Increase map size maximum

[Martin892 4]

Hi all,

Some new life on the sc3k forum reminds me of this question I have for years.

Playing sc3k always made me end up building highrises on the map edges. Might there be an opportunity modding the game such that the maximum map size increases? Eg 4 fold or 9 fold. This would allow creating larger metropolises in sc3k.

[CorinaMarie 29,569]

Yeah, I'd vote for this if it could be done.

I won't out right say it cannot be done, however I suspect that's such an intricate part of the game code embedded in the .exe file that it'd be beyond insanely difficult to do up to impossible. Then again, I'm just guessing. I look forward to what the gurus of the game have to say.

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Agreed with Cori. This I suppose is very deep into the game code.

Seeing SC3 is getting more love these days, maybe a talented coder will show up and start making miracles for us... but we do not have such a person yet.

 

Let's start praying...

[kegsmr 144]

Perhaps you could do something with the savegames?

[CorinaMarie 29,569]

1 hour ago, kegocandy said:

Perhaps you could do something with the savegames?

Skipping the part where this is way beyond my ability, I'd still guess it would be a monumental task even if one had the complete source code. Four years later when SC4 was released they decided 256 x 256 cells was the still the largest single city tile one could have. They then also decided you could have a region of bunches of those, but Maxis did not increase the individual city tile size.

At a minimum it would need to go from Byte times Byte coordinates which could be stored as a WORD to a Word by Word set stored as a DWORD for each cell. Then absolutely everything that refers to something's location would have to be updated for this expanded data array.

While not necessarily impossible if one had the source code, it would be a daunting task for sure. Fun to speculate about it. Holding one's breath while waiting, not so fun.

[Redcilin 0]

2022 almost 2023, im highly interesting about ingreasing map size, it seems prety hard in this times.

geez much love i have to this sc3000, never like those new one, just thinking a mod with new ordinances, new issues to treat, map size, etc. and who knows, dream doesnt cost anything

[asasnat 216]

I once tried tampering with save files to change the map size -not much success with that (although I changed a 64x64 map into 256x256, which is cool I suppose).

Heard of someone on Discord who made the map wider in one axis than the other, but I haven't seen any screenshot proof yet.

[szukajek 7]

it's a pity that no one has figured out how to do it yet, I've been playing sc3 since I was a child. I remember when it came out in hmm 1998, 25 years ago and every now and then I come back to it. I have many cities that are asking for more space

[Xicken 4]

Upon reading this thread, I tried to hex edit a particular file in SimCity 3000 that enables the user to create / save / load cities: SimInit.dll. I figured it out this file might have something to do with city limits because this particular file allowed me to create, save or load cities in the Simcity3000 Demo. So it should have something to do with city creation. And it does.

Upon hex editing some values I tried to create cities smaller than miniature sizes, which I succeeded, as you can see in the attachment. However, as soon as I tried to create cities larger than 256 tiles, the game crashed.

Maybe, as mentioned above, it's very difficult to be able to have cities larger than 256 tiles, however it is possible to create smaller ones. 


 

[Rachel-Q 0]

On 2/10/2024 at 9:19 AM, Xicken said:

Upon reading this thread, I tried to hex edit a particular file in SimCity 3000 that enables the user to create / save / load cities: SimInit.dll. I figured it out this file might have something to do with city limits because this particular file allowed me to create, save or load cities in the Simcity3000 Demo. So it should have something to do with city creation. And it does.

Upon hex editing some values I tried to create cities smaller than miniature sizes, which I succeeded, as you can see in the attachment. However, as soon as I tried to create cities larger than 256 tiles, the game crashed.

Maybe, as mentioned above, it's very difficult to be able to have cities larger than 256 tiles, however it is possible to create smaller ones.

I'd really like to create smaller cities. Can you share the details of your hex edit? The offsets would likely be different for the main game, but it might give me an idea where to look.