NAM 47 Change Questions

[Cougar2004 127]

Hello!  I'm excited to upgrade from NAM 31.2 to NAM 47 today.   During the installation process I read that there is a new Abandoned Buildings Data View.  

Q1 - Abandoned Building vs Radiation DataView:  Does this Eliminate the Radiation Data View entirely from availability?   Or does this just use that view to show the Abandoned Buildings, and if there happens to be any Radiation, it will also show up as GREEN Glow on the same Data View?  How does this work exactly?

Q2 - Transit - Ferry DataView - I noticed that the Ferry view in Transit does not have the 100% 130% 300% etc designators like all the other ones.  Is this a bug in the NAM 47 or could I possibly have some DataView Mods competing with it that I should clean out?    

Q3 -  Other Replaced Features / Functionality (in or besides DataView) :  And besides the possibility of this replacing previous functionality, what OTHER NAM 47 full install items ALSO replace (eliminate) game functionality that older players like myself may have been using a decade ago?

 

[Tarkus 6,932]

Welcome back, Cougar2004!  To answer your questions:

Q1 - The Abandoned Building DataView does indeed completely replace the Radiation DataView.  The mod for this was originally released separately from the NAM by CorinaMarie, and added in NAM 45 alongside the traffic simulator improvements that release.  The main thought with replacing the Radiation DataView was that it was one that wasn't really used all that often by most players.

Q2 - Ferries work very differently than other transportation types/networks, and the NAM barely touches them, so we haven't done anything to the Ferry option on the Traffic Volume DataView.

Q3 - Probably the biggest changes on this front would have to be with switching over in whole to the RealRailway (RRW) specification for the Rail network (which was introduced in NAM 32, and became the only supported spec in NAM 37), and the old automatic turn lanes.  The automatic Road Turn Lanes were removed entirely with NAM 31, so that hasn't changed since your last install, but the Avenue ones, while still available, are no longer installed by default.  They have a tendency to interfere with other Avenue-based functionality, including the snazzier FLEX Turn Lanes and the Draggable Avenue Viaducts, so we don't recommend using the old automatic Avenue ones anymore. 

You'll also find there's some other spots where the buttons to access some older puzzle pieces have been rendered optional/non-default, as there's been newer FLEX/draggable versions that accomplish the same functionality and more--that's mostly restricted to the RHW.  This is primarily to decrease menu clutter and also encourage people to avail themselves of the new and improved functionality.

We also pulled out many of the myriad cosmetic options that were added in NAM 31, as they made the installer insanely complex--eventually breaking it a few releases later.  Texture options have been whittled down to just base US/North American and Euro/International sets, and while Maxis Highway Override is still available as an alternative to the default Maxis Highways, the Bullet Train Mod and Alternate El-Rail were pulled (with long-delayed plans to reintroduce them as separate downloads), and RealRailway replacing Maxis Rail.

-Tarkus