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I already grabbed the SC3000 soundtrack off of Amazon, though thanks anyway. I was thinking more along the lines of SC2000, and stuff like Sim Ant, ect. As for uploading the region before I start building cities, sure if you guys really want it. I will just have to figure out how to pack it up, and then find some sort of data hosting site to upload it to. (Though that shouldn't be too hard)
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Mar 22, 2013 21:58
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jadebullet posted:As for uploading the region before I start building cities, sure if you guys really want it. I will just have to figure out how to pack it up, and then find some sort of data hosting site to upload it to. (Though that shouldn't be too hard) You could upload the mapper file, that is easier. benzine fucked around with this message at 22:09 on Mar 22, 2013 |
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Mar 22, 2013 22:07
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Spiderdrake posted:What are the rules for passenger trains in this? Are they more of a region thing or something? Check out my post about rail transport earlier in the thread and don't forget to put bus stops in the zones where the jobs are; see my previous few posts for that.
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Mar 22, 2013 22:25
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Does anyone know if there is a fix for airports having insane crime levels, regardless of police coverage? Or is that intentional?
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Mar 22, 2013 22:44
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jadebullet posted:I forgot how enjoyable this game is. I have spent the last couple of hours working on terraforming my region and listening to the SC3K soundtrack. I haven't even started any cities yet, but I am still having a blast. Still, I wish that you could adjust the terraforming brush size other than zooming in and out. Hold shift to make the brush bigger, Ctrl for smaller. Hold Shift and press 1-9 to finely adjust the brush size, and Shift + F1-F9 to change the intensity.
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Mar 22, 2013 22:54
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funbar posted:Hold shift to make the brush bigger, Ctrl for smaller. You just made my life a hell of a lot easier. Thank you so much. The terrain manupulation is very similar to the train simulator that I build routes for, so I am not having much difficulty at all in making something that is detailed and cool. Now that I have the ability to change brush sizes and intensity I can do a lot more fine tuning of things. By the way, is there a way to make the edge adjustment stuff extend outward more and be smoother? It is really difficult to make mountains that pass through multiple tiles without having to spend a bunch of time getting the cliffs to not appear. (that and the map edges tend to curve downwards unless I spend some time with the plain tool) I just hope I am not overdoing it. It is hard to find a balance between a great landscape and a region that has plenty of non mountainous room to build cities and towns. (Thankfully I am intending to have 2-3 cities, and have the rest be towns similar to where I live) Also, coating the entire map in a very thick layer of trees won't cause any issues down the road will it? (besides a framerate hit if your computer is lacking I guess)
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Mar 22, 2013 23:05
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nielsm posted:Does anyone know if there is a fix for airports having insane crime levels, regardless of police coverage? Or is that intentional? It's a bug that has something to do with their huge lot size. That's also why universities and country clubs have lots of crime.
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Mar 22, 2013 23:11
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Masa posted:It's a bug that has something to do with their huge lot size. That's also why universities and country clubs have lots of crime. Holy crap, how did I never know that. And the Shift 1-9/F1-F9 thing. A decade of playing this and it still makes you feel dumb sometimes.
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Mar 22, 2013 23:18
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Masa posted:It's a bug that has something to do with their huge lot size. That's also why universities and country clubs have lots of crime. And to help that, here's a police station that will work especially well against the giant lot crime bug.
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Mar 23, 2013 00:20
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Can air pollution that forms along avenues/highways from traffic not be "solved" by air filtration plants/stations? Do I just have to get better public transit going to help keep that low?
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Mar 23, 2013 00:59
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Does anyone know why if I let SC4 sit on region view for a long period of time a thick, screen high cloud bank will roll in obscuring the region entirely and forcing me to reload the region? Is this a normal thing, or is it just some sort of bug?
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Mar 23, 2013 01:45
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Tired of playing alone or want to play with some goons? Then come play with us, we have open space and just broke the 1 Million sims mark. We have resolved most of the problems and it's very easy to play. jadebullet posted:Does anyone know why if I let SC4 sit on region view for a long period of time a thick, screen high cloud bank will roll in obscuring the region entirely and forcing me to reload the region? Is this a normal thing, or is it just some sort of bug? It's normal, don't worry.
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Mar 23, 2013 01:49
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Is there anyone on youtube who puts out decent, somewhat recent tutorial videos on some of the trickier parts of the game, like mass transit in a big city? Everything I find on youtube is either 3 years old, is in 240p, or is just somebody playing the game at double speed without explaining what mods they're using or what they keep putting down.
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Mar 23, 2013 02:33
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VDay posted:Is there anyone on youtube who puts out decent, somewhat recent tutorial videos on some of the trickier parts of the game, like mass transit in a big city? Everything I find on youtube is either 3 years old, is in 240p, or is just somebody playing the game at double speed without explaining what mods they're using or what they keep putting down. The game is 10 years old dude, information from 3 years ago is still valid today.
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Mar 23, 2013 02:35
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jadebullet posted:Does anyone know why if I let SC4 sit on region view for a long period of time a thick, screen high cloud bank will roll in obscuring the region entirely and forcing me to reload the region? Is this a normal thing, or is it just some sort of bug? I think it's specifically a bug with hardware rendering mode with clouds enabled. And it's completely harmless.
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Mar 23, 2013 02:37
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benzine posted:You could upload the mapper file, that is easier. So where would I find the mapper file? I am about 3/4 of the way done the region so I might be able to get it uploaded tonight.
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Mar 23, 2013 02:57
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jadebullet posted:So where would I find the mapper file? I am about 3/4 of the way done the region so I might be able to get it uploaded tonight. http://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2880, you have to register but totally worth it. benzine fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Mar 23, 2013 |
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Mar 23, 2013 03:04
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The link says that the file has been moved, or removed.
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Mar 23, 2013 03:50
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Sorry about that, added a comma. It should work now.
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Mar 23, 2013 03:52
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Awesome, thanks man. Edit: Just a preview of what's to come I guess. I did not do this on purpose. It is just the random design caused by the different tree types I was putting on a height elevation.  Edit 2: Well, I am finally done. Included is a link to the region exported with the program linked above. (Just let me know if I hosed something up in export or the link died.) Anyway, screens. I have to say that the elevation changes affecting trees made some really odd patterns including a sort of dinosaur looking thing, an angry chicken, and a melted looking ninja turtle. I have to say that I wasn't expecting that.   http://filesmelt.com/dl/northeast.rar Now to start actually playing the game. jadebullet fucked around with this message at 05:28 on Mar 23, 2013 |
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Mar 23, 2013 04:00
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Hey, how are you guys setting up your industrial areas? I've got a good setup for my residential and commercial areas (http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/inpr/su/sucopl/fugr/index.cfm) and farms are reasonably easy to setup, but my industrial parks are just so ... boring. Does anyone have a setup that doesn't suck, from an aesthetic standpoint?
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Mar 24, 2013 02:41
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null_pointer posted:Hey, how are you guys setting up your industrial areas? I've got a good setup for my residential and commercial areas (http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/inpr/su/sucopl/fugr/index.cfm) and farms are reasonably easy to setup, but my industrial parks are just so ... boring. Does anyone have a setup that doesn't suck, from an aesthetic standpoint? If you have endless time Peg's industrial stuff looks really nice. Also lots and lots of traintracks. edit: Benzine took a new picture of the Goon Multiplayer Region.  Playing multiplayer presents some unique challenges. Namely Back of the Bus stealing all of our commercial jobs. Koramei fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Mar 24, 2013 |
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Mar 24, 2013 02:48
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My bad, I should have been.more specific: does anyone have a good street / grid layout for industrial parks that doesn't involve just using a single arterial road and then just slapping down industrial zones, around it. The non-standard fused grid layout I linked to earlier is sort of what I'm looking for, only with industrial.
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Mar 24, 2013 03:39
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Koramei posted:Playing multiplayer presents some unique challenges. Namely Back of the Bus stealing all of our commercial jobs. And everyone else stealing my citizens. C'mon I'm paying for their livelihood! They should accept the education and healthcare and not run away.
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Mar 24, 2013 03:58
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It depends really. What sort of industry are we talking about, and how dedicated are you to setting it up time wise? I will break down some that I am familiar with, though I am going to describe them how they tend to be set up in the real world since that is what I have the most experience with thanks to wasting my life making layouts for virtual choo choos. That way you can adapt it to SC4 as you see fit. Industrial park/warehousing district: One arterial road with warehouses placed along it. There will usually be roads branching off of this with more warehouses, and to access warehouses further back. I haven't seen too much in the way of uniformity between the different warehouses and how they are spaced so feel free to stagger them a little. For some extra spice run a central rail spur into the park and have it service each Small Manufacturing Small manufacturing plants are right at home mixed in with the residential and commercial as well as thrown into an industrial zone. This being said, you have to think smart with your building choice. If it doesn't have a smoke stack(besides one for a stove to heat the building) then it could fit well. Some examples are: Textiles, newspaper printing and small, one building industries. While this has gone out of style in the modern day, the buildings tend to remain. Just keep them out of the city commercial center. Around the edges of this center would be perfectly fine, just make sure that they are small clusters of industry mixed in with the other buildings One addendum to this and the warehousing. If you have a main railroad station or yard for your city you are going to want to place some warehousing and distribution centers very near the station in a small cluster. Either that or download some sort of freight shed asset, which is essentially a large warehouse with railroad tracks heading into it in order to transfer from rail to truck. Large Manufacturing This was normally clustered into a central industrial district. The road layout would be a grid with various alleys, side streets and parking lots bisecting each square of the grid. The grid would normally be wider roads to allow truck traffic to traverse it without issue. There would probably also be a rail line servicing the area from the closest rail yard. Spurs from this line would weave between the factories. In sim city you could simulate these spurs with some well placed rail compatible buildings and freight depots mixed in with the industry. Also, if there is any sort of waterfront in your city there will normally be a good cluster of industry around there. Heavy Industry This is stuff like steel mills and other very large industries. These were small cities in and of themselves for the most part and were made up of a bunch of different buildings and districts all working together to produce the end good. There would be roads and potentially rails, as well as parking lots weaving throughout the complex and their layout would be far from uniform. Hopefully this helps somewhat. I know it is a little specialized, and might be difficult to implement in SC4. Just let me know if you need any more clarification on anything.
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Mar 24, 2013 04:59
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null_pointer posted:Hey, how are you guys setting up your industrial areas? I've got a good setup for my residential and commercial areas (http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/inpr/su/sucopl/fugr/index.cfm) and farms are reasonably easy to setup, but my industrial parks are just so ... boring. Does anyone have a setup that doesn't suck, from an aesthetic standpoint? Ugh, gently caress these guys. They're still thinking solely in terms of optimization. There are a couple of problems with this design. First, it separates commercial business from the parkland too greatly, making it so that residents have to choose one or the other for their destination rather than be able to enjoy a little of each. In addition, the park spaces they've plotted are too small to be considered "destinations" and too small to provide the air and space that a real park can provide. I'd imagine these narrow parks would become under-utilized and end up a lot like the "parks" between the gigantic LeCorbusier-inspired projects in New York and other places around the US: creepy no man's lands. The scale given is small enough that it might work (and to be fair, they're not dealing with the height and resulting shadows that the projects do) but they're still going to end up with a variation on the same suburban soullessness they're trying to dodge. Then again, I'm a crazy Jane Jacobs acolyte, and none of this has to do with Sim City. There are quite a few things you can do. GrandFromage discovered something rather interesting in his LP: all industrial buildings within a particular zone will route traffic through one road-connected building, so only one building in a given zone has to have road access. The building everything routes through is called an "anchor building." This gives you more leeway zoning-wise: there's no need for a grid. However, all the buildings which sprout off the "anchor building" will be of the same type (dirty, manufacturing, or HT;) so it's a little limiting that way, but also nice in terms of controlling what grows. A nice little twist if you're looking to build pristine hi-tech office parks. I like to snake loads of rail through my industrial areas along with the occasional greenbelt or park to break up the tedium. Modders have also made huge industrial mega-lots with a ton of jobs, like this: http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/25332-bsp-fisher-body-plant-21-maxis-night. You can plop some of these and build around them to spice things up. A whole bunch come in OldFashioned as both ploppable and growable (I picked anything that looked decent and had a growable option;) whether you're using the modpack or not, you'll find them in the landmarks tab. Honestly though - ever been to northern New Jersey? A lot of industrial areas in real life tend to be pretty monotonous and awful, especially more modern developments. The exceptions to the rule tend to be company towns set up to revolve around a specific industry. One of the earliest examples of this (and a particularly good one) is Lowell, Massachusetts. There are some decent aerial shots in the wikipedia article to give to some idea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowell,_Massachusetts. To simulate this sort of thing, you're going to need some megalots. Here are a couple for ya: http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=138 http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=24 http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=62 http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1059 http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1291 http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2925 Here's one you can build a whole town around: http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2578 Welcome to dependency hell.  There's a pack someone mande of all the dependencies in the OP, if you want to get into this it will save you a LOT of trouble.(For the record, I've been adding to the OP sporadically as people post good stuff. If there's anything anyone feels should be in there, just suggest it and I'll add it in.) edit: It's nice to be beaten by a really good post! *PUNCH* fucked around with this message at 05:21 on Mar 24, 2013 |
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Mar 24, 2013 05:17
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null_pointer posted:The non-standard fused grid layout I linked to earlier is sort of what I'm looking for, only with industrial. *PUNCH* posted:Ugh, gently caress these guys. So I guess we're all familiar with the Fused Grid? I was going to make a little post eventually about how I tried a proof-of-concept, entirely FG city, and it's turned out really well so far, but I'm not sure it's worth it now. *PUNCH* posted:There are quite a few things you can do. GrandFromage discovered something rather interesting in his LP: all industrial buildings within a particular zone will route traffic through one road-connected building, so only one building in a given zone has to have road access. The building everything routes through is called an "anchor building." This gives you more leeway zoning-wise: there's no need for a grid. However, all the buildings which sprout off the "anchor building" will be of the same type (dirty, manufacturing, or HT;) so it's a little limiting that way, but also nice in terms of controlling what grows. A nice little twist if you're looking to build pristine hi-tech office parks. Holy. poo poo.
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Mar 24, 2013 06:19
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Also for realistic industrial areas: Use the single track rail mod. It makes for much more realistic rail spurs.
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Mar 24, 2013 06:29
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Just wondering. Is there any way to make traffic be more persistent? It seems that every car and truck spawns, lasts a second, then disappears.
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Mar 24, 2013 06:38
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jadebullet posted:Just wondering. Is there any way to make traffic be more persistent? It seems that every car and truck spawns, lasts a second, then disappears. Might be outdated, or there might be something better, but this is what I used to use: http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/23362-persistent-automata-mod/ Though if I recall, it was a bit taxing on performance in an already performance-challenging game.
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Mar 24, 2013 06:42
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jadebullet posted:Just wondering. Is there any way to make traffic be more persistent? It seems that every car and truck spawns, lasts a second, then disappears. When you're installing NAM, there are options for the traffic, just that it's called automata. E;FB!
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Mar 24, 2013 06:44
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Longbaugh01 posted:So I guess we're all familiar with the Fused Grid? I was going to make a little post eventually about how I tried a proof-of-concept, entirely FG city, and it's turned out really well so far, but I'm not sure it's worth it now. We're probably not as a whole, and it'd be cool to have more urban planning talk. There really should be another proper urban planning D&D thread - the subject tends to become very political very quickly. I'm a little effort-ed out from this OP and, to be honest, I read a lot but I'm by no means educated or an expert on the subject. In regards to fused grid itself, it works beautifully in SC4! Unbelievably well! But in real life I'm a fan of more traditional small-block grids with an "overlay" of major traffic arteries (and, of course, green spaces that break these patterns up.) It would seem to me that fixed-grid is excellent at minimaxing all types of traffic and utility concerns like water drainage and land usage. But it completely fails to account for the people and businesses actually occupying that space. I guess the crux of my argument is a little existential: a traditional grid system is far more flexible at adapting to change than a fixed grid system, because a traditional grid is simply a framework which can be easily modified to suit the needs that a modern city requires. In real life, demographics and land usage in cities changes constantly: for instance, the recent wave of gentrification in Brooklyn has created new economic centers in surprising places (I have extremely mixed feelings about this, but this isn't the thread for that.) There's been a ton of new construction, and a lot of areas have been significantly changed to accommodate this: huge apartment complexes, additional commercial space, and the infrastructure which comes with these things. The same can be seen in other cities around the United States. With fixed-grid, all the avenues, thoroughfares, and places of business have been pre-defined (a lot like sim city, really.) This is hard to manage when a neighborhood's usage changes. For instance, a residential area transitioning into a commercial center is going to require easier and more thorough road access, both for customers and freight, increased security, new parking complexes, and all the additional infrastructure which comes with these things. Modifying a fixed-grid system to accommodate this will destroy a lot of its original benefits. So in my mind, fixed-grid fails for the same reasons LeCorbusier and a lot of other over-ambitious planners have failed: it tries to anticipate and engineer human behavior. We know more about ourselves than ever before - enough now to be humbled by our own unpredictability. Fixed-grid is nowhere near as heavy-handed as LeCorbusier was, of course. But I think it has the potential to be a pitfall: some kind of weird cross between deadening suburbia and this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruitt%E2%80%93Igoe - which, again, might work pretty well in Sim City. Longbaugh01 posted:Holy. poo poo. ... Yeah, I'll add that to the OP. Edit: For those interested in architecture/urban planning philosophizing, here's a really interesting artistic argument: http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/downloads/awards/Sylvie_Taher_DennisSharpAwardPaper.pdf It's a bit shoddy, only because it requires a lot of background knowledge to be intelligible. You'll need to know about Rem Koolhaas's 1972 thesis: http://socks-studio.com/2011/03/19/exodus-or-the-voluntary-prisoners-of-architecture/ and LeCorbusier's thoroughly psychotic visions of urban renewal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Corbusier#Forays_into_urbanism This outta calibrate the upper limit of your pretentio-meter pretty easily. VVVVVV To me, that SC3k project echoes a lot of LeCorbusier's nuttier (and definitely Orwellian) plots. More green space in his renderings, maybe, but the ideas are pretty much dead-on. *PUNCH* fucked around with this message at 08:32 on Mar 24, 2013 |
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Mar 24, 2013 08:13
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On the topic of SimCity urban planning, particularly as it pertains to efficient use of space and population density, I would like to remind everyone about the terrifying (and rather worrying) project that is MAGNASANTI. Also, the very interesting and reassuring article from Vice. Glorgnole fucked around with this message at 08:31 on Mar 24, 2013 |
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Mar 24, 2013 08:22
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My town keeps complaining about long commute times and I can't figure it out. Can someone give me some advice? I've included pics of the town if that helps 
g0lbez fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Mar 24, 2013 |
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Mar 24, 2013 16:05
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You need to stick a radio station up there, get really good coverage.
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Mar 24, 2013 16:23
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Is my plugin folder too big? It takes 18 to 20 minutes to load from clicking the shortcut to having the come up. Surprisingly the game is stable and even in my largest city of 5.2 million I can run it on cheetah. I'd make it a mod pack but we have plenty of those and I doubt if anyone would want to deal with the load time. If you want to recreate my mod pack download everything with four stars or better from STEX and most everything on LEX.
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Mar 24, 2013 16:36
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GodlessCommie posted:Is my plugin folder too big?  And I thought the Old Fashioned was big, have you tried datpacking it?
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Mar 24, 2013 16:42
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More importantly, have you tried removing duplicate files/dependencies? There are a number of programs that can help you find these and remove them easily. Did WONDERS for my startup time.
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Mar 24, 2013 17:16
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So I may have to remove the high def textures and run in software mode. That being said, what specifically do I have to delete from my plugin folder to do that if I am running Old Fashioned? Edit: By the way, does anyone else build there cities the way I do? I start them as a small town linked with other small towns. Then the sectors that I designate as a city, I slowly begin growing and expanding until it is an actual city. Or do you guys just jump right into city layout design? Oh and a few more railsperg tip for a more realistic city. -Adding a main rail yard will definitely help to increase accuracy to your city. You can also add a few more, smaller rail yards at other key locations. -Depending on how large your city is and how it is set up, a commuter line can be pretty realistic as a mass transit system. Just a bunch of small stations linked to the main rail artery, normally linking the commercial and residential districts. (Look up the Long Island Railroad or Metra for examples of this) -Quad track is acceptable in some cases depending on your traffic density. -Around the turn of the century railroads had a poo poo ton of money and underwent a modernization process in regards to their rail. In cities this usually meant that they tried to minimize railroad crossings, either by going under or over the existing roads. Once you get big enough, feel free to rebuild your rails by adjusting their height above the road. There are quite a few good overpass and embankment mods for SC4 to do this. -Cities were not a "one railroad town." If you want accuracy, create a rail line linking two destinations. Then create a second line either running semi-parallel, or linking something else to the city. Don't connect the lines together for the most part with the exception of lines going between yards on each of the railroads(interchange yards) or lines heading to a large, central Union station. -Speaking of large central stations these will give quite a bit of realism to your city. Just make sure that they have a capacity to have a large number of tracks running either through or into them, and that there is a small yard nearby to handle the servicing of the trains between runs. There will also normally be a small-large freight warehouse nearby to handle the express freight cars that the trains bring in. -Abandonment happens. Modeling it can add realism to some areas of your city. This can be done many ways. -Have a path of just empty space making a path through your city -Do the same as above, but put a walking path on it. (rails to trails) -Have what is now a spur end in one of these paths -Have a bunch of empty space next to your rails to represent a yard that was removed. -Have a few roads with an isolated railroad crossing where they pulled the rails, but not the crossing due to the logistics of it.(high traffic, ect.) -Finally, cities are also places where the railroad had many junctions. This is where the track splits off to go to other places. jadebullet fucked around with this message at 17:55 on Mar 24, 2013 |
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Mar 24, 2013 17:24
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And readmes and images, also help a lot. At least some modders have the decency to install their files outside the plguins folder.
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Mar 24, 2013 17:25
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