Organization of mods/lots/bats/etc

[DonVitoCorleone 20]

First off I would like to say that I am in no way knocking this site whatsoever. Since downloading SC4 from Steam and finding this site- I have been floored by how incredible this community is in keeping such a incredible game not only alive- but thriving. Please do not view my post as a troll post

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I like many others have gone hog wild downloading from this site after revisiting sc4. Yet I have read a few posts about "not knowing what to download" and "what is best". While this may be completely subjective in some aspects, some mods are obviously elite quality and likely would be appreciated by all.

While the NAM and such are a given, might their possibly be a use for a "Top X Mods for Y" type lists to assist users in finding commonly desired mods. I have found the STEX (while awesome in what it does) to be a bit scattered even when seatching for some specific items.

I read and appreciate how difficult a "Master" dependency folder would be (though there are some as I see in the donation area) - but I am thinking more of simply links to recommended mods.

This would not be a "competition" or self-promotion tool for personal mods- but simply lists of popular mods.

Examples might be something like:

Top 20 US Skyscraper Bats

Top 20 European Skyscraper Bats

Top 20 Asiatic Prop Files

Top 20 Terrain Mods

I have seen the stickys explaining the types of files and how to install- but this may make a easy one-stop shop for a overhaul to the users desire.

Thanks and incredible work guys!

The Godfather

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Pretty much everyone develops, sooner or later, a method for organizing custom content.  Recommended downloads other than "fix" files and the NAM (which is really a big fix) are pretty much up to the user (artist) these days.  There is so much stuff that just combing through to find a top anything is pretty much an NP complete task, and very subjective at that.

 

My organizational method is to avoid too many large libraries of dependencies by sticking to only a couple of groups in general with some exceptions.  I generally use BSC and Pegasus as my main sources for custom content, and I avoid lots that have more dependencies than a couple.  I have a large suite from both Pegasus and BSC, and any others I tend to skip.

 

I keep redundant lists of plugins by retaining every downloaded file in a separate directory.  Not everything in there winds up as a plugin because some of them are either Regions or stand-alone utility programs related to the game.  This system looks at all on-line disks as one structure, so you might find this list enlightening.  It is the top level of my account:

 

tree -L 1

.
├── bin
├── Boomtown
├── CodeBlocks
├── Desktop
├── Documents
├── Downloads
├── firefox.log
├── MonoDevelop
├── Music
├── New Project.mp4
├── PHP
├── Pictures
├── Plugins.tree.txt
├── Presentations
├── Query.txt
├── SC4_Animation_Redo.mp4
├── sc4.hdwe.log
├── sc4.log
├── Scores
├── SimBin
├── SimCity 4
├── Sun
├── Templates
├── The seven dwarfs.txt
├── tsct.log
├── Ubuntu One
├── uplog.txt
├── Videos
├── WebSite
└── wineconf.log

19 directories, 11 files

 

Pretty much everything in there is a directory except for files which can be identified because they have extensions.  I've high lighted the relevant directories.  Any file with an extension of .log is a trace output from a script execution.

 

Both the Downloads directory and the SimCity 4/Plugins directory are organized in such a way that the relevant files have pretty much the same name.  This allows tracking and updates.  Mostly, I use the author's name and divide this into sub-directories.  Here is the BSC organization in both:

 

From Downloads:

tree -L 1 Dow*/SC4*/BSC

Downloads/SC4RelatedDownloads/BSC
├── BSC_Install_texturesVol01.zip
├── BSC_IrrigationDitchSet2009.zip
├── Eindhoven residential tower pack (maxis night).zip
├── Ferox
├── Install_BSCBATProps_JENX_Vol02.zip
├── Install_BSCBATProps_KWK_Vol04.zip
├── Install_BSCBATPropsMattb325_Vol02.zip
├── Install_BSCBATPropsMattb325_Vol03.zip
├── Install BSC BAT Props - T1 Vol3.zip
├── Install_BSC_MEGA_PropPack_CP_Vol01.zip
├── Install_BSC_MEGA_PropPack_CP_Vol02.zip
├── Install_BSC_MEGA_Props_D66_Vol01.zip
├── Install_BSCMegaProps_jestarr_Vol02.zip
├── Install_BSCMegaProps_JES_Vol01.zip
├── Install_BSCMEGAProps_JRJ_Vol04.zip
├── Install_BSCMEGAProps_JRJ_Vol05.zip
├── Install_BSC_MEGA_Props_Misc_Vol02.zip
├── Install_BSC_MEGA_Props_MJB_Vol01.zip
├── Install_BSCMEGAProps_RTWFKN_Vol01.zip
├── Install BSC Props Jeronij Vol 02 Trees.zip
├── Install_BSC_TexturePack_Cycledogg_V 01b.zip
├── Install_BSC_Textures_Vol02.zip
├── Install_BSC_Textures_Vol03.zip
├── Install_common spruces.zip
├── Install_CP_Early19thCenturyMedHouses.zip
├── JMyers
├── LK33_SeasonalFloraPatch.zip
├── Mattb325 Cruise Ship Terminal.zip
├── Mikeseith car props volume 1.zip
├── Sawtooth's Region Census V0.8.zip
├── SC4PIM New Properties XML Update.zip
├── SC4PIM User Guide v1.zip
├── SetupSC4PIM.zip
├── SG_INSTALL_MEGAProps01.zip
├── Simcoug
├── spa
└── STR Freight Station.zip

4 directories, 33 files

 

From SimCity 4/Plugins

tree -L 1 Sim*/Plu*/BSC

SimCity 4/Plugins/BSC
├── BSC Essentials.dat
├── bsc_Essentials_OG.dat
├── BSCProps
├── BSC_Reward_essential.dat
├── BSCTextures
├── CP
├── Eindhoven residential tower pack
├── Farms
├── Ferox
├── girafe
├── JMyers
├── MattB325
├── Ripplejet
├── SimCoug
├── SimGoober
└── Spa

 

So you can see that the one reflects the other, more or less.  This works for me.

[Kuewr665 40]

Instead of having "Top 20" lists, why not just list all the plugins that fill in the category if the purpose is to find more plugins? I may be misunderstanding you though.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

The search function can do that if you use the expanded search.

[UndercoverNinja12 176]

I haven't organized my plugin folder because I heard somewhere that if you have a lot of folders & subfolders and such, it slows down your game, but I have a backup of my plugins folder on my flash drive, organized into stuff such as "Addons, Commercial, Industry, Residential, Stations, Dependencies, PEG, etc."

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

Welcome to the Community!
 
There's always going to be debate over the best items to download. Being down to personal opinion, it means someone else's list may be completely different to that of another player. With thousands of files out there, it's pretty much guaranteed that no two plugins folders are the same.
 
To make it easier, I'd suggest using the Power Search on the LEX.
It's a great way to list content by certain categories and authors. There's a custom Google search (at the top right) to find specific items.
 
The STEX is organised a bit differently. Apart from "most popular" and "highest rated" files, it's more limited in terms of categorization. The Advanced Search (small gear icon next to the search box) gives a few options. Though I sometimes use Google for a more specific search, using:
 

<search term> site:https://community.simtropolis.com/files/

.
Replace <search term> with what to search for. Enclosing it in quotation marks (" ") will only retrieve results that match the exact term.

 

Quite often, the best way is to group related items, then make a personal choice whether to download.

There are a few examples here:

 

Little Big Plugins

SC4 Mods

List of MMPs

List of Plugin-Lists (search the titles of the broken STEX links)

(feel free to post here when looking for things)

Something worth keeping an eye on is the Catalogue at City Builders. This aims to become an index of content from popular SC4 exchanges, including the STEX, LEX and PLEX.

The tags at the side are designed to somewhat categorise the items. Currently there are over 2000 links.

[UndercoverNinja12 176]

I think I terribly misread what you meant. But yes, what CycloneBoom said is the best way to go about looking for custom content.

[DonVitoCorleone 20]

Sorry for bumping this but I just realized it was responded too (it should dead on my iphone forum bc you (rightfully so) moved it to its proper forum location here.

 

Anyway, I wasn't very clear Nonny so no problem. And your explanation was very detailed and much appreciated. It did help regarding plugins.

 

AndCyclone's links where exactly what I was talking about.

 

As an example, I have been downloading stuff in "themes". "Paris" "W2W" "suburban". Yet after going through item by item the results I later found on an unrelated search items that should have been there. They weren't tagged at all by the creator.

 

Anyway, those links were what I was talking about, though a bit outdated :/

 

Thanks to all of you for your help!

 

Don Vito Corleone

Mayor / Olive Oil Businessman

[catty-cb 4,412]

...Something worth keeping an eye on is the Catalogue at City Builders. This aims to become an index of content from popular SC4 exchanges, including the STEX, LEX and PLEX.

The tags at the side are designed to somewhat categorise the items. Currently there are over 2000 links.

 

Heading towards 3000 links now, and its not just the popular sites we have started cataloguing plugins from Capital SimCity,  SimCity 4 Mods,  SimCityKurier, ToutSimCities, WorkingMan Productions, etc

 

Also please note that the tags are something that only CB users can see, as I wanted site users to have something that wasn't available to the public.

 

-catty