GrampaAl

Hello good readers. I have been requested as moderator of the STEX to clarify where a user should put his BAT and/or LOT creations. This request has come from a number of users, not from the administration of this site. So, here goes. First we will talk about BAT (Building Architech tool) creations. These generally fall into TWO categories and ONLY two! These can be PROPS or they can be BUILDINGS. Buildings are Landmarks, civic structures, and all RCI buildings. These are the item on a lot that is the main feature generally of the lot. For the first type Prop, those should be uploaded under the Props tab. For the second type Buildings these should be uploaded under the BAT tab. Now for LOTS, and this INCLUDES lots which have BAT buildings OR BAT props on them, those should be uploaded under the Lots tab. Now why you ask! The BAT tab is where people expect to find .sc4model files and possibly also Building .sc4desc files related to the models. People may NOT be looking here to find LOTS! People SHOULD expect to find lots under the Lots tab. It is LOTS that are used by the game. A BAT file, no matter how spectacular or how crappy, can not be used by the game until it appears as either a Building or a Prop on a LOT. So please folks place your LOTS under the LOT tab on the STEX. Also if you wish to make announcements about your LOTS, please make those announcements in the Lot Editor forums. If you are uploading only .sc4model files, and give permission to others to make buildings, props, and/or lots from them, then please upload the .sc4model files under the BAT tab. Actually under this tab I would expect to only find .sc4model files. Too bad there are also Lot files there which may not get downloaded because some don't realize they are lots at all. They think these are for use by lot builders. If you chose to make it a prop, or your model is of something we all think of as props, then you should upload both the .sc4model file AND the .sc4desc file for the prop (can be combined into one .dat file if you wish) under the PROP tab. I hope some admin will also sticky this to the top of this forum. Thanks folks. GrampaAl

OK folks. The question is: Do you prefer Growable or Ploppable lots for your farming cities. If you select both, then this will delay the release of farm lots since it takes more work to make two lots than it does for one.

I recommend that MODS be placed into the ProgramFiles directory chain, and all lot files or other custom content that is not actual mods but new stuff, be placed into the MyDocs directory path.

Date: 3/25/2005 9:14:05 PM Author: pillsbury I downloaded a bunch of lot files. And extracted the files, but when I went in the game the buildings I downloaded wern't there.So after you download&extract the files how do you put them in the game?');' height=25 alt='Insert smilie ' src='https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/42.gif' width=15 border=0>');' height=15 alt='Insert smilie ' src='https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/34.gif' width=15 border=0>');' height=15 alt='Insert smilie ' src='https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/47.gif' width=15 border=0>quote> All files with the extension .SC4lot, .SC4desc, .SC4model, and .dat go into the MyDocs\SimCity4\Plugins folder, or a subfolder of your choice in that path. This is a very simplified explanation but it will do for beginners.

Well the issue of organization has been largely updated since the old days. As long as everything it totally UNIQUE then it really does not matter to the game. The game loads things in a certain order. However each UNIQUE item loads into it's own reserved space in memory. So to the game it does not matter. To YOU it should matter so you can find what you want later. So let's say you have a folder for Nexis for instance. Then in a set of subfolders you could have each item from Nexis that is different. He has some churchs, some farms, etc. So what I do for myself, it to place EVERYTHING from Nexis into it's own subfolder. So his New England church would have all items related to it in the New England Church folder, which then would be in a Civic subfolder, and that it turn would be in the Nexis folder. All of this would then be in the MyDocs path. Now the issue is with SHARED items. These are either buildings or props, both of which have an associated model file. All SHARED items should be placed into their own folder or sub folder set. These I place into the Program Files path, also in subfolders. So If I have a prop pak set from Nexis, then I place that into another Nexis folder, and this folder is placed into a folder called Props, which I keep in the Main Program Files path. C:\ProgramFiles\Maxis\SimCity4\Plugins\Nexis\Props Does this help?

While this is not the way I would have done it, the main purpose of having your folderes organized is so YOU can find a file much later when you have forgotten where it is. A minor issue is the over riding of other lots by the manner in which you organize. However, what you show will work also, so this is up to YOU. All of us have different ways or organizing our desktops or folders. What you show could be further subdivided, but as long as you have so few files, this should be satisfactory. Once you have a few thousand, you are going to want more subfolders with good meanings. Also, you show a folder which to me indicates you have files in BOTH plugins? Having the same file in BOTH plugins is redundant, not necessary and un-desirable. Regards, GrampaAl

Ah hah! Buckbeach you are learning well, and I am gaining more and more respect for your understanding of the game with each post. There is not a major problem here, since the loading order is to load the files in the C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity4\Plugins first, and later load the files in the C:\MyDocs\SimCity4\Plugins next. The order of folders also makes a difference, but basically what happens if there are say two lots that have the exact same IIDs, then the one loaded last (the on in the MyDocs path) will be the one used. So any old lots that depend on the old prop, if the IID's are the same will now use the newer prop instead. We must make the assumption that the newer prop is meant to be a replacement or upgrade and is not changed in such a way to to make you feel disappointed. It should LOOK the same and probably will since we should also assume it uses the same MODEL file. It may perform a little different and that if so should be even better than before. I do know of cases like this, and in my opinion this is good, with the only drawback being with taking slightly longer to load since it is loading a redundant or unnecessary file. Should a problem arise, I would hope someone points it out in a constructive manner so we can understand what the problem is and an update can be posted to replace the problem file. The older file if one exists can very safely be deleted at any time once a newer one is placed into the MyDocs path. However the problem here for the average user is that they may have hundreds or even thousands of props, some duplicates, some new, some old, etc, and they may be scattered all over anywhere. How does this poor unknowledgable user know where to find the old so it can be removed. Rather a sticky dilemma eh! The installer (which by the way I don't really support) does however have the benefit to the creator of automatically upgrading or replacing the older files which were orginally installed usng the installer. Had this been the way of choice from the very beginning I would heartily support it's use. So the problem becomes how do the creators educate the users who don't care to learn the in's and out's of this stuff, to help them keep their downloads up to date. My role here is educator, so all this hard stuff really seems to fall into my category more than those who do the creative stuff. So you would think I would support the installer, and perhaps I should. Just at the moment I don't. I do download stuff which uses it however, and have not had a serious problem yet.

Props, BAT buildings and other shared objects can be used by as many lots as you wish, no problem. I call these SHARED objects since that is exactly what can be done, they can be shared by many lots. Generally I will place these into the Program Files\Maxis\Plugins folder or a sub folder in that path. However, that is not all that important, it will work elsewhere as well. What IS important however, is that the two lots you speak of which are similar, MUST have different IID's for the Lot Exemplars at a minimum in order for you to see and use BOTH of the lots. These lots can ALSO SHARE the building exemplar if they wish, but the Lot Exemplars MUST have different IIDs or one will over ride the other and you will only see the last one to load. Good luck

I recommend anything installed using the installer, be left exactly where the creator meant to place it. That way if there is an update, it will automatically replace any older versions. The actual folder organization is more for YOU to keep track of what is where, and is useful for keeping things organized when no installer is used.

Date: 2/14/2005 3:33:32 AM Author: willmurdock When in the plugins folders in program files and my documents, am I free to create whatever folders I like? Such as Rewards/comercial/mods? Thanks for any help! Will Yes you are. I do exactly what you have mentioned, and I then have subfolders under those for the stages and other things. For instance, Plugins\Commercial\Stage 3\Restaurants. As far as we know there is no limit to the folder chains except the system memory in your compter. When SC4 came out the minimum system requirements were 256 Megs I think of system ram. Today with all the custom content, I highly recommend a minimum of 1 Gig of system ram. If you download everything like some do, it can use it all. This is a RAM intensive game.