CAM - General Discussions

[Flare]

This happens whether you have the CAM or not.

It's one of the peculiar things with the game...
Neither commercials nor industries need to have anyone working in them in order to flourish.

Due to the erroneous doubling of the regional capacity and workforce, there are more workplaces in a CAM region than otherwise.
This won't lead to any form of abandonment though, since, as noted, they do not require workers...

But in my other city's that i played before i used CAM, i had a enormous amount of traffic going to the industrial zone.
I needed to build Highways to avoid big traffic jams.
Of course, when i route-query a industrial building in such a city, there are a lot of workers. (all by car of course )

If this is not the work of CAM, then it seems to me a mayor bug in simcity 4?
And it takes away a big part of the realistic (and difficult) gameplay.
No traffic jams, no airpollution, no traffic noise, no bad environment, no long commute-times 
(no good spots for commercial zones because i always make commercial zones along busy roads, this generates a lot of customers )

what should i do?
start that city again and see if this time they will travel to my industrial zone?

[RippleJet]

what should i do?
start that city again and see if this time they will travel to my industrial zone?

You could establish a new neighbouring industrial city which lies further away from your residential areas than the industrial district that you want your workers to go to. That way the neighbouring city won't get many commuters at all, they will be working in the industrial area they would be passing instead. That neighbouring city would be there mainly to compensate for the doubled regional workforce.

[xxdita]

Or you could do what I did... cheat, to get the balance back.
Before I knew the cause of the workforce doubling (and before I got my hands on my new favorite toy) I created several cheat buildings, all plops, to put down to spur things along.
Not that hard to do really. Using Reader, simply adjust the number of jobs for one building in each C/I category, and plop as necessary, to stabilize your city. Make sure that you only plop these lots as needed, or you'll throw everything out of balance in the reverse direction. Though sometimes that can be good too. 

[CasperVg]

I have now started lotting some new CAM towers (both commercial and residential, created by 'skyscraper') using descs and base lots that xxdita send me. There's some pictures of one of the conceptual lots in my lotting thread.

[rickmastfan67]

I have now started lotting some new CAM towers (both commercial and residential, created by 'skyscraper') using descs and base lots that xxdita send me. There's some pictures of one of the conceptual lots in my lotting thread.

Dude, you just made my day!!!  I've been waiting for somebody to start CAMafing some of 'skyscraper's buildings.

[xxdita]

I thought you might like that. Was just a matter of finding someone to lot them.
LE and I are hardly on speaking terms 

[Zack]

I really like the mod but my problem is the constant blooming of the Coit towers. is there any ways to remove the file that makes it growable or is in integrated with CAM

[RippleJet]

I really like the mod but my problem is the constant blooming of the Coit towers. is there any ways to remove the file that makes it growable or is in integrated with CAM

The Coit Tower does seem to grow more than any other CAMified Maxis building.
The reason for this is its visual appearance. You do notice it a lot easier than any of the other in-game stage 6 CS§§§ buildings.

To block it from growing, place the attached mod into the z_CAM folder.
Existing Coit Towers will still upgrade, but new one won't grow if you have this blocker installed.

Note also that there is no relevance in using this blocker unless you are indeed using CAM!

[Zack]

Yes I am indeed using your wonderful mod chap . Thanks for the help

[SC4BOY]

From my personal standpoint I'd rather see some creative batters model some more stage 6 CS$$$ growables.. that would be cool.. I suppose its "too small" to be cool..     But the shame of it is that whoever did it would be able to see their building used frequently in a growing city..   Of course I'm not sure how someone would start out to DESIGN a stage 6 growable.. I mean I suppose this would mean certain things about fill factor, lot size, etc ..

[HandsOn]

Perchance some of my questions have been answered elsewhere, but in the absence of a useful search function I am going to ask them again:

First and foremost: does CAM do anything else other than fill urban centers with, shall we say, "oversized" buildings? I've seen RJ's wonderful charts and explanations, but to me it appears that all it does is to line up one skyscraper after the other.

Next: I am always wary of ZIP's within ZIP's, and a recent download of CAM Commercials and CAM Industrials led to just that. Tons of additional downloads, strangely enough largely from the STEX. Several broken or invalid links (including SG's Herbal Factory pointing to PEG's Van Shipping on the PLEX).

Now, are there any exceptions to be made vis-a-vis the Dat Packer? Because I needed to unpack and repack stuff twice since the original essentials installation. That may have been a fluke, who knows?!

Finally: Does the CAM Essential's installation have any influence or problems with SG's work? Because right after installing said essentials all - all - of SimGoober's lots, schools, hospitals, landmarks, disappeared and required re-installation. I don't want to lay this on CAM's doorstep, again, it could have been a coincident triggered elsewhere.

Thanks for your time..

[BarbyW]

Tons of additional downloads, strangely enough largely from the STEX

That was because we were not allowed to pack models into packs for the LEX.

(including SG's Herbal Factory pointing to PEG's Van Shipping on the PLEX).

This is the result of a recent removal of all SG lots from the PLEX.

[RippleJet]

First and foremost: does CAM do anything else other than fill urban centers with, shall we say, "oversized" buildings? I've seen RJ's wonderful charts and explanations, but to me it appears that all it does is to line up one skyscraper after the other.

Before getting any skyscrapers, you will have a lot more sprawling with the CAM than without it.
Maybe the following pictures posted by mightygoose would give you a better idea of what CAM is, instead of all those CBD districts most players enjoy seeing:

has a maxis vanilla city ever looked so good....



for not until this....

for me its the alteration to the urban topology. much shallower gradient from suburbs to downtown.

i love the delaying effect the CAM has on smaller towns.... .

Next: I am always wary of ZIP's within ZIP's, and a recent download of CAM Commercials and CAM Industrials led to just that.

As far as I know only the starter packs have ZIPs within ZIPs, and I don't really see a problem with them.
Especially since you can browse ZIP archives within Windows Explorer.

Finally: Does the CAM Essential's installation have any influence or problems with SG's work? Because right after installing said essentials all - all - of SimGoober's lots, schools, hospitals, landmarks, disappeared and required re-installation. I don't want to lay this on CAM's doorstep, again, it could have been a coincident triggered elsewhere.

The CAM essentials only contains the CAMeLot queries, and they are nowadawys included in the BSC Essentials.
Thus, if you've downloaded and installed the latest BSC Essentials, you can even delete the CAM Essentials (there is a Cleanitol file included that takes care of that).

The CAMeLot queries won't affect any lots already installed, whether they are by SimGoober of not.

[rooker1]

Beleive me when I say that the CAM WILL NOT give you skyscrapers right away.  All the pics you have seen with skyscrapers was just to see the higher stages at work, testing if you will.  I have tried everything to speed up the process of getting skysrapers right away and with no luck.  You definately need everything in place to get them, most importantly, the demand.
These are just my findings and thoughts on the CAM as I have just started using it myself. 

And yes there are broken LINKS here and there, but please, just post them and BSC will fix the problem (if possible) as they always do. 
When I changed my folder over to CAM, I started from scratch.  It did take me a few days, a couple hours each day, but it was well worth as my plugins were a little messy.  As for the zip with zip files inside them, I thought that was a great idea.  Less waiting time for the internet to DL them to my desktop.  I think everything BSC does is very well thought out and what is best for the end user.

Just my three cents......
Robin 

[xxdita]

So many questions. 
Where to begin?
CAM doesn't just offer larger buildings. Actually, it makes them harder to grow, as they are now in higher stages. So your region must be fairly evolved in order for them to grow. CAM also provides new stages for farms as well, so even your rural areas will see the benefits.
I'd agree that it would be easier for all of the CAM Starter Packs to be installed all at once. But then you'd have one ReadMe, with the dependencies for all of the Stages in one, which could be quite chaotic. Or, each mini-pack could have been uploaded seperately, but that would be chaos as well. Zips within zips seems to be the best option, groping the lots from each stage together in one zip. Obviously you'll need to see plenty of Stage 9 buildings before you have to worry so much about Stage 15's, which gives you time to sort out the dependencies.
A lot of the dependencies are in Prop Packs available on the LEX. But there were also a lot of really great looking buildings on the STEX that screamed to be CAMified, but the original creator was either unavailable, or unwilling to give permission to have a Prop Pack made. So the original file remains a dependency, respecting the original creator's intellectual property rights, and still using the buildings for new lots.
All files named "Essentials" should remain in your root Plugins folder, where they are installed (by default as least). This prevents datpacking, and messing up the files. If you're using the -UserDir options, its best to still have a root folder for all of these files.
And finally... The CAM Essentials had nothing to do with SG's lots. I believe you are trapped in a Cleanitol Loop.
Since the updated SG Education lots have the same filenames as the originals, the file only needs to be ran once to remove the old ones, before installing the new.

And I can speed up the skyscrapers.

[HandsOn]

That was because we were not allowed to pack models into packs for the LEX.This is the result of a recent removal of all SG lots from the PLEX.

This about the STEX vs. LEX vs PLEx I understand, but I found links to BSC, CP & CD prop-packs styill pointing to the STEX and found that odd, especially that those - indeed, RJ - starter packs came from the LEX, and BSC has done one heck of a job repacking most of its dependencies. Ergo the surprise.

About SG - all his stuff, including that missing Herbal Factory, is now on the LEX, ja??

RJ: My experiences are probably related to applying CAM to an existing region - I had hoped it would help with a farming problem I have. But my urban centers are getting the skyscrapers referenced by the starter packs en masse, yet not as CAM lots (the counters are not yet available), especially in the C$$ sector. And urban sprawl is not something I would want, thus I guess CAM won't be for me, unless you can have just I-CAM, and remove all the C-stuff. Residentials don't seem to be affected..

XXDITA: Since you mentioned dependencies - I've been careful to get all the listed dependencies for NDEX lots that needed to be downloaded for the C$$ and C$$$ starter pack. Yet it is right there where I get our nifty brown parcels, and always on the growables, never on the plopped versions. And yes, speeding up the skyscrapers is just a matter of radical ordinances. And it is kind of strange to think that someone would not want to be on the LEX - what's this world coming to, I ask..?? 

[xxdita]

If you let us know which lots you're getting the brown boxes on, we may be able to help better.
But it sounds like your region is at roughly Stage 8, and you've left the original unCAMified lots in place when installing dependencies. For CAMeLot dependencies found on other sites, you should only keep the sc4model files. New lots and building desc files are included in the CAM Starter Packs.

[BarbyW]

This about the STEX vs. LEX vs PLEx I understand, but I found links to BSC, CP & CD prop-packs styill pointing to the STEX and found that odd, especially that those - indeed, RJ - starter packs came from the LEX, and BSC has done one heck of a job repacking most of its dependencies. Ergo the surprise.

The starter packs were made and uploaded in July last year when the links were correct. At that stage some of the BSC/SG/CP packs had not been uploaded to the LEX. Do you expect me to redo all the Readmes every time there has been a change or that some packs have been moved to the LEX? There is a Dependency List available here with links to all packs - not just BSC ones -  and there is a pinned thread at the start of this forum with links to the models for the buildings. Surely that is enough.

[snorrelli]

Do you expect me to redo all the Readmes every time there has been a change or that some packs have been moved to the LEX?

Hell no! That would only allow people to find the damned things themselves when they could just be posting questions on the forums instead! 

[HandsOn]

The starter packs were made and uploaded in July last year when the links were correct. At that stage some of the BSC/SG/CP packs had not been uploaded to the LEX. Do you expect me to redo all the Readmes every time there has been a change or that some packs have been moved to the LEX? There is a Dependency List available here with links to all packs - not just BSC ones -  and there is a pinned thread at the start of this forum with links to the models for the buildings. Surely that is enough.

No, BarbyW - I do not, never have, never will, expect you to do anything of that sort. But surely one may ask? Not everyone knows everything, and those who think they do tend to delude themselves. Who knows, maybe someone else in the BSC Team will one day think of updating links that are no longer valid, maybe for no other reason than them being proud to work with such a team. Actually, to be quite honest, I do not expect anything of or from you, mademoiselle!

XXDita: The one I just caught is called the Brenntia Building; I've only had it since I've installed the starter lots. It is possible that it requires one of the missing link items (see pic). There were two or three others, but I cannot recall their names and at the time I simply demolished the lots.
Thanks for taking the time.