Disabling one structure from developing

[Argon Vex 1]

Hey, I was wondering if there's a way to stop one specific building from one specific set from developing. There is a low wealth medium residential building in the Chigaco 1890 set that I think is hideous. I know resort to either bulldozing all of them or just blocking the Chigaco set all together. But a lot of the buildings in that set are actually quite nice.

So is there anything I can do to stop this lot from appearing in the first place?

[Mikeaut1 261]

I've been told that if you repeatedly go in and bulldoze the building that you don't want whenever it pops up, it won't grow in excess anymore. It's been years since I last tried it, but I know I tried it with the Wren Insurance Building, and I had luck with it. There are a handful of tile set mods on the stex, but it wouldn't help you.

[ArchangelMichael 51]

@Argon Vex -- this might be possible by placing an exemplar in your plugins folder that simply changes the target building's growth stage to something outside the bounds of both the default 8 stages as well as the CAM's highest stage (in case you are using CAM, or decide to use it in the future).  If you can tell me what building it is, I'll see what I can do.  A picture would be most helpful.

Mike

[Argon Vex 1]

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/1954/gebouw.jpg

That would be the building in question. I believe there's also a 2x1 variant, which is the same building, but lacks the parking lot. If you can do anything about this thing appearing (or tell me how I can do so), I'd appreciate it. I'm not using the CAM (yet). I keep forgetting to find out what it is

[ArchangelMichael 51]

Well, the stage limit theory was unnecessary.  It turned out to be easier than I thought.  There's a .zip file attached to this post with a ReadMe and a .dat inside for you.  I tested it out by building a little town of all R§ and not one of the buildings in question popped up.  This was done in a testbed city with no other plugins on the hard difficulty setting.  If you enter a city that already has these buildings in it, nothing bad should happen.  Just demolish the ugly devils and this should prevent any more of them from appearing.  Let me know via private message if you experience any anomalies.

Mike

EDIT:  Forgot to mention that if you're curious about how to do this, I found the info in this post.  If you are comfortable using the reader, it should be a snap to repeat the process for any other building that you'd rather not see in your cities.

Block_R$_ChiBoxyApt6.zip

[Argon Vex 1]

Thanks! I'll try it out and read the links tomorrow, as I really should get some sleep now.

[Argon Vex 1]

Thanks! It works like a charm. I built the biggest hell-hole I could think of (server coal plants near each other, landfills in the middle of a residential area) and set the set exclusively to Chicago 1890. None of them appeared!

[ArchangelMichael 51]

Fantastic!  I'm happy to help and very glad that it worked for you

[Strategist01 0]

Mike: Out of interest, not that I mind those buildings or any of the maxis buildings...but why can't you use the SC4 tool? Is ilive better suited to this task?

[ArchangelMichael 51]

@Strategist01 -- SC4Tool would work, but it would take longer.  The reader's exemplar analyzer is, in my opinion, easier to use.  In tree mode, everything is in alphabetical order when you expand the buildings item, but when you open SimCity1.dat in SC4Tool and expand the buildings item, the entries are a jumbled mess.  Also, the reader allows you to search for a specific file, if you know its name.

Aside from spending lots of extra time hunting down the target exemplar, as far as I can tell the process would be basically the same using SC4Tool: copy the building exemplar to a new file, alter the OccupantGroups property to remove the building from all tilesets, save-as whatever you want to name it, place in plugins folder, and begin a test.  It is recommended to test "clean" without plugins and on the hard difficulty setting before testing your mod in a city that uses other custom content.

Also keep in mind that the reader was released long before SC4Tool, so modders have been using it longer, they are accustomed to it, and most of the instructions they've written on how to do modding are presented in "reader-speak" for lack of a better term.

So I guess that was a long geeky way of saying, "Yes, you could use SC4Tool for this task, but I do believe the reader is better suited for it."  Basically, if you intend to get into modding, you will download reader and learn to use it -- resistance is futile.    But don't worry, it's only scary at first, like driving, cooking, and roller coasters.  Make a backup copy of anything you want to alter so that if you screw it up, you can easily revert to the original.

Mike

[Strategist01 0]

I have the SC4 tool, and quite frankly, I have absolutely no idea on how to use it...I tried to modify one of those growable trees so that they would abosrb pollution and have a park/landmark effect, but I couldn't figure out how...guess I'll have to get some tutorials and figure out on how to do that...

[ArchangelMichael 51]

I'm fairly certain all growable trees already absorb pollution.  As for adding a park effect to them, I'm not sure if that would work.  I've never tried.  It's probably easier to make a "forest lot" in the lot editor with your favorite trees, then mod it with SC4Tool, the reader, or LE Prop (which is very easy to use) so that it absorbs pollution and provides a pleasing aura to residents.  Don't go overboard or it will screw up your demand caps.

Mike

[Strategist01 0]

I downloaded the SFBT random seasonal woods lots...and I looked at the readme file and they said that it had no pollution absorbtion, park effect, cap relief or anything like that...eyecandy basically. When you say forest lot...what do you mean by trees? Can I use the maxis trees that appear in God Mode? If so, where are they?

EDIT: I see now that the 1x1 lots have a -1 effect over 1 tile, and -2 over 2 tiles for the 2x2 lots...but no landmark, or park effect, or water consumption, garbage production, or power consumption...odd. But anway...rather than typing it out yourself, can you direct me to a tutorial? Bear in mind that I can't download anything to the computer that has SC4 on it, as my flash drive broke...Thanks!

[ArchangelMichael 51]

When you say forest lot...what do you mean by trees? Can I use the maxis trees that appear in God Mode? If so, where are they?quote>

What I mean is, if you have downloaded the trees made by cycledogg (which are required for the SFBT seasonal woods lots) you can, if you wish, use the Lot Editor to create your own lot filled with whatever trees you like most.  You can also use the Maxis trees (look for "flora" in the Lot Editor's prop selection dialog), but they are not nearly as aesthetic.  You could also make adjustments to the SFBT lots.

can you direct me to a tutorial?quote>

Assuming that you already have the Lot Editor, a good place to start is this Lot Editor tutorial.  Or, if you're registered to the forums at sc4devotion.com, try here.  It's an easy-to-use program, so don't be afraid to just experiment.  Once you've created your lot, you can use SC4Tool or ilive's LE Prop (easier to use) to adjust the park and/or landmark effect, pollution reduction, resource consumption, plop cost, monthly cost, etc.  The tutorial that comes with SC4Tool is very helpful, and you can get more info here.

We have strayed off the topic of this thread, so if you need more help feel free to send me a PM or start a private topic.

Mike