That Retro Guy

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, but real life has been an absolute bear recently. I'll try to post more when real life eases up a bit. Thanks for your patience.

Sorry that I haven't posted in a bit, but (once again) real life has gotten a bit hectic. Let's recap: Here is my Region, Limistéar: Here's the proposed layout for Limerick. Killarney will be somewhat similar. Here's the legend: 1. The Farming Villages are represented by the green circles with the V in them. 2. The Commercial Business District is represented by the big yellow circle with the CBD in it. 3. The Landing Strip is easily identifiable by the gray rectangle with the words Landing Strip in it. 4. The Freight Train Line is in red. The Station is the square with the F in it; the Tracks are indicated by the red lines. 5. The Passenger Train Line is in purple. The Station is the square with the P in it (Eww!); the Tracks are indicated by the purple lines. Each Farming Village will consist of 3 - 4 Farms (known as a Co-op) and be self-sufficient in terms of power and water. I haven't decided yet on whether or not Limerick and Killarney will have Landing Strips. The Freight Station may have to be moved a bit south to allow the track to curve (safely) easterly towards Dublin before crossing the river. After much consideration, I have decided to keep the Passenger Line. I'll be starting near where the red 'F' box (currently) is. Question: How much of the land should I zone to start with?

OMG! It worked! It never even occurred to me to place the FlexRamps first and then 'draw' the highway. Thanks, man! Thanks for the respect you're showing me, but it's just Retro.

OK. Here we go again . . . I'm working on the 'intersection' that will allow the Sims to get onto (and off of) the US-OC. (Not the Cloverleaf itself, you understand.) Here's the situation: Ramp A1 Before placing the Ramp: And after placing the Ramp: Ramp B1 And after placing the Ramp: Ramps A1 and B1 look great, don't they? Everything is as it should be. Now look what happens when I try Ramps D1 and E1: Ramp D1 Before placing the Ramp: And after placing the Ramp: I tried to fix it with the RHW-2 piece: No luck. Ramp E1 Before placing the Ramp: And after placing the Ramp: Once again, I tried to fix it with the RHW-2 piece: And, once again, no luck. Am I doing something wrong (again), or am I just cursed?

Oh, good! People are still talking to me. I was beginning to wonder. I noticed that none of the questions that I asked in my video have been answered. I thought that maybe hearing the sound of my voice (such as it is) on my video had caused me to be ostracized or something. It's late, and I'm in a silly mood. Bedtime.

My OCD is going to be the death of me someday. I am currently revamping my US-OC. Yes, sports fans, US-OC Version3 is coming soon. I must be nuts! Here's my US-OC Version2 pic. The proposed lake was going to be in the center square. Everyone who's old enough knows that Paul Lynde belongs in the center square. I have abandoned the idea of having a lake in the middle of my US-OC for one very important reason: Since this huge thing needs to be centered in the middle of the city, that's going to be some primo Commercial real estate in the CBD. I thought and thought until my brain started smoking (nasty habit ). I decided to have FLUP OWR ramps run under the Ground Highway into the CBD. (I can just run the OWRs under the Elevated Highway . . . obviously). I'll try to post a pic of the CBD within the next couple of days if/when I figure out the FLUPs connector pieces. It also dawned on me that even if I do manage (somehow) to build my US-OC, the Sims that live in that city would need a way to get on and off of it. I tried (once again) to figure out FLUPs. I read @CorinaMarie's Tutorial Cori's First FLUP - With Pics but since it was written almost 5 years ago, I'm wondering if things have been updated and changed. Here's a pic of my FLUPs attempt (Note: This isn't the center of the Cloverleaf . . . I did this at the South end of the map trying to make it work): As you can see, I'd like to have 2 OWRs running under the RHW-6S. The problem is that every single piece in the FLUPs menu that I tried to connect the OWRs underground fails to work. . . . which raises a few questions. Questions: 1. What am I doing wrong this time? 2. Which piece is the correct one that will connect the FLUP ramps in this picture? 3. Since I'm spreading out the Cloverleaf, the North-bound RHW 6-S lanes in this picture will be separated from the South-bound RHW 6-S lanes leaving only half of the RHW-6S for the OWR FLUP ramps to go under. Does a FLUP connector piece even exist in the game to connect an OWR FLUP ramp under only half of a RHW 6-S (be it the 3 North-bound or the 3 South-bound lanes)?

When I started fiddling around with my US-OC (I made the image that you see in Post #45 of this thread in late February), I found a piece that would indeed lower the off-ramp from L2 to L1 and then from L1 to L0 for the on-ramp. The problem is that I can't remember which piece it is and where to find it. Help!

I laughed when someone gave me a 'Like' on that 31+ minute Monster of a video of mine. Are you ready for the latest? Someone actually subscribed to my Channel. Once again, whomever you are, and wherever you are . . . You just made my day! Thanks! It looks like that, once again, I screwed up embedding my video into my post. I Copy+Pasted the YouTube link into this box that I''m typing in right now. Evidently, I'm still doing something wrong. The question is: What?

I made a (much) shorter video this time . . . about 7 1/2 minutes showing my US-OC The original 31+ minute monster will be taken down at Midnight tonight so I don't get nailed by the Copyright hammer. I didn't realize that the in-game music is copyright protected. Oops!

I worked on the USOC a little tonight after work. Things are progressing nicely. I guess that you can't use Curves on RHW and expect them to connect so I just deleted the Curve and used RHW-2 as a Diagonal to connect where I need it to connect. It's looking nice thus far. If there is a way to use the Curve in the default Curves tab and be able to connect it, please let me know how. I even got the lake in the middle looking spiffy (if I do say so myself). Thus: It's not perfect. Has anybody ever seen a square lake in real-life? Maybe there's a way to make it more natural looking (ie: rounder). Now the newest problem: Because the Cloverleaf themselves are L0 - L2 or L2 - L0, I need to figure this out: I have to figure out how to make the L2 off-ramp for the Elevated Highway become the L0 on-ramp for the Ground Highway. I tried using one of those Raiser things. Question: 1. What Height is L2? I thought it was 15 ft but when I tried using the 15 ft Raiser thing, the off-ramp actually went up in height. I was trying to make a gentle slope like @CorinaMarie did when she showed me how to make a bridge over a river and use the gentle slope to get to ground level. Suffice it to say, it didn't work. Then again, @CorinaMarie's gentle slope was straight. Mine needs to be Diagonal. Maybe that has something to do with it. One thing that I did figure out is I have to be absolutely happy with the shape of the lake before I really start building this thing. The Leveling tool loves to destroy anything in it's path. More tomorrow, I'm sure . . .

Never say die! I'm taking another crack at building my Ultimate Spread-Out Cloverleaf, Firstly, I found the center of the city tile and lowered the terrain until I hit water. I then used the leveling tool to create the lake that the cloverleaf surrounds. Thus: It looks OK, but my OCD is yelling at me to make all 4 corners look like the upper-left one. Oh! Just to save everybody from counting, there are 20 cells between both sets of parallel roads. (Road - 20 cells - Road). I know that the roads will be replaced by the proper RHW pieces. So I went to the southern part of the cell, and began the RHW-6S Highway when I ran into a bit of a problem. Thus: Let me walk you through this: (I did the following for both sides of the RHW-6S). Point A: I plopped the RHW-6S Starter Piece, dragged the RHW-2 through it, demolished the Starter Pieces, and filled it in with the RHW-2. Point B: I plopped the FlexRamp E1 to create the North-bound off-ramp. Point C: I plopped the proper curve from the original Curve Tab. I placed another such curve at Point E. Problem: i can't connect Point D to Point E. No matter what I tried. I realize that I'm probably forgetting something basic but I've only had 1 day off of work in the past month, and my brain is really fuzzy at this point. I actually thought about making a video about this (I still might do that tomorrow if I feel up to it . . . I have to work tomorrow night, so we'll see). So far, so good (except the problem, of course). 3 lanes heading North (Point A), the right lane becomes the off-ramp (Point B) while the left and middle lanes continue on. Huzzah! I'm going to bed now . . . if I can make it that far before falling asleep.

Which means . . . ?

I'll post the pic again so no one has to keep scrolling up and down to look at it. I'm thinking of starting near the river inside the circle near the Freight Station. I'm also thinking that all Industry (not counting the farms, of course) will be placed along the Rail. I also realized earlier today that the Passenger Train isn't what I think it is. In-game, all Passenger Trains do is help the SIms commute to their jobs while in Real Life, they also let people travel from city to city. Think AmTrak. (I thought AmTrak went out of business a while ago but evidently, they're still in business). So Limerick and Killarney will not have a Passenger Train set-up. Dublin will, of course, with multiple Stations around the City for commuting goodness. In regards to the size of the circle representing the CBD, is that about the right size for a Medium-sized city or is it too big?

I'm laughing while I type this. Someone actually gave my video a Like. Whomever you are, where-ever you are . . . Thanks! You just made my day!

Wait a minute! Is that a Graveyard behind Mal's Practice?!! It is kinda cool that all of the parking lots connect with one another. I wonder if there are any filler pieces that connect the parking lot to the road?