lewellan222

Digby - East Coast Region Welcome to the Region of Digby, a modest East Coast community just waiting to grow into something bigger! This journal will follow the progress of Digby as it transforms from an unremarkable region of small cities and towns into a thriving metropolis. At the start of our story, Digby consists of eight cities and more than 48 small towns and villages. The starting total population for the whole region is 66,172 Sims. The time is 1950, and things are starting to pick up in the region. The growth of the towns and cities in Digby will very slow and realistic. In keeping with my desire for realistic growth, I have created the 1950's version of Digby as realistically as possible: 1) City and Town Placement - Cities don't just crop up out of nowhere. They are almost always situated based on two determining factors: As you can see, Digby consists of eight main cities. The rest of the region already contains dozens of small towns and villages, and lots of farmland. Digby Geography The Regional Municipality of Digby consists of a mainland divided by three rivers, and two large islands. There are also some mountains in the area. The following map show the general layout of Digby geography. Digby Zone Map The following map is mosaic of the zone map from every single area of Digby. All of the cities, towns, and villages are marked. (Start thinking about where you would like to live!) Now, let's have a look at the first of our eight major cities!

Oh, boy! What a tremendous response! Thank you so much, everyone, for the warm response...gosh, now the pressure is on. So far, I have been "fleshing out" Granton a little bit. I have not been reckless, but have added some outlying streets to make the city bigger so I can start working. Highway plans have started. I am still working out the details, and am struggling with the NAM...or BLAM...or FAM? What is it? The transport mod? Well, whatever it is called, I expect I will need it as I cannot build the highway with the railroads the way they are. And railroads don't move. So the highway has got to go over them...I'll probably be fiddling with that for a bit. Anyone with tip or direction on working with highways go Private Message me...thanks again, everyone.

Where the Heck Have I Been? Well, one word. "World of Warcraft". Oh, that's three words. Okay, three words. Still, that darned game took a year out of my life! Okay, here is a rundown of the last two years. I stopped building Digby, but did not erase it! It just sat. I tried "getting back into it" but the video card I was using wouldn't let me play the simulation. So I gave up again and went on to other games. Then I got into World of Warcraft. If any of you are into it, you know what I mean. Now, after finally getting rid of the drug that is WoW, I have a new video card, and am building in Digby again. So the region lives again. I have been doing a lot of building. In the meantime, I see that the forum here has changed quite a bit, and I'll have to do a lot of editing. Not to worry. I'll give it a shot. However, I don't think I'll spend as much time as I did before with the updates. They probably won't be as fancy, but who knows! Just leave it with me, and I'll see what I can do...

Almost Done! Hi everybody. I've only got two more performances left, then The Sound of Music closes on Saturday. I fully expect to get back to updating my journal...in the meantime, here is a pic of me singing Edelwei

I Know, I am Never Home! Hi everybody! I know it's been a while since I have done anything with Digby, and I am sorry to see that the Edmonton Journal (although it is great!) has unseated the Digby Journal as the Most Read journal in Simtropolis...however, I am still on a wicked schedule right now. I think I am mentioned that in addition to the eight million things I do in life, I also do a lot of acting, and I am playing Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music...rehearsals for this production are every day and are in addition to my full time job, so I am out of the house from early morning until almost midnight every day! This will only last until the middle of March, when the show finally opens. It only plays for three weeks, so I promise I will get back to the journal in a couple of weeks! Please be patient, and remember...climb ev'ry mountain, ford ev'ry stream...

Granton Gets a New Private Girl's School As you may remember from the news a while back, Granton has a new private girl's school. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on your income level! https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Spot-Granton.jpg align=baseline> https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//01_PSchool_Sat.jpg align=baseline> https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//PSchool_Map01A.jpg align=baseline> https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//PSchool_Map01B.jpg align=baseline> https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//02_PSchool_Front.jpg align=baseline> Looking at the rear of the school: https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//03_PSchool_Rear.jpg align=baseline> And the west side: https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//04_PSchool_West.jpg align=baseline> There are not, to my knowledge, any plans for a boy's school. Maybe the Board of Education thinks there's no hope for the boys...

Water Mod for Digby You read it in the news, and now it is a reality! The water in Digby is now more consistent with what one would find on a northern east coast area. When looking for a water mod that would get rid of the sparkly-blue default water of the game, I was initially going to let you guys vote on what you wanted. But then I realized that there was a factor that would alter the process. This was the Pegasus Factor. The Pegasus Factor dictates the following: 1 - The BAT creations by Pegasus are superior, often exceeding the quality of even the Maxis creations, and must be accounted for by any serious user of SimCity 4. 2 - Pegasus uses water (such as his Ponds, Streams, and other creations). Water is water. It should look consistent on the landscape. Thus, I had to abandon my plan to let the readers decide on what water to use for Digby. Instead, I needed to find a suitable match for Pegasus' ponds and streams. Here is what I chose to pick from (using Granton Beach as our test area): By the way, most of those above were created by Simtropolite timotheus, who offers a great variety of water options. A quick comparison to Pegasus' water narrowed down the choices quickly. And the Winner is...Muddy Grey The winner? Timotheus' Muddy Grey! Although the other water textures all looked great, there really wasn't much choice in the end. Here it is compared with Pegasus' water: That's good enough for me! Want to see it in practice? We'll to to Naylor's Pass for a look: The Dananagua River is looking much more like a real river, and not one from fantasyland. A realworld comparison with Pegasus' water can be found in Arlington County: I am happy with this, so I think I'll keep it!

Oh boy...More Changes to the Posting Interface! In an effort to try to keep my Digby posts consistant, I'm gonna have to play around here for a minute trying to match up typefaces...standby... Hmmm..Verdana Size 2 is looking not bad on my system here... Now For a Title Test...well, this isn't the best match...I seem to have lost the ability to use Arial Black! Drat!... Maybe I'll just cut-and-paste my titles from previous posts... Whoops...another problem...the editor does not differentiate between a carriage return (Enter key) and a forced carriage return (Shift-ENTER keys)...this means I cannot isolate and highlight a single paragraph for indent without affecting the entire post. I'll have to message Dirk about this. Give me a second to muck around with the next update. In the meantime, look at pictures of me on my horse at www.fnmp.org ...they are good for a laugh. Also, I apologize for the lack of updates. I am overwhelmed with work right now. I am on the implementation team that is installing a new computer system for my 700-officer police force..that, coupled with my playing the role of Captain von Trapp full-time in The Sound of Music (I kid you not, I do a lot of musical theatre also) is really taking up all my gaming time!

Chicago Firehouse (Engine 77) by SimGoober Here is a nice useful little BAT that I've just used in Grande Forkes. We sure need more BATs like this, I tell ya'!

Other Uses for the Maps Of course, I have also designed the maps so that they can do more than just show you where things are. I can use them to show function as well. For instance... Bus Routes in Grande Forkes Here is the current placment of bus stops in Grande Forkes. The current volume of each stop is shown, as are the main routes (highlighted on the streets in Transit Mauve) A screen shot of the basic data map from the game, translates into something more meaningful: As you can see, there isn't a whole hootin' heckuva lot of people riding the bus here. I can also use the Road Map, as opposed to the Street Map to show larger portions of a city and spotlight areas from a higher altitute (thanks Mr. Smoor). These maps can get little busy, I suppose, but they're still fun to make. I can see how these maps will be quite useful...or course, I still have to make them for the other SIX cities...(sigh)...

The Grande Forkes Maps Before I start getting into building, I wanted to finish up the maps for each of our eight main cities. We already saw Granton a while ago. This time, we'll have a look at Grande Forkes Maps really help to keep the reader oriented. As you can tell, I like making maps! As before, there are two maps. The first shows the entire city in a simplified form. It contains main streets, and some services and facilities. I call it the road map because it shows major roads, but not all streets. As you can see, there are some facilities in Grande Forkes, but it still doesn't have an airport, and there is no shipping here (the rivers are too narrow and shallow). The next map is the street map. It is a zoomed view of the built up areas of the city. The map below shows the portion of the road map that is shown in the street map. The full street map is shown below. All streets are listed, and the locations of all city services are outlined. Focus on Grande Forkes The focus presentations use the above maps in conjuction with screen shots to, um...focus...on certain areas of interest. For these, I zoom in even further on the street map, then spotlight the area with a screen shot from the game. This helps to mesh the map with the game. These maps are very accurate because they are traced over top of screen shots taken from the game. Streets are postioned and named exactly as they appear in SimCity4. I am hoping that this approach will help people to get a sense of place in my cities. I intend to use this map approach to highlight building projects, and to help orient reader to the many BAT structures from Simtropolis that I will be featuring soon. Speaking of BATs... Man, I just gotta say, some of you BATers out there are incredibly talented! I am almost beside myself with excitment at the great structures I am going to feature in Digby. I have painstakingly gone through the entire STEX of BATs page by page, and hand-selected 92 (yes, that's ninety-two) different original BAT structures that I want to feature in Digby. And that is only for 1950's Digby, which does not use the 1990's Houston or 2010 Euro architectural styles yet! So I have a lot of work ahead of me. In some cases, there are some artists (yes, some of these guys are nothing less than artists!)...there are some of these people that are so prolific, that I will feature whole presentations just on that artist! So, let's get crackin'! (I hope you enjoyed the maps!)

Mod Class Is Over! That's it for now. Thanks for reading! You'll see the results of using these mods thoughout Digby in the future. As I said before, these are simple tools that allow me to shape things with more control. They aren't cheats, and they don't do anything crazy with the simulator. Next, we'll do some building, 'cause to be honest I haven't really done any building in months.

The hole digger. This simple little set of lots are designed to prepare the ground to accept tunnels, particularily those that are meant to dip under exisiting road and rail. The lots are made for all types of transportation with the exception of elevated rail. In addition, there is a lot that raises terrain, which I'll show at the end. The lots are placed, then a road or rail is dragged into them. When that happens, the terrain drops or raises sharply, just the right amount to make the tunnel. The lots are then bulldozed, and the road and rail is built normally and the tunnels are thus created. The Hole Digging Lots allow us to follow the real world principle that engineers don't want cars stopping for trains (or crossing train tracks) wherever possible. Also, main traffic arteries should not be interrupted by lesser arteries wherever possible. Of course this is not always possible (so we need traffic lights), but you will find many examples in your own city where the road goes over or under another road or rail because one is more important than the other! Tunnels allow us to do this in SC4, but they are tricky to make manually. The Hole Digging lots help us out in this regard. In our example, we'll go to Whetherford: And pick a spot where we don't want cars stopping for trains...ah, here is one on Miles Rd (inbound Highway 58): Okay, let's get in there and dig! But before we do, I must tell you in this example the Levelling Mod was removed! That's why the street drop into the upcoming underpass is short and steep. Otherwise, the Levelling Mod would have created a much more gradual and long incline, which would have taken up too much valuable real estate in this congested part of town. And looking at it front another angle, you see this: The Ground Lifter In many real world cases, it is more common to go over something than under it. The ground lifter lot in the same set allows for this. In this example, I have put the Levelling Mod back on! This will ensure nice gradual terrain slope! These solutions for overpasses and underpasses are the best the current game has to offer. It's too bad SC4 doesn't have a better built-in tool for creating these, since most underpasses and overpasses are actually bridges and not tunnels. Tunnels are actually quite rare. But this is still a good solution! Thanks, smoncrie!

This handy mod has been around for a while. It is considered essential by many. I am now one of those people. Plainly speaking, it makes bridge look better. The mod makes bridges settle nicely onto land instead of clumsily. Let's go back to Grande Forkes and see what effect this mod has on the famous D. W. Dalton Memorial Bridge: Before and after: Aah! Much better! Let's look at the process of replacing and building bridges. It's pretty straight forward, but we'll look at the pretty pictures anyway. By the way, these bridges were built with the Levelling Mod installed, which is why the rail bridge has a more even landing than the street bridge. And so, in future, the bridges of Digby will look a little better. Thanks, joerg!

Okay, let's have a look at this Leveling Mod! If you remember a while back, I went to great length to describe how to level out the terrain to realistically depict train tracks: Blah, blah, blah!... Well, it was mentioned to me by member Motina that there was a mod for doing this, but in my fear of all things mod I didn't act on it. Since the No Palm Tree mod seemed to give me courage in mods, I PM'd Motina and he sent me in the right direction. Thus, I came across this handy, but tricky, mod. Here is what it does in its most basic function: And all that with a single drag! Gosh, that would've taken me half an hour to do by hand! Checking out a rail crossing in Grande Forkes, you can see how what a great effect the mod can have. Everything around these tracks - the road and the fields - all dropped to meet the level track. Add a few fences (thanks Suico) and we're in business! Check this out below...real tracks do this all the time! The tool will allow you to clean up messes like the one below. When done, the above can be cleaned up to look like this: It is especially at junctions like the above where you want everything level, because these spots draw a lot of attention to themselves. In the caption above, I mention not bothering with all this if starting a new city. Much of this worrying about level track can be avoided if your level an area BEFORE you start building a city. In my case, I am correcting an existing region, so I have to do repair work, but if starting from scratch it isn't as hard. Just remember, if starting from scratch LAY ALL OF YOUR MAIN RAIL LINES FIRST! I say this from the beginning, but the levelling tool really pushes the point. Avoiding Unwanted Tunnels I have mentioned that this tool can be tricky to use. The reason for this is because the tool essentially only creates level track. This means you can really paint yourself in to a corner. For example, it might want to make a tunnel where you don't want it, like below: The solution is often simple: Joining Tracks That Won't Join! One challenge with the mod is joining tracks at different elevations. Sometimes the track would need to be at an angle greater then 2-degrees, and the mod won't let you do that. You'll have to temporarily remove the mod from the Plugins folder to find solutions. But before you do that, you can prepare the ground ahead of time so the un-modded track is not too drastic. Remember, this mod is for roads and streets too! With the mod installed, the tolerance of roads is much less also! Use this to your advantage. Since we know we must lay un-modded track there later, why not smooth it out with modded street? That way there will still be nice gradual slope, and nothing crazy. Tiering a Tracked Elevation It also looks good to gradually tier the slope of the track. This means carefully laying flat sections of modded track at slightly increasing elevations up to the final level. Then remove the mod, go back and fill in the sloped areas between the flat sections. The larger the distance between elevations, the better the track looks. Another look at this same rail system further down the line shows how tiering is necessary to traverse drastic changes in elevation: Like I said before, many of you might not want to be moving the mod in and out of your Plugins Folder. But if you have very hilly or mountainous terrain, working with the mod on all the time will be tricky or impossible. If you even terrain, many of you will be able to leave the mod in all the time. A Digby Example of the Levelling Tool Let's go to the small town of St. Marys, just south of Morrison. Here, there is a large hill that both rail and road must get over. Using the Levelling Mod, the end result was as seen below: On steep inclines, road and rail must often zig-zag to minimize the grade on which trains and cars must travel. Like we talked about before, the mod won't let you create steep slopes, so you'll have to do some footowork. As I explained before, create your flat, modded sections first. Then touch up later with the unmodded track. Don't forget how useful the modded street can be: The levelling mod often results in the creation of other desireable flat elements, like the industry at the base of the mountain in St. Marys: Is This Mod Too Much Work? Some of you may be thinking this mod creates more work than it saves. I disagree. It's easy to move it in and out of the Plugins Folder. And the amount of nit-picky terraforming required to create satisfactory flat rail would be far greater without the tool. Ideally, SC4 would have a button that let you determine the track tolerance setting, much like that in Railroad Tycoon 3 (which by the way has a great undo function). Maybe someday, but I think Maxis rightfully puts playability before the need to minutely shape terrain. Let's have a look at the next mod.

Three New Mods for Digby Well, the time has come to talk about mods. As I mentioned before, I have been experimenting with some select mods in my neverending quest to make Digby a little more realistic and interesting. Remember, these mods are simply placed in the Plugins folder and can be removed at any time. They do not alter gameplay, but do alter the way things look, and in the following cases, the way terrain is shaped. Here they are, in order of presentation: Tunnel and Slope Mod by Big Red Fish This mod was tweaked by member Big Red Fish based on a mod made previously by member CSQ. The Tunnel and Slope Mod is also called the Levelling Mod, and I like that name better because it seems more accurate to me. (Note on spelling: leveling is American and levelling is British/Canadian...those crafty Amis keep dropping letters; ie. thru and honor... I sometimes alternate between both spellings, because I live in Canada, but on the US border) So what does the levelling mod do? This mod changes the tolerable slope values of roads, streets, rail, and others such that they force the terrain around them to slope more gradually. In other words, the terrain rises or falls to meet the road instead of vise-versa. This creates smoother routes and results in terrain shaping that more closely mimics what engineers do in real life. This comes at a cost, though. The low tolerances make it much harder to place roads and rail on uneven terrain. There are many times where the terrain is lowered or raised so far that the result is unworkable. Thus, it is often necessary to remove the mod every once in a while so that one can continue touch up. However, some people report leaving the mod installed at all times and don't worry about removing it. It can be tricky to use, but is still an essential tool in my opinion. Why I Don't Think This Mod is Cheating The Leveling Mod avoids the need for spending large sums of cash trying to tweak the terrain. In my Level Rail presentation a few months back, I showed how much work it is to manually level terrain for tracks realistically. This wouldn't be so bad if the terrain leveling tool that comes with the game wasn't so unforgiving. It is difficult to use, and very hard to exercise exact control. There is no undo function in terrain modification, so one is forced to spend ridiculous amounts of cash to correct mistakes. Finally, the terrain tool in the game has a continuously rolling charge meter that keeps rolling up the cost when you hold the mouse button down even if you aren't moving the cursor! Not fair! Engineers don't try building a road without first planning it all out. So a tool that let's me make level roads and tracks without is fine with me. The mod is found at: https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?mode=viewtopic&topicID=44972&num=30&pageNo=3 This mod is not to be found in the Modding Area, I am not sure why. Make sure you use the file called BRF_TunnelSlopeMod-b.zip as this is the latest one that does not contain alterations to the elevated rail tunnels, which are apparently quite quirky. Bridge Height Mod by joerg This is a very popular mod that simply creates a more level transition between land and bridge. This mod is considered an essential to many players. Why I Don't Think This Mod is Cheating The bridges in the game look a bit silly with their 45-degree ramps leading up to them. There is a reason for this, but since Digby is all about aesthetics, I'll go for the better looking bridges, thanks! The function of the bridge is not affected, and thus gameplay is not altered. This mod is found at: https://www.simtropolis.com/modding/index.cfm?mode=details&show=314 Hole Digger Mod/Lot by smoncrie This is actually a lot, and not so much a mod. Still, member smoncrie has provided a handly little array of lots that allow you to dig holes (or lift the ground) to facilitate tunnels or overpasses. The depth of the tunnels is set such that a tunnel can just squeeze through, keeping the angles at a minimum. When used in conjuction with the Leveling Mod can make some great looking configurations. Why I Don't Think This Mod is Cheating For the same reason as the Leveling Mod...terrain is a bugger to alter in the game, and SC4 unfairly overcharges the player who must tinker to get the heights right before digging a tunnel. This does the work for you, and you still pay for it. This mod can be found at: https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?mode=files&filetype=lot&category=default&sortby=DatePosted&show=12&Str=smoncrie

Some New Year

This Just In...

More on Mods I’ve got a bit more to say about the use of mods in Digby. But first, I should clarify that I don't think I ever said I wouldn’t use custom lots and BAT structures. On the contrary, the only reason I still play this game is because of the current and future availability of custom structures. I wouldn’t be bothered with this game a year after getting it if the same old buildings kept popping up with no chance of variety. I stopped playing SC3000 very early when I found out that custom-made structures over-wrote original structures, thus limiting the pool of varied structures. Having said that, lots alone are not as appealing to me if they don't contain custom structures. I don't think I have many (or any) lots that simply employ pre-existing structures on a differently-shaped lot. However, I did initially say I would not use mods in Digby because I was new to the game and most of the mods were new and often in beta stages. That was over a year ago. But now there are many mods that are thoroughly tested and well-proven to be dependable. Still, that doesn’t mean I’ll use just any mod. 1 - The mod must not be what I consider a cheat. By that I mean the mod cannot circumvent the basic gameplay requirements in a disproportionate way. This might include such things as ignoring reward criteria, turning off the game’s the use funds, or turning off or exaggerating the effects of city services such as policing or power. This does not preclude using a mod that might assist with labor-intensive processes, such as leveling ground or placing trees. But you won't see any super-structures that provide three trillion kilowatt hours of power from a single tile. And no money-making trees. 2 - The mod must be removable. It must not create such a permanent change to the saved game so that its removal would cripple the game. What kind of mods am I interested in? I am most interested in mods that allow me to make Digby more realistic. There are a lot of things in the game that made me crazy, like the palm trees. And the fading cars. And I do not mind using a mod that makes it more realistic. In fact, you are about two see two or three more mods that make Digby more realistic and better-looking. So there it is. See you at the next post!

Mods in Digby?! Oh, my! Okay, friends, I have an admission to make. I have been using a mod in Digby. There. I said it. Now, before you stop reading my journal in protest, I will explain myself: When I first started Digby over one year ago, I was new to the game and to Simtropolis. When I read about mods, I would hear scary things like how some of them messed up gameplay, or how people's cities went all screwy when the Rush Hour expansion came out. So I thought to myself I'd better stay clear of these scary 'mods' However, things have changed. There are many mods out there that have proven themselves very stable, and most are completely harmless in that they don't alter gameplay so much as simply change the way something looks. And since I am all about the looks of things, I had to reconsider. Besides, most mods can simply be removed from the plugins folder if they cause trouble. So, you might wonder, which mod have I snuck in under your noses? Well, the last news article must have given it away. No Palm Tree Mod by Swamper77 I have hated the palm trees in Digby more than you can no. I almost hate them as much as I hate the fading traffic in the game (which is my number one hate and for which I still consider a design flaw). I hated the palm trees so much I made up a story to justify their existance. Then I stumbled across Swamper77's No Palms Mod and with a simple transfer of a tiny little file or two into my plugin folder, the palms went away (for the most part). The little buggers still appear in the high wealth areas, but placing a SINGLE road tile in a block replaces them with happy little decidious seedlings! You can find this handy little mod/lot at the following URL: https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?mode=files&filetype=Prop&Str=no%20palm%20mods I initially accidentally attributed this mod to Trolca, my mistake. I see it was in fact Swamper77 who has posted it. Thanks, Swamper77! Now, I would remind my faithful readers that a mod is not a cheat! I don't cheat. At least, not yet. I am still paying for every tree I plant and every blob of earth I move. And I don't circumvent gaming requirements such as the Don't Need Electricity for Anything mod or the City Builds Itself Mod. I hope you guys aren't mad at me...

Featured House In this crazy world of custom BAT structures, I just wanted to draw attention to the superb work that the original creators of SimCity4 have included in the core game. Although some of the BAT stuff made by Simtropolites is top notch, very few people come close to the quality of work of the Maxis team of artists. As a nod to them, I will randomly pick small structures from the core game and highlight them. Why pick just houses? Because small houses are some of the neatest little gems in SC4. Or sure, everyone likes the towering skyscrapers and the great edifaces, but there are so many great little houses in this game, I am gonna focus on them. Today, this house in Granton caught my fancy. Note the details on this little clapboard house. What a great little model: The weathered clapboard is clearly discernable. The shingles are shaded and irregular so they stand out. The two skylights in the roof add a nice touch. There are stains on the shingles coming from the chimney flashing and the vent pipe. The artist has included flashing where the two gabled roofs meet, which there would be in real life. Eaves troughs (gutters) and porch railings provide further detail. And finally, the colours are muted down...no flashy reds or whites here. The end result is a very smart little house. Good job, Maxis!