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Thanks Punch. Didn't realise there wasn't a tech fix in oldfashioned. Good thing it came up because I'm about to start the techno park. I'll probably download version 3 anyway just too check it out and seed. BrassRoots fucked around with this message at 12:01 on May 7, 2013 |
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May 7, 2013 10:57
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Is there any mods which just expands the available options with SC4 highways? I don't like RHM. 
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May 9, 2013 22:14
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Imapanda posted:Is there any mods which just expands the available options with SC4 highways? I don't like RHM. Same for me really, I don't really get the appeal of RHM. I've made huge, complicated cities with tons of mods and NAM stuff but the RHM is way too finicky for even my taste. Mostly I'm concerned that I'll misplace a puzzle piece and render my highway useless. NAM has some good interchanges for the maxis highway though.
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May 9, 2013 22:17
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So the photos I had up earlier of my Fhuzo are quite old now. If anyone is interested in seeing how some organic growth has occurred in one of my cities here is a link to an album (Album Here) I tried to have a few suburbs with the edges defined by the raised high-way. Inside I use a hill as an area to keep clear of buildings but also a reason to have curved roads. Trees are now my best friends and are included everywhere. Here is how my Techno Park turned out: 
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May 12, 2013 02:48
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Is there a way to stop ramps from disappearing when going from the old version of NAM to the current one? Having to completely rebuild all of them isn't very appealing. Edit: Nevermind, I realized I didn't install the elevated street/road/avenue pieces. Reinstalling NAM fixed it. Masa fucked around with this message at 08:21 on May 22, 2013 |
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May 22, 2013 05:34
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Wow, cool McDonald's. Is that a STEX?
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May 22, 2013 08:49
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Yup.
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May 23, 2013 02:15
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*PUNCH* posted:For the record, I'm working on Old Fashioned 3.0. It will include the HT-I fix along with the new stable NAM and a few buildings. But mostly I'm trying to organize the file system so that it's comprehensible. Oh dang, I already cut apart and recombined the OFP to work better with SC4DatPacker as well as my habit of going on LEX/STEX downloading streaks. I wasn't paying attention before I tore it apart and merged it with my own collection, do you pack a Cleanitol file in there? Then I could just easily search for dupes when you're all done with 3.0 before repacking it. And actually, is there a generic file utility out there I can use to search blah:\duhh\fart\Documents\Sim City 4\Plugins for duplicates? Like, something that'll compare all the hashes and at least handle identical files, if not data that's included in two .dats?
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May 24, 2013 02:54
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Any tips for designing realistic looking subway and rail lines? I find that I keep winding up with tangled messes of rails.
frogge fucked around with this message at 07:00 on May 24, 2013 |
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May 24, 2013 06:55
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bobthedinosaur posted:Any tips for designing realistic looking subway and rail lines? I find that I keep winding up with tangled messes of rails. That sounds about right though? 
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May 24, 2013 07:31
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bobthedinosaur posted:Any tips for designing realistic looking subway and rail lines? I find that I keep winding up with tangled messes of rails. SC4 doesn't give you particularly good tools for it, especially not subways, but you can try following common patterns for local rail transport, at least. Generally you see the star pattern (lots of lines radiating out from the city center, usually each line actually continuing through, having a few stations in common with other lines) and the ring line pattern (typically not forming a full circle for various reasons.) At the scale of SC4 it can be hard to make meaningful amounts of realistic-looking railway constructions inside a single city tile, you'll have to build stations much closer than they would be in reality. On a micro level, there are a few things you can do to make realistic-looking stations and junctions. First, the "bypass" pattern which SC4 requires for rail transport to work efficiently, is typically not used in reality. If you can find a way to, at least visually, have four tracks, two each direction, and platforms on just the outer or just the inner, but have it work the same as bypass stations, that would be more realistic looking. Commuter rail typically will have some yard area near the center of a star, as well as at historical ends of a line. However if a line has been extended several times, there will usually still be just a single yard area, and typically not at the end. Don't overdo yards for commuter rail, just make some 4-8 short dead-end tracks for cosmetic purposes. At a star center yard, they can be non-dead ends too. Add a cosmetic shed, washer and such if you can find any, but typically only a minor part of rail yards are under roof. Don't bother trying to make subways look neat on a micro level, the way the stations and track laying works it's pretty much impossible. Just focus on the overall network layout.
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May 24, 2013 07:54
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SO I just bought this. I am looking to build a city, mostly European style. Which Megapack should I download? I really would like to not sift through the millions of mods I know exist for this game. edit: specifically, mods like NAM are still updated (last update april 2013 etc.) Is there an modpack which is up-to date? Edit: would it be feasable to download the old fashioned modpack, install the new NAM and then a few newer houses/mods (specifically a European street/rail mod of some sort)? Or will this horribly break my game? Boner Slam fucked around with this message at 15:57 on May 25, 2013 |
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May 25, 2013 14:40
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No, that's pretty much what I did. The new NAM has a good installer and actually requires the old nam to be installed already. Just download old fashioned and put into plugins folder then download new NAM installer from simtropolis then run installer. Now you can enjoy with the buildings! Seriously though, this game will ruin you. I didn't think it was possible to spend 2 hours trying to get the entrance to a rail station looking just right but it happens.
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May 25, 2013 20:29
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Yeah it worked great but I dunno, are there any tips to get all those public transport stations working properly? I have those "Urban/Rural bus stations" placed all over but no one uses them. The rail stations are really spotty as well. Are there tips on how to build this poo poo properly?
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May 25, 2013 23:04
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Boner Slam posted:Yeah it worked great but I dunno, are there any tips to get all those public transport stations working properly? I have those "Urban/Rural bus stations" placed all over but no one uses them. The rail stations are really spotty as well. Check my previous posts by clicking the ? under my avatar. I have some guides on how to position road entrances and rail / bus stations in order to encourage public transport use.
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May 26, 2013 01:38
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I've had nothing but terrible luck with all custom Bus/Subway lots. No one ever uses them and/or they break transit (if they're station-in-road). Only Maxis subway stations seemed to work for me. Though I haven't tried with the most recent Old Fashioned pack so that might have been fixed.
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May 26, 2013 02:47
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bobthedinosaur posted:Any tips for designing realistic looking subway and rail lines? I find that I keep winding up with tangled messes of rails. You could try doing a Soviet triangle? http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=210499
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May 26, 2013 03:09
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I'm still on my first region and I'm regretting choosing New York because everything is so flat which makes it much easier to end up with samey grid cities everywhere. I was wondering if anyone had some recommended regions with a good mix of features such as found in this image:  I've already downloaded that Fhuzo region from the OP, but not sure if I want to use that one yet.
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May 29, 2013 17:47
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So I have a city of about 20,000 and I'm starting to put in some water & basic education to get sims happier The problem is when I build a school, it immediately fills up past capacity and the teachers go on strike. I fund the schools to max, but they still go over that. Is there a way around this, or do I have to just keep building schools until everyone is happy?
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Jun 1, 2013 15:26
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triplexpac posted:So I have a city of about 20,000 and I'm starting to put in some water & basic education to get sims happier Lower school bus funding so it pulls from a smaller area of people; preferably it should be in the middle of your rich district. It shouldn't be long until you get the large versions of the schools, though.
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Jun 1, 2013 15:31
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triplexpac posted:So I have a city of about 20,000 and I'm starting to put in some water & basic education to get sims happier Well if you have more students than free space at schools, naturally the solution would be to build more schools to accomodate them?  If you're using the Old Fashioned Pack there's a pretty good, high-capacity school in there specifically for cities. If you're 100% against new school building you could always reduce bus funding to make a school's coverage radius smaller, thereby reducing the number of students it will need to service.
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Jun 1, 2013 15:32
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Christmas Present posted:And actually, is there a generic file utility out there I can use to search blah:\duhh\fart\Documents\Sim City 4\Plugins for duplicates? Like, something that'll compare all the hashes and at least handle identical files, if not data that's included in two .dats? Also curious if someone knows of something like this. I just installed the Old Fashioned pack and my plug-ins folder is kind of a nightmare now, and the game is taking forever to load.
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Jun 2, 2013 12:59
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Yeah, on that note, is there a set up including mods that emphasizes stability and loading time? My father loves Simcity, but his patience for crashes is about nil, so I've been reluctant to try to get him playing 4.
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Jun 2, 2013 16:21
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Spiderdrake posted:Yeah, on that note, is there a set up including mods that emphasizes stability and loading time? My father loves Simcity, but his patience for crashes is about nil, so I've been reluctant to try to get him playing 4. A basic NAM + the bugfix mods will be fine. It fixes the gameplay issues the base game has, everything on top of that is basically eye candy.
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Jun 2, 2013 16:35
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And on single core it (usually) doesn't crash very often.
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Jun 2, 2013 16:58
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HappyHelmet posted:Also curious if someone knows of something like this. I just installed the Old Fashioned pack and my plug-ins folder is kind of a nightmare now, and the game is taking forever to load. I use this http://download.cnet.com/Auslogics-Duplicate-File-Finder/3000-2248_4-10964299.html
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Jun 2, 2013 21:58
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Bernardo Orel posted:I use this http://download.cnet.com/Auslogics-Duplicate-File-Finder/3000-2248_4-10964299.html Thanks! Worked like a charm  Hopefully on my way to faster load times again.
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Jun 3, 2013 00:41
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Not to double post, but I thought I would chart my progress for you guys on the new region I decided to start. I like to grow my regions naturally and thought some of you might find it interesting to see my take on how to do that. Step 1: Find a map   I decided to go with something on the small size as I tend to burn out on the larger maps. So here we have a small 3x4 large tile map using an area of the Columbia River. Obviously it needs some work to make it usable. So... Step 2: Terraforming  Smoothed out a bunch of the little hills and rivers to make areas for farms and cities. I also made the area in the middle south more mountainous as I thought it needed some variety. Also out of necessity I expanded some of the islands for connecting the islands via bridges later. The island near the middle that intersects four plots will be a bit of a bitch to build on, but I'll manage. Step 3: Fine tuning & trees   I connected one of the islands to the mainland in the lower right tile to make it easier for connections later, and also expanded some other islands for the same reason. When it comes to trees I used to try and design realistic looking forests based on the terrain, but over time it always ended up looking unnatural to me. Especially once you start adding in cities. So this time I just blanketed everything with trees, and I think it looks much nicer as a result. It was also much easier this way because the tree planting tool always brings my computer to it's knees and trying to be careful while using it is difficult. That's it for terraforming! I'll update as things progress assuming people are interested.
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Jun 3, 2013 05:01
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Always like to see a region come together. Keep posting.
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Jun 3, 2013 08:16
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Oh god, the Old Fashioned pack adds so many tree options. I hate cycling through so much crap. Is it safe to delete a bunch of that stuff, or am I stuck keeping it all in there. Also need to go through and pick out a bunch of the ploppables. I never use them and they clutter up the UI something awful .
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Jun 4, 2013 07:32
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I've got a large tile city that's almost entirely filled out with a population of 315k. I've got buses, roads, subways, monorails, rails and avenues but still commute times are like 90 minutes. I've never really laid down highways with any success before but I'm thinking about doing it now. How do most of you make highways? I never make them until after I've built a city as I find that most of my transportation needs get taken care of in other ways until I start getting metropolises going.
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Jun 6, 2013 04:18
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bobthedinosaur posted:I've got a large tile city that's almost entirely filled out with a population of 315k. I've got buses, roads, subways, monorails, rails and avenues but still commute times are like 90 minutes. I generally use them sparingly. After my cities are pretty will developed I'll run a couple highways through the region much like I do with railroads.
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Jun 6, 2013 06:24
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If you're doing them gamey, connect high traffic/long distance routes. Like cross-town to work or something, look at the traffic map and build appropriately. If you're going for realism look at how highways are used in the kinds of cities you're emulating and run 'em all around the region.
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Jun 6, 2013 06:28
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Some updates on my region. Note, that I do steps 4 & 5 with the game paused. Even in hard mode (I always play on hard) you should have more than enough cash to lay out these early developments. Step 4: Railroad, depots, and power   While perhaps not the case so much in the Eastern US, railroads were often the driving force behind cities and towns in the Western US (where I grew up and use as a model when designing regions). With that in mind I always lay down railroad first when I start a region. The pink lines in those photos are not perfect, but are close to following the (hard to see) rail lines I set up. Using so many bridges to link up the islands is probably a little unrealistic, but whatever. While you lay down rail, don't be afraid to use a lot of diagonals. They are a pain in the rear end to build around later, but they force you to be creative. It can be the difference between boring grids and something that looks more realistic. After I lay down the rails I place rail stations and depots at (somewhat) regular intervals (the blue dots in the pictures) in places that make sense along the rail lines. This is a very important step as each of these depots and stations will later become "proto-towns" that will then become the cities/towns that populate the region. As I don't want to bother with logging and mining towns I generally base my depots on available farm land and water access. Next comes power as you can't have a Sim City game without it. When laying out power I try to avoid having areas 2 tiles away from a power plant. It just ends up being a pain in the rear end as you end up having to buy your power through an intermediary tile. The town of Baguette in my region is like this, but that town should remain small enough that it shouldn't be much of a problem. However, I may add some wind power as things develop to that tile anyway, just to save the hassle. Step 5: Proto-towns  Next step is laying out the basis' for what will later become the cities and towns of the region. In this example we have the Kugelhopf rail station. First thing I do is run a road through the town. I try to think about road placement as little as possible while I do this because the more you think about it the more likely you will end up with something unnatural. Just lay some road down haphazardly and go from there.  Building off of the road I lay down some random streets, again, I do this in a haphazard fashion. I like to put a bit of commercial on the main road, and randomly place housing on the streets. Note, there are no schools, fire, police, etc, at this point we only want to build the bare minimum. Later I will add farms to these areas, and hit the play button and officially get started.  Moving away from Kugelhopf to the Ciabatta area you can see what things look like zoomed out. Note that the town of Ciabatta has a power plant in it. I like to assume that towns with a power plant would naturally have a larger population so I build them a little bigger than the places with only a depot. I also put down some proper industry in these places as you have to figure farmers would not be to keen on having crops next to coal plants. Ciabatta is also located on an important rail junction between the Westward running line and the North-South line which would make it a very important part of the region with lot's of through traffic. Also note that I like to use signs to name towns within the large region tiles. This early in the game the towns are way to small to fill up a large tile. In real life larger cities often incorporate the smaller towns surrounding them to later become neighborhoods/burroughs with-in the cities, so it makes sense in that context as well. So to the West of Ciabatta we have the two small farming towns of Panmarino, and Grissini (as well as another just to the south, but out out of the picture). Still working on the next parts, but I'll update as I finish them.
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Jun 7, 2013 04:00
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Thanks for doing these walkthroughs. I keep trying to get into this game but have never been able to figure out how to get a region up and off the ground.
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Jun 7, 2013 04:51
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Yeah this is more or less how I build too, except when I want to build some giant multitile metropolis, then I build the highway first since it's a pain to plan any kind of layout in an already developed, FPS-destroying megacity. The key to pretty and realistic cities Simcity 4 is to force yourself to build in a random faashion rather than going for efficiency. Just think of what kind of industry would fit a certain area of the map, build some industry and infrastructure there and start building some nice houses for the workers. The city will eventually create itself.
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Jun 7, 2013 10:31
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bobthedinosaur posted:I've got a large tile city that's almost entirely filled out with a population of 315k. I've got buses, roads, subways, monorails, rails and avenues but still commute times are like 90 minutes. I do region play, and I generally have a rough idea of what my region will look like (where major cities, bridges, highways and railways will be) and I build that stuff first in my cities, and build off of that. All my major cities are connected by a big highway network. Since I build major transportation hubs in cities first, I build my neighborhoods off of that. In those cities, most people arent more than a few minutes from the nearest onramp
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Jun 7, 2013 14:07
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Shibawanko posted:Yeah this is more or less how I build too, except when I want to build some giant multitile metropolis, then I build the highway first since it's a pain to plan any kind of layout in an already developed, FPS-destroying megacity. Yeah, laying down highway can be a real bitch, but I like to think that is pretty accurate to real life so I don't pre-plan it. Also I like to imagine the SC2K system of starting you at the year 1900 is still in place and advanced stuff hasn't been invented yet. Random is definitely the best way to go. When you start planning things out, and being efficient you just end up with grids, and I find the fun wears thin quickly doing that.
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Jun 7, 2013 14:57
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So I've decided to wade into mod territory with the help of this thread, but I have one small problem that is kind of amusing. Seasons are working fine on all lots, but all the PEG Seasonal wilderness and birch tress are all backward and southern hemisphere-y. So in May, the wilderness is turning red and lots are blooming; in November, the, wilderness thriving and lots are dead. I've tried reinstalling the seasonal packs to no avail; is there some other mod that might be doing this that was included in the packs? Oh and random crashes. I'm using a combination of the first two packs listed (Aside from goon megapack- link seemed dead), but I've deleted duplicate files so 
PoizenJam fucked around with this message at 05:42 on Jun 8, 2013 |
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Jun 8, 2013 05:35
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Are you loading the game through the launcher available on STEX? If not, do it. then you can choose launch options that will make it a lot more stable. Personally, i go 1 core, high priority and use OpenGL for graphics. works really well for me. As for seasonal stuff, check the description before you plop. Most will tell you what month to plop it so that the colours change at the right times. I know for most seasonal trees they recommend plopping during September. This lines up with the other non-ploppable trees that come in building lots. Besides, a month is just a number. What's the big deal if it is a 3 or a 9?
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Jun 8, 2013 06:49
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