Daeris

Thanks Corrie, I'll have to check what NAM version I have. Has Street Addon Mod been removed, or just included in NAM now? I can't seem to find it on STEX.

Thanks @CorinaMarie. Another quick question here! Now that I might be going through and updating some of my streets from dirt streets to brick streets, I'm wondering if anyone has any tips for carrying this task out conveniently. I'm using Street Add-on Mod, so they are both streets, just visually different. As it stands right now, it's actually a bit of a chore and test of my patience, because sometimes the street won't listen and will stay dirt, and sometimes the dirt street spreads like an infection and takes over the brick streets. It's weird. Because of this, I am having a hard time getting the brick street to only exist exactly where I want it, and having a hard time from having the dirt street not show back up on the brick street as I continue making changes. I've tried the transition within SAM, but that doesn't really seem convenient actually, and seems limited where I can place it. If anyone has any tips on how to get my streets to listen to exactly what I want, please let me know.

Thanks @hugues aroux, looks like a very useful set, and that's useful info for me to try my hand at lot editing again.

Yes, it's the water! Is it possible for me to maybe edit this batch of seawalls so they disregard water (honestly I kinda wish all tiles ignored water lol, unless maybe fully submerged). Also thanks for sharing that idea of setting sea level to 1, this is actually very helpful because I think there are a LOT of areas across my region that have issues with cliff-like coastlines, and super deep trenches for rivers. I think this would be a good chore for me to go through and smooth out my riverbeds and coastlines.

Hi everyone, I'm trying to build a bridge, but not really liking how the rockface looks from the water. I was thinking I'd put a seawall of some kind, like the tiles I have ramping up from the dock, just before the trees, but that seawall doesn't want to place on the rock tile because it's either too steep, or partially in the water, or both. Anyone have any recommendations on what tile to plop to give a seawall effect, either natural or man made? I might even already have your reco installed, I'm a bit rusty at the game right now so trying to remember all the little tricks. Also... I kinda hate how high bridges need to be to allow ferry's under them. Anyone know any tricks to have more leniency on bridges?

Lol that's funny @TheMurderousCricket, but I don't think chainsaws exist in this realm... yet. =p

Thanks for sharing all those thoughts @TheMurderousCricket. What's funny is I'm a gamer who actually does want both type of games. I play Overwatch, Diablo 4, and pretty much any "flashy" game you can think of, and enjoy them. They have their place. But as a kid growing up, I was most mesmerized by games like SimCity 4, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Civ games, other simulation style games, or tycoon simulation games. There certainly isn't a shortage of flashy games nowadays, but I do wish there were more city builders like SimCity. Other simulations games exist, but sometimes you need to search around for the best. I know Civ 7 is incoming, and Planet Coaster 2 (though this might lean more into flashy, still I think it does a better job of capturing the old-school simulation of Rollercoaster Tycoon than Cities Skylines captures that of SimCity), but with Maxis gone there really has never been someone to adapt city builders into the "flashy" games era. I think they tried with SimCity 2013, but unfortunately that game just wasn't it. I think if Maxis were still around and had funding, they would probably keep trying, but alas they were dissolved. Technically, aren't they part of Microsoft now after that big deal? I wonder if Microsoft would ever resurrect Maxis in some way... Sadly, I think you are right though, a city builder can't really compete and exist in today's gaming market.

Wow @CorinaMarie, thanks for those great compliments! As usual, that means a lot coming from a natural growth master such as yourself. I read back through some of the Natural Growth thread, and plan to read more. There were so many awesome pieces of advice from so many great players in that thread, it would be a good refresher to me since I'm a bit rusty after not playing in over a year (forgetting keyboard shortcuts and where all my favorite MMPs are in the menu lol). I love the logging scenes as well, as well as the quarry. I felt that I needed to demonstrate the sims were expanding their resource capabilities. Brick roads can't come from nowhere, so having these new industries will expand my options while building. Very very clever of you to look back at the previous map. You're right, something seems odd with the ruins right? I mean, either the original sailors that passed by them were practically blind, or they hid them on purpose? Or perhaps like some of the other phenomena in this realm, things seem to just manifest for reasons unbeknownst.

Hi all, hope everyone is doing well in life! I wanted to give an update that I finalllly made another entry into my Natural Growth City Journal: As always, I do hope I stay more regular this time, and give more updates than one entry every year or two. I hope everyone enjoys my latest entry, and if you have time please submit some votes on the interactive poll! Your interaction certainly helps motivate me to overcome real life doldrums (draining work, depressing housing market, politics, etc) and instead focus on my CJ!

Thanks @albireo38!

Random issue after I've made all these changes. I updated a city tile I haven't updated in awhile. After saving it and returning to region view, I'm seeing a weird effect on the water. When I click back into the city tile, everything looks fine. I'm not understanding what caused this and why it actually looks fine in city tile. Hoping this doesn't mess too much with my ability to get screenshots for my CJ. Unfortunately this is also showing up in Region Census program: This is definitely going to impact my CJ. If anyone knows what might be causing this or how I can fix it and/or prevent it please let me know. UPDATE: Oof, I'm silly and I just overlooked Region Thumbnail Fix DLL thinking I didn't need it. I DID need it. Luckily I had my region backed up, so loaded a previous version, properly installed Region Thumbnail Fix DLL, and now my region is working again! This reminds me how important it is to keep my region backed up as well. Time to do another backup of my plugins folder too!

Ok, think I figured it out! I found out how to configure my dgvoodoo, and I saw another user post a thread referencing similar issues to what I was experiencing. They changed their Output API to Direct3D 12 and that seemed to help them. I did the same, and I can confirm it's also completely fixed my camera stuttering issues! I noticed there is a Direct3D 12 (feature level 11.0) and (feature level 12.0) --> Anyone know how those are different? I also switched my Adapter to specifically use my 3070. I do notice my Appearance is set to Full Screen, even though I have BorderlessFullScreen applied on my SC4GraphicsOptions ini file. I think the game launches in Borderless Fullscreen for me as I would prefer. Really that only leaves my #2 issue which was that in city tiles I seem to be getting a range of FPS from like 25-100 (seems to have gone up after configuring my dgvoodoo). But what's weird is that the fps feels fine. Feels way better now that my camera isn't stuttering when I move it. I wonder if my fps counter is lying to me in this instance for some reason? If anyone has any tips to better configure my dgvoodoo to maximize performance even more, please let me know! Or if anyone knows what weird trickery is going on with my fps counter while in city tiles. Thanks!

Finding this thread, because this seems to be similar to what I'm experiencing after installing all those same performance fixes. How do I configure DGVoodoo actually? After installing it, I don't think I saw where to make any additional configurations.

Thanks again @Ulisse Wolf! Update on my progress: I've installed the following, and for the most part the game feels pretty darn good. Definitely the best since I've installed my 3070. 4GB Patch - already had this installed SC4CPUOptions - set priority to High SC4GraphicsOptions - I've applied BorderlessFullScreen, not quite sure what feels best yet. I love being able to alt-tab out of my game and keep it up! SC4Fix - already had this installed... hmm, but maybe I should update? I think my last install was after latest update here. DgVoodoo 2 - Pretty straightforward actually. I dragged the sc4.exe onto the 4gb patch. Not sure if that was actually needed since I already had 4gb patch installed, but still did it just in case. Startup Performance Optimization DLL for SimCity 4 - initial load time is very very fast now Transparent Texture Fix DLL - installed this just in case SimCity 4 Disable FPS Limits - Definitely seeing uncapped fps on region screen at least As I mentioned, everything for the most part is feeling pretty good, but I am still noticing a few possible issues: When moving the camera (with arrows or mouse), I still seem to see some stuttering. Whatever it is, it seems like it's related to moving the camera. I experience this both on region view and city tiles. It's not unplayable, but a bit of a frustration whatever it is. In city tiles, my fps is doing a little better, but something still seems slightly off. I would expect with the fps limits disabled, I'd see very high fps, but I'm seeing fps ranging from like 25 to 80-ish or so. But what's weird is, it doesn't "feel" like I'm only getting 25fps. It feels better actually. Really it's just when I'm moving the camera does fps feel a little weird. Also in region view I think I get like 600+ fps now that I've disabled limits. I would however expect to get more than 25-80fps in my city tiles, as my tiles are very undeveloped right now in this region. It's pretty much just a few dirt roads and small villages. Those are the only issues I'm really still seeing. Not totally unplayable, so I think I'll at least try to resume my CJ, but if anyone has any insights or tips to help me improve the above issues plz let me know. Oh also PS: After installing all these new changes, I've totally removed my Steam Launch Option line that I had applied. PS 2: I'm learning maybe I need to configure my dgvoodoo. After installing it I didn't see instructions on how to configure it further.

Thanks! Are you saying I should set this highlighted portion to High?

Hi @Ulisse Wolf, Do you have a link or guide to the new method? I fired SC4 back up today hoping to try and start back up my CJ, but I forgot that my fps was tanking on my new 3070 card. I was going to follow the other method you outlined for the dgvoodoo wrapper, but seems like there might be a better method recommended now?

Welcome back to Simtropolis @CorinaMarie! I'm so happy you've persevered through the past few years and have made a comeback! Life can be very difficult, and nobody is immune to those difficulties. I know that myself, and I've been going through my own tumultuous time of challenges lately. What matters is that you pushed through and now you're on that upward trajectory. I hope you've come to realize how special and meaningful you are. Simtropolis just isn't complete without you. As I said things have been a bit rough for me so I haven't had a lot of time for SimCity 4 these past few years, but hey - who knows - knowing you're back might just inspire me to resume on my city journal! I definitely miss playing lately. At any rate, I hope you're doing swell and I hope to check back in here & there and continue to learn from your insights.

I had a 2070 which the game was working pretty well on. My region is not very build up at all, like under 10k population. A few weeks ago I upgraded to a 3070, and now I'm a little worried because when I go into a city tile I think my fps is dropping when I move the camera. Seems to be dropping down to single digits even. I'm really not sure what might be going on. Anyone seen anything like this, when upgrading to a new gpu? I'm wondering what I should try?

Thanks @rsc204! @Ulisse Wolf was kind enough to instruct me on the discord that maybe I should try installing Dgvoodoo2. I'm guessing that is similar to what you're describing? I haven't had the courage to try doing this yet, but if you have any other resources let me know. You know... I just realized. I do have a 970 sitting around (even older than my 2070). Maybe I can install the 970 into my 2nd slot and have my game run on that? As a last ditch effort?

Hello everyone, I hope you've been well. I'm back (at least for the moment), and was thinking of posting another update in my natural growth city journal. I'm moving at a snail's pace. I had a post all ready to go then lost it somehow, and I was too bummed for awhile to retype it all out. I'm hoping I can find the energy to make an update soon. Anyways I had a question for all of you super knowledgeable types. How quickly does a population grow, over history? I've done some googling and having really found anything concrete. I'm curious to know how long it might take say a population of 1000 to become 5000 for example, and how long for that 5000 to become 10000, and so on and so on. I'm also wondering what advancements may have lead to the greatest population spurts over time. Of the top of my head I would imagine: Agricultural advancements Farming/pesticides Hunting/weapons for hunting Trading for food?/meeting with other civs? Retail locations with food? Water traversal and waste removal advancements Aqueducts and/or water purifiers, water towers Sewers Medical advancements Life expectancy up Birth rate success up Religion? Maybe a society that almost idolizes being fruitful? Collective strife? Returning from war baby boom? Or post financial recession baby boom? What are some other things that might lead to increase population growth I'm overlooking? Anyone have any good resources on how to calculate a realistic timeline for how long it would take a few thousand people to get up to say 1 million people? Thanks.

I think Midjourney likes to combine the "punks" together, lol. So sometimes striving for solarpunk themes does combine it a bit with some more steampunk or cyberpunk elements.

This is really fantastic. I hope I work my region to the point where there are awesome downtown stations like this, but I'm a looooong way off.

Hiya @Terring, I voted for a mix of both, but I think no matter what you do it will be phenomenal. You're style is one of the coolest around! Speaking of solarpunk, what got you into that style? I have seen more solarpunk stuff and even created a bit of my own solarpunk art on Midjourney, but honestly I think I didn't even really know about that style until I learned it from you. Here are a few of the solarpunk works I generated. Who knows, maybe both of these people are in your region? =)

I agree it's more work on assets, absolutely. I just think the city-builder modding community is a healthy and active community, especially when it comes to models. So ultimately, the developers really just need to build the natural progression mechanics into their game, release it with some assets for each period, but then let the modders jump in and grow the asset pool.

Haha, yes this is my play-style. If a city-builder focused on this type of theme, it would probably immediately become my favorite city builder of all time. SC4 is the greatest city-builder that gives the players the tools to play with this natural development. Cities Skylines is pretty, but was always just a skyscraper simulator to me. Now, of course I DO hope CS2 incorporates this option to play with natural development. They did drop a few hints in the trailer that suggest they may give a few options. They talk about the city having a story. Story = progression, change, development. So that's a key word to hold out hope on if you're a fan of natural development playstyles. They also show a couple shots on the outskirts of town looking in, which is promising. Also, it's pretty clear they are trying to instill emotional connection to the city into the game. Will it all pan out? I'm not sure, but I definitely hope so. If I had to place bets, no, I would say nothing will top SC4 for a long long time still. I think modern city builder games just don't cater to the type of fans that want natural progression over time. A city that takes on a life of its own.