Anyone here who DOESN'T use custom content?

[lhrob 213]

Just curious...do any of you play the game without using custom plugins?  I'm not talking about the NAM or anything.....I think we all pretty much use that.  But do you play the game straight-up with the standard Maxis parks and buildings that already came with the game?

[SimRico 968]

I did for about a year awhile back......... i like the customs.

[Cottoncandy Cyanide 145]

For the first month I got the game, yes. Now, barely any default stuff for me now. :v

[Benedict 3,119]

I have only played 'vanilla' SC4 (with rush hour) since I picked it up. My CJs are vanilla, too.

 

Of course I am super-tempted all the time, great buildings, the NAM - why on earth weren't diagonal streets in the first release, why! - but so far have resisted, mainly because I have been fascinated with all the small details that I have never noticed before. Still finding things that interest me.

[CaptCity 4,916]

Off topic comments removed. And a reminder, name calling, whether in jest or not, is not permitted.

[Joe_Quimby 4]

Not since I discovered Simtropolis. 

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Yes, people do.
You might want to look into "natural growth", a style of city playing which uses barebones mods and plays hyperrealistically.

CSGdesign did a great one called "Boston"; the rules to this playing style are detailed on his City Journal.

[Superbacon 380]

I did until I started downloading new buildings. I have Japanese houses that replaced the Maxis middle and upper-class houses. Which is great because those 3x4 mansion lots were ugly.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

At one time I was feeling nostalgic, so I created a new account on my machine and simply started the game, no plugins.  I could not live without the NAM, I discovered, nor could I tolerate the power plant requirements.  I guess I am spoiled.  That account no longer exists.

[Cyclone Boom 17,032]

After becoming used to custom content, it's very hard to then go back. Without it, the game does seem a bit empty and incomplete. For anyone who hasn't, I'd recommend giving it a try. It really makes you appreciate the diversity it brings to the game, and the talented people who've made and shared it with the community.

 

If there were no BATs lots, maps or mods, I doubt the game would be played to the extent it still is, ten years on.

 

 

[Bdub01 201]

I play with nothing added... Not by choice but till I can hook my old computer up to the interweb I play old school all the way

[Turjan 1,048]

Yes, people do.

You might want to look into "natural growth", a style of city playing which uses barebones mods and plays hyperrealistically.

CSGdesign did a great one called "Boston"; the rules to this playing style are detailed on his City Journal.

 

Well, that "natural growth" approach looks nice enough, but the creator uses 34 mods. That isn't exactly nothing.

 

As for me, I'm pretty sure I cannot achieve what I want from this game without mods. If I don't use mods, I fall into a pattern of always doing the same thing to achieve good growth, and for me that gets old quickly.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Yes, people do.

You might want to look into "natural growth", a style of city playing which uses barebones mods and plays hyperrealistically.

CSGdesign did a great one called "Boston"; the rules to this playing style are detailed on his City Journal.

 

Well, that "natural growth" approach looks nice enough, but the creator uses 34 mods. That isn't exactly nothing.

 

As for me, I'm pretty sure I cannot achieve what I want from this game without mods. If I don't use mods, I fall into a pattern of always doing the same thing to achieve good growth, and for me that gets old quickly.

Hahah true, but compared to many other city journals it's very basic. Also many people who say "they don't use custom content", still use the NAM as it fixes many issues with the packaged game.

Mods or no mods, do what works for you.

[Turjan 1,048]

Mods or no mods, do what works for you.

True. There's nothing wrong with using the vanilla game, as long as you have fun. For me, the search started when I discovered that nobody was using my "awesome" motorway that I somehow managed to fit through the city, while my "traffic adviser" screamed about the road that everyone clogged up right next to the motorway. From there it was a slippery slope .

 

[bgn 4]

Geting back to the original question--I think I would say yes.   I use the NAM and various smaller mods that affect gameplay, but so far I haven't felt the need for any new buildings or other such content.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

@bgn:  Whatever floats your boat.  But don't you get bored with using all Maxis lots?

[Bdub01 201]

When Maxis is all you have it's still a pretty fun game. I can only imagine what it would be like with the downloadables.

[Cob92 360]

When Maxis is all you have it's still a pretty fun game. I can only imagine what it would be like with the downloadables.

 

It all depends on how you use them. For me, downloadables mainly serve to make my city more diverse in terms of architecture, and to fill gaps in the game that Maxis left (such as a lack of commercial services for denser neighborhoods, skyscrapers that require very specific lots to grow, etc.). I still play the game as SC4; my fun comes from building the city and trying to deal with the inherent challenges of that.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

This thread is giving me ideas.  When NAM v31 is release, I may start a new account and only load that plugin.  It might be interesting to do a kind of cold start with it alone.  Will probably also need RTMT.

[lhrob 213]

I guess I started this thread to see if there were any purists out there, so I could find out what your experience is like when building your cities.  Lately I've been thinking I might empty my Plugins folder to see how diverse my cities can be.  In the past couple of days I've twice encountered brown boxes that have popped up on a growable lot, and it frustrated me to think I would have to hunt down the dependencies just because the custom content creator didn't include a full list in the documentation that came with the download.  Don't get me wrong...I'm not griping.  I love the diversity that custom content brings to the game.  But even with custom content, I still see the same building set grow all the time even though I know I've got a huge assortment in my Plugins folder that should be growing along with it under the same conditions.

 

I mean, look at this:

 

 

 

I want a city where I don't have multiple copies of an office building all in a row in my commerical zones, and I'm tired of the same homes popping up right next to each other all along the street in my residential zones.  Does having custom content somehow affect this?  I don't remember this ever happening when I played sans custom content.  When I first started downloading custom residentials, I wanted to plop them so that I could create some truly unique neighborhoods....but then I found out that residential ploppables don't work.  So the growables are simply cloning themselves faster than rabbits in heat.

 

I love that SC4 can be a creative outlet, as an artist's canvas (to borrow one of Nonny's sayings), but if I also want a functioning city where my sims aren't constantly whining about commute times and no jobs, then I prefer my residential zones to grow in a more diverse manner.  So I just wonder if playing SC4 with only Maxis files would create a more diverse city as it grows...??    

[Bdub01 201]

Since I have never played with custom content I can't say what the difference is however, my cities seem to be pretty diverse. Sure some residential blocks look alike but many R areas are different and unique especially with low density R.

For C I have has some same buildings side by side. I mean 4 St. Ritzys in a row... Really? But all in all its diverse and I do try to make each city differently!

[Cob92 360]

One mod I would use no matter what is one to change the zone data view so that it shows civic buildings. Making street-level improvements in heavily built up areas is such a pain in SC4 because the zone view also hides the bus stops, subway entrances, parks, and other streetside junk that I want to change. 

[MandelSoft 2,775]

I want a city where I don't have multiple copies of an office building all in a row in my commerical zones, and I'm tired of the same homes popping up right next to each other all along the street in my residential zones.  Does having custom content somehow affect this?  I don't remember this ever happening when I played sans custom content.  When I first started downloading custom residentials, I wanted to plop them so that I could create some truly unique neighborhoods....but then I found out that residential ploppables don't work.  So the growables are simply cloning themselves faster than rabbits in heat.

This is not limited to custom content buildings. Buildings with "poorly" assigned properties and occupancy values have a tendency to grow easily. There are however some buildings known that happen to grow a lot in your cities, even in an unmodded game. Some examples:

- Wren Insurances. Very, VERY notorious

- One of the $$$ theatres

- Khourney Art Foundation

- The Freytag building

- The McAddams Building

- Manning Condos

- This commercial building at the bottom

- Those R$ H-block appartment buildings

- Maxis Villas

Actually, you would be worse of in an unmodded game, because the game has less options to chose from.

If I would make a recommendation of what to download, download things from the same regional style (American or European), arrange your custom content so you can find it and only download high-quality stuff (LEX is guaranteed high-quality).

[yayaya1 22]

I don't 

[lhrob 213]

I want a city where I don't have multiple copies of an office building all in a row in my commerical zones, and I'm tired of the same homes popping up right next to each other all along the street in my residential zones.  Does having custom content somehow affect this?  I don't remember this ever happening when I played sans custom content.  When I first started downloading custom residentials, I wanted to plop them so that I could create some truly unique neighborhoods....but then I found out that residential ploppables don't work.  So the growables are simply cloning themselves faster than rabbits in heat.

Actually, you would be worse of in an unmodded game, because the game has less options to chose from.

 

That makes sense, obviously.  I thought about that.  But I just wasn't sure if custom content somehow overrides the game's algorithms which determine what building should grow where and when.  (I'm sure I'm not saying that correctly, because computer programming goes WAY over my head.  LOL! )  I mean, I have a LOT of custom houses in my plugins and surely SOME of them share the same criteria for growth....?  I feel like bulldozing that entire neighborhood of houses that I showed above, because it truly gives credence to the phrase "cookie cutter subdivision". 

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

I don't know about you guys, but I couldn' live without my MMPs.

[Ganaram Inukshuk 906]

Let's just say that trying to play without any sort of custom content is just as boring and repetitive as trying to watch paint dry with 30 or 40 clones of yourself.</ponyreference>

And the only time I've ever gone without custom content is before I even downloaded the NAM and when my last laptop died. It's torturous to go without.

[lhrob 213]

Let's just say that trying to play without any sort of custom content is just as boring and repetitive as trying to watch paint dry with 30 or 40 clones of yourself.

 

I understand that, and totally respect what you're saying.  But even with custom content, I'm still getting a lot of clones.  I'm just not sure I understand why.

 

EDIT:  Everyone bear in mind, I'm not talking about mods when I refer to custom content.  Instead I'm referring to all the custom buildings that are growable.  I absolutely believe mods are an essential part of the game.

[bgn 4]

But don't you get bored with using all Maxis lots?

 

Only a little; right now in this game I'm concentrating on keeping unemployment down and jobs proportionate to residents, as well as mastering the mysteries of traffic.  Maybe later on I'll get some new buildings.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Let's just say that trying to play without any sort of custom content is just as boring and repetitive as trying to watch paint dry with 30 or 40 clones of yourself.

 

I understand that, and totally respect what you're saying.  But even with custom content, I'm still getting a lot of clones.  I'm just not sure I understand why.

 

EDIT:  Everyone bear in mind, I'm not talking about mods when I refer to custom content.  Instead I'm referring to all the custom buildings that are growable.  I absolutely believe mods are an essential part of the game.

OK, I'll try an explain how I see the lot selection process.

 

If you have the Maxis lots only, you have n lots of a given type to be selected.  Now if you add custom content you will have m additional lots of the same type which gives you n + m lots to choose from. 

 

I think the game is slightly skewed towards the front of the list (Maxis lots), but generally with a bandwidth of n + m, the random number generator that picks the lot has a much bigger range to choose from.  This is usually done by generating a large number then using an integer divide operation and taking the remainder to choose the lot. 

 

You can see that the frequency of choice brings up a specific Maxis lot if the choice is n.  If n is a small number you will get a lot of repeats.  By increasing the number of lots you increase the divisor in the operation with a better scatter of remainders.

 

By the way, a reasonably good, fast random number generator is to take the system clock in microseconds, square it, and take the middle of this as the random number.  Requires multiple precision floating arithmetic, and has some inaccuracies, but who cares when you want a random number.

 

Then you narrow down the bandwidth by dividing by the number of objects to choose from and taking the remainder.  This program is written in C and there is a single operator to get the modulus or remainder of a number with respect to another.