NAM not helping traffic

[gitrdone 0]

I set NAM for perfect pathfinding x2 yet buildings still remain abandoned and most buildings show a "long" commute time. Please help

[LironTheChick 20]

Your road system must be in a state of overcapacity.

[V-1 Buzzbomb 0]

My advice; Make sure you've installed simulator Z for the NAM. Simulator Z is selectable when you install the NAM. If that doesn't help the traffic may be due to bad city planning, use your route query tool to find bottlenecks in your road system, then build ways around it. If your sims are particularly stubborn place a toll booth on the bottle neck and the resualting congestion will force your sims around the bottleneck, the toll booth will only work if you built ways around the bottle neck that are viable. If your city is really large it might help to put in passenger rail, passenger rail can be extended beyond city limits via neighbor connections. The nice thing about passenger rail is that once you have a network that's a few citys it boosts the growth of any city you connect it to. you should have about 5 stations max per medium tile, 1 for small and 25 for huge cities. If you need help about the rail PM me and ill get back to you.

[gitrdone 0]

i only see 1 or 2 areas where traffic is zoned "red" yet even in areas where traffic is green commute is long and buildings become abandoned. I will try simulator z. As far as passenger rail, will high-wealth sims take mass transit? I recall reading they usually do not.

[earwax_man 18]

You could try using simulator Z, it gives the best pathfinding and the best capacities.

What simulator do you have currently?

[V-1 Buzzbomb 0]

high-wealth will take rail if you have a large inter-city rail network but not as much as poorer sims, PM me a screen shot of your traffic data and a shot of your entire city and ill see what I can do.

[Prophet42 1,503]

Make sure you have plenty of public transportation.  Also, use several different types of public transportation.  This should reduce some of the commute time.

You may also try to mix your zones a little more.  This way some of the sims will find work close by and improve your average commute time.

[Stormscape 8]

I wouldn't recommend using any NAM simulator except for Z, that's your main problem.

[Elmas 0]

I dont use Z, Sims are stupid, so put a lot of bus and metro stations, passanger rail also helps and i find that using one-way roads instead of regular roads works good.

[gitrdone 0]

i'm having trouble finding the pic i snapped earlier. where do i find it?

[V-1 Buzzbomb 0]

try ; My Documents\SimCity 4\Albums

[gitrdone 0]

ok here it is. It's pretty good size town 150,000. Its hard to see everything because i had to zoom out a lot. You can see some unemployed zots across the map. Traffic has improved significantly since installing simulator z however many buildings still report long commutes and unemployed sims.

[gitrdone 0]

2nd try. haha

[Shlarin 0]

Get busses, subways, and monorail.

R $ takes busses.

R $$ takes subways.

R $$$ takes monorail.

They'll respectively consider other forms of transportation only if it'll take them to their destinations much more conveniently than their first preference.

[SteveMSim 275]

The tram on/in road, if built right, is the most efficient form of transport. In the cities where I use tram-on-road, it has been widely used and has reduced congestion on my roads. But you have to know how to build one right and place the stops in the right places for an efficient system.

You will need the NAM add-on to get the tram-on-road system.

[gitrdone 0]

^^^^Is this included in NAM? or do I need to download something extra?

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

The GLR (Ground Light Rail) tracks are, but stations are not. See my topic (Tram Stops In Roads) for some good links or just search the STEX.

[z1 566]

Originally posted by: Elmas

I dont use Z, Sims are stupid, so put a lot of bus and metro stations, passanger rail also helps and i find that using one-way roads instead of regular roads works good.quote>

The intelligence of Sims (at least in pathfinding) is directly related to which traffic simulator you use.  I probably don't have to tell you which one that is for me...

[SimCityeurocat 0]

This is very interesting. It's been so long since I installed the NAM......how do I tell if I have the Z simulator selected?

[Loney 22]

Originally posted by: SimCityeurocat

This is very interesting. It's been so long since I installed the NAM......how do I tell if I have the Z simulator selected?quote>

There isn't (I think), but it shouldn't be hard to reinstall NAM to make sure you hav Simulator Z.

[V-1 Buzzbomb 0]

From what it looks like to me, the commute times might be because theres not enough work available locally. Most of your sims are probably commuting to other cities which takes a long time via roads and highways. Plan your mass transit to have plenty of neighbor connections, build up the mass transit in neighboring cities so that sims can use the connections to get to work at high speed. That should help with the commute times once your sims start using it.

[bigthing 35]

Maby try and mix zones up a bit.

I notice you have a high tech industrial friendly city. Try placing a bit of that within or around the R.

[sumwonyuno 42]

I too have had similar problems with abandonment, pathfinding, and used Simulator Z as a solution. I don't think there is a transportation problem in your city. Since we dont' know how things are in the rest of your region (if you have other developed city tiles), the No-Job Zots may be telling the truth.

With Simulator Z, commute behavior will be more logical (excluding commute circles and broken connections). Since there didn't seem to be any gridlock in your city before or after using Simulator Z, it's another indication transporation may not to be blamed for your current problems.

You could try ramping up education and health to spur jobs, along with rezoning some of the abandoned residential blocks to commercial or industry. Proper jobs for each wealth level is also something to pay attention to. It seems the majority of abandoned and No-Job Zot buildings are R$$$. If you're going to do commercial and I-HT, you need a R$$ majority. The simulator is already compensating by dilapidating some of the R$$$ buildings into R$$.

[Jezus53 18]

Originally posted by: SimCityeurocat

This is very interesting. It's been so long since I installed the NAM......how do I tell if I have the Z simulator selected?quote>

It's quite simple actually. I did the other day. Go into your My Documents/Sim City 4/Plugins/Network Addon Mod and just kinda look around. I found a file named "NetworkAddonMod_Traffic_Plugin_Z_High" so I figured I had simulator Z since I couldn't find anything else as well.

[gitrdone 0]

Originally posted by: sumwonyuno

You could try ramping up education and health to spur jobs, along with rezoning some of the abandoned residential blocks to commercial or industry. Proper jobs for each wealth level is also something to pay attention to. It seems the majority of abandoned and No-Job Zot buildings are R$$$. If you're going to do commercial and I-HT, you need a R$$ majority. The simulator is already compensating by dilapidating some of the R$$$ buildings into R$$.quote>

I'm not quite sure what you mean by this. Do I need more I-HT and C$$$? and how should I go about ramping up health and education and health? Edu and Health is high at all the building I query however when I look at the data maps I see lots of poor health and edu levels despite placing extra hospitals and schools all undercapacity and funding so that efficency is 100%.

I'm looking into implementing the tram system but I need to get my budget balanced and save some $$ first. I notice my water deal with a neighboring city keeps getting canceled. What is the cause of this?

[sumwonyuno 42]

Sorry about not being specific. Yes, you do need more jobs because it seems your city has a lot of unemployment. I would suggest high-tech for industry since it doesn't pollute as much, and employs mostly R$$. As for commercial, I would just "let the market decide" and zone dense. When your Sims get over certain EQ and health thresholds, they will demand I-HT and CO, and the zoning will be there.

It will take time for education and health maps to show green levels (~20 yrs). To save money, adjust the funding levels to just a little more than its current usage. Adjust the radii of the individual facilities so they don't overlap, but do serve as much as possible.

For health, just as long as residential zones are covered by a hospital/clinic radius. For education, just start off with elementary schools and a city college. That's all you need, no high schools, libraries, museums or the university.

As for your water problems, I'm guessing that this city is exporting. If your city doesnt' have enough clean water to export at the level you set your deal at, that deal will be stopped. More pumps will give more capacity and should stop the cancelled deals. However, water pollution can undermine pump efficiency. I would recommend finding a corner away from industry to put your pumps. Water pollution from residential is almost never enough to clog the pumps, so you could do away with the water purification plants.  Age is also a factor, so you have to replace them after a while.

When education gets high enough, you could get away without police. Keep fire protection. But adjust their radii as well. Take out the country club, the convention center, that university and California plaza, replace them with whatever zone is in high demand. You should be able to afford the maintenance of a tram system from just taking out the airport as well.

All of these steps should minimize your expenses, increase RCI development = tax income, and give a chance at solving your unemployment/dilapidation.

[gitrdone 0]

Originally posted by: sumwonyuno

For health, just as long as residential zones are covered by a hospital/clinic radius. For education, just start off with elementary schools and a city college. That's all you need, no high schools, libraries, museums or the university.quote>

So I should destroy those existing buildings?

Originally posted by: sumwonyuno

Take out the country club, the convention center, that university and California plaza, replace them with whatever zone is in high demand. You should be able to afford the maintenance of a tram system from just taking out the airport as well.quote>

The country club doesn't create R$$$ desirability? The university isn't necessary either? I thought landmarks like California Plaza would create commercial desirability. And isn't the airport good for commerce?

[gitrdone 0]

the other thing is I'm have trouble installing lot files? what do i need to do to install them?

[edman2012 33]

either way, the NAM doesn't do much. Its supposed to make sims be smarter about their commute yet they still dont use highways.

[sumwonyuno 42]

gitrdone, what's the status of your city? Is there still a lot of abandonment/dilapidation? Is the budget balanced?

Yes, if you need to control expenses, but want to keep educating your Sims, demolish the high schools, libraries and museums. Once your budget is in better shape, you're welcome to put them back.

In my gameplay, on small and medium city tiles, I don't use things that take up a lot of space and don't give income. Those were just suggestions of what I would get rid of to balance the budget. Also, due to a bug in the game, these large lots generate too much crime.

- The country club has no maintanance cost, but doesn't give much back overall.  Parks are more effective to increase desirability for all. I would go for flower gardens, spread over a wider area. They do cost something, but it most likely it won't break the budget.

- The university is more cost-effective than the city college. But once your Sims get smart enough, such a large facility isn't needed.

- Landmarks look nice, but are expensive. Single, small plazas spread around a larger area is much more cost-effective.

- Airports raise the caps on the amount of commercial you can build. But since your city is dominated by residential, it isn't a wise choice, especially for its costs.

- The convention center is strictly for relieving caps. Other than that, it's more of a NIMBY (undesirable).