Coastal Plop Buildings - WTF?

[Vaelor 0]

Hey, I'm having a nightmare of a time plopping coastal buildings - particularly the ferry terminals - on my city's coastlines. I just can't seem to get the coastal edge right so that the building will sit in a position to turn its square blue and allow me to plop it!

After a bit of messing around I can usually get a seaport or beach down, but I've just spent a LOT of money terraforming a perfectly nice coastline to rubble trying to lay a damn ferry terminal, with absolutely no luck!

So what's the catch? Obviously the coast needs to be straight and level, and positioned in a way that the ferry terminal can have its two water square positioned in the water and its land squares on the land, but is there more to it than that? This is really driving me mad here.

Would be really grateful for any advice anybody here could give me! Thanks in advance. =)

[cld 0]

Have you tried using Home and End keys to rotate the Costal buildings?

[MallowTheCloud 41]

It also greatly depends on the slope and elevation of the beach. If the water just offshore is to shallow, or the land just onshore is too high... or even if the slope is too steep (or shallow, as you need deep enough waters), it won't work. It is a pain, I agree.

[jondecker 0]

get the PEG CDK Leveler from off the stex and it will allow you to terraform your coastal area in a 1x4 or 4x4 box at no cost.  It will pull your coastal land to an even height and allow you to place the ferry a little easier.  Hope this helps

 

[BlakeMW 84]

Sea Ports are fairly easy to place once you get the hang of it (I suggest practising on a new city before trying in a proper city).

Using the level terrain tool, hit shift to make it bigger and click on the land just above sea level, drag sideways raising a bar of land facing the sea, and possibly protruding into the sea slightly (it's a good way to ensure the water is deep enough). You want a flat area about 7x3 in size, altough 2x5 is the minimum.

Now select the sea port and rotate it if nessecary (it USUALLY is nessecary to manually rotate using home/end!), it should turn blue when the end 2 tiles are on the bar of land. If the land bit looks good but it still wont plop, then take the deepen tool to the sea, you can't really overdeepen, and if you damage the land bit just relevel it.

Just practise on a new map, 500K to spend slapping down down ports, you'll get it down to a fine art in no time

[Lyhoko Leaci 770]

You can also press ctrl, alt, shift and then click the god mode button to get access to the original god mode tools, that way you can smooth out the coastline for free.

[Vaelor 0]

Fantastic... thanks for your fast and helpful replies guys, thanks to you, I finally get to experience a ferry system in my cities! =)

Very much appreciated, thanks!

[Vaelor 0]

Man, what the HELL is up with that damn Cruise Ship Port?? I have tried every single tip in this thread - which served me well for seaports, beaches, and even the elusive ferry terminals - but I can not for the life of me place a Cruise Ship Port on my coastlines!! >=/

What's the deal with this infuriating piece of crap?? Is there some secret trick to placing this thing that I don't know about? Or is this just the worst case scenario for plopping coastal buildings, which is without doubt the biggest flaw in SimCity 4? =(

If anybody can tell me anything that will get a Cruise Ship Port into my miserable cities, I would be *extremely* grateful!!

Thanks.

[+Guest]

Have you tried Peg's CDK Lots?.Take a stroll over to Peg's.Oh don't worry to much about the Cruise Port it sucks.

[Vaelor 0]

{nods} Yeah, as I mentioned, I tried everything that was advised to me above in this thread, and that includes Peg's CDK Leveler. It levelled my coasts to sea level nicely, but still I can't get a blue box to place the stupid Cruise Ship Port! =~(

I know it probably sucks, but I'm working on a heavily ocean-centric city, and I really want the cruise ship. >=(

[+Guest]

Can ya post a pic of your coastline?.

[Keiran Halcyon 0]

I got the cruise ship port to work just now... I had a relatively steep drop into the water, with a perfectly straight coast, and with the red (land) placement tiles on the very last row of land tiles.

[Compromise 1]

Welcome to Simtropolis. PM me or others if you need help.

It is very difficult to plop sea-land buildings. The best tip I can give you is to make the land even in height and angle.

[Vaelor 0]

Date: 7/28/2005 12:06:36 AM
Author: Keiran Halcyon
I got the cruise ship port to work just now... I had a relatively steep drop into the water, with a perfectly straight coast, and with the red (land) placement tiles on the very last row of land tiles.

quote>
Sorry about the delay in responding, was without my PC for several months, and with major SimWithdrawal!! =/

Thanks heaps for the screenshot Kieran - I'll try to mimic the exact coastline you've used there and see if that helps.

If I still don't have any luck, I'll do as BlackBeard suggested and post some screenshots of the various coastlines I've tried and failed to plop coastal buildings on, and see if anybody can tell me what I'm doing wrong!

Thanks again.

[Johny-Walker 0]

ok....I didn't speak / write no English for a long time...so please excuse it if all this sounds a little wierd...

I've got a question regarding this screenshot of the cruisship-port...how do you get this clear edge? I'm usually findig a spot for these buildings, but I never managed to create such a clear edge...do you guys have any suggestions? I never really get these beaches away...(oh boy...my English was a lot better two years ago ;-) )

[mayormommy 8]

There are two tips I use for coastal buildings. One is to lower the size of the mayor mode terraforming tool to size 2 (I can't remember if it is the shift or control button + the number). Then you can just grab a corner of a tile and gently raise or lower or level it into place. One you have one nice tile in place, use road tiles one by one to bring the rest of the coastline into the proper elevation. Hope that helps, and your English is actually pretty good!

[Kippis05 2]

Ah. Costal buildings are a nightmare. I would probably use a smaller size terraforming tool, maybe from the God Mode menu (i don't trust mayor mode terraforming) make a pretty gradual slope into the water, and make the edge pretty strait, and you should have no problem. To lessen the size of the tools, use Ctrl+ # (such as 2, 3, and so on) Hope this helps

[Johny-Walker 0]

Thanks to you all....I'll check this out ;-)

[DOXXP29 5]

Placing costal buildings can be a pain. In addition to changing the tool size as Kippiso5 and mayormommy suggest, you may also want to try changing the "strength" of the tool (as they call it). Do this by hitting control + F1 (less) to F10 (stronger). You can use both together, and I've found this to be very useful in forming difficult areas.