Custom Ordinance Exemplar Host DLL

[Null 45 3,117]

A DLL Plugin for SimCity 4 that allows new ordinances to be defined in ordinance exemplars.

This DLL is a dependency for mods that add new custom ordinances into the game. The ordinance exemplars support a number of availability conditions and monthly income/expense properties that can be used to customize the ordinance behavior.

Download: https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/36860-custom-ordinance-exemplar-host-dll/

Source Code: https://github.com/0xC0000054/sc4-custom-ordinance-host

Creating New Ordinances

A tutorial on creating new ordinances is located at: Tutorial for Creating New Ordinances

Example Ordinances

The examples directory contains several ordinances that can be used as-is or as a guide for creating your own ordinances. See the read-me in that directory for more information on those ordinances.

Ordinance Exemplars

Each ordinance exemplar must have a unique instance id, this is how SC4 will identify the ordinance. The ordinance exemplar must have an ExemplarType property with the value set to Ordinances (14).

Ordinance Exemplar Properties

The documentation is on the Ordinance Exemplar Properties page.

The exemplar properties are persisted in the save game, and the exemplar will be ignored once the city has been saved. Because of this, the ordinance tuning should be done in a new city or in an existing city without saving.

System Requirements

• Windows 10 or later
• Microsoft Visual C++ 2022 x86 Redistribute

The plugin may work on Windows 7, but I do not have the ability to test that.

Installation

1. Close SimCity 4.
2. Copy SC4CustomOrdinanceHost.dll into the top-level of the Plugins folder in the SimCity 4 installation directory or Documents/SimCity 4 directory.
3. Start SimCity 4.

Installing New Ordinances

The ordinance DAT files must be installed in Documents/SimCity 4/Plugins/140-ordinances (or a sub-folder).

Troubleshooting

The plugin should write a SC4CustomOrdinanceHost.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.

[trar 336]

So this is essentially a user version of what you used to create your DLL ordinance mods like the Humane Society Ordinance? Great work as always.

[Null 45 3,117]

16 hours ago, trar said:

So this is essentially a user version of what you used to create your DLL ordinance mods like the Humane Society Ordinance?

Yes, plus an extension of the system Maxis used. It took a bit of experimenting to get it to work because I am abusing the GZCOM framework in a way the Maxis engineers who designed it never intended.

Technical Details

Maxis designed GZCOM with the expectation that each class would uniquely identify itself using a a hard-coded class id, in the case of ordinances the class id is also expected to be the ordinance exemplar IID. For this plugin I scan the custom ordinance DAT files when SC4 asks the DLL for its class ids, and then hand the game the IID of each ordinance exemplar.

The special install path is an optimization to limit the number of DAT plugins that get read twice to just custom ordinances.

[Null 45 3,117]

Release version 1.0, with various code and documentation improvements.

[Shuna Tempest 25]

So it doesn't work for me, either this file is an April Fool's joke or you should explain to stupid people how it works. 

Original Comment:

Also bei mir Funktioniert das nicht entweder ist diese Datei ein Aprilscherz oder man sollte für dumme Menschen erklären wie es klappt. 

[Null 45 3,117]

I posted a tutorial on creating new ordinances to GitHub.

[Null 45 3,117]

Release version 1.0.1, which has the following changes:

• Add a tutorial on creating new ordinances.
• Silently ignore overrides of Maxis ordinances.
• Various other bug fixes and improvements.

[TheTimvh1 939]

I have absolutely no clue what to do even with the tutorial pages included with the dll folder.😓

[TheMurderousCricket 5,109]

Hi @Null 45. A question if I may?

As is the case with reservation of texture IIDs (so publicly available items do not conflict), is there any list or reservation system for new ordinances?

If I make one, how can I make sure that its IDs don't conflict with the rest, or the future ones?

[Ulisse Wolf 4,461]

3 hours ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

Hi @Null 45. A question if I may?

As is the case with reservation of texture IIDs (so publicly available items do not conflict), is there any list or reservation system for new ordinances?

If I make one, how can I make sure that its IDs don't conflict with the rest, or the future ones?

You don't need an IID range for ordinances, as you can simply use the IID generation function in Reader and Ilive Reader. 

Furthermore, the percentage of IID conflicts using the generator is extremely rare.

[TheMurderousCricket 5,109]

Yet another question if you don't mind. 

I downloaded both the .dll and the 'New_properties.xml' for iLives 1.54. I noticed that some of the more intricate ordinance properties (say, Ordinance Monthly Income: XXX Population Factor) do not appear in the property dropdown list.

Should these variables display the name when using iLives? They just show up as "Unknown" but they seem to be reflected in-game after I ran a test...

Is this normal or should I adjust something?

[Null 45 3,117]

2 hours ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

I downloaded both the .dll and the 'New_properties.xml' for iLives 1.54. I noticed that some of the more intricate ordinance properties (say, Ordinance Monthly Income: XXX Population Factor) do not appear in the property dropdown list.

The properties should have been present for iLives 1.54, but I only ever tested the Reader 0.93 tropod_Properties.xml due to that fact that I avoid using Reader 1.x.x.

[Lab Rat 16]

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