Too much to download...

[buckeyefreak 0]

Where do I begin.  I want the new cds but have no money for the donation.  I love this site and come here frequently but never have time to download from the STEX.  There is so much out there and searching for things is difficult.  You get terrible things mixed with excellent bats and ok ones.  Plus you get the things that are just so useful and I didn't know about that you only stumble upon when searching every page.  Then all the dependencies.  Oh wait, don't forget that some people fail to mention all that so then you just get the brown box of doom and have no idea what to download.  Then your game crashes when you click the wrong thing.  There is just so much to do and so little time.  Where do you begin?  I have NAM and some other mods but that isn't enough.  I just wish I could get the whold site and do one click installs.  Instead of downloading you just click and it is ready to go.  Dependencies are just the one click away as well and only updates will override a current install.  AHHHHH....it is so difficult and being years behind everyone else makes it that much more frustrating.

Should I search and get everything I like before I play or should I play and figure out what I need or want for the city and try to find it?

[+Guest]

First I suggest you think how you want to play and what you would like your cities to look like.

    Then you go with say BSC/CSX your going need a few things before playing aka Props which are now available in Mega Size.

    Once you get all your Props and Textures then go shopping for lots but remember to "Read" the Read Me that comes with lots to avoid a headache.Goodluck

[T Wrecks 10,209]

There are basically two approaches:

A) Download everything you can lay your hands on and start playing. Then get annoyed by stuff that doesn't live up to your expectation after all, but has popped up so frequently that it's already too late to remove it. Experience mysterious crashes and conflicts and be utterly unable to trace them because your plugins folder is a 1.5 gigabyte mess that's worse than a plate of spaghettis.

B) Take the time to browse the STEX slowly. Make notes where you finished browsing last, then start on the next page the next time you can spare an hour.

When you see stuff that impresses you, read the users' comments. There can be valuable hints inside, e.g. announcements concerning bugfixes to come or other helpful remarks.

Download an interesting item to your HD, and download the STEX screens with it. You never know if the ZIP contains screenies or not, unless it is mentioned in the readme. Save the STEX screens under names that begin like the main file, so all three will be easy to find in your downloads folder.

Make sub-folders in your downloads folder, e.g. for growable residential, parks, power stations, rail stations... you get the idea.

Store the downloads somewhere, forget them for a while, and play the game. Take mental (or pencil) notes. Do you find that you are sick of seeing that water colour? And that super-annoying Maxis building dominates your city? Then go to your downloads folder and browse the water mods you have downloaded to try something new. Concerning that Maxis building that gets on your nerves, go searching for some competition for it.

When you have found what you were looking for, install only these two or three items into your plugins folde - a sub-folder called "TEST" or "UNDER REVIEW" is a handy little feature in this respect, btw. See if everything works in game. If it does, move the plugins out of the test sub-folder into their appropriate folders.

Take care that you think up a good folder structure for your plugins. Imagine the situation that you want to get rid of a small commercial building called "Getsonmynerve Ltd." - and now imagine having to find it among 600 other downloads. Will your intended folder structure / sorting method / naming scheme give you a chance, or will you be helpless? If the latter applies, think of a better scheme.

B) is, of course, a much slower approach. But IMHO, it's the only one that really prevails.

I hope all this waffle helps a bit.

[buckeyefreak 0]

B does sound much better. I need to stop looking at all the City Journals because I see so many great cities out there that 60 percent or more of the screen is from here and I want it all but the more real I am with myself the more I realize even if I had it all and got it really quick the less likeley I would be to use it or even remember what I got.

[SC4Noobie 5]

Start with some good authors too. Lay your hands on most NDEX stuff (download it all like me so you got enough skyscrapers) get some good bsc variety from SG (for mostly suburban stuff) and some bsc farms. Some other low rise bsc stuff is also good. bsc stuff is the hardest to install and download so save for last. Don't be desencitiesed by all the great stuff from one author, and be super picky. Download some good looking lesser stuff too. Get some of the best mods to suite your needs. Do the mods first. Slowly, you will have reviewed most of the stex, and then just keep up with new downloads... Give it time. 1 got 1.3+ GIGS of stuff and 6 or 7 more buildings sitting in my testing folder to put it in. I'm finding new stuff all the time.