tips on true scale cities.

[flyinbird93 2]

ok i have a project i want to start which is a represintation of where i live. I have my custom map all finished, 76x76 HUGE covers whole metro! however right now im stumped on how to figure out to start laying my roads. how do i find a zero hour spot to start a true scale building style? some tips would be great if you have any. questions for me are welcome to if it helps you answer my question

[Dizastrow 4]

If you have a scaled map of your town or area, you could get grid paper and lay it across the scaled map.  Match it up exactly, then just find the road where you would like to start.  Then use the grid paper as a template.

Not sure if this is what you are talking about or if it would work, but it came to mind.

[mrbisonm 1,620]

You would need a reference point. A place where you start building your city, maybe a center of some kind or a building. Then I'd choose the centerroad or blvd that crosses that point and lay it out, starting from there on, now that you have a solid reference point. Good luck.

mrb

[patriots_1228 51]

yea, when i did boston I went with what MrBison suggested.

What I did for my reference point, was I found a easy to identify spot on the waterfront, like a pier, and then started there and worked my way along the coast.

After that, filling the areas on the land will be easy.

[TheJerseyDevil73 13]

How to make a real city to scale

There are a few steps you must take if you are serious about making a real city to scale properly.

1. First of all your map has to be to scale and acurate. (If the scale of the map is to big or small your city blocks will be way out of wack)

- Open up the game and place a road or two in your own neighborhood (an area you know well).

- Build a few blocks to the scale of the region you have chosen.

- Another trick is to extend artery roads to some land marks. (A river bend, beach, mountain side)

- Reference what you have done and see if the scale looks proper.

- You don't need a block that is 18x9 for housing. They just won't fit. And you don't want them to small. Commercial areas require space and detail.

2. After that you should buy a map (A real paper map of the area you plan on doing. No internet maps)

- Map out over your paper map all of the city borders your region will have. Small Medium and Large city borders.

- Take your time doing this and even be prepared to alter your bitmap to suit borders of your city to your needs. (You don't need a border between two cities in your region to go right threw what would be your commercial district).

* A small map on Sim City 4 is 1km x 1km. I found on my version of Edmonton I ended up placing 1.1km x 1.1km in a small map. Be prepared to alter your scale to the map you have chosen. Just make sure it fits will. (Build a practice area as statred earlier).

3. Once you have completed the first two steps you should develope your scale on paper for quick reference.

- You should use KILOMETERS. Imperial will become messy when referencing your scale.

- Develope your scale like so (a "Lot" being one square in game).

Cm's        Lots

.0             0.0

.1             1.4

.2             2.8

.3             4.2

------------------

1cm          14

1.25          17.4

1.5            20.9

------------------

5cm           69.6

16cm         222.6

18.4           256

- 18.4cm for example would be 256 lots (a large map).

- 1.5cm would be 20.9 Lots. Simply round up or down / so 21 lots.

- Once you have this quick reference sheet things speed up and you can begin.

4. Starting

- Where to start, ones greatest question.

- Some good areas are

  - You neighborhood

  - Main Road Downtown

  - Main Bridge

  - Highway / Main road

  - Near a landmark, beach, river bend, mountain.

- I would advise a combination of all of them. You'll be surprised but the answer will jump out and you will see many good places.

5. Once major roads are layed out reference your map, measure from the borders on that map you have drawn out in Cm. Lets say your main road is 7.5cm from the left border of you map you now know it is 104.3 tiles from the border. Now you can lay out the road.

- Always remember Roads Avenues and so on are 1 or 2 tile wide themselves. It is good to measure from bothe the right and left or top and bottom of the map to figure out exactly where it lays.

- This will also help you from making large mistakes

- In my region I made an entire neighborhood once or twoce to find out the roads where off by as much as 15 tile... Then you get to do it all over. So take your time.

I hope this helps.

PS. If you go to my City Journal - CityOfEdmonton you will find many of these tips and more.

[TheJerseyDevil73 13]

...no replies...

Guess all that was for waste.

[shaylan221 0]

No it wasn't. I just viewed it, Thanks, I didn't really need it, but it made me think.

[Geronimo 4]

Nicely put togheter there, JerseDevil! At least I found it interessting!

[goldenchocolate 1]

PROOF THAT A SMALL MAP IS 1KM BY 1KM: Because a large map is 256x256 tiles, then a small one is 64x64 tiles. And if a small map is 1000 m (1 km)x1000 m, then that would mean that each tile is 15.625x15.625 meters (1000/64 = 15.625). When zoomed in at max, I measured a straight tile with a side measuring 7.9cm, and a car (a slightly longer than average car) measuring 3 cm, which would mean that that car measures about 2.6 meters in length, quite a realistic length for a car.

Just in case anyone wanted proof or something.

[tungston 19]

Actually each tile is 16x16 meters. If you use that factor then you can compute the actual size of the cities.

A car 2.6 meters long [less than 9 feet] would be an very small car by US standards. 

[loveangel 0]

sorry, but that "proof" is a little, shall we say, suspect?  Especially in the math, and definition of "proof" departments    points for effort though

ps.  2.5m is the length of a smart car