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[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

1 hour ago, Ryuu Tenno said:

So, wait, is ModPacc Zero meant to collate all of the various bug fixes together into a single file/mod?

Yes, that's our general idea of MZ in principle.

As the post I linked to explains, it'll involve us recreating and (where worthwhile) enhancing existing fixes, to provide additional functionality.

Also incorporating new fixes and items too, into 4 main category types (Core, Graphical, Optional, and Cheats). The post here shows the progress Cori and I have made, although the status is outdated now since we'd made more ground than the summary shows. So far the biggest component has been with our City Halls package, featuring the new city data summary panel. We've admittedly gotten tied up with other things lately, so no imminent completion is on the radar. It will be back on our agenda though someday for progressing it further, and it's just finding the balance of our duties and priorities. And of course, real life can intervene as well sometimes.

The index feed here shows the topics we've posted already for the main MZ parts, which are open to beta testing feedback.

-CB & Cori

[Turnstyled 539]

Upon further testing, having More Realistic Radius load after Private Schools with Sliders creates three Maxis private schools within the education buildings menu! I fixed that by reversing the load order and having More Realistic Radius load before Private Schools with Sliders.

On a side note, it was my browser-based ad blocking solution that was preventing me from inserting links within text.

[Simizen 1,100]

On 1/24/2022 at 6:42 PM, Cyclone Boom said:

Yes, that's our general idea of MZ in principle.

that's awesome!! Cause, I was thinking of making my own where it would combine everything together, but, I had to work out how to make mods like that first. Cause, I've felt that it's been a bit ridiculous to have to download a dozen different bug fixes just to get the game a bit more stable. Definitely going to be looking at those posts though.

[rsc204 21,864]

On 25/01/2022 at 2:09 AM, Turnstyled said:

Upon further testing, having More Realistic Radius load after Private Schools with Sliders creates three Maxis private schools within the education buildings menu! I fixed that by reversing the load order and having More Realistic Radius load before Private Schools with Sliders.

There is no way to combine the effects of more than one mod together simply using load order. This is because the Properties a given mod adjusts are found within an Exemplar, usually the Buildings Exemplar, which has a specific TGI ID (unique ID). So if one mod edits a Property, and another way edits a different Property, the game can't simply combine those changes, what happens is that the last Buildings Exemplar with the same ID to load, its values are then used, all the others are discarded.

Of course, this needs to work on a case-by-case basis, some mods work differently for example you can add sliders through the Query Exemplar ID, by simply overriding the UI elements. But if the necessary modifications to make that work (in the Buildings Exemplar) were not the ones in use, because it was being overridden, you still don't have a working solution, in fact something may now go very wrong.

What you need to do in these cases is look at the mods and see what they change, using the ID as reference, first compare what you are looking at to the original Maxis values (from the equivalent files in SimCity_1.dat). Then you can see what values have been altered by the mod you are using, make a note of these. Do the same for all the mods that alter the same files, eventually you'll have all the Properties needed to include different modifications into one override of the original Maxis content.

If you don't (or can't) do this, then mindlessly allowing cascading overrides is just inefficient and prone to unexpected problems.

[Turnstyled 539]

@rsc204

Thank you so much! @CorinaMarie had told me what you just told me some posts earlier. You put it into more detail.

I believe I got a start with such things.

If I understand you and Cori correctly, there is no cascading. It's the last one that loads that takes precedence. 

Edit:

This would explain why More Realistic Radius creates three private schools! It has three Private School exemplars!

Edit 2: It turns out there are 3 private school reward building exemplars in SimCity 1.dat. I will continue trying to edit the appropriate mods. Nonetheless, I am using Residential Halver and Industry Quadrupler with IRM. Are mods such as Radius Doubler considered safe to use? They don't edit capacities.

Edit 3: Ah! Private Schools with Sliders adjusts the school coverage radius as well! The radii are as follow:

512 - Maxis

640 - More Realistic Radius

896 - Private Schools with Sliders

I'm going to delete the Private School exemplars from More Realistic Radius.

 

[CorinaMarie 29,868]

6 hours ago, Turnstyled said:

Are mods such as Radius Doubler considered safe to use? They don't edit capacities.

Yes. Radius changes and even capacity changes are perfectly safe. Both of which take effect without re-plopping.

Where the super big trouble comes in is when altering the Local Funding cost and/or the Coverage Radius cost. That's what leads to the Phantom Slider bug.

[Turnstyled 539]

19 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

Yes. Radius changes and even capacity changes are perfectly safe. Both of which take effect without re-plopping.

Where the super big trouble comes in is when altering the Local Funding cost and/or the Coverage Radius cost. That's what leads to the Phantom Slider bug.

Thank you so much! I've successfully deleted the Private School exemplars from More Realistic Radius. Now, More Realistic Radius and Private Schools with Sliders play nicely together!

[gviper 922]

I am looking for a mod I believe, or at least I think it is. I played with it years ago. It allows for larger than 5x5 high wealth, low density lots...really allows you to make some large estates. Can anyone help me find it? Thank you!

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

21 minutes ago, gviper said:

I am looking for a mod I believe, or at least I think it is. I played with it years ago. It allows for larger than 5x5 high wealth, low density lots...really allows you to make some large estates. Can anyone help me find it? Thank you!

LotEditor-

https://www.gamefront.com/games/SimCity-4/file/SimCity-4-lot-editor

https://www.moddb.com/games/SimCity-4/downloads/SimCity-4-lot-editor

Not sure which one is the "official" LotEditor.

[gviper 922]

5 minutes ago, SIM-ple Jack said:

LotEditor-

https://www.gamefront.com/games/SimCity-4/file/SimCity-4-lot-editor

https://www.moddb.com/games/SimCity-4/downloads/SimCity-4-lot-editor

Not sure which one is the "official" LotEditor.

Hmm. thank you! though i don't recall having to compile and save these lots through an editor. Maybe I'm forgetting something or not remembering what I did. 

[rsc204 21,864]

It sounds like you simply installed some lots/buildings that used a larger footprint, I've never heard of a mod for larger growables and whilst you can get very large buildings to grow, anything beyond 6x6 in size never seems to want too.

[Andrew0180 20]

I'm ready to purchase SC4.  Any last minute advice?  New games are 8 to 10$ and used are 2 to 4$.  Sometimes tells me not to buy a used one.

[CorinaMarie 29,868]

@Andrew0180

A used game implies it'll be disc based. If your OS is XP, that'd be ok. However, beyond XP it would require a workaround to re-enable the SafeDisc DRM checker and even that isn't a viable option for Win 10 and after.

So, what you really want is a digital version. Both GOG (the best) and Steam have perfectly workable versions which are fully patched. Origin's version, OTOH, is borked because it is not patched and cannot be patched so you'd lose out on all the fixes Maxis issued as well as not being able to install and use NAM (and prolly some other mods).

The reason GOG is the best option is that it has no DRM at all. Once purchased, make sure you download the offline version. They make the easier option the one which uses their Galaxy launcher. While some peeps have used Galaxy successfully, that's not the majority. @Cyclone Boom can post a linky where you can see exactly how to get the offline version.

Now, Steam is also perfectly viable and if you already like using games from them, that'll be fine. The drawback with theirs is that you have to be connected to the internet to launch the game and play. (There used to be a workaround for that, but I've no idea if it still works.)

Both GOG and Steam run discounted prices a couple or three times a year where you can get the game for about $5.00 (US money).

[Andrew0180 20]

What's weird is that I typed in "gog version SimCity 4" (Google) and the first item found is a version that comes on/with a disk.  I know that you know what you are talking about.   Does this advertisement seems suspicious to you?  Thank you.   

[Andrew0180 20]

Many of the descriptions include "steam" and "region free."

[CorinaMarie 29,868]

8 minutes ago, Andrew0180 said:

What's weird is that I typed in "gog version SimCity 4" (Google) and the first item found is a version that comes on/with a disk.

That does sound odd. I copied your search "gog version SimCity 4" and the first hit is SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition which is fine. You can get to the exact same page, but with a code attached to the URL so it's the ST affiliate link which provides the site with a small sales commission from the purchase price.

[Andrew0180 20]

Gog.com.  nice.  lol.  That makes it easy.  I'm almost computer illiterate.   I'm like an 85 year old but 40.

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

1 hour ago, CorinaMarie said:

@Cyclone Boom can post a linky where you can see exactly how to get the offline version.

And here's the post I made about it:
How to install the Standalone version of SC4 from GOG

 

@Andrew0180

What this means is once purchased from GOG the game can be downloaded and installed directly, instead of using their Galaxy client. The advantage is how SC4 runs all by itself without needing another piece of software (since Galaxy is like a games manager hub otherwise).

[Andrew0180 20]

I just did it.

 

[Andrew0180 20]

If SC4 is the only game I have/run is an i3 processor enough?   The sales people say i5 is gaming level.  I'm still shopping laptops.  Thank you for answering my dumb questions.  When I finally start playing sc4 we can celebrate together.  Loading the mods will be an adventure.  I have 8 so far that want. Cheers!

[Tubthumper 499]

An i3 would work fine.  If you can afford it go with a PC with dedicated graphics card...the game is pretty GPU intensive.  Also as far as the CPU, you want the highest speed you can get, don't worry about core numbers.  An i3 quad core with 2.4GHz speed would work better than an i7 quad core with 1.8GHz speed...as far as I know, but I am not a computer engineer

[Andrew0180 20]

You sound like a rocket scientist compared to me lol

[CorinaMarie 29,868]

9 minutes ago, Andrew0180 said:

If SC4 is the only game I have/run is an i3 processor enough?

As an example, my main comp (on which I play SC4) is a desktop with an i3-3220 processor, 16GB RAM, dedicated GeForce GT 710 video card with 2048MB DDR3. Now, it's not blindingly fast in a large city tile which is fully treed or one which is fully developed with buildings everywhere and high quality shadows turned on, but I find the slight redraw delay acceptable. Like if I rotate the map while at zoom 1 (farthest out) it'll take 2 or 3 seconds to fully redraw.

The key part, as @Tubthumper said, is you want a dedicated video card and be certain that you can force the laptop to actually use it for SC4. The latter part seems to be touch and go from model to model whether or not it can be done easily. I've seen threads over the years where peeps fight with their laptops and video cards. Some win and some lose.

 

[Andrew0180 20]

Seems like the laptops in the price range i prefer have the integrated graphics card

[CorinaMarie 29,868]

1 minute ago, Andrew0180 said:

Seems like the laptops in the price range i prefer have the integrated graphics card

It will likely mean you can only use software rendering for the game.

That's not necessarily a deal breaker, but I'm getting out of my range of knowledge since I've never had a laptop and only sort of recall things from threads here on ST.

[rsc204 21,864]

There is literally no new system you could buy today that wouldn’t run SC4 well, it simply can’t take advantage of newer hardware, so wouldn’t be all that better with a serious pc. Gaming is used as an excuse by salespeople to upsell a more expensive machine. But there is a huge difference between wanting to be able to play the latest games and a game from 2003 which was for its time a technical marvel.

Your problem in the lower price tier is that you simply aren’t going to find a dedicated GPU, you also won’t ever be able to add one. It’s not absolutely the case that you will have to use software rendering to play with an Intel GPU, the drivers improved a number of years back and since then, a few graphic issues aside, it generally works. However, an ATI onboard GPU would be better and although not as common, ATI CPUs are available. Basically the CPU determines which brand GPU is inboard and specifically for SC4, this will be better for you.

[Andrew0180 20]

I went with a Dell Inspiron 3000.  I'm living on a budget.  I hope it can run sc4 adequately.  There's a 15 day no add charge trial period so if doesn't I can easily return it. Thanks for the comments everyone.

 

[Tubthumper 499]

Had a weird issue, so figured I would post here...I couldn't find any solutions.

I had a city tile that had a few roads/highways/train lines but no development.  I was working on a part of the tile trying to level the terrain using the streets so I could make a HWY/road interchange.  I had one side of the area the road would be leveled out, but when I went to the otherside there was like a 5x5 tile area if I tried to level it, the game would crash.  I could drag rails/roads/highways/whatever across it no problem...but anytime I tried leveling - crash!  It would even crash if I used mayor mode leveling or god mode leveling.  All other terrain edits worked fine...just not level.  And it was only in that small area.  I bulldozed multiple times, even used NAM HWY disconnect tool thinking maybe something was there hidden.  

Luckily I hadn't developed the tile at all, so I obliterated the city and started over.  No issues with it now.

Anyone knows what would cause that and how to fix it - in case it happens in a developed city...?

[Andrew0180 20]

The laptop is running.

I have the 13 character code (in an email from gog.com) from when I purchased SC4.

Now what do I actually do with that code to get the game loaded?  Thanks.

[Andrew0180 20]

Corrine, 

Remember when you recommended that I buy SC4 from GOG.com.   The code they sent me by email isn't working.  When I type it into the redeem code box, I get "code not found' message.