Just Started- Need help.

[Motiontracker 0]

Total noob here, I've created a couple towns, got the basic handle on keeping a small town somewhat sustainable but i feel like im missing out on lots of things, more buildings, different train track/Road curve options etc.

Can anyone please point me in the right direction of some good mods, plugins and where to download and then install them on a mac?

[Motiontracker 0]

Is there a mode i can play without having to be the mayor and manage the budget? 

[Handyman 769]

45 minutes ago, Motiontracker said:

Can anyone please point me in the right direction of some good mods, plugins and where to download and then install them on a mac?

There is a Mac forum you should check out.

I found the following two links there.

 

 

45 minutes ago, Motiontracker said:

Is there a mode i can play without having to be the mayor and manage the budget?

None that I've ever heard of and I have been playing a long time.

[CorinaMarie 29,637]

Hiya, @Motiontracker. Welcome to Simtropolis!

First I'll confess I know almost nothing about Macs or playing SC4 on one. I'll answer your second question tho. You can use cheat codes to give yourself bunches of money or the method I personally like is to use the Money Park 10.5.  Now we'll have to wait for one of our Mac experts to pop in to say how you go about installing it. And hopefully they will have answers for your other questions too.

[Handyman 769]

Thanks Cori, I never thought of those cheats in that way

[c4bl3fl4m3 405]

I play on a Mac but am just getting started commenting on the forums. But if you have any specific questions, I'll be glad to help if I can.

The best beginner advice I can give you is the following keyboard commands that I wish I had when I started (note the first one might just be for folks w/o Home and End keys):

Fn + left or right arrow - changes the direction the ploppable faces
Control while zoning - zones whatever size you want as a single lot
Alt while zoning - direction of those zones
Shift while zoning - removes auto roads

"Good" mods, plugins, BATs, etc. are somewhat in the eye of the beholder, basic "does it work right?" notwithstanding. (Although if you donate money to Simtropolis they give you a file/DVD full of popular/well created BATs, but it seems like it hasn't been updated in a while. Still, I found some of my favorites on there, and also found some new ones as well.) It depends on what you're looking for and what you want your cities to look like and/or what you want the plugins to accomplish for you. So what do you want? New residential skyscrapers? New tiny little shops (I'm into the MadHatBATs for those)? Beautiful parks? (I love Paeng's parks, esp. the yellow path set. (BTW, there's an addition to that set that isn't mentioned in the initial file. It's great and worth getting too.)) An entire system that completely revamps the transit in the game? (NAM) An entire system that completely revamps agriculture in the game? (SPAM) BATs that make your cities look like Korea? Or Eastern Europe? Or Atlantic Canada? What are you interested in?

Re: money issues, If you don't want to have to rely on "blatant" cheating, like money cheats, or BATs that just dump money on you (like money parks), I've found that if I play my games on Easy mode and use some civic BATs (schools, police stations, fire stations, health clinics/hospitals) that cover more area/cost less monthly (read: are actually better balanced within the game), that having to screw with my budget or watch my money isn't really too much of an issue, as long as I've actually zoned enough (although I've recently gotten some civic BATs that are explicitly made for remote regions, and that's helped too). (Note: this is once I've established a region. First city w/ no neighboring cities is a lot harder, but you can quickly make some other cities around them and it really helps.)

  Edited February 22, 2018 by c4bl3fl4m3  
adding more info, adding links