RELOTTING. FUNCTIONAL TO EYECANDY

[Missvanleider]

Hi,

I have wondered for a while how to do this but I cannot find a tutorial that covers what I need to do to convert a 'functional landmark with jobs' lot into a non functional eye candy landmark with a monthly maintenance cost displayed when queried in game.

I can find quite a lot for how to add jobs to landmarks, but it seems that nobody wants to go the other way.

My reason for wanting to do so: plopping lots of functional landmarks (which may have lots of jobs) break the balance of the city, I'd quite like to be able to plop some of these more liberally without having such an impact on the city.

Essentially I'd like to know 2 things:

1) Can I just change the 'jobs' value to zero
2) is there some kind of 're-categorisation' that needs to be done to the lot so the game recognises it as a non functional landmark with a monthly maintenance cost instead of recognising it as a LM with CO$$$ jobs.

[Andreas]

Many years ago, I wrote a tutorial how to change a ploppable into a growable lot. Unfortunately, the images are gone, but it might be helpful to understand the steps that you have to do. Some things are easier these days with more recent tools, like PIM-X, so I describe it in short here:

1. Ideally, rename your plugins folder temporarily, then create a new plugins folder and put the lot that you want to mod into it, along with the building model and all dependencies.

2. Start PIM-X, click on "model files" on the left, and drag the model from the list in the upper right to the "Landmark" entry in the list on the left. This will create a new SC4Desc file with the right properties.

3. Create a new lot for the landmark building that you just made, and save everything (see PIM-X tutorial how to do this).

4. Now have a look at my tutorial and ideally, at sithlrd98's tutorial as well (it still has images and describes the following steps in short).

5. Now open the original lot file with the Reader, copy the "LotConfigPropertyLotobject" entries, then load the new lot of the landmark that you just created, remove the existing properties, and then insert the ones that you just copied. Make sure to re-index the propeties and check the ID of your building exemplar file in the 0x00000000 entry. Save the lot and exit the Reader.
.-
6. Now you can delete the "loosedesc" file that PIM-X created, and remove the old lot from the plugins folder. Obviosly, you have to keep the model files and your dependecies. Load the game, find the landmark in the menu and plop it. If everything worked, it should show up with the proper lot and values.

[vortext]

5. Now open the original lot file with the Reader, copy the "LotConfigPropertyLotobject" entries, then load the new lot of the landmark that you just created, remove the existing properties, and then insert the ones that you just copied. Make sure to re-index the propeties and check the ID of your building exemplar file in the 0x00000000 entry. Save the lot and exit the Reader.

FYI, you can copy/paste lot properties in PIM-X as well. 

[Missvanleider]

Thanks to you both, I do apologise for asking what (probably) seems like very straightforward questions.

These detailed answers are really helpful, I applaud you for answering. I am extremely grateful. 

[Andreas]

@vortext: True, you can do that in PIM-X alright, I keep forgetting that cause I'm so used to the good old Reader as my main modding tool.

[vester]

Don't apologize. No need for it. Some times the answer to straightforward questions is what get us forward.


Now you just need to show us your result, and maybe upload the result 

[Missvanleider]

These tutorials are very helpful for a few things, if I have some free time at the weekend I will try to do some of this, although I'm worried that the more time I spend editing values will inevitably result in less time to make pretty stuff in Simcity 

Now you just need to show us your result, and maybe upload the result 

If this is for me I am happy to show my progress (and probably more likely my pitfalls) here. I consider my first question resolved, if the mods want to move this thread to a more appropriate category please do so.

[Andreas]

although I'm worried that the more time I spend editing values will inevitably result in less time to make pretty stuff in Simcity 

That's how I end up "playing" SC4 all the time.