Can I delete growable files from Bat's

[danny30 1]

Hi all, I have quite a few bat's that are both growable and ploppable. As I prefer to plop and don't have much use for the growable parts of the bat's, can I delete the growable files for bat from my plugins folder? I really would like to clean up my plugins folder! Also i assume that it okay to delete the Jpegs from each individual bat?

[nas786 104]

yup.  I plop mostly too, when I download and add to my plugins I always leave out the growable. 

 

What I do is actually save the entire file to my hard drive, but I don't actually move the whole thing to my plugins.  I leave out readme and pics and growable.  Keeps my plugin less cluttered, which I've heard can make a difference with gameplay

[danny30 1]

Excellent, thank you. I can also see the installation icons in my plugins folder, even after installation. Can I also delete these after installation?.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The only files that define plugins are *.DAT, *.SC4LOT, *.SC4DESC, *.SC4MODEL.  You can selectively load up only the ones that represent ploppables.  The rest are el punko junko.

 

I take the opposite tack, and drop the ploppables, keep only the growables, and compress the files into a *.dat using Files2DAT which saves a small amount of disk space.

 

---

 

Before someone jumps on me, there is also *.dll, but these are not plugins that produce lots.

[jmsepe 2,039]

Growable is good especially for residential. I suggest keeping growable residential while you can have plop all the commercial.

[Prophet42 1,503]

jmsepe is correct about keeping the growable residential.  If you try to plop a residential, it will quickly abandon because the path finding algorithm will not be able to find a valid path from the plopped residential to a job.

[danny30 1]

Okay, thanks, didn't know that about the residential growables. I have one more question, I have installed NAM but was wondering if I can now delete the NetworkAddonMod Setup32SFX.EXE and the NetworkAddonMod Setup32.EXE files. These take up over 1gb of space in my plugins folder. I am assuming that because I have installed NAM now I no longer need those setup files?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

That depends greatly on whether you ever plan to customize your NAM installation.  You know you can rerun the set up at any time to change options.  I run it often enough that I simply keep this one and the previous one.  I am now probably going to drop NAM 31 set up files.

 

I have nearly 2 TB of disk space, so a few MB don't bother me.

[Cyclone Boom 17,016]

Okay, thanks, didn't know that about the residential growables. I have one more question, I have installed NAM but was wondering if I can now delete the NetworkAddonMod Setup32SFX.EXE and the NetworkAddonMod Setup32.EXE files. These take up over 1gb of space in my plugins folder. I am assuming that because I have installed NAM now I no longer need those setup files?

 

The NAM's installer files don't have to be placed in your plugins folder. In fact, there's no benefit as the game can't read them anyway. The one with "SFX" is the raw compressed file which contains the installer, so it could be deleted if you'd like. The actual installer (NetworkAddonMod Setup 32.exe) is contained within the compressed SFX, which can be re-run as Nonny explained to modify your NAM setup.

 

As long as the installer has access to your plugins folder, you can safely place it in any desired location, even on a different drive if space is an issue.

 

Hope this clarifies.

[Dreadnought 8,227]

Yo, guys --

 

I saw this thread discussing some changes to BATs and thought this might be a good place to ask a question.

 

Sometimes, I get HT industrial parks that have a lot of variety -- other times, I simply get row after row of grinding units and receivers.  I don't understand why there is so little variety.

 

I've downloaded three bats adding buildings and HT jobs to my industrial parks...

 

"More Internet Buildings" from HK  --- overwhelms the entire park -- grows like kudzu or guppies

E-Med Equipment -- moderate growth -- but sometimes out of control

Software Studios -- great looking building, but hardly ever grows

 

Is there any way to make a simple change to the growth frequency of a bat ??  The file names have a bunch of numbers and letters in them, and I'm tempted to think there is a frequency code right in front of my face. 

 

I have no experience designing BATs, so any help would be much appreciated.

[danny30 1]

Thanks Nonny and Cyclone. Is there a way to reduce or compress the file sizes in my plugin folder? I am sure I saw a thread discussing this a while back but can't find it now.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

@danny30.  There are two ways at least: 1. which shrinks individual directories to a single file (not much saving); and 2. the general plugin shrinker (whose name escapes me at the moment) which does the same for groups of directories.

 

I prefer the former because I have lots of disk space and not many plugins.  I don't use the latter which is probably why I don't know the name of it.  Both are on the STEX.

 

@dreadnought.  You need to download many more I-HT plugins.  There really are not very many in the Maxis default set, but if you want lots of variety, you can create a big enough set for the randomizer to have a chance.

[danny30 1]

Quick question, I don't use most of the NAM pieces and have the NAM folder that comes with the download in my plugin section full of transpirt pieces that I don't intend to use e.g rail/road pieces' and many others. Basically can I delete these to free up more space in my plugins?

[mayorgreener 37]

Quick question, I don't use most of the NAM pieces and have the NAM folder that comes with the download in my plugin section full of transpirt pieces that I don't intend to use e.g rail/road pieces' and many others. Basically can I delete these to free up more space in my plugins?

 

use custom installation while installing NAM.

[danny30 1]

I've already installed that folder though. Can I now delete it?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Rerun the NAM installer omitting what you don't want.  It will be removed.

[danny30 1]

Okay thank you. Wouldn't it be quicker to just delete the folder though?

[Turjan 1,048]

If you run the custom installer, it remembers your choices. This way, you won't have to shuffle through you NAM folder in order to find what's installed and what isn't, but you can just look what's checked in the installation menu of the installer.

[Cyclone Boom 17,016]

Okay thank you. Wouldn't it be quicker to just delete the folder though?

 

Yes, a manual delete is probably quicker. However, using the NAM's installer to add / remove is recommended. The main reason is because it as it keeps track of what components are installed. The installer is designed to be re-run at any time, and stores preferences using entries in the Windows registry.