I think that there is a need for a mod to enable users to manage the mods and assets that are within C:S, given that there are more that 200,000 items in the Steam Workshop. In addition, many of them will use or be dependent on other items, or might be collected into groups of related items. Managing this can be difficult, especially if a user wants to have multiple sets of assets which they want to swap in and out between multiple cities, so that a UK city could use the UK assets while a European city could use the European assets. Ideally, this should be built within the game, but I think that it can be managed by a suitable mod, as an alternative to creating collections of items within Steam.
My concept is for a mod that will enable the user to aggregate mods and assets into multiple groups with the ability to then decide which ones they want to be active.
Item : Any mod, map, theme (map or district) or asset (Building, Prop, Vehicle, Tree, Net etc). Each Item can be included in many different Groups. Where an Item has dependent Items, typically a Prop used within a Building, the dependent Item is also included in the Group.
Group : A collection of multiple Items. Multiple Groups can be active at any one time. Against each Group the user has the ability to Enable or Disable the entire Group, with the presumption that a dependent Item will only be Disabled if it is not Enabled in any other Group. The user will also be able to open the group and enable or disable individual Items.
The mod will build a list of all of the Items in the game, including the C:S built-in items. Against each Item it will hold a list of the Groups that it is part of, any dependent Items, enable/disable flag, name, originator, item type, growable/ploppable flags etc (basically everything that it can find). Against Groups it will hold a name, enable/disable flag and list of associated Items.
Within the District Themes it should be possible to specify Groups and enable or disable them within the district.
The mod will save all of the information that is has and reload it next time. It will also be able to produce a report of the Groups and Items.
I believe that this can be built within a mod, but unfortunately although I have 50 years IT experience, I stopped programming many years ago when I became a manager. In addition, I have no experience in C#, Mono, Unity or the C:S structure so it would take me a lot of effort and time to build it.
Hopefully one of the modders would be able to give me some ideas on how to do this or take it on themselves if they thought it would be useful.
My concept is for a mod that will enable the user to aggregate mods and assets into multiple groups with the ability to then decide which ones they want to be active.
Item : Any mod, map, theme (map or district) or asset (Building, Prop, Vehicle, Tree, Net etc). Each Item can be included in many different Groups. Where an Item has dependent Items, typically a Prop used within a Building, the dependent Item is also included in the Group.
Group : A collection of multiple Items. Multiple Groups can be active at any one time. Against each Group the user has the ability to Enable or Disable the entire Group, with the presumption that a dependent Item will only be Disabled if it is not Enabled in any other Group. The user will also be able to open the group and enable or disable individual Items.
The mod will build a list of all of the Items in the game, including the C:S built-in items. Against each Item it will hold a list of the Groups that it is part of, any dependent Items, enable/disable flag, name, originator, item type, growable/ploppable flags etc (basically everything that it can find). Against Groups it will hold a name, enable/disable flag and list of associated Items.
Within the District Themes it should be possible to specify Groups and enable or disable them within the district.
The mod will save all of the information that is has and reload it next time. It will also be able to produce a report of the Groups and Items.
I believe that this can be built within a mod, but unfortunately although I have 50 years IT experience, I stopped programming many years ago when I became a manager. In addition, I have no experience in C#, Mono, Unity or the C:S structure so it would take me a lot of effort and time to build it.
Hopefully one of the modders would be able to give me some ideas on how to do this or take it on themselves if they thought it would be useful.