How Big is Your Plugins Folder?

[TopCliff]

Leo......ahhhh Leo..... do you realize that in 1990 it would have taken a rather large IBM mainframe to hold your plugins folder

It's a good thing you are a patient person.....sheesh

Yes, and to think, all lof that's crammed onto an old 2001 Dell Inspiron 1100. I recently checked how much space I have left for say, more DLs, and this is what it said: 47 megabytes. I guess it's time to get rid of some other programs! Hm, should I get rid of Microsoft Office 2003 or LegoLand the Game first?

[bwatterud]

If you think about it, there's a lot of high quality stuff out there.  There's everything on the LEX here, everything at PEGs site, and some really awesome stuff on ST if you really want to look for it.  Not to mention, the Japanese sites.  Then, you've got NOB, SOMY, KS, and APTX, with all good stuff, and even more with a lot of decent stuff, and some good stuff.  You've really got to think about downloading in terms of "am I actually going to use this," if you want to keep any hope of keeping your loading times down. 

After much refining (I'm not done yet, but it's close to final before I start playing again), my base plugins folder is 1.5 gigs. About 800 mb of that falls into the "mods" category (NAM, CAM (all of the CAMeLOTS are in there, which is probably why it's so big), terrain mod, tree controller, and some miscellaneous visual mods).  About 400 mb are dependencies (trust me, if Cleanitol worked on macs, I'd run it (and datpacker, for that matter)).  The other, about 300 mb are lots that I figure will be used in most every city (RTMT, some civic lots, highway walls, stuff like that). 
I also have 900 mb of drag'n'drop folders, with stuff that wouldn't be in every city, ranging in size from 8 mb to 300 mb.  So if I wanted to build a large tile with a small town in one corner, and suburbia leading up to a skyscraper jungle on the coast, and also a military base and an airport, my plugins folder would be 2.4 gigs. 


EDIT: Sounds like it's time for someone to get an external hard drive.   

[xxdita]

Oldrogue, the trick when modding any file is to Open it in Reader, then in Windows Explorer make a copy of the file, keeping it out of your plugins (creating a safe backup copy), then saving your changes. If you have managed to just completely mess things up, just delete your file, and revert to the original. A lot of the junk files uploaded to other sites can be fixed, with a little know-how.
Back on topic: now 3.4GB.

[SimRabbit123]

I have 1.86GB worth of plugins in my Plugins Compressed folder. And around 2gb of uncompressed plugins in my backup plugins folder. When I load the game it usually takes 1 or 2 minutes. My computer is an old one, 2.4 ghz cpu, 512MB Ram, 128mb integrated video card.

TopCliff: no way...... 

[TopCliff]

@ SimRabbit: Yeah way. I'll get a pic as soon as I can. Plus, I'd feel good: easily 800 mb of that is your great work, so yeah.

[Pat]

Update Pic on my stuff lol.... Naw I didnt gain much more not as much as Leo 

[dragonshardz]

mine is around 2.16 GB.

[spa]

1.02 gigs (just broke the 1 git the other day). I try to limit myself in what I download which as slowed the upward trajectory significantly. I basically don't download commercial skyscrappers anymore because I already have so many but even still the folder just keeps growing. Still seeing what you folks are reporting makes me feel better.

[CasperVg]

After another download rush (i found the uploader for most NDEX-works at the STEX), and after finally using datpacker, i now have 2.98 GB plugins (194 files, 29 folders).

I don't go scanreading through all exchanges, downloading anything that I find, but I do download everything I can find from a specific author/team, if the content created by that person/team really pleases me. I do go searching for specific content (fire stations, police hqs, hospitals, metro stations, ...) when I do need them for a city, but then I keep it in my plugins for(almost)ever.

If there is a installer included, I use the paths it suggests, except for when the works came from an author I don't have very much from, then I dump the files in Plugins/Other Creators/CreatorName/CreationName. (eg. I have Plugins/Simgoober, but also Plugins/Other Creators/Haarlemmergold). Or when the work is a specific download I need (mostly civic/utilities) I dump the file in Plugins/Civic/Utility/
(eg. Plugins/Civic/Fire/HiroshimaWF/).

This system is highly confusing, and I wouldn't suggest anyone to use it. I'm sick of it myself.

EDIT: Here's a picture showing half of my Landmark-menu. (these are highrise/medrise plopable R and C)
I tend to get rid of Landmark versions, but keep functional plopables.

One building I left out is the Velcasoma Building (that huge Japanese BAT)

That pictures doesn't show all plopable shops, retail stores (SGs Plop-a-Shop), industrials, ... I have in my landmarks menu.
And still, strange enough, the landmark menu loads in the same time the vanilla menu did... Datpacker, maybe?

[Travis]

Here's a picture showing half of my Landmark-menu.

I wish I could show a pic of my landmark menu, but it would take up way more than a single large tile.  I could care less about growables, because I plop everything. Time-consuming, but it's worth it.

Anyway, my plugins folder just hit 5 gigabytes. Yay.  I think it's pretty safe to say I have a good selection of buildings. 

[catty]

My Plugin folder is 2.81 GB, 5621 Files in 27 folders, I got so fed up of trying to keep track of where everything was I shifted everything into folders based on the letters of the alphabet, so 26 folders plus one for everything that starts with a number 

[FrankU]

EDIT: Sounds like it's time for someone to get an external hard drive.   

It's time for all of you to get an external drive if you don't already have one! Make backups! Please!
Too often we read horrible stories of people losing all their work, just because the forgot to make backups! I can't hear these stories anymore! 
So please, do yourself a favour: make backups!
It's like what they say about busstops in our game here: if you think you have enough backups, then make some more!

[blade2k5]

As of last night's dl'ing binge here from the LEX, my plugins just jumped from 2.53gb to 2.75gb and I still haven't installed everything I dl'd last night yet   I've gotten the bug for Euro style res and com, grabbing as many park lots I can get my hands on [really nice way to pretty-up my cities ]  As for backing everything up, well, I have a 250gb HD [with 196gb of free space left yet], but instead of buying another HD, I just simply burn all my important files onto CD/DVD in case a major meltdown strikes my new pc, I'm covered and don't lose anything except the time to re-install everything.

[oldrogue]

I'm one of those that lost everything....sigh... actually the SC4 wasn't the worst of what was lost.....it's all replaceable....except for some of the prettiest towns.....got an external HD of 300GB and although it takes awhile backup to that when I can.... so I avidly agree with FrankU and his wonderful advice

[quackmofro]

Since I'm a college student short on cash often, I just store all my plugins and regions on my 80-gig iPod Classic. While it does play 1,000 of my favorite songs and movies, it does double nicely as an external HD. Over the past two months, I've had to perform system recovery on my laptop a dozen times to deal with pesky viruses that have wreaked havoc on my hard drive, so it's been a lifesaver for me.

[Vario80]

Mine is exactly 1.42 GB right now. But the folder is currently quite unorganized, i tried to keep things in order, but after a while i just unzipped the files into the plugins folder again instead creating a subfolder...

[xxdita]

Download sprees are fun. My plugins is now just under 4GB unpacked.

[City Builder]

I agree.

My plugins is now 874MB but the folders where I store all the downloaded plugins is 1.67GB and that's with all the plugins/data being compressed in zip files so obviously I must not have reinstalled all the plugins the last time I tried to do a total reinstall of the plugins to get them organized.  Wow 4GB, I cant imagine even finding that many plugins that I'd want to install.

[FrankU]

Finding plugins you want to install is not the problem!
The problem is: what plugins are you NOT going to install despite your wish to do so.

[Earth quake]

My plugin file made about 3.45 GB,  Of which 1 GB are NDEX and BSC. What is tiresome it is that game puts 10 min to charge.