Making good beaches

[dogsaregreat 3]

Is there a good trick for making straight, smooth beaches for boardwalks, custom marina complexes, etc., or do I just have to suck it up and try to micro-customize (smooth; raise/lower) every little section of coastline? 'Cause getting the bumps out of the beaches is not an exact process. I seem to remember it being super-easy to make razor-straight coasts in Simcity 3000.

To give you an idea of what I'm wanting: Largest city type with a coast along the bottom edge with a river inlet.

PS: What's the best height to have your coasts at so that your car/passenger ferry terminals don't look goofy tall when you plop them?

  Edited September 27, 2012 by dogsaregreat  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

There are a couple of lot flattening parks over at PEGs, but I find them not entirely satisfactory. I usually wind up using the Mayor mode civil engineering tools, principally the leveller, to either shave or increment the coast line. Before you start do a save (CTRL+s), and if you don't like what you've done, you have a check point to restart from.

You will find that you not only have to have a straight coast line, but it has to be the right height as well. You can get things like this:

  Edited September 27, 2012 by A Nonny Moose  

[Sandis_van_Great 346]

i just normaly plop a seaport or whatever im planing to build to get the level its gona use, and after that use flattening tool to straighten and flatten the area and shape the area im gona use.

[dogsaregreat 3]

@A Nonny Moose: What do you mean by leveller? I haven't mentally attached names to the buttons, Which symbol in god mode is that?

@dzekins: Ditto for "flattening tool". Is that the one that raises and lowers the terrain in the entire city?

  Edited September 27, 2012 by dogsaregreat  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

It is not in god mode. It is in mayor mode. Just open the top most menu and you will find a set of tools: One for elevating things, one for dropping things, and the leveller which has a symbol that looks like a flat line.

The flattening tools in god mode are far to broad for this work.

[His Divine Hand 244]

Also, when using tools like the "leveler", etc, if you hold shift and then press a number key, this will change the size of the tool's "brush" size, with one being smallest.

The flattening tools in god mode are far to broad for this work.

Shift 1, perhaps?

[Fatherted 129]

Zoom in, that will also shrink it.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Immediate satisfaction is not always or even usually available. Getting a good coast line, in spite of various tutorials, usually needs serious practice. It is a sort-of micromanagement civil engineering requirement. Don't forget that the various tools can also be used to fill the coast line as well as carve it up. The leveller usually can be used to make land over water most easily without having for monkey around with land smoothing later.

[Dudely 10]

There are some lots (I think by Paeng) that are designed to level things for you- there is one specific to beaches, which is what they were originally designed to help.

You can also use the road trick where you plop a grid of single-tile streets coming off of an existing street. This will level the terrain perfectly, even if there is a mountain in the way!

[Gonglo 0]

read this thread

[lhrob 213]

Usually when you want to do something "just right", as in have a perfectly straight water's edge, it takes time. So if you're willing to take the time, you could use one of my tricks.....remove the water from your map using the Diagonal Bridge Enabler, and then individually plop street puzzle pieces along the land at the elevation above the normal shore line. Then plop puzzle pieces below the shore line. It will give you something similar to the snapshot below. Then demolish the street pieces, save your progress, and exit the game. Remove the DBE from your Plugins folder (or, if you use the Toggler, simply select "no" when you restart). The shore should appear as a crisp straight line the next time you open your city.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Very similar approach is given in the tutorial someone mentioned earlier today. I do it by sculpting the coast line with the Mayor Mode tools, mostly the leveller. You can create or remove land with it quite handily, but it does take some practice. Do a save, put the game in pause, and go at it.