Custom buildings - where to put them (or not)

[TheMurderousCricket 5,097]

Guys, I've got a custom building-related question.

Obviously, any add-on buildings in SC4 should go into the "Plugins" folder. But that alone results in a mess sooner or later.

Is it ok, to put the buildings into additional directories within the "Plugins" folder to organize them? Or will that prevent the game from successfully loading them?

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

Yes, it is perfectly fine (and actually recommended for organisation) to establish a system of subfolders.

The game will attempt to read any valid game data inside, including from subfolders. As such, when structuring a Plugins folder, there are considerations with loading order which controls how files are processed when starting the game. An exception for subfolders is for DLL files such as SC4Fix and the Extra Cheats plugin. These need adding directly inside the root of Plugins with no subfolders, otherwise they'll not be loaded up properly for some reason.

You might find this thread useful for some Plugins folder structure methodology:

Ultimately the main thing is to establish a system which works well and makes most sense to each of us individually. I also recommend keeping a mirrored structure of items downloaded, so that way it helps with knowing what's installed in particular (and to keep readme and pics separate).

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

Something important which Cori has just reminded me about worth mentioning...

There is also a path length limit which the game has at 260 characters. See my post here for a summary on this.

Basically it's not a likely concern unless having dozens of subfolder layers with long names, and so just something to bear in mind. Otherwise it would prevent the game loading said content which is greater than the path limit SC4 accepts. (This is due to the architecture of the program.)

[TheMurderousCricket 5,097]

(Note to self - avoid the word "Vaðlaheiðarvegavinnuverkfærageymsluskúrslyklakippuhringurinn" as a subfolder name)