The dreaded MONORAIL!

[Framling 1]

I do know SimCity veterans hate Monorail. With El-Rail available, Monorail is just an unnecessary distraction, and its only purpose seems to be converted to GLR, HSR or GHSR.

That said, I am not that keen on "puzzling" my monorail into any of those, as there is nothing more infuriating than having a game crashed by a false move of hovering a puzzle piece over a piece of track accidentally.

So, I was looking for the following enhancements for my monorail to make it more palatable:

1) New train skin - I've only found BART in the STEX, which is not necessairly to my liking, and I am afraid, does not feature nightlights...

2) Full track replacement - i.e. a mod that changes track appearance all over the game, so that I can only build such "enhanced" monorail

3) Ground-level enhancement - normally monorail pylons have grassy texture at the bottom, which does not look too good in urban environment. I have dowloaded a mod that seems to address that for El-Rail (haven't tried it yet), perhaps there is one for monorail?

4) Monorail over stuff - sure, I can cross monorail with roads and tracks, but what about monorail actually going over buildings or in the middle of a standard two-lane avenue?

Anybody could direct me to any relevant mods/add-ons?

PLEASE do not move this thread to Custom Content - nobody reads that!

[SC4BOY 20]

Why do you care? Just build a monorail.. It's actually a very competent transport...

[Haljackey 17,303]

I do understand what you mean Framling. In addition to what you have stated, monorail also pollutes if it comes congested, which is not very realistic since they are electric.

I use a bullet train skin. which completely changes the look of the track into an elevated high-speed bullet train line. The mod also changes the monorail trains to bullet trains.

-I got it from APTX's Japanese site, but sadly the site has been down for some time and there have been no communications from APTX to the English-speaking SimCity community that I know of. If would be great if he or someone authorized by him could upload it to the STEX for all to use once again.

But now I'm rambling a bit. I share your thoughts Framling.

Best,

-Haljackey

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

Originally posted by: haljackey I do understand what you mean Framling. In addition to what you have stated, monorail also pollutes if it comes congested, which is not very realistic since they are electric.

I use a bullet train skin. which completely changes the look of the track into an elevated high-speed bullet train line. The mod also changes the monorail trains to bullet trains.

-I got it from APTX's Japanese site, but sadly the site has been down for some time and there have been no communications from APTX to the English-speaking SimCity community that I know of. If would be great if he or someone authorized by him could upload it to the STEX for all to use once again.

But now I'm rambling a bit. I share your thoughts Framling.

Best,

-Haljackeyquote>

Actually, APTX is in the process of reloading his stuff from his old computer to a new one (or something like that), and is working on a new website where he can share with us.  He posted over at the SC4D Japanese forum, and there are a few more details on his blog, but it's in Japanese...

[Haljackey 17,303]

NMUSpidey: Wow, thanks for the news update!

Any chance you can get in contact with him about uploading the bullet train mod on the STEX or LEX? I get dozens of questions/PMs about it every week because I use it in my CJ. Anyways thanks for the info!

Best,

-Haljackey

[tungston 19]

I guess I have not quite reached the "veteran" level yet, as I use the monorail in all cities. I have tried to get someone to make a more aesthetically pleasing monorail over elevated highway, but I use a false tunnel to cross the elevated highway.

It is the fastest ground transit in the game, and to me it looks just as good, or better than the elevated rail. I don't use the el rail because it has no advantage over the subway, and only takes up precious real estate.

[Framling 1]

The crappiest thing about the monorail, IMHO, apart from the pollution thing, unrealistic trainset, lack of ground tiling beneath it, too narrow tracks and too heavy pillars is the inability to run monorail over the road/avenue (not crossing, but along). To me, that's the whole point of elevated rail in general, and space-saving monorail in particular.

Oh, btw, what mod is that?

[Haljackey 17,303]

tungston: Well, other than the appearance, the bullet train mod changes the speed and capacity of the monorail. It pretty much creates an entirely new network! The same goes for the HSR mod made by the NAM team, it doesn't pollute like the monorail !

[Bones1 96]

In addition to the speed advantage of monorail, it's also the only network that essentially has infinite capacity. It does congest, but for some reason the game ignores that congestion for monorails, and you can pack as many riders on it as you want without having their commute times suffer.

But watch out for the stations: they do congest and will slow traffic on the monorail if traffic is forced to go through a station. So, design your monorail network with stations off to the side of the main monorail line. That way, through-traffic does not need to go through a station, and you can get infinite use from a single monorail.

[stormlover 16]

Originally posted by: Bones1 In addition to the speed advantage of monorail, it's also the only network that essentially has infinite capacity. It does congest, but for some reason the game ignores that congestion for monorails, and you can pack as many riders on it as you want without having their commute times suffer.

But watch out for the stations: they do congest and will slow traffic on the monorail if traffic is forced to go through a station. So, design your monorail network with stations off to the side of the main monorail line. That way, through-traffic does not need to go through a station, and you can get infinite use from a single monorail.quote>

Do you have a picture of how to do that?

[Bones1 96]

Something like this:

[Jman47 0]

framling that picture is hilarious where by chance did you come upon it?

[blueblue48 0]

I think the site is called icanhascheezburger.com , its mostly funny animal pictures with a theme of mispelling things.

[Framling 1]

Type in "monorail cat" into Google Image Search and you'll get thousands, like those:

I think the above is the logo for Schulmania's Public Tranport systems...

[Muck308 55]

We don't talk about the monorail anymore...

(The Simpsons)