Boston Central Artery/Tunnel Project (Big Dig)

[joost.ueffing 0]

Originally posted by: blahdy

hope this explains the rational behind the subway

quote>

Yep, that more than explains it...

Too bad Maxis wouldn't be willing to release the source code to modify so this could be done.

This work-around would work quite well, espically for those of us who haven't made any rail system in our cities yet.

I'll have to post the results when it's released and I have it installed.... I'll have to start figuring out where to put it now!

Out of curiousity, what are going to be the dimensions of the various pieces? (sounds like some of my sims are going to get their land expropriated soon!  

[blahdy 21]

The T3-GHT1 model (groundHW to underground transition) is 2x5 tiles. The on/off-ramps are typically 1x4 tiles.

Big Dig lots take little space in general. Even in real world, they are designed to reclaim your land from ugly and congested elevated via-ducts, so you can reunite your city's downtown through parks and new office/residential complexes.

[joost.ueffing 0]

Now from the render you've show the high-capacity tunnel entrance is a three land enterance. Will that connect to a normal one-way street?

[blahdy 21]

Okay, the final model's rendering is now complete.

All models have been delivered to ndex for modding.  we should have some news on modding progress in a bit.

joost.ueffing: yes you connect one-way road into the GHCT1 model.

[Gecks_II 0]

Sweet jumping jelly beans!

Your a MONSTER!!!!...lol.. This is sooo awesome!!! thank you very much!! I always go through cycles of playing for a few months then RLF takes away my time.. then when I have time again, I venture back to Simtropolis.. and see the hard work that people like you blahdy do and it just excites me to go back and micromanage my cities to get that special little thing that makes it unique. Enough with my blabber. Thank you so much for you contributions!

On a side note, ever thought of perhaps making sunken highway pieces (ie: straight aways and curves or even overpass skins) based on this style that are transit enabled? I donno about other people, but I realy love that clean look this project has. And you seem to be a master at detailling and the small touches.

[blahdy 21]

thanks Gecks_II. Yes, sunken highway pieces will be made ofcourse, they are all part of the master plan

BTW everyone:

The Simoleon cost of these Big Dig lots will be pretty high / expensive just for your information. Big Dig costs more than skyscrappers. But then again most of you use cheat codes anyway so who cares..

[cowkilla 12]

yah i wish i did not cost 5 bucks to make a road... but i guess its not really reality

[Meastro444 1]

ah, nice to hear.

in two days it will be released.

the final version will have a mml lot in it? will there be an high capacity exit, because there is a high capacity entrance

thank you very much for this project.

Meastro444

[blahdy 21]

there won't be MML for first version, but we will add that to future releases, along with LOD fixes (as stated before, the version 1.0 will not show cars passing into the tunnel due to LOD complexity that we have yet to address, but like i said, they will function perfectly as they are designed to).

the version 1.0 only has HC (high capacity) on-ramp, based on Tip O'Neil tunnel portal in south bay interchange at Boston. Off-ramp will be made for future release, and it will be probably based off of Albany Street/Renovated Dewey Square Tunnel exit portal for I93 southbound in south bay interchange area.

[Meastro444 1]

thank you very much for that info

Meastro444

[shasta 1]

Originally posted by: blahdy

Originally posted by: shasta I just had a thought:

Could the subway be modded to appear as underground highway when two lines are drawn side by side, like with the ANT network and the Rural Highway mod?

Might be something to look into.quote>

yes, but the only problem is that doing so will affect all subways, including your train lines.  I don't think that's something people will want.

Given that Big Dig tunnel systems are ridiculously expensive (putting tunnels underneath downtown is not a cheap job, real world version costs 14.6 billion after various corruption scandals involved in it),  most people won't be putting these tunnels everywhere in their city, just in downtown area to make the area neat and clean.  So given that there will be more train-based subway lines in any given particular city than big dig subway lines, I think it's best to leave it as is for now... unless there is a way to make a 2nd type of subway but I highly doubt that.quote>

I can understand your concern, but if done right, such a mod would only affect the side-by-side underground highway tubes and not the traditional subway lines. Allow me to explain...

With the ANT network, when you draw just one line, it is still ANT network. It doesn't turn into Rural Highway (RHW) unless you draw a second line next to it (two halves of a whole highway), and the effect occurs only on the two side-by side pieces. Once the RHW effect has occurred on these two lines, you can drag the lines in any direction and they will still be RHW, but ANT network lines not connected to it will still be ANT network. Someting structured similar to this is what I had in mind.

[blahdy 21]

interesting.. i think it's certainly worth looking at options here.

not sure if there is similar feature for subway circuits though? may be some experienced modders reading this thread could comment on this i think.

[SC4Noobie 5]

I think it applys for all transit networks. Then again, I'm not a modder. Waiting for the release, 3 days to go!

[pilotdaryl 25]

On-ramps will be a problem, as well as off-ramps.

[StylinLancer 0]

The Big Dig making news again.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13955493/

[blahdy 21]

Originally posted by: StylinLancer The Big Dig making news again.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13955493/quote>

Yup.

I do support the way governor is handling this situation though (as do both senators of the state).  He has officially placed Matt Amorello out of the loop in getting this problem resolved, which is one of the best steps required to fix the situation at hand.

Hopefully we'll get these tunnels back online as soon as possible, but not until they are perfectly safe to do so.

There will be a hearing soon for Matt Amorello's non-willful severence, conducted through a lawsuit filed by the governor's office.  Let's hope the panel decides to remove Amorello out of the picture and pave the way for MTA (Mass. Turnpike Authority) to be reformed completely so that there will be accountability and responsibility for its activities.

[Ramona Brie 121]

Modding update, please?

[blahdy 21]

Personal Replies

Tracker:  It's being modded right now, that's all I can say at the moment.  As soon as I have some updates, I will keep you all abreast of developing news.  I'm hoping to have some good news hopefully tomorrow.  But as soon as I know, you guys will be the first to know

SC4Noobie: I believe it does, yea..   But at least using subways lets you create your own interchanges and curved tunnels, etc... pretty neat already.

Meastro444: No problem, thanks for your question.

cowkilla:  Yea, it will be $22K (in Simoleons) for ground highway transition, $13K for high capacity on-ramp and $10K for each on/off-ramps.

Pilotdaryl: With all due respect, you are the last person that I would be listening to for any form of advice.  Please stop talking like you are in charge of the Big Dig, I've had enough.  And by the way, it appears I'm not the only one who's not appreciative of your actions.  It seems Voltaire was in the same boat months ago with his RMIP-2 project.  May I suggest you modify your behavior and tactics a little.

[ILL Tonkso 1,239]

Guys please, dont let me continue my forum rampage, just be nice eh?

[blahdy 21]

Originally posted by: ILL Tonkso Guys please, dont let me continue my forum rampage, just be nice eh?quote>

Note that I have maintained my cool until some controversey had occured in the past few days, which I'm sure you have gotten the "memo."  I have well explained my reasons, and I will leave it there and cease.

[SC4Noobie 5]

Great work! Please blahdy, don't get ticked off by what people say, and just continue the project. I'm going to keep my mouth shut about things I don't understand. I'm not trying to be mean, and in your situation, I probably would have gotten fustrated.

[blahdy 21]

SC4Noobie: no worries and thank you for your comment.  This project will continue unaffected, it had been a remarkably reliable project for the scale of work required and still need to be done, and I'll see to it that the project remains on the course for the benefit of the community.

I am simply trying to protect the structure integrity of this project in which pilotdaryl had been testing through blatant copy of specific ideas of this project.  For example, the Y-split on-ramp, something that had been designed and planned for here, but before a publication of how it is even going to look like, he takes the idea and slaps a model on it which is far different from what I had in mind.  It just gives the wrong impression to the people on how the upcoming Big Dig models are going to look like when someone spies in this thread and makes a mockery of it on his own thread.  Same can be said about the vent buildings.  And I think I have mentioned another dissatisfaction with pilotdaryl's conduct in his thread, near the bottom of page 2, but I don't want to repeat that here.  What needed to be said had been said.

For this reason, from now on, there will be increased intellectual protection in disclosing upcoming ideas.  I'll disclose what I consider and/or decide to do until there is a model to show, not while I think about it, in order to protect the integrity and value of this project from being compromised by third party versions popping up with stolen ideas.  I do not need someone else to tell the community what my ideas are going to look like, I can present them myself.

We're still aiming for the release date, and I believe there will be some situation update that I can give tomorrow.  I would not worry about reliability of this project, the work continues unaffected.   Thanks!

[stephenh2 0]

_{I, as you can see, have posted very little, but this project is really worth not only reading, but responding to. Blahdy,this has been said before, but this project is amazing, to put it mildly! Good thing I stumbled upon this as now I have something besides the High Sped Rail Project to look forward to! And to make it even better it's near release! The main bridge you made is absolutely stunning. As soon as it is released you can be guaranteed that i will design an entirely new city around it! Thank you for making this game even more usefull, realistic, and fun all the same time. You have truly made my last two days!}

[Muntted 0]

Hey, great project. Just wondering though the impact of having left hand drive traffic in sim city. Will this mod be compatible?

[blahdy 21]

Thanks a lot stephenh2 for kind comment! It means a lot and encourages the project indeed.

Muntted: unfortunately not at this time..

Good news, ardecila from NDEX has completed modding of all version 1.0 big dig lots. The only remaining steps now is final Q&A testing tomorrow and packaging it with both organization logos and what not. So far it appears we're on schedule for the 22nd release.

[Meastro444 1]

YES< cant believe it, i hope it will be on the stex before i go to bed, so i can watch work for a while

[toxicpiano 125]

yay! it looks fantastic, admitadly I wasn't sure at first because of the different road textures to the game, but it does look a lot better now and i look forward to DLing it. I would like to say in support of you, pilotdaryl's whole "I'm better and know more than you" attitude is uncalled for on any thread.

[StylinLancer 0]

I bet if they kept records on ST, blahdy's number of downloads on the first day this is released will be outrageous and an all-time record.

[Kack 0]

This is an amazing project blahdy. I have followed this project for a long time now, but I've never commented (don't ask me why). I think these big dig lots would be used in almost every CJ in a long time I'm looking forward to the release.

[beto_080480 0]

Blahdy, your work is truly amazing, though it's been said, I had to say it myself. This is the first time I have ever posted a reply on any forum, and this project made me want to flip over. When do u sleep dude?