TheCrybKeeper

Yes! me too. You are saying; your region will develop due to tectonics and gravity vs water, etc, correct?

I have alot to post this time around, but haven't got back in the game yet. Weekends are bad for me, as we are putting out the weekend editions; work hours are crazy and little time for sleep. Nardo69: well please do not leave just yet, but farming is still not happening. hehee. sorry. Nicolais: Interesting and hopefully successful. This could all end bad, eh. Samflashjr: I think I read some of that thread. I typed in the search for grids/gridded, etc. only one page worth of threads on the subject, but none discussed total grid layouts. SkiGeek: That is awful nice of them too. I can just about picture mama on skis. lol. I guess Carol Burnett Show, got me started watching Mamas Family. Palmgurl: Oh no, copying me? If I fail then you fail. No worries, I won't let ya down just yet. Beachfrntprop/ Screename: I got some revealing answers below. Compromise: I hope the light stays on for a bit longer. hehee. thanks for stopping by and commenting! Me_Simon: Actually I agree with you. Avenues and buses only, YUCK! I have my reasons though as we will begin to see in this post. Part Five: Revealing stuff but no farms Read me: My next step was to build a bit more industry, while preventing too much dirty development. I again entered my four Ind. Quads in a clock-wise rotation. being careful to keep them as equal as possible. notice how many jobs there are verses how much population. nearly all the residence are younglings right now and not many workers, I guess. After getting the Industry up to about 15,000 total jobs, I again entered Multifarius main and began forcing sims to move in. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//put-this2x.jpg align=baseline> How to make folks live where they shouldn't want to live. My job availability is low, my grids are boring. So how do I get the sims to move in and stay? First way is to use the gifts effectively. I said I used the You don't deserve it cheat, to make all gifts available. I however, did not place most things until the sims were whining for them. Stadiums, courthouse, country club, churches: when they ask for it, then build it. Sims will also want commercial like mad and more industrial, but do not give it to them. Instead bribe them with gifts, like the zoo and parks etc. Contrary to belief, hospitals early in game, also squeezes more sims into your main city. build the 16 large parks right away. 4 per quad is fine for now. this helps many gifts pop up. City ordinances help growth, but sometimes are a final solution, when all else fails. The idea is to get as many sims as possible, before you build the zones they ask for or leave the city main. Also remember this rule: your region is one city, no matter how big it gets. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Multifari00p.jpg align=baseline> When the sims play the blues as above; do not let the music influence you. They are demanding lower density commercial, do not give in. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Multifari00e.jpg align=baseline> 93,000 and still no congestion? They are feeling the raggae beat at this point. That is good to hear. This means they are happy to shop and play, without employment. Laid back, smooth sailing mon. more will come. let us see how many. Commute time is dropping! As the residence move in the commute drops off. More and more simizens taking the buses. I still have no parking garages and only my diamond bus station layout and Aves. I have NOT implemented the Community shuttle service in CO's yet. I still have many options to make busing more effective, yet I still have no need to do it. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Multcomuter2.jpg align=baseline> SimBand takes a haitus above. Where's the music! Cannot get anymore gifts to come up. Cannot get anymore sims to move in either. should I try the farms now? Well, first lets see if these younglings are smart yet. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Multintell2.jpg align=baseline> Nope, Dumb as doorhinges. Nine years have passed by. Not long enough for a quality education, I guess. Even though my RCI is all negative. Abandonment is sparse and not an issue. Chapter Summary Why the grids? Why the big X of services? why the paralell strips of services? why the balanced entering and exiting technique? why all the questions at once? Because all are connected and work together. Forming a large spiderweb effect. each strand is like a spoke in a wheel with 8 directions. This is further broken down into L shaped commute paths for my residence, but X shaped commutes for school bus traffic and police/fire. My sims usually drive passed, only one police station when going to work. All of this, seems to keep Simizens happier with the longer commutes. Chess moves begin coming to mind. Yes, I am making chess moves with each transportation venue or strip of something, etc. The center of the X is positive/desirable and has little traffic, the outside corners of the X are negative/hard to fill with Res. and also have less traffic. (Game hint). Remember where I built that big Major league Stadium? Now sims are moving into that area like crazy. they will travel to work in an L shape or straight, but they have no reason to go into the corner Of my Main city board. What can I do with those empty corners now? Not farms. heheee. See the web? a flower maybe? https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Multifari00g.jpg align=baseline> will I make 200,000pop. before traffic builds up?... and where IS that farming anyways?... Will the sims get so smarty tarty, that they will not work on a farm? We will see. To be continued.....

Shadow Assassin: This glass thing is not working out well. It is rendering as , too realistic for SC4. I am not giving up though. It will take me some time, to get the blurry transmitions set properly and then a render in B5.5 with glass reflection, takes about as long as B.A.T. renders. I will update this post with textures shortly and PM you right away.

SkiGeek: Thank you in the highest altitude! I love your Avatar! I think I have seen all of the episodes too. Hyped Up Boy(HUB): LoL lots! Sorry for laughing, but I got to comment on your sig qoute first! I hope I am wearing an, old pair of stanky boots, if they walk in mine. hehee. ...still giggling...wait a sec. I think your concept is possibly better, than mine. Especially, after reading tf923s' response below. Not ready to give in, though. Tf923: No apologies. In fact, you have got me brainstorming already. Your description is, very clear and your literal style has concinnity. hehee. You are correct. I still cannot give up yet. I could be way off, but I think there may be, more legitimacy to the intersections, than you imply above. We will see. Thanks for responding and giving me the great information! I truely appreciate it. Be sure and check back. If I am wrong, I will try it your way next and see what I can make happen. Part Four: Gridding Secrets and Updates My Simchildren are growing up fast! Update: When first starting/building in in the main city; you should build each quad equally at once. I start in a clockwise order and build just enough res. to get the green RCI bar down 25%. Then pause and move to next quad. I like to start from outside and work inward. It doesn't matter if, your residential zones are the exact amount, but try to build just what you need to get that 25%. You can also build, just enough comm. zones, at 12.5% per quad. The concept here is, to rarely ever have the RCI balanced. Zone growth in balanced directions, causes the RCI's color bars, to swing and wave, in harmony. A 4 step rhythm. This is exactly what you want to happen. It is showing your growth stimulation techniques, are working well. I do not worry much about comm. zones. just build a bunch and they will follow the residence. Below I again chose the 2x6 serv. strip. All the new families and newborns, are desperate for housing! https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Multifarius12h.jpg align=baseline> Who will be moving in I wonder? Especially since My sims I.Q. is about, 60, at this point. Yet, I am getting mostly High-tech Industries to grow. Oh, it is only some wealthy folks. they must have been born, into it I guess, Or maybe they all won the lottery. Haha. I am not sure if they will stay though, we will have to see. Noise pollution may be my downfall?.....another, we will see. Addendum: we at AG, are not responsible for edited images or rhetorical remarks of said, destributed by our artists, not showing the poor folks next door. Thank you. I.Q. time. balance those schools if funds are low. It helps to actually run the simulation slow and continually watch your schools, at least monthly. Or,... build everything at once like me, then max it out, cause yer a cheater too! Oops, actually that should be, industrial tax settings: 13.9% on Dirty and 10.9% on Manufacturing, 7.6% on High-tech. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Multifarius12p.jpg align=baseline> 65,000 sims still no traffic developments. No abandonment, anywhere in my city, although it may happen soon, it hasn't yet. remember I have not exited this main city(we are on our second visit), or re-entered my Industrial cities a second time. the RCI bar is playing my song. Time for an airport. Haven't done a seaport even. Here is the regional view. I finally got the yellow RCI bar in the negative at 66,351 Simizens! Now, I need to see if my high-tech industry, will continue popping in or, revert to dirt makers. time passed in Multifarius: 8years. Date 11/07/0007. Forgot to show time span earlier. I will post a screenie first thing. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Establat12q.jpg align=baseline> Much more revealing stuff coming. Farming is next.

Hello Thunderman! Don't feel bad friend; I realize as I am doing this, I am still learning the game. Hahaa. Doing this experiment has made me look closer, at the games graphs, charts and what is doing what and where, etc. Louisville327: Thanks for the encouragement Lou! I hope I do not let you down as I go. NicolaiS: Thanks big time, friend and I will try to keep it going. As long as simizens keep showing interest. Nardo69: I do not feel worthy, but am very honored to have you peeking in and commenting! Thank you very much! I am still finding better ways to do this grid as I go. SC4 is still, the most fun simulation I have ever played with! Kwakelaar: hello Kwake, Glad you stopped in friend! Slowhand: hey there! well, I been doing it this way right out of the box in 2003. I have gotten the impression here at ST, that everyone already knew this stuff, as they tend to overlook my griddles. It is most definitely more fun to create an aesthetic city, but I cannot help returning to the scare and square. Yes, my goal in this experiment; is to finally see if this method maximizes my population. I have to find out if 1,000,000 sims can come from a grid such as this. Part three: gridding secrets Edit: I should have also added; My residents supply water to all Ind. cities and all Ind. cities, burn the res. cities garbage, in return. I also use/pay for many of the city ordinances. I'll have to check back on that, to see which few I do not use. now at 20,000 pop. I will start building industry cities. It is very important to get as many sims as possible before you even build the first industry. Once that is accomplished, you must leave the main res/comm city(multifarius) and do not enter it again, until you have industrial cities in all four directions. If you do not do this first; your sitizens will go to work, in the wrong and farther away directions. we want them to go to the nearest industry for work, without forcing them to follow a fluted route. The trick to this is, to let industrial grow only so much in each ind. city. Then exit it and go to the next direction and so on. I started in the south first and went clock-wise. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//South-Subtus12d.jpg align=baseline> After the yellow industry bar has dropped about a quarter; save and leave quickly, then go to the next industrial city. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//West-Vesper12f.jpg align=baseline> You can see above, that the yellow bar is dropping, but only so much. The res/green and the comm blue are beginning to rise. Those Multifarians definitely needed some jobs! 22 days in, I was getting High-tech fast! Save city and exit. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//North-Superus12e.jpg align=baseline> Three ind. cities done. Another reason for 6x6 blocks is how the zones and service strips work together. this stratagy above, maximizes the use of space, with the least waste of avenues. On to the last one for now. Another stratagy I am using is 90% Avenues and Busing Only. We will see if the highway gets placed. May not need it, if this works. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//East-Aurora12c.jpg align=baseline> This above shows where we want those RCI bars, before we ever enter our main res/comm city again. See the ticker saying, ultimate budget control menu? that is a product of the BSC BAT Bank mod from the STEX. The easiest and in my opinion, the best cash mod for the game. The little 1x1 money tree park, tends to get lost on me and doesn't allow me, to set my own standards for cheating. The link below, will take you to the proper place on the STEX to DL the bank, but you will have to look through pages 1 thru 7. It is their somewhere. I pasted the link directly off the Banks pop-up, but it didn't link directly back to the pop-up? https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?mode=files&filetype=BAT&Str=bsc ultimate budget tool metropolis bank Time to grow some simchildren now!

La Plaisance:5th place and turning out the RPM's! Fantastic break from the outside! I love this! I just knew I picked a winner!

Pansarkatt: thank you very much! I will most definitely continue this to its end. All game maximums will be revealed. Grater: Thanks for asking. I know I sound like some kind of expert, but really I am not. This is all the busing I have ever needed, to get zero conjestion problems. Later as the city grows; I may find out they are in-sufficient, but they have worked flawlessly, up to 263,000 sims. Mikeaut1: Thank you for commenting MikeAut1! I hope I can give some knowledge as well. Northsider1983: Thanks for commenting and bringing back my memory. Yes, big cities use the grid system. Keep in mind that SC4 is a simulation and being so, means that how the code works, is basically revealed in-game and gives away the stratagy and formula. Thank you for adding that denominator. I too used all rails in SCC! I had totally forgotten that part! Too bad, that doesn't work with SC4. It would be interesting to try. r******r******r r******r******r r******r******r r******r******r r******r******r r******r******r r******r******r r******r******r Part two: gridding secrets As I go along with this experiment; I am finding out many other revelations about SC4. I will comment on those as I go. Next we must start putting in fire, police, education and medical, in that order. we all know that the circle or radius of coverage is very flawed. So, the goal here is to cover the city entirely with fire and police protection. there are several combinations that work for this. So I won't post the boring images, for that. With Education and Medical, we need only service residential neighborhoods, so there is no need to cover the entire city. This is a game hint: telling you where to put comm zones. Commercial areas have a specific place surrounding the neighborhood or 4 quads. here is an image of my education coverage and also hospital coverage. I could have made this a bit different. Slightly smaller area even, but the circles mean; I must get my corners covered or change my square quads to rounder ones. I have done both ways and it works either way. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Multifariugg4.jpg align=baseline> Clinics above are only used to catch those missed corners and edges. This should be enough hospital coverage, but I find as my city grows, that I sometimes need to double the coverage or overlap the hospitals more. Below is just a guessing game for me. It should say WinSys32 Folder, which contains SC4 files. when you remove plug-ins or un-install and re-install the game even. Files are still left behind, in the Sys32 folder and it's temp folder. This is why re-installing the game doesn't solve some issues for others who have attempted it. I do not have those plug-ins shown below, installed anymore. I still am able to build them though and they appear just fine at first. Once the game recognizes the LOTs, they go black. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Multifariugg6.jpg align=baseline> EDITED: Apparently this happens to all the res zones. No matter what size. That's right; I am wrong here. Sometimes they appear very briefly, but they always appear, until the game recognizes the change in access. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Multifariugg7.jpg align=baseline> https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Multifariugg8.jpg align=baseline> My city is growing very fast! pre-zoning and pre-building does not slow down growth or demand; it increases it. Of course, we have no traffic problems yet. Time will tell. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Multifariugg9.jpg align=baseline> Edit: I forgot to show the region view, or satillite view at least. It shows how all civic and educational buildings, begin to form a huge spider web or X shape. Can you see the big X forming thru the city? https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Establaned5.jpg align=baseline> Much more to come.....

My gridding method allows all rewards to become available. I have never had a problem making the Bureau appear. What conditions are required? I do not have clue, as I provide all conditions at once and all rewards just start popping in. Watch my Gridding secrets thread to see the Bureau get built. I am just beginning this tutorial CJ, but I have done it 100's of times by now and it always works. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=68200

Okay, although I feel ignored when I say this; I will say it just one last and definite last time. Keep in mind, this is the way to maximize efficiency and population and I do agree; it ain't pretty, but it is pretty boring. 6x6 is the SC standard, since SC2k came out and still is in SC4. This is necessary, as it allows all objects in game to be placed evenly and perfectly, from one end to the other. Here is my link to the Grid tutorial CJ. More will be added as I max this largest city out. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=68200

This is very interesting thread, Phat! Sorry I didn't become more involved here, friend. With doing so many other things, it would have been hard for me to work on a city for this. I will however, come around and read, view, comment a bit, if that is okay. I love the look of Sloppets forum too! It has all the good features needed for a fun Forum. Let's make that site grow.

Hey PhatHead, My good bud! Yes the BAT for SC2000 was called the Skurk, wasn't it? Or was there another render app., I missed? If so; I would still like to find it and try it out. I had a tileset made for SC2k, that made all my buildings into furniture. Had couches, lounge chairs, refrigerator, etc. I wanted to change the roads to carpeting, but couldn't do that with Skurk/Urban Renewel kit.

JaxCoJazz: I just read your entire post. Yes, you know the game fairly well. Grids: this is my main style(not only tho) and I have done it so much so, that I can build it correct the first time out. No need to allow for expansions, as I know what, where and how, in advance. I pre-build a cities demands, basically. I am currently working on my biggest ever gridded city. will be posting images in a CJ soon, or maybe in Game experiments thread. Funny thing is; I have never seen more than 2 cars crash at once, in my all-grid cities and yes, traffic data is all green lines. I have found many factors, must be in proper place, for grid to work flawlessly. Trains are a no. Buses seem to be best of all transports, for a grid city. All blocks must be identical number of tiles: 6x6. any other number and the buses begin to faulter in performance. any less and traffic accidents begin to increase. every thing must be built to an exact maximum performance numeral. find these numbers,... and find Utopia. Mexicanboy13: I like your sig and yes, I donated through work this week. gave up my coffee money. Since I am not wealthy or anything. It was all I had to give. I wish I could have done more and have done other things. Anyways you are absolutely correct. If everyone gave a dollar, I would still have some coffee this week. heeeheee. seriously though, That is a wise statement in your signature and I applaud you.

Shadow_Assassin: You want a single pane designed, for each window, or just one large rectangle of glass. or several versions of single pane? 256x256 or 128x128? This will be custom glass and refraction/reflection added to suit taste. I am still currently looking at roads and bricks, seamless tileables. I can do a slew of glass next.

They all surely have something to offer me, but I like Pegusus' stuff best. It is mostly realism and ambience, type lots and cuases just the right effects in the game. Not too much effect on jobs, pop, garbage etc. nice textures as well and I like to notice these, I hope anyways. Secondly: comes SimGoober. Genius with commercial suburbia and Hotels, which are definitely my favorite commercial buildings. Coloful in just the right places. Third: This is a tie between two farmers BarbyW and Pmiller. The most realistic and fun farming comes from BarbyW. Pmiller not only makes great farms, but has some imaginative and crisp designs, with her SimMars BATS. She is destined as one of the best, for making believable details.

Well I can't make sense of code, but I do know one thing; Tons are not relevant, only the numbers are and what number, they are measured against. Is 1(ton or kilo) relative to the capacity used in the landfill? That is the curse of simulations, as they follow logic, but real cities do not follow logic. or I should say a common logic or denominator.

Mickebear: That is what I recognized(the reflection from PS). I hope I didn't sound mean or anything. Still I am not sure if BATters can use them, as they are not flat, with the gradient applied, or at least tileable and seamless. One or the other is needed.

Howdy Timotheus4! Yeah, I use that cheat. I also found a zipped file that installs a hex editor for Simtower, or whatever it is. I installed it fine, but winXP doesn't seem to recognize the EXE. file. Readme and author below. I guess I could still e-mail him maybe. TOWERHEX.EXE is a simple utility program written in Visual Basic that will allow you to hex edit your saved SimTower .TDT tower files to change the star rating and/or the amount of remaining funds. There are seven simple steps to using the program: 1. Click on the drive box to select the drive where your files are stored. 2. Click on the directory box to select the directory where your files are stored. 3. Click on the file box to select the file that you want to change. 4. Click on the read file button and you will be presented with a display of current values. 5. Select the star and money values that you want. 6. Click on the write file button to save these values to disk. 7. Click on the exit button to terminate the program. If you have any questions or comments regarding this program, please direct them to CCSV96A@prodigy.com or Geraldalan@aol.com Jerry Moore Nealos: Streets of SimCity has a lot of bugs as well. Skurk used to lose my tilesets completely at times also. Not sure if that will still happen in XP.

This road section is only the first of an elaborate puzzle piece set, I am starting for Toxic Piano. I doubt SC4 will show most of the details, but here is another Exclusive, just for ST! Piece 1 two lane hosted at Image Shack(touch my thumb) https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//twolaneAve8ty.jpg align=baseline> Here is another couple, with different textures. gradient on these two has been corrected on one above. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//twolaneAve5tt.jpg align=baseline> https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//twolaneAve6tt.jpg align=baseline>

I too, wish for such a frowny face, Grater. Hehee. I know when I am through saying this, you are gonna want to use one too. I never get congestion or traffic issues, or job issues or any issues at all,..... why? like you said; Sim reality is not Real life. I Grid the city out, based on a numerical formula. I supply only one public transportation venue, like busing and I get zero traffic problems, all green lines in the traffic density window. This has worked for me, up to 263,000 population. It's all in the numbers and always has been with simulations. When attempting to make real world cities, you must deliniate from the fixed numbers. This should cause a large variety of problems. I see this trend occurring, for 100's of Sitizens posting, here at ST. again here are the numbers. what object each number goes to, is the challenge: 2x3x6x12x24 I already know which numbers apply to each obj. for 90% of the game. Grid it baby! or find a band-aid that works.

Slowhand: SC2000; Yes, it is awesome! I was playing the Chicago scenario, to test it out. all was working well, until I tried to minimize the game window. That's when the ticker announced Crash. No troubles with display, just avoid that top speed setting. Heheee. I had the same troubles with it crashing, back when I first bought it for Win95. I will try playing it again later and see if I can avoid crashes. SimTower is okay, but not nearly as much fun as SC2, 3 or 4. I also have; SimCity Classic, Streets of SimCity, SimIsland, SimPark, SimTown, etc. SimIsland used DOS, so I haven't attempted installing it.

Can anyone help Pmiller19574 finish her farm? RL has got her busy with school starting and I haven't the time to render in BAT and Bryce5.5 both. Any takers? here is her link for helpers. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=67953&pageNo=1

Upate: NEW! another exclusive texture made for ST. Green Tin Roof. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//tinroofeg55a.jpg align=baseline> UPDATE2: I think I should start a website and place a link here at ST? maybe that would be more appropriate, as it would save bandwidth here. Also posting twice in a row is not good apparently. I could re-build my old website, into a texture page and keep the link to it exclusive to Simtrop? Anyone else have some input? Feel free to give me your two cents; feedback is nourishing! Back to the roads and then a 4 lane Ave. with no median in the middle.

Mickebear: you made them originally or modified them in PS? When a texture is requested of me; I first go to the web and study the objects and their textures. Thusly, I end up viewing hundreds of pics, textures, etc. The reason I ask is because the clay tile roof looks very familiar. Upate: NEW! All exclusive to ST green tin roof. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//tinroofeg55a.jpg align=baseline>

Edit 3: Anyone need a Texture for SimMars BAT's? I will then put all others on hold , as SimMars is first priority.

Attention BATters' If you have requested a texture from me; this is on hold until I can get away from work.