Edvarz

@debussyman Gracias! I am really really interested on any unpublished colonial buildings you may have. I would gladly do the lotting and modding (giving due credit for the models, of course).

Well, I have been modding and fixing/relotting stuff for a couple of years now, so speaking from my own experience I would say there is a middle point on this issue, let me put forward a couple of examples: 1. I've been modding/lotting/remastering LBT content for over two years now, and I can attest that many of their creations (especially the older ones) were modded in a way that either made them disruptive or useless, or their lotting simply doesn't match today's standards. A lot of LBT lots list a wrong texture pack as a dependency; due to an error that was never fixed, a supposedly outdated pack was used, so you end up having lots with no base texture and no clue about which texture pack you actually need to install. And even if you do find it, you just clutter your plugins with supposedly obsolete content. (Come to think of it, I know how to make a quick fix for this issue, it's just a meager texture override!) 2. I was "prescreening" some of Ill Tonkso's buildings before actually using them in game (namely his 2011 street and corner offices), and I noticed that the files included with his content are just a mess: There are useless descriptor files embedded with the download, the stats are off, and there is actually no growable version even though the STEX description says there is. This, I think, is an issue because should you want to grow said buildings (which are actually very nice and useful) you will be in for a time of utter frustration. The solution to both cases and many other problems, if the original creator is no longer around, is to take matters on your own hands and either learn how to use the modding tools and fix the stats and lots, or kindly request someone that may be interested on the same content to take a look at it. So there are reasons to warn players that some piece of content is faulty and try and point them to a fix. There is a precedent to this, it was done with the buildings that grew on empty lots, maybe we can apply a similar solution for objectively broken content, to avoid messing with STEX uploads, but it would need a lot of voluntary work. Phew, sorry for the wall of text, to return to the original topic, you can count me in on the tagging mission! it sounds like a really good idea.

Oh, maaaaaaan this just made my day! It looks truly promising. I hesitated to enter the last challenges season, but now I think I'll try my luck. The best part is the custom content challenges, if the contenders release their lots to the STEX, the community can expect a steady flow of quality content, competitors trying their very best. It will no doubt be really really interesting! I'm anxiously looking forward to it!

Those flora props! If you release them I'll definitely add them to the dependencies for all my tropical lots. The bike paths and beach props also look fantastic. Great work!

Glad to be of help! As far as I know there are only a couple of ways to get income from a building, via taxation or a business deal, the "Worth" property only determines the amount of money your city will have to pay if the building is destroyed in a disaster or the cost to plop a non-ploppable lot via the "LotPlop" cheat; from what I've seen, this value is usually identical to the "Bulldoze Cost". Also, I don't think the lot footprint has anything to do with tax collection. About taxation, I'm afraid I was ambiguous in my first response (english is not my mother tongue, and even though I've spoken it for years I still make silly mistakes ) The taxes collected from a building are based upon the "Building Value" property, there's no such thing as "a building's tax income" so Building Value is the property you may want to modify for a normal RCI lot. When I have to edit values manually, I use a helpful spreadsheet contained in this pack to make sure the pollution stats and building value are balanced. Some buildings can also generate income by business deals, an example of this is Paeng's Parking lots I don't know if this is the case with your building, I'm not even sure if you can have buildings with jobs that also have business deals included. In any case, the relevant values for taxation are contained in the building exemplar, not in the lot exemplar, even if the lot doesn't have a visible building (like the aforementioned parking lots).

I'm by no means a savant, but I can help with a few of your questions. (1-4) To change a I-D building to I-M, and increase the job count you have to mod the building exemplar, this is normally contained in the .SC4Desc file but it can be embedded in the .SC4Lot file, so open your SC4Lot file with Reader and check if you have a building exemplar in it. You can differentiate a building and a lot exemplar by their properties, the most obious one is "ExemplarType". The job count is fairly easy to modify, it is determined by the value of the "Capacity Satisfied" property. Now, to change from I-D to I-M you need to modd a bunch of properties both on the building and on the lot exemplars, I wouldn't really know how to do this properly, sorry. As for the other questions: (1) RKT (Resource Key Type) is the way in which your exemplar references a model; automatas, flora, props and buildings can reference models in several ways, this page explains the differences between RKT0 and RKT 1 and if you're curious about the RKT4 property this post clarified it for me. (4, 6) Actually, the "Building Value" is the property that determines a building's tax income, it is important for a balanced game to modd this properly and it's not a bad idea to check this stat, along with water and power consumption, and pollution values when you install a new building. Hope this helps!

Actually, that makes total sense. There is no arrow going back so those two sims work in that subway station. Of course, nobody uses it so they must get reeeaaally bored.

Just reporting my progress: you may have seen this screnshot posted at the Show Us What You're Working On thread (figured I would get more exposure there) these are some LBT props that I've been modding and grouping into families. The easy part is done, that is, modding all the props except the cars which will be timed props. And here's some more nice props that I didn't show on that post. All of them have been completed. So far 92 props have been modded and grouped into 19 families and that's only half the work! I'm burnt out for now, and I still need to do the more intensive part: the cars. In addition, RL calls: my final exams start this week. So I'll be taking a break until the end of this semester, since what little free time I'll have, I'll dedicate it to other things. However, you can expect to see these props and many more things both here and on the STEX by next June, including medium and low wealth apartment complexes (with tropical versions) and a couple of surprises that I will disclose in due time. See you later! Replies: @Heblem Tkanks! I've checked the problem with the textures before and found that there are two ranges that LBT lots use, there's the file you mention and the LBT Mega Texture Pack, one of the reasons for doing remastered re-lots of LBT stuff was getting rid of those old Textures, but also making LBT content compatible with many new releases that are quickly becoming prevalent. And about those BATs and HD props you mention, it would be great to see what you have in store. I've been learning my way around the Reader, so if you struggle finding the time for modding and lotting, I would be happy to help.

Hello. I have some questions on modding props, so I'll put them all on the same thread. This is the pack I'm planning to mod. And this post illustrates the props I want to mod. EDIT: After further delving into the LBT Mega Pack and Debussyman's Mega Pack I decided to override the original descriptors so that I could fix some of the props' properties. But I would still like to know what can I do with cohort files. 3. Some of the models seem to have been rendered a bit off-centre (this, I've found, is a common problem with LBT models) Since these are car cluster families, any prop that doesn't line up will stand out of the designated parking slots and invade other spaces when it shows. I understand the Model Tweaker can fix this, but, will the quality of the model be affected too much? These weren't rendered in HD, so... EDIT: Extra question, I would like to export the fixed models to an override file, but since the original is a .dat file, the Reader doesn't show .SC4Model files only a huge bunch of S3D and FSH files. How do I group all of a model's files together so that I can paste them in a new DAT? If any questions are superfluous I'll gladly edit them out. Thanks a lot!

Hey! many thanks for the information. Currently I don't have access to my computer so I won't be able to try anything until a couple of days, but I do have a couple more doubts (simpler ones) in the meantime if you don't mind. It seems that I will have to forget about Cohorts for my prop mods. I got the idea when I checked nos.17's Essentials, he seems to have used cohorts to group his LBT car families. In any case, I'll keep them in mind should they be convenient for the building exemplars in my packs of lots. Regarding the new prop exemplars. I messed around a little on Reader and PIM-X. First I found that Maxis props' properties vary from exemplar to exemplar, i.e. a car cluster prop doesn't have a Flammability property but it has a "Requires power to appear" or an "Active lot state" property. So In the Reader I deleted and added properties to a couple of my prop exemplars where I thought it was applicable. I deleted "Flammability" and "Max Fire Stage" (For example in fountain props: How exactly would you set fire to a fountain? ) I also deleted the "Query as main building" and "Light" properties and copied and added the "Active Lot state" and "Requires power to appear" properties to car clusters. So, my instinct tells me that I sould re-ID these props instead of using them as overrides, correct? (because they will be RKT4, the car props are so far the only ones with new Instance ID's, should I also generate new group ID's?) Also I'm curious to know how many properties can I delete from a prop to keep it functional? I also noted that some of the props had a "User Visible Name Key" property and some didn't, from the Reader's description it seems like it has to do with LText names, should I keep this property if there is no LText name or should I add the later? does a prop need to have an LText name? I guess these questions fall in line with the more general one: how are prop exemplars modded properly? And lastly, regarding the FSH and S3D files. Since the models I want to centre are for timed props, I will have to make new instances anyway so it's good to have this info. I planned to also use model tweaker later on my lotting project to desaturate the color of some models, this would affect the FSH files wouldn't it? Anyway, thanks again! I will try this as soon as I can. I know I ask a lot, but I intend to give a lot back to the community, actually, I intend to give lots of lots back! See what I did there ?... Ok, I'll show myself out.

Thanks! I'll certainly check them out. I also want to group them over number of cars x number of spaces, and I want to have both commercial and residential cluster families much like the Maxis ones. So it will indeed be a bit tedious.

I recently installed NAM 34 and from what I've seen those ramps are now deprecated. On the installer for NAM 34 there is an option to remove such deprecated ramps, maybe you ticked that box during installation? You can re-run the installer with a custom install and look carefully for it.

Well, it seems it's a discussion that would merit it's own topic. I gather the open question threads you mention would work like the "Can't find It? - Ask Here!" thread in the STEX subforum. Howevwe I have two doubts about your idea: 1) What would be the difference with this very subforum where you can start a topic and ask open questions? 2) What about SC2013 and C:S? A Simtropolis Visitor's thread would also have to take them into account, so you would end up with two new subforums, or you would have to move the visitor's thread to an existing SC4 forum, wich would kinda defeat the purpose. You have to treat the players of the three games equally. But I do like your idea of an information desk with all useful links on one coherent and easy to navigate place, when I was a newbie I was certainly confused when I couldn't find the info for newcomers on the SC4 Players forum!, only later did I see the "New members area" on the Social Forum. One thing is certain though: this is a fruitful topic on it's own.

Lining up all the LBT props that I plan to mod. There's all kinds of stuff on that Mega Pack! I'm already seeing those nice fountains and gazebos on some park set. There will be at least 30 prop families, plus timed props and whatnot. The only thing I'm dreading is modding the cars, it'll be a bit of a tedious work.

Well that is certainly true, I know I ask a lot of questions (I am planning to do so again later today in fact ). And the nature of the NAM, for example, makes more efficient to have a Q&A place or a similar venue for experienced players and the team members to respond to the users doubts dinamically, I gather the documentation files conundrum illustrates this point clearly. And there's also the issue of broken links, missing images, authors gone inactive, etcetera. In a sense it's better that way, since it encourages people to join the community and there is no shortage of helpful folks here at this site. As for the people who end up not knowing what they have installed because they don't bother to read, well, nevermind those people if I may say so. They will, of course be helped because the aim of this site is not to encourage reading habits... but still. I would say that the only situation in which it's 100% understandable to ask straight away for things that can otherwise be found on documentation files or pinned threads it's when english is not your native language and you don't have a good grasp of it for whatever reason. People here come from all over the world so you may be able to fnd some help if you ask nicely. But I digress. Anyway, here's another cool link: BSC Parks, watch out for dependencies!

Done, I also added a couple of extra links and suggestions. Your effort to help newbies find their way around SC4 custom content is commendable. It'd perhaps be a good idea to ask permission to create a pinned thread on this subforum when you have compiled a sufficiently comprehensive list of mods, tools and maybe even tips for newbies with up to date links and information. To stay on topic, I'll add one extra set of filler lots that I also really like: Paeng's Grunge IND Alleys

Of course! for illustration purposes here are my four favorite modular and filler sets: Paeng's Parks, MGB Diagonal Fillers, IRM IHT Fillers (you can also check out the IRM itself and the I-M and I-D filler sets), KOSC Modular parkings With simple small lots you can create extensive public, industrial or parking spaces on your city or fill gaps between buildings with details like alleyways and parking lots, and it really helps with realism and aesthetics (and, I understand, having large open spaces helps with game performance too). A big part of achieving a pleasant look for your cities is letting go of the idea of cramming as many sims as possible in one city tile and instead having some open spaces both in residential and commercial districts and on the industrial ones. If you mean having pavement on your diagonal networks instead of grass then this mod may be of use. If you mean extending the pavement on diagonal sidewalks to avoid the jagged look, then the diagonal fillers I listed above may be of use.

Very useful insight here, i'm by no means an expert player but these are my two cents for this. The beauty of this game is that there is no clear way of playing it, no set path, the beauty and uniqueness of the SimCity series (up to SC4) it's that it is a ludic game: your creativity, and your own insights produce cities that are unique to you. I've been checking the "Show un your..." threads for a couple of years and you can notice that aside form certain general "styles" (i.e. U.S. cities, western and eastern european cities, asian cities, etc.) every player builds things their own way, they have a certain "style" unique to them; a certain way of building downtowns, highways, public spaces and so on. My general advice would be to be patient, slowly build a set of plugins, keep them organised and check them to see if they are adequately modded and lotted to your taste. Don't be afraid to learn how to use the modding tools and bust them out if things aren't to your liking. And of course experiment a lot! You can try to balance aesthetics and functionality or make a wholly plopped city that is pure eyecandy. Something that I do is create a basic, functioning city with a healthy budget, then I make a duplicate of the city file and import it to other region, by doing this you can end up with a sandbox version of your functioning city. You can then just pause the simulation, give yourself any amount of money you wish, and just plop or bulldoze everything you desire, afterwards you can implement your plans on the functional city. On a more practical note: use fillers and modular sets, like, a lot of them, they can really liven up your spaces! it's like using the Lot Editor in game. Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

The search engine here used to be rather neat, but now it's just horrible. Using google directly is your best option. If you type "site:Simtropolis.com xxxx" ("xxxx" being whatever you are looking for) in the search box you have better chances of finding what you are looking for. Also, if you come across broken links to the STEX you can check the URL and see that there's a file number, you can then search that file number with google ("site:Simtropolis.com file yyyy") and you're all set! Hope this is useful information!

Hello! So today my modest lot thread reaches the one year old mark! I wanted to clebrate with an upload to the STEX but wasn't able to finish anything on time (I got distracted trying out KOSC's parking lots). But anyway, instead of an upload there are lots of teasers! so let me show you how things are moving along, and also some plans that I have for the future. Oh, and by the way, I have edited the first post on the thread to show all the projects I am (or will be) working on, so be sure to check that out! First, I started the last four lots for my next release: the medium wealth apartment complexes pack; these are all 6x6 lots. The layout and textures are done, now I just need to decorate them with props and flora. To upload this new pack I still need to make tropical versions of all the lots in it, write documentation and create some timed prop families for the LBT cars on the parking lots so there's still plenty of work left to be done but hopefully it won't be too time consuming. Next, some low wealth apartment complexes that I started a couple of months ago but forgot to show here. And now some remastered LBT retail stores. Here's a preview of yet undetailed ploppable versions of Heblem's Home Depot and Sam's Club. Now, you may be wondering where the parking lots are. Before you write an angry comment, let me show you the plans I have for this retailers pack. Since these lots are so big and have such a unique footprint I figured they shouldn't be at all difficult to grow, and thus a ploppable version with parking would be kind of redundant... instead, you could take advantage of all the filler and parking lot sets out there and use them to mix and match, and create realistic retail corridors with any shape, look and footprint that you desire! Shown in this picture are KOSC's modular parking lots, TWrecks' IRM fillers, MGB's diagonal fillers, MMP industrial junk and an MMP truck, and that Office Depot I showed in the last update. This is just something I whipped up in a bit of a hurry, but it showcases the possibilities rather nicely! Oh, and it's all functional, all the stores have jobs and road access. On a bit of a side note, I made a mistake with the asphalt texture on the lots , don't worry, I'll change it for a base texture that matches the parking lots and the IRM IHT filler set. And now, for the last part (I promised it would be a long update didn't I?) here's some buildings that I'm going to turn into functional rewards! (Provided I learn how to do that) From left to right these lots will function as: 1) A small farmer's market (with the same stats than the Maxis default but no agricultural requirements) 2) A big farmer's market (same as the last one but with stats suitable for a medium to big city) 3) An Opera House (kinda obvious) 4) A Major Art Museum. Note: all these are the original lots, not mine (I would never use those radioactive palm trees). These four churches will function as... you guessed it: Houses of Worship. And lastly, these three will obviously correspond to the three stages of City Halls! So that is all I have to show... phew! and I still have a reply to post... So any thoughts or suggestions? Next time I'll be showing the finished versions of the $$ apartment complexes, both the temperate and the tropical versions and some more of Heblem's retail stores. Until then! Replies:

I started doing the basic planning for a historical city centre, but got a little carried away... A closer look of the main square. I still have to make the lots for the main plaza, and re-lot and the Goverment Palace (East of the plaza) I think I am also going to mod this one along with the City Hall (South of the plaza) and the Central Market (West of the plaza) to become functional rewards: They will work as a medium and large City Hall, and as an enhanced farmer's market. Here's calle Independencia, a pedestrian-only street, It actually has lots of people walking around!. And lastly, Arboleda Central. I really like this modular park set! Also shown: the Grand Theatre, and don't worry, I'll get rid of those cartoonish palm trees because I'm also going to re-lot this building and modd it as a functional Opera House.

Interesting topic, In addition to the NAM, all the fixes listed above, PIM-X, and Ilive's Reader, (It would be redundant to post their links again) I would add a couple of things that may suit a newbie player or modder well. I first delved into lotting and modding by fixing disfuctional or badly modded buildings and these two resources combined were -and still are- a great help. TWrecks' Stats and Values Pack comes handy if you download buildings that were made before PIM-X came along, it requires a wee little bit of knowledge about how custom buildings work, but it's well worth knowing if you either want to understand how to mod or if you want to play a balanced game. And of course, to actually fix the things, I would recommend along with PIM-X and the Reader, SC4Tool. I find it better if all you want to do is to quickly fix or check some stats, It's easier to use that the Reader (though not as powerful) and it lets you edit some stats that PIM-X won't. It also serves for Transit enabling, creating Textures, and it has a Maxis buildings reference to make sure you fix things in tune with game mechanics. So these are two of my bare essentials, they are fixes and fixing tools not only for the game but for the custom content that is the key to the game's success and durability. EDIT: Here's also a list of filler and modular sets, they're super easy to use and go a long way towards beautifying your city: Paeng's Parks (Be sure to check the playgrounds and cemeteries expansion packs also) Paeng's Grunge IND Alleys MGB Diagonal Fillers SFBT Diagonal Fillers IRM IHT Fillers (you can also check out the IRM itself and the I-M and I-D filler sets) KOSC Modular parkings (You can also check the diagonal set and the addons) ***Protip: Once on the STEX, click on the "Find their other files" link under the author's name to find the other files listed between parentheses

Great new buildings! the orange one would make a beautiful library! Well suburbio also means periphery here, but what is great about these little houses is that they can fit both urban and suburban low-density neigbourhoods. There aren't really any sets of low-density, medium-wealth homes that can create the kind of tightly packed rows of single family homes that are the norm on this part of the world. (My low density neighbourhoods are all Maxis, just waiting to be completely redeveloped). On a side note, are those walls you are talking about part of the house models, or are you going to make them props? because <shameless self plug> as you may or may not know I have a lotting project that includes a set of small houses that I want to make wall to wall friendly, and some nice looking wall props would be just fine for the job!. <end of shameless self plug> Anyway, keep up the good work, we'll wait patiently to see more of your creations!

Hi Simtropolis! Yesterday I was playing SC4, and I quicksaved my city by clicking on the little floppy disk in the menu. While the game was saving, i looked away from the computer and Windows tried to start my screen saver for some reason (even though i play in fullscreen mode), I looked back and there was just a black screen stating "Windows couldn't initiate this screen saver". When I moved the mouse, the game's window minimized. (This has also happened while loading the game or a particular city). Clicking back on the game icon, everything seemed normal and the saved appeared to be succesful, but then I went back to region view and it just showed a big patch of land instead of the city I saved. Going back and saving again fixed that problem. Maybe this question is superfluous, but better safe than sorry. Can this lead to problems like save file corruption? The program kept running and I can play the city just fine, but the region view thing was weird. I backup my regions often, and I don't mind restoring one if I really have to, but I'd prefer not to do it if there is nothing to worry about. If it's relevant, i'm playing a GOG.com version of the game in a Samsung laptop with Windows 7 (64 bit), a 2.40 GHz Intel core i3 CPU, 4GB of RAM, and a 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 330M GPU.

@rsc204 Don't worry, I read about prop pox being caused by making timed props without giving them new TGI's when doing my "research". I have to admit, when I first thought about making timed cars I wanted to override the ones on the original pack so the lots that used them would be retroactively affected, I only ditched the idea when I decided it was worth remastering all those lots alltogether. So I'll generate entirely new props with different exemplar names and ID's anyway, I won't need to copy and paste Exemplars in the Reader. I'll take a look at the RTK's from your bike props and check how they are modded, I'll also look at SHK's and Maxis' car clusters to get a general idea of the different times I want the cars to appear on. I assume then, that the steps would be: 1) Create the exemplar on PIM-X and take note of the TGIs (copy and paste them in notepad) 2) Convert it to RTK-4 (on PIM-X?) 3) Open the Reader and set RTK-4 values 2, 3 and 4 to 0x00000000, and values 6, 7 and 8 to match the TGI of the RTK-1 model (which I have on notepad). 4) On Reader, add the new property "Prop Time Of Day" and set it to the time I want the prop to appear on (say, 7,20 for commercial clusters and 21,7 for residential ones) 5) Save the exemplar and close the Reader 6) Add the prop to a family on PIM-X (I have been given my own IID range, no worries) For steps 3-5, I can refer to the tutorial on the link that CT14 posted. Many thanks for the information! I'll try it with a test prop and see what the results are.