Help using Building Themes per District mod

[AmiPolizeiFunk 446]

I'm a city painter and I'm trying to gain some control over my neighborhoods. I'm pretty sure that "Building Themes per District" by Boformer is the mod for this but I'm having trouble learning how to use it. Are there other mods that you guys use in conjunction with it? Do you city painters use the "Always Demand" mod? Cause I'm having demand issues and I'm not sure if I want to remove that aspect from the gameplay. Also, when you plop a building from a theme, do you have to lock it every time, or is there an easier way to get it to stick?

 

Even just some kind of quick introduction to how you use the Building Themes per District mod would be really helpful. I'm having trouble figuring out the GUI.

 

thx in advance

[Delta2k5 311]

You could use ploppable RICO on this end too - Simply open it's settings and make the growables RICO ploppables - once plopped they'll remain whatever happens (besides destroyed using fire and other disasters)

I primary work using building themes and can give you a (even german) hand on it - feel free to add me on steam if you want to.

Right now I'm at work, so it would be kinda hard using screenshots ofc.

[AmiPolizeiFunk 446]

I feel silly asking this, but I simply want to pick buildings and place them manually and have them stick. Do you think RICO is better for this than building themes? I also want a filler option where I put a bunch of buildings into a set and it grows from that set.

[Delta2k5 311]

To simply pick buildings to place them -> ploppable RICO is best. Downside on this: Those buildings won't grow anymore as they got converted to a kind of landmark with special abilities

To create a set on buildings to grow on a specific area -> building themes. In short: You have to create sets which include LVL1 buildings to the desire LVL - it's also important that they have the same footprint!

An example: If you want to grow any building which is level 3 on a 2x4 footprint your theme must include on level 1 building 2x4 and one level 2 building 2x4 of the same kind.

then, after you created a theme, you have to lay down a district where those buildings have to grow. In the policies tab you then select that theme on this district. You have to keep in mind that only those buildings grow which are included in that theme! So, if you'd like to grow some commercial buildings they have to be included in that theme too!  Otherwise nothing will happen there.  

 

best.

[AmiPolizeiFunk 446]

Ok this is already very helpful.

This problem with RICO (that I've mentioned before) about burned down buildings having no simple option to "Rebuild" is a big drawback.

What about demand? Do you use a mod to increase demand? Maybe I don't need that because my themed areas probably aren't working because of the issues you listed. I'll check those issues first.

[Delta2k5 311]

On the demand-end I've - well - got a different approach. I don't use the vanilla way at all as my cities are heavily modded using realistic population and consumption mod + rush hour. So things that work on my end won't probably work on yours  

[barcasam7 185]

I use this mod - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=924884948&searchtext= it allows you to plop down any growable residential building with this mod - http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=837734529 it's a life saver for me.

[Avanya 2,605]

If you want to hand place (most) buildings, then I'd recommend getting Plop the Growables. You can still zone areas and buildings will spawn, but they'll stay at level 1 (since Plop the Growables stops leveling up). If you'd like them all to level up (including the ones you plop by hand), then you might want to use Disable Zone Check instead, so you don't have to zone every time.

RICO really isn't recommended anymore for hand placing stuff, but is the mod to use for larger than 4x4 buildings you want to give RICO functions. I really wouldn't recommend turning a lot of growables into RICO buildings these days, since Plop the Growables is a much easier way to go about that.

Now for Building Themes. You can check out this video, which might help get a better feel for how the mod works. It's from a time before we could plop growables, so I'm not sure how it affects plopped buildings. Generally it only lets buildings in the theme spawn and nothing else. So if there's only buildings on 2x2 lots it will fill out an area with those. It's important to know that all buildings need lots of the same size on lower levels to spawn. So a 4x3 level 4 building won't spawn unless there's level 1-3 4x3 buildings in the theme as well. If you haven't added any commercial buildings to a theme, you also won't have any commercial spawn in that district. But you can use several themes for a district. For example I have 1-2 themes that have industry buildings in them and then maybe 5 residential themes and 2-3 commercial + office themes that I mix and match for areas instead of having industry, commercial and offices added for every residential theme.

Building Themes can also clone buildings for different levels. Using the example above you might have a 4x3 level 4 building that fits the theme, but nothing for the lower levels that look right. You can then make clones of it for level 1-3. It uses the same textures and mesh, so not a lot of extra stuff needs to be loaded. It's a feature that isn't on by default in options and you need to reload the game for the clones to appear.

As for demand I don't use anything that enhances that (well, Rush Hour messes with it a bit, but not something like high demand for everything). When I'm placing stuff by hand I just keep adding it as I go along and wait for people to move in. I find that with good coverage of services and parks here and there keeps new residents coming as long as unemployment isn't high. And for other stuff I keep an eye on how many or few people are left who need jobs.

[Delta2k5 311]

On 22.2.2018 at 9:17 PM, barcasam7 said:

it allows you to plop down any growable residential building with this mod - http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=837734529 it's a life saver for me.

You don't need find it for this task  you can plop buildings also down using Building Themes

The benefit of this is the buildings still grows and the zoning stays the same