PoisonFrog
16th Mar 2012, 08:59 PM
Making a world without roads doesn't seem to be something EA envisioned, though arguably they should have when they added horses to the Pets EP. I'm making this thread to get some input into the unique problems associated with undertaking an equestrian world, and hopefully compile some solutions for myself and others who engage in this endeavor.
I'm about four months into this world and am beginning to take a harder look at the routing issues involved. The main thing that leaps out at me is how dysfunctional sidewalks/dirt trails become when you remove the roads, as the roads absorb the brunt of the traffic, usually. Also vehicles seem able to pass through one another, while sims on trails don't...they just stand around tapping their feet and having routing fits. Mods should help alleviate this, somewhat.
If you place a trail where it connects various locales, all sims except the household you are playing seem to lunge for it like piranha who've picked up the scent of blood. Some of them just stand on the trail blocking sims who actually have a destination...if you select them, they suddenly decide to go back home..duh! A disrupted meet up queue? Not to mention horses on their way to the styling salon(I would only hope it's to impress other horses). Add to this, that a trail consists of a single routing spline.
I see a SimRoutingComponent xml in the gameplay package that could possibly be helpful. It has push tunings to move sims off a route and immunity to pushing settings, also. Ideally, I would like to leave my trails as they are and use various xml tunings to make the routing functional, but I suspect this will only be part of a larger set of fixes that will need to be implemented.
Some other solutions I'm contemplating are...
-Putting an invisible trail side by side with the existing trail in heavy traffic areas. Invisible trails made that way by using a black opacity alpha are visible in map view...I wonder if there is a way to make the dirt sidewalk dds partially or fully invisible...perhaps by using a png instead of dds? Might not need mipmaps then...
-Eliminating problematic trails and replacing them with trails made from terrain paint. Then use 1x1 segments of invisible trail to make a dotted line of sorts over the painted trail that sims will route to...hopefully. I prefer not to accomplish this by using non-routing paint, as I want most of the world to be accessible and geared to explorers and collectors.
-Delete the failed trails and let sims route freely in those areas, perhaps painting in dirt roads for decoration.
-Not include all rabbit holes and have a more self sufficient ethic, where sims prospect for spawned goodies and work at home or careers mostly.
-Homeschooling(Twallan's career mod) and/or multiple small schoolhouses.
A couple of other related thoughts...
Mod to eliminate the carpool in 1 hour popup.
Ways to make npc's ride horses...equestrian trait?
Wouldn't it be great to have horse driven buggies, carriages and coaches?
I'm not sure how much interest there is in this, as I didn't see a whole lot about it on a Google search. I hope there are at least a few out there with a passion for this...
:)
I'm about four months into this world and am beginning to take a harder look at the routing issues involved. The main thing that leaps out at me is how dysfunctional sidewalks/dirt trails become when you remove the roads, as the roads absorb the brunt of the traffic, usually. Also vehicles seem able to pass through one another, while sims on trails don't...they just stand around tapping their feet and having routing fits. Mods should help alleviate this, somewhat.
If you place a trail where it connects various locales, all sims except the household you are playing seem to lunge for it like piranha who've picked up the scent of blood. Some of them just stand on the trail blocking sims who actually have a destination...if you select them, they suddenly decide to go back home..duh! A disrupted meet up queue? Not to mention horses on their way to the styling salon(I would only hope it's to impress other horses). Add to this, that a trail consists of a single routing spline.
I see a SimRoutingComponent xml in the gameplay package that could possibly be helpful. It has push tunings to move sims off a route and immunity to pushing settings, also. Ideally, I would like to leave my trails as they are and use various xml tunings to make the routing functional, but I suspect this will only be part of a larger set of fixes that will need to be implemented.
Some other solutions I'm contemplating are...
-Putting an invisible trail side by side with the existing trail in heavy traffic areas. Invisible trails made that way by using a black opacity alpha are visible in map view...I wonder if there is a way to make the dirt sidewalk dds partially or fully invisible...perhaps by using a png instead of dds? Might not need mipmaps then...
-Eliminating problematic trails and replacing them with trails made from terrain paint. Then use 1x1 segments of invisible trail to make a dotted line of sorts over the painted trail that sims will route to...hopefully. I prefer not to accomplish this by using non-routing paint, as I want most of the world to be accessible and geared to explorers and collectors.
-Delete the failed trails and let sims route freely in those areas, perhaps painting in dirt roads for decoration.
-Not include all rabbit holes and have a more self sufficient ethic, where sims prospect for spawned goodies and work at home or careers mostly.
-Homeschooling(Twallan's career mod) and/or multiple small schoolhouses.
A couple of other related thoughts...
Mod to eliminate the carpool in 1 hour popup.
Ways to make npc's ride horses...equestrian trait?
Wouldn't it be great to have horse driven buggies, carriages and coaches?
I'm not sure how much interest there is in this, as I didn't see a whole lot about it on a Google search. I hope there are at least a few out there with a passion for this...
:)