Starting massive region, requesting tips

[HSA 2]

Hi everyone, i dont know if a topic over here will be effective, but well, i will try.

 

Im not a roockie over sim city, i bought it original in 2005, and few time before i bought the expansion, played it in about 4 different computers along the time, still have the old cds but stoped about some years ago because some real life issues (studies, university, etc). In any case im thinking in start playing it again, already bought the steam version to dont bother with cds anymore and made an sketch of the final region who i will work for the next years.

 

 

Like you guys can see, its pretty massive. Actually my central ideia is build a reallistic region. Even consuming years, it will be pretty small in comparation with real world regions, thats the final lesson of sim city i guess; no one can build a entire country alone. Anyway, before i start, i wanna hear some recomendations.

 

-Im using the default texture, it dont bother me at low altitude, but for mountain range it is pretty irreal. What is the best texture to simulate both mountains and rocky falls?

-There is some good mod to simulate seasons like that 12/25 easter egg? Maybe im being a bit lazy asking this, but i heard some time ago that there was a project that changed the brighty levels of the game according to seasons, but i dont know if it is ready yet

-What are the best topics here to gave me good ideas for city planning?

-The final question: NAM. I know it is the best mod for sim city, but i remember the first time i used it, it changed the transportation parameters; roads by default can support 1000 cars, NAM increased that for 3000 and i remember the game get too easy for me and i uninstalled it, even being pretty nice. There is some way to install nam and stay with the default simulation parameters at this rate?

 

(Talking about nam, i saw a video some time ago about a new project of their, dont know if was released yet)

 

As the topic go on, i wish we could share some ideas. Sorry for any gramatical error, im not a native speaker.

 

[Indiana Joe 1,751]

As far as terrain mods go, there's several options these days.  The only one that I know of that changes the ground textures with seasons is the original Columbus Terrain Mod.  I use it because it has nice medium green tones, but they change to dry grass and back (although it doesn't actually follow the seasons of the game clock; it follows some weird schedule).

 

However, this guy Lowkee has released three really good terrain mods recently, with HD ground textures.  The cliffs look really good and it all blends well.  One of them simulates the Appalachian region; another is the bright green highland Europe; and the latest is a neutral one that is a compromise of those two.  You can find them over at the LEX exchange (separate registration required; use the Power Search and select Lowkee as the author).

 

 

You'll want to look at all the Show Us Your... topics in the City-Building Concepts section of the forums for ideas.  People showcase some pretty nice stuff there.

 

 

And the NAM now allows you to customize road capacities with the Traffic Simulator Config Tool.  I too prefer the lower settings to make the game more challenging.  So just download the whole NAM and be sure to include the TSCT option when you install it.  You might also want to check out the RHW mod for more realistic highways.

 

There is a huge new NAM release coming out on March 1st, so you might want to wait until then to begin building your infrastructure.  There will be a ton of new features.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

If you just want seasonal snow, the snow command (CTRL+xsnowCTRL+m) will do the job.  You might also want the debugging suite.  Take a look at the thread titled "Extra Cheats dll".

[HSA 2]

Hi Indiana Joe, i installed the CTM and the snowcapped version, but no snow, althought the textures bettered a bit.

 

Seeying the comments section i could see some peoples had the same issue than mine, but no answers.

 

I will see some topics you recomended me before i start building the cities, but there is no need to hurry: i wanna build the terrain before and it will took some weeks yet.

 

Sure i will wait for the new release of the nam.

 

And thanks for the tip moose, but im looking for an stable solution for this issue.

[HSA 2]

So, ok, its some time since i started. Maybe it would be interesting show my progress and hear your opinions to see if im making my way through.

 

Here is the region i already made, it is about 1/6 of the total and its not really an high density place through i already reached the stage 6 of the game, where the demand and development get so high that isnt hard make an high income (the easten city i picked a 500 000 loan to start at hard level and started make profit even making everything at low density - btw, i earned the space base in there due the 25 000 high tech jobs, this would mean i finished the game in general terms :3) now till i finnish the entire region is just a walk in the park. 

 

Here is the map of transportation. Notice that im using nam 31 but using classic standarts of capacity (some lines of the high speed line got 30 000 passagers per day)

   Well, i dont plan to put an high emphasy on RHW since i dont plan to build giant megalopoles but instead build a country, where big cities use convencional high ways to conect between their conurbed areas and minor RHW-2 roads to conect with small cities. Also public transportation. I plan to make a train and a monorail line crossing all around the two major islands of the country and utilize ferries (mostly passanger ones) massively to conect cities across the canal that separates the two island and the ones around some rivers. Metropolitan system i pretend build some ones on cities/conurbed areas with population superior to 1 million of peoples, starting with terrestrian lines at medium density suburbs and going subterranean around high density areas.

Wish i know how to expand this image. Anyway, the black box on de edgy is the area i already made, there is an orange and grey line that you guys barelly see but its my general ideia of the tracing that the monorail and train line will made around. I will make two circulars high way lines, each one encircling each island and getting conected by a bridge at the capital.

  The place im building right now will be the industrial center. Since industries dont employ massively like the comercial skycrappers, the major industrial cities are filled with small density houses. Below the black box in that image, already in the another island, i plan to make a plain terrain that will serve as countryside, with small cute cities and filled with farms. After the country get food and industries enough i can proceed and use the rest of the scenario to make giant comercial cities, turistic places, mountain places, etc.

 

   Like i said, im pretty open to sugestions.

 

...

 

   The only thing that bothers me on this game is the fact the airports doesnt work like a real transportation modal. Yesterday i caught myself thinking if it wasnt possible to make airport works someway like ferries routes, crossing both water and land at 800 km/h. It surelly would make the game interesting.

[docj101 100]

 Like i said, im pretty open to suggestions.

Round off, or make more irregular, the edges/borders of your cities so they aren't so square; which makes the borders obvious.  Use your neighbors like you did along the river in the north to blur the boundaries.  Things would look more natural done that way, organic.  Also I would transition from the urban center to suburbs before farms.  That's much more a matter of preference.

 

Overall I really like what you have there!  Great job keeping it green and spreading across the terrain!

[MandelSoft 2,774]

I'd like to give you a few tips.

 

- Try to use a terrain mod and a water mod. As suggested before, Lowkee's Appalachean Terrain Mod is good, but also Gobias' Sudden Valley Terrain mod, both of which are available at the LEX. Make sure you set your game to Hardware Rendering when using these mods. Also, you could use Pegs Brigatine Water Mod for more realistic water. Both mods improve your landscape drastically.

- Experiment with road layouts. Don't lay everything too straight. Add some diagonals and curves to make it much more interesting.

- Use more suburbs. Gradually lower the density of your city when it goes out.

- Plan big. Spread cities over multiple tiles in both directions, make it spread over kilometers.

 

Best,

Maarten

[HSA 2]

Sorry for the late on the answear, i was a bit busy building a new medium-to-big city on the weast using metro and trams (i plan to make a big conurbation ahead, surrounding the capital city). Dont will take prints now because this isnt a cj hehe, maybe later).
 

Round off, or make more irregular, the edges/borders of your cities so they aren't so square; which makes the borders obvious. Use your neighbors like you did along the river in the north to blur the boundaries. Things would look more natural done that way, organic. Also I would transition from the urban center to suburbs before farms. That's much more a matter of preference.

Overall I really like what you have there! Great job keeping it green and spreading across the terrain!

 

Yeh, i admit there was some lack of effort to make the small cities around got a more natural shape, but that was because i dont wanna make conurbated areas yet. I already started work my way on it. I plan to build random farm areas on poligonal shapes on random edges of conurbated areas to gave a more complex urban development air and disguise the border - this surrounded by small density neighboor before turn to medium. 

 

I'd like to give you a few tips.

 

- Try to use a terrain mod and a water mod. As suggested before, Lowkee's Appalachean Terrain Mod is good, but also Gobias' Sudden Valley Terrain mod, both of which are available at the LEX. Make sure you set your game to Hardware Rendering when using these mods. Also, you could use Pegs Brigatine Water Mod for more realistic water. Both mods improve your landscape drastically.

- Experiment with road layouts. Don't lay everything too straight. Add some diagonals and curves to make it much more interesting.

- Use more suburbs. Gradually lower the density of your city when it goes out.

- Plan big. Spread cities over multiple tiles in both directions, make it spread over kilometers.

 

Best,

Maarten

 

 

Most part of your types im already following. But the terrain mod part i had some issues; i tried the appalachean one, supposelly had snow and all, but i couldnt make it work. Furthmore, i dont know if the game runs visually smooth with so much modifications. Anyway, i will give a look on your recomendations.

[Superbacon 380]

You could do with the SPAM, maybe.

[Turjan 1,048]

But the terrain mod part i had some issues; i tried the appalachean one, supposelly had snow and all, but i couldnt make it work. Furthmore, i dont know if the game runs visually smooth with so much modifications. Anyway, i will give a look on your recomendations.

 

Your terrain is probably not high enough, or you chose the wrong mode during setup. You can use iLive's Reader to change the terrain mod settings to your liking. Here is an example with the Appalachian terrain mod on one of the maps I use with three different settings for TemperatureRangeFactor:

 

0.28 (default, I think)

 

0.07

 

0.02

 

Takes less than a minute to change. Of course, finding your perfect setting might take a few attempts.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

One thing about working on terrain.  Even in mayor mode, nothing is cast in concrete.  I often enhance (land fill) my shorelines or cut them back to suit the kind of thing I am building.  You can get back to full god mode by pressing CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+<click the god icon>.

 

If you have built on a city tile, be very careful with the god tools.  They seem to cause earthquakes if you flash them around.  Don't forget you can control both the radius of effect (numeric keys) and the weight of the operation (function keys) that sets when holding the shift key.  This also applies to the mayor mode tools as well.

[Turjan 1,048]

So, HSA had a question regarding on how to use the Reader, and I thought I'd add a short description on how to make the changes that I showed in my last post here.

 

1. Start up iLive's Reader (version 1.4 is easier to use, but buggy, so version 0.9.3 is preferred)

2. Open the file LK_AppalachianTerrain_Snow_Jagged_Coast.dat of the Appalachian Terrain Mod (your file might be called differently, depending on your choices during setup of the mod)

3. In the right Reader pane, click on the "Fill the list" button.

4. Open the first exemplar in the left pane (actually, this should already be open in the right pane after you clicked "Fill the list")

5. Look for "TemperatureRangeFactor" in the list on the right and open it per double-click

 

 

6. Change the value in the "Values as text" field from 0.28 to whatever else you want, like 0.07

7. Click the "Apply" to the right of the field you changed.

8. Click the "Apply" button on the bottom.

9. Save your file (you can just overwrite it).

 

I hope that helps.

 

Alternatively, you can change the value for "MaxTerrainHeight".

 

You can leave the Reader and file open during your changing attempts. You can only change the file when the game is closed, so you will have to restart the game a few times in order to be able to see the effect of what you are doing.