Plugin profiles / labelling plugins

[Earwhyckque]

I have a question regarding plugin profiles as used in SC4 StartupManager (SUM): does someone know if it is yet possible, with any kind of program like SUM, to assign various plugins to a certain group, so that they can be launched as a bunch of plugins in a certain city tile?

Let me explain what I mean.

In my plugin folder, I have a whole list of airport related plugins that will load automatically in every city tile, when starting the game via Simcity 4.exe. In my regions, though, there typically is only one airport/airfield tile in which I use those plugins. In SUM, I can manually assign certain plugins or folders, though these might be scattered around my folders. This will especially be the case if I, for instance, would also like to build a high speed rail line, for which I should manually select everything related to NAM/HSPR/etc.

What I would suppose to be ideal: having the possibility to assign labels to (groups of) plugins, so a selection of these labels can be launched when starting a certain city tile. For instance:
- General: NAM, extra cheats
- Region specific: terrain mod, vehicle sets, building sets
- Airport: runways, airplanes, terminals
- Seaport: harbours, logistic centres, freight stations, rail yards
- Agricultural: farms, rural rail stations, picturesque village buildings
- Urban: large rail stations, large bus stations (airport placeholders)
- etc.

This way one could select multiple labels for their cities, for instance: 'General+Urban+Seaport' for a large harbour city; 'General+Airport+Agricultural' for an airport located in the countryside outside the city; 'General' only for some suburbs, etcetera. It may seem like assigning labels in your e-mail client.

Does someone know if this is already possible? Or might be possible? Or should I not bother and just use StartupManager?

Thanks in advance!

[Tropod]

A little belated......

Developer of SUM may be updating it again some time soon; read here.

Other than using SUM, there's 2 other options;
1. one being to use shortcut commands. Here has some info.
2. Edit SimCity 4.ini file, located in installation folder.

1. Shortcut commands;
Using this method you can change where your "Documents" or "MyDocuments" are for your custom directory, which is not really ideal as it requires a little mucking around ie would require moving city/region folders each time you load your game. You could though have multiple shortcuts with different names using different command lines. For example;
Your shortcut command may or may not look something like this;
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -intro:off -AllowMultipleInstances -BackgroundLoader:on -CPUCount:2 -r1280x1024x32 -w
changing it to;
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -intro:off -AllowMultipleInstances -BackgroundLoader:on -CPUCount:2 -r1280x1024x32 -w -UserDir:"C:\Users\Home\Documents\SimCity 4\YourCustomDocsFolder\"


2. Editing SimCity 4.ini file
Default contents;
[Directories]
Data=..\
PlugIn=..\Plugins\

If you change as follows;

[Directories]
Data=FullFolderPath
PlugIn=..\Plugins\

For example;
[Directories]
Data=C:\Users\Home\Documents\SC4_CustomInstall\
PlugIn=..\Plugins\

Note the use of "\" on the end & no use of quotes. Using this method however requires that you copy over the following files into this folder;


In saying this the following is bare minimum needed with rest of (above) installation files/folders being able to be placed in your MyDocuments\SimCity4\ folder


IMHO this is a better method as it's able to accomodate what you're asking, though probably requires a little bit more work upfront & may seem backward. There is one or two things to be mindful of but this way you can customise this aspect of your game whilst not having to move your MyDocuments (ie Cities/Regions). You could keep multiple versions of SimCity 4.ini or simply place your other folder paths in this file, but commented out. For example;

[Directories]
;Data=..\
;PlugIn=..\Plugins\

;Data=C:\Users\Home\Documents\SC4_CustomInstall_RegionA\
;PlugIn=..\Plugins\

Data=C:\Users\Home\Documents\SC4_CustomInstall_RegionB\
PlugIn=..\Plugins\