city center without "standalone" bulidings

[LeifInge 0]

Is there a way to get a downtown with buildings standing wall-to-wall, and not just buildings with lots of space around...?

[Sim shady 12]

Are you talking about a europe styled city? there are a lot of good european styled buildings on the stex that touch wall to wall. check out this link to porkissimo he has a lot of that kind of building. https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?page=1&Keyword=porkissimo&view=all

[LeifInge 0]

european style yes, do I have to plop each building in the city center my self to use them?

[spa 968]

If you're careful with the type of buildings you let grow and if you download w2w bats than yes. Check out Mackeast's CJ Kilkenny for a great example of a dense downtown.

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=36&threadid=75890&STARTPAGE=8&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

[LeifInge 0]

w2w bats?

[spa 968]

Sorry. w2w is a acronym used in the community. It means wall-to-wall. w2w buildings will fit snugly up against other w2w buildings. There are a number of them on the STEX.

[LeifInge 0]

do i need to plop the wall-to wall buildings myself?

Building by building...?

[DuskTrooper 314]

Like this, maybe?

100% grown, and not plopped.  it IS possible.

[DOXXP29 5]

I rarely use ploppables, and when I try to get a city with a large population going, it's hard for me NOT to avoid w2w buildings. One suggestion would be to start a small core and keep expanding outward from that central core a little at a time. (Zone high density). If the city is going to grow, it will do so in a tightly packed area. As you add room to expand, move outward by a few blocks, let that pack itself in, then zone another few blocks, etc, etc. You'll soon have skyscrapers so tightly packed you won't be able to see the streets. (This, of course, is assumung your city is optimized for growth and have plenty of demand.) If I want to avoid w2w buildings, I really have to work at it by throwing in "obsticles" like a mountain, river, parks, etc or leave areas of land unzoned, otherwise, the cities just fill themselves in eventually. This is especially true if you're playing multiple cities in a region.

[LeifInge 0]

I'm not looking for lots of skyscrapers, but buildings with 4-5-6 stories... To make a downtown in european style... I want to make a city which is realistic, with a downtown area with w2w buildings and a large suburb

[SC4BOY 20]

It is STUNNING how much population you can place in a few buildings if you give them the right "age" and environment and give the sims the things they "long for" .. I find the density that you can pack into an area like say 16x16 to be mind-boggling.. Most people try to "slap down" some giant R or C or I zone then wonder why its not right.. oh.,.. and you MUST have decent transportation or you're wasting your time. Just a quick check of "traffic query" will show you if you are around the building "content" or not.. if it is low, you either don't have enough jobs or you have traffic problems of some sort. (or you just are rushing things)

[Sam 163]

If you control your plugins carefully you should definately be able to grow only w2w buildings without having to plop any at all.

Firstly I would suggest you make sure that the only growables in your plugins folder are the w2w buildings you want (Startup Manager is especially helpful in this respect).

If you have DuskTroopers Block All Maxis Buildings mods or similar mods in your plugins as well, that should prevent any original buildings growing, so you should only get w2w buildings.

If you do get any buildings growing that you don't want, then careful application of the bulldozer tool will take care of them.

Lastly I would recommend downloading some of the many good quality w2w buildings from the STEX to make sure you have plenty of variety. Try some from Porkissimo, swi21, BSC, BLS, Vlakhaas etc, or try typing w2w in the STEX search box.

I have used this method on several other themes such as western as well, and it is possible.

[giorgos69 52]

I recently released an Athens set which is ALMOST w2w...just abit of gap.

Fit the bats here

https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=16413

and here

https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=16407

Still a gap but less than maxis lots and its Athens style - European with the sunshades.

[rodent1989 9]

depending on how patient you are, after a certain block or street develops how youwant, make sure you mark the buildings as historical (click on the building w/ the querey tool, then check the box) this prevents the simulation from coming back and re-developing that parcel.  It takes a while to check all the boxes, but its well worth it when things look how ytou want.

[Dark_Jedi06 13]

There are some amazing German BATs on the STEX that are wall to wall. The only problem is that you have to manipulate how they grow. Here are a few links:

https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?page=1&keyword=strasse&type=all

https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=15095

[2ch.net simplayer 180]

All my China Cityblock BATs are wall-to-wall, like real Chinese city.