How to make Plop with jobs, landmarks and growables

[jtportland 184]

*not sure if this belongs here please move it if it doesn't*

i've been asked to make a tutorial on how to make Plop with jobs, landmark and growables with lots of pictures to explain what im doing!

note, there isn't one RIGHT way to do this, there are many ways, but here's how i do it. any tips, or things that might be easier, please post!

Making a plop with job/Landmark lot

these two are very similar, so i will describe both at the same time (i will note when it is different for plop w/ jobs and landmark)



1. In the Plug in manager, locate your model file that you just rendered.
2. Drag that file into the left panel and drop it into prop.



3. A window will pop up, click on the 'common' tab
4. Next to is ground model change it from false to true



5. Click on the Advanced tab.
6. Click on these numbers of zoom levels, and find the 1,2,3,4,5
7. Change all these to True. then Click OK (will need to two times), then exit the plug in manager.

*here is where you need Ralphs Blank lot sets

Functional Blank lot set - for the landmark

RCI blank lot set - for Plop with jobs *note that if you want to use the Cs plop versions of the RCI blank lot set, please read though Help with Cs plop bug
EDIT: mcarch has informed that other types of lots sometimes grow as blank lots too, such as CO lots, i haven't expeireced this, but if this happens to your lot, be sure to read the 'help with cs plop bug' thread.

you will also need iLive reader, Download here ... for instructions on how to set up ilive, see the mini walk though here: Help with Cs plop bug 7th post down by Arthurovitz

ok! now, before we go into the Lot Editor (LE), located place the Functional blank lot DAT or the RCI blank lot DAT in your plug-ins folder in My Docs. Functional set for the landmark, RCI set for the plop with jobs.

i put poth in so i can make both a Landmark lot and a plop with jobs lot.

now start up the LE!



8. Locate the Blank Landmark or Blank RCI of your choice, don't use the R lots! they don't work.

i am using the Blank CO$$$ for the Fox tower.

now, make the lot size to your liking, add base textures....

then add click on the Props tab, and then add item

9.then located your building.



10. plop the building on the lot, press 'page up' or 'page down' to rotate the building. then LE away! add props, overlays, whatever.

*REMEMBER when finished to always do Save AS then enter the name of the building



11. Now exit LE after you have saved AS building

12. remove the RCI and Functional blank lots from your plug-ins folder now

NOW we need to use iLive to change the name of the building again. There are other edits you can do in ilive, but changing the name is really the most important thing.

13. open iLive



14. Under File, click open, and then locate your Lot file that you just named



15. click fill the list on the right



16. click on the second exemplar file
17. double click on the exemplar name



18. Rename this to the real buildings name
19. Click apply twice. exit iLive, and you're done making a RCI or Landmark lot!

[jtportland 184]

Making Growables

this is much easier than making plops and landmarks (in my opinion anyways)



1. in the Plug-in manager, locate your model file, and drop it in any of the RCI growable lots you want it to be.

in my case, i want to make the fox tower CO$$$

2. click on capacity satisfied,
3. click on the ... box on the right
4. edit the number of growable jobs (always the last, or bottom number controls the number of jobs or res)

Click OK a few times, then exit the plug in manager

open LE, and then locate the appropriate growing lot that you want.
in my case, i want it to be a CO$$$ growth state 7





5. i then delete all the props from the original building

6. then click on the building tab, and then replace item, then locate you building. and hit OK

Edit the lot to your liking, when done...

always use SAVE AS! this was the new lot wouldn

[Simbourgeois 139]

Woooooow, that's so useful  I was only remaking already ready-made lots, but now I'll be able to... well, to do almost everything  Thats GREAT!!!

 

Gratefully,

Simbourgeois

Mayor of Belleville

[jtportland 184]

thanks Simbourgeois! glad to see that this'll help more than one person! haha

also, if anybody has any questions or comments regarding these tutorials, feel free to ask!

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Hahahaha very funny Just another way for you to share how to be a great BAT'er. This really helped me! Of course, then I asked for it... heh

[jglei701 8]

This is a great tutorial. I have a quick question, though. I want to make the JENX Paris W2W buildings growable, and so I downloaded them, and I open up the plug-in manager, find the model, and create a new desc file. However, the original landmark has not one but TWO desc files when I downloaded it. Is the desc file I created in the plug-in manager all that I need? Does it replace BOTH the desc files from the original download, or only one?

[jtportland 184]

when you make a new desc in the pluig in manager (PIM) you are making a whole new desc, that does not replace anything. so if you make a new desc to make to make the building growable, the landmark desc is untouched.

[jglei701 8]

Thanks for clarifying.... I guess I didn't understand that. So any new desc files I create will just be added along with all of the others that are with the file?

Will the building still show up in my menu as a landmark? I've tried to unclutter my landmark menu as much as possible, so if it was NOT there, that would be preferable...

[jtportland 184]

Date: 1/8/2005 10:03:50 PM
Author: jglei701
Thanks for clarifying.... I guess I didn't understand that. So any new desc files I create will just be added along with all of the others that are with the file?

quote>

yes, that's right

Will the building still show up in my menu as a landmark? I've tried to unclutter my landmark menu as much as possible, so if it was NOT there, that would be preferable...

quote>

The landmark lot will still be there untill you delete the LOT file itself.

if you are unsure which Desc goes with the prop or the growable, you can alway check in the PIM.

[jglei701 8]

Thanks again jtportland... you've really helped me out a ton with all of this, and I hope others have been helped as well! I have another question you might be able to help me with (and perhaps it's just that I've misunderstood or made untrue assumptions, so there won't be any real help for me, but...)

There are a couple of Japanese BATs of which I want to change the plop costs. I also would like to actually name the buildings in English, instead of them having no name. I went into the plug-in manager and developed the stats that I wanted, and added them to my plug-in folder. However, when I plop the lot, it has the same stats it had previously.

I've also tried to just delete the old desc. files... but the buildings themselves are gone if I do that.

I've noticed, at least on the one lot I've experimented with, that it is a landmark with jobs. Does this confuse the problem more? Or am I just trying to do something with the PiM that it can't do?

I had hoped that I could figure this out without having to learn anything about the ilive reader, but I fear that I may have to learn all about this new (to me) tool.

Again, thanks a ton for all of your insight.

[Mathe Man 18]

Changing the values for a building takes only effect for growables. For ploppable buildings you should change the lot, which you can find at the end of the tree view in the PIM. But I think, you will get in trouble with a landmark with jobs, because such kind isn

[MC6Ash 4]

moved to appropriate forum

~MI6Ash~

[BarbyW 40]

As an alternative method to the one explained above you could also use simgoober's tutorial that is available in the Omnibus.

As jtportland said there is no one single way to make a ploppable with jobs.

 

Barby

[SimGoober 2,353]

One thing to point out; when using the PM to make the desc files, pay attention to the pollution levels. The Plugin Manager assigns some extremely high values to this, especially on larger buildings.  The largest Maxis commercial tower, for example, only produces 15 tons of garbage.  The PM will routinely assign values MUCH higher than that, which can really screw up your cities.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

THIS is an issue that applies to 90% of all BATs on the STEX and elsewhere, unfortunately. Most BATters don't pay attention to it, although it can really force you to deploy a new power plant, water pump and WTE plant for every three new skyscrapers, which ends in insane amount of supply and disposal facilities.

I'm currently modding my way through all buildings I have... in order to adapt them to in-game buildings, I'm compiling a list of some cornerstone buildings of each type and different sizes.

Just one example to show about what kind of disproportion we're talking here: The Cobb Atlantic - a beautiful building that graces any city - produces about 100 times the amount of garbage it's supposed to produce!!! Producing 766 tons of garbage per month, one Cobb Atlantic is enough to feed two WTE plants - insane.

And I'm not saying this to criticise a great BATter likle Cobb - just as a reminder for you BATters out there. ;o)

Actually, I'd like to know if I could upload sets of adjusted desc/lot/dat files (depending on their packaging) for CO$$$ buildings, R$ buildings etc. because this is what I'm working on right now. It's a mammoth task, but once a reference list is completed, tweaking a building's stats hardly takes more than three minutes.

[Andreas Roth 616]

Yep, that was one of the reasons for my current project: I'm compiling a database where you can look up all in-game buildings values via an easy-to-understand interface. Currently, it's a Microsoft Access database, but there are plans to convert it into an independent format.

[Hux 0]

Hi there,

I had been searching various forums but didn`t find something dealing with growable lots that don

[dhoppeii 12]

Hux, the best thing to do would be to open the lot you want to make growable in the LE, save as a different name and then mod the lot to grow.  I would assume there is a Maxis landmark you want to make growable

[bokrif 18]

I know little to make my own BAts, but I am interested in making them.
So, can anybody tell me where I can find this Plug-in Manager?

Maybe it doesn't exactly fit into this topic, but I must ask.
What's the problem with the ploppable residentials?
I have a relatively large housing complex with aproximately 45 thousand sims. I mean, place for 45 thousand sims, because after like a year they become empty, due to the long commute time, due to the no-road-connection zot.
I've heard about problems, but I've also heard about they working properly.
So, what is the truth? Can I use properly my R-ploppables? It would be quite helpful (I love to have full control over every aspect of my city! )

Thx

[T Wrecks 10,210]

If I remember correctly, the Plugin Manager is a part of the BAT, which you can download from the official Maxis HP.

And the problem with ploppable residentials is that the occupants are trapped inside the building, so they don't find jobs and move out => the building dilapidates. Ploppable residential buildings don't work.

Every so often, someone will claim they do, but I am yet to see any evidence. On the other hand, I've tried some ploppable residentials by placing them just as those people explained who claim to be able to use them just fine - dilapidation and abandonment. My slogan is anyway: Grow RCI, plop landmarks and civic buildings, period.


Btw, I don't understand Hungarian (I only know that nagy means big and that words ending with k are likely to be in plural, and that it's a very complicated language), but I've been there two times. In fact, when I saw that public transportation map of Budapest, I immediately remembered how I woke up in a hotel near Nyugati station only to hear from the hotel porter that some guys had broken into my car, haha... Other than that, I really enjoyed both holidays.

[bokrif 18]

It is very sad, that R-ploppables don't work.
Unfair, that CS/CO-ploppables do work, that I-ploppables do work and R-ploppables don't!
Annoying!
Then how would I resolve my housing porblems?

You are right, -k is the affix for plural, and nagy means big. You are also right, that it's a very diffiicult language. Some say that it is the hardest, but at least one of the hardest!
Sorry about your car. Things like this do happen. (My father's laptop was stolen from his car!) But the sitation is not that bad. I think it's average for a 2 million city.

/EDIT/ Oh, is there any plugin which raises demand for residential, or something liek that? /EDIT/

[Hux 0]

Hi dhoppeii,
no my question has a bunch of reasons. The most important one might be that I like to mod stuff with less depencies as possible. The second, perhaps, is that I bat bad like hell.
Important to me was if I

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Date: 11/21/2005 1:27:36 PM
Author: bokrif
It is very sad, that R-ploppables don't work.

Unfair, that CS/CO-ploppables do work, that I-ploppables do work and R-ploppables don't!

quote>
Well, in fact, only commercial plops work 100%. Industrial ploppables will provide jobs, and commuters can get to the building and back home, but a plopped factory will not generate any freight traffic. Still, that's a minor problem compared with residentials.

Then again, I think zoning and hoping for something nice to grow, always trying to provide good conditions, is really the challenge and the excitement of the game. And then, when you see that huge scaffold growing higher and higher and stare at your screen, eager to see what it will reveal... ah yes, the pleasures of a SimMayor!

Date: 11/21/2005 1:27:36 PM
Author: bokrif
Then how would I resolve my housing porblems?

quote>
By zoning, skill and patience - I feel that's the best solution in the long term.

Date: 11/21/2005 1:27:36 PM
Author: bokrif
Sorry about your car. Things like this do happen. (My father's laptop was stolen from his car!) But the sitation is not that bad. I think it's average for a 2 million city.

quote>
Well, it wasn't exactly smart of us to leave something on the back seat, albeit covered by a jacket... makes the wrong people curious... and we were too stupid to know that there was a cheap monitored 24h parking lot nearby...

Date: 11/21/2005 1:27:36 PM
Author: bokrif
/EDIT/ Oh, is there any plugin which raises demand for residential, or something liek that? /EDIT/

quote>
It raises all demand bars by 500% or something. It's called the Super Demand Mod, and you ought to find it by selecting Modding Files from the menu to the left.

[bokrif 18]

Ok, I know the game is about what you told be, but it's always a good and realistic option to build large houses for your poorer Sims. I am really taking care of my citizens. Wellfare-society is the best.

So I don't want build cities with lots and lots of large houses, but I want to have social districts in my city.
(I planned to build a socialist city where everything is plopped by me, and everything is arranged precisely, but I think it won't happen ) BY the way, if you think it would be easy to plop a city, you are not right. In that case you would have to have a more closer look and a more precise approach. That's an another kind of challange.

So, now I gonna zone, but use the ploppable industries to boost demand. Then I will make my region's population raise.

Question: how can I change the properties (like name, jobs, $/$$/$$$, and pollution, etc) of some ploppable industry?
I like that hellforge bat (not quite realistic but more useful in a remote neighbouring city), with its 30,000 jobs. The problem is that I don't like it's name!And want to make it more realistic..

[Hux 0]

Hi, I do it that way:

Get ILive Reader and if you wish another Example-Editor (ILive will do the job, but there are a few more 'SC4 Tool' in it`s latest release f.e. *plays sc4tool jingle* ).

Open ILive Reader and use the Tweaker which is a part of the program. Positive about that way is that the Tweaker creates a *.dat file. You don

[bokrif 18]

thanx for the help, I am gonna try that when I have the time.

I know it is kinda off topic, but it annoys me, that most of that bats are in my Landmark menu. Which is pretty big. The most annoying is that the bats are in a kinda random order, so for example my paric building are in like 5 groups... It makes plopping painful! Because I want to plop more and more different bats but it just takes too much time to find 'em.
Can you help me to organize my landmark menu a little?