cammo2003

Well, they reduce desirability for a block or so. Overall though, decent phone coverage tends to be a slight plus for desirability.

Heeey! That'd be a great idea!! Zoning for one then say Control-Click-Drag to zone commercial onto the same lots too, allowing for multi-use. Though it'd have to be restricted so that Residential-Industrial lots are only available for low-wealth sims if at all. I have already expressed my desire for mutli-purpose zoning/building across these forums (especially when buildings in SC4 and the modding/downloading community clearly had the look of it but were forced to choose either resi or comm) and really like the idea(s) proposed here! How genius! I really WhereisSC5 exemplifies how it would feel in the game and how PTPLauthor gives a technical example of it working in game. Heck, even the way Gillsman breaks down the zones (which, I really like the extra layer of complexity and control when shaping your city) can really illustrate how it could all come together. As far as it collaborating with the simulation, for example, you have a commercial shop, ground floor, w/ apts. above. The agents could send out the "come work today" signal to the apts. 1st, and then to the rest of the city. I mean, as a developer said in the Reddit answer session, the simulation DEFINETLY supports it - I just am praying they'll include it! I mean, realism, right? I actually think a simpler way to handle multi-zonal concepts is something like this: LD Residential: Uni-zone, homes, small villa complexes (which aren't uncommon even in quite low density suburban areas. Many are often aged care facilities, which are generally higher density than most surrounding homes because of the cost of providing the extra facilities they require). MD Residential: Technically dual zone, 10% (say) of buildings dual zone (this basically represents smaller apartment towers that have a couple of shops on the ground floor. HD Residential: Technically dual zone, up to MD commercial podium with a MD tower on top. Maybe 15% dual zone structures. For dual-zone structures, the likelihood of the dual-zone being applied to a building plot would increase in proportion to proximity to a highly trafficked road, or a PT stop (this is realistic). LD Commercial: Uni-zone. Mostly big box stores, petrol/gas stations, mom and pop stores, with a few small two-three storey office buildings. MD Commercial: Technically dual zone. Mixed developments would be equivalent to a MD Residential structure HD Commercial: UNI-ZONE (very few large commercial buildings feature residential components, and those would be covered in HD Mixed: Consistently dual zone. Near equal parts Res/Commercial (usually serviced apartments with a residential component). Industrial zones would mix only with commercial, not industrial, and these would mostly be big box stores (many such stores locate in such areas for logistical reasons, and such stores are often dedicated to primarily servicing other businesses). They'd also follow the same Rural/Light/Heavy schema for the most part as SC4, mainly because this is for the most part how it is in the real world. Rural/Agricultural zones are usually zoned as such; Industry is usually either high/low intensity. Both Light and Heavy industry would allow light commercial within their bounds. yeah, it'd be nice. I'd also not mind a way to get real world terrains directly into the game with a minimum of fuss. With water level data if available.

I know you've probably been flooded with questions regarding the online/offline dilemma, but here's a different one. I am forced by personal circumstances to use a 3G internet connection (no physical line to the granny flat I live in, although that particular issue should be fixed within the next 10 years what with our NBN under construction). While it can be reasonably quick, it can also be intolerably slow at times, and is notoriously unreliable at times too. I don't intend to play multiplayer much, but I do like the idea of having my city's economy connected to a global economy, subject to market fluctuations, as real world cities do not exist in a vacuum, and are subject to and affected by such fluctuations (higher oil prices, in the longer term, for example, tend to create a greater shift towards the use of public/mass transportation). How much data is involved in these communications, and how often does the communication occur?

Will there be a mechanism to import regional terrains from external data (bitmaps, DEM data, etc.)? I almost exclusively use region maps generated by others, or myself, from real world terrain data. Furthermore, would there be a way to easily specify areas you want wooded from the terrain generation scheme? "treeing" is a tedious (but worthwhile) task in SC4.

Handling multiple tiles as financial entities could probably be handled pretty easily in code. You'd simply include a mechanism to designate Administrative regions (this would be accessed from a planning mode. In planning mode, simulation would be stopped, releasing resources. Planning mode would treat the whole city organism as one contiguous area. Within this could be several overlays: -Administrative Regions/Councils/Local Government Areas. This could be a standard overlay in a region view. You could group tiles together by, say, Ctrl-clicking (this seems like the most intuitive method) -Transport planning overlay (within this could be a sub-section for network diagramming. There's no reason this couldn't be generated, given the agent model's being used (this could be useful for designating stations marked as key interchanges. This would affect scheduling). This would be a region-wide overlay with simplified graphics. -Utilities Overlays I do hope we aren't limited to only 2x2, if only for the sake of Airports. It may be irrelevant if tile switching and airports are designed properly (if it's possible to drag runways and taxiways across borders (Terminals I could deal with not being able to go over borders; It'd be simple to plan your airports accordingly, and Terminals would rarely if ever be more than 1.5-2km long) for instance, or perhaps if airport "zones" were laid out in a planning view which allows you to work across tile borders).

Yeah, I keep getting that #2000 error as well (You are not allowed to access this forum) as well. There has to be a glitch somewhere, because I can't think what I would have done to warrant banning. Heck, I've never raised so much as a warning in all these years. My warning level has always been 0%.

Just a quick shot to whet the appetite. Apologies that I haven't produced updates. I've been having trouble with my internet (gotta love wireless - NOT!), and have also been a little busy. Update should come in the next few days, connection standard pending.

I often use the MHW to cross important avenues over rivers (the idea being there'll be no need to upgrade later). I also use them in hillier regions (as the side barriers act as an additional safety feature). Senatoria doesn't have many hills, so the use of the MHW is pretty much limited to being used as avenue bridges in certain locations, short "quasi-freeways", as tunnels for the RHW in certain situations, and a few situations where things are too tight to use the RHW.

Looking pretty good, but I just can't help but feel it needs *something*. Perhaps raise the reflectivity of the glass on the tower ever so slightly? It's *this* close to looking like a real stunner.

Oh, there'll be plenty of skyscrapers in the next update. That's the HSBC Arena. It's on the STEX somewhere... Can't remember who it's by though.

I haven't included an orienting image this time. You'll recognise the plaza from the last update (it's the same one). South City One of the more recent redevelopments in Senatoria is the resumption of the former South City industrial district for commercial. There is still some industry in the area: You can see the old airfield as well with still a few planes there; that's going to be demolished soon; the nearby airfields have more than enough capacity to compensate. The old grid layout from the industrial days was retained throughout the redeveloped area. Seha's toying with the idea of some sort of landmark for the lower headland (bottom left). I can't say I'm opposed to the idea; being at the junction between the Loudon River and the Inlet, it certainly has a standout location. Whatever it is, it won't be an observation tower; we already have one of those in downtown. Walking down the fairly freshly paved streets of South City is quite a different experience from downtown. The road layout in this part of the inner city (to be fair, it could be considered an extension of downtown) is much neater thanks to the industrial legacy. One of the more successful parts of the redevelopment was this: The inletside stage of development wasn't originally planned to be anywhere near this height, but there has been a lot of pent-up demand for office space in the city over the past few years. This continues at a somewhat more moderate pace to this day. As you can see, the South City district is best viewed at night: You can see the South City Plaza in the background, which we've already visited. The district of small shops visible just to the left of there is working itself into some sort of Chinatown. This wasn't expected, but it's quite welcomed by the authorities, as it's generated some life for the precinct. You can also see the heliport; Senatoria's inner city has four or five of these, and this is the newest. One of the more unfortunate problems the district has is a problem with problem drinkers. Night after night, they crowd Chinatown (also a popular bar district), and invariably make an awful mess. Brawls aren't uncommon, although it's generally considered safe. Seha's passion for law and order was obvious when he opened the South City Local Command (not visible, but you'll see it later).This was one of his earlier moves towards the right. At the time I, and I'm sure many others, wrote it off as just another example of the typical politicking that goes on. Sadly we were mistaken. Seha has consistently pushed for tougher laws, tougher sentences, and in general a tougher society. Too bad, he says, if you have a drug problem. Too bad, he says, if you had a poor upbringing. If you did the crime, you'll do the time. In addition he has pushed for, and in a number of cases successfully so, the cutting of prisoner rehabilitation programs. Needless to say recidivism* rates in Senatoria have risen dramatically in the past few years. To finish, here's a final shot with an overview of the main area of the South City district: The Local Command is smack bang in the centre of the district, seen above (the building on the corner with the bluish nightlights not far from Smith Tower. NEXT TIME: You've probably been waiting for it. Downtown and its environs. =========================== OOC: As you can see folks, I did get the nightlights fixed up at last. Turned out the exe was patched. It was just in the wrong folder