MayorTim

My first post here in years! I must say, it feels good to be back. I haven't played SC4 since getting a Mac way back in 2009, and I've only ever played on the PC version. The problem I'm running into is with custom regions - when I open the region dialogue box with ctrl+alt+shift+r to load a grayscale, the box opens, but I can't navigate to anything. It won't show any files or directories, and where files should be there's only a little black box that makes the game crash when clicked repeatedly. Any ideas?

Welcome back. It's nice to see all of the old Simtropolites coming out of the woodwork! I think you will find that you're well remembered, and that even out of those who weren't around back when you were modding, most at least know of you. Cities: Skylines is indeed looking pretty impressive. I'm still on the fence with the graphics, though at the same time, I desperately need to upgrade my computer before I can play. =[ Perhaps someday soon.

Thus far this game looks excellent. Here's to hoping it will follow through as the next great city builder. It's certainly off to an impressive start for an alpha.

I bet never in a million years did the developers at Maxis think the game they were working on could be taken to such a level.    Good work!

A little preface: I'm running the aspyr mac re-release, but I'm not sure whether or not this is a mac-specific bug. I've had some problems with Peg's seaports since installing them a few weeks ago, though I wasn't able to isolate the problem to them until yesterday. Before I knew what was causing the problem, I'd randomly get a CTD every time I tried opening my port city, which forced me to restart twice. So, I figured out that it was the seaports (the actual ports, using Peg's master seaport controller) and bulldozed them. They were replaced by totally empty (no props or anything) blank lots that can't be queried, are classified as occupied even though they're not, and still highlight with the same footprint as the seaports. Changing elevations, even putting them underwater, doesn't destroy them, and since all I did was bulldoze them and there are no props left, I don't think it's the overhanging-building bug, bug I could be wrong. Now this is where things get really, really weird. Once my seaports were gone (no seaports in the city whatsoever) my seaports budget was to the tune of $2,400,000,000ish. Yes, a 2.4 billion dollar a month seaport budget with no seaports. The only fix I could come up with was to turn funding for seaports all the way to 0, which "fixed" it. I resolved to never download actual ports again and went on playing. Today I opened an adjacent city, and was somewhat puzzled because my r$ and r$$ demand was in the tanks (I use the XX_Turbo mod). I did everything one would normally do to fix that, but nothing budged. Then I checked all of my other cities, and it was the same situation. Using extra query information, I found that that was because my demand for r$ and r$$ is currently at around -2,400,000,000, the same number from my seaport budget in the seaport city. Yikes. Removing the port city tile from the region completely (as in, taking its file from the region folder) fixes the problem for all of the other cities, but then obviously I have a big black hole in the middle of my region. Removing the peg files but leaving the port city in place, and just playing other cities, doesn't fix anything. Anyone have any clue? I'd really rather not restart the port city again, as it's pretty much completed at this point.

It is rather... difficult... to use, but I like the fact that it can use multiple cores, unlike any other version of Simcity. And actually, I've barely run into any issues installing plugins, NAM included. I'm currently at about 3.5gb and 9,000 files (before datpacking), all of which have worked flawlessly. Still haven't come up with a solution on my own, so I suppose I'll be restarting that city once again. Ah well, I knew it would occur at least once or twice. Tis the nature of the beast.

I'm guessing it's the (port) city, not the region, as when it's removed the region is fine. Is that a fair assumption? Needless to say I won't be using the Peg ports in any of my other cities. Interestingly enough, the port city has flat residential demand (RCI chart), and positive demand when queried. It's only the other cities that see the huge loss of demand, but only when the port city is also there! I back things up manually, but unfortunately the port was one of the first things I built, so I don't have a backup that predates it. It may have something to do with me recently installing a few airport packages, but who knows.

Why's the download so large? Just curious.

I tried it under wine once and failed miserably. Though admittedly, that was nearly a year ago. I'd prefer to continue using the mac port with file juicer and just missing out on a few of the goodies, but if Aspyr really does remove plugins from their port, I'd definitely be interested in that tutorial.

I replied back that I'd individually tested my plugins and was mainly using plugins from within the last 4-5 years, and they have asked me to send them my plugins folder as a .zip, both before and after crashing, as well as a crash log. The problem is, I rebuilt my plugins folder after running into the issue the first time, and I'm about 850mb short of encountering the bug. Memo, do you still have access to a plugins folder that causes crashing? If not I suppose I'll try to replicate it for them, but that's a lot of work just to make my game crash. EDIT: So, while trying to do it myself, I completely removed the NAM and was able to get the game to function with 2.38gb. Odd. EDIT 2: I've gotten up to 2.6gb, minus the NAM, and it works. Could anyone experiencing the bug try completely removing the NAM to see if that fixes it?

The easiest way is to use the mapper application on a Windows computer, then send the file to your Mac. Unfortunate, but it is what it is, and it may save you a few hours of aggravation.

The new Aspyr port has officially been released on Steam, just so everyone knows.

This is the reply that I got: Hi Tim, Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Yes, our main focus was to update the base default game with the Rush Hour expansion pack. With downloading plug-ins (some almost a decade old) from multiple websites to test through the game was not part of the initial development process. However, we are willing to look into it further but we'd like to get some details first. What exactly is being downloaded and from where? Are the plug in files being inserted into the app icon itself or the game's Containers folder? Thank you. Aspyr Support Interesting. Perhaps they're starting to hear the noise? Though it is more likely she was only being optimistic.

Other than contributing to the size of your plugins folder, I don't (think) the NAM is the cause. Without an internet connection, the bug apparently occurs with only a few hundred mb's of plugins.

Beyond terrible news. Wonderful idea, Aspyr. Just wonderful. I'll definitely have to check out your datpacker, though. That would be incredibly useful!

Your download link seems to be broken.

Honestly, by far the easiest way to install the NAM is to find a windows computer and use it, then send the files back to your Mac (I used skype.) If you don't have any access to windows at all, you're in for headaches.

I've experienced this exact problem myself, and it's been the bane of my Simcity 4 experience. Had I known, I honestly probably wouldn't have paid for the port. Once the situation became untenable, I ended up trashing my region and my plugins folder (which was at 2.4gb, and I'd spent a lot of the last two weeks downloading). I've since been more selectively re-downloading, and I've organized my plugins folder in a way that allows me to only load plugins for specific cities (for example, I won't be putting any seaport or industry BAT's in my plugins while playing downtown, and I won't put any skyscrapers in my plugins when playing everything else.) So far, so good. I can't independently confirm if datpacking is a way around this issue, as when I tried it with my first plugins folder, it deleted dozens of necessary files that it considered "usesless" after which the game wouldn't even start. I'll probably try again though sometime next week, or whenever it is that I hit the bug again. EDIT: I also submitted a support request to Aspyr, and I suggest everyone encountering this issue do the same (they will be much more likely to fix it.) I'll let everyone know when I get a response.

You're probably using the wrong plugins folder. The one you want is located at User/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.simcity4.appstore/data/documents/sim city 4/Plugins

Perhaps so. Could anyone test the ACB airport packs to see if they work? I've been getting a crash to desktop every time I add them to my plugins, wondering why.

It would certainly be very handy. Creating regions on windows and then having to move them back to my Mac can be... difficult, at times. What emulator did you use?

Remove the "NetworkAddonMod_Bridges_Plugin_Controller.dat" and try again. There are also issues with custom EL and Monorail items, and HSR. I'm not entirely sure what I removed to make it work, but the game is now chugging along once again, but now it's even managing 2.7gb, more than I'd had in it before. I'd already taken out the incompatible NAM files, and all I have otherwise are a few Monorail BAT's.

I attempted it, and with everything datpacked was able to get the game to start normally and open my region, but it will now crash when opening cities. Edit: I guess I should note that I did not datpack the NAM, or any of my mods, so that shouldn't be the issue.

I suppose I spoke too soon, just hit the limit at 2.4gb. However, now I have to remove files until I'm down to 1.9gb in order for it to work again. Ridiculously frustrating, because now in order to get the game to work I have to remove essential files, which make the game not work. I seriously hope there's a way to fix this error, or my days of playing Simcity are probably over yet again.