SimCity 4's terrain editing tool

[Toby66 155]

Why do i get the feeling that when i try to level the terrain for a certain building it's like trying to nail in a small nail with a sledgehammer tool?

On top of that the game makers think it was a "fun" idea that any mistake with it makes all the built structures explode for any little mistake you make with it. How about a warning popup saying, "If you do this, the structure will be destroyed?".

OK, this is one whining thread now but lets do it together shall we. Lets make it together.

Take note of that if you hold in the left mouse button it will remove money for as long as you press the button but behold on the lowest sreenshot, does the terrain look leveled and plain at the cursor to anybody?

[matias93 7,535]

Try clicking Shift + 1 or any number, to change the size of the tool. Also, holding Shift makes it temporally bigger and Control temporally smaller and less potent. This affects all brushes, god mode or mayor mode.

[Toby66 155]

Yeah i know. Does little to how crude and blunt the tool is anyway i think.

Could have been done better and what i think they succeeded with, with this game was the graphics and game concept.

Otherwise the humor in it is really annoying, the unbalanced errata and bugs and all, was more or less of a disaster mixed with a success if you ask me.

Lucky there´s communities like this that saves the game´s longevity and play value overall.

Edit:

Errata is not what i meant to say, i meant to say the logistic´s calculations, the traffic. Population volume compared to a city´s actual size. The stubborn way of the game to overload streets to then complain that the street´s are about to go extinct like what surface the car runs on is something to give a damn about.

Errata = typo´s, errors and i shouldnt use words i don´t know the meaning of perhaps.

"Sorry! But i´m a Swede!" 

*shows my license to fail and be wrong without going to jail*

[Cyclone Boom 16,829]

As @matias93 said, one possible technique which might come in useful is to adjust the brush size for the terraforming tools. This allows for finer precision terrain editing, and it can be particularly useful to prevent buildings getting demolished. You may find a previous post I made useful which explains in a bit of detail on this.

Bringing over the preview pic here for a quick visual reference:

(This is a montage image I created showing the 11 different brush sizes.)

As you may know, it's possible to access the God Mode brushes in an established city. This can be done by holding the keyboard combination Ctrl+Shift+Alt and pressing the God Mode button. Also for convenience in not needing to hold this down each time, there's a handy mod which adds a sub-menu to the Mayor Mode menu.

 

Precision Terrain Flattening

Another technique which could come in useful is to use road stubs to flatten the terrain. This works by using the Road tool and clicking any cell square to build and level each out individually. By doing this over an extended area, it allows zoning on there in a location sculpted with surrounding cliffs and hills. The advantage here is nothing will ever get demolished, and even nearby existing structures would have their foundations adjusted to the new slopes. As a quick overview...

Firstly choose somewhere suitable:

 

Next begin laying down the Road stubs per cell:

 

Continue doing this to fill the area desired:

 

Zone the area and add a connection and power supply:

(I used precision flora planting too as per the same method as for the terrain brush.)

 

Run for a while and development will develop:

(Those 2 houses on the edge might want to consider building a sturdy fence.)

[Toby66 155]

8 minutes ago, Cyclone Boom said:

Bringing over the preview pic here for a quick visual reference:

Now this is one PLAYER who knows how to work around the problems.

Here´s me who enjoys complaining too much perhaps and i should learn from you all.

Your posts\comments are so neat also and you put some effort even into that as i see it!

Thank you sir.

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

When working terrain, displaying the grid also helps you to see what you're doing.