For the love of god, I bit of help please with lex/dex/mods

[sjgold 0]

So there is the lex the dex the hex and most like the mex..... Most of these I am familiar with in terms of where they are located,. In the 8 years since SC4 came out (I was working at Origin when it came out) the modding teams have done a fantastic job on making some amazing things. Problem is 8 years later who knows where to start... Yes the NAM is essential I get that. But in my case I want a lot of growables and very few ploppables (I can prob just do with the peg stuff on the plops...)

Where is the best place to find in an easy way the "essentials" especially one who is looking for grow-ables.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Alas, there is no one best place. I don't use many growable lots from the exchanges because I am not much into fine tuning the appearance of my cities. As I think about it, there is only one "growable" in my plugins suite and it is a commercial lot.

Like everything else in this program, you have to choose your palette. If I were looking for more growable residentials though, I would look on the SC4Devotion's Lex.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Hello and welcome to Simtropolis!

Since we have had similar questions lately, may I direct you to this post I made just recently?

"I need growables" is very vague, you know. There are thousands of growable lots on the STEX. Now I could recommend...

• growable Wild West stuff
• Japanese single-family homes
• US-style walkup tenements
• typical British suburban rowhouses
• Huge Hong Kong residential complexes
• socialist pre-fab apartment blocks
• trailer parks
• liquor stores
• my favourite motels
• growable abandoned buildings
• growable chemical industries
• ritzy boutiques
• my favourite pink buildings
• the buildings with the best night lights IMO
• my favourite buildings whose name begins with a "T"
• Tropical farms

Then again, why would I do this? If all this is what you are looking for, you can start with the first growable download on the STEX and work your way through towards the last, then continue with the next SC4 site.

However, I don't really think you are into all of this stuff at once. Most probably, you do have a particular taste and preference, and you're simply overwhelmed by the abundance of downloads and the difficulty of choice - the "Alice in Wonderland" effect, so to speak. That's the reason why I referred you to that post I mentioned above.

I hope I'm not coming over as harsh now - please believe me when I say that this is not my intention. It's just that I have made many mistakes when I started with the downloads, and I want to help you avoid them. So do yourself a favour and don't rush things. As soon as you have any particular type of building in mind, I'll be glad to point you to some interesting downloads that I consider to be recommendable for whatever it is that you seek.

[Silur 3,297]

Well, my mind is - You can learn something more about IlveReader and SC4Tool and create Your own objects with massive PROPS from STEX and LEX ...

  Edited March 18, 2011 by Silur  

[sjgold 0]

Hello and welcome to Simtropolis!

Since we have had similar questions lately, may I direct you to this post I made just recently?

"I need growables" is very vague, you know. There are thousands of growable lots on the STEX. Now I could recommend...

• growable Wild West stuff
• Japanese single-family homes
• US-style walkup tenements
• typical British suburban rowhouses
• Huge Hong Kong residential complexes
• socialist pre-fab apartment blocks
• trailer parks
• liquor stores
• my favourite motels
• growable abandoned buildings
• growable chemical industries
• ritzy boutiques
• my favourite pink buildings
• the buildings with the best night lights IMO
• my favourite buildings whose name begins with a "T"
• Tropical farms

Then again, why would I do this? If all this is what you are looking for, you can start with the first growable download on the STEX and work your way through towards the last, then continue with the next SC4 site.

However, I don't really think you are into all of this stuff at once. Most probably, you do have a particular taste and preference, and you're simply overwhelmed by the abundance of downloads and the difficulty of choice - the "Alice in Wonderland" effect, so to speak. That's the reason why I referred you to that post I mentioned above.

I hope I'm not coming over as harsh now - please believe me when I say that this is not my intention. It's just that I have made many mistakes when I started with the downloads, and I want to help you avoid them. So do yourself a favour and don't rush things. As soon as you have any particular type of building in mind, I'll be glad to point you to some interesting downloads that I consider to be recommendable for whatever it is that you seek.

Awesome response, and I did not detect any harshness..... what I am looking for is growables res/ind/ to enhance the look of things a bit, switch it up a bit, and of course some of the better com growables. Of course I am looking for essentials as well (like the NAM)

[stormlover 16]

So there is the lex the dex the hex and most like the mex..... Most of these I am familiar with in terms of where they are located,. In the 8 years since SC4 came out (I was working at Origin when it came out) the modding teams have done a fantastic job on making some amazing things. Problem is 8 years later who knows where to start... Yes the NAM is essential I get that. But in my case I want a lot of growables and very few ploppables (I can prob just do with the peg stuff on the plops...)

Where is the best place to find in an easy way the "essentials" especially one who is looking for grow-ables.

Oh boy can I empathize with you! I've been playing off and on for years and hate to think about how many hours I've spent just on discerning what downloads to keep; and how to organize them.

A few quick tips:

Use the STEX and the LEX - and don't be afraid of dependencies because in time (due to overlapping) you'll need to find fewer and fewer of them. (In my plugins folder I have one file for "props" and one for "textures" (each with its own sub-folders) but to each his own when it comes to organization.

If you play for realism (like me) you MUST learn to use "ilive_reader093" and the reader's "beginners guide" both of which can be found on the STEX here:

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/files/category/9-modd/page__sort_by__DESC__sort_key__file_submitted__num__20__st__260

I say "must" because when developing small towns it soon becomes apparent that some downloaded lots wreak havoc on one's finances, power or water supplies, employment staffing, etc. As much as I applaud and appreciate the work people put into their creations, I'm too often disappointed by a lot's faulty specifications.

From bus stops that completely drain a town's power supply, to small apt. buildings whose workers can't exit the building, to small train stations that employ every living soul in town....I find lot after lot that cannot be used without my modifying the specs (found in the exemplars) via the ilive reader. One has three options: a) fix the lots; b) discard the lots, or c) cheat. I won't cheat so I alternate between a and b as necessary.

Now let me add that I employ the above only for ploppable lots because I simply don't know how to fix growable lots (whose exemplars look quite different.)

Another point I would make is to start with the older, more prolific lot makers. Search on the STEX and LEX by author and download the lots one wants. The dependencies will be similar and due to their experience, almost all of their lots will be reasonably spec'd. After building a download foundation from core modders one may then move on to the "odd lots." Odd lots range from terrible to terrific but even a terrific lot with bad spec's is useless without repair via the ilive reader (or again, using cheat mods.)

Here's a good example of downloaded basic, growable, housing:

1.) Gobs of excellent 19th century homes can be found by searching on author "c.p." in the LEX.

2.) A few simple yet excellent growable houses on the STEX by a novice modder named Userlake: (wood house and small house)

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=search&andor_type=&sid=3c6041630c22c4f9c5f158d62724ce18&search_term=house&search_app=downloads&st=30

My final comment would be to download progressively only what you need. It may be tempting to download a lot of cool stuff that you tell yourself you'll want in the future but there's two big problems with that: 1) you'll clutter your files and in due time have no memory of what the lot is or why it's there: and 2.) you can't properly test them when they don't contextually apply to the environment on hand.

Hope this helps!

Tim in North Carolina

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Well, industry is not so difficult, as there isn't really much choice.

Check the STEX and the SC4Devotion LEX for BATs of the following creators:

• prepo (some old high-tech classics)
• gascooker (mostly old brick factories, but also some modern stuff)
• jestarr (more industrial stuff than you can shake a stick at, over at SC4Devotion's LEX)
• HunD88 (some impressive high-tech stuff)
• SiMHoTToDDy and the BSP team have uploaded some nice industry to the STEX
• deadwoods has made a few industrial BATs, they should be up for grabs on SC4D if you don't find them here
• TagOne (T1 in short) also has some nice stuff over at SC4D
• SimGoober has been busy in pretty much every department, so he has made some industrial stuff, too.

This should provide you with a nice assortment for starters... in fact, the stuff made by these authors alone is likely to keep you busy for several days. This is where my warning counts once more: Make priorities, allow yourself to be picky, look around before you actually download. I must also warn you that Jestarr is a heavy user of dependency packs, i.e. if you like his stuff, prepare for having to download a LOT of prop packs.

There is more out there, but these authors have been most productive in terms of industrial stuff.

Concerning res and com, more information would be helpful. Are you looking for single-family homes or skyscrapers? European wall-to-wall stuff (rowhouses) or American style? Wooden smalltown houses or run-down socialist tenements? The same goes for commercial.

[asteconn 9]

As it so happens! I have created a page that lists all of the absolute essential addons for SC4: http://www.latech.co.uk/sc4/essentials.php