New guy.. thread 2!

[beholder]

Well, after sleeping about 2 hours and not being able to get up and stop playing (I called work and told them I'll be late!)... I gathered some more questions.

I managed to make business deals with other cities, for some reason that power deal did not work back then.. not sure why. I got another power deal to work so that's good. My question now is about the terraforming stage.. you know, the one where you create the mountains and seas and all.

First of, simple dumb questions:
- How do you take trees off after you've planted them?
- If I destroy the city I start building, will the area reset back to what I had it AFTER I sculptured it? Or is it going to be dead flat again and I will have to do it all over again?

Now, the more interesing part to me.
I noticed there are a few plugins for trees and such, and some of the maps look like you guys use costume texture. Assuming this is probably very possible, I was wondering, are there plugins you can access while in the "terraforming" mode (or god mode, whatever you call it)? For example, more kinds of trees, mountain tops, maybe different brush sizes...?

Second, and this again from a person completely new the world of "Simcity 4: the crazy kick-ass version," what ARE all these kinds of things you have there? What are textures, compared to independents (or is it independencies?), compared to mods and other things? When I'm looking for something specific, like more trees in the example above, what am I looking for? a mod? a texture...?
Another thing I'd like is more houses (I have a town located on mountain sides and valleys). I found some cool ones, and THEN I saw the list of dependencies, and went like "ah HA! so I need to download all of this for this particular thing to work...!" is that always the case? do you guys have "packs" of these things?

Alright there are probably more questions but I gave you guys enough to deal with. I couldn't find any introduction to "simcity 4: the kick-ass version" anywhere.. maybe you should put something up?

Keep up the AWESOME WORK! WOW! I keep being so much in awe when I see these screen... dirt roads! omg, this guy created dirt roads?! excuse me, I have to go play a bit...   

[jplumbley]

Hello Beholder,

Terraforming - The best thing to do if you want to make your own region is get SC4Terrafomer by Wouanagaine.  Search the LEX under Tools.  If you would like to download a region, it would be best if you downloaded SC4Mapper also by Wouanagaine.

Trees - People that write Mayor Diaries plop their trees.  I am not an expert in this area but many of the trees you can download will be put into the Flora Menu in game (Where you find the MAXIS ploppable trees).  To get rid of trees you must bulldoze the tile.

When you use the "Obliderate" City button, it will destroy whatever is built in the city, but all terraforming will stay.

The LEX:

Dependancies - These are files which contain various things.  These things can include Models, Query Interfaces, Textures, etc.  These are basically a collection of downloads that are common to multiple Lots that you can download.  Every download on this site will either have a list of Dependancies in the description or in the Readme file.

Textures - These are files that include all the different ground textures that you find.  For example a parking lot in front of a commercial office or a different grass texture for you parks.  It is recommended that you download the BSC Textures Vol 1 and 2.

Models - Models are what the buildings, trees, cars, essentially everything is made of.  In most cases people will say "These props have been used..." Props are just models that are not considered "Buildings" to the game.  Buildings are the models that have properties that give Residential Occupancy, School Capacity, etc.  Props are just the extra models that make the lot look better, like trees, cars, mailboxes, etc.  Prop packs are package sets of Models which can include both Props and Buildings.  Some of the best people to download Prop Packs from ar Simgoober, Gascooker, etc.

Query Interfaces (UIs - User Interfaces) - These are custom Queries that have been made for a lot.  So for example, NHP uses a standard Custom Query with our logo in the bottom corner.  These files are necessary for when you would like to see the stats and query a lot in game.  If you do not have these files or they are installed incorrectly you will not be able to query the lot and see the stats.

Mods - Mods are a different breed.  Mods are modifications to the games, they may add something, change something or fix something.You must read to what they are intended to do! Mods do various things from the Network Addon Mod (NAM), that adds new intersections, streets, textures, etc to the networks to something like the Colossus Addon Mod (CAM) which helps balance the game again after the last 4 years of everyone doing what they want with Building Stats.  Be sure to read the readmes for ALL mods as you will not know what you are getting until after you install it if you dont.

PS, I gave you a + Reputation point for being such a humble new comer and giving lots of respect.  Reputation is in the Left side of your screen, when you get to 10 Posts you will start seeing a thumbs up and a thumbs down face under the persons name.  By hitting the thumbs up you give them a + Karma and a thumbs down you give them a - Smite.

[beholder]

Thanks for giving me credit! and for just asking sooooo many questions...  I'm just so impressed I never seen a game that has such a dedicated community to make it better, and for free!

I tried to download the terraformer, but it doesn't work... I get the splash screen, then it asks me what dir I want to use (regions inside simcity) and then it seems to crash.. I did download that DDL file he talks about (it wouldn't eve show a splash screen before I did) but still..

Now I already downloaded maybe 20 different zip files of this server and metropolis. Some were mods, some were textures, most were all these dependancies the packs required. I'm not even sure what I have working or not. I mean, if I download a house, I can't really see it until Simcity "feels like" putting it there, no? I know I have the NAT one working fine, have been using diagonal streets like crazy.
For the most part, There are a LOT of technical terms I don't understand withing the explanations. For example, in the building they're talking about some levels, like industrial level 8? or class 8? what's that?? And how does CAL changes the RCI levels you're talking about, what's wrong with them now... *blush*

For the most part, I'm still having difficulties understanding what I need to download AFTER I download something I want, say a pack of farms I saw somewhere. I need to go look for all the dependencies and I'm not sure I even have it working.

Thanks for helping me out

[M4346]

I tried to download the terraformer, but it doesn't work... I get the splash screen, then it asks me what dir I want to use (regions inside simcity) and then it seems to crash.. I did download that DDL file he talks about (it wouldn't eve show a splash screen before I did) but still..

I had the same problem, initially. I think it has to do with having other programs run, even in the background, that may be using DirectX. As for me, the guilty program happened to be Windows Media Player. I ended the program and then started Terraformer, and started WMP again. So, maybe look into that as a possible solution.

Now I already downloaded maybe 20 different zip files of this server and metropolis. Some were mods, some were textures, most were all these dependancies the packs required. I'm not even sure what I have working or not. I mean, if I download a house, I can't really see it until Simcity "feels like" putting it there, no? I know I have the NAT one working fine, have been using diagonal streets like crazy.
For the most part, There are a LOT of technical terms I don't understand withing the explanations. For example, in the building they're talking about some levels, like industrial level 8? or class 8? what's that?? And how does CAL changes the RCI levels you're talking about, what's wrong with them now... *blush*

For the most part, I'm still having difficulties understanding what I need to download AFTER I download something I want, say a pack of farms I saw somewhere. I need to go look for all the dependencies and I'm not sure I even have it working.

Thanks for helping me out

You mean the NAM and the CAM, right?

The CAM changes / extends the growth stages in which RCI LOTs will grow. This is important because each growth stage has different 'capacities', if you will. So buildings that house more people (workers, etc.) will grow in your upper growth stages, and vice versa. What CAM does is extends this from the original, making it easier to grow towering skyscrapers and also to control them. 

But for more information check the CAM thread, I'm not all too clued up on it to give you sound advice and explanations.