Install the DAMN, Please Help

[PaPa-J]

Greetings!!
I have finally decided to install the DAMN and I am having problems.  I ran the install program and the MOD installed.  I tried setting up my menu's and I get nothing in the game.
In trying to find a solution I found the following in the instructions for the SSPTool


C. Installing DAMN

To install DAMN simply start the SSPTool and choose the tab DAMN. There you can press the button to install the DAMN. You might have noticed it created a DAMN folder in your Plugins. You should never move the DAMN to a different folder, it is very important that the root folders stay in the same place. Similarly, you should never datpack the DAMN folder.   ATTENTION!
If you start SimCity 4 from a shortcut on your desktop (or elsewhere) instead of your start menu, please ensure that in the shortcut's property panel it has a working directory listed of \Simcity4 and NOT of \Simcity 4\Apps else the DAMN will not function at all!
To access your shortcut's property panel, right click on the shortcut to SC4 on your desktop, and choose "Properties" to view the properties of the shortcut.


Can someone please explain to me what it means by having a working directory?  This has me totally lost.
Help please!!!

[mgb204]

Using Steam per-chance? Take a look here, some tweaks to the LUA Code will help ensure DAMN runs smoothly.

In-short, the code for DAMN is looking for a very specific install location, based on the default for the CD version of the game. If SC4 is installed elsewhere, it simply won't work without the above fix or modifying the LUA scripts manually to provide the location.

The text you refer to, simply states that you need to modify the shortcut properties for SC4 to point to a "working directory", which roughly speaking means the actual one needed by DAMN.

[PaPa-J]

No, I'm not using the Steam version of SC4, but I figured out what was wrong.
I had modified the properties of the shortcut on my desktop to run with the into off and in doing so I changed the Start In String to look like this   "C:\My Games\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps".
I compared the properties of my Desktop link to the properties of the link in my Start Menu and found that the Start In String looked like this    C:\MYGAME~1\Maxis\SIMCIT~1\.   

When I changed the Start In string back to the MSDOS Character set it worked just fine.  Go Figure 

Thanks for the Help thought!!!

[mgb204]

When I changed the Start In string back to the MSDOS Character set it worked just fine.  Go Figure 

It works because you removed the "Apps" directory off the end. Whether you use the DOS 8.1 naming system or the long filename should make no difference, provided the path itself is the right one. Note of course that the latter (long filenames), needs to be enclosed in quotes or it won't find it.