City Square size

[Cardinals 0]

Hello all,

I'm curious to know what the basic city square size represents. I'm trying to create a realistic City block.

[Mclehr 0]

Its really a matter of preference, but I've found that in grid style "big cities", I use Ave's around 9x9 and 11x11 blocks, then u can split them down the middle with roads for 4 4x4 or 4 5v5 blocks. In 3 of the block per square i'll zone and the other 1 I'll put bus stop, sub station park or whatever. this also ensures you have a good transportation network with stations never being too far away.

[Cardinals 0]

I'm sorry guys,

I usually go with 12 x 6 grids with 1x 3 lot sizes. I was wondering what the square itself represented in square feet or meters. I was doing a websearch and came up with a lot of dimensions. In the neighborhood I'm from I estimate the block (not counting streets) was roughly 300 feet by 500 feet.

[asteconn 9]

IIRC - I think that one square is 16 metres.

[sc4portugal 10]

asteconn is right, each side of a square is 16 metres (52 feet)

[Tomas.The.Great 0]

...wich means small tiles are 1x1km, med tiles 2x2km, large tiles 4x4 km.

and dont forget, you can zone an 8x8 tile of just high commercial or high residential

[ledge69 0]

Thank you, I had been planning to ask as well so I could work out area size of parks or length of rail lines.

[Neddiggis 1]

Originally posted by: sc4portugal asteconn is right, each side of a square is 16 metres (52 feet)quote>

 

scale really isn't consistent in SC4.  The 16m comes from the BAT, and are the dimensions used to create the buildings.  However, generally larger buildings are under scaled and smaller buildings are over scaled.  As for vehicles and people, don't get me started.

You're best to go with what looks best, and not worry about scale.

[hamsterTK 93]

scale really isn't consistent in SC4.  The 16m comes from the BAT, and are the dimensions used to create the buildings.  However, generally larger buildings are under scaled and smaller buildings are over scaled.  As for vehicles and people, don't get me started.

You're best to go with what looks best, and not worry about scale.quote>

agreed

Yeah, trains are shorter than the sims, who tower over cars.

the game is pretty ridiculous, best to ignore it

[Cardinals 0]

Thanks All,

I planned on thinking of a tile being equal to 50' x 50'. I decided on using mainly 6x6 and 6x13 and a few 4x4 and 4x6. But I'll keep the 8x8 blocks in mind.

[psteverific 8]

I've done alot of measurin', and figurin', and measuring again, and I've determined that 13x5 tiles is pretty typical of a residential city block in the older parts of my hometown.

It works well, because the extra tile down the center stops lots from merging into huge high wealth mansions, and you can easily widen to 6 or even 7 tiles, or as narrow to 4 or 3, without it appearing too out of place.

As far as scale goes, you have to use a bit of suspension of disbelife. The scale is not consistant at all(especialy when it comes to height!).

In my example, you would only see 13 houses on a block, wereas the real world blocks I am scaling them from would see roughly 28 houses. So I like to think of those lots as being representative of two households.

[GMT 389]

hm... for sim city there'srather the one thing present that's known among many star trek fans called "size paradoxon".

only that it's not about starships here but about buildings, props n stuff.

you've got the rough 16x16meters of a tile, but these measures get lost as fast as their're estimated... think here ends the realism thing and starts the simulations-parts of the game, so we'd better keep it like that.

as for the blocks... well, that's completely up on you. you can stick with the game's preset ones or do some on your own. problem here is that you can't go over the 6 by x size. well, can't isn't right either, but hardly.

think, you best thing is that you really try out on your own. what , like what looks best, what fits in your concept, what matches your kind of playing style (yes, there individual styles developing in sc4)

[dedgren 830]

Hi, Cardinals-

I have an extended discussion of game scale that starts in my CJ about here [ linkie ].  I also have a written but not yet posted update having to do with city block size- when I get home tonight, I'll post a condensed version in this thread.

Good luck!

David

[moganite 4]

I have noticed how you are using the old aproximate definitions for city tile size. Starting with the size for the BAT tiles you have 16 m.

Multiply by 64 to get 1024 m for small city tiles. 2048 for medium city tiles and 4096 for large city tiles.

We have been discussing this at NHP and about a month ago begun to use the above diemnsions for our cities.

A few other distances using the basis of 16 m = 1 tile = dist between 2 adjacent terrain vertices.

100 tiles = 1600 m ( 1 mile = 1609 m aproximately)

125 tiles = 2 km excatly.

Default region size = 16384 m

10 mi = 16090 m aproximately

This isn't known by everybody and we are still comeing to grips with it our selves as we were all taught that 1 km = 64 tiles 2 km = 128 tiles etc. That was all derived from the 1 BAT tile = 16 m

[ledge69 0]

Thank you this imformation is important to me as I want to be able to calculate things in game to add more detail.

[NetPCDoc 1]

you can zone an 8x8 tile of just high commercial or high residentialquote>

I believe this was meant to say - you can zone for a single high-density commercial/residential "lot" of 8x8; and I - for one - have had plenty of experience with high-wealth sims building on these extra-large residential lots (more than once I have had to evict and demolish - to make room for medium/low wealth apartment buildings).

Personally - I consider the 8x8 commercial establishments to be "block" size establishments - like a "county court house", a "college-dorm", typical skyscraper, etc.

-NetPCDoc

No detail is too small to be micromanaged.