SimGoober content and BSC Common Dependencies Pack

[Kel9509 1,488]

I just installed version 9a of the BSC Common Dependencies Pack over at SC4Evermore, upgrading from version 7 that was in my game.  I realized that, although I had version 7, after installing that I had installed a lot of SimGoober's lots downloaded from here.  

Upon installing v9a of the Common Dependencies Pack, the cleanitol that I ran removed many of the growable Simgoober lots from my game.  The Best Buy growables were all removed, for example.  There's a ton of these that were removed.  I suppose the reason for this is because the models were also datpacked in one file along with the building exemplars, and the only way to remove the model was to remove the builing exemplar as well.  But that means that these buildings won't grow in my game at all.  And there's no "modern" replacement right now, because they're not on SC4Evermore at this time.  

Would it be ok for me to temporarily move the files back into my Plugins until these buildings are re-released?  I know that there's the occasional problem with SimGoober's buildings sometimes, as I've had to fix some of them myself.  But I'd hate to be playing and not have these grow.  Any suggestions?

[Tyberius06 12,274]

18 hours ago, Kel9509 said:

Any suggestions?

I am gonna be home soon from work. I'll share here the last version of the SG Commercial compilations that was available on LEX. 

I went into details a month ago in the CFI thread why there is this missing building exemplar issue (that time it came up regarding some Deadwood's lots). 

[Tyberius06 12,274]

20 hours ago, Kel9509 said:

I suppose the reason for this is because the models were also datpacked in one file along with the building exemplars, and the only way to remove the model was to remove the builing exemplar as well.  But that means that these buildings won't grow in my game at all.  And there's no "modern" replacement right now, because they're not on SC4Evermore at this time.  

Yes, at least partially. The SG contents have a long history. They were released here on STEX almost two decade ago mostly (up until late 2006), but then when BSC launched the LEX and in the wake of the PIM-X most of these lots got updated with PIM-X and bundled into thematical model and lot packs. However they had chosen the easy way and just wrapped up the things as they were on STEX and DATpacked them. The lot files went into Lot compilations, while the models, props and building exemplars into the model packs and mostly got updated with the PIM-X. Anyhow until I started working on Project ZIP (which was about the removal and replacement of the *.exe installers), they were available in this form. But with Project ZIP back in 2022 both the model packs and the Lot packs were changed a bit. I removed the building exemplars from the model packs and moved them into the related lot packs. BUT at that time the the reshaped model packs and the reshaped lot pack were uploaded side-by-side.

The real issue of course came when we had to shut the LEX down. We wanted to make the dependencies available as soon as possible while we were figuring out how to re-organize the other files from the old exchange. For the BSC Common Dependencies the latest available dependnecy packs were used, which meant that the already updated SG Model packs got included. Smaller problem, but still need to deal with it, that the STEX versions were never updated. Other small problem that the LEX versions were having the same TGIs, they were identical with the STEX versions, but the modding was updated. And problem number 3 is, that they were updated with PIM-X in 2007, when the tool was still in experimental phase and the final 2010 version, that is available and used today, has different RCI calculations and stage trasholds. So when this was discovered a few months ago, when I was updating the residentials, we decided to run through all the lots once again on PIM-X before we rehost them. 

Anyway, for now I'm sharing the last LEX versions of the Commercial and Industrial lot collections via my google drive, because they are still in better shape (moddingwise) than the STEX versions. These have the building exemplars included with the Lot files. The lot collections are all-in-one per theme files, so you install the small shop lot collection and you will get all of them, you can't cherry-pick what's getting installed. This is how they bundled them back in 2007. This gonna be reverted when I finally manage to rehost them officially, and just like the residentials, they will be mostly separate files. 

SimGoober Lot Collections LEX Versions

I think all of them have readme files, but mostly you need to extract the BSC or CAM or Simgoober parent folders into your plugins. Of course for the CAM versions you need to have Colossus Addon Mod installed. All the CAM lots can be found in the dedicated CAM folders. The dependencies are in the readmes for each pack. Any dependencies with BSC in their name are stored in the BSC Common Dependencies (I think... if you don't find something just drop a message and we will figure it out). Don't worry about if the listed version numbers are not matching with the versions you might see in the Common Dependencies, always the Common Dept. version is the relevant, they are covering everything. STEX links are working as usual, that will be mostly the PEG MTA Super Pack due to the included PEG SUPER TEXTURES.dat file. 

This is just a temporary solution, until we manage to update and officially rehost the files. 

[CahosRahneVeloza 385]

Are his, SimGoober's, 7-Eleven stores also included in these compilation files?

Also where are his non-CAM Adult NIMBY pack? They're not on your list. Are they included in the CAM pack?

Good thing I just went ahead and checked. They are indeed bundled with the CAM pack. So are the non-CAM variants of the items on the packs listed as CAM packs

Now just a somewhat silly question...

Will the BSC Farm items, including SimGoober's and JMyers' farms and the older BLS-GA farms be on your to-do list of content that'll be updated in the near future? Or are they going to be shelved for good?

I know folks love SPAM farms over those older BSC Farms because SPAM farms look more visually realistic, I do too, but those older farms do have BTE rewards tied to them whereas SPAM farms do not. Also a bit of color is sometimes appreciated too.

  Edited August 9, 2024 by CahosRahneVeloza  
Addendum yet again...

[Tyberius06 12,274]

3 hours ago, CahosRahneVeloza said:

Are his, SimGoober's, 7-Eleven stores also included in these compilation files?

Also where are his non-CAM Adult NIMBY pack? They're not on your list. Are they included in the CAM pack?

Good thing I just went ahead and checked. They are indeed bundled with the CAM pack. So are the non-CAM variants of the items on the packs listed as CAM packs

Hm... the title maybe missleading. These are NOT CAM packs. The (CAM) in the title means that it contains CAM contents. As I stated in my above post, all the CAM lots can be found in the CAM folder. Whatever is not in the CAM folder (they are in the Simgoober folder) those are not CAM versions and working just fine without the CAM. 

3 hours ago, CahosRahneVeloza said:

Will the BSC Farm items, including SimGoober's and JMyers' farms and the older BLS-GA farms be on your to-do list of content that'll be updated in the near future?

Near future? I'm not sure, I try to get them out this year, but they might going to be released next year at some point...

[Kel9509 1,488]

20 hours ago, Tyberius06 said:

Anyway, for now I'm sharing the last LEX versions of the Commercial and Industrial lot collections via my google drive, because they are still in better shape (moddingwise) than the STEX versions. These have the building exemplars included with the Lot files. The lot collections are all-in-one per theme files, so you install the small shop lot collection and you will get all of them, you can't cherry-pick what's getting installed. This is how they bundled them back in 2007. This gonna be reverted when I finally manage to rehost them officially, and just like the residentials, they will be mostly separate files. 

Thank you!  I cannot imagine how much work it is to try to sort through all of these items and split them out again.  It's not hard, but it does seem very time intensive.  You have my sincere thanks.  But let me know if you need any help!

As for my game, I might try to find within these files only the lots that I've installed and just use those exemplars/lots only.  One question I have is, will the use of these lots affect the game much?  I'm sure some of these older lots have grown in my game and exist already.  If I use these newer versions despite already having grown some of them under the older exemplars, will that cause any issues?  I'd hope not.

I use the Industry x4 mod for Maxis industries.  And that means for a lot of custom industrial mods, including SimGoober, I ended up changing the amount of jobs his industrial lots provide to be similar with that x4 mod.  At least in the versions I've downloaded from STEX, I thought the amount of jobs provided (particularly for some of his factories) was pretty low.  When I changed the jobs in the exemplar by recomputing it with PIM-X to a different level, the existing building in my game magically adopted the new jobs.  No sliders involved, so no phantom slider bug I hope! 

[Tyberius06 12,274]

1 hour ago, Kel9509 said:

It's not hard, but it does seem very time intensive.

Yeah exactly. Most of these fixes are pretty easy, but there are a ton of files and lots within DATs that need to be adjusted in a certain way. Ok, PIM-X does help with a lot of thing. 

1 hour ago, Kel9509 said:

If I use these newer versions despite already having grown some of them under the older exemplars, will that cause any issues?  I'd hope not.

IIRC, they claimed back then, that since they are running under the same TGIs the updated lots won't cause any issue. The only issue, that might be arising is that the updated lots tend to have different occupancy/jobs... That can mess around with some gameplay mechanics, but I'm not sure... I've never played the game for the proper growable simulation...

[spiritualfire 138]

Hey @Tyberius06

Many thanks and appreciation for the work that went into the Dependency Pack. Following along a similar thought detailed here, I noticed an issue between the Dep Pack (as of v7) and SimGoober's content is they are causing a CTD for me.

Specifically, anytime I attempt to plop a lot whether from the menu or from LotPlop I get a CTD.... I ran the Cleanitol before installing the Dep Pack, so unless some file is missing the only thing I can imagine is occurring is a plugin conflict of some sort, could that be something?