-
Announcement
-
Simtropolis Returns! 05/26/2026
See here for details about our site recovery efforts.
-
Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'development'.
Found 88 results
-
In the past, I used to add water to my cities as soon as I received the popup prompting me to, usually around 15k residents. Because the game told me I should, I figured that doing so immediately was in my best interest. However, lately I've been playing differently. Instead of adding water early on in my city's development, I purposefully delay adding it until I build out my entire city at low density development, then I add water when I'm ready to add higher density. I've noticed that my cities seem to grow better when played this way. Once I add water and higher density, I have a harder time with growing my city outward to fill the entire city tile, as the game seems to hit a wall at a certain point. But with this purposeful delay, I feel that I can control their development better, making the city feel more realistic. So I'm curious, do you have a particular strategy to adding water to your city? Do you wait until you hit a particular milestone, or do you add it from the beginning? Have you noticed any particular benefits or drawbacks to your strategy?
-
Hello, After all those years I still can't find a city builder that simulates as well as SC4. For me SC4 is the only simulation who managed to recreate lively and evolving cities. I really don't like those plop and forget city painters. So I decided, why not make my own? I have programming skills, and I'd figure it would be a great passion project. For now my goal would be to recreate the core system of SC4, modernize and add new features: Mixed multi zones: To create lots that allow commercials mixed to residential, like per example having shops and restaurants on ground floors of residential buildings. Mixed population in buildings: Buildings could hold different types of population income (Example 50 low rent apartments, 20 middle class and 10 wealthy). Depending on economic factors, the balance could shift, rent becomes too high, low incomes are pushed out,... In the base game we have 3 types of population, low income, middle class and wealthy. I would like to try and see if we can subdivide more into, family, single, couple, if it could bring some interesting gameplay (Singles and couple wouldn't mind living in a neighborhood without school per example..) One huge single map that is the size of a SC4 region, where there is no boundaries between cities. The player could create cities anywhere in the region, with each their own budget, policies.. But they would influence each other like the SC4 region (global demand, pollution, trade traffic, commute and specialization..). The goal would be to manage to run a region of 40millions citizen with good FPS. On paper it is doable, but that would be the biggest challenge (But so interesting !!) Other ideas: The player doesn't own the buildings the sims built, so you wouldn't be able to destroy them at will, you'd need to get building owner agreement (payment can speed up the process, but could be expensive depending on land value) Buildings decay over time, owners need to refresh or abandon the building if conditions are degrading too much Traffic affected by weather (less pedestrian during rain or cold..) Energy consumption varies with seasons Franchise for commercial (Example: supermarket chains, gas/EV stations, food chain restaurants..) Different franchise would pop in wealthy district and poor district Internet provider. Lay cable lines and manage bandwidth demand Data centers (with huge electric power and bandwidth consumption) for AI providers to attract high tech industries What do you think about those features? As SC4 is such good game already, do those features justify a new development? I'm curious if people would be actually interested about it, let me know your opinion! (Copy from my reddit post in r/simcity4)
-
Normally, when the situation of your city isn't that optimal, Sims will just emmigrate, leave it behind. This makes a lot of sense, specially for wealthier Sims. But I think $ sims should have a lower chance of abandoning your city, forcing them to endure more hardships if you want to be a dystopian dictator. In part, the reasoning of this possible mod is to allow us to see more of the riot events in the game. In order for a riot to occur, mayor satisfaction has to reach real lows in an area, which is logical; but it seems that every Sim just opts to leave your city way before such real lows are allowed to be reached; resulting in very few riots in the game, if any. Is it possible to lower the threshold in which R$ Sims decide to leave your city, so that we can see them rioting if we opt to be not-so-good leaders? A look at some exemplars suggest the "Desirability Threshold Decline", maybe this is the threshold that the game uses to decide if a Sim stays or leave, and so this is the number I should lower? This exemplar uses a Sint32 data type. For R$, the default value is 0x00000032, which seems to mean 50 according to this converter. Should I lower this number to 0? Are negative numbers allowed? According to the converter, it is possible, but maybe the game places a hard positive-only limit?
-
When I analyze the game with iLive Reader, I notice some interesting varibales within the developmento of residential simulator, at General -> Developer -> Residential $/$$/$$$. There, we can find elements called "Proximity Effect", and they seem to dictate how the proximity to a certain type of development impacts the desirability for other developments. For example, it looks like being next to R$ sims is undesirable for R$$$ sims. But I would like to know a little more about how this effect work. 1- First, how should the sequence of numbers be read? Is it an alternation between a given distance X and the development impact for being X tiles aways from the building? 2- Also, I would like to have a sense of scale: I see that the development impact in being next to R$ for R$$$ sims are around values such as -5, -3, etc. How big is this -5 impact in the overall desirability calculation? Can it make a big difference? Or is it too low a number, compared with other impacts such as education and garbage, to matter in the game? If too low, I would like to increase it to see if we can have more gradual separation between different wealth levels (it's so easy for me to have wealthy mansions next to poor homes, I think we should have some R$$ gradient between these two).
- 9 Replies
-
- 1
-
-
- development
- desirability
- (and 1 more)
-
Recent disasters on the Businesspeople territory made many New Udananian tribes more aware and cautious about what happens around them. Government officials understood that their respective societies are still in a nascent state and remain vulnerable in case of earthquakes, bolide impacts or challenges of the modern world. Because of this, many capitals took steps to better prepare their populations for the future. Various projects were initiated to create new tools and opportunities that could be used in times of crises or unexpected events. Today's episode explores some of these measures. We begin our journey in the Resident tribe, whose greatest weakness is its low population. The elitist social structure of the tribe allows only select few to be a part of it, which is in fact the very source of the problem. The Residents attempted to increase the population numbers by adding an attractive residential zone to Common Interest. The new neighborhood proved to be a success and lured 4000 new citizens to the town. The Businesspeople and Altruists who co-own the city, contributed to the project by adding shops and essential infrastructure to the town's newest zone. The circular residential zone in the town designed by the latter, expanded a bit as well. What comes as a veritable surprise is the fact that, compared to the other tribes, the Slackers embarked on one of the most ambitious resilience projects in New Udanani, owing perhaps to their sailing experience and maritime culture. First of all, the tribe made good on their promise to limit ties with their neighbors - taking advantage of the turmoil that engulfed the nearby Businesspeople towns, the Slackers performed a blitz landgrab and took control of a city tile East of their capital, making sure that the Businesspeople won't claim it for themselves in the future. The new town became an extension to neighboring Cape Careless, creating an almost seamless continuation of the capital's seaport and the working-class residential areas. As you can see, now, the entire Southern coast under Slacker control is a large seaport area through which countless goods are processed daily. The tribe is now able to dictate the shipping and customs fees as they wish. Behold, Lazy Bay and the Susprall Cargo Seaport. And just a small icing on the cake - the Slackers introduced tolls on their part of R-1 highway so now, Businesspeople visitors must pay their "respects" upon entering Cape Careless... Another ambitious infrastructural project was also completed on the other edge of New Udanani. Altruists, following the well-informed advice of the Revered Spirits of the St'ropoli Dimension, built a high-speed railway to connect their largest city (Optimism) with their other towns off to the Southwest. The Altruist bullet train operates from two stations located in Optimism's commercial strips. The stations are placed close to the main residential area, so it takes just between 8 to 15 minutes to get to a station, depending whether one boards subway or a bus. Also, notice the safety fencing running along the ground-based railway. A mandatory feature sanctioned by the Altruist regulations, that aims to prevent animals and oblivious pedestrians from entering the tracks. But the Altruist railway project is not fully complete... The tribe would like to ask you one more follow up question regarding the new communication line. Namely, where the terminus for it should be built? Please acquaint yourself with the proposals below and cast your spiritually inspired vote... Moving on, it is time to take note of the changes that took place on the Smileyface territories. Innovation and science are one of the best ways to build resilience, so the tribe decided to expand their special "Future Technology Development and Special Economic Zone" (abbreviated as "FTDSEZ") in the town of Tralfamadore. The town expanded towards West and new plots of land dedicated to clean and futuristic industries were designated. Three new companies were also allowed to set up shop in the zone. Here are their short information sheets if you'd like to know them better. Due to the fact that the rules regarding running business in FTDSEZ are quite strict, the town is rather sleepy at the moment. However, Western Tralfamadore has an important natural gem - an extensive wetland and jungle forest area known as Cat-Nilam Bayou. The happiness-pursuing Smileyfaces already explore the swamps by the means of watersports. Two spontaneously (and semi-legally) built boat docks were constructed in the town. So far, the Smileyface authorities added a small Park Ranger station in the middle of the area to keep an eye on the tourists but the future protection of Cat-Nilam Bayou will have to be discussed in detail when population and tourist numbers rise. Last but not least, it should be mentioned that the Activators' recipe for building resilience did not change - expanding the size of their cities and mining ground to extract valuable resources is still the tribe's preferred way of gaining strength. However, the violation of The Sacred Pond of Forces which influences the harmony of the entire New Udanani, exacerbated ecological problems that Kuun Lan Plateau experiences due to mining activities. The hydrology of this area has always been rather fragile but the serious damage dealt to The Sacred Pond of Forces was the proverbial "last straw" and it spun the process of plateau's desertification out of control. Within last year, water table dropped so drastically that it turned the entire area into a desolate, wind-swept sand sea! Sadly, it occurred to me that I forgot to answer the comments that you submitted under Episodes 41 and 42. I'm so sorry about it! This is why today the comment replies section will be much longer than usual as I wish to reply to all the comments left under previous episodes. Here we go! Comment replies (#41) @tonyr - Hey tonyr and sorry for a belated reply to your question. If you mean the MMP grass, I use items in the BSC ALN RRP Pasture Flora 2.0 package. @TogaMasterJohn - Happy to hear you like rural towns with a little bit of nature. This is my preference as well! @Honolulu - I'm flattered. Thank you. @TakemeThere - Thank you for nice words @TakemeThere and for your vote! Comment replies (#42) @TogaMasterJohn - Thank you for a nice, analytical comment! There is a lot of nice stuff in these cities but long coastal areas sure have some of the greatest potential! @Tamijo - Bullet train it is! Thank you for your vote and comment. @TakemeThere - I understand your affinity for highways! To be honest, this was my first transportation choice as well but the Spirits decided differently. Comment replies (#43) @Tamijo - True! Crime deserves punishment. And the world that is too civilized is indeed not a good place to live! @TogaMasterJohn - I'm glad you like the plot twist! Recovery from the damages and diplomatic disillusion might indeed be an interesting follow up to this episode. @kschmidt - You got me intrigued... Is this story available somewhere here? It sounds very interesting but I'm afraid I never stumbled upon this CJ.
- 4 Comments
-
- 10
-
-
- resilience
- development
- (and 10 more)
-
I'm learning how to create BATs. I don't have a copy of 3DS Max, so I'm using Blender for modeling, exporting as an obj file, importing into GMAX/SC4 BAT, and then creating the S3D from there. As far as I can tell, there still isn't a BAT for Blender plugin that is in a usable state. Since I'm new to this, I figured I'd start with something simple. I'm making filler lots for the 1-way roundabouts, the ones with a single empty tile in the middle. I've had pretty good success so far, but I can see how limiting Gmax renders could be for more complex buildings and materials. I've created 5 models and plan to make several other variations. On the lotting side, how do I define the type of sidewalks around a lot? I am creating these lots as park lots. Does the wealth level control this? Can I somehow specify to use an industrial texture or low wealth texture for the surrounding sidewalks? To clarify, I'm not asking about the 1x1 square the roundabout sits on, but on the 4 1-way road squares immediately adjacent to the lot. I still need to adjust the cost, park effect, etc. for consistency. Right now, I'm just concentrating on getting the model in-game. Here are the five models I have so far: (I need to redo the first one, It was my first export and the diameter is slightly too small to completely cover the gap between the sidewalk.)
- 11 Replies
-
- 22
-
-
Version 1.0.0
1,389 Downloads
A DLL version of Cori's No Kickout Lower Wealth Mod (NKO) mod. Unlike Cori's mod the DLL does not override the Building Development Simulator exemplar, so it should be compatible with CAM or any other mod that alters that file. The DLL sets the Building Development Simulator Tract Developer Kick Out Lower Wealth property to false when a city is loaded. System Requirements Windows 10 or later The plugin may work on Windows 7 or later with the Microsoft Visual C++ 2022 x86 Redistribute installed, but I do not have the ability to test that. Installation Close SimCity 4. Copy SC4NoKickOut.dll into the Plugins folder in the SimCity 4 installation directory. Start SimCity 4. Troubleshooting The plugin should write a SC4NoKickOut.log file in the same folder as the plugin. The log contains status information for the most recent run of the plugin. Source Code and Support Plugin thread: https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/763015-no-kickout-lower-wealth-dll-plugin/ The plugin's source code and issue tracker are located on GitHub: https://github.com/0xC0000054/sc4-no-kick-out- 7 Comments
-
- 15
-
-
-
Have been trying to build a blacksmith mod for banished, started off with a model from turbosquid .... see here for a picture of it https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/762782-creating-mods-in-banished/ But I'm not a 3d modeller so eventually give up trying to use it for a blacksmith mod (called it a wheelwright), and borrowed a mushroom from kid1293, so far I've got all the menus sorted, including creating my own menu button But its refusing to make tools, the actual mod program is made of the following folders and has 240 files in it, most of which have been created in the Bin and Build folders which is generated every time you run a build.bat I think the issue is in this part of the code EDIT: Have worked out why this isn't working and have posted an explanation over here
-
Before we begin, be it known that the will of the Revered Spirits of the St'ropoli Dimension has been taken into consideration and the texture for beaches all over New Udanani has been changed to "HD Sandy Beach" - according to the results of the vote. And now for the update... As the years went by, The Activators steadily built up their industrial base. All these actions resulted in accelerated production of wide array of resources that, in turn, sped up the growth of their cities. Mining industry has always been the key element in this "virtuous cycle". This activity was keenly embraced by private companies based in Industrious Hills - the first city in which "rare earths" and coal deposits have been discovered. Nadir Mining Company, which laid claim to these deposits, constructed traditional, shaft-mining facilities atop Dal Xanth Hills to extract and ship these resources out. However, much larger project has been completed by the Activator Mining Syndicate - a state-owned company which discovered vast deposits of limestone and useful concrete aggregates within Kuun Lan Plateau. This discovery and the intense need for construction materials, turned the entire area into the largest open-pit mine in New Udanani... Kuun Lan Mines became a huge draw for Activator workers and the more resources they extracted the more money could be reinvested in the mines. Modern conveyor belts, crushers, vehicle maintenance facilities and a broad array of employee benefits soon followed. Employment in the mining business became an attractive and interesting way to make a living. A large portion of the materials obtained in Kuun Lan ended up on the Activators' own soil with the city of Industrious Hills being the main beneficiary of the new opportunities. Thanks to cheap and abundant resources The Activators were able to build the first, large-area shopping center, a minor league sports stadium and some R$ neighborhoods in this city. But even after the construction of all these facilities was complete, a large surplus of resources was still available and The Activator Tribal Council authorized a trade mission in order to try to sell some of the remaining goods. The Activators have thus gone to great lengths to dig out an artificial river harbor and build a cargo port through which their ore could be efficiently exported. All of these projects would probably have an eccentric, industrial appeal were it not for the fact that the extensive mining and building activities triggered several environmental processes that have only recently been linked to the latest developments... One of the problems identified is the way in which mining byproducts are disposed of. Uncovering valuable deposits in Kuun Lan, requires the removal of huge amounts of ground from the excavation sites. All of this ground is being piled up by the edge of Kuun Lan Plateau and then forgotten about... Kuun Lan Plateau, however, is known for fairly strong winds sweeping across the landscape all year long. This causes the dumped ground to quickly dry up into dust and travel all over the place, covering large portions of nearby meadows with dark, powdery sand. Wind has caused some of this dust to travel East as well, migrating into Industrious Hills area. Moreover, the ground dug out during the construction of artificial port basins have undergone a similar process and, likewise, started to be blown about the place. Although it may sound insane to outsiders, The Activators have welcomed the phenomenon and the dust-covered expanses have been accepted... as a form of development... As long as a piece of land is covered with something, The Activators are happy. But apart from travelling dust, experts have also noticed a slow but steady drop in the local water table levels - a phenomenon frequently associated with the mining areas all over the world. This, rendered the main water source in Kuun Lan unusable and forced some of the citizens to move to lower parts of Kuun Lan Plateau, where proper aquifers could be found. Not coincidentally, the process have also exacerbated the travelling dust issue as low moisture meant the ground became drier and loose. Regardless of The Activator's eccentric affection with the new features of their landscape, the processes initiated in their cities did not have a localized effect. Although not toxic or directly harmful to health, some of the pollution and dust from their industrial sector entered Cualescet River, resulting in a visibly murkier waters around Designers Bridge. As can be expected, rivers carry the pollution downstream. This is where another problem occurs as Cualescet passes through the Smileyface territories... Of course, this Southern tribe was not amused to see the waters along their coast getting a maroon tint... - Lady and Gentlemen, someone upstream, most likely The Activator tribe is tainting waters off our coast. We need to discuss possible solutions and counters to this situation. Said The President of The Smileyface Tribe to his cabinet of ministers. The officials understood the gravity of the situation - clean environment was one of the principles for the society's happiness. When the water pollution started to increase, the Minister of Social Satisfaction alarmed the rest of the government that satisfaction ratings in Tralfamadore (the city most affected by the problem) dropped as much as 18% in just two months - an unprecedented dip, never registered before. - Mr. President, I believe that me and my colleague, Minister of Environment, have a good, short-term solution to this challenge - said Avalan Tekhriti, Minister of Economy and the only female member of the Government - after the recent survey that we jointly ran, we have determined that Tralfamadore's hi-tech companies are able to design technologies to filter the already polluted water. At a cost of course, but it's still worth it. - Yes, it's true - "CleanAir Co." and the new "Environes" companies are working on water filtration engines as we speak. Meanwhile, my Ministry monitors the quality of all our aquifers to make sure that the drinking water is clear and safe for consumption. - Thank you dear Colleagues - said The President - I welcome your initiative and your hands-on approach puts smile on my face. However, we also need to find, or shall I say, confirm the culprit behind this sudden deterioration of our local environment. - Mr. President, if I may, this requires proper reconnaissance - replied General Baasan Ranktutru, the Smileyface Minister of Defence. - I suggest sending out a couple of SSSDs (Stealth Surface Skimmer Drones) to gather samples and intelligence upstream... This way we'll learn who or what is the source of pollution clogging our waterways. - Whatever we do, let's do it fast... - said the Minister of Social Satisfaction - Happiness and peace of mind is our ultimate goal and we need to protect it. Either the polluters understand that, or they will pay the price. - Speaking of which - added General Ranktutru - we also need to prepare ourselves for the further deterioration of the situation and... probably a direct military action. Just in case. - What do you mean General? Are you suggesting an open war with whoever has done this? - Well, you know me well and I think you know that I am not a particularly hawkish type of politician... But this is just a possibility. Our customs and laws are clear - either they smile with us, or they don't smile at all. What I'm saying is if this problem persists or spins out of control, we need to shut down or target the cause of this threat ASAP. - As controversial as this idea is, I consider it entirely logical - The President opined - General, you are authorized to make all preparations necessary but you are not allowed to take any action on your own. We shall wait for the results of the reconnaissance and the effectiveness of filtration methods offered by the Tralfamadore's companies chosen for the task. Let's act Colleagues! For the happiness and smile! The unexpected problem only further antagonized The Smileyfaces against The Activators. The former tribe had already been disapproving of the latter's tightly-packed, suffocating cities. However, the ongoing construction of R-2 highway resulted in many Smileyfaces eagerly waiting to meet The Businesspeople which, if you remember from this episode, have received a high happiness rating from The Smileyfaces as the most desirable allies. By the end of this episode, The Revered Spirits of the St'ropoli Dimension are kindly requested to once again help determine another custom texture for New Udanani. This time, the overall terrain texture (grass?) is put under your vote. The possible choices are displayed below (sorry, no Italia Mod - it's just too obvious... ) The previously selected "HD Sandy Beach" texture will, of course, be retained for the beaches. Comment replies: @Ke|is - I'm happy you liked The Mirror and the last episode! It's always nice to have you around. @tomz16 - It's very nice to hear - thank you. In fact, your CJ inspires me as well! @TogaMasterJohn - The Slackers are just lucky - that's all there is to it! Unfortunately I forgot where is the template for port information directory, so I won't post any details just yet.
-
Been a while since I posted anything, never started a topic before. Hopefully this isn't rehashing a topic that's already better covered elsewhere and I simply missed it while trying to search the forum. I read through as much info on Cori's No Kickout Mod and one other mod, the Less Abandonment Mod, as together they seem to create a simulation environment that simply makes more sense for how the game should actually run compared to how it does run in vanilla. Added both to my plugins and they're both working as described. So, I'm really enjoying the greater level of control these two mods provide when paired - R§ is allowed to establish itself and evolve into higher capacity lots without being booted by R§§ or R§§§. Same goes for CS§. I've had some R§§ and CS§§ develop naturally via demand. Even had some I-HT develop already (and is incredibly stable, only lacking the R§§§ employees as none have developed in my R zones). Just to provide a bit more context before my questions, I'm currently building a test city to see how things have changed with these two mods added. Everything is gridded to 6x10 using roads only. I've got R at the core with an elementary school, high school, and medical clinic in the very center with low-density R zoning in the surrounding eight blocks. There's a single low-density commercial block right beside the one R block at 3 o'clock (best way to visualize it). The rest is all I-Ag with two med-density I zones that don't touch any of the R zones. I could provide a screenshot but I'm not sure it really matters. Everything has water. So I haven't had any CO develop yet, and there's quite a bit of demand for both CO§§ and CO§§§ at this point. In the vanilla game, desirability was so high just by default it seemed that both would inevitably develop without much effort as long as there wasn't pollution nearby and the zone was fully watered. So now I'm interested in learning more about what CO actually DOES need to develop with these two mods in the picture. Should I expect to have to start adding plazas to my commercial parcels to get any CO to develop, whether §§ or §§§? Is there a different demand threshold for CO to develop compared to CS§§ and CS§§§? Is there a different desirability threshold for CO to develop compared to CS? Are there other conditions to consider in order to start getting CO development? Thanks.
- 6 Replies
-
- 2
-
-
- commercial
- office
- (and 5 more)
-
Hello, I have a region with around 1 million people, which I'd submit to that hottest challenge. But I have a huge problem. You see large enough cities will stagnate really quickly. Coming out of it is pretty hard, except if you develop other regions to the next stage. And there are only so much freely available city tiles out there. On the other hand, if you start another city, there's a chance that you'll have very high demand. This isn't sustainable thanks to needing more money than it has (I'm using hard mode. So $100k) and most importantly, lack of education and health development. How do I reliably slow the development? Thanks.
-
Questions about residential lot development
JeffSalisbury posted a topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion
I have some questions about residential lot development. I likely have quite a bit to learn about how to better control what wealth level develops and how to prevent abandonment. 1. Do high wealth (R$$$) buildings only house high wealth sims, or is the pop of a building a mixture of wealth levels like job (C and I) buildings? 2. If, due to good health and education coverage, parks, rewards, and other factors, your R zones have high desirable for all R wealth levels, is there a way to prevent too many R$$$ buildings from developing? My city has massive demand for, and jobs available to, R$ and R$$, but R$$$ medium density towers keep developing then quickly degrading into R$$ or R$ occupancy, which looks ugly. 3. If a certain area of R zoning is only desirable to R$, and the R$ demand is crazy high, is there a reason why R$ towers from at least medium density zoning wouldn't develop in that area if it's the only place desirable to R$? Thanks in advance to any who can help or point me to some good resources for this.- 8 Replies
-
- 3
-
-
- desirability
- wealth
- (and 7 more)
-
I built my first city. Before doing anything I did the rail, highways, junctions, interchanges, and some avenues ... thus neighbor connections too. Now, I got a nice little city with 2 neighbors. I am using a big tile map of NYC done by CB. NAM44 CAM 2.10a Extended NKO & Less Abandonment How long to wait before moving on to my next city? (mainly zoning at the moment) Thanks.
-
SC4 Garden Masters ! These coming CJ will feature gameplay of three notable SimCity players. Third person, conducting these trials it´s not about excatly reproducing gameplay by these masters. There are three installations of SimCity 4. Each installation got the basic bat´s, lot´s, mod´s, and most of terrain, trees of the respctive master. Mimic some similair use of the growable zoning with most prominent plopable bat´s, i try to create something of a feel like city ! For this CJ i am using the Coastal region by goldngreen here at simtropolis. This relative flat region might be ideal to show the zoning patern as there no real difficult terain to cover. Here a picture of the region, fat unspoilled ! These trials, the main purpose is to explore some of the gameplay enviroment of these masters. Simulation settings unknown, I adopt the principal of a unlimited budget. Zoning wise most of it will be medium to high rise as I except for plopables haven´t worked with large high rise cities. Layout there be the basic rhw or maxis highways, special elements like complicated fly overs will not be used as cross intrchanges are beyond my capebility. More details of these masters will be revealed during coming CJ wich each individualy will cover a master. Later I might aswell play this region with my Mayon Province installation in my own way. This series as it involves a lot of work will be on a two monthly basis except updates posted in Show what you´re working on thread. This project I hope will help me to explore the creations of many known and unkown creators to inspire use in future projects ! Hope you will enjoy these new CJ ! Kschmidt
-
For some reason, I often wish that SimCity 3000 modding was comparable in complexity to SimCity 4 (or maybe even Minecraft) modding. Maybe one day, someone at Maxis or EA will decide that the game is too old to be profitable, and release it as open-source software. Highly unlikely, but, you know.
- 28 Replies
-
- 4
-
-
- sc3000
- source code
- (and 3 more)
-
Paola Apuglia Update Italia Set Update ! Testing the Italia plugins directory for the first time I started with the Apuglia region on a short coastal stretch with the town of Paola. What you see are with exception of civic buildings only growable lots. Examine the contents what´s ready available I can adjust where posible what I like and don´t like. This is the first region where I have chosen the Real Railway Mod as standard mod. SPam without maxis sets and Mbear farms.Paeng Gasstations set, a selection is used. Gobias Sidewalk with Medeteranian Mort as texture. tfinfold Mediteranian Cypresses and kergelen Mediteranian Olive tree used as MMP ! Paola city center with railstation and hospital ! BSC Ripptides park for some cooling of the citizens ! Paola city scape and rural zone Residential area´s initial grow ! Varieity of free standing blocks and seperate and w2w sets with a six building distinctive housing estate. Low minor properties along more established italia set homes ! Overal a nice variety of growable residentials without any issues ! Indusrial zone ! Decided to add a little industrial area along the coast line ! Great start, Italy plugins still far from complete, Italia set and ancient monuments are the basis of this directory, yet as with some other plugins directories it´s hard to find any thing fitting Bat´s, probably some 60´s 70´s buildings and some ultra modern industrial estates. European feel, no super malls or marches like france and spain, little alpine scenewith some chalets and larger swiss hotels,i´m not looking for the more germanic timberframe buildings as he alpine scene is allready mostly filled with the itlalian collection, some neo classical buildings are welcome ! Enjoy !
- 2 Comments
-
- 6
-
-
- development
- sets
- (and 4 more)
-
CoriBoom Better EPIC Screenshot Technique (Pixel Aligned City Pictures)
CorinaMarie posted a topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion
Better Exact Position In City Screenshots Technique (Pixel Aligned City Pictures) This is useful for before and after pictures as well as a progression series. I've discovered a previously unknown cheat code in the vanilla game which makes the EPIC technique so much easier. CB and I then worked together to figure out exactly how to control it. (Without his help, I'd've dismissed it as bugged.) This new tutorial replaces my old one here. I'll use my Farmhouse in Corillion as the sample again, but then the rest will all be new. Cori's Farmhouse in the Year 884: Cori's Farmhouse in the Year 1924: ^ Click an image and then use the right and left arrow keys to flip between them. Tutorial If you already have development in your city tile then you can use buildings or roads or such for positioning. For the above I used the Broquard's Cement Plant in the lower right as my guide by noting how much shows and where the edge cuts off part of the silos. (This is for double checking in a later step.) For this little tutorial, I'll start in an empty tile with a rail line running thru it. First I positioned the world how I want it for later pics. Then I plopped power towers in the lower right so one of them is nearly touching the taskbar and the edge of the game's window border. Next pull up the cheat code box using Ctrl+x. Type in sizeof 200 and press the enter key. ^ Note: There is a space between the sizeof and the 200. Open the cheat code box again (Ctrl+x). Type in TerrainQuery and press the enter key. Click the Query Tool. Change to the Zones DataView and hover the query tool in the center of the image. Make note of the values for x, y, and z. If they have a number to the right of the decimal point, include the decimal point and number too. If that's a zero to the right of the decimal point, then you need not worry about it. Using those numbers, type in SetViewTarget CoriSaysGoTo 2120 267 697 and press the enter key. (The numbers are obtained from the above query, ofc.) Also note that there is a space between the SetViewTarget and the CoriSaysGoTo as well as between the Numbers. Zoom out to the size which you started with. ^ Notice the power towers are right where we want them to be and can now be bulldozed. (This is the double checking the position part I mentioned before.) Do copy that command (the SetViewTarget CoriSaysGoTo 2120 267 697 (with your own numbers, ofc)) to a text file and save that so you have it anytime you want to take a later screenshot which will be perfectly pixel aligned with prior images. Cori Edit Start: Special Note About Decimal Points in the Coordinates Let's say you have this instead of a simple one like I showed above: ^ In this case you'd use SetViewTarget CoriSaysGoTo 2116.3 309 1900.1 Cori Edit End. Sample Progression Series Here are example pics of how this can be used. I'm showing the progression of how I grow a small farming town which has a wee bit of industrial. Click an image and use your right and left arrow keys to flip between them. More Info Check out the next post where @Cyclone Boom uses this technique to show the expansion of a growing town. He also presents some tips and tricks he discovered while we were testing. Additionally: Thanks to CB for creating the Banner Pic up top of this thread.- 13 Replies
-
- 16
-
-
-
- simcity 4
- screenshots
- (and 7 more)
-
Redone BSC parking lots to match SHK parking lots.. a few adjustments and I think I'll be happy with it.
-
So, I was going to wait until I had more done before starting a development thread, but I decided I couldn't wait. (and discussing it on other people's threads is rude, even if it's a related topic) Back in 2019, I developed a series of mods that built on one another that modified certain power plants in the game. First, it was just a way to make Simmer2's Modular Solar Panels make better use of those gorgeous Inverters and Step-up Transformers that come packed with it. I wrote an LUA script that required you to first build the Step-up Transformer before it would let you build any Inverters, then it wouldn't let you build the PV panels until you built an Inverter. I eventually got it working so that you had to have 1 Step-up transformer for every 16 Inverters and 1 Inverter for every 16 PV panel, so a field of panels with 1 Transformer could have up to 16 Inverters and up to 256 panels. But I didn't stop there... As my understanding of LUA scripting and Exemplars got better, I started working on fixing issues of game balance with the Maxis power plants and a number of power plants that I had downloaded from the STEX and LEX. Many looked great, but didn't balance well when compared to the others and the Maxis default plants. So I started tweaking their Properties to fix them... then writing LUA scripts to more fully integrate them into the game... (advisor comments, technology development chains, building requirements, etc.) and before I knew it I had set things up so that not only were over 40 different power plants available, but they were well balanced compared to one another and were all fully integrated into a (semi) realistic power grid! Then my Hard Drive crashed... ...then I found out that the last six months of backups being done on another PC in the network were corrupted... ...then i found out that SSD drives can't usually get the same sort of data recovery process that platter Hard Drives can get... ...then I threw up my hands and walked away from the game for 2 years. So on January 18th I finally had let go of the frustration and decided to start rebuilding what I had lost. After 10 days re-downloading all my mods, I set to work rebuilding. (thank God for SC4D's Download History that got me all the content I had downloaded from there... the rest of the time I spent trawling the STEX and wracking my brain to remember what I had before) --- GOAL: To completely re-define the Utilities portion of SimCity 4 the same way the NAM team redefined roads. (no pressure!) Note: Having already done this once before, I don't need much help in actually getting it done. Programing and logic paths come easy to me. (I first started programming in 8502 machine language on my old Commodore 128 back in the day... 2 MHZ of fun crammed into 128k of memory!) I'm also a Statistical Data Analyst by trade, (now a stay-at-home Mom) so organizing large data sets is in my wheelhouse, too! The purpose of this thread is that this time I intend to distribute my mod onto the STEX. That means that I'm not just trying to please myself this time, I want this to be something everyone can enjoy. Comments and (constructive) criticism are welcome! If you see somewhere that I could develop further, please let me know! (not a guarantee that I'll implement it, but it never hurts to ask!) --- The Core of the Power Grid mod is Power_Lot_Balance.DAT; a DAT file I made in iLive Reader that replaces a number of LTEXT, EXEMPLAR, and LUA files native to Simcity1.DAT and 33 Power Plant Lots here on the STEX and on the LEX. (full list below) Then I have my custom LUA script that handles lot build allowances based on the criteria I set. Originally I used the BSC Essentials ability to add building counts to be tracked, but this time around I wrote my own, so the BSC Essentials ISN'T a Dependency. (though it should play nice with it) The first step was to rebuild my spreadsheet to compare power plants against one another. In this I am kind of hard-nosed against changes. I made 33 power plants put out by people over the last 15 years plus the 8 default Maxis plants all work together without any one of them being the "obvious choice", making all others obsolete. You have give and take with EVERY plant. Here are the general guidelines I used: 1. Modify the Maxis plants as little as possible - This is more a function of the fact that Maxis balanced them the way they did for a REASON, game balance. I DO make a few fixes as a nod toward reality, but I limit changes to the core 8 plants to things that are NECESSARY. 2. Everything has a downside - Those Wind Turbines are great, aren't they? Yeah... TOO great. So now they have 1/5th the longevity that they used to and require a Wind Farm Maintenance Facility to be built first. They're still "Squeaky clean", and can be placed where there is no road access, but they're expensive and short-lived. 3. Everything has an upside - Coal plants suck. They choke up the air like a chain smoker locked in a Datsun. But per megawatt-hour, they're the cheapest electricity you can build... by half or less. They can't provide ALL your power, (more on that in point 5) but they can sure reduce your average cost per MWh! 4. Everything has a use - Every power plant in my list has a niche. Coal and Wood are cheap. Wind and solar are low-impact. Oil and Natural Gas are adaptable. Diesel is compact and doesn't require a grid in place to use. Every plant is priced, balanced, and assigned stats based on the idea of filling a purpose. If a plant can't fill a niche that no other plant can, it's useless and won't be supported. If you think X plant produces too much (or not enough) pollution, or should be cheaper, there's probably a reason why it is the way it is... to fill a niche. If a particular plant or feature would make another plant completely obsolete, it will NOT be supported by this mod. 5. No power Grid can survive on ONE kind of power source - Carrots are great! I love them! I could eat them all day! But humans need a variety in their diet. So too does a power grid. Nuclear, Coal, Waste to Energy, and Geothermal are all what is referred to a "Base Load" plants. They're great for producing LOTS of power and running 24/7, but power grids are delicate creatures. Every watt produced has to be used within a fraction of a second of when it's generated. Base Load plants SUCK at "load following", that is adjusting their output rapidly based on demand. They can sometimes take HOURS to adjust their output to meet demand. Thus, they usually spend all their time running full-out; that's what makes them relatively cheap to operate. They're predictable. Oil and Natural Gas are "Peak Load" plants that are very good at load following, but expensive. Wind and solar are "Intermediate Load" plants; that is they don't load follow, but their output is variable and unpredictable. So if you want to run your city on nothing but wind and solar, get used to seeing "no power" zots. An ideal grid would have no more than 60% of its power coming from Base Load plants, no more than 40% coming from intermediate load plants, and at LEAST 20% from Peak load plants. You NEED Peak plants to fill in the high-demand times. 6. It's called 'Power Grid' for a reason - Power Grid implies more to it than just building power plants, right? You won't be able to plop down a Coal plant as your first building... because first you need a Transmission Substation... one powerful enough to handle 12.5 mega volt-amps. (MVA or kVA, kilo volt-amps... the unit for grid tolerance) Don't have one that large at the start of your game? You could build two 10 MVA Transmission Substations to handle the load... but you still need Distribution Substations in your neighborhoods to distribute the power... and you can't build Distribution Substations until you have Transformers placed to step down the voltage to household levels. Get the idea? 7. Game Balance > Realism > Opinion - See point 4. Also, I am VERY well researched on this subject. I've spent HUNDREDS of hours pouring over government websites, trolling for statistics on power plant efficiency, cleanliness, Capacity Factors, costs, etc. I also have a considerable knowledge base when it comes to physics. Thus, why the Hydrogen Plant is renamed to the Fusion plant... because that's what it is and likely uses deuterium or tritium as fuel shipped from the Moon where it's plentiful. (and why the Fusion plant may require the Space Port as a prerequisite... still up in the air on that one) In contrast, the Solar Thermal Power Plant (the Maxis Solar Plant) should be 100 times bigger to produce that much power... so says math and physics. Either that or it should only produce 50 MWh/month. I compromised and made it cost one tenth as much to build, but produce 1/10th the power. (i.e. $3,000 to build, $100/month to operate, but only makes 500 MWh/month... so ten of them equal the original stats, just using more space) 8. NO POLITICS - I have my opinions, you have yours. Let's keep it that way. The issue of green energy vs. cheap energy is, despite best intentions, a political football. Since this mod is all about power utilities, it's inevitable that someone might try to push their political opinion regarding energy policy on others. Opinions, pro or con, about "Clean Coal", "carbonless societies", "the green mafia", etc. are therefor verboten and will be ignored and/or reported. TAKE IT ELSEWHERE. This thread is open to ANY ideas... but no idea is more "correct" or virtuous than any other. This is a FICTIONAL GAME... it's meant to have FUN. Using nothing but high polluting 28 MW Coal Power Plants in your cities will never cause SimGlobalWarming... and no one is forcing or coercing anyone else to use solar, wind, or geothermal plants if they don't want to. Let's keep it sane, people. --- So here is a list of features once development is completed: - Require transformers, substations, and other ancillary buildings to build most power plants (except generators that are MEANT to operate independently) - Require balancing your power plant types (Base Load, Intermediate Load, Peak Load) in realistic terms - Build a chain of developing technology, such that you can't build more advanced plants (clean coal, solar, geothermal, fusion, etc.) until you meet certain criteria - Add to the existing lots to broaden options (e.g. add some kind of power storage lot to mitigate the limitations of Intermediate Load plants, etc.) --- Dependencies: Ideally, none... or rather just one... a lot set that provides transformers, substations, etc. to create the grid with. (I personally prefer Simmer2's SM2 Power Pack) Since I STINK at any form of art, my ability to create actual unique buildings and props is somewhat on the order of a blind woman with severe spastic seizures. Stick figures are high art for me. I can push bits around... that's all. (luckily, I'm REALLY good at pushing them around and making them obey me!) --- List of supported Power Plants: Creator Original Name New Name Generators (Diesel and Natural Gas) Pegasus Diesel Generator 1.8 MW Container Diesel Generator Colyn CSX Mini Power Plant RH 945 KW Diesel Generator Colyn CSX Mini Generator 240 KW Diesel Generator Andreas Roth Power Generator 180 KW Natural Gas Generator Simmer2 SM2 Mobile Power Generator L 120 KW Mobile Diesel Generator kaos78414 Generator 50 KW Diesel Generator Wind Maxis Wind Power Plant 1 MW Wind Power Plant deadwoods Power-producing Windmill 5 KW Wooden Wind Generator Natural Gas Maxis Natural Gas Power Plant 6.5 MW Natural Gas Power Plant dk1 Methane Power Plant 3.5 MW Natural Gas Power Plant dk1 Methane Power Plant 2.4 MW Natural Gas Power Plant dk1 Power Plant 2 MW Natural Gas Power Plant dk1 Power Plant 1.3 MW Natural Gas Power Plant Waste to Energy Colyn CSX LSU WasteTech RH 45 MW Waste to Energy Plant Maxis Waste to Energy Plant 9 MW Waste to Energy Plant mrbisonm Waste to Energy Plant 4.5 MW Clean Waste to Energy Plant Geothermal Pegasus GeoThermal Power Plant 10 MW Geothermal Power Plant Simmer2 SM2 Geothermal Power Plant 8 MW Geothermal Power Plant Pegasus Geothermal Power Plant 4 MW Geothermal Power Plant Mathe Man Geothermical power station 2 MW Geothermal Power Plant Solar Maxis Solar Power Plant 2.5 MW Solar Thermal Plant Simmer2 SM2 GE Solar Power Plant 533 KW PV Power Plant 1dera3 Solar Station 50 KW Remote PV Station Simmer2 SM2 Modular Solar Panels 1X1 36 KW PV Panel Set Coal/Wood Cat fan Coal Power Plant 28 MW Coal Power Plant Maxis Coal Power Plant 10 MW Coal Power Plant shoRt-mAn123 S.M. Power Plant 6.5 MW Coal Power Plant Shy Dude Chicago Union Station Power Plant 2 MW Coal Power Plant carrot1984 Medium Clean Coal Power Plant 25 MW Clean Coal Power Plant fukuda Lignite-fired power plant 20 MW Clean Coal Power Plant SimGoober Hardun Coal Power Plant 10 MW Clean Coal Power Plant shoRt-mAn123 Small Steam Power Plant 3 MW Wood Pulp Power Plant onlyplace4 Wild West Power House 1 MW Wood Power Plant Oil BIWDC SC2k Oil Power Plant 30 MW Oil Power Plant Maxis Oil Power Plant 15 MW Oil Power Plant mrbisonm Nexis Emergency Diesel Power 4.5 MW Oil Power Plant Fission BurroDiablo Nuclear Plant 1.2 GW Fission Power Plant JPouX Close-to-water EDF Nuclear Power Plant 112 MW Coastal Fission Plant JPouX Mainland EDF Nuclear Power Plant 112 MW Inland Fission Plant Maxis Nuclear Power Plant 25 MW Fission Power Plant Fusion Maxis Hydrogen Power Plant 75 MW Fusion Power Plant --- Details: All power plants are divided up into one of four main types any one of four categories. Types: Base Load, Intermediate Load, Peak Load, & Generators (Generators are technically Peak power plants, but don't require Support Equipment to build or use) Categories: Clean Power Plants, Petroleum Power Plants, Carbon Power Plants, & Other Power Plants (Other is anything that doesn't fit in the first 3) Support equipment is broken down into one of three categories. Transformers, Distribution Substations, Transmission Substations, & Electrical Features. (Features are anything that don't fit the first 3 categories, like Inverters, power banks, etc.) The mod goes in the My Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins folder in a sub-folder titled "ZZZZZ AMPS". This ensures it runs last after all other mods. This is important because it replaces certain Exemplar and LTEXT files from Maxis and all of the above lots. This allows full integration into the game, allowing new advisor comments to be made to include hyperlinks, etc. It also uses new custom queries to advise you on load balancing, etc. One Maxis LUA file currently overridden (this will probably change to a new kind of override before release so it doesn't replace a Maxis core file) is ID: CA63E2A3-4A5E8F3F-FFB0A8D0 that is used to define certain constants. It's also used by BSC Essentials to add more building counts for use with automata managers using the "track_buildings =" function. Rather than take a chunk of their IDs, I created my own. I am using the Occupant Group 0xBB350000-0xBB35020F since it's not used anywhere that I can tell. This lets us use the Rewards features to limit construction to lots you have ability to build. (I also included the BSC code, which is harmless if you don't need it and vital that it be included if you do) The new Occupant Groups are broken down as follows: 0xBB350000-0xBB35000F = Individual Generator Lots (eg. Pegasus's MTP Diesel Generator is 0xBB350003) 0xBB350010-0xBB35001F = Individual Transformer Lots (eg. KloudKicker's custom 250 kVA residential transformer lot is 0xBB350012) 0xBB350020-0xBB35002F = Individual Distribution Substation Lots (eg. Simmer2's SM2 HV Transformer lot is 0xBB350020) 0xBB350030-0xBB35003F = Individual Transmission Substation Lots (eg. Takingyouthere's Transformer lot is 0xBB350030) 0xBB350040-0xBB35004F = Individual Electrical Feature Lots (eg. Simmer2's Solar Inverters from his Modular Solar Panels set is 0xBB35004F) 0xBB350050-0xBB35005F = Individual Clean Intermediate Load Plant Lots (eg. the Wind Power Plant is 0xBB350059) 0xBB350060-0xBB35006F = Individual Clean Base Load Plant Lots (eg. Pegasus's GeoThermal Power Plant is 0xBB350063) 0xBB350070-0xBB35007F = Individual Clean Peak Load Plant Lots (eg. the Hydrogen Power Plant is 0XBB350070) 0xBB350080-0xBB35008F = Individual Petroleum Intermediate Load Plant Lots (reserved for potential use; no plants currently qualify) 0xBB350090-0xBB35009F = Individual Petroleum Base Load Plant Lots (reserved for potential use; no plants currently qualify) 0xBB3500A0-0xBB3500AF = Individual Petroleum Peak Load Lots (eg. the Oil Power Plant is 0xBB3500A1) 0xBB3500B0-0xBB3500BF = Individual Carbon Intermediate Load Plant Lots (reserved for potential use; no plants currently qualify) 0xBB3500C0-0xBB3500CF = Individual Carbon Base Load (eg. the Coal Power Plant is 0xBB3500C9) 0xBB3500D0-0xBB3500DF = Individual Carbon Peak Load Plant Lots (reserved for potential use; no plants currently qualify) 0xBB3500E0-0xBB3500E4 = Individual Other Intermediate Load Plant Lots (reserved for potential use; no plants currently qualify) 0xBB3500E5-0xBB3500E9 = Individual Other Base Load Plant Lots (reserved for potential use; no plants currently qualify) 0xBB3500EA-0xBB3500EE = Individual Other Peak Load Plant Lots (reserved for potential use; no plants currently qualify) 0xBB3500F0 = Used on all Generator lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500F1 = Used on all Transformer lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500F2 = Used on all Distribution Substation lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500F3 = Used on all Transmission Substation lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500F4 = Used on all Electric Feature lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500F5 = Used on all Clean Intermediate Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500F6 = Used on all Clean Base Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500F7 = Used on all Clean Peak Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500F8 = Used on all Petroleum Intermediate Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500F9 = Used on all Petroleum Base Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500FA = Used on all Petroleum Peak Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500FB = Used on all Carbon Intermediate Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500FC = Used on all Carbon Base Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500FD = Used on all Carbon Peak Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500FE = Used on all Other Intermediate Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500FF = Used on all Other Base Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB3500EF = Used on all Other Peak Load Plant lots to return the sum total of all of them; used in custom queries and for grid validity checks 0xBB350100-0xBB3501FF Same as above, reserved for Small Power Plants that do not require a Transmission Substation, only Distribution Substations and Transformers 0xBB350200-0xBB35020F Used for special building tracking, such as for tracking the number of Front Offices on the map to prevent having more than one All original files are also using the Instance ID series "BB35xxxx", which is also to the best of my knowledge unused by anyone. --- In order to simulate grid imbalance when you don't have enough Peak load-following power sources, LUA code will increase power consumption grid-wide until brown-outs occur, proportional to the imbalance, in much the same way the the Power Conservation Ordinance works, only in reverse. This is perhaps one of the most difficult goals to implement and may take some time to work out. The other parts of the mod are relatively easy and I had working flawlessly 2 years ago. :^/ --- Comments welcome!
- 784 Replies
-
- 28
-
-
-
-
How to Make High-Density Development Not Turning Down the Traffic
Propfam posted a topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion
Hello, I have a fatal problem with SimCity 4, my high-density development turned down the traffic. In the traffic volume graph, everything's fine. But when I using the Traffic Dataview or the Route Query, suddenly it changes. The traffic in a main road is turned down to just 5K at the start and 1K at the end. Sure, I could make it not facing the road but I want to enjoy my workers not just getting job and customers. How should I do to make high-density development not turning down the traffic while at the same facing directly to the street? PS my residences are still low-density. This is one of the cause of the traffic turn down.- 2 Replies
-
- 1
-
-
- simcity 4
- high density
- (and 2 more)
-
Version 1.0
6,179 Downloads
CoriBoom™ Productions Proudly Presents... Cori's No Kickout. Give yourself much more mayoral control. In our 5th official CoriBoom™ release to the STEX, @CorinaMarie and I are proud to finally present a mini (yet magnificent) mod which allows much finer control of city simulation growth: NKO This mod grants the flexibility to have all 3 wealth levels (low, medium, high) coexist in any given location, without the higher wealths gobbling up the lower ones. This is a vast improvement over the default game setting, where the two lowest wealths can upgrade to a higher wealth. While this behaviour is desirable in certain situations, it forces you (the mayor) to mark lots as historical as a preventative measure. This can be a tedious process which soon becomes a boring chore. (Like washing dishes.) The default automatic upgrades are a common cause of population instability and a major factor causing the dreaded no job zots. In regular gameplay, a higher wealth and stage often takes over before the conditions are suitable. NKO fixes the method which the SC4 simulation uses. By doing so, the control is now at your fingertips to decide when a wealth level should be allowed to upgrade and replace a lower wealth. For example with houses, it means R$ can coexist within an area containing R$$ homes, and even R$$$ mansions too! There's no need to mark each as historical for preventing them from being destroyed and replaced with higher wealth. This finer control means there's significantly less micro management involved to ensure RCI growth sustainability. Then if one wishes, the bulldozing tool is useful for giving the green light for a higher wealth to take its place. At this point, certain zones will reassess and grow what the simulation deems as appropriate (based on the RCI demand and local desirability factors). What does "Kickout" mean? The standard SC4 growth simulation automatically allows lower wealths to be replaced by higher wealth levels. This means they can be taken over and redeveloped by a higher wealth at any time the game decides. When this happens, the process of such is described as "kicking out" the lower wealth level. What NKO does is prevent this from happening by setting a Boolean False toggle. In the exemplar property: Tract Developer Kick Out Lower Wealth Name Value: 0x47E2C540 Does NKO prevent higher wealth ever growing? No, not at all. Any new zone will develop just as before based on economic conditions in your city. And you now have the choice of when any given grown lot should be allowed to redevelop. Tax rates can be adjusted accordingly to encourage the development of certain RCI types. This is related to the methods explained in Cori's Residential Revamping tutorial. Then should one later wish to upgrade an area, it's possible to selectively bulldoze. At that point, it provides higher wealths an opportunity to reconsider and grow in place when they're able. As a result, it gives you (as mayor) the ability to decide if you wish to grow something else instead. Power of the Bulldozer Via the bulldozer tool, it gives us an expansive freedom to develop RCI how we wish to. NKO isn't a restrictive mod, but a revision of the simulation and this puts the city design decisions in our own hands. The bulldozer is our friend for this very reason. It means how if wanting to redevelop areas to higher capacity, then using the tool makes way to allow R$$ or even R$$$ buildings too, because then the demand and desirability decides. This applies to residential, commercial and industrial inclusive. For residential and if wanting R$ to stay, then they will do. This could be useful for maintaining a lower wealth area of housing. However, once bulldozing to bare zoning and it's a free for all again. Completely CAMpatible NKO is fully compatible with the CAM too. By comparing the properties in the exemplar which NKO uses too, we've made sure that the same properties are added along with the setting toggled to prevent lower wealths being kicked out. Just makes sure NKO loads after CAM does, so that way it'll be applied. A Couple of Things Thing #1 NKO works very well combined alongside @Bones1's Less Abandonment mod. This is recommended when CAM is not installed. (Which has its own version of Less Abandonment built in.) What the "Less Abandonment" mod does is make sure the city is ready for RCI development when the demand for growth is much more likely to be sustainable. As such it fits along well in harmony with what NKO does. It sets the threshold higher for when buildings will grow, which means they're more likely to stick around once they do sprout. Thing #2 A caveat you should be aware of: NKO does not prevent buildings from upgrading within their own wealth class. This means if you have some lower capacity building you want to keep for aesthetic reasons, you'll still need to click the historical option for it. It is rarer for this to happen in a stable city, but it does occur and well worth being mindful of. Complete NKO Overview To learn more of the advantages to using NKO, see the following thread we made: It contains picture previews to show the real benefits of what NKO provides. Also this doubles up as the official Support Thread if you've any comments or questions we can answer. Replying to the Comments section here on the file entry is fine too if you'd prefer. Installation This mod uses the standard process of installing SC4 content. Copy the Cori's_No_Kickout_Lower_Wealth_CAMpatible.dat file into your Plugins folder. If using the CAM, make sure NKO loads after it since the exemplar is the same. To make sure, a good idea is to place NKO directly inside the same folder CAM is installed to. One way is to place our file in this folder: Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins\a_CAM\a_Core Or as one of the resident experts @twalsh102 posted in our thread: That way it'll make certain the loading order is correct. We hope you enjoy using NKO in your cities! // CoriBoom™ Productions Release \\ Cori's No Kickout Lower Wealth Mod v1.0 — (02 Jan 2021)- 14 Comments
- 10 Reviews
-
- 56
-
-
-
-
- nko
- no kickout
- (and 7 more)
-
Books on urban development... anybody read any?
Kiwiwriter47 posted a topic in Architecture & Urban Planning
How you create cities and run them is a fascinating subject to me as a city PR officer and a SimCity builder, and a historian, so I like to read books on those subjects. I found a few that are helpful: The Power Broker, by Robert Caro. This is the Pulitzer-winning biography of the man who wrecked New York's mass transit systems and replaced them with superhighways, building up a power empire, covering up his racism. The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs. She shot Moses and his plans to build a superhighway through Manhattan's Houston Street like the Red Baron nailing Snoopy. WPA Guide to New York City/WPA Panorama of New York City. 1939. Federal travel guides to New York and rich with history. How the Other Half Lives, by Jacob Riis. I hit the roof when I read this as a teenager. I hit the roof again when I read this as an adult, realizing that nothing had changed. In fact, the "new-law tenements" stink as much as the "old-law tenements." And sweatshops still make people sweat. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. If it isn't in there, you don't need to know about it for the city's history. They did a new volume: "Greater Gotham," for 1898 to 1910. Just as big as the first one, but only 12 years. Holy moley! The Great Bridge, by David McCullough. How they built my favorite bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge. Engineering, people, politics, crime, and color. The World Beneath the City, by Robert Daley. How New York got water, gas, electricity, sewer pipes, and some of the great characters involved with them, like Smelly Kelly. Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, by George Washington Plunkitt. "A series of practical talks on practical politics by New York State Senator George Washington Plunkitt, delivered from his rostrum, New York County Court House's Bootblack Stand." Except for the portion on gas and excise, it's as true now as it was in 1893. Architect's Institute of America Guide to New York. Walking tours and analysis of architecture. Caustic. NYPD, A city and its Police, by James Lardner and Thomas Reppetto. The history of the police -- a tale of politics, peril, payola, padding, and enormous courage and valor, from the 1840s to 9/11 and beyond So Others Might Live, a history of the New York Fire Department. (I don't have it in front of me, so I can't give the author). Does the same for NYFD, with less issues of corruption and more issues of culture, particularly politics, race, and societal changes, leading up to female firefighters and the horrors of 9/11. Report From Engine Company 82, by Dennis Smith. A first-person, up-close of the life of firefighters in the South Bronx during the dreadful "war years" of the early 1970s, where "The Bronx Was Burning," and Dennis and his colleagues had to put it out. It says a LOT about the interaction and intersection of firefighters and their neighborhood: class, race, poverty. More than fire is combustible. Report From Ground Zero, by Dennis Smith. His story -- and those of other firefighters -- of the city's response to the 9/11 attacks and the weeks thereafter. Gripping stuff about government and people in action in a municipal and national crisis and inaction in that same crisis. Behind the Green Lights, by Detective Cornelius Van Willemse. He was an NYPD detective in the early 1900s. Very different force back then, but not so different a New York. Blue Blood, by Edward Conlon. The memoir of a Harvard graduate who became a New York cop and worked in housing projects in The Bronx. His family comes from law enforcement, so he brings an interesting perspective to the situation. Blue on Blue, by retired NYPD Deputy Chief Charles Campisi. He was head of the Internal Affairs Bureau, and he really shook things up. He presided over the Amadou Diallo and Abner Louima fiascoes. He tells a lot about how IAB really works and what it does, and you learn a lot about the culture of the police, New York, and the politics therein. One point he makes repeatedly: they do integrity stress tests on street cops -- leaving out money and fake drugs at "crime scenes," offering them "bribes," or turning in "purses full of money," and 98 percent of the time, the officer being tested passes it, not even knowing he has been tested. I'd like to get a first-rate history of London, my mother's family's home town, one of my other favorite cities in the world (along with San Francisco and Christchurch, New Zealand), but I haven't been able to find a good one yet. If anybody knows of good books on "how to run a city" or "histories of cities," I'd like to hear them. If anybody wants to see a good pun, I can accommodate them, too!- 8 Replies
-
- 5
-
-
- books
- city planning
- (and 2 more)
-
Hello, I'm struggling to get hi-rise buildings in a city. The city is reserved for I-HT and R$$$ because the neighboring ones are R$ city (You know, R$$$ for some reason doesn't like R$. Pollution maybe?). Since I-HT takes up lots of space, I can't build lots of R$$$ lots. My regional population size is 2.5 mil. Why I can't get hi-rise buildings in my fresh city? I found this document: https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=3578.0. But, there are some questions: Take the Residential Stage Limits section. There are R$, R$$, and R$$$ values. What's the meaning of Is it meaning that I should add R$, R$$, and R$$$ of a row? For instance, the last row. It means I should add 3085020 + 3469411 + 3856275? Or, should I have 3856275 R$$$ capacity in my region? Or, should I have 3856275 total residential capacity to have stage 15 of R$$$? What's the meaning of percentual chances? Is it works like, for instance, Help are appreciated. Thanks.
-
CoriBoom Cori's No Kickout Lower Wealth Mod - Now CAMpatible
CorinaMarie posted a topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion
Cori's No Kickout Lower Wealth Mod - Now CAMpatible The CAMpatible part means that it will work equally well with or without CAM installed. If using CAM, just be sure this mod loads after CAM's controller file. The File: Cori's_No_Kickout_Lower_Wealth_CAMpatible.dat <-- Click here to download. Y'all might be wondering what this mod does. Quite simply, it allows you to control your city growth in a much more stable manner than the Maxis default setting. By not allowing higher wealth levels to kick out and overrun the lower wealth, you need not be constantly dealing with major fluctuations of each grown category of R, C, and I, the associated demand instability, nor overloading the jobs path finding algorithm. Also, in well established cities which you are still expanding (either horizontally or vertically or both), it puts you in charge rather than at the whim of the game's propensity to upgrade multiple buildings in quick succession as you cross new stage thresholds. @Cyclone Boom and I have completed a couple of specific demo tests to show the advantages of using NKO. The Skyscraper Example: Presenting the closest thing to a big city that I have. This has been grown from the start with NKO installed. For this part of the demo, I've removed NKO. Big City Start without NKO installed: Big City 6 years later without NKO installed: ^ You'll notice all my carefully planned low wealth, low density R$ got kicked out and replaced with R$$ and R$$$. Several commercial buildings changed too. Running again from the start, here's Big City 6 years later with NKO installed: ^ What you see is how it is rock solid stable which allows the Mayor to decide which locations to upgrade. This is where the power of NKO really puts you, the Mayor, in charge. Starting from the same year 676 beginning date as above and keeping the NKO mod in plugins, I then bulldozed those two short commercial service buildings cause I have lots of demand for CO$$$. Big City Start with NKO installed and two commercial bulldozed: Letting time run a bit, and both zones begin growing: However, because of NKO there isn't a bunch of random upgrading throughout the city tile and that means all pent up demand is being used where I decided: Big City Demo Run Finished with NKO installed: ^ Ofc, if I had some Custom Content installed (or allowed all 4 original tilesets to grow), I could have variety for that stage of commercial. The key part is that with NKO the rest of my city does not upgrade all haphazardly to higher wealth buildings. The Agricultural (with Small Towns) Example: Not everyone wants complex metalostastrophe cities. NKO is equally important for the agrarian / small towns developer. Here we see a typically Coriesque rural area with small towns: ^ Using no imagination whatsoever, I'm calling them the River Town, the Town on the Hill, and the Main Town. The second town name logic is only apparent when we turn on the grid and peek under the trees. Here's the dirt road running up the hill which then leads to it: This city tile was all grown without using NKO just like every new Mayor would do. (The game comes from Maxis with this disabled oddly enough.) The date is 27 December in Year 54. No amenities have been plopped at this point. That means no education, no medical, no fire stations, none of the earned rewards, and no parks. The idea was to keep the growth as similar as possible to how it would be with NKO. (I am using my Fire Suppression mod so there's no fires to contend with.) There are a couple or three R$$ homes that grew and then dilapidated. That's nothing compared to how the game will screw things up once we start caring for our Sims. The following pics will show the comparisons. CB has used the EPIC Technique for Centered City Screenshots so the pics will align pixel perfect. That means you can click an image and then use your right and left arrow keys to flip back and forth between them. Note: The variations you'll see in the trees are from the random growth cycle differences. What you'll be looking at is the great quantity of dilapidated R$$ homes when not using NKO. Overview of the Main Town at zoom 3: Start - No amenities plopped: No time run yet - Amenities plopped: 100 years later with NKO installed: Same run 100 years later without NKO installed: Main Town near schools at zoom 4: 100 years later with NKO installed: Same run 100 years later without NKO installed: Main Town north side at zoom 4: 100 years later with NKO installed: Same run 100 years later without NKO installed: Town on the Hill at zoom 4: 100 years later with NKO installed: Same run 100 years later without NKO installed: ^ This particular town fared very well. We see no dilapidation and that's because there are some jobs in this tile for a few R$$ Sims. They like it here because higher elevation is preferred so these are a handful which did not dilapidate. River Town at zoom 4: 100 years later with NKO installed: Same run 100 years later without NKO installed: ^ We see one No Job Zot above. (Throughout the run they come and go as some R$$ Sims leave, the demand for them goes up, they come back, can't find a job, and the cycle repeats.) So, IMNSHO, installing the No Kickout Lower Wealth mod is the way the game should be played. Not only does it ease the fluctuations from rural to megacity, but it allows more control over what will be grown and where it will appear. This NKO mod works very well with @Bones1's Less Abandonment mod. That one is always recommended for non CAM users. One caveat you should be aware of: NKO does not prevent buildings from upgrading within their own wealth class. This means if you have some lower capacity building you want to keep for aesthetic reasons, you'll need to click the historical option for it. Important Note: If you plan to peek inside the mod, you must use Reader 1.5.4 which can be found attached to this post on Devotion. (Reader 0.9.3 will bork the file.) Also, the property Tract Developer Kick Out Lower Wealth is set to 0x01 (True) in the release version of the game. This is why I said above that No Kickout is disabled by default.- 95 Replies
-
- 44
-
-
-
-
- nko
- no kickout
- (and 7 more)
-
Hey all, I am currently playing on the Plantation Bay map by comdude21 which has a nice selection of coastline and I was thinking about making a casino boardwalk area in one of the regions. My major problem is I actually like to play the game and pretty much every casino I've come across is some variation of the money tree park. I don't mind if it gives like $80-$300 a month as it usually takes awhile to turn a profit post plop cost.... but the majority of the ones I can find are in the $25,000 to $1,000,000 range. I realize I could just use a landmark and pretend but I'm kind of OCD about wanting actual casinos for casinos. I already have a beautiful selection of hotels lined up and beach mods....does anyone know of which casinos are at least slightly more landmarkish and less simolean smelting factory?
