[Patched] cityfran 1.2 (bingav method) 21-Sep-2011

This sub-plugin cityfran does:

(1) Register a new franchise-name with no cost, if necessary,
(2) Place franchise item onto neighbor's city, in order to get free item.

Almost all buildings and decoration items can be placed as franchise, either as coin or as cash items.
Suggested to not place unreleased items, as they probably will lock out recipient's city.
Do not place the same item twice (more than one) to the same city (same neighbor) by the same donor.

Credits: Bingav & other users involved in the bingav's thread discussions.
This plugin is an implementation of Charles method, first explained by bingav (thanks to him) in this thread.

You need a donor and recipient(s) with a business lot:

1. As recipient (franchisee), a main-city or a dummy city can be used.
2. As donor (franchisor), should be a dummy. Highly recommended, as donor you do not use main-city due to high risk.
3. Each recipient's city must have at least one business lot (biz_lotsite_4x4).

Warning:

• Do NOT place franchised-item onto stranger's lot without permission. You will be reported and will be banned. Place it only onto your own cities (main or dummies).
• Highly recommended NOT to run this sub-plugin on your main-city. Run it only on dummy cities with LOW CASH.
• Cash buildings & cash decorations franchising will cost CASH. Though you don't need to pay cash if yours is lower than the price.
• Disclaimer: No 100% success guarantee. Run this subplugin at your own risk.
• If you are not sure about what will be done by cityfran, then please do not run this plugin for your own goodness.

An example case:
If your donor city has 10 cash or more, and the price of franchising is 10 cash (for an example), then you will lose 10 cash!
If your donor city has 5 or 6 or 9 cash (lower than 10), and the price of franchising is 10 cash, you will NOT lose any cash.
(If you have lower cash than the price, then there will be no payment.)
That's why you should only run this sub-plugin on a dummy city with low cash, as already warned above.
note: The price of 10 cash above is only an example. Franchising price is different between items. Coin item will cost coin, cash item will cost cash. If there is payment, then the price is paid by donor city, while recipients do not pay any cost.

Note:
--List of items' image and data can be examined in wikia or cityreq plugin.
--Attempting to place the same franchise-item to the same neighbor`s city for second time, probably will result in error.

After you get free (franchise) items, you have choices to:
* Keep franchise-item on the city as it is, or
* Send / store it to Inventory.

--If you want to send/store franchise-item from city to Inventory, do a Charles-debugger's sendToInventory method: (bingav`s how to)

--Items in Inventory can also be sent to other main/dummy city: (cryptosmashr`s how to) //note: better to be a neighbor to main-city to avoid loss of item.
--You can also use 12Christiaan`s Multi plugin to send Inventory's items.
--You can also use @vincenzo method, to use modified Sell plugin to do sendToInventory method. Click to visit vincenzo's plugin.

Important: There are items that possibly will turn your city to a stuck-city, then your city will be locked forever. That's why you should be very careful when placing non-building items and non-decoration items.
Even it's NOT recommended at all to place non-building / non-decoration items. You have been warned

In case there is new released item with new type, users can add it via "Add New Types" tab. (Attention: this is "item's type" not "item's name"). New item's type can be seen in the "tmp_dir\gameSettings.xml" file.
Warning: Please be very careful when trying to place new released items for franchising. Especially when you try to place that new franchise to main-city. Make sure you know exactly that the items will not lock out your city. Test them first on a dummy city to make sure it's safe, and ask forum first in case other users want to share their experiences.

Download: v1.2 at Mediafire (Run only this subplugin on a dummy city with low cash)
Change log:
v1.2
-- Fix lowercase item names bug.
-- Change franchise name to friendly name.
-- Change GUI.
v1.1
-- Add new function: "Add New Types" tab to let user adding new "item's type".
v1.0
-- First release.