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Cities in Motion 2: European Cities Expansion Put into Motion Today

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rovapasi said:
In the german forum mediziner seems to have already been able to change the set for a empty map. So lets hope the issue can be solved,
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I also looked into it, it is just a small change in the map file right in the header section.
New "american" maps have a "Default" flag whilst european maps have "EnvX14". Old maps have nothing at all and are interpreted by the game as default. At the end of the header there is another part that has to be changed.
Unfortunately, since I have never looked into the file format of CiM2 maps, I have not managed to change the header and maintain a valid file due to the change in filesize caused by different lengths of the flags.

Edit: I figured my mistake!
Due to the changes in the header, the beginning of the actual map was misaligned.
The easiest way to change a normal map into a european one is by copying the complete header from an empty european map.
 
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AlexanderN said:
I also looked into it, it is just a small change in the map file right in the header section.
New "american" maps have a "D.e.f.a.u.l.t.." flag whilst european maps have "E.n.v.X.1.4..". Old maps have nothing at all and are interpreted by the game as default.
At the end of the header there is another part that has to be changed.
Click to expand...
How can I change it?
 
Marwin2401 said:
I think, It was also ok. Don´t forget it was a new transportation.
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For me it looks like another subway/train. Nothing special, I have not played CiM 1, so I do not know how much innovative DLC it was in that game, but in CiM2 it is nothing special for me...
I appreciate cities in new style (but I quite regret that there are not any new landmarks such as Prague castle or so). I still hope there will be possibility how to add new landmarks created by players. :)
 
vonhaubitz said:
How can I change it?
Click to expand...
I think it will not take long until we can use a tool (or maybe an updated version of maps4cim).

There are different ways of doing it. The best way would be to just change the important part and only shift the rest of the header according to the alignements.
However, to make it easy, here is a very simplified step-by-step guide for changing a normal map to a european one by just taking the complete header of a european map:

1.: gather all needed tools, in this case: a hex editor (like e.g. HxD) (just google one)
2.: start CiM2, create an empty european map, name ie europe.map (or whatever), close CiM again (or alt-tab out of it)
3.: copy the newly created europe.map to the desktop (or a folder of choice)
4.: copy the american map to this folder
5.: open europe.map with the hex-editor - note that the header of the map starts with: "FD 77 FD C9 84 FE FE"
6.: search for the second appearance of this sequence. It should be right after a lot of zeros "00 00 00 00 00 .... 00"
7.: copy the header, from the first byte up to the last "00" just before the second appearance of "FD 77 FD C9 84 FE FE"
8.: open the american map
9.: overwrite the complete header of the american map with the header copied from europe.map - The file size may change.
However, since the complete header (including the filling zeros) is copied&pasted, the alignment of the remaining map should be fine.
10.: save and close the editor.
11.: rename your modified american map to any name desired. Please do not overwrite the original map before testing the new map in the game!
12. Go back to CiM2 and load the map in the editor.
13.: if everything worked, the map is loaded and european buildings can be built. Save the map again to be sure that the format is correct and be happy!

Be aware that every meta data is lost since the header is overwritten by our empty european map.
The header contains data like the original map name, date of creation and working duration on this map.

Errors and omissions expected, please always make a backup. Normally nothing should go wrong, and as long as backups are present, no data willget lost. However, wrong maps can cause the game to crash. So just note that I can not hold responsible for your mistakes ;)
 
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AlexanderN said:
I think it will not take long until we can use a tool (or maybe an updated version of maps4cim).

There are different ways of doing it. The best way would be to just change the important part and only shift the rest of the header according to the alignements.
However, to make it easy, here is a very simplified step-by-step guide for changing a normal map to a european one by just taking the complete header of a european map:

1.: gather all needed tools, in this case: a hex editor (like e.g. HxD) (just google one)
2.: start CiM2, create an empty european map, name ie europe.map (or whatever), close CiM again (or alt-tab out of it)
3.: copy the newly created europe.map to the desktop (or a folder of choice)
4.: copy the american map to this folder
5.: open europe.map with the hex-editor - note that the header of the map starts with: "FD 77 FD C9 84 FE FE"
6.: search for the second appearance of this sequence. It should be right after a lot of zeros "00 00 00 00 00 .... 00"
7.: copy the header, from the first byte up to the last "00" just before the second appearance of "FD 77 FD C9 84 FE FE"
8.: open the american map
9.: overwrite the complete header of the american map with the header copied from europe.map - The file size may change.
However, since the complete header (including the filling zeros) is copied&pasted, the alignment of the remaining map should be fine.
10.: save and close the editor.
11.: rename your modified american map to any name desired. Please do not overwrite the original map before testing the new map in the game!
12. Go back to CiM2 and load the map in the editor.
13.: if everything worked, the map is loaded and european buildings can be built. Save the map again to be sure that the format is correct and be happy!

Be aware that every meta data is lost since the header is overwritten by our empty european map.
The header contains data like the original map name, date of creation and working duration on this map.

Errors and omissions expected, please always make a backup. Normally nothing should go wrong, and as long as backups are present, no data willget lost. However, wrong maps can cause the game to crash. So just note that I can not hold responsible for your mistakes ;)
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That worked perfectly - thanks!
 
Welp, I gave the monorails a miss and looks like I'll be passing on this one too. There's just not enough innovation or new elements to keep the home fires burning so to speak. A building set and a few scenarios thrown in doesn't really affect the core gameplay in any way. Cosmetic DLC can only get you so far before you lose interest. I fear I'm done playing this game. Maybe if you implement railway stations or airports, throw in some new mechanics (whatever those may be) - but I suppose these will be implemented in CIM3 rather than this one.
 
:angry: I feel cheated, not freely dispose of the new buildings in the map editor, is a scam. I will not buy more products from Colossal Order until this is solved, I want to use, as would be logical, all buildings simultaneously in the map editor.
 
aibo said:
:angry: I feel cheated, not freely dispose of the new buildings in the map editor, is a scam. I will not buy more products from Colossal Order until this is solved, I want to use, as would be logical, all buildings simultaneously in the map editor.
Click to expand...

I'm so sorry you feel that way, but unfortunately the sets are separate so you'll choose in the map editor if you build with the original or the European set. I'm sorry this is due to technical limitations and I'm afraid it will not be changed in the future.
 
co_martsu said:
I'm so sorry you feel that way, but unfortunately the sets are separate so you'll choose in the map editor if you build with the original or the European set. I'm sorry this is due to technical limitations and I'm afraid it will not be changed in the future.
Click to expand...

Same mistake as CiM 1. But this one cannot be fixed with mods. Seems that you didn't learn with past mistakes and successes of the past. No mod support and separated sets of buildings.
 
I'm so sorry you feel that way, but unfortunately the sets are separate so you'll choose in the map editor if you build with the original or the European set. I'm sorry this is due to technical limitations and I'm afraid it will not be changed in the future.
Click to expand...

I am very sorry to read that:(. I had high hopes for this game. Come to think that was the game without replacing sim city 4. Many years ago I hope that game, but it seems that no one understands or not listen to fans. No offense to your team, sympathetic ye me. But it did not do them the technical excuse is unacceptable.For me this game happens to list (Simcity societies, city life, Cities XL,) of city building games that have failed to grasp the idea that fans demand from simcity 4. My question is always the same, why do not you listen to the fans?. I said, do not buy more products of cities in motion 2.
 
Hi there, this is my first post on the forum :D I just want to say this game is great, even with some problem that exist.

I'm writing here because I found a way to make all the buildings possible in map editor (game don't tested so far).
1. First thing is to go to Environments folder in game data folder and copy the EnvX14.env file and name it like EnvX13.env or something.
2. Than open the file with notepad or other and change the EnvX14 there to EnvX13 or whatever you called it
3. Than go to Bundles folder and copy EnvX14 folder and name the new folder EnvX13 too.
4. After that copy all building bundles from Default folder into EnvX13 folder (some buildings will be 2 times, I'm testing in which bundles are which buildings but not done with it yet, so easier is to keep it like that so far, or if someone can help me with that :) and don't replace existing bundles, I don't know in which ones are the needed buildings :) ) - it's possible to just do that with the EnvX14 folder, but if you don't want mess up the european building set itself, just don't do it :)
5. The last thing is not needed, but if you want :) You will need to go to the Locale folder and open your language file and find EnvX14 in there, something like this:
<LocaleData>
<m_id>MAP_NAME_EnvX14</m_id>
<m_text>some name of the european set...</m_text>
</LocaleData>
just copy it and put it after the old one and change the X14 into X13 and the text into something you like :)

That is it guys, just don't forget to backup all the files :) and for changing maps to the new set just after doing the tutorial of AlexanderN find EnvX14 in the beginning of the new map file and change X14 into X13 and you are done :)
I hope you understand, and it will help you :)
 
Basicly, what Headdy is describing is the creation of a "new" Env with all available buildings.
Since you can see from the bundle files in EnvX14, some bundles have own buildings, some other bundles just seem to link to the "default" Env bundles.
By copying all together you create your very own Env, where even the default buildings are included.
Of course you can not share these maps, since they link to an Env which only exists on your very own local copy of the game.

For playing around or local games which want to use all buildings this of course is a possible solution.

The decision to keep both building sets separated is understandable, otherwise the dynamic city growth would mix up the different style which would look seriously stupid ;)
It is good the way it is. What's not good is, that CO did not gave us the ability to change the theme of a map in the game (which is easily done with my method, however integrating it in the game would be a lot easier to use, especially for untrained PC users).
Maybe maps4cim will be updated to support the EU DLC (maps4cim also comes with a header-editor for maps, a ENV-change could be implemented here). The changes that have to be done to maps4cim regarding the new headers are very minor ones. Since the program is open source I also could implement the changes, however I currently don't have much time and no Java IDE on my PC :D



Just to mention it again:
The european streetlights are too high and the median on the streets could be white instead of yellow but these are minor things.
 
AlexanderN said:
The decision to keep both building sets separated is understandable, otherwise the dynamic city growth would mix up the different style which would look seriously stupid ;)
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Now, this I disagree with. You quite often find that over time cities develop with a variety of architectural styles. Yes, it might look slightly odd if the style changes every other building along a street, but having clusters of each style in the same city wouldn't - plus with the size of maps in CiM2 it's easy to see how you could have one urban centre with the classic style and a second with a more European style. It could even be an extension of the city growth algorithm - weight the choice of building style based on the predominant style of neighbouring buildings. And to add further flexibility it could have an additional option when designing or starting to play a map - "enabled building sets: classic, European, both."

Unfortunately this isn't to be and we'll just have to learn to live with it.
 
To bad CIM2 isn't open source, I would introduce a new map layer (a clone of the ticket zoneing tool) and tell the city grow algorithm to use this for determine what urban style the map has. I guess one weekend would be enough to have a fully functional prototype. So either the map author could determine city styles or the player. Or simple fill the whole map with one color...
 
slornie said:
Now, this I disagree with. You quite often find that over time cities develop with a variety of architectural styles. Yes, it might look slightly odd if the style changes every other building along a street, but having clusters of each style in the same city wouldn't - plus with the size of maps in CiM2 it's easy to see how you could have one urban centre with the classic style and a second with a more European style. It could even be an extension of the city growth algorithm - weight the choice of building style based on the predominant style of neighbouring buildings. And to add further flexibility it could have an additional option when designing or starting to play a map - "enabled building sets: classic, European, both."

Unfortunately this isn't to be and we'll just have to learn to live with it.
Click to expand...

I agree. A good example of this would be Paris area. Inside the Peripherique (beltway around Paris) you mostly feel a distinct Haussmann-esque style, whereas the Suburbs feature substantially different styles in the North (Saint Denis) and South (Gentilly).
 
slornie said:
And to add further flexibility it could have an additional option when designing or starting to play a map - "enabled building sets: classic, European, both."
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I totally agree!
As long as the user would have the choice whether a map should support one specific or both graphic sets, or as long as the dynamic city growth would adapt to the adjacent architecture I would love to have all buildings available in one map.

However, suggestions like zoning the map into residential/ industrial, dense/sparse, etc or other great ideas for the maps where never implemented by CO.
And to be honest, we all know that most of the time CO is a little bit of an underachiever. So I scaled down my expectations long ago.
Of course I would love to have soooooo many features in this game with this huge amount of potential, however I know that the potential will never be fully exploited by CO and since modding is so hard there is also no way for the users to help exploiting it.

There are so many great ideas in this forum. Related to this topic, defining zones for different types of buildings (and thereby helping the dynamic growth algorithm, it would indeed would make it easier for the programmers...) is just one of many great ideas which will never be implemented.

So taking all this into account, I expected the new graphic set to be a separate one and once this decision is made and implemented into the game I would be extremely surprised if this would be changed.

So I just take it as it comes and be happy with it. At least we finally have European buildings :)
And if someone really likes to have all buildings in one game fortunately it is not too difficult to achieve it.


I don't really want to blame CO. Sometimes I feel a little bit let down but on the other side. I really believe they do as much as they can. We all know they don't have the power of the big developers - neither in peoples nor financial.

As for my usage: I am currently working on a 1:1.25 scaled version of Paris (10x10km) only featuring inner belt, where I fortunately do not need any "U.S.-themed" buildings.
For later (also fictional) maps however, it may become a hard decision whether using the default or european style as long as they cannot be mixed... But I will look into it as soon as I get to this point. For now, I think I will be occupied with my current project for quite a time :D
 
I liked CiM2, did different things to the original, but had a lot of flaws. The Monorail and European DLCs have been double price point I am willing to pay though - tbh they in my mind represented things that should have been in the base product (I agree this is arguable, just my opinion) and even without that there's simply not enough to justify purchase. As a comparison Conquest of Paradise is only $2 more and offers tons of new features - it puts these two DLC to shame to be blunt.

I don't think you've got the pricing policy right for your DLC and it makes me sad as I'd love to breathe life into the game again.
 
eis_os said:
Wild guess, duplicate object names will revert to either one of the objects after saving and reloading.
At least that is what people said about duplicate streets in the editor. And technical I don't think Buildings are much different. (Note: I can't verify this)

See here:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?761731-BUG-Editor-amp-European-Cities
Click to expand...

Duplicate buildings will not revert nor disappear. At least that's what i observed after having all buildings in my european test map.

Also, it is not needed to copy the default bundles to the european environment, just link to them.
 
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