Choose Which SC4 Plaza Plops - Look at this Picture

[deecee]

hello - i was looking through mayor diaries and i ran across praha by feroxx (nice job btw) and i saw the picture below; how did he or she do that?!  does anyone know how to choose the maxis plaza that plops?  it's always random for me and i HATE that!  please advise - thanks, deecee

[Diggis]

Without knowing for sure it's possible he relotted the plaza with only that one texture.

[RippleJet]

The texture in front of the door is Maxis base texture 0x26343000.
The textures around the fountain is Maxis base texture 0x26333000.

deecee's confusion probably comes from Maxis texture 0x258e3000.
That texture is a random texture based on these four individual textures:
0x26323000, 0x26333000, 0x26343000 and 0x26353000.

If you'd use SC4PIM instead of Maxis LotEditor when you're lotting,
then you'd see all these random textures!

[deecee]

well - i don't really want to lot or anything - i just want to be able to choose which maxis plaza to plop versus how it is now - totally random.  i want to be able to create patterns with the plazas, but it's very difficult - it involves a lot of plopping and deleting (rinse and repeat).  is there a way to separate the plazas in the menu and let me pick the pattern or something?  let me know.  Thanks!  DeeCee

[cogeo]

This texture, used in the open paved area, is a multi-tetxure and is selected randomly. And unfortunately, you can't select the texture, and you can't even make a trick, like plopping the lot until the desired texture is selected, as when you reload your city the game won't "remember" which one was selected (unlike prop-families).

The lot you see in the pic is a custom lot.

I had posted long ago a set of plazas on the STEX, there are more than 30 plaza lots included, maybe you could find a use for them.

[deecee]

I had posted long ago a set of plazas on the STEX, there are more than 30 plaza lots included, maybe you could find a use for them.

thanks for the explanation - that makes me sad but thanks for letting me know HaHaHa...anyway - i'll look on the stex for your plazas; do you have a link?  let me know and thanks again, DeeCee

[RippleJet]

SC4 Plaza Addendum MegaPack

[deecee]

thanks - cogeo your plazas are great.  good looking out on the link RippleJet.  thanks again, DeeCee

[justatest]

Is it possible to replace all the "not wanted" textures by the one you want?
That would be useful for all the lots where e.g. texture 0x26343000 is used (which I don't like).
Is there a way to find out the respective TGI (without looking through all the dat files)?

[cogeo]

Well, at least you know the instance ID (0x26343000); the type and group IDs are set to some specific values (0x7AB50E44 and 0x0986135E respectively, for lot textures). So you mean "locate" the texture maybe?

Of course you can make a replacement texture, you just need to use the same TGI IDs. You don't need to modify the lots using it. But the aesthetic result might not be good for all the lots using it. For example, if the original texture is a light-coloured, and you replace it with a dark one, it might not be combined well with the overlay textures and/or the props used in the lot. And you don't know how it may used in every lot. So the problem is not technical, but you may have aesthetic issues.

[justatest]

Thank you very much, Cogeo.
I found the textures in the SimCity_2.dat file and replaced them. Works as intended.
I will manage the aesthetical aspects :-)