Deleting Files

[bri3d 4]

I'm not sure if this is in the right place, but I thought it might be.

I have a few questions about deleting plugin files, both for growables and plopables.

Growables: Say I made a lot in the LE, but I don't want it anymore. Can I delete this lot, so it doesn't grow anymore, without demolishing the lots that have already built in game? Also, say I downloaded a custom building, and I later (after it popped up everywhere), decided I don't like it. Can I delete the .SC4LOT and .SC4DESC safely, so it doesn't grow anymore, but keep the .SC4MODEL, so that the remaining ones don't turn into brown boxes?

Plopables: Say I make a lot specifically for a certain city in a certain cituation, like a 2x3 park or 3x3 school, but then delete it because I don't want my menues to get plugged up (too bad if it gets destroyed). Can I delete the lot safely, because I know the .SC4DESC is merged with the .SC4LOT in plopables.

Also, for the civic construction mod I made, I'm about to release cranes and modified construction times on the buildings. However, these use building exemplars. I know they won't be compatible with radius, capacity, etc. mods because they use the same exemplars. My question is, if you remove the mod after a while, will the civic buildings affected that were built when it was in use not be functional anymore because there is a missing exemplar in the plugins? Or will it refer back to the root of these exemplars in simcity_1.dat?   

Thanks

[Andreas Roth 607]

Removing files from your plugins folder while you still have plopped (or grown) those is generally a bad idea. Both *.SC4Lot and *.SC4Desc (if it's not merged in the lot file anyway) are needed to display and "maintain" the lot in the game. The only thing you could "safely" get rid of is the *.SC4Model, but that would cause brown boxes, obviously. While it probably doesn't harm to remove a park lot or similar, it gets really dangerous when it comes to civic facilities, such as schools, hospitals or power plant. Those must be bulldozed first, otherwise you'll get the infamous "slider bug", where you budget sliders of all facilities of the same kind as the one you removed will either go to zero or to maximum on their own, trashing your whole city.

Of course, it can be quite a lot of work, but I strongly suggest to bulldoze all old lots before you remove the files. To make the process easier, remove the *.SC4Model file, if available, and bulldoze all lots with brown boxes. Another workaround is to use the SC4 Startup Manager and create a folder where you put all the old stuff you want to get rid of. In new cities, use a profile that doesn't include those items, but if you want to play an old city, simply select another profile where the folder is included. That's probably the easiest way.

As for your civic construction mod, if you only modify the behaviour of the cranes and the construction time, but don't touch everything else, including the exemplar IDs, the game should revert to the ones im the SimCity_1.dat, once you remove the mod. The construction properties are only used during construction (after you plopped the lot), but not anymore once the building has fully grown, I guess.

[bri3d 4]

Wow, thanks Andreas Roth, that helped a lot. I know I'll know have to be lot careful when downloading lots of the STEX, and test them in game to see if I like them. And, I'll put it in the readme to let users know that you can remove the civic construction mod at anytime.

EDIT: Hmm, I briefly tested removing a growable lot from the plugins, and the lot in-game was good, so LotConfig must be remembered in game or something. Anyway, I'm sure the .SC4DESC is not something to remove, now that I think of it.

[Almighty Nienaber 3]

I have a question I have 2 streetmods and i want to get rid of them and get the original streets back. i deleted them from pluggins dut there still there i need some help please

[T Wrecks 10,209]

I can imagine only two things:

A) You missed some files, and in fact the mod is still there. Did you try renaming your plugins folder and making a new, totally empty one? If you load the affected city with a totally empty plugins folder and the street mod is finally gone, you know you have missed some files.

B) It could be that you must select one of the road tools and re-draw a few tiles of road to make the game "refresh" that area. It's the same with some roadside mods: After adding them, you don't notice any change at first. The new roadside stuff only appears when the sidewalk gets "refreshed" - either by new buildings growing next to the road in question, or by the player doing what I suggested in the first sentence of this paragraph.