Props Appearing As Ploppable

[MJWitski 3]

So recently I got the itch to get back into SC4, purchased the GOG version, and got to work. Last couple of days I’ve been working on my plugins folder a little bit. All the custom content I’ve found here seems to work fine, I’ve gotten all the dependencies, I can play with them. This is where it gets a little odd. Some of the prop packs that I’ve added to my game appear as a ploppable tile in the parks section when in mayor mode. Sorry I can’t tell you which (there are a couple) at the moment, I’m not infront of my computer at the moment but using my phone. But any idea what might be going on there? Thanks in advance.

[CorinaMarie 29,884]

I can offer my best guess: The author of said prop packs did that deliberately so they would be ploppable. I can't imagine them getting into the menus accidentally like from a bug.

I understand with having downloaded several it might not be easy to tell which ones are doing this so if you could provide some screenshots of what you are seeing other peeps here might recognize what they are. There is also the option to temporarily move files out of your plugins folder using the Binary Search for Plugins Conflict method to narrow it down to which one is producing this result.

[MJWitski 3]

Yeah I’m sorry I can’t tell you which at the moment, I knew I’d be asked. I’ll come back tonight with some more info when I get home to my computer. I was just hoping someone could point out something obvious to check. I don’t have very many plugins as the moment so it won’t be that hard to weed out the problem. They are ugly tiles though, so I don’t think the content creator did it deliberately. They appear as a 1x1 crammed with props evenly spaced. Sorta like the preview screenshot you see on some prop pack download pages.

[CorinaMarie 29,884]

2 minutes ago, MJWitski said:

They appear as a 1x1 crammed with props evenly spaced.

Ah. So I'm going to continue to guess those were created deliberately to make said screenshots. (The experts will correct me if I'm wrong when they get here.) There's prolly also the possibility that a little bit of editing using iLive's Reader program and those could be disabled from showing on the menu or at least moved down to the very bottom out of the way.

[MJWitski 3]

Ok. Thanks for the advice. Now I know what to keep my eyes open for when I go folder diving tonight.

[CorinaMarie 29,884]

Another thing which just occurred to me: It's quite likely those ploppable lots are in their own separate .dat file. The idea being they are included for peeps who want a quick glance at them in game. If so, that particular file will be the one to remove and they would disappear from the menus.

The ReadMe file with each download will prolly say something to this effect. (You do read those. Right?)

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Just to confirm what Cori said, some older prop packs indeed came with a "sample lot" or whatever you'd call it. It's basically a lot that showcases all the props contained in the pack in order to:

• allow users to get an idea of what's in the prop pack - this is especially helpful for content creators who might want to use the props from that pack
• check that everything is displayed properly to make sure there are no mistakes or ID conflicts

Eventually this practice was dropped because (1) prop packs became too ridiculously huge, and (2) people complained about mysterious lots in their menus (sound familiar? )

As Cori also said, the lot in question should be in a separate file that you can delete. If you're not sure, just let us know which pack(s) we're talking about here, and we can take a look and check for you.

[MJWitski 3]

You two were correct! Thanks so much. I found the lots last night, there were eight in total coming from two prop packs. It took me a minute to weed them out, they were buried in the props' subfolders. I had no cited filenames to go by. One read me didn't mention them at all and the other only said "* a suite of testlots (for previewing only!)" in a list of included content from it's read me that I'll admit I only skimmed. I'd opened the text previously, I swear. Instructions/procedures are important to me, I live by them in my work life. Thanks again.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Good to hear you got it sorted out!

It's always a bit dissatisfying when the original poster just disappears and you never get to know whether your suggestions did the trick, whether they found a different solution or whether they gave up.

As for the sparse decription in the associated readmy files, this tends to happen when something is widely regarded as common practice and, hence, as obvious and self-explanatory. Thing is, times and practices change, and then what used to be obvious may become obscure...