Regions With NAM Highways Created Prior Proposal

[infamousjbe 592]

Hello again SC Community!  Fresh back from a few years hiatus. Glad to see things still moving along.

Inquiry:  A few years back, here in these forums, a few members were discussing the idea of a region with NAM highways already placed upon starting. Meaning, a member in particular took on the task of using a region to create some highways, then transfer the files to the members that wanted the region to play with.

I do believe the members did in fact go thru with the process using email or drop box to transfer said files. That's if my memory serves me correct.

As I start to catch up on things, I'd like to start a new region that did in fact have some highways already placed, which I then can build off of. Thought it was a great idea when it was being discussed but that was also around the time I wasn't playing as much.

The highways are something I never seem to take into consideration while building a city and then have to restructure huge sections to create one, which imo can be meh thing to have to deal with. 

Wouldn't really know where to begin to research that/those threads. Hoping some of the veterans might be familiar with that proposal.

[markussaage 762]

Hey, and welcome back!

I've been around for a little while, but I haven't seen any Region maps with highways already in place. Can't remember seeing such a project either.
But maybe someone else does?! If so, I'm sure, they''ll be happy to share this information with you!

Again, welcome back, enjoy and explore, what happened in the last couple years!

Kind regards!

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

I don't know about sharing regions, but playing at easy difficulty allowed me to build out the highway and railroad networks across my own region before I got down to the business of zoning and running city clocks to grow populations. For my play style, it was much easier than trying to blast long-distance networks through built-up cities.

[rsc204 21,808]

I remember the previous discussion on this subject and one significant aspect has since changed. Previously uploading full regions to the STEX, mostly due to filesize/bandwidth concerns, were not allowed. So if someone was willing to share such a region, it could be placed on the STEX.

However, if uploading such a region, there are a few things that need taking care of. Anyone using custom mods or anything not in the base game, would need to ensure all users of their save files had those same mods. Redistribution of that as a single package would not be OK on the STEX, you'd have to link all the dependencies. Given though that a completed Transit network really only needs the NAM, that's probably not a big concern here. Although again people would need to know which NAM options they needed to install for everything to display correctly.

Another slight concern is that it can be pretty easy to make a click somewhere (auto-place running amok!), or accidentally bulldoze a tile of something the user may have no knowledge of how to fix. Usually it's possible to just go with exiting a tile without saving in such circumstances, but that probably involves loosing work.

Right at this moment, I don't know of anyone who's actually created or released such a region. If I recall correctly, I think @Indiana Joe did offer up such a region when this came up before. Perhaps as you say @infamousjbe, someone did get around to sharing such a region privately as a result of the previous thread here?

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

20 hours ago, rsc204 said:

if uploading such a region, there are a few things that need taking care of. Anyone using custom mods or anything not in the base game, would need to ensure all users of their save files had those same mods.

Hmmm... Seems like a job for cloud storage and setting a custom user folder to point to it. Then the whole kit & kaboodle (regions and plugins) would be on a publicly visible server somewhere, and multiple users could play in it (or copy it to a separate local "user").

Alternatively, an author could zip up the whole user space (region plus plugins) and create a torrent registered with one or more public trackers. Then share the miniscule torrent file on STEX while hosting Bittorrent and the massive zip file on his/her own machine. Bandwidth would be mitigated by leeches turning to seeds as they re-share. Considering how many gigabytes may be involved, Bittorrent makes a lot of sense.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

Sounds a bit like what they did with the multi-poppy shared regions. The difference being that each player downloaded the required plugins separately to stay within the accepted framework of not sharing plugins directly. That part has always been a touchy subject from long before I arrived. The discussion will have to step lightly with regard to sharing plugins directly with each other at this time.

[Prophet42 1,501]

Really, if the type of region @infamousjbe is looking for only has NAM networks at the start, then only NAM would have to be in the user's plugin.  This type of region could easily be shared with the understanding that the NAM would have to be installed first in the user's plugin folder before using the region.  I don't think it has to be any more complicated than that...download NAM from Simtropolis and get the region from the cloud or sent directly from the creator.

[Lucario Boricua 7,028]

Depending on time availability and interest, I might be able to supply such regions. The needed dependencies would be a full NAM installation, a slope mod (BRF's unless some other slope mod is preferred by the player) and a selection of dependency-free transit stations.

[infamousjbe 592]

On 10/11/2019 at 2:51 AM, markussaage said:

Hey, and welcome back!

I've been around for a little while, but I haven't seen any Region maps with highways already in place. Can't remember seeing such a project either.
But maybe someone else does?! If so, I'm sure, they''ll be happy to share this information with you!

Again, welcome back, enjoy and explore, what happened in the last couple years!

Kind regards!

Thank you.  Really just life in general. Leaving a job to move to the other coast of the US where I'm must more active outdoors. But SimCity 4 always pulls me back eventually even when I still don't really have time to play. It's such a time sink for me.

38 minutes ago, Prophet42 said:

Really, if the type of region @infamousjbe is looking for only has NAM networks at the start, then only NAM would have to be in the user's plugin.  This type of region could easily be shared with the understanding that the NAM would have to be installed first in the user's plugin folder before using the region.  I don't think it has to be any more complicated than that...download NAM from Simtropolis and get the region from the cloud or sent directly from the creator.

That's all it was. A region and NAM to be installed was the prerequisite.

On 10/11/2019 at 2:10 PM, rsc204 said:

Another slight concern is that it can be pretty easy to make a click somewhere (auto-place running amok!), or accidentally bulldoze a tile of something the user may have no knowledge of how to fix. Usually it's possible to just go with exiting a tile without saving in such circumstances, but that probably involves loosing work.

This would be a buyer beware situation. If you took on the risk of using this region without the knowledge to rebuild if needed, would be on the player themselves. lol  Even I was  never really versed in the whole NAM package, but I'm a big boy and would figure it out.

Thank you all for the responses. Hopefully it'll pop up eventually. I'm a patient sort.

[infamousjbe 592]

10 minutes ago, Lucario Boricua said:

Depending on time availability and interest, I might be able to supply such regions. The needed dependencies would be a full NAM installation, a slope mod (BRF's unless some other slope mod is preferred by the player) and a selection of dependency-free transit stations.

IJust installed the latest NAM, but not full boat yet since I'm fresh back and my current region hasn't needed most of it. I do have a 4.6gb plug-in folder. Yes, I'm a plugins junkie, might have that slope mod already or one comparable. 

Are you speaking about highway transit stations? otherwise it would just be the highway itself. Would't even need the off/on ramps, those could be placed by the player (me) in the locations desired. It would be just the highway crossing the region in a few directions. 

Not sure what the previous proposal plan finally landed on as far as the ramps go. Never caught the end of the conversation.

Might just do what Jeffry does and pre-plan the highway prior to actually starting the new region, even if it can be tedious. With the Cheat mod, money to pay for the highway pre-start negates any reason to start on easy now a days. We have truly become demi gods of this game. 

[Lucario Boricua 7,028]

@infamousjbe

 

The mention of transit stations was in a more general sense, in case there were players who were interested in getting this kind of help while also including rail system. There are, however, the bus stations and transit station specifically modded to act as bus rapid transit stations.

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

On 10/11/2019 at 5:10 PM, rsc204 said:

Right at this moment, I don't know of anyone who's actually created or released such a region. If I recall correctly, I think @Indiana Joe did offer up such a region when this came up before. Perhaps as you say @infamousjbe, someone did get around to sharing such a region privately as a result of the previous thread here?

 

I did start on such a region, but it was very large and I never made it very far.  Here is the original topic everyone's referencing:

 

Basically what you see in the region screenshot on Page 2 is as far as I made it.  It's a huge region.  But there is some good news:  I asked @magnusjolnaes and got his personal permission to upload the map with modifications.  That was 4-odd years ago and I don't think I have proof anymore, but on the internet, with amateur content creators, it's the thought that counts.

Overall I think the concept is very feasible.  My approach was to only put the NAM in the Plugins folder, for maximum compatibility.  The only real constraints are (1) author permission for uploading regions, and (2) hosting the files.  As the years have gone by though, cloud storage gets cheaper and more abundant, and internet download speeds only get faster on average.

I'll definitely re-open this as a personal project, I just have to learn the new tools of the NAM since I've been away for a while.  I also have a re-lot project I want to do as a part of building the 'ultimate plugins folder.'  I like the idea of working on things that attract more people to the game, and make it easier for those who have been away to get back into modding and playing.

 

-Matt

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

I lied!  I still have the conversation, and proof that I'm a very effective stalker, from 4 years ago.