Daeleys Custom Query Stuff

[Daeley 46]

With everybody making these BAT showcases I felt a sudden urge to expose my talents to everyone  So here's the very first ever Query Showcase!

In case you'd have missed them, here are my RCI Queries created for the BSC project:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files/custom%20res%20query%20v2.jpg border=0>

 

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files/custom%20ind%20Query%20v1.jpg border=0>

 

voila

Basically if anybody has any requests, shoot away! It's not that hard to do all this stuff, it just takes some time

Should I create similar Query windows for parks / landmarks / utility buildings?

[SimGoober 2,351]

Looking good Daeley!  Could you attach the Industrial; I hven't got that one yet.  No projects in mind for it now, but things could change...

[Daeley 46]

ask and you shall recieve

 

oh and I was thinking about that Casino Query you talked about earlier, the one that gives you a chance of money when you click it. How about these chances: (it's pretty easy to implement once I've got the figures)

25% +1.000

[SimGoober 2,351]

so there is also a chance either or both could be 0? I like these ideas... It would also give a variance as you could get the sum of the two numbers, so more outcome options without more coding.  Could there be a news story or something that tells you how much you won or lost?

[Daeley 46]

this depends... with the coding I'm using now, that wouldn't be possible... however, if I could add the random chance generators to a news message instead of in the Query window, perhaps that might be possible... will take a bit of investigation though

 

edit: I think that trough the creation of a helper function in the edited news LUA this might be possible it will depend on how the game calls on this though... if it only calls it once, the result will only change each time you restart the game

[RalphaelNinja 244]

Good Work Daeley...

 

I'm glad that label fits you comfortably . I look forward to seeing some good documentation on this...

 

Ralphael

[cerulean 15]

you deserve a lot of credit for your contributions. Your queries and tutorials are revolutionalizing the game...excellent stuff!

 

I still don't like the colors though  LOL...and I still think the simoleons logo should be transparent, but I also still think they are a vast improvement over the standard in game queries.

 

Another suggestion i have is a standard Architect field, maybe a landscape architect field, and then a contributors field, but I realize you might have intended the BSC Info line to do most of this...but...its just my preference...

[megaman 1]

This will be indeed very useful to the ST community!

 

[alt+tab 2]

You know, I was always wanting the low end residential lots to be plain and bland looking, and the upscale lots to have elaborate looking Queries so I could kinda tell without reading it weather the home was low, medium or upscale or not. (those $$$ signs are confusing) so I wouldnt have to actually remember things when i wanted to see weather my apartments are ritzy or just plain crap.

[Daeley 46]

well, my original idea with the Queries in the first post was to create them in a way that the icon would rotate for all wealth levels, and then use them to replace the original Queries with a mod. Unfortunatly, all wealth levels use the same query, so this would've required me to go over every single building made and change their Query GUID number.

 

Well Cerulean, since you've been nagging so hard for easier colors, I'll see what I can do for you

 

progress update on casino: Things are going smoother than I expected I have been succesfully able to create a new function wich generates chances each time the lot is clicked, and further more these chances are global variables wich can be called on from news messages or the lot Query itself.

However, there is an old problem that continues to bug me... whenever I add one of these variables to a statement and the variable is not 1, the entire statement becomes invalid... Once I work my way around this, the casino effect is pretty much complete.

[Daeley 46]

excuse me for bumping my own thread, but I think this is worth a new post

I have been able to succesfully add a function that stores several chance variables which can be called upon from Queries (so they should also be available to news messages). Furthermore, by calling this function each time the lot is Queried, the chance variables are reset with each click.

A small demonstration of a modded up lot:

 

 

some of the outcomes of clicking my test lot

To realise this I've made some more changes to an LUA file (the one also used for the Ultimate Budget Tool) so unless anyone knows how to add LUA files to the game, I hereby declare (ca63e2a3, 4a5e8ef6, fff88ab4) as my personal playground

[SimGoober 2,351]

neato!  It looks like everyone is a winner!

[simcity4crazyguy 24]

Superb! Could you make it to take away money and give money randomly on each click? That way, us non-cheaters won't be so 'guilty'

[Daeley 46]

well actually I set the chances pretty high to test it easier 70-35-15-5%

Obviously I could add chance to lose money, or lose money on each click or whatever, but unfortunatly it's not possible to replace you have won with you have lost according to the sum of what has been gained.

 wait a minute... it is possible to do that... just have to write another function!

*hurries away with new idea*

 

UPDATE: I have created changing Query text!! Observe:

 

 

yeah baby!  Wasn't that hard to do actually... and this should have plenty more applications actually

[SimGoober 2,351]

uh,oh we got Daeley on a roll!!!  Someone get him some caffeine, as he won't be sleeping for a few days!

[simcity4crazyguy 24]

WOW!!! Will you make a tutorial for that?

[alt+tab 2]

Wow this is turning out great! I cant wait to downlaod it.
Good job with the chance stuff.

[Daeley 46]

So I followed Cerulean's advice and made the colors a bit lighter... and I must say it does look a bit less heavy that way...

here's the residential query, tell me what you think:

 

[SimGoober 2,351]

I liked the first colors, but agree these look better.  Maybe a way to accent the title?  Either an offwhite box, or just another line to underline it?

[cerulean 15]

yeah!!! I like that better!!

 

another thing that I I have found is the simoleons logo might be problematic the way I have it setup (not the way you have it set up) in mine, I wonder when it is degraded...it will probably still say $$$...I still like it transparent though...

[Daeley 46]

I expressed the title a bit more, and I made the simoleons transparent. I looked at your way Cerulean, and I'm afraid your simoleons won't be functional.

I took the regular .png file, gave it a (255,0,255) background and the set the cackground color to the color of the query in the UI file

 

[SimGoober 2,351]

I think you've nailed it Daeley!  Looks real sharp.

[RalphaelNinja 244]

I've spent a few days working on obtaining unique LUA script ID's for Daeley's LUA script and have come up with a semi blank.

 

I'll enlist anyone else here that wishes to continue this as Daeley is using and replacing an existing LUA script ID (which can cause problems in the future when Daeley upgrades or add new scripts).

 

The LUA script command dofile(...) doesn't seem to allow us to create and execute new files (whether they are self contained or external).

 

However there is hope as apparently the new Landmarks from Maxis have new self-contained LUA's which seems to get registered throught the commands of : (from Plugin_002_TheLivingMall.dat)

 

 

--#-package:00005000# -- package signature

--~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--~~  Advice and advisors package
--~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
dofile(plugin_002_adv_const.lua)
dofile(plugin_002_adv_fluffnews.lua)

 

which registers the following ID to be recognized as a valid LUA script:

CA63E2A3     4A5E8EF6     FF2511A6 

 

Within my test, the living mall dat file has been reduced to that one LUA file.

 

As I no longer have time to persue this.....

 

Ralphael

[Daeley 46]

ahhh very helpful I never thought of looking at the plugin landmarks...

maybe I can find it out myself... but if anyone want to help they're welcome

[Daeley 46]

I have finished round-up on the improved commercial query

here's what it looks like right now

 

 

I think it's an improment from the previous one

anyway, i'll put these on mail once I finish the industrial one (probably not today) unless anyone wants to have them earlier.

[Daeley 46]

I can't seem to find a way to create custom LUA ID's... I tried noting down a lot of the ID's used in the landmark files by Maxis but there just doesn't seem to be a pattern in it... so I'm probably gonna release my LUA edit as a standalone file and update it with each released lot, that seems like the safest thing to do

 

anyway, I've been toying around with some more simple scripts and just made a counter script the results look like this:

 

 

pretty neat huh?

 

update: I just had a neat idea how to implement changing colors and fonts... will show something like that later... not sure it's gonna work

[SimGoober 2,351]

You just keep coming up with neat ideas.  This could make a neat random number prompt (brain freeze--there's a name for it I know, now what is it? umm, it'll come to me after I hit submit...(Edit : Goofy Stat...).  On that line, have the count.  Maybe for our new Bank project : Number of transactions completed :

 

Does this reset each time the game is re-opened?  I would think so, not an issue, just curious.

 

Number of files corrupted on your hard drive from clicking this lot : ??, now I'm getting devious.....

 

 

[Daeley 46]

I have tested it out, and it resets each time you leave a city (even if you save).

This is probably a good things, this way lots in different cities don't interfere with each other.

I don't really see it to much use on the BAT bank personally... after all, you're most likely only gonna click it a few times, right? Might be fun on a casino lot though

 

btw, SimGoober, did you get the new res and comm Queries?

[SimGoober 2,351]

yeah, I got 'em.  Little backed up between projects and RW stuff, but i'll use them soon!

[nosx 0]

there really nice you get a bunny