Can someone explain Regions to me

[Bribaryan 0]

Hi, I'm new to Sim City 4.  I used to love this game way back when, but I dont really understand the region concept.

 

You can connect every tile in the region ?  How does that work for money and other properties of the game like workforce, residential, industry, etc......

 

Can someone explain it, or maybe even have a link to explanation?

[Asser 78]

Hi Bribaryan and welcome.

 

Think of the region as your entire metropolitan area and the "tiles" (cities) as the various districts.

the districts are autonomous in terms of income/expences and budget meaning the economy varies in the various districts/tiles. One tile can be blooming while the other can go bankrupt.

 

You can connect all the tiles with each other in a number of various ways like roads, highways, rails, subways, monorails, ferries etc. This allows your sims to travel from one tile to another so you can have one tile with your central business district and high-rises and you can then have satelite cities/tiles/suburbs around that tile where your sims live and sleep. This can also be used to separate the dirty industry from your residential areas as the sims tend to dislike smog and pollution does not spread form one tile to another.

 

You can also connect the tiles in other ways like waterpipes and powerlines. By doing this you can sell and purchase power and water from connected tiles. If you have a road connection you can also sell and purchase garbage.

 

You can only trade power, water and garbage with neighbouring tiles, sims can however travel across several tiles if these are connected (usually not more than across 3 tiles.).

So you can have a 3 neighbouring tiles connected by i.e. a highway. This allows sims to travel form the far end of the first city, through the second city and arriving in the third city.

 

The commute time however limits how far sims will travel. Commute time depends on the amount of traffic on the sims' route and the type of transportation. Subways and monorails seem to be most efficient on long distances. - This is based on you playing the game "vanilla style" meaning you have no plugins or mods installed. Some mods, such as the NAM, changes how the traffic works in game.

 

Seaports and airports does however not allow your sims to travel between tiles they boost demands for either industry or commercial services.

 

Hope this makes region play a little more clear

[Cyclone Boom 16,829]

Welcome! Kaalakiota has summed it up nicely.

To create neighbour connections, just drag the road, power line or water pipe to the edge of the tile boundary. A confirmation box will ask if you'd like to create the connection. Once accepted, the network will be visible on the neighbouring city. You'll then be able to trade utility resources between the connected cities. It will only work if there is sufficient supply and demand. For example, if you have an excess amount of power in city 'A', you could trade this with city 'B' via a power line connection.

With regions, each tile can feed of the adjacent ones, influencing RCI demand. For high density development (i.e. skyscrapers), building neighbouring cities is most important. But with this game, there are no rules. It all requires an amount of patience, perseverance and creativity.

I'd definitely recommend installing the NAM, as it will greatly improve the simulation. It's considered an essential mod due to the vast improvements it makes. This will all benefit regional play, while providing a range of new transportation options at your disposal.

[Bribaryan 0]

I see thank you, but as far as money is concerned then, the money is only active in the tiles correct?

 

I have vanilla atm, no NAM. 

[ThirtyThree 141]

If you're curious to see the whole region concept in action, I would recommend taking a look at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL42C211F4110AA66D. Everything that you need to know about regions is explained and properly demonstrated in his videos. I advise caution - his videos are addicting to watch and his voice is hypnotizing.

[Bribaryan 0]

If you're curious to see the whole region concept in action, I would recommend taking a look at Dwyrin's SC4 'Let's Play' on YouTube. Everything that you need to know about regions is explained and properly demonstrated in his videos. I advise caution - his videos are addicting to watch and his voice is hypnotizing.

Sweet thanks, gonna look at it.

 

Does anyone know if there's a way to turn off the night on the "DarkNight" Mod temporarily?

[Cyclone Boom 16,829]

Does anyone know if there's a way to turn off the night on the "DarkNight" Mod temporarily?

Well, the easiest way would be to move the mod (named SimFox_Day_n_Nite_Modd.dat) out of your plugins folder. This won't affect existing cities.

Otherwise, you could try to edit this file using the and remove the "night" property. However, when experimenting with this powerful tool, remember to first make a backup copy of the edited file.

[Ro-Bo 183]

Note that creating a connection loop between 3 or more cities might trigger the "eternal commuter loop" bug.

 

[SilverCyric 130]

Oh, people always suggest the NAM, but anybody who has played the game, especially when it was first released, knows the NAM is essential. I'd datpack it into my master game files, but they are always adding so much cool new stuff!!!

You have to have the NAM!, especially if you're doing region play. Staying within one single tile, maybe, but even on the single tile, you'll have sims commute at 20 mph down a street for half a mile, than take the bypass, that's literally hundreds of feet away and reduces the commute time by 2/3... Path finding is such a huge part of the game and the NAM addresses these issues first and foremost, and then heaps massive amounts of great content to add. I can't and refuse to play without the NAM. The game literally won't function properly without it. It's a simulation and the more immersive it is, the better!

P.S. IHT bug fix is important too if you're going to build anything bigger than farmlands and rural towns

[Bribaryan 0]

I've had trouble getting NAM on mine as the latest patch won't install properly, not sure what I did, so I'm still on 1.160 or whatever it is....

 

 

I really wish there was a way to organize all the plugins though, just a nice shortcut to "gas stations" and then "restaurants" etc....

[SilverCyric 130]

Sounds right to me, the version number, that is. Depends on what you mean by organized? The STEX, or your own plugin folder? There are tons of articles about plugin management, and it can be very important. Haljackey actually has a good video and you'll get a peek at what he uses as well. As far as the NAM, we have to figure a way for you to install it, it can be very intimidating at first, but it is the largest and most important of all mods. The installation process can be a little grueling but it does add so many tons of new options and pieces and lots and everything. It's truly epic. If your comp can't handle it, we can get the smaller controller running, plus if you have enough RAM, you'll want to 4GB patch your executable. Especially if you plan to have a large plugin folder

[Cyclone Boom 16,829]

The fully-updated version of SimCity 4 Deluxe should read 1.1.640.0.

A minimum of 1.1.638.0 is required to install the NAM.

If you don't have the Deluxe Edition, it can be purchased as a digital download from GamersGate, Amazon (US only) or Steam. These versions are fully updated (ignore the steps below) and don't require a CD to run.

-------------------------

EP1 Update:

If your version is less than 1.1.638.0, you'll first need to download the EP1 update from here, selecting the correct SKU version for your game's region. Then extract / copy the installer to your Desktop and execute it. The necessary files will be updated. Once done, hover your mouse over your SimCity 4.exe application file, located in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps". The version number should now read 1.1.638.0.

Nightlights Update:

Although an optional step for the NAM, to see nightlights on custom BATs, you'll need to apply the SC4 Buildings Update. It can be downloaded from here. It must be applied after the EP1 update, and will take your game to 1.1.640.0 - the final version.

[simcity1999 34]

Region play is the key of the game. Unlike in SC13, SC4 has near unlimited size for a city. Why? even the largest tile is 4x4KM, you can expand it to adjacent tiles, and a metropolitan area/province/state can be up to almost 400x400KM (160,000 KM2) size, which is equivalent to a mid sized country!