kmannkoopa

On the London monorail idea -- there is no way in heck that building a 170-mile monorail system would only cost

I believe I found a possible bug in the latest version of NAM --> pedestrian speeds. My pedestrians seem to be walking LONG distances. The only traffic modifier I have is 10xSpeeds. The documentation specifically states that the ped speed is not modified, and in the previous version of NAM I had (April or so), this was the case. But now my sims are walking absurd distances, and here I am developing beautiful transportation systems for them. By the way, I do love the new roundabouts, and NAM is truly necessary for SimCity4. Could someone with access to the source doublecheck the ped speed on the 10xSpeeds? Thanks

I have found that it happens on mine -- typically on certain view and zoom settings. So I just don't play at those views if I can help it. I suspect it is because the graphic isn't on my computer. But, as I am using a mac, the reason for me may be different for you.

No, it does not matter where the files are located. I have loaded regions from my desktop, my /user/Documents/SimCity 4/Regions folder as well as my Macintosh HD/Games/SimCity 4/SimCity 4 Data/Regions. It is simply a matter of navigating that stupidly PC region dialog. As long as the right directory is chosen, it will load. It is impressive in a sad way how aspyr programmers managed to make a PC open dialog box work so well.

Hello, I have a very simple request: New Powerlines. I am talking about something a little more scaled down than the high tension lines that come with the game. Something to run along rural highways to the sparse housing connecting them. It could be as simple as adding a new graphic and giving it the same stats as the current lines. I personally am a realism fan and would want some reason why you wouldn't make all your powerlines this type, but I cannot think of any feasable restrictions. Thanks KMannKoopa

Typically on the boards I haunt I make my signature when I make the account -- usually a stock quote -- in ths case of this board, I found a cool avatar and feel I have to reference it. So I did so simply.

I am surprised this hasn't been requested: A four lane road. This would be avenue without a median allowing for turns anywhere along its path (no u-turns at intersections though), it should have maybe as much as 1/3 lower capacity as a turning vehicle blocks the lane. It should to be able to be converted to an Avenue if need be. In Central New York there are very few true avenues, most are just four lane roads without medians. It is my experience that this is also the case in most older cities i.e. Northeast and Midwest.

I gotta agree with ephorex_77 here. Think about it, what is kemotherapy? Radiation treatments. This makes perfect sense at buidling such as a Disease Reasearch Center (think of it as a pre-eminent cancer center). As to the Advanced Research Center -- Harnessing the atom is the future of mankind -- or at least was in the 1950s. Seriously, they may be developing fusion power or any nuclear process (I know fusion vs. fission), and this is the result. Like what was posted above, it barely spreads around your facility, so I don't worry to much about it. Now if only I could figure out what causes the drop in desirability on the Country Club...

Where are your sims working? Do you have a lot of no job zots? When you route query them, what does it say. I didn't think of it earlier, but perhaps they are working at jobs which are closer to them (such as commercial). Your problem could be this simple which not a problem at all.

This almost certainly has to do with commute times. If you open up your commute graph, what is the average time? It it is over 100 (maybe even as little as 60), you have too long a commute for your sims. There are a few solutions, but the best one is usually using the Network Addon Module (NAM). If it is not commute time, post a screenshot of this problem.

My schedule does not allow me the time to post screenshots, but I will say that the vast majority of my residents ride the bus. Buses are key to any mass transit system, for only they get the sim from the mass transit stop to their destination. If you built elevated rail only, you would probably need to put stops basically back to back to back to get the coverage you need. I actually want more cars to use my roads, I feel like I built this great loop and spur to the next city that no one uses. But I know what will happen to my local streets if this happens, so I won't force the issue by deleting my stations.

The all two obvious answer is to zone commercial and industrial closer to your city. How big is your city/region? I am currently working on two Large Cities that have 200,000 between them and having the time of my life providing enough mass transit between them. (All my RRs are Red with 6,000 on one of them) You would be surprised how much separation between development there is on my larger city, yet they pack those trains and not those highways that I built at great cost.

As someone from the Northeast (Syracuse, NY) who spends a week or so in Houston every year, so I see sprawl but live in balanced dvelopment. Like most here, I have a problem with sprawl, for instance two of my family members live in the Houston City Limits -- 70 miles apart! 70 miles from my home will take you to one larger city (Rochester), and three smaller ones. Yet, new urbanism is also a bunch of malarky. I was recently in Salt Lake City, where I saw some of their most recent attempts at new urbanism. It is just a place that you can walk around in if you live in the area, but otherwise you have to drive there. Sure it was a mix of commercial and residential, but there was no place to buy groceries! This is likely because the owner's of the area have to artifically attract people from outside the urban area to shop, and grocery stores are unnatractive (not to mention low margin and cannot afford high rental costs). And because supermarkets are located out in the suburbs (or outer city), you have to drive to get there. New York is not a good city to replicate unless you have the people to support it. Houston may have the population, but Salt Lake City does not. Also, because all of this new urbanism development costs so much, even many middle class cannot afford to live there. As can be shown in SimCity, a ciy cannot thrive with only middle and upper classes. This is the primary reason why New Urbanism is doomed to failure. What we need is to go back to the old pre-World War II planning. Housing everywhere, and then commercial on major streets and especially at the major intersections. Queens, NY is the best example in the country of development this way. It is entirely possible to still have large tracts of land availiable to live on, I am located within the city limits and still have just under one acre (a typical suburban lot), the house right behind me sits on two acres. More importantly, I am part of a neighborhood. I know a large number of the people on my block (notice that it is a block, not a subdivision). The larger neigborhood rallies around the elementary school (to which everyone is less than 2 miles from), and I can say I grew up in a community. (Note that my entire neigborhood is what would be light residential, there are only one or two apatment buildings in my whole neighborhood, and they are senior assisted living buildings.) Finally, and this is my pet peeve, we need to stop putting up so many fences! In Houston, rare is the building without a fence around it. Every house is surrounded by fence, usually in the form of a wood privacy type. Flying from Houston to Albany, NY, I was astonished at all the fences I saw when I was taking off, and relieved at all the fences I didn't see when I was landing. Sprawl will continue into the future. The key to stopping this does not lie in new urbanism, it lies in making real neigborhoods, and making people feel more at home. Even though I am in a city, we don't lock our doors, we don't feel a need to, we are in a community.