Tutorial - Rob's Guide to SimCity 4

[rob_mtl 434]

 

[Cyclone Boom 16,877]

@rob_mtl

A superb overview of the basic fixes, and I appreciate the mention of my Save Warning mod too, even though it is a bit boring in contrast to other things!

I'm a big believer in how different mediums of presentation are what help people learn, since we each have our own best ways of doing so. All your video guides are precisely well explained, and I also like the way that there can be sections in the YouTube player for each of the main chapters (when viewing the video at YT itself).

Just a little thing I noticed is how at the 15:42 mark, the chapter section isn't shown for the I-HT Fix mod. Maybe it's because in the description it needs this editing so the link appears? I'm not exactly sure how this works since I'm not a YouTuber myself, but thought I'd let you know in case it's something easy to edit.

Keep up the wonderful work!

[rob_mtl 434]

@Cyclone Boom I'm glad you enjoyed the video! By the way, I only recently installed Save Warning and it's very well designed!

As for the chapter section, I accidentally put a period instead of a colon, so YouTube didn't create the hyperlink. Thanks for the heads up!

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

In regards your last video. I don't use 7 of the 8 mods you listed, some never and maybe 1 a few times before deeming it unneeded. NAM is the sole "essential" mod you listed and I don't find it all that essential. Highway extras,  various curves, SAM textures(which really aren't part of NAM) and a few other bells and whistles, but I've eliminated unnecessary bloat as much as I can while keeping NAM as functional as it needs to be. For instance, I never use HSR, El rail and very rarely subway. Future versions of NAM promise only more bloat, as far as I can see.

Since everyone on the 'net fancies themselves some kind of f***ing critic, I might as well get in on the act. Rating your vids on:

Enunciation- A+: I didn't have to download sub-titles. Usually, these tut vids are in thick accents and only 4 of their best buds can understand them.

No Artsy-Fartsy- A+: Usually these vids have 10,000 cuts per minute. Thank you for controlling your inner Fellini(or Tarantino, if you're too young to know who the other guy is).

Explanations- A: For the most part, plain speaking.

Keeping your musical tastes in check- A-: Well, you didn't blast my eardrums with your taste in music. What music you did use, you kept to a low-key minimum.

Anticipation- C: Showmanship, dude. Space your vids out more in the future. Make these forum sluggos wait a bit longer before imparting your wisdom.

[rob_mtl 434]

@SIM-ple Jack Thanks for the critique! I'm sure advanced users will have their own lists of essential mods (I'm presuming you know your way around the game based on the quantity of content of yours I've seen around the forum ). 

As for the NAM pieces, I also never use HSR but el-trains and subways are my bread and butter. I never got into RHW in a big way although it is certainly cool. Have you tried the NAM 37 development candidate? I booted it up on my other computer with a fresh install and it looks like they've actually pared things down a bit (and cut out some old material that's "no longer supported"). I certainly wouldn't update NAM 36 to 37 at the moment, but if you have another system to try it on, give it a spin.

Fair point about spacing out the videos. To be honest, tutorial videos take a lot longer than my usual Let's Play stuff because they're tricky to make and edit--so far I've been posting them whenever I get to them, but as my channel develops a more predictable schedule I'll keep it in mind.

[Durfsurn 539]

Nice video Rob!

One thing to note in relation to the "corrupt" city files you talked about (specifically in relation to the save and exit to region/desktop) is that a blank preview does not necessarily mean a corrupt city file. For instance doing a quick save (Ctrl + Alt + S by default) then the city tile won't have a region preview and yet it will be a perfectly fine save! 

It can also be caused by losing focus on the SC4 window while saving (with any kind of save! save and exit to region/desktop included!) by clicking off to another window, alt-tabbing etc. Note that sometimes (especially on heavily modded large city tiles with lots of development) the game does this anyway - I find if it does this, to let it save, then save again immediately after which usually means it won't lose focus (and update your region preview). 

In saying that I do HIGHLY recommend only using (Ctrl + S) saving or quick save (Ctrl + Alt + S) to save your cities!

So folks don't give up hope if your region has a blank tile! Go into the city and try saving again!

-Billy

[rob_mtl 434]

@Durfsurn Thanks for the tip! I should have mentioned that people shouldn't alt-tab or change focus during save. I play the game in full-screen and only alt-tab when the game is paused and obviously not while saving.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

17 hours ago, rob_mtl said:

 

Have you tried the NAM 37 development candidate? I booted it up on my other computer with a fresh install and it looks like they've actually pared things down a bit (and cut out some old material that's "no longer supported"). I certainly wouldn't update NAM 36 to 37 at the moment, but if you have another system to try it on, give it a spin.

 

As a matter of fact, dl'ed it last week and gave it a whirl yesterday. Didn't really notice too much new, except menu icons. But I did find the self-destructing hole diggers/raisers which I pulled out and kept, and deleted the rest of it. Those are much improved, including digging past sea level(no more need for the ssl 0 cheat). Wish there was a way to unpack packed DATs.

[rob_mtl 434]

I quite like the way RRW replaces the old Maxis rail. Viaduct rail is also semi-dragable and streets can be dragged under it too. But that's just me.

[rob_mtl 434]

Minor update:

A viewer pointed out an error in Lesson 3: Transportation. I said that sims will only travel one tile away from their home tile, which I've discovered is incorrect. It's funny how you pick up a piece of information and it just sticks with you and you don't question it. I try and fact-check stuff before I make these videos, but there are bound to be slip-ups from time to time.

Interesting topic, though, the maximum distance sims will travel.

Here's a transcript from YouTube for posterity. Baleur:

Quote

1:29:00 Are you sure about that? I built a ferry terminal on the western bank on the vanilla San Francisco region, and another on the western bank. There's a huge mostly river plot in between the two. Yet when i "made a city" in the river plot, just plopped a ferry station as a mid-point and nothing more, no houses no work, the sims started moving from the eastern to western part of the region, across 3 plots.

Me: 

Quote

I was pretty sure until you asked and then I checked. So with the NAM traffic simulator it seems sims will cross as many tiles as they need to get to work. It would seem that commute time and not distance is the limiting factor. The max trip time is set by default to 600 and increasing it in the NAM config tool has no effect. You can also tweak the commute time scaling value although the NAM modders claim that time scaling was implemented poorly in the engine. Any commute to another tile is considered "long" as well, so I imagine that Sims won't travel too much further than one large tile away (ferries are a fairly fast mode of transportation IIRC so they might go further with that mode). I'll make a note of this comment and mention the error in a future video. Thanks for the heads up, though!

I wonder if any of you forum veterans have experimented with max travel range of sims in terms of travel distance/commute time? Also, it would be great to have the speed of various modes of transportation as a handy reference. I've seen a few around but never sure if they're up to date with the NAM.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

1 hour ago, rob_mtl said:

I wonder if any of you forum veterans have experimented with max travel range of sims in terms of travel distance/commute time?

I have. At one time I even considered creating a whole topic/tutorial for it.

The Sims can travel vast distances over many city tiles. The gist of this is that the information from a distance tile has to be propagated to the starting tile. So, lets say you have 8 tiles in a row named A, B, C, D, E, F, G, & H. Let tile A be where your Sims live and tile H be where the bulk of the jobs are. Provided all tiles in between have at least one job (such as from a bus stop, ferry, grown commercial or industrial, etc) then you just need to open and save the tiles in sequence to let tile A know about the jobs in tile H. Save H, then G, then F, and so on back to A. Now for tile H to know about all the Sims seeking jobs you have to propagate that data the other direction saving A, B, C, etc in sequence.

During my tests, it seems as long as the travel time in any one of the city tiles does not exceed the maximum you can string them along as far as you like. Ofc, the farther away the target tile is, the more of a nuisance it is propagating the info back and forth.

[rob_mtl 434]

1 hour ago, CorinaMarie said:

During my tests, it seems as long as the travel time in any one of the city tiles does not exceed the maximum you can string them along as far as you like. Ofc, the farther away the target tile is, the more of a nuisance it is propagating the info back and forth.

I will definitely be addressing this in a future video. To be honest though, I'm inclined to say something like, "while Sims can theoretically travel very long distances in a region map, it's very inconvenient to encourage this." Limiting Sims movement to 8km seems like a reasonable bet for regular, non-experimental play.

Side note: have you played with the time scaling parameter in the NAM?

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

1 minute ago, rob_mtl said:

Side note: have you played with the time scaling parameter in the NAM?

Side answer: No.

I did play vanilla for a couple of years and I learned to work within its time factor. Once I made the leap to NAM, I've not tweaked that item and I've been happy with how it's set.

[rob_mtl 434]

2 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

Once I made the leap to NAM, I've not tweaked that item and I've been happy with how it's set.

Yeah. My sense from the NAM Traffic Configuration is that the timescale of the engine is not very well implemented and that tweaking it would yield unpredictable results. Since I tend to build more European-style (or East Coast North American-style) cities, I'm not that interested, personally, in having super long commutes. However, it would be interesting to experiment with.

[tails2489 350]

On 2020-06-03 at 10:51 AM, tails2489 said:

I get about an hour a day to play while my kid naps so hopefully can finish those up today (Day 3) and then get back to playing tomorrow. I never ever plop bus stops or jails in my cities so I'll be going through my region and upgrading the seaports and plopping bus stops and jails as well. Kind of a tedious process but hoping for some nice results. Great tutorials and I'm enjoying going through your Plantation Bay videos also.

Might start my own Let's Play.. Sean's Red Hot Bus Stops.. where it's just me plopping bus stops in all my already developed cities.

[rob_mtl 434]

 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

Nice vid there on NAM 37 installation.

Since you asked for what peeps would like to see, my main interest is Single Track Rail and the SAM street overrides. I'm especially interested in the drag patterns for the smoother rail curves. (I already know the ones for SAM.)

[rob_mtl 434]

@CorinaMarie I'll definitely be playing around a lot with the new rail in my upcoming Let's Play, so I'll have the opportunity to get a sense of how it works :).

[countermoon 46]

Rob, what do you think about doing a tutorial video on the "less common" puzzle pieces? Everything outside the basics, pariticularly transportation items, roads, and so on. There's a long list of items that I have never used, and some I don't even know what they are or whether I should use them. You could do a video just like your basics tutorial, drop it down and show how it is used.

[rob_mtl 434]

@countermoon this is something I have been considering doing for awhile! I'm working on doing a series based on categories or sets, with topics like NWM pieces, GLR/trams, FLUPs, etc. RHW is sort of its own topic and really difficult to demonstrate, considering how there's basically no fool-proof and consistent way to get the same result in two different situations. Let me know if there's a particular topic you think would make for a good 20 minute video! I am slowly preparing a list

[countermoon 46]

Well, off the top of my head, I would say underground rail or underground roads because I struggle with traffic problems, both congestion and air pollution.

The whole subject of getting people to work has somewhat baffled me. Many times I find myself in the middle of the dilemma where a business has low customers (turns black) and a residence needs a job. They ought to link up but they don't. I tell them, "For God's sake, there's a rail station right there. Use it!" But they ignore me. So I add buses next to my rail stations and all over the place, but often that causes "red" congestion where the bus stop meets the rail station.

I rely on regular rail, buses, roads, and avenues. The basics. I've tried tunnels but it takes me a long time to get right, and even then it doesn't work v. well. Roundabouts take up too much space and don't always get rid of the red problem. I tried improvising one-way circles and squares, which I saw you do on videos. That works well if there is enough space.

I probably waste a lot of money destroying buildings and trying to smooth the terrain. I push the dirt around, flattening one area only to find lumps somewhere else. I waste a lot of time on coastlines, trying to put roads on the edge to maximize space. I waste a lot of time trying to find transitions from avenues to roads, because sometimes they don't connect properly.

I guess my assumption has been if I reduce air pollution, then businesses will get used rather than turn black. Creating high density residence is also a problem as they seem naturally to create traffic congestion. But many times my medium density buildings will give the "no work" message. The only reliable housing I have found is the one-square medium density apartment building. Rarely goes black, rarely unemployed, and you can put it anywhere.

 

 

[Naomi57 2,985]

3 hours ago, countermoon said:

Well, off the top of my head, I would say underground rail or underground roads because I struggle with traffic problems, both congestion and air pollution.

Great choices there!

3 hours ago, countermoon said:

The whole subject of getting people to work has somewhat baffled me. Many times I find myself in the middle of the dilemma where a business has low customers (turns black) and a residence needs a job. They ought to link up but they don't. I tell them, "For God's sake, there's a rail station right there. Use it!" But they ignore me. So I add buses next to my rail stations and all over the place, but often that causes "red" congestion where the bus stop meets the rail station.

A business having low customers, is a separate problem to residents who need a job.

If you fix the business, there's more jobs for the residents, too!  

Here's a couple tutorials of mine that runs through lots and lots of the common issues that make a commercial lot dilapidate (turn dingy), and abandon (turn black).  You might find just one or two important pieces missing in your case?

• https://community.simtropolis.com/journals/entry/29044-tutorial-for-building-your-first-city-in-a-brand-new-region/
• https://community.simtropolis.com/journals/entry/29039-ten-silent-killers-of-SimCity-4-commercial-growth/

On the subject of commuting, and red areas on the Traffic Congestion data view, I remember seeing one of @rob_mtl's videos that covered this really, really well.  Showing progress from streets, upgrading to roads and avenues, selective rezoning, and use of rail, all for improving commute times.  Do you remember which video that is, @rob_mtl?

[countermoon 46]

Thank you for the links and the tutorials.

[Inowknowhow2fly 5]

Is there a guide to get rid of the crashes 100%?

[Cyclone Boom 16,877]

6 hours ago, Inowknowhow2fly said:

Is there a guide to get rid of the crashes 100%?

In terms of total 100% crash prevention, this really depends on each of our setups.

We can each take measures to reduce the likelihood of crashes occurring, which is notably for adding the -CPUcount:1 switch when starting the game. This forces SC4 to run on a single processor core which improves stability on modern systems, since the game was never designed to optimally use dual or quad core (or more) processors. Also be sure to install the SC4Fix DLL as well, that prevents a CTD from happening when hovering a NAM puzzle piece over a transit enabled lot.

Another thing recommended is to take it slow when adding new content.

While we're all guilty of downloading and installing multiple plugins in large fell swoops during our wide-ranging mayoral journeys, a key piece of advice is to not rush the process. Any given content item has the potential to crash the game if improperly modded, or cause other undesirable effects due to excessive pollution, garbage, or inproportionate jobs. Now this is nothing to fear, because most items are perfectly fine to use without issues. But testing in a sandbox region for new batches of content is a very smart idea. This allows one to conduct vetting on all items installed and make sure none are causing crashes or other problems. Using the LEProp tool can be a useful way to alter main properties to one's liking, or use Reader 0.9.3 for more powerful editing (we're here to help if needing assistance on that front).

A couple of other points on the subject of custom content:

• HD (high definition) content requires Hardware rendering (-d:DirectX or -d:OpenGL) to work.
  See here for a list of all command line options.
• Before removing content from a city, be sure to bulldoze it before uninstalling (removing from Plugins). This will prevent lingering data in the saved city files, which might otherwise cause issues. It is perfectly fine to switch different sets of Plugins for other city tiles though.

Other than plugins, a common cause of crashing is for corrupt city tiles. Firstly it's a highly important idea to make multiple backups of your regions on a regular basis, since that way any can be restored if need be. Then as @rob_mtl explains in his Essential SC4 Mods video, using my Save Warning mod is one you might find useful. This removes the ability to save the game while exiting to the region or when quitting. Instead it's best to save using Ctrl+S (or the icon), and wait for the confirmation dialog to appear. Then (and only then) is it safe to exit to region, or close down SC4 when finished playing for that session of city-building.

While saving a tile, also keep focus on the screen and don't switch away to any other window or program. Otherwise it can interrupt the saving process, and cause the current tile (along with possibly neighbouring tiles) to be corrupted and crash on subsequent load. So just make sure the dialog appears first.

So while total crash prevention is difficult to achieve, the above considerations should make SC4 around about 99.942%^* crash proof.

^* Note: This statistical fact may need a larger quantitative sample size of data for ratification of the 99.942% crash occurrence estimation.

[Propfam 2,288]

1 hour ago, Cyclone Boom said:

In terms of total 100% crash prevention, this really depends on each of our setups.

Total crash free is impossible. I have a crash out of nowhere when the screen goes back then I alt-tabbed and the game crashed. But, close to crash-free is possible, again depending on your setup. Mine is Ryzen with iGPU and 8 gigs of RAM and so far it's fine except for the slowdown thanks to due rusty (mechanical) drive. I don't think 8 gig isn't insufficient especially my old laptop is 4 gigs and the game still runs although with slight lag which majority is the rusty drive.

[rob_mtl 434]

I have not had a crash in about 8 months (and I was missing SC4FIx IIRC)! I'd love to figure out how to CTD again like in the good old days but I just can't  . No but in all seriousness, @Cyclone Boom's instructions are good.

[rsc204 21,808]

On 15/01/2021 at 11:52 AM, Cyclone Boom said:

So while total crash prevention is difficult to achieve, the above considerations should make SC4 around about 99.942%^* crash proof.

I don't agree, I am certain the last .058% can be made up. SC4 with the right config, the -CPUCount:1 switch and using SC4Fix DLL = Rock Solid Stable game.

Of course, when you start adding mods into the mix, your experience may vary. But the myth that SC4 isn't stable, comes from two fixable problems and the difficulties in setting up a personal set of mods.

On 15/01/2021 at 1:09 PM, chfzdn said:

Total crash free is impossible. I have a crash out of nowhere when the screen goes back then I alt-tabbed and the game crashed.

No it is not, my game has been this stable on multiple machines over the past 6 years. Whenever the CTDs come back, there is always something in my Plugins that is causing the problem. Likewise, if your system can't handle the game, be it overheating, a lack of resources or other software conflicting with it, you may *think* the game is not stable, but it is not the game at fault.

[Propfam 2,288]

7 minutes ago, rsc204 said:

I don't agree, I am certain the last .058% can be made up. SC4 with the right config, the -CPUCount:1 switch and using SC4Fix DLL = Rock Solid Stable game.

Of course, when you start adding mods into the mix, your experience may vary. But the myth that SC4 isn't stable, comes from two fixable problems and the difficulties in setting up a personal set of mods.

No it is not, my game has been this stable on multiple machines over the past 6 years. Whenever the CTDs come back, there is always something in my Plugins that is causing the problem. Likewise, if your system can't handle the game, be it overheating, a lack of resources or other software conflicting with it, you may *think* the game is not stable, but it is not the game at fault.

To clarify, my statement is just CB's in other form. The essence is same. So, yes, you can have totally crash free SC4 but in some cases, SC4 can crash for weird reasons. I only have 1 crash in new setup and 4 in old setup which means I experienced 5 crashes.

[rsc204 21,808]

24 minutes ago, chfzdn said:

SC4 can crash for weird reasons

No that's simply not right, if you think this, then you can not understand how computers and software works. There is always a reason for everything, being able to work out what it is, sure that's not always simple nor possible. But, there are no ghosts in the machine, computers are in essence a logic engine.

I guarantee you, with enough time and direct access to the machine in question, you could diagnose or fix every such problem. Whereas poorly made software goes wrong because it wasn't coded properly, SC4 simply from everything I know and have seen, does not suffer such issues. Compare that say to 3DS Max, Autodesk get away without fixing bugs that were present in gMax 20 years ago and charging thousands for the privilege.