HELP! No idea where to start!

[Backcountrybrdr 0]

Hey Everyone, so when SC4 came out i played it non-stop but never ever got into the community at all. When I got sick of seeing the same buildings and everything i just stopped playing (plus i went away to college and stuff). So i never got into downloading maps or mods or lots at all. Now, im playing again for the first time in 2 years and i want to get into downloading mods and lots and stuff but have NO IDEA what im doing,

Can anyone tell me where to get started? is there something I should download ASAP, like before anything else?

I keep trying to download stuff but it never works.

Any advice would be useful. I am not a computer wiz at all so please keep that in mind

Thanks!

[RepublicMaster 428]

Try this site it has lots of good links

[arozarker12 51]

I am fairly new as well. NAM is a great thing to have and I downloaded buildings I liked and SPAM for my farms. Confused yet? Make sure when you download to download it to "documents/SimCity4/plugins" and ALWAYS make sure you have the dependencies and do read the read me files to make sure it works okay. Hope I told you everything right. There are a lot of experienced people here that will help you lots more than I have.

[Mjel72 2]

I have just started playing again as well. I do know that NAM is a must as well as Real Highway mod. My best advice is to go to the STEX/Exchange look to the right for categories, choose one, let page load then look at the top and choose most popular. You really can't go wrong doing this and it will give you a goood starting point.

It is also a matter of taste and what style of city or region you want to create.

[Sandis_van_Great 346]

Be carfull with SPAM, for me it created alot of lag in farmy city tiles.

NAM and

Colossus Addon Mod

would be what i suggest first

[Hellken 1,658]

Be carfull with SPAM, for me it created alot of lag in farmy city tiles.

NAM and

Colossus Addon Mod

would be what i suggest first

Don't add the Colossus Addon Mod right away. It changes the game's supply demand dynamics and adds new growth stages among other things. We are not even sure if the OP even has Rush Hour or if his simcity4.exe is up to date (1.1.640) which you need before downloading anything to your Plugins folder.

[Sandis_van_Great 346]

Be carfull with SPAM, for me it created alot of lag in farmy city tiles.

NAM and

Colossus Addon Mod

would be what i suggest first

Don't add the Colossus Addon Mod right away. It changes the game's supply demand dynamics and adds new growth stages among other things. We are not even sure if the OP even has Rush Hour or if his simcity4.exe is up to date (1.1.640) which you need before downloading anything to your Plugins folder.

Well ive never hade issues with starting from scratch with CAM.

[jason leo 485]

Hey, stop with suggesting these mods to someone that forget a lot of things about simcity4. First, do you use the Simcity 4 Deluxe/Rush Hour or the vanilla version? If your version is the vanilla simcity 4, then you must have Rush Hour/Deluxe.

Tips for downloading something: First, don't use any mod but play it using no plugins, and download the E1-Update1 and the BAT Update, and then, you could start with BATs which "safer" than mods. After some BATs, then you could start to download mods that you need. Btw, NAM should be downloaded first, than you could download some more, later.

Btw, it still your own choice about things that you will download and where will you start.

Just a bit more information, these kinds of mods usually could make some problem with newbie/someone that just back to the game after so many years of not playing the game at all: - Desirability mods

- Demand mods

- Temporary and some transportation mods (DBE, Traffic simulator, etc.)

- SPAM

- Terrain mods

Note: - Don't forget to read the developer notification and download the dependencies of anything that you download or you could get brown boxes or CTD.

- be careful in choosing things that you will add to your city and manage your plugin so it will not make you become confused and removing/updating things

would be easier.

I hope that this information could help you to choose where to start and things that you will do after.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

My advice from 9 years of experience is as follows...

Things to avoid:

1) Don't rush off downloading tons of stuff.

2) Don't add bunches of stuff at the same time.

3) Don't get STEX-addicted.

Things that will (probably) happen:

1) You will mess up your plugins folder and start over eventually - the more you ignore this post, the earlier and more often.

2) You will end up with downloads that have missing dependencies or whose name you have forgotten.

3) You will become dissatisfied with your active region and start over.

Things you should really do:

1) Do use a "pull" approach. By this, I mean: Don't just cram plugins into that plugins folder and see what they do. Instead play the game. Find out what exactly you find lacking or annoying. Go search and/or ask for recommendable downloads. For example, if the endless repetition of Maxis's small shops annoys you, go look for similar buildings to add varierty.

2) Do use a sandbox city or even region to test your stuff. Make yourself familiar with the Extra Cheats DLL and the "buildingplop" cheat - it enables you to test-plop any building (even if it's growable) and check if you like it. Add stuff only after you confirmed that it works.

3) Do organise that plugins folder! You can move around files, rename files, add sub-folders... do as you please, but make sure that one thing is always true: If I find out that download xyz is annoying and ugly after all, will I find it quickly and be able to delete it without messing up anything else? If the answer is "yes", you're fine. If the answer is "no" or "uhm... no idea?", you WILL mess up that plugins folder and start over.

4) Do add downloads one by one. This way, if your game refuses to load, you know it was the last change you made. If the last thing you did was make 400 changes... good luck, buddy. You'll need it. Desperately.

If you bear in mind these few rules of thumb and reserve your "actual" playing region for stuff that's tested and working, you will have a fine playing experience. Don't worry, you won't get it right at first. That stuff takes time, and sometimes you just need to make your own mistakes before you really understand what others meant to tell you.

Good luck and have fun!

[Jim14409 448]

You will be glad for any extra effort you put forth on your plugins folder. It can save you a lot of headaches later. My system is not perfect but has sort of evolved over time and has worked for me and might give you some ideas for your own method.

Don't download files to your plugins folder. In my Downloads folder I have a sub folder labeled SC4 Downloads. In that folder place new folders as needed over time. For example, I have folders labeled Need Dependencies if I know I am not going to hunt them down at that moment but intend to later. Also I find labeling folders with the date or month of the download is helpful. Then as the folder files are either installed or moved to other folders I can delete that dated folder. This keeps me from having a long list of stuff in a downloaded folder and is easier to keep files and dependencies together until they are installed.

I UNZIP downloaded files into the same folder where they were downloaded then install or copy ONLY the needed files to my plugins folder. Any pictures and notes that came in the zipped file I place in a different folder under my SC4 Downloads folder. I label this Notes and Pics.

Anything else left in the unzipped file I delete.

Then I save the ZIPPED file into another folder labeled INSTALLED SC4.

Now I have a copy of the original downloaded file without having to download it again if something happens to the first file. I also have a folder labeled Removed Plugins where I put those files I did not like or caused some problem.

Now you can check to see if you downloaded and/or installed a certain file or not since it should be in your Installed SC4 folder.

I could go on but hopefully you get some ideas. Later you might want to consider the SC4DatPacker which I use and then make copies of your plugins folder both packed and unpacked for backup.

Hope something here gives you some helpful ideas.

[Backcountrybrdr 0]

Thanks guys. Lots of useful advice. I do have the Rush Hour (Deluxe) edition btw if that makes a difference. I just reinstalled it on my new desktop, meaning i DONT have the latest version of the game. Anyone know where I can find it? Im guessing I should do that before installing NAM or RHM, which I am pretty interested it.

I wont need to start from scratch on any of my regions if i build before I install the latest version or some of the most popular mods will i?

[KonstantinII 1,106]

I suggest this if you want your cities to look futuristic end of 21st century.

It contains a lot of technologically advanced buildings that grow anywhere.If you want more futuristic/modern buildings just ask me and I can give you all the links.Just be sure to download all dependencies.They are additional files required for that specific file to work.If you have trouble finding dependencies,use google search.Especially for the bsc ones.They are found at sc4.devotion and you have to registar before downloading them.It is easy and free.If you can't find a specific file post your question here and they'll help you.

Be sure to check back often to see if your question was answered.

Be carfull with SPAM, for me it created alot of lag in farmy city tiles.

NAM and

Colossus Addon Mod

would be what i suggest first

Don't add the Colossus Addon Mod right away. It changes the game's supply demand dynamics and adds new growth stages among other things. We are not even sure if the OP even has Rush Hour or if his simcity4.exe is up to date (1.1.640) which you need before downloading anything to your Plugins folder.

There are a lot of buildings out there that don't require CAM and I don't use it.

You need to update your game.Go to here and click on Ea support button on the left side.

https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/ Then accept and you can find the update on the botttom of the list.

When you download something,you can find it in MyDocuments>Downloads.Find the file.It will appear as a stack of books or a folder with a zipper running through.Click on it and a box will pop up. Select "open".Then click on "extract" button that appears.You want to extract the files to MyDocuments>SimCity4>Plugins.That is required for the downloads to work.

[KonstantinII 1,106]

If you want to find lots of really cool buildings I give you the list of the people who make the best.

https://community.simtropolis.com/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=user_activity&search_app=downloads&mid=54145

https://community.simtropolis.com/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=user_activity&search_app=downloads&mid=32777

https://community.simtropolis.com/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=user_activity&search_app=downloads&mid=13172

https://community.simtropolis.com/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=user_activity&search_app=downloads&mid=5104

https://community.simtropolis.com/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=user_activity&search_app=downloads&mid=3315

Once you get to the bottom of the list,you can go to page 2 also.hint

If you want to build additional futuristic cities go to here.Some of the links got to foreign language websites so you need to have google translator in order to see the text in english.

https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=13356.0

You also need opera house fix for the opera to function correctly

[KonstantinII 1,106]

I add to what the people have said before about plugins folder.

1.Write down what you downloaded.I write on a lined paper all downloads,buildings,mods,and dependencies.

Write down: name ; creator ; website you got it from ; type(residential industrial) ;size(4x3) ;capacity(if applies) ;growth stage (if applies) ; style(Euro,Houston). The last 4 are especially important when creating large growable regions.If you know what size a building takes up and what style it is.First go to the menu and set the style(Euro for example).Then zone an area of size of building you know and

watch as it grows.After that you can set a different style for another building to grow and zone area.That way you can have buildings of many styles in your city.Be sure to select grow all styles at once even if you got just one style.It is very convinient to write down all plugins and stats for active building or if you face a catastroph you can easily find the plugins again.

2.Keep your plugins folder organized into various sub-folders. Separate types of buildings into different folders.Make a folder for industry,residential,commercial,utility,transportation etc etc

[Hellken 1,658]

Thanks guys. Lots of useful advice. I do have the Rush Hour (Deluxe) edition btw if that makes a difference. I just reinstalled it on my new desktop, meaning i DONT have the latest version of the game. Anyone know where I can find it? Im guessing I should do that before installing NAM or RHM, which I am pretty interested it.

I wont need to start from scratch on any of my regions if i build before I install the latest version or some of the most popular mods will i?

Patches here:

http://www.simprograms.com/simcity/simcity-4/patches-simcity-4/

Maxis Files and important updates here. To prevent problems with some custom content download the Dependencies as well:

http://screwpile.wordpress.com/screw-pile-exchange-spex/maxis-files/