Colossus Addon Mod

The Colossus Addon Mod (CAM) is a plugin for SimCity 4 that changes the game by adding additional growth stages to all of the development types found in the game.

CAM Developers

People credited with aiding the development of CAM include (in the order acknowledged in the Manual):

• Indisguise
• BarbyW
• Wouanagaine
• JMyers2043
• Shoreman905
• Rayden
• MAS71
• Jplumbley
• Andreas
• Callagrafx
• Tropod
• RippleJet
• Tag one

Early Development

Inspired by this post from Tropod at Simtropolis in 2005, RippleJet began testing what would become CAM, first posting his findings at BSC's private site before making them public. These posts can be found here.

How CAM Affects the Game

Development of growable (RCI) lots in SimCity 4 is based on a property called growth stage. In SimCity 4 (Vanilla and Rush Hour) residential and commercial lots are available in growth stages 1 through 8, while industrial (including agricultural) lots grow in stages 1 through 3.

The Colossus Addon Mod extends these growth stages to:

• Residential: 1 through 15 (9 through 15 are exclusive to CAM)
• Commercial: 1 through 15 (9 through 15 are exclusive to CAM)
• Industrial: 1 through 10 (4 through 10 are exclusive to CAM)
• Agricultural: 1 through 7 (4 through 7 are exclusive to CAM)

Summarized in a table:

Type	Residential	Commercial	Industrial	Agricultural
	(R$, R$$, R$$$)	(C$, C$$, C$$$)	(I-D, I-M, I-HT)	(I-R)
SC4:	1-8	1-8	1-3	1-3
SC4+CAM:	1-15	1-15	1-10	1-7

This might sound like CAM merely allows for additional buildings in the game - which it does. However, CAM does not simply append to the relevant exemplars the ability to use higher growth stages, it completely replaces the growth tables. What this means is that CAM completely rewrites how cities and regions grow. The effect this has on the game is commonly referred to as being more realistic, in that cities are required to build out before building up more so than in the unmodified version of the game. Additionally, CAM has the effect of creating a more even distribution of growth stages present at any given time.

CAM also revises the RCI Demand Ranges. Because CAM allows for much higher growth stages, and thus much higher populations, the game default of +/- 6,000 is insufficient.

Another impact of CAM is to revise what wealth levels of sims work in what wealth levels of jobs, particularly allowing for some portion of R$$ sims to be employed in CS$, I-D, and I-R jobs.

CAM also changes Workforce Drives, Development CAPs, Desirability, Crime Attenuation, and a fix for the Grand Railroad Station. More information about these can be found in the CAM Manual.

CAMeLots and CAMpatibile Lots

Because CAM adds several new growth stages to the game, it is necessary to create lots for these growth stages. Lots that only grow at stages exclusive to CAM (9-15 for residential and commercial, 4-7 for industrial) are called CAMeLots. A list of all available CAMeLots can be found here. Many CAMeLots are large lots that were designed prior to the release of CAM and placed in Stage 8 (or Stage 3 for industrial), but contain far more residents or workers than would be appropriate for buildings of those stages. Relotting these buildings into higher stage lots allows them to grow at a time that would be more appropriate for their development based on city and region size. CAMeLots can only be used with CAM.

CAMpatible lots are those that grow at stages available in the unmodified game, but have had their occupants (residents or workers, depending on type) set so that they match the growth curves used by CAM. These lots can be used with or without CAM.

Additional Notes:

• Because of the widespread changes that CAM makes to the game, a number of high stage buildings that come with the game are revised by CAM into the appropriate growth stage for use in CAM. This change is reversible with the uninstallation of CAM.
• Civic buildings are not affected by CAM. You may find yourself suddenly needing much larger schools, hospitals, etc. when playing with the higher populations easily reached with CAM.
• CAM has some interesting effects on farms (I-R lots), especially at higher stages. This allows for what are effectively high-stage farms, while maintaining some realism as to what you might find in a larger metropolis - including nature preserves, historic sites, and so on.
• CAMeLots can be counted using the CAMeLot Counter, a plugin that allows you to get detailed information about the CAMeLots present in a city.

InCAMpatible Mods

Because of the widespread impact on growth that CAM has on the game, a number of mods developed throughout the years are incompatible with CAM, and can cause problems when used in conjunction with CAM. For the most part, these are mods related to altering growth stages, jobs, abandonment, and Maxis lot blocking or replacement. A list of mods known to conflict with CAM can be found here, as well as in the Manual.

Sources

• CAM Board at SC4D [1]
• CAM Manual 1.0 [2]
• Posts donated by xxdita