BC Canuck

I've been busy the last few days and only started looking through the 3 discs yesterday. I downloaded them on Monday (quite easy to do with the WinCDEmu software and now I understand how this works - couldn't be simpler). I just need to back-up the discs on a new flash drive (currently on my external hard drive - just in case - stuff happens...) I am quite pleased with the contents. A bunch of these creators I have never heard of but have some interesting content. Tried and true favourites are here: FrankU, Mattb, Jasoncw, JBSimio and so on. But it is so "well organised" I love it. No more trolling through the STEX trying to remember who created something or depending on our own private search engine otherwise known as @Yarahi That doesn't mean I won't be downloading some of the new stuff - great content still coming out!! Thanks to @Dirktator for putting them together.

Commonly Available Resources Of Lovely Stuff Like Instructional Specialised Tutorials aka C.A.R.O.L.'S.L.I.S.T.* *Acronym created by CorinaMarie The following article has links to various threads, tutorials, websites etc for any new players or others who are a little overwhelmed with information overload on the Simtropolis site. Be aware you will have to do some reading on the threads but there is some very good information in them and I think you will find them helpful. Have fun with the game and happy hunting! PLEASE Feel Free to Make Your Own Suggestions MODS YOU WILL WANT TO HAVE NAM (current version) - Here This will actually fix bugs in the game. Even Vanilla players should have this. There is a custom installation available so if you don't want all the bells and whistles you can get a pared down version if your computer can't handle the entire mod. When using NAM it's highly recommended to get the SC4Fix.dll because that prevents crashes when hovering a puzzle piece over a TE lot. They say it's a good idea even without NAM installed. Here is another link to the SC4D Wiki: NAM Tutorials section. It's not anything like complete, but hopefully in time this will be home to all the NAM documentation online. INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION MOD (IRM) by @T Wrecks - Here FILLER SET FOR IRM - Here Essential for good looking industry. He did a fantastic job with this and I gather it took two years to complete. A big thank you to T Wrecks; it really makes a difference. SPAM - SPAM MOD for all those farms you want to create - found on the PLEX EXTRA CHEATS PLUGIN - Here You will want this for sure even if it is just to plop a commercial or industrial building in your city. Sadly Residentials cannot be plopped as they will abandon. It does way more than that! HiTech Industry fix. - Here What is this? Below is the blurb from the file download. Short summary: due to a presumable rounding/arithmetic error, almost every IH lot in the game didn't offer any high wealth ($$$) jobs so far, while still creating demand for R$$$ residents though. Tutorial for applying the HiTech Industry fix - Here MARSH'S EXTENSIVE MAYOR-MODE PLOPPABLES LIST - Here This has stuff you are going to want and should know about. Note:#1: SimPeg's files along with Paeng's files are available on the PLEX, here at Simtropolis. Marsh crossed them off the list as sadly SimPeg disappeared in July/2015 due to server issues. Note#2: SC4Devotion LEX requires you to be a registered member in order to download. LIVIN IN SIM'S TOP TEN MODD SUGGESTIONS - Here Some of his suggestions are already listed here such as the NAM and the Extra-Cheats but his other suggestions are quite useful. City Tile Background - Blue skys with/without clouds - Here Replaces the ugly grid background on the edge of your city tiles. Below is a small blurb from the file download description. This mod replaces the default Maxis city tile background by the realistic sky texture. Sky Background Mod Day Set 1 contains 7 different textures (various colors, with and without clouds). You can choose only one texture at a time. Please read the enclosed readme carefully. Cori's Shoppe Series: A great way to personalise your region, is to install mods that alter the Terrain, Rock, Water, Beaches and Trees used. With just these few mods, you will totally transform how your game looks. Cori / @CorinaMarie has been kind enough to create a series of "Shoppe's" where you can browse through all the available options to find your perfect set. Check those out with the following links: Cori's Rock Shoppe (Linkys to and Pictures of every Rock Mod) Cori's Water Shoppe (Linkys to and Pictures of every Water Mod) Cori's Beach Shoppe (Linkys to and Pictures of every Beach Mod) Cori's Terrain Shoppe (Linkys to and Pictures of every Terrain Mod) Cori's Jolteon's Tree Shoppe (Linkys to and Pictures of almost every Tree Mod) C.O.R.I.M.A.P.S. - A Tutorial for SimCity 4 (Quick alternative realistic map making method) Want unique maps? Try this! Her tutorial for map making is brilliant! No hyperbole intended. I wasn't interested in making maps myself but as I was creating this article I thought I should read up on it. Who knew clouds and map making went together. I'll have to try it myself. TUTORIALS Check out @rsc204's* tutorials - These are really good and worth your time. New to the NAM? Check out my tutorials on YouTube. Latest upload: Guide to new NAM 35 features. *p.s. - I'm MGB over on SC4D and a member of the NAM team. Another tutorial recommended by rsc204 (not his) Tutorial here Note: The tutorial is playing at Intermediate level; recommend beginners use the "easy" level but will give you a good overview. The two tutorials below are actually in the Simtropolis Omnibus - I found these very helpful: Creating-straight-edged-coastlines-canals-and-ports by Rochfort Making-money-the-easy-way by soldyne THREADS “Can't Find It? Ask Here” - Here This Simtropolis thread is a “Must Read” IMO. You will find all sorts you didn't know you wanted. As well, if you include a screenshot of a building or whatever you saw and can't find the file etc. someone will most likely know what it is and give you the file link. How cool is that? Plugins Folder Management Links: Plugins Folder Show us how you manage your plugins folder Links to discussions about managing your plugins folder - highly recommend doing this "before" you download masses of content. If you don't think about organising this beforehand you will regret it. Advice from someone (me) who didn't know about this and now has to spend too much time sorting things out...so be warned. The two threads are relatively recent and the second thread has actual pictures of people's plugin folders. This will give you some very good information about how to manage your plugins. These are suggestions only as everyone has their own way of thinking but it will give you an idea of how some of them manage an astronomical 7 GBs of content. CasperVG's Custom Content lists - Here Thanks to @Yarahi for the recommendation. Categorised by type - eg: Ports, Harbour and Industrial Railways and Stations It's a treasure trove even if it is a bit old. It will keep you busy with downloading. “Disclaimer”: The STEX links do not work and it is beyond the scope of this article to fix anything, however you can Google the creator's name ie: “frogface on STEX” and at least one file will come up, click on his activity, click on “files” and you will get the complete list of his files on the STEX. I tried this with 2-3 creators names and it seems to work fine. LEX links seem to be working. BACK TO SC4 - Here @CorinaMarie suggested this thread which has some more information. Initially when I looked at it quickly, I thought I would simply delete the duplicates, however I didn't realise there was a rather longer list than expected. An Example: @RandyE's DOS directory list (Do look up some of the files mentioned) (More) Basic Fixes WEBSITES WITH CUSTOM CONTENT City-Builders club by @catty-cb - Here Many SimPeg files and others are over there. Her club has other goodies you may want to investigate as well. Do browse! Working Man Productions website - Here - some good content there. (2020 Update: Wayback Machine link provided because site is no longer online.) Non-English SC4 Custom Content Sites - Here Thanks to @Yarahi for this recommendation which was posted by @Haljackey. Some will need Google translation. Worth looking into. I pulled out some of the links as they were scattered about in the thread. Polish: SimCityPolska - Here French: Toutsimcities - Here German: SimCityKurier - Here Not Sure: Capital SimCity - Here *Japanese SC4 site links - Here *Note about the Japanese sites listed above at SC4Devotion - not all of the links work and I understand they frequently change or disappear.

Here is a part of Cloverdale showing the lovely VanDamm house by Mattb. I think it turned out quite nicely. The first picture is ther overall view of the tile showing all of Cloverdale. I hope you enjoy the pics. OOPS - I messed up! I thought I placed this in the "show us what you are working on" thread. Can someone move it to the right place please. Thanks, Carol

@mattb325 (Or if anyone else knows what happened) I was just downloading a bunch of your new buildings and was expecting the see the WHO HQ and LGBTQ memorial in amongst the new ones on the STEX but they seem to have disappeared altogether. What happened to them? I was sure I saw a download button on the "Show us" forum here last week, but I wasn't able to get to it until now. (Way behind in downloading your lovely lots). And the "CUBE" Apartment building - work in progress? Thanks

@Dreadnought Love what you did with the Library and Raymond's statues (gorgeous aren't they?). Nice to see you back as well with pics.

Nice. to see my list is still being referred to @CorinaMarie

@mattb325 Good to hear the fires are contained near you. Keep safe and continue batting.... Another lovely addition. Good thing there is no download "quota" - downloading more goodies. - My plugins is groaning but in a good way

I haven't been playing SC4 for awhile and thought I would check out this forum to see what you guys have been up to. Well "WOW" I'm blown away by the bats, lots whatever have been coming down the road in the last few months. I see I will be busily downloading from the STEX. @WolfZe Medeival Tudor downloads: gorgeous / frontier town - got a use for them in my farming communities / interesting lighthouses... @Simmer2 You always do industrials so well! / will you download the pedestrian bridge at some point? / Re lighthouses - There is one in Nova Scotia you may have heard about? Peggy's Cove - any chance you making that one...it's so iconic. @mattb325 Firstly, how is the home front situation? Just before Christmas you said the wildfire was a mere 6 miles away. Everything safe and sound at your end? Staggering amount of destruction and loss of wildlife - those burned Koalas are so sad. Glad to hear we (Canada) recipricated with Fire Management Personnel after the Aussies helped us out two years ago during our own really bad fire situation in British Columbia. When did you find the energy and time (surely you were stressed out over the fire) to do all those beautiful buildings (Ginza, low rises, the North by Northwest house (don't see it on the STEX though - drooling here in anticipation). Everything you do is superb. And I really want those laneways you showed us.... I would love love those in my towns and cities. Really useful. Now I have to go download a bunch of stuff.

As you can see by the two images the dirt doesn't cover the rails as I expected when I am using @Simmer2's Spurs/sidings Vol 1 but works just fine with the Vol2 version. As you can see the diagonal curve on the extreme right has half dirt and half grass. The first image is just plopped over straight rail to show what happens with Vol1 and Vol2 (blends seamlessly). I also noticed some curves don't always show dirt - a sort of combination dirt/grass. Did I forget to tick a box in RRW? I am using MGB's filler set for rail which works beautifully on the diagonal curve. I use Gobias Sudden Valley terrain mod here. Using the latest NAM Version. Any suggestions of what I may be doing wrong? Or is that just the way it works.?? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

An Update @Simmer2 Changed the texture yesterday and it worked just fine - everything blends nicely (see below). Good suggestion to place your files in a separate plugins folder ... My LE Plugins is a tad bloated I like to have as many props and textures to choose from when relotting, so it was quite easy to find the right textures (all in a row too) with the separate folder. Just had to think how to replace everything in your dat file(worked on a copy just in case) with iLive Reader - sorted everything by entry name, deleted the two exemplar files for each lot and inserted my new ones, re-indexed and reset the directory and voila - everything works as it should. That seemed to be easiest and fastest way to do the dat file. By the way love the bumpers with the end of track clutter. Adds a nice finishing touch. Also the abandoned factory you did was really well done. It would look good in a rural area. It occurred to me a rural train station that was either abandoned or repurposed as a museum when decommissioned, such as the one in Fort Langley, BC (see picture) would be something I would be interested in seeing. It's a 1915 CN passenger train station the Heritage Committee refurbished sometime ago. They did a lovely job of redoing the interior ticket office and waiting room as it was in the early 20's. And of course the exterior is really well done. There is a Caboose and 1950's passenger car beside the station the public can visit as well. Just in case you needed more on your "to do" list. Thanks again, BC Canuck

Thanks @Simmer2. I'll try the LE then. I didn't know I could swap the textures. Sounds simple enough! If I have problems I will give you a shout. BC Canuck

For the first time I am attempting to create a MML mod for some of the WMP Boardwalks and allotments as they take up so much room in the Parks menu. I'm following the tutorial by Diggis HERE over at SC4Devotion. Is there an easier (batch) way to add "Conditional Building =True" property for each exemplar in the files or do you just have to tediously do it for each and every exemplar file. I did copy and paste the Instance ID (IID) for all the files into the LUA script to prevent typos, don't know if that works yet. I pasted the IID's below the LUA script's original IID's (PEG's OWW version) and then I kept the same formatting as the original by simply backspacing, then deleted PEG's IID's. (hope that's clear). Does anyone see a problem by doing this? Does it work? Regarding LUA Script instructions for the IID building exemplar file of the construction lot. I need clarification on this. I have 2 exemplar files (see pics). Not sure if I did this correctly. Should I have created a MML lot as per @rsc204 mod instructions as I normally do? Diggis instructions says to just reuse the 1x1 grass or cement lot. Is that why there are "2" exemplar files for the MML construction lot? As you can see I changed the 1x1 cement lot IID to "zero". Also a dumb question: Do you need to install the WMP boardwalk dat file into the plugins along with the MML or does the MML actually recreate all the boardwalk files? Don't have a clear understanding on this... I realise all the dependencies of course have to be included in the plugins. I hope someone can help. Thanks in advance.

I'm curious to know where people get their ideas for cities, towns, rural areas etc. Do you use Google Earth? Your own part of the world? Batters' lots set an idea in motion? Other CJ's? Sometimes I run out of ideas to make something a bit more unique - things start to look the "same". Let me know what inspires you.

I've been trying to make better menu icons for some of my lots but frankly they look awful. The default icons weren't much better. Most look fine but a couple need tweaking. I tried using Gimp but not familiar enough with it to create icons form it. When I Googled for info, it came up with a thread here and thanks to @Cyclone Boom he placed a link to "SC4LotIcon Creator" in the thread and then I found @Simmer2 for the "really" easy instructions over on the SC4Devotion site on how to change icons here. I wouldn't mind instructions about how to use the captions in the LotIconCreator program. They don't seem to work for me. (ok so I need the "dummies" version). Below is a screenshot of Paeng's Park icons. How do you do this? They look so simple and clear... Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

Here is an update on the icons @rsc204 and @Fantozzi Took a little longer than I thought. GIMP 2.8 version that I have is not the most user friendly program I've used. Much reading ensued. The layers were easy enough to figure out. Fantozzi your instruction #6 wouldn't work for me only because I suspect the commands were translated from the German and weren't exactly the English commands. ie: unify layers is actually "merge" visible layers. I also discovered that the four little icons 176x44 pixel size I have to copy into the psd file can only be done if I use the "copy from clipboard" command and then "copy what is visible" command - all this in the EDIT menu. Never did figure out what you meant about the grid being magnetic?? Here is a picture of the menu icon I created for the Restaurant Patio. The font for Patio doesn't really show up too well - too small. On the other hand the first one I did you would have needed a 100x magnifying glass to see the fonts I've never worked in pixels before. The umbrella came from clip art. Not at all sure how Paeng created the little fence for his urban park. More experimenting etc to come... I also used the Lot Icon Creator program and have a much better understanding of how that worked. The little 44x44 pixel rectangle can't be enlarged as I tried to do initially as I didn't understand how those icons worked until I started fooling around with Gimp and your instructions. I now have much better pictures of my little 1x1 lots such as the scarecrow in a field - I can actually see its a scarecrow... Only just noticed my description didn't show up. Its the "CDL" icon. PS Fantozzi - I see you downloaded your farming lots. I did blanch when I saw the dependencies however I have been waiting for the new crops. That looks as though it will have to have its own dedicated plugins and download folder... That's a huge amount of work. Thanks for doing that for the SC4 community. I have plumbers in my place re-piping the entire building from copper to plastic due to water leaks (soft water is acidic apparently - sounds counter intuitive doesn't it) a big problem in the Lower Mainland of BC, so may get to do this as time permits. I lose water for a couple of days next week...oh Joy! Good excuse to go to the movies! Thanks again to you both for your help.

Hehe...no need to hide under the bed...it wasn't my laptop! If it were that would have been a real mess and I would have joined you under the bed Anyway waiting for the plumbers to show up. My entire building is being repiped from copper to a type of plastic pipe due to our soft water causing leaks. Apparently soft water is very acidic and eats into the copper (sounds counter-intuitive). So fun and games here at home!

Just opened my iPad and everything is back to normal I can see all the pictures, avatars etc and I can even sign out now that the search box doesn't cover the sign out box. I'm not sure who fixed the snafu but thanks so much! @Cyclone Boom maybe??