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xxdita

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Everything posted by xxdita

  1. This greatly depends on which OS you're using. The original Aspyr version did reportedly allow for hotswapping. I have no idea if this has been attempted with the 64bit version.
  2. Both of these pics were taken using a traffic simulator with Travel type generates traffic (0xA92356B4) set to False for all 9 types. As you can see, traffic noise and customers are both still very much intact. The traffic dataviews also still record every type of transit as it should as well. The only real difference is the Commute Time for the Residential, which is short, since there is no congestion on the roads at all. That not only makes the fastest route possible more accessible, it clears up all intersections as well. So returning buses to their natural not creating traffic state has absolutely no negative impacts on gameplay, while restoring the full benefits buses and bus stops were designed to provide. Regardless of what the wiki says. Also, it is important to note that buses do not operate in SC4 as they do in real life or other games. in SC4, 1 Sim = 1 bus. The whole point of mass transit is to ease up road congestion, while providing inexpensive transport for those that need it. Having buses contributing to traffic completely defeats the purpose of using them in the first place. This is just one of many flaws in Simulator Z. Which is why after NAM 37 is released, I will be working with Tarkus on a complete and thorough overhaul, in order to find or create a more perfect traffic simulator.

  3. SC4 for Mac 64-bit

    xxdita replied to macinjosh's topic in SC4 Mac Users

    The @Simmer2 file has MAC station issues as well. So I'll give him the chance to correct these issues. Unfortunately, I have no way of testing MAC compatibility and I have found no information concerning issues with flora mods to help pinpoint the problem. There are 11 total dats included in Lowkee33's flora set. Do they all CTD, or is it one specific file? Do you have a flora replacement mod that is working, so I can compare the two?
  4. Most of the testing was done so long ago. I don't recall verifying the tests done at the time for myself, so I can't really confirm or deny their results. But the great thing about games that depend so highly on math is that the math never changes unless you mod it. So if the data collected over a decade ago was accurate then, there is no reason that testing the matter today won't produce the same results. It's only conventional wisdom until someone says it's not. I would strongly encourage you to try out previous NAM simulators for yourself to compare. Let the traffic simulator enhance your gameplay, not dictate it.
  5. I'll go ahead and post the paragraph you're referring to. I'm quite certain I know whose fingerprints are on it. First of all, I worry about anyone that presumes to know what Maxis devs were thinking when they did anything. Sure, there have been several members of our community that have had the opportunity to have a back and forth with members of the development team through the years, but I have never seen any such messages posted that say "yeah, we had to cuz pathfinding". So I call bs on that. Secondly, I don't buy into any of it. And again I'll point out that I have played with and tested multiple traffic simulators since 2003, including Simulator Z in its beta. All of this is a matter of record. I didn't like it then, I don't like it now. The idea of a magic bullet "Perfect Pathfinding" is laughable considering how many other changes have been made in this simulator, due to whatever justifications have been used. Why do so many Sims prefer buses? Well, that's because they're programmed to. Each wealth type has a percentage that is predisposed to used mass transit, cars, or whichever route is fastest. So when you raise the percentage that require mass transit, then of course Sims are going to be using the buses more frequently. They have to, if it is an option. There was recently a thread about trains not being used the way the OP expected them to be. I believe I said most of this in that thread, or maybe another discussion we've had on the matter. God only knows how many other threads have had complaints of similar issues over the years. I know for a fact that I am not the first to point out these issues with Simulator Z. Am I qualified to give such a harsh evaluation of this or any mod? Yup. I absolutely am.
  6. I know I've said it before, but it's still true. Simulator Z doubles the traffic noise/customers coefficient from vanilla, as well as every other NAM traffic simulator I have ever used, which is pretty much all of them at one point or another. In fact, I've tested beta versions for NAM friends a time or two. This may be perfectly fine in a small town, but there is a massive scalability issue when it comes to large metro areas. Does it make sense to sacrifice Residential areas in favor of Commercial districts? It doesn't to me.

  7. Selective Residential Revamping

    xxdita replied to CorinaMarie's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    With the talk about SAM, I kinda figured. Out of curiosity, which Traffic Simulator do you use? And have you modded it with the Traffic Tool?

  8. Selective Residential Revamping

    xxdita replied to CorinaMarie's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    It's not about bulldozing the new bus stop or playground. These things weren't in place when the building was demolished. So R$ would have grown just fine without them. Which is my whole point. Images of R$$ desirability really don't mean anything to R$. You don't have to take my word for it. The math is fairly clear. R$ has a baseline desirability of 25 (0x00000019), and can grow when desirability reaches 50 (0x00000032). It will likewise abandon if desirability falls under 50. Since images in the first post show 611 R$s living in the dilapidated R$$ building to start with, it is fairly obvious that the desirability is at or over 50 for at least one tract of the 2x3 lot. Otherwise it would have abandoned completely and this would have been a totally different thread. After placing the playground and additional bus stop, I understand why it was necessary to raise taxes to prevent the R$$s from returning, but neither one serves any purposes but overcomplicating the desired goal of giving the R$s a place of their own. And again, with the NKO mod in use, both could have been added after the building grew. So why did a much larger building grow in its place? That can only happen when regional residential capacity allows it. There may be a way to control kicking out lower wealth, but the game will never kick out higher wealth in favor of lower wealths to grow. So the options when similar cases present themselves is to demolish the dilapidated buildings, as @CorinaMarie did, or to fix the desirability issues for the R$$, which could easily change the whole dynamic of the area. Yes and no. It is certainly true that R$ is more inclined to use a bus stop than R$$$. But R$$$ still benefits greatly from them even if they don't use them as much. Because bus stops ease traffic congestion, which clears the route to work. This can make a world of difference if road networks are at or over capacity, raising the desirability factors of both Trip Length and Traffic Effect. I should point out that I am talking about the vanilla traffic simulator or any traffic simulator that existed before the current Simulator Z. This can also be changed in the NAM Traffic Tool by making sure the Buses Contribute to Traffic option is toggled off, and I would personally recommend doing so in order to get the true benefits of buses. I would also recommend trying out prior versions of the Traffic Simulator, which can still be found on the LEX. Keep in mind, these are no longer supported by the NAM Team. But I am quite fond of Simulator A Easy.

  9. CoriBoom ACoCFPaLbN (It's Farm Stuff)

    xxdita replied to CorinaMarie's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    As @Naomi57 hasn't said anything untrue or that I don't agree with, I have no reason to nitpick. Her pic is pretty neat. But since I was quoted, I also added relevant and true information to the conversation. You're more than welcome to verify in Reader.

  10. CoriBoom ACoCFPaLbN (It's Farm Stuff)

    xxdita replied to CorinaMarie's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    All growable buildings require road network access to grow, that's pretty standard. But that doesn't have anything to do with what you quoted, since those networks don't provide any transient aura in the unmodded game. Granted, the aura simulator does have a property to allow for that, but it is set at a default of 0,0.

  11. CoriBoom ACoCFPaLbN (It's Farm Stuff)

    xxdita replied to CorinaMarie's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    I understand what you meant by Anchor, but I wouldn't want @Raymond7cn to get mixed up, if he should ever want to make farms, which I hope he will someday. The types of field depends wholly on the lot that grows. Maxis farms can be pretty random, but custom farms can control which fields grow with which lots with total accuracy. This is determined by the Fields Lot Property in the building desc (0x29b55f73). I would be interested in seeing what specific conditions have to be in place for transient aura to have any impact on which way a farm lot grows. Because it would be great to have the ability to control that.

  12. CoriBoom ACoCFPaLbN (It's Farm Stuff)

    xxdita replied to CorinaMarie's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    Actually, Agriculture doesn't have Anchors at all. There are lots that must be modded as Out buildings in order to work, and there are fields. And that's it. Like all Industrial Out buildings, the main farm lots would really only require road access to grow. Farms have the same desirability requirements of R$, in that they aren't that picky about where they grow, though they are much more adverse to traffic congestion and air pollution than any other RCI type. This is to allow farms to grow freely in the early game. None of my testing over the years has shown that transient aura in any way dictates which way a farm lot will grow.

  13. Selective Residential Revamping

    xxdita replied to CorinaMarie's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    Basic game mechanics would have insured it as well.

  14. Selective Residential Revamping

    xxdita replied to CorinaMarie's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    I have no idea what your post was trying to convey. But it doesn't explain anything that was questioned in any way. Are you recommending that bus stops be placed across the street and every 3 tiles from one another? Even if we're talking about the vanilla bus stop, with a capacity of 1000 and not the NAM override with 17,000 capacity, that seems like overkill for a town with a population of 41,000, as shown in the OP. You can tell by the blue line that none of the pedestrians heading to the new stop are using the buses. Instead, they're going to work in the 2 civic jobs the building provides. Why would the transient aura or park effect be necessary to bring in R$s? If the desirability had been that bad for any reason, the building would have simply abandoned, instead of downgrading. Since that didn't happen, any discussion of these things is fairly pointless. It is quite likely that the R$$s moved in because of the transient aura effect of that first bus stop across the street, and when that dissipated, the desirability dropped back down to normal, which was under the R$$ requirements, but not under the R$ requirements. So yeah. The exact same end results very likely could have been achieved by demolishing the building and changing nothing other than the tileset. And if I understand the NKO mod, even after adding the new bus stop and playground, the R$s would have stayed put, or upgraded when it became time. So literally everything else was unnecessary to achieve the desired goal. I haven't tested the NKO myself. I don't see how it would benefit my playing style at all.

  15. Selective Residential Revamping

    xxdita replied to CorinaMarie's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    If the tract can't support R$$ for desirability reasons, then it's very unlikely they would have returned after you demolished the building anyway. Granted, the new bus stop would have provided a certain amount of Transient Aura inflating the Desirability in the area, but as there seems to be a bus stop directly across the street, I don't see why a new one was necessary. In these cases, I generally try to fix the desirability issues, instead of catering to the lower wealths that have moved in.

  16. Selective Residential Revamping

    xxdita replied to CorinaMarie's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    The only issue I have with the SAM 'parking lots' is that they don't actually provide parking. Functionally, it's no different than any other street.

  17. We Should Develop SimCity 4 Team

    xxdita replied to Propfam's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    I cheat too much to play competitively. @mrbisonm has hosted some really fun competitions in the past.
  18. If you use the traffic simulator that ships with NAM, then the Customer/Traffic Noise ratio is doubled. So just make sure that your Commercial areas have plenty of road access and they should thrive. Ideally, you'll have jobs available for residents as they move in. You should try to plan the traffic as much as possible, but you'll always have to make minor adjustments as you go.

  19. Show us What you're Working On

    xxdita replied to Haljackey's topic in SC4 Showcase

    Suddenly, I want cake.
  20. I never said anything about your system specs. My Wally World HP Special has pretty much the same schematics, although I did recently upgrade to 8GB. Since the game only requires a Pentium 3, I think we're good to go for SC4 and SOL with Cities Skylines, though I'm suspecting that's the Intel graphics. Your problem is either an eternal commuter loop or hidden modding issues. Eternal commuter loops can be corrected usually, but modding mistakes can stay with your cities until you destroy them. Even correcting the issue(s) may not actually resolve damage done, though it will prevent it from getting worse.

  21. Show us What you're Working On

    xxdita replied to Haljackey's topic in SC4 Showcase

    You could certainly make these statues into a prop family. But that generally works better with props that are similar in size. It seems like you have 14 statues that will fit on 1x1 parks, and two that will need a 4x4. I don't know if the dimensions are appropriate, but the round fountain statue would be amazing as a roundabout.
  22. Installers always allow the option of choosing a custom path. Providing only the Prop or Texture Packs is fairly pointless, as this provides no lots usable in the game. The Dark Night mod is optional. @mattb325 and @Girafe both have models that give you the choice of Dark Night or Maxis Night. Sam Essentials has been incorporated into BSC Essentials. So that locked plugin won't be an issue.

  23. Show us What you're Working On

    xxdita replied to Haljackey's topic in SC4 Showcase

    BSC LEX Superior Collection Volume 02 is now on the LEX.
  24. This shouldn't be a problem with the BSC Superior Collection. Even when I get to the CAM Collections, I will not be including files that require much effort or thought to get installed properly. We have plenty of BSC content on the LEX to make sure that these first Collections are as noob-friendly as possible. As a player myself, I have always greatly appreciated the installers, as they are the easiest way to keep my Plugins folder organized in a reasonable manner, without having to think about it at all. This can be extremely helpful for new players. It doesn't matter if it's 93 installers or 93 files or folders to move over. That's the same amount of time either way, really, so I don't have much sympathy on that. But we are talking behind the scenes about things we can do. I'm hoping that we can come up with a better solution than just to remove the installers. But this Collection requires absolutely no brain power. You don't have to worry about ReadMe's, because all of the dependencies are included in the download. That right there is worth its weight in gold. Whatever 450MB of gold weighs in this economy. I am very happy about the success of this first Collection so far. It's had over 1400 views in the first week, which has turned into over 1000 downloads on many of the files I've been tracking. In my mind, that's huge. Even better, I have had to do absolutely no tech support on any of the files included. So I am putting the finishing touches on Volume 2, which should be live in the next few hours.
  25. It can get complicated, but that's what Cleanitol is for.
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