Mod Idea, Is This Fiesable?

[Crossroads Inc. 68]

So right now I am working on a new "small town" city, and usually one of the hardest parts is getting a 'small town' look to things.

One of the problems I face is "Medium Residential" which is the source of row houses. Now most row houses are 2 to 3 stories tall, and look just right in most small town settings.

However often, especially as I am working with high wealth areas, I'll zone some Med rez, and what I GET are suddenly 10 to 15 story condos sprouting in the middle of a quiet neighborhood.

So my question is, is it even possible to write a mod that changes the algorithm of how houses 'spawn'. I don't want to remove the other condos, as they look good in a 'downtown' area.

But where would I start to have something like creating a new Zoneing type? IE "buildings X Y and Z will NOT form in this area."

For all I know something liek this may already exist, but I doubt it.

[Xyloxadoria 1,099]

So right now I am working on a new "small town" city, and usually one of the hardest parts is getting a 'small town' look to things.

One of the problems I face is "Medium Residential" which is the source of row houses. Now most row houses are 2 to 3 stories tall, and look just right in most small town settings.

However often, especially as I am working with high wealth areas, I'll zone some Med rez, and what I GET are suddenly 10 to 15 story condos sprouting in the middle of a quiet neighborhood.

So my question is, is it even possible to write a mod that changes the algorithm of how houses 'spawn'. I don't want to remove the other condos, as they look good in a 'downtown' area.

But where would I start to have something like creating a new Zoneing type? IE "buildings X Y and Z will NOT form in this area."

For all I know something liek this may already exist, but I doubt it.

Something like this does not exisit and cannot be made, we are stuck with the zone types that are alredy there and there is no way to add more at all without modying the exe which would be illegal.

The simple solution to your problem would be not to zone medium density at all. Another solution would be to get the maxis blocker, but remove everything you still want to use. Then when you want a downtown remove the blocker from the plugins folder and the larger buildings will appear.

[mrbisonm 1,620]

Once you got the "ideal" building grown on your lot, click on it and mark the box on the bottom *make historical*. That will keep others out from growing over it and you 'll keep the ones you want. I do this all the time and my cities usually have about 50 to 70 % of *made historical* buildings.

For an existing mod for this?.....well, I haven't seen one yet, if it is all possible.

mrb

[antsel 841]

I'm going to assume you're zoning an entire block at a time, and instead of having six 1x2 lots growing, you are getting two 3x2 condos. If my assumption is correct, a way around this is to zone in a checker-board fashion. Instead of zoning six 1x2 lots, zone three 1x2 lots with empty 1x2 spaces between them. Once the preferred buildings grow, make them historical and zone the empty lots. It's very tedious work, but it's the only way to have a real control over the size of the building that grows. The problem is that zoned lots, such as 1x2s have a tendency to connect to make bigger lots in order to grow a specific building. Having the empty lots between zoned lots prevents them from grouping together, preventing the larger building from growing. I hope this helps!!

[T Wrecks 10,209]

You can also lay out alternating medium-density and high-density zones - pretty much like this:

HMHMHMHMHM

HMHMHMHMHM

=============

where

H : high-density zone

M : medium-density zone

= : road

[Crossroads Inc. 68]

To both Selles and T Wrecks, thank you VERY much!!!

Reading about how I was placing them down was one of those "aha" moments. ESPECIALLY in regards to mixing Hi and Med residential areas.

Putting down a strip of 1x3 Rez mix of High and Med would make it impossible for anything other then 1x3 buildings to form!

"checker boarding" in other parts is also something I had not thought of but now seems kind of obvious

Well that solved my problem easier then expected, although.... Now I am curious to broach the next idea I had, that being commute time and walking.

This one I actually looked for in mod files and didn't see anything. But basically, and I am curious how many others may agree here, but SC4 sims

seem to have a VERY low tolerance for walking. I know there is a mod that allows you to place down a barrier so that only pedestrian traffic will go through,

but this actually led to the down town in my last city becoming abandoned because, evidently, it was too far to walk for most citizens.

So I am curious, is this something modifiable? Or is it 'Hard coded' into the data as well?

[T Wrecks 10,209]

In fact, the commute behaviour of Sims can be modded quite heavily. I take it that you are not currently using the NAM (Network Addon Mod). This mod not only contains a host of new transportation network puzzle pieces and other goodies, but also comes with modded traffic simulators, which can change pretty much all transportation-relevant parameters: the speed of any transportation network, penalties for intersections and/or congestion, the Sims' preference for any particular means of transport (including their own feet ), the maximum commute time they will accept, etc.

Now these simulators are adapted to suit a wide variety of players, which means that they tend towards offering a more or less balanced set of rules so that all means of transportation can be used to good effect by the player. However, the distance Sims will walk is greatly increased compared to the default simulator, so you should be able to tune your transportation network towards pedestrian traffic a lot better than with the unmodded game. I'm not aware of any simulator that's explicitly designed for pedestrian-focused cities, though.

[Crossroads Inc. 68]

In fact, the commute behaviour of Sims can be modded quite heavily. I take it that you are not currently using the NAM (Network Addon Mod). This mod not only contains a host of new transportation network puzzle pieces and other goodies, but also comes with modded traffic simulators, which can change pretty much all transportation-relevant parameters: the speed of any transportation network, penalties for intersections and/or congestion, the Sims' preference for any particular means of transport (including their own feet ), the maximum commute time they will accept, etc.

Now these simulators are adapted to suit a wide variety of players, which means that they tend towards offering a more or less balanced set of rules so that all means of transportation can be used to good effect by the player. However, the distance Sims will walk is greatly increased compared to the default simulator, so you should be able to tune your transportation network towards pedestrian traffic a lot better than with the unmodded game. I'm not aware of any simulator that's explicitly designed for pedestrian-focused cities, though.

I actually downloaded that one today while looking for commute mods, After loading it in streets I see a tab that says "Street Addon Mod" but it doesn;t seem to do anything. And I DID download the network mod as well but unless I installed it wrong, it doesn't seem to show up at all.