(Mod) AMPS Development Thread

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

I think a research facility would be a cool thing to have to add a bonus to AMPS. Something like one I posted earlier, here #6.

 

Cori or CB,

Would you be willing to move a entry over to the BAT request page when you have a chance, please. Thank you.

https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/760305-mod-amps-development-thread/?do=findComment&comment=1750702

-CB Edit: Done!

[Simmer2 23,785]

Perhaps to speed things a bit I could repurpose some hightech buildings that I already made for the regional AMPS HQ

I could relot either of these.

 

[City_Slider 2,716]

More than cool Dude...

[Simmer2 23,785]

SM2 AMPS City Office is now a reality

[RobertaME 1,376]

5 hours ago, Simmer2 said:

Perhaps to speed things a bit I could repurpose some hightech buildings that I already made for the regional AMPS HQ

I could relot either of these.

I don't know about a corporate HQ, but the bottom one looks like it could be the AMPS Energy Research Facility @Kloudkicker was suggesting.

If you wouldn't mind giving it over for that purpose, your contribution to AMPS would be appreciated with discounted power from Allied Municipal for the rest of your life! :^Þ

Heck, at this point I'm thinking SM2 Energy Corp. owns a serious chunk of Allied Municipal Power. Between you and Kloudkicker Industries you two nearly have controlling interest in the company! :^Þ

(that's my cute way of saying that of the 76 supported lots in AMPS, you and @Kloudkicker account for 35 of them... very nearly HALF... and that I'm VERY appreciative of all the work you two have been doing for AMPS... THANK YOU! <3 )

Of course... now I have to think of just what the Research Facility would DO! Maybe THAT could be the key to unlocking 40/60/20 on Hard difficulty instead of a larger Maintenance Facility.

Thoughts on what ELSE it would do? (that I can implement at any rate) Landmark effect? CAP Relief like the HQ?

Suggestions welcome.

2 hours ago, Simmer2 said:

SM2 AMPS City Office is now a reality

Looks beautiful! I can't wait to test it!

BTW: No rush or anything, but will we see your Maintenance Yard on the STEX soon? Or did I somehow miss it?

Update:

I have most of the code table re-written. Now I just have 70-odd Building Exemplars, the LUA Occupant Group references, and about 1,400 LTEXT files to edit. I still haven't figured out where to put Hydroelectric in the Main Query without making it bigger or sacrificing something. Maybe it'll come to me as I'm editing files.

This is NOT a fast process... it's labor-intensive and mind-numbing... but I think it'll be worth it in the end. :^)

[Simmer2 23,785]

@RobertaME SM2 AMPS City Office is here

Regarding the maintenance yard. I'm in the process of compiling SM2 Mega Prop Pack Vol5. My models are too spread out atm and I need to corral them in to one pack. It will avoid having to rely on so many dependencies. Once I release my latest pack I will upload both the maintenance yard and Sim Gideon plant.

I will use my Tetradyne building model to make AMPS Energy Research Facility.

For the HQ it will be quite a while for me to have the model done. Very large complex buildings would take me months to make in my spare time. Perhaps we can use one of the models already available here at the STEX. I would only have to relot it, which would only take me a couple of hours. @Kloudkicker please help me find some suitable models here at the STEX and then send me a few links. We will pick the right one and I will create a custom base texture and lot for it.

Simmer2

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

1 minute ago, Simmer2 said:

@Kloudkicker please help me find some suitable models here at the STEX and then send me a few links.

I can handle that. 

 

I added a relot version to the existing Transformer Substation by Takingyouthere override. I changed the name of the upload. Here it is. 

 

[RobertaME 1,376]

1 hour ago, Simmer2 said:

Once I release my latest pack I will upload both the maintenance yard and Sim Gideon plant.

That's fine with me! I was just thinking I missed it somewhere. I can wait.

1 hour ago, Simmer2 said:

I will use my Tetradyne building model to make AMPS Energy Research Facility.

You're a doll! <3

1 hour ago, Simmer2 said:

For the HQ it will be quite a while for me to have the model done. Very large complex buildings would take me months to make in my spare time. Perhaps we can use one of the models already available here at the STEX.

Either way is perfectly fine with me. The HQ building isn't any sort of priority and you've already done AMAZING things for AMPS! (on top of being the inspiration that started the whole thing to begin with ;^) --,--'--@ )

1 hour ago, Kloudkicker said:

I added a relot version to the existing Transformer Substation by Takingyouthere override.

Looks good from here, @Kloudkicker. I'll be sure to update the links and instructions in the Beta release for getting your Override lot as an option.

Update:

Got tired of re-coding and worked on something I wanted to do for a while. (it needed done before the Beta release anyway) Tool-tips for the Main Query!

Now each value in the query has a hover over tool-tip that pops up to tell the player just exactly what that value is and how it's derived. All total, 97 tool-tips. (the "Plant Types" and "Independent Power Plants" tables only use 1 tool-tip per column since they're all the same information)

That was a fun distraction!

...

...back to work. :^/

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

Found this and thought I would share. But I would like it back in two days please. 

 

[Simizen 1,088]

I love the tooltips thing. Didn't even occur to me that would help out quite a bit for the mod

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

I made another wind turbine service lot. Its littered with over 80 timed props. I lost count there's so many. I spent a lot of time on it, and then spent a lot of time watching it. Its really is cool how the props move all day long.

 

[Simmer2 23,785]

@Kloudkicker So I found a generic building that may fit the bill for the regional AMPS HQ. This is just a 4x4 test lot.

Also, I'm done compiling SM2 Mega Prop Pack Vol5. The only thing left is to update 30 or so lots....

 

[RobertaME 1,376]

12 hours ago, Kloudkicker said:

Found this and thought I would share. But I would like it back in two days please. 

Nice. Personally, I use PEG's Power Tower Pylons. They look good and just override the existing towers without having to replop them.

10 hours ago, Ryuu Tenno said:

I love the tooltips thing. Didn't even occur to me that would help out quite a bit for the mod

I realized I needed to add it after testing. I was watching the numbers and even I got confused as to what each percentage represented! Adding in the tool-tips was fairly easy. Writing up 97 new lines of text that explained the numbers in easy to understand terms was harder!

Luckily I was able to write it all up in Word, transfer the text over to Excel, then export the TXT and TGI files directly via a simple macro I wrote. (don't know if anyone is interested in that... it just writes a pair of files for every line in a worksheet, one containing the text to be used and the other containing the TGI data for direct import into Reader without having to do anything manually other than the import process) When you need to be able to handle 1400+ LTEXT files that keep changing, being able to manage them in something other than Reader takes a lot of the load off! :^)

3 hours ago, Kloudkicker said:

I made another wind turbine service lot. Its littered with over 80 timed props. I lost count there's so many.

Looks awesome! The dependencies are a little steep, though... there's some in there that even I don't have... and I have a LOT!

29 minutes ago, Simmer2 said:

So I found a generic building that may fit the bill for the regional AMPS HQ. This is just a 4x4 test lot.

That looks pretty good, @Simmer2! I estimate it about 60 floors... which I like because 60 stories... 60 cycles... (I know 60 Hz is primarily a North & South America thing, but it's what I'm used to so...)

Like I said before though... no rush on it at all. I'm still only about halfway through re-coding the Occupant Group blocks. At least I have all the LTEXT and UI references updated... now all I have left are the Building Exemplar changes and the LUA code itself (which is about 1/3rd done) before it's all put back together again. In the mean time I can't even load the Beta to test anything. Hopefully tomorrow I can finish up the re-coding and run the Beta through testing to make sure I didn't break anything. (I have backups of the pre-recode version... just in case!)

But it'll never get done if I keep doing other stuff... so...

Hi Ho... Hi Ho... it's off to code I go... ;^)

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

Found some more stuff laying around. It might be OK! Who knows?

 

[Simmer2 23,785]

@RobertaME Here it is

Next in the AMPS series is the research facility and lastly is the regional HQ.

[RobertaME 1,376]

Looks great from the pics!

Wish I could see it in-game... :^/

(the Beta is still torn apart... and I don't want to roll it back to the pre-recode version in the middle of things)

I'll take a look at it as soon as the working Beta version is... well... working again! :^Þ

Update:

I completed changing over all the Building Exemplars and most of the LUA code re-writes, reassigning where each section tracks to, (0xBB350151 for the Maxis Solar Thermal Plant for example) but I must have broken something in the process as the main function call that does all the math (run_grid_balance_variables() ) won't run now... so I have to roll parts of it back until it runs to find out where I messed up.

Someday I'll get this completed, then I can go back to the load enforcement routines...

...

...talk about a hollow victory! :^Þ

Edit: Oh.. one other thing... before I broke it I tried looking at my test city with the revised Beta...

Take my advice... if you made a city under the Alpha-2, when you get the Beta... BURN IT TO THE GROUND.

Seriously though, the Beta will NOT be compatible with any cities made under the Alpha-2... this is basically confirmed by this...

Compare that to any of the screenshots of the pre-recode main query... I did NOTHING to the city between this shot and the last one.

Ick. :^Þ

  Edited March 24, 2021 by RobertaME  
More stuff

[Simizen 1,088]

I have a suggestion, not sure if it's ever been brought up to you before, either here, or elsewhere; but, I think, if you change a couple of things at a time then test it out, it should let you reduce issues.

To clarify: I'm sure you already knew this ahead of time, so, it's not meant as a RTFM type moment, or meant to be mean or critical. It's simply that seeing your post where everything fell apart, at least, the way I happen to see it, it seems that you may have moved a little bit too far with changing things up, before testing it.

I'm only offering this advice, as it seems like you may have over extended yourself, and just hit a point where you may have overlooked it, and figured a reminder wouldn't hurt.

That said, please let me know if any of this post came off wrong for you, or if you took offense with it, or anything of that nature. I'm not trying to complicate the problems with your work, cause I absolutely admire everything you've done so far. I just don't want to see you struggling more than is necessary, because of something that might be/seem simple in hindsight.

Again, let me know if I phrased things wrong, or you're misunderstanding things. I'm not trying to sound like a jerk with this. I know programming can be a lot, given everything that's involved with getting things to function.

Edit: I know you're a smart and capable person, as you've managed to get this far with a mod, which is far more than I've done in regards to modding of any kind. So, this is not meant as an insult to your wonderful intelligence.

[RobertaME 1,376]

42 minutes ago, Ryuu Tenno said:

I have a suggestion, not sure if it's ever been brought up to you before, either here, or elsewhere; but, I think, if you change a couple of things at a time then test it out, it should let you reduce issues.

This is not only good Programming 101 advice, but good advice anytime you're creating something. Small moves. Do a step, check it. Do a step, check it. Do a step, check it. It seems laborious, but in the long run it saves time.

I say this because that's what I did. In fact, that's how I got the screenshot you see above. That is an example of trying to use the Beta on a city created under the Alpha-2, BEFORE the code broke but AFTER I'd done as @Ryuu Tenno is suggesting and had run it before making the next change.

Unfortunately the next change was major and couldn't be avoided. It was the re-write of the kVA rating subroutine which can't be done piecemeal. If you change one thing in the routine it affects things further down the code, so THEY need changed... and once THEY'RE changed all the data the feeds into them from up-code needs adjusted to match the new dynamic... etc.

It's like changing from an iPhone to Android. You want a certain app that's only made for Android, so you change to an Android to use that app, but now you have to change all your OTHER apps too... you can't just keep using the iOS apps on the new device. Changing that one thing requires that you change EVERYTHING that goes into it and it can't be done piecemeal.

Hope that explains things!

42 minutes ago, Ryuu Tenno said:

Again, let me know if I phrased things wrong, or you're misunderstanding things.

As someone who is VERY often misunderstood herself, I try never to assume the worst of what someone is saying in a forum. If I think they're being rude or something, I'll assume I'm reading it wrong and ask them to clarify. Most often it was simply a misunderstanding, but it's easy to draw the wrong conclusion when there's no inflection, such as any kind of text communication.

So... you're fine! :^)

[Simizen 1,088]

Okay, that's great. Glad to know it was clear.

And, I was wondering if maybe there was a spot that was a major change that affected others, but, wasn't sure. But, glad to have that cleared up.
And, I figured that was something you were already doing, and honestly, meant to state that in the previous post, but, got caught up in trying to make sure I was clear on what I was saying.

[RobertaME 1,376]

2 hours ago, Ryuu Tenno said:

And, I was wondering if maybe there was a spot that was a major change that affected others, but, wasn't sure. But, glad to have that cleared up.

No worries! With any major change in code you're bound to hit snags.

Update:

Found the problem. It was a single letter typo in one of the new lines so it wasn't instancing a variable, so when the variable was called later in the code, it was erroring out for using a non-existing variable.

See, part of the code change is tidying up the hundreds of global variables I use in AMPS by putting them all in tables. (mostly one monster table called "grid_logic_var") All it took was one typo in that process and boom! The function fails to run. Now that I have it sorted, it seems to be running OK. There are still a few minor glitches to sort out, (like the incorrect unit on the "Limited by Transformer Capacity" line in the Distribution Substation block that you can see in the screencap above... it's showing MWh when it should be kVA) but all-in-all the new code seems to be running OK.

Interesting side note... in troubleshooting the error, I slipped in a line of code that reported back via query how many times the main "run_grid_balance_variables()" function gets run. From loading up a city to the first moment I could query a lot it ran about 168 times. Since I have 84 reward routines that call "run_grid_balance_variables()", that means it runs every reward check twice at the loading of a city. Not sure why... maybe to see if one reward getting unlocked in the first run through will unlock another reward... but I've never heard of a reward that was dependent on another reward's availability. ::shrug::

I was also able to verify that no matter what options I set in the reward checks it will only run the check once per month on or about the 28th of the month... and it runs them twice every month on that day... two times in rapid succession. The weird part is that even though I KNOW it's running those reward functions, rewards that were unlocked once that you then later no longer meet the requirements for won't "unreward" themselves. Not sure what the point of running the rewards for every lot every month if it won't accept a "this reward shouldn't be available anymore" result though.

I guess the default expectation is that once a reward is unlocked it should remain available, even if you no longer qualify for it later, until you build at least ONE of them. Sure wish I could figure out a way to close down rewards you don't qualify for anymore. Just a quick re-run of their functions would be enough to keep people from plopping more substations or power plants than they can actually support with their grid. Instead I guess I'm going to have to come up with a way to limit power plant output based on a lack of grid to support it... which is WAY more complicated. Oh well.

On a side note... I did think of one type of Base Load generator... and funnily enough it was mentioned up-thread... a small waterwheel is a Base Load generator. The wheel turns whether the power is needed or not and doesn't adjust power output based on demand. So technically, it's a hydroelectric Base Load generator... and I don't have a spot for that... or any more than two Base Load generators for that matter, and they're just considered generic Base generators... not associated with any power source the way the other four generator types are. (Oil, NG, Solar, and Wind)

So... anyone think I should re-do the code tables again to find a spot for Hydroelectric Base Load Generators? (or any other generator type anyone might think of)

Back to fixing glitches... :^)

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

Well, my copy is working just fine. 

No cheats used and its going quite well. Just gave them schools and a hospital and they are loving it. Demand just shot up from being neutral. But it's time for MORE POWER!

[Simizen 1,088]

So, here's some of the rewards:
Spaceport requires Advanced Research Facility, and
The movie studio requires the TV studio, which in turn requires the Radio station.
And, I think the Major league stadium also requires a reward with the Little league stadium (or minor league or whatever).

There's of course others which could count, and my guess would be, that those are the statues, churches and cemeteries with the way they open up, but, i could very well be wrong with them.

Did some quick research within the game, cause I was thinking of the statues & churches, but, found those others. And, it seems you can even stack them a bit, as seen with the movie studio.

And, maybe a hamster wheel for a generator? Or, well, maybe a Llama wheel, since we've got so many llamas in our games.

[Simmer2 23,785]

22 minutes ago, Ryuu Tenno said:

And, maybe a hamster wheel for a generator? Or, well, maybe a Llama wheel, since we've got so many llamas in our games.

Right then perhaps I will make a Gravity Wave power plant.

I'm sure we can extract energy from this simulation.....

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

(All AMPS buildings) Did some zoning and added one port but was maxed out instantly, so I put in another. Still all good, and as soon as I logged off and found a simmering hot new edition to the game. @Simmer2 are you going to introduce us to your new little friend?  

[Simmer2 23,785]

49 minutes ago, Kloudkicker said:

(All AMPS buildings) Did some zoning and added one port but was maxed out instantly, so I put in another. Still all good, and as soon as I logged off and found a simmering hot new edition to the game. @Simmer2 are you going to introduce us to your new little friend?  

You mean this?

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

46 minutes ago, Simmer2 said:

You mean this?

Your getting warmer! (Very cool BTW)

Here is those off shore oil rigs I was talking about. And a few more to get that oil industry look. Just a few!

Are these the land pumps you were talking about @RobertaME?

 

  Edited March 25, 2021 by Kloudkicker  
Added more

[RobertaME 1,376]

9 hours ago, Ryuu Tenno said:

So, here's some of the rewards:

Right... but those are examples of rewards that require the presence of another reward... not requiring the availability of another reward. Take the TV Station...it requires that you have BUILT a Radio Station in your city already, not simply that you CAN build one. Here's the unlock conditional:

if (not missions_completed( { 'cc1435a1'} ) and ( game.g_population < tuning_constants.TVSTUDIO_POP or game.ga_mayor_rating < tuning_constants.TVSTUDIO_MR or game.reward_instance_count('03330000') <1))

game.reward_instance_count('03330000') counts to see if you gave built a Radio Station and denies the TV Station if the count of the number built is less than 1.

The only reason to run the check twice is that if you CAN build one reward that it makes another reward available, which as far as I can tell there's not even a variable to test whether or not another reward is unlocked... that's the weird thing about it! ::shrug::

Oh, an I was incorrect about it running the check twice at the end of every month... it only does that SOMETIMES... other times it just runs the check once... I can't find a pattern as to when or why it does it twice in rapid succession.

Curiouser and curiouser... ;^)

9 hours ago, Kloudkicker said:

Well, my copy is working just fine. 

...
No cheats used and its going quite well. Just gave them schools and a hospital and they are loving it. Demand just shot up from being neutral. But it's time for MORE POWER!

Glad to hear that the Alpha-2 is working well on someone else's install. What optional content do you have installed? Everything or did you just install some of the content? Have you found any typos or weird grammar? Is the information clear enough? Details, man... I need details! ;^) :^Þ

Seriously though, thank you for doing the playtesting and such. It means a lot to me! <3

8 hours ago, Simmer2 said:

Right then perhaps I will make a Gravity Wave power plant.

I'm sure we can extract energy from this simulation.....

Not sure that... you...... can........

...

Sorry.... what was I saying? I sort of just zoned out there for a minute or two. Not sure why... ;^)

(that thing is mesmerizing and should have a warning label!)

2 hours ago, Kloudkicker said:

(All AMPS buildings) Did some zoning and added one port but was maxed out instantly, so I put in another. Still all good, and as soon as I logged off and found a simmering hot new edition to the game. @Simmer2 are you going to introduce us to your new little friend?  

Can't see where you have your power industry in that screencap. I think I can make out a 10 MW Coal plant and a 15 MW Oil plant, but I can't see any of the infrastructure. Can you post up some screencaps that show how you're using them? (i.e. what transformers and where, which substations, transmission stations, etc.) Thanks!

1 hour ago, Simmer2 said:

You mean this?

Looking great, @Simmer2! I can't wait to see it up close!

1 hour ago, Kloudkicker said:

Here is those off shore oil rigs I was talking about. And a few more to get that oil industry look. Just a few!

Great links, @Kloudkicker! Once we get closer to full release, we'll look into all these as options. :^)

Update:

The working Beta is once again... working! I finished all the tweaks and bug-squashing and obliterated my Alpha-2 test city to build a new test city for the Beta. It'll be a bit before I get any screencaps of it, though. (still laying down roads and stuff)

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

I did find a odd entry in the news panel, some alien language.

[RobertaME 1,376]

Looks good, but in the Beta you won't be able to load up so much Coal power. You're running over 80% Base and less than 20% Peak, which under the Beta will short you on power. (once I get that part working, that is)

Another odd thing I notice is that your 10 MVA Substation shows it as manufactured by SM2 Energy Corp. when it should be showing "Subgrav Holdings Inc.", since that's his lot and not @Simmer2's. I checked my copy of the Alpha-2 and it shows that lot using Query Exemplar 0xBB353026, which in turn shows as using "company_name.ID_18" in the UI, which is defined in the LUA as "Subgrav Holdings Inc."

Very odd... :^/

42 minutes ago, Kloudkicker said:

I did find a odd entry in the news panel, some alien language.

That's also odd... it doesn't do that on my end, and I haven't touched that LTEXT file since before the Alpha-2 release...

You can see that's the same section, but w/o the weirdness. I Checked my copy of the Alpha-2 as well and the code looks identical as in the Beta.

Between this and the issue noted above, can you do me a favor and send me a copy of your AMPS directory as installed? I want to see if it got corrupted somehow.

Thanks!

[RobertaME 1,376]

Sorry about the delay in responding... busy with non-SC4 stuff...

OK, it looks like your copy of the Alpha-2 got mixed up somehow. You may have downloaded it while I was in the middle of fixing the initial upload. (there was a bug in the initial upload that I quickly fixed, but you might have gotten the original copy before I had a chance to fix it) I just checked the AMPS Alpha-2 DL available on the Recommended Post against my copy and they're identical.

Try re-downloading the AMPS Alpha-2 again fresh, then delete the one you have in your Plugins directory and re-install. That should fix things.

You might have to bulldoze all power facilities you have built... transformers, substations, etc... but try just replacing AMPS first without all that and see if it works. Only bulldoze if nothing else will fix the issues.

Hope this helps!