Soldyne's Mod Project Thread

[soldyne]

Now that I have become a modder I would like to start a little thread where everyone can discuss my mods and talk about current and future projects. suggestions and requests are, of course, welcome.

To date I have 333 Ambients/Decorations, 33 Textures and 10 Power Buildings available for you to add to your cities!

As of now, I have gone through and viewed every prop model that I could. if there are any prop models which I have not made into a decoration then it is 1 of 4 possibilities:
1-it is an unfinished model and cannot be made into a decoration (not a good one anyway)
2-it does not have a texture and does not look good as a decoration
3-I did not like the way it looked as a decoration (the model was too far below the ground, invisible textures, etc)
4-someone else made a similar one and I did not feel like redoing it

if there is a prop or ambient model out there that you want done just ask. thats what this thread is for.

Current Mods (found in the mod section):
Hedge1x1 (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15670)
Stone Wall 1x1 (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15689) (original design by Claypso)
Lamppost Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15688) (decorations)
Rock Pack 1 (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15701) (ambients)
Rock Pack 2 (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15714) (ambients)
Coast Pack 1 (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15716)(ambients)
Coast Pack 2 (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15717) (ambients)
Mesa Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15728)(ambients)
Ice Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15729)(ambients)
Cactus Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15742) (ambients)
Grass Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15743) (ambients)
Scrub Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=184735#post184735)(ambients)
Bush Pack 1 (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=184779#post184779) (ambients)
Bush Pack 2 (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15755) (ambients)
Bush Pack 3 (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=184784#post184784) (ambients)
Tree Pack 1 (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=184792#post184792) (ambients)
Tree Pack 2 (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=184802#post184802) (ambients)
Tree Pack 3 (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=184804#post184804) (ambients)
Creepy Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=184868#post184868) (decorations)
Authority Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=184877#post184877)(decorations)
Playground Packs 1, 2, and 3 (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=185154#post185154) (decorations)
Cyberpunk Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=185223#post185223)(decorations)
Garden Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=185275#post185275) (decorations)
Contemplative Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=185329#post185329)(decorations)
Capitalist Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=185362#post185362)(decorations)
Trash Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=185537#post185537) (decorations)
Small Town Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=185543#post185543) (decorations)
Fun and Romantic Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=185609#post185609) (decorations)
Rustic Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=185615#post185615) (decorations)
Signs Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=185616#post185616) (decorations)
Industrial Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=185622#post185622) (decorations)
Modern Car Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=185661#post185661) (decorations)
City Services Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=185683#post185683)(decorations)
Commercial Services Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=185710#post185710) (decorations)
Old Time Car Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=185715#post185715) (decorations)
Luxury Car Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=185722#post185722)(decorations)
Wacky Car Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=185732#post185732) (decorations)
Classic Car Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=185745#post185745) (decorations)
Futuristic Car Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=185757#post185757)(decorations)
Profile Stick Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=185824#post185824) (decorations)
Mega Power Plant Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=186256#post186256)(Power Buildings)

Brick (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=185921#post185921)(texture)
Brick Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16168)(texture)
Marble Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16163)(texture)
Liquid Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16277) (texture)
Stone Pack (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=189607#post189607) (texture)

Also check out my SCS Informational Spreadsheet (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15556).
Currently updated as of patch 5

Future Projects (in no particular order):
A few more texture packs are comming

Ideas which I will not do:
Cliff Pack - I tried some test Cliff ambients and the models seem unfinished. I guess these models are designed to be integrated with hills and valleys. they did not look too good as stand alone objects.
Fences - all the fences that I can find have already been done. no need to rehash someone elses work.
Recolors of current buildings - Primetime and some others already do an outstanding job of this, no need to enter than niche.
New Roads - Calypso does these as well, I suggest looking them up.

[soldyne]

I just wanted to comment on Primetimes major ambient pack here. as you may have noticed Primetimes pack (which was also co-worked with Lilbluesmurf) contains pretty much every ambient object located in the games main Graphics/Models directory (which is quite a lot).

I too am releasing ambients but my installs are for smaller, more focused object sets. There should be no overwritting or conflicts with our MODs as we both have different naming conventions for the files and objects.

If you want a one time install to have all the ambients available then Primetimes pack is for you. if you are looking to pick and choose certain kinds of ambients and keep your menus small then my individual packs are the way to go.

I still have a lot of ambient packs left to go and I only have a few hours every night to work on them but they will mostly be available eventually. like I said above, I wont release a cliff pack because I do not like how the cliffs look when they are not embedded in large hills.

[Primetime01969]

This is a good plan. By the way, I download your packs too, so I have a ton of ambients, some are duplicates, but so what. :)

[soldyne]

There is a property of ambients called PathingObstacle which allows sims to pass through an object or go around it.

I have set this tag for all my ambients to False because it is easier for me. if you don't like having some sims walk through trees or rocks (if you notice it) then you set the tag to True and they will walk around it. however, all of my ambients have a 1x1 footprint so the larger ambients (Mesas and Rockoutcroppings) may not provide much of an obstacle even with the tag set to True.

Of course you are always welcome to modify the footprint size as well :)

[soldyne]

Before I go crazy and release about 15 more decoration packs I would like to take a little poll. does anyone want me to release more packs? take a look at the first post to see what is already out there and what I have planned for release. I will be making all of those packs for my own use at some point, I just want to know if anyone else wants me to share.

if demand is low then I won't bother. I don't see a lot of feed back in the mods section and the total views are rather low for all my files (except the lampposts which is surprisingly high). there are no complaints though so I guess that is a good thing. but, the silence is deafening...

are my mods just annoying? are you tired of seeing them? are you waiting for more? let me know you all think.

[Primetime01969]

No one posts about mine either so the way I look at it is if someone likes it, they are silent and if they have a problem, they will post.

I say....RELEASE THE HOUNDS!

[soldyne]

ooohhh, a hounds mod...too bad we can't make new models...

[smjjames]

err. someone already made a dalmation dog (I think it was Primetime, I forget). So it wouldn't be too hard to reskin it into a hound dog, only problem is the model would only look good for some breeds.

Still, I agree, what we really need here is the ability to create our own models.

[Primetime01969]

Well, I just used the dog texture in the game and made it a decoration.

I suppose more could be made, but it doesn't intrest me.

[Granma]

Please don't stop releasing new packs.I have them all and check a few times every day to see if there are more to download.Makes the game a lot more interesting as I am more into decorating than the strategy side of things.If I don't say thank you for every one please don't think I don't appreciate you all.I really really do.

[soldyne]

Thanks Granma for the post and compliments. I am not expecting a post from every user for every pack. I just did not know if I was gaining a reputation for crappy mods or if it was just a slow week. also, I see that most of my packs only have about 15 views and I know that there are more than 15 people out there that download mods so I was a little concerned.

I too love to decorate which is why most of my mods are ambients and decorations.

and yeah, I'll admit, I like the attention. :)

[soldyne]

I would love to see how people are using my mods in their cities. if you have any screen shots to share lets see 'em!

I will try to post a few of my own this week.

[soldyne]

Well I have done it. I have finished my list! now it is time to actually build a city with my mods! lol! Wow, almost 325 new menu items, thank TM for the filters in update 3.

[Lilbluesmurf]

Well, I haven't actually looked at any of them, but nice job anyways. Lots and lots of stuff there. One day when I hope I return to SCS these will be surely be great to mess around with.

[RemixedCat]

Wow i am so glad this game is very moddable!! Very nice of Tmill to do so! ;)

[Meghan]

Thanks for all your hard work, soldyne! I love the playground pack especially. These mods add some good variety to our options.

[soldyne]

Thanks for the compliment Meghan. it is well recieved. as for Lilbluesmurf, I am sure that we all looking forward to your return to the SCS community. and I agree with RemixedCat.

ALL HAIL THE TM DEV GODS! They have empowered us all with the ability to create our own game. sure there might be a few glitches here and there, but no game is perfect!

Just so you all know, I am woking on my first major city using all of the mods I have (mine and others). so far the city is awsome. I am using my profile sticks to force a normal city. once I am done I will post some screen shots. this city has a little of everything; Industrial sector, small town/suburb, creepy cemetary, central garden park, downtown with huge skyline.

I should have some pics ready by the end of the week.

[soldyne]

I have gotten into the texture business! I found a ton of great textures provided by ThatGuy2001 in an older thread. I have been manipulating them with a free tool called GIMP in order to create bump maps and specular files. I have also been playing around with different color variations to make all kinds of neat floor textures. check 'em out!

[soldyne]

due to a very strange occurance in patch 5 all mods with a 1x2 footprint are now flipped 90 degrees which makes them awkward to place and can cause saved games that use them to become unstable.

I will not be releasing a fix for these mods right away. if you plan to use any of my 1x2 decorations (such as every vehicle mod I have) then you will want to go into the mod file itself and switch the width and height numbers around. this will move the footprint by 90 degrees and make everything better.

I will re-release my mods once I get enough time to go back through them all and flip the numbers. there are a lot of them so it will take some time.

[Mailman653]

Thats an odd bug.

[soldyne]

I finally fixed the 90 degree bug in my car packs. you can download the new file and install it as usual and it should fix everything. I am sorry to make everyone re-download everything and for taking so long. but, better late than never i guess.

thanks for all the downloads so far and I hope they help your city building.

[Azeem]

Great work. And great to see you pop in. :)

[soldyne]

Thanks Azeem. I was actually quite surprised to see so many downloads of my mods. Some of them had over 1000 views. I guess there are a lot of SCS players out there just lurking on the boards. Thats good I guess.

SCS is a great game once you get to know it. It just got a bad rep early on.

[Azeem]

...and it has the lousiest tech support from EA. :rolleyes:

I still play SCS and occasionally make mods nonetheless. :) Great game, great concept, just lousy EA support.

[FreakAboutSims]

Does one know of a download that combines all of the above?

[MidrealmDM70]

There is a property of ambients called PathingObstacle which allows sims to pass through an object or go around it.

I have set this tag for all my ambients to False because it is easier for me. if you don't like having some sims walk through trees or rocks (if you notice it) then you set the tag to True and they will walk around it. however, all of my ambients have a 1x1 footprint so the larger ambients (Mesas and Rockoutcroppings) may not provide much of an obstacle even with the tag set to True.

Of course you are always welcome to modify the footprint size as well :)

Do you know if this tag works on other buildings or only on ambients
I've been trying to make a decoration that Sims can pass through.

[MidrealmDM70]

Before I go crazy and release about 15 more decoration packs I would like to take a little poll. does anyone want me to release more packs? take a look at the first post to see what is already out there and what I have planned for release. I will be making all of those packs for my own use at some point, I just want to know if anyone else wants me to share.

if demand is low then I won't bother. I don't see a lot of feed back in the mods section and the total views are rather low for all my files (except the lampposts which is surprisingly high). there are no complaints though so I guess that is a good thing. but, the silence is deafening...

are my mods just annoying? are you tired of seeing them? are you waiting for more? let me know you all think.

You do good work, I feel sometimes you underprice the cost for they effect the generate. For example: most offical decorations generate only 1 type of societal value - many of yours generate two types. A decoration that generates two types at +1 each is worth more (to me) than one that generates one type at +2.
But despite that (which is only my personal opinion) ;) I think you have alot of nice stuff. You ought to branch out into some buildings, I'd like to see what you could do if you decided to do a set of 10 or so new buildings with new effects and everything.

P.S. Don't get discouraged by lack of comments, I was thinking not many people were enjoying the Syndicate mod I put out because no one had commented on it. But ( http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24176 ) over 1000 downloads and no complaints is a good thing.
One person actually signed up to the forums to to leave a positive comment, so its fairly safe to assume if your downloads are high and you've got no complaints, people are enjoying them, or at least using them

[Azeem]

Seems like your Syndicate Mod is the most-downloaded thing here in such a short amount of time since release. :) I wouldn't be surprised if a few people download it for reasons other than simply playing SCS... :D

[MidrealmDM70]

Seems like your Syndicate Mod is the most-downloaded thing here in such a short amount of time since release. :) I wouldn't be surprised if a few people download it for reasons other than simply playing SCS... :D

Its not like they can even see it without playing the game -
But you are probably right.

I wonder if anyone with vanilla is considering upgrading to Destinations just for that mod. I find it hard to believe, but I suppose it is possible.

[TheCuriosity]

Thanks for making this reference list, Soldyne. It made it much easier than having to shuffle through tons of threads . :)

[R8-Q88]

I have some Authorian decorations that would be nice.

Spike Trap (1st Picture)
Description- A strong deterent to trespassing onto government property.
Size- 1x1
Produces 1 Authority
Society- Authorian
Catergory- Law Enforcement
Sound- Owch! (when you open the building card)


Barbed Wire (1st Picture)
Description- A military's best friend.
Size- 2x1
Produces 1 Authority
Society- Authorian
Catergory- Law Enforcement
Sound- Owch! (when you open the building card)

Gaurd Tower (2nd Picture)
Description- Remember, the gaurds are watching you day and night.
Size- 4x4
Produces 2 Authority
Society- Authorian
Catergory- Law Enforcement
Sound- Same as Secret Police Kiosk. (when you open the building card)

Gate Gaurd Building (3rd Picture)
Description- So that only the sims on the guest list get in.
Size- 4x4
Produces 2 Authority
Society- Authorian
Catergory- Law Enforcement
Sound- Same as Secret Police Kiosk. (when you open the building card)

(all pictures from Authorian society)

(left to right) 1st picture - from Sports Stadium, 2nd picture - from Town Hall, 3rd picture - from Strip Mall