Building Concepts for Hillside Development (Show me your Height Transitions)

[Plastic Manc 28]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying my hand at restarting a region I have built on before, that is a mini version of Japan. Therefore it is quite undulating and contains a range of different hills and mountains. Along with the method of reclaiming land at lower levels to build neat shorelines, I'd like to make use of the lower undulating hills, building a range of residential densities on the hillsides. My tunneling skills have come on a fair bit but I lack the skills to make neat transitions from different heights.

I approach cutting into the hillside in 15m increments to almost create a paddy field effect and these can look quite nice. However the height transitions ruin it all. Therefore, I'm asking for you to show me your height transitions so I can develop my ideas and concepts for hillsides, along with some ideas for creating residential areas in steep areas.

Many Thanks,

Plastic

[Fearlessmayor 44]

good topic! the trouble with hillside development, at least for me, is that each a decent residential zone requires 2 squares per house, 4 if it's a high rise building....so you
'd have to build the hills in layers, the way I see it and leave at least 4 flat squares on each level (like hillside terraces) for building.  I've tried carelessly zoning on hillsides, only to my own regrets until I started leveling portions to build on.  IMO the terraforming has to be done strategically.  I'll post a pic of what I mean, and hopefully it'll help you get an idea of what I'm talking about. 

[Joe 90 358]

I use 7.5m increments when terracing my hills (15m is way too steep for me) so the levels are still a 'natural' height for overpasses. The levels are usually in 3-tile-wide terraces with 1x1 development along both sides of a road or street. I usually avoid zoning 2 tiles deep since I don't really want condos and highrises being built halfway up a hill. The slopes are left covered in trees for aesthetic value. The main pain with doing it like this is you have to terraform every tile individually, either by ground lifter or street tile leveller.

[Fearlessmayor 44]

I like what joe has done above.  I think the trees are a nice touch to cover the hillside.  I think what you want to do will require a large city.   I did this just now.  so I took a large ground level city and created this hill.  I think the key is to make gentle slopes, which requires lots of space.  I think I raised the top of the hills too high, you can do much more with building space if you don't take it as high as my "hill" which I think is more like a mountain.  but you could demolish and dezone the one or two raised houses and plant trees in the no car zones. 

 

you'll notice the mayor's house I plopped has those ugly concrete terrain raisers, and the houses up top are a little less natural looking and have the same raisers.  but careful terrforming is at least better than this: clearly I have some work to do on Balks Islands :/

 

let me know how your hillside city turns out =)

 

[GMT 389]

the best and easiest way to achieve good looking hillside development is to work WITH the terrain instead of against it. Look at the terrain structure, try to imagine looking at it from ground level and get a general feeling of it. Just plopping down some roads or stretching the zoning tool across the hill is more like forcing your will on the terrain and working AGAINST it, which, in general, leads to unrealistic results.

I think what many forget is to consider the dimensions of the game and to apply this to the real world. If we have a road of 1 tile length going up a 15m designed slope, that's almost a 45° slope or 100% incline (42° / 93.75%)... even 7.5m slope over 1 tile ends up at 21° / 47%. The world's steepest street, Baldwin Street, has a maximum slope of about 19° / 35%... If you can't estimate the realism of a slope by looking at it, a usefull tool to get a feeling for the terrain's elevation changes is the terrainquery "cheat" which allows you to see not just the xyz coordinates, but also the elevation of the terrain accurate to 10th of meters. IMHO, familiarizing with the terrain and getting a feeling for what would "feel natural" when done to it is key to create a good looking hillside development.

In addition, without using a slope mod to smooth things out, the game creats ugly zigzag spikes in the road network you'll most likely ruin any car on (except maybe monstertrucks and tanks).

With a realistic looking road network in hillside areas, realistic looking development is pretty much a sureshot. In addition, some terrain editing to smooth out the worst quirks isn't off the schedule at all. It happens in real life everyday, everywhere and SC4 comes with some great tools for that (reminder: you can adjust tool size and strentgh with ctrl/shift and numbers 1-9). You can also go with plopping single road tiles to flatten terrain precisely at least in some areas and just make some adjustments to the surrounding slopes.

maybe if I find the time I'll post some pics of how I do this 

  Edited July 29, 2015 by GMT  

[feyss 1,981]

Hi Plastic Manc,

I totally love to build on slopes, so I had to post here.

First of all, we should know which version of Sim City 4 you are playing. Do you play on a vanilla version or did you download mods, buildings etc. ? Because it changes everything for this issue.

Personnaly, I build on 7,5m terraces flattened with the road or train tool. It's way better to build on plane areas because the plopable or growable buildings you will use will change the slope beside them. Also, to avoid this even with a plane area, zone with the Ctrl key. I will recommand too to not build on too steep hills. It will look great in the beginning but you will maybe have problems to finish at the end.

For the roads, you need a slope mod to make them more "realistic". I also advice you to not build a road grid (like american cities) on your hill. As Joe 90 and GMT said, follow the hill, it will look really better. Also, don't use too much connections between each levels. Just build a few in the middle or at the extremities and don't hesitate to use stairs (that you can download on simtropolis) to join each terraces. They are pedestrian traffic enabled and they will avoid you to ruin the hill with a road.

To fill the gaps between buildins, you can use parks, threes, retaining walls, etc. I personnaly like to build 1x1 buildings on the slope to fill them. For doing this, it is better to start at the bottom, because somme buildings will take down the slope with them. And if it take down the buildings above, you will have to work again on this terrace.

You can see an example here with 4 different 7,5m terraces:

I also wanted to post a picture from art128's CJ because you said you wanted to make a Japan recreation, but the pictures seems to be missing. It's just to let you know that it also exists 1x1 japanese buildgings that can be built on slopes.

I hope it helps you. Feel free to ask questions

  Edited July 29, 2015 by feyss  

[MushyMushy 3,618]

Yes, there's a decent selection of Japanese houses, and neko has a ploppable set that is designed specifically for slopes (although they work just as well on flat ground - they're good fillers). It's worth noting that neko's houses require a shallower slope than 7.5m to look good, but the upside to them is that since they're ploppable and have no residents, they don't need a road. They have small side streets (no traffic) built into some of the lots that look like the small streets in Japan that stem off of larger ones. The set also features stairs on some lots. Another major upside is that the lack of roads allows you to build them on a fully sloped surface, no terracing required (although terracing looks pretty great in SC4 imho).

This whole picture is on a slope:

http://hide-inoki.com/bbs/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?p=3182&highlight=#3182

---

Neko also has a set of ploppable house lots designed for being placed next to slightly elevated heavy rail tracks. These house/wall lots work wonderfully to get a sort of compact terrace effect. They also feature FLUP support for roads and streets.

http://hide-inoki.com/bbs/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?p=3231&highlight=#3231

---

It's been a while since I downloaded these so I can't recall what the dependencies are. I'd suggest downloading all of neko's prop sets (which are on the same page as the other two download links I posted), as they are quite good and feature a large array of HD Japanese props. I'd try to tell you based on what neko wrote, but I can only but a few Japanese Kanji symbols... I only really know Hiragana and Katakana.

Just scroll around on those links, there are several other download-worthy things there (the two links are to the same page actually, just different posts).

[Plastic Manc 28]

Thanks for the replies everyone, apologies I haven't replied sooner but I fractured my collar bone and it makes it hard work to type. I largely play the vanilla game but with NAM and a couple of added content. I've had mt first go at it over the past few days but am not completely happy so will have another go;

 

 

  Edited July 31, 2015 by Plastic Manc  

[Ltw 401]

Funny that you mention this. I was working on the same thing a while back. Posted some pictures in the 'Show Us What You're Working On' thread. I also got some nice advice from Supermessi and Matias93 in the same thread. These tips and tricks are focused on seaports and steep hills but I think that the same basic principles could be used for residential areas as well. It certainly gave me some inspiration for another city as well.

What works for me is flattening the area into different terraces with fixed slopes. It kind of depends on the height-difference but I personally prefer a 15m slope because it would be easier to use walls (most walls I know are best with a 15m slope, correct me if I'm wrong). You could use parks as well.

[CT14 2,486]

I made a test city using some of the terraforming techniques described above (15m terraces created with lifters, mayor mode raise tool).

Some lots have custom foundations which look great at higher slopes, like these CP Chicago Tenement lots (CP_VictSt6Tenement$_Chi) with their brick daylight basements and smooth backyard fences:

All of the residential zones were laid with CTRL to avoid re-sloping. I'm using Ennedi's Mount620 slope mod.

The Troy swellfronts use a default foundation which looks very jaggy in the rear. The PEG alleys work fine, though - the textures work admirably on uneven ground.

 

[philforhockey51 4,220]

Something useful to get your sims around on hillsides, funiculars

 

[TakemeThere 5,834]

I think this image best conveys my approach to height transitions; extensive use of embankments otherwise blend the height transition into the scenery using mmps.

@philforhockey51 That funicular was a neat find, would be even more useful if there were longer versions available.

 

[philforhockey51 4,220]

@takemethere   Actually they are individual lots that can be laid out as long as you want. I have a much longer one in a different city tile. (Sorry no pictures yet) For the long ones I used rail to form the slope to keep it smooth, all other slope mods would kill the slope otherwise. It operates as a subway and the two "stations" on the top and bottom act like a subway station, just need to run a subway in between them.

 

 

[philforhockey51 4,220]

Example of a longer one wip, used rail's small bit of slope mod to create smooth slope without digging into side of ridge, sloped from top terraformed the ridge more to look more natural

[philforhockey51 4,220]

Slope Mods are great for making everything look smoother. The Road slopes up as it travels from the top of the picture, at the level of the street on the right, and through the curve and in front of the police station until it meets the street that intersects it, then slopes down into the next city tile. The street on the left slopes up and away from that level and is a residential street. The police station has a very slope friendly base, most of his works are slope friendly and I found I like to plop them on their own in little uneven corners such as in this pic.

[Artimus 485]

Well, @Plastic Manc, hillside development for me takes a lot of terraforming and using MMP work to blend in development with the hill itself. I do have an inclination towards realism, so my work reflects off on the following pictures.

I use an age-old technique, along with a slope mod, to create a smoother transition from lower to higher elevation. One such common technique is dragging rails from one side to another, as the rails smooth out any uneven and bulky angles they may pass on the ground. Here is another perspective for observation.

Yes, smoothing out the hill(s) to a softer angle makes developing those areas easier (for me at least). I also keep it angled just enough so that it is neither too flat nor too steep. If you want to take a step further to realism, then I employ a lot of MMPs to that end. 

This is just my approach to hillside development, and there is always more than one way to look at this situation. Happy planning!

- Artimus

  Edited May 2, 2016 by Artimus  
I am not sure why these images are duplicating themselves...

[Yanita Channel 110]

This is my hillside development in Matsudo City thus you can see more in my city journals.{https://community.simtropolis.com/journals/entry/27162-part-11-matsudo-city/}

[CorinaMarie 29,894]

On 7/28/2015 at 7:18 PM, Joe 90 said:

... street tile leveller.

I discovered ^this on my own and I use it a lot. There are various tricks too. If the slope is too great for a single plop Street then drag from the prior one. It'll lower it some. Delete. Then plop. The Road tool can also be used in single plop or drag mode for when Street can't do it.

Here's a before and after of my efforts. Note: Absolute realism is not my main concern while I learn the game. (I've been playing sc4 less than a year.)

 

Except near the water, I used only the Street and Road tools for leveling.

 

[Compdude787 916]

Whoa, those are steep streets! 

[Terring 6,476]

This conversation reminds me an old project I've had been working on for a while and I really hope I'll be able to work on it again anytime soon. If you want to build a futuristic city on a hilly landscape, terraform the hills into terraces and add some textures, to turn them into buildings large enough to support entire cities on their roofs! Here are some old examples:

Now, imagine Corina's mountain city with those textures and you'll have an impressive arcology!

[CorinaMarie 29,894]

On 5/8/2016 at 4:30 PM, Terring said:

 

On 5/8/2016 at 4:30 PM, Terring said:

Now, imagine Corina's mountain city with those textures and you'll have an impressive arcology!

That would be awesome.

 

How about this for hillside height transition:

?

 

[HayleyRenaNemeth 465]

On 5/8/2016 at 0:13 AM, CorinaMarie said:

I discovered ^this on my own and I use it a lot. There are various tricks too. If the slope is too great for a single plop Street then drag from the prior one. It'll lower it some. Delete. Then plop. The Road tool can also be used in single plop or drag mode for when Street can't do it.

Here's a before and after of my efforts. Note: Absolute realism is not my main concern while I learn the game. (I've been playing sc4 less than a year.)

 

Except near the water, I used only the Street and Road tools for leveling.

 

I would imagine you would feel a lot of Gs from that road. 

[CorinaMarie 29,894]

2 hours ago, AprilAero said:

I would imagine you would feel a lot of Gs from that road. 

Naw. My Sims install car seat gimbals.

[HayleyRenaNemeth 465]

5 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

Naw. My Sims install car seat gimbals.

ohhh you mean Inertial Dampers like the Puddle Jumpers have. 

[CorinaMarie 29,894]

@Terring

Still not the cool texture of yours, but I made retaining walls with the plain vanilla tools. For leveling it was about 97% street, 2.9% road, and I occasionally had to use the up and down leveling tools (at size 1) to get all of them like I wanted. (This is the Coriopolis tile in the map I created. You've prolly seen it here.)

 

[Terring 6,476]

Very nice . It looks like a fortress or something.

[11241036 5,115]

This is an example of how I frequently build on hills: Either very low density, with a lot of free space, and the roads climb the hills with serpentines... (two pictures, the second one is farther uphill)

... or, in some cases when I want to place old town buildings on a hill, I build winding roads, fix the hillside with pedmall tiles and plop 1x1 buildings along the road.

[HayleyRenaNemeth 465]

On 5/13/2016 at 11:38 PM, CorinaMarie said:

@Terring

Still not the cool texture of yours, but I made retaining walls with the plain vanilla tools. For leveling it was about 97% street, 2.9% road, and I occasionally had to use the up and down leveling tools (at size 1) to get all of them like I wanted. (This is the Coriopolis tile in the map I created. You've prolly seen it here.)

 

that looks nice, using the roads to make wall is something I have never done before. Just imagine what would happen if someone drove pissed on there and wrecked their auto off the edge. Just so you know if you want to smooth things out without having a slope mod you can use the elevated rail tool to do so. 

[CorinaMarie 29,894]

On 5/19/2016 at 3:04 PM, AprilAero said:

that looks nice, using the roads to make wall is something I have never done before.

I sort of discovered it by accident. I was drawing a road along a cliff edge and there it was. I went: Whoa! Coolness. and then I started using it. It takes some skill tho to get it all to be wall and not the single post support.

 

On 5/19/2016 at 3:04 PM, AprilAero said:

Just so you know if you want to smooth things out without having a slope mod you can use the elevated rail tool to do so. 

Yes. Thank you.

Someone mentioned the same in another thread and here's how I was pre-laying out where roads will go on slopes:

 

[Thin White Duke 4,072]

@Terring Loving it! Why haven't you released this? It's a brilliant idea!