Newsmouse-1

Gavisace, as a beginner, I'm not sure whether to envy you or feel sorry for you! Anyway, here are a few concepts that have helped me along the way. First, ask yourself what kind of terrain you want to work with. A look at maps on the STEX will help you decide if you're attracted to flatlands, hills, mountains, water or a combination thereof. Steep hills and mountains can present quite a challenge to road construction, but they look nice in the background. You need lakes and/or rivers if you want to decorate your cities with bridges. Either way, when you look at a map, try and visualize how you will connect the separate elements. Also ask yourself how you want your region to look. Does realism appeal to you? Do you want cities filled with cloud-hugging office and apartment buildings or do you prefer a more rural atmosphere? Will you be satisfied with a grid-type layout or do you have the patience to create curvy streets and roads? Do you aim to pack as many Sims as you can into the smallest possible chunk of real estate or do you like the idea of leaving some open spaces filled with parks, trees and ponds? It might even help if you create a simple story about the origins of your region and its cities. "It was Marcus Leer, who arrived in Calammity Junction with his wife Shanda, who discovered gold in the mountain instead of coal." The story will grow right along with the region, and I believe I create better cities when there is a storyline attached. So choose a region, build a city you would like to live in and you can't go wrong. Good luck with your new-found all-consuming hobby!

OK, but is there a way to rename a city within a region without nuking it or using the cheat?

What an awesome CJ, polochon 2. I'm especially impressed by the suburbs. You've managed to avoid grids while giving them a casual, realistic look. I plan to save some of your pictures on my desktop to use as inspiration in my own cities, and you can take that as the highest compliment I have to give.

The same thing just happened in my new city. A query shows no traffic at all, but sections of the avenue are glowing red. There are no subways -- only bus stops. I have the NAM but no other traffic mods are installed. Actually this happened once before when I included an avenue in a brand new city, but it doesn't happen when the avenue is added to a somewhat more mature city. If it were a mod conflict, wouldn't all avenues be affected at all times? I took a snapshot before destroying the city but don' know how to post it in a forum.

Thanks for sharing these terrific tools, wouanagaine. You're the best!

Aha! So I did miss a step, then. Thanks so much for clearing it up for me.

Thanks to both of you for trying to help. I've seen the "staircase" used, exploman89, but there was one photo I downloaded yesterday which clearly showed straight diagonal streets (not roads). Lacking the creator's permission, I can't post the photo here, but I found another one. Click on "Post your tutorials," Tutorial 1, then scroll down to the 22nd photo (give or take a couple). And by the way, as something of a newcomer to ST, I've spent a LOT of time lately soaking up the absolutely remarkable work of other members. There's a lot of creativity out there! And thanks again for taking a moment to respond.

What's the secret to getting diagonal streets? I'm running SC4Dx with the SKU 1 update and the NAM (Oct. 2005 edition). I had forgotten the mod included that feature, but reinstalling it (to make sure it was checked) didn't help. So I spent some quality time combing through the guides which came with it trying to find out what I'd missed. It appears that all the other components are installed and working correctly, though. Is there a separate mod or have I just missed an important step? Thanks in advance for your help.