Skyscraper (by Pille)

TopMinder · January 31, 2018

Wow, unbelievable what we can do with some easy blocks and texture. As if you can jump in it and drive away

Good work for it Horst and Pille. I think with a little bit time and some tries all is possible here, and if one person is not enought

share your spirit for the way to perfection ^^

Pille · February 2, 2018

Thanks TopMinder. I am going to make more tanks. It's kinda fun.^^

35th building session (mysterious 15th floor I (it was the last completely unfinished floor) and seminar rooms):

Updated download link.

stallionsden · February 3, 2018

Looking awesome and majestic Pille. And haha no worries I haven't been in 7 dtd for a bit.. got to finish the prefabs I am working on or I will miss out haha. But yes that tank looks amazeballs. STOLEN lol

**Laz Man** · February 3, 2018

Your usage of light and paint textures is top notch. You should be one of the TFPs world builders imo.

Pille · February 3, 2018

Thanks guys. I'll formulate a more extensive reply later.

36th building session (Another tank (the last one). It's slightly bigger than the other tanks, the antenna is much longer and its interior is more modern. I am still using Horst's chassis design btw. ):

Pille · February 4, 2018

37th building session (More corridors. think I've found an acceptable design which is supposed to convey a 'final level feeling' ^^. Shouldn't take long to finish the floor.):

got to finish the prefabs I am working on

Are you talking about your 'little' airport?^^

Pille · February 6, 2018

38th building session (Laser cannon I (not the final design). Got some inspiration from Doom 3^^):

Updated download link

This could be the last update for a while because I need another break. There're still so many unfinished rooms. I am going to take some ideas from TopMinder's new Hospital but that will not be enough to fill all remaining rooms.

39th building session (Just a concept, not finished - It needs some paint, more details and an improved shape):

**Laz Man** · February 7, 2018

38th building session (Laser cannon I (not the final design). Got some inspiration from Doom 3^^):

Updated download link

This could be the last update for a while because I need another break. There're still so many unfinished rooms. I am going to take some ideas from TopMinder's new Hospital but that will not be enough to fill all remaining rooms.

39th building session (Just a concept, not finished - It needs some paint, more details and an improved shape):

Now thats a chopper! Nice one!!!

Pille · February 7, 2018

But it's supposed to be a bicycle. :'(

Pille · February 8, 2018

My first bike is finshed (more or less). Added download link to the op (see related prefabs).

40th building session (First finished helicopter. It's bigger than the concept heli, so there could be enough space for interior (not tested yet)):

(version 1.0)

Pille · February 10, 2018

41th building session (Second heli, basically an update of the first one):

(inspired by this and othere choppers)

UltimateX · February 10, 2018

I am eager to add this work of art to server

Pille · February 10, 2018

Edit:

Added two new variants of heli 2 to the heli pack.

@UltimateX

The main prefab is still unfinished and unstable but these helis should be ok.

The Cure · February 10, 2018

That Apache is probably the best thing I've ever seen made in this game.

Now make a Chinook helicopter, so I can make the Weapon X facility from X-Men.

Pille · February 10, 2018

@The Cure

Thanks. I think Laz Man already made a Chinook somewhere on Guppy's server. However, I am not able to find it. Maybe I make a Chinook, maybe not. It's a harder to build than this cheap no-name Pseudo-Apache.^^

Tank pack released! (see op 'related prefabs')

Just a few hints regarding the tank pack:

* To ensure a proper transition from terrain to the tank treads, the tanks need to be placed on 2 layers of terrain blocks (already done in the pack).

* There are concrete blocks beneath the tanks. Those blocks are required for the proper rendering of the treads (see screenshot bellow). I recommend to use textures that fit to the surrounding ground blocks (see screenshot bellow).

* Please use the prefab editor if you want to change the terrain (or ask Pille) because some blocks need certain density values.

* There is no version with rotated turret gun yet but it's planned.

UltimateX · February 12, 2018

I'll take a look at the prefab and try to find the source of the stability issue. By the screenshots alone, your lobby is way too open with huge support spacing. There is a fixed limit to how far out blocks can span from vertical supports to ground before failing for each material.

UltimateX · February 12, 2018

Didnt take long to find the culprit. Not only support spacing is an issue but your support pillars in the lobby only support the floor above that. Basically you have no load bearing walls or pillars in alignment to that on the vertical axis for the floors beyond that. Fix this by making load bearing support perfectly symmetrical through all floors like you did with the staircase and elevator shaft(which is typically done in real world construction otherwise same problem).

On a side note, your prefab is way too big on the horizontal plane and will not fit the standard city block and will not spawn.

EDIT: Directly under your elevator shaft is hollow space(McDowell dining room) an other instability cause

Pille · February 12, 2018

Hi UltimateX,

thanks for you help. I know the building is a stability nightmare and yes the unsupported ceiling of the lobby is way too large. My goal is to fix the issues making as few changes as possible. ^^ I cannot make load bearing supports through all floors. So there must be another solution. Anyway, I have to finish all rooms before taking care of the stability.

On a side note, your prefab is way too big on the horizontal plane and will not fit the standard city block and will not spawn.

No. It spawns very reliably (I am using the skyscraper group in the rwgmixer.xml):

	<prefab_rule name="skyscrapers">
		<prefab name="skyscraper_01" max_count="1" prob="50"/>
		<prefab name="skyscraper_02" max_count="1" prob="50"/>
		<prefab name="skyscraper_03" max_count="1" prob="50"/>
		<prefab name="skyscraper_04" max_count="1" prob="50"/>
		<prefab name="skyscraper_pille" max_count="1" prob="150"/>
	</prefab_rule>

This code spawns 1 or 2 skyscraper_pille per map. It's supposed to be rare btw.^^

UltimateX · February 12, 2018

I've made your skyscraper the only one in the mixer xml and still wont spawn in. Could be a seed thing generating city blocks smaller than your prefab but its only yours that wont spawn in.

thanks for you help. I know the building is a stability nightmare and yes the unsupported ceiling of the lobby is way too large. My goal is to fix the issues making as few changes as possible. ^^ I cannot make load bearing supports through all floors. So there must be another solution. Anyway, I have to finish all rooms before taking care of the stability.

You pretty much have too. Its the way the block physics work. Zigzagging support diminishes stability with every floor. It has to be aligned linearly the whole way up. I advise stabilizing the structure first and designing your rooms around critical supports. Doing all the artsy stuff first is probably what lead to this problem in the first place

Pille · February 12, 2018

I've made your skyscraper the only one in the mixer xml and still wont spawn in. Could be a seed thing generating city blocks smaller than your prefab but its only with yours.

Can you tell me the seed name please?

I advise stabilizing the structure first and designing your rooms around critical supports. Doing all the artsy stuff first is probably what lead to this problem in the first place

Yeah I know. This wasn't the best approach but it's too late now. ^^ I am very good at this SI stuff that's why I thought fixing the stability would be a like a walk in the park. haha

Edit:

I'll add some damages anyway. So I don't have to fix all issues. Just a few.

Pille · February 12, 2018

@UltimateX

Ok, I've made some tests using these settings:

	<prefab_rule name="skyscrapers">
		<prefab name="skyscraper_01" max_count="1" prob="50"/>
		<prefab name="skyscraper_02" max_count="1" prob="50"/>
		<prefab name="skyscraper_03" max_count="1" prob="50"/>
		<prefab name="skyscraper_04" max_count="1" prob="50"/>
		<prefab name="skyscraper_pille" max_count="1" prob="150"/>
	</prefab_rule>

The spawn doesn't work with all seeds (tested 20 seeds). About 50 % of the tested maps don't get the tower:

[table=width: 500, class: grid]

[tr]

[td]Number of spawned Skyscrapers[/td]

[td]Number of seeds[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]0[/td]

[td]9[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]1[/td]

[td]7[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]2[/td]

[td]3[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]3[/td]

[td]1[/td]

[/tr]

[/table]

This means 9 of 20 seeds don't spawn the skyscraper. I can make it a bit smaller to increase the chance of a successful spawn. It would be helpful to know what the 'standard city block' is. Any idea?

@all

Updated the tank pack. I made a bigger version of 'tank2' with more reasonable placed turret and added a tank with rotated turret gun. They look good enough for the final version of the tower.

Just in case someone wants to help me to fix the instability issues^^ - I am trying to reach at least 'Unstable Type I' (see explanation below). Atm. there are spots with 'Unstable Type III' which is very bad. Haha. Type II is easy to reach but the exact conditions for Type I are unknown to me. So if you know some cool tricks on how to improve the stability, let me know.

Stable:

You can walk on the structure and you can place some blocks on it.

Unstable Type I:

You can walk on the structure. Placed blocks will be destroyed (they explode) but they don't cause further damage.

Unstable Type II:

You can walk on the structure. Placed blocks will be destroyed (they explode) and they'll cause collapses of surrounding blocks.

Unstable Type III:

You can neither walk on the structure nor place blocks.

UltimateX · February 12, 2018

Well, there isn't an actual standard size for a city block. I often loosely phrase things and not meant to be literal. Your prefab not spawning in is two factor problem. Aside from it being redundantly oversized with a lot of wasted space around the skyscraper, the prefab's xml has no zoning nor townships defined which was making the game omit it from all cities entirely. That part I figured out after posting. I corrected that and it spawned in at least once.

As for stabilizing it. I would be willing to help but I really dont think its going to be possible without scrapping 50% of the rooms to change layout in problem spots. The auditorium being one of them since its open space would be right where supports need to go. Many of the hallways and cubicles would have to be moved over too. I know it sucks to have to do that. I would cringe at the idea of having to redo everything that took months but leaving it as is only assures that your work would be for nothing if its unusable and does not meet what people expect out of the game. I doubt that I'm the only one who thinks functionality is more important than looks. I sure wouldn't host anything if I'd have to settle for minimal function just to keep the aesthetics

Pille · February 13, 2018

There is a reason for the 'wasted space'. It's just not used yet. I wasn't aware of the missing xml parts (Probably accidentally deleted).

I still think you're way too pessimistic about my little instability issue.^^ Anyway, thanks for your advice.

Guppycur · February 13, 2018

I think it's the ultimate trap. Fight for hours to get halfway up then have the entire building collapse on you. Awesome. =)

UltimateX · February 13, 2018

Are you serious or is that sarcasm?

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Skyscraper (by Pille)

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