Packs for various buildings?

[djvero 7]

So after years I've finally picked up playing SimCity 4 again, but I (already) get a little tired of the same buildings everytime. I've gone through the STEX, but it's just too much work to pick all the interesting buildings that have been created over the years. Now, my question is, is there any / are there any packs that have a lot of different buildings in them already? It can be both residential, commercial or industrial and any type of wealth building (from Burger King to Samsung and back), but preferably growable. I don't have anything specific in mind, just the usual type of buildings that you see a lot in the west.

 

Thanks!!

 

[MissVanleider 1,850]

Such packs arent terribly common but a few do exist if you want lots of buildings in one go, ferox for example (i think) has a big pack of european looking buildings, but i cant imagine many of these would look good outside of a european themed w2w setting.

 

Maybe better to just go download everything from certain creators, it will cut down on searching and also ensure that the buildings you get mostly look nice together

Some examples from the top of my head:

@Jasoncw does excellent wall to wall buildings, in american style including many real buildings

Mattb325 - download most of this, all quite generically 'western' good mix of all types of development from little low density residentials to large industrial megalots and lots of CS and CO buildings too. Especially good are his medium density residentials of which there is a great selection. 

There are obviously hundreds more but downloading the content of just these 2 will keep you going for a while without ending up with hundreds of skyscrapers but little else

[twalsh102 1,601]

Unfortunately, unless you're in a position to donate to the website and pick up one or more of the DVD compilations, what you are looking for doesn't really exist (at least not in the from you are looking for). 

Compilations of buildings that would include creations from multiple content creators just don't exist unless you find one of several "relot" compilations.  Even then, you would still need to download dependencies that would at the least include the models for the buildings.  Since this usually involves downloading the original lots. there is no real time-savings in relying on such compilations to build up your collection. 

There are some content creators that have put together packs of similar type buildings (warehouses, mid-rise office buildings, restaurants, gas stations, small shops, etc.).    You might want to take a look at Simgoober's body of work.  He put together packs of his creations on various subjects.  There are others that have done similar things.  But I get the feeling this is not necessarily what you are looking for.

The bottom line is that (barring picking up one or of the DVDs available on this site) in order to collect a lot of diversified stuff by multiple content creators, you are going to have to spend a good amount of time downloading it.

[Jasoncw 11,933]

The first person that comes to mind is @madhatter106 who has been uploading his buildings into these big themed packs, so with one download you'd get a whole set of buildings. 

Other than that though I second what MissVanleider said. When you're browsing the STEX you're mainly looking for creators, not individual uploads. So if you find a BAT that you like, you look at their other files. 

And the DVDs, btw, are just copies of the STEX. You still have to go through a STEX-like interface and select files to get. Just instead of downloading them from the internet you're saving them from a disc. 

[Fantozzi 4,067]

Bixel made some packs of Hong Kong buildings which don't look bad in modern western metropolis.

Examples here, here, here.

LBT team made some residential packs. You'll find them on the SC4D LEX (registration required). One you find here.

Also Haarlemmergold made some beautiful dutch buildings packs. Example here.

[djvero 7]

Alright, then I'll check some of the recommendations. How to check a user's uploads though?

 

The reason I asked is also because I don't want to download all these different dependencies and stuff.

[MissVanleider 1,850]

3 minutes ago, djvero said:

Alright, then I'll check some of the recommendations. How to check a user's uploads though?

 

The reason I asked is also because I don't want to download all these different dependencies and stuff.

You can search the member name on the STEX but often google is better to be honest, it is a little buggy searching here.

 

As for not wanting to download the depenencies, tough luck on that one, it's go dependency or go home i'm afraid

[PaleoCardio 150]

44 minutes ago, djvero said:

The reason I asked is also because I don't want to download all these different dependencies and stuff

If you spend about an hour or two just on the most common dependency packs, then you will be fine for most of what you are looking for. Check out BSC Mega Props for most of the common ones and from there looking at your individual STEX downloads you will see the others that keep popping up. 

[djvero 7]

Some of the tips here are really helpful! Thanks.
And downloading these dependencies isn't such a crime as I thought it was. SCdevotion says whether I've downloaded already or not, which is a great help lol.

[APSMS 1,893]

8 minutes ago, djvero said:

Some of the tips here are really helpful! Thanks.
And downloading these dependencies isn't such a crime as I thought it was. SCdevotion says whether I've downloaded already or not, which is a great help lol.

The download and dependency tracker on the LEX has to be one of the most powerful tools ever devised for a modding community. I wish its adoption was more universal;@CasperVg's work on it has been transformative in terms of user-friendliness. The STEX lacks the stability and dev support to facilitate such a feature I fear, although I would love for an effort to be made in that direction. Unfortunately I think developer resources (time) for ST are limited at the moment.

[Jasoncw 11,933]

4 hours ago, djvero said:

Alright, then I'll check some of the recommendations. How to check a user's uploads though?

 

The reason I asked is also because I don't want to download all these different dependencies and stuff.

When you find an upload you like, there's a link that says "find other files from this author" or something like that. 

You can also go to someone's profile, go to "my activity" (or something like that) and then go to "files". 

[CorinaMarie 29,771]

I've kept a few notes since I joined and here's the names peeps have said to look at for good content. (In the order I wrote them down. Nothing more.)

• @Darknono35
• @mattb325
• @SimFox
• @Jasoncw
• @sparkythepenguin
• @Cockatoo
• @ILL Tonkso
• @madhatter106
• @SimGoober

 

[Fantozzi 4,067]

If you start playing SC4 today you have to recover structures - dependencies - that have grown for 14 years. Me, I started playing SC4 in 2008 and downloaded tons of stuff and got completely confused. Deleted my whole plugin folder as I couldn't sort things out aymore, started again a second time and third time, organizing things better, learning, being more patient with the content. In my opinion it's impossible to haul inboard a development of 14 years in a couple of weeks. It's like a big tower where often one stone was layed on the other and this chain - you need this before that and you need that before this - shurely is something, if you are new, is disturbing. It's like you are forced to learn the whole sc4 modding history just to understand how some fun stuff works together.

I think today starting with 'SC4 pimping' isn't easy. It wasn't easy for me back in 2009 and since then the tower grew, the relations between stuff advanced. But I know this from other games too where a big modding community had a big influence on the game development. If you join this community later, after some years - information is raining like cats and dogs about those relations - you need first this to make work that and then you need that to make work this.

But if you aren't close minded - dependencies? never! - you get used to it. Takes some time and this time for everybody is different. For me it was quite long to get some understanding, I'm not that mastermind to remember all those 'dependencies', the gears of the clockwork, I tend to forget what I've downloaded 2 days before and when I open my plugin folder sometimes I'm surprised: what's this stuff? Who put that in?

SC4 is a game - for fun, for leisure time - so it's okay to say, I don't want to go through all this history, I don't want to mess up with dependencies. For a game - this is a legitimate opinion.

Only thing I can answer is: at first it looks like work, but later on it's much more fun. It's only 'starting' that is trouble. Later on the trouble goes away. 

You know - if you pick up a building here and a building there instead of downloading an 'all-in-one-solution-mega-pack' we are talking about freedom. You gain freedom by not being forced to a mainstream. Well and that's where modding starts, why people normally start modding - to overcome the limitations, expand borders.

Freedom is always more complicated than doing as told. One could call this the fate of modding. 

[CorinaMarie 29,771]

When I first started looking for CC (custom content) I was a bit overwhelmed with the whole dependencies things. Especially cause I had read that some dependencies require sub-dependencies which might require some of their own. So, using Google, I searched for stuff that didn't require anything else. I wanted to get a quicker start. I was still rather confuzzled about the Plugins folder and I wanted to see how it would go first. I refined my Google search to be:

"no dependencies" site:https://community.simtropolis.com/files/

And I found over 300 files. Then I got interested in Peg's stuff and had to have dependencies. I picked some which had minimal requirements. Once I got familiar with the concept and how they work together and why they are required I felt better cause I was able to do it.

Prolly the best advice is:

5 hours ago, Fantozzi said:

... pick up a building here and a building there  ...

This method keeps it from being too much all at once. I now go as far as to temporarily rename my Plugins folder to xPlugins and then test something new all by itself before I mix it in with my other addons. Once I'm happy with a new thing I move it to my xPlugins, delete the now empty Plugins, and rename xPlugins back to Plugins.

[djvero 7]

5 hours ago, Fantozzi said:

*Story*

Oh, I've played SC4 since the beginning as well and 5 years ago I discovered this forum, from which I've already downloaded a bunch of bits and pieces. Then I hadn't touched the game for years until last Monday and thought 'hey, there should be loads more interesting stuff' and asked for the packs.

But the advice given has already helped me to find interesting things

[rsc204 21,836]

The thing is, this request is actually not a bad one in any way. I started only a few years back, it's intimidating to think how much work building a plugins folder takes. Frankly, if we want to attract new players to the game and keep them playing, we need to leverage our #1 asset, content.

If we remove the barriers to entry, we'll have a larger community in future. Because whilst it's true that some dedication is always required to mod any game. The amount of work most players are expected to do is simply hideous, after all some people aren't looking for a hobby, just for some casual fun. We (the community), need to unlock the barriers to entry for these people and start providing an easier way to get going. Starter packs, with everything included would be one step in the right direction. The problem is that consensus can not be formed on whether change like this is ethical or not. Well once more I argue screw ethics, it's simply necessary. Terms and conditions change all the time, it's about time we changed ours. Because if we're not careful, all those who come along enthusiastic about creating things they see others making. Those players will continue to be frustrated and go elsewhere.

I really hope @djvero that you do stick with it, this isn't about you per-se. But the way things are now, is simply doing more harm than good to our little community. We need to be brave enough to make big changes if we are going to avoid going over these issues time and time again.

[MissVanleider 1,850]

17 minutes ago, rsc204 said:

Starter packs, with everything included would be one step in the right direction. The problem is that consensus can not be formed on whether change like this is ethical or not. Well once more I argue screw ethics, it's simply necessary. Terms and conditions change all the time, it's about time we changed ours.

Agree with this but i dont think we need to screw ethics. If people - sometimes a long time ago - posted these things in order to give people some enjoyment from a computer game, and for no expectation that they would gain financially from producing and posting them, i think that it is certainly ethical for the legal entity in question - i.e. the exchange where they were first uploaded - to package these things in the way that allows the greatest number to experience them. I'd say putting up any - especially largely imaginary - barriers to this is a contravention of the ethics we are dealing with here!

 

Of course (and i realise you arent saying this) It would be completely different if individual uploader issued a request that their content be taken down, or if simtropolis started selling access to individual files. Then of course i agree that it is technically illegal and certainly unethical

[matias93 7,535]

Many good tips and themes here, I will only give one: no matter what you download, keep an ordered folder with the downloaded files, and use a clear method to organise the plugins folder. If not, you'll end like me, having to rebuild everything from scratch when having 8 Gb of custom content: it literally took me months!

[CorinaMarie 29,771]

2 minutes ago, matias93 said:

... use a clear method to organise the plugins folder.

For ideas on that, take a gander at the Show us how you manage your plugins folder thread.

[APSMS 1,893]

1 hour ago, matias93 said:

If not, you'll end like me, having to rebuild everything from scratch when having 8 Gb of custom content: it literally took me months!

And this is why I put up with the madness that is my current plugins folder. I don't play the game nearly often enough to devote this kind of time to properly redoing my entire setup. Most of it has been keeping a kind of running total on the things that work and what doesn't and trying to remember what to remove and where it currently resides. For all the detractors of the Windows Indexing system, that search tool has been invaluable.

Of course, my organization method is patently terrible, but at least the important stuff is mostly sorted, like terrain, automata, load last, and RCI/+ creators (with a number of notable exceptions to this level of organization). For everything else I end up having to remember where I last put it.

[CT14 2,486]

@madhatter106 has about a zillion high quality packs here:

https://community.simtropolis.com/profile/207209-madhatter106/content/?type=downloads_file

JMeyers Small Shops Volumes 1-6

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=511

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=523

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=524

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=525

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=535

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2938

Simgoober W2W Chicago BSC

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1339

Kingsway Shops Packs 1-2 by spa

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1534

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2005

Smalltown USA - Collectors Edition by JBSimio

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=642

Dedwd Small Shops Packs

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2525

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2526

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2527

[madhatter106 3,905]

18 hours ago, CT14 said:

JMeyers Small Shops Volumes 1-6

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=511

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=523

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=524

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=525

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=535

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2938

In fact, go to the LEX and just download everything of jmyers2043.  His stuff is fantastic across the board - commercial services, offices, small residentials, industry.  It's all well done.

[derpherp97 7]

thanks guys for the immense content. now my skyline is populated with diverse skyscrapers and it feels more lively now

[The Edge 215]

Morning, some good tips in this thread I'd also like to get some more packs of buildings too - sadly I don't have the time these days to sift through pages of one-building downloads. If there are some updated packs ie, download 20 new industrial buildings along with 30 commercial and 25 residential in one pack (for example) that would be a huge timesaver  or is that sort of thing on the DVD?

[CorinaMarie 29,771]

3 hours ago, The Edge said:

or is that sort of thing on the DVD?

The main focus surrounding the STEX discs is the donation to keep Simtropolis alive and well.

Each of the gift discs has a large selection of content which is on the STEX. While we would really appreciate momentary help, please keep in mind the discs are not complete in and of themselves. Often times you'll still need to grab dependencies from other eras of the STEX or off the LEX or other sites.

Hopefully there are larger, individual packs which our downloading members might know about and can list them here.

[The Edge 215]

On 2/18/2017 at 9:32 AM, Fantozzi said:

Also Haarlemmergold made some beautiful dutch buildings packs. Example here.

I tried to get this to work (copied over the files to my Plugins folder) but they ain't showing up most of the other ones do however. I can see the Kong Building and Need Moar Internets in my industrial zone, which is pretty cool

[The Edge 215]

Also @CorinaMarie thanks for that info on the DVD. Do you know how much to send one to NZ?

[Cyclone Boom 17,016]

5 hours ago, The Edge said:

I tried to get this to work (copied over the files to my Plugins folder) but they ain't showing up

Taking a quick look at that "Dutch 9" pack of buildings, I've found they're all growable residentials which means they'll only construct when the conditions are suitable for them. They're also Stage 3 and 4 lots, so this won't happen straight away in a city until the development stage caps are reached for these types.

Here's a sample of the Stage 4 lots (4 total) I've scanned using SC4Tool:

 

These are R$$ (medium wealth) and so to encourage them to develop it'll be worth zoning in areas which are more favourable to these than low wealth, by placing parks and services (health, education, fire, police). I do notice how they're almost all 1x1 lots which may make the game more reluctant to grow these than other medium wealth lots at these growth stages. So perhaps using selective zoning techniques might come in useful also through taxation, as Cori explained in her excellent tutorial.

As follows:

 

Also just make sure all of the included descriptor files are included in your Plugins as these contain the info for the exemplar properties of each building. There's no need to install all 33 lots if you'd prefer otherwise, so you may wish to pick and choose which to use from the entire set.

[The Edge 215]

Thanks so much for that @Cyclone Boom. I'll have to have a look around then (I was looking for some bigger lots).

[CorinaMarie 29,771]

16 hours ago, The Edge said:

Do you know how much to send one to NZ?

I don't know since they are handled by Dirk (the site owner), but I do know we've moved to sending linkys to the ISO file(s) as the preferred delivery method so that's like getting the CD electronically. If you must have a physical disc, that can be arranged.

I wrote the STEX Collections - ISO Linkys Guide showing what to do with the ISO file(s) once you download them.