Colossus Addon Mod 4.0 - Development Diary #2

[Ulisse Wolf 4,460]

Finally, the long-awaited Colossus Addon Mod development diary has arrived. There is a lot to discuss, especially about AMPS and some improvements, but now let's get started.

AMPS

A key element of this upgrade is the electrical grid, and this work is being carried out by AMPS (Allied Municipal Power of Simtropolis).

This mod was developed by RobertaMe but was then abandoned because she withdrew from the community for reasons we don't want to discuss. Mainly, the mod changes the electricity management system by introducing a classification of power plants but also realism in how electrical elements are arranged in the game.

As specified in the AMPS manual, the new electricity management system involves the construction of large power plants with associated high-voltage transmission stations that allow electricity to be conveyed to the distribution station. At the distribution station, we have connections to small power plants and batteries, and then send the energy to low-voltage substations where generators can be connected and the energy is sent to buildings.

This is a realistic approach that is sure to make all SimCity 4 engineers happy. Although this mod is complex, it is not within everyone's capabilities.

A FEW THINGS TO MENTION

Many people think that updating AMPS by taking advantage of all the cool features that DLL Mods offer will allow for a new version to be released quickly, but unfortunately this is not the case because the mod has many unfinished elements.

Roberta's intention was that mayors using AMPS would start new regions only. This allowed her to directly update the Building Exemplar of the power plants and modify GUID, Occupant Group, and other properties. However, if the mod were used in exiting regions it would create the Phantom Slider Bug several times over. So the first step is to update the various DAT files doing a thorough clean-up. Then there are the UI files that need to be fixed, and finally you can proceed with updating the LUA Code, which still has room for development.

With all the work that needed to be done in the development process, we ended up definitively separating the mod from the past. So, performing a nice fork led to the birth of NEON (Next-gen Energy Operating Network).

The NEON logo, courtesy of @hugues aroux

HELLO NEON

NEON inherits the work done by AMPS but brings it up to modern modding standards, also simplifying the modding process. It also involves upgrading power plants and their types, introducing SPECIAL ones, which will be discussed later. 

As mentioned above, NEON brings modding up to modern standards, which means that there will no longer be modified Exemplar Buildings that can experience bugs such as the Phantom Slider Bug, but there are Exemplar Patches that greatly reduce these risks. In addition, work was also carried out to update the UIs and various LTEXTs, also allowing for the translation of the mod.  

This work is still in progress as there a lot of things to finish, but also streamlining the content included, as suitable for our redefined purposes. However, completing this process will ultimately allow us to polish and finalize the mod.

NEON's Exemplar Patches

LUA

All the magic of NEON & AMPS processing happens through LUA. The AMPS code is very complex, so it can help to include cross reference information. This previously led to a slowdown in operations, as reverse engineering between Exemplar and LUA is required to understand the identification codes of the power plants.

The differences between AMPS and NEON (Note: The word Maxis on AMPS was added by me and is not present in the original code)

This procedure allows you to resolve debugging and value update procedures more quickly because AMPS is based on static values, so if a lot on AMPS is updated, you still use the old version. 

In fact, with LUA Extended DLL, we can dynamically load the values of the properties related to MWH Rating and KVA Rating. 

There is also a dedicated thread explaining some technical aspects of AMPS, such as calculating the KVA Rating and MWH Rating values.

There is still work to be done before we achieve a stable beta, but internal builds are already well underway and code retrofitting will begin once the Exemplar issue has been resolved.

IN THE GAME

The NEON code in the game starts working immediately, and when you start a new city, you will receive messages asking you to build generators to supply electricity to the city. There are still some LUA changes to be made because it makes no sense for our beloved corrupt Neil Fairbanks to bother you with these notifications, but it will be our aggressive engineer Jonas Sparks adding further stress to you, mayor.

The opening message that everyone will hate

There are still some minor bugs to fix in the power plant UIs, but everything is working as it should, except for the company names, which will be changed from AMPS. However, the companies featured on NEON will be the subject of a future development diary.

CLASSIFICATION OF POWER PLANTS

NEON and AMPS also have a mega UI where you can see all the necessary information about your electrical network and also the classification of power plants because in NEON and AMPS power plants are classified in this way

Intermittent (Intermittent sources depend on variable natural conditions)

• Solar
• Wind
• Tidal
• SPECIAL

Base (base sources provide continuous and stable power)

• Coal
• Fusion
• Fission
• Biomass
• Waste to Energy
• Geothermal
• Hydroelectric
• SPECIAL

Peak (peak sources respond quickly to sudden demand surges)

• Oil
• Gas
• Microwave
• SPECIAL

All this information and further details are available in the following UI and will be available in buildings designated as energy offices.

SPECIAL

SPECIAL power plants are special power plants that are true landmarks. They can only be built once because they are OP (overpowered) and are based on futuristic or emerging technologies. 

SPECIAL power plants will not be included in NEON at the beginning because there is a lot of work to be done and many aspects of the Reward system need to be improved in order to encourage players to make certain choices during the development of the city.

However, there are some strange futuristic power plants on STEX, and perhaps we can even imagine some concept art of these special power plants to be implemented in the future.

Concept Art of Plasma Pulse Turbine Power Plant. A SPECIAL Peak power plant. Doesn't it remind us of some UTOPIA mod?

CAM CASINO

During the AMPS reverse engineering work, I have discovered some interesting modding procedures that will be immediately implemented in the CAM Casino expansion.

This update is minor, but casinos will be classified into two categories.

• Casino: The classic casino where you can build multiple times in the city
• Landmark Casino: Casino, which is a true marvel that you can only build once in a city.

This will prevent abuse of certain casinos such as Stardust Casino, as they are OP because they represent a landmark on your Strip. 

Apart from this minor update, there are no new issues because the LEX mods are still missing.

BUGFIXES

Currently, only minor bug fixes will be implemented, and an investigation is underway into a possible bug in the Fire Department Landing Strip that may cause CTD. If you encounter any bugs, please do not hesitate to post in the appropriate threads.

 

This concludes this highly anticipated development diary. We'll see you in the next development diary, which we hope to release in time for the NEON public beta.

[Lab Rat 16]

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