Game Loading Issue or Plug In Conflict?

[k050564 13]

Hey Gang,

So I've been playing for 8 years and never had this problem before (I should also say I'm on a mac version of the game). I have a few of Goofyguytpa's MP lots and really like them so I thought I'd get a few more. Downloaded 3 new lots ... put them in my plugins folder and loaded up the game pretty excited to use them and see how they look mixed in with Goofyguytpa's other and some of the other BSC W2W lots. Then it happened:

(Pictures of what happens at the bottom)

The EA splash screen was blank but the sound could be heard. The Aspyr video was skipped entirely (I do not have it set to do that), the SimCity 4 intro screen showed up like normal (but without the copyright 2004 line underneath. After the intro stuff, the region came up but it reverted back to the default Timbuktu region which was completely blank, as if nothing had been built there at all. Just flat squares of green grass. The city names were the same but nothing was there. When I switch to the region I was working on. Same thing, all the city names are the same, even the data is the same (population, jobs) but all the cities are completely blank, and attempting to load one causes a CTD.

The obvious answer was some weird plugin conflict. So I took out the new plugs. Loaded it up and everything was fine. I thought "Thats a bummer ... those were awesome lots."

But then more weirdness. Yesterday, I saw the "Kommandantur" lot from DBSSYMN and poped that in ... same thing. I took it out, got curious and tried 10 different plugins from the STEX ... each one, one at a time. Everytime I put in any new plug in, by itself or with others, the game does the exact same loading error. No new content! =(

So I did the sandbox method of find the culprit. Backed the working version up added one of the new lots I downloaded, then took all my other plugins out and tried them one at a time. Put one folder in, load the game, make sure everything works, take it out & put it in a "Pass" folder and test the next one. At one at a time, everything worked beautifully. It wasn't until I did it all over again but this time without taking them out that the problems started happening again, in particular, with something in my BSC folder. More clearly; I noticed the problem with a particular lot. I used that lot and tried every single plugin I have with that new lot to see which was causing the error ... everything worked great ... one at a time. I did it again, this time leaving my plugins in. Everything worked great until I got to the BSC folder (saved that one for last since it was so big). All the props, textures and essentials worked great. It was the lots that got screwy. So I took all the BSC lots out (organized by folders named for creators) and tried them one at a time (with all my other plugins in) and again, one at a time they all worked great. Started leaving them in and loadup crash weirdness.

So I took everything out ... total uninstall, reinstalled from disk ... updated it and put my plugins (that I had backed up earlier) back in and same thing was happening so it definitely wasn't a SimcityLocal.dat or Simcity_X.dat problem. So as Im trying some several thousand possible combinations of BSC plugins to try and find this jerk of a lot giving my so much trouble, I thought I'd ask the community for help.

As I said before, I'm on a mac and Ive been running sc4 on this particular MacBookPro for over a year without any problems. I'm totally stumped. A. I've only heard about this type of error once and it was on a PC & because of some graphics card issue that I've never had. B. There's a lot of really awesome content on the STEX I haven't even downloaded yet!! =) I've only had two plugin conflicts before ... and they only caused CTD but the game loaded like normal, then crashed. I should also say, I haven't updated my system in at least 2 months ... no critical updates, nothing. I did remove my virtual PC (completely unrelated to sc4 since I have the mac version of the game) because I just never used it. I use filejuicer to extract from exe's.

Anyways ... if anybody has some insight as to the cause (maybe its not even a plugin problem, though I can't imagine why it wouldn't be)

Question is ... 1. does anyone have any experience with this kind of error? 2. Any experience with BSC & Goofyguytpa lots? 3. Would plugin conflict even cause this kind of graphics/loading bug?

Questions, comments, concerns? Help?

Thanks gang, I know this was really long and probably boring.

When I'm loading the game normally from my plugins backup (still has about 3.5 gigs of custom content, but never had a problem with it):

Everything looks just like it always has.

Then when I put any new plugin into the plugins folder (either app or docs ... same thing happens)

Notice it does not say the usual "Maxis is an Electronic Arts Brand"

Also notice there is no copyright data at the bottom

There is no text!! anywhere ... or any of the stuff I built

With certain new plugins ... the game will load messed up like I've shown you, but some text will appear in the Region view ... game still CTD when I try to load one of the blank cities

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

What happens if you simply rename your plugins folder to plugins.sav and start the game? It should start up normally and make an empty plugins folder.

If not, then something has stepped on the game. I would reserve the three plugins you downloaded, and do a reinstall, then try the game without the new plugins. You may want to back up your Regions folder, just in case.

[jacksunny 741]

Since you are running the game on a Mac, I suggest asking in the Mac forum.