Keep those awful boxes...

[The Trippmeister]

I don't know if this has already been suggested, but a thought just struck me while looking at some of the latest screenshots. You've said often that you plan to replace those giant plastic boxes with actual, procedurally-generated buildings. And that's great. But as for the plastic towers?

KEEP THEM.

Not as the regular view, mind. But there's something genius about being able to tell exactly which zones are residential or commercial and what the population is at just a glance. The abstract boxes can communicate that in a way that photo-realism never could. At some point in the (probably distant) future, you could add code to have them communicate different information: not just population but wealth level, health & fire coverage, education level, etc. The 3D boxes would give far more information than a simple colored map, and without the visual confusion of just shading the buildings' models.

Just a little something to keep in mind as the game matures. Keep up the amazing work!

[Synekism]

I'll certainly keep this in mind. I also had other plans for the boxes so they're not likely to go away completely.

[kras...@gmail.com]

I think that when the graphics engine is introduced, it would be kinda nice to be able to switch to abstract boxes as a graphical overlay.  

[Synekism]

Ya, when the graphics engine is introduced the game will probably look about the same as it does now. It will take yet more time to have noticeable improvements.

But I can assure you that the boxes will always play a role in Synekism, even when the buildings get fancy.

I'm getting found of the boxes as well.

[edin....@gmail.com]

Hey, I wondered, if it is possible to design other buildings instead of those polygons? I mean, I can design them in Sketchup, just outlines, but I wondered, can you put them to randomly pop up instead of polygons, can you even import them into game, I mean files from sketchup? If yes, then I can help you with that? 

I have idea for scaling, so I can design plenty of different buildings with different plot sizes, so, for example, when I zone residential zone, there might be a plenty of different sizes of plots right? So, in case that plot is 5x5, game can randomly put all the buildings with plot smaller than 5x5 and so on. Can you see into this? I think the biggest problem might be importing anything into game, right? I imagined buildings to retaind those zone colors, no textures, just shape, but whatever you wish, I can help you.

BTW is it easier for you to talk about this here or on the simtropolis forum? 

[Synekism]

What you suggest will most certainly come in some form once modding in Synekism becomes relevant. Unfortunately, the game's architecture is not yet in a state in which it can accept and use external models. Creating and importing models are only the first steps with additional work being required to properly populate the city with them. Given my current development priorities, such functionality will not come for some time. I'm afraid you're stuck with boxes for a little while longer.

Additionally, keep in mind that Synekism is meant to be procedural in nature so the first step will be to create buildings procedurally at runtime instead of static model plopping.

As for posting, I usually prefer posting here, on the Synekism's sort-of-forum, but I check both places equally often so there's no need to post on both. I will reply with the above comment on Simtropolis as well for the folks there.

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