Unrealistic bridges

[Shukie 0]

I have this pet peeve about making my cities realistic and unfortunately that's sometimes hard to achieve in this game. This time I'm trying to build a bridge, but the on-ramp to my bridge looks totally ridiculous:

http://home.planet.nl/~kuip3148/brug.JPG 

I would never dream of going up a highway that steep, but this is the lowest the bridge can go.  Does anyone know of a way to make the cool looking bridges (not the ugly flat ones, which, granted, don't have this steep on-ramp) a bit more realistic?

[Constantina 5]

Try this modd: https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?page=1&keyword=slope&type=all

This will reduce the maximum gradient to a sensible level.

[euphonial 0]

Thanks, Constantina. I was just about to comment that I wasn't sure there was a good solution! I'll have to give the mod a try, too.

[Shukie 0]

Awesome, I'm going to give it a try. I just put it in the plugin folder right?

[Shukie 0]

I just played around with it for a bit and it works. The problem is that it increases your on-ramp size tenfold which makes for a lot of wasted space. The game also becomes a lot pickier about where you can place bridges now. Still, I should be able to create something decent with it.

[Constantina 5]

Not strictly as pickier as SimCity 3000, actually, because in that game, you couldn't build a bridge where a piepline runs across.

Good luck!

[Spinmaster 75]

You do need a slope mod to make a nice smooth gradient. But the other thing you need:

Bridge Height Mod

With that mod, the game does not draw the ramps for you. Well... if one end of the bridge is significantly lower than the other, then it still must, but it only does so at the lower end, not both. But if you build your own embankments/ramps using a combination of tools e.g. smoncrie's hole-diggers, a slope mod, and various other tools, the bridge height mod will reward you with a nice level bridge. You could do without the ramps completely but chances are good it won't be high enough for ferries, so the ramps are still essential (and anyway, most bridges have at least some ramp), but at least this mod allows  you to build the ramps, instead of the game's default death-drops.

I have found sometimes it is necessary to build the bridge, then destroy it to correct the embankment height at the lower end, then draw it again. On the second pass, the bridge is perfect because the embankments are exactly the same height on both ends. That's the trick with this mod - when you draw the bridge, the higher end does not move the terrain at all (except to flatten it, if it's not already flat). The terrain at the lower end gets "lifted" giving you a reference height for smoothing the rest of that end.

[Shukie 0]

Thanks for the tips Spinmaster. Do you by any chance have an example of a realistic bridge? I'd love to see it.

[Cjah 15]

Example of the mod in work....

[hjanfield 0]

A more unusual option, if not concerned about ferries, is to make a land bridge and use lots to cover the embankment. I know there are some out there that work quite well for this effect, and make it appear there are tunnels or that the "bridge" is floating. I just can't remember any right now. But this would let you create something like the Kelowna Floating Bridge (image) ... which is a 640m (7/8 mile) long, floating bridge, mostly about 15 feet above water level except for the lift span (which lifts up to 60 feet of clearance) in the foreground of the picture.