Making rewards replacement not a replacement?

[lsrprules2 7]

There's a very impressive BAT of Lomonossov University on SC4Devotion and I would like to download it, but it replaces the ingame University building. Could someone refer me to a guide on how to possibly edit it so that it exists as a separate building instead? It doesn't have to still be a rewards building but I'd like for it to retain its functionality; if it's the same as the ingame University campus which is much smaller, I might want to increase the stats appropriately.

Here is the link: https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2881

 

[mattb325 28,878]

It is an impressive BAT; like you, personally I never wanted it to replace the in-game reward.

There are ways to go about making it an extra reward, but unless you are familiar with the ins and outs of modding, then I wouldn't recommend it, as I believe the wing lots are conditional to the central lot being placed (which is of course a conditional building itself).

Instead, it should be noted that the ingame university is basically a beefed up college: so for really basic, quick and dirty modding, I would make a brand new set of college lots for it; if you wanted to save time doing the lot decoration work, you could open the reader and copy the lot config/lot property exemplars from the sfbt file to your own (assuming you make identically sized lots)

[lsrprules2 7]

1 hour ago, mattb325 said:

It is an impressive BAT; like you, personally I never wanted it to replace the in-game reward.

There are ways to go about making it an extra reward, but unless you are familiar with the ins and outs of modding, then I wouldn't recommend it, as I believe the wing lots are conditional to the central lot being placed (which is of course a conditional building itself).

Instead, it should be noted that the ingame university is basically a beefed up college: so for really basic, quick and dirty modding, I would make a brand new set of college lots for it; if you wanted to save time doing the lot decoration work, you could open the reader and copy the lot config/lot property exemplars from the sfbt file to your own (assuming you make identically sized lots)

Ah I see. I have zero experience in modding and I assumed it would be a simple edit in changing some values or a few lines of text somewhere. :/ Thanks for the reply!

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

weird, I have this but it didn't overwrite my university.

[twalsh102 1,601]

I've actually found a surprise answer for you.  After reading @DavidDHetzel's reply above,  I checked in-game and found the same thing, i.e. both the Lomonossov University lots and the default Maxis lots for the University, Main City Library, and Major Art Museum show up in the Rewards Menu in-game.  Digging further, I found that Lomonossov University lot and building exemplars have different IIDs than those of the default Maxis lots and buildings.  Therefore, the Lomonossov University cannot replace the default Maxis lots as the download description and ReadMe file suggest.  They are in fact alternatives to the Maxis lots, not replacements.

I sent a PM to Andreas over at SC4D to elicit his help in clarifying the issue.  His reply is that the most likely cause of this "issue" was an error in translating the original German ReadMe file into English.  He says the word "replace" doesn't exist in the original German version.

So, you get the choice to use either the Lomonossov University or the Maxis version. The Lomonossov University greatly increases some of education-related stats over those of the default Maxis stats (to take into account the larger building sizes).  So unless you don't agree with the magnitude of change in the stats (some changes are rather dramatic), or would really rather not have these buildings as rewards, no modding should be needed.

[lsrprules2 7]

6 hours ago, twalsh102 said:

I've actually found a surprise answer for you.  After reading @DavidDHetzel's reply above,  I checked in-game and found the same thing, i.e. both the Lomonossov University lots and the default Maxis lots for the University, Main City Library, and Major Art Museum show up in the Rewards Menu in-game.  Digging further, I found that Lomonossov University lot and building exemplars have different IIDs than those of the default Maxis lots and buildings.  Therefore, the Lomonossov University cannot replace the default Maxis lots as the download description and ReadMe file suggest.  They are in fact alternatives to the Maxis lots, not replacements.

I sent a PM to Andreas over at SC4D to elicit his help in clarifying the issue.  His reply is that the most likely cause of this "issue" was an error in translating the original German ReadMe file into English.  He says the word "replace" doesn't exist in the original German version.

So, you get the choice to use either the Lomonossov University or the Maxis version. The Lomonossov University greatly increases some of education-related stats over those of the default Maxis stats (to take into account the larger building sizes).  So unless you don't agree with the magnitude of change in the stats (some changes are rather dramatic), or would really rather not have these buildings as rewards, no modding should be needed.

I'm relieved to hear this. Thank you very much for following up on it!