Proper use of Cohorts

[Lowkee33]

  My understanding of this topic is that every Exemplar can have a "Parent Cohort".  These cohorts basically group things together so that one cohort can control every Exemplar below it.  A good example is the way queries work.  Rather than have a query in every lot, the lot points to the parent cohort which is the query.

  I am wondering if there is a discussion about what is possible with cohorts.  Can all types of exemplars (building, lot, etc...) have PC?  A specific question would be: Can I point a Lot to a PC that changes it's occupant group?  Would the OG override the Building's OG or add to it?  Perhaps it depends upon load order?

Thanks. 

[joelyboy911]

A parent cohort provides any properties for any exemplar that is one of its 'children'. Any building can have a parent cohort, and I think you can even have successive parent cohorts (grandparent cohort? ). I think props can have parent cohorts as well (though I see minimal utility for it)

Any properties that are in the exemplar override those in the parent cohort, the cohort 'loads first' then the exemplar after will override the parent. For the properties in the parent cohort to have an effect, the equivalent property must be deleted from the exemplar.

So, If the parent cohort has Occupant Group: Airports (to use an example I am familiar with ), and the Building exemplar has Occupant Group: Parks, the lot will appear in the park menu. When the occupant group property is deleted from the building exemplar, the lot becomes an airport.

In summary, the Exemplar overrides the Parent Cohort.

Thus, using a parent cohort is useful for:

• Ease of editing large groups of exemplars in a set, such as the sets of aircraft and airport modular lots made by SCAG and AC Team.
  
• A small reduction in filesize over said sets.
  
  I used a parent cohort on a set of lots I'm making now, that will be airport lots (Airbus A310), so that I could have them as Park occupants, and be able to edit them more easily in Lot Editor, then I was able to change them all to the airport menu much faster. It also enabled me to set the costs, electricity usage, wealth, and most of the other properties all in one cohort.

[Lowkee33]

I just saw this.  Thanks for the response.

I actually am trying to make a cohort set for props.  Namely the JRJ seasonal woods.  In-game we see one tree that appears to change.  This is four timed props, and really each season has 4 models that are in the same family.  There are about 6(?) types of trees, and that means there are 24 fall prop exemplars with the same properties in them.  A successful cohort "tree" could cut the file size down by at least a third.

I eventually want to make trees that change colors at different times, so a cohort that has a "prop duration" could save me a lot of work.  I am at a problem though:

I took the properties "Prop Interval", "Prop Duration" and "Prop Starting date" out of the prop exemplar and put them in a Cohort.  Then I pointed the exemplar at the cohort.  Although PIMX shows the props to have a Cohort, I do not see the props in-game.

What am I doing wrong? Perhaps props can not be "cohorted".  Are there specific TGIs that cohorts need?