BYO Apartment mod - Where to start?

DaniellaKrywko

Hey everyone!

So, I'm new to modding and I realize this is probably a big task for a new modder. I've been wanting to join the modding community for a while and I feel like this is just the thing to pull me in. Plus I have some experience with Python and I'm looking for ways to practice it. I've followed a few tutorials on the basics and I'm hoping I have a good idea of what this modding process is going to look like.

I want to write a mod that allows the user to build their own apartments.

Here are my goals for the mod, along with some smaller goals I assume will be necessary to meet the bigger goals (I'm sure there will be plenty more, this is just from my initial research):

The user must be able to change the lot assignment from residential to apartment and back again.
Requirements:

Unhide the Apartment lot type

make sure there is handling for a change from apartment to residential.

I hope to use EA's apartment picker mechanics for adding households from the map.
Requirements:

The lot must be uninhabited when adding or removing apartments so that no stand-in is required for doing this in build mode

The user will create an apartment by grouping each room in a lot into either an apartment or a common area.
Requirements:

A button on the build mode UI which will allow the user to manage the apartments on the lot (i.e. define a new apartment, delete an apartment definition and add all rooms to another, etc.)

Some new buttons on the UI that pops up when a room is selected. I'm thinking a dropdown that lists the common area and each defined apartment. The user will select which one the room will belong to.

If necessary, fiddling with EA's existing apartment mechanics to make them accessible and user-friendly

Again, all of these options must only be available when the lot is uninhabited

I also have some extra goals that I don't plan to look into until the above goals are met, though the first couple may be easy enough to pull off once I know what I'm doing. In order by how achievable I think each one is:

Apartments may be multi-story

Each room in an apartment must either be touching a common area or another room in the apartment.

The user may add or remove apartments to homes that are already inhabited and decide which family should live where directly from build mode.

In addition to 'Apartment' and 'Common area', a third 'inactive' type that will allow the user to raise an apartment several floors, Evergreen Harbor style. Floors that are entirely 'inactive' will not contribute to build height limit, allowing for San Myshuno style high-rise apartments. Elevators will skip inactive floors

An apartment lot may have multiple lot-types; allowing for bars, lounges, etc. to co-exist with residences within an apartment building. If not residential lots, perhaps just commercial lots will be able to co-exist (Think of this as a super-stretch goal. I think this will far overcomplicate things, but it would be super cool as a feature.)

Does anyone have any leads for this project? What am I going to have to dig into to figure this out, and what will be my best approach? Also, how can I use the data from lots that already exist in the game as reference as I am writing this?

Any help and/or advice is very much appreciated!