So now that the offline patch is live, are you modders making bigger maps?

[Kingdark 1]

and people were saying that it could be possible, I suppose that'll teach me what to believe

[ImRadek 4]

So you say it's not possible to get bigger maps .?

[migamin 38]

Not through modding i belive. Maybe through cracking

[Kingdark 1]

well, regardless if it possible or not... If it is we know that Maxis lied if not... they told the truth.

[SAGGG 47]

CapTon, you have too much cold water on your hands...

[ImRadek 4]

So if there's a modder right now reading this please tell us if it's possible or not !  

[APSMS 1,893]

I don't have to be a modder to tell you that it's currently not possible. CapTon probably has the appropriate amount of cold water, given that the discussion wasn't going anywhere and unless the city size is controlled by something other than the .exe or core files (extremely unlikely), then changing their size won't be possible. However, doing things like building outside the city limits has been shown to be doable, and a more reliable method of doing that may be the only reasonable option to builders.

[CapTon 592]

CapTon, you have too much cold water on your hands...

Not sure what that means

[SAGGG 47]

Throwing cold water on something (like our faces) means one puts a hard dose of reality on a situation after everyone builds up a sense of hope, sort of like a hard slap when someone is panicking with fear. You've basically implied there's absolutely no possibility we can ever get any bigger city tiles, even within the offline part of the game. Hence, you have cold water on your hands, or at least have said water cupped in your hands, ready to destroy all our dreams...

[bobdarooster 0]

If the tiles in regions change distance from map to map then suely that shows that the tiles can be moved, if not, what actually govens the spacing of the tiles?

[dcbenji 22]

 

Just wondering... Now that we're offline, why does EA care about mods that change the gameplay? it's offline, so who's it hurting?

 

Short answer, it's hurting them. Their micro-transaction based game no longer needs them to create content now that it's offline. If they restrict the content that is made then there will still be money made from "expansion packs" but with the modding community we can make stuff and it's free. They want to restrict the community made content as much as possible so they stay relevant.

 

It takes tons of work to make a good looking expansion set or custom building set. I think we can get some good stuff from teh community, but the fact that there are artists sitting around getting paid to make awesome looking stuff like the Amusement Park set, I think is a good sign that we can get good quality paid content and every once and a while a nice mod community building to download for free

[Trylk255 24]

Don't know if anyone has pointed this out yet, but you can't mod for bigger maps. They're located in something called the core game files, which we're not allowed to mod. It's the same thing for SimCity 4.

 

And even if you were allowed to alter the core game files, you still can't create bigger maps. It's in something called a .exe, which is completely unmoddable.

Hmm.. ".exe" unmoddable ? OK, I'm half agreeing with you!

 

Why : A ".exe" can't be self used...

 -> The ".exe" uses some files around him : That's why we put the DLLs, etc. with the ".exe".

 

-> By changing the files that are composing the ".exe" you can mod it. Of course if you open a ".exe" with NotePad you won't udnerstand a word of what you see!

[CapTon 592]

 

Don't know if anyone has pointed this out yet, but you can't mod for bigger maps. They're located in something called the core game files, which we're not allowed to mod. It's the same thing for SimCity 4.

 

And even if you were allowed to alter the core game files, you still can't create bigger maps. It's in something called a .exe, which is completely unmoddable.

Hmm.. ".exe" unmoddable ? OK, I'm half agreeing with you!

 

Why : A ".exe" can't be self used...

 -> The ".exe" uses some files around him : That's why we put the DLLs, etc. with the ".exe".

 

-> By changing the files that are composing the ".exe" you can mod it. Of course if you open a ".exe" with NotePad you won't udnerstand a word of what you see!

 

I'm gonna be completely honest here and say that I learned that from someone else I truthfully have no idea what DLLs are. I'm pretty sure I know what .exe files are, but I think I would need a refresher

[migamin 38]

 

Don't know if anyone has pointed this out yet, but you can't mod for bigger maps. They're located in something called the core game files, which we're not allowed to mod. It's the same thing for SimCity 4.

 

And even if you were allowed to alter the core game files, you still can't create bigger maps. It's in something called a .exe, which is completely unmoddable.

Hmm.. ".exe" unmoddable ? OK, I'm half agreeing with you!

 

Why : A ".exe" can't be self used...

 -> The ".exe" uses some files around him : That's why we put the DLLs, etc. with the ".exe".

 

-> By changing the files that are composing the ".exe" you can mod it. Of course if you open a ".exe" with NotePad you won't udnerstand a word of what you see!

 

Read the modding rules please. We are not allowed to edit or change DLLs or EXEs or any other executable of the game!

[newhalo123 3]

I am just gunna say it. Why the heck should we even CARE what maxis says? At this point, I don't think they would give a dang if we violated their rules. Why should we have to do what they say at this point?

 

 

I am not saying we SHOULD disobey the rules, I am just asking WHY we should follow them and who the heck is going to enforce them. I like to follow rules, they are there for a reason, but sometimes you gotta ask, "why the heck should I do this?" Just because I ask, doesn't mean I aim to break the rules.

 

I won't disobey the rules, just to be clear.

[Indiana Joe 1,751]

You COULD crack the game, just like any game.  No doubt it's been done for SC4.  But the only places you will find the files for it are sketchy illegal download sites---enjoy your virus.

 

Everything that has been thrown around in this thread so far is based on rumor, as far as I can tell.  Officially, no one in the community has discovered a mechanism which controls city borders; that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.  There are a lot of files to look through, and our ability to read those files is still relatively primitive.

[migamin 38]

You COULD crack the game, just like any game.  No doubt it's been done for SC4.  But the only places you will find the files for it are sketchy illegal download sites---enjoy your virus.

 

Everything that has been thrown around in this thread so far is based on rumor, as far as I can tell.  Officially, no one in the community has discovered a mechanism which controls city borders; that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.  There are a lot of files to look through, and our ability to read those files is still relatively primitive.

my ability to read is very good sigh

[WeirdOrange 0]

The maps and their sizes are within a .package file. The SimCity.exe only executes the packages and has some of the UI. It is very easy to mod SC, just make a package file and place it in the data folder, the game adds all .package files to the game. You would mod SimCity as you would with the Sims 3 because they use the same file formats and a similar mod loading system. I'm not a modder myself but checking the files called SimCity_RegionTerrain0.package and SimCity_RegionTerrain1.package could help with finding the plot border controls.

[Charizard 284]

Wouldn't it be much easier to just place cities right next to eachother until a solution for city sizes is found? I would imagine that wouldn't be hardcoded into the .exe because each pair of cities obviously has a different amount of space in between them.

[JaceTwice 115]

Wouldn't it be much easier to just place cities right next to eachother until a solution for city sizes is found? I would imagine that wouldn't be hardcoded into the .exe because each pair of cities obviously has a different amount of space in between them.

 

Indeed. In fact I'd think that just looking into custom regions in general would be a great starting point on the path to figuring out how to modify the properties of the cities themselves.

 

I can only imagine that custom regions were one of the things that maxis had in mind for it's modding plans.

[SEZUSC 3]

There is a Mod in Work:

http://simcityforum....d-ankündigung/

[Topograph 3]

There is a Mod in Work:

http://simcityforum....d-ankündigung/

Sounds very interesting....i am very excited

 

For all non german guys here i try to translate the linked post:

 

"Dear community,

I have been working for a long time on the problem of the cityboundaries with a friend of mine. Now That there is the offline-mode we have green light for the modification.

We've extended several Map-Terrain-Structures and aswell the Engine to our needs.

It has been a lot of work, but its done finally.

Our data is up to date and equivalent to the current SimCity version and should be compatible with all PC-Versions (including cities of tomorrow, digital deluxe etc.).

We will try to do our best to deliver the mod for every futute Patch.

A mac-version will be released a few weeks after the windows release. Another guy is responsible for that.

The .exe is not modified. Therefore is this modification neither illegal nor it conflicts with Maxis/EA's modding policies.

 

further informaition follow in a few days."

[Buggi 684]

Maxis had a team of about 6 programmers work almost 9 months on extending map sizes and the absolute best result ran at about 2 FPS on their most insane rig.

 

So, sure, map sizes are tweakable, but have fun playing the game at 2 FPS.

[Wastedfun 2]

Maxis had a team of about 6 programmers work almost 9 months on extending map sizes and the absolute best result ran at about 2 FPS on their most insane rig.

 

So, sure, map sizes are tweakable, but have fun playing the game at 2 FPS.

I read the testing but didnt see anything about insane rigs. link to the source?

[killer_bake! 14]

"We need to keep in mind that SimCity is a mainstream game," Quigley clarifies. "It’s not a game that's only going to run on high-end gaming PCs. It has to run in your dad’s PC as well. We’ll eventually get around to expanding the city size, but I can’t make any promises as to when.”

 

I remember this quote right before the game came out. So Maxis statements are all over the place about the topic.

[Wastedfun 2]

In the end, I would rather have the option to test my system, rather than be limited to the average power of a crappy pc. 

[i0ushephf 1]

Maxis had a team of about 6 programmers work almost 9 months on extending map sizes and the absolute best result ran at about 2 FPS on their most insane rig.

 

So, sure, map sizes are tweakable, but have fun playing the game at 2 FPS.

was this the same brilliant software engineers who made the amazingly advanced pathfinding of the game?

[Nicistarful 49]

Maxis had a team of about 6 programmers work almost 9 months on extending map sizes and the absolute best result ran at about 2 FPS on their most insane rig.

 

So, sure, map sizes are tweakable, but have fun playing the game at 2 FPS.

You are wrong. They worked 9 months on the offline mode. If you saw Procs Kalone's video, where he also zoned outside the map and the game ran more than smooth, than you wouldn't have writed that crap of a lie.

[aereus 106]

Is it possible to mod all buildings to work from a static energy pool ala SC4? That would free up a decent amount of agents if we didn't have to sim power, water, sewage, etc.

[SpaceBeans 0]

I was thinking the same thing, if utility agents could be replaced by dynamic values; it would help with issues when agents have to travel long distances to deliver the utility. How ever agents are the core of simcity 2013 so most likely are handled by the .exe. I hope Im wrong.