bigredk001

I was also looking for a bridge height mod, and found it at a German SC4 site. I'm not sure if it's the same as you're refering to: http://www.simszone.de/simcity4/downloads/mods.php Bridge Height mod should be the 6th entry. While the STEX was down, I managed to find the hole digging lot there, but unfortunately it was in German. Just recently I checked and picked up the english version.

As to the paving paradise message, I usually get it when I zone a huge section at one time, without putting in any trees or parks, even if 4/5ths of the map is a forest. It seems if the game senses you build more roads/zones than parks/trees it gives you a suggestion to throw in more trees. Like many messages in the game (except existing health and education funding) I usually ignore those messages.

Originally posted by: Uandwhosearmy You're right, I meant midrise buildings. Thank you. I found (after much browsing through the STEX) some really good stage 5/6 buildings to implement in my city so I hope to be able to replace the ugly houston-esque midrises (reflect systems inc, ben tower) that have started to plop up. Now where is that bulldozer tool... quote> If you're a member of Simcity Central, Dhamp made a mod called the No Maxis mod which will "when used together, block any and all standard Maxis buildings from growing in SimCity 4". I had done a brief search here, thinking he had uploaded it here as well, but apparently not. There are 8 separate files, three for the residential wealth levels, and the other five for the commercial wealth levels, and most importantly you can mix and match. This will enable you to control exactly which buildings might emerge. For instance, if you use all of the No-Maxis mod files and only have STEX bats, you'll only have STEX bats growing. This won't affect existing buildings in your city, only prevent new one's from growing. Dhamp No Maxis Mod

Originally posted by: ten1902 i dont know for sure withou checking STEX(which i cant do now for obvious reasons) how many different RTMT mods there are, but i know why all you got were brown boxes: you were missing dependencies! edit i found the readme for my RTMT and it is made by cogeo, the same one you downloaded, so i suggest reinstalling it and downloading all of the dependencies(yes there are quite a bit, but its worth it)quote> Once STEX came back up I did a search for Road Top Mass Transit, and I came up with two (search for "Road Top"). Cogeo's, and one by Deadwood. I downloaded deadwood's (one for bus, the other for subway+bus) and it's very simple and easy to install. Both packs come with an installer, and they install around 5 files. There are no external dependencies, and nothing complex about the installation. You do have to decide whether you want the Euro or Maxis road textures though, and it's as simple as deleting the texture file you don't want. The downside to deadwood's compared to Cogeo's is that there is no customization for how your stops will look, but that isn't even a concern for myself. All I want and need is something simple that will give me bus and subway access without taking up a tile. So, for those looking for a RTMT mod, but don't want the complexities of manual installation and configuration, deadwood's RTMT comes highly recommended by myself.

I must be doing quite well then. In my cities 27 year history it has been well below 8 minutes. Only once for a brief time did it peak close to 16 minutes, and then against at around 10-11 minutes. It's currently down below 4 minutes. My strategy, an extensive network of passenger rail and ground/elevated Light Rail that has many stops in all the major locations, in addition to bus stops. I use a trainstop from Sim City Central called Martin's Train Stops. They have a low capacity (1500 for single track and 3000 for double track versions, but they do the job very effectively being really cheap, and the only space they take up is on the rail tiles themselves. I also have an effective highway, linking many parts of the city. The only place where my city is in a grid pattern is in the commercial core, and it is effectively central in the city with the residential sprawl starting in the north and then the sprawl making it's way in a clockwise, and counterclockwise pattern around the commercial. I've booted all the dirty and manufacturing out of the city into an industrial park that people's only option to get there is by rail, which helps keep cars off the roads. Looking at my traffic volume, here are my numbers. These are all estimates: 8200 car, 8000 pedestrian, 5800 Bus, 3100 passenger train, 800 sub/el train (but primarily because it's limited to a single route cutting through the commercial core. I'd use it more, but I've gotten to like having the passenger rails effectiveness. The city currently has 39k residential, and is still growing, but the current numbers indicate that commute times will still drop. Unless the sims suddenly start deciding to get into their cars.

Originally posted by: ten1902 i dont know for sure withou checking STEX(which i cant do now for obvious reasons) how many different RTMT mods there are, but i know why all you got were brown boxes: you were missing dependencies!quote> I am pretty sure that I downloaded all the dependencies. As a rule I generally don't like to download mods that have more than one or two dependencies, but the RTMT was something that I really wanted to try out. One thing that could make the RTMT really simple to use is to have an installer much like the current version of NAM I have. Select the options you want to install and then you're done. Another thing that made installing even more complex and time consuming was the whole single prop vs prop family options. It mentions that you can't have both the single prop and prop family options installed for bus stops at the same time, but a question I have is can you have the prop family option for both subway and bus? i am using RTMTV3, and i cant find my documentation(ie. readme files) so i dont know exactly who made this mod, but i do remember an extensive list of of bus stops and such that were dependencies, so maybe go back and check out which ones you need once STEX re-opens.quote> I may have to do that. dont forget that lots only need 1 square of road access. meaning a 2x2 lot can have 1 of its road accessed squares blocked, as long as another has direct access to the street. and as far as i know it doesnt necessarily have to be the front of the building either.quote> True. In the readme, there are suggestions on how to avoid the no connection problem. One is to place these at intersections, as zones even if their arrow is blocked, can also get road access off to the side. In most cases I find even if I create a 3x3 lot, the game will usually break it up into 3 1x3 lots, and as a result, you can get problems if you're zoning and not paying close attention. edit i found the readme for my RTMT and it is made by cogeo, the same one you downloaded, so i suggest reinstalling it and downloading all of the dependencies(yes there are quite a bit, but its worth it)quote> I'll take another look at it.

Originally posted by: ten1902 there are also roadtop bus/subway stops available on the STEX, which i use for two reasons: 1) they look more realistic, and 2) they dont require and pre-planning, as far as leaving spaces is concerned.quote> I tried a Road-top Mass Transit mod, and even though there was extensive documentation on all the various options, after spending over an hour reading through the documentation, and deciding which options I wanted to use, I got brown packages when I started to place them. I ended up deleting the mod, as I didn't want to spend anymore time on it. The one I was using was RTMT 3.10 made by Cogeo. How many RTMT mods are there? Which is the best to use? While RTMT doesn't require as much pre-planning as the normal bus/subway stations, you still need to ensure that you don't accidently cut off road access for some lots.

Originally posted by: smac0009 i'm not too sure, you could try other websites but i doubt it. Until then you're in the same boat I am. Waiting patiently for the site to come upquote> I had the misfortune of incredibly bad timing when I decided to start a new region that would be host to my CJ, when I had only a handful of bats, the day when Simtropolis went down. I waited the first day or so by finetuning my greyscale heightmapping skills. About two days ago I became too impatient with waiting and decided to start the region with some low importance areas hoping that the STEX would return quickly. And so I wait...

Originally posted by: Omegamrk Is there an easier way to accomplish this, since I think my city is capped out because lack of transportation methods.quote> I find the easiest way to lay out subway is first think ahead to where you want the subway route to go. To hold a place for future subway stations, place a park, or other item so that you don't build over it later on. When you're finally ready to build your lines, replace the placeholders with subway stations in above ground view. Once all the stations you would like to place have been laid, switch to underground view and just connect the dots. The benefit of placing a park or plaza is that in the interim it'll boost the desirability and briefly boost the population cap.