Three Rivers Region

[hondo42769 0]

David,

The information you have provided on the trees is spectacular! Love the story! BTW I am following this at SC4D as well. Keep up the great work!

[thundercrack83 0]

"You can't get to Kenora without changing canoes in Pineshore..."quote>

I missed this over at SC4D, and it gave me a chuckle. Keep up the good work!

[Grneyes78 0]

David, somewhere in the beginning of this CJ you mention setting the simoleans to a couple of billion. How do you that?

I love this terrain!! I am a citygirl at heart but love getting away to the country and this looks perfect! It would be perfect for a log cabin with a great view of the mountains or overlooking the river.

[asturianu 4]

Great work as always, David. The history of the region is very interesting and a city of 1200000 inhabitants has to be really big. Great job, David, I'm going to check SC4 Dev. journal now.

See you, Mr. Edgren

Cristian

[jacqulina 162]

awesome work my friend and very beautifull pics

[dedgren 830]

On the 8th of this month, my friend Grneyes78 asked

David, somewhere in the beginning of this CJ you mention setting the simoleans to a couple of billion. How do you that?quote>

Well...

...you have questions...

   ...we have answers!

First off, let me note one more time my position on cheating adjusting game parameters.

I think it's unfortunate that, with respect to Sim City, Maxis/EA ever promoted the notion that the ability to modify certain game settings was "cheating" in the first place.  Why do I say this?  Well, after all, those folks were the ones who used the term- check it out in the little booklet you got when you bought the game.  The way I see it, in order to accomplish the act of "cheating," someone or something needs to get cheated.  In SC4- who or what?

The game is non-competitive (oh sure, there's scenario play, but who has ever bothered with that?).  It's not, like...

...the one with the most simoleans...WINS!

I think, by definition, you probably can't cheat any third person in any non-competitive enterprise.  So that leaves two questions- first, are you cheating something when you enter a cheat code?  This necessarily raises the issue of laws and/or rules.  I think it goes without saying that there is probably no way, unless illegal copying of the software is involved, that you can play Sim City that is against the law.  So that leaves rules.  Has anyone ever seen any hard and fast rules applying to how SC4 is played?

???

I didn't think so.

So, if there's no rules, you can't possibly break them, whether by cheating or in some other manner.

The second question is: Are you cheating yourself when you use a SC4 "cheat?"  Well, who do you think is best positioned to answer that question?  I can only speak for myself, but I play SC4 to recreate.  That in and of itself doesn't answer the question, because I recognize other things as "cheating" while engaged in such.  Cheating at solitaire, for example, by turning over a card when I'm not otherwise entitled.  Doing so (often enough) will let you "win" when you otherwise wouldn't.  But that one's easy.  There are widely agreed upon rules for how solitaire and its variations are played.  Cheating offends those rules, so we're back to question one in that situation.

Let's take a different example- building a house of cards.  I would consider gluing the cards together in order to create a taller or more elaborate house to be cheating.  I would never do that.  Now, I think it could be agreed that there are no rules, formal or otherwise, that are generally agreed upon for building hoses of cards.  It's not (to my knowledge, anyway) a competitive sport.  It is probably the epitome of completely trivial personal recreation.  Yet I feel strongly that the use of glue would be cheating.  The relevant question at this point is, why?

After giving that some thought, I can say for sure that the answer to why is because I feel that gluing the cards together would remove all enjoyment from the enterprise.  The outcome would be foreordained.  With strong enough glue (and, I suppose, cards) you could build a card house that you could reside in, at least until it rained steadily for a few hours.  There's no challenge, no sense of accomplishment.

My sense of challenge and accomplishment when I play SC4 doesn't come from fending off ruination because I'm out of simoleans, or from seeing how many simoleans I have at the end of the session.  I feel good about playing the game when I create something that I think is nifty, or nice to look at, or that gives other folks some degree of enjoyment. I'll set the game up in any way I would want, to include starting out with a billion or so simoleans gained through the "cheat" codes, to the extent that doing so best allows me to accomplish these things.

So, now let me answer the question on the table.

I used to use Daeley's budget adjustment banks [ linkie ] to get additional funds.  They're pretty cool, but since I've become aware of the "Moolah" cheat  game parameter adjustment code, I just cut right to the chase and use it.

So let's look at an example.  Here, 3RR Quad 122's treasury only has a piddly 64,000 or so simoleans on hand.

But we want to do big things...

...expensive big things...

So, we'll bring up the cheat game adjustment parameter input box by pressing the [ Ctrl ] and [ X ] keys at the same time.  When the box appears, we type the code Moolah followed by a space and the amount of additional funding we desire, in this case fifty million simpoleans.

After pressing [ Enter ], we see the following.

Oh, man!  Already spent 172 simoleans.  And that's a heck of a transaction fee, the 63,933 simoleans I had originally have disappeared!  Kind of like the ATM at the corner 7-Eleven [ linkie ].

What the code does is adjust whatever you have in the treasury to the amount you enter, and the game continues from there.

Now, if you are interested in other game adjustment parameters, I commend your attention to this thread [ linkie ], where Game Code God Buggi has made available to us the Extra Cheats DLL [ linkie ].  The thread explains all.

Later.

[Giligone 10]

Hahah, very nice explaination. I'm pretty much of the same school of thought. I like building realistic looking cities and so that often results in the need to take some liberties in the financial department. I personally don't think the financial system built into the game is very realistic... at least to what I'm used to. In Canada the provinces pay for health care and school boards pay for schools and the feds pay for airports. So to me having to pay these fees as the mayor doesnt make much sense! Regardless, I'm not going to whine about it. I've been using the money tree BAT that someone developed on the STEX and it gives you

[Grneyes78 0]

Thank you for that wonderful answer! I do not see it as cheating either since in RL companies and govts are still able to run with negative money.

[RushHourFreak 1]

Wow, big loan you have gained!!!. As always you have done a great job here. Awesome pictures and maps.

Looking forward to more.

RHF

[bkmh88 0]

Wow. I just went through all 54 pages and have uploaded so many mods and have been inspired to try so many new things. I really can't wait for my next opportunity to play after I'm finished with all this college work of course. But seriously, that was amazing and hopefully we'll see more of your amazing terraforming, tutorials, and transportation networks. Kudos.

BK

[dedgren 830]

A little new

Shameless Eye Candy

posted over at SC4D [ linkie ] to make up for all that heavy stuff 'bout cheating and such.

_____________________

excerpt

Early fall.

North end - fall.

Closer in.

Be great to have you take a look.

Later.

[Giligone 10]

wow, great eyecandy! (I stopped over to sc4d to check out the full update too!) I love how you've got the seasons going on. Does that happen automatically based on the in game calender or was that replopping hte trees for each different season? Great work!

[jacqulina 162]

beautifull eye candy my friend very nicely done

[mightygoose 92]

that answer to grneyes78 was astounding... your train of though was meandering yet relevant. the writing, concise yet affluent. your point, solid and justified. i have got to say that is one of the best answers to any question i have ever seen or heard. sir you are a wise man. as to the shameless eye candy heck everyone falls foul to sef promotion every now and again, and with comments like that you certainly deserve it...

[hondo42769 0]

How can it be cheating if you're having fun? Just play the game however you want! Beautiful eye candy, keep it coming!

[dedgren 830]

A little more Shameless Eye Candy in the night...

...over at 3RR [ linkie ].

Have a great weekend!

[dedgren 830]

Please be advised that I will be closing 3RR here at ST on Friday, January 26, 2007.  I will be looking for a new home for the historical content between now and that time, after which I will be removing it from ST altogether due to the site's issues with reliability and my unwillingness to be patient in dealing with them any longer.

Thank you all for a great run, and for your comments.

David

[Giligone 10]

Godspeed.

[lilred731 0]

What!!!! No more 3RR? That's a damn shame.

[seemurray2 21]

I understand what you are going through, especially with as much information that you cover in each update.  Thank you for all the work you have done here, and I look forward to following 3RR over at the other site.

[dedgren 830]

Hi, everyone.

I'm moving along the timeline as I transition everything "dedgren" over to SC4 Devotion.  I'll be pulling the 3RR maps and waterfalls and rapids lots, along with the ploppable rocks I uploaded for jeronij off of the STEX this coming Friday, the 19th.  They will become available on the LEX over at SC4D, although perhaps not right away.

If you would like to download while these things are still on the STEX, here's the linkies.

Maps

3RR-Full

3RR-NW

3RR-NE

3RR-SW

3RR-SE

Rocks

Jeroni Ploppable Rocks

Ploppable Water Lots

Ploppable Water Waterfalls

Ploppable Water Rapids

Please note that I will be deleting my content from the CJ List thread [ linkie ] on that date as well. 

3RR is alive and well at SC4D [ linkie ], just having started its tenth page.  I see lots of friends from here stopping by there, but hope that anyone who hasn't been and reads this would consider this an invitation.  I will be removing 3RR content from ST on Friday, January 26, 2007.  The plan is to place an archived copy of that content over at SC4D.

Take care.

David

[Shadow Assassin 336]

You really should keep your lots on the STEX, in addition to the LEX over at SC4D. I'll be looking into your CJ at SC4D.

[lilred731 0]

The downloads are not there.

[RHMgerards 7]

great pics!! that small river looks great, with those waves, wich look like, well, flowing water, looks really good!! and i'm jealous of those snow pics!! here in holland the flowers are starting to grow already:s

[dedgren 830]

The links to stuff on the STEX that I posted last night here [ linkie ] are now fixed.  I have no idea what made them glitch up- sorry if anyone got worried.

David

[dedgren 830]

Thanks so much, everyone.  I'd love to be talking about 3RR's 25,000th page view under other circumstances, but the move to SC4D and my issues with ST don't diminish the fact a bit that you folks have been the greatest- commenters and lurkers alike.

Thank you!

You can keep current with 3RR by clicking here [ linkie ].  I see new familiar faces from here almost every day, and I'm really jazzed every time.

I do need to note I hope to have the 55 pages of 3RR moved from the forums by next Friday, the 26th.  I pulled it off the 4th page of the index today, and am again bumping my own last post.  Pardon my pitiful vanity, but it would just break my heart to watch this CJ descend down through the index pages, fading slowly from sight like something treasured dropped into inky deep water, and finally coming to rest on the bottom somewhere around page 35, forever lost to everything but increasing dim memory.

...yeah, yeah- whine, whine...

Anyway, hope to see everyone around 3RR in the future, which is starting...

...now!

David

[Dixie 0]

Well this cj a classic no matter what page its on , i think to keep a cj on front page you goto update , reply on average 4-5 times a day , ive seen some with 8 a day from the author , i dont believe Number of replies or front page , make a good cj , its the content that makes them shine, and this cj is dazzaling!.

[Kalanc69 1]

Ok, how do you get the gentle curves on the road like that? I can never seem to get them to look quite like that and I am getting very frustrated! Sorry to see that you are moving over to SC4Devotion...But I am already there waiting with bated breath!!

Kalanc69

[Tarkus 6,932]

Hi David-

I've really enjoyed reading your CJ since I first found it four months ago, and while I am sad to see it leaving ST, I'm glad to see it's alive and being archived over at SC4D.  I have been watching it over there ("lurking" if you must), as I have been having some serious registration problems (the whole activation e-mail thing).  I have contacted jeronij about it, and hopefully, I'll be "out of the shadows" over there soon.  I also was fortunate enough to download all of your files off the STEX before they were taken off . . . phew . . .

-Tarkus

[Kalanc69 1]

Will your journal still be available in its entirety over at sc4devotion?? I would hate to think that we will be losing all of this valuable information that I have barely had time to digest let alone apply!!

Kalanc69