How can i know the growth stage of non-CAM BATs ?

[SimBlorp]

I'm new to the community here and haven't been playing SC4 for years, so starting anew and like an almost total newbie.

1- I've downloaded and installed CAM and all CAMified BATs I liked (plus the NAM and addons like SAM, RHM, HSRP, Colombus, BSC No Maxis, Census Repository, Equinox Query and Daeley's BSC Regional OG to name the most important ones). But there are a lot of other non-CAMified BATs I like, here and on STEX. I know I should avoid all C and R stage 8 (as they can hinder development), so I need to know what stage are the BATs I like as to make sure I only get the stage 7 and lower ones. However I noticed that most uploaders don't specify the growth stage on their download page or in their Readmes. Is there a tool I can use (like LE, PIM, ILive, etc...) on the Lot/Desc/Model files of those non-CAM BATs I downloaded (but not installed yet) to find that out ... and how should i proceed then ? I don't want to change any properties (that would be way out of my abilities), just fish out that info to make my mind as to keep it or not.

2- Other non CAM related question: Many BATs require a specific zoning size to grow (like 4X5), is there a practical way of knowing which one needs what size without having to go back at their Readme for each and every one ? Would the only way be for me to make a list in, like, Excel to keep track of those ? (I know the CAMified lots sizes are listed in "Topic: CAMeLots - Linking all available lots and bats") but what about the other lots ?

3- And finally (non CAM question again): Is there any way, in game, to restrict a part of a city to W2W bldgs or to a European Style bldgs or Chicago Style (for Early 19th Century bldgs like the ones by CP) and have the rest of the city in all styles or does choosing a bldg style necessarily apply to the whole city? I would like to create a kindof historical district to my city while the rest would have a more modern look.

Hope i've been clear enough, English being a second language to me. I also tried to find an answer to those questions in the forum but couldn't ... but sorry if that have been asked before and I missed it.

Thanks so much in advance for the time anyone will put answering those questions

[RippleJet]

If you're not used to using iLive's Reader, I'd recommend SC4Tool instead.
That will help you with the first two questions...

Once you've installed SC4Tool, start it and select the "Exemplar Editor" from the startup window
(it's the last icon, with the text saying "Edit all properties of BATs and lots in a user-friendly editor").

Click on the "Open" button and open the SC4Lot file that you want to check.
Click the + next to the name of the file and then the + next to the Lot.
The name of the lot exemplar is now shown, and you need to click one more + next to it.
Now you see all properties that are specific for the lot:

so I need to know what stage are the BATs I like as to make sure I only get the stage 7 and lower ones.

The fourth property should be "Growth Stage".
If you click on it you'll see the lot's growth stage.

is there a practical way of knowing which one needs what size without having to go back at their Readme for each and every one ?

The eight property should be "LotConfigPropertySize".
If you click on that one, you'll see the lot's tile size (width×depth).

3- And finally (non CAM question again): Is there any way, in game, to restrict a part of a city to W2W bldgs or to a European Style bldgs or Chicago Style (for Early 19th Century bldgs like the ones by CP) and have the rest of the city in all styles or does choosing a bldg style necessarily apply to the whole city? I would like to create a kindof historical district to my city while the rest would have a more modern look.

No, you cannot really separate building styles within the same city.
However, if you use the SC4 Startup Manager, you can have different plugins folders loaded when starting different cities within the region and thus have completely different looking cities within the region.

[SimBlorp]

Thanks so much RippleJet for the swift response 

I installed SC4Tool, followed your instructions and got all the info I needed.

As for the zoning size of lots, I'll have to make a database of all non-CAM Bats I download so i'll only have one place to check for when I want to zone for a specific building.

So, about building styles, if I got what you said right, I can't change building styles within the same city, even if I restrict it to a specific style from the start until I get what i want (and made the buildings historical) and then switch to "Build all styles at once" for the rest of my city?

Well, thanks again, anyway I have a lot of reading to do now before I go on with my city because I'm a little confused about how the NAM, SAM, RHW works.

[RippleJet]

So, about building styles, if I got what you said right, I can't change building styles within the same city, even if I restrict it to a specific style from the start until I get what i want (and made the buildings historical) and then switch to "Build all styles at once" for the rest of my city?

That works to a certain degree.
However, not all custom building creators have been consistent when selecting building styles.
For most custom buildings all styles have been included...

A more tedious way of getting what you want is to continuously bulldoze whatever grows and doesn't fit into the neighbourhood.

[SimBlorp]

If I remember well, those Early 19th Century bldgs by CP are Chicago style only, so I'll try what I said. The bulldozing method will be  next if it doesn't work.

I'll get on that as soon as I can figure out how to manage intersections between different SAM textured roads. I'm experimenting on an empty city map, when i cross a SAM road with another SAM road of a different texture, some tiles on the first road change into the other road texture. I'm probably  not doing it the right way somehow, i'll experiment more before coming back to the forum for help. I looked to see if a similar problem was posted but what I found was about road texture reverting to Vanilla texture, which is not the case here, only a few tiles from the intersection reverting from one SAM texture to the other. Anyway i'll fiddle a little more with it before giving up and crying for help here

Thanks again RippleJet for your help

Nevermid what I said about SAM textures, I just read that you can't have SAM/SAM or street/SAM intersections !