U-Drive It. Good for driving around. Bad for missions.

[Trentreznorspig 4]

Now it's not always that way. I usually succeed. But there are a couple of things i want to address. For one, sometimes you fail on certain car missions automatically without doing a single wrong thing. Like " Sick Bus Driver " or sometimes you put on your siren and you are going behind a Semi. And the trailer dismounts and you crash. I take it there might be a fix for the semi thing. But anyway. The thing that really sucks is the railroad missions. You can't go backwards? Wow. That is messed up. And let's talk about the promotion for this function. It was rushed by EA. And it was another way to promote The SIms I take it? Anyway. Wouldn't you agree it was a little rushed?

[Cheddar 119]

The UDI mode was certainly an afterthought or a last-minute decision by EA to promote the Sims 2.

At first, I found the UDI mode fairly interesting as it gave me an opportunity to experience any newly constructed transportation networks. But after a while, it did start to get glitchy, such as frame rate drops or freezing, and would once in a blue moon, crash my game. Eventually, I gave up on the UDI mode.

Of course, it has its perks, such as it being an easy way to unlock reward buildings. The casino being an example, just drive a limo over some undeveloped land and - boom! - casino unlocked. But, once again as stated above, the mode just pretty much became unplayable. Now for unlocking the rewards, I either develop and maintain a city worthy of those rewards or just simply input "You don't deserve it" and I go from there.

With that all said, the UDI mode certainly had potential, but it was purely an afterthought or a last-minute decision. Even now, my game runs fantastic except when in UDI mode, with frame rate drops here and there and increasing the risk of a game crash.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was something Maxis didn't plan at first, and were forced to implement it by EA, who knows.

[Star21Sim 5]

That's correct, on the train you can't go backwards.

[Trentreznorspig 4]

Yeah. I've seen trains go reverse at the stations to go to their previous route. I mean. Really? Did you have that small windows of time EA?

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

One look at UDI and I turned it off.  I turn if off on every new city I open.  It is a kludge.

[Haljackey 17,398]

UDI is a great feature for video tours of your city.

 

The missions fall flat.

[Indiana Joe 1,752]

Mods make it even worse too. With all of the dead end paths in various NAM networks, transit enabled lots, etc, there are a million ways for a car you're trying to catch to disappear.

I've had some luck with free driving mode by modding the acceleration and turning. Makes it a little easier to dodge traffic when necessary.

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

I used to play the missions but they quickly became repetitive.

 

One little trick it the udriveit command included with the This lets you click to take control of most moving automata. Occasionally there's some interesting vehicles (e.g. wagons) which are drivable.

[jmsepe 2,039]

I don't play missions. I usually just use UDI for touring around the newly built city if I get bored sometimes. However it always snaps to the road when I enter overpasses, roads and avenues with trams or elevated rail which is kinda sad because sometimes, I want the car to crash from the overpass or collide with the tram. Hahaha.

[Star21Sim 5]

UDI is a great feature for video tours of your city.

 

The missions fall flat.

Yes, for video tours.

[TekindusT 3,809]

I used to play the missions but they quickly became repetitive.

 

One little trick it the udriveit command included with the This lets you click to take control of most moving automata. Occasionally there's some interesting vehicles (e.g. wagons) which are drivable.

It is incredible that I keep learning stuff from SC4 after so mant years...

[spokelips 21]

IMHO - Just to be different (hey, I'm old   ) , I use UDI's a lot. I like to do the train missions especially because, for one reason, I get to see my city slower than zooming around with my mouse. Thereby going back and repair or alter a section which isn't correct.  Plus, I use the Airport/Cab missions to build up my $$$ without using a cheat.  Also, the plane and helicopter missions also let you check out areas of the city you usually go by too fast thru.  After an hour or so of developing my cities, I like to sit back and do a nice, long and slow train mission - just to get my head back together.

 

Oh yea - about the reverse on trains...I always put a little "circle" on my track every "mile" or so.  This way I can go back the way I just came from.  It takes up a little space, but not too much.

[Shark7 118]

UDI in general is something that I avoid.  However I will admit to having entirely too much fun driving through my city with the tank...leveling entire city blocks.   Mwuhahahaha! 

 

Of course I save first then reload once I've had my fun.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

UDI may amuse some, but I no longer have the hand-eye coordination for it, nor am I amused by its rather primitive controls.

 

Old?  Spokelips has a birthday coming up.  So do I.  My 77th.

[47ply 1,100]

As far as UDI goes try playing the my sims mode pick one a nice house and car then dispatch them to a location on the other side of your city and watch how they handle the traffic its a lot of fun in my opinion just remember to click onto the find my sim icon so the camera will follow your sim. I have seen my sim pick some cool routes to get to where they are going. and have seen them take a train or subway if it is faster

[spokelips 21]

Now it's not always that way. I usually succeed. But there are a couple of things i want to address. For one, sometimes you fail on certain car missions automatically without doing a single wrong thing. Like " Sick Bus Driver " or sometimes you put on your siren and you are going behind a Semi. And the trailer dismounts and you crash. I take it there might be a fix for the semi thing. But anyway. The thing that really sucks is the railroad missions. You can't go backwards? Wow. That is messed up. And let's talk about the promotion for this function. It was rushed by EA. And it was another way to promote The SIms I take it? Anyway. Wouldn't you agree it was a little rushed?

I did a couple of snapshots of how I handle the train reversal problem in my cities.  It isn't pretty, but it gets the job done

.

Look for the post named "RR_U-TURNS" here in this forum.

[Prophet42 1,503]

About the only time I use UDI is to drive around the my city and see how it is doing, or if the road layout is adequate.  I do use the UDI sometimes to unlock some of the rewards (mainly the nuclear power plant).

[Fatherted 129]

I like UDI but my PC renders (at 1600x900) anywhere between 5-22fps so the judder makes me feel sick after a while so I stop if it reached 30fps it'd make the whole experience so much easier. Perhaps I should render 1408x792?