Cougar2004

Wow, it worked! i never could figure out how to make it work before. Thank you for this help Jasoncw !

Very Helpful! Thank you RSC. And welcome to the discussion elfrjz - its great to meet you and enjoy the benefit of your experience, suggestions, and links! CPU Heat - My core temps start around 27 and usually sit right around 63 under average load, however the first core (core 0) does regularly report 90c which is a bit above the 70c that is supposed to be the safe max. I have multiple large tunable single direction flow case fans in addition to the cpu heatsink and fan, so turning those up usually helps a little, but i often close the offending program, or kill the likely runaway process causing it. Sometimes I wonder if its related to cpu fighting to use disk cache since my RAM is all maxed out often, especially during those times. There seems to be a correlation between maxed RAM, and sustained high cpu usage. But that may just be that whatever process is working just needs both. You educated me a bit on how things really work, so thank you for that! RAM Upgrade - I think its safe to say that you have convinced me that its worth trying to upgrade my RAM now. I did an ebay search as you suggested, as well as Amazon, newegg, and a few others. I found some 8GB as 4 x 2GB but that requires me using all 4 slots, which others research has shown that my board downclocks 1066mhz to 800mhz in those conditions. I could not find a single 2 x 5GB DDR2 1066Mhz matched set. So unless someone else can show me who to find them, I think i may be limited to trying either, only 800Mhz 2 x 4GB or the 4 x 2GB 1066Mhz which will likely down clock to remain stable on this board. If filling all 4 slots is the only way, then I wonder if i should opt for 16 or 32GB max of my board? But my search for those ran into trouble too, as i couldn't find any. V-RAM - Your comment about slowness being related to Video Ram makes sense. And you're right. The Game DOES seem to use some, but its a pretty small percentage exactly as you said. But this conversation got me thinking of another vram, Virtual Ram, and how that might relate to overall computer and SC4 slowness. I've about run out of disc space on this 1TB drive which is not an SSD. So the configured virtual ram using that harddrive isn't likely getting what it wants and needs when the 4GB RAM maxes out. I"ll work on freeing some space. I'm sure i can get 10 or 20GB (who knows, maybe 50 or100GB free - I have a new 4GB portable USB drive so i can offload zipped files), which should help. Problem 1: Slow Load Time - OK so the NAM 47 full install may be the cause, but strangely, I was pretty sure i was loading and playing cities about the same as before the NAM (after obviously the first time the city was loaded, which i do recall was very time consuming. But maybe I'm wrong and it wasnt as fast as I thought for a day or two after NAM install. I'm going to finish up some tests on that, by removing other things, and then the NAM, and see if i can just prove exactly what is slowing it for sure. I didn't want to take this step of testing, because I have had the idea that it was more a conflict of something, meaning when i look and see the tools reporting what loaded in order, I see 'this was overwritten by that, and overwritten again by this other .dat'. it makes me wonder if that could be slowing it. Besides that, I recall a couple things I loaded around that time. One of them, the instructions clearly stated goes in the SKU1 directory in programs, which is not what im used to. And a few others go to Program plugins, plus some .dlls that went into documents plugins. So im just going to do the testing now. But what would really help me is to know if there is a specific tool that reports load times and reasons why? I recall there being something like that, but I cant remember now. I see your suggestion to use datpak. I haven't done that before. I guess i should try it. I just have a concern about it, because i like to constantly remove and add items, even if its only 1 a day, and if packed, im not sure how easy changes to plugins are. I also see you say that NAME Lite could be an option. I haven't had crashing or RAM limit failure with the NAM 47 full install YET, so I think ill hold off lite and try to keep the full l version for now, to try out all the new features. So your advice to just wait, if all else fails may be ok, since i timed it and it was 5 minutes yesterday, but once i left a city, to region, and then returned, it was instant. So it must only be on initial load. But if im reading the link you gave correctly, it seems that maybe you can datpak just the NAM and not the rest of my plugins? IF so, maybe that was all you were suggesting. So ill dive into that next and read everything in that link. EDIT: I just performed 10 planned tests of load time, having only the game open, plus the directories I was moving things in and out of plugins. I used only 1 small city, fully developed. The Verdict is clear. It doesn't matter what or how much I move in or out (among the 489MB expansive library of plugins I use), there is no significant difference on load times - it is always about 10 seconds. However with the NAM 47, it is 8 1/2 minutes load time, even if nothing else is added. So... since I often only have 30-60 minutes to play during the week, this is eating too far into that time. Therefore, I have decided to create 2 different Regions. One Region for NAM 47 Full Play (the weekends), and one for NAM 47 Lite Play (during the week). If the Lite version is more than 3 minutes, I will likely change the week night region to a NAM 32.1 (which I had backed up) or just NO NAM for quick load-short play times. Therefore, I must admit you guys giving me the advice, were right on, correct. It was always the NAM as the cause of slow load times. And it has been verified that even the full NAM 47 loads in under 10 seconds when already having been in the city, and just exited to Region view and then going back in, so that is a plus, and explains why I didnt think it was the NAM 47 Full at first. Problem 2: Farms don't grow - You know, I think you're right. I had the game on turtle speed, and placed industrial and commercial too early and too much. I do recall that when i used to play, i would go longer time with just farms, so that was probably my mistake. I know I never had any cheats or cap removers before. I suppose i could try one out, but I think im fine with the regular game mechanics as long as ive collected all the fixes (maxis bugs + realism improvements). I'll download that cap lifter just because on a new city, id like to see the difference in game play, but because I recall the region play can be affected by demand of even a single city, Ill make a new region before loading that to explore it. Thanks for the idea. I just wanted to get some clarity on one thing you said. Once farms are there, they stick around. I recall that being true, and on larger maps, id have a corner where id leave the farms for the lower wealth to work while building up other areas. That seemed to work ok. However, what would happen if i raise the taxes on the I-Ag Farms? Do they persist and just pay? other Industry would abandon. What happens to farms in that case? Maybe thats a way to make more money that i hadn't tried before. And my last Industry related question, fits farms but also the other types... you referred to a bug in the game about I-R. I've seen "fixes' doubling quadrupling jobs for industry, as well as some other fix that claimed it solved the problem a different way than jobs. Are any of these useful, important, for realism or bug fixing that i should consider adding to plugins? Problem 3: Can't find City Ordinances - Your instructions were simple enough. I found it! It was in the monthly budget the whole time. I can't believe I forgot things this simple in 15 years. But finally i can use ordinances in my cities again. Thank you! Problem 4: Missions Bubbles Reject me - I have no trouble getting mission bubbles - in fact i often click 15 within 15 seconds, only to find each one has decided its outdated, or it otherwise just doesnt want to let me play it. Some work though. I just dont recall it being that annoying. I think id get 10 work and maybe 1 that rejected me, but usually that was because i didnt jump on it fast, and im fast on all these, even more so since im only playing on slow. I do realize that i have to place certain buildings, to get NEW missions, and i have a list so no problem there. I'll try your idea to drive UDI vehicles around and see if that helps at all. It just feels like there is something different or wrong with the quantity of rejected missions that pop up and fail when i click them since ive been back. Thanks again for the great advice and discussion. Appreciate you. Perhaps someone will have some insights on the additional topics above.

Thanks @rsc204. Its good to hear from you again. GOG - Thanks for confirming that i do have the right file there. I have a couple copies of it now in my possession. RAM - I understand what you are saying. My Corsair Dominator DDR2 1066 matched pair RAM is in 2 slots. Since you believe I can find it cheap perhaps on eBay, I'll seek it there. If I put in 2GB in each of the 4 slots, as matched pairs, it should be ok. However I will lose my 1066speed, as proven by nearly every forum. Every test ive read, shows that when using all 4 slots on this board, the maximum stable speed appears to be 800Mhz. Thats why I originally only put in 2 slots, so i could enjoy the higher rated speeds. I never could find any larger dimms like 4GB matched pairs at a reasonable price before, but maybe this year i can. So ill try looking for that because at least there is a possibility that I can keep my higher speed by only using the 2 slots. But if you are right about $10, I wouldn't have a problem with trying all 4 slots with 2GB each or 4GB each even. Maybe it wouldn't drop in speed, or maybe i just wouldn't notice or care. Some people online did mention that the different between 800 and 1066 wasn't that noticeable, and they really needed the 8GB over the 4GB. I have the full list of supported RAM for my board and was just looking at it last week. There are lower quality ram than Dominator, and I might be able to find another high quality version of another brand. If I cannot find any at a price range like you mentioned, then I probably am not doing it right, so I'll let you know, and provide you info here, so maybe then you could help me me find some options. Cores - I understand what you are saying. I have never had a crash for that reason that I can recall. Certainly none in the last weeks of daily running the game, as ive returned to it. Maybe its a more rare occurrence? Or maybe there is some reason why my setup, is not finding exceptions to crash the game. But I think I'll just change that to 1 core now, and run the game for a few more days, and see if i can feel or notice any serious degradation. After reading what you said, my theory is that i wont see a difference. Additional Context - Here is the information on my CPU - its not the best in its line, but it was the best price point for the performance at the time I purchased. Likewise, here is some GPU info. I've never figured out how much the GPU matters, or why. I just haven't taken time to research it, or liken its stats and abilities to how SC4 uses it. But I can say that I had a much lower card previously, an evga with about half all the speeds and 1/4 the ram of this card, and around 2014 after about 4 years on this build, it was tweaking, so I got this one, which was the highest performer in its class at the right price point at the time of purchase. SC4 immediately played better, although I dont know the reasons why exactly since I thought SC4 really only uses the CPU, not the GPU. But perhaps it borrowed some RAM, or used other attributes of the card. Either way, its stable and seems to work well. Now that I've been back a couple weeks and playing a little every day, I have 4 problems (non-hardware related). If anyone has suggestions for me, I'm very interested in solving these. Problem 1: Slow Load Time - The Game loads extremely slowly in the last week even though the week before it was loading fast. What changed this week? Well I did install NAM 47 (used to be NAM 31.2) - But I haven't used any RHW yet, only the default Maxis roads, rails, subway, etc. I did add the AirForceBase from the Transportation Bonus CD, but after comparing it in various tools, even though Im 15 years rusty, and not a professional content creator as others are here, it really seemed to me as if it was virtually identical to all the elements already in my Deluxe version of the game, with the exception of the text languages and the file size of the images. I think I'll remove that file and see if the game loads fast again. It was loading in about 15 seconds, but now its 7 minutes or longer. IS there any best tool to use that can just tell me which dat or dll files are slowing the load time? I'd love to have that and verify as i try some custom content, or make my own again soon. Problem 2: Farms don't grow. I used to be able to have I-Ag desirability for decades in all size tiles, even spreading tons of beautiful custom farms from edge to edge of the map before beginning to introduce commercial and high rises. But for some reason, since Ive returned to the game, perhaps ive just forgotten my strategies, or perhaps I haven't configured or copied some necessary files into plugins to support Farms as I used to. Simply put, after only 2 years, whatever farms i have is all i get. The rest just never grow. I do not recall having any cheat or specific farm booster of any type, other than the I-ag doubler and all the Industry type doublers (not quad), which seemed to bring the game into realism. Of course, that should lower the demand for I-Ag, and im sure i had those exact files before. I actually didn't even download them, just copied them from my old drive that used to be my main drive. As a sidenote, I have read some things on the STEX and in other forums here that people lately consider there are other Industry fixes - i hope i can find those again, and determine if those are right for me. But if anyone has suggestions on what im doing wrong with Farms, or even just tips for generally supporting farm growth, and maintaining demand, Id appreciate it. Problem 3: Ordinances - (and im embarrassed that this even has to be asked, but...) I used to love ordinances (not necessarily any mod versions of them, although i occasionally tested and played 1 city for a day with those). The default game Ordinances were a very critical part of my SC4 15-20 years ago. So much so, that I had a strategy for which ones i started with, and then generally in which years i would add new ones, and remove some old ones. It was like an art as much as science. I don't remember a thing about now, and will have to relearn, but I recall it may have started with some volunteer fire department at a very low cost on day one, as being a good idea, and then went from there. Regardless of ordinance strategy which I will regain in time, especially if i can find my old notes, my BIG question now, is.... Where do I click on the screen to bring up the ordinances? I can't seem to find them anywhere. I should know this. But i keep starting cities, and taking them into populations and still can't find how to open the ordinances panel. Can anyone help me remember how this works Problem 4: Missions - Mission bubbles appear, but when clicked they just say... "oh sorry, thats not longer available". Do recall seeing this happen once in a rare while when i used to play, but its nearly 90% of all of them are doing it since Ive been playing again this week. Any ideas what causes this? Or how to fix it? I can't be the only one that this happened to. For example, The Mayors Mansion, the Large Medical Center both seem to spawn missions, for the mayor's limo, and the ambulance, but they always won't let me do them. On the flip side, I have 4 train stations so i get whistle stop missions that work 100% of the time when clicked. And the Hospital does give me the helicopter which works 100% of the times I click it, for either the good or bad mission. So whats wrong with all the other missions? Thanks!! Again, I appreciate RSC, and everyone who has helped me get back into SC4 and Simtropolis here.

It works now! You did it. Yes, those are confirmed as exactly the ones I remember. Thank you for helping me get these. (now I just need to figure out IF/HOW i can have both these and the originals in the game at the same time, and if i I can make them functional like the landmarks. If not found on the STEX, they won't likely have those abilities, and I'll have to build them myself once Ive gotten back into modding again. If you are still in the searching mood, I'm looking for any and all latest versions of SC4 modding tools and utilities, to get back into it 15 years later. So far I have collected the following: DatGen 0.7.13-alpha Ilives Reader v1.54 SC4DataNode v1.0.14 SC4Tool (currently on STEX) - but it seems too buggy for me to use as it spins & crashes when i click any menu Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool v1.3.3 (1715) / Simulator Version: 2.4.1 SC4 Region Maker 1.1.0.0 SC4 Lot Editor 1.0.12.0 SC4 Plugin Manager 1.1.1.0 SC4 Building Architect Tool (BAT) gMAX 1.2 [Finally found a copy on an old pendrive since www.discreet.com is offline) Any new version or new/better/other tool I should find and try? ALSO, im stuck reinstalling the BAT because it needs gMAX and I don't have a code. Can anyone help me find a code? UPDATE: I found a way around it. There are a few sites hosting a version of it, but I tested it and its all good. Read more about the option here: https://archive.org/details/gmax-1.2-with-registration-key Thanks!

Wow you are amazing CaptCity! I'm glad you are part of this community. I love reading the the logic that you used to determine the likelihood. It sounds just right to me. I'd remember them with a simple photo, but your .jpg failed to show up, at least on my screen, from this post. (perhaps you can EDIT and fix). But either way, I'm confident enough to download these and try them in my game. Potentially, it may make sense to add all of these to the Simtropolis MAXIS downloads page, to make it even more complete. But if not, at least I feel that I have the complete maxis originals set for myself now. Thanks!

3 files originally Maxis, EA, SimCity.com downloads were included in the mirror site, however while everything else has a dropbox download, these 3 files seem to have gotten lost entirely. I remember getting these a long time ago, and using them in the game. But I cannot find them anywhere on my system now. I had hoped to find them here on this link, but they are not there: https://community.simtropolis.com/sc4-maxis-files/downloads/getfile_pri.php?filename=transportation.exe Does anyone know where they can be found? Mayor's Mansion Country Club State Fair Thanks!

Thank you! Thats great info, and an alpha download for 0.7.13. I just noticed that the page says 0.7.12 is the last official release, and in looking my image above, while it says 0.7.9 it also says 07.12.247 just below it, making me believe I probably have the latest official release, so I'll just use it, and have the alpha download on standby in case something i need is in it. (I'm starting to think that DarkMatter is not coming back ever. But he had a whole team, I wonder if we can find them!?) Thanks for finding this gwada971 !

Thanks. I was hoping to find whatever newer version existed, but the STEX seems to only have 0.6.0b. My current version installed on my computer is 0.7.9. Does anyone know if there are any newer versions out there from the last 15 years? I noticed that the link in the About goes to a dead website.

Well, in the spirit of finding things.... look what I found. Can anyone explain the discrepancy? I imagine these are NOT the same files, and now I'm seeking Ilive Reader, DatGen, & SC4Tool's latest versions so i can remember / relearn how to open them up and compare whats inside. Transportation Bonus CD (downloaded from Mirror of Maxis's site today, which installed to the SC4 App Plugins - just this 1 file when extracted): The Air Force Base downloaded with all the other direct downloads as a Maxis original file from the link above, that I already had in my Documents / Plugins. Notice a huge difference in filesize? And neither of these seems to be exactly the same as what was found back in 2006 (on the thread you found for me above, where I got this 1.41MB screen capture). -- So unless anyone can completely explain the discrepancy, my next question is where can I find the latest version of: Ilive Reader? (Is it this? https://www.dropbox.com/s/7g06tdc313xmkxx/Ilives Reader_v154_Release.zip?dl=0 from https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=10417.0 ) DatGen? (The old link seems to have been deleted from STEX: https://www.simtropolis.com/modding/index.cfm?p=details&id=334 ) SC4Tool? (Is it this?) ... and then I'll get to it and try to unravel the mystery. Hard to imagine no one has done this before in 20 years, but those who know may not longer be here.

Thank you CaptCity you truly nailed this one! That is everything I wanted to know, exactly. I see now that the bug that caused these issues to work with the game were fixed in the EP1 update that everyone now has. I just downloaded another copy of it, so now I can see if I have them. And I have to re-install and re-learn the modding tools again, so i can check to see what exactly we get with it. I imagine its just stuff that randomly populates visually when certain circumstances are met. But the only lingering question in mind is... Why aren't all these original Maxis Files Links included in the Stimpolis page here? I wonder why some were left out (like the Transportation Bonus CD). https://community.simtropolis.com/sc4-maxis-files/downloads/getfile_pri.php?filename=transportation.exe Anyway, thank you for this perfect answer!

I"m wondering if i have found conflicting files, as im auditing my plugins folder (returning to SC4). I have 2 GraphModd's found in my Plugins folder. I think the first one is from the STEX I think the second one comes from the SC3K Incinerator download QUESTION: Does anyone know if the V21 is actually the SAME as the V2 just with extra improvements? OR Are these separate files for separate purposes and should both be retained together, without regard for order of loading? Besides that, I recall while loading my NAM 47 yesterday, that there was some kind of Graphmodd or DataViewMod in there. Does anyone know if the NAM conflicts with these 2 files so i can figure out how to keep all the functionality, but remove any unnecessary duplication? -- A similar question is: THL_DataViewMod_MoreDetail.dat - I found in my plugins, but cannot find it anywhere on the STEX. Does anyone know where this came from, what it does, and if it conflicts with the GraphModd files above, or the NAM 47? Today I found this on the STEX - does it have any additional functionality not already included in the ones (above) that I have already? And lastly, I have a strong suspicion that this Improved Traffic Volume View may be superseded entirely by the NAM 47. Can anyone confirm that for sure? Thanks!

This may be a hard one, but lets try it. The SC4 "Bonus CD"? I've referred to it sometimes in my posts here a decade ago, but I cant recall exactly all that is in it, or where to find it. I do remember it had extra items for the game from Maxis such original vintage style cars, and other things which enhanced the game, including some for the MySims feature. Anyone recall this? Know what to find it / what its called now? Thanks.

Thank you gwada971 for the answers. That makes total sense, especially why that file was found with my Landmarks. Yes, I grabbed a new copy of the files i was missing and put them in the directory. But im just very surprised that all 4 of those were completely missing from my plugins. I wondered if installing some other file, deleted those, or gave instruction for me to remove them so not to have duplication or conflict. But I guess I'll never know. so I put them back in. It will be fine. I noticed that Toroca's mod for Functional Landmarks says to have it load after the rest. I assumed by putting z_<filename> it would load after everything else in that directory, however Ive seen other plugins on STEX say to put things you want to load to override in DIRECTORY's with z_<foldername>. Does anyone know if the Game reads alphabetically within folders, or only reads the folders alphabetically when loading plugins? What's the right answer & best practice? Thanks.

Switched, and Fixed. Thank you Ulisse Wolf.