Some basic new player questions

[peetey897 1]

I'm a pretty new player with a good bit of Cities: Skylines experience. This is a whole new learning curve! My main problem so far is figuring out how people carefully plan exactly what buildings they want in their cities. Of course, commercials can be plopped, but residential can't. I know people have methods of controlling what grows - the main one I've seen so far is to zone a space exactly the right size and them demolish-rebuild-demolish-rebuild until you get exactly the right building. However, in order to zone a block of zoning which is exactly the right size for a specific lot, you need the dimensions of that lot. And that seems to be very very hard to find! Of course there's the lot editor, however lots often have cryptic and even completely non-descriptive names. The SC4tool database doesn't show dimensions, and refuses to add my custom buildings. Basically, all I want is the simplest possible tool, which shows me the density level and lot dimensions, for the default buildings and my custom dat files, so I know what size zones I need to build. Does this exist? or, perhaps, do I not need this and am missing something when it comes to trying to control which buildings grow?

[SecretMbr_735754 2,157]

To get you started there's the lotplop feature of what's called the Extra Cheats plugin.  You can use this to plop any Maxis or user created content, but as you've noticed there's some difficulty in descriptions and identification of buildings.  I've spent many hours 'scrolling' through the lot editor and lotplop myself.   Density and lot dimensions are encoded in the ID lists.    

The instructions are reasonably easy to follow.  

[peetey897 1]

I have that plugin, and am aware of lotplop. I have however read in a couple different places that while there's no problems plopping commercials, but when you plop residentials it almost guarantees that they will be abandoned and never inhabited again. Weirdly I'm actually more concerned with controlling my residential growth than my commercial growth, as it's more likely that a residential neighborhood would be carefully themed than a commercial or business area.

[Fantozzi 4,064]

I think you had to make thematic subfolders in your plugin folder. Then you would use a blocker that prevents Maxis residentials to grow, included here:

Now leave only the folder with the wanted residentials in your plugin folder and zone the area you want to have this buildings to grow. Then you would change the subfolder for another zone you want other type of buildings to grow.

[SecretMbr_735754 2,157]

I'm still planning to do the above myself.  Use the Maxis blocker and go from there, but the problem of the residentials not being ploppable is still a limitation.   There's no way around it as far as I have ever studied here or in the game myself.   Residentials can only be grown as long as the license agreement restricts any further manipulation of the source code.     

A few of the recent lot-making projects I had started seem to have gone awry as well because of unknown variables due to the nasty SC4 landlord and the no-residential-plopping law.  That reminds me, I still have to go and fix a couple of residential lots I uploaded that not only get abandoned, but then dilapidate and leave an ugly mess.   

[peetey897 1]

17 hours ago, Fantozzi said:

I think you had to make thematic subfolders in your plugin folder. Then you would use a blocker that prevents Maxis residentials to grow, included here:

Now leave only the folder with the wanted residentials in your plugin folder and zone the area you want to have this buildings to grow. Then you would change the subfolder for another zone you want other type of buildings to grow.

THIS is a fantastic idea. I may have to try this! It seems like this would be the most reliable method, and the one that would involve the least chance.

[moodyhun 2]

Hi there. I used to play the sc4 long ago. I'm a beginner. can you help me with which modes i should download?

[CorinaMarie 29,562]

Hiya, moodyhun. Welcome to Simtropolis.

 

4 hours ago, moodyhun said:

I'm a beginner. can you help me with which modes i should download?

Yep. We've got lots of peeps who can point you in the right direction. I'd say start with this thread: I am overwhelmed by the things I need to fix / download. Look for little embedded linkys within the text of what peeps wrote. For example in one of mine I say: "Next on the list are the items I listed here. Of those the only one I'd say is really, really important is the SC4Fix which helps prevent crashes." So you have to be careful to find that little here clickable link.

There's also CAROL'S LIST - An index of SimCity 4 Tutorials and Resources with good information in it.

Feel free to reply in this topic or in the overwhelmed thread if you have more questions.

[Fantozzi 4,064]

Welcome @moodyhun,

first: don't be shy to start a new topic to get more attention to your question.

second: the last years been quite interesting regarding SC4 modding, many things we wouldn't have even imagined to be possible came true. So to start all over now should be quite a little fun.

I'd recomment to go through this list of links, they can give some orientation:

Mostly you'll have more questions than before  (that's a strange phenomenon at least to me, I'll always have more question after reading things) but we'll do our best to answer them.

There must be roundabout 50.000 downloads, maybe more on the web for SC4. It's impossible to get an overview in a week or two. This really takes time. So to get started it's overwhelming for most of us and needs a little endurance. But you get payed back later with much fun.

Third: Go with Corina in first place. She is a good guide.

 

[CorinaMarie 29,562]

10 minutes ago, Fantozzi said:

first: don't be shy to start a new topic to get more attention to your question.

^ This is a good point you can take to heart.

We don't mind threads which ask essentially the same question as others have in the past. One of the prime goals of Simtropolis is to make your experience here as enjoyable as possible. And since we have peeps who know where a lot of the good stuff is they can be your guides to finding it or explaining it in another way.

[moodyhun 2]

thank you very much for your help

[licoricebomb 93]

Just be sure to start slow, and remember that just because something has been beautifully BATted doesn't mean it's been properly modded. Lots of nice looking buildings will do undesirable things within the game, so try and find creators who are diligent and consistent, or learn how to check a building's stats yourself (pretty easy with the iLive reader program, if you give yourself a few hours to learn). If someone reports the stats of a building in the upload description, that's a good sign, because it tells you they took the time to at least try and get it right.