Zelgadis

NAM has helped, but as you point out, it is also not perfect. But it's definitely better than a kick in the butt. What puzzles me most is that Maxis/Aspyr shipped this game thinking that their computations for commute times were acceptable. My other beef is with the deterioration of utility buildings. A power plant has to be destroyed and rebuilt to keep maximum capacity. Have the sims who operate these buildings ever heard of renovation? Anyway, that's a beef for another time and another thread... ISF

Now that Physbo has made this file available for download, there is something important to know about it. This file should be dropped into the SimCity 4 Data folder, not a plugins folder, according to the information I received from Aspyr. I suppose this is the end of this thread. However, I would like for the people to whom I have sent this file to share their experiences with it. Let us all know if it is working for you! ISF

Must be a time warp. He/she got it before I even sent it. ISF

Aspyr told me the same thing. And I did, twice. Didn't work. Don't even bother. I can send the file if you want. ISF

The patch on the Aspyr site is not the same. I downloaded that patch at first and it didn't help at all. It wasn't until I whined a great deal more to Aspyr that they sent me the new file. As far as I know, they haven't posted it on their website for some strange reason...

Wow, I really need to work on getting away from the grid pattern I use so much. It's so hard to break myself of that habit. Anyway, pictured here is my city of Aquitania. As you can see, I love bridges, especially Rush Hour bridges. It also features one of my other favorite city features: the park strip. Notice the line of parkland between the street and the avenue in the upper right corner. I find it a good demand booster and a handy place to put subway stops. I usually make two of these and they usually traverse the entire city square. Keep posting here! I wanna see more! Ian

I went ahead and backed up my SimCity 4 and started experimenting with the plugins. I followed the instructions and installed the mod and one traffic plugin: better pathfinding. I have noticed three things upon installation: 1) MASSIVE amounts of new construction. 2) Increased use of public transit. 3) Buildings no longer seem to be abandoned due to long commute, but the commute still says long. Is this what I should be seeing? I'm still a little nervous about the fact that the commute still comes up as long, but I think that SimCity says long while the mod says short. That's my guess anyway. Any thoughts? Ian

I have found and downloaded the file. I have also read through the extensive readme file that accompanies it. I assume this mod works for Mac since it was suggested to me here, though no mention was made of Mac in any of the readme files. Most importantly, the readme files state that I must choose one of each type of file to put into my plugins folder. This makes the big question which files do I choose? The instructions state that some of the files might cause performance problems. I would like to find a proper balance between fixing my commute problem and minimal performance interference. Any suggestions? Ian My choices for the traffic plugins are as follows: (I have to admit, I don't totally understand all of them)

In all honesty, I'm not entirely sure what the file did on a technical level. I know the general ins and outs of computers pretty well, but I'm not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination. All I do know is that this file streamlined the scrolling and U drive it missions considerably without sacrificing anything else. According to the Aspyr tech support guy who sent me the file, this is the line of code that is critical to the performance upgrade: property noPartialBackingStoreCopies true If anyone else knows more about such kinds of files, I welcome a post here to explain. At the very least, the performance upgrade that this file provides is too great to keep to myself, so I thought it should be shared here. ISF

Sounds lovely! What is the NAM and where do I get it? I've searched all over this site for it and I'm more confused about it now than when I started... If only Aspyr was as quick to fix bugs... Ian