sc4-humane-society-ordinance

A DLL Plugin for SimCity 4 that adds a Humane Society ordinance to the game.
This ordinance is based on the Humane Society ordinance suggestion in this post, and has the following properties:

Availability Requirements: At least 1 hospital or clinic. The original suggestion did not include this, but I think it makes sense given the per hospital/clinic cost.
Expense: Base cost of $-50/month plus $-5 per hospital/clinic.
Effects:

• Increases mayor rating by 5 points.
• Reduces crime by 5%.

The plugin can be downloaded from the Releases tab: https://github.com/0xC0000054/sc4-humane-society-ordinance/releases

This plugin also serves as a demonstration of how to create a custom ordinance DLL with availability requirements and a custom monthly cost calculation.

System Requirements

• Windows 10 or later

The plugin may work on Windows 7 or later with the Microsoft Visual C++ 2022 x86 Redistribute installed, but I do not have to ability to test that.

Installation

1. Close SimCity 4.
2. Copy SC4HumaneSocietyOrdinance.dll and SC4HumaneSocietyOrdinance.ini into the Plugins folder in the SimCity 4 installation directory.
3. Start SimCity 4.

Changing the plugin text

Because plugin DLLs don't have access to the game's code for handling LTEXT files, translation is handled by adjusting the Name and Description values in SC4HumaneSocietyOrdinance.ini.
Note that the text is expected to use UTF-8 encoding.

1. Open SC4HumaneSocietyOrdinance.ini in a text editor (e.g. Notepad).
   Note that depending on the permissions of your SimCity 4 installation directory you may need to start the text editor with administrator permissions to be able to save the file.

2. Adjust the Name and Description values in the [Ordinance] section.

3. Save the file and start the game.

Troubleshooting

The plugin should write a SC4HumaneSocietyOrdinance.log file in the same folder as the plugin.
The log contains status information for the most recent run of the plugin.

License

This project is licensed under the terms of the MIT License.
See LICENSE.txt for more information.

3rd party code

gzcom-dll Located in the vendor folder, MIT License.
Windows Implementation Library MIT License
Boost.PropertyTree Boost Software License, Version 1.0.

Source Code

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio 2022

Building the plugin

• Open the solution in the src folder
• Update the post build events to copy the build output to you SimCity 4 application plugins folder.
• Build the solution

Debugging the plugin

Visual Studio can be configured to launch SimCity 4 on the Debugging page of the project properties. I configured the debugger to launch the game in a window with the following command line:
-intro:off -CPUcount:1 -w -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32

You may need to adjust the resolution for your screen.

Source Code Layout

HumaneSocietyOrdinanceDllDirector.cpp is the main plugin file. It handles the setup that SC4 requires to load a DLL, and adding the ordinance into the game.

HumaneSocietyOrdinance.h defines the methods that the ordinance overrides for its custom behavior.
HumaneSocietyOrdinance.cpp provides the implementation for the methods that the ordinance overrides.

OrdinanceBase.cpp is the base class for HumaneSocietyOrdinance. It handles the common logic for a custom ordinance. OrdinancePropertyHolder.cpp provides the game with a list of effects that should be applied when the ordinance is enabled. The effects can include Mayor Rating boosts, Demand boosts, etc.