How do I make all buildings in a area look the same

[Adnan88 0]

I downloaded several BAT, suburban houses, but when they get constructed they end up all looking different...I seen many city journals where people have a whole area with the same type of houses...and these are not just BATS u can place, they actually grow, so how do I make them grow to be all the same if I have like 20 different types in my plugins folder...

[Dannibee 138]

You could try to download the extra cheats.dll, it enables you to plop every building in the game

[Adnan88 0]

dude where can I download that, I would be greatful to u, and ill clean ur house for 3 weeks....

lol

what is that called and where can I download it?

[Xyloxadoria 1,099]

The extra cheats pulgin can be found here. Everything about it is explained on that page.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Don't forget that you can't plop residential buildings - they will abandon.

To answer your initial question, most people trust the magic powers of Mr. Bulldozer. Make those buildings that you like historical, demolish those you don't like => repeat.

[Adnan88 0]

so the buildings I plop wont be inhabited by sims? its just there for show?

thanks for the link

[Yonk 2]

You can also download a controller mod that allows you to block all Maxis content, and then if you only have one type of custom house in your plugins folder, that will be the only thing that pops up. But for most "rural" towns, there won't be more than a few dozen houses at the very most (less than 1000 population, for sure) and for something so small, I think it would be easier and faster to just historically designate every single house. That's what I do.

- Yonk

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Originally posted by: Adnan88

so the buildings I plop wont be inhabited by sims? its just there for show?quote>

Commercial buildings work fine.

Industrial buildings will be unable to generate freight trucks, so their cargo routes will always be "long".

Residential buildings will look fine initially, but the occupants cannot leave the lot. So they won't find work, and the building will abandon and become black.

[SC4BOY 20]

People who grow areas like that actually work very hard to make them like that.. the game in no way is "designed" to do that.. Here's where you can learn some things about it: Part 1 , Part 2 . I think you can read those without being a member, but I'm not sure.

[local_authority01 3]

Originally posted by: T Wrecks

Originally posted by: Adnan88

so the buildings I plop wont be inhabited by sims? its just there for show?quote>

Commercial buildings work fine.

Industrial buildings will be unable to generate freight trucks, so their cargo routes will always be "long".

Residential buildings will look fine initially, but the occupants cannot leave the lot. So they won't find work, and the building will abandon and become black.

quote>

Is there still no fix for this after the game being out for 7 years?  What can the community do to fix this problem?

Also, a related question about same size/type buildings:  Is there a height/stage mod that blocks medium residential growth beyond a certain building height/stage?  I have seen some cool CJs where the skyline of a regions cities is pretty even.  Maybe this is player controlled through demolition too?

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Originally posted by: local_authority01

 Is there still no fix for this after the game being out for 7 years?quote>

No.

Originally posted by: local_authority01

 What can the community do to fix this problem?quote>

Reverse engineer the source code of SimCity, which is illegal. The problem is that RCI ploppables were never meant to exist, so you'd probably have to re-write the game code quite a bit.

Originally posted by: local_authority01

Also, a related question about same size/type buildings:  Is there a height/stage mod that blocks medium residential growth beyond a certain building height/stage?  I have seen some cool CJs where the skyline of a regions cities is pretty even.  Maybe this is player controlled through demolition too?quote>

Demolition or not, player-controlled for sure. When you look at some pictures, it's easy to say "Hey, that's cool, I wanna have that, too!". However, you normally don't see the work that has been done behind the scenes. For example, players can tweak all lots with buildings that are beyond a certain height so that they will only grow on high-density zones, or they can use a mixture of content blockers and "application-specific" plugins assortments.

 The way I create coherent neighborhoods is relatively quick and easy, but the work required to get there amounts to several months and careful documentation. I know every building in my plugins folder, I know at which stage it grows, on what zones, and in which tilesets, and I have it all documented in spreadsheets. There's hardly a download in my plugins folder that I didn't tweak and/or re-lot myself, so I think I have pretty decent control over my cities now. Add 5 years' experience with SimCity 4, and 20 years of SimCity background overall, and there you have it. If you're looking for an easy five-minute solution, I'm afraid you won't find one. 

[local_authority01 3]

I have seen mods that make landmarks function like commercial buildings.  Is there a way to make landmarks function like residential buildings without the plopp problem?  Is there a way to change the zone densities so that they grow differant stages?

I am pretty sure the answer to the above questions are no, but I thought I'd ask anyways.  Are there any tutorials for changing a building from one stage/density to another?  I can work my way around the iLive reader ok but I would still have no idea on what to change.

If I picked a building from the iLive reader/navigator maxis list, say R$5_3x2, what in the world do I change?

[citiesxlfan42 27]

Hey, I think I heard somewhere that you can just zone that type of residential lot and it will work when you plop on it.

Example: You have Antarian Condos, which is a 4x4, high density growable. You could zone a high density 4x4 lot and then plop on top of it. This tricks the game into thinking it's a real grown building.

[local_authority01 3]

I read that somewhere too.  I dont care if I have to grow a building, but I want more control over the building sets/stages that grow in my zones so that I have a more even skyline.  I have the iLive reader, and I can modify the buildings from there, but I have no clue on what I should change.

@T-Wreks: what files do you change on all your plugins to control building height?

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Originally posted by: citiesxlfan42

Hey, I think I heard somewhere that you can just zone that type of residential lot and it will work when you plop on it.

Example: You have Antarian Condos, which is a 4x4, high density growable. You could zone a high density 4x4 lot and then plop on top of it. This tricks the game into thinking it's a real grown building.quote>

This rumour keeps sticking around, and apparently it will never die. However, I have tried that method myself, and it didn't work a single time. Never. Ever. No way.

Whenever someone mentioned that it worked for him/her, I've asked for some proof shots, but nobody has ever been able to show anything. I'd welcome anyone convincing me of the opposite, but I'm afraid this won't happen.

Those landmarks with jobs were turned into commercial ploppables. These work, but ploppable residentials don't.

If you want to change the growth stage of a building, you need the lot file (.sc4lot), not the building descriptor (.sc4desc). The building descriptor holds function, wealth, occupant number, pollution, consumption, worth, bulldoze cost, tax value, query UI/sound, and tileset of a building. The lot file(s) hold data such as the looks of a lot, its size, its density, its growth stage, min/max slope etc.

This makes sense because the stage concept is centered around density, not around sheer dimensions. A medium office buidling might grow on a 4x4 lot at stage 5, on a 3x4 lot on stage 6, and on a 3x3 lot on stage 7 - the higher the stage, the higher the density you can achieve.

If you want to change Maxis lots, I'd use the Lot Editor to browse through all lots you want to change, and save them (using "Save", not "Save As..."!). This will generate the corresponding .sc4lot file in your plugins folder. This loose lot file will override the file contained in the game file (Simcity_1.dat). Hence, all modifications to this lot file will translate into a change in game.

Now if you open said lot file in the reader, you will find the usual DIR file inside (a directory of internal files), a PNG file (lot preview), and an exemplar file. This last one is the one you need. It's the LotConfigExemplar, and if you select it, you will see the properties it contains on the right hand of the screen.

One of them is called "GrowthStage" or similar (I'm not at my private PC right now). Change this value, and you will change the growth stage of the lot.

Another useful property is "ZoneType". This one is a bit trickier:

01 = Low-density residential

02 = Medium-density residential

03 = High-density residential

04 = Low-density commercial

05 = Medium-density commercial

06 = High-density commercial

07 = Industry - Agricultural

08 = Industry - Medium density

09 = Industry - High density

So if a building has the values "05,06" assigned to the "ZoneType" property, it is a commercial that will grow on medium and high density. Change the value(s) to "06" only, and you have "banned" it to high density only.

Personally, I use a mixture of:

- plugin selection

- tileset control

- density control

- stage control

- bulldozer

[mightygoose 92]

can you have a building with growth stage 8+ and zone type 1 or 4....

[local_authority01 3]

@T-Wreks:  ThankYou so much for your help!!!  The iLive Reader is so much more fun when you know what you are doing

Do I have to create a .dat in LotEditor to open up in the reader or can I just make a .dat of the LotConfig from the reader?  If I open up a lot with the reader, say R$$$6_3x3, the LotConfig properties that need to be changed are there and there is even a building preview so you can eyeball the height of a building.

After viewing some previews of the maxis buildings on the reader/navigator list, I see that the R$$$6_3x3 building is kind of tall for a medium density building.  If I click on the LotConfig for the building and expand the names tab, I see there are both a Growth Stage and a LotConfigPropertyZoneType to be edited like you showed above.

I not going to mess with GrowthStage, but instead change the LotConfigPropertyZoneType so that this tall R$$$6_3x3 building will only grow in dense residential zones.  (To do this I right click on the LotConfig for the building and click add to patch.  I then go back to the reader and open the patch. (click patch on the upper toolbar)  Select the LotConfig and click create .dat, save it in my plugins and then click open on the reader, find my .dat, fill the list and now can edit the building)

The new .dat has turned the LotConfig file into an exempler file where I can edit GrowthStage and LotConfigPropertyZoneTypes.  Underneath is a DIR file for futher tinkering.  Now I edit the LotConfigPropertyZoneType from x02,x03 to x03,x03 so that the tall building will now only grow on high density residential zones.  (save changes and test)

@T-Wreks I am hoping that these changes work with just the iLive Reader.  I made a little tutorial above to show what I did however I cant test it yet because I am still in region development god mode stage.  Do you think it will work editing the iLive Reader .dat instead of using a .dat from the LotEditor?

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Originally posted by: mightygoose

can you have a building with growth stage 8+ and zone type 1 or 4....

quote>

You can enter a growth stage that's higher than 8, but then the building will not grow (unless you use the CAM, that is). So this would be another way to block certain lots and keep them from growing.

I'm not quite sure what you mean with "zone type 1 or 4"... you can have zone type 01 (low-wealth residential) or zone type 04 (low-wealth commercial), but you cannot assign both. Well, not quite - I guess you can assign them, but it won't make the building grow as commercial and residential. If it's a residential building, zone type 04 will simply not match the residential purpose and be disregarded.  At least that's what I suppose. You could try and check using the Extra Cheats DLL.

I hope this was what you meant. If not, I'd like to apologize for the confusion and invite you to re-phrase your question so even I can understand it.   

@local_authority01: It's good that you wrote down every single point so I can follow what you did. I hate it when people simply say things like "I changed a file, and now it doesn't work".   

The way you chose should work - you could test with a building that's easy to grow, e.g. that obnoxious 4x4 drive-in cinema. Make a patch that restricts it to high density, and zone lots of low and medium density 4x4 in a test city with healthy CS§ demand - if you cannot get it to grow any more, chances are your approach works fine, and you can use it for every building you want to modify.

Just a quick note: You don't need to assign multiple "ZoneType" values, i.e. in an entry like "0x03,0x03" one of the two "0x03" is redundant. You can simply change it e.g. from "0x02,0x03" to "0x03" alone.

Another aspect you might not be aware of: Maxis organised most of their buildings in families, e.g. if you have one given lot, several buildings can appear on it! In most cases, the building family will contain 1 similarly sized building for each tileset. This means that when your lot grows while the Chicago tileset is active, it will show the Chicago building from the family. If it grows while the Houston tileset is active, it will grow the building from the family that's assigned to the Houston tileset, and so forth - all on one and the same lot!

This would be a reason to recommend the Lot Editor approach. If you click on the grey building box in the Lot Editor, you can press the [N] key to tab through all buildings that can appear on the lot. You will notice that their height is sometimes quite different... This is particularly valid for residential buildings. It looks as though Maxis was quite in a rush to release the game and didn't take enough time to fine-tune all building sets, unfortunately. 

[local_authority01 3]

Thanks for the help!!!  Its going to be a while before I can get to testing the buildings but I think I will use LotEditor to make the .dat like you suggested.  I can probably figure it out from here and as soon as I get to testing the building changes in my cities, I will post back the results.

Edit:  The differant building sets adds a lot of hassle and confusion to my modding method because the same building can be four different heights depending on the set.  I guess you were right when you said there was no 5 min fix.  The iLive reader only displays the exepler files for  the differant building sets and not the LotConfig files that I need to change.  I will need to use the LotEditor to save the differant building sets and then modify it in the reader. 

Its a lot more work than I had originally thought but I think that I can just save and change the building sets that I dont like instead of the whole building set family.  I will try this and post back my results in case anyone else is following along.

EDIT:  OMG!!! It is a ton of work to cycle through all of the maxis buildings and then guesstimate how tall they would actually be in-game.  I might just install CAM instead which has 15 differant building stages.  CAM is also a lot of work downloading all of the differant files that are needed.   Also many cities in real life dont have as even of skylines as I have planned.  The maxis buildings might work fine if I seperate the zone densities.