How to ... mod

[atomate]

Hi everyone, so looks like quite a forum and I just assume this is the proper place to be asking about the following.

How to mod the amount of jobs a place offers?

That's the overall question.

I have recently taken a quick insight into the SC4tool and this might be of use with this matter. Any other technique is certainly very welcome.

To get a bit more into detail - how does a job doubler or a job multiplier work? This may be applied to any given industry or commercial.

Is there an option to alter the amount of jobs a specific industry within the game offers? I wonder about changes being made to simcity_1.dat or what it's name was. That one big file with plentyful info about pretty much anything related to gameplay.

Any clue is much appreciated, thanks very much! This is a nice place, what a huge fanbase this game has

Not quite specific but in general wondering about jobs and how to possibly alter the amount thereof.

Have a nice day everyone!

[eggman121]

Hello atomate

I don't know the exact mechanics behind jobs but I think you can edit those properties in SC4tool somehow and also try PIMX and the documentation associated with it (they are both on the LEX)

Feel free to ask any questions.

I mainly do transit Modding but I would assume that adding extra jobs would entail changing certain values of the Lots and there job capacity. Ilives reader would be able to change the job capacity of a certain lot types but has a steep learning curve and is very powerful.

My advice, Play around with a test lot and see what find. We will be more than happy to help you if you have a specific question that you want answered 

-eggman121

[mgb204]

SC4 Tool is probably a good way to go for editing the job numbers. It would be listed as the property "Capacity Satisfied" for any given building and is freely editable.

The job doubler/quadrupler mods basically take copies of the existing properties, known as buildings exemplars - these are one of the properties that are contained in the SC4 content files - and overrides them with modified ones. In essence it's not good practise to modify the original SC4 DAT files, plus such modifications could not be distributed, hence using copies. However, if you are just modifying some downloaded content for personal use, it's fine just to edit the originals.

One thing you need to be mindful of here, when you make such changes you are altering the RCI balance of the simulator for your game. If you double the number of jobs every Ind building has, then in effect you will need twice as many Res buildings to fill the jobs as a result. The same is true with Com, in fact if you do this with all, you may find yourself needing a much larger percentage of Res overall in-game.

[atomate]

He everyone, thanks for taking interest in my ponderings.

It's actually quite a basic issue that I face.

How to setup a new LOT? How to export information from sim1.dat?

I do seem to understand whereabouts the information is but there is a profound lack of insight on how to extract this information into a new file.

I do have an empty RCI-lot at hand, it's being provided at simtropolis.com. I did look at given doubler.dat mods et cetera. OK; but I basically just fail on getting specific lots extracted or is today's modding all about doing it all from scratch?

Well, I do hope I'm getting my point across... Thanks

[mgb204]

Right, with you now... basically for that you'll need iLives reader. When you open the SC4 file containing the properties you want to modify in the reader you can take a copy of a given set of data and paste it into a totally new file, this will create an override.

The hard part comes from finding a specific file amongst all the data, especially with the original SC4 dats simply because the sheer amount of properties contained within. If you know the name of the lots, that would help and I'd recommend using the Navigator to find it.

Once you've the right exemplar, select it in the left pane, right click and "Copy Files" (you can select multiple entries at once too). Then switch to a blank file and right click/"Paste Files" to insert the properties there and save the new file.

[atomate]

He everyone, thanks a lot! atomate

[carlfatal]

@atomate,
sent you a PM.

Away from that: I prefer to change properties with the SC4 Tool where possible. It is much easier than the Reader, as you can edit them without using the hexadecimal system.
I use the Reader mostly for packing props into dats or changing properties like erasing textures or such things. But I am still a rookie with this program...