Simpleton Series: Highway techniques in SimCity 3000

Contributor/author(s): Simpleton

In the Simpleton series I have concentrated mainly on road systems via bridge and tunnel techniques. I have hardly mentioned Highways.

These are costly structures at the best of times. Start using techniques on them for effect and they become almost prohibitively expensive unless you are using a cheat. But there are a few things you can do if you wish.

Here, I am just going to give a few examples using exactly the same basic techniques as given in the main series, but a few additions are needed when it comes to tunnels.

I am indebted to Martin Laforce for his article Building a Highway Tunnel, and also to Wren Weburg and Wagz for their article Build Bridges over Land

'Flat' highway bridge

Like other SimCity bridges, the Highway Bridge datums from water level. You tend to look at the road height and consequently can unexpectedly get some unpleasant switchback bridge entry and exit effects which are costly to fix.

Because of its physical height the Highway does not run on the same terrain parameters as a road bridge to give you a 'flat bridge' effect (Note the Highway Bridge also has a 13 metre rise to it which you cannot get rid of!

If you look at the illustration below, you can see the comparison. If you want a 'flat' entry and exit road bridge built automatically for you then you put it on 65 metre high river banks. Do that with the highway and you automatically get what you see on the left.

On the right is a Highway Bridge constructed on 26 metre terrain. This builds automatically and is as flat as you can get the bridge relative to the overall level of highway each side.

The moral of the story is that Highways which are going to interface with river crossings need to be on 26 metre terrain level at the bridge - and smoothly ramped down (if coming from a different level terrain) to give a 'normal' highway effect (which means terraforming before you put in the highway).

Single tile junction of highway bridges & tunnels

The basic technique works exactly the same as given for roads - build the bridge first, construct berms for the tunnels, then build the tunnel towards the bridge etc. But then you get into the sheer volume of structure required to build a highway tunnel - let alone two, plus a bridge.

The first illustration shows what you could have.

The second shows you how much terrain/building you use to do it (and then probably destroy afterwards having got the effect!).

A program flaw with highway tunnels

Martin LaForce made mention in his article that Maxis had not really worked out the Highway Tunnels in SimCity when it was released. But Martin came up with a technique to get tunnels. Obviously tunnels were intended because they have a distinctive design of their own and that is what you get on the screen.

However all may not then be still totally kosher - go into close-up of a Highway Tunnel entrance and on two sides it looks fine and functional (although perhaps a little visually flawed) and on the other two sides it looks as though a tile is missing.

This is a bit hit and miss, I have seen the tiles intact but peculiar pieces of masonry instead! On the other hand it does work correctly as well and you get the full bottle of bits! I have not yet worked out why!

Look at the illustrations below. These are two views of exactly the same tunnel entrance - although you would hardly think so - from different angles .

I do not think this is of much moment - just some SimCity Trivia!

Dry land highway bridges - their uses

You can build a dry land Highway Bridge exactly the same as a dry land road bridge. The bridge however has the same constraints as the others.

What use could they be? Well you may have an arid outlaying area the highway can bridge and have that sort of visual effect, but I was mainly struck by what could be done in a city centre or suburbs.

Let's face it - the Highway is not a work of art - it looks quite ugly. You can go to expense in running a strip of trees along each side of it to hide those bare concrete walls towering over houses - but they stretch for long straight distances. Or perhaps you could put in Overpasses?

This is entirely a visual effect - you save no tiles under the dry land bridge and I do not have a clue if it rises land values. It just looks better. A few of these along the length of a Highway, leaving spaces for on-ramps, breaks up the monotony and gives dimension.

No you cannot build on the dry land under the bridge and No you cannot run a road under the bridge (unless you tunnel), you cannot even plant trees under the bridge. About all you can say is that the out of work Sim-Yuppies left homeless by the failure of High Tech Industries have somewhere under cover to go of a night!

The illustrations show a bare dry land Highway Bridge and one decorated up a bit.

Some thoughts on highways. I sense there is a lot more research waiting in this area. We could get better visual effects overall although we cannot presently have the high land values of dead space under dry bridges such as is done in real cities - by walling in the spaces and renting them out as high value 'lock-up' storage. This could be a nice income earner for the city to off-set the building cost - maybe in SC4000?. We can certainly have better looking and 'flowing' highways without the humps and dips we may think we are just stuck with, or just long straight expanses of concrete

I also believe there is lot more design and planning mileage there - I have only brushed the surface and am out of time. Have you some time and imagination?

See also
Y-Splits for highways