menus???

[SIM1966]

Does anybody know if there is a program that allows you to create menus or sub menus for use in SC4 Deluxe the game....reason being i have a lot a extras in menu ie parks...that i would like a sub menu that i can move things into to make it easier to use ??

As always many thanks in advance.

[Andreas]

People have been trying that since more than 13 years, but alas, that's not possible. You can try MMLs or the DAMN, it helps a bit.

[mgb204]

The other option would be to manually adjust the order of lots/items in the menu. Often a little re-organisation can make having a larger menu much more manageable.

[SIM1966]

Sounds like a plan, but how do you do that is it simply a case of renaming files. Im not the best at this hence the lots of questions, witch im happy to say get answered extremely promptly :-)

thanks.

[Andreas]

You need a modding tool like the Reader or PIM-X. Open the building exemplar file (usually located in the *.SC4Lot file or the *.SC4Desc file) and look for the "Item Order" property, then change the number accordingly. Have a look at some existing files (i. e. a park set) that is grouped in the menu nicely; quite often, you'll see that they use a common Item Order, and then are grouped via the plop cost.

Renaming files will do nothing, however, since the game ignores filenames completely. It's only useful to achieve a custom loading order during the start of the game (necessary for some files that are intended to override others, such as various mods).

[mgb204]

I warn you it takes a little effort and use of iLIves Reader to modify these. I recently posted on ST a brief how-to, hopefully this helps:

Adding a new menu isn't really a viable option, but indeed a number of solutions to menu clutter exist. From simply pruning your plugins folder of uneeded content, to re-organising menus or going a step further and setting up DAMN (or MMLs), whichever you choose will really depend on your own preferences.

In my case I started re-ordering my MMP menu (and others) recently. I now have all trees grouped together, but not only that by every item in the menu is grouped how I like them.

Whilst the data you see inside a typical SC4 file may all look alien and intimidating at first, most of it is really simple in practise. So in this case, every item of each MMP must have a menu entry with an icon, description and item number. But, not every flora exemplar will have one, since MMPs with multiple objects only have one menu listing. So the key is to look for the Flora Exemplars that do include the property "Item Order". The number you see will be in Hexidecimal, but you don't have to work that way. I belive using the latest 1.5.4 version of iLives reader, allows you to see such properties in decemcal. But, you can always enter a normal decimal number for the Item Order, example 10,000. The reader will automatically convert it to a Hex number for you. In this way, if you make a list of the Items in say a spreadsheet, you can make a new system to organise the whole menu. Or if you don't want to take it that far, just look for items you want moved and alter the Item Order to similar objects to be more closely grouped. Just a little such organising can make a large list seem far more manageable.

In this case it was for MMPs, but the principle is the same for every lot/mod that appears in the menus.

:edit: Just beaten to it by Andreas.

[ChiefZDN]

Very interesting thread, here--thanks for sharing your findings, speeder!  On the menu front, I don't know if you've run across this in your research, but another non-US user, GoaSkin, did some poking around back in 2007 and actually did manage to add to the menu system--his old thread for it can be found here.  Sadly, the images are gone, but it's still an intriguing read.

-Alex

This is mean you can create menu/submenu, but you must modify the game EXE (which is illegal) or making DLL plugins. You can consult to speeder or simmaster07 for more info. It is will not be used in now, but it's will be used in the future. Stay tuned for DLL modding news.

Sorry if I'm wrong.