starting over

[Yrgaltidge 0]

I have decided to start from scratch, reinstall, new mods, the works. I know I will probably wreck my old regions but that's OK,

  What I need to know is, Which folders should I empty, and should NAM go in first? I'm actually trying to speed up my game loading time and i have Giabytes worth of addons, and they are a mess,

Thanks in advance,

Bob

I do have all addons archived so no loss

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

1. Unless you believe the game has been stepped on, or you have installed something that modifies the system residency, do not reinstall.  It is unnecessary.

    

2. To do a total restart is easy.  Rename the folder C:\<you>\Documents\SimCity 4 to Sim City 4.old then start the game.  The game will rebuild the folder as default and you can go from there.

    

I would install the NAM first (custom install, you don't need everything, surely).  Then the known fixes.  After that, proceed to get the other stuff you need as you play and find them missing.

[Yrgaltidge 0]

Thanks Nonny! your just whom I was hoping would answer.

I'll play this game until my pc won't run it anymore,

Bob

 Oh yes, what about the folder hidden in program files I believe? will the game rebuild it too? or should I rename it as wel?

[infamousjbe 592]

If you do a re-install then you'd lose what ever you've placed in the C:/Programs/../SC4/... folder and would need to be replaced, but not the Doc/./Plugins folder.

 

As Nonny said, just move your old Doc/../Plugins folder to a storage outside the SC4 folders. That way you can at least keep the plugins folder in tact that pertains to any of your current (old) regions.

 

You can save your city regions the same way as the plugins folder. Just in case you ever get the urge to go back an play your old cities for the hell of it. 

 

You should actually have a copy of your plugins folder & regions saved in another location already just in case anything goes wrong or glitches, you can just replace it. You certainly don't want to go through having to reinstall all your plugins if anything did go awry.

 

Wouldn't suggest emptying or deleting any content prior to setting up the new one and absolutely sure things are working properly.

 

Always remember to keep any Readmes & pics outside the Plugins folder to help keep the load time down. Though the more content you install, the longer it'll take to load no matter what you do.

 

As a final piece of advice to speed things up, once you've rebuilt your new plugins folder and not really dl'ing much, you can look into Dat Packing your plugins to help reduce the load times. The only draw back to dat packing, it makes it more difficult to alter any one particular content without having to open up the whole dat file in the Reader. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Thanks Nonny! your just whom I was hoping would answer.

I'll play this game until my pc won't run it anymore,

Bob

 Oh yes, what about the folder hidden in program files I believe? will the game rebuild it too? or should I rename it as wel?

Unless you believe the game is not intact, leave the program files area alone.  It is for programmers and system people only.  This is where the game itself resides.  The stuff in your user directory is the only thing that needs concern you unless you've installed other stuff like the CAM in the system space.  Reinstalling will rebuild this entire area if it has been mangled.