erazor

What we have here is a new transporation method. Sims take cabs! It is a 1x1 lot which you place near any road, which gives every pedestrian a ride to the office & back. Small plopp fee & no maintence (private business). There is also a 1x1 RoadTop lot which you place on the roads to save space. What it basically does is the reverse of a parking lot. Instead of turning cars into pedestrians, it turns pedestrians into cars. While this concept has been implemented into an older lot (rent-a-car or so) by someone else, i've decided to make some taxis. This is how it works: - Sims walk up to one of these stations, either from their home or some kind of MassTransit station (btw, taxis in this lot are not considered MT, but rather just Cars). They then convert to cars which takes them anywhere their own regular car would take them. - At the end of the day, they need to get back. Since they arrived at their workplace as a 'car', the simulation thinks its their own car and thus they just ride straight home. Think of it as taxis patroling the commercial districts. The next morning it starts over. Sim gets on MT to next taxi stop & takes a ride to work. <- this though depends on what is fastest. I've noticed in my tests that some sims prefer walking to one of the taxistands instead of taking their own car on the same road, which would be faster. I have also noticed that sims prefer using taxis on occations, instead of taking a bus which on a road actually travels faster. Though this is probably do to the fact that the taxi takes them directly to the work place, and if they would ride the bus or some other 'faster' MT they would have to walk from the station to the workplace. Anyway, just so you know, taxistands are common in metropolitan areas where taxis just park and wait for customers. You can find a lot of them in Vienna, Austria. Enjoy, and feel free to post your suggestions. ============== UPDATE: VERSION 2 ============== -Bug fix: Buses & trucks could not transit RoadTop Taxi stand - fixed it real quick! No change made to anything else. ** changed one screenshot - the roundabout in the last made the transit arrows look kinda wierd. Besides, this is a better example ============== UPDATE VERSION 3 ============== - Added taxis driving up & down the streets - thx to darkmatter - Fixed a bug, that i originally concidered a feature, that would change cars back into pedestrians (simulating arriving passengers). This gave it a dual function of being a taxi stand AND a parking lot. Fixed that! Now it only converts pedestrians into cars and thats it! <- works out better this way. - Added description texts to each lot Lots are IMO complete now and i won't update them again unless a bug surfaces. Enjoy

I'm currently playing on a large map with a big island. I got some nice industry going and thought, well how do i get my cargo off this island? Well, i could let the trucks rumble all over my island and get to the docks. Though this option left my industry with a long commute time through a big city. I guess i could also relocate the industry near the shore. But no, i wanted to lay some RR tracks and have the trains bring it to the docks, and the ships take it off the island. Sounds like a plan, no? Well to make that possible, i had to modify the Freight station (or create a new lot; i figured the first option was better - no need for multiple freight stations). All i modified was for the stations to be able to "convert" freight trains into "trucks" in addition to its old features. Just place the .dat into your plugins folder. No worries, it is not a permanent change! If you don't like it, just delete the .dat again! Besides my above example, you can also have trains transport cargo closer to the edge of the map, and then let trucks take over. I'm sure you'll have your uses for this mod!

UPDATE: Version 2 ============= Seeing the demand for a InterCity Roadtop RR station, i created a big RR station in addition to the small one. I only created this because it is also realistic and fits my own plans. In Austria, "Schnellbahn" (or 'fast tracks'), are also often used to connect more communities, but also have multiple stops within a city. The difference is, that freight trains and other heavy trains use the same track. So the bigger station DOES NOT block freight traffic. The little station, however, remains as it was for your 'local trains', and how that works is described in the lower half of this description. Stats on Big RR station: Capacity is 3000. 500 plop cost. 20 month. Small RR station stats: Capcity 2000. Plop (forgot, but cheap ), 10 month. NOTICE this feature: I got a roadtop Taxi stand next to the Big RR station. You can place network tiles next to the big RR station, but only on the sides (obviously). Usually you can't place Network tiles next to each other, thats why in the other screenshot, i got the regular Taxi stand opposite the small RR station (which btw, you can't place next to a network tile). Btw, it also looks real cool when you place a couple of the big ones close together and then drag out the rail lines, connect them, and traffic light suddenly pop up looks cool ** NOW the rating of these lots better go above 9 or you can kiss any future lots good bye! And you gotta admit, my lots ain't that bad, eh? ================= (original version) This is a 1x1 Passenger Railway Station that you plopp ONTOP of Rails to save space! Lets be honest, most cities only have 1-3 'big' Railway stations as the game depicts, and they are for INTERCITY commute. But what about all those INTRACITY commuters that use what is known in german as a "Strassenbahn" - sorry, can't translate, but its the system were rails are put into regular street roads and trains drive on. Also they often just drive next to roads, depending on how much room is available. Anyway, for those type of trains, they have small stops that don't take up much room. So i figured you guys would like that too, no? It works out great in my city In Vienna, Austria, a popular railway line is the 'badner-bahn', which i actually tried to model in the above screenshot (looks very close). I just wish someone would give me Concrete textures to replace all those nasty dirt ones. Anyway, use this station in combination with either Bus stations or my Taxis, for example. (notice the taxi station in the screenshot? 95% of the sims arriving at that station use taxis to move on). It works out great! Also, The station (ONLY THE SMALL ONE) BLOCKS FREIGHT TRAINS - i did this on purpose because freight trains are to heavy for that type of rails (in real life), and they shouldn't be in the city anyway. Also, The station has a YIMBY effect. Sims love that station and so will you hehe ++++++ EDIT: Let me explain something: I can only relate to what i've experienced. In Vienna, they got 3 major railroad stations for pax & freight. Then they got own dedicated lines throughout the city just for lightweight pax trains. They do not support heavy trains (Freight). And thats what i've tried to model !! - 'strassenbahnen' or 'local trains' whatever you call 'em in english. Thats the reason i blocked freight trains, it would look odd if freight treins went through your residential area & your commercial districts and stuff (i gave this lot a YIMBY in comm. & res. areas). DO NOT think of this lot as INTERCITY transportation - think of it as INTRACITY. **I will not "fix" something i can not agree with or that does not go with my concept. Remember, i got what i wanted, and i'm kind enough to share it with the rest so you can use it to. If your not happy with something, i'm sorry, but then you need to design your own lots. **

UPDATE Version 5 Added 1x1 Dirt *functional* parking lot for farm areas. This is the last update for this series (presumable ). ================== UPDATE Version 4 ================== - Fixed a bug where lots often wouldn't get used do to increased commute time. So I Eliminated any increase in commute time on my parking lots. So now only the commute times associated with the Mass Transit system your supporting are being used. After i fixed it, my parking lots got a lot more traffic! For fixes to take effect, you must demolish old lot and build the new one on top! Also, i won't be making a gravel parking lot - sorry. My point in creating these lots were to make "FUnctional, or Useable" parking lots, and not to create eyecandy that served no purpose. ================== one 1x1, one 1x2, one 2x3, and one 2x2 grass parking lot for rural settings. Small one holds 50 cars (think of it in an entire day, instead of any given moment), the middle one holds 150, the big one holds 500 and the grass lot holds 300. Cheap too plopp and no monthly fee. Also, the lot slopes, which looks nicer IMO, since there are no buildings as props. You can find them in the same menu the other parking garages are under. It doesn't have a custom description text 'cause i can't make it work. BUt it does have its custom name. Also, the lots use random items/cars, so you got variation. Enjoy ***btw, just to clear some confusion:*** The difference between these lots and other parking lots are, that these lots function as transport lots (meaning they work) , and the other lots (at least the ones i've found) only function as parks and look good. ** UPDATE: Version 2 ** Added lamp posts & a 2x3 parking lot, which holds 500 cars. I know that the icons look similar but i can't figure out how to change it, sorry. I also removed the maintence fee on all lots. Btw, I noticed in my tests that these parking lots can take up to 3x the number of cars before they get dark red on the traffic map. NOTE: You will need to demolish the old lots first and rebuild these in order for them to change appearence (lamp post). Don't know why ** UPDATE: VERSION 3 I added one 2x2 grass lot. This concludes this set. Hope you all like it. (and no, i didn't forget the lamp post on the grass lot, cause there is none intended )

3x3 ploppable forest lots for some quick forest planting. Of course, the trees still have to grow for the same period until they are big. This is just a cheaper, faster, and more effecient way. Just put these lots next to each other until you got the desired shape, then use the Mayor's tree tool and plant the outskirt trees for a good look (otherwise it will look odd). To do this, just move the mouse cursor in and out by the edge of the forest for a few cells. Btw, God-mode trees will never get this density that i've made in this lot, which makes it very easy for fires to spread - which brings me to the next 'feature' Since i'm very evil, i've given this lot more use . If you don't watch out, a forest fire will start! And when that burns, you will lose a lot of trees its very cool to watch. Anyway, you better have a firefighter plane to reach the spots in the middle of the forest. (or you can do the less spectacular thing and just demolish the lots that are burning). If you have a firestation covering the forest area, then fires are unlikely to start and even if they do, it will be put out before it spreads even without dispatching a fire truck engine. However, if the forest is not within a firestations covering area, a firetruck will have a tough time battleing the flames Oh, and the tree that i used was the noble fir tree or what its called. And also, for a more positive use, they greatly reduce air pollution within its area. (ps. As you can see, i'm running out of ideas. If you got an idea for a future lot, lemme know and i'll see if its possible.)