SimCity 4 Custom Budget Departments DLL

[Null 45 3,086]

A DLL plugin for SimCity 4 that allows new budget departments to be added to the game using a building's exemplar.

An example image of this feature is below:

The DLL works by using the built-in Budget Item: properties while adding new properties to set the department name and budget window. See the exemplar property documentation on GitHub for details.

Download: https://github.com/0xC0000054/sc4-custom-budget-departments/releases

Source Code: https://github.com/0xC0000054/sc4-custom-budget-departments

System Requirements

• Windows 10 or later

The plugin may work on Windows 7 or later with the Microsoft Visual C++ 2022 x86 Redistribute installed, but I do not have the ability to test that.

Installation

1. Close SimCity 4.
2. Copy CustomBudgetDepartments.dll into the top-level of the Plugins folder in the SimCity 4 installation directory or Documents/SimCity 4 directory.
3. Start SimCity 4.

Troubleshooting

The plugin should write a CustomBudgetDepartments.log file in the same folder as the plugin.
The log contains status information for the most recent run of the plugin.

If you would like to make voluntary contributions to support me in continuing to create more content for SimCity 4, I accept donations via PayPal: https://paypal.me/0xC0000054

Thanks to the few people who have donated to me.

[Null 45 3,086]

Release version 0.2.0, which has the following changes:

• Fixed the DLL code to support budget items with more than 2 purpose ids.
• Changed the format of the Custom Department Budget Group and Custom Department Name Key properties.
• Added support for variable expense and income values.
  • This is an optional feature to add a little bit of randomness to the game play.
  • The variable income/expanse value is calculated by an algorithm each in-game month and then added or subtracted from the fixed income/expense values that are set in the building's exemplar.
  • See README.md for further details.

Two variable expense/income algorithms are currently supported:

1. City Residential Total Pop. uses the overall city residential population with a factor to control the amount that contributes to the variable income/expense value.
2. City Residential Wealth Groups Pop. uses the city residential wealth group populations with factors to control the amount that each group contributes to the variable income/expense value.

Suggestions for additional algorithms would be welcome.

[Null 45 3,086]

Release version 0.3.0, which has the following changes:

• Added a Tourism variable expense/income algorithm.
• Changed the Res. Total Pop. and Res. Wealth Group Pop. properties to use a numerator and denominator format for the factors.

[Null 45 3,086]

Release version 1.0, which updates the documentation.

[Null 45 3,086]

Release version 1.1.0, which adds a budget algorithm for user-defined Lua functions.

[nic49548 16]

Is it possible to make custom budget departments to somehow display correctly the Icon hover query (Apples for education, Badges for police, Light Bulbs for power, etc.)? When I try to make custom departments the icons are grayed out.

[Null 45 3,086]

2 hours ago, nic49548 said:

Is it possible to make custom budget departments to somehow display correctly the Icon hover query (Apples for education, Badges for police, Light Bulbs for power, etc.)? When I try to make custom departments the icons are grayed out.

What hover query icons? If you are referring to the query tool hover tool tips, those are chosen based on the building's occupant groups.

[nic49548 16]

 Not the tool tips, I was referring to the Icons that are used that are displayed that may be grayed out like "Efficiency", "Condition", "Service Quality" or "Grade". Even with the correct occupant groups, if the building exemplar doesn't have a valid Budget Department, they will appear grayed out. Image 1 shows a valid Monthly Cost and the Custom Dept Name: I named it "Kiosks".

Image 2 shows what I was posting about: the Badges under the query are greyed out and not displayed correctly. Image 3 shows a custom query UI that I made with the badges greyed out and the funding slider at $0. Image 4 shows the properties I set them to. I used the Maxis Police Kiosk with a few extra properties and modified some others.

 

[Null 45 3,086]

25 minutes ago, nic49548 said:

I was referring to the Icons that are used that are displayed that may be grayed out like "Efficiency", "Condition", "Service Quality" or "Grade". Even with the correct occupant groups, if the building exemplar doesn't have a valid Budget Department, they will appear grayed out. Image 1 shows a valid Monthly Cost and the Custom Dept Name: I named it "Kiosks".

That functionality is something you would have to use the base game's budget departments to get, as I don't implement variable/local funding and the base game code has no knowledge of the departments this mod adds. This mod is intended to add custom things like Casinos, not replace the Maxis budget departments.

[Lab Rat 16]

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