Optimal road spacing

[bedhead 5]

Sorry if this has already been addressed elsewhere, but what is the best spacing for various road types? Due to server issues and crashes (cant believe I have to deal with this for single player sandbox - ugh) I haven't been able to make a whole lot of progress...experimentation has been slow. Say you're just building a grid city, what is the optimal spacing so that there's no dead space in the centers of the boxes? Will they automatically fill in as density improves and roads are upgraded? Does this change along curved roads, and will many larger buildings, whatever their zoning, be unable to grow along curved roads? Any advice is appreciated.

 

Separately, I think it's got the potential to be an epic game. The server issues will get fixed soon. Tile sizes will probably increase. Maybe they can fill in region gaps. Mods are inevitable, and creators will be allowed to charge $0 even if it all has to go through an EA server. All of the problems are solvable. Meanwhile the micromanagement aspects are surprisingly fun and challenging, while the screenshots are stunning. Patience, people - it's only going to get better from here.

[Shardak 8]

I think the best option is turning on GRIDLINES in the road building tool.  That seems to keep things tightly packed when building density upgrades.

 

The other visual hint you will get is if you use the ZONE tool, you will notice a little green line that marks the size of biggest lot that can develop on the current size road.  To test this out, draw a straight road with the first section as low-density street, then a little bit medium density and then high density.  Now drag the mouse down this road when using the ZONE tool, you will see the different size lots.  Medium and high density appear to have the same lot-size.

 

 

[Benzos4Breakfast 2]

Are mods really inevitable? Pretty sure with the amount of server-side work that is required for the game, modding won't be possible. I hope though

[DrKing2020 8]

Are mods really inevitable? Pretty sure with the amount of server-side work that is required for the game, modding won't be possible. I hope though

I'm pretty sure I read early on that they were designing it for mod-ability. I believe the source was closely connected to development.

[Benzos4Breakfast 2]

Are mods really inevitable? Pretty sure with the amount of server-side work that is required for the game, modding won't be possible. I hope though

I'm pretty sure I read early on that they were designing it for mod-ability. I believe the source was closely connected to development.

Oh awesome! I remember hearing it was going to be the same kind of package files or something that we were already used to modding in SC4. Hopefully they stay true to that! Thanks for the info

[bedhead 5]

I'm sure modding will be allowed eventually, even if it's in a different format than SC4. It'll look like the App Store on iOS - EA will offer their own content at premium prices while modders can opt to charge for it or give it away. It's just the natural evolution of the game, and my guess is that it's one of the primary reasons they decided to make the game online-only. Why else bother? It's not like all those servers and infrastructure come cheap, and I'm sure EA doesn't enjoy the current debacle anymore than players do.

 

A year or two from now people are going to be saying, "Remember when everyone hated this game? Can you believe that??" And everyone with their grandstanding "I'll never buy this game EA sucks rawr!" will have plunked down $70 and be playing 15 hours/week.

[Zpike 79]

I'm sure modding will be allowed eventually, even if it's in a different format than SC4. It'll look like the App Store on iOS - EA will offer their own content at premium prices while modders can opt to charge for it or give it away. It's just the natural evolution of the game, and my guess is that it's one of the primary reasons they decided to make the game online-only. Why else bother? It's not like all those servers and infrastructure come cheap, and I'm sure EA doesn't enjoy the current debacle anymore than players do.

 

A year or two from now people are going to be saying, "Remember when everyone hated this game? Can you believe that??" And everyone with their grandstanding "I'll never buy this game EA sucks rawr!" will have plunked down $70 and be playing 15 hours/week.

 

You are correct sir!

 

 

(If you get the reference then you are most likely older than I am and that's just scarry)

[bedhead 5]

I'm sure modding will be allowed eventually, even if it's in a different format than SC4. It'll look like the App Store on iOS - EA will offer their own content at premium prices while modders can opt to charge for it or give it away. It's just the natural evolution of the game, and my guess is that it's one of the primary reasons they decided to make the game online-only. Why else bother? It's not like all those servers and infrastructure come cheap, and I'm sure EA doesn't enjoy the current debacle anymore than players do.

 

A year or two from now people are going to be saying, "Remember when everyone hated this game? Can you believe that??" And everyone with their grandstanding "I'll never buy this game EA sucks rawr!" will have plunked down $70 and be playing 15 hours/week.

 

You are correct sir!

 

 

(If you get the reference then you are most likely older than I am and that's just scarry)

 

You know it's funny. I played Classic in ~1991 when I was about 13, and it was just an incredible experience and I have such fond memories of it and SC2000. I haven't played Simcity in years but I started getting giddy when I saw the screenshots and videos for this game. I can't wait to show this game to my 6 year-old son and get him into it. 

 

The jackassery on these boards is ridiculous. I've never seen such impatience or entitlement before.

[opuslife 0]

Well said to you both.

 

An old $%&^! myself (light infrequent user of various versions of Simcity in decades past) and thoroughly enjoying the learning of this gorgeous new version of the game...

 

If I may, I would formally request to copy (with attribution, surely) and liberally reuse that most beautiful 'jackassery' adjective?

 

For it is both (a) exceedingly accurate, and (b) beautifully crafted.

 

Regards and thanks,

 

Bob W.

Bristol RI, US 

[RotBot 0]

Check this link for how the guidelines work.

[nhgriffith 179]

The guidelines help you know where a building of the highest density that road can handle will grow too.

If you're planting roads (whether dirt-road or highest density), the FIRST guideline indicates that the low-density buildings will grow back to back, but the medium and high density buildings will take up the entire gap.

So there's a question of personal preference. What do you want?

If you never plan to upgrade beyond low-density, use the closest guideline to ensure no "deadspace" between the low density buildings. However, if you do intend to eventually increase to medium or high density, you've got some options. Are you okay with "deadspace" between the buildings while they're low density before they grow up in exchange for back-to-back medium and high density buildings? If so, use the second guideline. If not, if you want your low-density buildings back to back and want streets between every medium/high density building, use the first guideline.

[Zpike 79]

I go at it a bit differently...

 

I use avenues as the backbone of my design.  I lay down avenues with the idea that they will be permanent and I lay down roads with the idea that I may or may not change them later on as the city grows.  My road network is "expected" to change where my avenues are expected to be permanent.  I don't worry about distance between roads as I know I will be changing them as the city grows.

 

At about the mid point in the cities development and at a point where I have plenty of cash coming in I start to look at where the best place for the city center is.  I go to that area and redesign it based on large high density buildings.  I do small sections at a time so as to limit the hit to my income and to watch the impact on traffic.

[macbroue 2]

Check this link for how the guidelines work.

So as this guideline says:

 

• Streets are 24m wide.
• Avenues are 48m wide.
• Low density lots are 48m deep.
• Mid/high density lots are 96m deep

 

The road tool gives us the cost when laying down a road (street or avenue).. It should also add the distance from point A to point B, That would be handy..

[bedhead 5]

With relation to the roads, the one thing I've found irritating so far is the need for buildings to be dropped along roads. This gets frustrating when trying to build infrastructure that relies on underground resources such as mines and water tanks. I wish I could drop things first, then build the roads around them. I often end up with these very small spaces in between say, a trade depot and a road, where nothing can grow. It's a waste of space in a game where space is a (super) premium. It's also annoying that certain buildings get wedded to roads, so you cant bulldoze them.

 

The other thing that's been slightly frustrating but I'll probably adapt is getting used to the size of specialized buildings and budgeting extra land for their inevitable modular add-ons. I end up having a lot of dead space next to things like a trade depot because I worry that I'll need to eventually add a bunch of additional storage space. And I'm honestly still confused about coal and ore and the supply chains associated with them. It's not clear to me (a) how much is being mined, (b) how much my city's industry is consuming, © how much storage will be needed, (d) whether higher value-add products will be produced, and (e) whether I have the capacity to export. I'm thinking back to my operations management class in business school...is that what Simcity is trying to accomplish here, an actual supply chain? Even power plants' readouts are confusing...I miss the old days when it simply showed what % of capacity is being used. Am I missing this somehow in 2013?

[nhgriffith 179]

bedhead, as for placing roads relative to in-the-ground resources, you can turn the overlays on while placing the roads so you can move the roads where ever you want.

When it comes to budgeting space for future expansion via ploppables on buildings... why bother doing it? I mean, don't box that building in with a road, but there's nothing wrong with zoning that industrial, letting the factory grow there for now, and then when you decide to expand your building via ploppables just do it. The growable won't prevent you from placing a ploppable.

As for everything in your second paragraph regarding supply and supply chain, I think it's just a matter of practice.