Saiwan Towers Taking Over

[Marianne]

Help!!!

I innocently downloaded Saiwan Towers off of STEX Collector's Edition Vol. 2. Little did I know that they would multiply like bunnies! Almost all of the high density residential buildings that grow are Saiwan Towers. Sure, I can quelch them as they rise, but then I'm drastically slowing down the speed of development. Furthermore, I can't just unload the plugin, as that would take a quality million sims out of my region.

How do I stop Saiwan Towers from further growth? They're like weeds.

Mit besten Gruessen,
Marianne

[Gringamuyloca]

Hi Marianne...

I look at the file's readme to find out it's growth stage, wealth type ($, $$, $$$.); density (low medium, high) and lot size. I would then start looking for similar growth/ wealth stage lots with a different lot and/or density requirements, to get different buildings growing. (Holding the Ctrl key while zoning will let you zone different lot sizes.) 

The Stex is down right now, and I am not familiar with the building you are talking about, so I can't give you suitable recommendations, but hopefully someone else will happen along that can point you to some good files, or different advice on how to tackle your issue.

[mattb325]

Hi

If they are these ones: http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/files/file/13595-hk-mediumres-tower-pack2/ then there are a few things you can do:

* Remove the optional descriptors. It doesn't look like these are being used as part of the lots, so it is safe to delete them.

The reason they grow so frequently is because there is little competition for 2x2 R$$ residential towers. I also believe that there are even fewer 2x2 R$$$ towers so once grown, unless there are adjacent zones, then these will have difficulty upgrading.

I am not at my home PC, so I will give you some generic ways to stop rampant growth:

* Change the tileset from all tilesets (Houston/Euro/NY/Chicago) to one tileset only. Note: Bixel often uses the Euro T/S for his buildings, but I can't be sure for this d/l as it's not mentioned in the readme. You can do this very easily by using the SC4Tool, that way, you will have to physically select the tileset when you want this building grow, or

* Increase the lot size in the LE to 3x3 or 2x3, 3x4 or 4x4 - eg, something that has lots more competition. You can then delete the existing 2x2 lot and still have the existing buildings that have grown in your cities..., or

* Discard the desc and lot files and make new ones in the PIM-X. This will result in different occupant values and you should bulldoze all previously grown buildings prior to using this method

[Marianne]

Sorry, but what is the LE and how does it work?

[Marianne]

Oh, so you're saying change the size that Saiwans grow on? Correct?

[mattb325]

Sorry Marianne (my bad for using short-hand )

LE stands for Lot Editor. It is a Maxis tool that you can use to change the look and size of not only the lots that came with the game but also assists in decorating (and making some minor modding tweaks) to newly created lots, which are made with the Maxis PIM (plug in manager) or the newly developed PIM-X.

As I assume that you don't have the Lot Editor, there is still yet one other very easy and simple way to deter these 2x2 buildings from growing without using ANY custom content tools whatsoever.

While playing the game and when zoning high density residential, hold down the CTRL key while you zone and make the zone sizes 3x3, 3x4 (and so on) rather than just letting the game decide what to fill in between streets. If you stick with odd sized zones, the game will not likely break these into 2x2 lots and hence, fewer Saiwan Towers

Hope that helps