Modding – Service Firms

This tutorial assumes that you have already created a mod. You will learn how to convert your mod into a “service” version by changing some of your retail firms into service firms.

Step 1) Edit Buildings.DBF and change the FirmType field of those firms that will become service firms from “RETAIL” to “SERVICE“.

Example: changing Pizzeria, Fast Food Shop, and Business Shop in Real World MOD from retail firms to service firms.

The following image shows the modified Buildings.DBF.

Step 2) Open Service_Firm_Products.DBF which is a new file for defining the types of products that the service firms offer.

It contains the following fields:

BuildCode – the building code of the service firm. It should be a code defined in Buildings.DBF.

ItemClass – it specifies that the service firm offers products from this product class. It should be a code defined in Product_Classes.DBF.

If a service firm offers products from more than one product class, you can define multiple records for one service firm.

Traffic_EF – a service firm can increase customer traffic in local area. This Traffic Effect field, ranging from 0 to 100, specifies the relative strength of the service firm’s ability to boost customer traffic.

Example: adding the following records for Real World MOD.

It specifies that Fast Food Shops offer Fast Food products, and Pizzerias offer Pizzas.

The row with the BuildCode being “ENERGY”  is actually the Business Shop. In Real World MOD, Business Shops can sell Public Utilities, Insurance, Service and Telecom Products. 

Since Business Shops can offer products from these 4 product classes, 4 records have been created to link them to this firm type. For the fact that Public Utilities, Insurance, and Telecom Products are weak in driving customer traffic to local areas, their Traffic Effect variables are set to zero.

MOD Kit with Service Firms Download

Since version 8.2, Capitalism Lab has two game content sets. The mod kit for the vanilla game content set can be found at the subfolder MOD_KIT under the Capitalism Lab folder.

The mod kit for the game content set with service firms (fast food, pizzerias, coffee shop sand cake shops) can be downloaded here.

RealWorld MOD Service Edition Download

If you are interested in looking at the source files of RealWorld MOD Service Edition as a reference for adding service firms into your mod, you may download the mod files from the following links:

RealWorld MOD Service Edition v12.0

RealWorld MOD Service Edition v12.0 Full Source