Post Modding Requests Here

[CorinaMarie 29,627]

46 minutes ago, TiepiNL said:

But all properties are "!Unknown!". What am I missing here?

Hmm. I'm not sure. Mine has been working for a long time, but I'm prolly way behind for any updated XMLs.  

Here's mine:

And looking in that folder, the files are:

• submenu_properties_Panda.xml
• tropod_Properties.xml

[Kel9509 1,421]

1 hour ago, TiepiNL said:

I have downloaded reader v0.9.3 now. added the new_properties.xml v3 file on the right, and pointed SimCityLocale.dat to the actual file:

According to the documentation of New_Properties.xml, it is only to be used for PIM-X and Reader 1.5.4.  If you're using Reader 0.9.3 (which is better), you need to use an updated  tropod_Properties.xml file, which is also contained in the download of new properties.  Once you do that, everything will show properly in Reader 0.9.3.  See the documentation here: 

 

[TiepiNL 182]

10 minutes ago, Kel9509 said:

According to the documentation of New_Properties.xml, it is only to be used for PIM-X and Reader 1.5.4.  If you're using Reader 0.9.3 (which is better), you need to use an updated  tropod_Properties.xml file, which is also contained in the download of new properties.  Once you do that, everything will show properly in Reader 0.9.3.  See the documentation here: 

 

Thanks, that does the job!

Am I right that I need to copy this value:

My result looks like this:

Does that look right? No other entries besides "Cohort file" needed? Add more lots, "Save as...", and that's all?

[TiepiNL 182]

Because I had quite some difficulties to find entry-level-ish instructions for exemplar patching, I decided to write one myself. The aim is to help others with similar struggles. 

Only one problem: my blocker still doesn't work. Attached wanna-be manual describes the steps I thought would be the correct ones...

[edit: manual removed]

It should block Mattb325's Hampton Inn NY from growing, but this is how my new city looks like 

I would appreciate it if someone could have a look and tell me what I overlook/misunderstand. Thanks!

  Edited September 2, 2025 by TiepiNL  
Removed the attached manual (pdf) to avoid confusion for future readers. My next post contains a working instruction.

[CorinaMarie 29,627]

1 hour ago, TiepiNL said:

I would appreciate it if someone could have a look and tell me what I overlook/misunderstand.

I've read all of your guide and it appears nicely thorough.  

I don't, however, understand the concept you're teaching so I'll wait to read what others say so maybe I can catch up.  

[memo 1,446]

22 hours ago, TiepiNL said:

Because I had quite some difficulties to find entry-level-ish instructions for exemplar patching, I decided to write one myself. The aim is to help others with similar struggles. 

Nice tutorial. Thanks for writing it up.

A few remarks:

- I'd use a minimum slope angle of 89.0°, not 255.

- There are no load order constraints for Exemplar Patches. You don't need to put it in a z-folder.

- It looks like you didn't assign the correct IDs in the TGI editor. You probably need to remove the leading "0x" from the IDs, as the last two digits got truncated. If I recall correctly, the 0.9.3 Reader version is also picky with capitalization in the TGI editor.

- A note on Directory files: Directory files list exactly those entries that are compressed (Compressed: Y or N). Your Cohort file is not compressed, so the lack of Directory file is fine. If you copy the Cohort from somewhere else though, chances are that it is compressed. In that case, you'd need to create a Directory file as a last step before saving (right click -> re-index, right click -> rebuild Directory file, save).

[TiepiNL 182]

4 hours ago, memo said:

Nice tutorial. Thanks for writing it up.

A few remarks:

- I'd use a minimum slope angle of 89.0°, not 255.

- There are no load order constraints for Exemplar Patches. You don't need to put it in a z-folder.

- It looks like you didn't assign the correct IDs in the TGI editor. You probably need to remove the leading "0x" from the IDs, as the last two digits got truncated. If I recall correctly, the 0.9.3 Reader version is also picky with capitalization in the TGI editor.

- A note on Directory files: Directory files list exactly those entries that are compressed (Compressed: Y or N). Your Cohort file is not compressed, so the lack of Directory file is fine. If you copy the Cohort from somewhere else though, chances are that it is compressed. In that case, you'd need to create a Directory file as a last step before saving (right click -> re-index, right click -> rebuild Directory file, save).

Thanks a lot. The "0x" prefix was the issue indeed. After that the game didn't load at all; I had to remove the Exemplar Name property from the cohort. Now it works like a charm!

Attached the updated version of my manual. Hopefully it could be helpful for others.

A Guide to Blocking Growable Buildings via Exemplar Patching.pdf

[Kel9509 1,421]

35 minutes ago, TiepiNL said:

Attached the updated version of my manual. Hopefully it could be helpful for others.

I took a quick read and it looks great.  Love the images!

Now, for advanced mode: do it with native Maxis buildings.  I find those to be more difficult since they've got family and parent cohorts, especially when they use the same lot.  So block the Euro version of the building, but not the NY Tileset version.  I find that to be difficult.

[simmering 2,656]

I know this is somewhat off-topic but the capitalised "ATTENTION:" in this thread's title is very distracting on the ST homepage. I keep reading the posts thinking there is some kind of bug or attack as with the NAM download a few months back. Since the original poster is no longer active, could a moderator be so kind and remove it?

[Ulisse Wolf 4,414]

12 hours ago, TiepiNL said:

Thanks a lot. The "0x" prefix was the issue indeed. After that the game didn't load at all; I had to remove the Exemplar Name property from the cohort. Now it works like a charm!

Attached the updated version of my manual. Hopefully it could be helpful for others.

A Guide to Blocking Growable Buildings via Exemplar Patching.pdf

Excellent guide. If you're interested, I can include it in the CAM Manual, which is becoming a kind of universal resource for SC4 modding.

[CorinaMarie 29,627]

2 hours ago, simmering said:

I know this is somewhat off-topic but the capitalised "ATTENTION:" in this thread's title is very distracting on the ST homepage.

I concur. I hadn't really given it any thought before, but I suspect in ye olden dayes, peeps were posting modding requests everywhichwhere and it needed an eye-catching title. 

I've removed that part now.  

[Simizen 1,099]

if possible, can we get an update to the charts in the game to let us view stuff at like 20-25 years, and 75 years, etc

the windows for stuff in the game is a bit weird imo

unless you're able to get it so we can just kinda scroll through the years and select better increments to run with, that'd be cool too

[Null 45 3,048]

1 hour ago, Simizen said:

if possible, can we get an update to the charts in the game to let us view stuff at like 20-25 years, and 75 years, etc

Unfortunately, Maxis hard coded the graphs view to only have 6 steps. I can only guess that they did that to make it easier to use or for localization purposes.

Here are the values from the internal lookup table the game uses. I'm not entirely sure what format point1 and point2 represent. Point1 could be the number of graph points, maybe someone here will have a better idea.

cSC4GraphsViewWinProc_TimeScaleArrayEntry[0] // 1 year ago                                 
   0x0000000C               point1      
   0x0000001E               point2      
   0x2A5D4165               labelTextIID
cSC4GraphsViewWinProc_TimeScaleArrayEntry[1] // 5 years ago
   0x0000003C               point1
   0x0000001E               point2
   0xCA5D417F               labelTextIID
cSC4GraphsViewWinProc_TimeScaleArrayEntry[2] // 10 years ago
   0x00000078               point1
   0x0000001E               point2
   0xCA5D4184               labelTextIID
cSC4GraphsViewWinProc_TimeScaleArrayEntry[3] // 50 years ago
   0x00000064               point1
   0x000000B6               point2
   0x8A5D4189               labelTextIID
cSC4GraphsViewWinProc_TimeScaleArrayEntry[4] // 100 years ago
   0x00000064               point1
   0x0000016D               point2
   0x8A5D418E               labelTextIID
cSC4GraphsViewWinProc_TimeScaleArrayEntry[5] // 500 years ago
   0x00000064               point1
   0x00000721               point2
   0x2A5D4194               labelTextIID

[Simizen 1,099]

oof, that sucks

had a feeling it was hard coded but was hoping it wasn't

[TiepiNL 182]

On 03/09/2025 at 1:50 AM, Kel9509 said:

I took a quick read and it looks great.  Love the images!

Now, for advanced mode: do it with native Maxis buildings.  I find those to be more difficult since they've got family and parent cohorts, especially when they use the same lot.  So block the Euro version of the building, but not the NY Tileset version.  I find that to be difficult.

I made the exemplar patch to block the Maxis RCIs. Not by copying the TGIs but by extracting them from SimCity_1.dat. That wasn't easy (understatement). I have no desire the distinguish between the tilesets myself, but if I ever feel like I need a new challenge I'll keep you posted lol.

 

[TiepiNL 182]

On 03/09/2025 at 1:55 PM, Ulisse Wolf said:

Excellent guide. If you're interested, I can include it in the CAM Manual, which is becoming a kind of universal resource for SC4 modding.

You can use/include it if you want. I managed to create patches with a Python script. I only used it to block Maxis RCI, but my next iteration will be a workflow that accepts a folder or zip as input and crates an exemplar patch blocker for the LotConfigurations in it. (Maybe it can eventually be ported the the sc4 cli tool.) That would make the manual obsolete.

[Null 45 3,048]

5 hours ago, TiepiNL said:

I managed to create patches with a Python script.

Always nice to have more languages for SC4 tools. @CasperVg was experimenting with a DLL that allows Python scripts to add cheats to SC4.

Nice job on the documentation, it is way more detailed than what I usually write. A couple of notes:

The EQZB property format varies depending on the item type.

Offset | Size | Field      | Endianness | Description
-------|------|------------|------------|------------------
0      | 4    | PropertyID | LE         | Property identifier
4      | 2    | Type       | LE         | Data type (0x0100, 0x0200, etc.)
6      | 2    | w8         | LE         | Property type. Non-zero if the item is an array.
8      | 1    | Unused     | -          | Unknown.
9      | 4    | Rep        | LE         | Repeat count if the item is an array. For single values this is the start of the data.

When writing my own exemplar parser I was cross referencing several implementations, including SC4 itself. Thank you Aspyr for shipping debug symbols with the Mac binaries, plus most Windows DLL mods wouldn't exist without the C++ interface information that debug info provides.

6 hours ago, TiepiNL said:

Maybe it can eventually be ported the the sc4 cli tool.

Same with my Assign Building Styles tool.

[TiepiNL 182]

On 10/09/2025 at 6:12 PM, Null 45 said:

Nice job on the documentation, it is way more detailed than what I usually write.

Thanks. Credits go to Claude Sonnet. My job was mainly limited to persistently insist to update and detail the docs, and to prevent Claude from digging its own rabbit hole, and point it to wiki and reference code instead.

I added an option now to provide a zip with random lots as input, and then the script will produce patches for all lots it can find in that zip (recursively). I also added a datpack option. With that, I've completed my own use case - easily create blockers for a diverse set of growables.

I have some more ideas with exemplar patches that require some more digging in the DBPF, like extracting Demand Caps, Mayor Rating, Landmark, and Park Effects, and do some math to decide if these properties are balanced with lot size and monthly budget. If I can put that in some kind of formula, I could create easy-normal-hard flavors and apply it to all lots. Same for library/school/museum capacity, etc.

But that's for later. I first want to dig into some more elementary stuff now, like creating a residential growable out of a commercial one, and to create growable Cs instead of functional LMs. And maybe, maybe, find a way to script such a LM2GrowableCO action...

[Ulisse Wolf 4,414]

33 minutes ago, TiepiNL said:

Demand Caps

A universal demand cap patch created by the NAM Team is currently being studied to solve the RHW problem without interfering with CAM. There is an internal alpha version that is being tested on the SC4E Discord server.

34 minutes ago, TiepiNL said:

I have some more ideas with exemplar patches that require some more digging in the DBPF, like extracting Demand Caps, Mayor Rating, Landmark, and Park Effects, and do some math to decide if these properties are balanced with lot size and monthly budget. If I can put that in some kind of formula, I could create easy-normal-hard flavors and apply it to all lots. Same for library/school/museum capacity, etc.

Many of these properties depend on the algorithms contained in New_Properties.xml, which in turn depend on fictitious parameters calculated by a main algorithm that depends on the type of buildings, lot sizes, and Filling Degree, which is a fictitious property created by the BSC Team. Filling Degree refers to how much space a building occupies in its LOD box. The more the empty space decreases, the more the Filling Degree increases. 

Consider that version 1.0 of New_Properties.xml created by the BSC Team had civic service algorithms that generated properties with values halved by Maxis, so I had to quadruple some constants to get twice the Maxis properties and the increased radius, which is one of the features most requested by the community. 

53 minutes ago, TiepiNL said:

But that's for later. I first want to dig into some more elementary stuff now, like creating a residential growable out of a commercial one, and to create growable Cs instead of functional LMs. And maybe, maybe, find a way to script such a LM2GrowableCO action...

New_Properties.xml contains the algorithms that calculate the properties relating to industrial, commercial, and residential buildings. The calculated values are then entered in the Capacity Satisfied property together with the IID code of the property that must be satisfied.

In addition to these algorithms, there are internal algorithms in PIM-X that are hardcoded, but if you are good with Python, you can reverse engineer PIM-X to discover additional secret algorithms.

[justforfun 7,824]

Alright, I'm not sure whether my problem can be solved through gameplay adjustments, existing mods, or a new one of some sort. All I know is that my region, consisting of 13 developed large tiles and about 1.5 million sims, offers waay more jobs than inhabitants - I mean, millions more commercial and industrial jobs are available than the current residents - and yet in some of the maps the new residentials I plop and growify are unable to find jobs and are therefore abandoned. This despite the abundance of road, train and el-rail connections, and the general lack of traffic congestion.  I also make sure all tiles have civic coverage, no garbage/pollution issues and adequate green spaces/reward buildings.

Why then am I getting those pesky no-job zots despite using the SuperDemand mod and the traffic simulator set on "high"? Can the sims actually find their way to jobs located one tile beyond the neighbouring tile, if well connected? Mind you, the problem presents itself even when there's plenty of jobs in the adjacent tile. So I wonder, is it a commute or a cap problem? Given that the most populous tiles of the region aren't currently affected, I'd say it's the commute. Perhaps we need a mod that somehow forces the sims to commute anywhere, or one that creates extra imaginary jobs in the next undeveloped simnation?  It is quite demotivating when you have to wonder whether every new residential you plop will work or not. Thanks in advance for any input. 

 

 

[Kel9509 1,421]

10 hours ago, justforfun said:

Alright, I'm not sure whether my problem can be solved through gameplay adjustments, existing mods, or a new one of some sort. All I know is that my region, consisting of 13 developed large tiles and about 1.5 million sims, offers waay more jobs than inhabitants - I mean, millions more commercial and industrial jobs are available than the current residents - and yet in some of the maps the new residentials I plop and growify are unable to find jobs and are therefore abandoned. This despite the abundance of road, train and el-rail connections, and the general lack of traffic congestion.  I also make sure all tiles have civic coverage, no garbage/pollution issues and adequate green spaces/reward buildings.

I don't think this is a modding request. However, to answer your question I think that the problem lies in the use of the SuperDemand mod (which one are you using?).  That is a cheat that, in my view, breaks the game's playability and the balanced growth that otherwise would occur.  It will max out the demand for all job types.  However, in practice I do not find that (despite the demand bars being maxxed out) it does not max out residential growth.  Residential growth won't occur if there isn't any demand, or if there is a Demand Cap being applied despite the SuperDemand Mod (not sure what the specific mod is but I wonder if it eliminates all Demand Caps?) but more importantly, demand is created through the census drives from natural job growth.  The census drives occur due to a combination of factors.  It seems like the SuperDemand mod artificially is showing you high demand but you might still be experiencing a Demand Cap, or otherwise despite the demand being high on the graph growth is not occurring due to lack of other services.

I'd toss out the SuperDemand mod from your plugins folder and apply some needed fixes to make the game play right: Less Abandonment Mod, I-R fix, I-HT fix, and some other fixes depending on your gameplay (like the No-Kickout mod).  If you're playing using CAM Core then most of those fixes should already exist.  If not, they can be downloaded here and applied.  Those are not cheats, they're fixes to make the game work as intended.  Then, let your game run and natural demand will stabilize.  Make sure you have educational buildings if you want high-tech industry or dense offices, and enough other civic services to encourage natural growth (no crime, high healthcare, etc).  Also, make sure that you plop enough civic reward buildings or parks to lower the Demand Caps.  If these terms are new to you then please read up on these concepts in the Census Repository Facility documentation and its tooltips.  If the Demand Caps are low, civic services are good, and jobs are naturally occurring, residential growth will occur.  

EDIT: I notice you say you're growifying residential buildings.  Are you sure that you're using the Growify Mod properly and that they do not become abandoned after a bit of time due to misuse of the mod?  You should growify them right after stopping the game clock, and plopping them.  If manually growifying them using the cheat, you have to type in "Growify R M" for growifying a residential lot as a medium zone lot, or "Growify R H" to growify it as high-density residential.  A growified lot is othwerwise still subject to abandonment and dilapidation like other naturally grown lots.

[CorinaMarie 29,627]

24 minutes ago, Kel9509 said:

(not sure what the specific mod is but I wonder if it eliminates all Demand Caps?)

(There is @Propfam's Cap Lifter as a separate mod. I can only speak for the Ag one and it works exactly as advertised. (See my review on their mod.) While the others would fall into the cheat category (and that's fine for city painters), the Ag one is really a bug fix.)

[justforfun 7,824]

12 hours ago, Kel9509 said:

I don't think this is a modding request.

I'm getting there, I just can't formulate a precise request until I identify the cause of those no-job zots. As of now, I would only be able to ask for a mod which forces sims to pick up any jobs available in the region. I realise this might complex, if possible at all. 

12 hours ago, Kel9509 said:

I think that the problem lies in the use of the SuperDemand mod (which one are you using?

The DLL that makes you choose which specific demand to maximise or to suppress, can't find the author's name in the readme. As I mentioned, the no-jobs zots only appear in some of the maps, so I tend to think commute might be the problem.

12 hours ago, Kel9509 said:

I'd toss out the SuperDemand mod from your plugins folder and apply some needed fixes to make the game play right: Less Abandonment Mod, I-R fix, I-HT fix, and some other fixes depending on your gameplay (like the No-Kickout mod)

I have tried all the No-Kickout mods available and somehow none works, as the abandoned buildings keep redeveloping without requiring demolition first. But that obviously becomes a nuisance only because there is some abandonment, even if I do use the Less Abandonment mod too.

12 hours ago, Kel9509 said:

Also, make sure that you plop enough civic reward buildings or parks to lower the Demand Caps. 

As mentioned, that's my policy on all maps, and yet. 

12 hours ago, Kel9509 said:

Are you sure that you're using the Growify Mod properly

Well, yes. I have been using it since the first version became available, my region is 100% plopped and growified and paradoxically the most populous maps work fine, possibly because they are more centrally located. Which brings me back to the question: can the sims actually find their way to jobs available beyond the adjacent tiles, or is there some Maxis bug related to commute? If there is a bug, that's what my mod request would ask to fix - though I can imagine all things related to commute are a headache. 

11 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

There is @Propfam's Cap Lifter as a separate mod.

Thank you, is that compatible with the dll Demand Mod? And may I ask, Cori, do you manage to get your sims commute more than one tile away?

UPDATE: Plopped the residential cap lifters, still getting the no-job zots. It seems the problem really is about finding the path to work. 

[CorinaMarie 29,627]

1 hour ago, justforfun said:

Thank you, is that compatible with the dll Demand Mod?

I don't honestly know. 

 

1 hour ago, justforfun said:

And may I ask, Cori, do you manage to get your sims commute more than one tile away?

The time I really kept track of them was playing the original Timbuktu (or my Timbuktu Too version thereof) and that was using NAM 36 wherein I tweaked the Traffic settings to way beyond Double-Ultra. For long distance travel (when I created the 22 tile eternal commuters loop), it was using the standard railway, but I did modify some stations to handle up to 65k passengers. And it was 65k as the top end I could ever get on a query of the rail lines themselves.

Otherwise my mods were minimal. I didn't use any demand mods, but I do always use my NKO and @Bones1's Less Abandonment. Then the rest is possibly attributed to my play style. I develop small towns and villages and farms on all the flat ground. (I used a C program that I added tweaks to to make maps SC4 compatible to generate them with lots of flat terraces between the hills and mountains.) Then I build up bigger towns just by playing each city tile for a few hours and going in sequence one or two away from that day's start and then also propagate the info back to the original tile each time. I've written a couple or three detailed posts on the importance and methods of said data propagation. I imagine you've seen those over the years.

So, for me, it just sort of naturally happens. Growify wasn't yet a thing when I did all that so I don't really know if it would change any of the techniques.

[justforfun 7,824]

1 hour ago, CorinaMarie said:

I've written a couple or three detailed posts on the importance and methods of said data propagation. I imagine you've seen those over the years.

I'm afraid I missed those, and they sound extremely interesting. On which forum can I find them please? 

I think I'm using NAM 46, not sure but it's the last one supporting Maxis rail. The train stations in the region all offer plenty of extra capacity. Should I try editing the traffic simulator to increase train speed, commute trip max time, or some other property? I've been afraid of touching it to avoid messing things up. I know the settings have been very carefully adjusted by the NAM team. 

[Propfam 2,290]

2 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

I don't honestly know. 

As the creator of the after mentioned mod, I honestly also don't really know since I haven't used demand mod since forever (you can have high demand with CAM by growing insane population on a tile). But if the load order is correct, it shouldn't have any problem. Go ahead and let us know what's your result.

[justforfun 7,824]

3 hours ago, Propfam said:

Go ahead and let us know what's your result.

Thank you, I plopped the residential cap lifters and those lazybones of my sims still cannot find a job. Meanwhile two maps away there are a few commercials decaying for lack of workers. Ha!

UPDATE: I also tweaked a bit the traffic simulator to increase the max trip time to 800, plus the speed of cars, buses and trains. Result: precious nothing, still the no-job zots coming up.

When you think about it, it's quite ridiculous: the developed region itself only measures 20 km from West to East and 12 from North to South. Even if a sim had to commute 30km, with the walking speed set at 15km per hour he could cover the distance in 120 minutes. The central tile alone offers over 1 million spare commercial and industrial jobs and is reachable by road, train, and el-rail. There are thousands of jobs ready to be taken just opposite the stations. And yet, here I am stuck with 5 tiles out of 13 where the new growified residentials won't find a job, including the central tile full of extra vacancies!

It is puzzling also because there aren't any bottlenecks or major congestions, the number of sims is overall low (less than 1 and a half million spread over 13 tiles, with the most populated one counting 220,000) and desirability seems to be high. When I query the buildings, they read "high school grade, high hospital grade, low pollution, low garbage", with the only downside being "Commute: LONG". 

Interestingly, commute is never a problem until a map reaches 40 - 50,000 sims, after which they start failing to find their way to work. What can I say? There is obviously a lot I don't understand in the dynamics of commute, but I don't think it should be this hard to match sims and jobs. Can we please develop a mod so that when you build commerce and industry and then build residentials, the residentials find the available jobs instead of being abandoned for no reason? Can we at least try?