yayaville

I try to make suburbs, but then the RCI bars start whispering to me, more people...we demand more people... Next thing I know I'm zoning Hi Density Res in huge blocks... Stupid RCI bars.

I'm just beginning to learn the BAT and I've got a few questions about re-using existing textures and props for my own buildings and lots. 1) Is it permitted? Obviously if someone posts here's a set of textures to use in gmax then it's OK, but what about the texture mega-packs that are released by BSC, NDEX, or some of the more prolific BATters? 2) Assuming it's OK, how do I extract them from a .dat file? Ilive Reader? Darkmatter's DatGen program? 3) Are the textures released in .dat files all lot textures? It seems that, since the buildings are all pre-rendered and not rendered during gameplay, the game wouldn't need the textures that make up the building, right?

I've tried putting two more of the clock tower stations in, and I still had problems. I do notice other train stations having a big change in usage, but they usually don't fall to zero and stay there. Nicolai mentioned that there were rail-to-rail transfers when he looked at the properties. One of the stations in my city was in the middle of a rail line, with a second rail line connected. I did see traffic switching from the inside rail to the outside rail, but no sims were walking from the bus stop to the station and getting on the train, or getting off the train to switch to walk to a bus. Is it necessary to specify a transfer for ped to rail, and rail to ped?

Thanks for the replies. I'll try it again and give it more time to re-calculate routes. And you know, maybe I don't need to remove the standard Grand Central Station - I'll put yours into a new location and just see what happens. It really does look awesome.

Simgoober, I'm having some trouble with your Clock Tower Train Station. It works fine at first, then after a little while, maybe ten minutes, people just stop using it. Train traffic at the station drops to zero. Other rail stations continue to operate. If I bulldoze your station and put the standard station back, the trains come back. Weird, huh? I'm using the NAM with better pathfinding and 2X capacity. And Road Top Mass Transit. I don't think I have any other traffic-related mods. Has anyone else reported a problem like this? I'll put the station back in the city and see if I can duplicate the problem or get any more clues on what's going on. I'm a big fan of all your BATs. Sorry to post with a problem.

Oh, am I the first person to mention the Network Addon Mod? the NAM greatly improves the transportation portion of the game. It fixes bugs in the commuting routines, adds overpasses, lets you make diagonal streets, traffic circles, pedestrian malls, etc. etc. And if you're not averse to cheating a little, you can change the mass transit capacity and speeds. (Take the word cheat with a grain of salt, some people think the changes make the game more realistic.) NAM is almost like having SimCity ver 4.5. Here's a link to the PC version: https://www.simtropolis.com/modding/index.cfm?mode=details&show=380 (If you need the Mac version, click on Modding Files on the left side of the page and look under essentials.) P.S. Greyveil's Newbie Help Thread at the top of this forum is great at explaining how to set up the NAM and some other basic info.

I have a guess as to why your Country Club shows up negative for R$$$ desirability - crime. The Country Club, beaches, cemeteries and airports always seem to attract crime and need a little extra police attention. Especially the airports. But I don't think it's a major problem. I suspect that the country club has a city-wide effect on R$$$ demand (maybe a cap relief) that outweighs the small crime problem. I've got the NAM but I never thought to use overpasses inside my city. It sounds like a good way to cut congestion and maybe to direct commuters onto higher capacity roads (right through the CO zones so they can spend some money and boost demand.)

You know, I once had a city go into serious depression and I couldn't figure it out for a while. Turns out a garbage deal with a neighbor had somehow gotten cancelled and garbage was piling up in the city. You probably don't have the same problem, but you did say you saw a rapid decline.

Just a random idea, but there are two plugin folders. Most of the stuff goes in the my documents\SC4\plugins folder, but there is also a C:\Program Files\Maxis\Sim City 4 Deluxe\Plugins folder. Any chance that something was installed in that one? Just be sure you leave in the four original files called background_3d0.png through background_3d3.png.

Welcome, from one newbie to another. There's a lot of great stuff on this site. As for money, here's a park you can place in your city to gain an extra $1500/month. https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?mode=files&filetype=BAT&Str=money%20does%20grow%20on%20tree There are some other cheats like it, and there are also mods that will change your starting funds. Have fun!

Can sims have too many parks? Can they be over-educated? I'm kind of new to SC4 (and I use to play SC3K a bit too). I put a lot of parks in my residential zones, right from the start. A LOT of parks. And the houses do pop up. But then they quickly deteriorate and become inhabited by R$$ or R$ people. Do parks influence the type of housing that gets built? Or do they just relieve density caps? And education... Is it possible for sims to get too educated? I've heard that businesses and industry need a certain number of less-educated people to function. If all my sims have PhD's, will they refuse to work as janitors and short order cooks? Will it affect commercial or industrial demand? Thanks. Just for the heck of it, are there any other examples of a 'positive' item causing negative effects? Besides the unmodded Opera House, that is.

winonanick said: I don't think parks effect density... Density was probably a bad word to use, since it usually refers to low, mid, or high density zoning. But, as you said, parks raise desirability, and bigger buildings go up, as long as there's enough demand. hym and tungston thenks for the info on the utilities, I'll check out the plugin manager and SC4 tool.

Date: 12/22/2005 10:06:31 PM Author: terrymunweihao Yup, the Ped Malls do not work with residential zones. What you'll get is the 'No Transportation' zots on top of the R zones. You can have a workaround by making the R zones facing streets / roads, and having dead ends all over the place which is linked to the Ped Malls. R: residential zones P: ped malls S: street / road C: commercial I: industry CCCP RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR PIIII CCCP RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR PIIII CCCPSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSP quote> Just to extend on this idea a little, ped malls can go behind residences and connect to the back of a business. Although I haven't run a roadless city (yet) I have seen sims walking out the back door of their houses, across a ped mall, and into the back door of their workplace. Kind of cool. Like this: SSSSSS RRRRRR PPPPPP CCCCCC SSSSSS You can also put mass transit stops along those dead-end streets and on the edges of the ped malls so people can move around the city. I guess services don't really need a street connection (or road or whatever) to a house as long as it doesn't catch fire. But if everything's within the radius of effect of a fire station, fire won't start anyway, right?

Date: 12/22/2005 5:17:19 PM Author: winonanick I think the reason for your deteriation has to be that you don't have the jobs to support the R$$$, the parks raised the desireabilty so high to engourage the R$$$ to develop, but than when they found no jobs to support them, they moved out and R$ or R$$ occupied the homes. Does this explain what you are asking?quote> winonanick, Yes, that was part of my question. I was curious if parks would influence the style of housing, not just the density. I guess they do. Another reason for me to hold off on big parks until I've got a few jobs available for R$$$ sims. Author: tungston I would like to clarify the parks for age misconception. Parks have park effect, and landmark effect, no age effect. In general the more the park cost the higher the effects are going to be. So it is all personal taste, I use skateboard parks in high tech zones because for the space they have the highest effect.quote> Thanks for clearing that age thing up. But there are parks that are more effective for commerce right? Do plazas have a landmark effect that makes them better in Comm zones? What does hi-tech like more, park or landmark effect? I guess I should get that reader program so I can see exactly what each park does.

Date: 12/22/2005 6:52:57 PM Author: hym While you're at it, why not try placing the God-Mode trees over all of your zones...quote> Oh yeah, I've always planted a lot of trees in any available space. But the last couple days I've been planting forests. I've ruined half a dozen baseball and soccer fields. Also, make sure that the various parks and such are appropriate for the developer type you want to attract. quote>That's something I just learned the last few days. Now I check the average age before I plop a park. Young people get playgrounds, older people get flower gardens. But I like variety so I still plant parks and community gardens. And a couple days ago I downloaded SimGoober's Trails Parks BAT (my first DL) and the NAM (my first mod) and I've been experimenting with pedestrian malls (which have a park effect). Lots of fun.

hym, Thanks for the advice. You're right about running out of space. I had a city of about 120,000 and it was getting tough to find room for more res zones. I guess I ought to go easy on the parks at first, and just add more if I have trouble getting skyscrapers. I heard of that god-mode cheat, but for some reason I thought it required a mod or plug-in. I may never pay money for trees again. tungston: I keep the hospitals well-funded, but I notice that there are always some unhealthy sims at the edges of the circle. I guess that circle is just an approximate coverage zone and I probably ought to put the hospitals closer together. And I didn't know the college and university were that important. I've been getting good EQs with just HS, libraries and a museum or two. EQs of 160 to 180 - though that was in a smaller town. I'll try the college and university and see if it helps boost CO$$$ demand and income. You know, I've been waiting for the high-paying jobs to appear before trying to get rich people to move into my city. Maybe the jobs won't appear until there are people who can perform them. Hmmm... SamFlash, Thanks for the welcome, and for confirming the info. You know, I almost posted this in City Building Concepts because I was afraid it wouldn't be seen here in the New Member section. It's nice to see the experienced folks dropping by to help out us newbs. Thanks again!