galileo

After almost nine months of being away (and not playing SimCity 4, either!), it's great to see all the progress the NAM has made. I do have a question, though, as I'm not the only one using my new installation: Can I install the core NAM files in /maxis/simcity/plugins for all users, but put the automata and traffic files in /documents and settings/user/simcity so each family member can pick their own settings. I like my traffic to be very normal, but I imagine my sister will appreciate the help of making traffic move faster. Any known issues with this placement of the files for individual users?

Disclaimer: I have not done any technical work or investigation of the possibilities of modding in SimCity, whether it be lots, transit network, or other wise. I have, however, read all 89 pages of this thread. My responses here are strictly an attempt to condense information and all assertions can be sourced from this thread. Date: 9/14/2004 7:30:30 AM Author: edcase2k4-thugangel1983 1. id want to see the rail to subway and rail to EL available in the NAM?? is this going to happen?? the japanese one i downloaded didnt show up in-game quote> The transition you are talking about is a lot, not a network piece. Moreover, it is not actually connecting subway and rail to elevated rail. It is instead acting as a transfer point. As far as the game is concerned, sims enter the lot on one type of transit system, get off, and walk to the other type of transit system to leave. They are NOT passing straight through on a single vehicle. The way the lot is constructed is a visual hack to make it LOOK like they are. Why is this not possible? Think about the type of vehicle you've got here. El trains and cargo trains are not the same type of car. They are incompatible with one anothers' tracks. A comparison was made to a road/one-way road junction, but the analogy doesn't work. With the road junction, you're still driving cars on both. An El/train junction would be as useful as a road/train junction. One just cannot drive on the other's track. Date: 9/14/2004 7:30:30 AM Author: edcase2k4-thugangel1983 2. id like to the 'actual' roundabouts (which there is now a thread about, included in the NAM, will this happen? quote> Agreed! This has been talked about many many many times and everyone seems to think it's a great idea. I've never heard anyone say it isn't possible, it's just not been done. Perhaps there's a lack of agreement on how it should be done; I'm not sure. There is a thread, as you said, working on this. If you'd like to see it included in the NAM, you'd have to get their permission, as well as the approval of whoever our new NAM gatekeeper is... the7trumpets, is that you now? Date: 9/14/2004 7:30:30 AM Author: edcase2k4-thugangel1983 3. could marrast's underpasses be included?? quote> Marrast's underpasses are eye candy lots only. They are not UDI (You Drive It) compatible. As the NAM doesn't include discussion of lots, don't expect to see it here. The plausibility of creating a similar effect with the transit system has been discussed several times, but repeatedly dismissed as impossible. You CAN, however, accomplish this with lots of meticulous teraforming. If you lower the level of the land to create a trench before laying the road, you can sink the road and, in theory, lay the other across as an overpass which should APPEAR as a bridge. There were some photo examples of this posted using the overpass puzzle pieces several weeks ago. Date: 9/14/2004 7:30:30 AM Author: edcase2k4-thugangel1983 4. the different texture ped malls... ... cant this be changed with the ped malls? id like them to give residents access too quote> Unforunately, residential lots will only develop if given access to roads. Apparently all Sims are at least wealthy enough to afford some form of vehicle. Even if they prefer to use mass transit, they won't live where they can't drive. Date: 9/14/2004 7:30:30 AM Author: edcase2k4-thugangel1983 ... i also use the 'ped mall connector' from STEX, instead of a mass transit stop to give access to ped malls, cant his be included in the NAM too?? quote> As this is a lot, don't expect it to be included in the NAM. If an exception were to be made for this, however, you'd again have to obtain permission from the original author and approval from the NAM gatekeeper, as with any outside work whose creator didn't intend it for the NAM. Date: 9/14/2004 7:30:30 AM Author: edcase2k4-thugangel1983 5. the car park lots!!! they look promising.. i think they could just be puzzle pieces as suggested, so you can fix them all together how you like.. quote> I've been wondering about these since they first came up last week... I don't understand the usefullness of car-enabled ped malls. Since the ped malls were originally derived by disabling car access across road segments and retexturing them, wouldn't this just turn them back into regular roads again? If it's just to create parking space, why not use a parking LOT? (which, btw, functions as the mass transit lot needed to allow pedestrians access to the normal ped malls.) I'm sure there is a good reason to do this, but I haven't grasped it yet. I'd appreciate if someone could explain the practical use for it. Date: 9/14/2004 7:30:30 AM Author: edcase2k4-thugangel1983 6. the light rail system being designed and modded through a thread here, it should be included, definitely. quote> There was initially some discussion of turning the ANT into a light rail system back in the early days of this thread. It was, unfortunately, never acted upon. I'm not exactly sure why. I'd love to see it added to the game somehow. Date: 9/14/2004 7:30:30 AM Author: edcase2k4-thugangel1983 7. i think that road to one way switch is perfect!! ... heres an example: l l _______l l________ _ ____ ____ __ l l i i lXl l l i i l l l l i i l l l l i i___l l l l l ___l l l____l l l_____X l l l quote> Every example I've seen referenced for how to make this junction practical has involved an intersection at it's change point. Am I missing something again here (as with the parking lots above)? Seems like this is already possible to do where another road crosses, and I can't fathom a reason to change it where one doesn't... I'm not against it, but I'd like to see a good reason for it. Date: 9/14/2004 7:30:30 AM Author: edcase2k4-thugangel1983 8. i like the prospect of having cul-de-sacs available.. but i doubt id use it while it still replaces ALL ends of roads, i want to choose, or place it manually - it doesnt look like thats possible so if anything id rather it not be in the NAM quote> Early in this thread (first 20 pages, or so) there was much discussion over whether the road/avenue interchanges should be placed automatically, manually, or prompted when appropriate. Eventually, the decision was to not prompt (because it happens frequently) and to allow people to place them manually. But this brings to mind the question of whether or not the cul-de-sacs could be made to prompt whenever an unconnected end is created, instead of replacing them all automatically. Maybe someone more technically experienced than I can answer that question? Date: 9/14/2004 7:30:30 AM Author: edcase2k4-thugangel1983 11. further to all this, id also like to some more types of onramps (such as cloverleaf for road/avenue-to-raised or ground highway.. and options for 1 leaf, 2 leaf, and 3 leaf on ALL cloverleafs) quote> Several places earlier in the thread, there were lists of all the interchange types they wanted to create. They were very long lists and only a fraction of them, I believe, ever got worked on. I'm not sure if it's been updated in a while, but it might be a good time to revisit the list and reprioritize... Date: 9/14/2004 7:30:30 AM Author: edcase2k4-thugangel1983 13. ermm, there was a picture of a ped-enabled footbridge over a avenue a while back in this thread, i dont remember if someone told me where to get it?? i want it please? maybe it should just be put in the NAM too quote> I don't recall ever seeing instructions for where to find that. I looked for it also. It would be nice if the ped malls could be made dragable and that type of crosswalk could be an overpass option just like the other networks have. It would also make it possible to connect a ped mall on one side of the street with a MT lot on the other, which I think would be VERY useful. I hope I was able to bring some of the insight from early discussion into the current topics. I won't guarantee the accuracy of my statements, as they were just coming from my memory. But I'd encourage anyone with questions to go back and read the early parts of the thread... maybe not all 90 pages of it, but there was a lot of productivity back in the page 10-30 range. [EDIT:] Just getting rid of a dangling bold tag.

dklap3, That was proposed and discussed a couple months ago... This is page 85, so try back in the 40's or so (a guess, could be way off). I wasn't real interested at the time, but I think what they finally concluded was that it would just take up too much space. Several proposals were made for ramp routes and no one could seem to get anything sensible to fit within the maximum size of an interchange. Too bad, because it certainly would be cool. I don't have a clue what I'd use it for in-game, but it'd be cool. -- Kyle

Print the thread and read it? Yikes! This thing is really long. Save a tree. ;-) On the other hand, I read the whole thing on line when it was only 19 pages long before I posted the first time... Someone should have told me to get a life. :-D On that note, kill the tree. And welcome dedgren!

All Hail, the great Tropod has created a Pedestrian Mall! One question and one comment to follow: Question: Does a parking lot or garage count as an MT building? While not being able to connect these to roads and get traffic might be annoying, it's somewhat understandable since there'd be no place to park. If a lot/garage could serve as the connection point, then both the practical and logical problems could be solved right there. Comment: Would it be possible to turn the ANT into this? That way they could be layed in strips instead of 1x1 tiles. I'm not yet sure I'd actualy WANT this as the ANT, but I'm just curious if it's a technical possiblity. Thanks, great job, and I look forward to giving it a shot this afternoon.

Hey, everyone... Yet another victim of relocation & ISP changes here. And boy was there a lot to catch up on! The stacks and overpasses and puzzle pieces all look great, but it was the pedestrian walk-ways that I found most interesting. Given the development limitations of the ANT, I think turning it into a pedestrian network would be awesome! I'd love to use it to connect mass transit depots with commercial plazas. Would certainly provide a different strategy for setting up commercial areas, and might well convince a few more of those rich sims to get on bus/subway. Besides the practicality of it, my down-towns sure would look pretty with some cobblestone sidewalks. Any chance of this being pursued further?

Hey, Tropod... I don't remember if this was covered earlier in the thread or not, but the puzzle pieces (awesome, btw) brought it to my mind: What about diagonal network pieces and non-orthognal intersections/overpasses? Will it be possible to have a horizontal road overpass a diagonal rail? What about a NW/SE diagonal crossing a NE/SW stretch of network? I've got the same question both for the puzzle pieces and for the automatically appearing overpasses (road over rail, ave over road, etc). Any plans to make these other combinations possible?

Date: 6/4/2004 10:18:43 PM Author: Will it ever be possible to make this stuff compatible with the Transit Bugfix and the Transit Supermodd? Or at least the Bugfix. I would really, really love to have all these extra features in my game, but not at the expense of having bad pathfinding, etc.quote> TMU, The pathfinding mod is included with the Network Addon. There are two subfolders in the zip (or there were with the version I have): Automata and Pathfinding. They were both optional pieces, but they are there. It was the first pathfinding mod I used and I'm loving it. It's made SUCH a difference to my traffic patterns... they actualy make sense now.

Date: 6/2/2004 8:16:20 AM I really am in favor of keeping the option of whether an overpass should be added to an intersection by clicking to build it. Let's face it, at least we would know when conditions would be favorable in the game to create such an overpass. Then we have the option of clicking to build it or just cancelling it and it becomes a typical t intersection.quote> I think it's great to prompt if it's something you're going to use a lot. For me, however, and I'm sure many others, road/avenue overpasses will most likely be a rarity as we like to have our roads and aves intersect more often than overpass so that the traffic has access. Sure, there will be times in busy places or express roads where I'll want to do that, but for every-day intersections, it will get annoying. I'm not sure if it does it in every situation, but at least one (the only intersection I added to my city last night), it pops up the Road/Ave prompt first, then when I cancel that it presents the Ave/Road prompt. That's fine and dandy, but it means saying No to two questions everytime you want to make a simple connection. I think most people would prefer the default to be the more common connection while having the option of laying the special tiles. If you want to know if the conditions are favorable, then you can always select the overpass from the menu and hover over the area to see if it changes color (as with the highway overpasses). *On another note: The highway menu is really long with overpass options. They're all available from the tab cycle from any tool, as far as I can tell... Is it possible for a mod to condense that menu down a little so it doesn't scroll? Not saying we should, just asking if it's possible. :-) Thanks Trop, Red, et al. You're wonderful.

Before I start, I want to preface by saying that I've not yet had a chance to try the new 01.06.04 version of the plugin, but... I downloaded the 5/30/04 partial update last night and started playing with it. I have one request: Can the game not prompt us for road/ave or ave/road overpasses when you lay the road? It makes sense for the road/rail and ave/rail overpasses, but (for me, anyway) ave/road intersections are pretty common, and it's an nuisance to have to answer both pop-up boxes every time. These, I think, would be more appropriate as ploppables in the menu (much like the existing */rail overpasses are when not placing them automatigically). Other than that one little detail, I've thoroughly enjoyed the updates. Keep up the great work! PS: Also looking forward to that non-ortho highway interchange! :-)

Wow... I only signed up to SimTropolis a few days ago, downloaded the NetworkAddon and started reading this threat. 3 days and 8 pages of conversation later, I've certainly learned a lot about the way this game works. Thanks for the education. Specifically: Overpasses & Interchanges I'm generally pretty picky about what I contaminate my stock game with, but I look forward to several of the things you've got working here. I'd love to see the Y-intersection doen for highways. And the ground x elevated interchanges would be nice as well. ANT/SLR After reading the readme in the addon, I was totally confused. It wasn't until about page 5 of this thread that it started to make any sense to me at all. Once I did start to get it, I didn't get the purpose, but now I think the SLR is a great idea. I'd love to put San Francisco trolley cars on my city streets. :-D I would strongly suggest, however, clearifying the purpose and condition of the ANT in the documentation so it's not so confounding for us newbs. Thanks for all your work! I'll keep reading and look forward to downloading.