Watch on youtube.comThis is a two-part post, first I'll cover some of the ideas I have for this scenery, then I'll talk about why these probably won't happen...
One major feature of the Coromandel is the amount of native bush, it is one of the few areas inaccessible enough to be left alone. So it's a good place to use the new Native Bush autogen which I released for Dunedin. The video shows this autogen, but I'll cover the reasons why this might not be part of the finished scenery later on it this post.
There are five airfields within the photoscenery area -- Thames, Coromandel, Whitianga, Pauanui and Matarangi. When I began the photoscenery a long time ago, I did expect to be able to visit the area, but this didn't work out. Still, it is the sort of scenery which could really benefit from a photographic expedition, not to mention just getting away to what is really a hidden gem. Out of my reach at the moment, but you never know.
This may end up being released as part of the Subscription, but since it will hopefully be a 'finished' stand-alone area, I may put it in my Store for non-Subscribers -- cheaper than a 'Real NZ' release, but still payware. First, though, I need to figure out a few things.
As I mentioned, the video shows the new native bush autogen which I used for Dunedin -- this is a custom autogen class, so it displays correctly for everyone without overwriting any default autogen textures. I did plan to build a library of different vegetation sets, and Dunedin was a kind of experiment, using custom bush, willows, eucalyptus, windbreaks and a few other tree types. However not everyone who bought Dunedin was happy to install the merger tool which allows for this custom autogen, thinking that it would affect their existing autogen -- mainly FTX stuff. This is not the case at all, the merger tool was created specifically to prevent autogen descriptions being over-written, especially the likes of Orbx, who simply drop in their descriptions overwriting everything each time something is installed, altered, or even if you just run FTX Central.
I have a few ideas why people might be seeing this new tool as a complication rather than a solution. One reason suggested to me is that people see Orbx as the standard for New Zealand, and anything non-Orbx is somewhat lesser, or can't be trusted, and definitely shouldn't affect FTX scenery. It may be that too many users don't read any manuals, so they don't know how to deal with this stage of the installation, and it was simpler to bypass it. Really, it could be anything. I'm acutely aware that part of this was my own fault, releasing the initial installer with a bug which messed this up, and required a patch.
The Coromandel was designed from the start to use an extension of the autogen I tested in Dunedin, adding more vegetation types, and customising other autogen, such as buildings, including a new autogen building roof shape, which lowers the roof pitch to something more realistic in New Zealand. This can improve houses a lot, although there is no way of changing the percentage of two-storey buildings, which is my main bugbear. These roofs can also be used for more realistic NZ warehousing, which is anther main goal of mine. However the priority is the house autogen, as most of the Coromandel is close to the normal kiwi bach.
However, all this -- or any single part -- requires some way to add autogen descriptions, and prevent them from being overwritten by other developers. This really means relying on the autogen merger tool. If people don't want the tool, then they that's their right. For me, though, it's a bit of a catch-22 -- to continue creating scenery, I need to push the boundaries a little, otherwise I'm just churning out stuff. So it makes projects like the Coromandel less of a priority, because of it's reliance on an improved autogen bush.
One solution is to give people the choice of installing the custom autogen, or using default autogen. However I've already learnt that people don't like too many choices with their installers, so the only workable solution is to use default autogen, which at the moment doesn't really appeal to me at all. But I need to give people what they want. The funny thing is that I'll still need to create something nicer, if only for me, so I'll have the only version of my 'ideal' New Zealand... Unless I sell a 'special blend' to a few who are willing to go along with me... Of course this couldn't be advertised, because we keep coming back to simplicity -- adding an option turns some people off completely, and I can't afford to lose customers if I want to keep doing this. I never thought I'd see the day when I was considering bootlegging scenery, but there you go...
That did get annoying .. I seem to be so lucky with the connection here, generally its superb for vid watch or MP's.