Intrepid

My method is to organise my folder structure as follows: a_DEPENDENCIES b_BSC NO Maxis Files b_CAM b_Network Addon Mod BSC CAM CIVIC Misc MODDS PARKS AND RECREATION PEGPROD REWARDS SFBT Simgoober STANDARD RCI GROWABLES UTILITY z_CAM z_Euro Road Textures Mod zz ZZZ-MTP ZZZZ_PEG SEAPORTS In addition, all of the essential.dat files are kept in the main plugins folder. The folders are then compressed with Sc4 Dat Packer and then these are moved from my plugins folder to a folder on another drive called "uncompressed plugins". This works for me because whenever I install a new bit of custom content, I simply move the relevant folder that I want to put it into back into the plugin folder, install, datpack and then move back to uncompressed plugins. This way I allways have a backup and if anything goes wrong I can easily find the culprit. Of course everyone has their own idea of how to organise their plugins folder so I don't regard my method as the best, but I hope this might help somebody, and as others have said; it is a very time consuming thing to do, but once you have your own system sorted out it will save you a lot of work in the long run. Just be prepared to spend about a week doing it, as sorting 3GB+ of stuff takes a long time and patience. PS. Mr_maison, give the BSC cleanitol program a try, its over at the LEX. It will remove all of those pesky readme's and jpgs as well as a lot of other junk that isn't needed in your plugins folder.

I definately want 3d to be fully integrated in the next true sim city (or a similar type of game from another developer) game, but not just for purely aesthetic reasons. The major constraint of SC4 and its predecessors has allways been the grid and if sim city truly is to jump to the next level it will need to move away from a purely grid based game into a more open type of game that allows buildings to grow in lots of different directions as well as giving the player more freedom to place transit in whatever direction they wish. Even if the first proper sim city that comes out in 3d isn't perfect in the graphics department it can allways be improved upon by modders and in time, newer iterations of the game will improve on that. 2.5 D needs to be consigned to history, otherwise it will be SC4 with an overhaul with not too much difference in gameplay.

Denial. Don't worry, it's the first stage. But by the way, convincing yourself that SCS isn't SC5 won't make it any truer. EA said they wanted to name it SC5, but decided on a more unique approach to the name.quote> That may be true, but it at least opens up the (tiny) possibility that there might be a sim city 5 game.

Originally posted by: City2TheMax Originally posted by: Intrepid I'll download the demo since it costs me nothing and base my decision based on what the demo is like.quote> Sounds like a good idea - except that with a demo you can't explore and evaluate all aspects of the game.quote> Thats quite true, but with a demo I can pretty much get a feel for a game even if it isn't the full thing and I have bought many games by trying the demo first. But with this game I have made my decision allready after just watching that youtube clip of the game running and the woman talking about it, I am not bothering with the demo. The game is as bad as I feared and I can't keep an open mind about it any longer.

It will get good reviews because the reviewers will look at from the perspective of the average dumb pleb who just wants to be entertained. I think the game will do well initially but after 3 months it will be in the bargain bins in my local game store going for a tenner due to its poor shelf life.

People with the same attention span as that of a goldfish, or people who have no imagination and would like their hand held every step of the way throughout the game. Fine if you are seven years old, useless for me as I am 28 years old and I like games that make me think and present a challenge and also allows me to use my imagination and is more a toy than a game. Sim City 4 provides that, SCS looks like it will do the opposite.

I'll download the demo since it costs me nothing and base my decision based on what the demo is like.

Okay first of all I haven't really posted much here (obvious from the post count) despite being a fan of SC4 for 4 years or so, but I have been lurking during the last few days witnessing all this activity going on surrounding the new SimCity Societies game. Bear with me because this could be quite a long-ish post. What I have realised is that despite the understandable anger (I don't condone the nastiness towards the folks over at TM in any way shape or form) and sheer disappointment of many members of the SimCity community, already it seems that a lot of them are now trying to find other ways to perhaps get that elusive successor to SC4. Some are going down the route of helping the TM people develop SC:S in the hope that it can develop in the ways that some of the community might like. While it is admirable, I think it is unfortunately a lost cause because the decision has already been taken by EA and TM about the new direction and I think that no matter high the pressure comes from the SC Community towards them there will be no change. Others are considering the bold and courageous step of developing a new game from the ground up, I think while it is a good idea I think it is simply too large a task to get the desired result, especially as there are so many different opinions about exactly how the game would work and what should be in it. But I think there is another option that the community could take which is to campaign other software development studios to make a city simulation game. For sure, EA hold the rights to the “SimCity” franchise, but it is a name or a brand and as long as it is not copied in any way there would be no problem. But I was thinking, so what? EA aren't the only software house on the planet, there are lots of others. One positive thing about the new direction of SC:S is that it has created a gap in the market for people like us in the SC community. So my proposal is for people to get their thinking caps on right now and start writing letters or E-Mails to prospective software development houses telling them about this gap in the market and the possibility of it becoming a lucrative market for them. We could plug sites like Simtropolis, SC4 Devotion, Pegasus' site if he's interested and point them towards the creations that have been made, and the things that the community would want from a city simulation game. I know it is a long shot and probably won't have much chance of success, but imagine it it does work, particularly on masse? There is a lot of anger and hatred out there for EA, indeed my opinion isn't so high towards them these days because they tend to sell games in two halves to make maximum profit. But the revenge would be so sweet to see a rival game developer come out with a city building type game (my favourite candidate for a name for such a game would be “Virtua city” ), a game that SC5 maybe could have been come out and make a ton of cash and rub EA's nose in it for abandoning a game concept that was still thriving and profitable. So to sum up, I'm basically saying that instead of forcing TM to make the game we want, it might be a better idea to encourage another developer to fill the gap in the market that TM aren't going to fill. So what do you lot think?

Well the point I was making was not to hire anyone but to simply pitch the idea to create a city simulation type game to prospective developers.

If the modability of the new game allowed custom content authers the freedom to make mods that would be more in line with what SC4 players would have wanted from SC5 like more realism and a better economy etc. The only thing that keeps me playing SC4 is the mods and custom content, without it SC4 would have been thrown out years ago.

I'd like to also add my praise to all those custom content makers for producing such wonderful things that turn a good game into a great game. It is the SC4 modding/batting/lotting community that have kept me playing this game and extended its life for so long. A big thankyou to you ALL!!!

My first impressions of SC5 or whatever its going to be caled is indifference bordering on the slightly skeptical. I have seen just one picture of a work in progress and so far I can say that moving to 3d is a good start. Many complaints here about the graphics but I think graphics can be changed during development but that doesn't worry me. What does is the fact that this game will not work in the same way as SC4 doesand that so far is what makes me feel that I probably won't buy the new game. What I would do is buy a game from a rival developer (perhaps maxis, since they know SC4 the most) that would continue with the concept of SC4 and advance it further, I don't mind if it has a different title (virtua City perhaps?) just as long as I can build realistic cities and micromanage (as much or as little) an economy and the other things that got me interested in SC4 in the first place. I hope TM make the best game they can possibly do, hopefully incorporating things that the sim city communities would like to see and I won't fully judge the game until more info is released.

Hi Im a newbie here, be gentle. A few ideas I would like to see in Sim City 5. Better camera views. A problem with SC4 is that when you want to add things into a huge downtown area is that the buildings obsure the view of the area you want to work on, for example placing bus stops, laying roads etc. So instead there could be a customisable option to make the buildings translucent (customise how translucent you want) so you can see behind them. In addition, the camera should be able to move more freely so that you can see the city you are developing from any angle you want. Global and local taxations. Right now in SC4 taxation is global and usually it is quite dificult to have certain wealth sims where you want them, so the solution is for local tax zones. It works a bit like you would when zoning normally, but what you do is you first zone normal resedential sc4 style and then zone over (or select and keep your finger on ctrl to select multiple blocks of tiles that are not adjacent) that resedential area with the local tax zoning tool. Once you have zoned where you want that local tax, a dialog appears where you can name it (useful so that you know which one is for which area in your city, perhaps a marker can be overlayed with that chosen name) and then you can enter how much tax you want to charge. Custom civic radius. When you plop a hospital, fire station etc there is a circle showing the coverage radius. But sometimes you have to reduce it otherwise the coverage is wasted. I think it would be better if you had a quota of tiles that any given civic building can cover and you have a selection tool that allows you to choose exactly which tiles the building will cover. Costs would be calculated according to how many tiles you use of the quota provided by the building and of course you can edit the coverage whenever you want when you query the building. Freehand network design tool. Say you want to lay a road that conforms to a landform, perhaps along the edge of a coast or snaking up mountains, or perhaps you want your roads to look more organic and suited to the geography of your region. The standard network tools would be useless so instead you can use the freehand network tool. What you do is lay a piece of road (or whatever, it could be rail or a motorway) on the edges of the road there are draggable “handles” that you can drag about in any direction. As you drag the “handles” the road will adjust its shape. Perhaps you could even expand a road to make it wider or narrower depending on your needs? Something like this could open up an infinate number of possible road configurations. A more mod friendly approach to plugins and custom content. One of the strengths of Sim City 4 is its longevity and that is only pasible because of the fantastically talented people in the SC4 community who provide us with such good stuff to keep the game going. Therefore I think these people's lives should be made a bit easier so I would like to see a more improved menu system for SC5, with a few spare custom content menu buttons that are grouped within a “mod menu” button which can be configured in any way modders would like. For example PEG would be able to design his lots to use a “PEGPROD” button on the mod menu and you will find all his stuff there and the same for other people who do a lot of custom content. I would also like to see an on the fly plug in configuration feature where you can install a new lot into the game, then use the games built-in plugin tester (where is loads a very small part of the game engine and simulates the lot, basically it replaces the need to create test cities) to check it works. The plugin files can designed in such a way that the game lists (from definable parameters set by modders) the dependancies that may be needed if the simulation finds a lot doesn't look right (brown boxes). Better simulated regions and more realistic geology. Thanks to the modding community we can now download various mods that can alter the look of the rocks, the water and the terrain. But regions never feel like they are truly living or evolving. When we create volcanoes there is no lava or hot springs about, water only ever flows horizontally and shows up at the right height of the terrain, snow originally is never seen on top of the mountains and there is no weather or seasons. I would like the whole thing to feel like it is living, when you create a Volcano for example using the terraforming tools, I want to be able to tick a box that allows lava to flow and eruptions to happen randomly (configurable, for example so that there is a 5% liklihood of one eruption per 500 sim years or something like that) hot springs to appear and the relevant vegitation for the type of terrain you have created. Or when you create high mountains, rivers and lakes can for. I'd like to see proper weather and global climate options for the region so that you can create desert regions, or mountainous or artic conditions to spice the game up a bit. First person UDI mode. Bit like GTA meets sim city, basically you can walk, drive or use public transport to see what your city is like to be in from a sims point of view, solve various missions or just take photos of your favourite hotspots that you created in your city to share with others. Other stuff. In addition to that lot, I'd like to see a sandbox mode so that beginners can learn how to play the game. I'd also like to see a mission based scenarios that when completed can open rewards that can be used in the proper sim mode. Missions could be anything from making a certain amount of cash to managing a huge disaster. Of course modders could do their own scenarios so that their rewards can be triggered too. I'll stop now cos my heads sore

My opinion is that while newcomers may need help to get to know what it involves when adding lots and bats into the game, it is really up to that person to read the site rules, read the readme files and check out the support threads. That is what I did as a newbie (although it has been three years until now that I started playing sc4 again) and it is worth taking the time to do it properley. I think people who come in and flame the authors about dependancies should be more respectful and patient considering the hard work and effort put in by all the authors to provide them with FREE content. If I were an author (one day I might have a go at learning batting and lot making but RL cuts too much into my time) I would have a "take it or leave it" attitude, the help is there for them if they are overwhelmed.

Ahh, now I understand, thanks for your help.