How to find police / fire stations / schools on a crowded map?

[Panda_Power 1]

 Hello everyone!

I'm new to SimCity 4, to any SimCity for that matter! Not sure why I never played it before and I can't believe what I've been missing....I love it!

I have a few questions:

1) I've read a lot of guides and watched loads of tutorials on YouTube, but I'm having trouble finding where my schools and police stations/fire stations and hospitals are in my city when it gets filled up! Is there an easy way of finding those civic services on the map?

2) When I build a subway is it OK to put the subway stations anywhere above where the subway station is or does it have to go in a specific spot directly above the subway? Having trouble seeing those on the map too!

3) In a lot of YouTube videos I've seen people putting bus stops in their cities and when they do it they change the look of the map to remove all the buildings etc to make it easier to place bus stops. How do I do that?

Thanks!

[local_authority01 3]

Welcome to Simtropolis!!!

You need to try out some of the different data views of SC4. There are data views in the game that should help you with all three of your questions. Good Luck!!!

[CaptCity 4,669]

Welcome to Simtropolis....

Originally posted by: Panda_Power

1)...but I'm having trouble finding where my schools and police stations/fire stations and hospitals are in my city when it gets filled up! Is there an easy way of finding those civic services on the map?quote>

As local_authority01 mentioned, try the various data views (in the user interface). Each view will highlight the corresponding buildings in green. Ex. selecting Education will highlight schools, Fire will give you fire stations, etc.

2) When I build a subway is it OK to put the subway stations anywhere above where the subway station is or does it have to go in a specific spot directly above the subway? Having trouble seeing those on the map too!quote>

Sub stations do not need to be placed on top of tracks. Plopping within one tile should connect the station as kind of a cut-out with the main line going straight. You can also place stations farther from the tracks and connect it to the main line by dragging tracks to it.

3) In a lot of YouTube videos I've seen people putting bus stops in their cities and when they do it they change the look of the map to remove all the buildings etc to make it easier to place bus stops. How do I do that?quote>

Again, try the different views. You may also have seen the effects of a game mod that changes the zone view differently than the default game. It is available with the NAM (Network Addon Mod) if you have installed that.

[Panda_Power 1]

Thank you for the replies! I've been using data view and I guess it's OK for schools and police, but it's the fire stations I find hard to see. When I click on fire my whole map is orange and there are red circles everywhere and the fire stations appear so small in green that it's hard to see where they are! Maybe if I had bigger fire stations it would be better and I guess the orange indicates that my fire services are insufficient, so I'll look more at that.

The data view for zones for my bus stops is now perfect...thanks!

I am using the NAM along with about 50 other mods that I've installed.....this site is so amazing for mods!

[Yonk 2]

You'll find that when you select a building to plop (hotkey "F", for small fire stations) the little circles show up where the coverage is. This also works on zone view, and instead of trying to find red circles on orange, you have yellow, blue, and green, and that makes it a lot easier. Also, though I'm not sure, I think the shade of orange reflects the base flammability of each tile, and doesn't reduce when it's covered by a fire station, and certainly doesn't completely go away as crime does when it is covered by police service.

- Yonk

[Panda_Power 1]

 Do you mean I can change the colour of the circles? I've attached a screenshot with data view set to "fire" and it defaults to the orange circles, but if I switch to "zone" mode then I just get a view of the land. What do I click to change the colour of the circles?

Thanks!

[Cobraroll 138]

I don't think you can change the colour of the circles...

But it appears that something is a little weird with your game, seeing as the fire stations don't appear all green (like they should do in the Fire data view). This is especially visible to the upper right, where you can see the fire dept. landing strip.

On an unrelated side note, you should build some avenues, to avoid complete clogging later. Oh, and those big commercial tiles will never grow, they are too big (Not to mention you've put a police station in front of a couple of them).

[Panda_Power 1]

I think maybe I've gone a bit overboard with mods and possibly that's interfered with the colours...not sure!

Thanks for the building tips....this game is so complex, but I love it!

[local_authority01 3]

You may have two data views that conflict. I think the NAM comes with a data view already and adding others could cause strange views like in the pic above.