Modding Made Easy: A Beginner's Guide

[NCGAIO 562]

It certainly is interesting to watch the interest in modding this game despite its age but the use of this tool for editing and modifying the content also requires some knowledge of the basic mechanics of the files and properties  as well as their relationship

 

Everyone knows that there is no full manual user friendly for the Reader and the reason for this may be just the fact that without this knowledge many things that look correct  eventually trigger malfunctioning of the simulator.

 

Over the years several of these errors were present even in the developments of experienced modders that seeked a solution to what they wanted to do without realizing the negative results for these changes .

 

So to increase the interest of new modders  a good suggestion that would be great a search in  the forums about what if want do to avoid the same mistakes 

 

The links below bring sources of knowledge about the use and relationship between  the files and also the properties that appear in the Reader .

[TexTech 0]

Great! Thank You! It worked. I don't know how to change anything else but that worked. Thanks again.

[CorinaMarie 29,571]

Can ploppable lots be placed in a Tab Ring or is that only viable for Network Puzzle Pieces?

[Tyberius06 12,184]

53 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

Can ploppable lots be placed in a Tab Ring or is that only viable for Network Puzzle Pieces?

As far as I know, only for network puzzle pieces. I read somewhere about it, but @Tarkus or @rsc204 knows better the reasons, I suppose.

[Tarkus 6,932]

The TAB Loop functionality is something that is made possible via RUL0, the IntersectionOrderingRUL, which controls the placement of ploppable network-based items (i.e. puzzle pieces, starter pieces, and FLEX pieces).  RUL files can't handle Lots, only network items.

-Tarkus

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

Hello fellow modders

Does anyone know of any tutorial that teaches how to organize lots together in the menus? I'm about to release 11 models of courts and the ideal would be that they stay together in the park menus.

Ok ignore this JP guy
https://community.simtropolis.com/omnibus/SimCity-4/modding-information/how-to-organize-your-in-game-menus-r184/

[franyer 305]

Please a tutorial to do submenu items of existing lots 😭 for Submenu DLL

[Nite Owl 79]

4 hours ago, franyer said:

Please a tutorial to do submenu items of existing lots 😭 for Submenu DLL

Agreed. Being a visual learner a well done Tutorial with Code Examples would be most helpful. Have a semi good grasp of JavaScript, XML, and .plist files from my experience modding another game. Unfortunately, Hexadecimal would be a totally new experience for me. As in, where to find the proper entries, how to convert to them if need be, what they mean, etc. Have some large mods in my Plugins Folder. Large here would apply to the number of lots they contain, like the lots of lots in KOSC's Parking Lots. These large mods would greatly benefit from some well branched Sub Menus thereby further reducing my Park Menu's scroll time. One of you more experienced Code Gurus will no doubt get around to doing stuff like this in your own time but a custom made set of Sub Menus for the peccadilloes of my personal Plugin Folder is the most direct solution in the mean time. 

[rsc204 21,806]

Frankly adding submenu support is not difficult and instructions and a template come with the DLL mod.

Essentially you make an Exemplar that defines the new menu including name and icon. Then you just add a property to every item you want in said menu, linking to its IID.