Updated Middle East Shopfront bldg type

[LongLeftFlank]

For the degeneration of the faithful, I have just uploaded an updated version of my Middle East Shopfront mod to CMMODs. Description and screenie follow....

A new "Building 8" type based on Building 3 with pulldown doors at ground level, and shop signs on the grilled balcony. Single story building has a different set of doors. The balcony grill alpha channel works.

Also included are (1) a mod of the ATM flavour object to show items for sale in a typical shop and (2) the highway roadsigns modified into shop signs and advertisements.

All signs are actual signs from Ramadi, Iraq. English translations unknown.

[Mord]

Awesome, man. I'll definitely be grabbing this! Thanks.

Mord.

P.S. Do you know if you can give numbered extensions to flavor objects?

[blow56]

Newbie idiot question - how do you get the mod to work? A 'Z' file? In what directory?

[JohnO]

Data Directory.

[LongLeftFlank]

P.S. Do you know if you can give numbered extensions to flavor objects?

I would LOVE it if we could, but we can't AFAIK. I have begged, begged, begged BFC for some blank or at least duplicate flav objects (even plain old cubes, cylinders, what have you), to no avail.

[blow56]

Well, it does not really work as a mod (which is what I meant). Very colourful etc etc - but you can no longer enter the building from the street, since it has no door. Nor shoot out of it at ground floor, because it has no windows. Engineers can blow a hole in it, I suppose, but an entire shopfront a-la bazaar style is virtually impregnable unless you blow them all up.

Shame.

[M1A1TC]

Well, it pretty much is, judging by the picture see all those metal doors? I bet they are though

[LongLeftFlank]

Well, it does not really work as a mod (which is what I meant). Very colourful etc etc - but you can no longer enter the building from the street, since it has no door. Nor shoot out of it at ground floor, because it has no windows. Engineers can blow a hole in it, I suppose, but an entire shopfront a-la bazaar style is virtually impregnable unless you blow them all up.

Shame.

Well sorry it doesn't meet your needs, but this is the best I can come up with within the limits of the editor. It's up to BFC to build a proper one, since these shopfronts are totally ubiquitous in Third World towns, but they've showed little interest in spending any more time on the terrain model until they have to do it for Normandy.

I generally stick a door on the front (it's the same pattern as the center "gate" so it blends in a bit if you choose a minimal doorframe) to reflect that soldiers can get in and out pretty easily by shooting the locks off. I'd love to see a door and windows with no frames (i.e. invisible) because I'd like to do a collonaded mosque front (i.e. 5 archways where the windows and doors are) but can't get the alpha channels to cooperate (my GIMP skills are pretty lame if you pardon the pun :-b ).

An alternative I also use is to have an "open" shopfront. You delete the front ground wall of a small footprint building, stick a high wall inside the building to divide the interior space into two "shops" and then stick some crates and barrels around the entrances (I don't usually bother putting stuff inside -- abstraction and all that). I also use a couple of type "1" bus shelters (the one without the benches or Assad portraits) turned around backward to simulate an awning and stalls. There's also the balcony with stilts.