Advanced problem

[Martin892 4]

I wanted a realistic seaport in my city so first I downloaded pegasus' CDK3 SUPER PACK & SEAPORT SUPER PACK (both are dependancy packs), then I chose some CDK3 lots from the STEX and installed them/put them in my plugin folder (some seaports and seawalls etc.).

problem 1: whenever or wherever I plopped the CDK3 SP Pier Seaport (one of the downloads), SC4 crashed to desktop.

This appeared to be the only problem, so I decided not to build it because the other seaports and additional lots worked and looked properly.

After removing it from my plugins folder, SC4 crashed to desktop while loading the city when I started up again (just before showing the game display; just at the moment the weird sentences show up in the upper screen).

I thought: this must have something to do with all the ports and new (transit enabled) lots I placed in my city, so I removed all CDK3 plugins from the folder to evaluate the problem, and it started up now (with brown boxes and blank lots).

Now something really strange showed up: my seaport cost had become an extraordinary amount (this only showed up in my balance sheet, querying the seaport lots was impossible), like 15.000.343.335.655 or so, so I had to set Seaports funding to 0 before continuing. I thought this would solve if I placed the CDK3 plugins back in the folder again, so the lots would show up again, I just had to deal with the crash-to-desktop-before-starting-up problem. I tried this by doing some plugin management -changing sub-folders, putting zzz_ just before the folder name etc..

I found out this was a big mistake doing this with CDK3 plugins, pegasus specifically mentioned this in the readme files.

Why? The ports don't show up anymore, even after putting the plugins back exactly how it's told in the readme, they look really strange (blank lots) and SC4 crashes to desktop when I try to bulldoze a former transit enabled lot (seaport).

Is there any way to remove/bulldoze lots when their plugins are not in the plugin folder? Or any other hints for me? I'm going to read the entire CDK3 thread on sc4devotion but that takes time, so I hope some sophisticated city builder can help me.

update: big chance it has something to do with the NAM, I extended my rail network to the seaports...

[k808j 0]

Do you have the BSC seaport controller from the LEX installed also?

[CaptCity 4,675]

Martin892...

Seaports are very finicky creatures... They must be installed and used as per instructions, and some are not compatible with each other. Peg's ports were created a little different from others, so if you had any other custom seaport in your plugins at the same time as Peg's, it could be the cause of your crashing. The crashing at startup is a typical sign of using multiple, non-compatible ports, even after removing them. Do you happen to have any other seaports installed? As k808j mentioned, the BSC ports can't be used with Peg's, and there are others you might have that shouldn't be used. With your file switching, it is hard to say if your issue is "fixable", not knowing exactly what you have installed (plus it's been a while since I read up on the issue). You might bring it up at Peg's site to get better advice on dealing with the ports and CDK lots.

[Martin892 4]

Thanks a lot. I was already busy reading the SimPeg thread, but finding an issue that matches exactly is difficult. I have to rebuild an entire 215.000 pop suburb in the worst case (deleting it in the region interface), but it took me some work to shape the coastlines etc. so I hope it will work after some surgery