Terraforming

[arca 0]

Just got Citiex XL running a couple days ago, and I *need* to terraform.  Anyone got some methods for terraforming?  And if there are terraforming tools, where are they? I can't find them, haha.
 

[Rakeesh 0]

The only terraforming you can do at this time is flatten. The tool in 3 sizes is under the terraforming tab.

[thijser 0]

they are under decoration if you want to find them

[Jack_Hawksmoor 0]

Welcome on board Arca

The terraforming button can be found under the decorations options in the left hand menu bar.

One tip is that the radius of the tool acts kind of like the rubber stamp tool in photoshop, in that it is checking the height of the ground at the very centre point of the radius then applying it to every other point in the radius when you click. In this way you can either tear down or build up mountains depending on where the centre of your radius is when you click. You can't make a mountain out of a perfectly flat piece of land though (unless you 'drag' a mountin over from the other side of the map lol. So expensive).

Terraforming also useful for recovering more holiday areas that appear along coastlines. Build up the cliff in those areas highlighted as holidays but which are unuseable because of the slope.

Check out the city Requiem on Hyperion if you want to see what hardcore terraforming is all about. 100% flat

[morriswalters 16]

Use bridges to raise  flat land.  Lower the height on  a bridge until it only the retaining walls show.  Set the bridge and delete it. You now have a raised hill. Rinse and repeat. 

This can be used to create raised roads through cities.  Create the raised road bed, delete the bridge, put down a regular road.  A bug in the game allows you to tunnel under highways raised like this with regular roads , creating highways bridges in cities with out using highway bridges.  This could go away in the future but works now. 

Bridges can also be used to create smooth slopes.  Set a road at the top and the bottom and draw a bridge between. 

For creating roads through mountain areas by creating cuts,  draw a road uo to a slope unti it lifts up, back off one click and set.  Again rinse and repeat.  With practice you can cut through a mountain. 

For digging holes in flat groud again use the bidge tool.  Lower the starting point on a bridge until it is level to the terrain, start it , lower the bidge endpoint until it is below grade but not yet a tunnel, finish the bridge.  Instant hole.

With the terraforming tools.  Light colors are above the reference point, dark below.  Nothing showing, level.  Use the last fact to create roads to use as a guide when terraforming.  Perfectly flat road are not detroyed when you terraform over them.  But be careful roads raise terrain sometimes.

By the way, nothing below the water table.

[arca 0]

thanks guys. I did find the in game terraforming tools on my own after I went back and looked again. I'll try out the mountain cutting and bridge ideas.