How to kill Bennet Music Corp?

[Bombardiere 591]

I am using BSC No Maxis mod to block Maxis buildings as it works with CAM. However, I think one Maxis lot was left out from this building blocker. 2x3 CO$$. Because of this the Bennent Music Corp pops up in my cities and grows like a weed as I don't have buidling to compete with this.

 

So how I would elimate this Maxis building?

 

I have tried to use Maxis Lot Editor and saved a copy of the lot, so I could create an override for the original. I followed the lead from BSC No Maxis and set the growth stage as 255. The same way it done in BSC No Maxis. However even with this override lot, the darn Bennet Music corp keeps appearing in my city. Any Idea on how stop this? This isn't even one of the better Maxis buildings, but quite ugly and it is undersize.

[cogeo 960]

Well, first off the building isn't really so much ugly. What I would suggest is install one of @madhatter106's packs (IIRC it's Vol 1 or 2), which contains buildings of about the same size and stats. Having buildings that compete with such "pests"  results in much fewer occurrences - you get more variety as the simulator has now more choices. I have done the same for another such pest, Chalmers Co, a small CO$$$ growing in lots sized (3x3, 2x3, 3x2 and 2x2, and yes!.. 4x4), but never released them.

Now, if you want to eliminate this building completely, there are basically two ways to do so:
- Find all lots in simcity_1.dat the building (more accurately the "building family") may grow in and set growth stage to 255 - the simulator will never grow them. It's not a very trivial task but it's not as much work as it may seem at first. Use the Navigator Tool to get the CO$$ Lots list, copy all these Lots to a new .dat (the "mod"), and change the growth stages there. It might be a good idea to check your list against the "Blocker" you are using, to find whether one or more lots have been omitted. For some reasons I don't like this technique very much, as not only it's quite a bit of work, I don't know what happens with the existing (already grown) lots either (talking about the stages mix thingy, not sure if it work right or it's messed up).
- Instead, I use another technique for the buildings I want to keep out. It works with buildings, not lots. Set the tileset to one you have unselected ingame, eg set it to Chicago while you play a Euro city. It's much less work, can easily be applied to individual buildings, with the mod(s) be possible to be installed/uninstalled at will at any time, and has no unwanted effects. Maybe you could remove all tileset Occupant Groups for the building, but this needs testing, like finding whether it causes problems (test with existing lots too - do they work, are they upgraded?), or what happens if you select all four tileset options ingame (wiil the game grow all buildings regardless of their tileset style, incl buildings without a tileset OC?).

Hope this helps.

[markussaage 762]

I agree with @cogeo: I use all madhatter106's packages and I never get Bennet Music Corp. The variety of madhatter106 is great and the buildings just fit in.

Kind regards!

[rsc204 21,869]

The thing is, whilst the suggestion itself does make a lot of sense, there are reasons why you'd never want to see some buildings. I love Mad Hatters content, if more people had followed his example of working to compliment the Maxis content, I think many peoples regions would only be all the better for it. However, many of them, like the Maxis buildings are distinctly American.

I use the Stop Maxis mod precisely so I can be sure nothing American or from the base game ever appears in my cities. If only there was enough content in my plugins folder to do away with all the Maxis stuff entirely, but that's my ultimate goal. Excepting a smattering of buildings that work with the theme I'm going for, but even those really need re-lotting to fit. Especially considering my game is anything but vanilla, there is only so far you can go with overrides and I've pushed that to the limits.

[madhatter106 3,933]

(A little banner I  made ages ago when I wanted to dilute and minimize Bennett...haha)

I have three buildings in my very first office pack that were made with LODs at or very very close to the size and shape for Bennett.  I even took the properties for Bennett and put them on to those buildings, so in effect they are Bennett clones or twins in all but appearance.  (Those three are Cayce Communications, Berlitz International Travel, and Taylor Consulting Group in the Midrise Offices Volume 1 pack.)  I have been tempted to do more, and some others to compete with other Maxis buildings, but everything I've done lately has been larger.

I don't think Bennett is the greatest sin in the Maxis canon per se - it's fine in terms of modeling and color and all that, but it does seem to appear with frightening frequency.  Much like Depiesse's Diner, it can get really repetitive. 

Using my content will indeed dilute the pool and give the Maxis fare some competition, but it doesn't speak to the original problem in that despite using the BSC Maxis blocker, Bennett is somehow making it past the blocking to begin with.  Are there other buildings in the Bennett family that are showing up, too?  Or is it just Bennett on this particular lot size at this particular growth stage?  Perhaps Bennett was somehow overlooked in the coding of the blocker - or perhaps there is a dependency or pack or something somewhere that has Bennett or pulls Bennett (or heaven forbid, uses Bennett as a prop..."the horror") and thus it is circumventing the BSC Blocker and finding its way in - like a cockroach...

[Bombardiere 591]

Yes, I like @madhatter106 buildings and I think I have download them all, but as @rsc204 guessed I want to block all Maxis buildings and avoid US style buildings as I want to build a Ye Olde English city.  I want to use all four architecture styles as I have grouped my own buildings in to my own styles.

 

I think I have basically done as @cogeo first option. I made an override and set the growth stage as 255.  But somehow it didn't work. Either I did something wrong or may be there are more than one lot.

 

I used to use "Stop MAxis" and it has worked fine, but I have switch to BSC No Maxis as I understand that it is comtable with CAM. 

 

Quote

Are there other buildings in the Bennett family that are showing up, too?  Or is it just Bennett on this particular lot size at this particular growth stage?  Perhaps Bennett was somehow overlooked in the coding of the blocker - or perhaps there is a dependency or pack or something somewhere that has Bennett or pulls Bennett (or heaven forbid, uses Bennett as a prop..."the horror") and thus it is circumventing the BSC Blocker and finding its way in - like a cockroach..

I think it is that one or more lots have been left out from that blocker. "BSC NO Maxis" is lotbased. I have used only Chicago styleset, but I would guess that if I would change style then other buildings from this family would appear. It is 2x3 lot. Stage 2 or 3. I did try to block it with growth stage 255, but it still pop ups in my game. Either I was not successful with the override or there are more 2x3 lots. It is only with 2x3 size lot, no other Maxis building have appeared in my game.

 

May be I should switch pack to Stop Maxis and see how it will work with the CAM. As Cam is user made, may be I can kill those MAxis buildings, which have modified in CAM using the PIMX.

[Hellken 1,658]

I'm familiar with the BSC No Maxis Mod but how does one implement and create custom blockers? There are certain buildings (even a few custom buildings) I might want to temporarily stop growing (setting the growth rate to 255). But it seems that setting the growth rate isn't the whole picture.

[citycowboy 183]

You can plop all 256 squares, like I do.

[markussaage 762]

On 19.7.2016 at 11:17 PM, citycowboy said:

You can plop all 256 squares, like I do.

yeah, but that won't work for me... Only use Growables... If you have enough in your Plugins, Bennet Music Corp won't grow anymore...  

Kind regards!