Prepping my First Region

[CorinaMarie 29,862]

6 hours ago, That Retro Guy said:

the Region is now just 2 Medium Tiles next to each other

Now that's cool. I'd latched onto the idea that a single large tile (4x4 blue pixels in config.bmp) including subdivisions of that size was the smallest one could go. This makes me wonder what the actual smallest could be. Maybe a single red pixel and it'd be one small tile? (Too small to really play, but just for curiosity sake I might try that.)

[That Retro Guy 321]

12 hours ago, Cyclone Boom said:

However upon saving, I tried to load the region and found the name got truncated at "Limist".

I followed your directions exactly, but no matter what I do, the name always gets truncated as Limist.  I dl'ed the region.ini file and copied it like you said, but no luck.  I even tried 'Creating a New Region' and while the special e did appear in the Region Name box, the Region didn't load correctly.  Only one of the cities popped up. 

I'm also redoing the Region so that the cities are on top of one another instead of side-by-side so that the river (if I can make it) will run from 'North to South'.

Oh!  Here's the link to the YouTube video:

How to make a custom region in SimCity 4

[That Retro Guy 321]

This time, it worked.  I started by deleting every folder called 'Limistear' or 'Limist' or 'Limistéar' in my Region folder.  I then started a brand-new Region and Ctrl-C'ed ' Limistéar ' into the name box.  I then edited the config file in the Limistéar folder using Paint, and Voila!

We are now ready to try to figure out how to make a good-looking river that gently winds its way through both cities, and hopefully make some soft rolling hills throughout both cities.  The Trees thing I can figure out myself.    (In-game God mode --> Choose what type of tree I want -->  And then Spam the you-know-what out of the plant button.)

As this is my first Region, I want to start with just the basics . . . Residential, Commercial, Industrial, Basic Transportation (cars with Buses (maybe)), Education, Health, and Public Safety.

Is there anything else basic that I left off this list?  What are some of the more basic Ordinances that I should enact immediately?  All Educational ones?

I'm going to create a MySim at the very beginning of the city (I'll be starting with Limerick) so his age will be the same as the city.

 

[Alavaria 32]

1 hour ago, That Retro Guy said:

As this is my first Region, I want to start with just the basics . . . Residential, Commercial, Industrial, Basic Transportation (cars with Buses (maybe)), Education, Health, and Public Safety.

Is there anything else basic that I left off this list?  What are some of the more basic Ordinances that I should enact immediately?  All Educational ones?

I'm going to create a MySim at the very beginning of the city (I'll be starting with Limerick) so his age will be the same as the city.

My starting list is, uh let me see:
Elementary school, High school, City College, Branch Library, Hospital (all these you can adjust slider). Of these, the smallest radius is the Elementary school, so cluster around that to get the most housing within all the radii - if you want max education.

-The college covers the whole map, and the library has a very large radius, so those shouldn't take up valuable residential zoning space, the high school and hospital will though.

You can do You-Drive it to get the Private School (apparently it stacks with everything else so go for it, but watch out for capacity!) and Disease Research Center fast. Also the University (better than, and replaces College) but that's expensive.

After a while Water is nice, and then all the educational ordinances, definitely. And later on consider some police/fire (add a few parks too, since at some point people need a park "nearby" to continue developing). If you cluster your housing together (imagine three circles put in a triangle fashion) then a large fire/police in the middle should cover them all, same for library

 

Even if you're starting with only 100,000 cash it's plenty. The above picture is just as education is leading to High-tech and the high-wealth commercial demand, so the "jobs" city is going to be started, and will be easy in comparison, as from the gate you have all the top tier stuff in demand.

(It will soon need to do UDI for University (+100,000 high-tech cap)

[That Retro Guy 321]

Yeah, my list of basics left out 3 very important (not to mention essential) things:  Power, Water, and Landfill.  Obviously, I'll have those in my cities.  I'll have the Power and Water buildings as well as the Landfill and Dirty Industry on the North edge of Limerick as far away from the Residential and Commercial as they can be.

11 hours ago, Alavaria said:

I don't think that I've ever seen this in-game before.  Where is it?  And why does it say 95% Industrial?  Shouldn't it be 100%?  Are there other types of Industrial besides Farming, Dirty, Manufacturing, and High Tech?  And is Manufacturing something to strive for or is it just an off-shoot of Dirty Industry?

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

15 hours ago, That Retro Guy said:

This time, it worked.  I started by deleting every folder called 'Limistear' or 'Limist' or 'Limistéar' in my Region folder.  I then started a brand-new Region and Ctrl-C'ed ' Limistéar ' into the name box.  I then edited the config file in the Limistéar folder using Paint, and Voila!

Yay! Glad to hear it.

 

3 hours ago, That Retro Guy said:

I don't think that I've ever seen this in-game before.  Where is it?

That would be the Census Repository available here on the LEX. The idea being to keep track of RCI supply and demand. I'm not familiar with this myself and may have only briefly tried it out a few years ago. So maybe @Alavaria has more of an idea of what the information panel means upon querying the building, and how it can be useful for planning ahead with forecasting city growth. It certainly looks interesting to provide a deeper perspective on the simulation.

 

3 hours ago, That Retro Guy said:

And why does it say 95% Industrial?  Shouldn't it be 100%?

Based on the support thread, I believe this refers to the distribution of jobs within a city tile. As in with 95% industrial (including agriculture), then there are 5% commercial jobs. This really isn't my area of expertise though, so I could only make a best guess about what any of the other info represents.

 

3 hours ago, That Retro Guy said:

Are there other types of Industrial besides Farming, Dirty, Manufacturing, and High Tech?

Not at least that I'm aware of. Based on this article, the CAM extends the available growth stages from 8 to 15 for residential and commercial. Then for industry there are 10 stages with 7 for agriculture. However I believe the RCI developer types are a limitation of the game, and it's not possible to add new ones.

 

3 hours ago, That Retro Guy said:

And is Manufacturing something to strive for or is it just an off-shoot of Dirty Industry?

Manufacturing industry is distinctly different than Dirty in the way that it focuses around medium wealth.

Initially in a city there will be strong demand for the Dirty polluting factories which are low wealth based and predominantly supply R$ Sims with jobs. At this point Manufacturing industry which includes warehouse facilities won't be possible to develop. But as a city progresses with education being a main factor for the raising of population IQ, there will then become a shift towards desirability for Manufacturing and eventually High Tech. The latter will produce even less air and water pollution than IM does. Also like for higher wealth residential, they are less tolerable to pollution themselves. They ideally favour areas of land which is of higher value (from the data view).

The key really is balance. Overall depending on the distribution of a city's wealth levels, it is worth striving for Manufacturing in a similar way to CO$$ and CS$$ as the successor to low wealth buildings. They will still provide some jobs for the R$ Sims, but most will supply R$$ with a few for R$$$ (representing company CEOs on super-inflated salaries). When the conditions are suitable, it's possible to bulldoze some Dirty factories and allow Manufacturing and High Tech the chance to take their place.

[CorinaMarie 29,862]

4 hours ago, That Retro Guy said:

And why does it say 95% Industrial?  Shouldn't it be 100%?

The hover over for that part says: Percentual share of industrial jobs compared to commercial and industrial jobs in total

Here's an example of the whole thing in one of my city tiles:

[Alavaria 32]

22 hours ago, Cyclone Boom said:

The key really is balance. Overall depending on the distribution of a city's wealth levels, it is worth striving for Manufacturing in a similar way to CO$$ and CS$$ as the successor to low wealth buildings. They will still provide some jobs for the R$ Sims, but most will supply R$$ with a few for R$$$ (representing company CEOs on super-inflated salaries). When the conditions are suitable, it's possible to bulldoze some Dirty factories and allow Manufacturing and High Tech the chance to take their place.

You don't really need that balance, at least in CAM when people reach the top education bracket (150+) they will create 0 demand for both Dirty and Manufacturing. So you can have all commercial and high-tech industry. However, manufacturing can sit in the exclusion zone area near dirty power plants/incinerator/landfill which might otherwise be wasted, and manufacturers don't really pollute that much, so they won't be as much of a problem.

Because employers generate the demand for residential, if anything, having ones (high-wealth commercial/high-tech industrial) it's nice as you can get the most high- and medium-wealth, and least low. Indeed, if you have them evolving (ie: not static because they're across a border) then low-wealth will not have jobs -but- the better employers will generate demand for medium/high wealth residential, which will be able to replace the low-wealth.

 

The set of jobs created by an employer is equal to the set of residential demand it creates. If they're across a border, you get "extra" demand and can send over "extra" commuters (ie: more jobs) which is also pretty sweet. Because residential can "upgrade" in terms of wealth levels, generating a lot of medium/high wealth jobs (demand) is great provided you don't get greedy in zoning - if you leave no room, the newcomers will kick out those below them, removing your "problem". Think of it as your low-wealth people moving up the ladder if you wish (though the question of how 100 low wealth would turn into 30 high wealth is odd). Essentially you wind up with little additional medium/high-wealth demand, and a lot of "excess" low-wealth, so, like:

 

These are my two cities, I'm about to start constructing my first "real" block (ie: not using the small elementary/high school). Of course, following my usual process I try to let everyone "settle down" so all the buildings have grow to the max stages, everyone can replace residents of lower wealth (no other room) before I expand my zoning.

I have kicked out all the Dirty. Eventually I will also "transfer" over the commercial jobs, but not right now.

Note how even with rather high taxes, there's still plenty of low/medium wealth demand. Perhaps if I spruced up my area a bit I could replace some low with medium.

Oddly, the high-wealth people started making condos when I *reduced) their taxes from 20%. No mansions anywhere, which was unexpected...

 

(When I loaded Silicon Abyss, the commercial all started upgrading as they had the demand, and I let it run for a bit, so that's why there's more jobs now.) Need to do UDI and then save up the cash for a university if I am to get more cap for additional high-tech industries.

 

Now I return "home" and all of those new commercial employers are asking for a lot of wealthy workers. And thus (I had no money to start building - another project used all the cash) now we have more than 2 "CEOs" for each "janitor".

Totally stable, though. The manufacturing that is left is dying because of no more demand. Most people are commuting rather than working in the few factories left (about 500 in two offices and some factories). But everyone has a job, most across the border.

 

The project is gouging out massive areas of ground, (barely above the water level) for that first "real" housing block I mentioned.

[CorinaMarie 29,862]

Just to present the other side of the coin, not everyone strives for predominately medium and high wealth with high tech industrial and elite commercial jobs. One can also play by creating their world similar to a century or so ago.

In one of mine I have:

Low wealth residential population = 17,700
Medium wealth residential population = 2,269
High wealth residential population = 345

 

And the zoning map looks like this showing mostly farms, some dirty industrial, and residential with enough commercial for the Sims to buy their other necessities of life:

Full beta report:

Spoiler

-------------------------------------------
--  * * * The C.O.R.I. City Report * * * --
-------------------------------------------
 

 - Beta version 0.2d - RAW numbers from game memory variables.

---------------
-- GEOGRAPHY --
---------------

  Location and Sim Date
  ---------------------
  REGION..: Corillion
  CITY....: I6
  SIM DATE: 0404/01/01 (yyyy/mm/dd)

  City Tile Characteristics
  -------------------------
  City tile size: Large (65,536 cells)
  City has sea = 1
  Number of cities adjacent = 1
  Number of cities connected = 1
  Number of cities connected indirectly = 62

  Sim Opinion Poll
  ----------------
  Mayor rating Lowest = 48
  Mayor rating Highest = 81
  Mayor rating overall = 70

----------------
-- POPULATION --
----------------

  Total
  -----
  Population = 20,276
  Workforce population = 10,477
  RCI Capacity = 31,707

  Residential
  -----------
  Low wealth residential population = 17,700
  Medium wealth residential population = 2,269
  High wealth residential population = 345

  Total residential capacity = 20,319

  Commercial
  ----------
  Low wealth commercial service population = 5,108
  Medium wealth commercial service population = 357
  High wealth commercial service population = 115

  Medium wealth commercial office population = 784
  High wealth commercial office population = 0

  Total commercial population = 6,365

  Industrial
  ----------
  Farm population = 1,815

  Dirty industrial population = 3,962
  Manufacturing population = 958
  High tech population = 102

  Total industrial population = 5,023

  Regional
  --------
  Region residential capacity = 375,442
  Region commercial population = 74,114
  Region industrial population = 76,170
  Region RCI capacity = 525,726

  Region workforce population = 191,310

------------------------------
-- ZONE and BUILDING COUNTS --
------------------------------

  Residential
  -----------
  Low density residential zones = 2,191
  Medium density residential zones = 47
  High density residential zones = 87

  Commercial
  ----------
  Low density commercial zones = 95
  Medium density commercial zones = 19
  High density commercial zones = 142

  Industrial
  ----------
  Farm zones = 14,071
  Medium density industrial zones = 174
  High density industrial zones = 827

  Buildings Dynamics
  ------------------
  Number of buildings = 15,084
  Unpowered buildings = 0
  Unwatered buildings = 1,325
  Watered buildings = 588

  Car zots count = 0

-------------------
-- ACTIVE DEMAND --
-------------------
   
  Workforce active demand = 18,000

  Residential
  -----------
  Low wealth residential active demand = 4,954
  Medium wealth residential active demand = 3,430
  High wealth residential active demand = 3,151

  Commercial
  ----------
  Medium wealth commercial office active demand = 5,790
  High wealth commercial office active demand = 2,455

  Industrial
  ----------
  Dirty industrial active demand = 4,745
  Manufacturing active demand = 718
  High tech active demand = 516

-------------------------
-- EXTRAPOLATED DEMAND --
-------------------------

  Residential
  -----------
  Low wealth residential extrapolated demand = 1,770
  Medium wealth residential extrapolated demand = 227
  High wealth residential extrapolated demand = 655
  Total residential extrapolated demand = 2,652

  Commercial
  ----------
  Low wealth commercial services extrapolated demand = 510
  Medium wealth commercial services extrapolated demand = 643
  High wealth commercial services extrapolated demand = 197

  Medium commercial office extrapolated demand = 193
  High wealth commercial office extrapolated demand = 0
  Total commercial extrapolated demand = 1,543

  Industrial
  ----------
  Farm extrapolated demand = 1,360

  Dirty industrial extrapolated demand = 399
  Manufacturing extrapolated demand = 98
  High tech extrapolated demand = 681
  Total industrial extrapolated demand = 2,538

---------------------------------
-- ? ? ? REGIONAL DEMAND ? ? ? --
---------------------------------
   
  Workforce demand = 213,908

  Residential
  -----------
  Low wealth residential demand = 398,249
  Medium wealth residential demand = 20,017
  High wealth residential demand = 9,571

  Commercial
  ----------
  Medium wealth commercial office demand = 11,922
  High wealth commercial office demand = 3,898

----------
-- CAPS --
----------

  Residential
  -----------
  Low wealth residential current cap = 17.43
  Medium residential current cap = 2.86
  High wealth residential current cap = 0.74

  Commercial
  ----------
  Medium wealth commercial office current cap = 3.49
  High wealth commercial office current cap = 0

  Industrial
  ----------
    For Farm Cap, see RippleJet's Census Repository Facility
      https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1831

  Dirty industrial current cap = 20.91
  Manufacturing current cap = 4.58
  High tech current cap = 1.72

-----------------------------
-- TRANSPORTATION NETWORKS --
-----------------------------

  Network Tile Counts
  -------------------
  Street tile count = 4,587
  Road tile count = 418
  Avenue tile count = 0
  Ground highway count = 0
  Elevated highway count = 0
  Dirt road count = 0
  Pothole count = 0
  Bridge tile count = 0
  Rail tile count = 948
  Subway tile count = 74
  Elevated rail tile count = 0
  Monorail tile count = 0

  Neighbor Connection Counts
  --------------------------
  Number of road neighbors = 0
  Number of avenue neighbors = 0
  Number of rail neighbors = 0
  Rail neighbor connection count = 0

  Congestion Tile Counts
  ----------------------
  Street congestion tile count = 22
  Street congestion H = 105.87
  Street congestion = 4.59

  Road congestion tile count = 0
  Road congestion H = 63.5
  Road congestion = 6.26
  Road connection congestion H = 0

  Avenue congestion tile count = 0
  Avenue congestion H = 0
  Avenue congestion = 0
  Avenue connection congestion H = 0

  Bridge congestion tile count = 0
  Bridge congestion H = 0
  Bridge congestion = 0

  Rail congestion tile count = 0
  Rail congestion H = 21.82
  Rail congestion = 5.54

  Subway congestion tile count = 0
  Subway congestion H = 3.74
  Subway congestion = 1.92

  Elevated rail congestion tile count = 0
  Elevated rail congestion H = 0
  Elevated rail congestion = 0

  Monorail congestion tile count = 0
  Monorail congestion H = 0
  Monorail congestion = 0

  Freight trip length = 3

  Trips Completed or Failed
  -------------------------
  Passenger ferry trip completed = 0
  Passenger ferry trip failed = 0
  Car ferry trip completed = 0
  Car ferry trip failed = 0
  Ferry no road access = 0
  Shuttle no road access = 0

  Return trip failed count = 0
  Transit strike = 0
  Transit strike chance = 0

  Network Building Counts
  -----------------------
  Bus station count = 74
  Subway station count = 6
  Elevated rail station count = 0
  Monorail station count = 0
  Passenger ferry count = 0
  Car ferry count = 0
  Freight train station count = 0
  Train station count = 112
  Number of tollbooths = 0

  Network Building Usage Counts
  -----------------------------
  Bus station utilization P = 4.36
  Bus station utilization PL = 0
  Subway station utilization P = 0.68
  Subway station utilization PL = 0
  Elevated rail station utilization P = 0
  Elevated rail station utilization PL = 100
  Monorail station utilization P = 0
  Monorail station utilization PL = 100
  Train station utilization P = 1.94
  Train station utilization PL = 0

  Rapid transit transactions = 0

  Airports
  --------
  Airport count = 0
  Airport efficiency = 100
  Airport no road access G = 0
  Airport no road access L = 0

  Small airport s1 count = 0
  Small airport s2 count = 0
  Small airport s3 count = 0
  Small airport count = 0

  Medium airport s1 count = 0
  Medium airport s2 count = 0
  Medium airport s3 count = 0
  Medium airport count = 0

  Large airport s1 count = 0
  Large airport s2 count = 0
  Large airport s3 count = 0
  Large airport count = 0

  Seaports
  --------
  Seaport count = 2
  Seaport s1 count = 2
  Seaport s2 count = 0
  Seaport s3 count = 0
  Seaport volume = 972
  Seaport efficiency = 38
  Seaport water no edge access = 0
  Seaport no road access G = 0
  Seaport no road access L = 0

---------------
-- UTILITIES --
---------------

  Power
  -----
  Power pole count = 0
  Wind power plant count = 1
  Gas power plant count = 16
  Coal power plant = 0
  Oil power plant count = 0
  Solar power plant count = 0
  Nuclear power plant count = 0
  Fusion power plant count = 0
  Waste power plant count = 0

  Total power plant count = 17

  Aged power plant count = 0
  Overworked power plant count = 0
  Power plant age H = 7

  Power production capacity = 8,198
  Power consumed = 6,666
  Power strike = 0
  Power strike chance = 0

  Water
  -----
  Water source count = 15
  Water production capacity = 31,133
  Water pipe count = 434
  Water tile count = 14,129
  Water consumed = 18,523

  Water treatment plant count = 2
  Water building age H = 3

  Water pollution pump shutdown count = 0
  Water distressed pipe count = 0
  Water burst pipe count = 0

  Garbage
  -------
  Garbage produced = 26,276
  Uncollected garbage H = 0
  Uncollected garbage = 0
  Garbage pollution = 0

  Landfill capacity = 1,680,012
  Available landfill capacity = 863,979
  Garbage to landfill = 28,032

  Recycling center count = 0
  Recycling center effect P = 0
  Garbage recycled = 0

  Waste to energy building count = 0
  Waste to energy capacity = 0
  Garbage to energy = 0

  Incinerator count = 0
  Incinerator capacity = 0

  Pollution
  ---------
  Air pollution H = 128
  Air pollution = 3
  Water pollution H = 312
  Water pollution = 6

------------
-- CIVICS --
------------

  Education
  ---------
  Education = 121.21
  Tract EQ L = 0.12
  Tract EQ H = 200
  School grade L = 50
  School grade = 91.67
  School strike = 0
  School strike chance = 37.5
  Education coverage = 0.43

  Number of elementary schools = 4
  Number of high schools = 2
  Number of schools = 6
  Number of colleges = 0

  Number of educational buildings = 6

  Number of libraries = 0
  Library served = 0
  Library grade L = 0
  Library grade = 0

  Number of museums = 1
  Museum served = 217
  Museum grade L = 100
  Museum grade = 100

  Health
  ------
  Health = 126.73
  Tract HQ L = 0
  Tract HQ H = 200
  Health grade = 99.96
  Health strike = 0
  Health strike chance = 0
  Health Coverage = 7.52

  Number of clinics = 0
  Clinic grade L = 0
  Number of hospitals = 35
  Hospital grade L = 98.59
  Health capacity = 0

  Number of treated patients = 1,680,012
   ^Bugged. Patients variable matches landfill capacity after a game month is run.

  Tract life expectancy L = 0
  Tract life expectancy H = 200
  Life expectancy = 81

  Parks
  -----
  Number of parks = 453
  Number of recreation = 453

  Crime
  -----
  Crime = 1
  Crime H = 80
  Crime committed count = 18
  Criminal count = 0

  Police station count = 0
  Police coverage = 0
  Police coverage GA = 0
  Police repath attempts = 0
  Police strike = 0
  Police strike chance = 0
  Police no roads = 0
  Arrest count = 0

  Jail count = 0
  Jail capacity = 0
  Jailbreak = 0
  Inmate count = 0

  Fire
  ----
  Flammability = 15
  Flammability H = 20

  Fire station count = 23
  Fire coverage = 108.58
  Fire coverage P = 90.68
  Fire repath attempts = 0
  Fire strike = 0
  Fire strike chance = 0
  Fire station no roads = 0

-------------
-- FINANCE --
-------------

  Budget
  ------
  Tax income = 9,542
  Neighbor deals income = 0
  Monthly income = 10,207
  Neighbor deals expense = 0
  Monthly expense = 9,833
  Funds = 1,113,321

  Loans
  -----
  Borrowing limit = 2,000,000
  Borrowed = 0
  Monthly bond payments = 0

---------------
-- TAX RATES --
---------------
   
  Neutral tax rate = 8.98

  Residential
  -----------
  Low wealth residential tax rate = 9.0
  Medium wealth residential tax rate = 9.0
  High wealth residential tax rate = 9.0

  Commercial
  ----------
  Low wealth commercial service tax rate = 9.0
  Medium wealth commercial service tax rate = 9.0
  High wealth commercial service tax rate = 9.0

  Medium wealth commercial office tax rate = 9.0
  High wealth commercial office tax rate = 9.0

  Industrial
  ----------
  Farm tax rate = 9.1
  Dirty industrial tax rate = 9.0
  Manufacturing tax rate = 9.0
  High tech tax rate = 9.0

-------------
-- FUNDING --
-------------
   
  Road funding = 100
  Mass transit funding = 100
  Fire funding PG = 100
  Fire funding PL = 100
  Police funding PG = 100
  Police funding PL = 10,000
  Clinic funding = 0
  Hospital funding = 2
  Health funding = 9.97
  School funding = 2
  Library funding = 0
  Museum funding = 38
  Education funding = 10.17
  Power funding = 100
  Power plant funding = 100
  Water funding = 100
  Water building funding = 100
  Parks funding = 100
  Landmarks funding = 100
  Pollution funding = 100

--------------------
-- NEIGHBOR DEALS --
--------------------
   
  Neighbor power connection present = 0
  Neighbor deal can buy power = 0
  Neighbor deal can sell power = 0
  Neighbor deal buy power count = 0
  Neighbor deal sell power count = 0
  Neighbor power imported = 0
  Neighbor power exported = 0

  Neighbor water connection present = 0
  Neighbor deal can buy water = 0
  Neighbor deal can sell water = 0
  Neighbor buy water count = 0
  Neighbor sell water count = 0
  Neighbor water imported = 0
  Neighbor water exported = 0

  Neighbor garbage connection present = 0
  Neighbor deal can export garbage = 0
  Neighbor deal can import garbage = 0
  Neighbor import garbage count = 0
  Neighbor deal export garbage count = 0
  Neighbor deal garbage imported = 0
  Neighbor deal garbage exported = 0

---------------
-- DISASTERS --
---------------
   
  Damage building count = 0
  Damage cost = 0
  Fire cause arson = 0
  Fire cause effects = 0
  Fire cause flammability = 0
  Fire dispatch effectiveness = 0
  Fire started = 0
  Fire ended = 0
  Disasters in progress = 0
  Police dispatch effectiveness = 0
  Riot started = 0
  Riot ended = 0

  Data as found in the game variables. Information deemed reliable with no guarantee.
   If counts don't add up, blame Maxis. :p

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------EOF

[That Retro Guy 321]

@CorinaMarie, have you ever done a tutorial for landscaping using just the in-game God Mode?  I'm trying to practice making a river (on a different Region, of course), but I'm unsure on how to begin.  Do I lower the land (make valley) until I hit water and then use the leveling button?  Or (like always) am I missing something? 

[CorinaMarie 29,862]

6 minutes ago, That Retro Guy said:

@CorinaMarie, have you ever done a tutorial for landscaping using just the in-game God Mode?  I'm trying to practice making a river (on a different Region, of course), but I'm unsure on how to begin.  Do I lower the land (make valley) until I hit water and then use the leveling button?  Or (like always) am I missing something? 

I haven't personally since there is a really, really good one starting in this post over on Devotion. (After you see that you might want to backtrack to the first page to get the background behind that ongoing tutorial. Tho somewhere about page 12 or so the pics go missing.)

[CorinaMarie 29,862]

Found it. Here's the first region I terraformed in game long before I joined ST:

And yes, I just used the various lowering tools until I hit water for the rivers and lakes. The hills were made playing around with the tools for the upward direction. The cool thing is you can just do trial and error in God mode and it doesn't cost anything.

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

11 hours ago, That Retro Guy said:

I'm trying to practice making a river

How you create a river depends on how you want to use it. If you want ocean-edge coastal facilities (beaches, ports, ferries etc), then you need to create shallow water (not too shallow) adjacent to land that is barely above sea-level. That's so the lots can tolerate the slope from land to water, and so the plop won't sink the land so much that no roads can connect them. However, if/where you want bridges high enough for ferries, you'll need higher banks.

On the other hand, if you're mostly after eye-candy, there are mods that allow you to paint an illusion of "water" and its banks on top of flat dry land. This enables you to put water features at elevations well above SC4's fixed sea-level.

This is done with lots that you plop like parks and they look like (modded) water. The one I've used is PEG ponds. I've only used its decoration features, but it seems to come with water-taxi stations and such that can make a decorative lake / canal also function as a transport system.

So now you may have more to experiment with.

[That Retro Guy 321]

12 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

Here's the first region I terraformed in game long before I joined ST

Podunk?  I love it!    (Yes . . . I know what it means)

 

[That Retro Guy 321]

37 minutes ago, jeffryfisher said:

How you create a river depends on how you want to use it.

My river doesn't need to be deep enough for boats etc . . . Just a nice lazy river that can have bridges over it connecting both sides of Limerick (or Kilarney when I get there)

[Alavaria 32]

1 hour ago, jeffryfisher said:

How you create a river depends on how you want to use it. If you want ocean-edge coastal facilities (beaches, ports, ferries etc), then you need to create shallow water (not too shallow) adjacent to land that is barely above sea-level. That's so the lots can tolerate the slope from land to water, and so the plop won't sink the land so much that no roads can connect them. However, if/where you want bridges high enough for ferries, you'll need higher banks.

 

Ah, you've tried this? I've been wondering about how some of the (I guess NAM too) elevated networks go, does the game treat them as "higher"? Like Elevated Rail as opposed to normal rail.

I've been meaning to experiment on how narrow you can usefully make these, I'm thinking along the lines of very narrow "canals" (so like 2 or 3 tiles wide) with maybe larger "ponds" if needed to accommodate the actual ferry terminals.

 

I do know that subways can easily go under at least really shallow water, and even up crazy slopes. So that could make a short connection between two monorail(+subway) stations across the river, thus avoiding bridges if they're not practical or just look dumb.

I tried NAM's "high monorail" but the connection piece looks like it belongs in a roller coaster and even so takes quite a lot of space...

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

Although it can take a while through experimenting to reach the right result you're looking for, much is achievable using the God Mode terraforming tools. Since it's all applied to the terrain there and then, the nice thing compared to using Terraformer (or the like) is what you see is what you get.

Given there isn't a dedicated option to undo changes with the in-game terraforming, I recommend making checkpoint saves at each stage you're happy with new alterations. Whether for the terrain or the all-important border blending (using Reconcile Edges). Perhaps even create copies of your region as backups as an extra safeguard. That way there's quite literally less of a mountain to climb for getting everything right in one run through, and the checkpoints can always be reverted to if ever needed.

Along the way, a tip that might come in handy is to utilise different brush sizes.

This is possible by holding down the Shift key and pressing any key from 1-9. Where the smaller the number, the smaller the brush presented. Using 0 adjusts the size back to the default, which is slightly larger than the 9th option. Once set, the chosen brush will be locked on until switching to another size modifier or tool from the menu. Zooming in or out also affects the coverage area, so that can be a technique to cover a narrower or wider extent of the terrain for more or less precision. For one, it might be for river banks to create cliffs where making more subtle alterations is of benefit. I've found the same strategy especially useful for the flora brush when planting trees.

For both the terraforming and flora, holding Shift on its own results in the brush being approximately (if not exactly) twice the size of the default.

Here's a quick montage image I've put together to compare the different sizes available for manipulating the landscape:

This is previewed at zoom level 4 using the raise hill tool. Starting from the middle circle is using Shift+1 and then incrementing up to the default size. Finally on the outside the larger circle is the doubled radius. It seems some tools like the basic raise and lower have a smaller initial size (including for mountains and valleys), while others such as the plains and soften brush expand to slightly wider area increments.

In addition, another technique which might be worthwhile is to control the strength of the brush effect.

This works in a similar way by holding down Shift and then pressing one of the F1-F10 function keys. Where the higher numbers increase the intensity applied and make for more drastically significant changes. To use a modified brush size in combination with a custom strength, keep holding the Shift key after pressing 1-9, then hit one of the F1-F10 keys depending on how strong you wish the effect to be.

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

When terraforming, turn on the grid so you can apply your brush precisely where you want it, especially where you need straight coastline.

However, when you need a precise rise or depression to prep for bridge or tunnel placement, use the digger / raiser tools. If you have trouble (or get ugliness) dragging your network onto/into the raised/dug cells, then you should learn to customize your "slope mod" exemplars (indeed, I wish that a slope-management-settings GUI interface were part of the game).

Since slope aesthetics are such a matter of personal taste, I recommend experimenting with the slope settings in a sandbox region until you get a combination of effect and ease-of-use that works for you. Hint: If there's a network you never use in your cities, then you can twist its slope settings into a tool you can use purely to prep ground for other things.

[That Retro Guy 321]

So I looked through the tutorial that @CorinaMarie suggested, and tried it.  I loaded a different Region, chose a flat Medium city tile, selected small hill (or whatever it's called), chose a smallish radius, and barely clicked the mouse button.  I nearly got a mountain!  That's a bit of an exaggeration, but like I said, I barely clicked the mouse.  I wonder if (since this is a old game) processors have gotten so fast that the molehill became a mountain in less than a second.

I'll try again later.  Maybe my thumb double-clicked the button without me realizing it.

[CorinaMarie 29,862]

12 minutes ago, That Retro Guy said:

I barely clicked the mouse.

It might have something to do with the mouse driver inasmuch as there could be differences in mouse-speak between yours and the game. That's, ofc, a guess. When you test some more you could try altering the strength as @Cyclone Boom listed in his post if you continuously wind up with more hill than you want.

[Duco 546]

8 hours ago, That Retro Guy said:

barely clicked the mouse button

Although it is already mentioned, can it be that there is a difference between holding shift and F1 and holding shift and F9. And something you mentioned  yourself, there are mountains and hills. Sometimes I lower a flat hill with the plain brush ( don't know how its called in English, it is not the equalizer which makes everything completely flat.)

[CorinaMarie 29,862]

12 hours ago, That Retro Guy said:

... selected small hill (or whatever it's called), chose a smallish radius, and barely clicked the mouse button.  I nearly got a mountain!

Re-reading this part I believe it's the smallish radius that is the culprit.

For a quick comparison, here's starting out in a medium tile and selecting the Hill brush:

 

Without changing the brush size, notice how at this zoom level it covers about 10% of the ground:

 

Zoom in one time and although the brush size is still the same it's covering less of the ground:

 

One single quick click gives this:

 

Next I changed the brush size to smallish (3 or 4 I forget which) and a single quick click gives a much steeper hill:

 

And zoomed in to see the differences:

 

So, I'm going to suggest to get those really gentle hills like that guide suggests that it's the larger size brush you'll want.

[That Retro Guy 321]

With these gently-sloping hills, will a road climb the hill or would the hill just flatten down to level terrain?  And can I zone on hills?

[Duco 546]

7 hours ago, That Retro Guy said:

will a road

First hill I draw a road just from left to right.

At the second hill I plop one tile road, and from there I draw first a road to right and then to the left, the result is completely different.

Maybe this is something:

 And of course, the best teacher is practice. :-)

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

7 hours ago, That Retro Guy said:

With these gently-sloping hills, will a road climb the hill or would the hill just flatten down to level terrain?

From testing it seems depending on the size of the hill and its gradient, the two possibilities are for roads to either climb the hill, or a tunnel to be constructed going through. Those larger hills will reach an incline where the road decides it's too steep. Then a green section will be previewed from where the tunnel will be built.

To check this out, first of all I used the Hill brush at its default strength at 4 different zoom levels:

For each I tried to apply the brush for the same duration, and that led to the smaller ones having a sharper relative incline.

 

Then building vertical and horizontal roads through them all. This is without a slope mod:

(I merged the previews into one image for demonstration purposes. The roads were built as per the above.)

 

Then the same but this time adding in my Ennedi Slope Mod:

Comparing without a slope mod, here the roads are more favoured to building tunnels with 2/3 of the paths forming them. Whereas previously only 7 did so, and all but one on the steeper bottom row of hills. In either case, none of them resulted in the hill being flattened.

 

7 hours ago, That Retro Guy said:

And can I zone on hills?

Yes, this is very possible.

However unlike when building roads, streets will cut through them if the gradient becomes beyond their tolerable threshold.

Zones on the hills without a slope mod:

 

Then using the Ennedi slope mod again:

 

While this isn't a direct comparison since the zoning areas are different, this shows how with a slope mod installed, the automatic streets will cut through the hills to a much greater extent. It's not a problem for the more gradual hills, though when the terrain becomes steeper they have nowhere to go (tunnels aren't built for streets). So if considering zoning on such larger hills, it might be worth doing it in stages and possibly to lay down roads initially to prevent this extensive flattening.

In terms of the ability for houses to build on undulating terrain, this tutorial from the Omnibus might be of interest: Working With Hills

As I'm sure you can imagine, there are numerous different slope mods which feature their own combination of terrain parameters. There's one useful guide here which has an overview of the subject. The basic idea is aimed at realism to allow the transitions to be more lifelike. Depending on which is used, each will alter the behaviour of how transit networks handle terrain gradients. Beyond that there are exemplar properties possible to edit using the Reader tool. I'm personally not familiar with what these options are and what they do, though from what I've heard, it sounds like they've lots of potential to be tailored to one's liking.

With being our resident expert on the subject, maybe @jeffryfisher could write up a tutorial to explain the notable ins and outs for us all.

  Edited August 7, 2018 by Cyclone Boom  
I see Duco has posted some useful tips above. ;)

[CorinaMarie 29,862]

9 hours ago, That Retro Guy said:

And can I zone on hills?

Yep. Long ago I used that very idea to create farms which undulated with the ground:

^ From Dipsy-Doodle in this post. (If you are curious, there are more of my pics in that post and over the next couple of pages of that thread.)

 

Buildings grown on a hillside will have varying degrees of foundation under them. Here's the extreme example from this post:

 

Then (if you want to be silly like me) you can flatten the ground around a building grown on a hillside to get something like this:

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

Once you start editing your "slope mod", you'll decide what a road or street will do. If you want, you can allow lowly streets to make tunnels too. Everyone should edit their own slope exemplars to suit their own style and goals. Not only will you get the look and behaviors you want, but you can expand the smoothing parameters so the computer will do more work for you (and networks will be easier to place legally without becoming ugly).

[Duco 546]

1 hour ago, jeffryfisher said:

Once you start editing your "slope mod"

The few times I have a street that must go through a mountain, and so I do that with the road tool, to connect the street again, I think of this.....

[That Retro Guy 321]

@CorinaMarie, you've posted pics of your cities where the main Industry is Farming.  How exactly do you do that?  Do you ignore the Advisors when they tell you to zone more Commercial and Medium and High Industry?  Is there a secret to maintaining a perfect balance?

The reason I ask is that I'm thinking that Limerick and Kilarney should both be farming communities.  When I think of Ireland, I think of rolling hills and farms and communities that live simple lives without too much technologies.  Maybe I'll have the cities linked with Rail (Passenger and Freight on the same line, if possible).  On second thought, maybe one of the cities should be farms and the other one can be a normal (?) city.  It's something to think about, anyways.

[CorinaMarie 29,862]

@That Retro Guy, I play on Hard difficulty so those advisors only tell me about fires or strikes. Otherwise they don't bug me about those silly ideas they have. But to answer your question, yes, just ignore them and their advice about Commercial or Industry.  Their advice is geared towards growing a metropolis.

Just zone farms and residential all at low density until you fill the tile. Ofc, you need streets and roads and/or rail for them to get around, but that's all that's needed. I even hold off on almost all commercial until the tile is nearly filled so I can group them in the center of my little cross roads towns.