Lot size ratio

[dkempel 3]

Hello,

 

I wanted to ask, what is the size of the game lots in real measurements?

 

One post claims it is 16x16 meters: 

 

Here it is 50x50 meters:

 

The first size would mean that cities are rather small. Even the biggest tile would not be bigger than half of, say, Amsterdam's urban area. This seems too small.

 

Anyone knows the correct size ratio?

 

Thanks

[cogeo 960]

Well, 16m equals roughly 50ft.

 

The lot "unit" size is indeed supposed to be 16 meters. So a big city tile is ca 4x4 km large. Don't try to compare this to real cities though. Yes, each tile has its own "mayor" and its own budget, so it seems like a "city" on its own, but you should rather regard it as an "area". RCI demand is "interpolated" throughout connected city tiles, so to some degree the "system" behaves like a big city. There is even a mod on SC4D that allows transfering money from one city tile to another.

 

As for lot/building sizes, there are huge imbalances and inconsistencies there. Many models (esp big ones) are scaled down, while others (mostly small ones) are instead scaled up, so as to achieve a more uniform appearance, and to help playability.

 

Many players have tried re-creating real world cities (even using accurate scaled maps) but almost all failed badly, or compromised to a very rough approximation at most. Building stats are flawed, for example R houses too many occupants, industry employs really few workers, etc etc. Not to mention that development does not always (if at all) take place where and the way you would have desired. So....

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Actually the grid is 16m.  Lots can be multiple of them.  The default lots of SC4 (1 x 2 grids) is a humongous lot these days for a crowded city.  Fifty-foot frontages are most unusual unless you are in a rural area.

 

Quick (not accurate) conversion 1 m = 3 1/3 feet.  Accurate is 1m = 39.37 in.

[dkempel 3]

Thank you for the reply and for pointing out that I overlooked the unit of measurement

 

I was thinking exactly along the lines of whether a big tile can hold a huge city 'naturally'.

[Sabretooth78 808]

A 1x2 lot size pretty well approximates a typical American postwar suburban lot.  My lot measures 62'x118' and it's in a neighborhood that was originally platted in the 1920s I believe; although it didn't achieve build-out until the 1970s so the original layout saw some modifications.  The houses tend to be smaller - typically 1000-1500 sqft (with some exceptions; a few well over 3000 sqft on combined lots) and closer together than you'll find in most suburbia nowadays but they're not right on top of each other, either, though the side yard setbacks are grandfathered in the code.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The last house I built in Wasaga Beach, Ontario, had a 50 foot frontage but I think the lot was only around 75 feet deep.  There was a huge setback rule from the road and the house was right in the middle of the lot.  The last place I owned was a double width pre-fab in a forest park (leased land).  The lot was 100 x 150 feet and heavily forested with pines and spruce.  Right about now is the time for the yellow rain (pine pollen).  Put an invisible fence on this one, and the dogs had the run of it.  The soil was very acid (forest floor), and growing grass was an ordeal.

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

No, a large city tile in SimCity 4 cannot hold a real-life city.  But that's why it has regions with side-by-side cities.  An entire region could hold one big city, to scale; you just have to divide it up and build small 'districts' on each tile.  Despite this setback, it still allows SC4 to have the largest contiguous areas (just not 'playable' area) of any city building game ever made to date.

 

And no, the tile size can never be modified unfortunately.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I've been playing a long time.  I very quickly lost the idea of playing just one tile, and always develop a region, usually as a rural municipality each tile with its own budget, which makes things slightly difficult.

 

For the urban minded, you can think of each tile as a city ward.

[whwsc4 0]

So I have seen a wikihow post that favors a tile each of Residence, Commercial and Industry connected together.

I thought this maybe non-idealic as Sims don't like to travel... but what I am hearing here suggests this as a possibility..?

Or is it better to go with smaller independent communities making up a larger whole?

 

Trying to figure the best approach to the game.

[rsc204 21,806]

There is an inherit flexibility to do what you want, generally the important thing is to balance the number of jobs in a given area to the people that can reach those jobs, you also need to take into account the wealth of sims needed to fill those jobs.

 

Personally I try to blend some Industrial and Commercial into the residential areas, like on the fringe of a housing estate or on a main route, however I do also make dedicated areas too.

[NCGAIO 562]

Somewhere ... at some point ... it seems that many have decided that this simulator was on traffic / work and so this is always the dominant issue for development.

 

Lack some understanding for this view about how function the simulation   because the work is the traffic are  some of the conditions to determine the growth of specific areas ( seen by the game ) and not the unique conditions for development.

 

How discuss this does not appear to be well accepted or interesting only recommend reading the chapter Guia_Prima regarding the development ... so at least the subsequent criticism (if any) will focus on discussing the guide information.

 

And to this purpose: development conditions appear easy in the exe strings (not be only  deductions of Guide on properties exemplar ) so that before any  comments contraries may be good to check.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The original SimCity 4 was overlaid by SimCity 4 Rush Hour with emphasis on getting to and from work.  Deluxe is simply a repackaging of the two into a single item.  Algoritmically, the game is indeed concentrated on getting the Sims to their jobs and back.  The closer the jobs are to home the better.