soldyne

I have been experimenting with one ways myself in a new experiment I am starting involving planned mass transit. Infact, my mass transit experiment was spawned by this very thread and I incorporate the 6x6 grid pattern in the city. here is a shot of how I use one ways in my new city design. it is basically being used as a three tile wide avenue with monorail going down the middle. the grand junction in the middle is made with a giant one way roundabout. I have not begun moving people in yet but I should start shortly: http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/4360/roundabout4qp.jpg align=baseline> the full thread is located here: https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=70578

Date: 11/17/2005 8:18:47 AM Author: stefano666 hello i have a question how do you get those left turn lanes on the road ?? look at the crossings quote> excellent question: the answer is in the latest NAM download from the the modding files section or the simtropolis homepage. when you install the newest version of NAM be sure to select the turn lane mod from the plugins options.

these are some pretty cool pics everyone. some of these transit networks actually scare me and I am glad I dont live in some of these cities. but some of them look really nice. I am currently experimenting with mass transit and grids in this other thread https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=70578 I have lots of good screen shots of the proposed mass transit network. take a look and post some comments in that thread if have any suggestions. thanks.

oh I did not realize this topic existed, I posted in a similar topic, but I will post here too! I am experimenting with mass transit and grids in an other thread located here https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=70578 lots of nice screen shots! please comment in that thread if you have any comments or suggestions. thanks. btw, these pics are awsome. you guys really know how to build great looking cities! good job. <edit> hmmm it seems i initially misunderstood the point of this thread... you dont want screen shots you want professional looking overview maps of transit systems. I dont have any of those yet, but Im working on it </edit>

Well moderators, its up to you now, either keep this post here in Rush Hour section or move it game experiments. So after posting here and getting some ideas I began planning a city with Mass Transit already in mind. I am using all forms of MT except elevated rail (and ferry since the map I was using does not have water, but I would use ferry if it did!). I dont show any subways in these pics as subway is mostly underground and I am using Road Top Mass Transit building to put bus stops and subways on the same tile. so everywhere you see a bus stop it is also a planned subway station. I also plan on using the NAM with perfect pathfinding installed to increase transit efficiency. I'll mention this again later on in this post but I want to make it clear that I am designing this city layout with the idea of producing a residential surplus. I want to use this surplus to feed connecting Industrial areas and my large Central Business District. I also want to remind people that when the city first starts building i will destroy all the trasit stations to reduce upkeep costs. I will gradually replace the trasit stations as they become needed. right now the transit upkeep for this map is about 2k every month. not bad for a large city but it could kill a fledgling village especially when you add in power, water and garbage. which reminds me that water can easily be supplied within this cities limits (there are plenty of open tiles between the rail and highway for water pumps. Power and garbage will most likely have to come from a neighbor connection, but that is how I play the game most of the time anyway (at least until solar or hydrogen plants become available). here is a pic of the region transportation view: here is an overall pic of the layout: next we have a closeup of what I like to call a neighborhood. here is where you can start to see how I have laid things out. I have avenues along the outer edge of the neighborhood. surrounding that I have passenger rail and highway. I use monorail to cut my neighborhood up into quadrants which I call blocks. I have a set of complimentary oneway roads on either side of the monorail with a large oneway roundabout encircling the monorail intersection: In this pic I am highlighting the connection between neighborhoods. notice the use of tunnels to remove rail crossings over avenues. I also opted for only one highway entrance/exit per neighborhood connection. not sure if that is a good idea or not but I like tunnels so there . using a highway tunnel here also gives me a few extra tiles for zones (more zones equal more taxes) and provides room for pretty much any reward building (even the dreaded 12x12 country club and the airport tram), of course the avenue would have to be moved slightly for it to fit! this pic also demonstrates how the web of mass transit networks can work in unison and not get in eachothers way if laid out properly: http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/9106/transitcrossings7xv.jpg align=baseline> In this next pic I am focusing on the highway intersection and the rail inverted intersection. since the rail needed to cross here and go beneath the cloverleaf I had to divise a slick way to have the rail turn back on itself. if you follow the rail closely you can see that it is very possible for the train to go in any direction it needs to go with little hassle: http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/4611/fourcorners9gn.jpg align=baseline> here we see the center of a neighborhood with the monorail intersection and the large one way road roundabout. This area is left unzoned to provide a centralized location for civic buildings. my neighbor hood size is just nearly the perfect size to fit within the radius of a large hospital, large elem school and large high school. fire and police will need to be placed more startegically however. I also know that later on I will need more room for more civic buildings, but this is just my first design and the whole point of an experiment is to find out the truth: http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/4360/roundabout4qp.jpg align=baseline> next we see a zoomed out pic of a zoned neighborhood. This layout is mainly going to be used for large cities which will generate a surplus of residential population. that surplus is intended to feed into Industrial cities and my large CBD. I use the sparse Commercial zones here to help reduce overall commute times and make sure to envelop the mass transit stations with residential. I am also working with the idea of creating small downtown commercial areas in the spots between neighborhoods. this area is also going to be used for rewards, parks, and city wide civic buildings (university, college, large library, museum, etc): http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/1159/zonedneighborhood7qj.jpg align=baseline> In this next scene we see a closer image of the zoned block. you can see better how I have laid out the bus stops (and future subway stations). I plan on using the Road Top Mass Transit found on the STEX so I can have the almighty busstop/subway station and only use one tile. The excess of bus stops here is to show how congested stations can be expanded later on. what might not be so visible are the oneway busstops on both sides of each monorail station. As I mentioned in a previous post I beleive that bus stops should be used as funnel transit to help get the sims to the big three (rail, subway, monorail) faster and more efficiently: http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/7418/zonedblock2iy.jpg align=baseline> in this next pic I am zoomed in even further to the block to show you all how I faced the zones on the roads. notice that this strategic placement of zone fronts will not cause any NO ROAD ZOTS to appear due to the RTMT stations. The commercial zones laid themselves out in the 3x3 pattern, that was not my doing, but I like it anyway. Another thing to note is how I concentrated most of the residential facing on the avenues and tried to limit residential facing on the roads. As residential buidings increase in capacity this will become a major issue for traffic and noise level: http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/1447/zonedfacing3is.jpg align=baseline> thats all I have for the moment. I don't know when I will get around to continuing this little experiment as I have a bit of Real Life Situations to tend to (getting ready to graduate from college in a few weeks YIPPIE!). please comment and make suggestions. The experiments on the forums are not just for the people posting. the results of these experiments are for the benefit of the entire Simtropolis community.

thanks for the good replies. And as a matter of fact I am planning on starting a CJ soon which will include all kinds of cities (rural to urban and all inbetween). I am also trying to plan out my urban settings with Mass transit in mind. I am trying to incorporate as many different types as I can with the grid system (only for urban settings). the farther away from city center I get the less grids there will be. I dont want to start the CJ until I have most of my designs worked out. I have been thinking about the multiple mass transit types in one city and have come to an interesting conclusion which I plan on testing. Rail, subway and monorail are the big three when it comes to transportation. Monorail is very fast but takes up a lot of space (hard to tunnel with monorail). Subway is very expensive to lay out but takes up little space and is 25% slower than monorail. rail is cheap but it takes up space and is 50% slower than monorail, rail however has the added advantage of moving frieght in addition to passengers. so I was thinking that I could create some kind of transit hub at various locations in my city design which would include a monorail station, rail station, subway station, and bus station. I can then place bus stations at varying intervals throughout the city. with perfect pathfinding from the NAM they should be smart enough to take the bus to the transit hub and use the residential hub to get to either the industry or commercial hub and use the bus there to get to work. this should reduce the need for lots of stations all over the place and hopefully maximize valuable zoning land. This is just a theory at the moment. I'll try to put it into action tonight or some time soon.

Date: 11/15/2005 2:51:25 PM Author: 6SpeedTA95 I also want to know how you expand a region.... btw are we allowed to post oversized pics since its an oversized region thread?&nbsp; I've got some pics but they're all 1280x1024 quote> NO you are not allowed to post oversized pics. the best way to scale a pic down is to use some kind of picture editing software. I use IrfanView which is freeware and available on the web (do a search). you can convert pretty much any picture format into any other picture format (ie bitmap into jpg), resize, resample, crop, and do all kinds of stuff. if your picture would look better bigger you can always try making a mosaic of multiple 800x600 pics. making mosaics takes practice and patience but basically you need to take two pictures (or more) and post them one right after the other in your post, making sure to set picture boarders to 0. if the the two edges of the pics match up (that is the hard part) it will look like one giant picture. scan some of the more popular CJ's and you will see some mosaics.

Date: 11/15/2005 2:40:17 PM Author: cnystrom1 Yes, but only before you incorporate it... Also, what does 'expandable region' mean? how do you expand regions?quote> I don't know for certain what they are refering to when they say expandable but I am assuming they mean that they will add to the config.bmp file when they want to add more city squares. I know this is possible as I have done it myself on ocassion (mainly as a test). adding city squares to the region map will not affect the rest of the region, although altering the existing city squares will reset all the altered city squares to default (ie flat) terrain and demolish the cities that were there. what I am saying is that you can make four small city squares into one medium or one medium into four smalls but the terrain and cities (if any) will be all reset. I dont have any pics to show right now (as I am not on my personal computer) but I am working on a 23x23 region in preparation for a city journal. I think that should be more than enough for me, and hey, if I need more room I can always expand!

This is a very funny CJ. I like reading the random quotes from the mayor and about the cliff egg laying dinosaurs. Have any fossilized eggs been found in anyones back yard? keep it up!

that satalite view is truly astounding.... I could stare at it for hours. If it was not for the airplanes in the pic I would swear it was a real photo and not SC4. I just figured out how to post mosaics myself. doing somthing like this will take some practice. thanks for the inspiriation! keep up the great work.

holy snickers!!! and I thought I played too much!!! Nice flow charts!

I've never been to Brooklyn either so it all looks good to me. Keep the updates comming! P.S. more region shots would be good is you expand your city out more!

hmmm, it could be something wrong on my end, but I can't see any of your pics. I either get red X's or large white blank spaces. I have been on the Forums for a while now (today) and am able to see other pics in other CJs. If I am the only person with this problem then please ignore my post. but since I can't see anything I really have no comments to make... I'll try back later though. <edit> ah ha, I am on a diff computer now, and I can see things. good stuff </edit>

looking good so far. the casino looks good at night. I like the use of roundabouts. heh, your high tech came in becasue they heard your sims were getting really good test scores, then they realized that those were 6th grade proficiency test scores and not SATs! lol. good times. keep up the good work. by the way try to remember to turn off the U-Drive-It mission flags before taking screen shots, it will make things look better.

I think you are doing well with your goal. Your city could be anywhere, USA. one question though: did you terraform your region or was it download. either way it looks great. keep the updates comming.

those mosaics are breathtaking. I love the detail in design work in the day shot. so many things going on like a real city! its fantastic. you must tell me how you made such flawless mosaics. I am trying to make a mosaic myself with just two pics and it is frustrating. great work. now I have to find a paper towel to clean up the drool...

(they are all just making it up) My cities are definitely dictatorships. I do what I want when I want and everyone else be darned! of course if I dont keep everyone happy then the impeachment process can be a little painful... <.< >.> hey put down those pitchforks! All hail me and I'll think about that new hospital! lol

wow very impressive. where to begin? at the beginning of course! Your terraforming at the onset was most unique. I have never seen trees grow quite like that in such a cell like pattern. You certainly made that pattern your own and made it look so natural. I love how you started off with a small story and began development with rural settings. that just seems much more natural for a city to start with. Your city development is very organic and the use of cliffs and walls and tunnels all throughout gives your design quite a character. The soccor (or is it football?) game was most unique and I generally dont watch sport games but I was most impressed with watching (er reading) that one! lol! Thanks for making such a great CJ and I hope to make my own CJ as good as this one. Thanks for the inspirations.

I think this is a great experiment! I like to grid most of the time, mainly because my personality type needs to keep things in an orderly and efficent pattern. It is difficult for me to make realistic cities with roads going everywhich way. I like how you have multiple designs for the same grid concept to show how development is effected by not only road layout but also zone placement. I also laughed when page 6 degraded into a discussion on computer number representation, good save getting it back on track. to comment on the idea of two parrallel one way roads, I think that would be worse than an avenue since your intersections would be a nightmare. you would essentially have four intersections (four sets of lights) instead of one big intersection with two avenues. keep up the good work, i'll keep checking this post out for more updates.

I love your CJ. I like how you start out with nothing and build from scratch. I really like your addition of drama here and there with the lightning strikes and toxic spills. This gives me some good ideas for when I start my CJ. Thanks for the great updates keep 'em comming.

I am most impressed with the photoshopping you have done, it adds such a great depth of realism to all the pics. I especiall like the ones that were on page one that made the pics look like they were drawn by hand with colored pencil (not sure what the effect is called though). great job. I can only hope to have your city building and CJing skills one day (I gotta start somewhere though...lol).

this is your FIRST CJ? I am impressed? sorry if you stated this earlier and I missed it but did you terraform the region yourself? I like the region view quite a bit. I also like your transportation networks. you have used all forms of transport very well. I like how you use tunnels every now and again. I like tunnels too, not sure why though I plan on starting my own CJ soon and when I saw yours it gave me the confidence to get it ready for posting. Thanks for the great CJ and keep updating.

nice CJ. this is my first time to your CJ and I must say that I am seeing some improvement in your updating skills. the updates are becoming more picturesque. good job. I too like the mountain side city and I also thought the small rural area was most tranquil. I plan on starting a CJ myself very soon and it will be my first as well. You have inspired me to give it my best and I can only hope that I will get 4+ pages of responses as you have. good job keep it up.

utterly gorgeous! it looks so relaistic. I want to start my own city journal eventually too, but after seeing this one I dont know if I have the time or picture editing skill to create something on this level. your work is both inspiring and at the same time depressing. I want to make my own CJ but it wont be at all close to being this good. great job!

Very nice. I too am trying to terraform a whole large region myself and I know how difficult it can be. your maps are looking very attractive and interesting. if you do plan on putting in some actual cities you will need some flat land somewhere though. I suggest making a large extinct volcano somewhere and then making some wide plains with a few scattered craters. this will simulate an ancient lava flow. Keep up the great work!