SSPTool

[Stefan79]

ok i need some help i just downloaded and installed the new ssptool and i have been trying to add simgoobers ditches09 to the DAMN menu.  I get all the way through the creater wizard and click finish and then i get this error message "Index Can't Be Generated - Check Your Permissions" does anyone know what this means? When i run the indexer.cmd from the DAMN Support folder it also says Access is Denied.  I know i can use the DAMN menus in game because i was using it to plop Diggis Pond pieces.  I don't know if this problem has come up before and i can't seem to locate a suport thread for the DAMN program so i decided to post it here.

Here is the support thread for DAMN: http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=2917.0
When you got permissions error, it might be possible you use Windows Vista/7 and you can not access the DAMN folder. But read the thread I mentioned and you will get all informations about permissions.

[Asavan]

Thanks for the help 

[Rady]

Stefan,

sorry to bother you with another problem. I discovered that some of my DAMN menus aren't hidden, so I tried to hide them using the "Convert old DAMN lots" entry from the extras menu. However, it didn't work. The SSPTool presented the "Finished"-popup, but no modyfied lots have been created at all. I searched my whole PC for the modified file, but found nothing. Possibly I'm doing something wrong. Can you pls. give me a brief explanation of the difference between "LTEXT method --> Hiding folder" and "Convert old damn lots"? In case I have a DAMN menue created already, and now want to hide the menu entries - which option should I choose?

Thanks

[Stefan79]

First of all, be sure to use the last version of SSPTool because old version may be have a bug.

Convert old DAMN lots:
In old versions of SSPTool, the hide technique was to add a property "Conditional building" to the lot and set this true, so they will act like an reward and will be hidden from the menu. But this may be conflict with real rewards, so the new versions was to use the LotResourceKey. If you have prior damned lots, you should use this to convert the old lots to the new technique.

LTEXT method --> Hiding folder:
The new technique use the LotResourceKey. You may choose between two options.
The first option is to add a LTEXT entry with the LotResourceKey value to the original lot and remove the LotResourceKey property from the original exemplar. This will modify the original file.
The second option will copy the original exemplar to a new file in the zzz_DAMN Remove folder and remove the LotResourceKey property. This will not modify the original file.
With this button you can change the LTEXT hidden items to the hide folder, so you can easily unhide them by simply delete the file from the zzz_DAMN Remove folder.

Back to your question:
The easiest way to hide the lots, is simply to create a new DAMN menu. This will guarantee the DAMN menu is correct and the lots are hidden correctly.

The option to hide lots separate from creating DAMN menus is not implemented directly yet, this will be in the DAMN Manager, which I'm working on.

[Rady]

Ok, thanks, I understand, so the best way to hide those items is to manually copy them to the zz-DAMN-remove folder and manually remove the LotRecourceKey with the Reader ...

I'm using 1.3.5 version of you tool and have no problems with new created DAMN menus, it's just that I struggle with some of the old ones .. but that is possibly due to me not selecting the "hide" checkbox when creating the menu, not because of a program bug.

So I will search for a way to remove this property for a group of lots in one move instead of having to edit every single lot file ... changing to the Reader thread ...

Thanks anyway for that marvellous tool!!! 

[Stefan79]

Ok, thanks, I understand, so the best way to hide those items is to manually copy them to the zz-DAMN-remove folder and manually remove the LotRecourceKey with the Reader ...

I'm using 1.3.5 version of you tool and have no problems with new created DAMN menus, it's just that I struggle with some of the old ones .. but that is possibly due to me not selecting the "hide" checkbox when creating the menu, not because of a program bug.

So I will search for a way to remove this property for a group of lots in one move instead of having to edit every single lot file ... changing to the Reader thread ...

Thanks anyway for that marvellous tool!!! 

Hi Rady,

I forgot, I have implement this option already! Copy the files you want to remove the LotResourceKey to the zzz_DAMN folder. Start SSPTool, choose the Tab Lot-Editor, in Step 1, add the files you want to hide, in Step 2, select the specific items for hiding and press the Hide Menuicon button. This will hide the lots by removing the LotResourceKey. I think I should move this option to DAMN Extras, so everyone will find it easier and will work without having manually copy the files to the zzz_DAMN Remove folder.

Regards Stefan

[Rady]

Ahh .. that's great indeed! Gonna try it tomorrow!

[TiFlo]

Hi Stefan,

Seeing the lack of activity either here or at the DAMN topic following my proposal, I'm assuming people already have their menus and don't need help more than that. As going and asking every single creator of the lots I use for a full public release of my "damned" sets would be a bit time consuming, I'm just going to leave it at that. However, If anyone has a particular request for a menu, fell free to drop me a PM and I'll be pleased to help.

Cheers!

[Diggis]

Hi Stefan,

Seeing the lack of activity either here or at the DAMN topic following my proposal, I'm assuming people already have their menus and don't need help more than that. As going and asking every single creator of the lots I use for a full public release of my "damned" sets would be a bit time consuming, I'm just going to leave it at that. However, If anyone has a particular request for a menu, fell free to drop me a PM and I'll be pleased to help.

Cheers!

Hey TiFlo,  Sorry I didn't see your earlier post, holidays and all.  Could I suggest you look at the thread linked to by Stefan and mayed post a list of the lots you have DAMNed.  Once I know what sets you have created we can advise on which ones you should check with the creator on releasing and which should be OK. (ie BSC stuff can be run by the team as a whole, rather than one person, and should generally be OK to do release here after scruitineering, but some creators might not be so happy about it.)

After that we can then look into the scruitineering process to get them uploaded onto the SC4D LEX.  It takes a while to get the first set or 2 sorted, but after that it's rinse and repeat.

[Rady]

Hi Rady,

I forgot, I have implement this option already! Copy the files you want to remove the LotResourceKey to the zzz_DAMN folder. Start SSPTool, choose the Tab Lot-Editor, in Step 1, add the files you want to hide, in Step 2, select the specific items for hiding and press the Hide Menuicon button. This will hide the lots by removing the LotResourceKey. I think I should move this option to DAMN Extras, so everyone will find it easier and will work without having manually copy the files to the zzz_DAMN Remove folder.

Regards Stefan

Ok, now I had the time to concentrate on that - worked out great!!  I really suggest to "promote" this function - at least it should be mentioned in the "general description" in the SSP tool.

[Diggis]

Hey Stefan,

I've finally looked at this again.  I'm impressed with what you have done... amazing.  One thing I have noticed though, when I hide the lots upon creation I get a series of *.sc4LOT files.   But if I edit an existing DAMN file I get a compiled *.dat file.  Are we able to get just the DAT file first time up?

EDIT:Actually, it's worse than that... when you edit a lot it creates an empty DAT that doesn't hide the lots.

[Rady]

The maximum number is set default to 50, but for some reason or your personal use, you want to show more items in the DAMN menu. So you can set this number to your personal like. When you create new DAMN menus you will still have the default number of items, but you can change this in the DAMN options.

Sorry, may I ask you to explain that to me once more, 'cause I've encountered a problem that might be linked to that. DUring gameplay, I suddenly realised that I was missing some icons of a DAMN menu. They where visible in the SSP tool, but not in-game. The only thing that I changed before was to change the "max. number of entries" to 100, since it seemed right for me. SO my first guess was that changing that number had a side effect on existing menues. Therefore I edited that respective damn menu and counted the items in that menu - it was 61. When I then moved on in the SSP tool it told me "max. number of entries is 50" - although I had changed that before. Searching for a solution, I stumbled of the post quoted above.

Now, what exactly do you mean by "When you create new DAMN menus you will still have the default number of items"? Despite setting that value to 100? That would make no sense to me, so I'm sure I'm getting something wrong here ..

Glad if you could help me out of this ...

Thanks!

[Stefan79]

Hey Stefan,

I've finally looked at this again.  I'm impressed with what you have done... amazing.  One thing I have noticed though, when I hide the lots upon creation I get a series of *.sc4LOT files.   But if I edit an existing DAMN file I get a compiled *.dat file.  Are we able to get just the DAT file first time up?

EDIT:Actually, it's worse than that... when you edit a lot it creates an empty DAT that doesn't hide the lots.

Hi diggis,

I will look at this as soon as possible and fix it. Sorry for this.
In near future the DAMN Creator/Editor will be replaced by the DAMN Manager, which I'm currently work on.

Stefan

[Stefan79]

Sorry, may I ask you to explain that to me once more, 'cause I've encountered a problem that might be linked to that. DUring gameplay, I suddenly realised that I was missing some icons of a DAMN menu. They where visible in the SSP tool, but not in-game. The only thing that I changed before was to change the "max. number of entries" to 100, since it seemed right for me. SO my first guess was that changing that number had a side effect on existing menues. Therefore I edited that respective damn menu and counted the items in that menu - it was 61. When I then moved on in the SSP tool it told me "max. number of entries is 50" - although I had changed that before. Searching for a solution, I stumbled of the post quoted above.

Now, what exactly do you mean by "When you create new DAMN menus you will still have the default number of items"? Despite setting that value to 100? That would make no sense to me, so I'm sure I'm getting something wrong here ..

Glad if you could help me out of this ...

Thanks!

Hi Rady,

there are two points to consider, to have more than 50 items in the DAMN Menu:
1. Press the DAMN Installer in SSPTool, enter e.g. 100 items and install it. This will create a damnDesign.dat in your DAMN/Support folder which give the possibility to SHOW e.g. 100 items. You have to do this only once for your preferred size. Existing menus will not be affected and you don't have to create them again regardless their items size.
2. If you want to CREATE new menus with more than 50 items, you have to enter the wished size in the DAMN options. This will move the maximum size in the Creator to the entered size. The sizes of Installer and Creator should be the same, but it seems to be a bug, so you have to enter the size in DAMN options every time you start the program. I will fix this.

Stefan

[Diggis]

Hi diggis,

I will look at this as soon as possible and fix it. Sorry for this.
In near future the DAMN Creator/Editor will be replaced by the DAMN Manager, which I'm currently work on.

Stefan

DAMN you are doing a great job here.     I've just emptied out my landmarks menu and am moving onto my Parks menu.  It's the first chance I've had to play with this in bulk and I'm very impressed!  Karma for you.

[Stefan79]

Hi diggis and all others,

a BIG thank to all of you.


When I first step into this forum, I was unsure of this community, download some building from LEX, but don't know, how to help anymore.
But interested in programming I began to do a small tool for easier creating DAMN menus. Some talk with Daeley and months ago, I finally upload a first version of the tool. And since then, I got many ideas, comments and other things which incite me to improve my program. There might still be some bugs and I'm sorry for them, but I try to fix them as soon as possible.
In near future there will change something in my RealLife, but I hope this won't stop me from programming, so I can further give the community something back.

Regards,
Stefan

P.S.: And thanks for the Karma which I'm a little proud of. 

[daeley]

The 50 items limit is also "hardwired" in the LTEXT files in the Core DAMN. So if you want more than that, you could change it for yourself, but it would not work for somebody else using the default installation. So I'd personally suggest keeping it < 50. Actually, I'd suggest a maximum of 15 entries (or else you end up scrolling down for 10 seconds...) and splitting it up in more subcategories once you go over that number.

[Diggis]

Daeley, 

The current version of the SSPtool comes with a DAMN installer which has some good options in it.  It will let you create 2 column wide menus as well as larger windows.   This allows for more items per menu, although itsn't as great on a smaller screen.

[Rady]

Stefan,

thanks for the explanation. The missing items showed up now after I changed the news window's size to display two columns. Apart from that, thanks again for that great tool!!

[City Builder]

Hi,
Where should the SimCityLocale.dat file actually be located?

I have not found it using Windows 7 search feature, nor do I see it in the folder where SC4 is installed on my computer.