How do I improve my city layout?

[Somewon2000 2]

This is the only layout I can think of. And It's crap. I want to make it look more pretty and not all squarish an ugly.

 

It has an Interstate running through it. It is really blocky and square and looks out of place.

[9gruntsand1hammer 3,198]

A picture might help to illustrate what you are talking about.

[jmsepe 2,039]

Hmm. I agree with the statement above, please provide a clear image of what you are referring too so we can sort things out. Also I am transferring this to the correct subforum.  

 

Please post in the sc4 general discussion thread if you simply want to ask a question. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Without a screen shot, things are not clear.

 

However, you can have diagonal streets, roads, avenues and anything else you want.  The game is grid based, but the NAM does contain some fractional curves that will help with variety.  To use the NAM, your game must be at build level 1,1,638 or higher.  You should check yours by finding the SimCity 4.exe file and from its properties find the "version" number.

[Prophet42 1,503]

I agree with above statements.  To prevent grid layouts, NAM will really help.  The NAM includes many options for better looking curves and roads that can be laid at other angles other than 0°, 45°, 90°.

[joshua43214 8]

The best thing is to look over the CL forum here and the MD forum at sc4devotion. You will get plenty of good ideas on how to mix things up a bit.

I usually go for an organic approach. I start with two intersecting roads like a real city does and let it grow from there. At some point I have to demolish a bunch of stuff to make room for bigger roads, then demolish more stuff for a highway system, then try to wrangle mass transit.

In the end I end up with a bunch of streets that make no sense, just like a real city. I then go about civic improvement to get the city to make more sense where traffic is bad.

I find preplanned cities boring...

[Somewon2000 2]

This is it. I couldn't get I wider picture because it says " File Too Big"

[Somewon2000 2]

And I have been playing it for a year and a half. Please give me suggestions. Please?

[jmsepe 2,039]

That's a very familiar layout, the grid system. If you want to add variety, you might want to try the different road pieces available in the NAM. I've seen a lot of good curves road and streets lately and there are also diagonals. You might also want to visit some CJs to see their city building style and you might also refer to real life cities for you planning.

 

Speaking of NAM, it's not only roads though, you can try using mass transit too, this will add variety to your city. 

 

Please, avoid double post please use edit function.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

One of the things you can do to improve your image is to convert it to JPG from PNG.  JPG is much smaller and will display full size on this site.

 

Since you don't say, I am going to assume you have installed the NAM successfully.  This very large package can be overwhelming, so I do recommend that if you've not used it before you use the custom installer to omit some of the more arcane features like RHW and GLR. 

 

Now to fix up your city may well nigh be impossible or seem so at first.  You need to practice in a sandbox situation using the NAM features such as FAR curves.  The documentation will help you quite a bit, and there are some tutorials on U-Tube.  You have about a week of playing around before you will really get the feel of this.

 

I would be tempted with that city to run a diagonal road or avenue corner to corner across it and take the lumps that go with it.  That will help you break the grid pattern at least.  Where you go from there is a matter of imagination. 

 

Before you do any of this, back up your region by copying it out of the game area.