Panda

Based on the third draft of the submenu categories, I've pasted in all the icons that I've made so far. Right now there are around 65+ submenus under discussion. That number includes the rail, miscellaneous transportation, and seaport categories, but does not include any potential submenus in the roadway, highway, or airport menus. As discussed, the current assumption is that the NAM and the airport teams will need more control over how those submenus will be developed. Of the 65 proposed submenus, I have completed 35 icons which is a little over half. I am planning to continue creating icons for the police, health, and landmark categories, and fill out any missing items such as embankment walls, from the nearly complete categories. I have not begun work on any of the transportation, seaport, or airport items yet. I'm planning to create them eventually, but if anyone from the transportation teams is planning to create their own set of icons, let me know. I can provide templates if you want to match the style of the icons I've been working on. The fire station buttons are new. I initially tied to create a "3D" icon like the commercial or industrial icons, but it just didn't read well. The iteration below uses a firefighter's cross overlaid with bold lettering for readability. Let me know if it is legible. I know clarity can be an issue, especially as resolutions get higher and the UI gets comparatvely smaller. Flora: 01 - Trees 02 - [Seasonal Trees] 03 - Bushes 04 - Flowers 05 - [Natural Items] (ploppable water, rocks, …) 06 - [Artificial Items] (people, cars, …) Commercial Zone: 07 - Ploppable CS$ 08 - Ploppable CS$$ 09 - Ploppable CS$$$ 10 - Ploppable CO$$ 11 - Ploppable CO$$$ Industrial Zone: 12 - Ploppable Farms (0xC220B7D8) 13 - Ploppable Industry Dirty 14 - Ploppable Industry Manufacturing 15 - Ploppable Industry High-Tech Rail: 16 - Passenger Rail Stations (0x35380C75) 17 - Freight Rail Stations (0x3557F0A1) 18 - Yards (0x39BA25C7) (non-functional lots, sidings, spurs) 19 - [Hybrid Railway Stations] (0x2B294CC2) (could be added by NAM instead, since NAM would be required) 20 - Monorail Stations (0x3A1D9854) (HSRP could be a separate menu added by NAM) Misc Transport: 21 - Bus (0x1FDDE184) 22 - GLR (0x26B51B28) 23 - El-Rail (0x244F77E1) 24 - Subway (0x231A97D3) 25 - Multi-modal Stations (0x322C7959) 26 - Parking (0x217B6C35) 27 - [bikepaths, access roads, alleyways] 28 - [Signage] (signs, billboards, lighting) Airport: ## - … (should be added by airport mods instead) Seaport: 29 - Ports and Ferry Terminals (0x07047B22) 30 - [Marinas] 31 - Seawalls (0x1CD18678) 32 - Canals (0x03C6629C) 33 - [Waterfront] (industrial/commercial) Power: 34 - Dirty Energy 35 - Clean Energy 36 - Substations/Poles/Misc Water: 37 - Water Supply 38 - Water Treatment 39 - [Salt Water] 40 - [Fresh Water] Garbage: 41 - [Disposal] 42 - [Recycling] Police: 43 - Small (0x65D88585) 44 - Medium (0x7D6DC8BC) 45 - Large (0x8157CA0E) 46 - [Jails] 47 - [Military] Fire: 48 - Small (0x868E0F99) *Work In Progress 49 - Medium (0x91A8F38E) *Work In Progress 50 - Large (0x9E60B665) *Work In Progress Education: 50 - Elementary (0x9FE5C428) 51 - High Schools (0xA08063D0) (including private schools) 52 - Higher Education (0xAC706063) *Alternate: 53 - Libraries and Museums (0xAEDD9FAA) *Alternate: - This icon could also be used for something else, such as for high schools and then using the graduation cap for colleges and universites. Health: 54 - Small (0xB1F7AC5B) 55 - Medium (0xB7B594D6) 56 - Large (0xBC251B69) Landmarks: 57 - Government 58 - Entertainment (theaters, operas, cinemas, stadiums, night clubs, etc.) 59 - Religion (Churches cemetries) ## - … Parks: 60 - Green Spaces (0xBF776D40) *Work In Progress *Alternate: 61 - Plazas (0xEB75882C) *Alternates: 62 - Sports Grounds (0xCE21DBEB) 63 - Paths/Modular Parks (0xDEFFD960) (these all come in sets and should each get their own sub-submenus) 64 - Embankments (0xBB531946) (retaining walls) 65 - Fillers (0xF034265C) (IRM Fillers, diagonal fillers, roundabout fillers, etc.)

I doubt you can use the CD key on Steam since EA has their own distribution service, Origin. However, I know EA has a way to redeem your CD keys for a digital version through Origin. I'm not sure if they are still doing that, but it can't hurt to try. You will need an EA account to redeem. You will also (of course) need the product key from the original manual or box. I know this worked for me several years ago, but they could have changed their policy. You can find more information here: https://www.ea.com/redeem. So for those who still have a physical CD and want a digital copy, this is another option for you.

I worked on additional buttons for the parks menu: Green Spaces (I'm not quite satisfied how this turned out and may revise it in the future) Green Spaces (An option with a pop of color. Most of the Maxis buttons are white, but some icons, such as in the zoning menu, use color sparingly.) The revised plaza button, now with a fountain. Sport fields Modular paths and park pieces Filler Lots Any thoughts are welcome. I'd especially like feedback on the green spaces button. I've tried several iterations and have not found a solution I'm happy with yet, so I'm open to suggestions.

A fountain would make an excellent symbol for plazas. I'll update the plaza button when I work on the other parks items.

Here's an update on the sub-menu buttons: Ploppable Commercial: Commercial Services - low wealth Commercial Services - medium wealth Commercial Services - high wealth Commercial Office - medium wealth Commercial Office - high wealth I split the buttons by wealth category rather than density, but I think they could work for either. If the final list is split by density, I can add an extra low density commercial office later on. Industrial: Industrial Agricultural Industrial Dirty Industrial Manufacturing Industrial High Tech I received some feedback on the University and College button. Previously I had a stylized "U" in a typical American collegiate lettering. The alternative button is more in line with the other building icons I've been creating and is a symbolic representation of a typical university building. Alternate Colleges and Universities Original Colleges and Universities As always, I appreciate feedback. Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions. I'm currently using the 2nd revision of the submenu master list as updated by memo as a guide. While I understand this is still a work in process list, at this point I think most of the categories are close enough to give me direction. In the next few days I plan to work on the parks sub-menu items.

I agree that those types of objects don't really fit with the base game categories well. However, right now my understanding is we are trying to reach a consensus on broad categories that will have the most impact with the fewest categories. I think something like communication towers and other telecom equipment might be so narrow in scope that it would be better as a nested subcategory. Main Tools Menu - by Maxis - Landscape, Zoning, Utilities, Civic Menu, etc.) ↳ Base game Categories - by Maxis - Landmarks, Rewards, Parks, etc.) ↳ Tier 1 Submenus - by consensus - Broad categories to be discussed and decided for general adoption and included with the Submenus DLL ↳ Tier 2 Submenus - by individual mod authors or users - Narrow categories, not included with the DLL base pack, for specific mods, packs, categories, or whatever. Go wild! So hypothetically, for telecom towers the menu might look something like this: Civic -> Power -> Substations/Poles/Misc -> Telecom

I've continued working on submenu icons. As promised, here is the water treatment menu button: I've also completed buttons for the landscape submenus. Trees Shrubs Flowers Natural Items Artificial Items I'm working on the parks menu buttons and would like some input on the plazas. I started with a more symbolic representation but I didn't feel like it is reading as strongly as I'd like so I created an option with more context. I've mocked up a few prototypes and am curious which option people prefer. 1. Square paving pattern 2. Wavy paving pattern 3. Rotated wavy paving pattern 4. Plaza with urban context

I noticed when setting up my sub-menu template that the Maxis buttons (like the one you shared) are not completely greyed out during the disabled state. The background is a darker shade of the typical blue background. I'm not sure exactly why they decided to do that, but it doesn't change how the button functions, just how it looks. They don't even need to be the same image. The four states of the button, from left to right are: Disabled, Idle, Selected, and Mouse Over. In practical use, I'm not sure there when a sub-menu would ever be disabled. Maybe during a tutorial city? For general game play, I don't think you would ever see that state since if anything is going to be disabled, it would be the individual lots within the sub-menu, not the sub-menu itself. For the other three states, the idle state is when the submenu, nor any item within the submenu is selected. The third selected state shows up If you have selected either the submenu or an item in the submenu and then returned to the main menu, but have not yet selected anything else. The Maxis buttons only differentiation between these two states is to change the foreground color from dull blue to white. It's a fairly subtle difference and maybe not distinct enough. The last state, on the right, is when you hover your mouse over the button. It is clearly distinct from the other states. For now, I'm matching the Maxis colors and look as best I can. I used exported UI png files from simcity_1.dat as a reference for colors. However, I'm not opposed to making improvements. If anyone is curious, here are the color hex values I'm using: Disabled Foreground: #797979 SAMPLE Idle Foreground: #c7cddd SAMPLE Selected/Mouseover Foreground: #ffffff (WHITE) Disabled Background: #4d5670 SAMPLE Idle, Selected, Mouseover Background: #46598f SAMPLE

@Kel9509 I asked Memo the same thing and Memo let me know that if you add multiple entries to the Building Submenu Property, then yes, that lot would show up in both places. So say you wanted a waste to energy plant to show up in both the garbage and power plant menus, that would be possible.

I've continued working on Submenu buttons. Now I realize that there isn't a good consensus on what the specific community driven sub-menu categories will be at the moment. However, I've tried to make the buttons fairly generic so that they will be useful no matter how the final categories get decided. Education: Elementary Schools High Schools Higher Education (Colleges and University) GO SIMTROPOLIS UNIVERSITY LLAMAS! Libraries Museums Garbage: Trash Recycling (More to come in this category) Power: I redid the Fossil Fuel Power Plants button to help it read better. The other two buttons I made previously are unchanged. Water: Aquifer Fresh Water Salt Water (I'll create a water treatment button) Let me know what you think of the style. I tried to keep it as close to the original UI as possible so they feel like they belong. Also, let me know if any of the buttons are not reading correctly or are confusing. I'm trying to make them distinct enough from each other that there is no confusion whether you are picking the right menu while all keeping them in the same style.

I actually had a little time to get a quick test button in-game. I think it looks okay, since I reduced the size of the circle to keep the shadow form getting clipped, it does appear a little small, but that might not be a bad thing and might help differentiate it from the rest of the items in the menu.

I've been working on refining a button template based on @atsf189's circle button. I shrunk the button slightly so it should fit on the menu without clipping the shadow. I made several versions of the ring with colors to match the existing mayor mode main menus (say that five times fast!) The Photoshop file includes an overlay group with five layers, each a different color. Pick one to use and hide the rest. I've also included a masked group for whatever icon or image will be shown on the button. Finally, there is an optional background layer that matches the color of the in-game menu buttons. Menu Icon Circle Template_Panda.psd Here are the colored overlays as png files: And the background: I've made a few preliminary buttons to test things out and I think they look pretty good. I still need to test them in-game to double check that there is no clipping, but I probably won't get to that until tomorrow. Fossil Power Plants: Renewable Power Plants: Miscellaneous Power:

@memo Thanks for the response. Well so much for those ideas, although I'm not too surprised. With the way the UI is made out of png files, that makes sense that changing the color would be difficult to impossible to do on the fly.

Great work, I like the idea for a round button. It is distinct enough from the lot buttons to help differentiate it as a submenu. The buttons could even have different rims depending on the main menu category: orange for all the civic items (landmarks, parks, police, fire, etc.), yellow for power and utility, purple for transit networks, green for flora and MMP. (Basically match the existing menu colors.) I would suggest shrinking the button slightly so that the shadow can be completely included in the png image. Right now it is getting clipped on the bottom and right side. It might look strange to have the button justified in the top left in order to fully fit in the shadow, so I suppose the best would be to center the button and reduce the size of both the button and shadow slightly to get rid of the clipping.

My though for this category would be a place for the multiple ploppable water mods out there or any new water type mods someone in the future may develop. My intention wasn't to limit it to any one file in particular. My understanding is these sub-menus would be more specific than the current situation (dumping everything in parks or landmarks) but still relatively broad categories that could be further broken down by mod authors or development teams like NAM or CAM.

I've annotated Ulise Wolf's list with some of my thoughts. See my annotations in red in the quoted text. I made a few additions and suggested renaming a couple submenus. One of my main thoughts is if whether creating menus in the RCI Zoning menus would be preferrable for some items. Specifically, I'm thinking that any ploppable commercial offices or services could have their own submenus in the commercial zoning menu. Similarly Farms, Factories, High Tech Industry, and IRM Filler Lots could all have submenus under the Industryial Zoning menu. I think technically it would be possible as the garbage menu already has a mix of zoning (landfill) and plopable items (recycling center, incinerator, etc.) but I'm not the one writing the DLL and I'm not a programmer, so take my suggestion witha grain of salt. For the submenu color, @memo is it possible to create a new parameter and assign a color hex code to each submenu? My intuition is no since so much of the menu is built from png elements, but you'd know better than I would.

@rsc204 I have some time and can help create menu icons.

Oh dear, I currently have both installed. What kind of interference occurs?

Good catch Kel9509. I've added the two missing properties to the submenu_properties.xml file in my comment. I also added a note about needing to enable tropod_properties as well.

You can download it from github here: https://github.com/memo33/submenus-dll/blob/main/vendor/new_properties.xml

EDITED 2/27/2024: Updated the XML to rename " OccupantGroupsAlt" to "Building Submenus" per revision 1.0.1 of the memo.submenus.dll. EDITED 2/27/2024: Added two missing properties related to submenu buttons EDITED 3/28/2024: Added the "Exemplar Patch Targets" property For those who want to experiment with submenus and are using ILives Reader version 0.9.3, I've created an xml properties file that will let the reader properly show the new OccupantGroupsAlt property. Download and save the following file: submenu_properties.xml To show the properties in the Reader, you will need to add it to the list of xml property files. Open the "Option" menu and then select "Options" (not shown) to open the Option popup. Click Add next to the XML Property Files, it will open a new dialog box. Select "Browse" to open the file browser. (Or type in the path to the XML file directly and skip step 4) Navigate to where you saved the submenu-properties.xml file (I placed mine in the same folder as Reader.exe for convenience.), select the file and click open. Click okay to close all open popups and dialog boxes. Restart Reader, the program should now recognize the new "OccupantGroupsAlt" propery. Note: This XML file only adds the additional properties used in the Submenu DLL, you will also need to enable "tropod_Properties.xml" to populate the rest of the general properties.

I haven't had a lot of time to test, but so far the draggable diagonal streets appears to be working well. This is a big time-saver and is much more convenient than having to continually swap to the street helper pieces.

Here is the link: https://www.gog.com/en/game/simcity_4_deluxe_edition The typical price is $20, but I've seen it go on sale for under $5. GOG has pretty good sales throughout the year, so you just have to be a little patient. I think it was on sale for $4.25 a week or two ago and it seems like every few months they have another sale. You can also bundle and get SC2000 and SC3000 from GOG as well. Gog also has a launcher, Gog Galaxy. It can be a convenient way to keep track of what games you own and which ones are installed, but it is completely optional and not needed to run SimCity 4.

That's a fair issue. If there are too many different styles with only one or two buildings each, I can see how matching the supply of lots at various stages and dimensions to in-game demand could be difficult. I can imagine a scenario where mod authors independently create new building styles resulting in a huge mess. For now, Since this is so new, it's up to the player to organize their mod folder and edit any building styles. I can imagine a day when there are a few agreed upon styles that add more even variety and control to the game. As I mentioned before, I'm excited at the prospect of toggling W2W on and off with the building styles instead of blockers would be great. I'm not sure how FAR or WRC might as growable lots since there are specific left and right options (I guess you could just keep bulldozing what grows until you get one that fits and then mark it historical...) I also think expanding the building styles to encompass different architectural styles, periods, and regions would be a great. I'm imagining something like toggles for Neoclassical, Victorian, Edwardian, Mid-Century Modern, Asian, or American Rural building styles, etc. However, deciding on which styles to include and getting a consensus from mod authors to will be a coordination challenge. Still, I'm excited at the prospect of new building styles accessible fully in-game without having to quit and edit anything.