greyveil

Greyveil's Help Thread Because my signature would be too long if I included all this info in it, I have decided to post this topic and then link it to my sig for newbie help. Feel free after this initial post to add you own newbie tidbits as well. NOTICE: These instructions will assume you have the basic SC4 game installed with no patches and will take you through the process of upgrading to either Deluxe or Rush Hour. I don't recommend the vanilla SC4 because of the game play issues. I will provide descriptions of files and detailed install instructions where I can. These links are provided in a step by step fashion (i.e. whenever possible the files should be installed in the order given) Part 1: Game Required File install Aside from the game itself, there are several files that need to be downloaded and installed from various places in order to successfully play the game. This will be broken down into 2 sections. Section A files are REQUIRED to play the game. Section B will include mods and files that either add features to the default game or fix certain issues with the game. Section A. 1. First, depending on the version of SC4 you are installing; a. Rush-hour: do a normal CD install to upgrade from SC4 to Rush-hour. b. Deluxe: do a full install to install SC4 and Rush-hour at the same time. 2. Once you have Rush Hour or Deluxe installed, use this or this link to download the EP1 update (select the correct version for your game's region). 3. The next 2 updates are required for using custom content and certain mods in the game. a. BAT Nightlights fix [Other Link] This will fix the BAT nightlights not appearing problem. You want the one under "Recommended Downloads". b. Buildings as props updates: bldgprop_vol1 [Other Link] & bldgprop_vol2 [Other Link] , these fixes allow original game content to be used on custom lots. (I also recommend while you are here to download the lot editor). This covers the required installs. In the next section I will detail files that are required for the game to run as intended. I will also be including a list of helper apps programs that help you do certain things for the game and helper websites. You do not need to install these files, but it is recommended. Section B. a. by Thalassicus Description: This mod increases the detail visible for the data views on the high end of the color spectrum for the Desirability, Mayor Rating, and Land Value data views, giving useful data where areas of a city used to be just solid green. It also increases the max value on the Mayor Rating Graph from 100 to the game max of 128. b. by redlotus Description: This mod eliminates nearly all of the useless 'news items' that keep popping up in the news panel so you can concentrate on playing the game and not have to read useless info. c. by toroca Description: This mod fixes the Opera House, which has a capacity MUCH too low for large cities in SimCity 4. Currently, the Opera House can go over capacity and inhibit city growth, and you'd never even know it because the Opera House doesn't report its usage statistics. This mod changes that. Please see the readme for full details, including installation instructions. Part 2: The Network Addon Mod. Rush Hour/Deluxe - even with all the patches and fixes installed - has a few bugs that are related to commute time and the way it handles traffic. This issue has been discussed in too many forums to mention here. If you would like to get details of these issues I would recommend doing a search in the forums for commute time or traffic. Now that we've got that out of the way, a mod exists that fixes many of the problems you may have with transit networks. That mod is... The NAM. The Network Addon Mod (NAM) includes full traffic and pathfinding fixes, along with new custom intersections and interchanges. It also includes pedestrian malls and ground light rail (stations not included). a. , (Simtropolis Community Effort) Description: This is a community effort to combine all previous transit and pathfinding fixes and to improve the overall game play when it comes to transit networks. Part 3: Frequently used mods. This next set of apps and mods are used regularly by most players, to either help in game or to create content (like maps, regions and lots): 1. Lot Editor [Other Link] Description: This program allows you to create custom lots for your city. 2. SC4 Terraformer by Wouanagaine Description: This program allows you to load or create regions. The hand terraforming tools used in SC4 itself are available here. Plus, it's in actual 3-D. 3. Hole Digging Lots by or Shadow Assassin Description: This package contains special lots that have been modded to dig holes, and one that does the reverse by lifting the ground level up. The hole digging lots have been designed to dig entrances for tunnels, but they can be used in many ways (digging a ditch for a sunken highway, or for an underpass are examples). New hole digging lots include an avenue digging lot and a lot for sunken highways. 4: by equinox Description: (by: equinox) This is a mod I wrote after becoming frustrated with the demand cap situation in one of my cities. I realized I had no idea what the cap status was until the desirability began to fall and buildings began to dilapidate and abandon. As a result, I took the game's three primary developer queries (residential, commercial, and industrial) and added some details and statistics to them, and that's what you have here. The most important information this mod features relates to the demand caps. These caps limit growth in your cities, and the percentage you have filled is shown in all 3 'upgraded' queries. For complete information on how demand caps work, and how to read the data in the queries, consult the enclosed HTML readme file. It explains them all in depth, based on information from the Prima Strategy Guide. Also found in the queries are somewhat simpler stats like the number of each density zoned in the active city, and the demand for the developer type, but reflective of your cap status. 5. Region Census by sawtooth Description: Region Census is a program that allow you to get pictures of full regions without pasting pics together. It also has region stats. Part 4: Your Ideas, Please. Anyone wishing to recommend additions or changes, please post here and I will update this. Please do not post radical mods, or files that are not for everyone. I am trying to keep this limited to files and mods that you feel everyone should have and use. Also links to step by step helper threads are encouraged. Appendix: Update Log. This is the first draft (Dated 12-26-04) Updated (6-13-05) with new NAM links. Updated (6-17-05) with new NAM links. Updated (6-20-05) with new Landscape Designer link (Thanx BarbulaM1 & BigJoe) Updated (9-20-05) edited NAM links. *UPDATED TO ST 5.0 STANDARDS BY HORDIJK* Updated (04-26-06) edited all links to meet ST 5.0 standards Updated (August 4th, 2010) to fix broken links and a few other minor matters. Editor: Astronelson. Updated (September 1st, 2014) to correct links & add minor formatting changes. -Cyclone Boom

Original Thread: INFO:Getting Up and Running Greyveil's Help Thread Because my signature would be too long if I included all this info in it, I have decided to post this topic and then link it to my sig for newbie help. Feel free after this initial post to add you own newbie tidbits as well. NOTICE: These instructions will assume you have the basic SC4 game installed with no patches and will take you through the process of upgrading to either Deluxe or Rush Hour. I don't recommend the vanilla SC4 because of the game play issues. I will provide descriptions of files and detailed install instructions where I can. These links are provided in a step by step fashion (i.e. whenever possible the files should be installed in the order given) Part 1: Game Required File install Aside from the game itself, there are several files that need to be downloaded and installed from various places in order to successfully play the game. This will be broken down into 2 sections. Section A files are REQUIRED to play the game. Section B will include mods and files that either add features to the default game or fix certain issues with the game. Section A. 1. First, depending on the version of SC4 you are installing; a. Rush-hour: do a normal CD install to upgrade from SC4 to Rush-hour. b. Deluxe: do a full install to install SC4 and Rush-hour at the same time. 2. Once you have Rush Hour or Deluxe installed, use this or this link to download the EP1 update (select the correct version for your game's region). 3. The next 2 updates are required for using custom content and certain mods in the game. a. BAT Nightlights fix [Other Link] This will fix the bat nightlights not appearing problem. You want the one under "Recommended Downloads". b. Buildings as props updates: bldgprop_vol1 [Other Link] & bldgprop_vol2 [Other Link] , these fixes allow original game content to be used on custom lots. (I also recommend while you are here to download the lot editor). This covers the required installs. In the next section I will detail files that are required for the game to run as intended. I will also be including a list of helper apps programs that help you do certain things for the game and helper websites. You do not need to install these files, but it is recommended. Section B. a. Dataviews: Increased Detail Mod v1.0 by Thalassicus Description: This mod increases the detail visible for the data views on the high end of the color spectrum for the Desirability, Mayor Rating, and Land Value data views, giving useful data where areas of a city used to be just solid green. It also increases the max value on the Mayor Rating Graph from 100 to the game max of 128. b.'Stupid News Ticker' Mod V1.1 by redlotus Description: This mod eliminates nearly all of the useless 'news items' that keep popping up in the news panel so you can concentrate on playing the game and not have to read useless info. c.Opera House Fix by toroca Description: This mod fixes the Opera House, which has a capacity MUCH too low for large cities in SimCity 4. Currently, the Opera House can go over capacity and inhibit city growth, and you'd never even know it because the Opera House doesn't report its usage statistics. This mod changes that. Please see the readme for full details, including installation instructions. Part 2: The Network Addon Mod. Rush Hour/Deluxe - even with all the patches and fixes installed - has a few bugs that are related to commute time and the way it handles traffic. This issue has been discussed in too many forums to mention here. If you would like to get details of these issues I would recommend doing a search in the forums for commute time or traffic. Now that we've got that out of the way, a mod exists that fixes many of the problems you may have with transit networks. That mod is... The NAM. The Network Addon Mod (NAM) includes full traffic and pathfinding fixes, along with new custom intersections and interchanges. It also includes pedestrian malls and ground light rail (stations not included). Network Addon Mod for Windows INSTALLER Network Addon Mod (NAM) - Mac Installer (Simtropolis Community Effort) Description: This is a community effort to combine all previous transit and pathfinding fixes and to improve the overall game play when it comes to transit networks. Part 3: Frequently used mods. This next set of apps and mods are used regularly by most players, to either help in game or to create content (like maps, regions and lots): 1. Lot Editor [Other Link] Description: This program allows you to create custom lots for your city. 2. SC4 Terraformer by Wouanagaine Description: This program allows you to load or create regions. The hand terraforming tools used in SC4 itself are available here. Plus, it's in actual 3-D. 3. Hole Digging Lots by smoncrie or Shadow Assassin Description: This package contains special lots that have been modded to dig holes, and one that does the reverse by lifting the ground level up. The hole digging lots have been designed to dig entrances for tunnels, but they can be used in many ways (digging a ditch for a sunken highway, or for an underpass are examples). New hole digging lots include an avenue digging lot and a lot for sunken highways. 4: RCI Query Upgrade Mod by equinox Description: (by: equinox) This is a mod I wrote after becoming frustrated with the demand cap situation in one of my cities. I realized I had no idea what the cap status was until the desirability began to fall and buildings began to dilapidate and abandon. As a result, I took the game's three primary developer queries (residential, commercial, and industrial) and added some details and statistics to them, and that's what you have here. The most important information this mod features relates to the demand caps. These caps limit growth in your cities, and the percentage you have filled is shown in all 3 'upgraded' queries. For complete information on how demand caps work, and how to read the data in the queries, consult the enclosed HTML readme file. It explains them all in depth, based on information from the Prima Strategy Guide. Also found in the queries are somewhat simpler stats like the number of each density zoned in the active city, and the demand for the developer type, but reflective of your cap status. 5. Region Census by sawtooth Description: Region Census is a program that allow you to get pictures of full regions without pasting pics together. It also has region stats. Part 4: Your Ideas, Please. Anyone wishing to recommend additions or changes, please post here and I will update this. Please do not post radical mods, or files that are not for everyone. I am trying to keep this limited to files and mods that you feel everyone should have and use. Also links to step by step helper threads are encouraged. Appendix: Update Log. This is the first draft (Dated 12-26-04) Updated (6-13-05) with new NAM links. Updated (6-17-05) with new NAM links. Updated (6-20-05) with new Landscape Designer link (Thanx BarbulaM1 & BigJoe) Updated (9-20-05) edited NAM links. *UPDATED TO ST 5.0 STANDARDS BY HORDIJK* Updated (04-26-06) edited all links to meet ST 5.0 standards Updated (August 4th, 2010) to fix broken links and a few other minor matters. Editor: Astronelson. Updated (September 1st, 2014) to correct links & add minor formatting changes. -Cyclone Boom Original Thread: INFO:Getting Up and Running Return to Top

Yes we have done this several times in the past, there was a city journal long ago of 1 attempt, it requires everyone agree to a common plugin dir and then all you have to do is share the city files, but active participation is a must and it is best to have a 'moderator' collect all the files at an agreed upon time, load them all up in game, then send them back out to players (rinse/repeat).

Just want to add my "experience" I have been testing Win10 for about 6 months on several machines. simcity 4 was running fine all the way thru. When 10 released, I installed a new HD in my main game machine, did a factory reinstall of win7 then a fresh upgrade to win10, then a fresh install of SC4 deluxe for disks, then a restore of my old SC4 files, everything ran great until the last Win10 update. Then I encountered the current issue with the CD version, I contacted Origin (EA) online support and after verifying my acct, security and CD key for a bit, they added the Digital version of SC4 deluxe to my origin acct for free. I had to uninstall (after backup) my CD version of SC4, reinstall from Origin, then restore my plugin folders to my old ones, everything works good now. As much as I hate EA and the damage they have done to the many games I have enjoyed, they did handle this situation very well, and I commend them. P.S. this is my command line: -intro:off -f -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32 -CPUCount:1 -CPUPriority:high -audio:off yup cpu priority high, when I play SC4 its do not disturb, lol

This is sad news and Pegasus and Simpeg will be missed, I would like to personally Thank Peg from the bottom of my heart for the many 1,000 upon 1,000 of hours he has dedicated to this game and for all the enjoyment I have had with his additions to my favorite game (at least half of my plugins are Peg related), you have been an inspiration to custom content creators everywhere!

OK, I was in chat today and a random harmless topic came up and I exploded in laughter, so I decided this needs to be seen to be enjoyed, I would also like to see some more of this type of random spontanous chat : feel free to post your entries, but follow the rules: Rule 1: no offensive chat (all ST posting rules apply) Rule 2: no chat that disparages others (this should be seen as fun for all) Rule 3: must be an actual chat log (no made up logs but editing lines out of chat for the sake of the 2 previous rules is fine) OK, my first entry entitled: When Swans Attack collgab: me too but who was he saying it too? Boggy1: Oh, and also, apparently, in Wales, we have no roads or trucks. callagrafx: RadioheadFan: Shame on you then LOL RadioheadFan: callagrafx: lol RadioheadFan: I was under the impression it was common knowledge ill_tonkso: and apparantly in england were all weady callagrafx: Boggy1: We do, they all seem to converge on my road too!!! collgab: lol Boggy1: callagrafx: ill_tonkso: no muscles callagrafx: and dyslexic Tonkso greyveil: really boggy? how do you haul your liquer? mules? mightygoose: greyveil: have know just registering lol, im not the best fan of sunken highways but when buddybuds set cums out im doing an exclusive ill_tonkso: greyveil: that would be sheep Boggy1: greyveil: Actually, we only use the finest brand of Chocobos. callagrafx: greyveil: We have 80 year old Italian grandmothers for that collgab: lol Boggy1: ill_tonkso: nah, sheeps cant carry the weight. greyveil: rofl collgab: LOL collgab: LMAO ill_tonkso: sheep are cool callagrafx: ill_tonkso: baaaaaaaaa ill_tonkso: humbug callagrafx: only when sheared RadioheadFan: Chocobos sounds like some Caribbean rum: "Drink Chocobos mon!" Boggy1: Sheep scare me...~_~ I was once chased by one. callagrafx: RadioheadFan: lmao Boggy1: RadioheadFan: ... collgab: ill_tonkso: i am gonna disect sheep eyeballs like in 2 weeks! greyveil: I just pictured 80 year old ladies riding sheep, very bad image callagrafx: callagrafx: really, I thought it would be the other way round ill_tonkso: sheep are cool, they have attitide Boggy1: RadioheadFan: Obviously not a FF fan Boggy1: greyveil: ... RadioheadFan: Boggy1: it does, lol RadioheadFan: and most definitely not callagrafx: collgab: make sure they are not still attached Boggy1: RadioheadFan: rofl collgab: callagrafx: lol no there nor LMAO RadioheadFan: greyveil: I pity da fool who imagines old ladies riding sheep RadioheadFan: speaking of which, Mr. ill_tonkso: sheep worrying is a serious offence here RadioheadFan: T's getting his own show again! callagrafx: Sign of a sick mind mightygoose: greyveil: omg makollig_jezfahted: you also can't go cow tipping either Voar_Tok entered the room. mightygoose: RadioheadFan: no way makollig_jezfahted: and its illegal to kill swans RadioheadFan: wb callagrafx: ill_tonkso: I worry sheep, I tell them there is no God collgab: makollig_jezfahted: LOL RadioheadFan: mightygoose: yeah mightygoose: makollig_jezfahted: cow tipping is hilarious Boggy1: callagrafx: lmao! ill_tonkso: and to harm a swan is really bad, but they can do what they like to you RadioheadFan: he'll give people advice and stuff makollig_jezfahted: yeh makollig_jezfahted: swans can break arms callagrafx: All the swans are owned by the Queen mightygoose has left the room. makollig_jezfahted: yup collgab: ill_tonkso: swans r fiesty ill_tonkso: swans are evil caniving little chavs Boggy1: I was once walking my dog, and there was this SWAN blocking the path!! it was really scary. makollig_jezfahted: swans hiss! ill_tonkso: Swans are big too collgab: ill_tonkso: they see bread and go CRAZY ill_tonkso: and they chase Boggy1: because it kinda like looked at me. RadioheadFan: ill_tonkso: I can just imagine some chav swans, lol Boggy1: and I ran. collgab: SWANS ATTACK callagrafx: I sail model yachts, and swan chasing is frowned upon makollig_jezfahted: lol chavs are the devil RadioheadFan: Boggy1: you need a BACKBONE son! lol makollig_jezfahted: urhh swans even Boggy1: RadioheadFan: I know makollig_jezfahted: its a SWAN dude makollig_jezfahted: you can't do anything to a swan otherwise you get put in jail for life RadioheadFan: Boggy1: hehe RadioheadFan: poor guy Voar_Tok: the swans at my grandparent's place are mean collgab: makollig_jezfahted: they can take a chunk out of u if they wanted too makollig_jezfahted: yeh ill_tonkso: Swans are evil, especially when thjey have their signets collgab: CHOP callagrafx: DO they wear leather jackets and smoke? makollig_jezfahted: and if we so much as touch them, they go nuts greyveil: oh this is definately a chat to save for the "laugh" archive, lol Boggy1: In my grandmothers old barn/house thing, they had a large lake, and loads of geese. ill_tonkso: callagrafx: the ones in Reading do callagrafx: LMAO collgab: ill_tonkso: don't get me started on BLACK swans makollig_jezfahted: Canada Geese are broody RadioheadFan: why are we even talking about SWANS of all things? Boggy1: Black swans? Boggy1: Never seen one.. makollig_jezfahted: oh yes the black swans are EVIL! callagrafx: collgab: OMG ill_tonkso: Boggy1: yes Black Swans makollig_jezfahted: they're satan incarnate makollig_jezfahted: with wings! Boggy1: We only have White swans ihere. makollig_jezfahted: and the ability to run //8 ill_tonkso: their like swans but worse Boggy1: eh..I almost said my towns name... Boggy1: ¬_¬ collgab: ill_tonkso: there found in australia and in south america

I run a full build of SC4 (deluxe) with NAM installed and 4gig+ (organized) plugin directory on Win7 64 bit, no problems at all Hope this helps...

Efficient Transit Tutorial Due to all the requests for advice for commute and mass transit networks I have decided to create a general tutorial for placing these items. When creating an efficient (and affective) mass transit or network system there are 2 rules to follow: 1. Flow: your network must flow the sims have to be able to seamlessly change multiple transit switches in a trip, i.e bus to subway to bus, ect. 2. Placement: the placement of stations and onramps is key to creating good flow and pursuading your sims to take the routes you want them to. In the following examples I will be using the Roadtop Mass transit mod for bus stops and subways and various other custom lots from here and there however, the stations and stops you use should not make a difference (except for capacity limits). one other thing before we begin, this has been stressed several times throughout the forums and I will stress it here again, BUS STOPS, Bus Stops, and more bus stops! if you think you have enough bus stops, build a few more, lol Table of contents: A: Basic Network Flow Principles: Streets to Roads to Avenues B: Basic Mass Transit Flow Principles: Buses to Subways and Trains C: Adding Highways to the Mix, Transversing the Region A: Basic Network Flow Principles: Streets to Roads to Avenues Think of your network system as a funnel, with the little end toward your residential areas and the fat end is the main arteries of your network, always place networks slowest to fastest. key #1, Bottlenecks are bad, a bottleneck is when you have a strip of slow network between 2 strips of faster network. The following pictures depict basic flow theory and I will walk you thru step by step to insure understanding, some of these concepts are already familiar, but I am trying to make sure all topics are covered (and before posting comments like , this is griddy, I hate grids, remember this is a tutorial not a CJ I am using grids as the simpleist form of instruction, these concepts are easily adapted to a non grid layout, in most cases) Diag 1. basic street layout (very little explaination required) Diag 2. Now we will add a road running thru our streets to connect to the main artery (in this case Avenue, we will cover others later in the tutorial) Diag 3. Notice the placements of the bustops, sims will only walk a short distance (about 6 tiles) so it is important to always place your bustops with this in mind. notice also that the busstops are placed in such a way that they are between the zones and the direction of the main artery, so the last thing the Sim passes before he starts traveling on the main road, is a bustop. Diag 4. Now we will connect our road to the main artery (in this case an Avenue) Diag 5. Now we will add a little Commercial zoning and a bustop/subway piece (even though we have not placed any subway lines yet I go ahead and place these type of pieces on the main artery so I don't have to come back later and bulldoze and replace, we will discuss this later) Also notice in the previous Diag, that I have placed a crossroad on the avenue after the commercial zones, this is very important, the avenue is essentially 2 one-way roads and you must provide cross streets (or roads) in order for Sims to make a return trip in the shortest possible time, otherwise if the avenue was really long, the Sim would have to travel a great distance just to get home (or to work) Diag 6. Ok now we will place a few industrial zones at the edge of the map, notice again the placement of the bustops and the 6 tile ped rule. (you will also notice the rail line I have already placed, forget about that for now, we will cover this later in the tutorial) Diag 7. Overview of the area we are working with (self explanitory) Diags 8, 9, & 10. Now we will turn the simulator on for a couple of months and show a few transit Query pics, notice the ratio of bus to car traffic. ok, thats it for part 1. (the forums tend to have issues with posts that are too long, lol) next we will expand on the flow theory and show how to expand our network without creating unwanted bottlenecks. any suggestions for additional parts is highly welcome, also any contributions on the currently discussed part of the tutorial is also welcome, also try to include pictures of concepts (but lets not get ahead of the discussion) also please limit the random comments so we can keep this clean for people trying to follow the tutorial, thanx Until next time....

Plugin_B91_commercialbuildings_prop_modd.dat was an old file created long ago, before maxis released the buildings as prop files on the official website, you should not need this plugin if you have the buildings as props files from the official site hope this helps....

first, Welcome to Simtropolis, on the STEX there is..... NDEX NSS Equinox By Fosterk https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=12680 and the fine folks at the BSC (special thanks to Riptide and Barbyw) are currently working on the Naval release of the SNM, I am sure it will also include at least one carrier, if the pics I have seen are any indication. hope this helps....

I am signed up and ready to rock, same team name as last year Marauders

I am signed up and ready to rock, same team name as last year Marauders

I am signed up and ready to rock, same team name as last year Marauders

Thanx prince_of_sims for descibing it in detail, at the time I did not have the time to type it out

sorry did not see this I am definately in!!!!

SKene: we will need your system specs (especially what video card and driver) and the version of sc4 you are running?

not to step on your toes Constantina, but if there is a custom file loading after the landmarks that changes the query sounds for the landmarks, then changing the landmarks exemplar will not help. durtlskdi: this is probably a custom download causing this, you will probably need to go thru all your plugins (removing them bit by bit, or use N.O.B's remove half method) and try to isolate the offending download and remove it.

your log is reporting you have version = 1.1.638.0 , this should read 640, so 1 of 2 things is going on either the patch did not install correctly, if not I recommend following my "up and running" tutorial in my sig and do a complete reinstall, or 2, you are using a "no-cd patch" if this is the case, we cannot help you. hope this helps...

in your program files/maxis/simcity 4/apps directory is a file called (yourmachinename)-config-log.txt , please post the contents of that file here so we can see where the patch might have failed

well I don't think any of the mega packs contain .sc4lot files (I could be mistaken, if so you might PM barbyw) but the earlier prop packs did have a "developers" lot file that had all the props on it so you could see them all together ingame, this was a seperate .sc4lot file that you could remove. most the time the .sc4lot file is seperate and only the models and props are merged. hope this clarifies....

if you want to remove a download from appearing in your menu (and growing for growables) but you still want to keep the bats or props for dependancies sake, you can remove the .sc4lot file, sometimes however all the files are combined in a .dat, in this case the only way to remove it from the menu it to deconstruct the .dat and remove the .sc4lot file. hope this helps...