tutorial Mayor Mode Props in God Mode tiles

[Terring 6,473]

The tutorial you're going to read is based on a discovery I made back in 2013, when I was working my final entry of My Maxis Project city journal, and by reading the title of the topic you'll be very close to what we're going to talk about. But first, let me show you a small taste of my terrible landscaping skills

Let's begin from the peak of this mountain. I have a mod that reduces the altitude needed to get snow, so I can have it without the need of rising very tall mountains, and planting those snow capped trees is a brilliant to make it nice and realistic. Now, some of you might ask why there are pines with no snow on them. This is because the terrain mod I have changes its textures almost every month, including the snow, so sometimes I have more snow and other times I have less of it. Which means that if I'm at the maximum quantity of snow when I'm planting those snow capped trees, odds are at the very next month I'll have those very trees at green landscapes away from snow, which is even more silly and crazy

And here are some deer, looking for something to eat.

Ah, yes. Plenty of details. Until now I used to just cover my landscapes with the Maxis trees. And that's all. Now I'm going for more details and variety, and a more naturalistic result, including flowers, bushes, dead trees, logs etc. I'm actually using the alternating textures of my terrain mod as a guide to paint my happy little trees and flowers.

I also made a small lake by using PEG PPOND KIT. Of course I know it's ugly and it's definitely something I need to improve. But for now, it is what it is.

Some animals have come closer at the shores of the lake, including wild boars and deer. And llamas.

As well as humans.

And this is where the lake ends, to a larger body of water by a small river. Watch carefully and you'll see turtles, corals and fishes.

By the way, speaking about humans, I even made a small park, with picnic tables, parking sites for cars, an old donkey engine, and an observation tower to enjoy the view.

Look closely and you'll see a robot helping at maintaining this site.

And if we'll follow the small path to the woods, we'll find a small lake to swim and have some fun. Don't jump from that big rock, though. You really don't want to dive to such a shallow lake.

And a last picture. Just for the goodbye.

So, we have plenty of Mayor Mod props at our city tile, so of course we're at Mayor Mode. But wait a minute. If that's true, what's going on with our UI? Why MySim Mode is deactivated, along other buttons? And why the God Mode has the original tools instead of the Mayor Mode ones? That's because... we haven't been at Mayor Mode at all, all that time!

Need further proof? Here we are. We have no name in our city, because we have no city at all here. And if you click at this very tile when you're on region, you'll not get the ordinary information, because there is no city here, because this tile is at the God Mode.

So, it's possible to have Mayor Mode props at a God Mode tile? Yes, it is. We're going to get down and dirty very soon, as well as exploring some of the possibilities of this. But first, just before this cliffhanging ending, here is a very basic tutorial to give it a try by yourself.

1) Go to any region you want and pick any pristine tile you please. As you can imagine, that tile should be on God Mode and it should not have any city on Mayor Mode.

2) Found a city at this tile to open the Mayor Mode toolbar, and thus having access to your MMPs.

3) Have fun painting your tile with whatever MMPs you have. Make your landscape as awesome as you want it. Make sure however that you only use MMPs and nothing else. No lots, no parks, nothing urban at all. Only MMPs.

4) Happy with the result? Have you finished customizing your tile? Are you sure you're done with it? If yes, obliterate them all! Yes, you read that right. Click at the God Mode button and select Obliterate City. This is the key of this trick. Obliteration removes any trait of civilization, such as roads and buildings, but lets any MMP untouched. And this is exactly what we want, which is also the very reason why you shouldn't add any lot or have any kind of city at this tile.

No sit back and enjoy. You just have Mayor Mode props at God Mode area. Why you might want to give it a try and what kind of incredible things you can do with this is coming soon. Stay tuned and watch this space

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

Very, very clever. I had asked about something like this before, a mod that would allow mmp's to be used in God Mode. I was told it couldn't be done. You just proved them wrong.

Will go try this out.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

This also works out as a nice little budget cheat, as you can use streets and hole diggers till you run out of money, destroy, and repeat. Plan on wearing sunglasses for the nuke effect.

Me likes.

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

You want to tell me these objects are available in the vannila version...?

If not, could you tell me what mods are you using?

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

1 hour ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

You want to tell me these objects are available in the vannila version...?

If not, could you tell me what mods are you using?

You will have to join SCDevotion to get some of what's on the list. I would recommend dl'ing a handful at a time to get a feel for using them. There are some dead links. It seriously needs updating and many new links since 2011. They are commonly called MMP's btw. You were searching in props, most of which are dependencies. I highly recommend girafe's trees, as they are very good with lots of variations.

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

1 hour ago, SIM-ple Jack said:

You will have to join SCDevotion to get some of what's on the list. I would recommend dl'ing a handful at a time to get a feel for using them. There are some dead links. It seriously needs updating and many new links since 2011. They are commonly called MMP's btw. You were searching in props, most of which are dependencies. I highly recommend girafe's trees, as they are very good with lots of variations.

Looks wonderful. I already have the first item on the list. Thanks!

[Terring 6,473]

Here is a tip. When you're using Google to search for things, put your key words and then the order site:[link] to search for your key words at this link. For instance, if you search for "mmps site:https://community.simtropolis.com/files/" on Google, you'll find a lot of MMPs  on STEX. If you still can't find whatever you want, play with the key words, try something different, like ploppable props or something similar.

[Terring 6,473]

I promised a second part of this tutorial, which was supposed to be more like an example of reasons and possibilities and less like an actual tutorial, since by now you already know the drill. Pick a tile, add MMPs and hit Obliterate City. Simple as ABC, but ABC by itself is a bit boring, unless you get a small example of what you can do with ABC. Alright, let's do this.

For this example , we're going to pick a city tile from Timbuktu Too. For this example, we want a tile that have some variety. You know, a little bit of snow, a little bit of water. Something interesting and fun to play and experiment with.

And I think I found a good enough piece of land. Let's pick this one.

When you're in God Mode, you have access to some very cool tools to terraform your land, such as raising mountains and digging oceans. But when it comes to plant trees and add some nice details, your choices are very limited. You only have the Maxis-made tree controller, and this one has a very limited pallet of trees. The next best thing is using a custom-made tree controller, which comes with a much greater variety of trees (and also with tons of necessary dependencies), but even the best one can get you this far. What if you want to add rocks, flowers, lakes, rivers, paths and anything else? In God Mode, even with an awesome custom-made tree controller, you just can't.

This is why you need to activate the Mayor Mode, because it's at this mode that you can have access to a much larger variety of props to customize your land, provided you already have some MMPs in your plugin folder. So let's found a city...

...check our MMPs...

...and have some fun!

Now it's only up to you to customize your land, and you can do whatever you want, for whatever reason you need to use your MMPs. Maybe you want to add some details that you just can't add in God Mode, like rocks and flowers. Maybe you want to add something more specific and important, such as rivers and lakes. Or maybe you want to use your MMPs to tell a nice story. Or, you might want to just unleash the artist you have inside and become your SimCity's Bob Ross, planting happy little trees and painting beautiful landscapes. You can go to something simple and cozy, or to something detailing and epic. This is up to you. But for the sake of this example, we'll try to archive a balance between variety and simplicity, just to give you an example while making it nice.

See? This is a (even small) level of realism and detailing that you can't get in God Mode. Why limiting ourselves to only a small variety of trees, when we can have more types of trees, as well as flowers and bushes?

And rocks? Don't forget the rocks. Those guys can... rock your landscape. *ba-dum-tssshhh!*

And maybe some dead trees too. Or some logs. Or some surface water to make mountain lakes and rivers. It all depends on what kind of MMPs you have and what you want to do with them. In other words, it's only up to you.

And do you know something cool about MMPs? You can put whatever you want at wherever you want. For instance, if your map has plenty of snow, in God Mode you can either cover those areas with your tree controller or let them barren. But in Mayor Mode, you can use trees covered by snow to add some realism and variety to your landscape.

Another good thing about the Mayor Mode is the fact that you can use the transportation tools, with some assistance by your slope mod, for further and more detailed terraforming, such as smoothing the ground for paths and dirty roads.

But wait, there is more. Not all of the MMPs are about natural things such as trees and rocks. Some of them add some civilization to your wilderness, like tents, signs, cars, passenger airplanes, even buildings. You can create small settlements made by MMPs to tell a story. And here we have two of them, all made by MMPs.

This is a small settlement which was set up by explorers and free-spirit people, who just have had enough with our "civilization" and decided to build a small and isolated colony with their rules and ideals.

Their colony has a small electric engine to provide them with some energy, a small seaport for fishing and harvesting weed, an observation tower that can also work as a lighthouse, a small graveyard, and a pad for Vertical Take Over and Land aircrafts that provide necessary supplies to the colonists, all maintained by a robot.

But they're not alone. Some native folks have already made a small settlement of their own. Let's hope that both the natives and the colonists with live and share their land peacefully.

So, this is it. Our landscape is ready, with all the details and stories we want to add. Now, we can just let it as it is, just save and exit, right? Well, yes, we can do this. But that very city tile will still be considered by the game as urban tile, in Mayor Mode, with an actual city on it. And this is not what we want to do. I don't know for you, but having an entire region considered as a big city, with all of its tiles in Mayor Mode just because I wanted to add some extra props, is a deal breaker for me. I like letting some of my region in pristine situation, preserving and even enriching nature by adding some nice looking things. We usually do this with MMPs, obviously in tiles with already established cities, and some of us wishing we could use those MMPs in God Mode tiles too. An having a region with some of its tiles detailed and some other of them plain is a big eyesore and make the region look ugly. So, what we can do? Returning this tile to God Mode, while keeping intact the Mayor Mode props? Yes! And it's possible!
After customizing our landscape, we click the God Mode toolbar (after 100% ensuring what we have finished with our hard work) and choose Obliterate City. This will remove all trace of civilization, any prop-able lot and transportation system we have, without touching the flora type of props. Including the MMPs, which is what we want. So, click Obliterate City...

...and we're now back to the God Mode. See? The date has been reset, the Mayor Mod button is deactivated, and all the God Mode tools are back. We're in God Mode...

...but we still have our Mayor Mode props. All the extra trees (including the snow covered ones), all the flowers, all the rocks and all the bushes we have planted in Mayor Mod are still here, in God Mode.

Even our settlements are now in God Mode.

And when we return to the Region View, we'll get this. A more detailed tile...

...in God Mode.

Do the same above thing in every single tile of your region and you'll get a very beautiful and realistic natural landscape, with everything you want and some more. Have fun

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

@Terring

I've tinkered under the hood and this little mod I made will save you from needing to Obliterate your city tile.

Basically all this does is let the Terraform button in God Mode call the God Terraforming in Mayor Mode mod which has both Mayor Mode and God Mode together. (I see from one of your pics you do use it.) This allows placing MMPs before naming a city tile. I believe we could add the bulldozer in God mode too as that'd prolly be useful.

Add the .dat file attached at the end of this post to your Plugins. Then in a new city tile click the Terraform button:

 

It'll be mis-aligned as it was not intended for this, but it'll pop up in God mode:

 

(I'd already flora blasted so I cleared some room with the Soften tool.) Place all the MMPs you want and they will stay with the city tile when saving.

^ I don't have any custom MMPs myself, but I tested with the Maxis trees and CB tested with some Logs which worked too.
 

MMP in God Mode.dat

(Remember you need God Terraforming in Mayor Mode installed or the regular God Mode tools and brushes will disappear.)

Edit: No luck at all adding the Bulldozer so this mod is prolly of no use.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

11 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

MMP in God Mode.dat

(Remember you need God Terraforming in Mayor Mode installed or the regular God Mode tools and brushes will disappear.)

Mod of the Year...and the year just started!

[Terring 6,473]

Yeah, that's indeed a great start. The mod works flawlessly and I can finally paint my region while staying in the God Mode. If I remember correctly, Maxis had plans for another one expansion pack, this time focused on terraforming and the natural aspect of the game, such as adding weather and salt water. I wonder if now we're closer to what Maxis wanted to do.

I'll agree though that the lack of a bulldozer button is a big deal breaker, so if you make a mistake or want to change something, you'll either have to use the terraforming tools to remove those specific props, or raise the entire terrain and then lower it to remove everything. But I have an idea. NAM comes with a disconnector, a tool that removes a specific tile of any transit system, like road or highway, without messing with the rest of it.

So, is it possible to make a prop that works like the bulldozer? A prop that removes the props we want to remove and then disappears?

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

2 hours ago, Terring said:

NAM comes with a disconnector, a tool that removes a specific tile of any transit system, like road or highway, without messing with the rest of it. So, is it possible to make a prop that works like the bulldozer? A prop that removes the props we want to remove and then disappears?

Seems like it might be possible. I don't have that in my install of NAM so is it possible you could track down the .dat file it's in and send it to me? From there I might be able to figure out how it does its magic and create a new one that functions in the same way.

[Terring 6,473]

Sorry, I can't locate the .dat file that has this ability. @rsc204 and @Samerton are members of the NAM team, so maybe they can help us.

[rsc204 21,808]

4 hours ago, Terring said:

So, is it possible to make a prop that works like the bulldozer? A prop that removes the props we want to remove and then disappears?

How would you place it? In god-mode you can't access the regular menus, so before getting too deep you'll need a solution. I daresay it's possible to alter the UI in God Mode to add an additional option, like the Rain Tool does for example, if such modding can link to a lot, maybe this isn't an issue?

1 hour ago, CorinaMarie said:

Seems like it might be possible. I don't have that in my install of NAM so is it possible you could track down the .dat file it's in and send it to me? From there I might be able to figure out how it does its magic and create a new one that functions in the same way.

If you want a .dat file from the NAM without having to run the installer, open the .jar (or NSIS .exe) file with 7zip or similar. If anything the new .jar installer is even more intuitive here. The file you are looking for is:

2Additional Network Features\RealHighway\Base Features and Network Tool\RealHighway_Core.dat

The disconnector tool comprises of a placable item with an EffDir and S3D file 57f00005 and the FSH texture ending in E.

Bear in mind the RHW Disconnector is not so much a lot as a transit piece, I suspect it's function is controlled more by code in the NAM Controller than any lot-like properties you can simply copy/paste. Likewise removing transit pieces is quite a specific thing, I'm not sure if you can modify it to essentially remove Flora props only.

I think either @Tarkus, @Eggman121 or it's creator @Ganaram Inukshuk might be able to elaborate more, but a quick glance in the .dat doesn't reveal it's mysteries to me.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

1 hour ago, rsc204 said:

In god-mode you can't access the regular menus, ...

With just a teeny, tiny bit of Magic, I'm able to access any Mayor Mode Menu I want while in God Mode. However, anything lot based is not ploppable.

 

1 hour ago, rsc204 said:

The file you are looking for is:

2Additional Network Features\RealHighway\Base Features and Network Tool\RealHighway_Core.dat

The disconnector tool comprises of a placable item with an EffDir and S3D file 57f00005 and the FSH texture ending in E.

Sweet. Thanks for that!

As it turns out, I've been able to create a God Mode Flora Eraser terrain brush. I'm doing the final testing on it now and CB's going to make a fancy icon for it.

[rsc204 21,808]

Glad you found another way. Just bear in mind anything planted by the god mode brushes, must have it’s Exemplar present or the city will CTD upon opening. This might be less than obvious if the plopped items don’t show. May not be relevant depending on how you are doing this. 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

19 minutes ago, rsc204 said:

Just bear in mind anything planted by the god mode brushes, must have it’s Exemplar present or the city will CTD upon opening.

Cool. Sounds like good advice for @Terring and all other peeps who are aplopping MMPs in God Mode.

(All I've done is change the hex code to call the Mayor Mode Menu and that gives both menus when using @warrior's mod.)

 

19 minutes ago, rsc204 said:

May not be relevant depending on how you are doing this.

For the Flora Eraser I'm working on, it's simply the Maxis EarthquakeFault Terrain Brush, but set to alter the terrain by 0.0001 meters and that seems to be imperceptible with moderate usage. It's just enough shift of the terrain so the flora disappears.

Nothing I'm creating places any MMPs.

[rsc204 21,808]

32 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

Cool. Sounds like good advice for @Terring and all other peeps who are aplopping MMPs in God Mode.

I believe it only applies to Flora planted using the Brushes, more commonly known as a Tree Controller. If an MMP Exemplar is missing, I'm fairly certain it does not cause any harm.

33 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

For the Flora Eraser I'm working on, it's simply the Maxis EarthquakeFault Terrain Brush, but set to alter the terrain by 0.0001 meters and that seems to be imperceptible with moderate usage. It's just enough shift of the terrain so the flora disappears.

Creative solution as ever .

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

Alrighty! Tis ready for testing: Cori's Flora Eraser Brush - v1.0.dat See this post for v1.1.

And yes, it'll work with the God Terraforming in Mayor Mode mod too.

Special thanks to @Cyclone Boom for creating the PNG menu icon and the LText description.

  Edited May 4, 2021 by CorinaMarie  
Added Linky to Updated Brush File.

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

On 12/18/2020 at 4:58 PM, Terring said:

here is a very basic tutorial to give it a try by yourself.

1) Go to any region you want and pick any pristine tile you please. As you can imagine, that tile should be on God Mode and it should not have any city on Mayor Mode.

2) Found a city at this tile to open the Mayor Mode toolbar, and thus having access to your MMPs.

3) Have fun painting your tile with whatever MMPs you have. Make your landscape as awesome as you want it. Make sure however that you only use MMPs and nothing else. No lots, no parks, nothing urban at all. Only MMPs.

4) Happy with the result? Have you finished customizing your tile? Are you sure you're done with it? If yes, obliterate them all! Yes, you read that right. Click at the God Mode button and select Obliterate City. This is the key of this trick. Obliteration removes any trait of civilization, such as roads and buildings, but lets any MMP untouched. And this is exactly what we want, which is also the very reason why you shouldn't add any lot or have any kind of city at this tile.

No sit back and enjoy. You just have Mayor Mode props at God Mode area.

Very nice find @Terring. Thanks for sharing.

 

On 12/31/2020 at 8:16 PM, CorinaMarie said:

MMP in God Mode.dat

(Remember you need God Terraforming in Mayor Mode installed or the regular God Mode tools and brushes will disappear.)

Thanks Cori for making it one less step.

2 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

Alrighty! Tis ready for testing: Cori's Flora Eraser Brush - v1.0.dat

This works out great. Always needed a tool like this. I like the red dot, nice touch. Thanks

And thanks to CB and @rsc204 for helping. This will be helpful.

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

I just figured out something really cool as a bonus feature of Cori's precise Flora Eraser brush (attached above in her post).

Take this small town for example, featuring a completely uninspired grid-like zoning layout:

 

Then using Cori's Eraser and it allows trees to be felled on top of the lots, while still preserving the houses themselves:

(Click and use the arrow keys to flick between both pics.)

I kept a few trees in place to show how they could be preserved due to the precision.

No demolition occurs to the lots, and this is because Cori used a very low strength factor for the brush (0.0001 to be precise). As such it's within the tolerance for how they're able to survive, even using what is still a terrain brush which flora itself is sensitive to. The same applies to MMPs likewise, since they are flora items after all. I did find that road and street networks are removed though too, so just keep in mind when doing this around networks. (Especially elaborately crafted NAM networks.)

Of course, for fantastically frugal mayors, using Cori's Eraser is a perfectly viable method to bulldoze networks and avoid the $1 costs per cell too!

Just remember to save before attempting anything, since SC4 has no "undo" ability.

[Terring 6,473]

This is something that the game definitely needs. The ability to create your regions as you wish and remove flora type props without the need of demolishing and rebuilding an entire lot is a huge game changer. My only question is if it's possible to give Flora Eraser the ability to change its brush size as we wish, from small enough to remove single props (as it is right now) to big enough to clean entire areas. Now I can't wait to use those god-send gifts to my Fairview region. But for now, here is my small testing ground of those new tools. An entire area painted in the God Mode.

To make it a little more interesting, I added a meteor crater with a remnant of the meteor in the center of it, and an airplane flying over it. Again, all in the God Mode.

The year hasn't even begin and the CoriBoom Team kick butts for once again

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

Now, a mod that erases brown boxes on lots! *

 

 

 

I know, let's not go crazy, right!

[Terring 6,473]

Like this?

It doesn't exactly erases them, but multi-colored "smudges" is still better than those boxes

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

4 hours ago, Terring said:

My only question is if it's possible to give Flora Eraser the ability to change its brush size as we wish, from small enough to remove single props (as it is right now) to big enough to clean entire areas.

Yes indeed. New version attached. This is what CB suggested and I insisted it would only be needed for occasional high precision oopsie erasing.

Hold SHIFT while it's active to enlarge the size. Or, SHIFT + A Number to set the size just like any of the other terrain brushes.

Cori's Flora Eraser Brush - v1.1.dat

[Terring 6,473]

I gave it a try and it's exactly what I always wanted. Thank you very much

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

19 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

Yes indeed. New version attached. This is what CB suggested and I insisted it would only be needed for occasional high precision oopsie erasing.

Hold SHIFT while it's active to enlarge the size. Or, SHIFT + A Number to set the size just like any of the other terrain brushes.

Cori's Flora Eraser Brush - v1.1.dat

In answer to your response in another thread, Flora blast will go up, at least to 20000. I tried it at 10000 and 20000. No noticeable difference though. 5000 is probably the best you could use.

In regards to your mod, I noticed that a single click on the button gives you "butt cheeks"!

 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

3 hours ago, SIM-ple Jack said:

In regards to your mod, I noticed that a single click on the button gives you "butt cheeks"!

Yep. That's inherent in the Maxis terrain brush I repurposed to make this. The part which controls that is in the EffectDir and the editor CB and I've been working on for same isn't yet complete.

When using this Eraser Brush in the larger sizes, just wiggle it around a wee bit to erase those too.

[andrew13511 88]

Now, only if we could do anything with creating a "city".  I have tiles that don't have any residential but maybe just a highway running through.  It isn't a city and doesn't deserve a name.

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

3 hours ago, andrew13511 said:

Now, only if we could do anything with creating a "city".  I have tiles that don't have any residential but maybe just a highway running through.  It isn't a city and doesn't deserve a name.

Same here. And we all know it's not possible to have a nameless tile with anything that is made of concrete inside.