Ferries Under Bridges

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

First: If I built a bridge some time ago and have forgotten if its height was "OK for Ferries", is there any query or cheat that I can aim at a bridge to remind me? I have a region that I started back in 2013, so I can't remember some of the bridges there.

Second: Even after rebuilding the bridges (one Maxis highway and one RRW rail) in one sector to be sure they're both OK for ferries, the sector's ferry routes displayed in region-view refuse to cross the bridges. Obviously there's a bug somewhere, but should I complain about the bridge building dialog, the regional route display, or maybe something else?

In one of my other sectors, ferry routes do cross bridges. I just need to figure out what's real.

[matias93 7,535]

Ok, two things:

• The height for ferries to go under bridges is a clearance of 30 metres. As the normal sea level is shown as y=250 when using the terrainquery cheat, you'll need to find a height of y=280 on each land side of the bridge to be ferry-friendly.
• But, as most bridges have a certain structural depth, sometimes 30 metres isn't enough. For most arched and undertrussed bridges you'll need to rise them some extra metres to make a functional water pass under them.

To check if it's working, the best option is to drive a ferry under them, be it with an UDI mission, or using the udriveit cheat.

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

On 2/27/2017 at 8:33 PM, matias93 said:

But, as most bridges have a certain structural depth, sometimes 30 metres isn't enough.

Aha, so the bridge-building dialog can lie to me; that's good to know. I'll make a habit of adding a few extra meters to all of my bridges that need clearance.

Thank goodness for the cheats that refund my money after rebuilding expensive bridges so many times!

[matias93 7,535]

Now, another question, but for somebody on the NAM team: it would be possible to change this clearance to a lesser value? I tend to feel that most intra-urban water vehicles need much less than 30 metres to go under bridges (think, for example, on most water taxis in European cities, passing just under bridges' spans). Once again, this restriction looks more coherent for an US context, and not even that much (Boston and Chicago would be good counter-examples).

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

I've rebuilt my bridges 5 more times. They always claim to be "high enough for ferries", and the terrain query cheat shows y=296, but ferries do not pass. The red bridge is RR (RRW), and the arches are Maxis highway.

 

[matias93 7,535]

Did you checked with ferries from both sides? And with different bridges? Maybe there is some bug the NAM people should be make aware of...

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

NEW DISCOVERY:

Just for grins, I deleted both bridges and saved the city-sector. The ferry routes still did not pass! Only after deleting and rebuilding the ferry terminal did ferry routes penetrate the space where the bridges had been. After that, I was able to rebuild both bridges without incident.

Theory: Ferry routes are not recalculated when bridges are deleted, and only impediments are noticed when bridges are built. Therefore, to open a previously blocked passage, it is necessary to kick the ferry network directly with a terminal build, deletion or both.

[APSMS 1,892]

This probably has to do with quirks about the ferry network in general. Ferry transport times are essentially instantaneous, but this would preclude them from being part of the fundamental time recalculation bit of the destination finder; likely to save time dealing with exceptions (divide by zero error for network speed), it figures the route out just once to the next closest Ferry terminal.

Then again the water-based part of the game is weird, and the answer could be something even more archaic. Unfortunately the ferry network part of the game is underutilized both by players and the NAM devs, and as such remains one of the lesser documented parts of the game. It doesn't help that a lot of knowledge was lost in the black hole left behind by the destruction of free ImageShack servers.

[MeMyself&I 379]

On 3/1/2017 at 4:23 PM, matias93 said:

Now, another question, but for somebody on the NAM team: it would be possible to change this clearance to a lesser value? I tend to feel that most intra-urban water vehicles need much less than 30 metres to go under bridges

30 meters?  Seriously?  You could drive a 7 story tenement under that!  Maybe 8 if it's from Boston