countermoon
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Everything posted by countermoon
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The manual for the Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool says "File Juicer should enable you to use this installer package" and that's it. I would rather not buy another program just for this. Has anyone installed this tool without using File Juicer? Or could someone provide more detail about what File Juicer does with this file and what kind of file it is? I might have an existing program that can open it and run the installer.
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Installing Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool on Mac
countermoon replied to countermoon's topic in SC4 Mac Users
I'm unfamiliar with anything beyond Sierra. I've read of the many changes to the OS. -
Installing Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool on Mac
countermoon replied to countermoon's topic in SC4 Mac Users
What OS? -
A couple problems. Often I have trouble connecting a road or street (of any kind) to an avenue. Or avenue to avenue. Or whatever to whatever. Can't connect, is the message I get. Sometimes I can bulldoze the avenue, or flatten it, and try again, and it works. Sometimes not. Which streets go with which puzzle pieces? Now I know why they are called puzzle pieces. I think I will give up on flattening terrain, because all it does is push the dirt somewhere else for me to discover later. These puzzle pieces have many cryptic names and descriptions. The manual doesn't cover them. Oh, for a thorough manual. I'm baffled by how to transition from cities to highways and which highway to use. The puzzle pieces called "ramps" have mostly "deprecated" pieces. Other abbreviations and uses are baffling. What do all these terms mean? I'm working on New York. Again. Trying to put industry on one island, commercial and residence in another, with a bridge between. First I tried a rail bridge but they refused to take the train. Then I tried a road bridge but it get too congested. I tried an avenue bridge, but that may have been too expensive, and there were problems getting on and off. I tried a Real Highway bridge (RHW), but similar problems: congestion and transition between roads, highways, and bridges. I'm out of ideas until I learn this game better.
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What do you think about doing it again?
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Tutorial - Rob's Guide to SimCity 4
countermoon replied to rob_mtl's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion
"There is always a reason for everything" Uh, no. Not even close. I've been using computers since 1980. I've seen all kinds of voodoo. -
Load order weirdness... it's all about underscores!
countermoon replied to rsc204's topic in SC4 Mac Users
I believe this made a difference. Mac users having trouble should try it after datpacking. Those are the two solutions which allowed me to play the game. They were given to me here by generous people. I still have crashes occasionally, maybe once a week, but these two tips made a big difference.- 2 Replies
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I heard it again today, not for the first time. This time it was while building power plants. I'm wondering if the two are related. Anyone ever hear the sound of a horse whinnying? So weird. There are no horses in my city. Suddenly I hear this horse sound.
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I downloaded the helicopter mute mod. It works. Thanks. I was tired of hearing it.
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What happened to the audio?
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Load order weirdness... it's all about underscores!
countermoon replied to rsc204's topic in SC4 Mac Users
This is interesting, and it may be helpful. Thanks.- 2 Replies
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Which of your videos is relevant to what I'm doing?
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Thanks for the help. I certainly need it. The only mod I use is NAM. I got the term "puzzle pieces" from Rob's video tutorials, though I think the term also appears in the Maxim pdf manual (SimCity 4 Deluxe edition). I apply the term to everything, but maybe I shouldn't. I found a pdf manual called "Mass Transit Authority Users Manual for NAM 31.2". Not all of it is relevant, and I wonder how much has changed from NAM 31 to the present. I'll try to make it plain. When I want to build something, there is a control panel on the left showing a vertical column which contains pieces which can be laid down (road, street). The vertical column scrolls up and down. Many of these pieces baffle me. I can tell neither by the picture nor the description what they are or how to use them. As I've learned more, I've wanted to learn more of the pieces. I agree that exploring has its place, and I've planted some to see what they look like. But that wastes time and simoleons and I have to restart. If I had some kind of chart, that would make a big difference. At my age, memorizing isn't something I look forward to. Yes, there are Flex pieces too, which I don't know, and MiS, which I don't know. More terminology that is a mystery. More computer acronyms written as though they were self-evident. There's Real Highway (RHW) which looks a lot like a road and there's Maxis Highway which looks more like a highway. The latter will connect to an avenue but not a road. But you can't connect it to a bridge with a single lane. I also learned (the hard way) that you can't place buildings next to a Real Highway piece. That may seem obvious, but I've been through places in the real world where the highway really does run straight through the city next to establishments. So that gets me back to the subject of transitions. I thought there must be a way to get on and off the bridge, transition to a highway, then to a road, but I couldn't figure it out without creating excessive congestion. Traffic bunches up before and after the bridge, similar to the problem of a popular bus stop near a rail station. Traffic bunches up in one spot. I tried roundabouts, but they take up a lot of room and they don't always solve "red congestion". They are also finicky to place, as are most of the pieces. Sometimes Rob's one-way improvised "circle" (oval?) works for me.
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Tutorial - Rob's Guide to SimCity 4
countermoon replied to rob_mtl's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion
Thank you for the links and the tutorials. -
Tutorial - Rob's Guide to SimCity 4
countermoon replied to rob_mtl's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion
Well, off the top of my head, I would say underground rail or underground roads because I struggle with traffic problems, both congestion and air pollution. The whole subject of getting people to work has somewhat baffled me. Many times I find myself in the middle of the dilemma where a business has low customers (turns black) and a residence needs a job. They ought to link up but they don't. I tell them, "For God's sake, there's a rail station right there. Use it!" But they ignore me. So I add buses next to my rail stations and all over the place, but often that causes "red" congestion where the bus stop meets the rail station. I rely on regular rail, buses, roads, and avenues. The basics. I've tried tunnels but it takes me a long time to get right, and even then it doesn't work v. well. Roundabouts take up too much space and don't always get rid of the red problem. I tried improvising one-way circles and squares, which I saw you do on videos. That works well if there is enough space. I probably waste a lot of money destroying buildings and trying to smooth the terrain. I push the dirt around, flattening one area only to find lumps somewhere else. I waste a lot of time on coastlines, trying to put roads on the edge to maximize space. I waste a lot of time trying to find transitions from avenues to roads, because sometimes they don't connect properly. I guess my assumption has been if I reduce air pollution, then businesses will get used rather than turn black. Creating high density residence is also a problem as they seem naturally to create traffic congestion. But many times my medium density buildings will give the "no work" message. The only reliable housing I have found is the one-square medium density apartment building. Rarely goes black, rarely unemployed, and you can put it anywhere. -
I bought the STEX on the assumption that if I did so, I wouldn't have to see that popup whenever I visit this site. But it still appears. So that's my fault. But is there a way to bypass this popup? I bought the STEX, so there's no need for me to continue to see this ad. I'm using ad blockers on the latest version of Firefox for Mac.
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Tutorial - Rob's Guide to SimCity 4
countermoon replied to rob_mtl's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion
Rob, what do you think about doing a tutorial video on the "less common" puzzle pieces? Everything outside the basics, pariticularly transportation items, roads, and so on. There's a long list of items that I have never used, and some I don't even know what they are or whether I should use them. You could do a video just like your basics tutorial, drop it down and show how it is used. -
The road to 50k sims... Does it make SC4 unstable?
countermoon replied to rsc204's topic in SC4 Mac Users
"every player would suffer said bug" Maybe. There's a lot of voodoo in the computer world. -
The road to 50k sims... Does it make SC4 unstable?
countermoon replied to rsc204's topic in SC4 Mac Users
I question the value of the original post given the high number of variables involved in troubleshooting software. Being able to repeat a bug is the easier end of the scale of troubleshooting, and probably the least common experience. Many problems are not that obvious. -
It gets past ublock.
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I had the same problem: crashing at the 40,000 population. Do you know about dat packing? After I did that, I had only a couple crashes, but for the most part it's fixed. I highly recommend trying this.
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Well, it was good while it lasted. I played SimCity 4 with NAM 37 for many hours, but now when the game loads it crashes to the desktop. I have (had) 40,000 people in my city. I wonder if there is a limit which crashes the game. The geniuses at Apple changed how crash logs are done (in Sierra), so troubleshooting is more difficult than it used to be. Crash logs are now even more a mystery. I tried using Howard Oakley's helpful programs, but I can't make much sense of them.
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I have had a few crashes, but I have played the game enough to recommend dat packing to anyone having trouble with the Mac version of SimCity 4. After dat packing, the game is more playable, I think. I reached a population of 80,000 for the first time. One thing about dat packing: It looks like you can't change any game files after you do this. Such as the traffic simulator controller. NAM 39 was released in early December.
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More questions from and old simmer but Mac noob
countermoon replied to Mayor Leigh Jewels's topic in SC4 Mac Users
The latest NAM is cross platform. You need to have Java installed.
