This is a little thread/tutorial i have wanted to do, this site seems like a good home as it will
assume knowledge of SC4 and custom content and is intended for semi advanced palyers.
repetition in a skyline is a big no no, but when it comes to housing my biggest complaint
are neighborhoods with randomly mixed styles and little or no continuity. In real life neighborhoods have personalities and homogenous characteristics that make them unique.
http://www.fileden.com/pview.php?fid=78196&fname=untitled2.JPG
an example of a city with many different residential neighborhoods.
Getting your buidings to grow in groups is really quite easily done.
1. be aware of what buildings grow on what lot size, many downloads come with more than one
.lot file, i usually deleate all but one and size for each tile set, and wealth level. so for each lot size say 3x2 you will have exactlty 12 possible buildings Euro $,$$,$$$ houston $,$,$$$ and so on. Remember to keep the .model file and dat files.
2. Download DTs no maxismod makes getting custom content to grow a walk in the park
3.learn to manipulate taxes, lets say u want goobers row homes set new york only, jack up $$ and $$$ taxes and they will grow like weeds.
4. understand if you lower $$$ taxes buildings will upgrade so get used to making them historic.
5. use the build one tile set only option, DTs lofts, Goobers buidings, and SFBT and Bixel residentials can all be grown very easily by manipultaing taxes, zoning the right size and have the proper tile set selected, play around and let me know of your success.
Thank you Alek
Nice, clear, concise information, in plain language and easy to understand steps :thumbsup:
Thanks for the tutorial Alek. It is very helpful ;)
Also a thanks from me! It's very helpful!
HI Alek, this is a great and useful tutorial indeed :thumbsup: !!! I can make good profit of this one ;)
Thanks for sharing it wiht us &apls
EDIT: The pic is still loading....but.... ??? ... OMG !!!, simply fantastic !!!. Yes, great picture and great city &dance !!!
(the only thing I miss are some more trees near the railroads...nothing I cant live without :D )
here is another small trick, i know most SimGoober residentials (pry all BSC) come with a DAT file and often multiple lot files. If you want different neighborhoods of SG homes for example
install one, grow a block, then delete those lot files (or move them) and install another. or have one that grows on a 2x2 and one a 2x3, try and experiment it is really easy to get pretty much any residential to grow where you want with some of these tricks.
oh yeah and use the make historical option it is there for a reason preserve those neighborhoods
Great tutorial AK! very helpfull.
Quote from: Alek King of SC4 on November 20, 2006, 02:39:21 PM4. understand if you lower $$$ taxes buildings will upgrade so get used to making them historic.
It is possible to make a modd that stops unabandoned buildings upgrading. I rencetly put together a modd that increases the time after abandonment that building becomes dilapidated, like rapheal ninja's, but that increases the time by a lot more so that it is almost forever, and found it is very easy to set it so that inhabited buldings cannot be upgraded.
I have attached to this post a zip file containing two .dat files one that makes buildings almost never dilapidate(Never_Abandon_Don't_Overbuild) and one that sets it to 1 year (1year_Abandon_Don't_Overbuild). Both should stop occupied low wealth buildings being replaced by higher wealth buildings
I haven't had time to fully test this, and so it may confilct with other modds.
Tthis sounds interesting i have tried that mod i think before but i will try again. My issue is as follows lets say i want SFBT prefabs $ 4x3 to grow so i zone from a block of them 8x6 giving me for, i set tile set to Euro only zone for plots 4x3, raise $$and$$$ taxes and voila, then lets say somewhere else in the city, i want DT's apartments $$ 3x4 do the same but set tile set to houston lower $$ taxes and raise $ taxes again they grow easily but preventing the low wealth from upgrading too is the issue. right not making this historical works best but i will experiment
Alek,
I am unable to find the "no maxis" mod on the STEX or SimPeg. I remember it being developed for SimMars some time ago but never downloaded it. Could you point me in the right direction?
Thanks,
BigSlark
Block ALL Maxis Buildings By DuskTrooper (http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=16393) - Just click it ;) ;D
Quote from: Alek King of SC4 on November 27, 2006, 06:38:04 AM
If you want different neighborhoods of SG homes for example install one, grow a block, then delete those lot files (or move them) and install another.
THAT WORKS?! I always thought that removing a file that was in a city would cause it to crash and such I haven't actually done that. It has actually led to restarting several cities as my Plugins folder/SC4 style changes.
Thanks so much for the info, I had found a No Maxis Modd on another site but couldn't figure how to proceed from there. Thanks!!
Thanks! This has always bugged me and I would REALLY like to see those row homes grow!
Very useful indeed! &apls &apls
&apls :thumbsup: yet again another informative tutorial good one Alek
Quote from: spacez52 on January 26, 2007, 02:51:29 PM
THAT WORKS?! I always thought that removing a file that was in a city would cause it to crash and such I haven't actually done that. It has actually led to restarting several cities as my Plugins folder/SC4 style changes.
Thanks so much for the info, I had found a No Maxis Modd on another site but couldn't figure how to proceed from there. Thanks!!
it sure does work, however you need to keep the model file, the extra lot size files you can delete
SWEET!! Thanks so much! That might be the single greatest piece of information I have learned about SC4 to date. Much appreciate Alek... you are definitely the King of SC4 !!
Now this is some great info. What an awesome tutorial. Thanks for sharing some of your great secrets.
By the way what a fantastic picture. &apls
Alex,
Does changing a specific residential building's density level or even growth stage value causes the building not to grow when the growth stage raises? I have edited some specific residential building like R$ to only grow at low density and a particular tileset. Sometimes I edit the growth stage. They grow early on but when my population reachs a certain point say, 150K growth stagnates. I have max damand I dont know if you way will stop this problem can you help? or anyone else?
QuoteDoes changing a specific residential building's density level or even growth stage value causes the building not to grow when the growth stage raises?
If you lower down a stage 8 to stage 1, without changing the capacity, it won't grow
as stage 8 useally provide around 6000 res, and stage 1 grow when you have low population.
This is an extreme example, but you get the figure
What happen when you change the density level? to only low? Thanks for the reply
then you have to zone for low.
But not very realistic to have a skyscrapper in a low density for example
I understand that much but I was wondering if because I changed the density level of certain buildings to low does that stunt growth when stage level goes up. I did it to control what buildings grow.
Quote from: fantnet on April 22, 2007, 09:00:25 PM
Does changing a specific residential building's density level or even growth stage value causes the building not to grow when the growth stage raises? I have edited some specific residential building like R$ to only grow at low density and a particular tileset. Sometimes I edit the growth stage. They grow early on but when my population reachs a certain point say, 150K growth stagnates. I have max damand I dont know if you way will stop this problem can you help? or anyone else?
In order for the upgrading development to function, each higher stage needs to have a denser population than the lower ones (measured as capacity per lot tile). If you reduce the stage level for a high-capacity building you are effectively stopping development of that lot till you have reached high enough a population in your region.
Since the game balances the ratio between different stage buildings (depeding on the regional capacity), you might actually slow down the development if the density of lower stage buildings is too high for them to be allowed to upgrade.
If you edit a high-capacity building to be allowed to grow on low-density lots, you are also stopping all future development of that lot (till you zone higher density).
There are most certainly no other buildings available that have a higher capacity per tile that would still grow on low-density lots.
If you are zoning low-density only, your development will eventually also slow down, since the game tries to balance the ratio between the stages. The higher your regional population gets, the less stage 1-3 buildings will remain. And stage 4 (and higher) buildings won't grow on low-density lots.
All in all, I would refrain from lowering the stage or density for existing lots. You are most likely going to screw up the development.
Thanks RippleJegingt
You have answered the most hard-head banging question that has stomp me for most of the year. my cities would stop growing at some point. I stlll had high demand. Now I will go back and edit and redownload the residential buidling so that they will have the correct stages and density. Now hopefully me cities will go they way I want them. Thanks again
hi
i have read the tutorial and it is very helpful and i got the hang of zoning and taxes pretty quickly.
one issue i am stuck with though :bomb: is how to use DT's NO MAXIS MOD. all i see is a wordpad file and i do not understand how i would be able to eliminate the lots selectively?
thank you for your help :D
Thanks I can never get DT's Thaneplace Lofts to grow. I think I"ll make a nice block of them now
I don't get it. I tried and tried the "moolah" cheat but it doesn't work ()sad(). I go to press enter and nothing happens. &sly Sorry, I'm fairly new to SC4.
In order to use that cheat, you will need the "SC4ExtraCheats.dll" installed. Quite a few people have it and assume that everyone else does, or that the cheats provided by that file are already existing in the game. Unfortunately, I don't have a link to it :(
-Jan
1) A useful trick to add to this tutorial that increases tile set capability:
A lot will not grow on a zone that has more a larger height. So, a 1x1 will not grow on a 1x2, and a 2x4 will not grow on a 3x5. You have to be careful because a 1x1 will grow on a 2x1.
This is useful because each tile set could have a R$ 1x1, 1x2, and a 1x(+1), or tile sets could be in control of width.
2) Two useful tricks for controlling .Lot files.
Rather than changing growth stage or density, one can also change zone type. There are a few zone types that are un-zoneable, such as military. Do you want a specific farm to grow only once? Change its zone to military after it grows.
Sometimes changing Stages and Zones is a problem, but there is a less intrusive way.
Each building as a LotConfigPropertyMinSlopeAllowed. I have had good results changing this number to a very large one. You would want to write down the original slope if you want to change it back. There is also a MaxSlope, and I have changed this to be +1 of the min slope. I do not know if this is necessary, but I could see a computer having a problem if the Min is more than the Max.
Using these and the previously mentioned techniques will insure that the building to want to grow will grow (provided it wants to grow).
Sorry to post here after so long. Just a little knowledge to pass on.