Better features

[Asianboi_]

I was thinking of much HD graphic along with building with much variety of size e.g 1x2, 2x3, and so on. Rotate-able building (sorry, english isn't my native) and it's direction stays whenever we rotates the view. Realistic scale of everything? (Maybe that's gonna be hard)

The easiest one probably will be my second suggest because things looks funny like landfill if I rotate the view. And new sound design

[Mendel Group]

If we made graphics HD, then the game would crash into hell.
the other things are possible.

[Asianboi_]

Maybe you're right, I was thinking about upgrading engine or having similar graphics like simcity 4, well it's just almost the same as your point

[ArthurJ22]

Not sure which SimCity you were playing, but the older ones were definitely not HD, and the new ones are more cartoony.

The game actually already lets you use shaders for graphics. The ones that are available now are pretty neat (especially Atmosphere and Sunshine), but I bet more will come out eventually.

There are tons of plugins out there that can make your city look just as good as, or even better than SimCity 4. The thing is, not all plugin creators are going for that super realistic look. But hey, the overall quality of plugins is definitely increasing, and the plugin moderators can confirm that.

Now, for buildings that aren't the standard 2x2 or 4x4 size, it really depends on what kind of building it is. Plugins can have all sorts of sizes, like 3x6 or 2x1. But if a plugin is just a bunch of chopped-up frames place one next other, it can look fragmented when you try to rotate it. Because these non-standard buildings need to be able to be rotation aware, which can be a pain to set up if you don't put extra time on it. Making plugins takes time too, easily a week or more for each one.

About more rotation aware buildings. Designing just one side of a building is already tough, so imagine how much trickier it is to make it look good from all sides. That said, there are a lot of buildings that can rotate, and it's really up to the person who made the plugin to decide if that's an option. Just keep in mind that night mode and winter frames can already be pretty demanding.

You mentioned realistic scale, that depends on the plugin creator again. There's a kind of a rule that 0.6 meters equals 1 pixel, and most creators use that as a starting point. But for some buildings, that perfect scale might not be possible because it would just be too hard to design.

Honestly, if you really want more variety of complex plugins, you might want to consider becoming a plugin creator yourself. t's a great way to add the features you want to the game and make your city look exactly how you like. Because all the things you mentioned are totally possible with plugins.

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Btw, I just read that you recommended changing the game engine too, that is literally making a new game, so unless you wait for TheoTown 2, it is impossible.

[Asianboi_]

Well, I meant about SimCity 4 style, a much less "pixelated", but SC 4 uses 3D engine so it'll be harder for Theotown to achieve that.

Maybe I could start making plugin too rather than asking for the dev to implement such a request to the game. Bt I guess it'll be hard for me start.

For me, Theotown is good, but I lose interest once I watched far better similar games on PC like SC 4 and CS series. Bad traffic A.I., rotation aware and stuffs I've talked about, and most what we see in game is just aesthetics, not functions. I still found it's funny about the traffic as trucks literally goes to residential area although it's literally not even near any commercials, think about freight trucks sighthing on neighborhood which is totally weird.

[Asianboi_]

Not sure which SimCity you were playing, but the older ones were definitely not HD, and the new ones are more cartoony.

The game actually already lets you use shaders for graphics. The ones that are available now are pretty neat (especially Atmosphere and Sunshine), but I bet more will come out eventually.

There are tons of plugins out there that can make your city look just as good as, or even better than SimCity 4. The thing is, not all plugin creators are going for that super realistic look. But hey, the overall quality of plugins is definitely increasing, and the plugin moderators can confirm that.

Now, for buildings that aren't the standard 2x2 or 4x4 size, it really depends on what kind of building it is. Plugins can have all sorts of sizes, like 3x6 or 2x1. But if a plugin is just a bunch of chopped-up frames place one next other, it can look fragmented when you try to rotate it. Because these non-standard buildings need to be able to be rotation aware, which can be a pain to set up if you don't put extra time on it. Making plugins takes time too, easily a week or more for each one.

About more rotation aware buildings. Designing just one side of a building is already tough, so imagine how much trickier it is to make it look good from all sides. That said, there are a lot of buildings that can rotate, and it's really up to the person who made the plugin to decide if that's an option. Just keep in mind that night mode and winter frames can already be pretty demanding.

You mentioned realistic scale, that depends on the plugin creator again. There's a kind of a rule that 0.6 meters equals 1 pixel, and most creators use that as a starting point. But for some buildings, that perfect scale might not be possible because it would just be too hard to design.

Honestly, if you really want more variety of complex plugins, you might want to consider becoming a plugin creator yourself. t's a great way to add the features you want to the game and make your city look exactly how you like. Because all the things you mentioned are totally possible with plugins.

------
Btw, I just read that you recommended changing the game engine too, that is literally making a new game, so unless you wait for TheoTown 2, it is impossible.

I think we should go for better functions, mechanics etc that's not related to graphics, rather than trying to have good graphics. I think pixel game with a decent workig mechanics is enough. Again, think about minecraft, like Theotown, has tons of mods/addons/plugins, but basic game has a decent features e.g combat mechanic, trading, enchanting, hunger & health. Well I talked too much, maybe I'm starting to annoy so I'll just stop. Hope you get what I'm saying (sorry for some words that might be confusing)

[ArthurJ22]

There are already plugins with functions, Complex industry is one of them, you can get them on Discord.

Likewise, the devs are working on a Transport update that will allow more functional variables to be assigned. It won't be now but they are in it, and really with LUA you can have a lot of versatility, It's just that it is a very little-demanded necessity for the work required to make a plugin like that.

And about comparing City Skylines or Sim City with TheoTown, they are really games with different functionalities, different graphics, even though it is the same City Builder market.

I have never seen the thing about trucks going to residential zones, and I have been playing for quite a few years, they are assigned to go to commercial buildings, unless it is a plugin and the creator has not correctly assigned the meta...

[ArthurJ22]

I think we should go for better functions, mechanics etc that's not related to graphics, rather than trying to have good graphics. I think pixel game with a decent workig mechanics is enough. Again, think about minecraft, like Theotown, has tons of mods/addons/plugins, but basic game has a decent features e.g combat mechanic, trading, enchanting, hunger & health. Well I talked too much, maybe I'm starting to annoy so I'll just stop. Hope you get what I'm saying (sorry for some words that might be confusing)

It has already been said on multiple occasions that war mechanics will not be implemented, since it is an E rating game, although with plugins you can do it yourself. But I don't know what use you can give it unless you are going to do a YT serie about that. Since it would literally only be animation and replacement of frames.

There is already a mechanic for exchanging services trough offline plots, so u will have to be a little more detailed with Trading...

Enchanting, Hunger and Health make no sense in a City Building game. Or I don't see it...

[Asianboi_]

I think we should go for better functions, mechanics etc that's not related to graphics, rather than trying to have good graphics. I think pixel game with a decent workig mechanics is enough. Again, think about minecraft, like Theotown, has tons of mods/addons/plugins, but basic game has a decent features e.g combat mechanic, trading, enchanting, hunger & health. Well I talked too much, maybe I'm starting to annoy so I'll just stop. Hope you get what I'm saying (sorry for some words that might be confusing)

It has already been said on multiple occasions that war mechanics will not be implemented, since it is an E rating game, although with plugins you can do it yourself. But I don't know what use you can give it unless you are going to do a YT serie about that. Since it would literally only be animation and replacement of frames.

There is already a mechanic for exchanging services trough offline plots, so u will have to be a little more detailed with Trading...

Enchanting, Hunger and Health make no sense in a City Building game. Or I don't see it...

Uhhh no no, that's not what I meant, you get it very wrong

I mean, in base/vanilla minecraft, we got a base features like those I've said, while being a very modifiable game minecraft has a decent basic features. I'm comparing Theotown with Minecraft as vanilla version (un-modded version) but Theotown here has much less actual feature like other city builder game, sorry for that

[ArthurJ22]

Comparing TheoTown vanilla (85 MB) to Minecraft (+1 GB) is like comparing apples to oranges.

The freedom that plugins allow when you want to increase the size and compatibility of the game on your device is one of the best features of TT.

Despite this, they continue to implement little things from time to time, if you knew that 30% of the content came first as plugins before being optimized and implemented into vanilla.

[Asianboi_]

Comparing TheoTown vanilla (85 MB) to Minecraft (+1 GB) is like comparing apples to oranges.

The freedom that plugins allow when you want to increase the size and compatibility of the game on your device is one of the best features of TT.

Despite this, they continue to implement little things from time to time, if you knew that 30% of the content came first as plugins before being optimized and implemented into vanilla.

To compare, it doesn't have to do with the size, I'm saying about how much percentage of progress of Theotown has. So like, incomplete stuff. Okay, so what i can conclude from you is to use plugins to have some stuff that the devs havent been solve.

[ArthurJ22]

Men, the basic features of a game determines the size of the app on the device. The more code and functions a game has, the more memory and storage it will need.

And it's not that the devs haven't solved it, it's that each person has different needs, I have made very good cities without plugins, simply that the plugins give you the freedom what to use and what not, when you no longer need something, you uninstall the plugin and install another one, this allows you to maintain your device without consuming much storage and keep the game not so saturated of unnecessary things.

[Asianboi_]

Oh, now I get that .

[KINGTUT10101]

Men, the basic features of a game determines the size of the app on the device. The more code and functions a game has, the more memory and storage it will need.

And it's not that the devs haven't solved it, it's that each person has different needs, I have made very good cities without plugins, simply that the plugins give you the freedom what to use and what not, when you no longer need something, you uninstall the plugin and install another one, this allows you to maintain your device without consuming much storage and keep the game not so saturated of unnecessary things.

Not necessarily. Sound, video, and 3d model files take up a lot more room than some 2d stuff. The game I'm working on has 300+ materials but their combined file size is a a fraction of 15 or so music tracks I've added. Code is pretty lightweight relative to other types of content.

[ArthurJ22]

I still think we come to the same thing, no? What's the point of having +500 2D frames in vanilla, if you can get them as plugins (which would be "DLCs" if you look at it a certain way) which was the main point of the topic.

At least sounds can be added as plugins, frames too, 3D has no use here and neither does video, although it would be interesting to be able to add iframes with Lua.

I would prefer a thousand times that the devs increase the potential functions of Lua, and postprocessing shaders, and with that more and more variety of plugins could be created, in addition to implementing improvements to the UI in search and selection of plugins instead of adding unnecessary content (unless they are marketing collaborations or some unique feature).

That's my personal opinion.