twalsh102

@Dizzle28, strictly speaking, all CAMpatible means is that it will work with CAM (i.e. there is nothing in any exemplar that will break CAM). This is different than being optimized for CAM. Buildings/Lots that have been CAMifed (or are considered CAMelots), on the other hand, use modifiers to create stats that are optimized for use with CAM. Technically speaking, anything created with PIM-X (even if the filling degree is not modified) is considered optimized for CAM because PIM-X creates stats that are optimized for CAM. In direct answer to your question as to what needs to be done for any @mattb325 content, it depends on the tools he uses to create his content (I don't remember reading anything, anywhere, specific about this). If he used the Maxis LE to create his content, you'll want to re-do it using PIM-X. If he used PIM-X to create the content, and just downgraded the Growth Stage to be nothing greater than 8, well, you'll still need to use PIM-X to determine the correct Growth Stage. Doesn't look like he's visited here since 04/22, and hasn't been active at SC4D since 06/22 so probably can't ask him.

Actually, you don't want to "bring the Cap down", you want to raise it (provide Cap relief) in order to allow more growth. For residential areas, the only way to do this is by providing more amenities, i.e. parks and recreation. Different amenities provide different amounts of Cap relief based on wealth level. The Prima Official Strategy Guide for SimCity 4 Deluxe has a good chart that lays this out (on pages 71-72). If you don't have a copy, it is a free download at https://archive.org/details/SimCity_4_Rush_Hour_Prima_Official_eGuide. I would recommend the PDF version.

This is not unusual for some Anti-Virus software (especially Norton) that seem to mark any download that is not known to them (or seldom accessed in the grand scheme of things} as "known malicious site". You may need to add the site as an exception to Norton.

That's about it - ensuring the files/folders are in the plugins folder ! The two files in the a_core subfolder replace 100+ Maxis exemplars that impact game mechanics. Hopefully, you understand that although non-CAMified lots (Maxis, or Custom) will work with CAM, to get the most out of CAM, you need as many CAMified lots as possible to get the full effect of CAM. Note, that while IRM may have been made compatible with CAM, individual custom lots need to be modified to make them compatible with both IRM and CAM.

This MS document discusses MAX_PATH: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/maximum-file-path-limitation?tabs=registry If you Google search "Windows maximum path length", you will get numerous other hits from MS and other tech-related sites. This tool allows you to check the path length of any of your files/folders, either individually, or for entire file structures: https://github.com/deadlydog/PathLengthChecker I would recommend Running via the GUI.

@Pakistani890, Perhaps it will help to think of organization of your Plugins in this light: the Game DOES NOT CARE how your Plugins are organized. No matter what you come up with, the game will still run. If you look at the structure of Maxis base content, almost everything is contained in only five files (SimCity_1.dat thru SimCity_5.dat), i.e. NO organization of Maxis default plugins. Thus, you could place every single file in your Plugins folder at the root of the Plugins folder (i.e. NO organization/NO folders), and the game will still work. So the real question you should consider when you determine the organization of your Plugins folder is not it should be 'What is the easiest way for me to find things?' in order to determine whether or not you already have something in your Plugins folder. There is a scenario where how you have organized your Plugins folder that may impact whether individual plugins work properly. This has to do with Path Length. Windows has a maximum Path Length beyond which it cannot read files. If Windows cannot read a file, this can cause problems such as buildings not showing up in your game menu, props not appearing, or the appearance of brown boxes. If you aren't familiar with this, I can provide links to resources where you can learn about this issue, as well as a link to a tool that can help you determine if you have this issue. Having said all this, there are some custom Plugins that will only work properly if they are loaded last (see @Golan0's September 5 post). For every mod I have ever seen that requires that the game load it last in order to work properly, this is stated in the description and/or installation instructions. So there should be no guesswork if this is necessary or not.

@TheMurderousCricket, a couple of things to keep in mind: not all .SC4Lot files include LD sub-files; and depending on the age of the download, it may list dependencies that no longer exist.

The primary thing to remember when playing regionally is that a particular city tile an only directly "interact" with those other city tiles that are touching each of its four sides and are connected by neighbor connections using one of the transportation networks. Feeling organized is a very subjective phrase. What do you mean be this? By geography, I'm assuming you're actually talking about topography (i.e. terrain). I'm not sure how you would make each city tile unique enough to recognize solely by the terrain of the tile. Remember that even the largest city tile is only 4km by 4 km. Not sure where you live, but try going on a walk-about where you live and try to discern what makes the 4km square where you live unique (terrain-wise) from any adjacent 1, 2, or 4 km square of land. Also keep in mind that each city tile in SC4 must match up terrain-wise with each of its neighbors (i.e. the city edges must match). Try playing in windowed mode (vs. full-screen). Then you can minimize the game and access any other files (such as the screen shot of your region map) you have on your computer. All demand is shared regionally between connected cities. This means that Sims can commute to other connected cities if they can't find jobs in their own. No type of transportation crosses a city boundary; it simply disappears. Pollution does not cross city boundaries. Taxes apply only to each city. When setting up neighbor connections / road networks, one must be careful. Do a search on "eternal commuter" to research this phenomenon. Coverage from schools, hospitals, and fire / police stations only extend to a city's boundary. Simple answer, No. A suggestion: If you don't already have it, I would recommend downloading a copy of the Prima Strategy Guide for SimCity 4 Deluxe available (for FREE) at https://archive.org/details/SimCity_4_Rush_Hour_Prima_Official_eGuide

The best way to proceed really depends on what your goal is for whatever you're doing. If your goal is just to learn the basic process of modding, that would work. Might I make a suggestion? If you're just starting to learn modding, I would suggest using PIM-X (available over at SC4D), as it is a much more user-friendly substitute for the Maxis LE. Make sure you also download the User's Guide as it is not included in the PIM-X download

I'm not sure what the cause is, but this has long been a well-known phenomenon having to do with using the Maxis LE.

@Pakistani890, there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to organizing your Plugins folder. The primary purpose for organizing your Plugins folder is to make it easy for you to find things, and help verify you're not downloading duplicates. Since no two people think exactly alike, it's likely that no two people will organize their Plugins exactly alike either. With very few exceptions, the game will work no matter how your Plugins folder is organized

The second Building Exemplar (Index #176). You highlighted the Lot Exemplar.

The problem is that this is an invalid Building Exemplar. The second Building Exemplar shown in your second post is the one you should have modified. Does the original file (LM8x5_aTx_NationalArtCenter.dat) still contain any Building Exemplar? If so, if the Instance ID for the existing Building Exemplar in that file is 0x570C5066, delete it. If the Instance ID is 0x770C542D, that is the Exemplar to which you need to make your modifications. Since it sounds like you also made changes to your Lot Exemplar, if neither Building Exemplar still exists in the original file (LM8x5_aTx_NationalArtCenter.dat), or if the Building Exemplar Instance ID is 0x570C5066, your best bet would be the following: 1. Unzip the file again (to someplace other than where the current one exists), 2. Open your current version of that file in Reader. 3. Also open the version you just unzipped in Reader. 4. Copy the Building Exemplar with the Instance ID of 0x770C542D from the newly unzipped version, and past it into original version. Remake the few changes you made to the invalid Building Exemplar. When confronted with multiple Building Exemplars with any package (one of which is always invalid), the best way to determine which is valid is to open it in Reader, and check for an Item Icon value other than zero. It should have a value that matches the Instance ID of the included PNG subfile that represents the Item Icon. Hopefully, I didn't confuse the heck out of you.

The basic ingredients are a Lot Exemplar, a Building Exemplar and a Model. As you probably know, the Model can be yours or someone else's. If it is a Maxis Model, it doesn't need to be listed as a dependency. For a Growable LOT, usually there are separate for the Lot Exemplar (xxx.SC4Lot), a Building Exemplar (xxx.SC4Desc) (Note that Prop Exemplars are also .SC4Desc files), and a model (.SC4Model). For a Ploppable LOT, the Lot and Building Exemplars are usually included in an .SC4Lot file. Sometimes, content creators will wrap everything needed for a Lot into a .Dat file. LE doesn't usually do that. All non-texture game files are included in SimCity_1.dat. The fact that you ended up with a .Dat file implies that you edited SimCity_1.dat directly, and then saved it to a different name. If this is the case, you basically created troubleshooting hell, since it contains almost 60.5K subfiles. If you are going to modify anything to do with an existing Maxis Lot or Building, the Best Practice is to extract (copy) these Exemplars to a new file or files, and then modify the copies. If all you did was modify a Lot Exemplar, what did you generate "new groups and instances" for?

Could you ZIP up the SC4Lot and SC4Desc files you ended up with, and post the .zip here so we can take at look at it to see if there is anything obviously wrong with what your did?