[2015] Lot Editor and Plug-in Manager - Forum Archive

[SC4B 55]

Lot Editor and Plug-in Manager Forum Archive 2015

This thread contains all of the stray topics created in 2015 in the Lot Editor and Plug-in Manager forum. This thread serves to condense those topics into one topic before merging into the new SC4 BAT & Lot Workshop forum.

However, all of the posts from the original threads are merged chronologically, which means that if two threads were posted in during the same time span, their posts will be mixed together, making it harder to read. To help with this, the title of original thread has been edited into the original first post of each thread.

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-Jasoncw

How can i make a ploppable construct like a growable?

Hello,

Can anyone help me with the question above?

If u didn't understand, its like this,

when u find your plugin inside the landmark folder, u select it and when u place it in your city, it just appears wid some dust coming out.

I want to know, when u plop the plugin from the LM menu, instead just appearing, i want it to start constructing wid some crane on it..

I had seen this in the "Eclipse tower BAT" which is found on the STEX

[T Wrecks 10,210]

AFAIK, all you need to do is add a "Construction Time" property and set it to the desired value in SimDays... but I'm not at my SC4 PC right now, so I cannot check.

[kingofsimcity 5,740]

Add property LotConfigPropertyDoConstruction to your lot exemplar file and set it to 1.

[SC4B 55]

Thank you Kingofsimcity!

 

But if i want a crane, then i should use crane hints?

[OrSpeeder 72]

How I make a building have jobs?

I got that really nice and shiny building from STEX, the City Central Services V3

 

The building looks cool, and is not too unbalanced, being very expensive to run, but one thing bugged me: A building this size should generate a insane amount of traffic, of the sort that makes NAM cry in a corner, but it does not...

 

So I decided to put jobs on it, on the "landmark" piece.

 

I did lots of trial and error, tutorial reading, and copying and pasting from other mods (most notably RHLandarmarks)

 

So what I learned:

 

First, jobs are decided by an Examplar of type building.

Second, jobs can be affected by two variables: Demand Generated, and Capacity Satisfied, the second is intended RCI buildings

Third, the two previous variables are affected by the building Purpose, for example I could only make Capacity Satisfied generate office buildings when the building had office as Purpuse.

 

 

So, why I need help?

 

Well, first, I noticed that demand generated, and capacity satisfied both has a funky format, and that changes a lot, yes, theoretically it is a simple list of pairs, but I saw a version of demand generated where pairs were summed (example, instead of having a pair for medium wealth, and a pair for medium amenities, it had a simple pair, where the variable that means medium wealth and medium amenities were summed into each other... Reader don't even understood it, I noticed by the number being a obvious sum).

 

Second, I am unsure if the variables I mentioned are the only ones involved.

 

Three, no matter how hard I try (I used both types of job creating vars, with various settings), I cannot create medium wealth jobs, only hi-wealth.

 

Four, the only time it worked, it was only for one type of job, I wanted to know if is possible to have more than one type of job at once.

 

Fifth, one of my attempts was making the game crash every first day of the month after the building was plopped, since it always crashed on the same day, and I noticed the game always lags on the same days, I assume it calculate specific parts of the simulation on specific days, thus I guess that I did something that broke day 1 simulation, I would like to know what

 

Sixth, I tried using iLives building tweaker to make the jobs, but it mess-up the variables instead (example: when I tried to put CO$$ jobs the building tweaker added SEVERAL entries with the amount I wrote, not just CO$$)

[Jasoncw 11,949]

If you go to SC4Devotion.com and find SC4 Plugin Manager / PIMX it makes things a million times easier than what you're trying to do. With PIMX you just drag and drop the model into the category, change the filling degree (how what percent of the building's bounding box is filled with actual building, because the stats are calculated on the building's size) and it will automatically create everything you need, with values appropriate for the game. 

 

There's a little bit of a learning curve with the program because it depends a lot on right clicking and hotkeys to do basic things, but once you get used to it it makes modding things a breeze.

[OrSpeeder 72]

I am not sure this would work... this building bounding box is actually very tiny (it uses some heavy overhand hackery to allow multiple services in a single building...

 

It is in-game actually many buildings)

 

But thanks for the suggestion, I will check that tool too.

 

EDIT:

 

I could not make it work with PIMX, like I said, the building uses overhang hackery to its graphics, PIMX think it is really small, also I could not make PIMX put it in the category I wanted (it is just listed as "eyecandy landmark").

 

I went back into reader, and tried starting fresh again (ie: a file without any of my changes... specially because my changed file was crashing PIMX too), and added ONLY the demand created, without changing anything else.

 

The good is that it indeed worked, and makes NAM interesting to watch.

 

The bad is that it does not affect RCI in a good way (it makes RCI lists more unemployed people instead).

[Jasoncw 11,949]

The filling degree is basically (although not exactly) a multiplier, so if your building is actually 5 times bigger than the building that you're using in PIMX, then the filling degree would be 5.

[xonedl 342]

I have several player reporting crash using my tHe Spring building lot ().

I'm not really sure where is the problem since I didn't caught any crash on my side despite I have 3GB of other plugins which is rather heavy load.

 

I am suspecting there might be issue with the landmark -> CS$$ conversion?

I was following this tutorial: https://www.simtropolis.com/omnibus/_/simcity-4/batlot-editor-tutorials/making-a-functional-landmark-lot-r63

 

You can reach my file here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B612uEp40RI1N1pKem92RmFQd0E/view?usp=sharing

Since i removed CS$$ from STEX download, although it just my speculation something might be wrong in the CS$$ conversion...

 

Can any pro in this matter help me check out what's wrong with the CS$$ lot? Some wrongly edited parameters?    Or it just some other problem?

 

Thanks...

[RHMgerards 7]

Hi there,

 

I'm one of the people who encountered this problem with your BAT. Decided to do some testing. I think I can confirm that it is the CS$$ section of your BAT. I removed every single plugin i had except yours, hoping that it was a conflicting plugin. Sadly enough, I keep getting a CTD. When I build the Landmark version, everything is ok. But when I build the CS$$ version, the game keeps crashing after I unpause. 

[T Wrecks 10,210]

I'm not at my SimCity PC right now, but let's check the most obvious options first: Does the exemplar name for the CS§§ versions contain any kind of special character, such as the '§' sign, an Umlaut, an accent, or anything similar?

[xonedl 342]

I'm not at my SimCity PC right now, but let's check the most obvious options first: Does the exemplar name for the CS§§ versions contain any kind of special character, such as the '§' sign, an Umlaut, an accent, or anything similar?

 

If [ and ] count... Which exampler name? In the short list one or long list one?

Short list one : XDL_tHeSpring_section[1]_F3

Long list one : XDL_tHeSpring_CS$$_section[1] ... well it have "$" if that count... 

 

Hi there,

 

I'm one of the people who encountered this problem with your BAT. Decided to do some testing. I think I can confirm that it is the CS$$ section of your BAT. I removed every single plugin i had except yours, hoping that it was a conflicting plugin. Sadly enough, I keep getting a CTD. When I build the Landmark version, everything is ok. But when I build the CS$$ version, the game keeps crashing after I unpause. 

 

Thank you for replying. At least we have some clue! 

[Bombardiere 591]

Edit: Sorry, i wrote something which isn't correct. Sorry can't offer immidiate help.

[xonedl 342]

It went quiet 

[T Wrecks 10,210]

RLS, sorry.

[Tropod 144]

Haven't looked at your file, few things to check though that I can think of off hand:

REPs of property.

Exemplar Property type; make sure it's right type.

TGI; make sure all relevant files use correct TGI.

Lotconfig properties, make sure they're in order.

DIR file: make sure it's ok.

Your *.dat/plugins for this: make sure they're not bak files.

S3D; is this corrupt? This is really hard to check/confirm (next to impossible). If one being used, possibly replace with another working s3d to check.

How was it made?

Try loading/looking at different parts using my tool (see sig) &/or ilives reader if you haven't already.

[smail 0]

something wrong with lot editor

I tried to run the lot editor and this noisy thing happens...

 

nothing can be clicked

 

Can someone help me pls?

[rsc204 21,866]

It looks like a rendering error, since the lot editor doesn't play well with newer graphics card, simply add the switch -d:soft to the command line of the LE shortcut and it should work correctly.

[Abrams 1,744]

How to make a building to grow more often?

Hey guys.I have a nice building set installed called sim fox's trb towers and they're amazing.Problem is they're rare.Can i modify the properties of it to have it grow more often?

[BIWDC 2,296]

The game is very random In it's selection of buildings as your city grows

the building will show it may take a while though that's the problem with

growables.There is not a way to get it to grow faster that I know of except

maybe speeding the time up on the sim.

 

If you don't mind using cheats you could try the Sim City 4 extra cheats plugin
you can find it in the exchange here.The lotplop cheat will allow you to plop any
lot.

 

If it is growing & you just want more of them it's pretty much the same.

 

Terring gives u some better help below.

  Edited June 11, 2015 by BIWDC  

[Terring 6,476]

I think Abrams is talking about frequency and not construction time.

 

I can think 2 ways to get those buildings more often. The one way is to give them the conditions they need to being constructed. For example, TRB Towers are low wealth apartment buildings, that can be build on 3x3,4x3 and 3x4 lots. To get those buildings, lay enough zones of those sizes and make sure that the area is suitable for those buildings and that you have enough demand for R$ buildings. The other way is to open the Lot Editor and make new lots with this building on them. Give them some extra sizes as well, like 3x5 and 6x6. This will bring some variety to your cities.

[BIWDC 2,296]

Terring Yeah I relized that & added that extra part at the bottom

[Von F. 29]

Other way to do it is to lower the values of the property Capacity Satisfied in the building exemplar, and lower growth stage along to avoid screwing the game balance. You can edit these with reader but I'd recommend to make it with PIM-X instead ast the tool does calculate values for all relevant properties at once.

Choose "recompute properties as" and enter a low value when you estimate the LOD filling degree (0.3... or even lower)

[Abrams 1,744]

Alright thanks guys i try theese methods

[nathkel 31]

What is needed for sticky names?

There are a lot of lots that don't allow for our custom names to stick. For example, you can rename the Maxis high school to "My City School" in-game and it will be saved with the city. Some custom lots will not save this name so that when you re-load the city, the lot reverts to its default name.

 

What must be present in a Lot for the name to stick to that plopped building? An LTEXT, a certain exemplar type or property?

[TekindusT 3,809]

I remember this question is asked from time to time. There are a couple of answers in this thread [link] that might be helpful to you

[nathkel 31]

That absolutely helps! You're a good neighbor!

[deanva 70]

Checkered background

When I use the overlay the original background was clear so you could see the overlay. Now I have a grey and white checker board and make seeing the overlays near impossible to see. Any suggestions on solving this problem?

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

Question, is there anyway to convert a lot from one type to another

So I recently made a lot that was a park (The only way I could make it large enough), I wanted to convert it from the park to an Industrial Plop, and was told to try out PIM-X, but when I did it said I was missing a .dll and that .dll file was freaking out my anti-virus. For some reason it won't let me allow the file either. SO I am asking you guys at Simtropolis if you know an alternative to PIM-X that will allow me to change lot types from Park to Ploppable Industry.

[rsc204 21,866]

You could manually change the lot properties using iLives Reader, but that is not an easy task unless you are quite experienced with the application.

The easiest solution is to solve the issue with your anti-virus, if it won't let you have control of your own PC, I'm not sure why you'd want it in the first place? There are plenty of free AV suites that won't make such a fuss such as Microsoft Security Essentials.