Matches

Is there any truth to this? How wide are the two-lane, "low density streets" that we see in the beta? 24m is probably too wide even for a medium density 4-lane road. Should be about 8m per lane for a low-speed street, and that includes sidewalks. Medium-speed, 4-lane road should be 21 meters, including sidewalks. Even the widest of avenues around here, which is 6 lanes with grass median, is about 36 meters across, including sidewalks.

I un-installed Avira and the game now loads properly! Nice find, john_smith_. Guess I have to find some other Antivirus software.

Originally posted by: john_smith_ My problem does not refer to SC4 but another EA game. But since this is the ONLY topic i found witch matches the error message i think i can narrow the problem after some research via google. So my question (and hope): Does anyone of you with that problem use Avira? quote> Yes, I'm using Avira...

Does a clean install of SC4 come with a completely empty \My Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins folder? One thing I did do was download some files from the STEX prior to running the game... But even when I empty out that Plugins folder, I get the same failure to launch.

Application/module version: 1.1.638.0Thank you for that! If I DO ever get it running. My issue is that I did have a working copy of the game that was using the NAM and other enhancements. I tried to play the game again and had problems, so to try to fix it, I un-installed and re-installed the game, which brought me back to the vanilla. I'll download the patch to see if that works, but theoretically that will just bring me back to where I was before I re-installed. **UPDATE** I updated and how the file says Application/module version: 1.1.638.0

I also downloaded and installed a DirectX update with no change in results. Exception code: 0xC0000235 (-1073741259) NtClose was called on a handle that was protected from close via NtSetInformationObject. . Current thread ID: 2636 (0x00000a4c). Version information: Application/module path: C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe Application/module version name: SimCity 4 Application/module version: 1.1.610.0 System version: Windows NT 5.1 System memory: 2040 Megabytes total, 1164 Megabytes free. Exception module: C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntdll.dll. Exception address: 0x7c90e4ff. Sectionffset: 0x01:0x0000d4ff.

AmericanInfantry, I am having the same problems. Very sad as I was hoping to pick this game up again after a long hiatus.

I have the same problem. CD is in the tray, the SC4 Process begins, then stops, with no message. I have the same "Exception code: 0xC0000235 (-1073741259) NtClose was called on a handle that was protected from close via NtSetInformationObject." files popping up in my Apps folder. I am also running Windows XP SP 3. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the game and still do not have any luck.

I checked and noticed that the lake area had some spots with RGB 66 rather than 65. That sort of explains the pock-marked surface of the "lake" in the picture I posted. I changed all 66 to 65 and this seemed to work. Very difficult measuring scale and this town has an obscene amount of diagonal bridges... :-)

Possibly, but it doesn't make any sense. In any case, I tried it and got the same result.

Hm, I did see what I did wrong on the site. However, when I imported the map, the result was all ocean. Strangely, when I enter a city, and globally increase the landmass level, it appears that what I have is an inverse image of what I want. Areas that should be water rise up first. I followed the tutorial that said water should be RGB 65, higher elevations with greater RGB values. Here are images of the game, and the section of the grayscale map for that area of the city.

A long time ago I created a 1:1 game scape map of the Cleveland area. The region exists on my machine still, but the files used to generate the map seem to be long gone. I screwed up the config.bmp and want to realign the layout of the cities in the region. I was going to start over from scratch, but the USGS site seems to have changed dramatically since whenever the tutorial for this was written. Can you still find good data to make a map of a real world region to accurate scale? If not, is there a way I can "reset" the region that I already have, but with re-drawn city boundaries?

Hm, riots - is there an increase in crime after riots? It's unfortunate that the other least favorite part of the game for me is having to stop and literally put out fires. Same goes for riots. I've seen massive increases in crime when I place an airport, which seems like a bug. But it never feels organic - crime is never really the scourge it should be... whereas pollution = death in this game.

My biggest problem with SC4 is crime and it's virtual irrelevance in gameplay. I had always played on easy or medium levels, and switched to hard hoping there would be some difference other than starting with less money. I don't detect any. It bugs me that I can build up a city of decent size that has not a single police station, a relatively normal proportion of low-wealth residents, and there be no major crime problems. Is there a mod out there that doubles, triples, quadruples, or otherwise makes crime tougher to deal with? As I understand it crime is simply a function of the education and wealth level of the sims, but as I said, it is not like my city is all middle-upper class people. Crime should build on itself, spread, grow, but it doesn't. Many tutorials on building cities come right out and say, police stations aren't all that necessary. This bugs the crap out of me.

I am late to this party (by only 3 days, already 7 pages!), but this is something I've thought a lot about too since SC4 came out, and figured I'd share my ideas which 'til now just sat in a document on my computer. My vision of the game skews more toward realism of "feel" as it pertains to the user's experience as the mayor/dictator of a city. For me, the grid can stay. But I agree that there must be a higher resolution. I agree with user(s) above that said the smallest unit really necessary about 4 meters, or one lane of traffic. Regions is debatable, I have no strong feelings, but I'll go forward assuming one city, the size of which can be expanded limited by only the user's system. When a city is founded, the city gets two grants from the benevolent "regional government," one for power, one for transportation. The amount of money given depends on the difficulty level chosen. The mayor selects his chosen power source and places it, then uses the remainder of his grant to run power lines to various areas of the map. The transportation grant amount is also varied by difficulty level and allows the new city to build a very basic infrastructure. The main difference in gameplay is that a city doesn't begin with any money in it's treasury. Based on various factors, road access, desirability, demand, land value, various offers are made for land located in the city. Tiles with offers become highlighted. If a highlighted plot is selected, the user sees a list of all offers for the land, what kind of use (R-C-I, etc) and decides which offer is best for the city. The land is then sold, the money for the land is put into the city's treasury, and then the proposed development goes up. Once sold, land is in private hands, and what happens to the building on the land is restricted only by zoning and other ordinances. The mayor can use zoning to restrict the kind of offers that will be made. Players should be allowed to zone for CS or CO specifically, or specific types of industry, but the more specific they are in zoning, the fewer offers may come on the land. This is the basic mechanism change that I feel makes for a potentially much more realistic gameplay experience. SC4 always seemed so mechanical to me, and it took real effort to make a city look the way you wanted it to. But it wasn't a "fun" effort, just time consuming and dull. By giving users the power to determine what types of development are allowed to arise, they can control what happens in differenet neighborhoods, at least at first. Then, the effects of all the other realities of city building, transit, education, crime, poverty, et al, take effect. Other notes: Taxes will work like actual taxes. Main taxes are based on land value, with single rates for each type of zone (No discrimination over $ level.) Also income taxes which raise money for more city services at the expense of R$$$ demand, and sales taxes which raise money but reduce CS demand and the overall wealth of the population. Improved city service models. Police stations, schools, etc have three variables of expense that affect the effectiveness of the service. 1.) Building. The building costs a flat rate to maintain. Devoting less than the minimum will cause the building to deteriorate, service to suffer, land value to decrease, citizen discontent. 2.) Number of officers/teachers. Stations/schools may support up to a certain number of employees. More officers increases the expenses of the station, but improves effectiveness. More teachers reduces class size and increase school effectiveness. 3.) Radius of Coverage. A police station may be assigned to cover a larger area at no cost. This means that it is responsible for more crimes and must staff enough officers to handle the load. Schools may have larger radius with expanded bus service, but more students means more expenses and more teachers needed to teach them all. Teacher pay is a 4th variable for schools. Better paid teachers improve the level of service. Payy our teachers the minimum and the school grade will suffer. School and police quality should be MAJOR factors in desirability and land value.