Prepping my First Region

[That Retro Guy 321]

Here's my attempt at making the overpass smaller . . . I managed to get the OWR-AVE intersection on the on/off-ramp to look right with stoplights where they are supposed to be (thanks to rsc204's video.  Thank you!  You're the best! )

 

 

I know that I probably used the wrong piece to transition to one lane, but how exactly do I connect the OWR to the on-ramp to make a viable connection?  

[rsc204 21,864]

Best bet, shave a few tiles of OWR, so you only have one or two above the intersection/junction. Then rather than convert from OWR-2 to OWR-1 (it looks like this is what you've done), start with the MIS and just drag it into the OWR, which should make a transition automatically. Bear in mind, you can connect MIS to OWR-1, but it doesn't make sense to use 2 transitions, when 1 will do.

Many networks will transition in similar ways, in short, it's part of a wider transition of the NAM as a whole. Going back a few years, all development was puzzle-pieces you had to find and plop. Many of these still exist, some are only kept for legacy reasons. We've been working very hard to overhaul as much as possible to the "Flex-based" implementation, which is more intuitive. A by-product of which is no longer having to know where to find the puzzle pieces. A down-side being, if you don't know about it, there is no obvious pointer. As such, I urge you to try things and see what happens. Of course, better still to acquaint yourself with the knowledge in the readme files. In addition to the various videos and other tutorials around the community. It does take some time, but if you stick with it, before long anyone can be a master of the NAM.

[That Retro Guy 321]

Thanks to everybody's help, here's the new Overpass:

 

The only problem is . . . look how huge this thing is:

 

Is there any way to make this thing smaller?

In other news, many thanks to @CorinaMarie for helping me with my Password trouble.

[CorinaMarie 29,869]

18 minutes ago, That Retro Guy said:

Is there any way to make this thing smaller?

How's this?:

 

18 minutes ago, That Retro Guy said:

In other news, many thanks to @CorinaMarie for helping me with my Password trouble.

You're certainly welcome. I'm glad I could help.

[That Retro Guy 321]

27 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

How's this?:

 

Well, that's helpful! 

 

[That Retro Guy 321]

Let me explain how I made it.

I lowered the terrain for the Avenue tunnel using the 10m Down digger thing.

The RHW-4 highway (running left to right in the pic) is on level terrain . . . No raising or lowering.

Aren't there some on/off-ramps that go up/down to the next/previous level?  I mean, this thing is huge!  It also looks like a giant pair of lips.

Any thoughts?

[That Retro Guy 321]

Here's a screen capture from the 'RHW Advanced Diamond' video by MGB NAM:

 

This would be ideal, but is it possible to make an RHW-4 tunnel under the Avenue (I know it's just a road in the pic) to ease congestion? 

I searched for videos for SimCity4 NAM Highway tunnels, but all of the videos were for the regular Highway (the gray one).  Any suggestions?

[rsc204 21,864]

20 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

20 hours ago, That Retro Guy said:

Is there any way to make this thing smaller?

 

How's this?:

Oh dear, tell me you didn't go there .

You can often make these interchanges more compact, it depends on how much work you are willing to put in. Two key factors affect this however, the distance the on/off ramps need to come from the main highway. In addition to the height/depth of the network you are intersecting said ramps with. Not all pieces like slopes very much too, a little trial and error may be needed.

Clearly you can't alter the tunnel side of things, but if you level the ground where the MIS is now (to the height of the main highway). Then drag MIS through the hill, creating a slope until it reaches the highway level, you can get the height transition in the shortest space possible this way. That should then be a good guide to where the ramp exit/entrances will be needed. Factoring in also that use of WRCs and similar pieces will require more space too.

This is about as optimised as I could get. But, bear in mind use of a tunnel mod means the Ave trench is only 8m deep here. Plus it requires some clever terraforming to optimise the slopes also. In addition, if I insisted on two lanes at the Ave intersection, likely this would need to be a little longer too, to accommodate the Turn lanes and transitions.

10 minutes ago, That Retro Guy said:

This would be ideal, but is it possible to make an RHW-4 tunnel under the Avenue (I know it's just a road in the pic) to ease congestion? 

Which is precisely why I feel the fear of using overpasses is unfounded. That congestion issue really isn't a big deal, you'll have little to no flexibility if you insist on using a tunnel, because tunnels are so inflexible.

[That Retro Guy 321]

15 hours ago, rsc204 said:

Oh dear, tell me you didn't go there .

I didn't mean it like THAT! 

 

[CorinaMarie 29,869]

1 hour ago, That Retro Guy said:

I didn't mean it like THAT! 

I believe we're all cool here. I made my silly joke and I'm sure you took it as such (seeing as you liked my post and added a in your reply). @rsc204 is then good naturedly ribbing me for it.

[rsc204 21,864]

2 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

@rsc204 is then good naturedly ribbing me for it.

And worse still hypocritically so, because he (I) know('s). he (I) would have done it had he (I) got there first .

  Edited February 28, 2018 by rsc204  
Edit for clarity

[That Retro Guy 321]

Now all I need is a detailed (read:  idiot-proof ) step-by-step guide on how to build the thing (except, of course, replacing the Road with an Avenue).  In the video, the terraforming was already done.  How exactly was this accomplished?  Also, the on/off ramps connect up with the Road.  I presume that I can do that trick with the One-Way Road so that the stoplights are correct, and the peeps won't turn into oncoming traffic, right?

Oh, and there's no need for a tunnel.  I really like the way this looks.

[That Retro Guy 321]

Which handles more traffic:  2 One-Way Roads (heading in opposite directions) or an Avenue?

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

The twin one-way roads.

[That Retro Guy 321]

56 minutes ago, jeffryfisher said:

The twin one-way roads.

OK.  That's what I'll use North of the Highway near the coast.

[That Retro Guy 321]

Are there Transition pieces that'll connect a OWR with an Avenue and vice versa?

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

18 hours ago, That Retro Guy said:

Are there Transition pieces that'll connect a OWR with an Avenue

I think so. Do the drag, and be careful to drag the one-ways the right ways in and out of the end of your avenue.

[That Retro Guy 321]

They drag together quite nicely, thank you! 

In the Prima Official Strategy Guide (for Vanilla, not Deluxe, sadly), it says that the Max speed on a Street is 31 kph,  and on a Road, it's 46 kph.  Since Avenues and One Way Roads aren't a part of Vanilla, do vehicles travel faster on One Way Roads or Avenues?

[rsc204 21,864]

OWR roads are faster, necessarily so that sims will use them instead of two-way systems, making them actually useful.

The Prima guide won't be too helpful in this respect, since the NAM has tweaked many of these values.

[That Retro Guy 321]

Ladies and gentlemen (and whoever else may be reading this  ), I apologize for the lack of updates.  RL has become quite hectic lately.

However, I hope that you'll find this update worth the wait, because . . .

I finally built the (expletive) Highway system through City C!  Here's a pic:

 

I even labeled (sp?) where stuff will go.

I am my own worst critic.  I've been worrying about whether or not I have the necessary skill to make this silly thing and trying to do stuff with the RHW that I don't yet have the experience to do, that I was psyching myself out.  Once I started, I managed to put this (silly) thing together (using swear words that I hadn't used in decades, and having to start over quite a few times.  Newbie Tip:  The Save City button is your friend . . . Use it!).  There are 3 Avenue Tunnels.  Only the middle one is an Interchange.  The other two merely run their respective Avenues under the RHW-4.  I tried FLuPs, but I couldn't figure out how to make the underground connection and still be able to run the Highway over them.  I still need to modify the RHW-4 to an RHW-6 near the Neighborhood Connections, but that should be it, and maybe, just maybe I'll be ready to finally start this city!

However . . . something is bugging me about that picture.

Look at the Neighborhood Connection:

OK.  The Avenue has a NC Arrow pointed in each direction like it should be, but the RHW-4 Connection has 2 Arrows pointed in the same direction.  Shouldn't the lower Arrow be pointed in the opposite direction? Is this the way that it should look for the Connection to work properly?  Or (once again), did I do something wrong or miss something?

It dawned on me while typing this post that I should have posted a close-up of the Interchange itself.  I will remedy this after I get something to eat.

Laters!

[That Retro Guy 321]

As promised, here is a picture of the interchange with most of the trees removed.

Any thoughts?

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

19 hours ago, That Retro Guy said:

the RHW-4 Connection has 2 Arrows pointed in the same direction

That's normal. However, you might still need to plop one or more neighbor-connector lots (I'm not sure what one(s)) to make it work.

[rsc204 21,864]

Indeed the Neighbour Connection (NC) pieces for RHW will point in the same direction, because in effect you are actually using two Single-Direction networks to make the connection. The game actually doesn't support such setups, hence the need for placing special RHW NC pieces, which override the base functionality so that the connection will actually be used. Because there is a game limitation that NCs can only work when there is traffic flowing in both directions.

[That Retro Guy 321]

Thanks, people.  ( I was beginning to wonder if I had pissed ticked everybody off on this Forum because no one was replying.  Nice to know that people are still watching this topic).

There's a RHW video on YouTube saying to make an NC with an Avenue and then connect it to the RHW with OWR.  It sure doesn't look right.  It must be an outdated set-up from a previous version of NAM..

[CorinaMarie 29,869]

2 minutes ago, That Retro Guy said:

Nice to know that people are still watching this topic.

I'm still here too, but you are out of my league for what you are doing. I'm NAMless while working on other stuff.

[rsc204 21,864]

Using the avenues would have been a very old trick, indeed you should not do this anymore. There are special NC pieces for RHW, just look in the highway menu for the dedicated icon, then find the correct RHW network and overplop the tile on the edge of the cities border with the NC.

[That Retro Guy 321]

I've placed all of the schools, Police and Fire Stations, Hospitals, Airport (Landing Strip) etc.

Here's what it looks like now:

 

Everything is covered like it should be, and the map is now oriented so that 'North' is at the top of the picture.  Not much room left for the Sims, is there?

I love the way that the roundabout looks near the coastline that I placed another in the center of town.  That and I didn't like the way that it looked with a stoplight at the Interchange and then 3 squares later another stoplight.  I bulldozed the thing inside the roundabout, and placed an Independence Hall for the Commercial YIMBY.  Like everything, this is a work in progress.  Now I have to design a Residential neighborhood that'll fit into the space that's left.

Any critiques?

[RobertLM78 1,598]

1 hour ago, That Retro Guy said:

Any critiques?

The thing that pops in my mind is that if you're using curved avenue pieces there, which it appears to be, then you might want to note that you can't intersect anything with those pieces (so no north/south streets or roads would be able to intersect those pieces to the east)

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

You've zoned a lot of commercial. Maybe it's just me (and my mods, such as CAM), but my commercial demand and development always craters if I zone any commercial at the start. What does work for me is if I wait until some traffic develops and then zone some commercial lots along busy avenues (actually TLA-5's from the network widening mod). Comm lots with high customers are happy comm lots, and their jobs draw even more traffic. Comm demand can snowball from there.

In towns where my comm demand cratered, I've had to bulldoze all comm lots that had low customers. Even then, it takes time and a few CS$ lots with high customers for any comm demand other than CS$ to maybe turn positive (and my results are still mixed, so I am still learning comm dynamics myself).

The lesson I've taken from my comm struggles is that I must always keep customers high (maybe I need a mod for a marijuana dispensary).

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

I've just made another (new for me) discovery: Commercial zones can enjoy high customers adjacent to a busy highway. Zones can't make road connections to highways, but the proximity of high traffic still tricks the ratings code to boost commerce. Maybe we can say that the buildings and signs are at least visible to drivers stuck in traffic, so they become customers somehow.

Anyway, that solves two problems: What to put next to freeways (residents hate noise, and farms choked on fumes), and how to promote commerce. Maybe everybody but me has known to for years to sandwich commercial zones between their busiest freeways and parallel roads, but until now I haven't seen it written. I've only seen lamentations about negative commercial demand.

My new commerce recipe is to build residential and avoid commerce until traffic lights up a route to a neighbor connection, and then line the busy route.