I am overwhelmed by the things I need to fix / download

[Falandra 5]

Hello,

I haven't played SimCity 4 in a long time (last time is almost 10 or 12 years ago), at that time I didn't have any clue about mods / patches and so on so I never downloaded anything for the game and just played it the way it was. Now I wanted to play SimCity 4 again and I looked up where I can get it (I somehow lost my original copy), I saw that I can buy it on Steam very cheap so I got it there but now the first thing I wonder is: Do mods work with the Steam version of the game? Do I need to install patches for the Steam version or is it the newest version already? I read some threads in the last days about SimCity 4 (on this site and others) and I am very overwhelmed by the things I need to download and fix before the game apparently runs the way it is supposed to run. Every time I click on fixes / patches for several things there come up more and more links where I need to merge files and so on but I don't know if I really need them. I can't really remember a lot about the game when I first played it because I had no clue about bugs and so on but now where I read about all the bugs in the game that need to be fixed I am kinda worried that I wont be able to play the game properly (When I first played it I was still young and naive so I didn't have a lot of knowledge about games in general but that changed in those years) becazse I read about things like bugs in the demand system that prevent a certain tier of industry to grow and other things like the bugs that commuters have.

 

I read the pinned threads but they didn't helped me a lot to find out all the bugs and that makes me wonder, are these Demand bugs not that important? Because there are no links to those fixes and that kinda makes me feel like bugs like these aren't that serious. Is there any kind of "guide" to fix the game so that everything works as intended? If so, where can I find this guide? And maybe some very experienced SimCity4 player can tell me if I really need these patches for my game. I am just really overwhelmed and lost right now and don't know what to do

 

Oh yeah... and once I got all this done I still need to learn the game again... even more work incoming for me...

 

(I can't reply anymore right now but I will be back later to answer your posts)

[matias93 7,535]

I could answer, but I know that @CorinaMarie will answer more completely and clearly than me, so there goes the call

[Fantozzi 4,068]

Oh, yes - there is a tremendous stuff to read and the deeper you get the more confused you get. It's like with the doctors - ask three of them and you get three opinions. But then - on top - google for the symptoms you have and ask the web - and you'll be shurely convinced: you have only a few hours left to live.

So let's relax in first place. As it's not necessary to do every fix and ever adjustment at once.

Let's do it first step first. There are many fixes and mods you won't need to start but with growing experience you will notice bugs - and when you notice them it's still time to take action. So it's not necessary to fix everything before you didn't even notice an error.

There are only few basic things and for begining, let's concentrate on them instead. S

Then I would do - step by step - all what's recommended in this post, including the links:

 

If you don't understand certain steps, don't hesitate to ask detailled questions, we'll try to guide you.

If done - check, if your game runs in a desired screen resolution on hardware mode (game settings) - play the tutorial cities a little and look if there are any glitches or crashes.

When you're done you may show up again and ask: what's next.

That's - how I would start. You know, when I started playing many of those mods and fixes weren't even there. So all the years of development - it's not necessary to go through them in a few days.

[CorinaMarie 29,881]

3 hours ago, matias93 said:

I could answer, but I know that @CorinaMarie will answer more completely and clearly than me, so there goes the call

Passing the buck, eh?

 

@Falandra

First off, welcome to Simtropolis!

The complexities of the game and patches and fixes correspond to how you plan to play. To answer your first major question you don't need the Maxis EP1 and Nightlights patches because those are already rolled into the Steam version. (In File Explorer hover your mouse over the .exe file and the last part of the version number will show .641 and that tells you both of the patches are already in there.)

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. And be sure you have the -CPUCount:1 in the target line of your start up icon. (That might even be a clickable option in the Steam options panel. I don't have the Steam one so you'll just have to take a peek.)

At this point the game is ready to play. All the other stuff listed there are things you can patch up, but aren't really critical IMO. I've played without them for a long time. That said, as your cities grow and you start working towards a lot of high tech industry you might want to do the IH fix (listed as the first item in my linky). Equally important as your cities grow is the NAM and you want the Simulator Z Traffic Controller at a minimum.

The rest of the fixes are no big deal, but they are there when you decide you want them. I've personally only done the SC4Fix and the IH ones. I play mostly farm regions so overwhelming traffic isn't a problem for me.

[Falandra 5]

Thank you very much for the replies!

I will start reading through all these links you posted, tomorrow I will download the files and set up my game since I don't have access to my PC right now. Thanks again for giving me some basic information about what I need to do for the beginning, I was totally lost before!

[licoricebomb 93]

I went through exactly this same thing a few months ago. I had played this game when I was much younger, forgot about it for several years, then decided to pick it up on Steam for some nostalgia. Then I realized that so many things had been done to SC4 that I never knew about (seasonal trees, terrain mods) and some things I'd fantasized about years ago had been made (weather controller with random disasters, more cheat codes). Then there are things like the NAM, the I-HT fix, and other things calling themselves "fixes" such as the "crime doesn't pay" for which it is debatable whether or not they "fix" something that's "broken". (I like that particular mod, it's just an example.)

In your situation I would recommend: starting by installing the NAM and familiarizing yourself with the new options available to you and the game's new pathfinding method. Although the proliferation of choice that results from all the network options that come with NAM can be overwhelming, ultimately it actually simplifies gameplay rather than complicating it, because you don't have to force Sims to use the networks you want them to anymore. You should then consider whether you want CAM or SPAM (I only use the latter) and learn how to play with them. Those will be the main standalone mods that change gameplay dynamics (if you use them) whereas most of the other things you'll probably want will be visual upgrades like water mods, or individual buildings/lots.

Because you have the Steam version: downloaded regions must go in the folder located within your Documents/Simcity4/Regions folder, NOT the one in ProgramFiles/Steam/etc. or they won't appear.

Also remember that SC4 was fun before you had a bunch of plugins for it, or even knew they existed, and that's what's important. I noticed you said you're worried you "won't be able to play the game properly". Playing the game properly just means having fun with it!

As a final note: to get some variation into your commercial areas, I recommend all of the buildings done by Madhatter106 (available on the STEX) because in addition to looking super cool, they are modded to have stats that match Maxis buildings, which makes them very usable and totally compatible with the default game. They also tend to have few dependencies. Be careful of buildings modded with bad stats- for example, if someone mods an R building and doesn't set the "building value" to an appropriate amount, you may collect way too much or way too little on taxes.

[Falandra 5]

Thanks for your answer!

So these mods you mentioned alter the buildings that can "grow" from the zones you can place on the ground (CAM and SPAM)? I tried looking these mods up here on this site but unfortunately I can't access it because the STEX is unavailable right now.

 

Also: I read that the I-HT fix needs "extra" fixing to make it work properly, is this needed? Because on the site of the fix there was nothing mentioned that it needs additional fixes to work (that sounds confusing lol) where I need to extract it into a file of the game. But in the comments of the original fix the commentors said that everything is working now... without the additional fix (I suppose)

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

9 minutes ago, Falandra said:

(CAM and SPAM)? I tried looking these mods up here on this site but unfortunately I can't access it because the STEX is unavailable

You can read about CAM elsewhere: "The CAM: Separating Fact from Fiction" by Tarkus and the CAM Welcome & Manual at SC4 Devotion. There's probably a day's worth of study in those.

[CorinaMarie 29,881]

22 minutes ago, Falandra said:

I can't access it because the STEX is unavailable right now.

Yeah. We are going thru some growing pains moving to a new server. Once it's all straightened out the STEX will be available again and ST should be more responsive overall. Sorry about the current mess.

 

23 minutes ago, Falandra said:

I-HT fix needs "extra" fixing

It does need to be Dat-Packed if that's what you are referring to. In that linky I gave for a list of fixes the 2nd one is the tutorial on how to do the packing. I've done it myself and it was rather straight forward.

[Falandra 5]

Ok, once I can access these sites again I will try everything out, hopefully it will work out for me!

Thanks everyone for the answers and sorry to ask so many questions!

[CorinaMarie 29,881]

1 minute ago, Falandra said:

sorry to ask so many questions!

No need to apologize.

That's what we are here for. Many of us either know some of the answers or know where they've been discussed before so we are your guides to that stuff. As you get familiar with the things that are confuzzling now, but later are ones you've mastered, you'll be able to help those who follow and are overwhelmed.

[licoricebomb 93]

1 hour ago, Falandra said:

Thanks for your answer!

So these mods you mentioned alter the buildings that can "grow" from the zones you can place on the ground (CAM and SPAM)? I tried looking these mods up here on this site but unfortunately I can't access it because the STEX is unavailable right now.

 

You're welcome. Yes, those two mods will alter how growth occurs on zoned land, in the case of CAM, across all zone types (I think, although I don't know much about it), and with SPAM, just on your agricultural zones. Speaking for SPAM, the biggest difference is how quickly you can grow a city without producing pollution. SPAM farms will employ mid- and high-wealth Sims, unlike Maxis farms, and reduce pollution, rather than producing it, as Maxis farms do. Zoning for farms becomes much more like zoning regular industrial, the most noticeable difference being environmental impact.

[Falandra 5]

I am sorry I need to ask another question:

The download section is working again and I tried downloading the SC4Fix file, when I click on the download button it takes me to another page where I needed to wait but there appeared a message that said they found viruses on my PC and I could only click OK. When I checked my PC with my anti virus programm it said there were no viruses. So was this a fake message? And how can I download the SC4Fix from this site? I am a little bit confused and have never downloaded something from it before

[rsc204 21,866]

I'm sorry to say it, but likely this is an advertising scam that is linked through a 3rd party service used here. When you want to download a file, you may see ads, which we don't have full control over. Sometimes things like this slip through that shouldn't, if you have a screenshot, we can maybe report it. There is pretty much no way such pages can detect if you have problems, rather than fix anything, they just try to extort money from you by offering to fix a problem that doesn't exist.

If you see such things, what you should not do is ever click on the OK button, or ideally any button whatsoever on the window. Either right click the browser window on the task bar and select close. Or if that doesn't work, open Task Manager (Press CTRL + ALT + DEL together, select Task Manager), find the browser window in the list of running applications, highlight it and select End Task. This will kill it without allowing anything nasty to make its way onto your machine.

If you try again, hopefully a legitimate ad will appear, after which you can proceed to the download properly. This system is necessary to generate income to support the running of the site and let me assure you such ad's should not be appearing.

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

30 minutes ago, Falandra said:

The download section is working again and I tried downloading the SC4Fix file, when I click on the download button it takes me to another page where I needed to wait but there appeared a message that said they found viruses on my PC and I could only click OK.

Sounds like you may have come across the AdFly redirection shown for guests. If not signed into your Simtropolis account when attempting to download, it leads to an advertisement page (at go.simtropolis.com) which is used to help fund the site's operational expenses. There are also other limitations on the STEX without using a registered account, such as only allowing 2 files to be downloaded at once. So it's usually worth keeping signed in whenever possible.

Then try downloading the file and it should work directly once clicking the button.

[Falandra 5]

Oh yes I forgot that I was not logged in, I tried downloading while being logged in and it starts immediately. I hope I didn't mess up my computer now  But I didn't see anything being downloaded when this message appeared and I clicked it away.

Thanks for explaining how to avoid it!