How to change the tileset for a lot? And how to mod a Maxis lot?

[gottago]

Total noob to modding lots, and I've searched for the answer on various SC4 tutorial and forums for hours to no avail, so this post....

How do you change a lot from one tileset to another? Say, make a Houston lot grow in EuroContemporary?

I use the default Maxis buildings and lots of downloaded models, but some Maxis buildings I can't stand but yet they grow like wildfire. In particular, the boxy dark blue 2x3 & 3x3 "Boutique." Yuck.

2 further questions:

How do you delete Maxis lots from the game?

And also, can you replace Maxis lots (the Boutique, for example) with a custom model, and have the game recognize the modded lot as the default?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[TheTeaCat]

Hi gottago

Well at least you've come to the right place for advice

First off I'd check out the tutorial section for some excellent advice and tips (and how to do it right )

To change tilesets you will need to use The reader by iLive. Not something for the faint hearted but it is a realtivly easy job if you know what you are doing.

Instead of deleting Maxis lots you would be better off using the BSC No Maxis blocker available on the LEX.
This will stop all maxis buildins as its name suggests which should alleviate your problem.

If you need any further help just ask


TTC

[gottago]

Thanks TTC for your very swift reply! I'd gone through the tutorials but I didn't come across anything about modding tilesets, and I guess it's because it's so basic lol.

I've looked at the lot I want to change in the ilive Reader and I see you have to change the OccupantGroup, but just how is the question that stumps me.

I know of that NoMaxisBuildings mod, but I don't want to toss out all the Maxis lots--many of them I like very much--I just want to get rid of those cursed Boutiques, and a few others. Either delete them entirely or change the model that grows while keeping the lot file intact, if possible.

[RippleJet]

There are four OccupantGroups for the Building Styles:

0x2000	Chicago
0x2001	New York
0x2002	Houston
0x2003	Euro

However, if you want to change the OccupantGroup for in-game buildings, you would have to extract those from SimCity_1.dat first.
Since I'm travelling and haven't got SC4 or iLive's Reader with me, I will have to try to remember this... thus, there might be some errors involved:

• Click the Simcity DAT panel in the lower lefthand corner of Reader
• Select the first file in the list, simcity_1.dat (do not "Fill the list")
• Click the Analyser button on top
• Click the Tree button on top
• Click the Search button on top
• Click the + to the left of Commercial Services $$$
• Click the + to the left of Buildings
• You will now probably see that there are several buildings called Boutiques
• Click on the Boutiques, one at a time, which will open its building exemplar to the right
• If you know the one you want to block, right-click on that "Boutiques" and select Sync. with file ?
• Close the Analyser and you will see that the building exemplar of this "Boutiques" is now listed
• Now, right-click on the exemplar and select Copy file(s)
• Click the Loaded DAT panel in the upper left-hand corner and click (or open) the blank.dat file
• Right-click in the empty entry list and select Paste file(s)
• Save this file as e.g. "Block Boutiques.dat" in your plugins folder
• Now you can edit the OccupantGroup property to disable it from growing in the styles you want

Note, in order to be certain which Boutique you want to block, query the building in-game with the Ctrl-Shift-Alt keys pressed.
That will bring up a query like the one shown here.
The title of that query shows the exemplar name, which you can see in the building exemplar in Reader.

[gottago]

Thank you VERY much Ripplejet for your quick and thorough answer--it is a great help!

I've found the building (Blue Platter) and blocked it, but it gets replaced by the default Boutique, as it was a variant of another Boutique that Maxis uses for the other tilesets. I've now located that building with the lot editor, but cant find it with the reader, because the name strings don't match from one program to another, and you can't visually preview buildings with reader.

So a new problem arises: how do you search with the reader using the ID string from the lot editor? I've tried all the Reader search functions, and can narrow it down to only 14 possibilities, and am frankly lost...

Final question: If and when I finally block the offending Ur lot, what will it do in-game, as the lot is everywhere in all my cities? Do I have to demolish all instances before blocking? Will it just leave blanks which I can rebuild, or crash the city?

I assume if it crashes the city, I could still edit the city files in Reader to remove the exemplar, yes? This in the end would be easier...

Oh, and how do you remove a prop in lot editor? I only see an add function....

[WC_EEND]

to delete a prop in the Lot Editor, just select the prop you want and press the delete key on your keyboard

[superhands]

There are four OccupantGroups for the Building Styles:

0x2000    Chicago
0x2001 New York
0x2002 Houston
0x2003 Euro

Ripplejet, is it possible to have say, add a new occupantgroup to the list?
then i guess you would have  to find a way to place it in  the building style menu.


dave

[Swamper77]

Ripplejet, is it possible to have say, add a new occupantgroup to the list?
then i guess you would have  to find a way to place it in  the building style menu.

Sorry, but the Building Style Occupant Groups are hardcoded into the EXE.

-Swamper

[RippleJet]

So a new problem arises: how do you search with the reader using the ID string from the lot editor? I've tried all the Reader search functions, and can narrow it down to only 14 possibilities, and am frankly lost...

The problem is of course the fact that all in-game lots do not have individual buildings placed on them, but building families.
Thus, in LotEditor you only see the name of the Cohort File when hovering above the grey square representing the building.
That Cohort Name should end in a hexadecimal number though, e.g. 50000012.
That should help you locate the buildings included in this family in Reader.

Browse through all CS§§§ buildings (in the Analyser) and check the Parent Cohort for each of them.
The Parent Cohort is the first property in each building exemplar, and it contains a TGI address pointing to the Cohort File.
(If you cannot see the whole TGI address for the Parent Cohort, stretch the Value field to the right).
When the instance (third number) in the Parent Cohort matches the number you saw in LotEditor, then you've found one of the buildings in that family.

Commercial building families often contain only one or a few buildings, but residential families usually contain at least four.

Final question: If and when I finally block the offending Ur lot, what will it do in-game, as the lot is everywhere in all my cities? Do I have to demolish all instances before blocking? Will it just leave blanks which I can rebuild, or crash the city?

A building that has been blocked by removing the Building Styles from the OccupantGroup will still be fully functional in the game. It will only be blocked so that it won't grow again.

I assume if it crashes the city, I could still edit the city files in Reader to remove the exemplar, yes? This in the end would be easier...

No, that would only make it worse... never remove exemplars belonging to buildings you already have in your citites.