CAM - some help

[eskimoquinn]

Hi, this is my first post, and I hope I am posting in the right place. If not, my apologies beforehand. I was thinking of downloading the CAM, because it's supposed to help cities develop after you get to high density and I have had some problems with that. But I am little unsure how drastic the effects are and if it will throw off my cities quite a lot.

Also, apparently you need to download the special lots for CAM, they come in packages? Are all these in place, or must I dig for them? Will normal buildings that I download from the STEX or something work after I have installed CAM?

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.

[jmyers2043]

If you use the CAM in an huge existing city of ... oh say ... 1Million? Then you'll be in for a bumpy ride until the game simulator adjusts to the new rules. I've never had problems with smaller cities. I was one of the beta testers and changed from CAM to non-CAM a lot. Through the various beta versions too. I now have all my regions CAM'ed. I'm more of a rural player and my big cities are usually 250,000 or less.

At any rate - you should copy your regions to a safe place in a temp folder if there is some apprehension on your part.  A kind of back up in the event the CAM does not live up to your expectations.

There are some packages on the SC4D LEX ... but not everything. There are some creators that did not give their permission to package their models so gamers like you will have to download some things individually.

Be careful with STEX material. Many folk did not embrace the CAM and continue to mod things for Maxis Vanilla ... Giant buildings from the STEX will still grow stage 8 but the CAM may rather have it grow as a stage 15. Those buildings will certainly throw things out of kilter.

You may want to approach the CAM the way i did. In stages. Set your big stage 8 STEX buildings aside for the moment. Download the industrial package at the SC4D LEX. Start the game using the CAM. Then download some stage 9 and 10 buildings from the LEX when you see the first stage 8 buildings grow in your city. Then download some stage 11 and 12 buildings when you see those stage 10 buildings grow. That approach tends to break the download process into smaller more manageable chunks.

Good Luck

- Jim