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Indiana Joe

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Everything posted by Indiana Joe

  1. SC4Undo

    Indiana Joe reviewed Null 45's file in Obsolete & Legacy

    This DLL completely changes the game, allowing for endless fun shenanigans. Launch a giant meteor at your city, listen to all your sims scream in agony as they are melted into magma. Then CTRL-Z and kaboom, just like it never happened. Good times, good times.

  2. 3D Camera DLL for SimCity 4

    Indiana Joe commented on memo's file in DLL Mods

    Pure evil of you Memo to post on April 1st When the community ran out of April Fools jokes, the greatest joke left was to release a real 3D camera mod. What a great honor to the Simtropolis tradition. It's a little clunky since the game is kinda 2.5D, but here's to the future of DLL modding!
  3. Get the latest release: https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/33839-humacao-pre-transited-NAM-region/ So following the discussions from 4 years ago and again this month, this is a little demo I have created to test the idea of a Prefab NAM highway network region. Madison County was a huge region that would take a long time to do, so I hand-created the quintessential little 8x8km region with a prefab RHW highway network, as well as a RRW rail network. Almost all of the cities are connected by one or both. I give you...The Bay: A secluded inlet fed by a river descending from the surrounding cradle of mountains provides the perfect spot to build a town or two, or even a thriving metropolis. Those are all medium cities and one large. The yellow dots are highway access points for surface roads (pre-built). The prefab highway and rail networks are built with a variety of features, including Fractional Angle Networks, FLEX pieces, draggable network interfaces, a couple ol' fashioned puzzle pieces here or there. I used a slope mod when building so everything's nice and smooth. Also, all cities are incorporated on Easy difficulty, because RHW can be expensive and I didn't want to worry about running out of money. Technical Considerations Download and Instructions Dependencies: this region requires that the Network Addon Mod v36 is installed. Additionally, you must ensure that the following NAM options are installed via a Custom Installation: RHW (Real HighWay) and all components (only need network levels L0 through L2) MHO (Maxis Highway Override) RRW (Real RailWay) and rail viaducts Road viaducts, all components Wide Radius Curves I highly encourage the use of a slope mod (several options available on the exchanges), but one that is too restrictive might make editing the highway network difficult, as I have used a slightly steep one. To change the name and mayor name of the already-incorporated cities, you can use Buggi's Extra Cheats Plugin. Without further adieu, here's the region. To install, unzip the folder, and place "The Bay" folder into your "Regions" folder (My Documents/SimCity 4/Regions). https://www.moddb.com/games/SimCity-4-rush-hour/addons/the-bay#downloadsform Get it on the STEX! Give it a whirl and share what you do with it. Let me know about anything regarding suggestions or bugs and technical support. Disclaimer: use at your own risk! Many of the people testing this out will probably be familiar with modding the game, but it is ultimately meant to appeal to the novice player. If you don't know anything about modding the game, post here and ask any questions! -Matt
  4. You're right, Lucario uploaded it separately, I was mistaken. The only one that's included with the NAM now is the RRW tunnel/slope parameters. Thanks for pointing it out.
  5. The latest Network Addon Mod comes with its own slope mod baked-in a slope mod for the RealRailway. You just have to make sure the file Indiana Joe's Slope Mod loads after the NAM in your plugins folder. Create a folder named z_SlopeMod (or anything after the letter N) and drop it in there. I may try to go back to these 2 regions and fix them to use the new NAM slope parameters. The good news is that after someone on Reddit posted their cities in my region, I was flattered enough and re-motivated to start a new one a few weeks ago. Based on Tagehring's New Palermo, you might see it get uploaded before summer ends (north of the equator at least). I do need permission from @tagehring first. Matt
  6. My guide is mostly broken after the deactivation of the BSC LEX at SC4Devotion. Ulisse Wolf has the most updated links to mods and game fixes here: Hi all, Matt here. I'm hiding the big introduction in this spoiler so that newcomers can skip right to the mod list.
  7. Welcome weary readers in 2023 and beyond. As time marches on, the community for this 20 year old computer game dwindles but survives. Perhaps there are yet those who are newly discovering and downloading the amazing custom content users have poured their effort into for 2 decades. With the shutdown of the BSC Lot Exchange (the LEX formerly at SC4Devotion.com), a huge blow is dealt to the archive of SimCity 4 mods. As Alex (Tarkus) said, there were over 4,000 files hosted there, and many were not available here on Simtropolis. This also created tremendous link rot for my list here of some 250+ content creators and files. Some of the most important ones -- such as the entire BSC dependency collection -- have been quickly replaced on Tarkus's new site, SC4Evermore.com. Amusingly enough it took the crash of the entire website to do something fairly simple that was a very contentious point for years: combine all those dependencies into one file. I can't emphasize enough how much this community owes to Alex who, on top of coordinating the Network Addon Mod for the last decade or so, took over the second largest fan and content site in the community, and is now trying to save its content from the oblivion of time. Who knows how long it will take until all of that content is available again. In the meantime, unlike my introduction to this thread from 2018 states, it is a sad time in the community and not a good one to be building a plugins folder. One day perhaps I can go back and replace every LEX link here with a SC4E link, and I hope I'm still around here to do so. One day I know I will log off for the last time, like so many others already have. I want to thank everyone who I've ever interacted with here in the community, even 15-odd years ago when I was a kid and probably less-than-eloquently spoken (sorry ). I know Discord is the spiritual successor in many ways, but as far as website forums go, Simtropolis is pretty much the last place left. An era coming to an end. We've been around a long time; a few of you dinosaurs even from the 2003 days (). Hell, we've been around so long that the sequel to our beloved game launched, flopped, and was forgotten; our beloved resident grumpy old man died; and our beloved, benevolent, administrative beacon-of-positivity tried to end it all. Everyone here who ever contributed anything, no matter how small: thanks for stopping by. Whether or not you realize, you were a part of something amazing. Last but not least thank you Dirk for making it all possible. Matt

  8. simtropolis Terrible News: Cori has gone

    Indiana Joe replied to Cyclone Boom's topic in Simtropolis Related

    Incredibly sad potential news, CB. I don't have much to add to the volumes others have written about how much of an impact and presence Cori has here in the community. The fact that everyone has a story about personal interactions and Cori's kindness says it all. I think TheMurderousCricket brings up a good point that there is always a real person behind an online persona. Often it is the most outwardly kind and considerate that have the deepest personal struggles. It is all of our jobs to look after each other. It doesn't matter what silly little thing started a community. Whether it was baseball in an empty lot, or books, movies, or a video game. When people have been gathering in the same space for nearly 20 years---it makes us all friends and family. I hope that you, @Cyclone Boom, are able to look after yourself in this tough time. I know that you are probably already working on things at the back-end (as you and Cori have done as a team for years). I think most are aware, but suicidal ideation is an emergency and if someone you trust expresses it seriously, you need to contact the proper local authorities and get help for them ASAP. I know we are all hoping for the best outcome. Please reach out and lean on us when needed, CB....and that goes for everyone else. Otherwise, there are a growing number of resources. I am only familiar with ones in the U.S., but there are certainly international resources as well. Dialing 9-8-8 in the United States will connect you to the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This brand-new number was just implemented in place of 1-800-273-TALK. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has a good list of resources. Also see the guide for A Friend Who is at Risk. The Suicide Prevention Resource Center has local information for all 50 states. And finally, you can always dial 911 / 112. A suicide plan is a medical emergency, and I respond to these as part of my full-time day job. We will always take it seriously and transport someone to a medical professional, and the same is true around most of the world. This is yet another index of links I have made, but I never hoped I would have to make this one. I can't pretend that mental healthcare is as developed as I would like it to be, but the only way to begin the journey to getting better is by reaching out the first time. Please take care everyone. We hope to see you again, Corina Marie. Matt

  9. Show us Your Interchanges!

    Indiana Joe replied to Haljackey's topic in SC4 Showcase

    A very smooth spinny boi, with the new RHW pieces. Matt
  10. Added a disclaimer at the top for PEG content and its occasional compatibility issues. Hopefully will make newcomers aware and able to avoid problems. It has only came up once, recently, since I wrote the guide. I had not thought about it in a long time, but I do seem to recall some controversy back in the day. In general it's iconic, quality content. The team was just interested in doing their own thing, with their own rural plugin-verse. Fortunately the incompatibilities are generally rare. Matt

  11. Got a quick SC4 question?... Ask here!

    Indiana Joe replied to City_Slider's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    Hey Turnstyled, glad you've gotten some use out of my guide. I haven't had your problem with the regular SPAM mod, so I think it probably came from one of the SPAM add-on content packs. Specifically this is the link I have in the post. I may have to go back and edit that out, as some of the plugins in that section are probably not what the average user wants. For example, one of them even overrides the NAM! PEG plugins are kind of unique, in that many files are incompatible with other major mods (they were geared toward making the entire game agricultural/rural.) I couldn't find reference to any water utilities other than maybe this one. You can also try the "binary search" method---remove half of your PEG Productions folders; load the game and see if the problem is fixed. If it's not that half, it's in the other half. Keep splitting it down until you narrow down which file is causing the problem. Matt

  12. Version 1.0.0

    1,272 Downloads

    I originally started off with The Bay, a small region to test the idea of pre-built transit networks. Now has come the time to scale it up to full size. This is a region with pre-built RHW highway networks and RRW railway networks. Also comes with trees and texture mods. The following dependencies must be installed: Dependencies: Network Addon Mod 38 or newer. You must select the following options in the installer: Additional Network Features: Maxis Highway Override (RHW-style) RealHighway Additional Widths and Turn Lanes Elevated Viaducts Road Bridges RealRailway LBT Baijo Terrain Mod (see the Humacao Readme for instructions on uninstalling this from the region) HBS Californian Mediterranean Tree Mod (It has 5 dependencies of its own. See the Humacao Readme for instructions on uninstalling this from the region) Optional Dependencies: Not required, but without them the region view water and rock colors will not match up until you load and save all cities. SHK Brigantine 2.0 (Teal option) Rock Mods by dogfight (Calm Limestone option) More Info: Region size: 22km x 22km City Sizes: Large, with a few Mediums Starting Difficulty: Easy, all cities Starting funds: §200,000 (the rest was spent on that pesky expensive RHW) See the Readme for installation instructions. Special thanks to Lucario Boricua, the original creator of the region:

  13. Show us Your Interchanges!

    Indiana Joe replied to Haljackey's topic in SC4 Showcase

    This is neat and smooth. But I had to stare at it for a minute because something wasn't right. 5 ramps and only 4 directions of travel. I'm curious if the redundancy serves a purpose.

  14. Show us Your Interchanges!

    Indiana Joe replied to Haljackey's topic in SC4 Showcase

    Seriously tight work. And seeing it tucked into the urban environment where it belongs is just I don't have any masterful cities to show off my RHW. Right now all of my work is in test regions, playing with new pieces, like this... WeNeedADizzySpinningEyesLlamaEmoji.gif

  15. Show us What you're Working On

    Indiana Joe replied to Haljackey's topic in SC4 Showcase

    I can hear the dull roar of the crickets, frogs and cicadas rising up in this picture as dusk sets in. Perfectly captures the southern U.S. I'd believe you if you told me it was a real place. Feels real to me just looking at it. Well done!

  16. Show us Your Interchanges!

    Indiana Joe replied to Haljackey's topic in SC4 Showcase

    😎

  17. Show us your Bridges

    Indiana Joe replied to Cleaner475's topic in SC4 Showcase

    Nothing spectacular; a quaint little bridge over the river in a city for testing out plugins. Destined to be destroyed unfortunately.

  18. Cori's Terrain Shoppe

    Indiana Joe replied to CorinaMarie's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    Gotta bump this to bring up a more obscure terrain mod, never released to the exchanges (yet). It's Badsim's VIP terrain mod. Which can only be downloaded by this link from the AntiGone city journal at SC4D.
  19. Awesome discussion going on in here as usual. Same as what Cori has said, but to sum it up, the outlook for 1. truly functional extra tile sets and 2. extra zone types is: prolly ain't gonna happen. Although they can technically be enabled, there's no practical way for me to use them in normal gameplay. I'm not going to hold my breath having read through the development of those by Cori and Simmaster. Restricting lower-stage lots to higher zones is however very practical, and I thank Barton again for pointing out that this has been used by Cycledogg in the past. Instead of using it for 12 low-density tilesets, I think 8 is good--spread across low/medium density. Likewise, 8 medium-density tilesets spread across medium and high density. In the latter case I think I can use the small lot sizes of rowhomes to keep high stage buildings from appearing despite having water. Visuals are my favorite, so here we go: Speaking of visuals, I was trying to wrap my head around the 37 BATs and house packs I found and liked for low-wealth residential, plus all the Maxis homes. Plopping thumbnail pictures of all of them into a folder and sorting them visually helped immensely in getting 8 groups that should look good together in the game: Because as Barton said, trying to shoehorn stuff into an ideal category wasn't going to work. Easier to take what's available and sort it. Lot style affects it as much if not more than building architecture. Matt

  20. Arts and Crafts Duplex

    Indiana Joe reviewed EffTheGrid's file in Residential

    American Foursquare! Big fan of this American house streak you're on. Low wealth in particular is very lacking I've found while searching the exchanges to rebuild my plugins, but these are awesome suburban $$.
  21. Oof, how could I forget about that one. Time for some sleep I think. I wasn't sure if the water requirement only applied to those higher stage lots, or if the zones needed water to develop anything at all. Provided it's indeed the former, that would work very effectively to give 8 new tile sets each for R$ and R$$. I'll come back to this one tomorrow or perhaps later due to work. This is definitely worth testing out.
  22. Nah, that's way too much work. I've got hundreds of BATs in the folder already, and I'm not even done with low density R$. It won't be seamless but I'm going to hack and slash it together as best I can. For the second part, that's sort of the plan already. Some taller stuff is going to get pushed off to high density, as medium density is way over-saturated. With existing BATs (and even with Maxis) it currently covers townhomes up to anything smaller than a skyscraper. For medium density, this is currently the working (fluid) plan: New York basically remains the same vanilla tileset for this density, just a focus on wall-to-wall and low or mid-rises. Houston could be as tall as they want, but the theme is a large, spread out lot, with long spread out buildings. I know lot sizes could potentially be used as a separator here, but buildings that still fit into this style on small lots will go here too. Anything with a small footprint that doesn't fit in anywhere else is gonna get tossed into Euro. But now this might be an interesting thread to pull on. I never thought of using medium and high density in this way. This could effectively give 8 new tilesets to low density, and 4 to medium, if I understand it correctly. Now, those sets could only be used in a city tile below a certain population, otherwise you'll get higher stage buildings. Actually there is an important question there: will medium and high density zones develop at all, if the population threshold is too low? I can't quite remember, but I believe they will indeed fill in with lower stages. This could be an interesting one to experiment with. I really appreciate the discussion here
  23. Luckily changing a BAT's tileset is a quick and easy edit with the Reader And I've already found it to be quite effective at the intended purpose in-game, as we see in this city of 30,000 sims. As for changing directories in the plugins folder, that's exactly the kind of thing I am doing everything to avoid. I'm trying to squeeze the maximum amount of customizability out of a plugins folder without quitting the game periodically to move files around. Besides, setting up BATs to do this is significantly more work than changing the tilesets. If I want to be able to load into every city, I need a custom DESC file for each one that prevents it from growing while allowing the lot to show up.
  24. No doubt, stages are gonna get all flip-turned upside down, and on purpose. For low density, all your stage 1 residential buildings get replaced as soon as your pop is above several hundred. So it's impossible to have a trailer park, or really anything other than duplexes once your city grows. Despite the greatness of the No-Kickout mod, stage upgrades still can't be stopped except by Make Historical. That's why I separated those out. For medium density, you can see here that my categories change. Chicago and NY are pretty much going to be restricted to the lowest stage of Medium density. Having this guy pop up in the middle of your row-houses kinda ruins the look. They probably will change again for high density. I won't have the ease of the original game, to "set-and-forget" your tileset and let residential supposedly naturally upgrade with your city. There will certainly be 'gaps'; in exchange I get the control of knowing that only very specific types of buildings will appear. I'm still not sure what to do with low density Euro $ and $$. I don't really feel any need to split up rural houses any further, but I can't come up with a good split for suburban homes. BAT architecture varies widely, and as you hinted at, different creators have clashing styles that don't sit adjacent very well; two different "southwestern ranch" homes might not go together at all. A useful one might be lot style, i.e. forested vs open yards; but that can be hard to tell with some downloads without looking in a city first. Also Cori's tree removal brush might be able to solve that.
  25. Alright I've jumped off the deep end. I want to customize every single tile set, for the ultimate amount of control. Here's the beginning of an outline for low density, with Maxis examples. For much of this density, the setting is what really matters more to me than the architecture, since I want it all to look North American anyway. And then I have a spreadsheet for custom content links, based on what might fit where. ...which you can view here. But oh, if only it were so easy. You browse the exchanges, you find an awesome BAT...and it just doesn't fall into your categories neatly. Not to mention how unbalanced the available variety is: Low wealth: severely lacking. Mostly falls into the low-density "rural" category. R$ small-medium density is needed. I may need to re-assign some existing BATs. Medium wealth: hugely over-saturated. Very difficult to split up. High wealth: Not as much variety as medium wealth, but perfectly acceptable since there should be much less R$$$ in a well-balanced city and region.
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