Natural Growth Philosophies / Mindsets

[Kloudkicker 4,565]

And not from your mod, to be exact. A combo of things

[CorinaMarie 29,892]

4 minutes ago, Kloudkicker said:

So I really can't add much that is why I haven't mentioned till now, just in case

That works and is good to do so in case my mod does have a fault. Ofc, if it was a combination of other things too in your case that'd let me off the hook.

And, if anyone else feels like putting it thru some tests, please let me know if you find my mod causes any problems.

[CorinaMarie 29,892]

22 minutes ago, Kloudkicker said:

I tried twice removing about 12 in the same order and at like number 9, as soon as it exploded from clicking demolish, CTD.

I decided to try with a bunch of them as another test.

Here I grew 36 of those puppies without my mod:

 

Saved, quit, added my mod back in, and then bulldozed them all in rapid succession:

 

No problem again so, pending further data, I believe we can conclude it was some combo of things in that particular city tile of yours. <-- Happy cause it doesn't seem to be my mod, not cause yours had trouble.

[Kloudkicker 4,565]

26 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

I decided to try with a bunch of them as another test.

That's good news indeed. That's why I 'burned' the old 'Simmerica' to the ground(name of old and new region). Didn't sleep for a week. LOL JJ

28 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

then bulldozed them all in rapid succession

Wow, the all that mayhem. I feel really bad. How will I sleep tonight. lmao

[Propfam 2,305]

19 minutes ago, Kloudkicker said:

That's good news indeed. That's why I 'burned' the old 'Simmerica' to the ground(name of old and new region). Didn't sleep for a week. LOL JJ

Wow, the all that mayhem. I feel really bad. How will I sleep tonight. lmao

Do you install mods like Colossus Farming or SPAM? Maybe, they cause issues.

[CorinaMarie 29,892]

20 minutes ago, Kloudkicker said:

Wow, the all that mayhem. I feel really bad. How will I sleep tonight. lmao

Ofc, I know you are kidding around, but several months ago CB and I wrote our own game launcher command script (aka batch file) which checks every time before and after the game runs to see if any files have changed. If so, it creates a new folder using the date and time and makes a copy of just the city tiles which are different. With this in place, it meant I could screw up my live city tile all I wanted and then after the test just copy back the needed files from before I started.

 

Spoiler

 

[Propfam 2,305]

5 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

Ofc, I know you are kidding around, but several months ago CB and I wrote our own game launcher command script (aka batch file) which checks every time before and after the game runs to see if any files have changed. If so, it creates a new folder using the date and time and makes a copy of just the city tiles which are different. With this in place, it meant I could screw up my live city tile all I wanted and then after the test just copy back the needed files from before I started.

 

  Boring Pic (Hide contents)

 

Stored on a 120 GB SSD and its called CoriBacks (stands for Captivating Originally Redundant Interesting Backup Active Caching Key Service). Nice details!

[Daeris 1,116]

@CorinaMarie Hey Cori (or of course, anyone who has input on this  ), do you ever use single track rail (STR)? If so, any reason you like it? I was thinking I might want to start with some single track rail in my less populated areas, until everything builds up and then I could go double-track.

Anyways, while laying down a line, my drawpaths is showing sort of like a red x all throughout the STR. I'm guessing that's bad? Never used this rail before.

 

EDIT: Ok, took a look at my double-track rail and I'm going to deduce the pathing is fine on the STR, it's just that it is showing arrows going both ways (which end up looking like an X).

  Edited November 29, 2020 by Daeris  
Figured it out! (I think)

[CorinaMarie 29,892]

17 minutes ago, Daeris said:

do you ever use single track rail (STR)? If so, any reason you like it?

Yes, I do use it in any city tile I'm playing seriously. It is so much more realistic for the long distances and small towns. Dual track mainlines are twice as as expensive (in the RW) and are only built if there is so much rail traffic that it's dangerous not to have two lines.

The drawpaths are fine. They have to do that because trains can travel either direction, but are in the same location within the cells where the track is.

Here's mine:

 

But, beware! This could happen.

[Daeris 1,116]

2 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

But, beware! This could happen.

LOL you are so funny. Thanks for saving me a scare for when I see it in-game. =p

[Propfam 2,305]

31 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

Yes, I do use it in any city tile I'm playing seriously. It is so much more realistic for the long distances and small towns. Dual track mainlines are twice as as expensive (in the RW) and are only built if there is so much rail traffic that it's dangerous not to have two lines.

The drawpaths are fine. They have to do that because trains can travel either direction, but are in the same location within the cells where the track is.

Here's mine:

 

But, beware! This could happen.

Nice layout. Dirty next to high tech. The high tech one should be abandoned but it didn't. Also, do you use park in the city? Just for curiosity since the income of a low dense low wealth may not enough to place parks all over the city. But, it looks like the city is completely filled, eliminating the need to cover 90% of the city with parks, or in other words, only in certain areas since almost all of the areas are filled with productive land.

[CorinaMarie 29,892]

11 minutes ago, chfzdn said:

The high tech one should be abandoned but it didn't.

Why should it abandon? That's only a wee little bit of dirty industrial and there's plenty of demand for the HT.

^ Note: the R$ is down because I set their taxes to 9.2% whilst I was growing R$$ and R$$$ in the curvey subdivision shown previously.

 

There is minimal pollution from the industrial.

^ Note: I'm using the Deut mod for this view due to the extended color range we created for it. Pink colored is the lowest range.

 

18 minutes ago, chfzdn said:

Also, do you use park in the city?

Yes, there are 5 hidden grass tiles over by the water tower and the House of Worship south of town has a park effect. Here's the Parks Aura overlay:

^ The red you see is a special growable lot I created which deliberately has negative aura.

[Daeris 1,116]

6 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

The red you see is a special growable lot I created which deliberately has negative aura.

What is it? I can think of a few places that would have this affect in a small rural town. 

 

Ok, WOW, that is so clever what you did with the rail here. In the close-up I wasn't so sure why you had split the STR like that, but now on the wide-view I can understand why. I'm guessing you did that to maximize the industry touching rail in that corridor. That is sooo stinkin' smart.

[CorinaMarie 29,892]

2 minutes ago, Daeris said:

What is it?

It's from an experiment I did for some one a year or two ago. It started out as them wondering if a growable lot could have parking storage and I created this to show that was possible. Then the discussion veered off to negative park auras and I showed that was possible too. @Cyclone Boom could prolly locate the thread that's all in.

So, then I forgot about it, but its been in my plugins ever since. When they grow I mark them historical and use them to counter the overpowered Maxis parks.

It's just a Maxis prop on a Maxis farm lot texture. I gave it one CS job at stage 1.

 

Oh! As we speak, CB's found said linkys: Here and here.

[CorinaMarie 29,892]

20 minutes ago, Daeris said:

I'm guessing you did that to maximize the industry touching rail in that corridor.

I got sidetracked and forgot I was going to answer this.

It would be fine for industry with just the single track running thru, but I'm simulating a passing siding. That would let a train park at the station whilst other thru trains could zoom on by on the main track.

[Daeris 1,116]

4 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

It would be fine for industry with just the single track running thru, but I'm simulating a passing siding

Looks great! Speaking of great looking rail, I just finished my first STR handcrafted transition and was proud of it so I'm sharing. =p

[CorinaMarie 29,892]

1 minute ago, Daeris said:

Speaking of great looking rail, I just finished my first STR handcrafted transition and was proud of it so I'm sharing.

Very nice. That looks good there. I presume you are using the puzzle pieces?

[Daeris 1,116]

2 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

I presume you are using the puzzle pieces?

Yes, using the STR pieces for the turns, and also for the actual splitter portions. I could drag the STR diagonally, but couldn't actually create any turns by dragging. I'm guessing there are probably some tricky NAM dragging options to drag turns with the STR, but if so I wasn't able to figure it out presently.

[CorinaMarie 29,892]

10 minutes ago, Daeris said:

I'm guessing there are probably some tricky NAM dragging options to drag turns with the STR, but if so I wasn't able to figure it out presently.

That is prexactly the same stage I'm at.

I, too, presume there are fancy drag patterns to get the smooth curves, but I've not looked for them. I'm sure they'd be listed as being for rail since other than the starter piece, the rest is draggable using the double track tool.

The only drawback to the plopped pieces is they will not show the underlay texture when zoning adjacent. For that reason, I just live with the sharp curves which I do know how to make with dragging. I did deliberately learned the drag patterns for SAM for this very reason. There's only 4 or 5 of those so easy enough to memorize.

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

CB tiptoes into the thread quietly and has finally caught up with proceedings...

Wow! There's been 61 new replies since I was last around, and so it seems I've missed all the fun!

(Never mind being a standard orange labelled "Hot!" topic, this one has been ablaze!)

While it seems everything to answer has been answered as of now, I must say what a delight to see a topic like this has been unfolding.

I can sense such a joyous atmosphere in here, and great to see there's been a few posters contributing, each with their own input. In a similar sense, a couple of threads which spring to mind also are Raymond's Newbie Thoughts and before that there was the Prepping My First Region thread. This is what makes the SC4 community so special, because the diversity of freedom is boundless. In the broadest sense of artistic versus gameplay orientated, and then rural compared with urban too.

Assuming the role of mayor, we each write the rulebook and decide the very process of building our cities. Yet we can inspire each other to achieve the ultimate vision of accomplishing our objectives. This thread has been a prime example of how this happens, and without community sites like ST we'd not have this platform to discuss intelligibly about these ideas. The ways to achieve something can take many different paths. And since this a hobby with no defined end goal, the resulting inventiveness makes it all the more rewarding to create something worth truly being proud of. That is after all what led to my signature self-quoting down there.

From your pics there @Daeris you've really adapted the concepts Cori (and others) posted about, and great to see you're really enjoying SC4 and getting into it. Keep those questions coming, and the wonderful thing is how anyone reading this thread (even visitors to the site) can be inspired as well.

[Flann 1,709]

5 hours ago, Daeris said:

Yes, using the STR pieces for the turns, and also for the actual splitter portions. I could drag the STR diagonally, but couldn't actually create any turns by dragging. I'm guessing there are probably some tricky NAM dragging options to drag turns with the STR, but if so I wasn't able to figure it out presently.

 

5 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

That is prexactly the same stage I'm at.

I, too, presume there are fancy drag patterns to get the smooth curves, but I've not looked for them. I'm sure they'd be listed as being for rail since other than the starter piece, the rest is draggable using the double track tool.

The only drawback to the plopped pieces is they will not show the underlay texture when zoning adjacent. For that reason, I just live with the sharp curves which I do know how to make with dragging. I did deliberately learned the drag patterns for SAM for this very reason. There's only 4 or 5 of those so easy enough to memorize.

Here's a quick tutorial to get you started:

 

Drawing the standard curve, plus the setup for the big 90 degree curve:

Continuing the curve to make an R3 curve:

Repeating on the other side gives the 90:

A simple turnout:

Can extend straight or diagonal:

 

How to draw and R2 curve:

 

R1s, R2s and R3s can be combined to form 90 degree curves

[Kloudkicker 4,565]

8 hours ago, chfzdn said:

Do you install mods like Colossus Farming or SPAM? Maybe, they cause issues.

No I don't use anything CAM related or SPAM.

[Kloudkicker 4,565]

Did you know?

If you use the rail tool and click on a 'normal' intersection, it will transform into a mini roundabout. normal=all side same kind of network

Like this..

[Matrim Cauthon 344]

Ooo. that's handy. I knew they added a ploppable version of this for 3 way road intersections and 2 way road plus 1 street, but this is even better.

[CorinaMarie 29,892]

2 hours ago, Flann said:

Here's a quick tutorial to get you started:

Sweet! That helps immensely. I've now accomplished the big R3 curve following your guide. Mine had an extra complication, but only due to the location. Here's how it went for me.

I counted off with power pylons to mark the 7 x 7:

 

Bulldozed out the original and followed each of your steps to get this:

^ I understand why it got confuzzled due to the STR Trestle there in such close proximity.

 

Fortunately, there was exactly enough room to place the STR Starter piece again:

 

Then drag rail thru:

 

I went ahead and then bulldozed the starter itself since that will cause a different underlay texture if zoning adjacent:

 

Drag rail thru again and remove the tower markers:

 

Thanks so much @Flann! Your instructions made this completely painless to accomplish.

 

16 minutes ago, Kloudkicker said:

If you use the rail tool and click on a 'normal' intersection, it will transform into a mini roundabout.

Nice! I didn't know that either. Thanks!

[Daeris 1,116]

4 hours ago, Cyclone Boom said:

From your pics there @Daeris you've really adapted the concepts Cori (and others) posted about, and great to see you're really enjoying SC4 and getting into it. Keep those questions coming, and the wonderful thing is how anyone reading this thread (even visitors to the site) can be inspired as well.

Thanks @Cyclone Boom! Yeah I feel like I'm off to a decent start, and I'm hopeful of where I might be in a few months/years after more practice with all of this. And I agree, I love that this thread is potentially helpful or inspiring for others. I recall seeing threads like this (about natural growth) from yearrrrs ago, which is what first got me into the concept. Sadly, a lot of the resources in those threads are long since gone (including pics and links), so Cori and others jumping in on this is just fantastic because it kinda preserves the essence of all those old threads even more.

[Daeris 1,116]

Here is a (hopefully) good question for this thread. Since many natural growth regions/cities are going to start with the PEG dirt roads or something similar, I noticed that streets obviously can't set up neighboring connections. Instead, I just use the road tool, make the connection, and then connect my dirt street on either side of that connection. It works, but of course kills my RP/mood when I look at it.

 

SO, anyone know if there are any mods to enable street neighborhood connections (my quick STEX file search didn't seem to find anything).

[Kloudkicker 4,565]

Did you know?

I didn't till a few minutes ago. I did this a few weeks ago a bunch in one city and wasn't sure how to repeat it. Its tricky till you get the pattern right than its simple. This will help me remember now.

-This will help with the rural theme by removing the stop lights at an intersection where a road and avenue meet.

(Small test) Here is intersections with road, street and one way crossing the avenue. The far left intersection is the one I'm referring to.

To get this result, I found if you start with the street/Ave intersection ( ex. bottom right ) and drag the road tool over top of the street from the tile next to avenue and release...(see next pic)

You will get this.. and this can be duplicated on the other side if desired.

As so...

And to show how I used it...A Before pic...

And after... a much better look for a suburb setting for me.(p.s. I converted the 5 lane avenue briefly, to just the avenue, to get the look) 

Hope this will help. And as a side note, GO NAM TEAM, you rock.

 

[CorinaMarie 29,892]

10 minutes ago, Daeris said:

SO, anyone know if there are any mods to enable street neighborhood connections?

Afaik, there isn't, but I have an idea.

Ofc, it's beyond my ability as I don't use GMAX or the like, but it seems to me that a set of offset props could be used where each has a 1 x 2 texture for each SAM. One would then plop that adjacent to the road and it would overlay said road so visually it would look like a SAM connection.

Prolly @rsc204 would be one of our resident experts who could let us know if this concept would work.

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

7 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

Ofc, it's beyond my ability as I don't use GMAX or the like, but it seems to me that a set of offset props could be used where each has a 1 x 2 texture for each SAM. One would then plop that adjacent to the road and it would overlay said road so visually it would look like a SAM connection.

Excellent idea Cori, and I think this could work.

I'm not a BATter myself either, but effectively it would be like a magic carpet which overlays the road texture. I did a bit of searching and couldn't locate anything for a present solution about this, and the Wiki article about SC4 neighbor connections seems to imply it isn't possible with connecting streets directly to bordering tiles. So by visually creating a very thin flat prop, it would be layered over the road in the desired SAM texture. There could be multiple lots to plop for any given style as desired.