Blocking Development of Buildings (similarly to NMBM by dhamp)

[tr0ub1es0me]

Hi All! i wasn't sure whether to post this at ST or here, but seeing as some of the best modders (aka NAM Team  ) seem to be resident here these days, i thought maybe this would be more fruitful.

i'm looking to find out how exactly to block development of certain buildings, much like with the NMBM (No Maxis Buildings Mod) by Dhamp. what i'm aiming for is a way to stop certain custom content from developing - WITHOUT removing their files from my plugins, or haVing existing instances of that content in my cities turn to brown boxes. seeing as Dhamp managed to do this for Maxis buildings, i'm making the assumption it can be done for custom content also. i'm not looking for anyone to do the work for me, but rather explain what needs to be done - or explain how DHamp's mod actually works... or even if there is any easier way to achieve the same result without modding.

i need this so that i can easily develop things the way i want them: so that at any given time, only certain custom content buildings will develop. i find it so hard to get the right 'style' of buildings to grow at the right times. i seem to just get inundated with mostly the same buildings growing and half of the custom content i have installed never gets a chance to grow at all. i usually get a mismatch of styles appearing too.

any help much appreciated!

[RippleJet]

In the building exemplar, locate the propety OccupantGroups.

Among other information, that property contains settings for Building Styles and Industrial Subtypes.
If you want to block a building from growing, remove all reps containing this information:

[tabular type=1]
[row] [head]

Occupant Group[/head] [head]

Description[/head] [head]

Additional information[/head] [/row]
[row] [data colspan=3]

[/data] [/row]
[row] [head colspan=3]

Building Styles[/head] [/row]
[row] [data]

0x2000[/data] [data]Chicago[/data] [data]

Only for Growable R and C[/data] [/row]
[row] [data]

0x2001[/data] [data]New York[/data] [data]

Only for Growable R and C[/data] [/row]
[row] [data]

0x2002[/data] [data]Houston[/data] [data]

Only for Growable R and C[/data] [/row]
[row] [data]

0x2003[/data] [data]Euro[/data] [data]

Only for Growable R and C[/data] [/row]
[row] [head colspan=3]

Industrial Subtypes[/head] [/row]
[row] [data]

0x3000[/data] [data]Industry: Anchor[/data] [data]

Only for ID, IM and IHT[/data] [/row]
[row] [data]

0x3001[/data] [data]Industry: Mechanical[/data] [data]

Only for ID, IM and IHT[/data] [/row]
[row] [data]

0x3002[/data] [data]Industry: Out[/data] [data]

Only for IR, ID, IM and IHT[/data] [/row]
[/tabular]

All existing buildings (which have already grown) will still be functional if you remove these, but new ones won't appear.

[tr0ub1es0me]

thanks RippleJet. i assumed iLive Reader was still the tool to use for that, and despite not using it for a couple of years, i found those properties thanks to your direction. thanks also for the link to the relevant info posted on the website here!

what i'm still confused about is how DHamp's mod blocks (Maxis) buildings, without editing/removing those values... just by adding a seperate DAT file. i loaded up one of the files from his mod in the Reader but i can't make much sense of it at the moment. is it that his mod files override the Maxis exemplars... or maybe it's a different matter entirely because he's blocking Maxis buildings and not custom ones, or is using an entirely different method to this.

either way: do you know if it is possible to create a DAT file with duplicated exemplars (albeit with those properties removed - building styles and industrial subtypes) that WILL override those of the custom content i have? this is what i'm hoping to do so that i don't have to continuously edit files with the Reader whenever i want to change what sets of custom content i want to grow at any given time.

(i had planned to just move files in and out of my plugins, or use SC4 Startup Manager to do it, and suffer brown boxes while i'm developing; while only placing all my plugins back when i want to see it all together and capture screnshots....  if creating a personalised mod file to block certain custom content is not possible or beyond my capability i suppose editing the files each time would be better than having a sea of brown boxes.)

[RippleJet]

The proper way of blocking buildings would indeed be to copy the building exemplars to a separate dat file, and remove those OccupantGroups from them.

Whenever duplicate exemplars exist, only the one loaded last remains in use.
Thus, just make sure your blockers are loaded after the original files (place them in a zzz... folder).

That is also how dhamp made his blockers.
He copied all Maxis building exemplars and removed the relevant OccupantGroups.

Whenever those blockers are in your plugins, they will load after Maxis' own SimCity_1.dat file (which is loaded first in Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4).
To enable blocked buildings again, you would thus only need to remove the blockers from your plugins.

[tr0ub1es0me]

excellent! this makes up for the problems i have with getting certain content to grow at all, and getting others to stop growing at inconvinient times and places. now i can 'zone' by different sets of buildings and not just developer and density, sort of, by creating a bunch of DATs that will each block a certain manually-defined group of buildings. of course, i still have to quit the game and move a few DAT files in and out of my plugins, but i can live with that. now i should be able to get the London townhouses to grow; i should be able to get Vanderaap's dutch townhouses to grow more frequently and in the right places; i should be able to stop small apartment buildings popping up in low-density zones... and more.  i can't wait to try it out! 

btw you all have done a great job of publishing an extensive wealth of knowledge about modifying SC4 and creating advanced custom content. i remember the days before SC4Devotion, when the advanced modding and CC was pretty much exclusive to Simtropolis. there was great talent and knowledge floating around, but not much literature out there to help others learn and help those less-experienced like myself. it's a different story now. no wonder SC4 is still developing so much thanks to you all.