MOD To Change Growable Foundations To Fit Any Slope

[SimRico 968]

My towns have plenty small rolling hills and some odd shape ground terain in addition to lots of flatland. When I lay out communities on mounds or some hilly spots, I have to go through and bulldose houses where the foundation chopes into the ground or creates a high wall.

Example: I can see two of the same exact house grow next to each other on a sloped road. The first house grows "on stilts" or conforms with the slope where the same house next to it grows where the lowest spot of the slope creates flat foundation chopping into the ground looking very odd

Is there a mod thst forces only terrain-conformed houses to grow? The same with industry. It looks very B A D on anything except completely flat ground. So I always see to it that IND is on flat ground. But would be nice if it could give way, even a little to handle slight gentle slopes at the least.....

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Your best bet is a slope mod.  There are several but I don't use any of them.  I often pre-level ground using the single-road-tile method.  With irregular ground you can't avoid a little civil engineering.

[SimRico 968]

You are right Mr. MOOSE. Especially industrial zoning practically require some groundleveling preparationbandnive pretty much keepbindustry on flat based ground.

I was hoping that since the game does grow and support residential houses and some multilevel apartments to be flexible with the terrain its growing ontop of, that there might be a mod that restricts the residential homes that are not slope or terrain-flexible .

In the example above, instead of two identical houses grownbit with one being a hard-flat "industrylike" foundation and the other having a perfectly sloped foundation that looks more realistic in subdivisions that has inclining roads and properties......

:|

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

There are only so much that can be done in this graphics engine without eating the CPU and slowing the game even more.  If you want to see what happens when you do all that graphics detail, take a look at SC 2013.  Computers can't work miracles, and no computer will ever have the capacity nor speed of the human brain.  The brain is massively parallel.  There are not enough computers in the world to duplicate that.

[SimRico 968]

You are correct about that. But I was thinking, hey if a mod can stop the wren bldg from growing...could there be to stop flat foundation versions of residentials from growing. It would be nice if it was one.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Sorry lad, that's in the .exe and we have agreed not to touch it.  The only things that can have mods are the external (.dat) tables in the data base.

 

The program is essentially table driven but some stuff we'd like to fix is hard coded.  How are you in C++?  The game is written in C++ 6.0 using Visual Studio.

[SimCoug 5,977]

Can you post a picture of the different lots you are talking about. I have a feeling it has to do with the slope and foundation properties of the lots (which can be altered).

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

^ problem is he wants different results with the same lot, on-the-fly.  He'd have to have several versions of the lot.

[SimRico 968]

Can you post a picture of the different lots you are talking about. I have a feeling it has to do with the slope and foundation properties of the lots (which can be altered).

  

^ problem is he wants different results with the same lot, on-the-fly.  He'd have to have several versions of the lot.

.

I think I have bulldozed all of the residentials thats located in a subdivision on a slight hill (more of a mound) where the house grew with a flat foundation. I got a new subdision growing now and will take snapshots of the "Shesabrickhouse" model thats growing side by side where one takes a bite out of the ground (looks ugly) and the same type house grows nextdoor with the slope-friendly foundation.

Moose 8s right. But basically all I want is for the house with a flat foundation to be blocked from ever growng just like the Wren Building mod blocks that bldg from ever growing in the game. I guess you could call it on-the-fly but id rather it never growing at all.

[SimCoug 5,977]

I imagine the reason you get a retaining wall sometimes instead of a slope with building foundation, has to do with the foundation properties of the lots. If the slope is too severe, you will get the retaining wall. Its possible this could be modded, but I'd have to look into it more.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Since I don't use them, I don't know.  But could a slope mod help this or are they only for roads?

[SimRico 968]

Since I don't use them, I don't know.  But could a slope mod help this or are they only for roads?

That's a very good question Mr. Moose. Come to think of it, looks like the only slope references I've seen for mods were all roadway constructions .  I've seen a few ploppable 'eye-candy' beach houses in the repository for download that are specifically made and advertised as slope-friendly (is that the term?).  It just would be nice if a mod was designed to block only the 'flat foundation version of a residential since every city isn't actually flat in the real world, that since sc4's early days till now,   I am ok with commercial or industry requiring a flat terrain.

 

Here's a few snapshots of a community just developing in the city... its called "Moose's Lodge estates" (guess where the funding came from to pay off lenders and banks?). These pics will show front/side/back of growable homes where the foundation blends well with the terrain (some receiving stilt pillars , others grow with what looks like a basement to the home.   Then there are examples of the 'flat base' houses where 1 takes the lowest point of the terrain where the tile is laid and 'bites' a chunk out of the hill, making   next-door homes look odd.   Then there are the flat-base foundations that takes the highest point of the terrain where the tile has been laid and creates a funny looking wall as if the house is built on top of a sandbox filled to the top and also makes neighboring houses look odd

 

So, what I do is take a sunday stroll through the 'hoods and knock down  all the houses with the undesired foundation and hope the  next house that grows will have the blendable terrain-friendly foundation .

 

 

Picture 1:

• This shows the terrain-friendly foundations of houses grown  up on a hilly road.

 

 

 

 

Picture 2

• A wider view of the small community with houses built on both the uphill and downhill sides of the road
• The game contain both types of the same house and randomly build the variants of the house i guess to break up 'redundancy'
• In this pic its easy to spot the version of a house that randomly grew the flat-foundation version
• Taking the 'No Wren Building Mod' as an example, it would be neat to have a mod control that globally blocks a flat foundation (Residential only) from growing.

 

 

 

 

 

Pictures 3 and 4

• You can see the 2story brick houses grown on both sides of the road. 
• The house on the left side where the back yard is higher than the front yard, the back of the house is even with the ground and the front of the house has a 'basement' type foundation
• The house on the right side where the back yard is downhill/lower than the front, it shows the back side with the basement revealed. which looks more realistic
• I've circled two houses where the foundation took either the highest or lowest point in the tile area..

 

 

Picture 4

• (same analysis as above)

 

 

 

Picture 5

• This is how some houses look where the foundation eats a 'chunk' out of real estate
• look like the house is built inside a concrete barrier...
• unrealistic looking and doesn't fit in the rest of the community

 

 

 

 

what Prompted The Residential slope-friendly Mod Question?

I was toying around with the "buildingplop" (cough) Cheet.  When the list box queries the plugins and categorizes or sorts the inventory in associated order, I've noticed that when clicking to select a house from the first popup window, the UI opens a second popup window where there can be 1 to however many versions of the house is in the games repository.  I clicked through each and plotted them one day.  Results; one can be for a house with the flat foundation only,  one can be the same house but with a stilt or basement type foundation, one could be a other version of the house with just a different  'basement or stilt type' such as a lattice looking design around the bottom of the house, filling in the ground underneath so the house looks pleasingly situated on the hill.

 

@Mr. Moose : to answer an earlier c++ question, yes i used to program in that yrs ago, but have forgotten a lot and not kept up with the latest and greatest changes there must be today.

[SimRico 968]

I imagine the reason you get a retaining wall sometimes instead of a slope with building foundation, has to do with the foundation properties of the lots. If the slope is too severe, you will get the retaining wall. Its possible this could be modded, but I'd have to look into it more.

In the pics in the previous post, the ground mildly inclines and not really a sharp steep hill like on a mountain side.  In the city. there are some very mild inclining terrain where flat-base versions2r5-=o of the house either took a small to large bite out of the ground where the property took on the lowest terrain point in the tile, as well sa build a "sandbox' type effect (from small to tall) depending on the degree of the slope.  I was hoping that it happens just as you've said in this post....

[T Wrecks 10,210]

SimCoug is right, though. It all depends on three properties inside the lot exemplar:

• min slope: the minimum slope a lot can grow on
• max slope: the maximum slope a lot can grow on
• max slope before lot foundation: the maximum slope up to which the building uses a building foundation ("stilts") before it will switch to a lot foundation with retaining walls

 

Now consider the following scenarios:

 

min slope: 0

max slope: 50

max slope before lot foundation: 25

=> the lot will grow on terrains from perfectly flat (slope 0) to slope 50. Starting at slope 26, it will switch to a lot foundation. At slope 0-25, it will use a building foundation.

 

min. slope: 0

max slope: 50

max slope before lot foundation: 50

=> the lot will grow on terrains from perfectly flat (slope 0) to slope 50. It will use a building foundation throughout. At the point where a lot foundation could kick in, the maximum allowable slope is already reached.

 

I hope these examples illustrate the way this part of the game mechanics works. You can change the behaviour of the affected lots by modifying their slope settings and saving them ('Save', not 'Save As...'). This will create a copy that should override the original lot with the old slope settings.

 

You could also force a building to use a lot foundation disregarding the slope it's sitting on, or you could force it to grow only on slopes, not on level ground. By setting min. slope higher than max. slope, you can even keep the lot from growing at all.

 

 

These slope mods you can download only affect the slopes transport networks can be built on, they do not affect lots in any way.

[SimCoug 5,977]

Thanks for the great explanation T Wrecks.  Well SimRico, welcome to the world of modding 

[SimRico 968]

SimCoug is right, though. It all depends on three properties inside the lot exemplar:

• min slope: the minimum slope a lot can grow on
• max slope: the maximum slope a lot can grow on
• max slope before lot foundation: the maximum slope up to which the building uses a building foundation ("stilts") before it will switch to a lot foundation with retaining walls

 

Now consider the following scenarios:

 

min slope: 0

max slope: 50

max slope before lot foundation: 25

=> the lot will grow on terrains from perfectly flat (slope 0) to slope 50. Starting at slope 26, it will switch to a lot foundation. At slope 0-25, it will use a building foundation.

 

min. slope: 0

max slope: 50

max slope before lot foundation: 50

=> the lot will grow on terrains from perfectly flat (slope 0) to slope 50. It will use a building foundation throughout. At the point where a lot foundation could kick in, the maximum allowable slope is already reached.

 

I hope these examples illustrate the way this part of the game mechanics works. You can change the behaviour of the affected lots by modifying their slope settings and saving them ('Save', not 'Save As...'). This will create a copy that should override the original lot with the old slope settings.

 

You could also force a building to use a lot foundation disregarding the slope it's sitting on, or you could force it to grow only on slopes, not on level ground. By setting min. slope higher than max. slope, you can even keep the lot from growing at all.

 

 

These slope mods you can download only affect the slopes transport networks can be built on, they do not affect lots in any way.

 

 

Thanks for the great explanation T Wrecks.  Well SimRico, welcome to the world of modding 

Hey thanks guys!  that's some good details there!  back in 2005/2006 I 'toyed' around with morphing other mods into one of my own.  I took a cabin, shotgun house, some "sprites or the green functions" that generated smoke like a bbq pit and green functions for people , cars, etc... called it SimTastey's bbq

 

I shall take a deeeep breath and dive in this and play with it! hey thanks again guys!!!  From the pics you can tell what I like to have as a finished prod or option.

 

I like the force slope mod globally so that way  whether its growing on flat ground or on a hill, its all covered.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

You can do that, but be aware that "globally" does not mean "pull this one lever, and everything is switched over". The way SimCity works, "globally" means you need to change each and every lot to be affected and make it override the original. It's grunt work, really - not difficult to do, but tedious, repetitive, and tiresome.

[SimRico 968]

You can do that, but be aware that "globally" does not mean "pull this one lever, and everything is switched over". The way SimCity works, "globally" means you need to change each and every lot to be affected and make it override the original. It's grunt work, really - not difficult to do, but tedious, repetitive, and tiresome.

 

 

That's good to know,   I will for sure start out small   maybe one  and see how it goes.. then select another house (starting with my favs).    from the little toying id did back in 'dusty days' (2005) It was gruntwork .. and here I was using someone elses masterpieces! LOL