How much time would it take for me to download and install every Simcity 4 Dependency?

[Trentreznorspig 4]

Like. How many hours? I'm going to do this so I can enhance my simcity 4 experience.

[Compdude787 916]

I don't know how long it would take, but many of the BSC prop and texture packs are commonly used in custom lots, and there are a lot of those "mega" prop packs from each BSC member. I currently have 400 MB of BSC dependencies in my plugins folder, which consists of the most common ones. It probably took me a month or two to accumulate them as needed, but I think there's more that I don't have yet. There's a reason I don't have them because I don't need them--yet.

[CapTon 592]

Every SC4 dependency? I believe that that would take quite some time .

 

Here are the links to the places where you can download as many dependencies as you would need:

 

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_lotlist.php?orderBY=recent

http://www.simpeg.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=2bd5a68abfde43e12c03bbd775d046c4&action=downloads

 

SimPeg and Simtropolis do not have specified locations for finding dependencies, but SC4Devotion does. However, you have to be a member on the LEX in order to download any of the files there.

 

Hope I helped!

[Trentreznorspig 4]

Thanks dude. I looked at the list in a PDF. Imma need to drink a lot of coffee and put some NIN on if I am going to do this.

[Tropod 144]

I'd suggest for anyone that's going to do this perhaps first look at obtaining a copy of STEX cd. It's worth well worth it.

[Tarkus 6,931]

The STEX discs won't have the post-2006 BSC dependencies, and many of the earlier ones went through some updates.  The LEX disc did have many of those produced before 2009, but it's been out of pressing for a few years now, and the folks who put together the originals are largely inactive nowadays.  On a recent plugin rebuild, I did actually go through and download just about all the major dependency packages.  It didn't take me all that long, actually, though it helped that I knew what I was looking for, and had patience.  With the LEX-hosted ones, it's largely unnecessary now due to the Dependency Tracker system, which is on about 40% of the content on the exchange, and will pull up just what you need, but the dependencies hosted on the STEX, PLEX, and elsewhere aren't tracked.

 

To help your efforts, the top-5 most common dependencies not on the LEX are as follows:

 

SimCity 4 Buildings as Props (AKA bldgprops_vol1.dat)

Rush Hour Buildings as Props (AKA bldgprops_vol2.dat) (these first two are found on the same page)

 

-Tarkus

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I wouldn't be in a rush to download a bunch of libraries you may never use.  I only load dependencies (that I don't already have) when I want a lot that needs them.  No point in wasting time on this stuff.  Load them as you encounter a need.

[SimCoug 5,972]

Even if you managed to download every single SC4 file, it would all be for naught because your game wouldn't work.  There are many SC4 mods that would conflict, your game would probably crash before you could even open the first city tile (not to mention the strain of trying to go through tens, if not hundreds of gigabits of files would make your computer slow to a crawl). As others have cautioned, slow and steady wins the SC4 race.  Start playing the game, and decide what you need.  Maybe your small commercial lots are looking monotonous... head over to the different exchanges and download some new BATs and lots - once you have a good number, fire up the game and watch them grow.  Play for a while until you are happy with the results (and you don't have any problems) and then you can repeat the process with something new.  Good luck

[jmsepe 2,038]

I agree with the suggestions above, a journey of a thousand steps begin with a single one. There is no need to leap, you will enjoy it more when you first discover what type of city will I create or what is my gaming style? It takes patience and time to discover what you really want to do. Honestly, downloading all the files would be quite close to impossible as others have already reasoned out. It is always best to take it slowly, you will appreciate your work better in that way. Good luck with the sc4 journey. 

[Sabretooth78 808]

Unless you're planning on getting into custom lotting, there is no need to have anything more than what your downloads require.

 

I'm actually in the middle of a process of rebuilding (and indexing) my plugins from the inside-out just to avoid wasting space and time (spacetime?) on just such a thing.  By indexing I mean I'm actually compiling a spreadsheet of every downloads' dependencies such that if/when I ever delete any content, there's no chance that I'm leaving now-unneeded dependencies floating around.

[Trentreznorspig 4]

Thank you guys. I do now realize that that is a crap ton of files to get onto my computer. Especially since mine is 2 1/2 years old.

[Ionic-Elm 13]

Yeah, it would take quite a bit of time depending on what you get download-wise from your ISP.

 

Unless you have Google Fiber, or EPB (some ISP in Tennesee that claims they had 1Gbps internet before Google xD).

[Trentreznorspig 4]

Yeah. I'll just download them when I have to. Thanks again.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Don't worry about your "aged" hardware.  Internet speeds are limited anyway, and your machine is much faster than that net.  My machine has been with me now for about four years and I don't plant on upgrading it anytime soon.  If your box of tricks does what you want, why blow money on a new one?

[GMT 389]

also, sc4 always loads everything it finds in the plugin folders so - next to the very likely chance of conflicting files - your game loads several GB of data it'll never use, clogging your RAM and pagefile.

only get the stuff you actually need and keep it organized so you can add/remove it as you see fit. trust me, over time, you end up with loads of plugins, no need to hurry.

 

as for your question... hm... all currently available stuff from all sites I guess it'll be in the low 2 digit GB range, ignoring redundancy. If i had to point my fingers at it, I'd say between 20 and 30 GB, leaning towards 30.

[pieuponieu 70]

I can tell you that I had not played SC4 since sometime last year, and last month I got the bug, so I started her up.  But the game wouldn't load, and I had to burn my plugins folder and start from scratch.  I spent about two weeks--a few hours after work each night and more on the weekends--getting the game to a place where I felt ready to start building small farming communities, suburbs, and small towns.  

 

I had the CAM installed, but very few CAMpatible lots.  I installed the NAM; terrain, water and beach mods; a giant pack of replacement farm lots; all my favorites from Pegasus, Paeng, SimGoober, Mattb325, Gascooker, and many other AMAZING content creators on the STEX and LEX including parks, residential, commercial, industrial, a bunch of civic buildings, parking lots, train accessories, canals, boardwalks, seaport add-ons, etc.

 

I spent at least 40 hours--probably more--getting to that point.  Then I sat down one Sunday morning with a cup of coffee at my 7-year-old laptop (a Toshica refurb with a few bells and whistles that was a lucky find at the time), ready to play, and I spilled it.  The damn thing died.  No power.  Won't boot.  It was devastating.

 

I broke down and bought a new machine, and now I'm set to do it all over again just a month later.  But I still have the bug, so it's worth it!

 

Everyone above has great advice.  Don't download more than you need.  But pay attention to what you choose.  The STEX is a FANTASTIC resource, but if you're starting fresh, I recommend using the LEX because a lot of their best downloads have many dependencies in common, such as the BSC content.  There's nothing more wonderful than finding a beautiful lot, checking the dependencies list and seeing there are quite a few of them, but then realizing that you already have all of them.  OK, in life there are plenty of more wonderful things, but in SC4, that's true joy.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Truly a cautionary tale.  The only things I would load on a complete restart are the lots that fix bugs, and the NAM, which is also a bug fix.  After that you have a more or less blank canvas to make a totally new approach.

[Compdude787 916]

Okay, this is why we all do backups of our data to an external hard drive. And it's also why it's a bad idea to drink any sort of beverage near a computer. I never allow any liquid to be near my laptop. Several years ago, my dad spilled tea on our computer's mouse and killed it. Luckily our computer-fixing uncle had given us several newer ones a short time previously, so we didn't have to go out and buy a new one.

Don't worry about your "aged" hardware.  Internet speeds are limited anyway, and your machine is much faster than that net.

The file sizes on the STEX and LEX are so small that you can't get enough bandwidth anyway to experience full internet speed. Sometimes, things that are less than half a megabyte take up to ten seconds to download, even on a blazing fast 25 Mbps Comcast internet connection. You may notice when you're downloading a larger file that it takes several seconds for the download speed to get up to the max speed; that's because it takes a while for the internet to give you full bandwidth.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Amen. 

 

I have a cable provider's full broadband Internet channel, and the downloads from most things are completed before I can even check to see if they have run.  I've always had better luck with ISPs who are also TV cable providers. 

 

The Internet card in my machine is a standard 100 M bits/second fast Ethernet controller.  You can think of that as 10 MB/s more or less, and while not as fast as a disk drive, it is so much faster than a keyboard that they are not even in the same league.  However, because it is a shared, broadcast medium all the packets are not addressed to me, so it is slower according to the amount of traffic.  The card only snags packets addressed to me, but the whole traffic for all subscribers to this ISP are on this cable. 

 

With a bit more sophisticated card I could snag all the packets and be a real snoop.  Don't know where I would store all that, I'd need a disk farm.