Pesky Zots

[Madame Mayor 4]

Hello, all!  I am starting to see power zots over roads where half parking lots have taken over the roadways. They won't be bulldozed, rezoned, or reroaded. Cars go over them like they are still roads. They're showng up in multiple cities now.  I don't want to destroy a whole region, they'll just show up later. I'm tired of starting over and over.

Thanks for your help. I took a photo but I don't know how to upload it.

[Tysons4 68]

yeah this problem has happend to me... not with the power though (make sure you have more than enough power)

ignore it

or

obliterate the city

i still have cities that i go to to check if these ghost lots can be removed

[Madame Mayor 4]

This is happening in running cities with power to spare. I want to get rid of the parkiing lots as well as the zots over plain roads, which will turn into lots after a while. I have 7 lots so far in one city. Every time I open a new city they show up. Ignoring them or obliterating each city is the last option. I hate to destroy two years of work over a glitch. I'm close to giving up.

[Aro0w 1]

go to photobucket, register, when your in, press upload files, go to my documents Simcity 4 then albums. upload the pictures and post them here, I want to see exactly what you are talking about...

[Madame Mayor 4]

http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2745118640027239022GdUrZD

It's already up at Webshots. Can you find it with this?

[Madame Mayor 4]

OK. I removed a recently downloaded transit enabled parking lot from my plugins folder, and then I was able to bulldoze some of them and rebuild the roads. The zots are still there, however.

One of the parking lots wouldn't doze, so I plopped a building on it. It let me plop but there are now trees growing in a parking lot instead of grass. In other words, the lot shows through. Oh well.

I bulldozed and rebuilt the power station. No dice. I finally resorted to "fightthepower" thinking I'd just blanket the city, and that didn't work either.

Still trying to think this through.

[ArchangelMichael 51]

Your problem may be the result of a plugin conflict.  The best bet is to do a binary search.  To do this, move half of the custom content you've downloaded out of your My Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins folder.  Don't delete them.  Don't copy them.  Just move them to, say, an empty folder on your desktop or somewhere you'll remember.  Start the game, enter a city that exhibits the problem, and see what happens.  You'll get one of two outcomes:

1) The problem persists.  This means that something among the second half of items still residing in the Plugins folder is causing the issue.  Move half of those to the same folder where you moved the first half.  The Plugins folder should now have only one quarter of the amount of custom content you typically use.  Start the game and enter the city again.

2) The problem went away.  This means that the custom content that causes the problem was among that which was removed.  Move half of it back into the Plugins folder (it will now contain 3/4 of the custom content you normally use), start the game, and enter that city again.

Continue this process until you are able to narrow down the one item that causes the issue to appear.  Then, if it is a lot or building, make sure every instance of that item is bulldozed from all cities in every region and move it permanently out of your Plugins folder.  Again, do not delete it.  If you happen to accidentally leave an instance of it in one of your cities, you will need to move it back into the Plugins folder in order to delete it from that city.

Issues such as this tend to be caused by content created by people who only think they know what they are doing.  This is particularly true of the junk found on the "official" lot exchange at www.simcity.ea.com.  The best place to get custom content is the BSC LEX because it must pass a scrutineering test to make sure it works properly and contains no viruses before it is released to the public.  Problems also tend to occur with hacked or cracked versions of the game.  Aside from being illegal and immoral to use (it's only $20 at Best Buy!), these cannot be patched or updated, and custom content often does not work on them.  I'm not accusing you of stealing the game, just offering whatever insight I can.

If you are using little or no custom content, or the procedure above yields no results, make a backup of your regions for safekeeping, uninstall the game, then reinstall, including the patches and updates.  Also, make sure your computer is virus-free.

[Madame Mayor 4]

Well, I'm spent. I have a well organized plugin folder and have been removing folder by folder and reloading the city. Zots are still there and there are 13 of them now. All of them are over roads, streets, and avenues.

It's a rather small city but it's agricultural, and I've planned all the farms out, and,,,,,, well,,,,, shoot.

[ArchangelMichael 51]

Check to make sure the game's graphics settings are all set to "High," or "Medium" at least.  You may also want to try changing from hardware to software rendering or vice versa.  If those options have no effect, the only other suggestion I can offer is to remove ALL custom content from both plugins folders and try building a new city or two to see if the problem still appears.  If it happens with only game default content, that's a sure sign of a corrupt installation, or perhaps some kind of virus.  In that case, begin with a complete system virus scan.  The best available scanner is from Avira.  Learn more about it and find a link to the download here.  It's free.  The same article also contains links to the professional independent reviews that show how handily it outperforms the other anti-virus products.

If your system is virus-free and the cities continue showing anomalies, I would uninstall the game, then reinstall it.  This all sounds like a major pain in the neck, but it's better than building cities with all those weird graphics issues.

Good luck!

[Madame Mayor 4]

Update: I copied my plugins and regions folder to desktop, then uninstalled and reinstalled the game, put everything back in place.

Loaded Ginger Acres, the power zots were gone. Instead of the electric power plant there was a coal power plant. I don't remember that one - I always place the electric one because it doesn't need money. Get this - pause game, bulldoze coal, plop electric, resume game, power zots showed up again (only the pesky ones). Left city without saving.

Go back in. Plop electric across the street from the coal plant and left both in the game. No zots.

Now, the phantom parking lots were still showing up, some in the same place and some new ones. All of them were able to be bulldozed and roads replaced. No zots. Only one of them gave me a problem. I dozed the lot, but before I could redraw the road the No Road zot showed up. After redrawing the road it won't go away. Plopped a building right on the road, zot still there.

So I've basically traded power zots for one Road zot. Trade off, but, shoot, I'll take it for now. Perhaps when the coal plant dies out and with no interruption, the power will still run with the cheaper electric plant. We'll see. Didn't put "fightthepower" in. I want to see if this works. I really don't mind cheating, though. If I'll use a zero dollar power plant, it's the same as the cheat, but I still like to go through the motions. And it keeps the advisors off my back!

When you use the cheat they apparently don't realize you've got power coz they scream at you to build plants - same with the water cheat. Does anyone know how to turn the advisors off so you only see the advice down in the comm box? I promise I'll read them, lol!

Well, thought you'd be interested in what happenned to me. I'm an amateur, for sure, but I've got some cool cities, and I'm learning all the time. Thanks for all the help!

[Madame Mayor 4]

Link to image

I think I figured this out. Yes, it works!!

[ArchangelMichael 51]

I'm glad you solved the problem!  Which "electric plant" are you using?  It sounds like it may have been the culprit.  Continuing to use it could result in the same problem again.  Did you start using it recently, or is it something you've had in several cities in the past?  Just curious.

To get the advisors off your back, click the options button in region view (the one in the upper right with the three dots), select Play Options (looks like two gears), and un-check "Urgent Advice Dialogs."  Keep in mind that this means they will also not inform you if schools or hospitals go over capacity, so you will have to keep a constant eye on the funding of your civic buildings, and they may not warn you of over-congested networks or pending jailbreaks.  Playing cities at medium and hard difficulty levels also reduces the amount of nagging they do.

[Merlin of Flyote 8]

Extracheats.DLL can help, "tasty Zots" removes them. There is a mod which reduces the advisors messages. Never seen that car park on road thing though, but don't know about electric power thing either, "?"