Advanced tags for building plugins

[Lobby]

Hi everyone, in this thread I present you some advanced properties that you may be set for your plugins. For basic information how to write a plugin, please have a look at the basics tutorial.

Attention: Do not use these information to reconstruct addons whose contents you found somewhere else. That's not how we want you to use the plugin system. Please use it only for your own graphics/graphics others explicitly provided you for usage in the game.

So here we present (almost) all tags which can be used in your plugin description file, and to which object you can put them in:

Plugins

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active

(optional)
If not set, plugin won't be loaded. Default is true.

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id

Unique identifier for each plugin.

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type

States the type of the plugin. Possible values are:

• residential
• commercial
• industrial
• farm
• harbor ind
• harbor pier
• park
• sport
• public
• religion
• award
• energy
• water
• medic
• police
• swat
• fire brigade
• education
• bus depot
• destroyed
• decoration
• buoy
• railway station
• waste disposal
• body disposal
• military
• building
• category
• notification
• ground
• terrain
• data
• script
• template

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title

(optional)
Title for the building. Should be English if distributed. Default is null.

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text

(optional)
Description for the building. Should be English if distributed. Default is null. If type is notification, it will set the notification text

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author

(optional)
Author name of the plugin.

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category

The ID of the category the plugin is in

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ordinal

Plugins with a lower ordinal will be listed first

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width

Tile width of the base of the building.

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height

Has to be the same as width.

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frames

Graphic frames definition of the plugin. Is an array of frames. Each frame has the form

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{"bmp":"image_name.png"}

At least one frame has to be given. If multiple frames are given, player may select one of them in the game (default).

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border frames

Ground only.
An array of 16 frames to use when the ground touches another one. The image has to be like this

wbck.png (13.63 KiB) Viewed 54898 times

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edge frames

2 16×48 frames to use when the ground is at the edge of the map. They have to be like this

world_0_0.png (3.03 KiB) Viewed 54897 times

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edge border frames

No idea. Everything I know is that they have to be 32 frames. Try using the same frames as the ones you used at "frames"

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frames winter

(optional)
Works as frames. If you define it you have to provide the same number of frames as in frames. These frames will be used when winter is enabled.

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random frame

Every time you place the building, a random frame from the frame array will be selected

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smoke

(optional)
List of smoke sources. Have a look at the listing of defined smoke types for more information. Position is relative to pivot point of the building.

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animation

(optional)
Similar to smoke, can be used to place smaller animations on your building. Position is relative to pivot point of the building. May look like

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"animation":[{"id":"$animationblinkingredlight3x3","x":70,"y":-107}],

to position a 3x3 pixel sized blinking red light at the specified relative position.

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level

(rci only)
For residential, commercial and industrial buildings only: Building level, should be 1, 2 or 3.

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needs road

(optional)
Determines whether a road connection is needed for this building. Default is true.

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needs land

(optional)
Determines whether building can only be built if at least one ground tile is land (not water). Default is true.

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needs water

(optional)
Determines whether building can only be built if at least one ground tile is water. Default is false.

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build time

(rci only, optional)
Build time in days. By default this value is inferred by height of the building.

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influence *

Sets the influence of the building
Possible keys are:

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"influence pollution"
"influence noise"
"influence health"
"influence police"
"influence fire department"
"influence park"
"influence sport"
"influence education low"
"influence education high"
"influence culture"
"influence management"
"influence religion"
"influence passenger bus"
"influence passenger train"
"influence residential"
"influence commercial"
"influence industrial"
"influence level0"
"influence level1"
"influence level2"
"influence radioactive"
"influence nature"
"influence waste disposal"
"influence body disposal"

Example

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"influence noise":82,

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provide aspect *

Can be used to set the student capacity of a school
Possible keys are:
"provide aspect education high"
"provide aspect education low"
"provide aspect health care"
For example:

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"provide aspect education high":5000,

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animated

(optional)
If true, multiple frames will be used for animation. Use may not select specific frame anymore. Default is false.

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price

(not rci, optional)
Price of the building in Ͳheos. Default is 0.

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monthly price

(optional)
Monthly price of the building in Ͳheos. Default is 0.

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power

(optional)
Produced amount of energy by this building in kWh. Default is estimated by building size.

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water

(optional)
Produced amount of water by this building in L/h (negative values for need). Default is estimated by building size.

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max count

(optional, not rci)
Max number of buildings of this type in the city. Default is -1 (no limitation).

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draw ground

(optional)
If set, ground tiles of the building will be drawn. Useful for buildings that are partly transparent on ground. Default is false.

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rotation aware

(optional)
If set, given frames will be used for rotation. In this case you have to provide a multiple of 4 frames. Default is false.

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map color

Only for terrain and zones. For example:

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"map color":{"r":255,"g":255,"b":0}

will make the terrain look yellow in the map

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map color winter

Like map color, but only displayed on winter

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habitants

(optional, r only)
Number if habitants in this building. Is inferred based on size of the building by default.

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workers

(optional, ci only)
Number of workers in this building. Is inferred based on size of the building by default.

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auto build

(optional, rci only)
If set, building can be built automaticially. Default is true.

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conductive

(optional)
If true, this building will conduct energy. Default is true.

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super conductive

(optional)
If true, this building will conduct high voltage energy like transmission lines. Default is false.

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destroyable

(optional)
If false, the building cannot burn. Default is true.

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removeable

(optional)
If false, the building is locked so that it cannot be removed by the player. Default is true.

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meta

Can be used, for example, in cars to set in which kind of building do they spawn

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"meta":{"tags":{"carres0":{}}}

Scroll down to see all tags appliable inside the "tags" node.

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fun

See this

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upgrades

Sets the upgrades the building can have
Value is an array of plugins.
Some additional notes:

• price, monthly price, water, power and influences will be added to corresponding values of the building when the upgrade is applied
• You can also provide animations as for regular buildings, but no smoke
• You can set "only one":true in an upgrade to state that no other upgrade may be active at the same time. We use this for example for the radio station were you can have selected only one program at the same time.

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add prices

A single id or array of ids of other drafts whose building price should be added when building this plugin.

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supports shoreline

For buildings only. If set to false the building cannot be built if there is coast under it.

True by default.

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draw ground water

For buildings only. Draw water under the building like old versions of the game which did not use tile based water drawing. If your building does not rely on water being drawn underneath it setting this attribute to false can improve drawing performance of the game. If draw ground is active this setting will be ignored.

True by default for plugins for compatibility reasons.

Frames

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bmp

Sets the file to get the image from.
The file has to be in the same folder as your code
Default is the world texture

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x

The horizontal position of the frame in the graphic. Default is 0

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y

Like x, but vertically

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w

Sets the width of the frame to be selected
For example:

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"bmp":"jssj.png","w":32,

Will display only the left 32 pixels of the image

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h

Like w, but with height

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count

This will repeat the frame <value> times to the right

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"frames":[
{"bmp":"a.png","w":32,"h":16}
{"bmp":"b.png", "w":32,"h":16}
]

Is the same as

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"frames":[
{"bmp":"a_and_b_put_together.png",
"count":2,
"w":32,"h":16}
]

...
TODO: HANDLE X AND HANDLE Y
REASON: NO IDEA WHAT IT IS


Meta

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carres0

For level 1 residential cars

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carres1

For level 2 residential cars

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carres2

For level 3 residential cars

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carcom0

For level 1 commercial cars

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carcom1

For level 2 commercial cars

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carcom2

For level 3 commercial cars

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carind0

For level 1 industrial cars

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carind1

For level 2 industrial cars

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carind2

For level 3 industrial cars

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firework

See here

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supports slope

Determines whether this building handles slopes on it's own (graphically). Enabling this will not draw the concrete blocks under the building. Usually only recommended for decorations and in combination with "draw ground":true.
Usage:

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"supports slope":true"

false by default.

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supports terrain

Indicates whether this building can be placed on terrain in general (if not the building will only be placeable on flat areas).
Usage:

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"supports terrain":false

true by default.

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budget item

Buildings that have monthly income or spendings usually appear in the budget view in the associated category, that is e.g. parks for buildings of type park. You can define your own type of budget, called budget item. That is a data object that will be used to provide a name for the item. To assign a building to that item add the "budget item" attribute to the building's code:

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"budget item":"$budgetitemid00"

That's how the definition of the budget item itself would look like:

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[
  {
    "id":"$budgetitemid00",
    "type":"data",
    "title":"My item...",
    "meta":{
      "tags":{
        "budget item":{}
      }
    }
  }
]

JSON checker

Check

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...

Order matters, so you will have to ensure that the budget item was loaded first.

[Lobby]

Since version 296 you may let buildings (e.g. decorations) automatically spawn in map creation. To do so, we added an object called "spawn" which contains probability p, main spawn height height and max deviation from it radius.

A small sample plugin that spawns grass in the ocean:

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[
  {
    "id":"$myspawntest00",
    "type":"decoration",
    "width":1,
    "height":1,
    "frames":[{"x":0,"y":0,"w":32,"h":16}],
    "needs water":false,
    "needs land":false,
    "draw ground":true,
    "spawn":
    {
      "p":0.01,
      "height":-600,
      "radius":600
    }
  }
]

JSON checker

Check

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...

To give you some intuition about what height means I measured some height values in this map:

[Lobby]

Added attribute sound click to provide a sound file (from within your plugin's directory) which will be played when user taps on your building.

Example:

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"sound click":{"file":"sound.ogg"}

A variety of audio formats is supported, see this listing for more information.

[CommanderABab]

Additional flags for ground only (we have no thread for ground, yet) that specify color in the minimap:

map color (default={"r":72,"g":93,"b":96} for water and {"r":68,"g":96,"b":48} otherwise)
Color of this ground type in the minimap if it's not winter.

map color winter (default={"r":72,"g":93,"b":96} for water and {"r":239,"g":239,"b":239} otherwise)
Colors of this ground type in the minimap in winter.

Usage:

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"map color":{"r":72,"g":93,"b":96},

[Barky]

Isnt Influence a tag?

[Lobby]

You're right, influences aren't covered, yet.

[mdk_813]

[*]animation (optional)
Similar to smoke, can be used to place smaller animations on your building. Position is relative to pivot point of the building. May look like

Code: Select all

"animation":[{"id":"$animationblinkingredlight3x3","x":70,"y":-107}],

to position a 3x3 pixel sized blinking red light at the specified relative position.

Hi Lobby,
I would like to make my own blinking light, that is an animated version of the red lights which you can see on my TV tower for example. Could you please provide the png of "$animationblinkingredlight3x3" here, so that I can see what it looks like?
Thanks!

[malsa]

What is RCI mean?

[Kulche]

What is RCI mean?

Residential, Commercial, Industrial

[malsa]

What is RCI mean?

Residential, Commercial, Industrial

Oh i see ._.

[Brody Craft]

What is RCI mean?

Residential, Commercial, Industrial

Oh i see ._.

Since when you didnt knwo about that

[Lobby]

Could you please provide the png of "$animationblinkingredlight3x3"

Of course, it's not a secret.

redlights.png (208 Bytes) Viewed 57227 times

greenlights.png (212 Bytes) Viewed 57227 times

bluelights.png (212 Bytes) Viewed 57227 times

whitelights.png (213 Bytes) Viewed 57227 times

These animations are all built into the game as $animationblinkingredlight3x3, $animationblinkinggreenlight3x3, $animationblinkingbluelight3x3 and $animationblinkingwhitelight3x3

The definition looks just like

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[
  {
    "id":"$animationblinkingredlight3x3",
    "type":"animation",
    "frames":[{"bmp":"redlights.png","w":3,"h":3,"count":8}]
  }
]

[JustAnyone]

Could I get all of rank ids in PM? Thanks.

[mdk_813]

Could you please provide the png of "$animationblinkingredlight3x3"

Of course, it's not a secret.
redlights.pnggreenlights.pngbluelights.pngwhitelights.png

These animations are all built into the game as $animationblinkingredlight3x3, $animationblinkinggreenlight3x3, $animationblinkingbluelight3x3 and $animationblinkingwhitelight3x3

The definition looks just like

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[
  {
    "id":"$animationblinkingredlight3x3",
    "type":"animation",
    "frames":[{"bmp":"redlights.png","w":3,"h":3,"count":8}]
  }
]

Cool, thank you!
One more question, though, would it be possible to add animation and make the building rotation aware at the same time? I assume, I would have to define the coordinates of the animation for every frame then?

[Lobby]

Yes, you can do that by using animation indices. With them you can say which animations should be visible for which frames (in this case different frames represent different rotations, but that's just a special case of having multiple frames).

Here an example to outline how it works for a simple animation like the blinking red light:

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[
  {
    "id":"$random_plugin",
    "type":"deco",
    "width":2,
    "height":2,
    "frames":[{...}], // 4 frames
    "rotation aware":true,
    "animation":[
      {"id":"$animationblinkingredlight3x3","x":52,"y":-10}, // this is animation 0
      {"id":"$animationblinkingredlight3x3","x":52,"y":-20}, // animation 1
      {"id":"$animationblinkingredlight3x3","x":12,"y":-20}, // and so on
      {"id":"$animationblinkingredlight3x3","x":12,"y":-10}  // ...
    ],
    "frame animation indices":[
      [0], // animations to show in first frame: 0
      [1], // animations to show in second frame: 1
      [2], // and so on
      [3]  // ...
    ]
  }
]

Another solution would be using rotation aware animations, but I think that's not a good solution because the animation shouldn't "know" about your building so it can be reused more easily.

[KINGTUT10101]

Since version 296 you may let buildings (e.g. decorations) automatically spawn in map creation. To do so, we added an object called "spawn" which contains probability p, main spawn height height and max deviation from it radius.

A small sample plugin that spawns grass in the ocean:

Code: Select all

[
  {
    "id":"$myspawntest00",
    "type":"decoration",
    "width":1,
    "height":1,
    "frames":[{"x":0,"y":0,"w":32,"h":16}],
    "needs water":false,
    "needs land":false,
    "draw ground":true,
    "spawn":
    {
      "p":0.01,
      "height":-600,
      "radius":600
    }
  }
]

To give you some intuition about what height means I measured some height values in this map:

@Lobby

Is it possible to make a decoration spawn past a certain height. Ex: I want my decoration to spawn at heights lower than -350. A few examples of heights that would work for this could be -360, -477, -2234, etc. Heights that wouldn't work could be -220, 300, etc.

[CommanderABab]

Press to uncollapse...Since version 296 you may let buildings (e.g. decorations) automatically spawn in map creation. To do so, we added an object called "spawn" which contains probability p, main spawn height height and max deviation from it radius.

...A small sample plugin that spawns grass in the ocean:[code][
{
"id":"$myspawntest00",
"type":"decoration",
"width":1,
"height":1,
"frames":[{"x":0,"y":0,"w":32,"h":16}],
"needs water":false,
"needs land":false,
"draw ground":true,
"spawn":
{
"p":0.01,
"height":-600,
"radius":600
}
}
][/code]

To give you some intuition about what height means I measured some height values in this map:
...

@Lobby

Is it possible to make a decoration spawn past a certain height. Ex: I want my decoration to spawn at heights lower than -350. A few examples of heights that would work for this could be -360, -477, -2234, etc. Heights that wouldn't work could be -220, 300, etc.

Not pretending to be Lobby, but couldn't you do this?

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[
  { 
    "id":"$myspawntest00",
    "type":"decoration",
    "width":1,
    "height":1,
    "frames":[{"x":0,"y":0,"w":32,"h":16}],
    "needs water":false,
    "needs land":false,
    "draw ground":true,
    "spawn":
    {
      "p":0.01,
      "height":-360,
      "radius":10
    }
  },
  { 
    "id":"$myspawntest01",
    "hidden":true,
    "type":"decoration",
    "width":1,
    "height":1,
    "frames":[{"x":0,"y":0,"w":32,"h":16}],
    "needs water":false,
    "needs land":false,
    "draw ground":true,
    "spawn":
    {
      "p":0.01,
      "height":-450,
      "radius":25
    }
  },
  { 
    "id":"$myspawntest02",
    "hidden":true,
    "type":"decoration",
    "width":1,
    "height":1,
    "frames":[{"x":0,"y":0,"w":32,"h":16}],
    "needs water":false,
    "needs land":false,
    "draw ground":true,
    "spawn":
    {
      "p":0.01,
      "height":-2250,
      "radius":100
    }
  }
]

[KINGTUT10101]

Yes, but that's not exactly what I was asking about. Those numbers I provided in the example were heights that a decoration could spawn at if I wanted heights below -350. I didn't want it to spawn at those specific heights, they were just examples of where they could spawn.

[CommanderABab]

Ok, so make it

Code: Select all

 "spawn":
    {
      "p":0.01,
      "height":-1350,
      "radius":1000
    }

[Ahmad Nur Aizat]

Can I get a full list of plugin building types? Just to make sure...