Need help with sc4pac

[nos.17 5,264]

8 hours ago, Propfam said:

Your cache may haven't been built yet or your internet is a bit broken. I recommend you to search SC4CPUOptions here on STEX, visit the page, and hit that sc4pac install button.

So yeah. That's it.

Nope, the cache is just a folder, and it gets populated as you download the files. Searching for the file names would not show up anywhere, because they are files contained with in the SC4 CPU Options package. You must search for the package name or keywords, for example " SC4CPUOptions", and it will show up just fine. It's the difference between searching for "Thomas Glass Company" vs "C88-ThomasGlassCo-0x5ad0e817_0xd7547280_0x30000.SC4Model".

2 hours ago, NeveroddoreveN said:

btw, what files does the Colossus Addon Mod provide? 

Do not worry about this for now. CAM is a fundamental change to the game play engine, and if you're struggling and a bit overwhelmed now, I don't think adding CAM into the mix would be a good idea until you're more comfortable with playing the game and installing mods.

On 7/11/2026 at 2:25 PM, NeveroddoreveN said:

Got it! I did not know about the 4GB patch being separate from the Plugins folder - thanks for providing the link!! And you said that both  SC4CPUOptions and SC4GraphicsOptions are available on sc4pac - thanks for that, what other downloads are on sc4pac? I will keep working on this, and when you have the time, I will review the next few download tabs in the Ultimate Guide!

Many of the items in the Ultimate Guide are available in sc4pac - search for them in the sc4pac application, or use the 'Download with sc4pac' link on the STEX page.

[NeveroddoreveN 95]

Sounds great! I get your point about the naming convention for the sc4pac files and how to download them in general. A few download links are taken care of!! As per your suggestion, I will sideline the Colosssus Addon Mod for the time being. I was able to create a bit of time that I could devote to getting these downloads set. I really do appreciate your post about what files/downloads in the first set from the Ultimate Guide are worth actually utilizing with where I am now. I perused that list, and have chosen to sideline a few for the time being.

Anyway, off I go! I will try and find sections of time during the week that I can point towards more downloads. I still have a long way to go, but I am glad I have taken these first few steps.

[NeveroddoreveN 95]

So, I am sidelining a few downloads, and aside from them (DgVoodoo2, Transparent Texture Fix and Region Thumbnail Fix), everything else in the "Performance and Graphics List" has been downloaded and installed. One question comes up though - so, with the "sc4cpuoptions" and "sc4GraphicsOptions" links, I am done with the installation but on those two pages, both have a paragraph about editing a file to adjust the settings. I opened the respective files with Notepad, but I am not sure what I am supposed to do there. Can someone fill me in on what I need to do with the text in these two files?

Also, once this part has been taken care of, I will move on to Gameplay Enhancement - the second on the list for the Ultimate Guide. If you guys have any advice and/or suggestions, please feel free to post them on this thread. Thanks!!

[nos.17 5,264]

INI files define a configuration, or settings, for the DLL file. Want to customize any settings? Then change the values in the file. Otherwise leave it alone. The lines that start with a semicolon are comments that describe what the setting does.

[NeveroddoreveN 95]

Sounds good! I just finished downloading the second section of the Ultimate Guide - Gameplay Enhancement List and Performance/Graphics List - and have been perusing the Network Addon Mod List. From what I am seeing, the remaining mod downloads, starting from Network Addons, seem to be optional, depending on the players opinion on how detailed they would want SimCity to be. Its quite a bit to swallow, I wanted to ask you guys if I am correct on this. Also, I went on sc4pac to see what I could find, and actually was not that surprised to find that there are a TON of downloads there. You guys kinda eased me into it, which I appreciate. Seeing as how I am a complete newbie to this game, I am not entirely sure what to think about the sea of mods to pick from.  What would you guys recommend "mod-wise" beyond the Gameplay Enhancement and Performance/Graphics List on the Ultimate Guide and the vast amount of mods found via sc4pac?

[NeveroddoreveN 95]

Side note: For clarifications sake, with my last question, I was asking about what "optional" mods are recommended from the Guide and sc4pac.

[CorinaMarie 29,899]

9 minutes ago, NeveroddoreveN said:

What would you guys recommend "mod-wise" beyond the Gameplay Enhancement and Performance/Graphics List on the Ultimate Guide and the vast amount of mods found via sc4pac?

I'm not sure how it's packaged now, but I'd suggest NAM Lite or whatever version adds in diagonal Streets and SAM textures. With the full offerings NAM has, it's very easy to get overwhelmed so I'd go with a limited amount while getting your feet wet.

Then a Terrain, Rock, Beach, Water, and Side Water mods will do wonders visually. A slope mod is also great for realism (and I recommend one), but it can sometimes make it frustrating to build networks in crowded areas.

Next, just start a region and play to get the hang of it. Once you're feeling comfy with managing cities and regional play, then you'll have a better idea for what else you want. In my case it quickly became apparent I wanted the Age Degradation mod so my power plants didn't need rebuilt every few days.

So mostly it's play and find out what else would go well with your style. Are you a game player or a city painter? Both are perfectly fine ways to get into SC4, but each have a different approach.

[NeveroddoreveN 95]

Hey there, CorinaMarie! Thanks for your response! How do I find and download NAM Lite? As for the other downloads you mentioned - Terrain, Rock, Beach, Water and Side Water - I am hoping I can find those on sc4pac. And I am supposing the Age Degradation mod would be nice. What did you mean by "managing cities and regional play"? I totally get running a city, and from what I gather, when you said "regional play", the player can link up multiple cities to interact. Am I correct on this? It's been a LONG time since I have played SimCity (the classic version, quite a while back), so I am pretty much starting out fresh, and am so excited to dive right into SimCity 4 Deluxe!!

Oh, and what did you mean when you asked if I am game player or a city painter? I am not sure what you mean. Please explain!!

Thanks so much for your help!! If there is anything else you can recommend for a newbie (me), please let me know!!

[Ulisse Wolf 4,462]

5 hours ago, NeveroddoreveN said:

Hey there, CorinaMarie! Thanks for your response! How do I find and download NAM Lite? As for the other downloads you mentioned - Terrain, Rock, Beach, Water and Side Water - I am hoping I can find those on sc4pac. And I am supposing the Age Degradation mod would be nice. What did you mean by "managing cities and regional play"? I totally get running a city, and from what I gather, when you said "regional play", the player can link up multiple cities to interact. Am I correct on this? It's been a LONG time since I have played SimCity (the classic version, quite a while back), so I am pretty much starting out fresh, and am so excited to dive right into SimCity 4 Deluxe!!

Oh, and what did you mean when you asked if I am game player or a city painter? I am not sure what you mean. Please explain!!

Thanks so much for your help!! If there is anything else you can recommend for a newbie (me), please let me know!!

Not all terrain mods are available on SC4pac, so they must be installed manually.

For NAM, you need to install the NAM:network-addon-mod-lite package if you want NAM Lite, or the NAM:network-addon-mod package if you want the full NAM version.

[CorinaMarie 29,899]

9 hours ago, NeveroddoreveN said:

As for the other downloads you mentioned - Terrain, Rock, Beach, Water and Side Water

Take a peek here.  

 

9 hours ago, NeveroddoreveN said:

And I am supposing the Age Degradation mod would be nice.

I use the radical one from this. That means under non-stressed load all Maxis Power Plants will last 4,702 years iirc. Now for other CC Power Plants I just set them to zero degradation so I don't ever have to rebuild. (Eventually I'll make an all zeroes one for Paeng's.)

 

9 hours ago, NeveroddoreveN said:

when you said "regional play", the player can link up multiple cities to interact. Am I correct on this?

Yep. You are on the same page. Playing neighboring city tiles (and their neighbors too) and back and forth to your original city tiles lets the demand info propagate back and forth and it helps a lot.

 

9 hours ago, NeveroddoreveN said:

Oh, and what did you mean when you asked if I am game player or a city painter?

As a Player you zone and grown all your R, C, and I zones and you manage the budget so you don't go bankrupt. A city Painter tweaks in billions in city funds and plops everything for a beautiful visual affect. They will then Growify those Lots so they are much less likely to abandon.

Neither approach is right or wrong. It's a matter of style.

I'm closer to a player, but I have specific ways I cheat. There's the aforementioned power plant non-rebuild policy and I set my game so my Ag pays 5x what the taxes would otherwise be (without them getting the least bit upset). Since I play natural growth with a bunch of rural development, this allows me to generate enough funds for all I need without having to build a huge population. From there I do balance my budget as I play, but that 5x is a huge cheat in the eyes of a purist.

 

[NeveroddoreveN 95]

Thanks, CorineMarie!! To respond to your post, I will do them in segments...

First, as for the environment sites you mentioned, I took a look at them, and have one question - those links lead to more complicated mods, is there a one-in-all link for each (terrain, beach, etc.) or would I have to download each mod individually?

Second, I will most certainly look into the Age Degredation!!

Also, with the "player vs. painter" situation, I am like you - I figure I am a mixture of the two titles.

Is there anything else I might want or need to download before I dive into the game? I do remember that there were a TON of downloads on sc4pac, though I haven't looked at them in great detail just yet. I am so excited, but I want to make sure the game and it's downloads are all taken care of before I dive in!! I really appreciate your help - but not just yours, for everyone who has provided guidance, information and patience!

[CorinaMarie 29,899]

1 hour ago, NeveroddoreveN said:

... is there a one-in-all link for each (terrain, beach, etc.) or would I have to download each mod individually?

Those are mix and match and pick which of each one you like. Here's a recap of what to peek at:

• Cori's Rock Shoppe (Linkys to and Pictures of every Rock Mod)
• Cori's Water Shoppe (Linkys to and Pictures of every Water Mod)
• Cori's Side Water Shoppe (Pictures and in topic Downloads of the Water's edge for every Water Mod)
• Cori's Beach Shoppe (Linkys to and Pictures of every Beach Mod)
• Cori's Terrain Shoppe (Linkys to and Pictures of every Terrain Mod)
• Cori's Jolteon's Ferrians's Tree Shoppe (Linkys to and Pictures of almost every Tree Mod)

And I would personally skip the tree mods to start with just cause they are more complex to set up.

 

1 hour ago, NeveroddoreveN said:

Is there anything else I might want or need to download before I dive into the game?

I played vanilla for a couple or three years before I downloaded anything, so my answer is: No, not really.

Just get playing and from there you'll find what you like or don't like or would like to see and odds are there's a Mod or BAT for that which you can decide on getting later.

[NeveroddoreveN 95]

Alrighty, sounds like a plan!! I will work with the links you included in your post, figure out what will work and what will not. As per your suggestion, after I am done with those downloads, I will hop into SimCity 4 and see how it turns out!! I am so excited, it has been eons since I played a SimCity (the last one I actually got into was SimAnt, and that was a long while back too), and that said, this game will be a whole new experience!! I am sure SimCity 4 Deluxe will be much different than any other Sim game, I know that it will be much more complex than SimCity Classic, but that's part of the fun!!! If I have any problems or issues, should I post them here in this thread or in the problems section at the main screen of this website?

[CorinaMarie 29,899]

6 hours ago, NeveroddoreveN said:

I will hop into SimCity 4 and see how it turns out!!

I just remembered some things I'm not sure get mentioned much, but it's the In Game Settings. These are my preferences.

Play Options:

• Auto Go To Disaster = Off
  • Should you have a fire or strike or such, this can really, really mess you up if it's on and the game jumps when you are not expecting it. @rsc204 had it happen once when he was just drawing a small rectangle with the bulldozer and then the scene shifted to halfway across the map and wiped out miles of his precious city. I forget the rest of the details, but I believe he had to exit without saving to recover from that so he lost hours of work he'd already done in that session. (Let's not mention it to him as it'd be like poking an old wound. )
• Edge Scrolling = On
• Auto Edge Reconciliation = Off
• Urgent Advice = On
• Expanded Tooltips = On

 

If a disaster happens, use the Go To Disaster button yourself.  

 

Graphic Options: 

• Set all Visual Effects to High
• I personally turn the Clouds/Fog off so I can see better, but many peeps like them.
• Set the others to on.

 

Establishing a City:

I use the dot (period) as my Mayor Name. What this does is provide way less clutter on the Region Screen while still making it look like a centering mark under the City Name.

 

Also, believe it or not, you should play on the Hard setting. It will help you learn the game mechanics better while playing and, more importantly, it'll reduced the popup drivel from the talking heads (advisors). More times than not, they will complain about stuff that you don't actually need to worry about. Simply use all your Graphs and Dataviews to check on the status of your city.

It also has the benefit of not interrupting you every 37 seconds.

 

Game Speed;

When I first started, I played on the fastest (Cheetah) speed cause I wanted to see things grow immediately. However, as cities get larger this causes the game to skip a bunch of useful calculations under the hood. It's best to never go above medium speed except for deliberate tests.

For instance if you are trying to find the exact tax rate to put a particular demand to zero (or slightly negative) you save the city then tweak the taxes while running full speed and checking their demand on the RCI graph. Once you determine the proper tax rate you can Exit to the Region without Saving. Then reload and set the exact tax amount and play at normal speed.

 

Which Region to Play?

You can play any region at all, but don't play the original Timbuktu where the Tutorials are. There is a certain scenario wherein the game will suddenly decide to reset the tutorial city tiles and you will lose everything you built in them. (Should you want to play that region (and we all do) you can use my Timbuktu Too replacement.)

 

6 hours ago, NeveroddoreveN said:

If I have any problems or issues, should I post them here in this thread or in the problems section at the main screen of this website?

Totally your choice. Here is fine if you want. A few peeps have kept their own ongoing topics for all their questions. That gives them their own personalized help center.

[NeveroddoreveN 95]

Hey everyone! So, CorinaMarie, I started to download some of the rock mods and put them into the plugins folder, but when I clicked on the link a bit below the vanilla rock picture, I was taken to a page labeled "SC4 Devotion". From what I can tell, this is not the place to download that mod-type. I clicked on a later link, got sent to the same place. I will sideline those for now and keep on working through these files. Your thoughts?

[CorinaMarie 29,899]

@NeveroddoreveN 

It's quite likely about half of those were available on Devotion at the time I made the Shoppes. I guess we don't have any auto re-directs for them.  

And you are correct, you can play without them and add them at anytime. And even swap different ones in and out of plugins later to see how they look. (Only the Tree Controllers can't be swapped in and out willy-nilly.)

Ofc, any that say Devotion could be searched on SC4Evermore since that's the replacement site.  

[NeveroddoreveN 95]

Thanks so much!! I saw in the links that took me to a download page that only one Plugin mod can exist at any given time. The pages I went to said that, for me to add a mod to the folder (for example, terrain), I would have to remove the existing download before installing the new one. I guess that was the point, but it struck me as a bit confusing. Would you recommend SC4Evermore? The only thing holding me back from diving in feet forward is these mod downloads.

[CorinaMarie 29,899]

2 minutes ago, NeveroddoreveN said:

Would you recommend SC4Evermore?

Absolutely! They are completely trusted and there's even overlap in staff between the two sites.