Changing climates without destroying previous work

[sachizm 65]

I have built a huge region using cycledog's giant redfurn trees and can't recall the other rock and water mods to make a north American/Eurpoean style landscape. Now I wanna do a tropical region so change the default trees, rocks/land and water. Any tips on doing this without destroying my previous region which I have spent most of a year creating?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I have built a huge region using cycledog's giant redfurn trees and can't recall the other rock and water mods to make a north American/Eurpoean style landscape. Now I wanna do a tropical region so change the default trees, rocks/land and water. Any tips on doing this without destroying my previous region which I have spent most of a year creating?

Store the region and the associate plugins off-line from the game. Rework your plugins to suit, or start a new set. Start a new region.

You would otherwise have to delete each and every tree and other downloaded feature before you could remove the old mods.

This is the difference between involvement and commitment.

If you had bacon and eggs for breakfast this morning, then the hen was involved but the pig was committed.

EDIT: or open a new account on your machine. Start the game. You will get an empty plugins folder. You can then create whatever environment you like, and the old environment will remain on your previous account. Nothing says you can't have two accounts or more on your machine to play in. The game is installed in the system residency and can be shared across accounts.

[Yuu Caa Sim 55]

You can use the {SC4 Terraformer} to save your regional terrain, create a new region, and then import the terrain you saved.

How to do this:

1. You should backup your region first (to somewhere safe, like the desktop)

2. Download and install the Terraformer. Information on that can be found in {this Omnibus article).

3. Open the Terraformer, and select your region

4. A window will popup asking you to (un)protect cities. Just click OK

5. There should be a window to the left of the region view that pops up which is labelled "SC4Terraformer toolbar", under which will be some vertical tabs. Select "Global tools", and from the selection buttons that appear, select "Export"

6. Type a name for your terrain, and then press "open". The program will now make you pick an html file to display when someone loads your terrain file. Just pick any of the html files that appear (one of them is the readme which loads when you open the Terraformer), or hit cancel.

7. Now select "File" from the main Terraformer window (with the 3D region view), and then select "Create New Region". In the window that pops up, type in a name for your new region, and press the "..." button next to the textbox for "SC4M File". In the window that appears, Select the SC4M file with the name you types in step 6. Then click "Open", and then "OK" in the original window. The Terraformer will have created your region! It uses the original city booundaries by default.

8. Now just save it (through "File"->"Save"), and your region will be in SimCity 4.

Note that the end result will be that all cities, trees, terrain props, etc will be gone in the new region, and the region will at first have very gaudy colors. Going into a city tile and then saving and exiting will give you the correct SC4 colors again for that tile.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

You can use the {SC4 Terraformer} to save your regional terrain, create a new region, and then import the terrain you saved.

How to do this:

1. You should backup your region first (to somewhere safe, like the desktop)

2. Download and install the Terraformer. Information on that can be found in {this Omnibus article).

3. Open the Terraformer, and select your region

4. A window will popup asking you to (un)protect cities. Just click OK

5. There should be a window to the left of the region view that pops up which is labelled "SC4Terraformer toolbar", under which will be some vertical tabs. Select "Global tools", and from the selection buttons that appear, select "Export"

6. Type a name for your terrain, and then press "open". The program will now make you pick an html file to display when someone loads your terrain file. Just pick any of the html files that appear (one of them is the readme which loads when you open the Terraformer), or hit cancel.

7. Now select "File" from the main Terraformer window (with the 3D region view), and then select "Create New Region". In the window that pops up, type in a name for your new region, and press the "..." button next to the textbox for "SC4M File". In the window that appears, Select the SC4M file with the name you types in step 6. Then click "Open", and then "OK" in the original window. The Terraformer will have created your region! It uses the original city booundaries by default.

8. Now just save it (through "File"->"Save"), and your region will be in SimCity 4.

Note that the end result will be that all cities, trees, terrain props, etc will be gone in the new region, and the region will at first have very gaudy colors. Going into a city tile and then saving and exiting will give you the correct SC4 colors again for that tile.

Somewhere in there you have to edit your plugins to remove the old textures and put in the new ones. Probably before you start. You'll have to keep two different plugin suites to run both regions and switch them (renaming does it) as needed.

[goodyou 0]

I think the first to lay a solid foundation, your idea is really good. Thank you to share with you.