Place Bridge without slope

[unseen4ce 36]

Before placing the avenue over the highway I made sure that the land was flat all around. Yet when I place the bridge it makes the land slope at the edges of the highway, as can be seen in the picture. It isnt a straight bridge but it slopes towards the highway and then places the bridge. Is there anyway to sink a highway and have a nice straight bridge over the top?

I am using a slope mod.

In this video I can see that this guy has sunken networks with small straight bridges... (even at the very bottom of the thumbnail you can see a straight bridge).

 

[unseen4ce 36]

I disabled my slope mods and this is what I got. I am thinking that perhaps I have to try something other than an avenue. I am also looking into using elevated rail and other tools for slopes rather than slope mods. Going to have to keep experimenting.

 

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

Use digger/raiser tools to craft a short highway tunnel, and then build your perfectly level (and beautiful) avenue over the top. There are tutorial videos galore if you don't know what I mean.

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

Hi unseen4ce, I don't know much about NAM, But I do believe @Naomi57 and @rsc204 can give you the best answer of your issue, They are the experts of NAM, I learnt some tricks of NAM from MGB NAM tutorial which Naomi shared to me.

From the video you shared above, it seems like he used NAM's Pedestrian and Elevated Road Viaduct puzzle pieces to go across the Highway. Actually I used the slope as well, so I got the same result as you.

I'm sure people could offer you advise on how to proceed.

Best Regards,

-- Raymond

[unseen4ce 36]

Yes, that is the sort of puzzle piece I was looking for. Thanks.

I also did manage to find a couple youtube videos. In-case anyone else wants a flat-bridge.

I also found this mod, which might help:

 

 

 

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

Yes unseen4ce, Frankly, I also have this one, but haven't got a chance to experience it now, Thanks for sharing, Furthermore, I just noticed that maybe you were using the diagonal Highway, There are also diagonal slope puzzle pieces in NAM.

Looking forward your successful achievement.

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

[Naomi57 2,985]

My first inclination is toward using the 15m OWR-2 tools, easily overlooked in the 15m Elevated One-Way Road Viaducts menu item, with more potentially useful tools available under the RHW/OWR menu item, both circled red in the screenshots below.

You can connect up either an avenue or one way road to the ends.  Using Ctrl+X  drawpaths  is quite useful when working with the OWR-2 viaduct pieces, to make sure they're all joining up in the right direction.  

The Straight One-Way Road ON OnSlope Puzzle Piece, and Straight One-Way Road OFF OnSlope Puzzle Piece (adjacent on the TAB ring), are both 15 metre viaduct pieces, so you'll need the 15m Diggers/Raisers (also circled red above).

Note that the OneWayRoad over GroundHighway Puzzle Piece switches direction depending on which tile you're hovering over.

[unseen4ce 36]

Thanks, yeah those look great. I was playing around with those pieces and got something similar, so I would definitely recommend those also.

Edit: You have to be careful to have the right height to ensure it forms a straight bridge when it connects.

[Naomi57 2,985]

33 minutes ago, unseen4ce said:

Edit: You have to be careful to have the right height to ensure it forms a straight bridge when it connects.

Yea, that's where the Digger/Raiser pieces come in handy.  In this case, I used Ctrl+Shift+Alt God-mode terraforming Quick Level Brush, followed by the Hole Digger Piece (15m) (circled red above), then single plops of Street to prepare the trench for the sunken highway.

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

Hi unseen4ce, as a appendix of Dear Naomi's tips, I recommend God Terraforming in Mayor Mode and Additional God Mode Terrain tools to you, You could tweak your Terrain more convenient, And if you want to do some micro-terraforming to level your terrain (with holding the Ctrl key ) , You can try the AGMT which could give you more control over your editing, Furthermore,  some effect also decided by parameters of your slope or Terrain Mod, They have some exemplars which controls more Terrain Properties. You could use iLiveReader to modify those parameters if you understand them.

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

[Naomi57 2,985]

54 minutes ago, Raymond7cn said:

I recommend God Terraforming in Mayor Mode and Additional God Mode Terrain tools to you, You could tweak your Terrain more convenient, And if you want to do some micro-terraforming to level your terrain (with holding the Ctrl key ) , You can try the AGMT which could give you more control over your editing,

Oooooh!  Thank you, @Raymond7cn, I hadn't noticed Additional God Mode Terrain tools before!  

I'm very curious to try it out. 

[Naomi57 2,985]

A Sunken Diamond Interchange    

I've just been playing with this sunken highway in my sandbox, and thought you all might like to see ... the Single-Sided Parallel Ramps feature is new to me, and can be used for creating a diamond interchange on this sunken Maxis Ground Highway.

1. Use the Ground highway - onramp/offramp straight piece, to produce entrances and exits, with a teeny gap in the parallel one way road.  Press the Home/End key to swap between highway exit and entrance using this one piece—the piece is clever to know which onramp and which is offramp automagically.

2. Use the RHW Disconnector to make the gap a full two tiles wide, for step 3 coming up.

3. Use the *T* One Way Road OFF OnSlope Puzzle Piece and *T* One Way Road ON OnSlope Puzzle Piece to fill the gap made by Step 2 above, and to start the highway overpass.

4. After doing two plops of the OneWayRoad over GroundHighway Puzzle Piece to complete the highway overpass, press Ctrl+R for Avenue and extend the ends.

DISCLAIMER:  I haven't tried this with traffic yet, but I'm feeling 95% sure it will work.   Ctrl+X  drawpaths  is a little messy at the ramp intersection, but it's not unusual for the 15m Elevated One-Way Road Viaducts pieces to have a few extra paths drawn on them for extra flexibility, and so I'm pretty sure that messy part won't interfere with traffic flow.

If you try making one for real, and test it out with real traffic, please do post back to let me know if it works.  

[unseen4ce 36]

@Naomi57  At what depth did you set your sunken highway?

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

9 hours ago, unseen4ce said:

I have tried another area and still couldnt get it to work. I then tried to attach to a highway that was oriented diagonally and it worked. It doesnt look right but it did work on the diagonal for some reason. So I dont think it is working properly. It should be working on the orthogonal not the diagonal.

The ground around the piece was all level except for the sunken highway before the piece was placed.

Hi unseen4ce, I noticed that you have a NAM single-side parallel ramps bug thread as well, I had tried this, it works on my computer, and also as Naomi showed to us, I don't know why it doesn't work for you. May I ask what version of NAM were you using? Did you install other special plugins?

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

[Naomi57 2,985]

Just now, unseen4ce said:

@Naomi57  At what depth did you set your sunken highway?

Depth of the sunken highway has to be 15 metres, as dictated by the height of the OWR-2 15m Elevated One-Way Road Viaducts pieces.

I used the Hole Digger Piece (15m) for the sunken highway.  Click on the menu item circled red below, and then press Home/End key to get the digger.

Use 1x1 street plops to create the highway trench, after you've done a single click with the Hole Digger Piece (15m).

If you're not familiar with the 1x1 street plops technique, here's another image that shows use of 1x1 street plops for terraforming.  In this case I was using the 1x1 street plops for creating a land bridge, in preparation for making an underwater tunnel.

[Naomi57 2,985]

33 minutes ago, Raymond7cn said:

Hi unseen4ce, I noticed that you have a NAM single-side parallel ramps bug thread as well ...

3 hours ago, unseen4ce said:

I have tried another area and still couldnt get it to work. I then tried to attach to a highway that was oriented diagonally and it worked. It doesnt look right but it did work on the diagonal for some reason. So I dont think it is working properly. It should be working on the orthogonal not the diagonal.

The ground around the piece was all level except for the sunken highway before the piece was placed.

Those are the wrong ramps you're using there.  You need to use the Ground highway - onramp/offramp straight piece, not the Ground Highway - Parallel Ramp- Road piece ... if you're wanting to build the Sunken Diamond Interchange I documented above.  Perhaps you're aiming to do something else?

You probably should get this working with an orthogonal highway first, before you try diagonal.  Diagonal highways are usually more difficult.  For a sunken highway, diagonal causes many different kinds of challenges.

[unseen4ce 36]

I used the same pieces as the video I posted in that thread.

But I did manage to get the whole thing to work using your instructions @Naomi57 . So maybe the pieces have changed. But it works now and looks good, much better than the pre-fab one in the OP. And that is what matters.

Thanks guys.

[rsc204 21,808]

On 07/04/2020 at 4:44 AM, unseen4ce said:

I disabled my slope mods and this is what I got. I am thinking that perhaps I have to try something other than an avenue. I am also looking into using elevated rail and other tools for slopes rather than slope mods. Going to have to keep experimenting.

Whilst they look identical, there are different methods for different implementations when it comes to crossing highways or other networks. In the base game, Maxis enabled most networks to be dragged over others to automatically create a bridge for the purpose. This type is best used with flat or levelled terrain, since it can't handle changes in elevation well. Separately, the NAM includes a bunch of Puzzle-Piece Viaduct Options (Legacy), along with the newer Draggable Flex Pieces. Those are designed to work at either L1 (7.5m) or L2 (15m), with options for Ramps or On-Slope pieces to handle the change in height. The specific scenario you've shown would work best with OnSlope pieces, but to look right the height difference between networks needs to be exact. Hence the Digger/Raiser lots, which can be used to get the perfect height difference, note it's best to start with flat terrain before using them.

All of this is covered in-depth in the following NAM Tutorial on YouTube:

A lot of this applies to other NAM Networks too, since the basic usage of Puzzle Pieces is quite similar.