Just started playing again today... a couple of basic questions please...

[djash1000 37]

First day of playing again after probably 10 years! (downloaded it, and it actually found my old nation! so I'm continuing with that one for now)

A lot has changed since I last played, as I've seen from reading many of your posts in here, like add-ons and such.

Q1. First thing I've noticed is that most of my time seems to be demolishing and rebuilding water and power stations.

I remember older versions of SC used to auto replace them,

Is this still necessary?

I don't want to be spending ages doing this, if it's not necessary

Q2. No one ever uses my railways still! What's wrong with the ungrateful sods?!

 

Will link in a picture I took earlier of my nation as it is now...

 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

3 hours ago, djash1000 said:

Q1. First thing I've noticed is that most of my time seems to be demolishing and rebuilding water and power stations.

I remember older versions of SC used to auto replace them,

Is this still necessary?

I use Paeng's Age Degradation Mod and I pick the Degrade_radical.dat to extend life of the power plants and water facilities to 5000 years. For other lots I've downloaded like the MCP Water & Air Purification Plant V.01 or the sub station from the DK1 Power Plant I tweak the life expectancy using iLive's Reader so they never degrade.

[rsc204 21,808]

4 hours ago, djash1000 said:

Q1. First thing I've noticed is that most of my time seems to be demolishing and rebuilding water and power stations.

I remember older versions of SC used to auto replace them,

Is this still necessary?

SC4 does not auto replace them, but as mentioned you can use mods to prevent them needing replacement so often. Also bear in mind that most should last 50 years, but by running such utilities closer to full capacity they will degrade more quickly. Similarly, if you over-fund such plants, they will also last a little longer.

4 hours ago, djash1000 said:

Q2. No one ever uses my railways still! What's wrong with the ungrateful sods?!

Sims will only take the fastest route available between their homes and a job. One of the problems with the Rail network is that stations are rarely that conveniently located for all but a small area surrounding them. So it's important that such stations provide good links in the right places, or sims won't utilise them. You can expand from stations, by offering bus services that connect into a larger mass transit system. Bear in mind, two transit stations/stops, must be at least one tile apart for sims to switch transit types.

One other factor to consider, the traffic simulator will set the percentage of each sim wealth type to use either Transport, Cars or the Quickest of them. That breaks down at something like 50/50/0 for R$, 20/70/10 for R$$ and 10/80/10 for R$$$. That means at a maximum, 33% of your commuting sims will ever take public transport. Although that's not entirely true, because R$ should always make up for the highest proportion of your sims.

You may not know it, but the Traffic Simulator which handles commuting, is very broken. The Network Addon Mod or NAM, includes an updated version, Simulator Z, which has been tweaked to resolve the original issues. It also allows, optionally, for a wide range of customisations to suit various playing styles. At it's core, the basic NAM install just fixes much of the problems left behind by Maxis. But, you can choose to add a plethora of new networks and other transit-related options. It really is a must have mod for most players, especially considering the size of your region/population.

[Fantozzi 4,067]

15 hours ago, djash1000 said:

What's wrong with the ungrateful sods?!

Ha! Major Fantozzi could have written this in his major's diary.

If you build rail and road parallel between two points, sims won't be distributed equally on both systems. As long as capacity is sufficient they will take only one of them. I guess, when they invented SC4 they had public transport as something in mind to build/add later to the city, when road capacity is exhausted. So first you start with streets and busses and end up with adding monorail and subway to fill gaps coming up as your city grows.

So the different networks aren't intended to work parallel to smooth capacity but more that each network is builded for a different 'commuting task'. Simply spoken: different networks should connect different points - not for sims to choose between, but for every group of sims (parts of your city) to be their own. Or: individual traffic and public traffic don't differ in quality (like in RL), they don't cover different needs (f.e. going shopping, going for holidays etc.) but instead they cover the same need (home to work, work to home and nothing else), there's only a difference between sims and goods in sc4.

Also public transport should be build where needed, not to direct sims where they should travel to. This means to check the residential buildings and show the routes sims take to go to work and how to optimize their traveling speed by adding a network.  

Also there are two ordinances for sims behaviour, if I remember right, but the best, as @rsc204already mentioned is to use the traffic simulator of the NAM that includes also some settings for sims traveling behaviour you can change. But basically - as long as car works fine, sims will prefer to take their cars. 

If I remember right, also toll stations can sims make reconsider to user their cars.

Basically they aren't ungrateful - they are only very car addicted. No wonder, as for sims prices on diesel didn't grow since 2003.

 

[djash1000 37]

14 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

I use Paeng's Age Degradation Mod and I pick the Degrade_radical.dat to extend life of the power plants and water facilities to 5000 years. For other lots I've downloaded like the MCP Water & Air Purification Plant V.01 or the sub station from the DK1 Power Plant I tweak the life expectancy using iLive's Reader so they never degrade.

Thanks for the responses to the questions guys.

Ah yes, these look good!

Wow so many add ons, I can see now why people's cities look so different from original game.

 

Just tried to download these, but I don't have winzip! dammit

 

will have to look into that later

[Fantozzi 4,067]

http://www.7-zip.org/

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

17 hours ago, rsc204 said:

two transit stations/stops, must be at least one tile apart for sims to switch transit types

Yikes, what a limitation!

So my RTMT bus stops that I so carefully placed right on the roads adjacent to my passenger rail stations are actually useless for funneling commuters onto rails???

If so, then I have  to revisit most of 289 cities in my region to fix so many broken stations! 

[rsc204 21,808]

29 minutes ago, jeffryfisher said:

Yikes, what a limitation!

The basic issue lies with the fact that such Transit Stops/Stations are in no way networks. I.e., the very same thing that prevents zoning working when adjacent to such stations, prevents sims travelling between them when touching.

40 minutes ago, jeffryfisher said:

So my RTMT bus stops that I so carefully placed right on the roads adjacent to my passenger rail stations are actually useless for funneling commuters onto rails???

Sims can only travel on proper networks, such as those in the NAM or base game. A transit stop, which can be considered a transit switch, literally just switches between transit types. Such stops/switches are not in of themselves proper networks however, they are simply lots like any other ploppable. The basic functionality of such a switch, can't allow traffic to enter or leave one lot (or switch) from/to another lot (or switch). Hence there must be at least one network tile in-between the two to facilitate the switching. I find Pedmalls are often a great buffer to handle such situations, but there are many other solutions too.

A better solution is to use a rail station with included Subway and Bus functionality. Some of the Maxis stations (ElRail/Monorail) can be made to include such functions, if you select the option during NAM install - Additional Features and Customizations/NAM Standard Station Features. Although this doesn't apply for the default rail station, I'm sure such stations can be found on the exchanges.

[djash1000 37]

9 hours ago, Fantozzi said:

http://www.7-zip.org/

tried this, and when click on the link to download from here, it just asks what to use, then doesn't do anything.

FFS, I'm so thick these days. Everything on win10 just says app this app that, ,

f***** off with computers these days

 

oh my goodness, what a mare!

I've managed to 'unzip the file, and remove the 2 others , do I just run the game now, and it picks up on these files in the plugins or what?

[rsc204 21,808]

First off, Winzip (OK that's a 'brand'), at least a way of extracting .zip files was included in Windows from as far back as Windows XP. That said, 7Zip is very useful as the in-built one is a bit on the dumb side.

If you install 7Zip, it provides some options in the context menu, i.e. when you right click on a file, find 7Zip / Extract Here or Extract to "FOLDERNAME". The first takes the contents of the zip file and places everything in the folder the .zip file was. The second creates a new subfolder with the name of the .zip file as its name, which will contain the contents. Once you get the hang of that, it's pretty easy.

Indeed, once you place mod files inside the Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins folder, SC4 will see them when it starts and load them automatically.

[djash1000 37]

7 hours ago, rsc204 said:

First off, Winzip (OK that's a 'brand'), at least a way of extracting .zip files was included in Windows from as far back as Windows XP. That said, 7Zip is very useful as the in-built one is a bit on the dumb side.

If you install 7Zip, it provides some options in the context menu, i.e. when you right click on a file, find 7Zip / Extract Here or Extract to "FOLDERNAME". The first takes the contents of the zip file and places everything in the folder the .zip file was. The second creates a new subfolder with the name of the .zip file as its name, which will contain the contents. Once you get the hang of that, it's pretty easy.

Indeed, once you place mod files inside the Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins folder, SC4 will see them when it starts and load them automatically.

I still can't see how to unzip using the 7zip. When I click on file to download it asks what to open it with, and I can't find 7zip?! It's definitely there somewhere because I downloaded it. (it opens in default to winzip of course, and I have this now for a week or so, but want to find out how to use your suggestion).

I can't find it in any lists though.

I've managed to get this 'extended life power station ones', but can't tell if it works yet! lol

I'm going to download all the suggestions that were posted earlier by cormarie...

I thank you for your patience, and responses. I would have given up long ago had I not joined here.

-

just an aside, do players use lots of plugins? I notice when looking at other players screen shots, that they look quite different to my cities! Mine are just my old saves from when it originally came out.

[djash1000 37]

It won't even let me unzip another one now using the winzip free thing.

I give up

this is screen I get when I click on the download file:

^^ if I click on open with that winrar it says buy, and I can't find anything to open with the free version I just downloaded or the 7zip thing.

 

nope can't do it.

i'm sick of computers since win10

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

Hang in there!

When you get that STEX popup screen you want to Save the file. Once saved you then go into File Explorer (or whatever the Win 10 thinger is called) and right click on the file name you just saved. In that popup menu you should have the option to extract the contents. Once that's done you should then see the .dat files (and any others that might have been included in the zip archive). Then you copy which ones you are going to use into the Plugins folder under SimCity 4 in your Documents folder.

Does that help?

[djash1000 37]

6 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

Hang in there!

When you get that STEX popup screen you want to Save the file. Once saved you then go into File Explorer (or whatever the Win 10 thinger is called) and right click on the file name you just saved. In that popup menu you should have the option to extract the contents. Once that's done you should then see the .dat files (and any others that might have been included in the zip archive). Then you copy which ones you are going to use into the Plugins folder under SimCity 4 in your Documents folder.

Does that help?

Thanks, I will hang in there. But not today! It's annoyed me too much how stupid I now feel on computers these days! haha

I will try this tomorrow, and find out whether I succeed, or whether everything follows on my computer as you suggest.

Many thanks,  again

[Fantozzi 4,067]

7 hours ago, djash1000 said:

oh my goodness, what a mare!

This nightmare is called learning and it will stay the rest of your life. Well, I agree, computers are terrible teachers always making obstacles instead of explaining something. But then, you did the very right thing to join here and ask those old veterans paved with scars from the very same experiences. You'll need a will like leather, flexible but unbreakable, giving up is no option. A friend of mine (an engineer developing mobile phones) used to say: "You try. You fail. You try again. You fail better." So the secret seems not to be frustrated by fails as all you'll ever gain is to fail on a higher level.

Like pole jumpers we are. It's not there is one never to knock down the bar, it's just they knock down the bar on different levels. But we all do it - with some training on a higher level perhaps, but still we do. Nothing to be disappointed.    

[rsc204 21,808]

6 hours ago, djash1000 said:

I still can't see how to unzip using the 7zip. When I click on file to download it asks what to open it with, and I can't find 7zip?! It's definitely there somewhere because I downloaded it. (it opens in default to winzip of course, and I have this now for a week or so, but want to find out how to use your suggestion).

What is going on here is quite clear from your screenshot. When you download a file, your browser is offering you the choice to open it (Open With), using the default application for the .rar file format, or to simply download the file somewhere (Save As). Since you already have WinRAR installed, it has been set as the default application for opening such files. However, I would recommend using the Save As option, then it will just download the file into a location on your computer. Usually, having done so, it will give you the option to open the folder where the file was saved, see that icon with a downward facing arrow with a horizontal line under it? Click there, then find the file you just downloaded in the list, click on the folder icon and it will bring up a window with the location (folder) containing the file.

WinRAR is the default application for a .rar file, bear in mind a .rar file is very similar in function to a .zip file, only it's made using a different application. .rar files are not all that common, but may not properly extract using other applications. If it's bugging you about buying it, that's because WinRAR is not free, you only get a trial version unless you pay for it. But 7Zip should be able to extract the file anyway, provided you don't tell your computer to do it with WinRAR, which I think is why you are getting unexpected results.

When you downloaded 7Zip, did you run and install that application onto your computer? Assuming you did, the follow step-by-step instructions should work:
Note: if you didn't install 7Zip, the options in Step5/6 below may not appear.

1. Download the file from the STEX.
2. Tell your browser to "Save As", noting where the file is to be located.
3. Open the folder you used in Step 2 (or simply click the Folder icon from the browser pop-up, which informs you when the download completes).
4. Find the file you downloaded, right click that with your mouse.
5. From the menu that appears, find 7Zip near the top, when you hover over it, the menu expands.
   
6. Then use Extract to "\" to create a folder with the extracted files.
7. Having done that, move or copy this new folder into Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins.

7 hours ago, djash1000 said:

just an aside, do players use lots of plugins? I notice when looking at other players screen shots, that they look quite different to my cities! Mine are just my old saves from when it originally came out.

I think a large number of us do. Adding mods allows you to customise and greatly alter the game's appearance and function. Of course it's completely optional, but there is a lot you can do with mods. From simply having more varied buildings to overcoming the original limitations and frustrations of the basic game.

[djash1000 37]

Yay, thanks guys that worked.

However, I'm only half way there. The 7zip thing doesn't appear, so this time I used the temp win free thingy...

I'll screen shot the same as you have above now so you can see the difference in shots...

 

might be a while, I've done all of those 3 links, so need to find another one to download first.

blimey there are so many... will have to look after work! I assume there is a thread somewhere with most popular plug ins, so will look for that... for now I'll just screenshot the one that I've just done:

 

as you can see the difference in our screen is the 7zip isn't showing on mine.

At moment I used the Winzip bit in the middle of screen, but as mentioned, only got for limited time

If I can get that 7zip on here, then I'm off and away

[rsc204 21,808]

I'm guessing one of two things has not happened. Either you've not installed the 7Zip package or you've told the installer not to include the "Context Menu" entries, I believe they are optional but on by default.

Personally, I'd remove (uninstall) WinZip, because having many apps that do the same thing leads to a lot of clutter. WinRAR may actually be useful in come cases, even with 7zip installed, so probably best to keep it.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

15 minutes ago, rsc204 said:

Personally, I'd remove (uninstall) WinZip, because having many apps that do the same thing leads to a lot of clutter. WinRAR may actually be useful in come cases, even with 7zip installed, so probably best to keep it.

Just out of curiosity, what would those cases be? So far I haven't encountered any scenario where 7-zip let me down, but that doesn't have to mean anything.

[djash1000 37]

On 16/02/2018 at 4:37 PM, rsc204 said:

I'm guessing one of two things has not happened. Either you've not installed the 7Zip package or you've told the installer not to include the "Context Menu" entries, I believe they are optional but on by default.

Personally, I'd remove (uninstall) WinZip, because having many apps that do the same thing leads to a lot of clutter. WinRAR may actually be useful in come cases, even with 7zip installed, so probably best to keep it.

It's showing as a folder on my desktop. Maybe I did the wrong one. I think there were 2 choices a 32x and 64x but I just did the top one.

edit in, this is screenshot of how it looks on my screen

 

and when click on the folder it shows this:

[rsc204 21,808]

28 minutes ago, T Wrecks said:

Just out of curiosity, what would those cases be?

The only ones these days are the multi-part .rar files, 7zip doesn't seem to know what to do with them. Of course these are super-rare, I wouldn't be surprised if newer versions could handle them now too. Only recently has 7zip been updated so it will open ClickTeam *shudder*, the horror!, installers.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

I can definitely confirm that my WinZip (x64) is perfectly capable of opening multi-volume .rar archives in the shape of several files called "[NAME].partXX.rar". Not sure if I remember correctly, but unless I'm mistaken, in the earlier days of WinRar there were multi-volume archives with extensions likr .r00, .r01, and so forth - something along these lines. No idea if it would be capable of opening those, but the other ones? Not a problem.

[djash1000 37]

I've still not worked out the 7zip thing and the winzip thing runs out in a day or so, so will have to ask more advice on this, to the above post at some point... (3 posts above this one)

 

I'm currently practising with all the new transport pieces of which there are thousands!!

Quick question, how many different rails are there? I can't work out as seems to be so many. Is the HS rail different rails to the standard one in the game?

main things though: First problem I've encountered is this little bit here, where I had to lower my elevated motorway to get the monorail across it. It's looks awful! Is it possible to create a more elegant junction?

I've looked through the pieces and can't nail this at all.

[djash1000 37]

ah, it's ok I found it! I've got the rails over the motorway now.

 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

1 minute ago, djash1000 said:

ah, it's ok I found it! I've got the rails over the motorway now.

 

Yay! (Do we get a new pic?)

[T Wrecks 10,209]

On 16.2.2018 at 6:02 PM, djash1000 said:

That's your 7-zip program folder. You can start the application from there. See the file that's called "7z" and has its type listed as "Application"? Third item from the top? [If you had your Windows Explorer configured such that the setting "Hide extensions for known file types" is deactivated (which it should be), then you'd see that the file is actually called "7z.EXE".]

Double-clicking on that file should start the 7-zip application.

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

3 hours ago, T Wrecks said:

Double-clicking on that file should start the 7-zip application.

Just a slight correction...

It'll actually be the executable named 7zFM.exe which is the main file manager application. The one simply named 7z happens to be the command-line based version of 7-Zip. This can be run using batch scripts, and is useful for processing a large number of files using various options. I'd suspect this may well be a cause of confusion for many seeing as it's the logical name for the program. So just open the file manager and it'll then allow navigation in a similar way to Windows Explorer.

For the context menu entries, make sure these two are checked in Tools > Options > 7-Zip:

I suspect the 32-bit option makes no difference on a 64-bit system, but it probably doesn't hurt to enable both.

Then choose the ones you'd like to see when right clicking a supported file.

[djash1000 37]

4 hours ago, Cyclone Boom said:

Just a slight correction...

It'll actually be the executable named 7zFM.exe which is the main file manager application. The one simply named 7z happens to be the command-line based version of 7-Zip. This can be run using batch scripts, and is useful for processing a large number of files using various options. I'd suspect this may well be a cause of confusion for many seeing as it's the logical name for the program. So just open the file manager and it'll then allow navigation in a similar way to Windows Explorer.

For the context menu entries, make sure these two are checked in Tools > Options > 7-Zip:

I suspect the 32-bit option makes no difference on a 64-bit system, but it probably doesn't hurt to enable both.

Then choose the ones you'd like to see when right clicking a supported file.

thanks, I'll come back to these 2 posts with info on 7zip, tomorrow with fresh head. just finished work

9 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

Yay! (Do we get a new pic?)

yes, I post one now. It's not much more elegant, and certainly not up to the standard of other work in here, but it seems to have worked.

 

I quite like the idea of finding out if there is a way of building a motorway underground, as these things create a lot of pollution.

8 hours ago, T Wrecks said:

That's your 7-zip program folder. You can start the application from there. See the file that's called "7z" and has its type listed as "Application"? Third item from the top? [If you had your Windows Explorer configured such that the setting "Hide extensions for known file types" is deactivated (which it should be), then you'd see that the file is actually called "7z.EXE".]

Double-clicking on that file should start the 7-zip application.

 

4 hours ago, Cyclone Boom said:

Just a slight correction...

It'll actually be the executable named 7zFM.exe which is the main file manager application. The one simply named 7z happens to be the command-line based version of 7-Zip. This can be run using batch scripts, and is useful for processing a large number of files using various options. I'd suspect this may well be a cause of confusion for many seeing as it's the logical name for the program. So just open the file manager and it'll then allow navigation in a similar way to Windows Explorer.

For the context menu entries, make sure these two are checked in Tools > Options > 7-Zip:

I suspect the 32-bit option makes no difference on a 64-bit system, but it probably doesn't hurt to enable both.

Then choose the ones you'd like to see when right clicking a supported file.

I shall check tomorrow, thanking you for assistance.

[djash1000 37]

Although my nation doesn't look much different,

I listed all 49 cities, and printed off an excel file with all the things to adjust. (power, water update all, with new degradtion), got health and schooling sorted with increased populations, cancelled all neighbourhood deals, re build and extended some undergrounds, got airpollution to very little with those water/air purification things, and most importantly, got them all in profit.

They are all self-sufficient now. I'm pleased with the progress so far. I'm now extending and fixing transportation problems. (and in small doses, playing with some of the new toys in a blank city. I find them quite difficult though, until used to them. So will stick to small changes, as I don't want to lose my temper with it, I like to play to relax, not lose temper.

[djash1000 37]

Working on my original elevated ring road, and expanding it.

Trying to clear the way through here

I've worked it right up on the 'manhattan' bit, some of them takes ages though as have to move schools and hosps etc.