(Mod) AMPS Development Thread

[RobertaME 1,376]

13 minutes ago, Kloudkicker said:

Just about to finalize these up and pack them over to you @RobertaME. Any thoughts before I do.

Just one... the trees. Are they variable or the same every time? If they're the same it'll look a little monotonous a dozen or more times around the city. If thy can't be made variable, maybe we should just drop them. (power companies more often than not cut back trees near their lines anyway)

Other than that, they look GREAT!

Edit: I wonder... has anyone ever tried making a lot with MORE than 4 rotation views? Like 8... or 12... with variations of the lot in the 2nd and 3rd sets of 4? I don't know how the game would handle it... but it MIGHT switch to one of the variations after rotating the piece five times instead of coming back to rotation 1... like a poor-man's Tab-ring in the transportation menu.

An interesting experiment if no one has ever done it before...

  Edited February 17, 2021 by RobertaME  
A thought

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

22 minutes ago, RobertaME said:

Does that make sense now?

Yes, thank you for the detailed explanation.

22 minutes ago, RobertaME said:

As it stands, the Substations that you don't qualify for at the start of the game will not just be greyed out, but hidden off the menu until you earn them to prevent clutter.

Will there be instructions outside the game to use for reference to help understand the requirements needed. That to me would be more than ok. Once one gets used to it,  it should be easy by than to remember. 

23 minutes ago, RobertaME said:

The number of Transformer #1s by rating in the city no longer exceeds the number of Distribution Substations, so you no longer "qualify" for the reward and the other transformers get greyed out... and disappear completely off the build menu the next time you re-load the city.

Less clutter is always bonus. Also they way I designed the small transformer lots are that there is a variety of wealth's in each residential and commercial group. This will let people chose the right lot and not plop and bulldoze until the perfect one comes along.

I am ok with what ever you feel is best. This is way above my pay grade. I just am the player/ designer, and having a blast at it. 

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

12 minutes ago, RobertaME said:

the trees. Are they variable or the same every time? If they're the same it'll look a little monotonous a dozen or more times around the city. If thy can't be made variable, maybe we should just drop them. (power companies more often than not cut back trees near their lines anyway)

I never even consider that here. Don't know why? They are a maxis static props. I only had thought that they will change with any tree mods that change the delicious trees. So good catch, I think I will cut the trees down and grind up the stumps.     Should be a few hours till I can get back to them. Late tonight you will have them.

[RobertaME 1,376]

15 minutes ago, Kloudkicker said:

Yes, thank you for the detailed explanation.

No problem! Sorry I was confusing before! (my head tends to race off ahead of my words)

16 minutes ago, Kloudkicker said:

Will there be instructions outside the game to use for reference to help understand the requirements needed. That to me would be more than ok. Once one gets used to it,  it should be easy by than to remember. 

Yes, Instructions will be included, and I can have the Utilities Advisor add a few lines about "upgrades" to the starter equipment and what you need to do to get them. That way there's an in-game reminder as well... and after you get the hang of it, you can just ignore the Advisor messages like always!

19 minutes ago, Kloudkicker said:

Also they way I designed the small transformer lots are that there is a variety of wealth's in each residential and commercial group. This will let people chose the right lot and not plop and bulldoze until the perfect one comes along.

Commercial? The 25 kVA poles and 50 kVA pads are supposed to be residential only... that's their entire reason to exist, to put around housing. Did you make commercial variants? The 500 kVA pad and 1500 kVA are already there for the Commercial lots, and much more economical.

12 minutes ago, Kloudkicker said:

I think I will cut the trees down and grind up the stumps.

More fuel for the fire! LOL! I think that's best... that way they can fit in ANYWHERE. Maybe some other random sidewalk junk? Can you push them just off the TE lot to overhang slightly into the adjacent lot? For the pole it would be WONDERFUL if they were able to be placed in the same relative position as the light poles that show up on streets. The pads, ideally, should be just off the sidewalk:

After all... putting in the grass between the road and sidewalk is ASKING for it to get wiped out by a car! LOL!

It limits placement, as you have to consider what lot is adjacent to the TE street, but you can't have growable lots adjacent anyway... so...

Thoughts welcome!

 

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

4 hours ago, RobertaME said:

5 hours ago, Kloudkicker said:

Also they way I designed the small transformer lots are that there is a variety of wealth's in each residential and commercial group. This will let people chose the right lot and not plop and bulldoze until the perfect one comes along.

Commercial? The 25 kVA poles and 50 kVA pads are supposed to be residential only... that's their entire reason to exist, to put around housing. Did you make commercial variants? The 500 kVA pad and 1500 kVA are already there for the Commercial lots, and much more economical.

No, just these for the TE lots. I was referring to the park lots from the other groups. 

 

4 hours ago, RobertaME said:

Can you push them just off the TE lot to overhang slightly into the adjacent lot?

As far as I know, only off set props can be off set. These are not that way, so probably not. I would believe, not know what could be in the back of another lot in that position, the transformers could disappear in other props and such.

4 hours ago, RobertaME said:

For the pole it would be WONDERFUL if they were able to be placed in the same relative position as the light poles that show up on streets.

I would love to, but that requires the T21 file to copy and use for placement. These are not a T21 and don't have lights or any other street objects placed by game or a street side mod. This lot overrides all that, correct?

Edit: I don't know where to find the street T21 file yet.

  Edited February 18, 2021 by Kloudkicker  
Added edit. And bold text was reworded.

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

Say there was a (for example) stone wall around a backyard, the transformer could end up in their backyard or in the wall.

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

If I knew how to and safely, copying the street T21 and making an override to include the poles and box every so many tiles would be ideal. And maybe just assume they are include in the electrical grid equation. (Or deep coding could do the math, IDK. Much more work is involved.) Including them with the street T21 will insure the transformers will fit and play nice with other street side objects.

Just one thought of mine.

One other thought is to make them a separate lot. This way there will not be any clashing of textures on the 9 SAM textures. Nor will there be any texture and color miss match on sidewalks. Those two would be the most noticeable from further out views. And it seems that with current mods available, people are really trying to making everything match and have a uniform look. Also with the ability to make the most out of the tile spaces, maximizing every tile is not very important anymore. At least to me. I feel I can make the cities look more real than every and not worry about making every tile zoned RCI. (But I say this not remembering what the count was needed to be per substation. Sorry) So a few more lots taking up space shouldn't hurt, IMO. 

This is one set that I would feel better if someone with proper knowledge and understanding was able to make the correct TE lots. I feel I may take longer than RobertaME can wait for me to get the correct kind that is needed here.

So for the moment, I will remove the trees and add more road stuff and post a pic.

[RobertaME 1,376]

1 hour ago, Kloudkicker said:

No, just these for the TE lots. I was referring to the park lots from the other groups. 

OK. I was just making sure you weren't using your time to make versions that fit in with Commercial lots as these are only suited to Residential areas.

1 hour ago, Kloudkicker said:

As far as I know, only off set props can be off set. These are not that way, so probably not. I would believe, not know what could be in the back of another lot in that position, the transformers could disappear in other props and such.

As far as getting them to blend in with the existing lots, that's up to the person ploping them. That's why I wanted two of each in adjacent corners, so if ploping it with the pad in the "lower" corner clashed with the existing adjacent property, they could either rotate it to the other side of the street where it might not clash or use the "upper" pad version and try it in the other corners. Offsetting them is just for realism's sake, as that's where you find them IRL... just off the sidewalk opposite the street.

But if you can't, then you can't. It's not a big deal. I'm just glad to HAVE them!

1 hour ago, Kloudkicker said:

I would love to, but that requires the T21 file to copy and use for placement. These are not a T21 and don't have lights or any other street objects placed by game or a street side mod. This lot overrides all that, correct?

I think we're not understanding one another. In the pic I posted above, do you see the light pole and where it's situated relative to the sidewalk and street? Can you place the poles on the TE lot THERE so they sort of "blend in" with the street lights that are dynamically generated? I'm not asking if you can make the poles show up LIKE the street lights... or even WITH them... just in the same relative position as them so they don't look offset.

Make sense? Sorry about the confusion! :,^(

14 minutes ago, Kloudkicker said:

One other thought is to make them a separate lot. This way there will not be any clashing of textures on the 9 SAM textures. Nor will there be any texture and color miss match on sidewalks. Those two would be the most noticeable from further out views. And it seems that with current mods available, people are really trying to making everything match and have a uniform look. Also with the ability to make the most out of the tile spaces, maximizing every tile is not very important anymore. At least to me. I feel I can make the cities look more real than every and not worry about making every tile zoned RCI. (But I say this not remembering what the count was needed to be per substation. Sorry) So a few more lots taking up space shouldn't hurt, IMO. 

I considered that, maybe just planting them on replicas of the default 1x1 parks, but I REALLY like the idea of putting them wherever is convenient AFTER a neighborhood is already built. Most cities will start off WITHOUT a grid, just using Generators for power until you have an established community and the larger power plants are worth the expense, and thus won't NEED transformers right away... so you don't have to PLAN for them at first.

Am I making ANY sense? I feel like I'm not doing a very good job of explaining the issue. (this is what got Simmer2 to give up on the project and I REALLY don't want to frustrate you into the same thing)

Let me know if you need further details.

Progress Update: Things are going smoothly in LUA repair. I'm adding more an more lots back into the code, checking and double checking in the game after every change, then making a backup when I confirm that the added code works right. It's slower going, but worth it, I think. ;^)

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

There will not be any street lights generated on the lot. Unless I put it there and it was a prop on this lot. The game wont put any objects on this TE lot because we are striping it of its T21 when it becomes a TE lot.. As far as my little bit of knowledge can make out. That is why I am worried for the SAMs and sidewalks not going to match for many people. As with this having a  baked in sidewalk, grass and street texture, having a generic lamp would add to it maybe mismatching.

I am just trying to make sure as many people that use this new mod of yours will not feel that the TE lots stand out to much for them not to want to use them. If they are required for the overall mod to function, then they may decide not use the whole thing.

Hurdles of making stuff for the masses.

I have been seeing a lot of pictures of street mods with wires mounted on poles running along the street. It would break that T21 chain as well.

Personally, I use JRJ Street Side MOD. I like to use the SAMs here and there. I use CP_SCILT Gobias Suburban Cement sidewalks. For me, most of the time, these TE lots would stand out very much. TO ME, maybe not so much to others.

Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. After we get all this current plans squared away, I have some ideas/plans that might just shock you . If I get the time to do it.

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

The sim is working as slow as a snail. And also, the rental company said the grinder is booked till next week.

So I thought that it could be hard to locate these lots??? So I tried a for sale sign as a tiny marker. And I never see them anyway. But they will not show up in game. Hummm

Then I tried come dual trash cans. They look like the green sim crystal in lot editor. But they wont show up either. Tried a hand full of thing to trigger, all but a landfill. But these turned out to blend in the best. With nothing but a fire hydrant. At least in this scenario. Go figure. I tell you, maxis did not leave use with much good street side props. Not much of anything.

Ideas anyone?

[RobertaME 1,376]

3 hours ago, Kloudkicker said:

There will not be any street lights generated on the lot. Unless I put it there and it was a prop on this lot.

See, I KNEW I wasn't explaining myself clearly enough...

OK... see the red line I drew? That's the "Gutter", so-to-speak. See the green line? that's how far the light poles are from the "Gutter". See the yellow line? That's how far the power pole is from the "Gutter". See how off-alignment from each other they are?

I KNOW it's just me and the weird way my brain works... I've ALWAYS had a hard time explaining myself to other people. (burden of a brain that goes almost twice as fast as I can write) But THIS is what I was talking about before. Not putting lights on the TE lots... or making it so that lights would appear... but just how the already appearing light poles on the adjacent "normal" streets line up with the power poles. To me, it looks odd that they don't line up with each other. (I don't know about where you live, but around here a lot of street lights are hung from power poles, so to my eye when the two don't line up it makes the lines that you can't see but I pretend are there look crooked... what can I say... I'm WEIRD!)

Hopefully this time I made SOME sort of sense.

3 hours ago, Kloudkicker said:

Then I tried come dual trash cans. They look like the green sim crystal in lot editor. But they wont show up either. Tried a hand full of thing to trigger, all but a landfill. But these turned out to blend in the best. With nothing but a fire hydrant. At least in this scenario. Go figure. I tell you, maxis did not leave use with much good street side props. Not much of anything.

The hydrant looks FINE! It's a small detail, but notable. There aren't enough hydrants in SC4, anyway. I think less is more in this case... you don't want to draw TOO much attention to the lot... it's supposed to blend in. ;^)

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

I forgot to say that the two 'poles' can be merged together with fairly good results. I had done it in some of the substations I reloted. They maxis light poles are not perfectly centered and shifts slight when changing angles. Some pros are really bad with this and make it impossible to do. More current props, like from simmer2, most props are centered of the similar kind and make it easy to set things up to look good. 

Below, across the bottom side fence line is 4 poles merged together. Just a tiny bit sticks out, so all four angles look ok. It kind of looks like conduit running up the wood pole.

EDIT: O geezzze. This was a waste of time. O well... BUT FUN.

  Edited February 18, 2021 by Kloudkicker  
Update

[RobertaME 1,376]

7 minutes ago, Kloudkicker said:

EDIT: O geezzze. This was a waste of time. O well

I'm SOOOOO sorry! That is TOTALLY my fault for not being clear enough! I'm sorry you wasted so much time on a misunderstanding caused by my weird OCD about pole alignment! :,^(

Edit: BTW... GORGEOUS lot!

  Edited February 18, 2021 by RobertaME  
More stuff

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

11 minutes ago, RobertaME said:

Hopefully this time I made SOME sort of sense.

Clear as brand new glass on a sunny day.

9 minutes ago, RobertaME said:

The hydrant looks FINE! It's a small detail, but notable. There aren't enough hydrants in SC4, anyway. I think less is more in this case... you don't want to draw TOO much attention to the lot... it's supposed to blend in. ;^)

Yes I DO. I want everyone to stop and stare at my work for at least 5 minutes in amazement.

Just kidding. 

So do I understand that we are thinking there is to be nothing else but the pole lined up on the green line.

Pause to look at what you have said......

NOOOOOOOOOOOO, do not worry. It was done while you were typing and posting. I should of stopped and looked. Just didn't want to lose train of thought or lose progress from switching to look. NOT your fault. Do not worry.

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

@RobertaME,May I ask, what altering mods do you use retaining to these lots. Just wondering.

 

EDIT: And its not just how you explain things, it's also how I can perceive things sometimes that can be confusing for me. 

[RobertaME 1,376]

3 minutes ago, Kloudkicker said:

Yes I DO. I want everyone to stop and stare at my work for at least 5 minutes in amazement.

Just kidding. 

You deserve it!

3 minutes ago, Kloudkicker said:

So do I understand that we are thinking there is to be nothing else but the pole lined up on the green line.

Yes. This EXACTLY. That is ALL i was talking about in regards to the light poles... just making sure your power poles lined up with them is all.

4 minutes ago, Kloudkicker said:

NOOOOOOOOOOOO, do not worry. It was done while you were typing and posting. I should of stopped and looked. Just didn't want to lose train of thought or lose progress from switching to look. NOT your fault. Do not worry.

OK... I was just worried that you might be upset for having used time on that when it was all just a misunderstanding.

Thanks for being a good sport about it!

3 minutes ago, Kloudkicker said:

May I ask, what altering mods do you use retaining to these lots. Just wondering.

I'm not using ANY mods that are required for my mod. That makes it more easily compatible with other mods... unless they ALSO alter the reward LUA or the _constants.lua... and the only one I know that does for certain is the BSC Essentials...and even then my mod is designed to play nice with it and retains those alterations, just adding more.

The only mod I use that affects streets is the NAM 39 with the SAM. Other than that, I don't use any sidewalk mods of things like that. I know other people do, but my primary concern ATM is just getting the core mod working and up here for people to test out for bugs.

[Skyroguen 67]

12 hours ago, RobertaME said:

OK, the MML pieces work by using the Maxis reward system. When the total number of MML key lots placed on the map is greater than zero, you meet the conditions for the reward and the other lots appear in the menu. When you bulldoze the MML key lot, you no longer meet the conditions and the lots get greyed out... and disappear completely the next time you load a city.

What I propose is a variation of that idea. Each Transformer rating (250 kVA, 1500 kVA, etc.) has multiple variations, right? We'll call the 1st in each set, "Transformer #1". These are the only ones you'd see in the menu at first; the Transformer #1 of each rating. When you're starting a city, there are no transformers or substations. So yo start by placing a Transformer #1 250 kVA lot. Wait a bit and now the menu has five more to pick from! Place as many of the other transformers (other than Transformer #1) around your city as you like. Repeat with each rating, building no more than 1 Transformer #1 of each rating. When you're done placing transformers, build ANY Distribution Substation. The number of Transformer #1s by rating in the city no longer exceeds the number of Distribution Substations, so you no longer "qualify" for the reward and the other transformers get greyed out... and disappear completely off the build menu the next time you re-load the city. To get them to come back, just build more Transformer #1s until there are more of those than Distribution Substations, at least 1 more, and the menu repopulates with all the extra Transformer options.

That has a few limitations:

1. You MUST have at least 1 Transformer #1 in each city before you can build the other variations of that rating. (though you could bulldoze that lot later if you don't like it)

2. You can only have as many Transformer #1s of each rating in a city as you have Distribution Transformers, so if you REALLY like the Transformer #1 style around your city, your build menu will NOT unload the other variations until you have an equal number (or greater) of Distribution Substations than Transformer #1s.

Does that make sense now?

Comments welcome!

Edit 2: As it stands, the Substations that you don't qualify for at the start of the game will not just be greyed out, but hidden off the menu until you earn them to prevent clutter. If people don't like that, (not being able to see the requirements to know what to "reach" for) let me know.

I think I like the idea of not having a cluttered interface.

You could provide in the description on a transformer what you would need to upgrade to the next transformer level.

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

A little stats update on my work found here

and here 

Edit: for use with this mod, ofc.

  Edited February 18, 2021 by Kloudkicker  
Forgetful

[RobertaME 1,376]

30 minutes ago, Skyroguen said:

You could provide in the description on a transformer what you would need to upgrade to the next transformer level.

THAT is an excellent idea! That way you still know the requirements for the next upgrade without a bunch of greyed out buttons cluttering the menu! The ONLY downside is that the descriptions would continue to show the upgrade conditions after you've met them. Normally with a greyed-out lot that becomes available, the conditions are removed from the description. I could add the conditions as a string that gets dropped by meeting the condition, but that means embedding the text in the LUA instead of an LTEXT file for easy translating. I'd need to learn a way to still call from an LTEXT file. Still, that is a bit of genius, there!

Must run in the family! ;^)

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

Almost sounds like both option can be combined. They can explain the steps need and also be a MML style. If I read it correctly.

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

1 minute ago, Kloudkicker said:

Almost sounds like both option can be combined. They can explain the steps need and also be a MML style. If I read it correctly.

I mean the description on the lot that is placed already. One could look back on the lot to read the step need. 

[RobertaME 1,376]

So, I decided to take a few in-game pics to show my progress. I still have a way to go to fix the loadbalance.lua, but I'm getting everything else done in nice order.

Here's a solar farm I whipped up quickly: (these are based using @Simmer2's Modular Solar Power Plant

Then, here's the Power menu for the solar power options... first though, @Kloudkicker's Wind facility:

...then, the support equipment for PV panels...

...and after being unlocked...

Next up, the Inverters...

... and finally, the PV Panels...

Next up is a special unit made by @1dera3; based around their Remote Solar Station lot...

...and then back to @Simmer2 for their GE Solar Power Plant lot...

...and last, but not least... the Maxis Solar plant!

As you all can see, I've got a lot of the features working again... the custom descriptions and News Ticker items weren't really damaged by my Big OOPS because they were in separate LTEXT files.

Yes... EVERY plant in the game will give you its basic stats... Baseline life expectancy, Size, Bulldoze cost, Jobs, Garbage, Water, Power Consumption, (if applicable) and lifetime cost per MWh.

That last item is special. It's a factored cost over the life of the power plant, assuming running at 50% capacity, accounting for maintenance costs as well as initial build price, and the plant's durability and how long it can be expected to live at 50% load. The Years value is NOT at 50% load; it's based on the actual decay rate field before modification for funding or load. (both of which can make your power plants die more quickly or last up to 11x longer than the default value)

Thoughts welcome!

 

[Propfam 2,286]

I can't wait to see this to be released!

As a side note, this is a temporary replacement for Raymond7 topic which unfortunately inactive. Both are still significant tho.

[rivit 3,391]

Looking good - will look brilliant on my tourist brochures too!  ;-)

[CorinaMarie 29,577]

9 hours ago, Kloudkicker said:

So I tried a for sale sign as a tiny marker. And I never see them anyway.

The For Sale sign has a special prop attribute such that it only appears visually in the game when the residential lot it is on is distressed. So, without modifying the exemplar which controls that, you'll never see it on a plopped TE lot. (To see them in the game, grow some Maxis residential and then take away their power or the road and run some time.)

 

5 hours ago, RobertaME said:

That makes it more easily compatible with other mods... unless they ALSO alter the reward LUA or the _constants.lua... and the only one I know that does for certain is the BSC Essentials...and even then my mod is designed to play nice with it and retains those alterations, just adding more.

Are you planning for your Lua code to be replacement overrides for those two Maxis Lua entries?

I feel it'd really be better to make yours standalone so then they can work with any other Lua and not fight with them. Ofc, if you need to override specific instances of code like advisor triggers and messages, you can still do that on a selected basis.

[Simmer2 23,785]

Hi all.

I can confirm what @Kloudkicker said regarding offset props on a lot. I did exactly that when I made the 50kva transformer and the 25kva pole style as offset props. I ended up having to fit both props within the lot confines and re-render them again. They only looked good as long as the TE lot was plopped where there is a vacant lot on the offset prop side.

By making them "stick out" from the lot native 16x16 meter grid they will conflict with props situated on the edge of adjacent lots, examples are fences and or greenery.

This is due to LODs conflicts commonly known as graphics clipping.

Since a town/city must be established before hand, placing said TE lots within the town will cause this conflict unless players either pre-plan the town layout or subsequently bulldoze a lot beside the TE one. Casual players usually cannot be bothered to do so. Perhaps some hardcore players may do it as long as they are warned before hand for better planning.

All in all the cons outweigh the pros in this case.

Simmer2

PS @Kloudkicker I made a few small HD cans as props that you can use as well. They are not timed therefore they will always show on lots.

I believe they are in SM2 Mega Prop Pack Vol1

 

[metarvo 710]

Nice work Roberta!    As an electrical enthusiast myself (who ironically just had a power outage this week), I just read through all of this really fast and I must say I'm impressed!  Transformers and substations are essential for a real city.  I've been saying for years that Sims are stealing electricity directly from the transmission lines the way the grid works in the default game with no transformers to step this voltage down.  I have attempted to get around this at least visually with some substation lots (most of them ones that others have already posted pictures of in this thread) and a nice set of small MMP power line plops, some with transformers, made by Homefryes years ago — I don't think they're even still available anywhere as they were a file attachment in a thread or something.  Still, MMP's can be finnicky to deal with sometimes.  They can't be plopped on road networks and don't often like to be plopped on lots. 

 

Still though, they're non-functional and are just MMPs.  I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes because of course I'm all about more realism for power grids. 

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

@RobertaME, I placed the poles according to the diagram explaining it very clearly. Hopefully I did not throw a 'gutter ball' this time. 

Looking in at the placement of the maxis light poles, they are all over the place. Very inconsistent in the placement depending on the view angle. Some are in the middle, and some are were you saw them. And some are in the middle of those two points.

The light poles are all over the place for me! (Its funny, once you look closer, you start to notice the little shit.)

In this test I was not using any altering mods related to these items. Using a very minimal plugin folder. ( Look how boring the lots look. I need to get back into LE, lol)

[RobertaME 1,376]

5 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

I feel it'd really be better to make yours standalone so then they can work with any other Lua and not fight with them.

In order to track building counts, the same way the BSC Essentials does, WITHOUT stealing 512 of the 4095 BSC Occupant Groups, I have to override the _constants.lua, the exact same way that the BSC Essentials does (just AFTER it, so my mod steals it after BSC Essentials does) to alter the track_buildings array. Since a major dependency does this, I didn't see an issue. I've tried several options, but I'm guessing that Daeley determined the same thing I have. You have to do it this way to work.

Essentially, what I'm adding after the Daeley edit is the following:

for i=0,512 do
	track_buildings[i+4109] = i+hex2dec("0xBB350000") --add 0xBB350000 through 0xBB3501FF to array AFTER the 13 satic entries and the 4095 BSC entries
end

It's a simple enough LUA line, but mandatory to the way the later code works.

If you can think of a way to add 512 lines to the track_buildings array that actually WORKS without stealing the _constants.lua, I'd love to hear it.

Speculation: Best guess is that because of order of operations, the _constants.lua runs before the code that establishes the building tracking and if you alter the array AFTER this (which is when user-added packages run) it does no good... the array is no longer being looked at.

3 hours ago, Simmer2 said:

I can confirm what @Kloudkicker said regarding offset props on a lot.

Darn! Oh well... @Kloudkicker's lots still look AMAZING! I'll have to tell my OCD to shut up.

31 minutes ago, metarvo said:

Nice work Roberta!    As an electrical enthusiast myself (who ironically just had a power outage this week), I just read through all of this really fast and I must say I'm impressed!

My father will be so proud of his "little girl". (who is now old enough to have kids OUT of High School) For my 5th grade science fair, I proved Ohm's Law... and the teachers didn't understand it. ::shakes head:: People just don't get how cool all this stuff is, am I right?

Anyway, thanks for the kudos!

[RobertaME 1,376]

10 minutes ago, Kloudkicker said:

@RobertaME, I placed the poles according to the diagram explaining it very clearly. Hopefully I did not throw a 'gutter ball' this time.

::snip::

Looking in at the placement of the maxis light poles, they are all over the place. Very inconsistent in the placement depending on the view angle. Some are in the middle, and some are were you saw them. And some are in the middle of those two points.

The light poles are all over the place for me! (Its funny, once you look closer, you start to notice the little shit.)

In this test I was not using any altering mods related to these items. Using a very minimal plugin folder. ( Look how boring the lots look. I need to get back into LE, lol)

Yeah... I see that too. Maybe try to split the difference... so they're at the median point between the two extremes?

Or not! Seriously, these look GREAT as-is and are most assuredly good enough for a mod that is still partially broken.

On that front, I have managed to re-assemble 95% of the LUA code related to building access. (i.e. which buildings are available based on grid construction) Now I just have to fix the loadbalance.lua and I can do my alpha release! (only a week late... good thing I never went into programming like I wanted to when I was little... I'd have been fired a dozen times over!)