Organizing Park Menu - Modifying Item Order

[Max4k 721]

The other week I d/l the iLive Reader and been doing a complete re-vamp of my Parks Menu and re-organizing stuff.

Everything has been great so far and have a whole spreadsheet of stuff saved, so I know what numbers I used.

Have a multi-part question, since I'm new with this type of thing.   I do have a Mod installed that pushes all my default Maxis Parks at bottom of menu, but I somehow managed to have sets of things below it.

I dont fully understand the number range how all these orders work, until I hit a problem with a Set.   I do understand these numbers convert to Hex into the Reader when saving, and I do have ranges that have been working so far.

EXAMPLE:  WMP uses a bunch of - negative numbers in the order. like WMP Boardwalk uses like -50 range and in Hex it's 0xFFFFFFD0 and was at the very top of the Park Menu.

> I pushed the WMP into - wmp boardwalk - 34999    > This is now at very bottom of my Menu after Maxis Parks.

 

For Number range I have a bunch of stuff I re-did and at the very top of menu I have stuff like

- Scorchin Observation deck   - # 55138

- GB Markets - # 55139

- Don Miguel\Waterfront Promenade  # 55140

- Don Miguel\Large Promenade  # 55141

 

As I scroll down from that, I get into PEG MTP and Pond Stuff, then after all that is BSC Parks Stuff.

After the BSC Parks stuff, I have bunch of Custom stuff that goes into the range

1x1 Flower Beds - # 1012

1x1 Flower Gardens v3 - #  1013

1x1 Tree Lots Pack - #  1014

 

As I keep scrolling down, I have more stuff until I hit The Thing Park System which reserves Range # 2300-23800

Right after The Think Park Set, things are like this

- Jenx various Farm Animal Plops    -35000

- wmp boardwalk - 34999

Inbetween these 2 Groups, I have Maxis Parks in Middle of this in menu.

Now I keep adding more things after WMP Boardwalk and continues going to very bottom of Park Menu

 

Simgoober Farm Canal - #  -34998

wmp boats - 34997

Scoty Field Paths -34996

Scoty RV Park  -34990

 

Everything works and is perfect !!  I uses those -34xx range to keep at very bottom of menu.

 

OK now, after all this typing this is where I have an issue with Plopable Farm Field Pack.  This is like an extra Set of plopable fields, on top of what BLS, CSX normally provide in their growable farms.

I only use the SG, CSX and BLS .dat files,   Each .dat is crammed with stuff in it.

I spent time and cherry picked the Exemplar Files to edit and add into  -31995, -31994, -31993 range.  

 

None of these  .dat have an Occupant Groups listed and had to physically add the Item Order for the ones edited.    Soooooo, the ones I edited are now at the very top of Park Menu and not at bottom like Simgoober Canal, WMP and Scoty stuff.

 

Is there something wrong with these .dat missing the OccupantGroups ?     The ones I DID NOT edit, are perfect in the location of menu where they are.

 

Sooooooooo, 2 part question.  Is there a way to fix this without doing any more editing or fixing ?   or -  Is there a way in iLive Reader to just like delete these Exemplar Files so they don't show up in the Park Menu at all ?

 

 

 

[rsc204 21,806]

I believe that the numbers you can use range from -10,000 to 10,000, negative numbers are technically smaller than positive ones, ergo they end up higher in the menus. Using IDs outside of this range doesn't help much. Note I can remember the exact numbers, but had to re-organise some RTMT stuff after hitting the ID limit in the Misc Transit Menus.

2 hours ago, Max4k said:

Is there something wrong with these .dat missing the OccupantGroups ?     The ones I DID NOT edit, are perfect in the location of menu where they are.

If an item has no OccupantGroup, that could be fine, but I wonder how without one the game knows which menu to add the item too.

2 hours ago, Max4k said:

Is there a way to fix this without doing any more editing or fixing ?   or -  Is there a way in iLive Reader to just like delete these Exemplar Files so they don't show up in the Park Menu at all ?

If you no longer want certain content, remove it entirely from your Plugins folder, I wouldn't mess around in Reader.

[Max4k 721]

According to the comments on the file, it looks like it was done that way on purpose to avoid being too much of a CAP relief or something.

I managed to delete the Exemplars for the ones I don't want and find info to reindex and rebuild directory before saving.

The only time I ever saw - negative number is the WMP stuff and MGB Diagonal Grass Fillers.  MGB uses a range close to WMP.

The JENX is -35000  , so was wondering and lost If I hit a number range that puts it on top when I did 31995, -31994, -31993  or if problem was with .dat itself.

 

Since everything was all packed into .dat,  there was no way to just remove it from plugins folder, so deleting in Live Reader worked.

 

OMG,  I can't express how different the Parks menu is now,  I feel like Im playing a different game now.   The Parks menu is now super organized and tidy .

[rsc204 21,806]

2 minutes ago, Max4k said:

MGB uses a range close to WMP.

Yes I did , only because for me these fillers are so useful, I want them right where I can find them.

4 minutes ago, Max4k said:

OMG,  I can't express how different the Parks menu is now,  I feel like Im playing a different game now.   The Parks menu is now super organized and tidy .

I find the process of re-organising everything around how I want it very satisfying. It's a lot of work, but now any new content get's altered before I use it. I'm maybe only 20% through the entire process, but my MMP and Park menus are completely organised and it's much nicer for all the effort.

[Max4k 721]

Originally it was in a good spot until I started finding more things.   Ended up pushing it down by the Thing Park set, because it uses same type but some are different shade color, but perfect to fill with more shade color varieties.

All this stuff a completely different universe from what I'm used to.  I don't even know any of these terms, Exemplar, Cohort ...etc,  What's funny is I have a big collection of big school books on A+ , Network+ , Microsoft MCSE, Active Directory Scripting and these books all have a Glossary of Terms at the end of the Book,   None of these terms show up in the Glossary, so that's what a different universe and new learning for me.