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Hello to everyone and welcome to my BAT thread Current project: Nothing specific Available: Thanks for any help or support! -Nick

Thanks Aaron that helped a lot! Thanks ion_cannon I hope too. Okay so here are south, east, north, and west preview renders at zoom 5 south east north west

Thanks! The windows are just temporary until i can find something better. I just wanted to show this update to make sure I did it correctly. The windows are way to dark. If anyone can tell me what to search to find a better ground plane texture or a place where some good ones are that could fit what i'm looking for that would be awesome. I'm using 3ds max 2010 Yes I am for some things. Others like the red wall out front I used Metallic paint from the ProMaterials

At least it is an interesting post First of all, thank you! For point 2, you are right in that it looks silly in the side view. I don't know how I messed removing it before! Personally I think it looks alright in the front, it offers just enough contrast between the two sides. Which brings us to point 1. In reality, there is no difference between either "building" as far as facade material goes. When they built the addition they must have re-faced the whole thing. If we couldn't see otherwise in aerial views we might have thought it was one building. Any difference represented in the render is an exaggeration, but I'm happy with how it is. As for point 3, yep, need to work on that. Concrete block is a minor element in two of these models (I think 3 of any of my models ever, lol). Subtle hue shift, lower contrast, and a little sharper should put it in it's place. Might also need a larger bitmap, since it is only brick texture with a larger UVW map (Yeah, I was lazy with this one). If those are the only complaints you have, I think we managed well! Thanks for stopping by

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION (13 July 2011): "Hey there. I'm IDS, and I'm just another high school kid who's played sim games since kindergarten. I've downloaded several gigabytes of content from the STEX over the years, and for a long time I've wanted to give back, but learning how to BAT was too complex for me and the maps I made were pretty unappealing.About a month ago I downloaded 3dsMax and pushed through a handful of tutorials, including the infamous BAT tutorial. A month later, I'm at the point where I'm only mildly embarrassed of my creations. I really can't go on much further on my own without some advice, and besides, what better way to learn than to know what I need to improve on? Criticism is more than welcome, I know I'm new to this and am still pretty green, so just be honest " completed projects: wells fargo plaza, bloomington, mn nelson/keillor towers generic offices pack #1 100 washington, minneapolis, mn riverview tower, bloomington, mn hiawatha bank tower retro theaters booth manor, minneapolis, mn anderson hall, minneapolis, mn postwar houses, minneapolis, mn paramount theater, bristol, tn lang-nelson, st. louis park, mn social sciences building, minneapolis, mn ralph rapson hall, minneapolis, mn canadian pacific plaza, minneapolis, mn wellstone plaza cenex building, south st. paul, mn public service center, minneapolis, mn greater refuge temple, new york, ny american zinc building, st louis, mo axa equitable center, new york, ny united labor centre, minneapolis, mn alakea corporate tower, honolulu, hi cedar high apartments, minneapolis, mn ids center, minneapolis, mn one maritime plaza, san francisco, ca prospect water tower, minneapolis, mn kenwood water tower, minneapolis, mn highland park water tower, st. paul, mn huron public library, huron, sd yat chau international plaza, hong kong doubletree hotel, milwaukee, wi tj maxx/homegoods, gretna, ne lalumiere hall, milwaukee, wi equitable building, atlanta, ga broadway ridge corp ctr, minneapolis, mn la tulipe, geneva, switzerland crossroads exec ctr, rolling meadows, il silberturm, frankfurt, germany pop building, brussels, belgium binnenhof observation tower, the hague hedge maze, valeggio sul mincio, italy bren road office park, minnetonka, mn tritech center, minneapolis, mn one sherman place, denver, co patisserie 46, minneapolis, mn 701 building, minneapolis, mn picnic shelter, lilydale, mn gehry tower, hanover, germany generic offices pack #2 IDS

For the Eager, Yet Overwhelmed Newcomer New to SimCity, Simtropolis, or been out of touch for a few years? Wondering what the heck a NAM or a BAT is? And just what the heck is up with those brown boxes?! This article will take you through the basics of registering your game, whether from a hard copy of the disc or from Steam, the essentials of Simtropolis, and a jumpstart into the world of Custom Content, to bring your game to a level beyond what you could imagine is possible. I would like to thank A Nonny Moose for his contributions and influences on the creation of this article. Rush Hours, Deluxe Editions, SimCity Boxes, Oh my! Before starting on registration information, we should make a clarification on just what the differences in these versions are. The short answer is nothing. When Maxis released Rush Hour, the expansion pack to the original SimCity 4 game, they released two versions: one simply the expansion (SimCity 4: Rush Hour); the other, a version that included both the original game and the expansion pack (SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition). It makes absolutely no difference to the game whether you own the Deluxe Edition, or Rush Hour. Now, just what is the SimCity Box? After the release of SimCity Societies in 2008, EA released this version which contains SimCity 4, SimCity 4: Rush Hour, SimCity Societies, SimCity Societies: Destinations, and The Sims Carnival: SnapCity. The story here is the same with Rush Hour and the Deluxe Edition: it makes absolutely no difference. In the event that you happen to be a long time player who does not own Rush Hour or the Deluxe Edition, it should be noted that the expansion pack is required to make use of 99% of the custom content available on this site. I will explain that further later on. Registering and Updating the Game Before playing, you need to pick up the two (2) necessary EA-released patches to your game for it to work correctly. In recent months, it has been noted that the official EA SimCity 4 Deluxe site has been taken down. So as not to leave these players hanging, some mirrors have been set up containing the assorted official updates. Important note: If you purchased your game from an authorized download source, you may not need any further updates. Check the properties of the game's .exe file. If it indicates you have version 1.1.641.0 or if you already have version 1.1.640.0, you will not need further updates. For the standard, PC version updates, check out here: SC4Devotion Own the Mac edition and can't open .exe's? Check out this thread: Bought your copy off Steam? Steam comes pre-patched! Yay! You should apply the two updates to the game in this order: EP1 to fix bugs, and the BATupdate to allow nightlights. When you are finished, you should check to see that the version number of the .exe file for the game in Program files/Maxis/Apps has been updated to 1,1,640,0. This is proof that your updates worked. Optional Upgrades and Tools You may notice on the mirror sites, a number of other downloads available. Among these are new landmarks, new rewards, the Lot Editor, and Building Architect Tool (BAT). These are all optional, and are not necessary for the games function or the addition of but do add content, and functionality. So, just what do these BAT and Lot Editor things do? The Lot Editor allows you to construct new lots, using the buildings, textures, and assorted prop pieces included within the game. The Building Architect Tool (BAT) allows you to construct new 3D models, and is what is used to create new buildings, trees, seawalls, spaceships, and everything inbetween. Using the Lot Editor and the BAT in tandem, the world is yours to create. It should be noted that both these tools have a sizeable learning curve. We do have a number of tutorials here to get you started, the most notable of these being the BAT Essentials Tutorial in the Omnibus. Unleashing the Game At this point, your game is ready to go! The appropriate patches are in place, and the game is as optimized as Maxis and EA could make it. So where to now? Many players are happy to play the game without any custom content, relying simply on what Maxis has provided. It is indeed very possible to create beautiful cities using only what content Maxis provided. But, many would also point out that the game can be so much more. In the 8 years since the release of the game, the amount of custom content available brings the game to an entirely new level. Players can recreate their hometowns with stunning accuracy, watching roads twist and curve, with even the correct corner market in place. Players can build in the desert, in futuristic settings, or on Mars. The custom content community has taken a finite game and given it infinite possibilities. And the question I'm sure you're asking by this point is, where do I begin? There are a number of exchanges available for you to browse. Here on Simtropolis, the STEX is perhaps the largest, and one of the oldest exchanges devoted to SimCity 4. The other primary English exchanges are SC4Devotion LEX and the PLEX (now on the STEX). You could say that SC4Devotiion is the high-tech site, and that Pegasus is the theme site, and you wouldn't be far wrong. Most community exchanges both require free registration in order to download, as Simtropolis does. The SimCity community expands far beyond English speakers, however - other communities include German and Japanese sites. Growable? Ploppable? What? As you browse the exchanges, you'll notice these phrases on assorted files throughout. The answer to this could not be simpler. A growable lot means that it will grow on its own with the appropriate zoning, as if it were any building created by Maxis. Ploppable lots allow you to plop the building as if it were a landmark. Some ploppables retain their commercial/industrial nature and provide jobs as though they were grown. It should be noted that at early points in the exchange, you may run across residential ploppables. These do not work, and will abandon some time after plopping. So, I've Downloaded Some Stuff. Now what? Installation of downloads really is simple. This article by our fearless Dirktator outlines the process of installation. Some downloads now come with .exe installers, which simplifies the process even more - the installer does all the work for you. The next question you may have is where the heck do I find my ploppable items in the game? Some items will be pretty intuitive as to where they are located - Educational facilities are located in the Schools menu, policing facilities in the Police menu, etc. But what about that great skyscraper advertised as a ploppable? Those will generally be located in the Landmarks menu. Nearly everything else (parks, churches, etc.) will be located in either Parks or Rewards. And if you just can't find it anywhere, consult the ReadMe that should have been included with the download. It should state where it is located in the menu system in game. Brown Boxes, Everywhere! Uh oh! This may look tragic, but it doesn't mean your game is wrecked. You just missed downloading some dependencies. Wait, what? Dependewho? Dependencies are separate files that a lot uses to complete itself. If Download A cannot find the appropriate dependency, it reverts to the lovely boxes you can see in the picture above. It may not look like it, but each lot is actually filled with bits and pieces of other files to make the bigger picture. The trees, the benches, the garbage cans, the swimming pools you see on assorted lots are all individual pieces, that come together to create a house, a park, or a shopping complex. All downloads on the SimTropolis EXchange are required to list all dependencies needed to work properly. If you've looked everywhere and just can't find that dependency, or if the dependency package is locked, please make a post here, and one of our friendly members will help you out. You may have further questions in regards to dependencies. As with installation, I would like to refer you to another article that goes into much further detail. The Dependency Debate by north_country_dude goes into great detail about the pros and cons of dependencies, and answers a few of the common questions you may have about them. So what should I download? Building tastes vary from person to person. Personally, I prefer the drab, 1970's concrete buildings, while many prefer the sleek, glass modern skyscrapers. Because of this, I'm not going to recommend any particular buildings - but I can recommend some mods that are considered the best and the greatest. Network Addon Mod, or the NAM. This mod was first conceived with the discovery of an unfinished road network Maxis left in the game. The talented modding community has taken this and turned it into entirely new road networks, gave us roundabouts, and allows us to create true metropolitan cities with roads to match. This can be found here on the STEX, or at SC4Devotion. If you're interested, here is the "official" NAM FAQ Thread with links to the different parts used with NAM & answers to common queries. If any issues come up while using NAM, there's also a support thread here. Various NAM Team members including Tarkus frequent the thread and gladly help out. A terrain and water mod. When you first launch the game, the grass and water seems realistic enough. A bit off perhaps, but hey nothing can be perfect. Not true - modders have been able to create new textures for the terrain and the water, which makes the Maxis textures look like off-coloured drawings. Cycledogg has made a number of varying terrain mods, and there are assorted water textures on the STEX, each varying for the kind of water your city needs. SimMars. Certainly this mod is not for everyone, but this article would be deficient if it weren't mentioned. SimMars transforms SimCity to Mars, complete with textures, buildings, road networks and music to match. The work done on this is exceptional, and it sits with the NAM as the greatest projects to improve the game that SimCity has seen. Everything else listed here. Livin in Sim has created this top ten list of great mod's that should be essential. A few other members have listed their contributions as well, and I would highly recommend them all! From there you could look through the CJ section to get ideas or run through the STEX and other exchanges to see if anything "jumps" out at you. As I mentioned before, if you can't seem to find something, make a post here and someone is bound to help you out. How do I win? SimCity is different from most games, as there is no set end point. Your success is based on goals you set. For many, a balanced budget and proper governance of a successful city without "godly" intervention (ie. cheats) makes a successful game. For many, the accurate recreation of a real life city is the goal, generally with the assistance of assorted budget cheats. For others still, it's simply to create the best city they can. Set your own goals and adjust as you achieve them. For all flavours of player, however, we do have an assortment of tutorials here on Simtropolis to help you on the Omnibus. The sections that will interest you most are SimCity 4 Reference and SimCity 4 Tutorials. Check back from time to time, as we do continue to add articles! Hopefully, this article has helped you get started. If you have any further questions that this article didn't answer, the folk in the forums and the chatroom are always eager to help, and any member of the Simtropolis Help Squad would be more than happy to give you some tips to the right direction.

Hello simtropolis! Anyone looking forwards to the new Driver? I know I am! , it's been countless delays and now it's finally coming out in September 6th of this year. So far I've been looking at the official licensed cars , gameplay , multiplayer and so on. Down below is a list of things I like and dislike below of the info so far for the game LIKES -The huge open world city of San Francisco and with the looks of it , looks like it's full of detail. -The Cars,now this is the first Driver to have licensed cars(over 130) and they've made a great diversity of Supercars,classic muscles and normal cars. The cars can be found here http://www.igcd.net/...&width=1440-The -Movie challenges , Ubisoft announced that there will be movie tokens spread around San Francisco. These tokens are based on famous movie car chases so far one is the Blues-brothers which takes place in the correct decade from the movie(s)all and all look very promising -The Shift , now I know alot of people of skeptical about it , but it does indeed look fun especially in multiplayer . It can cause alot of carnage online!- -Physics and Damage , Driver has always been good at making great driving games , but now it looks completely revolutionized with flicking around urban corners , speeding down back alleys , the tire smoke and the Engine sounds as well! DISLIKES - The boost , now the is the thing I am probably disliking the most about the game. Boost in this game is very odd to me , because the Driver has always been a pure skill game and adding a nitrous boost kinda ruins the experience , but im sure in multiplayer you can switch it off. All and all that is my only dislike! , the nitrous boost it makes it to much like burnout.

That worked perfect thanks. Looking at Bojangles I think I would rather eat that lol. It seems like the less commercialized the food the better it taste. Actually this KFC is modeled after the first "green" KFC in Indianapolis. So I fixed the drive thru window and the roof access ladder. north west

very well done Aaron, I don't post comments ofter but I always keep track of your thread

It failed because you didn't pick the right time (should've been 10-11PM GMT), created confusion by changing the times, held the event too early after announcing it (should've waited atleast 60 days) and you didn't do signups. Also the sheep thing. Better luck next year.

I'm always around Jason. This isn't a bad idea, actually.

Massive skyscraper mess reporting Regional population 23.95 million.

Count with me! I took the BAT tutorial a year ago, I just found BATting wasn't for me but I think I can help with this!

I can help!

Yeah, CaptCity is exactly right. SC4 uses weird file extensions, but some of these, like .dat files, also get used for other programs. So it may look like a .dat file can be opened in age of empires, but in actual fact it can't. But thats okay, because what you really want to do is not open them, but place them in your plugins folder, sc4 will open them and read them when you start playing the game.

Looking at Bing i'd say that probably the flashing (i.e that dark area) should be lighter... I think it should be a little darker than the walls (to make it somewhat noticeable) but lighter than how it's now.

Francis90b: Yes, is it supposed to be like that, or maybe a mapping error? Cause i think it should be like the walls down it. EDIT: Hold on, i see now the close up, actually now i see that it should be the way it is. From zoom 5 i couldnt clearly see that it was a seperate part.

Are you speaking about the very dark line that runs all around the building?

This is the worst fail ever. Not even funny guys I am soooo mad at you!!! I thought there would be a lot of people in chat!!!! D:

If you add in cosmetic items after your city has developed, it shouldn't affect your population. In some cases, it might even help (say, adding parks). Taxes directly affect demand. If you have demand for a certain commercial type hovering around 0, lowering the tax will often increase demand to a level where development is encouraged. If you have a large negative demand, though, changing the tax won't end up helping you because the demand will still be negative. Similarly, if you already have high commercial demand, there's no incentive to lower taxes. In fact, you could likely raise them slightly without a detrimental effect. Personally, I like to have a prohibitive tax rate for R$$$ (say 12-13%) for the starting stages of my city. Once I've got a good base started, then I lower the R$$$ tax a bit (say to 10-11%) to encourage them to move in. I don't like to have R$$$ taxes lower than R$ or R$$ because then I find my city gets imbalanced too easily. Another point is that the game has a tendency to upgrade to R$$$ too easily. This mod increases the desirability threshold for R$$$, which means that it takes a bit more for R$$$ to move in. It also means that they're less likely to move out since they move to better locations. Read the description of the mod for more information. Since I started using it, my problems with R$$$ got way better.

In case anyone finds them useful, here are some pictures of random roof junk. These pictures were taken from a hill behind a shopping center. It's a strip mall with a grocery store, drug store, pizza place, Chinese restaurant, dollar store, Subway, and so forth. Hope it helps if someone needs some ideas.

It will be in your Documents\Simcity 4\Plugins\Network Addon Mod. In that folder there will be an uninstall program. I'm sorry you don't like it. It makes the game so much more realistic once you get the hang of it.

10,000 views and on the move! No one can stop us now! We may not have destroyed the Schulmania state visit, but we will be back. And we will be out for REVENGE!!!

1987 Honda CRX 1.6i-16 (white):

So is this what you guys mean by interior modeling? If it is I only have the booths on the one side modeled. Is that going to be enough or do I need to do the whole interior? Thank you, I think its my favorite part yup, I have the latest version of BAT4MAX. How do I preview render? One last thing, is the transparency on the glass okay? Thanks for all the help

Just want to say. That you need to be one of the people who bring back Maxis to full strength and give us a simcity 5. I mean look at this!...LOOK at this! It's just, unbelievable what you're creating here. FOUR skyscrapers of intense detail as well as the ground roads, plazas and whatnot included in the model. I can't even fathom how much hours you've put into this, let alone how much time it takes this to render. Kudos. Major kudos.

Ugh KFC, love it! Really need to go there soon too. The model is a great start! It's a bit too boxy though, but that's just cause the side walls are bare. Copying the logo and putting them on the side walls would be a good use of space cause most fast food places usually do that anyway to make sure the logo is seen from all sides. And another note, LOVE what you did with the front.

For this bat I wouldn't really think that the reflection of a city backdrop would be realistic, because of its height the most it would likely to reflect is the road and the pavement. For this instance I would suggest modelling a bit of the interior and also adding a texture to the glass the way Aaron does that that it gives off a "busy" impression..then take the opacity up a bit so you can see some of the interior, you can always fake the interior if needed. But for taller buildings, the cityscape refelction is a great method. Nice start though, do you have BAT4MAX installed so we can see some preview renders?

Building in Bangkok

Update My BAT South North

I have been experimenting with decentralizing CBD's. It hasn't worked obviously as the whole city has become one massive skyscraper mess.

Nice work Aaron!! As seen by Francis's pic, these are going to look amazing next to each other

Depends on how technical you are. You could check and see if there is an updated version of terraformer. If you can't solve this, you'll have to use the in-game rendering system. You might want to look at doing your own custom maps starting with Landscape Designer which can generate a random map (its default function) but if you read a proper gray-scale map into it, it will give you a false color rendering. This is one way to see how your map is coming without having to render it. The other choice is to go for help in the Mapping room. You might get some answers to fixing your problem there, as well.

harishna: ah! thanks, I have 2012, so it's much easier! Aaron Graham: Don't worry, the roof junk is what I'm focusing on now Jasoncw: Thanks! I found a pack of really nice ones, this will be fun _marsh_: Thanks! I'm finally starting to understand what I'm doing Simfox: Thank you very much for all that! I tried to implement all your suggestions, I tried the window technique you explained and I think I got the gist of it: I applied it using a material by element modifier set to 2 (repeating not random) with the phase of submaterial noise maps set to 0 and .1 respectively, not sure if that was the right way...I am working on the roof texture, I changed the GF lattice and added blinds but they aren't really visible, so I'll have to tweak the glass settings. And I scaled up the rotunda to intersect the parapet wall and changed the color scheme back to original, apparently they repainted the RL building last year with a darker color scheme but it really looks out of place... TheObvious1: My goal is to have this thing on the STEX before I go back to school in 3 1/2 weeks from now. If I manage my time well, though, I have plenty of free time during the school year as well, in fact I started making models when I was still in school so hopefully it won't change too much. Alright so I've been really digging at this thing over the past week, I almost wish I had chosen a smaller building for a first release but I'm sticking with this one. Here's everything I did: -Working on roof texture (obscured the cracks, trying the subtle bleach effect T Wrecks mentioned above) as well as trying to match the RL roof more closely -Adding detail to roof junk -Scaled up rotunda to intersect parapet -New ground plane texture -Back to original color scheme (RL building was recently repainted darker grey color scheme) -Working on window reflections/transparency balance -Added blinds to be seen when I get the windows right -Added drainpipe/roof detail to front entrance -Changed ground floor window lattice to be more elongated like the RL building -Redid 75% of roof junk, all that is left is that on the low rise portion -Added subtle bump map to streaky concrete texture -Made sure tower and lowrise portion were finally level -Fixed connecting hallway windows So here's what I have: The 3 things that stick out to me are the glass texture, lower roof junk and the roof texture, so I will have to attend to those. Other than that I'm pretty happy with the rest...what do you all think?

Good news and bad news. Bad news is it's not on the STEX, but the good news is that its on the LEX and i found it for you! BLS Distillery - Mistral Jaune Porkissimo

Facebook makes it easy to dox yourself and get yourself in trouble but one can easily keep things private.

Nonny Moose uses his own definition. Another definition is that all war is also terrorism.

I hope the criminals get punished but they never are.

I will sure be downloading them. I'm a sucker for those industrial ones

Little update on my subway map. This time it's just to add lines 8 (Wartenberg <-> South Station, basically the eastern city link), 9 (Longerich <-> Lauberg Cosseystraße, that's to relieve line 7 on its central part as well as provide a better link in Lauberg and Mülheim), 4 (from Alte Heide to Wutai East, to re-establish a link between the CBD and Wutai while relieving line 1), as well as a few changes to the overall look of the network, around Summerset mainly. S1 has been modified a bit, too. I have put more district names as well Overally the style remains the same however. My city is constantly evolving!!! D: Also, here is a random poster about some maintenance works The Sedoner subway company is usually efficient in engineering and trying its best to provide decent service to their users.

I still have my doubts about this project what if it is all Photoshoped??

Congratulations!

Congratulations!! Congratulations!!

Nice golf course NTM, and great idea for a thread. Here is a golf course I made recently. I posted it in the Most Prized Creations thread, but I suppose it fits better in this one. This is the Fortune City Royal Country Club.

You should put a sign on that avenue that says "Hell- Next Right".

Ever since the first Toyota Prius came out, I thought that the highest mileage car would be some sort of diesel-electric hybrid. Now, I have found a press release by Volvo that says it will have a plug-in diesel hybrid with about 150 mpg on average. Washington State, especially Seattle uses cheap hydroelectric power and all diesel is required to have at least 2% biodiesel while I have seen gas stations that sell E20, E85, B10, B20, and B85. Biodiesel is much more common in Washington than flex fuel, though regular gasoline here is E10. For most affordable fuel usage, I found this page: Volvo's production-ready V60 Plug-in Diesel Hybrid Here is a picture of the production ready car showing internal components: Most cars have 4-wheel-drive and automatic transmission while Volvo is known for its good safety. On the other hand, Volvo cars tend to have bad suspensions, which makes even freeway driving rather bumpy. I am 19 and I won't be able to test to drive until I am 21 because I let my second renewal run out without taking a test. I want my car's paint job to be unique enough that it does not blend in with a parking lot/garage full of monochromatic white, silver, black, grey, and dark blue sedans. Therefore a 2-tone paint job with half being a shade of a dark enough green and the other half being almost any shade of blue, maybe with silver pinstripe between the two for extra character. I saw an example of that on Xzibit's "Pimp My Ride." Since the car will be released around 2012, it would most likely have good audio. Since I won't buy a car until several years of driving experience, I could buy that Volvo used. New Volvo cars range from about $25-50k so it is not affordable new. My absolute wildest dream car would resemble a 1928 Rolls Royce or Bentley, though a Ferrari is a close second dream car but I doubt I would ever own one. The most likely first car I will own would be a used Toyota Camry (my mother let me drive a red 1991 once I turned 16 until my Learner's Permit expired).

Historically realistic would be intersections in the city center, and roundabouts in the outskirts. These days, especially in industrial area's and suburbs roundabouts are popular. Also, roundabouts are more common in Europe than in the US. Btw, did you know that over half of the world's roundabouts are in France? Dont know why they like them so much. The scariest roundabouts by far are in the UK: http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=51.562865,-1.771371&spn=0.000859,0.002843&t=h&z=19 They call it a 'magic roundabout' but especially to foreigners with no experience with driving on the right this is more of a killing roundabout

and here more or less same view 6 years later: in 1996: and in 2010: and one more - overlooking it all:

Hmm, I disagree kaf, and here's why: We have yet to make draggable diagonal bridges. The ones that exist are ALL eye-candy. We still haven't been able to make a mode to where you can enable the old traditional square zoning, or go creative like diagonal zoning whenever you want. From the beginning, I thought that the single overhead angle viewing of a city was a mistake; you should be able to toggle your views like Google Earth. I also think that we should dump the multiple cities in one region technique, and go for one single super large city in a region, because the largest cities in the real world tend to take up all of the space available in the custom 16 large cities region. We also need to take into consideration that a 4 tile freeway is more realistic than a 2 tile one, not to mention the available space in between for a traditional rail, GLR or Monorail that could be there like the ones in L.A.; not to mention that 2 tile highways and avenues are unable to connect to another city like the single-tile. I also think there should be a way for those with a Simcity game to be constantly updated with more B.A.T.'s and modds and downloads via the internet. (of course, to those who have connection to it) Anyway, those are my opinions and ideas, most of which probably won't come to fruition.