Stooge

YOU DA MAN!

---------------- On 10/5/2003 4:12:32 PM ilive wrote: thanks a lot for this tutorial... I really wish to write one but as english is not my language, it will be too hard and osrry, if this program is not friendly, but it's not easy to combine tools for advanced users and beginners (no offense at all in these words)---------------- You're welcome, I just hope it helps people. And no reason to apologize. You wrote a complex piece of software that is, by design, supposed to do complex work. It's not going to be picked up by just anybody and completely understood. I just hope I can help someone get over the initial learning curve and start making mods

How to Mod something with the Ilive Reader I decided to write this because the reader is not 100% user friendly. It's not that bad, but it takes some figuring out, and can be frustrating at times. Once you learn it, you can appreciate how powerful it is. Of course with any complex program, it has a learning curve. I couldn't find any tutorial on the reader regarding actually changing something or makeing a dat mod, so I decided to start my own. I will try and make the information "prettier" later. I just wanted to get something out there for right now. ================================================================= This is a quick down and dirty howto for the ilive reader. This article will assume that the user has some familiarity with hex values, as well as some basic computer knowledge, and can install the program on your own. This article will NOT explain how to figure out what unknown values are, or anything else of that nature. This article will focus solely on how to use the reader to change values. I posted this here, because I felt it was an extension of Tropod's work .. and his thread was stickied I will continue to expand on this thread as I learn more. If anyone finds that I have done something wrong, then PLEASE correct me. The first thing you will need to do is download the reader. You can find the latest version here: You can also find the latest properties.xml file at that location as well. You will need to download both. Install the program. Unzip the properties.xml file to the same location you installed the reader too. Now start the reader by double clicking on the reader.exe program. Before you do any editing you are going to have to setup the options correctly. At the top of the reader window click on the ' OPTIONS ' text. In the drop down box select the ' OPTIONS ' text. This will open the options window. You will need to fill out the following fields: SimCityLocalte.dat file : \English\SimCityLocate.dat (Where SimCity Install Directory = the location you installed to) SimCity Folder: XML Properties file: properties.xml Properties Folder : Should be set to the directory you installed the ilive reader too. Once you have all of these setup, Click ok and restart the reader. Now you will have a functional reader. Congratulations! For more information see Tropod's guide above Now how do you edit a lot file, mod file, or one of the simcity dat files. Let's look at how to view the stats on one of the original dat files On the left hand side of the reader you should have a quick launch area. It should have 4 different fields called Loaded DAT Simcity DAT Lot Editor DAT Plugins DAT Click on the SimCity DAT one. If you have followed the instructions so far you should see several DAT files in this window. (ie simcity_1.dat simcity_2.dat simcity_3.dat, etc) Selec the simcity_1.dat file by left clicking on it one time. The title bar of your reader should have changed to read "simcity_1.dat - Reader". This means the reader is now ready to view that dat file. Next click on the Tools option at the top of the window and select Navigator. The reader will then begin building all of the lists it needs by reading the dat file. This may take a few seconds depending on your machine. Once it finishes loading, it will launch a new window that has "\simcity_1.dat - Navigator" as the Title. You will see several dozen options in the left side of the screen, and the right side should be blank. Let's look at changing the properties on the Coal power plant. Click on the PLUS sign next to the Power option on the left side nav window. Next click on the Up4x4 CoalPowerPlant option. Now, right click on this option and select "ADD TO PATCH". Next click on the Building Exemplar (Up64x64_CoalPowerPlant_14FD. Right Click on this and select "ADD TO PATCH" Once you have done this, close the navigation window. Now on the main reader window select the PATCH toolbar at the top. This should bring up a new window that has the Up4x4_CoalPowerPlant AND the "Building Exemplar (Up64x64_CoalPowerPlant_14FD" listed. Hightlight both (Shift + CLICK on each) and select Create DAT opton on right side of window. This will bring up a Windows SAVE AS box that SHOULD be pointing to your plugins directory. If it is not, then you will need to browse to that directory. Next give your new DAT file a name such as Cheap_Coal_Power_Plop.dat Ok, once that has saved, let's open up the dat file. Select OPEN from the toolbar and browse to the plugin directory. Find the Cheap_Coal_Power_Plop.dat file and click open. Now in the left side of the reader window click the loaded dat bar. Select the dat we just loaded and the title for the reader window should change to Cheap_Coal_Power_Plop.dat - Reader. Ok, now let's click on the Tools option and then select Navigator. This will open a new navigator window. You will notice that the only option with a PLUS sign is now the Power tree. Click on that PLUS sign. Under that header, click on the Up4x4_CoalPowerPlant. This should expand the tree for this option even further. On the right hand window you should now see a whole bunch of information. It should have the following fields: Name Name Value Data Type Rep Value If you want to know what all of these values do, then you need to start searching the forums. I don't have the ability to put all that information into this article, and frankly I don't know it all yet myself. Now on the left side, under the Up4x4 CoalPowerPlant tree you should see Building Exemplar(Up64x64_CoalPowerPlant_1F4D) option, click on this. Ok, now here is a whole bunch of stuff you can do. On the right hand side you should have a new list of options to edit. One of these is plop cost. It is a Sint64 data type and is set to 0x0000000000002710. Now what the hell does tha mena? Open the Windows calculator, and click on View and change it to Scientific. Now you have options for Hex Dec Oct Bin. Click on Hex and enter 2710 (you dont' need all the preceding zeros, they are just there because it is a 64bit value so it has to take that whole space up) once you have entered 2710 click on the DEC option and it will convert 2710 to Decimal which means the plop cost is 10,000$! Now, let's say you think that is too much. You think 1,000 is a much better number so you need to figure out the hex on 1,000. Enter 1,000 in the calculator while the DEC option is checked. Then click on hex and you find that the hex Value is 3E8. Now let's change the cost of that power plant. In the reader double click on the Plop Cost. This brings up a property window. You will notice it has a value of 0x0000000000002710. We want to change that, so we need to replace the 2710 with 3E8. However, remember that we have to keep the same number of characters or it might cause problems. So change 2710 to 03E8. If you leave the 2 in there you will make it cost 9192 bucks instead of 1,000. Now click on apply and the window should go away. In the right hand side you should now see the value for the Plop Cost = to x00000000000003E8. Close down the navigator window. Now click on the save button in the toolbar, and it will ask you if you wish to overwrite the \plugins\Cheap_Coal_Power_Plop.dat file. Select YES. Exit out of the reader, load up SC4 and enjoy your $1,000 Coal Power plants.