Customizing SC4 Menus with Ilive reader

[robdragon 167]

hey all I hope I got the right place.

I have been trying to work with the damn menu. But keep hitting brick wall. I've heard that you can edit Sc4's menus with Ilive reader. If so what files do I edit? I have no clue. As for the rest I can figure out the reader mostly.

[rsc204 21,869]

The only things you can modify are the menu items appear in and their position within it.

A park lot for example can be put in the misc transit menu, you just need to give it the occupant groups of the menu you want it to appear in.

There is a property in the Building Exemplar called Item Order. This is a hexadecimal number, that is the order of the item. So for example, if the order is 1 it will appear before 5. If two items have the same Item Order, then it will list them in order of the cost of plopping the item. So you can assign one Item Order to a group of lots. But control the order of each lot using the Plop Cost, incrementing the cost by $1 for each subsequent lot. Since altering these costs by menial amounts causes no harm, it's a great time-saver. Working out which Item Order to use is more tricky. You need to look at some lots in the same menu you are using, and check their Item Order to get an idea of where things will end up.

Hex doesn't have to be intimidating, it's quite simple. If you enter the number 16, the reader will automatically convert it to it's Hex equivalent 0x00000010 for you. If you want to read an existing value, use the calculator in Windows (Set to Programmer Mode - in view menu). Select Hex on the left, type the Hex number in and click Dec, to convert to a decimal. So if you put in 0x00000010, you see that's 16, as in our example. You can copy/paste these Hex codes, or truncate all the preceding zeros, for example, 0x00000010 becomes simply 10.

[robdragon 167]

 

21 hours ago, rsc204 said:

The only things you can modify are the menu items appear in and their position within it.

A park lot for example can be put in the misc transit menu, you just need to give it the occupant groups of the menu you want it to appear in.

There is a property in the Building Exemplar called Item Order. This is a hexadecimal number, that is the order of the item. So for example, if the order is 1 it will appear before 5. If two items have the same Item Order, then it will list them in order of the cost of plopping the item. So you can assign one Item Order to a group of lots. But control the order of each lot using the Plop Cost, incrementing the cost by $1 for each subsequent lot. Since altering these costs by menial amounts causes no harm, it's a great time-saver. Working out which Item Order to use is more tricky. You need to look at some lots in the same menu you are using, and check their Item Order to get an idea of where things will end up.

Hex doesn't have to be intimidating, it's quite simple. If you enter the number 16, the reader will automatically convert it to it's Hex equivalent 0x00000010 for you. If you want to read an existing value, use the calculator in Windows (Set to Programmer Mode - in view menu). Select Hex on the left, type the Hex number in and click Dec, to convert to a decimal. So if you put in 0x00000010, you see that's 16, as in our example. You can copy/paste these Hex codes, or truncate all the preceding zeros, for example, 0x00000010 becomes simply 10.

So there isn't a way to add sub menus lets say under parks like parks 1 parks 2 ect.

[rsc204 21,869]

Nope. Even the Tab-Rings can only be used for network items, so you can't utilise them either.

The only real solutions to menu overcrowding that were ever made are either MMLs or using DAMN, but DAMN does require some effort to setup.

[markussaage 762]

If you want a certain order in the existing menus there is no other way for you to develop your own item order. Just like rsc204 explained, you'll need to use iLive's Reader. You'll need to make your own plan, depending how far you'll go with it. I did that, too. Every lot, that can be plopped, gets an unique item order, and I am telling you, I have a lot of paper work to accomplish this (old fashioned, you know). Sometimes I even change the whole menu, because I regroup them at all.   Have fun and be prepared for a lot of work once you start this...

Kind regards!

[robdragon 167]

Thanks guys at least I have an idea what I might be getting myself into. I'm hoping though to get help at sc4dev. about the damn. But that is not looking very good.

Years ago I used to write code for Autodesk (autocad) so it won't be a complete mess. But like  mark said it won't be easy peasey.

[markussaage 762]

I've tried it once with the DAMN menus, it worked fine, but that wasn't for me. I guess I love to scroll down a looooooonnnnngggg ingame menu... Never tried it after, still happy without it. And btw: once, everything is organized within the game menus, it's pretty darn easy to find your stuff and keep it organized.

Kind regards!

[robdragon 167]

1 hour ago, markussaage said:

I've tried it once with the DAMN menus, it worked fine, but that wasn't for me. I guess I love to scroll down a looooooonnnnngggg ingame menu... Never tried it after, still happy without it. And btw: once, everything is organized within the game menus, it's pretty darn easy to find your stuff and keep it organized.

Kind regards!

I love the Damn but can't get it to be very stable, so looks like I'll be doing a lot of work in ILIVE reader. But as you said once it's done it will be easy to keep it organized anyway. At least I'll get my more often lots up top that will be really helpful.

 

Thanks!

[rsc204 21,869]

1 hour ago, markussaage said:

I've tried it once with the DAMN menus, it worked fine, but that wasn't for me. I guess I love to scroll down a looooooonnnnngggg ingame menu... Never tried it after, still happy without it. And btw: once, everything is organized within the game menus, it's pretty darn easy to find your stuff and keep it organized.

I never actually tried the DAMN. I'm quite familiar with what goes where. It helps also to consider adding icons (where none exist) and possibly editing descriptions. For example, I like for ploppables with jobs to clearly state how many jobs of which type. It makes finding a suitable building much smoother.

I wouldn't say I ever completed the task of organising, but for every couple hours I put into it, the long menus become more tolerable. Simply because everything is much better grouped together based on how I use things.

This approach isn't for everyone, but I think it's worth the effort personally. It's much more manageable if you can do this as you add content though.

[markussaage 762]

Just now, rsc204 said:

I never actually tried the DAMN. I'm quite familiar with what goes where. It helps also to consider adding icons (where none exist) and possibly editing descriptions. For example, I like for ploppables with jobs to clearly state how many jobs of which type. It makes finding a suitable building much smoother.

I wouldn't say I ever completed the task of organising, but for every couple hours I put into it, the long menus become more tolerable. Simply because everything is much better grouped together based on how I use things.

This approach isn't for everyone, but I think it's worth the effort personally. It's much more manageable if you can do this as you add content though.

That's exactly, what I am talking about... Do it right away, when you add content to your plugins... Isn't for everybody, as you said... Took me several years to come to that point and then finally start all over again...

Kind regards!