ldvger

I am interested in returning to building custom regions after being away from the game for a long time, and while I have extensive notes on region creation from long ago, I am unable to locate any game files on my computer. I purchased and downloaded the game from Steam today, but apparently I can only enter the game if online. I am running the game on my desktop PC, running Windows 10. I have old copies of regions I created many years ago, likely while running the game under Windows 98. Is it possible for me to load those old regions into the game? And, if so, how? When I use the load region button, my only choices are the default Maxis regions and I seem to have no way to change either the drive(s) or folders where my other old regions are stored. I can accept and understand if my old regions cannot be played anymore, and am not intimidated about relearning custom region creation, but without being able to access the Regions folder in the game files, I'm at a loss as to how to even begin. Please help! I also recently downloaded and began to play Cities:Skylines and just am not enjoying the UI as much as I remember using the SC4 UI, which is why I am trying to return to SC4. I used to be a very active member of this community, years ago, and created a couple of City Journals, even had one featured as CJOTM once, I believe it was called "Recreating San Fransisco". I'm also an architect IRL, and make extensive use of AutoCAD when creating my cities and regions. I remember learning how to create custom regions was a steep learning curve, and very time consuming, but also very rewarding once the region was created and finally loaded into the game. I'd really like to relearn how to do that again, also how to use some of the GREAT 3rd party created content, especially NAM and many of Pegasus's creations, but I have no idea, currently, where to save them on my computer in such a way that my game can access them. Any/all help will be appreciated!

I made myself a little "cheat sheet" of game dimensions, so I wouldn't have to go scrounging around for them all the time: 1 cell= 16mx16m = 52.5ftx52.5ft 1 acre= approx. 4x4 cells Small city tile=64 cells x 64 cells=256 acres=1.024 km x 1.024km=.63 miles x .63 miles Medium city tile=128 cells x 128 cells= 1024 acres=2.048 km x 2.048 km=1.27 miles x 1.27 miles Large city tile=256 cells x 256 cells=4096 acres=4.096 kmx 4.096 km= 2.54 miles x 2.54 miles 1 mile= approx. 100.5 cells 1 km= approx. 62.5 cells Also helpful: 1 m= 3.28 ft 1 ft= .305 m

Well, I have been having the exact same problem, all the download buttons take me to the same error 10850.2 page you were getting. I am also finding many of the links within the description pages are either broken, taking me to an error 404: page not found page OR taking me to some (seemingly, to me) random page on the STEX that does not include the information I was trying to link to. I use AOL for my browser and am not aware of any settings I can or need to change to allow downloads...I have no trouble downloading from other sites, so I'm wondering how your fix might be applied to my similar problem. Lora/LD

Alex opines: "I doubt Maxis would even care about someone modifying the exe." Um, I think they would care very much, Alex. Computer code is proprietary and protected under copyright law. Maxis/EA controls the copyrights for the code inside the .exe and if anyone messes with it without explicit written permission of Maxis/EA, well first offense for copyright infringement is $10,000 US dollars (not Simoleans). Maxis/EA was kind enough to provide us players with all kinds of tools that allow us to customize the game in ways few, if any, other game developers or manufacturers do, so rather than spending time and effort dwelling on illegally busting into thier toybox, I think it's wiser to be grateful for the toys we currently have. If you, personally, are disappointed with the existing disasters menu, I suggest you address your complaints to Maxis/EA directly rather than using a third party fan site to encourage players into criminal activity. In RL, such actions are considered "abetting" and could get you into a whole heap of trouble. Lucky for you, persistance in such postings here on St may only get you banned. Lora/LD

How does one go about creating a terrain mod? Lora/LD

I hesitate to jump into this fray, but as a woman who has chosen to terminate a pregnancy, fell I have some valid points for folks to consider. There is a common opinion that "life begins at conception". Please notice my use of the word "opinion". Among scientists and doctors alike, "life", in and of itself, is not 100% defined or agreed upon. Among various religions, opinions vary as well. This slippery slope gets even slipperier as strides in medicine have allowed the prematurely born to survive at increasingly earlier stages of development. The use, storage, and possible disposal of fertilized eggs is also problematic. Keep in mind that when you take a side in the abortion debate, you have to think about ALL the ramifications of making the act illegal. Are we to force women who become pregnant against thier will to have children they don't want? Are we to deny women who could not have children at all without medical intervention thier opportunity to become parents? Are we to force women who have little or no access to birth control to celibacy or having children they cannot care for? Abortion is not about sex and taking repsonsibility for the possible outcomes of having sex. Having a child should not be a form of punishment for having had irresponsible sex. Human beings are hard-wired to want to have sex and for us to deny that primal need is impossible and, more importantly, dangerous to our continuance as a viable species. Remember that human beings, for all we do have big brains and opposable thumbs, are still animals. There is not a single animal on this planet that voluntarily foregoes sex. If life begins at conception, then how do we address the fact (and it is a fact) that not all fertilized ova implant in the uterus? Many pass directly out of the woman's body during her monthly menstrual flow. Shall we begin to police every woman from ovulation to onset of her menses every month to ensure she does not inadvertently cast out from her uterus a fertilized egg? And what about those forms of birth control, such as IUD's, that prevent a fertilized egg from implanting? Shall we make those illegal, too? And what about those fertilized eggs that do implant, but don't stay attached to the uterine wall for the full 9 months? How many women reading this have ever been late to get thier period and then got it, late and heavy? I don't know what the statistical figures are, but the human female spontaneoulsy aborts fertilized eggs rather regularely. I"m pretty sure it's happened to me a couple of times, even though I never knew for certain I had become pregnant. If we are to accept the idea that life begins at conception, then how do we address the rights of fertilized eggs when they come into conflict with the rights of the woman whose body the fertilized egg requires? Do we relegate the woman's rights as secondary to those of the fertilized egg's? Do we denigrate all women to being then solely a host body for the fertilized egg to use as it needs for it's own development and survival? And what of the instances wherein the pregnancy presents a threat to the woman's life? Every pregnancy does, you know. Death by childbirth is the #1 cause of death among women of childbearing age, worldwide. In so-called first world countries where most women (but not all) have access to adequate pre-natal care and hospital delivery, death by childbirth is less common, but it still happens. I gave birth to a child in 1975 and, had I been born even 20 years earlier, I would have died and most likely my child would have died with me. But what of women who, even in this day and in this country, have to make that horrible choice between saving themselves or thier child? I had to make that choice and I chose to live. Lucky for both me and my son, the doctors were able to save my child, as well. Not all women are that lucky. Are we to take that choice away from all women? The Catholic Church to this day holds that point of view, one reason I am (voluntarily) no longer a Catholic. And what of the women whose much wanted child is diagnosed in utero with some horrible life-crippling condition? Are we to force that woman, and her child, to a lifetime of pain and misery? This is another slippery slope, as who determines ahead of time how much pain and suffering any human being can endure and still find value in life? If life, human life, is sacred beyond all, do we not then abrogate that very free will that every religion I am aware of says is God's greatest gift? It's not a simple question, abortion, with a simple yes or no answer. There are extenuating circumstances that must be taken into account. And in the end, I think the Supreme Court of this nation did the right thing with Roe vs Wade. The decision to end a pregnancy is a privacy issue between a woman and her doctor. Speaking from personal experience, it's a heart-breaking decision to face, let alone make and then carry through. But, as a woman, it's my body, my life, that the fertilized egg requires to sustain it and grow to sufficiency. It's my decision to make as to whether I allow that or not. Lora/LD

Ok, I have been playing around and this is what I've come up with so far. Comments/suggestions would be appreciated. First a pic, and then and explanation of what I did to achieve this: This was a "down and dirty" experiment, so it leaves much to be desired in the manner of detailing, not to mention lots of wiggle room for improvements in other ways. The king pin of this is PEG's Hydro Dam_Small. I had to find a way to finesse the dirrernce in elevation between the river/lake and the sea/game water. This is a big compromise over what I REALLY want to be able to accomplish, but it may be a step in the right direction...time will tell. Anyway, I used 3 of the Hydro Dams side by side to each other to span the width of the river mouth (this is actually a river, not a lake, and it's a fairly good sozed river, about 12 tiles wide). I had to do some terraforming using both God Mode and Major Mode tools, as well as streets in single tiles and end-to-end tiles. I am using, also, the combinations of water mods/textures I listed in the previous post. First thing I did was raise terrain 2 clicks in God Mode, then use the Level Terrain tool at it's smallest setting of 1 to create a level channel from deep sea water area (which doesn't show in this photo) to the mouth of the river. This created the cliff-like shore line you can see in the lower right hand side of the pic. This wasn't acceptable for what I had in mind, so I used the God Mode Soften tool, again at it's smallest level and softened the slopes around the river mouth down so all the rockiness was gone and every thing was grassy. Then I had to create a uniform slope across the river mouth to install the Hydro Dams, so I used single tile street plops across the bottom of the seaside and then again across the top of the river bed on the other side. Then I dragged street tiles from the top to the bottom, one right next to the other, all the way across the 12 tiles I wanted to install the Hydro Dams across. Not all of the dragged street tiles met with the bottom single tiles, as you can see if you look at the right side of the dam. A little "cove" got created there which in the future, if I use this technique again, I would soften down and blend into the sea side of the shoreline. Once I was satisfied with my uniform slope, I used the God Mode Lower Terrain tool 2 clicks to restore sea level to normal. Then I plopped the dams into place, aligning them end to end with each other. I probably should have gone one more dam section, but this was an experiement, so the right side of the dam isn't really as well connected to the dry land as it could be. I put a bunch of large boulders over there (PEG's) to cover this up, but they don't show very well here. To build the river itself, I started by laying down Edmonton PW tiles all the way across the back of the dam and then tapeing them off slowly to the center of the dam as I went upstream. When I actually build this river for real, I'll continue to use the Edmonton tiles in the center of the river, as they give a great illusion of depth. Next I laid down a border of PEG's Tahoe PW tiles. They are lighter than the Edmonton and I think using them in conjuction with each other gives an illusion of gradually shallowing water as the river nears the riverside. Past experimenting shows that using some of jeronij's "grass" along the transition lines between the Edmonton and the Tahoe PWs helps to blur the differences in color between them. I also like using the grass at the edge of the Tahoe PW, too, to again blur the transition from Tahoe to jeronij's TPW (dark blue). I did not use the grass in this experiment, though (I forgot that step). Next is filling in the entire river bed with the TPW, going over the top of both the Tahoe and the Edmonton. After that it's just detailing the riversides, so I played with a bunch of new rocks and plants I've recently downloaded and noticed that for some reason a bunch of stuff I used to have has for some reason disappeared. So now I get to go back into my plugins file and see if I can find the stuff I want and re-install it. The biggest drawback is that I am not able to install the water turbulence effects at the base of the dam the way I had been hoping to, as those tiles (PEG's from the PPond pack) won't install over water. However, I think the color match between the water on the sea side of the dam and the water behind the dam is very good, and that was one of the big things I was trying to achieve. I may be able to create a "shelf" of sea level land on the sea side of the dam that will allow these effects to be plopped...something to try for next time around. I'm also not really happy with the way my game water looks using both Edmonton v2 and dogfight's Green Water Mod. The water is flat, without any texture at all, and it's jaggedy/pixelated as it changes in color going from shallow to deep water, which I really don't like at all. So, I am going to try some other combos and see if I can come up with anything better. What do you think? I'm very interested in any/all feedback. Lora/LD

Good to see some responses, I hope this continues! ArchangelMichael, I followed your links and viewed Ennedi's work and found it comendable. I did not read the entire MD through it's 46 pages and maybe I should because what I saw was pre-TPWand I am committed to using the TPW plop water. Ennedi made some very pretty streams and rivers, without a doubt, and all kudos to him, but this is not exactly what I am looking for/hoping for. CaptCity, I also went and looked at abcvs's stuff and he is a lot closer to what I am hoping for, but at about the same point I am at...which is not quite there yet (at least as far as I'm concerned). I love all the PPEG pond tools but am not overly fonf of the PW because it is not transparent. Also, the transitions abcvs manages to achieve only work with "waves" turned off for the period of time one needs to take a snapshot and if one leaves waves turned off then one loses what is to me an important point of realism with seashores...waves. I love and am wanting to use jeronij's blue TPW as my default PW. I have found that by laying down some Edmonton PW tiles in the center of a watercourse, then using a tile of PEG's Tahoe PW on either side of the Edmonton, then using jeronij's "grass" to blur the edges between the Thaoe and the blue TPW works very well to create a river or stream. I also love PEG's "Brignatine" water mod when combined with the Edmonton v2. I think this gives the game water the most realistic look and feel of any of the water mods I have tried. However, it doesn't work at all well with the PW I am using, so I have been experimenting with other combinations and recently found that this combo works really well for matching PW with game water: For game water: Edmonton v2 Dogfight's Green Water mod For Plop water: jeronij's blue TPW The color of the deep game water and the TPW are almost a 100% match. The problem is (one of many, actually) that natural shorelines become shallower as they approach land and so the water becomes more transparent and lighter and shows more of the underlying terrain under the seashore. With waves turned on, this means the game water close to shore is almost white on shallow beachs. And in RL most watercourses meet the sea in very shallow water. However, it is also true that most watercourses continue to dig a channel in the shore bed once they join the sea. So, water in the channel will be deeper than the water around it. I am ignoring, for now, the case of extensively braided river deltas...don't know as this game will ever be able to render such, given the limitations. So I have been playing with a couple of ideas. My first idea was to use the god mode tools and use the level terrain tool from a deep water part of the sea to the mouth of a river. I did this by raising terrain to lower sea level, then using a place I knew was deep enough sea level to create the dark water I need to match my PW. I set the tool at lowest levels and dragged/painted an channel from deep sea to river mouth, then lowere tarrain to restore seas level to normal. I looks pretty good and very realsitic...up to a point. I won;t go into details here, but I fudged around for several game sessions and was still not able to get the PW to blend with the game water. So I thought, maybe I am going about this the wrong way. Maybe I need to find a way to extend the land into the sea. So I tried that too and have to admit had somewhat decent results. Right now my biggest problem is waves and transparency of game water in shallow water. Second problem is that despite the nearly perfect color match between game water and PW I've found, I don't like the way the water mod looks. There is no surface texture. I know nothing about batting or lotting or datting, so I don;t know how challenging this issue is to folks who are trying to make this easier for the rest of us. I am unemployed and have a lot of time of my hands, so I would be willing to learn and try to solve this issue myself, and sahe with others, if someone would point me in the right direction. I have two mega regions, both gorgeous, that need extensive work in installing above ground water and until I resolve this issue to my own satisfaction, I doubt I will ever build on either of them (which is a shame, I know). I have long felt that I'm probably the only one that obsesses about this (OCD, anyone?), but maybe others out there are want this resolved, somehow, as much as I do. Lora/LD

Show us your attempts to break this barrier, please! This remains the single largest challenge to creating naturalistic game environments. I have been working on this for years, literally, and feel like I may be coming close, but I would like to see how others have addressed this issue...and know how they did it. Given the built-in parameters of the game engine, it may be impossible to seamlessly integrate plop water with game water...but I am not yet willing to give up. I know there are LOT and BAT and MOD and DAT folks out there who can figure this out. We have many options for above sea level water now, most of which are excellent. Nw we need to figure out a way to tie plop water into game water. Lora/LD

thought you might like to see the finished product: This far zoom does not give credit to the detail this map presesnts, The snow is not realistic, but I have the Columbia low snow mod installed, which I plan to uninstall. Regardless,this is an unbelievable map and I hope you share it with anyone who wants to try it! Lora/LD

I just downloaded a beautiful custom region Heblem made for me of the greater San Francisco metropolitan area and am anxious to get started on it but, after playing with the out-of-scale game default SF region for almost a month now I have come to realize a big lack in the game...urban alleys. I have a post (made today) over on SC4D in the 3RR project that covers my thoughts in full, so I won't repeat myself here, but I am wondering if anyone has given thought to creating urban alleys? I have been through the STEX here and found some lots that will work, kinda sorta, so it's not like I am totally without the tools I'd like to use. But as good as the various download/plop alley lots are, none of them really work as RL alleys. I think the best I found were disc_error's "Commercial Access" lots, but they leave something to be desired as well. Some of the items on my Urban Alleys wish list: 1.) transit enabled, but at extremely low volume, with preferance to garbage and delivery trucks. 2.) single one-way lane 3.) stops signs at intersections with roads/streets/avenues 4.) transtion apron between the alley and the street/road/avenue it intersects. In RL these are like driveway cuts, with radiused edges meeting the greater right-of-way. 5.) puzzle pieces of 1x1 cell each, so the alleyway landscape (such as it is) could be varied. Dumpsters are an obvious feature in alleys, but often there is limited parallel and pull in parking, as well, not to mention access to parking stuctures both above and below ground. 6.) able to be matched up end to end (something I have read is not easily accomplished using transit enabled lots) I know all the BATers and LOTers and MODers and coders have tons of other, more important projects to work on, but really, the urban alley is a huge part of any/all major metropolitan areas and to not have an honestly workable alley to use makes it difficult to create realistic cities. Just a thought. Lora/LD

Eblem- Looks excellent, my friend, just excellent! I have downloaded the file but have not yet installed it into the game or tried to render it, need to make sure of a couple or things first. Unlike the Copper River (which you made in 4 maps and took a while for us to marry into one), this appears to be one single region that I can just pop right into a new region folder, is that correct? I'm going to try that now and if it doesn't work for any reason, I'll come back and ask for further instructions. As for the Oakland Bay Bridge...I'll cheat. I was able to create it in the game SF region by extending Treasure Island (the island in the middle of the bay between SF and Oakland), so if I have to do the same here, that's OK. There is another big long bridge to the south, the San Mateo Bridge and it is also angled, so I'll cheat when I get there, too. I'm glad you had fun making this map and also glad you feel it is your best so far. You told me that about my Copper River map and it is gorgeous, so I can't wait to get this new map up and running. You seem to really try hard to make great maps and I'm sure everyone who you make a map for appreciates your efforts. I know I do! Thanks again, amigo, great work! Lora/LD

Eblem- Knowing you were busy and unlikely to get to my request anytime soon, I did my own experiment last night and tried to enlarge the existing Maxis San Francisco region map...not with good results! I used TF to save a region RGB map, then used Photoshop to enlarge the map from the number of pixels it was to 4096, then created a new config map for the large region, then loaded it into the game. Disaster! I dumped the region immediately. I really need to learn more about mapping. Then I went to the USGS site with the idea that I would try to create my own scale accurate region from scratch. I was able to instruct the website to get the maps I wanted, but my wifi connection is so slow I could see it was going to take me more than the 1 hour timeout time, so I canceled the downloads, thinking I'd try again later when maybe my download speed might be better. Anyway, take your time, good buddy, I'm in no rush. I am ignoring the gorgeous maps you made for me a few months ago in favor of this new project and all 2 fans of my CJ are probably unhappy with me because of it. I will get back to Copper RIver, have no worries, just feel a want/need to actually build right now and not spend hundreds of hours terraforming. Copper River is a huge project and while take years to complete, so I feel OK with letting it sit idle from time to time while I veer off into other projects. And thanks for your help, I really appreciate it. Some day you map folks are going to have to take me under your wing and teach me the ropes because as much as I love building and terraforming, I would love map making too, if I could even figure out how to do it! Lora/LD

Hey Eblem! It's me again, with a new request. While in Santa Barbara at the end of last month for my nephew's wedding, I started playing the San Francisco region that came with the game but the issue of accurate scale once again started getting to me. The game provided region seems smaller than SF really is. This has got to be a popular area for city builders worldwide, so I am imagining someone has probably already created scale accurate maps, I just haven't yet been able to find them, even though I have looked both here and over at SC4D. By now you know I'm hung up on the mega region concept, so even existing SF maps may not work for me. I know you're busy and have closed requests for the time being, just putting myself into the line up for when you have time again. When you're ready, I would like a 40 mile x 40 mile map, 256 large city tiles, 16 large tiles x 16 large tiles. I'd like the City of San Francisco centered in the region in the North/South axis, and then as much of the Bay Area to the east as you can manage to fit in while still including enough of the Pacific Ocean as to allow ocean going vessels (and whales!) to travel along the west coast of the region. I'll see if I can grab a Google Earth picture at near scale. The red line is the scale, represents approximately 20 miles. And, now that I can see the scale of the RL area, yes the game map I am currently using is badly out of scale. Lora/LD