Player viewpoint following police helicopter?

[sys12189 21]

Recently I'm having an annoyance regarding police helicopters.

Sometimes when I change the zoom level, I suddenly change position to somewhere else - that is, where a police helicopter is hovering above the city blocks.

If I don't do anything while on this rather irritating 'mode', the point-of-view follows the police helicopter and the lights.

Is this a bug, or some kind of secret function that I activated by accident? Because I don't want to navigate the whole tile right across just because

a chopper is on the other side of where I was working on.....

 

Anybody heard of this? Any tips would be nice. Thanks in advance!

[rsc204 21,808]

I think it's likely that there are two things going on here, not one.

There is a bug in the game that will move the map when you change the rotation. If this happens, rotate back to where you were, move the view a fraction and try again to rotate, usually this resolves things.

When the screen moves to focus on the helicopter, if you are getting an orange/red border around the screen, that's the game's way of telling you something needs your attention. It's much the same thing that occurs when you have a fire. Usually you will have to use the dispatch tools to send the appropriate emergency service to deal with the problem. A police chopper suggests civil unrest, so send some patrol cars to get a handle on the problem.

[Prophet42 1,501]

Try turning 'Auto Go To Disasters' off in the options menu.  See if that resolves the issue.  If not then we will have to dig a little deeper.

[rsc204 21,808]

Just now, Prophet42 said:

Try turning 'Auto Go To Disasters' off in the options menu.  See if that resolves the issue.  If not then we will have to dig a little deeper.

You can of course do this, but that doesn't really deal with the problem going on.

[Prophet42 1,501]

@rsc204 I don't think it will help either.  Just wanted to get the user to a 'base' point where there wasn't something possibly trying to move the focus on the screen.

Good information on the bug.  I never experienced it before, so didn't realize that bug existed.  Will have to file that tid-bit of information for future refernce.  Thanks.

[sys12189 21]

13 hours ago, rsc204 said:

A police chopper suggests civil unrest, so send some patrol cars to get a handle on the problem.

My mayor rating in that zone stands at 112(from the extended query or whatever). No riots anticipated. I did send the patrols just in case, but nothing changed.

 

AFAIK there is nothing wrong going on, no red borders. except for perhaps a few patches of crime (well, the copter sometimes flashes its spotlights)

it doesn't happen very often, but apparently it's pretty random and once it starts to follow the copter there is no way to really fix it

without quitting the game. I have found out that moving while zooming does alleviate some of the problems but doing these two at once makes

the game very choppy.

(and no, the game doesn't suddenly focus on the copter, it only does when I change the zoom level or as rsc204 said, rotate the view. Once it does, it follows the copter.)

 

 

 

[NCGAIO 562]

Just now, sys12189 said:

 

Just now, sys12189 said:

  Just now, rsc204 said:

A police chopper suggests civil unrest, so send some patrol cars to get a handle on the problem.

My mayor rating in that zone stands at 112(from the extended query or whatever). No riots anticipated. I did send the patrols just in case, but nothing changed.

AFAIK there is nothing wrong going on, no red borders. except for perhaps a few patches of crime ......

Well ...

Helicopters also work in combat to all crime just like the other automatas except that does not have the limitations of these to arrest criminals such as in large Lots for example  since it can hover anywhere over them.

This behavior was treated as bug some time ago and even  there are mods to police stations that remove the limitations for the other automatas  to it.

You can see through the crime graphs that  the presence of the helicopter on the area decreases the indication of criminal area until their extinction and then  party to another that is exactly the behavior that you describe.

See if you have no great lot about this area for which it moves and note that the game performs hundreds of operations in the simulation so it can happen to have this behavior in the interruption that occurs in the simulation while running a graphic processing.

As you did not say whether followed Prophet42 council that certainly would disable the helicopter's behavior is a little more difficult to advise other thing except perhaps replace the De luxe Police Station by another of stex that has been modified for the reaches.

Try the Advanced Search in Stex ....
 

[sys12189 21]

You're right. However, Although I know why the helicopter moves as such, the question is why my viewpoint is following the copter....

unchecked the auto go to disasters but the bug still continues randomly.

[rsc204 21,808]

Usually for the view to be followed, you must be in UDI mode. However, I really have no prior knowledge of such a bug, as such it's very hard to offer any practical solution.

One thing you absolutely must check, have you updated SC4 with the official patches? If you are using a digital version, then most likely it's already pre-patched for you.

If you have the disk-version of the game though, you need to install the EP1 patch at minimum. This can be found on SC4Devotion.com, take care to install the correct patch for your region. Note also, just because you bought a disk for example in the US, does not mean the disc is meant for the US market. Check in the installation folder, by default C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Sku_Data, here it will tell you what SKU you need for the patch.

[sys12189 21]

I installed the NAM fine and it shows i am at 1.1.638.0 which I'm pretty sure is the EP1 update. Would I need the nightlighting one too?

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

2 hours ago, sys12189 said:

i am at 1.1.638.0 which I'm pretty sure is the EP1 update

Yes, you are correct. That is the version with EP1 installed.

2 hours ago, sys12189 said:

Would I need the nightlighting one too?

You do if you want, well, lighting at night.

[rsc204 21,808]

Even if you don't care for nitelighting, this is an official Maxis Patch, I'd just install it. Not to mention, if you modify the SC4 files, you wouldn't be able to install the patches thereafter. Why would you modify the SC4 installation files you ask? Well if for no other reason, to fix one of the worst bugs left in the game. Installing the I-HT Fix, which requires editing the SimCity1.DAT file.

[sys12189 21]

19 hours ago, rsc204 said:

 if you modify the SC4 files, you wouldn't be able to install the patches thereafter. Why would you modify the SC4 installation files you ask? Well if for no other reason, to fix one of the worst bugs left in the game. Installing the I-HT Fix, which requires editing the SimCity1.DAT file.

Whoops. I'm in trouble then. I installed that patch long ago.. also SimCity1.dat has a different Edit and Access Date from the others...

the other files have these dates at November 14th 2003, but SimCity1.dat stands at June 13th 2015(guess that's the date I did that patch...)

 

long ago, I tried to do that patch, and I faintly remember getting the 'file with the same name' error.

[rsc204 21,808]

You need to be careful with the patches, after running it will always give you the message that it's run successfully. What this literally means is that the patch application finished, not that the patches were applied. In the same folder where the patch is run, it generates a .txt "logfile". Open that to see if actually updated the files or aborted the process. You should also check the main executable, located in the Apps folder, SimCity 4.exe. Right click / Properties / Details. Here it will show the version of SC4 currently in use. It should be 1.1.638.0 or with the nite-lighting patch 1.1.640.0. If you don't have at least the EP1 patch, don't discount the odd behaviour being a result of a bug Maxis fixed a long time ago.

Assuming you followed the instructions and made a backup of the original SimCity 1.DAT file, all you need to do is restore it before running the update again. Otherwise, you'll need to uninstall/reinstall SC4 and start over. Hence it's best to get these patches installed before going any further. Note also that the NAM updates the main .exe, adding support to the application for more RAM. But I don't know if that will cause the patches to fail, because usually the file itself needs to be changed to affect the checksum, which is used to validate genuine files.

[sys12189 21]

I heard from somewhere that NAM changes the system files, not the SC4 exe. The patchlog from last year states that SimCity 4.exe had no problems, SImCity_1.dat did.

Also, my exe is 1.1.638.0 and so is all the other SimCity files. None of them are 1.1.610.

[rsc204 21,808]

2 hours ago, sys12189 said:

SImCity_1.dat did

It could just be it failed to update that one file. But all the updated files are important. Especially when you consider, everything you see and that runs things is in SC1.dat. SC2-5.DAT is pretty much all just textures, so I wouldn't discount this being a potential source of problems.