SimCity 4 without NAM

[muddi 16]

I needed to show this.I still prefer to play SC4 with only a minimum of mods

-but sometimes....,hmmm

[Lucario Boricua 7,028]

The bare minimum benefit for transportation gameplay are the traffic simulator and the essential fixes provided by the Network Addon Mod. No need to do an installation of most or all the transportation network content. These odd routes you're seeing are solved fully by the NAM traffic simulator alone.

[muddi 16]

9 hours ago, Lucario Boricua said:

The bare minimum benefit for transportation gameplay are the traffic simulator and the essential fixes provided by the Network Addon Mod. No need to do an installation of most or all the transportation network content. These odd routes you're seeing are solved fully by the NAM traffic simulator alone.

If I install the traffic simulator,what effect will it have to my cities?Do I have to rebuild all roads,streets an so?Also I remember when used NAM before

in time,bus stops would have 3x capacity.I feel that a little issue,-but ehh,I do use Industri Quadrubler,and that´s not entire vanilla either.

Perhaps I should give it a try.Can I changes settings in the simulator after installation?

[Ulisse Wolf 4,412]

7 hours ago, muddi said:

If I install the traffic simulator,what effect will it have to my cities?Do I have to rebuild all roads,streets an so?Also I remember when used NAM before

in time,bus stops would have 3x capacity.I feel that a little issue,-but ehh,I do use Industri Quadrubler,and that´s not entire vanilla either.

Perhaps I should give it a try.Can I changes settings in the simulator after installation?

You don't have to rebuild any road. You just have to increase the speed of time in the game and wait a while for the traffic system to fix things.

You can change traffic simulator settings using the Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool (TSCT)

[rsc204 21,808]

11 hours ago, muddi said:

Also I remember when used NAM before

in time,bus stops would have 3x capacity.I feel that a little issue

This is actually a really good thing, because it's done to avoid a very nasty bug which might otherwise cause huge problems. As computers got more powerful, the ability to build ever larger and more complex cities has grown. We're at the point where any PC you can buy today, graphics compatibility issues aside, is more than enough to run the game as well as it's able too. The point being that the Maxis stations were pretty low capacity to begin with, but especially if you build larger cities, they can get over-capacity pretty easily. Which is where the bug kicks in, if just one station goes above around 4x the capacity, effectively every transport type it supports, 'shuts down for the day'. In other words, to avoid huge problems for commuters and using Mass Transit, it's imperative stations are given sufficient capacity so they would never hit this limit. There is no additional demand created by having such increased capacities, you just make sure that they can handle whatever traffic decides to use mass transit.

On 21/04/2022 at 12:25 PM, muddi said:

I needed to show this.I still prefer to play SC4 with only a minimum of mods

I can totally respect that, but I don't believe the NAM need interfere in this regard, you can indeed start with a pretty minimal install the basics of which contain a number of fixes that will help ensure sims find work more reliably and by taking the 'quickest' rather than the 'shortest' routes to jobs, it means both Mass Transit and Highways are used much more realistically. It allows you to create much more devolved zoning, like having big Industrial districts and commercial business districts, rather than needing to keep residential much closer to them.

However, depending on what you want out of the game, extra transit networks is basically free DLC, in no way does it modify it's (SC4s) behaviour. For example the SAM streets are one of my essential NAM features, even though it only adds 11 new street styles, it adds diversity to your cities. Likewise I love the GLR (Trams), which integrate nicely with Subway and El-Rail networks, essentially becoming the intermediary between them. You don't have to go nuts and install every last feature, but it might be worth looking at the options and if you don't install the RHW system, most individual options are pretty light.

[MarkShot 631]

I used NAM last around 3-5 years ago.

What I found difficult was the encyclopedia of options and tricks you needed to commit to memory to build transit.  Even with YouTube samples, it just was not intuitive and friendly to a noob.

Is this still the case?  (I will definitely install it.  But the question is will I use it directly?)

Thanks!

[Max4k 721]

It took me about a year to learn things and do advanced things like modifying my plugins with iReader to organize the order assignment in the menus.

SC4 w/ NAM vs without NAM would be like comparing a car with engine and dashboard controls to a Fred Flinstone car where you need your feet to break.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

I'm currently still using NAM 36 tho I will update someday.

I like the compactness of skipping RHW so in the game I just use SAM (with diagonals and curves) for streets, roads, one-way roads, avenues, and regular highways. I also, have the Single Track Rail which I love as it fits so well in my (mostly) rural region.

Then to combat congestion, I used the TSCT to greatly increase the capacities and I reduced the intersection influence. This means I don't need all the specialty enhancements NAM offers. Now, ofc, someday I might take a "year" to learn all the ins and outs of full NAM so I could have even more realistic looking transportation networks

[MarkShot 631]

Well, I haven't decided if I will go back to playing SC4.  I took a break from war gaming for a while (as the real thing is depressingly close), and I have been playing various city/transport games.  Like:  City Skylines, Tropico 4, Tropico 6, and Transport Fever 2 (with the new patch).  And, of course, I have the classics like Railroad Tycoon 1/2/3.

I basically decided physics has squashed Moore's Law in terms of climbing clock speeds; thus, no new hardware.  And I already own enough games, no point in getting anything new ... as I prefer playing to being on a game quest.  So, if I play SC4, after CS, I could not ignore roads.  As I don't know NAM, I might as well start with 44.  (The NAM docs & Haljackey's videos seem to have it all covered.)

(My main problem with straight city builders is that I am a retire software engineer/manager.  I am great at problem solving like CS' road networks, but lack even the most minuscule insights of artistic creativity.)

If ...

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

NAM traffic simulator alone is a huge improvement over the original game so it's really worth it. Besides, the installation of this mod is really easy as long as you successfully run the Java.

One thing that I still find limiting is the fact that SAM roads are not as draggable as, for instance, roads which you can build in a "stair" fashion which results in a FAR network. It is somewhat disappointing to see all the complex, wavy roads and avenues and at the same time deal with SAMs which can only be diagonal or curved.

[MarkShot 631]

Although NAM44 is not walk in the park.  It is vastly more powerful the earlier NAMs of the early 30s.  I have been studying.  A few years ago every thing was puzzle pieces.

The ability to drag and override has been vastly improved.  Many networks will override when you drag into them.  So, one plopped piece fits all.  Thus, one transition piece replaces 10 or more plopped.  Also FLEX pieces provide the concept alone, and you just need to drag into it for it to override like curves.

Sadly the text explanations provides for documentation and SCDevotion How to Forum don't do it justice.  But I just watched 5 minutes of video, and it was amazing.  No way am going going back SC4 circa 2000.  It's 2022 and the NAM team has given us way better.  Watch these.

Excellent Construction 1

Excellent Construction 2

Also, they have provided a single tile delete.  No longer does one vanilla delete bring down an hours worth of road construction!

[Ahmad K 2]

On 5/13/2022 at 8:48 AM, Max4k said:

It took me about a year to learn things and do advanced things like modifying my plugins with iReader to organize the order assignment in the menus.

SC4 w/ NAM vs without NAM would be like comparing a car with engine and dashboard controls to a Fred Flinstone car where you need your feet to break.

how did you do that ? im new to SimCity 4 and NAM and finding it too difficult and boring to keep scrolling and reading to find what network im looking for

[Ulisse Wolf 4,412]

58 minutes ago, Ahmad K said:

how did you do that ? im new to SimCity 4 and NAM and finding it too difficult and boring to keep scrolling and reading to find what network im looking for

Watching youtube tutorials and creating a sandbox city with unlimited money where you try NAM content