Han Held wrote: ↑Thu Oct 28, 2021 3:18 pm
Rosie Gray wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 1:01 pm
When a building is inappropriate either because it doesn't fit the theme of the region properly or because the building itself is not very well made, or simply because it doesn't fit the landscape, this presents problems because there are gray areas around the ideas of theme and also there are different levels of what people view as acceptable in a build. The ideas here are to help resolve these problems.
Please make comments and further suggestions!
The way to resolve these problems is to stick to one, single criteria: does the build fit the theme of the sim yes or no.
The idea of "building itself is not very well made" specifically raises my hackles because it excludes my builds -it excludes those who are learning to build as well.
It is a barrier to entry in terms of shaping and participating in our community, it's bogus.
Let's get down to brass tacks here: what is the freaking goal of the CDS going forward; to have an open, user-participating community, or to have a closed, stifling but oh so very pretty group of model sims?
If you choose open -risking ugly but on-theme builds is a part of it.
If you choose closed -then enjoy your declining participation numbers.
Those numbers will continue to decline because there's no point in playing a game you're unable to influence or leave your mark upon.
Thank you so much for bringing it on the point! The bar is raised high and even excludes halfway experienced Blender users like me (because of missing bump maps almost nobody would recognize...).
For sure, I see and appreciate the idea behind to achieve a harmonic ensemble of buildings when there is a theme agreed. But when we hinder the self-building of houses because of really minor details while we don't object that some people use to buy excessively IMHO ugly foreign creeations which allegedly meet the self-defined high standards, I just can scratch my head. Even when there are the best reasons in the world to proceed like this without any changes, I agree with Han that this will scare off a lot of people potentially willing to settle down in the CDS.
When I personally would start to be fussy, I could say: "Most half-timber houses at Neufreistadt are looking Normannic lke you can see them in Northern France and Belgium. You won't find any single house in that style at Rothenburg op de Tauber which is the RL template of NFS. So they actually should be completely removed in favour of authentic South German Fachwerk." Or I could object that the town gate close to my store is a LI grave and could be built much more effective and authentic in times of mesh. But would it really help to improve?
So better to tolerate a certain variance and imperfection in our rules instead of blocking the few creative minds we currently have (and hopefully can win in the future) by way too narrow-minded standards, especially when they often appear more like personal preferences than objective criterions. Honestly and despite all my appreciation for our CDS community - this is a point that really annoys me!
Just to give an example how inconsequent we in fact are and how we are seen from outside: Recently a friend asked me if I would know some land to settle down for one of her friends. I proposed her to look around in the CDS sims, but also stated that there are some standards to meet the respective sim theme. Some minutes later, she sent me a Gyazo picture of our MoCA building and said: "And how does fit that bunker in your strict rules?" 
Almut
