How do you zone... zones?

[Lextar 0]

I remember playing Simcity3 (or may have been 2) where I played continuously for 6 hrs until a friend called me up and asked if I wanted to go out for lunch. My reply was that I was busy. Realising that I was hungry, I got up... imediately falling back into my chair as I havent moved for so long. After the wave of weakness passed, I opened the door and the coldness of the empty house seeped into my study where the computer had successfully kept warm. I think that lunch sounds nice just about now.

Anyway, back to the topic. I've recently started to download plots for SC4 which includes all the buildings replicated from Hong Kong. It's been a while since I played SC4, but my immediate recollection was the annoyance of the zoning of the areas.

I remember back in the old days, Residential and Commercials where placed in squares of 3x3. But in SC4, its dynamic and the Residential automatically puts in the roads too which complicates things as sometimes you get plots of 3x1 successfully, but then sometimes if your drag isn't correct, you get zones of 2x1 which I didn't want. And then you get the roads connecting wrongly to how you want etc etc.

Also problems like large buildings popping up in the wrong place within the zone you made. For instance you have a plot 6x3, hoping that it'd grow into two large tall towers 3x3 next to each other, but for some reason, a 3x3 appears two rows across leaving 2x3 on one side while a 1x3 on the other.

How do people avoid this? Especially when you're trying to build a city that represents Hong Kong or any city with tall towers. Ideally you don't want small plots of 1x1 or 1x2 squares all over between tall rises.

[Sam 163]

Originally posted by: Lextar

I remember playing Simcity3 (or may have been 2) where I played continuously for 6 hrs until a friend called me up and asked if I wanted to go out for lunch. My reply was that I was busy. Realising that I was hungry, I got up... imediately falling back into my chair as I havent moved for so long. After the wave of weakness passed, I opened the door and the coldness of the empty house seeped into my study where the computer had successfully kept warm. I think that lunch sounds nice just about now.

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quote>

I just bought Sims 2 - Bon Voyage, and on the first page I noticed they now have a safety warning, including a (strong) recomendation to get 15 minutes away from the computer in every hour. It also included warnings on epilepsy and other conditions. Probably best to get up and move around for a few minutes every twenty minutes or so, especially given the risks of DVT and other nasty things.

Originally posted by: Lextar

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I remember back in the old days, Residential and Commercials where placed in squares of 3x3. But in SC4, its dynamic and the Residential automatically puts in the roads too which complicates things as sometimes you get plots of 3x1 successfully, but then sometimes if your drag isn't correct, you get zones of 2x1 which I didn't want. And then you get the roads connecting wrongly to how you want etc etc.

...

quote>

If your game is properly patched I think you should be able to switch off auto-roads (I can't remember how exactly)

I always lay the roads first though. You can also get better control of the "parcel sizes" and postions using teh booster keys (ctrl, alt and shift), including making larer (eg 6x6) parcels.

Be careful though. In the early stages the game will only grow small lots and you need to get quite a population up before the larger buildings will appear. Even then, only fairly small proportions of the buildings will be sky scrapers until your population gets very large. Its different to SC3k where you could zone high density and instantly get skyscrapers. Now you have to build your population up more realistically.

Originally posted by: Lextar

Also problems like large buildings popping up in the wrong place within the zone you made. For instance you have a plot 6x3, hoping that it'd grow into two large tall towers 3x3 next to each other, but for some reason, a 3x3 appears two rows across leaving 2x3 on one side while a 1x3 on the other.

quote>

Use the booster keys to make sure the 6x3 stretch is actually 2 3x3 parcels. Or better yet (and what I do) is to zone in 3x3 parcels, leaving a 1x3 empty space between each. This gives space for subway stops, bus stops and parks. Parks are essential to getting a high population and getting sky scrapers to grow. The population is ultimately limited by the cap relief and desirability boost of parks.

If you don't want parks then maybe alternate parcels of residential with commercial (and some parks).

[Derbert 0]

If you lay down your roads and streets first, you can then zone more accurately holding down Ctrl, Alt, or Shift keys when you drag - or a combination of the three.

Try experimenting for some interesting results!

[SCkid 0]

Originally posted by: Lextar

I remember playing Simcity3 (or may have been 2) where I played continuously for 6 hrs until a friend called me up and asked if I wanted to go out for lunch. My reply was that I was busy. Realising that I was hungry, I got up... imediately falling back into my chair as I havent moved for so long. After the wave of weakness passed, I opened the door and the coldness of the empty house seeped into my study where the computer had successfully kept warm. I think that lunch sounds nice just about now.

wow! that's alot of playing. you better make sure you get some breaks in between that....

but back to the subject. yeah i used to just lay the zone down and let them build the roads. but i realized it's better to lay your own roads. and that way you can make a nice anti grid system if you want too!

[Lextar 0]

The prob with games like SC4 is that there is no good break point. Other games, its end of mission, or vital story advancement etc. The 6 hrs just seemed to disappear. But that was the good old days.

Anyway, back on subject, so I understand the use of the Ctrl, Alt and Shift Keys (almost).

Still not quite sure how to make 2 3x3 parcels. Instead of 6x3. Any good pointers?

[NetPCDoc 1]

Hello Lextar,

Laying down transit first helps.

Then using Ctrl, Alt, and Shift - individually and in combination - is the trick you are looking for.

For the PCs, If I remember correctly -

Shift takes the auto-streets out,

Ctrl allows for custom sized lots (one at a time - 3x3 4x4 5x5 3x8 etc) - effect = one lot for entire zoned area,

Alt, when lot has two adjacent sides (s&e,n&e,s&w or n&w) next to transit, will change the lot orientation between the transits

Being extremely detail orientated - I tend to use Ctrl and Ctrl-Alt a lot when zoning.

Tip:

To keep the Simulator from re-parceling your large lots - make sure there are enough of the smaller lots available for development.

-NetPCDoc

No detail is too small to be micromanaged.