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Rendell001

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Everything posted by Rendell001

  1. I know this is a total newbie question which probably gets asked every other day but I'm completely at a loss as to how to build road and rail tunnels in SimCity 4 Deluxe. I have the mac version of Deluxe and have NAM 44 added along with a few other mods that Cori recommended. I've also been able to use Flups to create underpasses successfully but am completely stumped when it comes to creating proper tunnels. When I google the topic, I get plenty of older vids that show digger lots / buldozers as a method to create tunnel entrances but these seem to be an older version of NAM digger lots that don't behave in the same way as the newer ones. In these tutorials, the diggers remain and then you have to bulldoze them before connecting the road or rail line to complete the the tunnel. This is totally different to what I find in the game and it's driving me up the wall! Any advice you can give me would be gratefully appreciated!

  2. How to build tunnels (not FLUPS) in SC4?

    Rendell001 replied to Rendell001's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    Hmmm, I'm wondering if my mods are not quite what they should be, while I do have NAM 44 installed I wonder if I need a slope mod to get the proper functionality... Something else I noticed was in your linked tutorial you had used ground level highways for your tunnel connection - my highways list is either arranged differently or the highways are in a different list for some reason. Obviously something isn't right there! I've attached a screenshot of my mods folder just in case.
  3. I've been working on the "Big City tutorial" in the default "Timbucktu" region and thats basically a triangular coastal city, the coastal side is one long diagonal and it creates all kinds of problems trying to get mass transit to work properly. Though I'm a newbie, I have been looking through the threads here on Simtropolis, gotten a few mods like NAM 42 and generally learning by trial and error. The main problem seems to be with transit times / jobs - I'm getting a lot of dilapidation and something else I've noticed... some buildings which report "Commuters: None" when I click on them with the route tooltip. I've installed the High Tech industry fix as well but clearly something is not right. I've attached a couple of pics to show the city, any advice you can give me will be greatfully appreciated!

  4. The "Commuters: None" Problem...

    Rendell001 replied to Rendell001's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    I have to say Corina that if I had to rate what is the most important tip I've learned recently regarding SimCity 4, it would have to be one about using indivdual road plops to level terrain. I had already used it for a few things in the other two tutorials but your post takes it to a whole other level! I had to spend a fair amont of time working on both banks but it's very much better now than before... That just leaves tunnels for the next part!

  5. The "Commuters: None" Problem...

    Rendell001 replied to Rendell001's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    To be honest I still have much work to do getting the hang of elevated railways etc - working with underpasses is stressful enough!

  6. The "Commuters: None" Problem...

    Rendell001 replied to Rendell001's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    So I'm working on that neighbouring map which you have shown in your screenshots and I'm having trouble with the bridges across the river. The road bridge is fine but it's the rail bridge thats the issue - it needs to be raised up on a gradually inclining embankment on the town side and then rise higher still on the opposite bank since that has higher gradient. This is further annoying as it's that side of the map that the railway line will have to exit in order to connect with "Making Money"... I have been looking at a couple of YouTube tutorials on the subject though they use different mods to create embankments. This is quite frustrating!

  7. The "Commuters: None" Problem...

    Rendell001 replied to Rendell001's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    I've only played in the other tutorial where the objective is to get the population to 40K or more - I'm currently on 38.5K. I found that there were similar problems to "Big City Tutorial" as regards commute Time and abandonment, additionally the terrain in that map was quite challenging to work around. Of course that map is not next door to Big City, I'd need to work out what I was going to do with those neighbouring maps first!

  8. The "Commuters: None" Problem...

    Rendell001 replied to Rendell001's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    No, the air pollution is not completely removed but it is certainly better than it used to be - areas bordering the industrial district are very much healthier as a result. Additionally, a couple of these lots do have significant costs / upkeep attached to them so they're not entirely unbalanced. I would not be installing cheats as that would defeat the purpose of the game. RCI demand has generally remained at high levels for quite some time and I think has been influenced by some of the changes I've made to residential and commercial areas. Yup, thats one of the ones I installed - very much more compact than the vanilla water plant!

  9. The "Commuters: None" Problem...

    Rendell001 replied to Rendell001's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    So I should mention that I installed a few Air purifier lots and a combined water and air processing lot for use in my industrial district. Water pollution is virtually extinct and air pollution has plummeted to the point where even high tech industry is begining to appear on the outer edges of the main industrial district... I still have significant dirty industry in there but I've been gradually working my way in from the edges of the district, bulldozing a few small businesses at a time for them to be replaced by manufacturing instead. There is a core of large Dirty industries around where the power stations are located at the edge of that corner. Changing them over is something that I'll need to do gradually...

  10. The "Commuters: None" Problem...

    Rendell001 replied to Rendell001's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    I've generally been zoning medium density over the original low density areas though I did try high density in the industrial estate - I got a few larger firms move in but I think it's going to a gradual transition. I've been tweaking the residential areas further along the coast at the opposite end from the industrial estate and have noticed a surge in those areas. The problem is that only some of the buildings there are stable - the rest have problems with jobs and transit times before degrading. This is despite a large commenrcial and small high tech park being on their doorstep... RCI demand is pretty high across the board except for dirty industry which has taxes of 20% to keep them out. Have just gotten the TV studio though I'm unclear on what benefits this provides and wether better placement will give improved results.

  11. The "Commuters: None" Problem...

    Rendell001 replied to Rendell001's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    So just a quick question: at what point would you start zoning for high density / skyscraper buildings? Would it be at a certain population level / demand?

  12. The "Commuters: None" Problem...

    Rendell001 replied to Rendell001's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    I must say that you've found much more elegant solutions to the problems in that city - I think I might go back to some of the avenues and tweak them. What did you put on the island btw? I keep getting pestered to build an airport but the only way I could do that would be to expand the island and put that there...

  13. The "Commuters: None" Problem...

    Rendell001 replied to Rendell001's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    Wow, I'm very glad I posted on here otherwise all my work might have been for nought! Good point about the region backup - I've made duplicates of the cities in there that I've worked on and put them in the downloads folder, I'll update them on a regular basis. So I take it that your Crime mod won't interfere with the "Crime doesn't Pay" mod? I can alway put that one in a subfolder just to be safe, it doesn't add new stations, just alters behaviour for things like airports...

  14. The "Commuters: None" Problem...

    Rendell001 replied to Rendell001's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    Okay I don't feel so embarrassed now - I thought patrol cars and helicopters weren't just for riots but were there to curb crime! Usually I'll send a pile of them if it's a high crime spot, they don't stay too long and they might not reduce it first time, but after a couple of call outs it usually goes down to medium. I can sometimes also place a car or copter there and it stays till moved. That usually takes care of the problem by itself within a fairly short period. I do that for a $$$ block or business as you know how sensitive they are to crime... So how do you tackle crime then?

  15. The "Commuters: None" Problem...

    Rendell001 replied to Rendell001's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    The population would fluctuate between 54K and 56K, now after the tweaks and mods it's more like 56-57K with much less diferential. As for the policing, Whenever I found a building with medium or high crime I would send a squad of cars to that location - seemed to have an effect. I do have good Police coverage in the city but I do get hotspots and it seems to be increasing as the city gets larger...

  16. The "Commuters: None" Problem...

    Rendell001 replied to Rendell001's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    Well I've had a go using the mods and the advice you all gave me and I think I have observed some subtle changes as a result... Firstly I did start to gradually dezone residential areas in the Red zone when they abandoned and replaced them with more commercial zoning. These filled up quickly with both offices and low rent shops / services. One thing I noticed was that though I was losing housing, the population remained fairly stable and actually slightly increased - it's now actually a bit higher than before, maybe by 1K. Additionally I was sending police cars to a crime hotspot and noticed that the cars had to take a roundabout route to get to the hotspot - I was then able to identify where another underpass would shorten the route for that area as a whole. Funnily enough this was through the big diagonal coastal avenue... I think that if I was expecting a sudden sea change on a grand scale then obviously I was mistaken but I do think I'm on the right lines thanks to your advice and the mods.

  17. The "Commuters: None" Problem...

    Rendell001 replied to Rendell001's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    I rarely run the speed at more than level one, only accelerate to level 2 for a short burst when I need too. There are a couple of areas which I've marked on the following screenshot which show the worst areas in the city. The Red area is constantly building, abandoning and being bulldozed - I dread to think how much money I've lost through it. The Yellow area has stabilised somewhat when I added more subways and an elevated rail line going directly to the industrial estate but it's still not entirely stable.

  18. The "Commuters: None" Problem...

    Rendell001 replied to Rendell001's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    I had no idea there were so many essential mods I needed! Thank you all for the responses and I've downloaded and installed both of them - will report back later on their effects. One thing I have noticed and that is how some of these buildings will sometimes say Short commute and then change to Long Commute within the space of a few minutes play. Additionally, I get a wave of "No Job" zots and even "no Road Access" zots randomly appearing when they do appear to be connected to roads etc. No idea whats going on there...

  19. The "Commuters: None" Problem...

    Rendell001 replied to Rendell001's topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion

    First of all I'd like to thank you for your detailed reply and taking the trouble to get back to me! There's a lot to unpack here, most of these things I was aware of and I know that this city is hardly "optimal" - I guess i just wanted to fix it! I've mentioned the diagonal avenue / OWS that runs along the coastline and it was a pain to get junctions and roundabouts to interface correctly - I still think there may be issues there that I'm missing and that is affecting commute times in some areas. I have provided services and education up to college level (university would take up too much room) and EQ is good in general. There are a large number of mid and high wealth offices particularly in the central coastal area where the landmark, city hall and Court are situated. I have noticed that they never quite max out their jobs though and occasionally dilapidate. What I don't understand is that there are large residential areas literally next door to them and these areas will often get mid and high wealth condos developing which then rapidly deteriorate. I've attached a few data panels for more information.
  20. Hi, I'm new to the forum and new to SimCity 4 Rush Hour on the Mac, I'm hoping you'll be able to diagnose my technical issue! I recently got hold of a copy of SimCity 4 deluxe from Steam - version 1.2.1 - and started with a couple of the tutorial cities to get aquainted with the mechanics. Generally speaking there were no issues though I began reading through Simtropolis forums and realised that getting the NAM (41) installed was an essential component. I've also gotten a couple of waste to energy lots, a couple of diagonal railway stations, the Opera House and Crime doesn't pay fixs. Everything seemed to be okay but now I'm lucky if I can play for a few minutes without it crashing to the desktop - it seems to be when I'm in the biggest tutorial city which now has 48,000 sims though I think the other one which has 38,000 sims may well have the same issue. I realise that it could well be a conflict in the plug ins folder but as I've been looking at the Mac forum I realise there may be other issues I was unaware of. I run this app on a 2011 27' imac with 24Gb of Ram under the High Sierra OS if that makes any difference. Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

  21. Crash to desktop after only a few minutes of play

    Rendell001 replied to Rendell001's topic in SC4 Mac Users

    I'm pleased to report that the DAT packing seems to have done the trick and the game ran earlier without incident - are there any other items I should be aware of when playing this version on the mac? Btw as regards NAM and the city I've been playing, it's probably not NAMs fault, I think there are other factors in play which are influencing commuter patterns. I've been working on the "Big City tutorial" and thats basically a triangular coastal city, the coastal side is one long diagonal and it creates all kinds of problems. Now while NAM is pretty comprehensive when it comes to transport puzzle pieces, I have noticed there are a couple that seem to be missing. Additionally I can't seem to get ring roads for my parallel one way streets... I'll work it out eventually!

  22. Crash to desktop after only a few minutes of play

    Rendell001 replied to Rendell001's topic in SC4 Mac Users

    Ah... i did notice the DAT pack thread after my original post but your reply clarify's why it's essential for the Mac version. I find that the intial load-up of a city when you first start a game to be VERY long - better part of a minute in fact. Would that change with the DAT pack method? Also I'm wondering if the commuter modeling in NAM is quite right but thats a topic for another thread...
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