Highways - Hard row to hoe!

[Connor MacLeod 0]

im new to SC4. Im trying to put highways but its a king of complicated. :-(

Is there any way to rotate the items? i want to establish highways but i cant connect  between them. Especialy at the corners. With roads its easy.

[naftixe 131]

First of Welcome to Simtropolis and Sim City 4. Now please don't take offense, but did you read the game manual? It is highly recommended that you read the game manual, AND go through the tutorial portion of the game. These will explain many issues and help you in learning the basic game mechanics. To answer your question, highways are a draggable item, just hold down the left mouse button on where you want them to start and drag them while holding the mouse button until your end point. Also in your manual, it tells how to rotate pieces. Experiment with the following keys: shift, ctrl, alt, del, end (but not all at once). These keys are valuable assests in building your city. Good luck and welcome here.

[Prophet42 1,500]

When you have a menu item selected, use <tab> to choose any sub menu items.  Use the <delete> and <end> keys to rotate the chosen item.

[Livin in Sim 83]

Actually, it's the Home and End keys that rotate lots and puzzle pieces on my PC.  Prophet42 must have a Mac?

[Cleaner475 150]

Originally posted by: Livin in Sim Actually, it's the Home and End keys that rotate lots and puzzle pieces on my PC. Prophet42 must have a Mac?quote>

Yeah same here. I suppose you can change the control though although to be honest I've never seen a menu in SC4 for changing the controls.

Richard

[loveangel 0]

There is no need to rotate highway pieces manually, in fact, i don't understand why it was suggested (??)

To answer the question that you actually asked, your highways can't have sharp corners like roads do. They need to have a 45 degree angle corner, combined with another 45 degree corner, in order to go a different direction. Just keep playing with it until you get it right, keeping in mind that you need gentle bends not sharp, 90 degree corners. Rail works in a similar way.

[Connor MacLeod 0]

Ok. here is an example:

:-(

Roads, its easy. Drag a new road onto old. With the same proccess for highways, i cant merge it.

:-(

naftixe

I read the manual. It doesnt write "how to do things" only explains the buttons and the figures.

(what are Highways, how many types are.. etc)

[Rymac91 15]

The reason you can't make a corner with the highway is because the highway doesn't do corners, neither do any rail(except the subway). In order to do a 90 degree turn, you have to drag diagonally for a few tiles, then drag it the last 45 degrees to make the turn.

[Livin in Sim 83]

Originally posted by: Connor MacLeod

Is there any way to rotate the items?quote>

This is what was answered, the question from the first post.    But, that isn't the (total) solution.  To merge highways, which is what I think you're asking, you need to make an interchange, as in real life.  These highways are too high speed to have regular intersections.  There should be a selection of default T interchanges in your highway menu; it's the the button underneath the cloverleaf.  This menu contains puzzle piece t-intersections for both ground and elevated highways, and you can cycle through the options by using Tab.  Be sure to use ground to ground and elevated to elevated or they won't connect.  You may need to rotate them with the home and end keys, on a PC, anyway.  If you need a 4 way connection instead of a T, you will need to use the cloverleaf button, here again cycling through with tab until you find ground or elevated.  You can make all kinds of custom interchanges as well if you have the NAM, and the Rural Highway Mod (RHW)    That is another topic, and I'm not a highway geek.  haljackey's CJ is a good place to check those out.  Please let me know if I need to explain something better, and welcome to Simtropolis.

Enjoy the game.

--Liv

[Kahara 0]

Highway Tutorial by Kahara to Connor MacLeod.

First, stretch out a section of highway a fair way along.

Than at a 45 degree angle drag some more out at about the same distance.

After this stretch out a similar length of highway at another 45 degree angle.

After which you should receive a finished highway turn.

These highways make great starting points for large high rise cities.

Finished product with small suburbia placed around. (I am aware that the Sims will not use this highways as it goes nowhere.)

[Haljackey 17,259]

Originally posted by: Livin in Sim

 haljackey's CJ is a good place to check those out.  Please let me know if I need to explain something better, and welcome to Simtropolis.

quote>

Yep, check out my CJ and the "show us your interchanges" threads for some examples.  You can find both links in my signature.

As was already stated, you can't curve a highway 90 degrees, as it is very unrealistic (same goes with rails).  You must curve it 45 degrees, and then another 45 degrees to make a 90 degree curve as kahara demonstrated.

You can go one step further and use the smooth highway curves in the NAM to make something like this:

Neat eh?  This is what a 90 degree curve would look like in real life.

Best,

-Haljackey

[Kahara 0]

haljackey are you able to zone around those curves? or have streets that hug the curve and place zoning around that?

[Haljackey 17,259]

Kahara: Well you can never zone around highways, curved or not, because they don't connect to zones. Their highways after all .

But you can put a curved road/avenue right beside it and zone from there. Those are also included in then NAM.

Best,

-Haljackey

[The Arrowz 3]

Those highway curves are in NAM? Are they a puzzle piece?

Just asking cause I've never seen them before

[Haljackey 17,259]

Originally posted by: The Arrowz Those highway curves are in NAM? Are they a puzzle piece?

Just asking cause I've never seen them before quote>

Yes, in the custom interchanges tab (the same place you'll find the stack interchange and the ground-elevated transitions).

[Connor MacLeod 0]

Kahara,

Respect.Thank you man. Now i did it!!

[Kahara 0]

Connor, mah homie. No prob dawg. I live to give! Peace out!