roguetech

I can't really see how you'd be able to do grids of different shapes, or even how it would help. But I can definitly see having a grid of squares bisected into 4 triangles. Normally, dragging would cover the would square, but zoomed in, or doing diagonels would allow "cutting" the square. The only problem with the current system is allowing more natural curves for roads. All the other problems can be solved within the current system (how hard would it be to allow diagonal buildings??)

Everyone is saying to get rid of grids, but I don't see how that would work... I suppose you could have brushes; round, square, line, etc. for zones, but all pre-made buildings will still be rectangles. I think getting rid of the grid system would make it way more work to do what you want to do (assumming, of course, what you want to do is "normal"), while still being tied to some degree to gridding. As an alternative, some are suggesting using smaller grids, or packing more into them. My suggesting is to combine them, and come up with a way to dynamically size the grids. Through a combination of scrolling, alt-keys, and game settings, you could do broad swatches or tiny grids. I suck at drawing, and 9 out of 10 times, I want a road to go straight from A to B, not curving around, so I'm a fan of grids. My only other suggestion is to NOT upgrade the u-drive through feature (other than keeping up with other game changes), or Sim nations or planets, or galaxies (they tried SimEarth and SimLife-didn't work), or extensive multiplay (sharing a region would be enough), or resource gathering, or technoligical research. Anything that is not about building (and viewing) the city can stay out. SimCity can not and definitly should not attempt to compete against Civ or The Sims. Some folks mentioned SC4 becoming Open Source with SC5... Obviously not gonna happen, but maybe SC3K.... Maxis?

I tend to use grids and "supergrids", and they work great. I've got 0 traffic above green, commute time under 45 minutes (often under 40 minutes), with 300,000 population, using relatively little space (I'm at ~half a large region block). I feel I could easily reach 1-1.5 million if I finished it out (I haven't used any reward buildings except the university and private schools, or landmarks). The key most definitly planning, with future needs in mind. To make sure a plan is going to work is very simple. Build it. If it doesn't work, slowly remodel it. Just don't place any reward buildings until you know the infrastructure can handle the maximum population load (or use a cheat, and rebuild any dozed rewards). Usually, I'll get at least 2x, or even 3x grid of supergrids built before any rewards go in. All that said, I plan on starting over soon, and allow for more organics in the layout, and see how the other half of the world (i.e. Simtropolis) lives. I can post a screen shot later if anyone is interested; I've only been trolling here for a couple days, but I haven't seen anyone else doing anything quite like this. It's based on the 6x concept everyone else has mentioned, but provides more room for civic buildings and transportation buildings, without disrupting the pattern (i.e. this is a super-anal grid pattern): supergrid HHHAHHAHHH HH AAAAA HH A AZSZSZA A H ASSSSSA H H AZS SZA H H ASSSSSA H A AZSZSZA A HH AAAAA HH HHHAHHAHHH * H = Highway HH = cloverleaf A = Avenue Z = Zone S = street (One-way Roads) grid ("Zone") . . . AAAAAAAAAA . .AAAAAAAAAAAA AAAACCCCCCMSC AAAMCCCCCCCSC AACCCCCCCCCSC AACCC . . . .RRRSR AACCC . . . .RRRSR AACCC . . . .RRRSR AACCCR R RRRRSR AACCCR R RRRRSR AACCCR R RRRRSR AASSSSSSSSSSSS AAMCCR R RRRMSR * AA = Avenue (two lanes, not two avenues) S = street (again, One-Way Road) C = Commercial R = Residential M = Mass transit (though I've switched to the cheating RTMT) . = empty This would be the NW quandrant (what would that be with nine pieces??), and the C goes around the superzone, with R in the middle. The center zone of the superzone goes to civic buildings, and the center 3x block in each zone goes to parks. The corner of the zone is angled to show where the cloverleaf cuts in. Industrial superzones are done the same, except the center zone of the superzone is used for zoning instead of civic, with only police (fire and/or parking garages might be wise, though). Again, screenshot posted on request. * Not to scale. Dramatization. Closed course with professional drivers. Try this at home. etc.