing I do love in SC4 (and in Citylife althought they were also ploppable) is evoluting buildings. You just plop a small house, and if conditions are good it grows to become a building, it can devolve, etc. I wouldn't want to have a static city where once the building is plopped, it's there and no more happens. If I wanted this in SC4 there was that checkbox to give it an historical value and that was done.
Well, sometimes they don't fo the way I want them to, but that's part of the fun. And it'as also an indicator that I'm doing something wrong.

On the same line, I hope once a society type is settled it can be changed, and also that they can evolve by themselves, for exemple in a orwellian society there are some places where police inforcement is lacking, some "freedom society" will build there (with flower shirts, VW minivans, surfs, booze, .. ahem, I may stop just right here...) :p

[Azeem]

There was a mentioning about a "return to roots." I wonder if this means that they're returning to SimCity classic's ploppable fixed-size "zones" or at least something along those lines.

[bosiydid]

I'm also interested to see just how limited this notion of plopable buildings is going to be. I hope we don't have to scroll through 350 building and place a static building down that will never evolve. One of the great things about SC4 was the fact that the city was dynamic and changing depending on what was happening with city services, traffic and land values.

If the building do in fact evolve in some way, they MUST not be able to devolve back. When has a building that has evolved (additions etc.) revert back and then evolve again over and over? In previous versions a new building could be built (old building bulldozed) but since we are now moving to a plopable way of life that will no longer seem to be an option. I always hated the fact that when a house ran out of pottery it would devolve only to see it seconds latter evolved and then yet again devolve. Thats not what I would call a dynamic city. It shouldn't teeter totter between 3 different stages.

All this is contingent on building actually evolving instead of having to sort through 350 building and hopefully more with future additions.

[NappySick]

@bosiydid You obviously had a slight problem with the supply of pottery to the houses, there are several way to cure this . Once a building evolves i would not want to see it devolve in SCS if conditions arent right , id much prefare a state of delapadation then devolvement .imho eg the delapadated building would hold and have the same properties as a devolved building it just wouldnt physically change shape back to the lesser stage building , it would keep the newer building but visually show that this building is delapadated , very similar to sc4 right now.

[arcan]

I agree with you bosiydid. If they evolve, they stay evolved but decay. like SC4. I would hate to see them devolve like in Caesar 4. Planning would be unthinkable.

[bosiydid]

@bosiydid You obviously had a slight problem with the supply of pottery to the houses, there are several way to cure this . Once a building evolves i would not want to see it devolve in SCS if conditions arent right , id much prefare a state of delapadation then devolvement .imho eg the delapadated building would hold and have the same properties as a devolved building it just wouldnt physically change shape back to the lesser stage building , it would keep the newer building but visually show that this building is delapadated , very similar to sc4 right now.


Nappy,

I was simply using it as an example, I think the point came across! Buildings should NOT teeter totter between three different stages.

Developers/Producers, does this make sense?

[bosiydid]

I really didn't know where to post this without starting yet another thread so I'm gonna put it here.

I'm hoping that TM staff is aware of the huge amount of custom building and mods that have been designed by the community and that some provision is made to ensure such input is carried on in the new game.

A tool much like the BAT is very important to allot of people. I think it has allot to do with this community and fans of the series going strong even 4 or 5 years after the initial release. We feel as we are connected and have some vested interest in this game. The potential that exists with consumers having the ability to add to the game (building, maps etc.) should not be underestimated. This game could become infinitely more diverse (aesthetically speaking) should they chose to give us the tools.

I hope TM recognizes the huge potential that has all ready been realized in the world of SC4 and give us the ability to contribute likewise in SCS.

[MarkDuffy]

Thank you for this thread, Arcan. I'm wondering the same thing, however I didn't even think about "evolving ploppable buildings" when I replied to Romaq's SC4 Custom Content I want to see ported (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13165) thread.

[JuliaSet]

There were ploppable evolving buildings in Pharaoh, Cleo, Zeus and Poseidon. etc.. even the houses in Caesar4 evolved.

Think they know how to do that quite well. Question is.. if theres an editor, can one create files of buildings,in chains for evolution?

[Chris Beatrice]

I really didn't know where to post this without starting yet another thread so I'm gonna put it here.

I'm hoping that TM staff is aware of the huge amount of custom building and mods that have been designed by the community and that some provision is made to ensure such input is carried on in the new game.

A tool much like the BAT is very important to allot of people. I think it has allot to do with this community and fans of the series going strong even 4 or 5 years after the initial release. We feel as we are connected and have some vested interest in this game. The potential that exists with consumers having the ability to add to the game (building, maps etc.) should not be underestimated. This game could become infinitely more diverse (aesthetically speaking) should they chose to give us the tools.

I hope TM recognizes the huge potential that has all ready been realized in the world of SC4 and give us the ability to contribute likewise in SCS.

I think there may be another thread for this already. If not, there should be.

-Chris

[Chris Beatrice]

All buildings will be ploppable, that's a fact ok. But one thing I do love in SC4 (and in Citylife althought they were also ploppable) is evoluting buildings. You just plop a small house, and if conditions are good it grows to become a building, it can devolve, etc. I wouldn't want to have a static city where once the building is plopped, it's there and no more happens. If I wanted this in SC4 there was that checkbox to give it an historical value and that was done.
Well, sometimes they don't fo the way I want them to, but that's part of the fun. And it'as also an indicator that I'm doing something wrong.

On the same line, I hope once a society type is settled it can be changed, and also that they can evolve by themselves, for exemple in a orwellian society there are some places where police inforcement is lacking, some "freedom society" will build there (with flower shirts, VW minivans, surfs, booze, .. ahem, I may stop just right here...) :p

This is a good area for you guys to comment on.

[MarkDuffy]

How fast will I send players screaming into the night if we introduce tech trees into the equation of ploppable evolving buildings?

<ducking>

[bosiydid]

I think there may be another thread for this already. If not, there should be.

-Chris

So you are already aware and on top of this? I mean the BAT.

[NappySick]

There were ploppable evolving buildings in Pharaoh, Cleo, Zeus and Poseidon. etc.. even the houses in Caesar4 evolved.

Think they know how to do that quite well. Question is.. if theres an editor, can one create files of buildings,in chains for evolution?

If SCS has a chain of evolution ,and a custom content editor then it would be a requirement that the item fits within the existing chain as not to alter the mechanics of the game . So we would have no chioce but to learn how to create such files.But not all custom content need to have a value some can be made just to look good .Sim city buildings go upto stage 8 , some guys are working on a mod to make the evolution chain increase to genuine stage 15 ,so not only have sc guys learned to place building within stages they have actualy gone farther and way beyond what anyone could of actualy concieved as possible .

[Ocram]

If the buildings are evolvable I hope you could make it historical to stop it from teetering between different stages. I personally would make it historical when it is at its biggest stage befor reverting and let it dillapitete or abandon, if conditions are right for it to jump up a stage/level I will consider wether it will fall farther down this time or keep it at a middle stage.

[arcan]

I hope they can only evolve (like in SC4, Caesar etc) but not devolve (like Caesar) but only decay (Simcity4). The option to make them historical has to be there to to stop them evolving. It could even be used to stop them evolving to another culture. For exemple I build a "flower power" society. I check one building as "historical" then transform my society into a 1984 one. All buildings should slowly change to fhow the new way of living of my sims. All except the historical one. That would make it a relic of the old days... Even if it depreciates and decays

Or maybe there could be the option "historical building" to stop them evolving and another one like "historical interest" that would both stop its evolution AND prevend decaying, maybe by transforming it to a museum. Making it a museum would either stop its original benefits (if it was a house it houses no more people but acts entirely as a museum) or keep some of its original benefits (houses less people) and get some of the museum benefits.

This would have both benefits (more modeling options for the city) and inconvenience : if you try to change to a "non cultured" society, having a museum in the middle could be a hindrance.

[Romaq]

Sounds exactly like this:

http://www.whatcommuseum.org/

I can't put shockwave from their website into this post, or I'd save you having to go look. But it *was* the City Hall building in 1892. So there's a real-life example of exactly what you appear to suggest.

EDIT:
Ok, rather than 'bump' the post I'll just comment from what I've seen of http://media.pc.ign.com/media/925/925931/vids_1.htmlIt appears 'environmental textures' will 'evolve' based upon the social energy effect of nearby buildings. The 'social energy' of a given building has a certain radius, and that radius gives off an 'aura' that affects environment texture. So Custom Textures are going to be an issue, especially since environmental texture is used to communicate valuable information within the game.

What buildings you may place in a given area appears to be an effect of the surrounding buildings and the range of their common effect. This allows you to have nearby cities, such as ‘Lynden: Religious Cow Town’, ‘Bellingham: Hippy Ville/ Heavy Shopping’ and ‘Ferndale: Industrial/ Farmland.’ Currently unknown is the effect of buildings counter to the prevailing social energy. Offhand, I would expect the ‘environment skin’ to simply change to match as close as possible, and the collection of buildings may not function well since they counter one another in effect.

Currently unknown is the effect of blowing the money budget, or the specifics of how that works. Also unknown is the effect of sims moving away, and the population dropping catastrophically. I would expect buildings that should not be available in the new environment to dilapidate, but that’s only a guess.

--Romaq

--Romaq