Creating Realistic Neighborhoods.(Tutorial)

[Metalpuritan 160]

One of the most common questions I see here is "How do I break up the monotony?" or "How do you all create neighborhoods of all one building type from custom content?" or "How do I make realism in my neighborhoods?" or "How do I stop medium and high wealth from taking over?"

 

Fortunately the answers to all these questions are the same or at least very similar.  All of those things can be solved by this tutorial or by parts of this tutorial.

 

You will need:

 

SC4PIM, the link: https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2260

And any custom content you want to grow.

 

Video Tutorial Part one:  Altering your custom content's tileset.  This video will show you how to change the tileset your custom content grows on.  This will give you an extra degree of control of what lots will grow and when your lots will grow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Czvtj7cLDc

 

Video Tutorial Part Two: Now that you have changed the tileset your custom content grows on you can now control where they grow by using the "Make Historical" box in the query window of each lot.  This will show you in game how to apply the tileset and make your target buildings grow where you want them to grow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqpv2eCtHgk

 

A note:  This tactic can be employed to stop medium and high wealth from taking over your cities as well.  Once a lot has been made historical it will not change, this will keep it from being absorbed by medium and high wealth as your game progresses.

 

I hope this helps you guys.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

A note:  This tactic can be employed to stop medium and high wealth from taking over your cities as well.  Once a lot has been made historical it will not change, this will keep it from being absorbed by medium and high wealth as your game progresses.

 

I hope this helps you guys.

Not quite, a lot can be absorbed if it abandons.

Other than that, very nice tutorial!

 

[Bribaryan 0]

One thing I meant to ask you, if you want to do a uniform city, and take out the plugins file, it's not going to crash your region is it?  Assuming I have a region that used a lot of the plugins.

 

Or is it just best to use a whole new region?

 

I had some trouble understanding the video when it came to tilesets, the "Euro" tilesets were basically a place you organized your custom plugins?  Why did you turn off that one and not the rest is what I'm trying to understand......

[Metalpuritan 160]

No, it will not crash your game(it will under certain circumstances) however, your game will be missing things and you will have brown boxes all over the place.

 

My game with my plugins folder removed(this is the same city from the video tutorial):

 

Those certain circumstances I mentioned earlier, Your game WILL crash if you remove your plugins folder if you have custom content airports or seaports placed in a city and then remove those custom content ports.  The port controllers are what is responsible for that.  The custom content port controllers are not compatible with other controllers, so if you remove the custom content ports and their controllers the maxis port controller takes over and crashes your game.

 

 

 

In video number 1 I set the Jmyers2043 homes to grow only on the New York, Ciicago, and Houston tilesets.  Before I made the video I made some medium wealth 1X1 lots that only grow on the Euro tileset.  That is why in the video, you see me turn off the Euro tileset, I wanted only the jmyers2043 homes to grow.  What tileset I choose for them to grow on is entirely a personal preference.  What tileset YOU choose to have lots grow on is entirely YOUR preference.  I have over 3Gb of plugins.  If I did not set the tilesets that my plugins grew on, I could have up to I think 6 different sets of low wealth residential lots growing at once, as long as it takes to get the lots I WANT to grow to grow, imagine how much longer it would take if I set all lots to grow on all tilesets.  It would be a mess.

[Bribaryan 0]

No, it will not crash your game(it will under certain circumstances) however, your game will be missing things and you will have brown boxes all over the place.

 

My game with my plugins folder removed(this is the same city from the video tutorial):

 

Those certain circumstances I mentioned earlier, Your game WILL crash if you remove your plugins folder if you have custom content airports or seaports placed in a city and then remove those custom content ports.  The port controllers are what is responsible for that.  The custom content port controllers are not compatible with other controllers, so if you remove the custom content ports and their controllers the maxis port controller takes over and crashes your game.

 

 

 

In video number 1 I set the Jmyers2043 homes to grow only on the New York, Ciicago, and Houston tilesets.  Before I made the video I made some medium wealth 1X1 lots that only grow on the Euro tileset.  That is why in the video, you see me turn off the Euro tileset, I wanted only the jmyers2043 homes to grow.  What tileset I choose for them to grow on is entirely a personal preference.  What tileset YOU choose to have lots grow on is entirely YOUR preference.  I have over 3Gb of plugins.  If I did not set the tilesets that my plugins grew on, I could have up to I think 6 different sets of low wealth residential lots growing at once, as long as it takes to get the lots I WANT to grow to grow, imagine how much longer it would take if I set all lots to grow on all tilesets.  It would be a mess.

Oh it's good it won't crash.

 

Sorry, i hate to keep bugging you, but I'm not following the tileset thing too well.  As in where do the "NY, Houston, Chicago tilesets" show up in game exactly?   Or where are they positioned within your plugins folder, etc.......   Are they customized tile sets?  Or is "NY, Chicago, Houston," the default tile sets?

 

I'm super new, so maybe I bit off more than I could chew with this one.

[Metalpuritan 160]

 

Oh it's good it won't crash.

 

Sorry, i hate to keep bugging you, but I'm not following the tileset thing too well.  As in where do the "NY, Houston, Chicago tilesets" show up in game exactly?   Or where are they positioned within your plugins folder, etc.......   Are they customized tile sets?  Or is "NY, Chicago, Houston," the default tile sets?

 

I'm super new, so maybe I bit off more than I could chew with this one.

 

Oh hey, it is cool man, we all got to start somewhere.  

 

The tilesets are located in game.  Just to the right of your mayor rating on that mayor panel at the bottom left, you will see a triangle and T-square looking icon.  Click on that and you will see where your tilesets are located.  There you will find, New York, Chicago, Houston, and Euro.

 

I suggest you grow 4 R$ low density neighborhoods using the 'make historical' button and make them close to each other and with no mods, you will see that you can make drastically different looking neighborhoods.  Once you see it work in game, you will understand what you can do with it.  For me, it was like a light turning on.  The moment I realized that I was actually in control of EVERYTHING, the whole game changed for me.

 

What makes a building/lot grow on a certain tileset?  It's exemplar data(don't let this word 'exemplar' freak you out like it did me'.), the exemplar data is what determines what tileset a lot grows on.  EVERY lot in game has information on it in these "exemplar" data thingys.  Even your sea level is controlled by exemplar data, everything you see in game is affected by exemplar data.  The only place you can observe and/or manipulate this exemplar data is within third party programs like the SC4PIM.  Lucky for people just starting out SC4PIM doesn't use this word very much if at all.  The SC4PIM is very simplistic.  Some folks might see some great use in it, but the only use I get out of it changing the tileset that a lot grows on.

 

I am no expert, believe that, but once you do it once, succeed just once, you will begin to understand how easy it is.  It is also safe, as long as you don't save and/or make backups of your files before you begin to edit stuff.

 

Do like I said and move whatever it is that which you wish to change into a BLANK Plugins folder to work on it and once you are done you can move it back to where it belongs.  This will make the whole process easier to understand as there will be much less clutter.

 

One last thing, you don't have to do this at all.  much of the custom content is already set to grow on certain tilesets.  You could always just not do anything if that is your wish.  You could also just wait for a while if THAT is what you wished.

 

Edit:  

 

One more thing, just before making this tutorial I messed up when I went to update, my once a month plugins folder update, and deleted my backup plugins folder, for reasons you will understand in many days/weeks/months from now, this is really bad, so bad I had to reconstruct my plugins folder, and in doing so I changed my mind about what tileset I want the jmyers2043 homes to grow on, I now want them to grow ONLY on the New York tileset.  I now have 4 different sets of low wealth residential custom content, 1 for each tileset, all with VERY distinctly different looks and stats.  

 

It might actually help you to not even think of the tilesets as "New York or "Chicago" and to just think of them as tileset #1 and #2 etc.

[Bribaryan 0]

 

One last thing, you don't have to do this at all.  much of the custom content is already set to grow on certain tilesets.  You could always just not do anything if that is your wish.  You could also just wait for a while if THAT is what you wished.

 

Edit:  

 

One more thing, just before making this tutorial I messed up when I went to update, my once a month plugins folder update, and deleted my backup plugins folder, for reasons you will understand in many days/weeks/months from now, this is really bad, so bad I had to reconstruct my plugins folder, and in doing so I changed my mind about what tileset I want the jmyers2043 homes to grow on, I now want them to grow ONLY on the New York tileset.  I now have 4 different sets of low wealth residential custom content, 1 for each tileset, all with VERY distinctly different looks and stats.  

 

It might actually help you to not even think of the tilesets as "New York or "Chicago" and to just think of them as tileset #1 and #2 etc.

 

Alright I'm going to play around with it so I can better understand what you mean.   I want a little more uniform city, as the custom content I have just a mess of different things growing lol.

[Metalpuritan 160]

An example of my thinking when assigning tilesets to lots:

 

Chicago(tileset#1 as a generic name):  Old american buildings, colonial style, made of wood with railings, dirt driveways, things you might see in the 1800s or early 1900s.  Sometimes grungy buildings, as long as they do not interfere with the aged look of the tileset.

 

New York(tileset# as a generic name):  Current American themes.  Wall to wall construction, flat roofs for commercial, modern without being futuristic, very tall buildings, commercial with lots of windows and concrete, residentials that look like things you would find in suburban America.  Red Brick buildings.

 

Houston(tileset#3 as a generic name): Modern construction, can sometimes be a hybrid of tilesets #2 and #4, commercial buildings that stand alone, this tileset can contain things that I do not know what to do with.  I will put a lot of my "poor area" buildings here, buildings that look grungy or run down or dirty(time and place for everything right?)

 

Euro(tileset#4 as a generic name): Wall to wall construction, exposed wooden frame, pointed roofs, roof line adornments, colorful, low rise, also a colonial look but obviously euro colonial, older buildings, dirty looking low density residentials, wall to wall construction, did I mention wall to wall construction(LOL) Building facades where the front of the building might not match the back of the building or sides.

 

 

Those are just examples, I may not even follow those rules exactly, but are more just guidelines really.  This is also personal, it pertains only to me, anyone else using this same criteria is just a coincidence.  You of course, can come up with your own criteria.  I suggest you do come with your own plan too if you are considering altering the tileset on which your buildings grow on.  I don't know about you, but I do not want to go back and do all this again.

 

Lastly make sure to have backups, both before and after you change things, just to be on the safe side.

[Bribaryan 0]

Ya I was just about to ask you Metal but you answered it before I got there.  I was going to ask you if one way to go about it, is go through your entire list and assign different customs to different tilesets so you can easily pull them up.

 

 

 

I'm wondering if I wanted to do a specialized uniform city, if it would just be easier to use a separate plugins folder all together?  Also, is there a way to change the density from mid to low, etc.....Some of the customs I downloaded were put in odd places.  I guess for now I'm just going to set aside all the odd looking customs into Euro.

[agunter999 200]

Wow this means I could switch between all of my building desingns. Thanks

[Metalpuritan 160]

Ya I was just about to ask you Metal but you answered it before I got there.  I was going to ask you if one way to go about it, is go through your entire list and assign different customs to different tilesets so you can easily pull them up.

 

 

 

I'm wondering if I wanted to do a specialized uniform city, if it would just be easier to use a separate plugins folder all together?  Also, is there a way to change the density from mid to low, etc.....Some of the customs I downloaded were put in odd places.  I guess for now I'm just going to set aside all the odd looking customs into Euro.

Yes, you could create separate Plugins folders.  There are even third party programs that let you choose which which Plugins folder to use before loading the game.  I don't use them, nor do I have a separate plugins folder, nor will I ever, and as such I cannot weigh in on pros and cons and I will only be able to make opinions and not be able to state facts.  If you decide to get one or more of those third party programs, make sure to read the readme or any documentation that comes with it, you might have to rename your Plugins folders or something to get the program to work right.

 

And as for changing density of lots, of course you can change the densities however, once again I am not the person to consult on this, this would require a program like iLive's reader or another tool, maybe the PIM-X Tool.  I do not know enough about either of them to be telling people how to use them.  All I know is that if you can change something you can do it with those programs, and use caution, those programs have very steep learning curves.

 

Something you may want to copy and past to your PC somewhere for reference if you are going to use iLive's reader:

ilive Reader designations"

 

Wealth Indicators:

- 0x00003320 CO$$

- 0x00003330 CO$$$

- 0x00003110 CS$

- 0x00003120 CS$$

- 0x00003130 CS$$$

- 0x00001010 R$

- 0x00001020 R$$

- 0x00001030 R$$$

- 0x00004100 Agriculture

- 0x00004200 Dirty Industry

- 0x00004300 Dirty Manufacturing

- 0x00004400 High Tech Industry

 

Building Style Types:

0x2000 Chicago

0x2001 New York

0x2002 Houston

0x2003 Euro

 

Query Sounds:

- 0x4A890F5B Residential (doorbell),

- 0x2A8916AB Commercial Services (cash register),

- 0xEA55BAAB Industrial,

- 0xEA55BDEB Commercial Office,

- 0xAA8A4B05 Industrial Agricultural,

- 0x2A8C9F8D Landmark (cameras, ooh-aah)

- 0x2A8C9F38 US Anthem (White House),

- 0x4A55BA9D School sound,

- 0x6A62C900 Fire station sound,

- 0x8A4C6575 Army base sound,

- 0x2A55BC25 Movie studio sound

 

Other Values:

- 0x01 Residential

- 0x02 Services

- 0x03 Office

- 0x04 Tourist(landmark?)

- 0x05 Agriculture

- 0x06 Processing (Dirty Industry)

- 0x07 Manufacturing

- 0x08 High Tech Industry

- 0x09 Other

 

Wealth:

- 0x01 Low

- 0x02 Medium

- 0x03 High

 

And this link https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=13185.msg380687#msg380687 is for lowering the sealevel and altering the opacity of the water at certain depths using iLive's reader(only if you are using a terain controller, it doesn't say how to do it if you are using the standarad maxis terrain controller).

 

If I had the density values they would be listed here, sadly getting all the information I need to use the iLive's Reader like I know what I am doing is like herding cats, I have made several posts asking for definitions and more than half of them go unanswered.

 

 

I am actively archiving information though so one day I may be able to truly mod like I mean it.

[simcityplayer15 33]

One of the most common questions I see here is "How do I break up the monotony?" or "How do you all create neighborhoods of all one building type from custom content?" or "How do I make realism in my neighborhoods?" or "How do I stop medium and high wealth from taking over?"

 

Fortunately the answers to all these questions are the same or at least very similar.  All of those things can be solved by this tutorial or by parts of this tutorial.

 

You will need:

 

SC4PIM, the link: https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2260

And any custom content you want to grow.

 

Video Tutorial Part one:  Altering your custom content's tileset.  This video will show you how to change the tileset your custom content grows on.  This will give you an extra degree of control of what lots will grow and when your lots will grow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Czvtj7cLDc

 

Video Tutorial Part Two: Now that you have changed the tileset your custom content grows on you can now control where they grow by using the "Make Historical" box in the query window of each lot.  This will show you in game how to apply the tileset and make your target buildings grow where you want them to grow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqpv2eCtHgk

 

A note:  This tactic can be employed to stop medium and high wealth from taking over your cities as well.  Once a lot has been made historical it will not change, this will keep it from being absorbed by medium and high wealth as your game progresses.

 

I hope this helps you guys.

Well I did founded another solution is that, I suppressed the R$$$ from the mod radical ordinance mod, that i raised the R$ demand, and leveled the R$$ demand, so now mansion don't grown at all . But some R$$$ apartments don't grow 

[infamousjbe 592]

After watching your tutorial, the first drawback/s (with solution/s) that came to mind. Of course this is based directly on my own style of play, but certainly could pertain to others with a similar style or situation. And is about the actual game play and not about the modding portion of the tut.

 

I noticed you were running the sim in cheetah the whole time. Now in my situation, I've found that when I run in cheetah for too long my budget will end up in the red.

 

Another drawback is that I have my building styles change at every 100 yrs while I play each city in 10yr increments, so again, running in cheetah speed will blast past my style change benchmarks.

 

Last drawback is that I don't have every building in my region locked in historical. Which means, while the sim is running in cheetah trying to get that perfect look, the rest of the city can up an change without notice.

 

My solution to these drawbacks is using the SimDate feature that comes with the Extra Cheats Mod. What I'll do is set the date back 10 years from the current city date before running the sim in cheetah speed. This allows me to keep my city's dates from advancing past a certain point and with minimal damage/change to the city itself. 

 

Now, if you don't get the desired results within those 10yrs, just save the ones you have so far, and repeat by setting the date back before running the sim in cheetah again.

 

Keep doing this till you've acquired the desired results. Then I'll allow the sim to advance in years (turtle speed though) and it's business as usual.

 

Hope that helps add some "tips" with your tut.

[Bribaryan 0]

I've been looking for a thread on this.

 

Does Metal or anyone here know the best way to deal with the duplicate lots?   Like when you zone for a bunch of commercial and the same exact thing pops up like 9 times.  This is actually good for residential, but not so much for commercial or anything else.

[infamousjbe 592]

I personally just bulldoze anything I don't want until something worth it pops up, then lock it down in historical.

[Bribaryan 0]

I personally just bulldoze anything I don't want until something worth it pops up, then lock it down in historical.

Sounds good, it's just I get this one custom that keeps coming up, I think I'll delete it.

[Metalpuritan 160]

I've been looking for a thread on this.

 

Does Metal or anyone here know the best way to deal with the duplicate lots?   Like when you zone for a bunch of commercial and the same exact thing pops up like 9 times.  This is actually good for residential, but not so much for commercial or anything else.

If you have a lot that will pop up more than any other lot of the same type, like a certain bookstore or a certain McDonald's out there, it is because the game is selecting it to fulfill the demand and that lot is the best candidate to do that.

 

What is going on is that it has a higher 'capacity satisfied' nuber than anything else of that same type.  For instance, The demand in your city is  very high for CS$, up around 4000, and you zone a bunch of space for it and the proper conditions exist for it, the game will then look at all CS$ lots and grab the best lot to fill all 4000 demand, so if all the Maxis lots have only a 28/28 work force capacity and the custom content you have will hold 40/40 or 50/50, the came will select the custom content  that is highest most often to grow in the new zones.

 

There are a few ways to fix this.  The easiest is download more lots that compete with it.  That is the easiest way but it is not very reliable.  You can delete the lot, that solves the problem but then you don't have the building you downloaded(You downloaded it so you must want it so you are really defeated there.)

 

Lastly, you change the capacity satisfied on that lot to match or at least be competitive with everything else so it no longer dwarfs everything else.  This is really the best option, the building no longer "grows like weeds"(as we say here) and you get to keep it in your game, win/win.

 

Fortunately for  you I happen to be in the video making mood!  I know just the lot to change too, 'Renaissance Books' by NoFunk, this building grows like weeds, it will literally take over a commercial service district by force, you will have like on any 6X6 block zoned 2X2 all around the edge at least 4 of them grow, that is no good, a long time ago I just deleted it from my Plugins folder, today I modify it as a tutorial and reintroduce it to my game and teach you how to lower the capacity satisfied to keep buildings in check.

 

This building has a capacity satisfied of 128 where all the other buildings it competes with have a capacity satisfied down around 28ish(some even less).  That is no good and that is understatement.  This building left unchecked will completely ruin your commercial services districts, it will look even worse than Maxis lots if it is allowed to take over like that.

 

I am going to make a video, but I need to close my browser for a moment, I am having trouble with my video recording software due to a windows update that keeps getting installed on my PC, I need to fix it.

 

The video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1SqN7Zw1Gk&feature=youtu.be

 

Sorry it took so long to get the link up here, it took me 8 takes to get the video right.

 

The link to the new tutorial thread in the modding section of the forum is here: 

[mrbisonm 1,620]

I've been looking for a thread on this.

 

Does Metal or anyone here know the best way to deal with the duplicate lots?   Like when you zone for a bunch of commercial and the same exact thing pops up like 9 times.  This is actually good for residential, but not so much for commercial or anything else.

 

If a "regrow" of the same lot pops up 5 or 6 times in my game, I usually dezone, wait a gamemonth and then rezone the spot and another model will grow at that time. It usully helps a lot. Just a little trick I do all the time.

 

mrb

[infamousjbe 592]

I've noticed mattb's collection of Cs$ buildings have a tendency to grow quite frequently, and definitely over powers most of the Maxis lots. It's usually not to much of bother with the bulldoze/historical method, but I might just have to go in and reduce them like you did for the book store. Just never really thought about doing it that way.

[Metalpuritan 160]

I've noticed mattb's collection of Cs$ buildings have a tendency to grow quite frequently, and definitely over powers most of the Maxis lots. It's usually not to much of bother with the bulldoze/historical method, but I might just have to go in and reduce them like you did for the book store. Just never really thought about doing it that way.

His medium wealth houses too, if you have them installed no other houses will grow, only his.  It all comes down to the capacity satisfied.