mikeseith

Sparky, I would love to use overhead wires for this mod, but we have not gotten around to that yet. We are still waiting to see if T7T can get this thing to work on the Ant. I don't think the island platforms can be easily done, but I think it can be done by someone like T7T or Daeley. I would like to get some of this on elevated tracks but I can't seem to grasp the concepts of pathing and making puzzle pieces. Can't wait to see some of your work on the stations and trains. Oh, and I don't think having two styles of trams on a line is a problem. I have already done it.

Blade, A funny thing about the stations is if you have 1 touching another than you are going to have the wrong trams on the wrong lines. Its the same concept of putting a regular train station next to the rails, even though the station is not on the rails it still generates trains. The multi-line stations you see above are actually a bus stop and a subway station. The actual lot is 3 tiles long and 1 tile wide. The building is a prop I made that is 3X3 and hangs over both sides. The rail platforms fit under the prop from the sub stop or bus stop and looks like one seemless building. You can put them together and it looks like 1 large transit stop. This way the rail platforms don't touch and the red trams stay on the red line, blue trams on the blue line and so on. This seems to be the only way to make a multi-line tram station and make it look like one building. Also you can have road-tram-tram-tram-tram-road. Or road-tram-tram-road-tram-tram-road. You can run a road right through the station. About the trams. I may have a redo of the trams with both ends rounded. The trouble is, the model I used probably won't be able to be used for it. So, these trams will probably be offered as another option with the beta. This way we will have the original trams in the 1st post, these newest trams and some trams that are rounded on both ends. Now, I had better start looking through those train models again.

Hello all. I just finnished a group of modern-looking trams. Hopefully this will keep some interest in the project while we wait for a breakthrough.

Thanks Larkyboof. As Daeley said, we will just have to be patient and see what T7T can do now. This is going slowly now, but when it all comes together I think it will all be worth the wait.

OK folks, here are the textures I have been working on. They are not perfect but I think you might be able to get a start with them. I did not give them group or instance ID numbers, I didn't know which to use. All of the requested tiles are in there as requested by trumpets. there are 3 wealth levels. I hope it works. textures

Thanks Yeti, I don't think dirt on the verges would be a problem since this would use the ANT and not be a part of the rail network at all. You do bring up a question I have for the7trumpets though. the7trumpets, Do you want the areas where there is no track or pavement to be invisible (alpha channel) to let the backround show, or do you want the entire texture's area to be filled? I will assume you will want the backrounds to show the wealth levels unless you say no. Also a word of warning. Making the textures of the rails at the angles needed may give us some odd looking textures. I am trying my best to make them look good and it is taking much more time than I had hoped. With just a little more time I might be able to do this and later someone with better tools for this job can clean up the textures. Ardecila, Thanks for the support. Thankfully my area never got the full effect from any of the storms. Only lost some shingles off the roof. Not so sure Florida will boom for awhile. Many of the new residents may move back up north after this summer. Well, back to those textures...

Ah well, I have some of the pieces there. Guess I'll have to find a way next week. By the way, I still have power and the wind must be 70 MPH outside I just hope the shingles stay put on the roof.

The7trumpets, I have been working on making the textures you asked for, but I was having problems drawing them up the way you want them. Would it be possible to do the project using the maxis supplied rail combos? I have most of the rail combinations extracted and have been working on making them into a light rail type of track. I'm finding that on the texture-making side this is the easier method. As you can see, some of the textures are done (at least 128x128 size). Tell me what you think before I really get involved with this.

So sorry about my absence but a storm after hurricaine frances fried my DSL modem and with all the damage in the area, my service provider would not do anything for a week. Then they shipped me a new modem. Just got it yesterday and now I have to put up the shutters again and probably go to work tonight for the next hurricaine. If this thing gives us a glancing blow like the last one, and my new modem dosen't get fried, and we aren't threatened by yet another hurricaine, I will try to do the needed textures. I will start this afternoon, then after the storm, I should have something next week sometime. I don't promise great looking textures but I know this thing needs to get a good push to get out of this rut we are in. If you hear that hurricaine Jeane hit the Fort Lauderdale area, don't expect to hear from me for quite awhile. About one more month and hurricaine season is over, Thank goodness.

Hello all, Sorry I haven't been active, but have been busy watching hurricaine Frances coming, preparing for it, watching it stall, sitting in the dark, then cleaning up after it. Probably be busy this week watching Ivan close in...sigh. Some hurricaine season this year. I shall return!

That looks very nice Ardecila. Very nice tram links Yeti and zeddic...if only I knew Finnish...

On a side note. I have eliminated the rail checker from the game. Now there won't be that annoying little vehicle running around our nice little tramways. Actually the rail checker is still there...you just can't see it anymore.

Just an overly simple idea here. Obviously Maxis did not want the different modes of transport to mingle. So...maybe we should just concentrate on making this project on ground rails. The way I see it with puzzle pieces, maybe you can make overhead lines anyway with this new system. The same way people have made the different bridge puzzle pieces for roads. Then we keep all the systems separated like maxis wants. Just an idea I wanted to throw out there. I just downloaded the interchange tutorial to see if I might be able to learn more to be of more help. After my 1st look, I'm not too sure about it . EDIT: I am going to try my hand at some more modern trams. Pictures and links would be helpful. I don't get to see many trams here in south florida, we are slaves to the auto here. Thanks all.

Well folks, this project seems to have gone beyond me and my modding skills. Seems I can't get a diagonal lot set up right. Ah well. I will still lurk around in the shadows and offer any help I can. Trumpets, I have the files that Daeley was working on last week. If he hasen't mailed them to you, I could. I don't think Daeley would mind (I hope). Come to think of it, it was before he was using the el train as a parent group though. Let me know if you want them. Anyway, I made some large subway and bus stations that are 3 tiles deep and 1 tile wide each. The prop that is used as the building on each lot is 3X3. a special light rail station can be placed next to them and you can have a large multi-modal transit center. I figure this is where I can make my contributions. Pictures are hosted off site. as you can see it looks like 1 large building with a continuous overhead walkway. I am planning matching rail and el-rail stations so you can mix and match. Also worked on a new overlay texture for the stations. Maybe they can be used for the rest of the project? as you can see they match up with the default rails better. Hope you have a breakthrough trumpets. If not, there are other ways to make this work. We should have a beta light rail ready in about 2 weeks I guess (give or take a month).

check in this thread for the el-rail to rail conversion Massively Gigantic Japanese BAT Gallery Many links to cool buildings in there.