Modding questions from someone who hasn't played in years.

[dannyd1993 50]

     So, I haven't played in about 10 years. I re-installed the game about a month ago, which was an adventure in itself, with the windows 10 disc situation. I have spent over two weeks building my plugins folder, trying out different terrain mods and tree controllers. I've downloaded about 2gb worth of custom content, (half of that is dependencies). Many of the lots I got, I want to edit. The lots themselves and especially the properties, including cost, capacity, coverage, etc. I am pretty familiar with the Maxis Lot Editor and Plugin Manager, as I used to do a little custom editing to lots long ago. If I download a custom lot with a Lot, Model and Desc. file. I can easily do what I need to do in the aforementioned programs. Since my return, there have been many changes. Many new lots have a DAT file, which is new to me. There are new programs, namely the SC4PIM (or X-PIM) and Ilive's reader. These also are new to me and I'm struggling with them, even with the tutorials found here. I'm not very savvy when it comes to computers. I'd say on a scale of 1-10, I'm like a 4 or 5. But I can follow directions. I'm sure, given enough time, I'll get familiar with them. Let me try to get to my questions...The first thing I wanted to modify are the substations by Simmer2.

 

 These are beautiful lots and I'd like to use them, but I want to make some changes to suit my needs. First, I'd like to make the substations Waste to Energy Plants. This will eliminate the need for landfills and power plants all over my region. Secondly, I'd like to change the cost, power output, etc. But since these are DAT files. I can't do that with the programs I am used to. I may be able to do it in the reader program, but I am totally befuddled when I try to examine these there. So, I thought I'd just relot them since I have all the props I need. Also, these questions apply to other relots I plan to do, even if I do figure out how to do these particular lots in the reader.

 

  As I was searching the lot files here, I came across the BLaM Blank...

 

 

   I decided to give these a try, but I have run into what may or may not be a problem, and I was hoping to get some clarification. So, what I did in preparation to do the relots was I copied the blank.

 

 

And I made three copies. Changing them to this...

 

 

Changing the first part of the file name, but leaving the numbers as were. But when I open the PIM, it only shows one of these. The last one alphabetically. Which is Substation_3.

 

 

I'd like to know why this is. I wasn't sure if I should change the numbers a little or get rid of them altogether. Would it matter if I named the file: DD_Substation_1.SC4Model? I'm not sure what the numbers mean or if I should even mess with them. If I leave these like this and I make say, 10 lots renaming them in like manner, will the last DESC file to load control all lots with that blank model? Another thing I notice here is the word "blank" appears under the column "Name". Is this what's going on here? If so, how do you change that? Anyways, these are the questions I have thus far. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Even more so if someone can walk me through making these changes in the reader program concerning these particular files.

[CorinaMarie 29,856]

A short post to get you started while I prepare a more thorough answer.

The reason you only see one of your copied lots is that internally they have the same TGI and therefore are overriding each other. For tweaking the various properties like cost and such you will have to do that in Reader so relotting them won't gain you anything. I presume you have iLive - Reader 0.9.3. Did you also get: The Reader, Beginners Guide?

[CorinaMarie 29,856]

In Reader I've loaded SM2 Power Transformer 1.dat:

 

For starters I'll show how to change the cost per month:

 

That will popup this:

^ The value is in hexadecimal so that 19 is really 25 Simoleons.
 

Double click that blue line for edit mode.

^ Here I've changed it to 64 hex which is 100 in decimal.
 

Then click the first Apply button to set that value:

 

And after you click the lower apply button it sets the property and you can see it has changed:

Then you'd save the file and now you have a new cost per month.

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

First of all just to say that the Reader is the most advanced tool which can edit the entire range of accessible exemplar properties on lots. There is a somewhat steep learning curve, but the advantage is the benefit of direct editing. One thing to keep in mind is that most values are in hexadecimal form, which means they're not interpreted as entered. The game uses this from where the value will be read as a decimal. There are tools online to achieve this, or the Windows Calculator has a function in "Programmer" mode.

I would overall highly recommend the Reader as being the tool to learn, and even the basics can go a long way.

For editing the main properties like costs, the LEProp might come in handy. This is a simplified tool also developed by iLive, and has the ability to perform certain simple edits via a user interface structured in menus by game functions.

Opening up SM2 Power Transformer 1.dat and it appears like so:

Here we can see where the costs can be edited and the other main properties. The Name is the menu title shown in game, and below is the description (empty here).

To implement a change: First enter a new value, then hit Apply at the bottom, followed by Save DAT at the top. The "Rollback" button will revert changes to how they were upon first opening the file, so that can be useful if needing to go back without re-opening the item.

 

In terms of implementing a Waste to Energy function, I don't believe this is possible using the LEProp.

I tried adding a "Landfill" function from the Power & Water page:

 

But in the game I only noticed the lot appeared in the "Sanitation Systems" menu along with the Landfill and Recycling Centre. The query could be changed though, but this wasn't the same as what the Maxis W2E plant uses which displays on the query: Trash Incinerated (Tons)

So I suspect like other complexities, this requires a special property adding via Reader.

[CorinaMarie 29,856]

Adding the Waste to Energy is a wee bit more complicated. Here again I have the SM2 Power Transformer 1.dat file open in Reader.

Right click in the right hand pane and select Add property:

 

Notice the Name value of !Unknown! :

 

Change that to Waste to energy monthly Capacity:

 

And I added the value to be 5,000 decimal which is entered as 0x00001388 in hex:

 

Now we also want to see how much trash is incinerated per month so double click the Query exemplar GUID line in the right hand pane to pop up this:

 

And change that value to 0x6A562F56 so it will use the same query box as the W2E Plant in the game:

 

And save all the changes. Here it is plopped in a game and the trash on hand is declining:

 

And that's the basics of it.

[dannyd1993 50]

Thanks for your response and willingness to help me with this. Especially the Reader.  First, I'd like to clarify something.

 

6 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

The reason you only see one of your copied lots is that internally they have the same TGI and therefore are overriding each other.

 

Since I plan to use these BLaM blanks to do many other relots, I'd like some more information on this. I'll refer you to the questions posted at the end of my first post. Just add to it: I have no idea what TGI means. Moving on, I do have the Reader installed, although not the version you linked to (0.9.3). I have this version, which I believe, is the most recent.

 

 

And thanks to that link to the beginner's guide. The one I got from SC4D was completely devoid of pictures. Anyway, I am following your instructions step by step, and only one question so far. When you added the waste to energy property, The box labeled "Rep" was at 0. After the changes it was at 1. Mine came up at 0 and stayed there. I changed mine to 1 to match yours. What is Rep? And why did you change that one and not the others? I really appreciate your help and already am getting the hang of it. I'll try to make the other changes I want and let you know if I have any further questions...I'm sure I will.  >>

 

And thanks  Cyclone Boom   for the link to the LEProp. This is the first I'm hearing of it. I'll check it out.

 

[CorinaMarie 29,856]

2 hours ago, dannyd1993 said:

Since I plan to use these BLaM blanks to do many other relots, I'd like some more information on this.

For this part we'll need a Lotter/Batter expert to chime in. So far I've only made one single lot from scratch. I used PIM-X (for which reading the guide that comes with it is essential) and because I was placing a building that already has a defined LOD I didn't need to worry about starting from a blank lot template.

 

2 hours ago, dannyd1993 said:

I have no idea what TGI means.

When you are in Reader look in the left hand pane and the last three columns are the Type, Group, and Instance. In most cases you'll never change the T or G part, but the series of three hex numbers are the full path (internally) to that exemplar. So it's the I part that is usually what one changes to make a unique copy of something. The Instance ID is often abbreviated as IID.

 

2 hours ago, dannyd1993 said:

I have this version, which I believe, is the most recent.

You are correct that it is the most recent. And for some specialty things like getting to the NoKickOutLowerWealthLevels property it is the version you need cause 0.93 doesn't see that one. However, the 1.5.4 has a nasty bug in which it will corrupt data in the file so you have to be extra careful to keep multiple, incremental backups made at the OS level so you can revert to one of them when it happens. If you absolutely must use 1.5.4 the major tip is to only save one time. In other words make all changes you intend to make and save the file. Then completely exit the program before working on another .dat or even the same .dat. Then thru Windoze Explorer make a copy to another folder outside of Plugins of that version before editing it again.

Or, just grab 0.93 and use it. It turns out that's the safer way to go.

 

2 hours ago, dannyd1993 said:

When you added the waste to energy property, The box labeled "Rep" was at 0.

The Reader did that automatically when I added the data field. (Where I typed in the 0x00001388.) The rep stands for repetitions. The properties of an exemplar (the lines in the right hand pane) sometimes need multiple fields within them. The rep count tells how many variables (fields) there are. In particular, in a lot properties exemplar most of properties have 13 reps with each field corresponding to something that defines the position of the LOD, a texture, or a prop and which of those it is.

This is a good point to bring up inasmuch as rep 0 and rep 1 mean the same in a Windoze game environment, however if you share the lot with someone using the Mac version of the game those that say rep 1 can cause the 1/1000th bug for them. Like a bus station that is set to have a capacity of 10,000 will only have a capacity of 10 if used on a Mac when the rep is 1, but it'll be fine if the rep is 0. In this particular case yours auto set to 0 is a good thing and mine would only be useful in a Windoze setting.

What I don't know for sure is if every single time there is only one field in a property if it should be set to 0 or if there are times it has to be 1.

[dannyd1993 50]

Okay! I was able to go in and make it to a Waste to Energy Plant, adjust the waste capacity, energy output, jobs, flammability, pollution factors, plop and monthly costs, and a couple of other things by using the SC4 Tool as a reference. There were a few other things that I wasn't sure about, such as degradation rate, failure thresholds, etc. So I just left those as were. But, I was able to change the things I wanted to change. I'm glad I was able to figure this out with your help. Thank you so much. Now I just need someone to advise on the BLaM blanks. I plan to use those for other lots I plan to modify. From what I have read, the first two groups of numbers should not be changed, but the third group can. I just want to make sure I don't change that group to something that will interfere, but be unique.

[CorinaMarie 29,856]

10 minutes ago, dannyd1993 said:

There were a few other things that I wasn't sure about, such as degradation rate, failure thresholds, etc.

Of those the one I change on every power station I use is the Age degradation rate. I personally set it to zero so I never have to replace a power plant in the game. For the Maxis Plants there is Paeng's Age Degradation Mod which has three .dat file choices for that property. If you open each one in Reader and look at that property you can see what value to use to double or quadruple their life expectancy. Or in the Degrade_radical.dat the value needed to make them last 5,000 years. (Again, for myself, I said phooey on that and just set it to zero so they don't degrade at all.) I've learned a lot by peeking in .dats created by other peeps.

 

16 minutes ago, dannyd1993 said:

Now I just need someone to advise on the BLaM blanks.

For this part, I'd prolly first read the Lot - Resources / Help thread over in the SC4 BAT & Lot Workshop forum and then add a reply there if it's still clear as mud.

Btw, the SimCity 4 Builders Forum (where those are located) is more targeted at the techy aspects of Lots and Mods and Bats whereas this SimCity 4 Players Forum (where we are now) is more geared to game play aspects. We cross paths as it is often a fuzzy line for which forum is best suited for which questions and discussions. In this case the Modding part CB and I have posted about prolly should go in the SC4 Modding - Open Discussion and then your question about lots in the workshop.

So, with that in mind I'm going to move this thread and we should prolly keep its discussion to only the modding part (changing and adding properties to exemplars) and you can ask about the lotting in the other thread.

[rsc204 21,857]

Using a new blank for each lot you make is a terrible habit to get into, I'd strongly advise you don't because it can cause all sorts of unnecessary problems later.

Each lot must have a Building upon it, because this is in actuality a Buildings Exemplar, which contains all the properties of your lot. That Buildings Exemplar file, has a property called Resource Key Type # (where # is typically 1). This Resource Key Type 1 value is how a model is linked to the Buildings Exemplar, i.e. the ID here is the ID (TGI) of the model that appears when you place the Building upon the lot in LE. You can re-use one model as many times as you like, because 20 Buildings Exemplars can all link to the same Model, whilst allowing each of those Buildings Exemplars to be totally different. In fact one model can be many things, Buildings, Props, Flora, you only ever need one though, so it's better to re-use one, although even that is unnecessary.

Maxis included a blank model with the game, you should ideally use this one for all your Building needs. Because it saves on completely needless additional dependencies. I.e., if you ever distribute it, you know everyone will already have this blank as it comes with SC4. There are two ways to achieve this:

1. Either by manually entering the TGI in the Resource Key Type 1 field
   IMPORTANT: You should alter the Property from Resource Key Type 1 to Resource Key Type 0 if doing this. With the property window open, you can select a different RTK type from the drop-down list.
   • 0x5AD0E817,0xBADB57F1,0x0E110000
     Alternately you can use a null key
   • 0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00000000
     SC4 treats this identically to a blank/invisible model. It will not display a brown box nor search for a model, this ID simply tells the game it doesn't need to display one.
2. Otherwise you can simply use an appropriate blank model when creating your new Buildings Exemplar
   With PIM-X (which is both a PIM and LE in one), select the "Blank" from "Other Models" on the left pane. Drag this model to a Building category and your new Buildings Exemplar will use an appropriate blank model. You should download the official PIM-X manual if you haven't and work through the examples to make a Grow and Plop lot, it will help you get the hang of using it.
   Note: This method is essentially Step 1, only PIM-X handles it all for you automatically.

Note that neither of these methods requires any sort of blank model, but works identically to using one. If using the Maxis PIM though, it's simply not possible to not have a blank model. Sadly, modders don't really understand this area of the game and just keep creating more and more needless blanks. When the reality is that only one would ever have been needed for every conceivable purpose. 

Few modders who don't BAT realise you should use PIM to make a custom Buildings Exemplar for every new lot. It's how PIM-X works by default, copying lots just causes many problems. But if you don't want to use PIM-X, I've covered doing this the Maxis way in depth in this tutorial:

I've included a blank with this tutorial which can be re-used/freely re-distributed too.

[dannyd1993 50]

OK. I think I understand. I don't actually need a new model for each lot like I tried to do in the first post. If I want to, say, modify the Maxis water tower, fire stations and clinics, using the blank model for buildings, and the original buildings as props, I can just use the same blank to make the desc files, then make the lots which, since these are ploppables, will include the desc files which can then be deleted. And I just keep that blank model file somewhere in my plugins folder, along with these new lot files, and everything works fine. And if I want to, say, relot a file I download using only the building (model file), I would use that to make a desc file, make my lot the way I want, which will then include the desc file, which can be deleted as long as it's not a growable, keeping only the new lot file and original model file.

 Great tutorial by the way, I actually downloaded it a few days ago and kinda skimmed over it. If I would have done the step by step as I read along, I probably could have saved you the trouble. Thanks y'all. I really appreciate the help.

[rsc204 21,857]

Exactly, just keep on such blank model and use it for all lots, that way you've only a single blank as a dependency to keep track of and no unnecessary redundant files.

[dannyd1993 50]

Hi all. I'm back with a few more questions. I've been working on a power plant relot and I believe it's ready to go. I've gotten pretty familiar with the reader and the PIM-X recently, but there are just a couple of properties I'm not 100% sure of. One is the Age to output level response curve. Would I be correct to assume that if i set the degradation rate to zero that this line is, in effect, meaningless? Second is the  Age to maintenance cost multiplier response curve. Obviously, if the plant produces no radiation then these properties are meaningless. So should I delete this line or just not worry about it? And lastly, when I connected the rail, it shows an ugly texture on the first tile outside the plant. I also get a similar effect on diagonal roads with anything near it. I believe there is a way to correct this, but I can't seem to find out what mod I need to do it.

 

[rsc204 21,857]

The effect you refer to is caused by zoning, which in turns adds "Wealthing" to transport networks. There are 4 wealths, Rural, $, $$ & $$$ in total, networks next to farms and the rail network next to any zone will get the Rural wealthing (dirt). You can safely override it with a transparent texture, which will ensure you never see this ugliness on your railways, but you'll also get transparent gaps next to farms too. No way around that problem, without lots of modding textures at least. Rivit includes such a mod with his RUM for RRW package, which since you are using RRW, is highly recommended:

Game networks like roads are more difficult, because there is a second element in play re: wealthing here. Ever notice how the grasses on these pieces will change colours between a yellow-green, to two darker greens? Or how sidewalks alter between (by default), Grey, White and Pink? That's the effect of wealthing going on, which matches the wealth of zones to different textures. Keeping things simple, there are 3 main wealths, $, $$ and $$$ again. (Actually there are 8, but this quickly gets more complex than necessary). Each transit texture has an Alpha or Transparency channel, when no zoning is present, you get say a road, with no sidewalk or grass. When $ wealthing zones are present, you get the $ wealth texture and so on for the three main wealths. The sidewalk is added dynamically by the game, filling any transparent parts of the texture, but the grass is "Baked-In", meaning to control it, you must modify the texture. Whereas you can swap sidewalks and they just replace the existing ones with a different style, for grass this is impossible.

There is a term for the nasty effect on diagonals, the diagonal "jaggies", many people, myself included hate them. So over the years, modders have devoted their efforts to find solutions to improve these areas. A simple one is using diagonal fillers, which can help to turn squares into triangles:

Of course, the problem with this approach is that it can get out of hand easily, before you know it there are a string of fillers all over the place. Special overhanging filles, find some attached to the following post, can help, because they don't fill an entire tile:

Note both these mods are Sidewalk/Grass neutral, meaning they adapt to whatever is installed. In that way they are pretty unique, but plenty of other similar mods exist.

Still not perfect though, since they won't work well on slopes and you can't fill every gap this way. There are some useful overhanging gap-fillers that used sparingly help too. Paeng made some industrial stuff, Mas71 has a couple diagonal parks and Magneto made some excellent overhanging parking. Of course those are but a few examples, plenty of other stuff exists if you dig around. Combine all these things and you can make a real difference to the problem.

As ever though, it all depends on how far down the rabbit-hole you want to go. I made my TGN mod with the goal of creating network textures with grasses that looked similar enough to the terrain, that it mostly takes care of the problem, like so:

 You'll need a supported terrain mod ideally, but the SV version works OK with the Maxis terrain:

[dannyd1993 50]

Wow! That TGN looks fantastic! I'll definitely be using that. I haven't decided yet if I'll be using the Sudden Valley or Appalachian mod yet, but I'm happy to see you have one for both. I didn't have either installed when I took the pic because I had my plugin folder bare bones for my power plant lotting. Also, thanks for pointing me to the RUM. I looked at it, but thought it was just a reskin for the overpasses. But it definitely does have a file in there that corrects that rail texture issue. I'll gladly sacrifice the agriculture roadside texture for that...looks just fine to me.

Since I can finally take presentable pics of my new power plant, I was hoping to get some feedback before I upload it.  It's a monster...a 14x28 relot of Jestarr's coal plant. I'm not sure how people will feel about the parking lot, but I think that is something most lots lack. It provides 600 jobs but the lot holds about 1/3 that to account for most workers using mass transit. I used many popular dependency packs such as PEG's security fencing, rail fleet and CDK3 super pack, as well as pretty much all of SM2's packs. I also used the base texture for the dirty IRM lots.

 

 

The train is timed to show up just after the gates open in the morning, and there are 2 timed trucks, and the SHK props are, of course, timed also. My intention was to make it blend in with Simmer's power pack and PEG's industrial stuff as well as the IRM lots.

[CorinaMarie 29,856]

3 hours ago, dannyd1993 said:

I was hoping to get some feedback before I upload it.  It's a monster...a 14x28 relot of Jestarr's coal plant. I'm not sure how people will feel about the parking lot, but I think that is something most lots lack.

It looks great and I personally like all the added parking being in the lot. It took me a long while to remember to leave room to add parking lots when laying out a city. This will save time by having them already there.

Btw, are those PEG Power Tower Pylons? If so, did you tweak the typo for zoom 4 where one particular angle doesn't get the re-skin and shows up red? If needed I fixed it in this post.

 

[dannyd1993 50]

15 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

Btw, are those PEG Power Tower Pylons? If so, did you tweak the typo for zoom 4 where one particular angle doesn't get the re-skin and shows up red? If needed I fixed it in this post.

They are. I was unaware of that glitch til you pointed it out. I fixed it per your post. Thanks again for walking me through the reader earlier. I've become really familiar with it since then. Now if I could just give them a transparent base texture...

[CorinaMarie 29,856]

8 hours ago, dannyd1993 said:

Thanks again for walking me through the reader earlier. I've become really familiar with it since then.

You're welcome. It's really fun to take control of stuff when using that program.

 

8 hours ago, dannyd1993 said:

Now if I could just give them a transparent base texture...

The Peg mod is just the re-skin so we'd have to find where the base lot exemplar is in SimCity_1.dat and then remove the base (and overlay if it has one) texture(s). Taking a quick peek myself, I've only found the towers, but not the base. However, it seems I recall someone has already done this. We might have it on our STEX or it could be over on Devotion's LEX. I do suspect that removing the base texture might cause the water bug, but I'm not certain of that.

Edit: On the other hand, I believe the power towers get a foundation so they can be placed on severe slopes. It might not be possible to remove these. For the ones with no base textures I could be remembering someone's alternate power towers which require completely flat ground such that they don't need a foundation.