editing the Building Style Controller

[jigsaw]

i know that when artists create IND/RES/COM BAT's they have the choice onto which Building Style Controller their BAT will belong to. ie of note the HKBAT usually use the European building Style.

now i remember asking a long time ago about disabling default content that belongs to one of the 4 types. i was told it was possible, but it requires disabling to be done one by one to each building that is housed in one of these types.

now that it's 2010, and we are tens of 1000's of BAT's, LOTs, MODs and NAMs further down the line i was wondering if it was possible to:

1.a - move default maxis buildings from one Building Style into another?
1.b - can we move them all into one building style?

2.  - can we rename the building styles? (including changing the picture in the menu?
3.  - can someone write an .exe that will do all of the above? (making it usable for a moron like me to use)

i ask because i had an idea to move all of the Maxis stuff into one Building style, which could be ticked and unticked on demand. then, i could populate the 3 empty building styles with dedicated sets ie: euro W2W collections, HKBAT stuff, etc.

and
4.  would this breach EA/Maxis rules?

i would love to move all maxis into the 1890's one, then move Euro W2W into the 1940s one, then HKBAT and some others into the 1990s one, etc, etc.

[RippleJet]

1.a - move default maxis buildings from one Building Style into another?
1.b - can we move them all into one building style?

Yes on both accounts.

2.  - can we rename the building styles? (including changing the picture in the menu?

Even that should be possible...

3.  - can someone write an .exe that will do all of the above? (making it usable for a moron like me to use)

Being a moron myself when it comes to programming, I wouldn't know...

4.  would this breach EA/Maxis rules?

Not any more than any other mod out there.

[Diggis]

1: You have already supplied the answer to your question in your second sentence.  You would have to open every building in the game and edit it to be in the category you want.  Do-able, sure, but very time consuming.  

2: Not sure at all.  It's theoretically possible, but depended on where Maxis saved the UI settings for this.  I do know you can't add more.

3: Probably not, maybe, but not likely a high priority really.  The best tool to use would be the PIM-X or reader.

4: Probably not, maybe someone who had a better grasp of law could answer that, but we've changed everything else.

[jigsaw]

thanks ripplejet, and diggis for your answers.

imagine all maxis defaults in one box that could be ticked and unticked! now that would make content control better in some ways.

-imagine a W2W building style controller! judging it's popularity in CJ's/MD's i am sure the masses would love this idea.

[jigsaw]

i want to turn this:





into this:

[RippleJet]

For that you'd need to edit four LTEXT files and four PNG files.
I'm attaching a dat file including those 8 files, extracted from SimCity_1.dat and SimCityLocal.dat.

Happy modding!

[joelyboy911]

It certainly is a very good idea. I like it a lot. However I think it will take a co-ordinated effort over a long period of time to complete a project such as this. Modding every growable Commercial and Residential building exemplar ever made will be a mammoth task, and I'm not sure of the right way to go about releasing it. I guess a big file containing all those exemplars in a last-loading folder of the plugins would do it.

I'd like to offer to help, but I have a limited amount of time, and a slow connection at times which makes it unviable for me to download a big plugin just for one exemplar (sometimes, normally its fine).

If you want to lead this project, gking, I applaud you. But I advise against going it alone - you'll never finish it. I'm sure there are others out there that can help you.

[jigsaw]

if this can be pulled off, i think it would be a great direction for the game as we are now 7 yrs into it, and some basic styles of content have emerged in that time.

first things first, i will nut this out, and try to get all the maxis ones into one style. once that is done, i will sort everything else out. should only take me a year or so!

[Andreas]

My suggestion: Put Maxis Chicago and New York in one set, and Maxis Houston and European-Contemporary in another one.  Both of them share a certain similarity, but European Wall2Wall and Modern Asian are rather different indeed. A thing that one has to keep in mind: There are not a whole lot small Asian buildings for the first three stages, and also not a whole lot historic W2W buildings further than stage 6 or so. "Modern Western" could be merged easily with Maxis Houston/Euro, though.

One thing I did for myself was moving all high-tech industry buildings to high-density industrial lots, and restrict dirty and manufacturing industry to medium-density lots, which makes it a lot easier to separate polluting from non-polluting industry. Also, it's a nice idea to restrict small buildings to low-density lots only, which prevents the stupid drive-in cinema and health spa lots that pop up frequently on your newly zoned 4x4 high-density commercial zones in downtown.

[jigsaw]

thanks guys for your assistance thus far, especially RippleJet for nudging me in the right direction the start

this is only the cosmetic part. i havent started editing content to fit into the new groups as yet. that will be long, and difficult. i will take andreas's advice and move some of the maxis content into other groups, but most of the maxis stuff will go into one area.

[cubby420]

Looking at the pics you've mocked up here, this is a really attractive concept. I've always wanted something similar. I could probably help, and this would give me an excuse to learn my way around some of the tools. I've wanted to for a while but laziness often prevails.

I prefer Andreas' suggestion over one dedicated Maxis tileset though. Compatibility with existing Maxis blockers (the BSC one comes to mind) may seem redundant to an extent, and maybe impossible, but if you think about it, it really makes sense. If the Chicago and New York buildings are grouped based on relative similarity, and the Houston and Europe ones are as well, other custom lots could be added to both of those tilesets based on similarity, and you'd still have two dedicated custom tilesets. It would make the entire package much more modular and open up very specific customization.

Another thing to think about though is how immediately obsolete this would be. The average player might like this, but unless the entire community changes their practices, how will new content be added unless by the individual player themselves with reader of PIM-X. Not a problem for some, but it certainly could intimidate some players.

Just some thoughts. I hope you stick with this gking...it'll be hard but could be well worth the effort.

[Travis]

Hmm, I like this idea quite a bit. If you want me to chip in on some of the legwork, send me a PM ASAP. (I'm quite bored at the moment, my regular PC isn't working ) PS: Andreas, you're right about there not being a huge number of lower-stage buildings for some of the more remote tilesets proposed, but there definitely are enough, IMO, of such low-stage buildings available for e.g. an Asian tileset if you were to look on the Korean and Japanese fansites. And plus, this would be the perfect excuse to update their modding with PIM-X.

[jigsaw]

1. in regards to my last pic of the B.S.Controller..... that is not a mock-up. that is how my build style controller now REALLY looks in-game. i am going to edit the 'all maxis' one to reflect.

2.  i have already commenced shuffling the buildings around using the SC4 tool. i have moved all euro/houston together into MOD Western, and all chicago/new york into the MAX Default, which will probably get renamed. i am almost finished, and later on may try Andreas's idea of shuffling the IND around as well.

3.  the legwork will be your own personal choice of download content being moved around. that is an individuals job to do.

Can you save and re-use a modified Simcity1.dat? i own 2 legit copies of the game, and i dont intend to distribute them.

[tamorr]

   Well Well, looks like you've made some progress. Good to see. I've personally have already made the maxis buildings moved to a different style. Made it somewhat compatible with CAM version 1. I've actually did a shift to New York, which is the one I intend on using. Also I've made 2 other variations, being all maxis to another styleset. The only one I have not done was Chicago...

   I do like Andreas idea though.... I have a good eye for color, but not so much with building style. So that may help me decide later what I want to do with my own personal plugins, which is a total overhaul. I truly don't intend on releasing said Basic Maxis All to one Style set, unless there is a demand for it. But at least the idea is there and apparently the task is being taken on to be completed to some degree by another. Good work so far. You know where to find me if you have any more questions. 

Or just simply most people here. Always a great help.

[Andreas]

Editing the SimCity_1.dat is not recommended, and also not necessary in this case - simply create a DAT with a copy of the exemplar files that need to be changed and place it in your plugins folder as a mod - that's basically the same principle as the various Maxis blockers that are around.

cubby420 pointed out something important, though, which is also the reason why I never published my industry zone mod: It's virtually impossible to cover all lots that are available out there, so the setup works only if you only have the lots installed that are covered by the mod. For everything else, you'll have to modify the missing lots yourself - which is not very complicated, but surely a task reserved to the more dedicated players.

[jigsaw]

i have just finished modifying the simcity1.dat and have moved every single maxis RES and COM into their new homes. only took the better half of 5hrs! i discovered that most of the high-end CO and CS in the game is designed to be available in all styles. i do not plan to do that again in the near future, so i have backed up a copy of it for future use.

what i have done is this:

all chicago/new york > CHICAGO/NEW YORK

all euro/houston > MOD WESTERN

i plan to add more content to MOD WESTERN. so this one will be the only one that is a mix of maxis/custom content.

tonight i am going through my collections to modify to be housed in the OLD EURO style.
in the next couple of days i hope to have the completed adding the following:

all paris sets, berlin sets, dutch sets, feroxx sets etc. > OLD EURO/ W2W