Help regarding BATs

[dussin23 1]

Hi,

I downloaded quite a few different buildings today, and unfortunately one or more will not work. They show up only as the base, pavement looking stuff. No building, and I can't query it to see which building it is. After searching the forums, I think I can fix the problem if I could only figure out which building is the problem. Any advice on this?

Thanks.

[the_SIMtastik_One 3]

Hello,

First of all, your problem might be that you have the standard SC4. I beleive that most (if not all) of the BATs require that you have the Rush Hour expansion pack or SC4 Deluxe.

 

If that isn't the problem then I'm pretty sure you're missing prop files. The first step in solving this problem is to go to the SC4 official site and download the buildings as props files. Then, download all of the Maxis landmarks (or at least the one's that you need for your specific BATs). Finally, especially if you've downloaded BSC BATs, you need to get any prop files that are required by the lots that you have. Check the readmes for the BATs that you've downloaded. I'm pretty sure that this will solve your problem.

[dussin23 1]

I should also add that I cannot bulldoze the non-buildings, either. They're just there and won't go away. I deleted one by rezoning, but it looked weird and then the game crashed. I don't know if the crash had anything to do with this or not.

It's frustrating because I'm very careful to read the readme files follow the directions exactly. I still didin't know before tonight that you should put certain types of files in the program plug-in directory and others in MyDocs. Never read anything like that in the readme files. A lot of the stuff I download comes with an installer, anyway.

I'd really like to get this stuff straightened out, because I don't want a bunch of blank spots in my cities. And deleting everything and starting over would really be a nightmare. There has to be a way of figuring out which are the problem buildings, right???

Thanks again. Any comments would be VERY appreciated (I see a lot of questions on here go totally unanswered -- hope that doesn't happen here).

[dussin23 1]

Thanks for responding. I'm running SimCity 4 Deluxe.

I don't believe I got any BCS buildings recently, and I've carefully checked for dependencies. In case the creator misses some, I try to only download buildings that have been used by lots of people and have comments that I can read through.

These are all STEX files, but I'll try to go to the Maxis site to download some random things in hopes that it'll fix it. If you could give me a specific URL, that would be helpful as I'm no good at navigating that site.

Thanks again.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Uhhh... no random things. Just the official landmarks and the Buildings as Props plugins from the Lot Editor page (you need both files!).

If problems persist, you may have fallen victim to some old ploppable lots that were bugged somehow. It would help a great deal if you could tell us which buildings you downloaded exactly, and it is a very good idea to keep exact track of what you have installed - just as a general advice. If you just d/l, unzip, and play, you are likely to run into problems sooner or later.

Using custom content requires some time and effort for tracking, organizing and managing your stuff. The better your system, the easier it is to keep an overview instead of looking helplessly at a giant pile of chaotically accumulated files that can no longer be managed.

I have ~850 MB worth of plugins, but I took much time to think of a way of organizing my stuff, and I can find, delete or re-introduce any building or check its readme and screenshots within seconds.

Another good idea is to add stuff slowly and/or to check it out in a test city whose loss will not bother you in case something goes really wrong.

EDIT: Wait a minute. Have you applied the latest patch for your SC4 Deluxe at all? If not, get it at the SimCity HP. Don't choose online installation - download it first and install it locally. This way, you can store it somewhere so that you have it at hand whenever you may have to reinstall the game.

[dussin23 1]

Thanks. I did have both of those files from the Maxis site, and my SC4 is up to date. These are not plops; they're buildings that tried to grow but apparently couldn't. I can't really test lots like this first, because some of them won't grow until there's demand in the city, and as you know that could take a while. I should have kept better track of what I was D/L-ing. When I started doing this, I didn't know I had to keep everything organized. My plugins folder is a bit of a mess, but I'm sure there are worse out there.

It seems strange to me there's no way to find out what building is trying to grow there. If you guys think it will help, I'll put up screen shots. I don't know if it would help or not. Thanks.

[Tolomar 5]

like T wrecks said some of the early RCI plopable and custom blanck lots don't grow correctly...I've only run across this problem with older lots....that were plopable Residental...Shanty town 1,2 & 3 from FrogFace is all  I can remeber off hand...there were others also...not sure if theres any sort of fix for this problem...have no modding ablities myself

 

 

I use the tileset mod to test my growable buildings in a sandbox region now...still accident get hyper and forget to do it sometimes...

 

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?mode=files&filetype=all&category=default&sortby=DatePosted&show=12&Str=tolomar

 

but Tinkers mod does work...and I've yet to run across any conflicts with the mod as yet

 

 

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Ah, yes. Growable buildings cannot be tested that easily. However, if you install growable versions only, you are protected from said bug with ploppables. Strangely enough, the bugged ploppables affect growable buildings. One example that comes to mind is the BSC Helvetia Automation, an industrial building. I always used the growable version exclusively, and never ran into problems. I was all the more surprised when someone showed a picture of the same building growing out of place, overlapping the adjacent street. It turned out that this guy had the ploppable version installed, too. Removing the ploppable version fixed the problem. Now I don't know if it will do the trick for you, but it's another thing worth bearing in mind.

Concerning the bulldozing problem, can you drag roads through the building? If so, cover every tile of the building's footprint with road pieces. Then, bulldoze all at once. This might work.

[dussin23 1]

Thanks again.

Yes, I can drag roads through them. I guess I'll do that, bulldoze, and re-zone everytime it happens. Believe it or not, I've counted 11 of these messed up lots on one medium sized map. All I've been able to deduce about them is that they're tall buildings (there's props hanging way up in the air) and that they're apparently different buildings (foundation textures are similar but different patterns).

I've downloaded the lot editor, so I guess the only way to figure this out is to look at every file and see what the base textures look like. If they match, I'll know which one to delete.

This is going to take hours. These may have been buildings that I downloaded long ago and never had the demand for them until now. Suddenly, they're all over a couple of my cities.

Why won't the game query what it apparently thinks is there, though? If it would, I'd have this solved within seconds. What a pain...

Thanks again for your help. Any other advice would be appreciated, too, of course.

[dussin23 1]

Also, one time I was going to try to make my own buildings, and downloaded Gmax. I just now downloaded the BAT, thinking if I could open these things and look at them, it would help me figure out what's going on. BAT seems to be the same thing as GMAX, though, and it won't open anything.

Apparently I'm missing some basic knowlege here.

[dussin23 1]

I'm not sure if my attachments are working...attempting screenshots.

Guess not.

[dussin23 1]

trying again

Ok, screenshot attached.

I've now used the Lot Editor to open up everything, and I can find NO downloading buildings that match the pattern in the screenshot I'll put in my next post (the one with the tree in the middle of it).

This is about to ruin my game experience; I really have no idea how to fix it at this point.

[dussin23 1]

ok. If anybody recognizes that and knows how to fix it, that would be awesome.

[Swamper77 90]

Dussin,

What you have there is an invisible building that is used on a plop lot that is growing. If you have the Reader program from the Modding Files section, you can easily fix this. Every building has a property called Parent Cohort. Open the ploppable RCI buildings you have downloaded and set the Parent Cohort to 0,0,0. Before doing this, bulldoze all of the lots that appear to be missing their building.

The old way of making RCI Plops was to reference a Parent Cohort of that particular type of building. They were assigned a Parent Cohort of that the game's Stage 7-8 buildings use. The Parent Cohort that is assigned is one of the game's building family cohorts. Unfortunately, once a city is able to grow the normal Maxis buildings of the stages 7 & 8, it will also grow the plop buildings as well. Many people used prop versions of their building models on a lot that has an invisible building on it.

If you are having trouble querying the lot to see which one it is that is causing the problem, trying clicking the query tool on the props of the lot. This should bring up the query window, which should display the name of the building.

-Swamper77

[dussin23 1]

Unfortunately, all I get when clicking on the props are things like sign and shoe boutique and generic stuff like that.

I don't know enough to understand what you're talking about in the rest of your reply, but I'll look for a viewer in the mods section and see if I can muddle through it.

Thanks for your help.

Dustin

[dussin23 1]

Okay, I assume you mean the iLive reader. It fails to open anything...obviously I don't know how to use it and the readme isn't exactly instructions.

I'm not playing this game again until I can fix the issue. I won't be able to get it out of my mind. If I have to, I guess I'll delete all my plugins. That would render an entire region essentially useless, though.

Did I do something wrong to cause all this?

[Tolomar 5]

I'm unable to help you with the Ireader...I really have no knowlege of it's workings

personelly...if it's plopable Residential building...i just delete it...and don't use it the game...ploable RES building don't allow residets to comute for some reason...as of yet the modders have not figured out why to my knowlege...not sure they ever will either

[dussin23 1]

They are growable commerical buildings that I'd be more than happy to delete if I knew which ones they were.

[Tolomar 5]

well guess it's the old tried and true , and a bit messy, trial and error method then...unless you know of the last few buildings you added.....I would take out all the bat buildings and store them in a temp folder outside the game...name it something like need to check something like that...(don't touch any dependancies if you move them, this method won't work)...and just put a small amout of buildings in your game 5- 10...use the tileset mod and i ralphninjas radical ordiance version 2 mod in a sandbox region ....if the build grow correctly move it to a different temp folde  (name it done or good or yea it work...and just sort of widdle down the buildings til you find the offending buildings

 

you have to ask one of the mod experts if the SC4Tool program would be any help identifying these type of building...personely I'm unsure it can do that

 

only other option would be to scan the buildings with the Ireader program...but you have to know exemplar # and ID codes, to be able to do that

 

sorry...wish I had an esier answer for ya, but I'm unaware of any real easy method to help you out

[dussin23 1]

Thanks for trying (I really do appreciate it).

I think, though, that I may have gotten it straightened out. I did kind of what you said, except I just deleted some buildings all together. Then I did get that ordinance and let a few of my larger cities run after cleaning up some of the blank lots, and no more have appeared. I believe I had two that were causing me trouble: AMA headquarters and 1st National Tower (or something like that).

The only funny thing going on now is the ubiquity of Wren Insurance. I have the mod and everything, but Wren is still all over the place.

I can deal with that, though. Thanks again to everyone who chimed in. Can you believe I actually called in sick today to fix this? Sad, huh?

[SimFox 801]

I've had and still, time to time, have exactly same problem you do!
As have been said above the problem is most probably caused by PLOPPABLE versions of some LOTS you have downloaded.
Many Commercial LOTS come in both GROWABLE and PLOPPABLE variety. Another problem is that nowadays it is common to use *.exe type installers - apparently to make it easier to install, in fact, IMHO, it make all process less transparent and PREVENT people from knowing WHAT exactly have they got! Here I must state that I can't put any blame on any of the LOTs that came from those installers, but the very procedure is to blame for many people's ignorance of what they have in their plug-in folder.

OK, that said we should get back to the problem itself.
From the picture you have supplied I can tell you that you are dealing with CS$$$7_2x3 lot being hijacked by one of those so called invisible buildings from PLOPPABLE commercial lots. You can verify it if you'll try to open those lots (there are just a few) in Lot Editor. You'll see same empty lot. The fact is that lot isn't empty. There is a building on it, the problem is that the building itself is of the size 0,5mx0mx0,5m and is put on a lot by game engine from the pull of buildings known as Building Family. Here is a list of Building Families affected by this problem (from those blank lots):

Co$$$ 0x500000ab
Co$$ 0x5000009d
Cs$$$ 0x5000003b
Cs$$ 0x50000059
Cs$ 0x50000011
R$$$ 0x20000034
R$$ 0x20000020
R$ 0x2000000c
I-ht 0x8000004d
I-m 0x80000029
I-d 0x80000009
I-r 0x80000050

Apparently it stems from those days when Plug-in manager wasn't available and people were using so called blank RCI lots, but of course LOTS can NOT be blank in order to save a lot in Lot Editor it MUST have a building, but to make lot appear blank building is simply made 0,5mx0mx0,5m and hence invisible.

Lot file itself is like a ZIP/other type of archive file it is just a container for other files hidden inside of it. The Nature of plopable lots is that they have 2 exemplars - one for the lot itself and another for the building as opposed to the growable lots that have only one - lot exemplar.

You should be able to quire the empty lot and it would return to you name of the building that has that misconceived plopable version. The fact that you don't get anything MAY be due to the fact that building/lot that has hijacked Maxis' growable doesn't have name properly specified in its exemplar, or it may be in a language which isn't supported by your installation of the game (say Japanese)

One thing to do about this problem is to edit those lots. You should set building family property of the building exemplar of PLOPPABLE lots to 0x00000000, but you should do it in iLive Reader. Interface in SC4Tool is much more convenient, but there is some odd bug in it's exemplar editor - if you set building family to 0x00000000 and save it would not be recognized as a building exemplar anymore, but rather as unknown and you wouldn