Bizarre commute times

[Zelgadis 638]

Hi all,

Now that I have Rush Hour and therefore, the route query tool, I have noticed something very strange. I have Sims that walk or drive less than two blocks to work and yet the very same buildings in which they live show a commute time of long. I even get this on commutes of less than a block away. Is this right? I have an extensive subway/expressway system in all my cities. It shouldn't take longer than 20 minutes for any Sim to go anywhere on any given city map...

This is driving me crazy because perfectly good buildings are being abandoned when they shouldn't be...

On a lighter note, of the MySims in one of my cities is the CEO of a subway station. Now there's something to call Mom about!

[Tolomar 5]

there is a comute bug in the game...there are a number of different mods you can use to fix this...I suggest the NAM...but theres traffic cop...darkmatter and 7 both have mods that help out too...be careful mixing transit mods, they sometimes conflict with each other... ps most have capsity and speed mods to go with them from standard to radical ones...

[Zelgadis 638]

Sounds lovely! What is the NAM and where do I get it? I've searched all over this site for it and I'm more confused about it now than when I started...

If only Aspyr was as quick to fix bugs...

Ian

[kbooms1w 1]

NAM is the Network Add-on Mod. It seems that the main links to the latest version (11.29.04, I think) are down. Check out the NAM thread in the Custom Content forums (it's up to 82 pages now), various people in there have links in their sig lines, but as I said, they don't seem to be working right now.

You can get the 9.04 version in the Modding Files section (link is in the left hand column of this page), toward the bottom, in the essentials section.

There are other transportation mods in the essentials section of the modding files, but as Tolomar, don't mix them, it will cause conflicts. Whatever you decide to use, read the Read me files thouroughly.

[Zelgadis 638]

I have found and downloaded the file. I have also read through the extensive readme file that accompanies it.

I assume this mod works for Mac since it was suggested to me here, though no mention was made of Mac in any of the readme files.

Most importantly, the readme files state that I must choose one of each type of file to put into my plugins folder. This makes the big question which files do I choose? The instructions state that some of the files might cause performance problems. I would like to find a proper balance between fixing my commute problem and minimal performance interference. Any suggestions?

Ian

My choices for the traffic plugins are as follows:
(I have to admit, I don't totally understand all of them)

[Zelgadis 638]

I went ahead and backed up my SimCity 4 and started experimenting with the plugins. I followed the instructions and installed the mod and one traffic plugin: better pathfinding.

I have noticed three things upon installation:

1) MASSIVE amounts of new construction.
2) Increased use of public transit.
3) Buildings no longer seem to be abandoned due to long commute, but the commute still says long.

Is this what I should be seeing? I'm still a little nervous about the fact that the commute still comes up as long, but I think that SimCity says long while the mod says short.

That's my guess anyway. Any thoughts?

Ian

[kbooms1w 1]

Date: 3/7/2005 5:32:29 PM
Author: Ian Fox
I went ahead and backed up my SimCity 4 and started experimenting with the plugins. I followed the instructions and installed the mod and one traffic plugin: better pathfinding.


I have noticed three things upon installation:


1) MASSIVE amounts of new construction.

2) Increased use of public transit.

3) Buildings no longer seem to be abandoned due to 'long' commute, but the commute still says 'long.'


Is this what I should be seeing? I'm still a little nervous about the fact that the commute still comes up as 'long,' but I think that SimCity says 'long' while the mod says 'short.'


That's my guess anyway. Any thoughts?


Ian

quote>

Yeah, pretty much. I wouldn't worry about whether the query box says long, if the commute times are right, that's what matters.

You can get the 11.29.04 (the latest) in Greyveil's signature line, he updated the link.

[hairmetal4ever 0]

Even with the NAM I get a few abandoned buildings. However, I think this is more due to the lack of C$$ jobs since my city is growing twice as fast as I can zone new commercial zones.

I have two adjacent cities. One has an R pop of 121000 and the other 32000. The larger city has 32000 C jobs and the smaller has almost 20k itself!!! I guess the commercial demand of city A was quite high. I only have a single road connection between the cities (a highway) and the morning commute query shows over 4000 incoming commuters from the larger city into the smaller one!

I have always been annoyed at the commute time issues in SC4 as well as in SC3KU. In real life I can show you thousands of people in my hometown that drive 30 miles or more to work every day! Using that comparison a sim would be willing to drive across the entire region spanning 20 medium cities or more to go to work! The most I've gotten with the NAM was maybe 2000 commuters crossing through 2 medium cities to work in a third-only with the NAM and on a highway as the ONLY road connection.

[Zelgadis 638]

NAM has helped, but as you point out, it is also not perfect. But it's definitely better than a kick in the butt.

What puzzles me most is that Maxis/Aspyr shipped this game thinking that their computations for commute times were acceptable.

My other beef is with the deterioration of utility buildings. A power plant has to be destroyed and rebuilt to keep maximum capacity. Have the sims who operate these buildings ever heard of renovation?

Anyway, that's a beef for another time and another thread...

ISF