Custom farms, some things I would like to know.

[joelyboy911]

Hello, my name is Joel, I hail from New Zealand, and I would like some help. I would like to know exactly how it is (if it is) that I could go about making farms where I BAT and Lot some props to create farm lots (the non-field bit) and then also BAT and lot some props to make a field, to make a working farm system. Then get these working farm systems to totally override the maxis farms, meaning only my custom farms appear. The reason I want this, is that I want to create rural areas in which there are only farms like those which I see in my local area (the Manawatu, North Island, New Zealand). This consists mostly of Dairy farms, and Sheep and Beef farms (what Americans might term a "ranch") interspersed with a very few crop farms. So I am also interested in how the game decides how frequently to build certain types. I am also interested in forestry as a farm, and for these I am interested in knowing if you can,

(a)Get the farm zone tool to drag on steeper terrain.
(b)Get certain types of farm to grow only on this steeper terrain.

This way, as in RL (from my experience only) you can have forests and sheep and beef raising units on hill country, and your dairy farms only on the plains and rolling terrain, if you know what I mean.   

In accordance with these plans, I also have some Ideas in mind as to some freezing works/abbatoirs/slaughter houses, Dairy factories and log processing facilities as well as some livestock transport trucks, and others. I would also like to see if I can get fences along some roads/SAM dirt roads/SAM asphalt streets, to give the impression of livestock not being able to run onto the roadway, and using dirt roads as farm tracks. I plan to BAT some farm sheds, as well as specialty buildings such as milking sheds, shearing sheds, and the props to represent the livestock.   

To complete the package, I would like to make/have some-one make some automata of milk tanker trains (perhaps to replace the useless and silly steam train) and tanker trucks.

I have never tried to mod the game before, but I have experience in lot editor, and I am batting turboprop regional planes for the SCAG presently. I plan to use such things as family props, timed props and some animated props (if I can learn the BAB) to give the dairy and sheep farms more "life". I plan to BAT some farm sheds, as well as specialty buildings such as milking sheds, shearing sheds, and the props to represent the livestock.   

If there are already tutorials based on these, I am very sorry for wasting your time. If you are interested in these ideas, feel free to contact me or post here. There is a good chance that I would want help/collaboration for these projects, so if anyone wants in - you are welcome.

The only thing I need help on is the Modding. I can lot and BAT just fine.

[joelyboy911]

Please. Could someone at least just say: "Its too hard" or "Its not possible".

[BarbyW]

There is no way to control the growth to the extent that you want to do. By using slope settings you can control growth to a certain extent but not quite so detailed as you want.
The only thing I can suggest is that you download the BSC No Maxis files and only have the custom farms that you want in plugins. As farms do not upgrade you can bulldoze any that you do not want in a particular area and see if a new farm of the type you want will grow.

[joelyboy911]

OK. Thank you. I will see what I can do. But can it be made to drag over steeper terrain at all? Or would this involve editing the EXE?

[RippleJet]

A little more information...

(a)Get the farm zone tool to drag on steeper terrain.

The property Zone Max Slope in the Zone Manager exemplar sets these maximum values to 16 (metres) for all RCI zones.

In order to increase the max slope for I-R, increase the 8th value in that property.
I'm enlosing that Zone Manager to this post, so that you won't have to extract it from SimCity_1.dat.

(b)Get certain types of farm to grow only on this steeper terrain.

To achieve that, increase the property LotConfigPropertyMinSlopeAllowed (normally this has a value of 0) in the I-R lot's lotconfig exemplar.

[joelyboy911]

Ahh, thank you RippleJet. This should enable me to see this project through! Perhaps soon I will be able to have some forestry farms running, until I can get the time to do the BATting for the other things!

This project may soon come into being after all. Perhaps I will have to make a Mayor Diary!

While I'm gathering information, Is it possible for me to use an existing tool to change, for my own personal use, some of the t21(?)s that are used alongside the SAMs, only on some of the texture variations. I want some fences, so can these be batted in the normal way?

[RippleJet]

While I'm gathering information, Is it possible for me to use an existing tool to change, for my own personal use, some of the t21(?)s that are used alongside the SAMs, only on some of the texture variations. I want some fences, so can these be batted in the normal way?

Certainly, for your own personal use you can make virtually anything...

[joelyboy911]

Yes, but can I produce them, like ordinary props, in gmax/BAT? And is there a tutorial on how to do it?

[RippleJet]

There's no tool that allows you to create T21 lots like in LE, no.
You could however create it as a normal park lot in LE and then in Reader copy the props (0x00000001 lines) from that lot's lotconfig exemplar to the T21 exemplar.

[joelyboy911]

I have gotten the zone to drag over steep terrain, but for the farms, as to whether they will grow on any given slope, is it dependent on the farm lot itself or the field? I mean to say does the field fill in the road boundary regardless of the terrain away from the main lot or can you set slope limits for the field?

Also, could someone point me to a good tutorial for

a)Prop families
b)New Farm lotting to growable.

I wonder, can you make a farm as a ploppable farm lot, which then forces the zone to fill with the field tile?

[RippleJet]

I have gotten the zone to drag over steep terrain, but for the farms, as to whether they will grow on any given slope, is it dependent on the farm lot itself or the field? I mean to say does the field fill in the road boundary regardless of the terrain away from the main lot or can you set slope limits for the field?

The LotConfigPropertyMinSlopeAllowed for the lot is applicable only to the farm lot itself, excluding the fields surrounding it.

The fields themselves also have that property though.
I wouldn't recommend setting the LotConfigPropertyMinSlopeAllowed to anything larger than 0 for custom fields though.
However, you can set LotConfigPropertyMaxSlopeAllowed to something higher for those custom fields you want to enable on steeper hills.

Also, could someone point me to a good tutorial for
a)Prop families

Creating your own prop Families (Extended version)

b)New Farm lotting to growable.

Open an existing farm in LE, change its building, props and textures and "save as".
Note that you need to check the building exemplar's property Field Lots in Reader to specifiy the IID's of those fields that can appear around this lot.

I wonder, can you make a farm as a ploppable farm lot, which then forces the zone to fill with the field tile?

No, field lots only work for growables.

[joelyboy911]

Thanks RippleJet. You are a fountain of knowledge.
I guess the fact that it is the main lot that determines the farm field placement in terms of the slope would mean that the types of farm wouldn't be completely stratified in terms of up a steepening hill, which would't be a totally bad thing.

The prop family tutorial should be excellent, I haven't read all of it yet, but I hope to perhaps use some existing models of livestock, and put them in a prop family with some blank/empty props so that there is a random placement of the animals around the field. As far as I can tell this is a perfectly viable option, isn't it?

[RippleJet]

and put them in a prop family with some blank/empty props so that there is a random placement of the animals around the field. As far as I can tell this is a perfectly viable option, isn't it?

Even better, give the props only a small chance of appearing by setting the property Prop Random Chance to a small value, e.g. 1 (default is 100).
Also set the property Prop Time of Day. This would make the cows appear randomly (from day to day) on only 1% of all fields.
See e.g. how Maxis made the irrigation sprinklers, (I16x4x4_IrrigationSprinklers_2A4A), TGI 0x6534284A, 0xC977C536, 0x2A4A0000.

[joelyboy911]

I might want them on slightly more than 1% of the fields. I am planning to have some farms with empty fields to simulate unused paddocks. I guess no-one thought that farms consisted of exactly 1 field each? This would, then, utilise SAM dirt road as a farm track, and the SAM asphalt street or maxis road or RHW-2 as the thouroughfares.

On the prop random chance, is that for a prop family, or on an ordinary prop which is set to appear on chance intervals? I haven't started doing these mods yet, as I am spending most of my SC4 time doing my planes and other things for the SCAG projects. Therefore, I may still have some stupid questions to come.

to Jestarr, should you ever read this. Can I use your cow and sheep props, alter their being, and put them in my farms? if all goes well with this project, which would be a total mod, for a totally different farming style, I might think about a release in some form, (if anyone wanted it) which is why I ask permission for something which, at first (at least) will be for my own use.

[Diggis]

to Jestarr, should you ever read this. Can I use your cow and sheep props, alter their being, and put them in my farms? if all goes well with this project, which would be a total mod, for a totally different farming style, I might think about a release in some form, (if anyone wanted it) which is why I ask permission for something which, at first (at least) will be for my own use.

Joel, I of course don't speak for Jesstar, however, the normal practice is if you mod someones models you include you're new description file (never mod the original, always create a new one with a new TGI) into your package and then in the upload reference Jess's model pack. 

[RippleJet]

On the prop random chance, is that for a prop family, or on an ordinary prop which is set to appear on chance intervals?

For any props, whether they belong to a family or not.
Each prop in a family can have its own chance of appearance and own time of day appearance.

[Luke09]

It is possible to use BSC No Maxis files with CAM?And DuskTroopers File that block maxis?These can be used with CAM?

[RippleJet]

It is possible to use BSC No Maxis files with CAM?

Yes

And DuskTroopers File that block maxis?These can be used with CAM?

No

[Luke09]

Oh thanks a lot RippleJet

[joelyboy911]

I got to work today starting out modding some of the cows by jestarr. I went into reader, opened the new .desc files I had created, added the time of day and random chance properties, and I was wondering how to set them. Do I add two values to the time of day, and set one of them to the start time and one to the end? I want to make two versions eventually, so that the cows will appear for an hour or so at the milking shed (which I have batted, perhaps we can move this thread and rename it in the Modd projects or BAT Projects area at some point.) and then re-appear afterwards in a different position in the field.

For the random chance, the default value is 0x64. Since I don't know hexadecimal, can I change the data type to Float32 and simply enter '5' to give a 5% chance to appear?