How do you make your subways/railroad/monorail/large railroads to work?

[TeddyAbbie 2]

I did have the NAM but it made my game slow (comps already slowish already) so I removed it. But the sims don't seem to be using the transportations apart from the roads and highways. How do I make them use them? Thanx!

[infamousjbe 593]

Did you try just installing the basic NAM traffic controller without all the add-ons? Without NAM, you probably won't be able to get your Sims to efficiently use some of the default transportation options.

[fefenc 77]

sims don't like trains

[AcronShinra 60]

I did have the NAM but it made my game slow (comps already slowish already) so I removed it. But the sims don't seem to be using the transportations apart from the roads and highways. How do I make them use them? Thanx!

Standard traffic controller is highly ineffective, NAM is pretty much required to any serious play. As infamous said, install only traffic controller, if lag is unbearable.

 

sims don't like trains

That's a blasphemy, what you've said just now D:

[fefenc 77]

 

I did have the NAM but it made my game slow (comps already slowish already) so I removed it. But the sims don't seem to be using the transportations apart from the roads and highways. How do I make them use them? Thanx!

Standard traffic controller is highly ineffective, NAM is pretty much required to any serious play. As infamous said, install only traffic controller, if lag is unbearable.

 

sims don't like trains

That's a blasphemy, what you've said just now D:

 

 How can a God commit a blasphemy? '-'

 

RR are worthless, it's just a waste of space and money. Nobody will use it unless you force them to use it. Don't do Railroads. Just subways.

[infamousjbe 593]

RR are worthless, it's just a waste of space and money. Nobody will use it unless you force them to use it. Don't do Railroads. Just subways.

 

I would beg to differ on this statement. Maybe without NAM it's difficult to use the RR to it's fullest potential, but with NAM, a good majority of my Sims move around by RR & Ferries.

[Indiana Joe 1,751]

Railroad definitely has the highest capacity for the lowest cost.

[SilverCyric 131]

Indiana Joe is correct. Besides, who ever heard of a subway in a town of less than 200,000?? (Info based upon Belgrade being one of the largest cities without an underground rail, and Lillie, (200,000 pop) being one of the smallest cities with a subway system)

[Terring 6,476]

Besides, who ever heard of a subway in a town of less than 200,000?? (Info based upon Belgrade being one of the largest cities without an underground rail, and Lillie, (200,000 pop) being one of the smallest cities with a subway system)

Even my 10,000 Sims towns has subways...

[fefenc 77]

well, at least, I'm not speaking about realism on cities, but for fun and make the city functional. Sims almost don't use RR system and it takes a lot of space on your city. That's the reason why subway system is better than railroadsfor me. I don't make rr systems to my cities cuz nobody use it.

[APSMS 1,893]

One of the ways I "encourage" my Sims to use RR is to modify the mass transit usage percentages in the traffic simulator. I make most of my Sims prefer the fastest route to work, with a few choosing car and other few choosing MT over other methods. This way, I can encourage cars with a good RHW network, and I can encourage trains with a really good MT network. Since the preference is neutral, the pathfinder will also offload Sims from either network if one is too clogged to balance out commute times.

 

And yeah, with the default simulator, I couldn't even get Sims to use avenues, much less trains. They all used side streets that had all the capacity of a large bus, which meant my commute times were through the roof and so was my congestion map.

[Prophet42 1,503]

well, at least, I'm not speaking about realism on cities, but for fun and make the city functional. Sims almost don't use RR system and it takes a lot of space on your city. That's the reason why subway system is better than railroadsfor me. I don't make rr systems to my cities cuz nobody use it.

What???  I use railroad and almost all my stations are at over 100% capacity.  Railroads are great for intercity travel.  They can carry a large mass of people a long distance and I use them extensively so my sims can commute from my 'suburbs' to my downtown.  Subways are great for innercity travel.  They relieve traffic in the Central Business district and are useful in higher density areas.

 

It's actually much more effecient to use several different types of mass transport.  You just have to make sure you build the transport system with its strengths and weaknesses in mind and plan accordingly.  For example, a sim can hop on a railroad in the suburb to get him/her to the CBD and then transfer to a subway to get to their place of work.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

sims don't like trains

Not true.  You have to spot the stations around heavily in residential areas.  They are cheap enough.  The problem is that the surface tracks take up too much real estate.  One of my largest cities, at the moment, is heavily dependent on surface rail, with a few subways to take some of the busiest routes underground

 

As for the NAM, try using the custom installer and only put in what you need.  I omit RHW and GLR at the moment, and don't have a problem.  My machine is getting a little long in the tooth being something like five years old, but running in software rendering it gets along fairly well.  The lag I get is switching between underground and surface modes when laying down subways.  This can take up to five minutes to switch depending on the size of the city population.

[fefenc 77]

 

sims don't like trains

Not true.  You have to spot the stations around heavily in residential areas.  They are cheap enough.  The problem is that the surface tracks take up too much real estate.  One of my largest cities, at the moment, is heavily dependent on surface rail, with a few subways to take some of the busiest routes underground

 

As for the NAM, try using the custom installer and only put in what you need.  I omit RHW and GLR at the moment, and don't have a problem.  My machine is getting a little long in the tooth being something like five years old, but running in software rendering it gets along fairly well.  The lag I get is switching between underground and surface modes when laying down subways.  This can take up to five minutes to switch depending on the size of the city population.

 

WOW! Five minutes to switch the subway vision to the normal vision? You must have 7GB of plugins. I was playing on my 6 years old pc sometime ago, on(in,on,at I hate these 3 wordS) a pentium 4, and even in my city with 1.3kk population and big tile, my old pc took 10~20 sec to load the subway vision to normal vision and I had 1.6GB plugins. '-'

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Actually, my plugins are just under 1 GB.  But this processor isn't the world's fastest.  It is an Athlon X2, and with a population around 200,000 it seems to take forever.  Maybe it has to do with the fact that the tile I am playing has three or four separate settlements so the tile has clumps of stuff plus a lot of wilderness.

 

The game loads in nothing flat and cities just about as fast, but switching to underground is a pain in the ass.  I've found that the redraw takes a very long time, even switching to the zone display is painful.  My stuff is on my internal disk, so there is no more delay there than would occur for most people.  I am strongly tempted to avoid subways as long as possible because of this, and the rural scenario I run mostly doesn't need them.  I tend to use a lot of ground heavy rail.

 

Here's the current image:  (click for full size).

 

[fefenc 77]

Actually, my plugins are just under 1 GB.  But this processor isn't the world's fastest.  It is an Athlon X2, and with a population around 200,000 it seems to take forever.  Maybe it has to do with the fact that the tile I am playing has three or four separate settlements so the tile has clumps of stuff plus a lot of wilderness.

 

The game loads in nothing flat and cities just about as fast, but switching to underground is a pain in the ass.  I've found that the redraw takes a very long time, even switching to the zone display is painful.  My stuff is on my internal disk, so there is no more delay there than would occur for most people.  I am strongly tempted to avoid subways as long as possible because of this, and the rural scenario I run mostly doesn't need them.  I tend to use a lot of ground heavy rail.

 

Here's the current image:  (click for full size).

 

 

Maybe your problem is your city layout, your processor is better than a pentium 4, but you have a lot of problem with drawing object after exiting the subway menu. My old computer lags more when the city is small or/and divided like yours than when it is filled of skycrappers. But my old PC freezed like your PC for +10 minutes because my PC was changing ALL the entire roads sidewalk at least 4 time per second and the game was umplayable, maybe your problem is the sidewalks. Low end PC have hard time to Draw Sidewalks.

[IljaS 54]

Quick note about the heavy rail. I am playing with large tiles and still had to demolish all but 1 station from each connected tile, because HR stress became too heavy for my capital city.

 

I suggest that peoples having a problem with trains could visit Helsinki (Finland) and region related to it with Goolge Earth, or similar program. You will get a basic understanding how to get your HR congested.

 

Just keep buildingthat GRL after that. They didn't think to extend it beyond Helsinki city borders in Finland. :kitty: