GoodOak

fafalone: So, in the bottom right corner of both of your pictures, there's a big, long building there. What is that? I don't think I've seen it before.

Ah, that's right. I don't really like the udrive it missions, so it has been a while.

Well, I made the initial mistake of downloading all kinds of stuff from STEX and LEX, a bunch of Japanese sites, and the various DVDs here and there. I went nuts with it.* Ironically, the volume of extra content made the game almost totally unplayable. So, to fix my bloated menus, I backed it all up, then wiped the game out. Then re-installed it clean. Then added the "known-working" stuff first - NAM, most of Pegasus' work, much of the BSC stuff, etc. If it came with an installer that installed intelligently to it's own little folder system (such as almost all BSC stuff from the LEX), I just left it alone. If it was just a folder full of files, I categorized it myself in folders: Airports, Train Stations, Large Skyscrapers, Schools, etc. You get the idea. Anyway... Then I spent some time figuring out how to edit the exemplar files myself to clean up some of the mess and tailor it a little more to my liking. I'm not too good at this, but thanks to some people here I found that iLive's "Reader", Daeley's "DAMN" (advanced menu navigation), and the other little tool that makes stuff DAMN compatible are essential. Go to the LEX and search ilive, Daeley, and Stefan79, respectively, for the above mentioned tools. Now, I add content slowly and I put buildings where I want them in the menus. I created a numerical system on a spreadsheet that reserves certain ranges (0-99) in the "Item Order" property for certain types of buildings. For example, to keep schools in the education menu clustered together, and museums likewise, etc. And further, to keep small schools clustered separately from huge schools. If I download a new school, I just look at the number range on my spreadsheet and then change it in Reader. And changing "Occupant Groups" will get your buildings in the proper menus in the first place. For example, why clutter up Landmarks constantly, when some buildings can be stashed in other much less crowded menus. Or better yet, place the lot in DAMN, then remove "Occupant Groups" all together. It is tedious, but I found that once I got the major stuff back into the game, maintaining the mess becomes a breeze. Hope all that helps somehow. * Pointless side note - I kind of Rip Van Winkle'd on this game in general. I've played SimCity since the good (and ugly) ol' days of the original. I bought SC4 the day it came out, then bought Rush Hour. Then fell asleep on this game until this winter. Checked some SC4 fansites - then "holy hell! Where has all this been all this time!" I had no idea the SimCity mod community was so active... So as far as I'm concerned, this game ALREADY IS SimCity 5. I doubt there will be a fan-pleasing sequel to SC4, but I couldn't care less. Do we even need it?

Nevermind! Posted mostly based on the picture. But I think you want more of a steep, fast moving creek...

Watch the shadow of the helicopter on the ground. That's the best way to see exactly where the thing is in the air. The fixed perspective of SC4 makes it hard to tell what you're directly over the top of.

I may be incorrect here, but it seems that if you were to send a developed city that uses any custom content, you'd also have to include that custom content (or, at least a huge list of stuff you need to download). I would think that you'd need to send a region folder, along with the region creator's entire plugins folder. I've only just started using SC4 this winter with custom content, and my plugins folder is tipping the 8GB mark at this point. In short - too much to send! Maybe you can convince (pay) somebody (no, not me) to package all the important folders up in a ZIP, then split it, then burn the files to a few DVDs and physically mail it to you.

I just use the in-game signs for this. The "signpost" ones are too ugly and prominent to be used as anything else, so I just make a path of signs to indicate where future expansion of routes will go. Like a long row of signs that say "CANAL" or "BRIDGE" or something like that - about every 20 squares or so. Just as a reminder to myself not to put a stadium there or an actual neighborhood worth keeping.