SC4 Devotion Forum Archives

Firstly, a note about the title. It's a good and proper rip-off of the popular British book series '(Subject) for Dummies', which is a bestselling series of 'idiot's guides' to a wide range of subjects, from iPods to carpentry (I just plucked the 2nd one out of thin air but you get the idea), which are written for someone who knows little, if anything, about that subject, but are also used by people who do know what they're doing for use as and when necessary.

It also explains why I chose this particular title - because that's what this MD is - an 'idiot's guide' to building realistic cities in SimCity 4.

In this MD I will be walking you guys through 4 projects, each more substantial, ambitious and higher-standard than the last. And at the end of these, there'll be the opportunity for you to have a go yourself.
The 4 projects are thus:

• Single City Tile: This is just what you might think. In this project we'll go over the basic fundamentals of building realistic cities, using only 'ready-to-run' mods that you can get off the STEX.
• Large City: Now we'll expand into multiple city tiles, so we'll start exploring region play and realism over city borders. We'll also start tinkering a few ready-to-run mods to make them better.
• Metropolis: Get this far and it'll be time to move up to the big leagues. Everything we do will be on a grand scale - and we'll start 'kit-building' mods using the Lot Editor.
• County/State: Now we're talking. For our last project, we're gonna go really big. We're gonna build an area that could serve as a whole county or state - so we'll go over placement of settlements, and the level will be so high by now, that we'll start 'scratchbuilding' our own mods.

Oh, and we'll be starting each of these from scratch, and finishing one before moving on to the next. That's why there aren't any pictures yet. I assure you that this will change.

The aim of this, of course, is to get into the Classics section, but it's also to get you guys, who I know are all capable players of the game (and I say that in a nice way), to learn something new - even in the beginner projects.
I expect to do this in the very first lesson.

I hope I've explained it to you well enough.
Now, if you're interested, the inspiration for this came from 'Canons Cross', a model railway built for British Railway Modelling to show that even a beginner can build a model railway to a high standard, using only ready-to-run products.
It didn't take me long to realise that this concept could easily be applied to SC4, so I came up with the idea of doing this.
So that's the reason for the railway modelling terms - and there'll be more. Maybe I should do a glossary so you know what I'm talking about.

Anyways, I'll shut up now. I should have the first lesson of the first project ready in a couple of days.

- Chris

Sounds like an interesting concept. I wish you good luck! 

I'm intrigued by this: and I might be able to learn a thing or two from it ;)

Xander

Wonderful! Been waiting for this for a long time

Sounds like an ambitious and interesting project!  A tutorial formatted MD should be a very interesting read!  Looking forward to the first lesson. 

i await with baited breathe

Interresting... I'm curious how this will turn out...

Thanks for all the kind words, guys. I can promise you I won't disappoint.

Now let's make a start with the first lesson shall we?

Project 1 - Single City

Lesson 1 - Planning

Fail to plan, plan to fail!

I don't know who first made that quote, but they had a point. Building a city, even just a single city tile, is a very ambitious project, and one that you can't just dive into without any clear sense of direction. Because if you do, your city will look like it was just thrown together in the hope that somehow it all worked out.

So what do you do to prevent this? You do what any team of builders would do before building anything - plan it out beforehand. I can't stress enough the importance of doing this. It will make your project so much easier to complete, because you won't need to spend time figuring out what to do next.
The larger your region, the more important it is to plan!
This is because you will have a huge space and not know what to do with it otherwise.

But we should still plan even the smallest projects. Here's how it's done.

How to Plan

The first thing to do is to develop a concept - i.e. a clear idea in your head about what you want to achieve from this project, and the kind of thing you're going to build to do it.
The concept for this project is thus:

To build a small town, of about 50-100K population, which has an industrial heritage, but is also within commuting distance of a major city, and has hence become a 'dormitory town' to that city, meaning it is served by a major motorway and major railway line.

See how simple that is?

Now we can start planning properly. For this, you need a piece of paper, and a lot of coloured pens. Draw a fairly big square to represent your city tile, then start adding features.
To explain this better, here's the plan I made for this project:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fconcept.jpg&hash=57ac6260103834e6c0894f1658a7c5a9cd75a48e)

(I did this on Paint but you should do it on paper, so you can refer to it in the game)

There are a few things to note here. First of all, it's simple. Just a few lines representing important features like roads, railways and rivers, circles to represent motorway junctions, and a few brief labels to explain what's going on. That's it. That's all you need to do. No further elaboration is necessary.
Also, you'll notice that some areas, like motorway junctions, are almost oversimplified. These are complex areas, so you might want to plan these out as well if you like. I did this for both the main motorway junctions so you could see what to do:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Froundaboutplan.jpg&hash=676be5d6f901fd9525a9397aa6371bdd1c42c2f1)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fforkplan.jpg&hash=93249538e88cff5f8be31c5ff5ea4e47c5a86435)

(The first one was the northern one, the second the southern one. Just so you know.)

Again, see how simple it is! It's just a few lines and a bit of narrative. Nothing fancy. A 5-year old could do it. And it should be this simple, so it's easy to follow.

At this stage you should also come up with a name. To help explain how to do this, I will tell you I've decided to call this city Faulkner's Bridge.
This was created by
a) considering the geographical features. There's a river, so there'll be a bridge - a bridge which we can say was fairly important, say, 500 years ago, and
b) plucking 'Faulkner's' at random out of an index of a map of my hometown. This is an important point - get a random number generator (a good calculator or Excel) and generate random numbers between 1 and 26 to represent letters in the index. Progress until you finish with just one option - use this as your city name and come up with a good excuse (e.g. Faulkner was a nobleman 500 years ago who lived here).
Be creative!

Themes are also good, especially in big regions - but that is for another project.

And that's it! You're now ready to get going.
The three things we learned today were:

• How and why to plan
• To keep the plan simple.
• Choosing a name for your city

Remember, if a 10-year-old can't follow your plan, it's too complicated.

I hop I've taught you something new today. Read it slowly, take it in, and you'll be ready to move on to the next lesson, in which we look at preparing your region so it's ready to be built on.

-Chris

nice basic stuff, good to see it layed out in a readable format.

A good lesson even for more experienced players (like me  ::) ). Very well written!

Looks like you got the basics covered, I eagerly await the following part

Although, on a side note, I'd like to say that my cities are nigh on never planned ahead (well, 5 mins ahead, in my head) and most turn out rather nice (although I totally agree that you should plan ahead)

I try to do that...

Btw, your map reminds me of Doncaster in South Yorkshire...is it the inspiration?

This is a unique and very interesting approach to MDing, Chris. I definitely need some help with planning, so you can be sure I'll follow along as you show and tell.

Joan

Good approach!  Looks like you put a lot of thought into your city layout!

I know when I pulled this game back out from a four year long hibernation about three years ago, I longed for stuff just like this.  "$Deal"$ Something to bridge the gap between those starting out and a community that often seems to have moved far past what beginners can handle. Its good too that your not talking to your audience like total noobs either.  :thumbsup:

Crikey, I can see this is going down well with you guys. Long may it continue!

Now to answer all of those comments:

mightygoose: That does help. Thanks for pointing that out.

metasmurf: Fantastic. If I can teach even the greats (the likes of Haljackey, Peg, dedgren, etc.) something new, I'll be ecstatic. It's great to know I've taught you something new.

WC_EEND: As long as you have a clear idea in your head about what you want to do, that's fine. I was just trying to illustrate what happens if you don't.

wallasey: No. I live in Milton Keynes, and have never been to South Yorkshire, let alone Donny. Maybe that'll change one day, but if the map looks like Doncaster, it's just a coincidence.

Jmouse: Excellent! I'm glad you find it interesting.

Battlecat: Thanks. I did try to make it look reasonably realistic. It shows that it's worth taking time to plan - think of it as a labour of love.

cubby420: Well, you guys aren't noobs, and I don't want to sound patronising. But I do agree with the statement before that about bridging the gap between the beginners and the greats - I hope I can do that.

And now it's time for the next lesson.

Lesson 2 - Preparation

I'm aware that most of you will probably already know the stuff in this lesson, but there'll be those that don't, and those who need a reminder.

Now that we've planned out what we want to do, we can start work on the region. But as soon as we create the new region, the game throws up the first of many problems for us:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Foriginalregion.jpg&hash=5ab5f887f5d32ead8c8852222ac1570d5bb5cbdc)

This region is no good to us. Look back to the brief, and the plan, and you'll see that we wanted a single city tile (large size). Here we've got the bricks randomly thrown around by Maxis in the hope that it somehow worked out. You can see that they didn't plan.

So we need to quit SC4 and sort this out.
To change the region size and setup, we need to locate the region folder on the hard drive, and find this file:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ffindingtheconfig.jpg&hash=43e755d5912e4933a078411a64d2a022f9f34cb0)

Pay attention to both the file directory (do NOT change this if you want your region to work!) and the config.bmp file name.
This is the file that is responsible for your regional setup. Do not move it, or change the name, for the same reason that you don't move your region directory.

Instead, right-click it and select 'Edit' from the menu that appears. That will open the file up in Paint, where we can change it.
This is what you'll get when you open the file:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ftheconfig.jpg&hash=8f09cb19a5b9b20a3a8bfff1876821a073b51586)

That's it. That little thing in the red circle. That's your region. That's going to be hard to work with, so go to View - Zoom - Custom, and select the largest zoom:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fzoom.jpg&hash=8f0cdef6b2e6090d5a4fe74f90ee8e9c62044fb9)

Then click the Show Grid option in the Zoom menu, and you'll get this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fblownupconfig.jpg&hash=97bdd96ce5a611723613ee1a3750b337e94efec2)

That's much easier to see and to work with. At this point I need to explain how this file works.
Each grid square in Paint represents one pixel. And in the game, one pixel is equivalent to one small city tile.
As for the colours, they determine the size of the city tiles. To make a city tile, you need to make a square of the correct size in the correct colour. This table explains all:

Tile Size	Size in Paint (Pixels)	Colour
Small	1x1	Red
Medium	2x2	Green
Large	4x4	Blue

Our plan calls for one large tile, so we need to clear the image we've got (CTRL - SHIFT - N does the job), and change the image size. To do this, go to Image - Attributes, and you'll get this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fresizing.jpg&hash=b68db226aec902687d5581eb134e65d7c7b1105d)

Pay close attention to the size. One large tile is equal to 4x4 small tiles, which means that the region size needs to be 4x4 pixels. Click OK, and the image will become smaller.
Now click on the Brush tool, find the largest cursor size there is, and set the colour to blue. Click on the image, and it will go all-blue:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fnewconfig.jpg&hash=7da031c5703ee1d68b94958c82d4fe74ca75f6a8)

And we're done! This image will render in the game as a single large city tile. To prove it, let's go back into the game and load up the region:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fnewregion.jpg&hash=f937758056b4e7448c67c876e6994297d94fd6bf)

Now that's a proper region, which is now ready to be worked on for real.

And that's what we'll do in the next lesson, in which we'll be doing the terraforming.

Bye for now,

Chris

This is some pretty cool stuff - I did a lot of this stuff on my blog - SimCincinnati (http://simcincinnati.wordpress.com) - where I'm trying to recreate Cincinnati in SC4

Good update. Given the content of this MD, I almost wish there were a way for it to be in a tutorial section as well...just to make it more accessible to beginners by putting it in a more logical location.

Neat stuff.  I want to mention that there is no need to enter SC4 to get a config.  All you need to do is make a folder in your regions folder and put a config.bmp in there.  SimCity knows what to do when it reads it.

nice man! helped a lot!!  &apls  I was wondering if you could make one on how to create certain districts. i.e.: downtown/CBD, suburbs, historic districts, Marina. Because my downtowns are hard to plan out because the middle is the worst because it is hard so squeeze in highways. please help?  ;)

You're right, Chris. I do know how to create a config.bmp file, but there's an interesting twist just the same. I have Win7 on my new desktop and laptop computers, and I haven't taken the time to learn the Paint program that came with them. So I use an old computer I built several years ago that still has XP installed! ::)

It's obvious you've put a lot of thought into your lessons, and I appreciate your thoroughness. When a person is very familiar with a subject, it's easy to assume everyone already knows this or that and skip over some "boring" details. I'm glad to see you don't.

As for terraforming, I'll be waiting with much anticipation. I've been struggling with that very thing for months now and can't seem to get it right. Please hurry before I find out how far I can sling my SC4 Dx disks! :D

Joan

Great start to what could be a great project!! I really hope to see this go on and learn a few things myself. Love the level of understanding here, you know how to make it simple. Keep it up.

It's now time for that 3rd lesson you've all been eagerly anticipating. I should say now that this is a long lesson, but it is certainly worth it. It'll be not much narrative and lots of pictures.

But time must be taken beforehand to say a few things:

regoarrarr: Sounds cool. Maybe I should check that blog out. The best of luck with that!

cubby420: The reason why I put this here was because it isn't just a standalone tutorial, but a long-term walkthrough project. I thought it better to have it here. Also, I should think that beginners do read MDs for inspiration and to see how it's done, so this being where it is isn't doing beginners a disservice - but that's just my opinion.

Lowkee33: That is correct, however, you also need to create a region.ini file to go with it, and I thought it would be easier to explain region preparation through the method that I used. Thanks for the info though.

Devotion4Q6: I would be delighted. I plan to teach about CBDs and suburbs in this project. Marinas and historical areas will probably have to wait until the next project, however. But I'm quite happy to teach about anything you might be interested in.
Also, can I give you some advice now? Don't build motorways through the CBD - it's not very realistic and, like you said, it's really hard.

Jmouse: Well, you have to do the boring stuff before you can do the fun stuff. I assure you you'll get a lot out of this terraforming lesson.

malibu_man: I will. Thanks for the kind words.

Now then, terraforming.

Lesson 3 - Terraforming

The truth is simple - flat city tiles are fine if you want to create a huge concrete jungle, but when one is trying to create a realistic city, a flat city tile becomes boring and unrealistic. How many areas do you know of that are paper flat? I bet it's not a lot.

Therefore we must terraform our region to give it a realistic appearance. It is very hard to do this realistically and create good results, but it can be done quite simply. Let us start with hills.
The key thing with hills is to not make them too tall. Let me show how I created my hills for this region:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fhillcreation.jpg&hash=0e7e18829e10ee64a24684c177f0a88aab59bf75)

This was done in Zoom 1, using the Hill tool with a large brush (accessed with the SHIFT key). You should only give it a couple of quick taps on the left mouse button to make this kind of hill. Any more and it will be too tall, any less and you won't see it.

To create realistic hills, you need to link them in a 'rolling hills' style, each hill linked to the next. You do this by placing additional hills so that they overlap existing hills, like so:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fadditionalhills.jpg&hash=5120ba1c9c841c65fe4eca370884226136daac73)

Notice the gap in the middle. If I zoom in on that gap, you can see the kind of slope between hills that you're looking for:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Flinkinghills.jpg&hash=da569cbb2379a124ba6ae2e565bc682e232379e5)

Notice how the slopes are really gentle. This is perfect for us. The hills are linked, not too tall, and flow in a really nice way.
Also, notice how I'm using the grid. It's really worth having the grid on whilst making slopes, because slopes are quite hard to see without the gridlines, but become very obvious when you turn the grid on. It really helps you to see if your slopes are of the right steepness.

This image is of a slope and shows you just how gentle they need to be:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fidealslope.jpg&hash=43392b67b440395c9829cdda11cfa74d739c89ca)

For realism, the whole tile should be covered in hills, as they don't just stop when they feel like it. The process is simple - just do what you did for the first 2 hills:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Frollinghills.jpg&hash=6c96572891b493345e7fd5aff4e91cc2dbf3b743)

Fantastic. Now, our plan calls for a river, so we need to make one. Go into Zoom 5 and select the Shallow Valley tool. Click on the edge of your city tile and hold down the cursor until you get a small layer of water like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcreatingwater.jpg&hash=57423b29d6fe519366573b563112aa933499523c)

The key here is not to make the river too wide. It should only be about 2 tiles wide, maximum 3. And it shouldn't be too deep either.
Drag the river through the city tile, going around hills and not through them, and you'll eventually get this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ffullriver.jpg&hash=cf8f0b679470d773cdd1cc8b36c12b8643341f5b)

That's fine, apart from the cliffs which border the river. We're now going to soften these out so that there's a nice transition to the river. Do this in Zoom 5, using the Soften tool, and hold it down until you get rid of the cliffs:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsofteningriverbanks.jpg&hash=a63298a524218ed8a0705b8a0667a53a10ad6bba)

Then it's just a case of keeping that process going down the length of the river:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fimprovedriver.jpg&hash=2b42151aa4a0d531cf33e82554fe278a69bee02b)

This is now better, but look at those transitions! Again in Zoom 5, use the Soften and Plains tools to sort these out. Don't stop until you get that nice, gentle slope we saw earlier:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsofteningapproach.jpg&hash=83d7339dd71e6ec8a61ecc7996de69d15544578d)

Again, use the grid as a guide:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fflatterriverside.jpg&hash=3ee07570b99b77444d9eafe8a39b8626a567779e)

Keep going, and eventually you'll get this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsoftenedriver.jpg&hash=889898cc006f380c5a065055d1e1995e2fa0c1b1)

Now we've got the transitions we want, but part of the river's gone.
Dealing with this is simple. Turn the grid on to find the trough through which the river needs to run, and drag the Canyon tool in Zoom 5 through that:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Frestoringtheriver.jpg&hash=091ab5ee86b61d0594a866ee66271eb2691073f5)

You may need to soften the slopes again afterwards - use the same techniques as before. Take your time with this, and don't stop until you're happy with the result:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedriver.jpg&hash=fc8df2848c9492b2ef020ee6905cc76025c6f2a9)

Now, before we move on to trees, let's get that rolling hill effect really visible by creating shallow valleys in between the hills. The Shallow Valley tool in Zoom 1 is perfect for this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fvalleys.jpg&hash=e4b3687fc53c8473cb3c6378e3658a9bd2bb4edb)

Again, don't hold on too long, or you'll have another river.

To finish the region off, and give it a bit of life, trees need to be added. You need to be careful, however, about where you put them, or they will spoil the look of your landscape.
The first rule of trees is that they should NOT be placed on slopes. They are big, tall things, and on a slope, gravity is going to get the better of them sooner or later. So they should either be on the tops of hills, where they're protected from flooding and landslides (there is a higher risk of lightning strike but it's still really unlikely):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ftreesonhills.jpg&hash=cade989e4def18eb648e1deca249d7bcffd29222)

Or placed at the bottom of hills, where they're protected from the brutal conditions that the hilltops experience:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ftreesinvalleys.jpg&hash=a2a8b0b0b69c097362cb265f89211cc05dbc5110)

(Again, there is landslide risk here, but it's unlikely.)

At the riverbank, however, you really need to go to town on the trees. A riverbank provides the ideal habitat for trees, so they will exploit that to its full potential. You need to represent this by creating a really dense cluster of trees throughout your riverbank, like so:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ftreesnearwater.jpg&hash=e23db32aee65ce3d3c1f9aa5711e8dd3f8cb3b9c)

These 3 pictures have also shown another rule of tree placement: they should ALWAYS be in clusters. You never see a single, solitary tree standing all on its own in the landscape. They're always together in a thriving ecosystem.

And that's it. By considering all of these things, you should be able to create a really realistic and aesthetic landscape. Here's the result I got after all that hard work:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ffinishedterraforming.jpg&hash=6a121c19adc34d7080ce7dfae85d69bec29ef260)

That is fantastic. That's the effect you're aiming for.
It's really important that you spend a lot of time and put a lot of effort into your terraforming to get realistic results. As a guide to how long you should spend terraforming, this tile took me about 5 or 6 hours to terraform. You should be spending more time than this, and you shouldn't stop until you're absolutely satisfied with what you've done.

I will leave it at that.

Now we're ready to start the fun bit - actually building the city. We will start with the transport infrastructure, which we will do over 3 lessons as it's quite complicated. The first of these will look at motorways.

I hope you found this useful.

Chris

Nice tutorial, Chris! Although I have a few points to mention.
- You can also use the SC4Terraformer to create landscapes. This is more practical to make a landscape for a whole region, rather than a single city tile. However I used some of these points when creating my latest region Schellingen-Stadt; the landscape is not completely flat, but is hilly and has a few rivers meandering through the region. However I also used the erosion tool for realism (to make my region look 'older') and I also have the rule to place large hills and mountains away from the water.
- Trees actually CAN be placed on slopes, even in RL (Luxemburg and Germany are quite hilly and have forrests on these hills), at least on low-angeled slopes. If a slope is steeper than let's say 20 degees, you shouldn't place trees on it, but for the rest you can place trees if you want to.

Great work on the tut.  Very similiar to how I terraform.
Robin  :thumbsup:

Quote from: smileymk on December 08, 2010, 02:48:52 AM
Lesson 3 - Terraforming

The truth is simple - flat city tiles are fine if you want to create a huge concrete jungle, but when one is trying to create a realistic city, a flat city tile becomes boring and unrealistic. How many areas do you know of that are paper flat? I bet it's not a lot.

Hi Chris,
This really is a very ambituous task, you took on your shoulders. I'll hope it will work out, because the idea is great. I'll follow tou closely, always being eager to learn something new.

And about the quote: obviously you've never been to the western or northern part of the Netherlands.
Although we do have differences in heighth these are so small, on the scale of SC4 they are not visible. One of the problems I face when I try to make a region that resembles my own country.

Great work on the terraforming update. I have to say that I like the SC4 terreaformer myself too but you did a great job using the game controls. Great tutorial with simple tips to make a nice looking terrain.  :thumbsup:  &apls

Great terraforming tutorial, that approach will lead to a very interesting looking city!

The only difference in my approach for Adara is I use the SC4 Terraformer to do the initial work across city borders to save me the headache of using the reconcile edges tool!  Looking forward to the next update!

considering you are not using a tree controller, your flora placement is exquisite. that is no understatement, best hand tree placement using maxis trees only i have ever seen.

You've hacked into my computer and sneaked a peek at my new region, haven't you? :D How else could you know this is exactly the effect I've been trying to achieve?

It took a bit of experimenting to discover which strength worked best for me when using the hill tool, but I finally narrowed it down to 6 (Shift+F6). Some players are likely to have a heavier or lighter hand than others, so the strength of the terrain tool is definitely a factor in the overall success - or failure - of this terraforming method. I haven't had a chance to experiment with a smileymk river yet, but I'll get around to it sooner or later.

Transportation infrastructure is another weak spot for me as is just about every other aspect of the game. I'm looking forward to seeing how you deal with motorways, but while I wait, I think I'll go and create some more hills! :)

Joan

Great terraforming tutorial :thumbsup: Although by looking at your sceenshots, I noticed my hills were way too steep, so I guess I'll just start from square one again. But anyway, thanks for the clear and simple explanation


Xander

Fantastic tutorial, great work!!!  :thumbsup:

I have spoken with Chris and he has agreed to let us post one or two photos of the results we got by following his instructions. I was especially interested in this particular lesson because I've never been able to create gently rolling hills successfully. I still need a lot of practice, but for a first try, I can see a little bit of improvement. So here goes...

Before:

After:

OK everybody, fire away... :)
Joan

That's a nice and tricky tutorial there Chris, I'll try it out too !

Take care,
-Arthur. :thumbsup:

Many thanks for the great reception to the terraforming lesson.

Important Announcement

As Jmouse has said, yesterday (Saturday) he asked me if I'd like to give you guys the chance to post a couple of your own shots, so that I could help you improve them.
I very quickly accepted this invitation, and I see that Joan has already taken up the opportunity.

That opportunity is open to you all - if you need guidance on anything, or want me to give a fair, honest review of your progress, feel free to stick in a couple of pics. I promise I will give you a fair, honest judgement - what I like about it, and what needs improving.

This is a great chance for you guys to improve your game, so make sure you take it.

I now have all those nice comments to reply to:

mrtnrln: I wanted to teach people how to use the in-game tools to great effect. Those points you made about the trees are good ones, and I'll bear that in mind for the future projects.

rooker1: Cheers. I'm obviously doing it properly then!

FrankU: Well, no, I haven't been to Holland. If you want to make small hills, I'd suggest to make them anyway - you will know that they're there, and you'll be happier with your region for it. As for this, it'll work out. I know it will.

malibu_man: Thanks - it just goes to show that it is possible to get good results with the in-game tools (but using SC4TF is fine too.)

Battlecat: That was the idea - but I'm glad you liked it, and that you're finding this helpful.

mightygoose: I'm slightly taken aback by that, but in a good way. I can only say thanks.

Jmouse: (Comment 1) Lucky guess. Good to see you're experimenting - that's a really good way to learn how to do things, and to discover new tricks.
(Comment 2) Your region has certainly improved - well done for that. However, there are still a couple of misalignments at city boundaries here and there, and in places your hills stop for the city boundaries. If they flow between tiles, the effect will be much more realistic. Apart from those minor niggles, though, good job.

WC_EEND: Remember, little clicks give you so much more. I'm glad you're finding it easy to follow.

Tomas Neto: Thanks.

art128: Go for it!

And now it's time for the motorway lesson.

Lesson 4 - Motorways

Before you begin, make sure you have these mods. You really can't build realistic motorways without them:

NAM (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=851)
RHW (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=853)
Ennedi Slope Mod (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1512)
Hole Digger Lots (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1544)

To build your first section of motorway, go to the RHW Starter Pieces menu (under Highways) and plop a starter piece of your choosing. I selected the RHW-6C for the main motorway, as most UK motorways are like that - 3 lanes in each direction, with a hard shoulder:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fstartingoff.jpg&hash=26ec03a0ad75e027b3b91194f7875d35877bb92a)

Wider motorways should only be used in congested areas, and 2-lane routes (in each direction) can be built to represent motorway-standard routes that don't have the legal designation.

Now that we've built a starter piece, we can drag out the motorway from it:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fextendingthemotorway.jpg&hash=325a8509f8b1ab5fac2fc2c4d604b0ef0887123c)

I've curved it and added roads at the side, because the fork for the spur motorway is going to go here. The curve on the mainline follows the plan and gives me a way to build a bridge for the spur. There aren't any smooth curve pieces for the RHW-6C, so this'll have to do.

Now to build that bridge, you need to create 15m-high abutments for it. You do this with the hole digger lots. Find the 15m Up lot, and place two of them parallel to the motorway, with some sort of gap in between, like so:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fholediggerplacement.jpg&hash=e1086341d307fe48c3f9748f4b22977c58bae615)

Now drag roads through the hole diggers to create the abutments:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fbridgeabutments.jpg&hash=9827d098f36cbfdfb732155c8821e652618ad6b4)

Place single road tiles in the centre of each abutment and place additional ones going away from the motorway to extend them, as shown above.

Then delete them and build your bridge. Do this by placing RHW-4 on-slope pieces at the abutments, so that the middle tile of the piece is on the slope of the abutment facing the motorway.

Make sure you get your "To ELEVATED" and "To GROUND" pieces the right way round - to do this, determine whether you have LHD or RHD (i.e. which side of the road your cars drive on), and use that to determine the direction your cars will take over the bridge. Place the "To ELEVATED" piece where they'll get on the bridge, and "To GROUND" where they get off. Use the arrows provided to help you.

Then drag RHW between the on-slope pieces to complete the bridge:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fspurbridge.jpg&hash=6a5de7038ca51192b67ff69fc524dcb3d341f446)

Now on the south side, place a MIS - RHW-4 transition, as this is going to the main motorway and there aren't any ramps for RHW-6C that have RHW-4 branching off, so you need to rely on MIS. Place a RHW-6C - MIS ramp at the appropriate place on the main motorway, and then try to find a route, as straight as possible, connecting the transition to the ramp:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fnorthboundramp.jpg&hash=3e99101ba72c81cf5f5d742fae0ac0c7ddd79ec6)

This is not easy with a slope mod, and the setup isn't ideal, but it was the best I could get. Try to use smooth curves when possible, and keep the route straight.

Now we can build the other ramp for the other carriageway. This is much easier as we don't have to build a bridge. First, we have to get the ground ready so that we won't have any difficulties building the spur - just run a road alongside the carriageway:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpreparingsouthboundramp.jpg&hash=875c8ee275c55407f2c73540fc6a033b397be904)

Just place an A-type ramp before the main motorway curve, place that MIS - RHW-4 transition to make the spur carriageway 2 lanes, and drag the RHW-4 out:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsouthboundramp.jpg&hash=59add98ada433536a7389a261b51987a20d32074)

Now extend the abutment north of the bridge so that there's enough space for a curve to meet the other carriageway. Drag the curve out first, and then place the RHW-4 Outer Curve piece to make a nice smooth curve:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsmoothcurves.jpg&hash=e2f5f16d7a680a785fd46ecdaeb2179ab8ea14bf)

The RHW can then be dragged out without reversion to RHW-2.
Where the carriageway meets, use the RHW-4 Inner Curve piece to bring the carriageways parallel to each other (drag the curve out first though!)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcarriagewaysplit.jpg&hash=60c7b170c5e830cfbe9d146c9a91dc7b781d99db)

A bit further along, we can bring them together for a straight run to the north to the CBD. Use both curve pieces to do this, and place them so that the 2 carriageways are next to each other:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcarriagewayjoin.jpg&hash=df209a173fdbfb888da7ce371e8eb8b6923b5762)

Now we can drag the RHW up to the city centre, where it will end at a flat roundabout.
Place the Avenue Roundabout in line with the motorway spur (i.e. so that the central 2 tiles align with the RHW), and then drag a 1-tile stub of Avenue towards the RHW from the roundabout:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fflatroundabout.jpg&hash=fe78fc2e92a39ce9df3bed20482e6e06c4faddc2)

Then drag the RHW into the Avenue, and you'll get a nice smooth transition from the RHW into the roundabout:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Frhw-roundaboutsmoothtransition.jpg&hash=d6982f17bd357a4d8ab8e955a1dfa92173c80bc0)

The spur is now complete. Now it's time to return to the main motorway. Drag it out in accordance with the plan. Don't worry about it going up hills - this is not unrealistic, and your slope mod will ensure they're not too steep.
Run it to the other end of the city:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletingthecarriageway.jpg&hash=309fcff4da3ac830ca8490ff78f5951ee043b8ae)

Now that that's done, it's time to build the roundabout interchange in the north west, that will be a major route into Faulkner's Bridge.
Demolish a 6-tile stretch of motorway and flatten the ground by placing single road tiles, like so:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpreparingtheground.jpg&hash=9ea589991eb5d077fe7b8db1bc0037746f457ced)

Go 2 tiles either side of the motorway, so we can place the hole digger lots to get a perfect 15m high abutment. Once done, demolish the outer 2 columns of road tiles on each side, and place your hole digger lots parallel to the motorway, like we did for the fork. Drag road through to create the abutments:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcreatingabutments.jpg&hash=11a87c98952211587497ce7303c0c4049c3f0bc9)

Now demolish all the road tiles and hole diggers, and place single road tiles on the abutments to extend them. For a roundabout interchange, you need to place them in this exact arrangement:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ftilearrangementforroundaboutint.jpg&hash=6ec6fb928533701022a9e58d1b6c784442ab8f15)

As I've done, feel free to restore the RHW at this point.

On the first row of each abutment, one tile in from the edge, place one-way T on-slope pieces to create stubs for the bridge. As with the RHW, make sure you get the ON and OFF pieces the right way round. For LHD, which I'm using, the ON pieces need to be in the north-west and south-east corners, and the OFF pieces in the other 2. For RHD, this is reversed.
Again, use the provided arrows to help you, and think about the direction your cars will travel in:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fonslopepieces.jpg&hash=c12f9879b144b6d816924eb0889b134f90cbe0b0)

Notice how I've dragged one-way roads between the stubs. This is so when we delete them, we don't delete the puzzle pieces as well, and we can build curves straight from the pieces.

Now build the bridges, using the One-Way Road over RHW-6C piece (don't worry about orientation), delete the roads between the bridges, and drag one-way road in the correct direction (clockwise for LHD, the other way for RHD), around the edge of the abutments:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletingtheroundabout.jpg&hash=4a096f80f3633bdc2abb9f17fb8c6cc0e81d5988)

Drag the surface road stubs out at the edges, as shown (using one-way roads). Notice how it's all smooth, with no traffic lights in sight.
Now you can build your ramps. Use the A-type ramps and drag MIS towards the one-way stubs parallel to the RHW, leaving space for a nice smooth S-curve to bring the MIS into line:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Froundaboutramps.jpg&hash=b1d07120121b66540b189f8b1d8eff7926e5f650)

Pay attention to how I've used the RHW-4 - MIS transition on the exit slip roads to make them 2 lanes wide. This is a good way of making your interchange more realistic and sophisticated, as it increases the capacity of the interchange, as it creates different lanes for different movements. This advantage is not present for the entry slips, so they can just be ordinary MIS.

Finally, drag avenue from your side stubs to complete the interchange:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedroundaboutinterchange.jpg&hash=39f629d018d22a39164f345a9aa25bcedb3c0be6)

And we're completely finished building our motorways! Let's have a look at the network:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedmotorwaysystem.jpg&hash=38f943df2561df3504961e0b68f8463c41d392ac)

Looks good. And that wraps up the lesson.

Next up is the roads, appropriately.

Any questions then feel free to ask,

Chris.

Nice highway layout. Looking forward to seeing how you'll deal with the roads.
BTW... looks like there's a small problem with one of your 90 degrees MIS corners ;)

my only concern is that your primary highway (RHW6C) seems to follow a predetermined route that has not taken into account the local terrain. although slope mod safe, the incline immediately after the left turn past the fork is very steep for such a substantial arterial. perhaps continuing diagonally up the length of the valley may offer smoother slopes?

Very nice update!!! Great tutorial on RHW and interchanges, I like the roundabout and will be using that after a nice lesson. I agree with mightygoose on the 6C after the spur, I feel it would also help with pointyness of the curves a little. Keep up the great work, cant wait for the next update!!!

QuoteFirstly, a note about the title. It's a good and proper rip-off of the popular British book series '(Subject) for Dummies', which is a bestselling series of 'idiot's guides' to a wide range of subjects, from iPods to carpentry (I just plucked the 2nd one out of thin air but you get the idea), which are written for someone who knows little, if anything, about that subject, but are also used by people who do know what they're doing for use as and when necessary.

Except...
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi56.tinypic.com%2F2sbplk2_th.jpg&hash=0c6007528613d34e2a8718d435c6fa40c0a57a72)
Enlarged image: http://i56.tinypic.com/2sbplk2.jpg

Good update!

Jumping the gun somewhat, I take it that in the vicinity of either the spur or the roundabout interchange, you will lay out a few retail and business parks? They seem to like motorway junctions for the convenience of being next to a high speed route.

Please don't be disheartened, but I have just two points of note...

1: It may be an idea to plant up the free flowing spur junction; the UK system likes trees and bushes as long as they don't conflict with sight-lines on the curves.

2: Going on from what Mightygoose said, It may be more realistic if the motorway is in a cutting on the hill section? They rarely stay at ground level. Take a look at the M62 or parts of the M1.

Very good work thus far, look forward to more.

Looks like an interresting update. I'll give further comment later, since my computer refuses to load any picture on this page  :angrymore:

EDIT: Well I can see them now. Here are some points of critic:
- You're starting with a RHW-6C. I know this is common in the UK, but in "continental" Europe and the US a four-lane motorway (two lanes in each direction) is more common. Even in the Netherlands, one of the densest populated countries in the world.
- You missed something: you haven't placed a neighbour connector piece at the neighbour connection of your motorway, making the connections useless.
- I always use accelleration and deccelleration lanes at my ramps. Therefore I use more C- and D-style ramps, rather than A- or B-style Ramps. At these lanes, drivers can accelerate and merge with the traffic on the motorway more fluently, and this is particulary usefull when the motorway is busy with traffic. Decelleration lanes are also helping controlling the traffic flow. With your setup of the fork/Y-interchange, the congestion problems at the southbound will be significant: 5 lanes are merging to just three lanes in a quite short distance. I see congestion to occur very quickly.
- I would use FLEXFly for the fork interchange southbound ramp in a situation with RHW-6C. Personally I would use for this interchange RHW-8 Splitters and let a ERHW-4 pass over a diagonal RHW-4.
- If I was building a motorway here I would stay in the valley at the south side of your city tile.
- The roundabout interchange is nice. I believe you use asterconn's method for that one?

Best,
Maarten

Useful topic. I never knew about the show grid option in Paint. :)

Nice one. RHW is one of those task that old oldfashioned donkey of me hasn't mastered - maybe because never really tried.

One think I need to criticize though: before I start laying out highways and main roads I layout the railway network. Historically older and more sensitive to slopes it'll create some fix points for highways and roads, not the other way round.

Other than that_ like it!

Take care!

Bernhard  :thumbsup:

heh bernhard I think you lay out the railway networks first cuz thats what you enjoy doing, and your damn good at it :P I tend to lay out highways first as well

Interesting reaction. People have spotted things that I clearly didn't! Your suggestions have been helpful, and I thank you for those.

io_bg: What you've spotted is a texture glitch - very annoying, I know. There's not much I can do about it, so we're just going to have to put up with it.

mightygoose: Very well spotted. After some consideration, I've decided to take that advice and reroute the motorway along the edge of the valley. You'll see it below.

malibu_man: Understood, and I'm glad you like it.

j-dub: Lol. Nice try, but it doesn't fool me. Still funny though.

wallasey: 1) I totally agree, but that is for another lesson.
2) Rerouting the motorway through the valley has lead to the route being in a cutting/embankment as it climbs the hill. I think you'll like it.

mrtnrln: 1) My response to that would be to pick the style that's right for you. For me, RHW-6C is ideal, but for you it might be RHW-4 that is preferable. It's your city, do it your way.
2) It's a single-tile region, so the neighbour connectors don't go anywhere anyway, and you do not need neighbour connectors for RHW-6C or 8-C (it says this on the tooltip for neighbour connector pieces).
3) Maybe that is the setup in Holland, but here, accel/decel lanes are only used for important junctions (i.e. between motorways and other motorways/important through routes), so to use them always is, for me, unrealistic. But the spur is fairly important, so I did add another lane to the main motorway south of the fork.
4) I think it's more realistic if the 3 lanes of the main motorway continue right throughout the junction. FLEXFly would probably worsen the junction, as it has to swing to the right then back to the left to go on its journey, which is not appropriate for a motorway. It would also lessen capacity, causing congestion.
5) As I've said, I did reroute it.
6) Spot on. His YouTube tutorials are excellent.

WillG_75: You do now.

Nardo69: Roads did exist before railways (look at the Romans), although not as we know them today. There will be a lesson on railways, and this will teach to adjust the road setup to suit the railway.

travismking: That might be his style of play - if it works for him then great. If your method works for you, then that's also great.

Before we begin the lesson, let me show you that improved motorway:

Accel/decel lanes added to the fork:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fimprovedfork.jpg&hash=03297067ebdc0327bd36e0cd06f65042f17d13a1)

Rerouted through that valley:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Freroutedmotorway.jpg&hash=7060ff9906c8a3c8e062b9b63191ae96e9d800bf)

This illustrates an important point - be prepared to change your plan if, with hindsight, it turns out that there is a better alternative.

Now let's get on with the lesson, shall we?

Lesson 5 - Roads

Roads. They form an important backbone to your city, and it's easier to build them now than to squeeze them in later.
This lesson focuses on the main roads thorough the city. Later lessons will address the streets.

Our motorway has given us a couple of starting points to choose from. We will start from the roundabout interchange, where avenues branch off on either side. The plan calls for a roundabout to the east to serve the ring road. All you do for this is plop the roundabout in line with the existing avenue and drag out from the corners the other routes, like so:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fringroadmotorwayend.jpg&hash=5a190312a3bde40e6ba85c28c60b188e0bf6cd92)

The plan states that the avenue to the roundabout runs through the city, passing through the roundabout with the spur motorway. So we just drag a route through - but we soon hit a problem:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsteepslope.jpg&hash=fd5c45aa5a26c2d3bb3817dda9d0c3eebe27f5eb)

The slopes are too steep, even for an avenue. So we can't go straight through the valley. We have to pick an alternative route through that is more slope-friendly:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ffindingaroute.jpg&hash=c2f25ed0a88d9d08d52be75a5b4634c5eff5be18)

Note the shallower slopes, and also the smooth curves. This is a fairly fast road, and the curves need to reflect that. They also improve the look of your main roads.
On the other side of the motorway, the avenue needs to cross the river. Find a spot to drag it over, and drag it over the river to create a bridge:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Favenuebridges.jpg&hash=21d1980f56980bb258d7fe06598767b6f28b5710)

Pay attention to the type of bridge we're using. For short spans like this, the plain road bridge will do just fine. Taller bridges could be done through arch designs, whilst your suspension bridges are strictly only for long spans.

At the other end of the avenue, it runs into the ring road and continues on afterwards as an ordinary road. This junction can be created simply with the avenue roundabout. Start off by levelling the ground using single road tiles:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Flevellingforroundabout.jpg&hash=e577a5085537e4f9f8ed05460bbe1c9bc953e0fe)

Delete the tiles and then you can just plop the roundabout and drag out the roads like so:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Feasternroundabout.jpg&hash=88bf8b7836dce121c3442fb24eeb43c7da291df8)

You can now build the northern half of the ring road, creating a route that runs in accordance with the plan, is suited to the terrain as best as is practical, and uses smooth curves for a better appearance and the stubs at either end as a guide:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fringroadnorth.jpg&hash=9e0e8c6add31040b9500dae78cdae5555d55debb)

Notice that plain bridge again! It's important.

Now I've decided that the eastern half of the central avenue should be a MAVE-4. This improves the realism of the central avenue, as they will often have to be squeezed in in an urban environment and MAVE-4 can help with that. It also provides a bit of variation and sophistication to improve the standard of your city.

To build a MAVE-4, you need to download the Network Widening Mod (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2376), if you haven't got it already.
Start by building a transition from avenue. You'll need to demolish some of the avenue for this, as the MAVE-4 uses road as its medium for dragging:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ftransitiontomave-4.jpg&hash=1ebf3e80b9e5cb1740778046590cc85c62c4f533)

Build one at the other end, demolish the avenue in between, and drag out the MAVE between the transitions using road:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedmave-4.jpg&hash=2eb8b8c2e459e3b24f22578f0298a7fab835bfaa)

Our MAVE-4 is finished, but at the western end of it, it needs to intersect with a TLA-3 (also in the NWM) and another little road leading to the TLA-3 to the south which provides an easier access route to the westbound avenue.
It is more realistic, and more sophisticated, to build turn lanes at these junctions. To do this our MAVE-4 needs to become a TLA-5. Transitions to the rescue!
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fnwmcrossingpreparation.jpg&hash=a6aceee51af23c337eb23fcb042efdcb92c49f39)

That road is that little access road. The TLA-3 can be created by using a starter piece, and dragging out. Drag the access road to meet it to the south. Don't forget those smooth curves! You should end up with something like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fbuiltnwmjunction.jpg&hash=44952ead0dbc065db9def47beb21d1ba0b3763f8)

To create the turn lanes, you use TuLEP pieces (available in the Roads menu). The setup for the T-junction with the access road is shown below:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ftuleptjunction.jpg&hash=ea9f005c49da5db93748bc68a41741d05f2adf66)

The crossing with the TLA-3 is exactly the same, but with two important distinctions:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ftulepcrossroads.jpg&hash=03a029ed50b11d21ccf39cf6b5240c2c1789c756)

And they're now done. And don't they look better than ordinary junctions?
We can now complete the TLA-3 by dragging it out like the avenues. When it reaches the boundaries of the town, however, we need to convert it to ordinary road.
At the southern end of town, the road crosses the river and runs into a roundabout where the ring road ends. Drag out the bridge, then place a Road - TLA-3 Transition at the northern end:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fendingtla-3.jpg&hash=98c585a8fcc97df2b910972b72a1e86ef2d64636)

At the northern end of town, the TLA-3 will end when it crosses the ring road. We can convert to ordinary road through the junction by means of a simple TuLEP setup:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fendingtla-3atjunction.jpg&hash=456ef63c96ff53876cdcee637b6cafd9e5346a74)

It's that piece at the top that works the magic, and that is the Road TuLEP Type A - Base Network Transtion (Non-T).

South of the bridge where the TLA-3 ends, we can now end the ring road at the ordinary road by means of a roundabout. This is very simple - create a 2x2 circle of road, and drag one-way roads in the correct left-hand or right-hand setup at the eastern edge. Then drag out roads as needed and avenue from the one-way stubs:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fendingtheringroad.jpg&hash=61472332c45802478475d1a53774d54c9c49ecb6)

We can now complete the ring road with avenue. It's just like the northern half - drag it out and use smooth curves when you can:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletingtheringroad.jpg&hash=70b29e7a94f2ad93520ca5311a04124856937da4)

To the south of the ring road, another roundabout is needed for another route that will provide the southern fringe of the town.
The one-way roundabout is better for this, as we can get the terminating road to be in the middle of the roundabout.
Drag a 3x3 circle of one-way road (and you MUST do it in the right direction, depending on the driving rules of your game!), plop a street tile in the centre, and drag roads out:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fedgeoftownroundabout.jpg&hash=7acf63de22059135944ab4659527caca381fa10f)

We can now drag the vertical route to the edge of the tile, to go off to some other town.
As for the horizontal route, however, this needs to form the town's southern boundary, so drag it out as stated on your plan (as for all other roads) - and stop when you hit the spur motorway.
We need to cross it, and we can't just build an at-grade junction because this is a motorway. We also can't build a diagonal flyover (as was originally intended) because there isn't a diagonal on-slope piece for road. So we have to use FLUP pieces.
You need to first level the ground for this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fgroundpreparationforflup.jpg&hash=b53279cda162918eef364ed9e2c2bf8c152f710e)

Then delete the single tiles and build the FLUP. You only need two pieces: the Road - FLUP transition at the edges, and FLUP under RHW-4 in the middle:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fflup.jpg&hash=2bd40fc840c7891e9e708393341ad858a3faafd6)

You can then drag a road out from that, as we will now do.
At the western end, this southern road meets another road. As this is at the edge of town, a roundabout is more appropriate and better-looking:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fwesternroundabout.jpg&hash=d8bb6d472179d6020178f31767566596e6e78e0e)

It's the same as the other one-way roundabout we built.

This new road ends at the north at the central avenue. Ideally, we'd use TuLEPs to make this junction better, but the roads are both diagonal, so we don't have the resources to do it.
What we can do, however, is use ordinary one-way roads as slip lanes by dragging them out:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fdiagonaljunction.jpg&hash=d2a413583859b6719c211adb6ae20f2c0543113a)

At the other end of the road, it needs to cross the main motorway - just cross it, mind, not intersect with it. Both roads are straight at this point, so a flyover for the road would be perfect.

First task is, yes, you guessed it, preparing the ground. My game wasn't having single road tiles here, so I had to make do with the parallel roads method:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fgroundpreparationforflyover.jpg&hash=b214cbcaa0fbcee6ebd6468b46a78b5ba0e76c76)

To create the abutments for the flyover, it's just like the bridge for the fork interchange - use parallel hole digger lots and use single road tiles to extend the abutments (or to get them in the right shape). The abutments need to be like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fflyoverabutments.jpg&hash=6cf7057c6c1abce197c6528fd770f0da3223f028)

Notice the single tiles made to make the abutments just one tile wide.

Now we can delete the tiles and build our flyover. At the edges, it's the Straight Road on Slope piece you need (such that the central tile is on the first tile of the abutment and the elevated bit points to the motorway), and in the middle, it's Road over RHW-6C:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedflyover.jpg&hash=bcd8123802946cde9d0094d95ae512ae7262e47f)

Look at that! Now it's just a case of dragging out the roads.

And that's all you need to know. Build the rest of your main roads, going with your plan, using the techniques we've covered today.
Once you're done, you'll have a sophisticated road system. This is the one for Faulkner's Bridge:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedroadsystem.jpg&hash=f89a723f1e7335f93deef75ca66f3c9145b17ad8)

And that, guys, is the end of the lesson.

Next thing on the agenda is the last of the transport lessons - the lesson on railways.

Bye for now,
Chris

Well, that's a good road layout tutorial! Although I would use AVE-2 and AVE-4 instead of TLA-3 or TLA-5, but the basics are the same.

About the rebuild of the motorway:

Quote from: smileymk
This illustrates an important point - be prepared to change your plan if, with hindsight, it turns out that there is a better alternative.

This often applies to my freeway networks in Imaginia. I rebuild interchanges every now and then to make them look more realistic, mostly because of the new features of a new RHW version. For instance, the A40 in Guilliano was initally build as a 2x3 motorway between Sebeshaber and Guilliano south, a 4x2 motorway between Guilliano South and Guilliano CBD and 2x2 from Guilliano CBD to the all the way to the city border. Now I've lengthen the 4x2 section to IC (interchange) Tagone (where the A4 crosses the A40). Also in the same city tile, I've widened the 2x2 section of the A6 between IC Terra Majora and IC Foxshire to 2x3 (RHW-6C). This couldn't be done before RHW v4.0, since this section curves a little and I find the current RHW-6S and 8S diagonals ugly.

The last picture of the final road layout is very pleasing :thumbsup:

the northernmost avenue bridge east approach needs to be demolished and the east approach graded with single road tiles. then redraw the bridge to get a friendlier slope.

also your slopes are very steep for the future rail network, i eagerly look to see your solutions.

Hi Chris! I'm afraid I haven't been able to start the transport network tutorial yet, but I've saved it to do later. I'm so pleased to see the interest you've generated with "...Dummies," and the resulting exchange of ideas. This is shaping up to be a valuable reference, and I hope you continue the project. I'll be in and out as time permits, and I'll try to post at least semi-regularly!

Good work... :)
Joan

Looks pretty good, The new path for the RHW looks much better here.

Only thing is I would say there are too many bridges in the southern half of the tile to be realistic (at least from what I'm used to). The part I notice most is the avenue/road roundabout. I dont really think a planning commission would approve two bridges right next to each other when you can re-route the road to intersect the avenue on the same side of the river.

Looks pretty good. :)

With the railways: Your are right that a kind of roads existed before railways. And even a especially good one as the Roman street were used for more than 1000 years without without maintenance as no one had the knowledge to build really good roads over long distances in Europe between the end of the Roman Empire and Napoleon Bonaparte. (I stressed Europe because Maya / Inka etc. did build roads but with stairs as they didn't know the wheel).

HOWEVER these roads followed the local topography with some deviation to earn money by lending oxes at some (deliberately) steep slopes etc. These roads did not cut through the landscape like the modern traffic arteries that were developed and build in the 20th century (with Germany as a pioneer). These roads for fast car traffic are much younger than railways and thus their fix points were defined by railways and not vice versa. And these are the roads you showed us in the last update. ;) 
Usually when the railways were built in Europe and America even main roads were dirt roads designed for horse and ox cars, the better ones separated in a summer way (pure mud) and a plastered winter way. These roads lasted long - in the USA until Eisenhower's interstate highways, in Europe and especially in Germany modern roads started in the thirties.

So I still say FIRST railway THEN highways / roads as the railway network is older than the road traffic network.

(I might be known for my rural style and my love for railways but I am a civil engineer who learned traffic technology and (road) traffic infrastructrure during my university time)

Take care


Bernhard  :thumbsup:

Awesome update Chris!! Great lesson on laying out the main roadways.  &apls  Can't wait to see you plan out streets between all them roads, thats always the most interesting part. 

Its good, but I have to be honest by saying, I cant tell where your CBD is going to be! Your roads don't really lead to a central area if you get what I am saying. They just traverse the tile.

Obviously it depends on the type of place you are building but take places like Bradford, Huddersfield, Wolverhampton and Chester where the roads radiate out from the CBD, the latter example is dictated by the river which has historically flooded onto the plains to the Dee Estuary. 

Generally the rule of thumb is that in RL, the roads going into town generally head for either the Church/Cathedral/Priory, The Market Cross/Square, the principal crossing point of the river (look at Widnes or Liverpool for the Bridge-Tunnel-Ferry) and / or the Castle if the place is that old (like Carlisle)

I hate to be critical but I am hoping you or someone can see where I am coming from here?

Okay, dumb question: By changing the config you're making the region consist of one large city tile and not converting all the cities in the region to one huge region/city, correct?

Pardon me if this was asked/answered in another thread, but I couldn't find anything.

My cities are very far from realism :P . But still i can use some of your ideas :)

Hm... let's see how you solve the railway problem..... ;D

Nice one for beginners :thumbsup:

I'm in agreement with wallasey, mostly because I'm a fan of natural growth as opposed to putting down all of the infrastructure first. That would mean starting this map strictly with basic roads as opposed to the avenues and no RHW (if I'm playing an area that was built up before the highways came to town), then putting in various villages, and adding to everything over time by expanding the roadworks as needed to meet capacity demands.

It also would likely mean that the southern ring road (around the 9th-from-last image in the last update) wouldn't have a bridge, but instead follow the bank to reach that avenue -- bridges are expensive, after all, more so than cutting down trees. But that's just me. :) I've played this way before as well, and think this is a great guide for that. In every other way, I like what you've done here, from having a plan to follow, the landscaping, and using TuLEP/NWM, and look forward to the next updates! Bravo!

Quote from: Nardo69 on December 15, 2010, 04:39:57 AM
(I stressed Europe because Maya / Inka etc. did build roads but with stairs as they didn't know the wheel).

As far as I know they actually did know the wheel: they were used in toys. But not in adult people's life. My guess is: the use of the wheel requires good and plane roads. To make these in the high countries would have been an enormous job. So I guess the wheel was not practical to them.

Fascinating update, you're certainly putting good thought into your approach!  The resulting road network so far is very visually appealing!

A few debates and observations going on here, and I for one am happy for it. Keep those ideas coming!

mrtnrln: I guess you've got to stay on your toes. Again, nothing wrong with building to your own personal style.

mightygoose: It looks OK to me. Avenues can go up slopes, and I don't think the town planning committee would be too happy about spending a lot of money building a cutting to level out an avenue that isn't too steep anyway.

Jmouse: Cheers. I'll be waiting!

travismking: Fair point, but I think that the current setup is better for access between both sides of the river. Having a single road bridge would be a bottleneck, and would bring the ring road a little bit close to the centre!

Nardo69: You do it your way. If it works for you, then that's great. There's little point in me arguing with you.

malibu_man: I agree. I'd like to think that I'm quite good at that street-laying bit, so that should be a good lesson when it comes. Also, I do believe that that comment is the 50th reply... I won't go too crazy about it but that's a good milestone to reach in a very short space of time. Thanks to you all.

wallasey: Find that roundabout where the motorway spur ends, and it's between there and the river. I can see what you mean, and I think that there are a number of roads that hover around the CBD without quite reaching it - that is a feature of many towns.

Grneyes: That is correct. You can't, unfortunately, make one big city with the config - that's a limitation of SC4. What you can do, however, is use lots of tiles to make one big region, and build it as one big city - which we will do in the next project.

Terring7: From what I've seen of your work, it looks pretty good. If my ideas help though, that's great.

Skimbo: Cheers.

farrell1701: Welcome to SC4D! Hope you like it here. As for your point, well, I don't really follow all of that natural growth stuff (or any other fancy style for that matter), and I like to build cities as they are. Don't get me wrong, some great natural growth cities have been made, but I'm here to teach how to build a realistic city - nothing else.

FrankU: What exactly has that got to do with this MD? I know you meant well, and discussions and exchange of ideas are great, but they would be even greater if it stayed relevant to what we're doing.

Battlecat: Thanks. Glad you like it.

And now it's time for the lesson.

Lesson 6 - Railways

One thing you can't ignore in a realistic city is the railway. Fifty years ago, they formed the backbone of pretty much every country in the world, and even today, although the infrastructure has been greatly rationalised, they're still vital to the success of today's economy.
So you need to build a railway line for realism in any reasonably sized town.

A good starting point is the passenger station, so you can make sure that the railway is in the right place.

You need to choose the right station for the job. In this case, it needs to be 4 platforms, which are stationed on the edge of the lot so we can electrify the line through the station, the platforms need to be long enough to handle decent length trains, and it needs to look nice.

I won't recommend any particular station because it's down to personal choice. Go to the STEX or LEX and find some examples that you like.

Once you've chosen your station, you need to prepare the ground to place it using single road tiles.
Remember Rule No. 1 for railways: They MUST be flat. These main lines were built in the Victorian era, when even the slightest gradient would cause the train to come to a screeching halt:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fgroundpreparationforstation.jpg&hash=a82a5c97e114fa3615cc325902d2a51f1a77d469)

The column of tiles 2 tiles wide is where the railway will go. You can delete the tiles for the station, but don't delete the stubs in this column. You need these to keep the line flat.
Now you can place the station. I used the Perry Station (available on the STEX), but you can use any station you like:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fstationbuilding.jpg&hash=c53084c6827d5ed9ebe0af5bb3921fa621478d94)

Place it where it states on the plan - but it should be on the edge of the CBD, as when it was built, this would be on the edge of town.
But it's not enough to just build a station now. This station now forms an important part of the daily commute for many, so we need to provide ways for them to get there. That means parking and bus stops.

To make these look good, they should also be flat. You know what to do:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpreparingstationaccessories.jpg&hash=9c31d3b7748db7783d3f6165710f1284267f5e8a)

You can drag that road out to meet the avenue, providing a distinct route to the station for commuters.
Now place bus stops and parking facilities next to the station. It's a case of using your preferred tools for the job again:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fstationaccessories.jpg&hash=c4626447b41ad04bc074899e5cf5ce379bfb0d64)

Now we've got a proper station! The platforms could be longer, but tinkering with the lot is something for another project.

We can now extend the railway using the single road tiles until we hit obstacles (like roads), demolishing them, and building the railway where the tiles were:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fextendingtherailway.jpg&hash=09733b1ea1ab48b53264b19fe593b2ca7974f31c)

You can see now that we've hit a problem. It's not realistic to build a tunnel here to go under the road, and a freightyard is to be built immediately to the south of this road. But the road is too high to build a flyover directly, and the spur motorway is very close.

The solution here is to reroute the road such that it dives down to go over the railway on a flyover, then rising slightly to pass under a flyover on the motorway spur, before resurfacing on the other side.

First thing to do is to demolish the road and then extend the cutting through it:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsettinguproadbridge.jpg&hash=a53f9e626b4213ed157fc6a082ebde24088d3876)

Notice those two stubs on the sides, and the third column. The two stubs are for hole diggers, and the third column is the entrance for the freightyard - it's not uncommon to have bridges over complex pointwork, and having it where it is will put the freightyard closer to town.

Now you can raise those stubs with hole digger lots, and build the railway through:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Froadbridgeinfrastructure.jpg&hash=98cc74920bd7144e5163928b46ab78095781750b)

Notice how we've used that smooth point for the freightyard entrance. You shouldn't use curves where possible on railways, but when you have to, then it's vital that they are really, really gradual. Much more so than roads.

Now build the flyover and demolish the motorway to be elevated:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fbuildingtheroadbridge.jpg&hash=2f7284115b7404a1104dc27bab7abc49c674b599)

Now, using hole digger lots and single road tiles, prepare the ground for the flyover (you can drag your road to the east and between the 2 bridges now):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Frestoringtheroad.jpg&hash=327d96bc635dec3f38870f66ddaec8bf17a1e248)

Building the flyover itself is done in exactly the same way as the flyover at the fork interchange - use RHW-4 On Slope pieces (in the correct orientation) and drag between them:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedmotorwayflyover.jpg&hash=77235421549aba8ed93f7e4aa35bd32bc0d0f94e)

You can now finish off the road, and this little sticking point is now solved.

I mentioned the freightyard - we're going that way so we might as well build it now. First thing to do is, well, I've said it plenty of times so I shouldn't need to tell you again:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fgroundpreparationforfreightyardapproach.jpg&hash=f5007f2e923de0f0957dcec693c2d5fd40363ad3)

Now build the pointwork. The idea is to provide sidings, so that shunting can be carried out without getting in the way of freightyard operations. Strictly speaking, the middle roads should sprout from the outer road, but we only have the resources to do it like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpointworkforapproach.jpg&hash=c88a54daa658c7d036b6aee495670b3c4329e49f)

To be honest, this doesn't look too bad anyway.

Now we can build the freightyard, which needs to have rail access on the outer siding. Again, choose the lot that's right for you, and prepare the ground for the approach on the other side:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ffreightyard.jpg&hash=a0b2658812912e8f80c032c1e1088c6b62fc4175)

Notice that the street's there to provide access, and there's space in the freightyard for the lorries to turn around to get out. Another street was used to smooth out the cutting so that it doesn't look ugly.

Having done that, we can now build the approach on the other side. It's the same idea - prepare the ground, build the points, and drag the main lines to the edge of the city tile:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ffreightyardsouthernpointwork.jpg&hash=f68ca5ab58b2b9abc911bdd6e47405a114f44862)

The southern side is now done, so let's turn our attention to the railway north of the station.
Immediately there's another sticking point - the central avenue. There isn't the space or the height difference to build a flyover, so the only option is to reroute the avenue so that there is enough depth in the cutting for a flyover.

Start by demolishing the avenue and extending the railway through:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Favenuecrossingpreparation.jpg&hash=e7fdaeff279a92830fdff86c17df7427add9d352)

Then create the stubs with hole digger lots:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Favenueflyoverabutments.jpg&hash=da7b6e72ccb53bd20723f73cf15802389885dd64)

Then build the flyover (use the Straight Avenue on Slope piece), and drag the avenue to the roundabout:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Favenueflyover.jpg&hash=d0543519735c077979db2c89fdebce5a746af6b9)

Now we have to reroute the avenue to the bridge. You just need to drag a good route through. Unfortunately, we no longer have the space for smooth curves, but it is better to sacrifice smooth curves for the avenue than sacrifice the railway's straightness:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Freroutedavenue.jpg&hash=7be26e05aa50b2b3e1084beeebfeecd561b0194c)

Continuing the cutting on, we reach another problem - a parallel road:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fparallelobstructingroad.jpg&hash=81627ee74ae8aa9aad277d4dee2ff57b1cc9f9c3)

In this situation, surely it's not too much to move the road one tile to the left to create space for the cutting:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fobstructingroadsolution.jpg&hash=c16f5633aaeed6fdd65b48d10d4c6be35eca1a38)

The cutting's pretty deep now, and the terrain doesn't get any lower, so here it might be a good idea to build a tunnel from just south of the ring road to the edge of the city tile.
But we still need to make sure that the railway remains flat. To do this, we carry on the cutting, all the way to the edge:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcuttingfortunnel.jpg&hash=7a8520a53515ee3d3f7da80658b0877c493e49db)

Now this is the clever bit. Go to the north edge and drag a couple of tiles of rail to create the neighbour connection and stubs for the tunnel.
Then fill in the cutting using single road tiles:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ffillinginthecutting.jpg&hash=b9062882d8bfbffff9e561bdf7f47dd46569758d)

Continue this to the other end of the tunnel. Now you can just drag out the tunnel:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fbuildingrailtunnels.jpg&hash=f73757e2051b84fe30e842628b682745d72d972f)

The tunnel is now complete - but there is still a visible cutting in the landscape. We need to get rid of this. Drag roads through the cutting every two tiles to get rid of it and make the landscape look natural again:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Frestoringthelandscape.jpg&hash=24c61eec07ce4e118e70ff937e39f57a67a785fc)

Now don't forget to put that avenue back:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Frestoringtheavenue.jpg&hash=d905589d0b04178c0e59c84b42a18d92d0e434c7)

The railway is now complete, but as this is a high-speed main line, it makes sense to electrify it. Overhead catenary is the standard method of doing this, as it is better for high speed running than third rail. Overhead wires are also more widely used across the world.

You need to download the SFBT Rail Catenaries (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=925) first (these give you more flexibility and a better appearance than the Rail Catenary Mod, and I'd therefore recommend these).

In open country, the standard spacing between catenary pylons is 60m - or 4 tiles in SC4. You can use the 2-tile catenary lot for this - place one every 4 tiles:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fruralcatenary.jpg&hash=3badce517bb8cf83e734492fe1be7aed9e2307eb)

At pointwork, you need to provide enough catenary as appropriate to service all of your lines. If that means reducing the spacing between pylons, so be it:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpointworkcatenary.jpg&hash=ffaedb0e20739be6a76e01339de8cc6312a946da)

At the freightyard, we need to provide catenary for the sidings, so that electric-hauled goods trains can be run, but you should NOT provide catenary for the actual freightyard line. This is primarily for safety, but also because it would be a bit difficult to use that crane with overhead wires in the way:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcatenarynearfreightyard.jpg&hash=e6b576750ba3d770aebaa9b685c060dd92b9fa7a)

In a cutting, you don't have the space for the standard catenaries, so you need to use the transit-enabled versions:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcuttingcatenary.jpg&hash=b09212417c080f08f42c75a4fb4ae3ee39c305cc)

At the station, it's just like the rural catenary. You should keep the wires going through the station, but you need to use the standard versions as you can't build the TE lots in a station:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fstationcatenary.jpg&hash=78c7e4aa01303527594f993c41cbc134ef4be44d)

And that's it. You don't need to build the pylons in a tunnel, for obvious reasons.

And our railway is now finished. Really, we should provide other niceties like fencing - but these are just niceties, and are therefore better off in the Finishing Touches lesson.

Next up it's something a little different - the utilities.

I probably won't post again before Christmas, so I close by wishing you all a very merry Christmas.

Chris

Very interesting bit about the railway slopes, but erm, are you aware that this mod (http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=21935) exists?

Xander

Another good update. Im not too crazy about the deep hole the rail is in but hey thats me. I really think I should download some rail caterinaries though, they do look nice. Well untill next time Merry Christmas and Happy New Year  &dance &dance :party:

Wonderful job so far. Please continue to keep up the great work! A must read for ANY SC4 player. It sure has helped me, to say the least

Well, if you don't want to argue with an civil engineer who learned traffic engineering as well as planning traffic ways of all kind, OK, up to yours.
[sarkasm]I am only interested in railways since my 5th year on this planets which are only poor and lousy 36 years of experience so, yeah, no need to discuss or argue with someone like me who doesn't know anything about railways or streets or any other aspect of any kind of traffic.  ::) [/sarkasm]

That whole is ridiculous, even though it is not a big thing to dig these today (until / unless you have to pay its bill) it has been a big deal in th 19th century when these trenches had to be digged out with shovels and pickaxe.  &mmm

The distance of catenaries isn't the same everywhere. The higher the speed the lower the distance, and such catenary towers where put in larger distances than the simple mats. However such a big station as you used ususally had four or five fields over its length; when giving such advices you really SHOULD pay respect to the crude and almost non-existing scale of SC4!

And concerning your rule about flat railways: No, they haven't been completely flat even in the victorian era in Greatbritain.  Slopes between 5 and 15 o/oo (o/oo = 1 / 1000) weren't and still aren't anything extraordinary for main lines; steep slopes in railway lines with special requirements for machines and brakes as well as limitations for length and weight of (especially but not only) freight train begin at 25 o/oo on main lines and 60 o/oo on secondary lines.

If you don't believe you might have a look on the vitae of Robert Gerwig (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gerwig), maybe the best railway engineer at all of the 19th century. Beneath other lines he's the engineer who planned and build the northern ramp of the Gotthardt line.

Enough said. Tell me when you are ready to discuss this theme with someone who knows a little bit more about that particular theme than a complete noob. Until then I REALLY don't want to waste my precious time posting here.

Bernhard  :

Hey Bernard, you are really angry, aren't you? There's no reason to be...
I mean, we can and may disagree and there is a lot of engineering concerned in SC4, especially if you want to be realistic, but that's not everyone's goal in this game.

Well I am just a silly architect who refuses to design, and I do know hardly anything about laying down railwaylines, but the placement of the freighyard seemed a bit inconvincing to me. A freightyard is usually placed in the vicinity of industry. And in this situation the industry can only be placed up on the hills around the yard. Not very convenient, isn't it?

Smileymk: except some criticism like the above, I think you project is really very nice and useful to a lot of visitors and members, of course. So please continue!

And my remark about the old american civilizations and the use of the wheel: it indeed has no relation to SC4, but I am sometimes a bit distracted by themes that come up and I wanted to point out that the Incas, Mayas and the like were not stupid. Sorry...

Yeah, I'll have to agree these trenches are way too deep. And that rail lines shouldn't be totally flat. If I were you, I'd build a tunnel where the rail line gets 20-30 metres under the land level.

bernard has covered most of the issues, however your road slopes are unrealistic in places.... with a near 30 degree gradient between the RHW underpass and the rail bridge. plus the sharp gradient change....

and the northern ramp benard refers to is this...

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fa%2Faf%2FPfaffensprungSpiralTunnel_DoubleLoopCurvedAlignmentTunnels_atWassen_onNorthernRampToGotthardTunnel.jpg&hash=5e0c136495dcb4148cd0cee7368b91cd084b1866)

Robin PM'ed me that I might have been posting a bit stronger than necessary.

Concerning the "how I posted" he's right I guess. What made me angry (still) was that answer:

Quote from: smileymk on December 21, 2010, 04:55:20 AM
(...)Nardo69: You do it your way. If it works for you, then that's great. There's little point in me arguing with you.
(...)

You did a good work and I gave you a constructive critic. That's how it should be - until the sentence above. Instead of reflecting what I said you chose to ignore it in a rather rude way. You might refuse a critic for doing it your style in a standard MD but in a tutorial like this you should at least reflect it. Otherwise you damage yourself your reputation.

I know that quite some people not only on SC4D do appreciate my critic and advices. I think I earned a good reputation over all the years by showing what I know and helping others to improve.

You can get a bad reputation by just one non polite answer and never get rid of it. Think about it.

I wanted to tidy up my post before but too much persons have read it by now so I don't touch it. If I'd hurt you by how I wrote the post I'm sorry; if I'd hurt you by what I wrote I'm not sorry.

Bernhard

   %BUd%
The beauty of this 'game' we call Sim City 4 (Vanilla, Deluxe, Rush Hour) is that there is no right or wrong way! (my humble opinion)
The fact that there are so many who are willing to share their real life knowledge as well as their 'artistic' side, is for me,the wonderfulness that 'we' share!  ;D
It can be hard to 'critique' another's endeavors, and have the well meaning intention come across walks of life and language barriers.

I'm pushing 50 and maybe I could be considered naive... for me, the bottom line here is encouragement.... and some of us may be more 'passionate' than others with sharing their RL knowledge... but it's sharing...and why this 'community' is as strong as it is.

smileymk, the fact that you are taking the time to cut, copy, paste,write, edit, format, reformat, resize, upload, edit, etc... etc.. and share it with me (us) is very appreciated...  &apls  :thumbsup:  &bis&

All the best to you and yours...

Cheers

Happy New Year! Sorry to keep you guys waiting... well, the lesson is here now, so let's do it.

But first...

WC_EEND: Yes, but I find the SFBT Rail Catenaries more suited to my purposes, as they give more flexibility and (in my opinion) a better appearance.

malibu_man: Railways do pass through cuttings and embankments in real life... maybe mine is a bit big but that's better than a huge slope.

pepsibottle1: Excellent. I'm sure this will stay here for a long time to come.

Nardo69: Did I upset you, by any chance? If so, I'm very, very sorry - that was certainly not my intention. What I meant by that comment was that it was perfectly fine to use your own playing style to achieve realistic results.

On the gradients, yes, that might be true, but in SC4, these gradients would be very hard to see because of the scale, so you're better off making the main lines flat in my opinion.

And Victorian engineers still managed to produce great feats of engineering even without real technology. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a very good example of this.

And finally, I object to being referred to as a "complete noob". I've played SC4 long enough for this statement to be false, and I find it upsetting and offensive. FrankU is right - there's no need for it.

FrankU: Apology accepted. And I do take criticism - when it is phrased properly and in a nice way.

As for the freightyard, a quick look back at the plan (lesson 1) will tell you that there is a large industrial area planned for the area to the northwest of the freightyard, so it does have a reason to be there. The location is where it is because we can't really bend the rail line just to run through the industrial area - that is impractical and pretty unrealistic.

io_bg: Again, you would find it hard to see gradients if they were built to scale. But I take your point about the trench - I'll probably do something to improve it.

mightygoose: I don't think it's quite 30 degrees! I agree it's far from ideal, but sometimes you have to compromise.

Gringamuyloca: I completely agree. Ultimately, I'm showing you my methods to create a realistic city, and there's always room for those who have different ideas to put them forward.

OK, now are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

Lesson 7 - Utilities

I know you natural growth fans will not approve of the idea of building large-scale utilities before you build any houses, and you're probably right. But SC4 does not work like that. Without power, water, and waste disposal, you won't get a realistic city, simply because the game's programming means that the city won't be developed enough to be realistic if you don't provide the goods.

The most important resource in SC4 is power, as nothing will develop without it. So we may as well start off with this.

We need a site with space, away from the town. And that can be found west of the roundabout interchange in our case. The first thing to do is build an access road. And because a power plant is a busy place with lots of workers, it's worth building turn lanes to improve the traffic flow at rush hour.
You should already know how to create turn lanes (see Lesson 5 if you don't), and the setup is like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fturnlanesforpowerplant.jpg&hash=2fe094157c308821d86150beb7582d9516427f87)

Once you're done, drag out the access road (using street) so that it's quite far from the main road:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpowerplantaccess.jpg&hash=3da57899b2556d43afe04b442d596ce62ea7199a)

Now, to improve the appearance of that access road, we're going to use the SAM to give it some nice asphalt textures. We're going to use the SAM a lot in the next few lessons, so it's worth getting hold of it and learning how to use it now.
If you don't have the SAM, get it here (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1594).

You start off SAM by means of a puzzle piece, which is found in the SAM Pieces menu (under the Roads tab). Tab to the SAM-7 piece, and place it on your access road:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fstartingsam.jpg&hash=c6d9a415b6d0089af97b66acf95c092dead9f8b2)

SAM-7 is the asphalt textures, which are common for streets and back roads. This is the one we will use in the suburbs as well as here.

Now you will have noticed that ugly white base texture on the starter piece. We need to get rid of this, which we do simply by demolishing it and dragging street in its place:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletingsam.jpg&hash=715b34374521e0787cb5a57ab4193e0d5cf394f2)

The access road is now finished, so it's time to start building the power plant.

The most common sources of power (in the UK at least) are coal and gas. We're going to use gas here, because it pollutes less, and we won't need the huge power coal provides.
You may be tempted to stick down a Maxis power plant and be done with it. But at 4x4 tiles, a single Maxis plant just won't cut it. Power plants are very big structures.

The solution? Use lots of little Maxis plants to create a big plant (with a few ancillary buildings).

The purists among you will be shaking your heads as you read this, but I find that a lot of the Maxis lots are not too bad, and it's worth learning to get the best out of them for realistic results.

Firstly, you need to prepare the ground, as any retaining walls in the middle of the complex will spoil the appearance of the whole thing. You know how to do this, so all I'll give is annotation to explain what's going where:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fgroundpreparationforpowerplant.jpg&hash=259c2bb361ce798597593f1291ab141ff6c57f01)

Notice how the complex isn't square like the Maxis lot. Power plants should really be irregular or rectangular to be realistic.

Now you can build your lots. The annotation here explains what lots you need (some of them are available on the STEX - find one you like!):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fbuildingthepowerplant.jpg&hash=3aa5367283ebc93bbb89e9515ebef3b41bd2d03c)

See, it's not that bad! Alright, there are too many chimneys (there should only be a few), but the rest is fine for our purposes.
By the way, if you can find a custom power plant that is big enough, and good-looking enough, then by all means use it instead.

Next job is to provide parking facilities. They need to be fairly substantial, as a lot of people will work here.
I used the Modular Parking Lots to create this (they're somewhere on the STEX), but again, find something you like and stick to it:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpowerplantparking.jpg&hash=f3d3a62e2147e65fcd69a60fc9f606780c779116)

Then we need to provide some sort of security - power plants are an obvious target for those who do not appreciate the laws and moral values of society.
To do this, we're going to use a chainlink fence and place a security gate on the access road. Find lots that suit you, and place the gate on the access road, and surround the complex with the chainlink fence:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsecurity.jpg&hash=599657676b24480a3d1481ae218b27374765bbdb)

Last job is to place the pylons. A power plant like this one would serve a large area in real life, so we need to reflect this by having power lines running to various edges of the city tile.
We can't drag pylons over the security fence, so we'll have to place them either side, by dragging the lines out, 2 tiles at a time, so that we get this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpowerpylons.jpg&hash=8f8c992e844b76c62e52514b3d1ff0abf7992e1d)

And we're now finished with the power plant, and can move on to the water. (And that texture glitch is my computer's fault, so don't blame me for it!)

We're going to build the water facility on the eastern edge of the city, far from the power and landfill sites.
First task is, well, guess:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fgroundpreparationforwater.jpg&hash=9747e6a6222c4f6361f4f63f9ac70af7bf5c4fd8)

Now you can build the facility. Use SAM to spruce up the access road, the Maxis water pumps (or your preferred custom version), and a good-looking treatment works (I used the Glenni Sewage Plant) to provide everything the facility realistically needs, and don't forget to provide a small car park and security fencing to complete it:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fwaterfacility.jpg&hash=53d17aadd2dba1bc553b6db685c1c3ac48566452)

Oh, and make sure you have power lines running to the water facility. If the facility doesn't have power, it won't work.

This would be a good time to lay out your water pipes. Because they're underground, you don't need to worry about laying them out realistically. Instead, concentrate on efficiency.
Given that water spreads 6 tiles from the pipes, an efficient system is to zig-zag the pipes across the city tile. The key to this system is how you build the pipes at the tile boundary - and that's where this diagram comes in:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fwaterpipeplacement.jpg&hash=507272b5742e1b5ecd4f0d5ed1d6fd0de8d0a0a6)

Stick to this system, and run the pipes straight down, with no curves or detours (unless absolutely necessary).
When you're done - and it will be a while before you are - you should have something like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedpipelayout.jpg&hash=3319aefd404fa3ecb1545147fd0cbbe34d98cee3)

That will serve you well, I assure you. And if you're wondering, there will be development outside of the town, so that justifies laying pipes outside of the ring road.

Last task is to build the waste disposal facilities.

Regrettable though it may be, it is a fact that the vast majority of waste ends up dumped in a landfill site. So to be realistic, you need to build one to take care of your waste. If the environmental considerations are too great to bear for you, then you can realistically build a small recycling facility - these exist in a lot of towns.

But this won't stop 60% of waste getting put in a big hole in the ground.

The good news with a landfill is that you don't have to do any ground preparation. But you do have to provide turn lanes for the garbage trucks to stop them blocking the road.
Choose a site far from the town (I'm going west of it), and lay out the access using turn lanes and SAM:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fturnlanesforlandfill.jpg&hash=f85196f9eee39e23f1b86232aefde383e4612df1)

Now, this bit is really easy. Landfill in SC4 is done by zoning, so you can just press the Y key and drag it out. Make it fairly substantial, and rectangular:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fbuildingthelandfill.jpg&hash=405c493f86ecba992abd7fff2e52a55b3961b03d)

You can extend the access road along the bottom if you want, to provide space for the many garbage vehicles that will visit the site.
Complete the site by adding security fencing:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Flandfillsecurity.jpg&hash=8dd4fe63f3c82ffb2f6a35c15e02fd3b92b87a8c)

And we're done! Those utilities are now ready to be used, and we're ready to move on.

Which we will - the next lesson will focus on the city centre. Which I know some of you have been eagerly anticipating.

Until then,

Chris

Interesting update :thumbsup:

Here are my 2 cents. I think it's better to also place at least one recycle center and a wast-to-energy incinerator close to the landfill. It's true that many cities, like New York and Athens, have sadly extremely huge landfills. O.K. this is realistic, but not for very long. In 2006 i studied an article about Germany, where almost all garbages recycled and in the next years landfills will be a thing of the past.
So an another solution for realistic cities is the use of Plasma Gasification Plant by Pegasus. Plasma Gasification has been used in the real world for years for the disposal of industrial & bio hazard wastes, so this plant it's both realistic and clean. No need for landfills anymore :)

Your ideas about the water facility it's excellent. I'm going to use them for my both Terran cities and Martian colonies. Usually i just built a water pump with a water cleaning device... and that's all ;D . Now with your ideas, I'm going also to add some Pegasus ponds. They can make the water facility more realistic, especially if we can imagine that the water of the ponds came from drilling or raining.

As about the power plants, i would like to give some advises for us who prefer the alternative sources of power, like solar plants and wind parks :)

Keep going :thumbsup:

Hi Chris,

Interesting MD. I suppose that with a title like that - on SC4D - you're bound to raise some arguments ;D
I like the road layout, it does look interesting  :thumbsup:
On the utilities side of things, I agree with Terring7 - in Denmark garbage incinerators producing power and heat are much more common  than large landfills. At least there should be both. Also, maybe you would consider this plugin from the stex: Power pack by mrtruesage (http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=1185). It contains the maxis powerplants re-lot'ed and modded to be bigger and have a lot more capacity. It also replaces the maxis powerplants. You wouldn't have to place so many powerplants.

anyways, great work  :thumbsup:

Nice thread!

Quote from: smileymk on January 05, 2011, 02:39:00 AM...I used the Modular Parking Lots to create this (they're somewhere on the STEX), but again, find something you like and stick to it...

Can you recall which modular parking lots you've used? There are quite a few on the STEX and the set you've used looks great.

I think he used Hooha47's sets. He has made several parking lots. So type in Hooha47 and take your pick.

I don't really like to use landfills, I made one city with the landfill, so all the other towns can ship their trash to that one. Otherwise, I use recycling centers and waste stations in the other towns for any excess waste.

Hey guys. I won't keep you waiting any longer for Lesson 8. Let's dive straight in to those comments.

Terring7: Interesting observation. I think in Germany, there are laws on recycling waste, so it's no surprise that they have such high rates. I also think that adding Pegasus ponds might be a good idea - something for the Finishing Touches lesson maybe?

turtle: Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

deadwoods: Not off the top of my head, buddy. Sorry. They're definitely called Modular Parking Lots, though.

FrankU: You're probably right.

j-dub: What you've described is a very good system for SC4, but not a good system realistically. Having one or two recycling plants in each town is good, but landfills should be kept reasonably small.

OK, now before we start the lesson, you'll be glad to know that that huge rail cutting some of you pointed out after Lesson 6 has been sorted out:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fextendedtunnel.jpg&hash=48c5efee10e5a781fa39d54b2cfbb0512f8bf6e8)

That should placate some people... now let's get on with the lesson.

Lesson 8 - City Centre

Some of you may be wondering why the centre should be built before all else. Two reasons:

1) In real life, it's the centre that comes first - the suburbs and industry sprawl around it, usually as a result of the railway coming to town.

2) The game's mechanism means that surburbs don't initially grow as we'd like them to, and industry is all hideous and dirty, which in this day and age, is unrealistic. So it's good to build the CBD first to get the population up to a level where the proper lots start to develop.

So now you know why, it's time to learn how.

First up is the inner city. This is the outer edge of the CBD, if you like, full of small, packed in to the limit houses and shops on narrow little streets. This is very easy to build, so it's a good confidence builder.

First task is to lay out the streets. They need to be in rectangular blocks about 4 tiles wide and about 10 tiles long. We want as many 2-tile long lots here as possible, so lay out your streets to allow this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Finnercitystreetlayout.jpg&hash=d71d3a95e6f6e8e47a1f4bd9774615094d867056)

If you want these to look realistic, you now need to use the SAM to give those streets proper asphalt textures. You learnt how to use SAM in the last lesson, so if you don't know how to use the SAM, or you forgot, then go back and have a look before continuing.

SAM-7 is what you want - make sure you do all of the streets. Place however many starter pieces you need to do this - you'll probably need about 3 or 4:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsamforinnercity.jpg&hash=01ff1252b86a3c74c5e29ccf0ab7c1d19ccd4fbb)

You can now start zoning. You need to fill up all of your blocks with medium density zoning, even on the outside edge of the inner city - we want the suburbs to be 'hidden' by the inner city houses.

You want commercial on the main roads:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Finnercitycommercial.jpg&hash=420e7f2ff0d69f762eeb923b2a5058a880b0de92)

And you want residential on the streets.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Finnercityresidential.jpg&hash=1f8a2b1d812107a087ded2da46ccd7a35d546802)

Notice how we didn't leave space for any facilities - we just don't have the space to fit them in here. These inner cities were often built in the Victorian era, when amenities of any sort were a luxury.

But one thing we should include are bus stops on the main roads. Because of the lack of space, we need to use road-top bus stops, and where better to find those than the RTMT, available on the STEX?

I'm using these because they come with SAM-top bus stops, but for the inner city, we just want them on our main roads. There's no way we'll be able to get them down tiny inner city streets. You only need a few, not too far apart:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Finnercitybusstops.jpg&hash=8b2e8e06b4c4e21cc2bdae5d828d52230110bbfb)

And our inner city is now done. It's that easy.

So now we move into the CBD proper. It's just like the inner city at first - lay out the streets in blocks (as best you can), and don't forget to give them decent textures with the SAM:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcbdstreetlayout.jpg&hash=be2dde04ce1ec24d4af42e26405f160774fe1593)

The difference between this and the inner city is that we have to put down a few buildings first. The first is a pedestrianised shopping street in that big central block.
We're going to use the Ped Mall pieces to do this. They're in the NAM under the Roads menu, so you should have them by now. The Open Paved textures are good for a central shopping precinct like this, so we'll use those. You need to place them down the middle of that block, with a couple of branches, keeping everything relatively straight:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcentralpedmall.jpg&hash=46cae4718a9bb5c6853cf952a56a31cbd221412a)

We now need to activate the ped mall so that it works. To do this, we need to place a transit-enabled lot next to it, and this is where those SAM-top bus stops come into play. We're going to use the street to the left as the central terminus for bus services in Faulkner's Bridge, as often occurs in real life. You need to place bus stops 2 tiles apart on the street, have at least 5 stops, and make sure that one of them is next to the Ped Mall:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcentralbusstops.jpg&hash=4549feec7e09f9cd851757eecf81beb356ac1a66)

Notice how we've done some ground preparation to the left. This is so we can build a shopping centre to supplement the shopping street. I won't recommend a specific download here, because you'll all have different needs. I will tell you though, that I used Ill Tonkso's UK Shop Sets.

I will say this now - it's worth downloading a few sets of RCI buildings. Ideally they should all be of a similar style - which is why I'd recommend typing in the name of your country into the STEX, as this will give you lots of results for buildings that look like the buildings in your country. Then download as many of them as you can. You need the diversity and the 'house style' to be realistic.

The lot I'm using is ploppable, so we just stick it down on that street:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fshoppingcentre.jpg&hash=80261828d29c6173d3c6f54205ae40d90c6ba920)

As we're on the subject, I'll just say a few words about using ploppable RCI.
I don't personally like to use it - I'd rather just zone and let the simulator do the work. But it is perfectly possible to build a whole city with just ploppable lots - if you can get enough of them to have sufficient diversity in your city. If you do this, that's fine, but be careful, because a lot of ploppable lots tend to be more suited to CBDs than suburbs and industry. It's likely to mess up the simulator as well, and there's the risk of abandonment.
I think one or two ploppables may not be a bad idea - but keep it that way. Building lots of ploppables is laborious work, and you have to decide what goes where. For large areas, it's better just to let the computer do the work - it usually does a pretty reasonable job.

I expect some people to argue with me on this, but that is just my take on the subject.

Back to our CBD, then, and the next job is to provide ample parking facilities for commuters, workers and shoppers. Multi-storey car parks will be more in keeping with the tall buildings we're going to get here, so we're going to use those.
Place a couple on the fringes of your CBD - it doesn't matter where, but you don't want more traffic on your central streets than is necessary:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcentralparking.jpg&hash=2da441cb3b1fbddad7270c40c0c61565003d958b)

And yes, they are the Maxis lots. Even the purists among you will see that they do look the part, so let's just accept that Maxis did do some decent stuff and move on to the zoning.

For this, you need high density zoning. Commerical is your priority here, and you should have it in your shopping street, and near the shopping centre, the station, and the car parks.
You can also use residential to fill in some gaps:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcentralzoning.jpg&hash=0444a8deb52c2e487e0ae9fae9865c8ead3af112)

Our CBD is nearly now, but there are still a couple of things to do.

The first is to provide an access route over the railway, which, at the moment, is splitting our CBD into 2 parts. We're going to use the Ped Mall bridge pieces to reunite the CBD.
The secret to this is to use the Ped Mall on Slope pieces, with the arrows facing the bridge, and fill in the gaps with Rail bridge pieces and open paved textures. Oh, and don't forget to activate it with a bus stop!
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpedestrianfootbridge.jpg&hash=a43e6a4dd46273bc02f7bf4765c01ac4dcfcd0e5)

This is a really ingenious and easy way to build a stepped footbridge, and I'll think you'll agree it looks the part.

Finally, we're going to add the old historic Faulkner's Bridge, which, if you remember Lesson 1, was the reason why this whole town came into being.
On the eastern edge, drag a street bridge over the river. The bridge type you want needs to be historic - and Jeronij'sRural Street Bridge (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=857) is perfect for this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fhistoricbridge.jpg&hash=2f348f051ea641c51970eef5d8d383451c62d3ac)

As you can see, height is not an issue. No ferry is ever going to get down that narrow river.

And that's all, folks! Next lesson will focus on the industrial area.

Until then,
Chris

Hello, remember me? ;)

I am certainly impressed with seeing such improvement in your work.  It is great to see that you're not just creating a better mayor diary, but also that you're creating something that helps others to improve as well!   :thumbsup:

QuoteWhat you've described is a very good system for SC4, but not a good system realistically. Having one or two recycling plants in each town is good, but landfills should be kept reasonably small.

What do you mean by small? Do you got dimensions? I don't mean trouble, but I have to ask what is reasonable dimensions, because you just got to see the trash heap in my neck of the woods. I mean, I drove to the next town over, went on top of the giant landfill, and found that I can see both my house and Willis tower from it, and those two things are so far apart from each other, you would not believe anyone can see the two both on foot. I should mention there is only one other landfill I know of around me I went up to the top, but both had exhaust pipes, because the smell of both places did not clear the air, thats for sure, but thats what I get for walking in on both. The problem with SC4, is they don't dig down for the landfill, unless you know how to drop the elevation in the first place.

The game landfill I mentioned, actually does not have that much trash in it, and not even wide or high enough then the real life one. However, every community in the region has at least one recylcing center. I forgot to mention, one town on the edge of the map also has a landfill, but the difference is, its not like in the center where everyone has access. My region ain't that big yet. It does seem that waste to energy next to a wide waste land, (not that much different then yours) keep it from becoming too much though. All I know is, I am not in the dumps, the trash is certainly going somewhere, just don't know where.

Are we ready to create some industry? Then let's crack on with it.

sumwonyuno: How could I forget one of the regular contributors to 17 Regions of Wonder, Terror and Craziness? And thanks for those lovely words of encouragement.

j-dub: About 20-30 tiles wide and 10-20 tiles long will be fine, but do NOT make it square, either in appearance or in reality! I hope that helps.

Now, back to topic: Industry.

Lesson 9 - Industry

This is an area where you really have to put some thought into your efforts, because the game develops industry in a manner completely different to that which I would call realistic. You can't just zone a huge area and be done with it, and expect good results.

Like all our development thus far, we zone around the streets, not the other way round. So our first job is to create some streets to fill our industrial area.

We're going to do the main streets first. Any estate (and this does not just apply to industrial areas, but any estate) should have a couple of streets that directly connect to the main roads on the edge of the estate. Side streets can then be built to fill in the gaps.

As this is an industrial area, we need to think of all of the lorries that are going to thunder down these streets. They can't get around tight curves easily, so our main streets need to be as straight as possible, and we can't have any roundabouts.
This layout here is what you're aiming for:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fmainstreetlayout.jpg&hash=c833a4baa46693b933dfc01322c1be81b49edfd4)

See how HGV-friendly it is. And don't forget that SAM.

Particular attention needs to be paid to how you get your streets to end at diagonal roads:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Faccessfromdiagonalroad.jpg&hash=1cb9ce115d1551d71da096c782e29756f78677f1)

See that little fork to the left? That's what you need to do wherever an industrial street meets a diagonal road. It saves the lorries from having to make a sharp 135-degree turn, and the inevitable crashes that result.

Now you can fill in the gaps with side streets. A good gap between them is about 6 - 10 tiles, and be sure to vary them a little - the less regular it looks, the better:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedstreetlayout.jpg&hash=1e29c6b4bb9d91fb7784aaf0ca3cb95777ee3024)

Again, straightness where possible is good.

Before we start zoning, you need to build a few small car parks to serve some of the workers in the nearby factories. They should be on or near the main streets, not too far from where they meet the main roads.

Before we can lay any tarmac, we need to level the ground first, otherwise you'll get retaining walls in the middle of the car park. You know what to do:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fgroundpreparationforcarparks.jpg&hash=7380d51613dd920d336c1cc9076c8ba7192f6e21)

Notice the small size. Now you can use whatever lots you need to fill in that car park:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedcarpark.jpg&hash=8c1d063323448a67b241bb4718b73eafaa6307b6)

Right. We're ready to start zoning. You need to listen to this part, because it's the most important secret to creating realistic industry.

What you must NEVER do, under any circumstances, is simply zone out an area and let the game do the work.

All this will achieve is a random collection of small factories, most of which aren't facing a road. This is just wrong.

A realistic industrial estate consists of a number of sizeable plots, each standing on their own and not attached to any other factories.
To achieve this, you have to use a technique known as parcelised zoning.

What this means is that you hold down the CTRL key whilst you're dragging out the zone, and that will create a single plot of the size that you have dragged out. This will force the game to develop a lot of that size, meaning your factories are of an appropriate size.

For an industrial area, the size you're looking for is between 2x2 and 3x3 tiles. And make sure that there's a 1-2 tile gap in between factories, and that the arrows you get all face a street:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fstartingparcelisedindustry.jpg&hash=bd0084fd82b9c8bf5c11cb99aaa5b2f8766a9a09)

It might be worth you practising this in a 'play' region, so that when you come to do it for real in a 'serious' region, you've got the experience to do it properly.

The next task is simple. Using the parcelisation technique, fill in the rest of your industry:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedzoning.jpg&hash=ed8484a87c62018d5b7b02bd301b39544d809e20)

This is great so far, but it begs the question of 'what goes in the middle?'

One solution is to use Ped Mall to create some pathways around the back of the factories. This also gives us a good excuse to place bus stops to serve the estate.

The cobblestone textures are great for this. Use SAM-top bus stops on the main streets to activate them:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fround-the-backpaths.jpg&hash=fa333dc1c5968d8aa8b20fa1c9cad59e7c4470ac)

(I should point out that you should not have too many bus stops! 3 or 4 will be fine.)

In the remaining gaps, placing the Open Grass Area lot is good for filling up the estate with grass:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fgrassfillers.jpg&hash=54296042c5c6485d626882746a4a173a6b4b910f)

Finally, what harm will a few trees do? Take your pick and place them randomly, but have a film of trees along the edges of the estate:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Faddingtrees.jpg&hash=f22134c1e92d48bdfec916eae5562d48b030fc2c)

Once you're done, you should have something like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedindustry.jpg&hash=67f8a08cfb3adf1eeaf30cf1b589eb642004c2fd)

And that's the industrial estate finished. Next lesson will be on the facilities.

Until then,
Chris

Interesting approach to your industrial estate.  I'm not sure those pedmalls would be my first choice for fillers, the cobble texture doesn't quite fit with heavy industries.  Of course if your long term plan is to have high tech industry there, then it should work pretty nicely. 

The result is visually striking and your approach to designing your industrial area as an estate is very realistic. 

@Smiley, don't know if you will agree, but depending on if and when the new NAM retexture comes out, there is a
chance you won't even have to do this.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Faccessfromdiagonalroad.jpg&hash=1cb9ce115d1551d71da096c782e29756f78677f1)

Beacause the new cosmetic textures alter such acute corners with curves and a 90 degree straight edge, that when you drag into this very situation
those sharp angles, are no longer.

Interesting idea. I'm going to use a variation of your suggest to my Martian colonies in my M.D. :)

I think your advice on how to grow the factories is really good. The filling of the tiles inbetween, on the other hand, is not my cup of tea.
For a high tech estate it looks quite appropriate, but for IM and certainly ID industry the parks and ped malls are too flashy i.m.o. For a realistic look I'd advise to use some industrial filler lots with props and also a lot without props. Other fillings could be rubble, weeds, empty waste land. Take a look at real industrial areas. You'll be surpirsed how much ground is unused and how much space is hardly occupied.

Hello again, and thanks for your patience. I'll try to get the next one done quicker, but, like with the NAM, you'll just have to wait for it, and it will be worth the wait when you do.

Battlecat: High-tech industry is indeed what we're aiming for - this is the most realistic. Perhaps I should have mentioned it earlier. And I'm happy you found it 'visually striking' - this is exactly what we're after.

j-dub: The NAM retexture is out now, and it certainly looks good from what I've seen, but until a European version comes out, I'm afraid I have no personal use for it. Thanks for the heads-up, though.

Terring7: I'm glad you're inspired. Would like to hear more about this variation, though - it sounds interesting and could be helpful to many.

FrankU: Some good points. I'll say again that we're aiming for high-tech industry. And I know about the unused ground thing - that's why I recommended zoning as shown and placing grass parks and trees in the gaps.

And now, the lesson which you have been waiting for - facilities.

Lesson 10 - Facilities

In this lesson we're concentrating on the big, important facilities that any city needs - schools, hospitals, etc. Little things like parks are more suited to the lesson on suburbs (coming next).
And the first thing to learn is that there is more to building a facility than just plopping a lot. You have to place some infrastructure to go with it, as you will see.

As the police items are the first sub-menu on the Facilities menu, I thought it would be good to start with this. For a small town like this, you only need one police station. It should be fairly large and be situated in either the centre of town or the edge.

We'll build it on the edge, as space in the CBD is very limited indeed. And watch where you put it - on a main road is best.
You need to prepare the ground first:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fgroundpreparationforpolicestation.jpg&hash=6a671c83fa786386ae36d8367a60ef468232be4f)

It's a good idea with facilities like these to build turn lanes on the main road, as the entrance will be heavily used, at least at times:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fturnlanesforfacilities.jpg&hash=f54bfb5e2c82e37985a9c8f6700f015d9d6f4b19)

Once that's done, a car park needs to be built. It's the same as before, and it should be fairly big, but not noticeably so - enough to cater for all of the town's cops:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ffacilitycarparks.jpg&hash=33baaf3a894a792187dc362303e83dd63a963447)

And now it's time to place the building. As you only have one police station, the building you choose should offer citywide coverage. It should also be quite big - this is a police headquarters after all.
Once again, the lot you use is down to personal choice. I used the Police Administration Building, which I really think looks the part, and also provides the citywide coverage needed:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpolicestation.jpg&hash=d7f84f295176fa012202cd89810b232139c29277)

Our police station is now done, but we need a jail as well to deal with all of those crooks. This needs to be well away from your suburbs, and shouldn't really be near the police station (although it can be). On the edge of town is a good location.

You need to prepare the ground and add a street link as with the police station. Once done, add a car park (about the same size as the police station) and the jail buildings:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fjailmainelements.jpg&hash=5db18b595ef4f59c44d5d003f8d5a751712a5e44)

Now finish off by adding a high-security fence around the perimeter:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedjail.jpg&hash=a3ee8cef0c4a3cdc148afb5045502eee3f5a598b)

And that's the police facilities done.

Next up is the fire stations. Two buildings are fine for a town this size. Make sure you place them at opposite ends to provide maximum coverage, and on main roads to provide a fast response.
Building them is easy. Plop the fire station on the main road and drag an OWR-1 around the back to provide a way for the fire engines to get back in:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ffirestation.jpg&hash=20d7633741e4b343fe8769ff4a1395de9e321072)

And that really is all you need to do. Now for the schools.

The schools you need, and how you build them, will vary depending on where you live. In England, it goes primary school (4-11), then high school (11-16), then higher education. Many counties also have middle schools (7-11), but for this entry-level project, we'll just stick with the two-school system.

A good place to start is with the primary school. Location wise, they should be on or near main through streets in your suburbs (we'll cover suburb street layout in detail next lesson). You need a small car park and a flat base first:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fprimaryschoolaccess.jpg&hash=75bb43ad5d5b37ebbc2aa2219cb08cb1b39f191e)

Now you can build the school. Place it so that the playground is at the back, away from the road. Then use grass parks to add a field behind it of the same size as the school. Then finish off with fencing:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedprimaryschool.jpg&hash=8e659a365acab8c1bb60c22c9e38f75879e58fa4)

They can be anywhere in your suburbs, as this image shows:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Festateedgeprimaryschool.jpg&hash=921fe65a816bcdffa32260c5fc380783a0988f4c)

In terms of how many you should build, the rule is one per estate.

When it comes to high schools, however, you should build two for a town this size. And this is only to give parents some choice - one is really enough to serve this town but parents want to choose where their kids go to school, so we should reflect this.

To build a high school, select a site near a main road and flatten the ground. Then plop the building (building facing the road) and add a street link:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fbuildinghighschool.jpg&hash=9730e084ea7f3c7eb552aaff1fa244abb347800c)

Then add car parks and turn lanes for easier access (and SAM for nice textures):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fhighschoolaccess.jpg&hash=78c83b530dd07534a9d727e3ea69585cba7a082f)

The next step is some serious ground preparation. You need to add paths for the school field, and flat areas for sports pitches. High school fields are usually fairly huge, so allow space for them:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fgroundpreparationforschoolfield.jpg&hash=ef4385a8fb2e8189aa53554441a3ef4f572f96ad)

Now you can add sports pitches, and fill in the rest of the field with grass parks. What sports you have depends on where you live - for England, football, rugby, and astroturf pitches are all on the menu. Then finish with a perimeter fence:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedhighschool.jpg&hash=464e2f8397338ee61396ffef5957e56c13f1542c)

The second high school should be broadly similar, but vary the placement of certain items a little bit. You'll notice I used different paths for this one (which are, in my opinion, better than using ped mall here):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsecondhighschool.jpg&hash=42bc2b54ea0a44a4b9a972a746ae8786495f643b)

To complete the education establishments, place a big library in your CBD:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Flibrary.jpg&hash=40dcff493bbd5a8c9a98527e919d6b7d9d15b8e9)

Now it's time to build the hospital. Again, the main road is the best location, and you only need one. Start with ground preparation - you need to make this site pretty big as we'll need a big car park:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fgroundpreparationforhospital.jpg&hash=9cb6408b7ac54f7de0ee2ebb8d664181073c6e8b)

Then build the car park and give the access street a nice asphalt texture with the SAM:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fhospitalcarpark.jpg&hash=2d5f69f8dfa755bf75f167bc39f33ea809b9e441)

Make sure you add some bus stops on the main road - the hospital is an important destination for many bus routes. Connect it to the car park with ped mall:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fhospitalbusstops.jpg&hash=ff78d8e2b41f4bfce91ff8303e8527268b5a87b5)

Now put in the buildings. You need a walk-in centre, the main building, a helipad for the air ambulance service, and grass parks to fill in the gaps:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedhospital.jpg&hash=b275c33bdd27509095c6e0712fe781d5834d1b60)

And that's it! You now know how to build top-quality facilities.

Next lesson is on the suburbs. I know a few of you have been looking forward to this one, so sit tight and enjoy it when it comes.

Until then,
Chris

An another one interesting update &apls
I'm going to follow your advise in my new cities. An another idea is to use underground parkings. All you need is to place an 1x1 exit-entrance and fill the rest of space with small plazas or trail parks. Very realistic and useful for large cities with no plenty of space... like Athens ;D . Keep going :thumbsup:

By the way, will be there any tutorial for the monorail-magnetic railroads and road trams? I make a use of a lot of them, so an advise will be very useful :)

Overall, looking very good, but I notice a few potential problems with your medical facility.  1.) there is no stop light or crosswalk to allow folks who use the bus to cross the street at the bus stops, forcing them to jaywalk and put cars and themselves in danger.  2.) The medical buildings all have helipads on the roofs, so why the additional pad on the front lawn?  Also, the location of the ground level pad is quite a ways from the buildings, making it problematic to rush patients from the pad into the building AND exposing the patient to whatever weather may be occurring at the time of transport.  Perhaps a little subway station running from the pad to the building would help, or even some kind of covered walkway.

Lora/LD

Thanks man this is really helping me cause I feel like a complete noob when it comes to this game. Well done so far I hope to get some pics of my city to post on here for you and the others to evaluate as soon as I can.

Edit: Here is my first attempt at terraforming please tell me what you think any help and constructive criticism is appreciated

Well yochanmichael, in case your still here, I think you did a good job terraforming, the real challenge will be city building and working with the land, and some of those trees will be going down, I am sure.

Re: J-Dub

Yeah I have played around with the terraforming and I think I am getting the hang of it. My current trouble is how to use the RHW and NAM pieces properly. When I try to make a diagonal or place a curve it doesn't seem to want to line up or connecting other things too it makes me all confused...sigh. I hope the author of the MD posts again soon its the kind of Tutorial-MD I have been looking for to really learn this game.

I thought I'd better answer some of these questions - some of you have waited a while and some of you want my verdict on your work.

Terring7: Underground parking might be a good idea. I'll think about it. As for maglev systems and tram lines, they're not going to be in this first project, but there's a good chance I'll squeeze it into the second...

ldvger: 1) I agree, but I don't know of any suitable footbridge or subway lots. Any assistance would be appreciated. 2) They are the Maxis hospitals - I could tinker with them such that those helipads disappear, but that's something for a future project. And finally, my local hospital's helipad is positioned similarly to that shown in the last update, so that's where I got the idea from. A covered walkway is a good suggestion, though.

yochananmicheal: Because you have 2 questions, I'll answer in 2 parts:

1) (Your terraforming) - Generally excellent. I just think that some of your inland tree clusters are a bit too dense. Perhaps a little less trees on top of the hills will give you more overall. Also, a water mod (I use the Edmonton Water Mod) will help.

2) (Placing NAM pieces) - I would place the pieces first and work around them, using the filler pieces as and when necessary.

j-dub: Yes, some of those trees will end up coming down, but it will be for the best. In the city we're learning how to build, there have been a lot of tree-choppings.

I hope that answers all of your queries.

Unfortunately, Lesson 11 (the suburbs) isn't quite ready for posting just yet, mainly because my computers are being temperamental and/or painfully slow.
I will have it online as soon as possible, although it may have to be a truncated version, with just the basic things you need to do.

Later,
Chris

Quote from: smileymk on March 13, 2011, 05:16:29 AM
...yochananmicheal: Because you have 2 questions, I'll answer in 2 parts:

1) (Your terraforming) - Generally excellent. I just think that some of your inland tree clusters are a bit too dense. Perhaps a little less trees on top of the hills will give you more overall. Also, a water mod (I use the Edmonton Water Mod) will help.

2) (Placing NAM pieces) - I would place the pieces first and work around them, using the filler pieces as and when necessary...

Unfortunately, Lesson 11 (the suburbs) isn't quite ready for posting just yet, mainly because my computers are being temperamental and/or painfully slow.
I will have it online as soon as possible, although it may have to be a truncated version, with just the basic things you need to do.

Later,
Chris

Chris,

Thanks for the help and advice. I know how it feels to have temperamental/slow computers...it sucks! I know you live "across the pond" from me and there is quite a bit of time difference but I am pretty good with computers as I have built, repaired, and troubleshooted a good number of my own as well as family and friends with good results. If you could PM me I may be able to help you get them back to a good running order so you can keep your fine MD up and going as well as the other things you use them for which if your anything like me is quite a lot. Well I do thank you again for the help and critique of my start and I look forward to Lesson 11 soon.

Im giving this tutorial a try....just curious... is this good?
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg819.imageshack.us%2Fimg819%2F6889%2Ftestsep16121300347250.png&hash=10b4ec82f16e8e6f0eb29bdd276ec4ea35bbf334) (http://img819.imageshack.us/i/testsep16121300347250.png/)

Lesson 11 is finally here! But before I show it to you all, I need to say something.

As I'm sure you're aware, last week Japan was struck by an 8.9-magnitude earthquake (apparently the 6th largest ever recorded worldwide), and was then hit on its eastern coast by a tsunami which was over 10m high in places, which wiped out many towns on that coast and took over 4,500 people with it. And then the area was put on high alert after the Fukushima nuclear facility broke down, with 3 explosions.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to say to those affected that we all support you here at SC4D and on this thread, during this very difficult time, and that we will continue to do so until you get back on your feet. I'm sure that the Japanese resilience and courage will get you guys through this in the end.

Japan - you are not alone.


And now, let's get back on topic.

blueeyesman: Looks like you've got an ambitious scheme planned. And it looks pretty good thus far - especially with the railways. However, there are a few ways you could improve:

- You have way too many trees. Try to keep the density of trees on land quite low, especially compared to the riverside density.
- On the east side, the south tunnel entrance with that avenue should probably be moved back a bit, because the huge cutting you've made is too tall to be realistic.
- The avenue bridge should be a plain bridge. The arch design doesn't really suit the avenue that well, and a plain bridge would look the part.
- Try to avoid using level crossings where possible. Use the NAM road viaducts to make the roads go over the rails instead.
- Turn lanes at the avenue junctions would enhance them greatly.

Your freightyard, use of retaining walls, and stations, however, are really good. I for one would like to know what station that central one is - I want it now!

And now it's time for the lesson.

Lesson 11 - Suburbs

The suburbs are, in my opinion, the second most important part of the city, behind the CBD, as these will be where the majority of people live. If done well, you can really make them look nice, so it's worth putting a lot of time and effort into them.

It's a good idea to design your suburbs as estates, like the industrial area. Main roads and railways make great boundaries for these estates, so make use of them.
To start a suburb, you need to build 3-5 main streets. These should run between the main roads that border the suburb. Make them quite curvy and windy, mix roundabouts and ordinary T-junctions where they meet, and don't forget to use the SAM asphalt textures on them to give them a good appearance:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fmainstreets.jpg&hash=e80828a03501ff0e0f8c1f94602619d9e1e3efbe)

Don't forget to include some turn lanes:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fturnlanesforsuburbs.jpg&hash=2545b4a67729813095874ab486f6fd1214ba5ae5)

Now you need to build a few connecting streets between these main streets, to provide some more direct routes, and also to give more opportunities for side streets. I've highlighted the connecting streets here:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fconnectorstreets.jpg&hash=3b9e4bc3bcf7f4a58c2ae60690a9be4e5b93552e)

And once that's done, you need to build the side streets. These need to be dead-end roads that fill your suburb. Try to leave at least 2 tiles between each one though. The more random the layout is, the better, so vary the spacings between streets and vary the path and endings of the side streets:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsidestreets.jpg&hash=10c5daa6926604e813aa50b36ca875f1e737ec32)

There are a couple of ways you can vary the endings of your side streets to make your suburb a bit more interesting. You can end some of your streets with roundabouts, like so:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Froundaboutstreetends.jpg&hash=22d8d000e8f6270016a92cd1a761ec5359f88682)

Or you could use a setup that I call the 'fan ending', as it looks like the blades of a fan:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ffanstreetends.jpg&hash=2ee3626ec1fa9e2a3b94dfb5cf1fbe21de84329e)

You need some space for that fan setup, but it works quite well.

Before you can go about zoning, you need to build a few small facilities for the residents.

A big field is a good starting point, and will give the children a place to run around. You can also include a sports pitch of your choosing to cater for the local pub team:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsuburbanparks.jpg&hash=680f8ed8526d28b1cb61766a67062727ad21ec41)

It's also a good idea to connect some streets with paths. Don't have too many, but a few shortcuts here and there will work wonders. They also make great spots for little playgrounds, so it's a good idea to place playgrounds on some of these paths:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpathwithplayground.jpg&hash=4f4fab20524e9de0a0cc26b9645828f0090e4e68)

And finally, you need some bus stops. The buses that do run through suburbs often stick to a main route through the estate, so reflect this by picking a route along the main streets for your buses to run through and placing bus stops in 3 or so places along this route:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsuburbanbusstops.jpg&hash=89964e46e29eb71ebaf250014db8491a322bbb2a)

And now you're ready to start doing the houses.

Some of you might, at this point, be ready to dig out the ploppable RCI lots from your Plugins folders and start going on a ploppable-house-plopping frenzy.

Don't.

It's a laborious job, and it will take you a long time to pick the right lots and put them in the right place. You're better off getting out the zoning tool and letting the computer do the work.

You need to zone 1x1 plots of low density residential along all of your streets. The best method is just to click each tile individually.
You also need 1x1 or 1x2 plots of low density commercial along the main roads that border your suburb.

Keep going until you fill your suburb:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsuburbanzoning.jpg&hash=0640fb85c0d31fc823c7c37de4feb74921cbdb57)

You're nearly done now. To fill the gaps, you can use grass parks, as well as trees. Along with making the ground look nicer, this can actually kickstart the development of your suburbs:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsuburbanfillers.jpg&hash=26019dc411bfe6680bb2de56b6db95ea3ba600a7)

Once the houses start developing, you need to be aware of two things.

The first is lots that go beyond the 1x1 limit. These need to be demolished as they're too big for a suburb.

The second is outlined here:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fretainingwallproblem.jpg&hash=4e46bf9125a85c347d174a6306a65cc4116a96ed)

You can see that these lots make use of retaining walls. Whilst in the CBD and commercial areas this is unavoidable, that's not the case for suburban development. They don't look good, so whip out the bulldozer and take any retaining walls you see out. Be strict about this and don't let any of your favourite lots off the hook.

And that is how you create a suburb.

Next lesson is on how to create a outskirts shopping precinct.

See you guys,
Chris

Did you happen to base the roadway layout on a real suburb?  I guess I'm too used to looking at blocky, dense suburbs here in Hawaii.  I really like the design of your streets because of the lack of repetition.   :thumbsup:

@sumwonyuno

I believe he did have a realistic suburban road layout but it wasn't based on any one layout in particular. I believe the reason you have such blocky suburban layouts there in Hawaii is because of the limited space where the density would necessitate the need for compactness and a strict adherence to a grid. If you take a look at suburbs on say the mainland US for instance you will see a similar road layout on the outskirts of any major city, minor towns, or rural areas but as you get closer to the urban core the residential areas start to take on more of a blocky squarish grid that you may be more used to there in Hawaii.

...I am so following this. Thanks for the effort! I always wanted to know what were the essential steps on building a realistic city.

A question. What if I wanted to build in one tile, for a whole region? Do you suggest me to work in a 1 tile region? Can I build in a bigger region, so I can expand this city later?

@yochananmichael: Thanks for your insight.

@SoujiroElric: You can expand a region to a larger size, but regions will only expand east and south.  You'll have to move tiles around if you want to expand north or west.

 &apls Very cool you do this Diary can be sure that is helping many people

Hey guys.

I do believe that this is the 97th reply - and you all know that hitting 100 replies will earn this MD promotion to the Best Sellers section.

And now that we are so close to this, it would be nice to make it there before Lesson 13. It doesn't really matter if we don't, but if we do, it will get many more members of this great community reading and following this tutorial, and will inspire them to have a go, which will be fantastic.

So, any assistance in hitting that milestone would be appreciated. I'm afraid I can't offer any prizes for the one who makes the 100th reply, except for my utmost respect and gratitude.

Thanks in advance. And now, let's answer those comments.

yoananchanmicheal:

1) (Response to my review) - Thanks for the offer, I'll think about it. My only concern is that, because of the distance involved (> 3500 miles!), it might take a long time for the relevant kit to cross the pond, which would delay progress of the MD.

2) (Response to sumwonyuno's comment) - You've hit the nail on the head. Indeed the layout is not based on anywhere in particular, but is instead meant to represent a typical British suburb found in nearly all British towns.

sumwonyuno: I don't know how it's done in Hawaii, but here, suburban road layouts are pretty random (besides the main through routes). Mind you, Milton Keynes is a bit more spacious and rural-like than Honolulu, so I guess we can get away with it here. But I'm glad you like how I've done it.

SoujiroElric: The effort is no problem. It's worth it if people like you are finding it useful. And you can play with a region as big as you want, in response to your question. You don't have to restrict yourself to any particular size. I'm just using a 1-tile region here to outline the basics of realistic city-building without making things too complicated. In future projects, we'll go regional, and you'll learn how to build realistically across multiple tiles.

Now it's time for Lesson 12.

Lesson 12 - Outskirts Shopping Precinct

The first thing to say is that this is a very simple, very easy thing to do. It only really involves plopping a few things.
The second is that, by an outskirts shopping precinct, I mean a collection of large shops on the edge of a town. Examples include Kingston in Milton Keynes, and Castlepoint in Bournemouth.

You need to first pick a suitable site - on the edge of town, along a main road. Beyond that it doesn't matter.
Once you've done this, flatten a 10x6 tile area (roughly) for the car park:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fgroundpreparationforprecinct.jpg&hash=ea8cc425030df00a7dac6e0da86f2ff81537ff5f)

Then add a surrounding street, and access streets. Use the SAM-1 textures (parking lot textures) for the surrounding street, and SAM-7 (asphalt) for the access streets. To do this, arrange the puzzle pieces as shown:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpuzzlepiecesformultiplesam.jpg&hash=cabb7288128e53b3dfff216a56567ac3665e8e29)

(In other words, place the asphalt pieces at the start of those roads, and the parking lot pieces at the corner where it meets the access road, in both directions (clockwise and anti-clockwise).)

What you should end up with, after demolishing the puzzle pieces and re-dragging the streets (dragging straight from the puzzle pieces and away from the other SAM texture), is something like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedmultiplesam.jpg&hash=834766d9b80d5d85e2c383a8784183805211b46a)

We'll cover multiple SAM in more detail in future projects.

This will be a fairly busy place when in full operation, so add turn lanes where the access road meets the main road:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fturnlanesforprecinct.jpg&hash=06d1bd18b59622df21ffc1842616e7031f99f3c5)

(Alright, the multiple SAM went away - the SAM-7 wasn't playing nice with the TLA-3. It doesn't really affect the realism - think of it as more parking spaces!)

(Also, notice how the curve to the west was modified. Be prepared to do things like this in the course of your city's development.)

Now you need to add the car parks. You should also place bus stops, but as you can see, we have these already here. Use the same set as before:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fshoppingcarpark.jpg&hash=6fca6d01038a0d11f4d756eea6e77edec3d72ef6)

The retaining walls happened because the ground wasn't flat. Yours should be flat - take your time to make sure it is. I'm showing it so that you don't make the same error.

Finally, you need to zone. You'll need to use the parcelisation technique that you learnt in Lesson 9.
Using medium density commercial, zone 3x3 and 3x2 plots, touching each other, around the outer edge of the car park (but NOT on the main road edge):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fzoningforprecinct.jpg&hash=406c45337d9f89cf48916ff2d8ea0b961a0a4253)

And that's it. The buildings you want are about 2 storeys tall, and should fill each plot. It's one building per plot and one plot per building, like the suburbs.

Again, like the suburbs, be strict in removing and replacing lots that don't make the grade.

It really is that simple to make a good outskirts shopping precinct.

Next lesson will be on the outskirts proper - where you will learn about farmland, rural roads, etc.

See you then - hopefully in the Best Sellers board!
Chris

Chris,

Another fantastic update I love the way you showed the shopping district. I am really looking forward to lesson 13. One question, though, I have been trying in vain to get the RHW 6C to curve and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get it to curve like you had it do in the lesson on Highways. I was wondering if you could tell me how you got it to curve and as always the Tutorial MD is a G-d send for newbs like me. See you in the Best Sellers forum!!!

Nice tutorials and really decent effort overall here.  It's great to see an MDer eager to share what he or she has learned- it's my pleasure to get RCFD up to the line.

...99...


David

I'll make it 100

Really like the suburb layout, gave me some ideas. Looking forward to the next part. On that subject, I made a tutorial on designing rural areas myself, which can be found at: http://www.csgdesign.com.au/CSGf/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=1579 (http://www.csgdesign.com.au/CSGf/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=1579)

Interesting thread. I like how the civics & utilities are augmented with parking spaces, fields and whatnot.

Since noone else has posted on this, I believe the station from post #90 is Amsterdam Central Station (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=574), this is the LEX link.

Amsterdam Central Station (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=574), this is the LEX link.
[/quote]
yep that be the lot.....i was still trying to find it... anyways its a good station... been a little busy with my big region map with my 12-14 tile super city but will continue on the tutorial map when i find the patience... making a 1 tile road bridge in a 5 tiled double Avenue space is gonna be hard..... think you could make a mini tutorial on that....im a little stumped... my other idea was to use the RHW and HSR(mostly the GHSR version) mods and use that 5 tile bridge section for a highway/regional HSR crossing section.....thing is does anyone have links to a Ground level HSR tunnel mod? if i do the RHW/HSR style i'm gonna cancel the North/south highway on the west side and make the east side of the river avenue the Highway. oh just curious as to which level crossings did you mean smileymk? the ones near the main station or the ones near the large freight yard? as to the over-treed forrest. it is only temporary, with some mods i found recently i might be re doing the forrest scheme

Great thread.

Can I make a shameless plug? Where you've got the ped paths connecting streets in your new suburb in post #90, you could also use my NAM PMT Bike Paths (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2604). These require the NAM and reuse some of the dirt tracks towards the end of the Ped Mall Tile tab ring. Not only do they look similar to what you have, they also allow peds to walk across them so you encourage walking.

Wow DW, those look great, up until now, I did not even know of these, because in zoned areas, you would see pavement instead of dirt.

We're here!

As you can see, the SC4D community has answered my call for a big push to reach the 100-post milestone - and has been rightly rewarded with the promotion of this MD to the Best Sellers section.

I'd just like to say a huge thank-you to all those of you who have taken the time to read, appreciate and/or comment on this thread. You guys have kept me going throughout the past 4 or 5 months and I really appreciate this.

It's evident from the comments I've read that the majority of you are learning lots out of this MD and are finding it very useful for your own projects. This is fantastic, and long may it continue.

So, in short, cheers guys, and may we go marching on towards the Classics board!

To all those who have posted since Lesson 12, here are your responses:

yochananmichael: Thanks for your kind words. As for the 6-C, it's best to do it in stages, starting with the middle, then the outside, then the inside. I might provide some step-by-step screenshots if I get time.

dedgren: And it's my pleasure to share my techniques with you all. Congrats, by the way, on reaching 10K posts for 3RR. That really is an achievement.

metasmurf: Indeed, you are the one who finally got the MD to the line. Many thanks. Like I said, I'm afraid I can't offer any prizes, but surely seeing this thread in a higher echelon of SC4D is worth it, right?
And I've had a look at your tutorial, it looks good. The technique I'm going to show you in Lesson 13 is a bit different, but similar in basic principle. All I can say is I hope you like it.

Unassigned: Cheers. And thanks for providing the link.

blueeyesman: I'm a little perplexed about the '1-tile road bridge in a 5-tile double avenue' you mentioned. If you could point it out, or maybe post a screenshot, that would help a lot, especially to provide recommendations as to whether you should do that RHW/GHSR thing.
As for the level crossings, I meant all of them. Maybe you can get away with those in the freightyard because of the slow moving trains, but it would still be better to keep cars away from the trains.

deadwoods: Of course you can make a shameless plug. Thanks for the recommendation, and I have downloaded it with intent to make use of it.

j-dub: Neither did I, which makes the discovery all the better.

And that's all from me for now. Lesson 13 is making good progress.

Thanks once more for your continued support.

Chris

Your advise for outskirts shopping precincts is very interesting. I'm going to build something similar, with underground parkings, lot of plazas and plenty of tram lines. This will be very useful for developing skyscrapers too.

Congrats for your M.D. becoming a Best Seller &apls &apls

First off I would just like to thank you smileymk for creating this guide.  I was very pleased to see it updated as I think its an excellent starting point for people like me who understand the game but are trying to get to that higher level of realism.  This, the RHW Interchange Guide and countless hours of browsing the CJ's, Mayor Diaries and the City Building Concepts forum over at Simtropolis have been very helpful. 
As you are getting into suburbs I thought this concept might be of interest to you http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/topic/23329-fused-grid/page__hl__fused+grid.  Iv'e used it in one of my recent cities and was quite impressed with the results in terms of realism.  Although In my mind its more suited to a North American style of suburbs.  Its quite similar to what you have done here but might leave a bit more room for trees, parks, pedestrian paths etc.  Anyway cheers again for this great guide looking forward to future updates  :)

Hey guys. Lesson 13 will appear in a moment.
But first,

Terring7: Good luck with that project, and thanks for the kind words about the MD's promotion.

samboo18: Yes, that concept was of interest. I did have a look at it, and although I had to defend my town whilst I was there (Milton Keynes was mentioned by others, with some interesting things said about it), it did provide a good insight into an alternative suburb design.
Thanks for providing the link.

And here is Lesson 13!

Lesson 13 - Outskirts

Outside of the town, we have a huge open area. And we have to fill it, because in real life, there are things in between towns besides grass.
In real life, farmland rules outside of town boundaries, so we need to reflect this by filling the open area with farmland.

Farmland is unusual in that zoning it is one of the first things you do, unlike everything else we've done recently where zoning came after building all of the infrastructure.

But you do need to do some things before zoning farmland.

The first task is to provide access to each plot. You want to use streets for this. Lay them out about 15 tiles or more apart, like so:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fbasicstreetlayout.jpg&hash=4e9c038630b7df3fe980503e336272865b8a6870)

Then add SAM. In real life these roads don't have much of a surface, if any, and aren't really proper roads, so you need to reflect this by texturing your streets with one of these SAM textures:

- SAM-3 (PEG dirt road)
- SAM-4 (Gravel road)
- SAM-5 (Trolca dirt road)

I used a modified version of SAM-4, purely because I like the look of it:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedstreetlayout-1.jpg&hash=d942a036f31058bac591fab9090593c947471cc7)

Next you need to add boundaries between different farms. The best things to use are trees and/or hedges. For this I used the BSC Hedges (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=283). Place them so that you get farms that are reasonably sized (something like 10x15 average size), but vary the sizes and make them irregularly shaped - some rectangular farms are OK but they can't all be like that:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fboundaryhedges.jpg&hash=df0ff2e4c7147d2ba5283a4a782e308f68619bd3)

To the south of this area we have the town's outer ring road. We don't want farm buildings growing along this route. So we need to provide some sort of barrier - and trees are perfect for this.
You should build your hedges so that they leave a 1-tile gap from the avenue. Next to your avenue, on the rural side, place your favourite tree lot alongside the whole route:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fboundarytrees.jpg&hash=5c260bbbb8175c52ee486646f60ed6d77288a109)

This has the added advantage of creating a nice-looking and definitive boundary for your town.

Now it's time to zone. Use the low-density industrial zone tool for this. You need to fill in all of your farm areas. Hold the mouse down to help fill irregular areas, and hold Shift to prevent any extra streets from cropping up.

When done, the area should look something like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ffarmlandzoning.jpg&hash=7bdde879866afe3456ecfec1b2f2c27a656935a0)

Now you have to wait for things to start developing. Once they do, the tasks you need to do depend on what kind of farms develop.

In any case, you need to add a farmhouse for the landowners to live in. Use the low-density residential tool and the CTRL key to create 2x2 plots that are one tile away from the farm building that has already developed:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ffarmhousezoning.jpg&hash=d97d0707982721fc8b917ef502dea5cb54ef067b)

We have already added trees alongside the avenue to the south. It's also a good idea to add them alongside main roads that run rurally, like the one that runs through the centre of our area here.
But it's also OK to have some farm buildings on the main road.

So, by all means, using the same tree lot as with the avenue, build trees alongside the main road, on both sides, but do NOT demolish ANY buildings that get in the way. Leave them as they are:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Froadsidetrees.jpg&hash=1890c1557980f1c2b2ff18605b37de8e1c6ca954)

You now need to add detail, depending on which lots you get.

There is one lot that has no place in our outskirts whatsoever, and that is this lot here:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Funwantedfarmlot.jpg&hash=46722f48ec648df3bc53692c316c3d82e4712dd2)

Buildings like this belong in freightyards. Not here. The size is simply too big to be realistic, and the texture is also unrealistic, as well as being hideously ugly.

If you see this appear anywhere in your rural areas, whip out that bulldozer and take it out without haste.

When you see ploughed areas of farmland, like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fploughedfarmdetail.jpg&hash=fbd76e51451097e33eb99a2d31fde9a91a12556c)

You don't need to add any detail. These will become crops later on.

With crop fields like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fploughedcropfarm.jpg&hash=42ddac7f53a76782966a80723dcd200152083c6f)

Or like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fplantcropfarm.jpg&hash=34a8d995bb0251c9aa3d1c57e91a09817371a01d)

All you need is a building to process the crops for market. And as you can see, the computer has already provided them for us here.

With plain textures, like those in the picture showing how to zone farm houses, you need to add the most detail. These are typically livestock farms.
Fences are a must here, to provide enclosures for the different types of livestock. As I found some cow lots in my list, I decided to add these too, but you don't have to:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fopenfarmdetail.jpg&hash=2acc1e098ab5c57f296602784baba34e7bbcc7db)

Make sure you don't block any developed farm tiles with fences. Planning it out is a good idea here.

Continue until you finish off the rural area. And that is that for outskirts.

There isn't much left to do in this project. The next lesson will focus on completing the city, with ideas on how you can vary certain things to add extra interest.

See you then,
Chris

Great job Chris. I did see your comment over at ST and it was a good one. I have seen a fused grid here in the States before and indeed the walking paths make it easy to get from the residential areas to the shopping and business areas along the main roads/avenues. The farms are great and the tips are sound. I look forward to Lesson 14 and on to the next project!

Very nice work!!! Fantastic rural area!!!   :thumbsup:

I always tried to build efficient and still nice looking farms, but no success. This lesson is very interesting and I think I'll try it in my Martian farms in my M.D. :)

Cheri o Chris on your nation and the world witnessing the marriage of your Prince William and the new Princess Kate. I in the United States applaud and congratulate you and all your fellow countrymen and women on such a momentous occasion. Great Britain should stand tall and proud in the knowledge that your nation is is such good future hands.

BTW the farms are great and I look forward to when the last part of this project is out.

John
:thumbsup:

Hey guys. Lesson 14 is now ready, thanks for your patience.

Also,

yochananmichael:
(1) Thanks for the kind words. The fused grid with walking paths is a good idea - I might even adopt it for the 3rd project.
(2) I hope you guys in the US enjoyed the occasion. From the news reports I saw, as well as the interviews on the BBC with the Americans who came to London, you guys certainly were enjoying yourselves. I myself was proudly sitting at home, watching as the two did that now-famous balcony kiss, and feeling even more proud to be British than normal (this coming from a true British patriot!)

BTW, the words "Princess Diana" are not to be used here, however much you may want to make the comparison.

Tomas Neto: Thanks.

Terring7: I'll have a look at your MD when I get a chance and see how well you're implementing my ideas.

And now it's time for Lesson 14. It's a short one, but let's hope you like it anyway.

Lesson 14 - Completing the City

First of all, I should say that the city is not actually complete. I don't mean to use the title like that. Even without a lazy PC, there's no way that a large city tile is going to be fully filled and an update done within the 45-day limit.

What I will show you is what completed areas should look like, and some ideas that you can use to vary your estates.

Firstly, this is an idea of what a finished suburb should look like, apart from some finishing touches and detailing:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ffinishedsuburb.jpg&hash=b6164884e49155a21356d62a022b56a9a55d4825)

If hills prevent construction, like on the west edge of the suburb here, it's probably best to leave them untouched rather than leaving yourself a real mess.

And this is how a rural area should look. It is supposed to be representative of an area, it is not an area itself:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedfarmarea.jpg&hash=1c249c6f57f1d2ffceecfdfd052bbe51f3b29d55)

So, basically, that sort of layout should be seen across the entire rural area.

Now, with regards to doing the rest. You make the estates using the techniques we learnt in previous lessons. But there is one vital rule to follow:
Don't make 2 estates the same. EVER!!!

Each estate should have a character of its own, and that means a different street layout, different placement of amenities, different everything. So you need to vary your estates in some way. Ideas include:

- Using trees at the edges of town to create a 'gateway' in, instead of just going straight into development, like so:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ftownentrancetrees.jpg&hash=a596e38729f2dfbd1826e7a19341d95bd29fb43c)

- Filling gaps at junctions with shops and having grass behind them - there's no point in putting a whole estate into a space like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Froadjunctionfiller.jpg&hash=20dcbe7b56f30ac146cf0747bba27cd128e97e8e)

- Where street bridges are used (we built an old historic bridge in the CBD lesson), make the street leading to it a main route through the relevant estate:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Foldbridgeapproach.jpg&hash=2b9413177cd6461dbb5d466597683dcea52ca087)

- And finally, having streets directly alongside avenues, leaving the avenue for through traffic (you see this a lot in the UK):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Favenueparallelstreet.jpg&hash=d4a2234b4788495134c432528073a3412d18b9fe)

And that's it. Just some ways to vary your estates so that you can fill your city tile realistically and aesthetically (because variety makes things look better).

We're almost done with the 1st project. The next lesson is on detailing and forms the penultimate lesson in this project.

Until then,
Chris

 &apls fantastic as ever Chris keep up the good work!

 &apls Interesting CJ, keep going. I have your ideas here in mind when I build.

QuoteAnd finally, having streets directly alongside avenues, leaving the avenue for through traffic (you see this a lot in the UK

Some time ago, that did seem like it used to be a common trait here in the states back then, if there was enough space, they used to build the side street right next to the avenue as well. However, more often, the Frontage Road seems less popular by the communities that have them in my RL. They like to shut them down, despite being in developed areas that lack higher speed routes for a distance.

Unfortunately, during the 90's, there is not as much room, and I have had to see houses get either torn down, or a big piece of their front yard taken, and landscape destroyed, in order to clear the way for an avenue.

People are lucky when they don't get the road they reside on, turned into a high capacity pass. Actually, to be more precise, its happening in my RL right now this construction season, widening roads very close in front of people's houses. It seriously is quite an ugly, muddy mess. When you live or build whatever on a road that goes some distance, you must never assume traffic will stay the same way for over a decade.

Hey guys. Let's just jump straight into it, shall we?

yochananmichael: Thanks for the kind words. I will.

Unassigned: I'll keep going alright. That people are using my ideas in their own work makes me happy.

j-dub: Interesting observation about the problems of avenue-street combos. Maybe you should point the people who are smashing up houses in the direction of Lesson 1? It might help them to help your community.

And now, Lesson 15.

Lesson 15 - Detailing

"Small details like wheelie bins are crucial."

(East Neuk Model Railway Club, Railway Modeller August 2008)

Let me give you a bit of background info. about that quote. These guys are the creators of Law Junction, a UK N-scale model railway that, at the time, was one of the more well-known layouts on the UK exhibition circuit. This is a layout featuring over 20 ft. of accurate, true-to-real-life main line running, a procession of a variety of fast moving trains, and a true impression of modern-day Scotland.
And here is this guy talking about how important wheelie bins are - a tiny detail which would only be a few millimetres tall and only a couple of millimetres square at the base.

But he is absolutely right. It is the tiny details like these that turn average model railways, and SC4 cities, into great ones.

So, how do we detail a city? Let's start with the transport network, and one of the motorway junctions:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Froundabouticsignage.jpg&hash=fd56bea75993b8ec68e33a9715a4e51194627717)

You can see I've added some signs - mrtnrln's UK Motorway / Prime Road Signs to be exact. Road signs are something that you see every day in the real world, yet in SC4, they're often nowhere to be seen. Therefore placing them makes for an essential and great way of detailing the city.

It is important that, when you place signs, you place them correctly, and you place all of the signs that you need to place (as far as possible, according to what signs you can find). Different countries do things differently, so getting that accuracy means getting out there and seeing how things are done for yourself.

For example, this is how an approach to a junction in the UK should be signed:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fadvancedjunctionsignage.jpg&hash=f4196fce89a53fabfd8b668b7ba6d2173dda4389)

I will also show you the fork. Notice the gantry - you want to be using these on major junctions AND on motorways wider than 3 lanes (at least in the UK):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fforksignage.jpg&hash=3114597c79ed45e4ea619da55a60d9d8f52fcbbc)

You often see advertising billboards alongside motorways and main roads, so plop these down as well:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Froadsidebillboards.jpg&hash=6c34d381f82875870c896043515b644ad6b56249)

There is still something vitally important missing from our motorway. Traffic!

Unfortunately, SC4 only creates traffic where there is traffic according to the query tool. Our motorway is not part of the commute from the suburbs of our town to the centre, so the game leaves our motorway empty.
But motorways are not empty. Ever. This motorway should be busy with through traffic.

That's where traffic generators come in. You should be able to find some on the STEX - pick your favourite. I used the Euro Traffic Generator.

Place these lots at regular intervals (10-20 tiles, depending on the lot) to create a constant stream of traffic on both your motorways and main roads. The volume you use depends on the road - heavy for motorways, less so for surface roads:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ftrafficgenerators.jpg&hash=c4ecea9ecb2a68b2aac0b9d3f573008bf3d3a446)

So that's the roads done. What about the railways?

Under UK law, all railway land must be fenced off, to prevent trespassing. So a good way to detail railways is to give them boundary fences, like so:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Flinesidefencing.jpg&hash=c70c205cb98f567b2e639763d6ac643b377ec73d)

Again, what you use is up to you. Really for a UK railway there should be palisade fencing, but I don't know of any suitable lots, so for now I've made do with the RMIP Airport Fences. They do work well as ordinary fences too.

Rural areas provide plenty of detail opportunities - for example, you can put some wild animals in the fields - these are just the God mode ones but what works for you is also fine:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fwildanimals.jpg&hash=aae338a4242d636e45cc35cc0a00df288bd5f5a6)

You can also add rural power lines or telephone wires alongside main roads. I'm making use of the 3RR Telephone Poles (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=5603.0) (6th item down once the page loads):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fruralpowerlines.jpg&hash=585ad608de5155741b29a7fd186d398b74a35023)

What about rivers? These just cry out to be detailed with all sorts of things such as rocks, moss, plants, you name it. You could (and should) go to town with deatiling rivers - I've just added some rocks and moss using the PEG Pond sets:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Friverdetailing.jpg&hash=0336cc3e94233bd0166215e74947bbbbe4daa1e5)

To finish the lesson, we'll detail the suburbs next. Each and every house should have fencing surrounding the sides and back of the property. For those that don't, you can place a boundary using trees or a suitable solid ploppable fence that you know of (if you do then a link would be appreciated!). Placing trees at the back of all properties that have open space behind them is a nice touch too:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ftreefences.jpg&hash=2dc901d11895d9e4f450f71ef7149816ed2581c7)

And finally, let's throw in some cameos for good measure. It's possible to have all sorts of cameos - but the more mundane and everyday they are, the more realistic your scene will be. Things like the 4 men on a zebra crossing have been done, so come up with something original. I put some cyclists on the suburb's pathways (the set is called PAMU Bikes, it's on the STEX):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcyclists.jpg&hash=4beba1a45e84422265505cf9695d9d13b182d45c)

And to conclude this lesson, let me say that you can never detail your city too much. What I've given you today is just a handful of ideas on some things you can do. The complete list of detailing projects is endless - the more ideas you can come up with, the better.

And above all, enjoy doing the detailing. It's actually quite fun, and whilst it may not be the same as concocting crazy motorway junctions, it will still give you a lot of satisfaction, and will transform the overall appearance of your city, so it's well worth the effort.

Next time we will add the finishing touches to the city, and conclude the first project.

Until then,
Chris

Looks fantastic, Chris! #Goes to download some sign packs#

-Alex

You're right, the road signs really do make your road networks come alive.
I'm not great with road transport layouts myself, so I find this incredibly informative. Many thanks  :thumbsup:

Welcome, all, to the last proper lesson of this introductory project in realistic city-building.

In a few moments you'll learn how to add the final touches to that city of yours. But first...

Exla357: Thanks. Make sure you get as many relevant sign packs as you can - the wider the range of signs in your files, the better.

Reikhardt: Well, the road signs certainly are a great example of how very small things can make a very big difference.

And now, it's time to finish the first project with some finishing touches.

Lesson 16 - Finishing Touches

Finishing touches are a lot like detailing, in that they are small things that make a big difference. The difference between detail and finishing touches, however, is that the latter is essential to give a city a sense of completeness, whereas the former isn't.

You've already learnt to do a lot of things in previous lessons that could be considered as 'finishing touches' - eg. adding car parks, turn lanes, security fences, using SAM textures, etc.

However, there are still a few things that you can do. Like detailing, this is a conceptual thing and the more you can come up with, the better. All I can do is show you just a selection of finishing touches.

A good start is to add fillers to roundabouts. If you bulldoze the central tiles of one-way or avenue roundabouts, you're left with a blank space which you can put something in to.
There are many lots around the Web designed for this situation. This avenue roundabout has been touched up with the BlAM Pedestrian Underpass filler:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Favenueroundaboutfiller.jpg&hash=56f1556fd722b50bc31fdee2a647c4af13695a7c)

You can see that the roundabout looks finished now - there's nothing more that needs to be added. You can add signs if you want (and you should!), but you can still look at that roundabout and say it's finished.

Use fillers also for the oneway roundabouts:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fonewayroundaboutfiller.jpg&hash=bf0db15dfdd277bea1bddf2c3f13236c367d6509)

I know I've said this several times before, but the rule is to use your preferred lot. Doing this further enhances your city by personalising it.

Another big thing we can do is to add retaining walls in certain places where the hills are steep. Do this only in urban areas - they don't look as good out in the country.
I like to use the Jeronij Residential Walls for this, but once more, use what you like.

You can place the walls alongside main roads to improve the appearance of embankments or cuttings made in the road's construction:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fmotorwayretainingwalls.jpg&hash=0735ca979929e3e22cf2322ede033ddf2e607e8a)

You can add them to suburbs as well, where they do make a big visual improvement:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsuburbanretainingwalls.jpg&hash=9f0a12d0b2e37de3df1cf007bea06863314c2b01)

But where retaining walls really come into their own is in deep urban cuttings, such as what we made for the railway line:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Frailwayretainingwalls.jpg&hash=3d6f7a279be8a6036f611b010d7651e2f1023b86)

You can see here how a big ugly ditch can be easily turned into something much more aesthetically pleasing using retaining walls.

A tip on lot orientation when using Jeronij's walls:

- When using the straight pieces, the arrow points to the trees.
- When using the diagonal pieces, the north arrow orients the wall to face the north-east. You can use this to figure out how to properly orient your diagonal walls.

Another addition is to add trees alongside the edge of rural roads and railways:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Froadsidetrees-1.jpg&hash=a02e2ead1a08203f851d1cfdeb8ddaeb1a7f7d92)

See the small trees alongside the carriageways? These haven't grown just yet but when they do, they'll provide a nice boundary to the motorway.

Do this also for your railways - and don't worry about how close you get to the track. Trees do often stand right next to high-speed main lines, and they often obscure the boundary fence, so you can, and should, place trees such that this happens.

And finally, there is a slight issue with one of our rural roads that we can address:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsteeproad.jpg&hash=752ceffd24b69226e07a8a64a686e268f07f04c3)

This road features a long, quite steep climb, which is not a problem for cars, but it will be for the lorries which use the road.
Lorries that are climbing the hill will not be doing it quickly, and will therefore be holding up all of the traffic behind them.

The solution is simple: to provide a crawler lane on the uphill side such that the faster traffic can overtake the slow lorries. We don't need an extra lane going downhill because the lorries going downhill have gravity on their side.

We can use the ARD-3, available in the NWM, to create this crawler lane.

Start by plopping a starter piece. Pay close attention to the orientation - the 2 lanes are going uphill:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fstartingard-3.jpg&hash=721bb0676dcc71386adbdd28f469979d08f04f85)

And before you ask, I have LHD. If you're using RHD, then the piece needs to go the other way round.

To end it, you can add a simple ARD-3 to Road Transition at the rural end. At the bottom of the hill, however, we have a junction with TuLEP pieces. We therefore must convert this junction to transition from turn lanes to ARD-3.
Here's how to do it:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fendingard-3atjunction.jpg&hash=28d07f8a184c98aa581f4582c82387326bc94bfc)

Again, make sure you get the orientation right, and transition to ARD-3 as soon as the game will let you.

You can then drag between the ends to complete your ARD-3:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedard-3.jpg&hash=f7fd555dcc81ba6f78698d62704422a86dc6e7ac)

Because there are junctions with farm roads, some of the ARD-3 might not materialise. Not to worry - just put a couple more starter pieces in the trouble spots.

And that is a taster of just some of the finishing touches that you can apply to your city.

Before I conclude, though, there is an issue, which is now relevant, that I'd like to talk about.

When is a city finished?

In railway modelling, one of my other interests, there is a very old saying that goes something like this:

"A model railway layout is never finished, because there is always something else to be added, or something more to be done.

I would say that this statement applies as much to SC4 as it does to railway modelling. There is always something else you can do to improve your city.

This can be a big thing, like widening a road, remodelling a suburb or replacing Maxis buildings with custom BATs off the STEX, etc. Or it can be a small thing, like putting up some road signs, creating a pedestrian crossing, or adding a few trees here and there.

You can call a city complete if all of the essential things are there and you're happy with it, but really, when you look at it up close, you will always find that there is something that can be added, removed or changed. This is always a good thing - by making the necessary alterations, you will have improved your city and will be more satisfied with it. Other people will think more highly of it too.

One of the big advantages of membership of a forum such as this is that it enables you to get advice on potential changes or improvements from a wide range of people, each of whom will have their own opinion. Take this advice when it's presented to you - it can't do your city any harm, and you might just learn something new.

So, in conclusion, just like in real life, a city is never truly finished. There are always changes to be made - so make them.

And that, my friends, concludes the lessons on the first project.

In the next update we'll go over all of the important points of realistic city-building that you've learnt so far.

Until then,
Chris

Details are always a nice addition.   :)

No, I tend to disagree. I say a city is "finished" when one finally fulfills all the steps you laid out in this thread. It'll become progressively harder to find things to add or improve upon. Once it's at that point, it's time to take a break and start building on the next tile in the region. Of course, if you get an idea later, you're allowed to return to it. But generally speaking, it's considered "finished".

How much of the past 16 lessons have you forgotten? Well sit tight, because it's all going to come flooding back in a minute.

sumwonyuno: Indeed they are. They're also a very important addition.

SimRisu: What you have raised is the issue of when you're satisfied with a city. I suppose it's like a model railway - at some point you decide that the layout is ready to join the exhibition circuit. When it's done a few shows you retire it and work on the next layout.
However, a lot of layouts change as they're exhibited, either because of problems that only show themselves under those conditions, or because of constructive criticism from viewers. So in that sense, a layout, and indeed an SC4 city, is never done, even when you're happy with it and are showing it to the world. But you're right, at some point you do have to decide that something is done well enough and move on - and this, for the record, applies to MD-ing as well.
However, you could always work on the region as a whole, rather than one tile at a time...

Now, ready to have your memories refreshed? Then gather round for the summary of this introductory project.

Project 1 Summary

Throughout the course of this introductory project, you have, hopefully, learnt serveral things about
various stages of realistic city-building.

It is, however, a lot to learn, and so therefore you need to consolidate your learning, otherwise you'll
end up forgetting it - especially the stuff we covered in the early lessons.

So I thought we'd better just go over the key points that were covered in the course of this first
project. It might be worth you printing this off, as it will provide a simple list of concepts and
rules that you can refer to whilst working on your own projects.

Now let's get started. First, there are some fundamental ideas that you need to appreciate. We didn't
learn these, but these points were the ethos behind this project, so I think they're worth sharing.

Fundamental Concepts

- You can build a very realistic city using only Maxis lots and downloads from the STEX and LEX, without needing to do any modding at all.

- Your playing style (i.e. what lots you use, how you use them, the order in which you build things, etc.) is largely irrelevant. You can get realistic results with a variety of playing styles.

(However, be sensible with the order - you should build the foundations (i.e. landscape and transport network) before you do anything else.)

- It's well worth you putting as much time and effort into each stage of construction as you can.

And now we'll go over the key ideas put forth in each lesson.

Planning

- Planning is the single most important stage of city-building.

- Planning prevents your city from becoming a disorganised, random mess.

- Initial plans are best done on a blank sheet of paper, using a few differently coloured pens.

- Use different colours to show different things, so your plan is easy to follow.

- Keep your plan simple. Include only essential information such as main transport networks, estates and important buildings.

- Planning should not take more than 10 minutes per city tile.

- A young child should be able to follow your plan.

Preparation

- Use Paint to edit the config.bmp file to change the size of your region.

- The size of the image in pixels is the size of your region in small city tiles (and the approximate
size in kilometres).

- A small city tile is made by colouring a single pixel red.

- A medium city tile is made by colouring a 2x2 square of pixels green.

- A large city tile is made by colouring a 4x4 square of pixels blue.

Terraforming

- Fill the landscape with rolling hills, which should be large and not too steep.

- A good height can be formed with two or three clicks of the hill tool.

- Each hill should be linked to the next one.

- Create water bodies, such as rivers, with the Shallow Valley tool.

- Make rivers shallow - you should be able to see the bottom.

- Make your rivers run through the valleys between the hills, and ensure that they're bendy.

- Soften out the riverbank on either side - there should be no cliffs.

- Add trees at the top and bottom of hills, as well as on riverbanks.

- Tree clusters should be dense, especially near water.

- Lower densities can be used on not-too-steep hills (something you could easily climb, for example).

Motorways

- Start with an interchange - it is easier to work from there.

- Begin the carriageway by plopping an RHW starter piece.

- Fork interchanges are good for creating spur motorways.

- Roundabout interchanges are good for most interchanges with surface roads.

- You can end spur motorways at flat roundabouts.

- Use either RHW-4 or RHW-6C for the main carriageway, depending on your preference.

- Use ground lifter and hole digger lots, as well as the NAM On-Slope pieces, to create realistic flyovers over and under the motorway.

- Use RHW-4 for spur motorways.

- Keep motorways relatively straight, and use smooth curves as much as you can.

- Fork interchanges can be created by building an RHW bridge over the main carriageway, adding a ramp on the other side, and connecting everything up.

- Roundabout interchanges can be created by dragging a one-way road oval, adding stubs for the exits, and connecting everything up.

- Make exit slip roads 2 lanes wide (RHW-4), entry slip roads 1 lane wide (MIS).

- Accel/decel lanes for major junctions (like the fork interchange) are a good idea.

Roads

- Drag out the road system according to your plan, using avenues and roads.

- For bridges, the Plain bridge is usually the best choice.

- Use avenue roundabouts at avenue junctions and oneway roundabouts at road junctions.

- The 2x2 road roundabout can be used to end an avenue at a road.

- Roads can cross avenues at flat junctions.

- Flat junctions between main roads should have turn lanes, which can be created with the TuLEP system.

- Be reasonable with slopes - don't be afraid to add curves to reduce the gradient.

- Use smooth curves as much as you can.

- Avoid at-grade junctions with motorways - use FLUPs or flyover pieces to keep the motorway grade-separated.

- Use NWM on some urban main roads, particularly TLA and MAVE, to make things more varied.

Railways

- Railways should be relatively flat, and have only gradual bends.

- Reroute roads to fit in the railway if necessary - the railway came first.

- Use embankments and cuttings to keep the slope to a minimum.

- If cuttings get too deep, use tunnels instead.

- Flat tunnels can be created by digging a level cutting and filling in the middle afterwards.

- Place stations only when needed (usually only 1 per town), and choose the right station for the job.

- Use two parallel rail tiles to create a busy main line.

- Build freightyards by building sidings alongside the main line, and placing a suitable lot at the siding farthest from the main lines.

- Busy main lines should be electrified with overhead catenary.

- Catenary masts should be consistently spaced at 3-5 tiles apart.

- Where the railway passes under a bridge, catenary masts should be placed directly on each side.

- Do not electrify freightyard lots. You can electrify some of the sidings.

- Using pointwork with smooth curves, which can be found in the NAM, is a must.

Utilities

- Build power plants away from towns, and make them big enough to power your region.

- Make sure to add transformers, supplies, car parks, etc. for the power plants.

- Spread out the power lines - build them through towns and to the edge of your region.

- Use streets as access roads, branching off main roads at junctions featuring turn lanes.

- Use the SAM asphalt textures to improve the appearance of your streets.

- Water facilities should be well away from power plants and landfills.

- Water facilities should include the pumps, car parks, and sewage works (although you might want to build separate sewage works).

- Build water pipes in straight lines 12 tiles apart, connected at the ends.

- Landfill makes for a realistic, if unpleasant, waste disposal facility.

- Place landfills well away from towns.

- Make the landfill appropriately sized to the area it serves - something like 20x15 tiles should be enough for a reasonably-sized town.

- Make sure to add an access street to the landfill.

- Surround all utilities with security fencing, including security gates at the entrance to each facility.

City Centre

- Inner cities should have a layout of long, relatively straight streets, spaced about 4 tiles apart.

- Inner cities should be filled with medium-density residential, with medium-density commercial placed along main roads.

- Inner cities and CBDs should not feature too many facilities such as schools.

- Construct bus stops along main roads in inner cities.

- CBD street layouts should be a tight grid, with approximately 4x4-tile blocks.

- CBDs should feature shopping centres, multi-storey and flat car parks, and a straight street lined
with bus stops.

- Pedestrianised shopping streets can be built in CBDs with the Ped Mall pieces.

- High-density commercial zoning should dominate CBDs, with high-density residential in non-important places.

- Ped Mall On Slope pieces can be used to make stepped pedestrian footbridges.

Industry

- The street layout for an industrial estate should consist of a couple of relatively straight main streets, with a few straight branches at least 5 tiles apart.

- Where streets meet diagonal roads, build a street slip lane to make turns easier for lorries.

- Add small car parks around the estate.

- Zone single 2x2-3x3-tile parcels of medium density industrial, holding down the CTRL key whilst zoning to ensure that what grows is one single lot.

- Make sure there is a gap of at least 1 tile between each lot.

- Fill in the gaps with bus stops, pedestrian paths and grass lots.

- Add trees in the gaps, and at the edges of the estate.

Facilities

- Build a main police HQ either in the CBD or on the edge of town. For a reasonably sized town, you don't need much else.

- The police facility should be easily accessible, and have a reasonably sized car park.

- Build fire stations on main roads, running OWR-1 around the back to allow fire engines to come back.

- Add turn lanes at access roads where appropriate.

- Construct one primary school in each suburb, building on a main street, and providing a small field at the back, a small car park, and a perimeter fence.

- Construct a couple of high schools by placing the building on a main street, providing a moderate car park, a couple of sports courts, a large field with sports pitches, and a perimeter fence.

- Add a large library in the CBD.

- Build a hospital off a main road. Make it large, and include a large car park, a walk-in centre, and a landing pad for the air ambulance.

- Make your facilities a bit different each time.

Suburbs

- Start by building a couple of main streets, which connect directly to main roads.

- Build a few streets to connect the main streets.

- Add side streets to fill the suburb. The more random the layout is, the better.

- Experiment with a few different street endings and formats.

- Add 2 or 3 bus stops along a main street.

- Include space for a large field. Use grass parks to create it.

- Add a few pedestrian paths to provide useful shortcuts. Place playgrounds along some of these.

- Zone 1x1 low-density residential plots along all of your streets.

- Zone 2x1 low-density commercial plots along main roads.

- Fill gaps with grass parks.

- Any homes that have retaining walls as part of the lot should be immediately demolished.

- Lots that stray outside of the 1x1 plots should only occur occasionally - excessive noncompliant lots should also be immediately demolished.

Outskirts Shopping Precinct

- Build a car park inside a moderately-sized ring of access street.

- The site should be next to a main road, on the edge of town.

- Add turn lanes on the main road at the access street turn-off.

- Zone 3x3 blocks of medium-density commercial along the outer edges, using the CTRL key. Make the lots
touch each other.

Outskirts

- Build a network of access streets, making them straight and keeping them at least 15 tiles apart.

- Pretty the streets up with gravel or dirt textures, available in the SAM.

- Split up the land into several plots using hedges or trees. Make each plot irregular and reasonably sized.

- Add trees alongside avenues and motorways.

- Zone agriculture in all of the plots.

- When lots develop, add farmhouses using low-density residential, one tile away from the developed building.

- Farmhouses should not have retaining walls (as if you were working in a surburb).

- Place trees alongside main roads, so long as there are no buildings in the way in a particular plot.

- Detail open farms with fence enclosures, animals, and feeding facilities for those facilities.

- Farms with ploughed land or crops do not need detailing, but they should have a processing facility (the building that develops will usually do the job).

- Farms with the Pedriana Plant building and/or flat dirt textures should be immediately demolished.

Completing the City

- Finish your suburbs and rural areas.

- Make each estate different.

- Try building residential streets directly alongside avenues.

- Any street leading to a bridge/tunnel/underpass should be a main road through the estates on either side.

- Add trees at the main road junctions on the edge of town.

- At road branches, create a square and use commercial to fill it.

Detailing

- Detailing adds an extra additional level of refinement to your city, and turns your city from an average city into a great one.

- Place road signs along your roads. Do your best to use them prototypically - if you don't know how, get out there and see for yourself.

- Fill your main roads with traffic by using traffic generators.

- Add advertising billboards alongside main roads.

- Place boundary fencing along your railway lines.

- Plant trees along the back of suburban homes.

- Detail rivers to a very high extent, using rocks and flora.

- Add rural power lines and wild animals in rural areas.

- Add some cameos in the town.

Finishing Touches

- Provide finishing touches to make your city look complete.

- Use roundabout fillers in the middle of avenue and oneway roundabouts.

- Use retaining walls to improve the apperance of urban cuttings, embankments, and steep slopes in
suburbs.

- Add trees at motorway junctions and alongside railway lines.

- Use ARD-3 to add crawler lanes to long uphill climbs on roads.

And that is your definitive list of every important point in realistic city-building we've covered in this introductory project.

I apologise for the fairly big read and the lack of pictures, but I hope that it was helpful to summarise what you should have learnt thus far. You might have been reminded of a few things you forgot. Pictures wouldn't have been appropriate in an end-of-project summary like this.

If you want additional information on a point, then go back to the relevant lesson, where the points are discussed in detail.

I would say that the 3 most important things are planning, detailing and terraforming (in that order).

If you've forgotten anything, then you need to go back to the relevant lesson and refresh yourself.
You'll need all of the skills learnt here for the next project.

Now I think you need some pictures to get over the reading - so next time, I'll show you the best bits of the first project. I think it'll be good to show what can be done.

See you there,
Chris

Although I don't comment here very often, I like your concept!  Keep it up!  &apls &apls

Hey guys. It's good to see the website back online, and as for the new look, well, it's grown on me. I do like the simplicity of it.

Now, returning our focus to RCFD:

Evillions8: Thanks. I'll keep it up alright.

And now it's time for the best bits of the first project.

Project 1 Best Bits

The aim of this is to show what can be achieved in SC4 without needing a high level of skill, or doing any modding. All of what you're about to see has been made using only Maxis items and items that are available to download off the STEX or LEX., using the techniques we learnt in the lessons.

As I made you do a lot of reading in the Summary, I won't provide any commentary of these images. I'll just let the pictures do the talking instead:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fwaterworks.jpg&hash=e43cfb8d97b7ef01f5897a5ef4c5ab745d555402)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ftowerblock.jpg&hash=1d8d0a2cae9624846ad57028506b5ea5f0ac1d98)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fruralavenue.jpg&hash=592c696e82a3fe9e6b3529380141d69a239db533)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fquietfarm.jpg&hash=381d43d3c90c16f9c615385b3d66962851aa26a0)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpedestrianshoppingstreet.jpg&hash=0e00eb9b648cd1691fb8306c46d7633ff6875521)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Flazycoppers.jpg&hash=01d8eb1a3e453650beedcbf666cc8c24879c63b3)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Findustryinaction.jpg&hash=3f86da92c1103d78c4d477e821416fbbd9964485)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ffullroundaboutic.jpg&hash=d7843e7dfeb56b7e1cfca856ee4a5dd3048e134e)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fflashinnercity.jpg&hash=0f71cb719b4a4885e3d390749074c0102a080608)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Femptyfield.jpg&hash=0d598ccc0e1f4a7242e663f7c0adbfc9829aa561)

And that's that for the best bits of the first project. That also brings the first project to a final conclusion - and there will be no more updates on this introductory project. It's time to move on.

Before we dive into Project 2, however, I want to do something that moves away from projects but is still SC4-relevant. So the next update will be about myths in SC4 - what they are, why they're false, and how you can exploit them.

See you then.
Chris

There's a problem with images 5 and 6, they don't look right in my opinion.

Image 5:
If you're going to make a realistic alley, you might as well add some fillers like the same base texture found over the STEX.  From what you did, you did something out of place.  You added classy plaza fillers in between the low-wealth commercial.  If you used the PEDMALL tiles, I suggest you rotate the buildings towards the street and use fillers to fill up the empty space.

Image 6:
There's one problem with this, the parking lot of the police building has nothing to connect to like a parking lot tile.  Like, how did the police cars get behind the building? (Realistically, you can drive off-road, but for simplicity, its easier to have a smooth surface to the back like a asphalt filler.)
----------------------------------------------------
Besides that, its decent!  :)

Quote from: Evillions8 on July 08, 2011, 07:42:26 PM
There's a problem with images 5 and 6, they don't look right in my opinion.

Image 5:
If you're going to make a realistic alley, you might as well add some fillers like the same base texture found over the STEX.  From what you did, you did something out of place.  You added classy plaza fillers in between the low-wealth commercial.  If you used the PEDMALL tiles, I suggest you rotate the buildings towards the street and use fillers to fill up the empty space.

Image 6:
There's one problem with this, the parking lot of the police building has nothing to connect to like a parking lot tile.  Like, how did the police cars get behind the building? (Realistically, you can drive off-road, but for simplicity, its easier to have a smooth surface to the back like a asphalt filler.)
----------------------------------------------------
Besides that, its decent!  :)

Sometimes using cycle path pieces can be better; they have the correct width for alleyways. Although they are more suited to the suburban areas rather than central locations. They would go well in the industrial estate you have there.

Only quibble I  would have is the bus stops in the commercial district need to be uniform rather than a mixture. Central Bus Stop facilities are typically the same type of shelter and branding, more so if the area has been regenerated. The stops provide public realm improvements for wanton of a better expression.

You can be as varied as you like outside of the CBD as they generally aren't affected by regeneration/pubic realm/image improvements.

Hi all. Thanks once more for your patience.

Evillions8:

(Image 5) - I wasn't trying to make an alley. It is supposed to be a pedestrianised shopping street, like what one finds in many UK town centres. The buildings are supposed to be bigger than what they grew to be, and are supposed to face the ped mall tiles. Point taken though, and in future, I'll start demolishing lots that don't look as they should.

(Image 6) - Good point, and something I didn't spot until you pointed it out. You will have seen the bigger, more appropriately sized car park built on the other side of the building, which probably caused me to ignore the car park you're talking about. I agree, it's not very realistic, and in the upcoming second project I'll teach you how to tinker with your lots to get rid of those nuisance car parks.

wallasey: Thanks for your suggestions, I will probably make use of them. The SAM bus stops I used came with RTMT, and I used them because they had UK bus stop markings. I agree about the corporate image thing, though. It should be a simple enough fix, and you'll learn how to fix it in the second project.

And now, a little side update, to get away from our projects for a bit, that will still be informative, I hope:

Myths in SC4

What I'm about to do is to prove/disprove (some are true, some not) the validity of some commonly held beliefs as to the game mechanism of SC4, by showing you some simple experiments and the results of those. Some may surprise you, some will not. Either way, you'll hopefully learn some important stuff.

I should say that my game runs with the NAM, CAM and SPAM mods installed, but I assume most of you will have at least 1 of these, so it shouldn't affect things too much.

Now, our first 'myth' under investigation is this:

"Sims won't walk for more than 12 tiles".

We all know how Sims think that a 5-minute drive is a long commute, so surely they'll think that a 200-yard walk is too much to bear, right?

Let's find out by setting up a simple test city. On the south side are houses, on the north side are factories. Connecting them is a road with a HOV lane in the middle, which only allows buses and pedestrians through. There are no buses, so if our Sims want to go to work, they'll have to walk there:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fwalkingsetup.jpg&hash=27f2bdd6c3c23439ca9fe5d369b228ab596fdc93)

So what happens? Surprisingly, they actually realise that being able to eat is worth a few minutes of exercise, and they do walk to work:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fwalkingresults.jpg&hash=e328eeb7d4754e361f2380db7d2ba70096ebeeb7)

So the conclusion is simple: Sims will walk for many tiles if they have to.

Next myth:

"You have to leave at least a 1-tile gap between transport stations."

This is a very debated statement, so I thought I'd settle it for good.
In this test, the HOV lane from the previous experiment is replaced with 2 back-to-back bus stops, as shown below:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ftransportgapsetup.jpg&hash=5287b3a2a4fc53b8fe9365886b353b7a51a6ef5f)

So, do the Sims get to work?
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ftransportgapresults.jpg&hash=be5bcec43ff197914bbf3014eed13e38e62f2ed8)

The answer is a resounding no. If you place 2 transit stations back-to-back, they won't connect.

Interestingly though, when the two stops are connected by a separate road to the side, Sims do get to work:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ftransportgapbridge.jpg&hash=64edef877b9b45417c0b090ece72274c0f30ec52)

This made me wonder whether putting the stops side-by-side instead of back-to-back would allow the connection to take place. Err... no:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fside-onbusstops.jpg&hash=a528c98a7f5afaef68dd25b7159929fb139f6570)

It just doesn't play ball. Our conclusion from this experiment is as follows:

You can only put 2 transit stations next to each other and make them work IF there is a transport network, such as a road, connecting them. Otherwise, you must leave a gap.

So that settles that. Onto the next myth:

"You can't make neighbour connections with streets or one-way roads."

Really?
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fstreetconnection.jpg&hash=7553cb5ff60b3528f6311e69b4730b6b0a3c09f5)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fonewayconnection.jpg&hash=c0872dbedb4fe66170d2040b0f763e6863621bd2)

As long as you have the NAM (and you should), you can make neighbour connections with any network in any form - orthogonal, diagonal, or fractional angle (FA). You will learn how to do this in the second project.

Our fourth 'myth' states that:

"In the early stages of development, industrial zones grow faster than commercial zones."

To find out if this is true, I've set up another test city, comprised of two residential zones, one connected to an industrial zone, the other to a commercial zone. Both areas share the same amenities:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fearlydevelopmentsetup.jpg&hash=84fa97de11f3714e2726aed14b815b3079ff19f7)

So what happens? Let's fast forward a few game years and see:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fearlydevelopmentresults.jpg&hash=e0f4bfc866f62e766b18462ed562710e9a22d95c)

The results are clear. The industrial area is comfortably more developed than the commercial area. It is worth building industrial areas before commercial areas.

So our conclusion is thus:
Industrial grows much faster than commercial at first.

And our final myth:

"Poor Sims prefer to use mass transit to get to work, and rich Sims prefer to drive to work."

Again, it's time for a test city to validate this claim (or not). One one side are houses, on the other factories. Connecting them are, from left to right: ped mall (with bus stops at either end for bus users), road, rail, el-rail, subway, and monorail. No amenities, apart from power, are provided, so this should give us lots of poor Sims to survey:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpoorcommutingsetup.jpg&hash=3c8848b9542be2cfbb7b247abc8c12453db31ca6)

After development, the results come in. I'll show the results for each network, from left to right, in the order stated above:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpoorpedmallresults.jpg&hash=e2b8139cd76ae728b6d5cbd2e0cb627775fc24a9)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpoorroadresults.jpg&hash=830b8e4b07fdcecb09461f7c532c9387b62af868)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpoortrainresults.jpg&hash=a768f9ae5661b97643913d74b14680d9e03a38a0)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpoorelrailresults.jpg&hash=c05dc8d46e87118a85b56765cbde4e300be036c8)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpoorsubwayresults.jpg&hash=2790f407a02e625ea7aeab403cf2b6f5a44335f7)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpoormonorailresults.jpg&hash=c4624a504abf4a7173fa0e5a0932f6e377213944)

So mass transport is our clear winner here in terms of usage, as was expected. So if our myth is true, then once amenities are provided and the wealth of the area increases, then the roads should start getting a bit busier.

The city with amenities is shown below:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Frichcommutingsetup.jpg&hash=ba80feae3982b258270074cd8b854536d308c9e6)

The area redevelops:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fredevelopedcommutingcity.jpg&hash=2bc3d30cb1be4faa1831a1f787ec739935d11fc4)

And our commuting route usages (i.e. our results) are shown below:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Frichpedmallresults.jpg&hash=041681e66afcbfc44a61b605ef1ef6748aa3876c)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Frichroadresults.jpg&hash=13cc0d9b30f749307d641299d098bf670b071dee)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Frichrailresults.jpg&hash=2a2667c4a6518a8e1744d1c3c7309d72ae2d2d30)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Frichelrailresults.jpg&hash=99a556aacafa234ed9f011d70d1368111b832dd1)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Frichsubwayresults.jpg&hash=c004b716100d9004a3605f3377790c99f4ad2dc0)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Frichmonorailresults.jpg&hash=28583b552b0b1c6704145ce3598cb372c5d8ef3a)

Eh? What happened? Where have all of our commuters gone?

The truth is that they've shunned the factory jobs for the civic jobs on their doorsteps, and, surprisingly, are walking to these nearby jobs:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fprimaryschoolcommute.jpg&hash=b770035265aff74549e5ab548ff8b3feacac113d)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fhighschoolcommute.jpg&hash=fbd8d6946f321abb4e9bc0447cf038246f67fa9c)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcliniccommute.jpg&hash=e82f283a9bed327708ec02a0228260afc8c09440)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpolicecommute.jpg&hash=5ad01db874bacc91fdf7ae08354303a692bbf696)

What interesting results! It would seem that the time/distance needed to get to their jobs is more important than how they get there. Otherwise some people would still be factory workers.

So the conclusion is as follows:
Your Sims will take any form of transport available to get to work, so long as they get there quickly and don't have to travel too far.

And that concludes this little side update. To summarise:

- Your Sims will walk for as far as they need to.

- You can only put transport stations next to each other if they're connected by a transport network.

- With the NAM, you can make neighbour connections with any network.

- Industrial grows better than commercial in the early stages.

- Commute time and distance are more important considerations than method for your Sims.

And so it is time to move on to our second project! In this project, we will build a coastal city that spans 4 large city tiles. You will learn the following:

- Planning a region

- Regional terraforming

- Adapting your plan to fit the terrain

- Building realistically across multiple tiles

- Building marinas, historical districts, park-and-ride facilities, various road interchanges, a branch railway, and lots more

- Using the Lot Editor to tinker with your lots to improve their appearance (i.e. basic modding)

- Planning, siting and building landmarks

And lots more. The first lesson of the second project will focus on basic planning.

One thing I should say is that this will be a bit more advanced than the first project, and I'll assume you know everything from the first project. I'd go back over the Summary to make sure this is true - and if it isn't, go back and read up the relevant lesson again. I know I keep stressing this but it's really important to do it if you want to learn to build cities to a high standard.

Best wishes,
Chris

Thanks for clearing this up! I'll use the results in my cities!

Time to begin our second project, methinks.

Exla357: You're welcome. I'm glad you found the experiments useful.

And now, time to begin building a regional city.

Project 2 - Regional City

Lesson 1 - Basic Planning

Before you ask, there will be an 'advanced planning' lesson, in which you'll take the concepts learnt here a stage further.

You know from the first project the reasons why it's crucial to plan out projects before you dive into them. I will tell you now that the larger the project, the more important it is to plan it out first. There comes a point where you can't keep it all in your head anymore, and pre-planning means that you save yourself all that effort beforehand.

Planning a region isn't any harder than planning a single city, but it is more complicated - mainly because you have to remember one rule that isn't relevant for single cities:

You must build your region as if it is one giant city tile.

REMEMBER THIS RULE. It is Rule No.1, the only rule, the single most important rule of realistic region building.

You have to pretend that the city tile boundaries don't exist. You have to pretend that there is a wider world beyond your region. This means that your region must flow effortlessly from one city tile to the next. It must be consistent in terms of terrain, buildings and general landscape throughout. Your roads and railways must run to the route they need to take and not the route that suits tile boundaries.

So, with this in mind, we can plan our region.

The first step is to get some paper and coloured pens, and draw a rectangle to represent your region. Mark your city tile boundaries with thick lines. Accuracy is not important:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcitytileplan.jpg&hash=cd37a2ba4a468e8ea91c1eb8616aeede6db1450a)

We mark the tile boundaries only for reference, so that we know where they are. We want our estates to flow between city tiles, but these lines prevent us from putting big, important, inflexible buildings (like train stations) in between city tiles.

Next you need to fill your region with essential information on what goes where. For this you need to know what you want to put in it, and for this, you need a brief. You don't have to write it down, but it helps.

Our brief for this project is as follows:

To create a coastal resort town with a population of 100K - 250K Sims, which has its origins as a medieval fishing town. Owing to this, there is a marina on the coastline, near to which is the old medieval town. A more modern CBD has grown nearby, and the town is the terminus of a major motorway to the north and both a main railway line and a branch line to a nearby coastal town.

In short, your brief has to summarise all of the essential goals and information you need to complete your project. Keep it simple.

Once this is done, you can fill your region to suit your brief:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fregionconceptplan.jpg&hash=21c6c2e796691b5ebd00d7b054bf03f5b1edaac7)

There are a number of points to make here:

- Keep it simple. Include only essential information, such as important transport networks, landmarks and utilities.

- Use different colours to represent different things. I used the following colour code, but use a colour code that you can understand:

Motorways
Dual carriageways
Roads
Railways (line, stations represented as rectangles on the line)
Landmarks (individual, standalone shapes)
Areas (empty boxes)
Marina
Beach
Coastline
City tile boundaries
Footpaths

- Add labels so you know what's going on. Think of it like drawing a map.

- Positional accuracy is not important. You only need to get the general idea.

- Have your city tile borders showing clearly, above everything else.

Now you need to go and plan each tile in turn. This is where you can add a bit more detail regarding types of networks, and estates, and other things that you need to know:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fnwtileplan.jpg&hash=64bde4b23a2560587926875a68dade5d9a938b7e)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fnetileplan.jpg&hash=dee8d90e7bc32cd51646320e7648335eb04751ac)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsetileplan.jpg&hash=89f272643d49c6ab163fdcde8f0e55c712393d26)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fswtileplan.jpg&hash=c49ed6df1382c16935b1768707896e71f8c2724f)

One important point to make here. Use transport networks, NOT city tile borders, as demarcation lines between estates. Remember that rule. You need to make sure that your estates are consistent through city tile boundaries. The best way to do this is to decide where your estates are going to go before you plan each tile individually, and work to that.

Any complicated parts of your city, such as transport interchanges, should also be planned out. Again, keep this simple and include only essential information.
As an example, here are the 4 grade-separated road interchanges that are to be built. These are marked by filled-in circles on my plans, so you should be able to see where they are and from where they come:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Froundaboutinterchangeplan.jpg&hash=923a385f899141da935b363e4f4cbc8a2643cc54)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2F3-levelstackedroundaboutplan.jpg&hash=f8cf11d7d6ee0a68134999e22049b042ce2219df)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fdumbbellinterchangeplan.jpg&hash=a33bdee37288f763244913b69013ce14544aa333)

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fmotorwayendroundaboutplan.jpg&hash=d0ea870046cf15bd540f00e0f415487a6d477cd2)

Once you've planned all of these complicated areas, you're nearly done. There's just one small, but vital, thing to do:

Naming Your Region

Of course you have to give your region (or in this case, the city it supports), a name. The reasons should be self-explanatory. Fortunately, this is a simple task and the technique I'll teach you will allow you to create an original name that works well.

You need 2 things - a random number generator, and a map. The area the map covers is irrelevant - the important thing is that it has an index of streets and places, because this is where you'll get your names from.

The random number generator needs to generate random numbers between 1 and 26. This can be done on Excel or on certain makes of scientific calculator.

You need to enter one of these formulae, depending on what you're using:

Excel: =INT(RAND()*(26-1)+1)

Scientific calculator: RanInt#(1,26)

Then press Enter or =. The output corresponds to the letter of the alphabet that will be the first letter of your city name, so if you get 1, you look under the 'A' section of the index, 2 then B, 3 then C, and so on.

You then press F9 or = to get the next letters of the name. If there isn't a match in the index with the letter you produced (e.g. Tx), then use the nearest available letter for which there is a match (e.g. Ty). By now you should have narrowed the search down to only a few entries.

You keep producing letters until you have only one entry left in the index that matches your produced letters as closely as possible. For example, you end up with 'Tyd' and the only entry in the index that begins 'Tyd' is 'Tydlesley St.', and so therefore you use Tydlesley as your city name.

Using this method I came up with the name of Troon for our coastal town/region. I think that this is the name of a real village in Cornwall - but don't worry if it's the name of a real place, or if it's the name of anything significant to you - it doesn't matter. You'll still come up with varied and interesting city names.

Once you've named your region, you're done with the preliminary planning, and are ready to set up your region.

You're not done with the planning yet, however. You need to adapt the plan to fit terrain constraints - but that will have to wait until after we've done the terraforming.

The next lesson will be about preparation - getting your region set up properly, ready to terraform.

See you there,
Chris

This is getting exciting! I plan my cities a lot but I don't as much as I should. They evolve that way.

Finally! The right way to play SC4. This MD really appeals to me. I gotta learn to plan out all my cities before I jump in. That's where I always go wrong.

Agreed, it doesn't take much to sort out;

Your next project looks very interesting indeed....oddly enough I have just been developing a similar kind of tile, albeit on the shore of a lake rather than a full blown coast.

Good luck!

Just going to say, neighbor connecting two sets of OWR, the most I have seen is trucks and busses use them in and out. 9/10 out of the times, I have not seen car traffic. However, two OWRs, exactly side by side, I have seen used by car traffic.

Very interesting and informative, this will definitely help a lot of people, especially those who are just starting out, and I've learned a few things as well. I should pay more attention when planning my cities from now on. ;)

Great work on your MD there.

Wow! The response to that last lesson almost blew me away. Thanks for your continued support.


Exla357: You don't have to plan every last detail - only the bare essentials like what you saw in the lesson. It's always good to have a little flexibility for when the inevitable miscalculations and problems arise.


SimRisu: Seriously, I can't stress enough the importance of planning. It takes only a few minutes, but, like you said, will prevent your cities from going wrong, so it's worth that few minutes.


wallasey: Thanks, and good luck with your lakeside town. It sounds very interesting and I look forward to seeing it somewhere.


j-dub: Interesting, I'll have to investigate that.


apeguy: Well said. Hopefully that's one of many things you'll learn on this thread.


bat: Danke schoen! (Thanks a lot!)


Thanks once more for your continued support. Now let's go region-making!


Lesson 2 - Preparation

In the first project, you learnt how to create a region in-game and then use Paint to modify it to suit your needs.


Well, there is another way to create a region that doesn't involve SimCity 4 at all, and it's that method which I want to show you today.


I should say at this point that this method is for Windows users. I regret that I don't know how it works for a Mac, since I use a Windows PC for SC4, but I'm sure it's very similar. If any Mac users here would like to give us the lowdown, please do.


The first step in creating a region is to understand what it's made of. Let's go to the region we used for our first project and have a little look:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fkeyregionfiles.jpg&hash=e7cbfbf055645881aedb3ded9c3c750291cb85e0)
You can see here that there are 3 different types of file.


SC4 files are city files, that are created/modified whenever you save a city in-game. You don't need one to make a region, so we needn't worry about them here.


config is a bitmap image that determines the size of your region, as well as its composition in terms of city tiles.


region is a type of text file (called a 'Configuration Settings' file) that determines the name of your region, and whether it will initially be composed of terrain or water.


Notice also the file directory. Each region has its own unique folder under the following directory (underlined in red in the above image):


(Hard Drive):\\...\My Documents\SimCity 4\Regions


(The path to the My Documents folder varies. Most PCs have a shortcut direct to this folder, so you shouldn't have to worry about this too much.)


When you create a region in the game, the config and region files are automatically created and saved in a new folder under the above directory.


These files and the folder they sit in can also be produced from scratch - which is what we're now going to do.


First, we need a folder. Go to the above directory, then find this button highlighted. It should be on the left:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcreatingregionfolder.jpg&hash=76550c6cdbf7fb96d11301d084b4116a3380371b)
If you don't have this button, then go to File > New... > Folder, which does the same thing as the button.


You'll then get this (except it will say 'New Folder' instead of 'Troon', and the text will be highlighted):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fnamingregionfolder.jpg&hash=a399d1375211f072e160645abaebdcd1752d51a0)


See that black box surrounding the name? That means that you can change the name. When highlighted, any text you type in will replace the highlighted text.


So all you need to do is type in your region name and press 'Enter'. Your region now has its own folder.


With that done, let's create the config file. Open up Paint. You can find it under Start > Programs > Accessories. When it does load, you'll get this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Finitialpaintscreen.jpg&hash=f7e7376e57c3ea5e65d5aa70b4608fd8951eec21)


If you remember the Preparation lesson from the first project, you'll remember that one pixel represents one small city tile, equivalent to 1x1 km. The above image (shown by the white space) is 800x800 pixels (I think), which means if we use this image, we'll have a whole country for a region.


What we actually want is a region consisting of a 2x2 grid of large city tiles. So we need to resize the image. To do this, go to Image > Attributes and type in the correct size in the Width and Height boxes respectively:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fadjustingregionsize.jpg&hash=e10e0c9eaf140367b548890690bc39bbd974a95c)


Pay attention to the numbers highlighted. 1 pixel is 1x1 km. 1 large city tile is 4x4 km, therefore it needs 4x4 pixels. We want a 2x2 grid of these large tiles, so the image size needs to be (4 pixels/tile x 2 tiles) x (4 pixels/tile x 2 tiles) = 8x8 pixels.


Press OK and you get this, minus the red circle:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsupersmallimage.jpg&hash=217c930ef45a2aa124c81b937694d1dec981732f)


The red circle is there in case you can't see the resized image. It's in the red circle. I think you'll agree that that's a bit small to see - but it has to be that size, or we won't get the region we want.


What we can do is zoom in on the image so we can see it. To do this, go to View > Zoom > Custom... and then click on the 800% radio button, then OK. In addition, go to View > Zoom > Show Grid. The resulting output will be this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fexpandedregion.jpg&hash=fc812af8de3a88f745a2f17ef5f56a914899c76f)


This is much easier to see, and the grid, where 1 square = 1 pixel, helps as well.


Now we need to colour this image in. We leant in the first project that large city tiles need a 4x4 pixel area coloured blue.


Since we have the 8x8 area we need and we're only using large tiles, we just need to colour the whole thing blue. The Fill tool (the one that looks like ink coming out of a jar, second down on the right) is best for this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsettingtileconfig.jpg&hash=760c768b41ac06b5c9c6524df105f98e78c4e116)
Notice the colour. It's got to be pure blue (RGB colour 0,0,255) (which is what you get here) or at least a colour that has an RGB value of <255, <255, 255, because only if the Blue value is 255, and no other values are 255, will SC4 recognise it as a large city tile.


Having done that, we can now save the file. Press CTRL  + S:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsavingconfigfile.jpg&hash=bf5cc62e37553c03b6097301b1735425b30f80ee)


It is vitally important that you save this file correctly. It MUST be saved in your new region folder, which MUST be in the directory shown earlier (your Regions folder). It MUST be named config and it MUST be saved as a bitmap image (file extension .bmp). Otherwise it won't work. Once you've got it right, click Save.


You can now create the Configuration Settings file. The easiest way is to open up the file in another region folder. You'll see that it opens with Notepad as a text file:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fexampleregionfile.jpg&hash=02a0a14f829898696f50948851e1ed1a7fe52207)


All you have to do is to change 'Name = (whatever it is)' to 'Name = (your region name)', like so:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Frenamingregion.jpg&hash=8265bef161eaaee2ae3ad8a081ce5ada248f2962)
You also need to set the Terrain type value to 0, if it isn't set at 0 already. This ensures that you initially get terrain when you load the region.


Now you need to save it. Go to File > Save As (NOT 'Save'). Then find your region folder and save it in there as region.ini. You have to put the file extension in, because Windows will save it as a simple text file if you don't:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsavingregionsettings.jpg&hash=eff838e0eb04d046246badf3b0f87b95da58671d)


Now your new region folder should look like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedregionfolder.jpg&hash=d8b54b3f48a4ad45331f5e6329332fd21d3ee2ea)
If we go into the game, we should now be able to load the Troon region and see the 2x2 grid of large city tiles that we want:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpreparedregion.jpg&hash=28513bbf93139e1b7560a2d4d56c815afd34e1ce)


Perfect! Your region is now ready for terraforming.


But before we do that, there's another important thing we must do. In the next lesson we will cover it - the art of organising your Plugins folder. I know, I can hear the groans already. I know it's a bit boring, but we have to do it - it just makes it easier to do the fun stuff later on.


See you there,
Chris

Gosh, I go away for a short time and look what happens...GREATNESS!!! Good job Chris well done. RL has kept me away and I just got a new Mac (I do have Windows 7 Pro in a virtual machine) so I gotta go and redo a bunch of stuff. But I must say good work as always.  &apls

Chris, I admire folks who think about SC4 and the questions it presents us as we create our cities and regions.  Doubly so when they take the time time to present what they've learned for the benefit of others.  You have a clear style and a step-by-step approach here that is very well presented.  I certainly have to admit that I'm impressed.

Good luck- it will be interesting to see where you take things from here.


David

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi901.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fac213%2FBSCLEX%2FMouse%2520stuff%2FRCfD9-11.jpg&hash=751edea99ce5833f092977b36f87b411f063facd)

Here is one of the finest Tutorial MDs ever done.  Even if you think you know everything there is know about SC4, after reading through this you may find yourself wrong.  Ebjoyable read every time and I'm sure this will be a very interesting month with Chris and his MD.

Congratulations from The SC4D OSITM Committee. &apls

Congrats on your 1st OSITM-award!
Looking forward to more in this month... ;)

Congratulations on the OSITM!!!  &apls &apls

Hi, I've just found your tutorials, congratz on the received achievement.
After reading through your tutorials, I've decided I'd give it a try and start from the beginning.
- And I already have questions:
  1. How did you create diagonal RHW so close to each other. I have to leave at least a tile of space between them and must build them separately. I don't have a diagonal piece with all 6 tracks.
2. I can't find Flup peace - road under RHW, or anything else under RHW. I even tried to install Marrast underpasses and still no use. Can you please tell me what I am missing.


Here is your post:
http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=12096.msg356425#msg356425 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=12096.msg356425#msg356425)

Congratz with your price! Was nice reading trough everything again and easy to begin with SC4 for me after I did not play it for a long time. Only advice I can give to you is to watch your details, because I think in the later pictures you aren't watching them enough (like building houses on steep slopes).

Congrats for OSITM :thumbsup:

Hey guys. Well, it seems I don't need to tell you about the OSITM thing. I'd just like to say a huge thank you to all who've given their support, and to the OSITM Committee for the unexpected surprise of their recognition.


yochananmichael: Thanks for your kind words.


dedgren: I have to say I'm flattered. I'd like to think I'm bridging the gap between the great players and the 'nearly' players who want to play like the greats but don't know how. And judging by the response, it seems like that's happening.


rooker1: Thank you for the recognition. I'll do my best to do the OSITM section justice.


bat: Oh, there'll be more, I can assure you of that.


Tomas Neto: Cheers.


nemanjanv7:


1) From straight RHW-4, use the RHW-4 Double Curve piece to convert to diagonal RHW-4, and then drag out from there. Your diagonal RHW-4 carriageways should be right next to each other. You might have to use filler pieces on the diagonal sections, though.


2) The RHW FLUP pieces are located at the end of the Road over RHW Puzzle Pieces set, which is found under the Roads menu. (The icon is a road going over RHW-4).


Hope that helps.


CrossSide: Thanks, both for the congratulations and the advice. I know the importance of details, and will be encouraging you guys to pay attention to things like houses on slopes.


Framly: Cheers.


Now, a lesson which I know a lot of you will find useful.


Lesson 3 - Organising the Plugins Folder


You might not think that you need to organise the ever-growing mass of files in your Plugins folder, but you'd be mistaken. Not for functionality reasons - as long as the files are somewhere in the folder, they'll work - but for accessibility reasons. You might need to get at some of those files one day, for whatever reason, and it's far easier to do this if the files are easy to find without a long trawl through the Plugins folder.


Also, we're going to be doing some modding in this project. This makes it even more essential that you organise your Plugins folder. You need to be able to find your mods easily, so you can make changes if you need to.


The first thing to note is that there are 2 Plugins folders stored on your computer - and SC4 reads them both. You can find them under the following directories:


(Hard Drive):\\...\My Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins


(Hard Drive):\\...\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Plugins


(If you don't have Deluxe, that 'Deluxe' will be omitted.)


To keep your downloads organised, it's best if you keep as many as possible of them in one of these folders. It doesn't matter which.


Let's have a look at that first Plugins folder:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fmydocumentsplugins.jpg&hash=2d714d8156b24335abd1eb980503815f703ce7c6)


Only things which need to be under this folder are here. This path is the NAM's default installation path, and because the NAM has plenty of subsidiary items, it makes sense to keep it here.  Also, it's important to note that new buildings and lots are saved here - this is why the 3 SC4 Model files are there.


Obviously I have more downloads than shown here. The rest of them are in the other Plugins folder:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fmaxisplugins.jpg&hash=edd8c69dbac466a72c6fdfd87b5ffb108223dce1)


More specifically, the majority of downloads I have are in the 6 folders highlighted in the blue box. We'll check them out in a moment - but first notice the files. These files are only here because they have to be. If you have these files, do NOT move them from this directory (underlined in red). Otherwise they won't work.


The rest, the majority of the downloads, can be placed under as many folders as you want within this directory.


We want to organise these downloads logically. You'll notice that the folders follow the Maxis method of organising items in SC4 - landscaping items in one folder, zoned buildings in another, etc.


You should be able to figure out what's in most of the folders above - but in case you're wondering, RCI stands for 'Residential, Commercial and Industrial and covers all zoned buildings/lots, and Other_Mods covers everything that doesn't fit into the main Maxis lot categories, such as props, textures, etc.


Let's take a look at one of these folders. Here's the Civic Tools folder:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcivictoolsfolder.jpg&hash=691dcacabc216cdf6f90292120491fc4687baacd)


Look how all the civic tools have been subdivided into their Maxis sub-categories. As you'll see, this is the core principle to adopt when organising your Plugins folder:


Use the Maxis menu system that you get in the game (i.e. the menus you go through to build lots) as the file system for your Plugins folder.


Think of these folders as your menu options, which get you to your downloads. If we want to find a school, then we look under the Education sub-menu in the Civic Tools menu. If we want to find a hospital, we look under the Health folder. And so on.


Looking at the rest of the 6 main folders shows how this file system follows the Maxis menu system:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fothermodsfolder.jpg&hash=1dcb7335e57daab9d7b7690f27a335410b3b2fa1)


(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Frcifolder.jpg&hash=085434f536658619d7315df342a44cd884b19a49)


Notice how the RCI folder is grouped into the 3 types of zoned buildings. Continuing on...
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fterrainmodsfolder.jpg&hash=dbbfd57292dd9252cd698ded62e416b09889a7e4)


Maxis doesn't subdivide landscaping tools very well, so instead for this folder we group files according to what aspect of a landscape they change. The Plugins folder contains the Extra Terrain Tools mod. Next please:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ftransportfolder.jpg&hash=0e6cc1056e88b94bd43ee5c19f359e8ee09e35af)


Again, most of this should be self-explanatory. The Maps folder contains a mod to determine the colour scheme for the regional transport map. The NAM Extras folder contains additional downloads for NAM components (such as RHW tolls, GLR stations, etc. - NOT core NAM addons like the RHW, which are saved in the NAM folder in the other Plugins directory). Moving on:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Futilitiesfolder.jpg&hash=f5ab19a0264015d8158331bfdbe2847c7ffd3963)


So those are our main folders and subfolders. And for the most part, this works very well, such as in the Fire Service folder:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ffireservicesubfolder.jpg&hash=378a7467faff2357112440119a5db58b6df035fd)


These are actual downloads, and illustrate another rule of organising the Plugins folder:


Do not use more subfolders than you need to.

There is no point in subdividing this folder any further because all that's in there is a few fire stations. We can't categorise these any further, so we'll leave them here.


But on some occasions, you will need to subdivide further. One of these occasions is with the Education subfolder:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Feducationsub-folder.jpg&hash=598d996e1dab6b6722c7389bd5e07eeab9a4e66a)


You don't have any more Maxis sub-menus to guide you, so you need to be logical in your subdividing of downloads. Grouping according to the purpose of the lots, as shown above, is a good system to use.


One folder you will definitely need to subdivide further is your Parks folder. Many downloads you have, and many of the lots you have in the game, will fall into this category. For example, my Parks menu in the game has over 1,000 lots in it. That just goes to show the importance of subdividing this folder. Let's see how it's done:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fparkssubfolder.jpg&hash=1e79db5ce72f7bb905c9388ecb6c66cedcbf5ddd)


Simple enough. Let's have a look at some other cases, starting with the Commercial folder:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcommercialsubfolder.jpg&hash=5923c04e21ee244829d93568dcb74f5202485b0e)


That should explain itself. Now let's look at the NAM Extras folder - if you're anything like me, you'll have a lot of these, and so it makes sense to subdivide them:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fnamextrassubfolder.jpg&hash=2bdb2ea3d56ee5d587f743719eca646c68358d31)


You'll see I've grouped the downloads into the NAM component they cover. A similar idea is behind the Public Transport folder - the downloads are grouped according to what form of public transport they cover:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpublictransportsubfolder.jpg&hash=decc149419e8eff42175ddae0308de4da27922a5)


Sometimes, you will have a lot of downloads in a certain category that are made by the same creator - for example, a lot of the props you have will be from BSC. In cases like this, it makes sense to create a folder for items in the relevant category that are by this creator. The Props folder is a good example - each folder highlighted in blue in the following image contains props from the creator indicated:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpropssubfolder.jpg&hash=f55b8adccc0c3d1bca3da5117ed595f95aedd634)


So that pretty much sums up what you need to know about organising the Plugins folder. I thought it might be helpful to show you the complete file system I use to organise my downloads, so here is a diagram showing just that:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fpluginsfoldermap.jpg&hash=66ca5d59cb05938acd954fe0850d16d1b6725594)
(It would seem that this image has been compressed, because it was bigger than this when it was uploaded. I hope you're able to read the text.)


If you can see it, then notice how the structure is logical, and as few subdivisions as possible are used.


And that concludes the lesson.


Next time, we will make a start on the terraforming. The next lesson will focus on coastlines.


See you there,
Chris

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg709.imageshack.us%2Fimg709%2F3608%2Fdoismellositm.jpg&hash=a37262516f4d9aa91960317c97d35cb5930d6736)

Congratulations for a well deserved O.S.I.T.M. :)&apls

As about the today lesson about plugins... I'm a very bad student ;D
The "Program Files" plugins folder has all Maxis made stuff, like the extra landmarks. You can also see some non Maxis creations as well. Now this is what I call "mess" ;D ;D

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg37.imageshack.us%2Fimg37%2F4607%2Fplugins2l.jpg&hash=20a9b68139d160d3ea598ab9e11a848651140ace)

The "My Documents" plugin folder is a bit organized through :P

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg42.imageshack.us%2Fimg42%2F6742%2Fplugins1y.jpg&hash=e8d0236f38d0885453ad05ca19cb81453d675c76)

And yes, they have subfolders ::)
Tell me what you think :

Congratulations, Chris. OSITM is the perfect place for Realistic Cities for Dummies. I've always liked your playing style although I suddenly found myself too busy to visit as often as I wanted to. Hopefully that era is behind me now.

You have an organizational system similar to my own which has always worked well for me. I have two more folders I don't see mentioned here, though, and they have come in handy several times. One is called "Plugin docs" where I can find the READMEs, and the other contains the original zipped downloads. Both are structured in exactly the same way as the in-game plugin folder for easier reference.

And, mmm...er...there you go again! I'm trying to create attractive coastlines right now and need HELP! %confuso

Good job on this update... :)
-Joan

AMAZING as usual Chris. Getting an OSITM is certainly an accomplishment and I must say well deserved. Keep it up!!!!

Congratulations on being selected for OSITM!   &apls &apls

Your tutorial style of MD a very valuable resource for new players and rather unique as well! 

Hey guys.


Terring7: Yes, you did smell a new OSITM, and thanks for the kind words. Regarding your Plugins folder, I'd like to say a couple of things:


- With the first folder, I'd put all of those landmarks into their own folder. You might also want to create a folder for the US flag lots.


- The second folder is better, but you could put the 'Growable Buildings' and 'Ploppable Buildings' folders into a single 'Buildings' folder. Your Extra Mods folder could be moved into the Mods folder, and the 'Automata Essentials' file should really go into the Dependencies or the Vehicles folder.


The system for the second folder is good, though. Make sure you stick with it.


Jmouse: Thanks. Don't worry about visiting here too much, I know you've got other, far more important things to do. I like the idea of a readme folder, although I tend to just give readmes a quick look before deleting them (they take up valuable space).
I personally wouldn't have a zipped download folder - it's not really necessary, and it takes up a lot of space. But that's just my opinion - if it helps you, then it's well worth using it (otherwise you'd be defeating the purpose of organising your files).


yochananmichael: Cheers.


Battlecat: Thank you. I do think this was needed and I'm happy that so many of you are finding it useful.


Now, who wants to learn how to terraform coastlines?


Lesson 4, Part 1 - Coastlines


This part of terraforming is actually rather simple, and it's very enjoyable and satisfying to do. But you do need to put time into it to make it look right.


It's important to remember, not just with coastlines but with any terraforming, that nature does not do neat patterns and regular arrangements of landscape features. Your landscape should be irregular. Again, this is a rule to remember.


With regards to coastlines, this means that you need to get out of your head the idea of those long ruler-straight edges that you see in a lot of pictures. Yes, they look nice. Yes, they do make absolutely sure that waterfront lots will plop correctly. But they aren't realistic. At all.


To start with, we'll work in the south-west city tile of the region (see the Basic Planning lesson for the plan we're following). All the coastline here is going to be a beach, so we want a smooth, not too curvy (but not too straight!) coast.


The first step is to create the water. The best tool for the job is the Shallow Valley tool. Go into Zoom 1 and hold the Shift key to make the brush size larger, ensuring a good-sized water body. Hold it down for a few seconds in the position shown below to get a good depth of water:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fstartingcoastlines.jpg&hash=11241ccac474f52aa466651079273251c831b61d)


Notice the depth of the water. You want it to vary, because it varies a lot in real life, but this is a coastline, so it shouldn't be too deep here.


Drag the tool along your coastline, taking care to keep the water depth appropriate and varied. Eventually, you'll get something like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcurvedlandedge.jpg&hash=51f848b7986935f124590aab85df33293a42d37b)


It looks OK, but you'll notice that, because the terrain tool is circular, your coastline ends up forming a 'wave' pattern like you see here. This is worse than those long ruler-straight edges. We need to do something about it.


The solution is to use a smaller sized Shallow Valley tool (the regular size will do) to convert the 'peaks' of land into coast. You do this by positioning the tool such that the circle touches one trough of land (i.e. where the water reaches furthest) and dragging it in a straight line to the next trough of land, like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsmoothingoutwaveedges.jpg&hash=7b07f807657f20b5756ad6e53ae8782cd8d3aa56)


If all goes well, your whole coastline should look like that bit to the left of the circle does. But even then, there's another problem:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsteepcoastline.jpg&hash=02c710e6ced87632a77583c75b810d8dd01c3d42)


You'll see from the gridlines that the terrain slopes down rapidly to meet the water. This sort of thing isn't really realistic, and it doesn't suit a beach at all. It needs to be smoother.


No problem - the Smooth tool will do the job (found under the Level Terrain menu). For a job like this, the regular Zoom 3 brush is fine. Use the grid to help you, and smooth out that coastline as far as you can. You want a nice big gap between where the grid stops and the deep blue starts, like so:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsmmothingcoastlines.jpg&hash=69ca03eeb6a711bcdb3ee4df3d2472d6c7a5513b)


Keep doing that until your whole coast is completely smooth. If you look at the map in the bottom-left corner, you'll see a layer of yellow indicating your 'beach', shown below:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcorrectbeachthickness.jpg&hash=81e2130f12b7263311a04255c843718e0f736bf0)


Once you get this, your coast is smooth enough. That's one tile done. Time to move to the south-east tile. The first job is to use the Reconcile Edges tool (highlighted in red in the image below) to carry the coast and the water into this tile:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcontinuingcoastbetweentiles.jpg&hash=0a8f3333b550715622b9110011e004307efdb4ad)


Click 'Accept', and you should get this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Freconciledcoast.jpg&hash=3b8e8c491b6d8c9fb968492fa04b99d5392a62ad)


You'll see that this gives us a nice reference point to work from, to make sure that our coastline is smooth between tiles. Remember out Rule No. 1 for region play? It applies to terraforming too.


From here, it's like with the first tile. Drag out the coast with the Zoom 1 large Shallow Valley tool and then use a smaller brush to sort out those 'peaks' of land:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsecondtilecoast.jpg&hash=2e8de9db58dcd225c2d029fa725aa7e06b159ed3)


Now it's time to smooth it out. However, the plan states that the beach is to continue only a little way into this tile, where the landscape will then change to cater for a marina.
(Remember that your Sims built a marina and a town around the beach because of the friendly landscape that's there, not the other way round.)


So we're only going to smooth about 1/4 of the way into the tile from the west. The procedure is the same as for the first tile:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsmoothedeasterncoastlines.jpg&hash=00cbedb0f2a2dcf7fa6abfd5a98e50f8be4681f2)


Now, east of this, we need the land to come to an abrupt halt when it meets the water. To do this we need to use the Quick Level Brush tool, as it will give us a consistent level.


Unfortunately this tool is big and powerful, so we need to go down to Zoom 3 and keep to the regular-sized brush to keep it under control.


Position the cursor on land so that the edge of the circle meets the edge of the water. Hold the cursor down until the area of land affected is level and you have an abrupt end to the land:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fbeachtomarinatransition.jpg&hash=30e44cb76dd37da761e5576add48e7c2c811b6d3)


Try to get a smooth transition between the beach landscape and the marina landscape, as shown here. The Quick Level Brush, if you position it like shown, will do this for you.


Keeping the Quick Level Brush cursor the same distance from the water, drag across. Our plan calls for about 1/2 of the tile to have this marina coastline, so we'll drag it that far. Use the map in the bottom corner to guide you, and don't worry if you're a little bit off - your coastline is meant to look natural, after all.


When done, it should look something like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fmarinacoastline.jpg&hash=6cdf41c33dc552fb53609d510e8bd0b781573d52)


Now I know I said at the start that long ruler-straight coastlines were bad, and they are. But you'll see that this coastline is a bit bendy and follows a consistent direction, which greatly improves the realism of the coast, and is how you should design your coastlines. Also, we won't see this when we come to build the marina, so the overall effect will not be compromised. In fact it will be enhanced.


At the eastern end, transition back to beach:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Feasternmarinaedge.jpg&hash=8957feb1da5565297b456b3a5a0609657d11d418)


And, since we inevitably changed the western end, we need to reconcile that edge again. Press the Reconcile Edges button, tidy up any sharp bits, and keep reconciling until you're happy with your coast and you get this message:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ffinalreconciliation.jpg&hash=4f65697f30b24cec3c12ae56f4b8805245ed9708)


And that is your region's coastline complete. Let's go to the Region View and take a look-see:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedcoastline.jpg&hash=2297418f9a99eab72d755c567f84276815b3fb13)


It's really important that your terrain transitions as smoothly as possible between city tiles. That includes the seabed as well as the coast. Small, barely noticeable jigs are OK, but anything significant should be smoothed out.


So that's how to make coastlines. When you do yours, make sure you put a lot of time and effort into it. The more time you spend getting it right, the better it will look.


In Part 2 of this terraforming lesson, we will look at creating hills.


Until then,
Chris

2 nice new lessons...

And congrats on the OSITM-award!!!! &apls :thumbsup: &apls

Congrats on your work being justly recognized!

Re:  "Project 2 - Regional City; Lesson 1 - Basic Planning" will you share your thoughts on realistic transit network layouts vs. the Eternal Commuter issue?

Sorry about going several lessons back, but I've been catching up after some months with no SC4 capable comp.

Hello. I'll admit there's been a delay in getting this posted, mainly due to the new NAM coming out, and the great urge to play around with all the new features which inevitably follows.


Now then, comments!


bat: Thank you.


Unassigned: What you have raised is one branch of a much bigger question of realism versus practicality, which will be one of my 'side topics' (like the Myths in SC4 post) and will come after the 3rd project. With transport networks, I'd advocate realism as far as possible. If eternal commuters become an issue, then do make changes - but make them as realistic as possible.


Now let's continue our terraforming journey.


Lesson 4 Part 2 - Hills

Like the coastlines, hills are fairly straightforward to make to a good standard - but you must put the time in to get the best possible results. The hills are the most important part of your landscape and it's important to get them right. After all, it's impossible to build a realistic city on an unrealistic landscape.


We're going to start from our coastline and work our way inwards.


As we have a smooth coastline, we want to keep the terrain relatively flat for a bit. Many seaside towns are pretty flat (Brighton, Eastbourne, Morecambe, etc.) and we don't want too many hills until we get about 1-2 miles inland.


Starting in the south-west city tile, we'll begin our hills in the north of the tile. Use the Hill tool in Zoom 1 and hold down the shift key for a large brush. Position the cursor and click once:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Finitialnear-seahill.jpg&hash=91cb9b3228c80ba67220c77e0843d9fd1a1f2f1f)


It looks rather low, but this is what you want. You don't want huge mountains right next to the coast, because it won't look right. This kind of hill above is the small hill you see all over the place, and looks the part.


Now it's time to make more hills. The trick with hills is to make them link together and flow smoothly from one hill to the next. This creates a range of 'rolling hills' which provide the best possible realistic effect.


Place the cursor (same tool, same zoom, same size as before) so that it overlaps with about 1/3 - 1/2 of the existing hill. Then click once again. Keep using this technique to create other hills, and make sure you plop them in random positions - nature does not do patterns, so your hills should reflect this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fstartingrollinghills.jpg&hash=c43fb282e60454178f743762a433d5da2cff8d1a)


Keep going and you should end up with something like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fbasicrollinghils.jpg&hash=d9dced7a3e075d2f1a6fcff12a716c811bc7a205)


Notice the random, irregular contours, and how the landscape flows effortlessly between hills. If we go into Zoom 3 and turn the grid on, you can see the effect we're after more clearly:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Frollinghillheightdifference.jpg&hash=52a456f37ad881a4e13e6838b413c11a03c2feb3)


You can see how smooth it is. This also shows how the grid is helpful in terraforming hills - so use it to make sure your hills are how they should be. (You can show/hide the gridlines by pressing G on your keyboard.)


Now, at the coastal end, it's a good idea to smooth the hills down so that they flow more gently into our coast. Use the Zoom 1 large Smooth tool to do this, positioning the cursor on the southernmost hills like so:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsmoothinghills.jpg&hash=43e1f7e58b55d4831809f458c8bf0f1d4c00fc57)


Also, smooth between your hills to ensure your terrain does not rise and fall sharply between hills. Stay in Zoom 1, but use the regular brush to make sure you still have hills and not just higher terrain:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsmoothingforconsistency.jpg&hash=65119d9ffbcf537b43fa4ee5fa5f898cd020eba6)


That's one tile completed - now we move on to the south-east city tile. First job is to reconcile the western edge to get a consistent flow between city tiles and provide a reference for further terraforming - you should remember from the coastlines lesson how to do this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ffirstreconciliation.jpg&hash=05dd2637622d63fe8d4100b92dd7b380d3bc8395)


From here, you keep doing what you did in the first city tile. Do NOT reconcile again at the end though, as you haven't done the north-east city tile yet.


Moving on, let's go to the north-west city tile and reconcile that to start with:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fnwreconciliation.jpg&hash=984e7d187d5542acc932f7680ff6e11c88844ffa)


Then, for the southern half of the city tile, continue to sculpt your small rolling hills:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fnwsmallrollinghills.jpg&hash=157ee652afdaf44d6b39735b6322143701ab52f5)


Now that we're a good 3-4 miles inland, we can make the hills a little bit higher. The procedure is exactly the same as for the small hills - but instead of clicking once, you click twice:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fhigherhills.jpg&hash=ae20c16bade31da5781f637d8a24ee39c4a1170d)


Then, just like the smaller hills, plop more high hills down in random positions (but make sure the hills are linked), then use the Zoom 1 regular Smooth tool to give a smooth roll between the high hills. When done, you should have something like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fidealhighhills.jpg&hash=d8374087a8e596454d86a5f0d15a28c8f6f845ae)

Again, do NOT reconcile. Instead, just move on to the north-east city tile and do it there instead. Then create your rolling hills, small in the south and high in the north, just like we've just done:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fnerollinghills.jpg&hash=855d9c5632591c4b7a69a107e7f787172a846605)


Now reconcile once more. Having done all 4 city tiles, you'd think we'd be done with the hills now. Let's have a look at the region view:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Finconsistentterrain.jpg&hash=f17ca78e1cc12df4a3b7becc8f9db66c01bdc383)


You can see there are still 2 things to do. We need to reconcile the south-west tile again, for reasons that should be obvious in the picture above, and we need to go into the north-east tile to sort out that awful spike at the north of the region.


The first problem is easy to fix. Just go into the SW city tile and reconcile the edges. It's a good idea to smooth the terrain when doing this, just to get consistency between city tiles. Remember that your landscape should completely ignore city tile boundaries as far as possible.


Dealing with the spike in the north of the region is fairly simple too. Smooth out the spike and then reconcile, like so:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsmoothinginconsistentedges.jpg&hash=3549610f6bb446cfe65fd2ede8d65d7b53227fdc)


Keep repeating the technique until you've got a consistent landscape and the game doesn't feel the need to reconcile any more.


When these improvements are made, you should end up with something like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedhills.jpg&hash=9283f20cf2e736aa0c8548069ed67769192811f8)


That's better. You can still detect the tile boundaries, but the landscape flows smoothly over them - which is the result we were aiming for.


The main bulk of the terraforming is done - but not all of it. The final part of our terraforming lesson will focus on adding trees and plants.


See you there,
Chris


(PS - On October 1st this MD will go back to the Best Sellers section - I'll try to post the lesson before then but in case I don't, I'm telling you this now so you know.)

I'll probably be referencing this if I start making my own maps. How come you're not using the Terraformer?

Quote from: smileymk on September 08, 2011, 09:05:41 AMI personally wouldn't have a zipped download folder - it's not really necessary, and it takes up a lot of space.

I should have done a better job of explaining my reasoning. One of my greatest game-related fears is suffering a complete meltdown. And I've heard about and experienced enough computer problems to know it could happen to anyone at any time.

I could rebuild my plugins folder by using a recent backup. It  wouldn't keep me from having to spend countless hours downloading all those files again, though. As for space, I have a matched pair of 500GB internal hard drives in my main system, one of which I use for storage. Also I have a 400GB external HD used for critical-file storage and moving groups of files back and forth between one of the other two computers when the transfer won't fit on an 8GB flash drive/memory stick. So a DL folder that's less than 1 GB is a bargain to me. However, as you said, it's a matter of personal choice. :)

I hope this explains the reason behind the DL folder... ;)
-Joan

The chapter about organising my folder helped me abunch! The game still is able to read where everything's at. Thanks! :thumbsup:

Hi guys.


Unassigned: Two reasons: 1) The region is small enough to be terraformed in-game, and I want to teach you the relevant techniques for that, and 2) my game PC is pretty old and doesn't meet the required spec for the Terraformer.


Jmouse: Yes, BSODs can happen. With that in mind, the system you've got is pretty good. As I always say, if you've got a system that works for you, then use it.


Risu: Thanks. It does work rather well...


And now let us conclude our journey into terraforming.


Lesson 4 Part 3 - Trees and Plants


As with all terraforming, this is rather straightforward in terms of the techniques required. However, this stage of the process takes a long time. However, as you'll see, it's worth the effort.


To start with, we'll plop some trees.


On flat terrain, this is very simple. Get out the Tree tool (in God Mode) and change the view to Zoom 2. Then drag out trees along the flat, being careful not to get too close to any coastlines you might have, or to plop too many trees on the hills (a few are OK, but keep it at that):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fstartingtreesonflat.jpg&hash=910084f9ebfc7540e6bde9e043b5345108767efe)


When done, you should be looking at a similar scene to this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fidealflattrees.jpg&hash=2b037ba12fd2a7b438764ce2b948274b03b322aa)


Now it's time to plop trees on the other relatively flat parts - on the hilltops and in the valleys between the hills. We'll start on the hilltops. Using the same brush as before, and the grid to show up the contours, create a relatively thick cluster of trees on each hilltop. Again, be careful not to get too many trees on the hills themselves:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fhilltoptrees.jpg&hash=f42de0ab8e811091c496eeb28c8e5d5d092ae148)


It's the same idea with the valleys - but you might want to hold the CTRL key to keep the trees under control:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fvalleytrees.jpg&hash=d2d115616faaa345e09e4b9c08f425d5368e32ce)


When complete, your scene should look a bit like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fidealmaxistrees.jpg&hash=d7b23ead32d5f487bf1bcc72e5e3a6103f33665f)


That's the Maxis trees more or less done. But it's still looking a little dull - so we're going to go into Mayor Mode and put down some ploppable trees.


IMPORTANT: If you're planning to render your region for uploading, then stop here. Do not enter Mayor Mode on any tile before you've rendered your region, or it won't render at all.


Assuming you aren't planning to upload your region, let's put some ploppable trees on our hills.


The idea here is to create thick lines of trees going straight up the hill and connecting 2 clusters of trees. Using the grid to guide you, and your favourite tree models, drag straight up like so:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsmallhilltrees.jpg&hash=ddc30dcee7739a0683105dcac587ea32da96a047)


You need to do this in a few places to get the best effect. Choose your places randomly and make sure they're not too close to each other. Also, make sure to use a variety of models - I've got about 5 or 6 going here.


With this done, it's time to sort out those over-dense Maxis tree clusters. Whip out your bulldozer and click within the tree clusters, and you should end up with something like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fclearingtrees.jpg&hash=6fad9cca4a084c91e14204d9cd1a160f0e70d1b4)


You might have noticed that some trees are standing all alone in the landscape, sticking out like the proverbial sore thumb. Trees are sociable things and hence should be with other trees. Any lone rangers should duly be paid a visit by the bulldozer:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fdemolishinglonetrees.jpg&hash=7af6be23248ffd137d53b53a08c49a9d5ef5683f)


Now you can enhance your Maxis tree clusters by placing ploppable trees in amongst them. Again, use a variety of your preferred models:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fflatploppabletrees.jpg&hash=3982da7e5e4d51c8e6450b2c0afe170a4e0d54b9)


You can also detail your beaches with some rocks. They're best placed in random clusters at reasonable distances (about 10 tiles should do it, but vary it and use your judgement) apart, like you see below:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Frocksonthebeach.jpg&hash=81001729c64b4e1c9fc0031f8050de2712914f72)


It's now time to add grass. The objective here is to cover, as far as possible, every inch of your land (NOT coastlines) with grass. Once you do this, you can add some flowers as well to complete the scene:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fgrassandflowers.jpg&hash=3368da0b9094fd49007641ee9f0e9e17deae8e72)


You can see what a difference it makes.


And that is a fitting way to conclude our terraforming lessons.


Next time, we'll learn some advanced planning techniques.


See you then,
Chris

This is a great idea. It is my first visit here but I definitely see how this could be of value to the new city developer. Nicely done  &apls

Hey that looks great as always ;). Just one noob question: Where can I find that nice-looking grass? What's the name of it?

Hi all.

Schulmanator: Thanks.

nemanjanv7: That would be the dense grass MMP, part of the HBS Tropical Plants (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/www.simtropolis.com/forum/files/file/24399-hbs-tropical-flora-pack-mayor-mode) set. Highly recommended.

Now who's ready for some advanced planning?

Lesson 5 - Advanced Planning

In Lesson 1 you learnt to complete a detailed preliminary plan for your region, which should have provided you with a clear idea about what you want to do.

However, the plan you did then did not take account of the terrain involved. If you were to follow it exactly, your city would not look right, as you'd have retaining walls everywhere as well as steep slopes on your transport networks.

It's important to remember that the landscape came first, and we humans had to build our settlements around it. To create a city realistically, you must make it fit the terrain. And a big part of that involves modifying your plan to fit the terrain.

To do this, you need a region image which you can print off to make a paper plan (or put into Paint to make a computerised version). You could do this in-game in the Region view, but you'll probably find it doesn't fit the screen properly, making it unsuitable to use as a plan.

A better alternative is to use the Region Census (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=913), a simple program allowing proper region images to be made. 
Once you've downloaded the program, load it up and you should get something like this:(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fopeningregioncensus.jpg&hash=11f0ddbc2ff2a8ba1b6b05f5f4bae58a0590a086)As you can see, it's a fairly simple program. The first task here is to load up our region. To do this, go to File > Open Region:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fopenregionbutton.jpg&hash=e1fe2b8641cd60563180dd597708224b77b0e63a)

Then find your region - the correct path (underlined in red) is loaded by default, so it's just a matter of finding our region folder and clicking OK:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fopeningregion.jpg&hash=e09886334b97899d9e9d5f9eb782da5aec3495dc)

Now the display in the main window should look something like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fregioninthecensus.jpg&hash=3238a87783abfefb39c4bf1c922a3ace4a02e52e)

Here you've got some info about your region's RCI population. Fascinating it may be, but we're after a region shot.
To get at our region image, you need to click on the Image tab (underlined in red). The screen will now show this:(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fregionimage.jpg&hash=5de25221431e26285fa05a14a73d9588e3584e7e)

That's a proper region shot! Make sure you tick the Shrink to Fit and Show Borders boxes (underlined in red) to ensure you a) get the whole region in, and b) have the city tile boundaries showing for guidance when planning.

Now save the image by going to File > Save Image:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsavingregionimage.jpg&hash=84d86177c962ed5e833fbc31d25e300b1f318e1b)

Save it somewhere you can find it. It's a good idea to save it as a JPEG file, because a JPEG takes less space than any other type of image file.

What we're going to do now is put the image into a Word document so we can print it onto paper, enabling us to have a region shot to refer to at all times during development.

I'm going to assume that most of you have Word and know a bit about it, so I won't show you what it looks like at first.

You will notice that the paper is portrait. Whilst this is great for documents, a region image is landscape, and hence the paper should be landscape for a region image.

To change to landscape, you need to go to File > Page Setup like so:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Ffindingpagesetup.jpg&hash=bff7c6ae73607be6f5579bb8608937ced8270ee3)

You'll get a new window with all sorts of fancy, mostly irrelevant stuff on it. The only bit you need to pay attention to is the Orientation menu:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fsettingpagelandscape.jpg&hash=ab86b6759aa8decc4aa012344de8cf25b186191e)

As you can see, you need to click the Landscape option, then OK. Your page will now go landscape.

Now you can put in your image. To do this, go to Insert > Picture > From File... and find your image:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Finsertpicture.jpg&hash=e18eb183436fb16a21996fdd69ab7f114bf5ad35)

Now you'll end up with something like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Finsertedimage.jpg&hash=033199ef72c409480798ad7fe9423df8106d985a)
Now you need to resize the image to fit the page. Click on it and you will get little white squares at the corners and sides, as well as a Picture toolbar. Unfortunately, they don't let you resize the image freely.

What you need to do to overcome this is to wrap the text differently. On the Picture toolbar, click the button showing a black dog in a box. Then click either Behind Text or In Front of Text, like so:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Frewrappingregionimage.jpg&hash=dfab9592726297b7eab74b0e5ecf2ed9bb87cbc6)
You will see that the little white squares in the corners turn to white circles. Move the image to the top left corner by click-dragging it. Click on the bottom-right circle and drag the image to the other side.
Make sure to hold the SHIFT key to keep the image in proportion.

After all that, your screen should look like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fcompletedregionshot.jpg&hash=1e3927ae6d1b926fe15f34c64f01c1efe16474b0)
Don't worry about that white space at the bottom. It's good to have this because it allows you to make notes about the finer aspects of your region.

Now that you have a suitable region shot for advanced planning, print it off and get out your coloured pens, as well as your original plans.

Now you need to make an advanced plan, using your region shot. It's very simple - just copy your original plan, but make adjustments so that the city fits the terrain.

You can also change other aspects of the plan you're not happy with. Don't add too much detail - you have your original plans for that.

Here's my advanced plan:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi397.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fpp56%2Fsmileymk%2Fadvancedplan.jpg&hash=91dbb4f406f42b8bbe817055b7de361c51c2b753)
You can see it's simple and easy to follow, and is very similar to the original plan. But there are a few adjustments to fit the terrain. Here are some points to bear in mind when doing your advanced plan:

- Transport networks should be kept as flat as possible - and that means going around hills instead of over them. This is especially true of railways and motorways, less so of roads and paths.

- Landmarks need relatively flat terrain - otherwise you can expect ugly retaining walls.

- It doesn't matter if estates aren't that flat. In fact, it can be a good thing.

- Marinas and beaches should be on their appropriate bits of terrain (you can see this on the plan).

- Add labels so that you know what's what - but don't put in too much detail. 

And that is that for advanced planning.

Now that we've done the planning and terraforming, we can start to build our city.

We'll start with the infrastructure, and the railways, which will be the focus of our next lesson.

See you then.
Chris

Although I don't follow everything you mentioned in this thread, I have followed some of them and I have to say thanks for the tips. 

Usually when I build a city, I get bored with it before 20 years game time, but by going slowly and going on a plan ahead style, I am now on year 50 of a city and only have 20K people(usually after 5 years I am above 100K) and I am having fun creating way different styles in the city.

I love the 3x3 industrial zoning idea the best, now instead of having a major industrial area in one part of the city, I now have several small "industrial parks" surrounded by "commercial parks" with residential area's around them, which seems to be working well.  Also great idea on the pedestrian paths, I have a crapload of people walking to work when usually I have few except for a few tiles away.  And they take the bus now also, no idea why, but I am glad that I am not wasting my time on buses anymore  lol

Thanks for this awesome guide  :)

Nice helpful tutorial. Even though I have the Scracc tool, I liked the tip using paint to work with the config file.

Hey guys.


I'm afraid that, due to this lesson taking quite a bit longer than I expected to make, all you'll get today is the first part of Lesson 6. I'm doing this to a) keep you guys from having to wait too long, b) to have a good-quality update posted within 45 days of the last, and c) to preserve the quality of the lesson (this being more important than speed!).


Don't fret, you'll still learn lots today.


mike3775: You're welcome. I like the way you're building your cities - it sounds like you're adopting a similar system to what we have here in Milton Keynes. It works well here, and it should work well for you. Feel free to show a few pics of your work here if you want some advice.


amapper: I'm glad you feel that way, and can I ask you what Scracc is? I've never heard of it and would quite like to know about it now that you've mentioned it.


Now for the first bit of the Railways lesson.


Lesson 6 - Railways (Part 1)

First of all, you might be wondering why you'd build the transport infrastructure before anything else.


It's the same reason why railway modellers lay their track before anything else - because it's much easier to build and do properly now than it would be if we had to put it through the middle of a city.


Railways are probably the hardest transport type to do properly, so it makes sense to do this before roads and motorways - it's much easier to build a motorway around a fix point (e.g. a bridge) than a railway.


This first part will concentrate on the south-west city tile, where, if you remember our plan, the railway begins at a terminus station, and then continues to the north through the hills.


So, as our railway starts at a terminus, it makes sense to start construction with this station. The first job is to decide on a suitable building. Being at the end of a main line, it needs to be fairly big and have somewhere between 6-12 platforms.


It's also a good idea to choose an impressive-looking station - remember that this station would have been built in the Victorian/Edwardian era, when the railway companies considered stations a big part of their corporate image, and hence built them to impress.


Oh, and make sure you actually use a terminus station. It's not good enough to use a through station and only drag out the tracks on one side.


The model I've chosen for this is the ITS King's Cross station, which, with 8 platforms and an impressive facade, meets our criteria well:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg213.imageshack.us%2Fimg213%2F4941%2Fterminusstationbuilding.jpg&hash=bbd357b435f0715389085c34f6c8e9f3a3d7fa3f)


Of course, we can't just leave it like that. We've got to put a few essentials around it, starting with roads.


How you do this will depend on your plan and what station you use, but generally speaking, you'll want road access at the front and sides. It's also a good idea to leave a bit of space at the front for some essentials we'll come to in a minute. Here I've used streets to get to 3 sides (and the access roads at the back), which connect to a road:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg256.imageshack.us%2Fimg256%2F9251%2Fterminusroads.jpg&hash=588bacdd255b7940ec6b6472f219818c63e37a27)
You can also see 2 parallel, alternating one-way roads, which we're going to put bus stops on.


Being quite important, those junctions off the main road are going to need turn lanes:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg525.imageshack.us%2Fimg525%2F5779%2Fstationturnlanes.jpg&hash=b92f72da45b28842175517ed5dbb434a87f68197)


Now you need to add the bus stops. You put these on the one-way roads, making sure to use road-top versions and to put the shelters on the side of the road which the cars drive on (this depends on how you have it set):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg442.imageshack.us%2Fimg442%2F5695%2Fterminusbusterminal.jpg&hash=6320f64814f6c4229ac62196ee85f2a8f6c63d0c)


Now add a couple of car parks on the sides, using your preferred models - I used this Modular 2-level Parking system that I have in my Plugins:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg15.imageshack.us%2Fimg15%2F2384%2Fterminuscarparks.jpg&hash=bda95e566c51cee5c499973074a06b54499cd9be)


Now we just need to finish off the station by filling in that grassy patch in between the bus stops and the building - for which plazas are best:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg694.imageshack.us%2Fimg694%2F2150%2Fterminusfrontplaza.jpg&hash=060762eea68b6fb7ff1316fa18d17873408b787f)


You can see I've also used the NVBC Fountains for aesthetic purposes and the Sandstone Ped Mall piece to create a central walkway to the station door. And about those trees - I don't like them either. They'll be got rid of when we come to do modding later on in the project.


With the building done, we can now focus on the railway itself.


We'll start with the station throat. You need to make a layout that allows a train to get from any track to any platform. You also need to make sure that you use the wide-radius points you get with the NAM. This image shows how it works in this particular case (8-track terminus to 4-track main line):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg694.imageshack.us%2Fimg694%2F2813%2Fterminusthroat.jpg&hash=860ed4440fadbbfc74096dfce805b6190d818bb4)


Now you need to take the railway along its route, which you should have planned already.


However, you will need to think very carefully about where your railway will go - you need to keep gradients to a minimum, which means you'll have to go around hills instead of over them. Where you have to climb a hill, you need to create a path whereby the slope is as gentle as possible. This will often involve building curves.


To make sure you pick the best route possible for your railway, I would advise you to have the grid on at all times when building, and also your mini-map, which will show you the elevation of your city and give you a best path through it.


Where you need to build curves, you need to make them as smooth as you can. You'll need to start by flattening the terrain for them, because the wide rail curve pieces seem to have issues with even the smallest terrain discrepancies:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg163.imageshack.us%2Fimg163%2F3892%2Fcuttingforcurve.jpg&hash=0d05fc815735bf2ea2686a38c7d08210e6fd692b)


Make sure you use the layout you see here. This will give you a flat area that is the correct size for the curves you're going to build.


Now bulldoze the road tiles (keep one as a reference point) and, starting from the orthogonal end, place an Orthogonal - 18.4 FARR piece, and then a Diagonal - FARR piece immediately afterwards:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg257.imageshack.us%2Fimg257%2F5319%2Fsmoothrailcurves.jpg&hash=af2358bc84afefc4fd3eee9299e90065538e5b8f)


Then you can connect up the rails.


Sometimes you'll have to be a bit creative when it comes to routing your railway. You might have to use curves and FARR pieces. As long as you keep the curves smooth, the gradients gentle and the railway going in the right direction, you'll be fine - but it's a good idea to plan what you're going to do before you do it, because you do have to fit it to the terrain, and getting a satisfactory result isn't always easy:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg217.imageshack.us%2Fimg217%2F2438%2Froutingtherailway.jpg&hash=82a654708b74e0498e04229a6b55f6a6b9de69b9)


Are we done? No. Our plan calls for this main line to be electrified, so let's get on with it.


The best tool for the job is the SFBT Rail Catenaries. DON'T use the Rail Catenary mod, you'll see why when we build the branch line in the next instalment.


Placing catenary is fairly straightforward - you just have to remember these simple rules:


- On plain track, the spacing between masts is 3-4 tiles on orthogonal track* and 2 diagonal tiles** on diagonal track.


- The spacing needs to be reduced on curves, such that the overhead cable (you'll have to pretend it's there) stays over the track at all times.


- There should be a catenary mast at the throat of every point, and at the back as well on each branch.


(* 4 tiles if you want accuracy, 3 tiles if you're more concerned with making it look nice. Probably best to mix it up a bit.)


(** '2 diagonal tiles' = 2 tiles up/down, 2 tiles across from the previous mast.)


You should be able to see how these rules have been applied at the station:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg27.imageshack.us%2Fimg27%2F9739%2Fterminuscatenary.jpg&hash=e4e3f4da1b1b17598b41c12bd801af56fc120488)


On the curve:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg10.imageshack.us%2Fimg10%2F6592%2Fcurvecatenary.jpg&hash=ee47418f47f3ba35c231f0c220a56684f14c857e)


And on the complex bit through the valley:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg204.imageshack.us%2Fimg204%2F5381%2Fcomplextrackcatenary.jpg&hash=2bf6c817001d9d1a25708659e2f48338b8346cba)


And that concludes the first part of the Railways lesson.


The next part will focus on the north-west city tile, where you'll learn how to build a junction station, a single-track branch line, and a freight branch.


See you then.
Chris

Time for Part 2.


Lesson 6 - Railways (Part 2)


Continuing from where we left off, we'll start by constructing some more main line, using FARR pieces in this case to keep the cutting and filling to a minimum and the railway relatively straight. FARR puzzle pieces are not slope tolerant at all, so you need to first prepare the terrain with 3x2 blocks of single road tiles:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg163.imageshack.us%2Fimg163%2F7956%2F4trackmainlineextension.jpg&hash=1b1760c1c449892350cfc2facb6c59a7a8f0db27)


Now you can bulldoze the tiles and plop FARR straight pieces in their place:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg404.imageshack.us%2Fimg404%2F8581%2F4tracklaidmainline.jpg&hash=6ce3029b36b424715762fc57df79dca2fff03f70)


After this, our plan calls for a junction station where the main line reduces to 2 tracks and a single-track branch goes off to the east, so let's build that.


You need to prepare your terrain like you did for the FARR pieces. You need to flatten the tiles that your station will occupy (find this out through the preview of the lot - that blue block you get before plopping something), and then add a stub at the other end, in line with your track, for the track to come out of on the other side. The end result should look a little like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg838.imageshack.us%2Fimg838%2F2098%2Fflatteningforjunctionst.jpg&hash=02cddb52dd41266a779d6caa1cf08f8b263bf6e4)


Now delete the road tiles, plop the station, drag the tracks through and drag a road/street out at the front, like so:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg171.imageshack.us%2Fimg171%2F1107%2Fjunctionstation.jpg&hash=ba0aeeff34f2f0d6a654c573679539ce1c851e43)


It's important to choose the right station for the job. As this is a minor junction station, the building should be kept quite small and unspectacular (functionalist buildings are best), and the platforms should be >6 tiles long, like you see here.


Now we have to add a car park and a bus stop to this station to make it complete. This starts with flattening a small bit of terrain behind the road for the car park, like so:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg526.imageshack.us%2Fimg526%2F5346%2Fflatteningforcarpark.jpg&hash=0b72c60e47d909bb5782d060d261d1a2f55e0abf)


Now replace those tiles with your favourite car park lots (I've used the Hooha47 Modluar Parking set here), and also plop a bus stop or two outside the station:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg812.imageshack.us%2Fimg812%2F481%2Fcompletedjunctionfacili.jpg&hash=5792d530e83519b16fbbc0c27a18fa3ad8a2cebc)


Now it's time to create the actual junction with the branch line. You'll need to have the Rail Addon Mod (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1996) installed.


Again, prepare your terrain first. You need to create space for the following puzzle pieces:


- Dual Track Crossover
- 90-degree STR off Orthogonal Rail
- Orthogonal Rail - Parallel Orthogonal Rail Switch


We're going to plop these in the above order, on the right hand side, so you can figure out how big an area you need to flatten out (and don't forget to include space for the stubs).


Once you're done, plop the puzzle pieces:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg851.imageshack.us%2Fimg851%2F6169%2Fbranchlinejunction.jpg&hash=4826f7f4761b9f6bc27bf1be92a5ea301398035b)


Now it's just a case of extending the main line by dragging it along the best route through the terrain, and putting in smooth curves as appropriate using the technique you learnt in Part 1:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg607.imageshack.us%2Fimg607%2F4347%2Fcompletedmainlinesouth.jpg&hash=9a0d45d7e699baf04248d7a6f69d240cfb70de9b)


(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg705.imageshack.us%2Fimg705%2F5045%2Fcompletedmainlinenorth.jpg&hash=c3361ef3d3854a4a299736a17300cd1c062eb9aa)


Notice how it runs between the hills.


Now, the plan called for a freight branch to the left at the northern edge, but as you can see, there's a hill in the way. So instead of doing it now, we're going to do it when we build the power plant and design the railway so that it connects to the mainline about a mile further up the line.


So, with the region boundary reached, you might be forgiven for thinking we're done with it. Not a chance. We still have to electrify it.


You learnt some rules for electrifying railways last time out. Well, you'll be happy to hear that this task is just a case of applying these rules:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg406.imageshack.us%2Fimg406%2F5451%2Fbranchjunctioncatenary.jpg&hash=372359a9358acb36f620b5d65f2362363515d7fc)


And no, we're not going to electrify the branch line. Electrification is something reserved for big-daddy main lines, important connecting routes and urban routes - not single-track country branch lines. (This is the main reason why I'd advocate the use of the SFBT Rail Catenaries rather than the Rail Catenary Mod.) Moving on:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg88.imageshack.us%2Fimg88%2F8593%2F2trackcatenary.jpg&hash=7f9bfcb5d2132cf1a1c08d19ed6e5f688cc20ed8)


OK, now we can start work on the branch line. From your STR curve, drag out some rail (to return to ground level smoothly) and then plop an STR Starter Piece, like you see here:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg542.imageshack.us%2Fimg542%2F6427%2Fstartingstr.jpg&hash=bac12953a98b8eb465df56952955d16280b9133f)


Now, building a branch line is much like building a mainline - you need to pick the best route through the terrain. But a branch line is slightly easier as it can be more curvaceous than a mainline, and slopes don't matter as much either (within reason - use your slope mod!).


However, you still need things like smooth curves to make a branch line look realistic. It is perfectly possible to do this with STR - however, as FA-STR doesn't exist yet, we're restricted to using the 45-degree curves. That, however, is perfectly alright for a branch line.


The technique for making STR curves is as follows. Begin by, well, you can probably guess:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg265.imageshack.us%2Fimg265%2F175%2Fflatteningforstrcurve.jpg&hash=6e20d6f778a3448b237deeb80b7cc224c739e8be)


Now bring the track to your stubs:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg265.imageshack.us%2Fimg265%2F175%2Fflatteningforstrcurve.jpg&hash=6e20d6f778a3448b237deeb80b7cc224c739e8be)


Now drag out the curve to convert that 2-track rail into STR:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg155.imageshack.us%2Fimg155%2F4793%2Fdraggedstrcurve.jpg&hash=8e2e7162124acb8a9408029cdc0b6df0c4a92354)


We've done this to ensure that it stays as STR on the other side of the curve. Now it's time to rip out that model railway curve and replace it with a proper branch line curve:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg23.imageshack.us%2Fimg23%2F8113%2Fwidestrcurve.jpg&hash=ad7b8527f2624c93317baed40e1df47be237249d)


Now you know that, you can take the STR along your planned route:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg838.imageshack.us%2Fimg838%2F6826%2Fnwtilebranchcompletion.jpg&hash=b845795a044eb0a91e8194c5e94fe2c7a4d772cf)


When you move into the next tile, you'll see that the STR has sadly reverted to its twin-track state:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg155.imageshack.us%2Fimg155%2F9642%2Fneoriginalconnector.jpg&hash=00c5f075b97426166feddb0c73313f20ca6c1add)


Not to worry - just plop an STR Starter piece to resume order:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg535.imageshack.us%2Fimg535%2F6329%2Fnestrstarter.jpg&hash=d0b23d9aa219b66b9900eed8a44f30eb1ec2fb9a)


Now you can continue your STR as if nothing has happened:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg832.imageshack.us%2Fimg832%2F9889%2Fnebranchcontinuation.jpg&hash=e34db230dccc542315744efa7358037f02266b4c)


Our plan calls for a simple branch station on the right edge of that picture - so let's make it happen.


The station you choose here should be as small as possible, with minimal facilities. I've chosen one of the STR stations from www.bripizza.net (well worth a look if you don't know about it, there's some stuff there that's very useful - although knowledge of Japanese might be handy) (and this is just a suggestion, BTW, I'm not endorsing the site!!!), which occupies a 3x1 footprint - so it follows that we need to flatten a 5x1 area (you should know why):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg525.imageshack.us%2Fimg525%2F2587%2Fflatteningfobranchstati.jpg&hash=b73f4f57704238dafa11da2a5b83855be8aaef48)


Now replace the middle 3 tiles with the station, and connect up the tracks (and provide road access):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg37.imageshack.us%2Fimg37%2F2811%2Fbranchlinestation.jpg&hash=6e69e883b37c157e5eaf47a471dd4f3f6bf035d2)


Now you can complete the branch by dragging it to the end. When done, your regional rail network should look something like how you planned it:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg18.imageshack.us%2Fimg18%2F228%2Frailtransportmap.jpg&hash=4b19d55eb6c59026d50e220a5a9b70626ded4340)


And that is that for railways.


Next time we'll look at motorways and expressways.


Until then,
Chris

Wonderful! Fantastic! I learned alot from this one. ()stsfd()

Hello.


Risu: Thanks.


Now, who wants to build some motorways?


Lesson 7 Part 1 - Motorways


IMPORTANT: Since I use the LHD version of the game (i.e. the cars drive on the left), all instructions here are written for LHD users. Those who use RHD should use the opposite direction to what is stated here.


In this lesson we'll build the motorway that we planned to run through the north-west city tile, including the 3-level stacked roundabout and flat roundabout interchanges that we planned back in Lesson 1.


You'll need the RHW for this lesson (and the next). You really should have this already, but if you don't, you can find it here (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=853). I'd also highly recommend an RHW-compatible slope mod to go with it.


With motorways it is usually best to start from a junction - so we'll start by building the 3-level stacked roundabout, from which we can drag out a motorway to the south.


You might also see this type of junction referred to as a 'volleyball interchange', since it looks a bit like one. Essentially it is a grade-separated junction where two through routes are connected by a shared roundabout, which is accessed by slip roads.


They're great for motorway-expressway* and expressway-expressway interchanges, especially when most of the traffic passes straight through the junction.


They're not recommended, however, for junctions between motorways, unless you like major congestion on your motorways.


* For the purposes of this MD, 'expressway' refers to a road built to (near) motorway standard, but which does not carry the legal designation as 'motorway' and hence is open to all traffic. It's basically a dual carriageway with grade-separated junctions.


To create this interchange, start by dragging a one-way road circle exactly as shown below, in the clockwise direction:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg404.imageshack.us%2Fimg404%2F6741%2F3lsrinitialroundabout.jpg&hash=9b234a7b0357d9ac18c9eb48050f2299af80b131)


As a guide, there should be 4 clear tiles between the stubs. The stubs should be oriented so that the entry ramps point away from the roundabout, and vice versa.


If you're wondering what those single road tiles are doing, they're part of the preparation for the expressway to run over the top of this. We'll finish that later, but for now, we'll focus on the motorway, which will go underneath the roundabout.


Since we don't have 3 levels of RHW to play with yet, we have to put the motorway into a tunnel to go under the roundabout and expressway.


Start by preparing 15m holes on two opposite sides of the roundabout, using the hole digger lots. There should be 2 clear tiles between the bottom of this ditch and the roundabout, as shown below:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg402.imageshack.us%2Fimg402%2F9052%2Fcuttingsformotorwaytunn.jpg&hash=8ec72ecf723682b1459d742e590adce31fb6f166)


Now, since RHW can't have tunnels, we have to use the avenue tool instead to build the tunnel. Drag it out between the ditches:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg851.imageshack.us%2Fimg851%2F1879%2Fmotorwaytunnel.jpg&hash=67006e261b2f59d7d26e628ef3ab973acae82faa)


Now drag out the Avenue to create a gently-sloped approach to the tunnel on both sides. (You can also use Rail to create a much gentler slope first - and this is what I'd recommend doing for a much better-looking interchange):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg809.imageshack.us%2Fimg809%2F9518%2Ftunnelapproach.jpg&hash=08008a49cb9f69fa20b97b9f9f7475394fe4c0d1)


Now plop, on both sides, Type C or Type F RHW ramps. Which ones you use will depend on where you're setting your city:


- RHW-4 should always be used to lead into the tunnel, since this provides the best transition to Avenue.


- If you're in the UK, plop the RHW-6S - RHW-4 splitter piece.


- If you're in Europe, just use the regular Type C RHW-4 ramps.


- If you're in the US, use whatever piece takes your fancy.


- Use RHW-4 for exit ramps, and MIS for entry ramps. If you can't go straight to RHW-4 from the carriageway, use the MIS piece and plop a MIS - RHW-4 transition as soon as you can.


If you're elsewhere, you're going to have to find out how wide your local motorways are and choose your pieces appropriately.


We're going to use the RHW-4 Type C ramps on the south side, and RHW-6S Type F ramps on the north side.


Flatten the terrain beforehand, plop the pieces and replace the avenues with RHW-4 (up to the tile before the tunnel starts):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg811.imageshack.us%2Fimg811%2F693%2Fmotorway3lsrramps.jpg&hash=dbb26097a23fefc6fe816e8c664821c449fc131d)


Now use the appropriate pieces to complete your ramps, as shown below:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg849.imageshack.us%2Fimg849%2F3691%2Fcompletedmotorwayramps.jpg&hash=3044251c3d3d17a70ba5c5b18143b738395f3389)


Good! Now we can turn our attention to the expressway that will go over the top.


Start by flattening out a couple of tiles on the 2 sides of the roundabout you didn't use for the motorway, making sure to make the flattened areas 2 tiles wide and halfway between the ramp stubs:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg406.imageshack.us%2Fimg406%2F1167%2Fflatteningforoverpass.jpg&hash=3873afa59e923df4323a0d83b2f5e105b080a8f1)


Now use hole-digger lots to make 15m embankments for the expressway, making sure to keep 2 clear tiles between the stub and the roundabout:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg269.imageshack.us%2Fimg269%2F59%2Fstubsforelevatedtransit.jpg&hash=783c3bfe41f3762e9490b1a733187f1c94be2864)


Now place RHW-4 Ground-Elevated On Slope transitions on the stubs (place the cursor on the steep bit and get them the right way round!), and then use the RHW tool to drag out a beautiful ERHW-4 flyover:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg138.imageshack.us%2Fimg138%2F6343%2F3levelroundaboutflyover.jpg&hash=017c989b32f6c269e8c292943a162da5922e92b9)


On the west side of this, we'll build the ramps.


Since this is an expressway, it can be realistically built to a slightly lower standard than a motorway and hence we can use the RHW-4 Type A Wide ramps instead of the Type C ramps, and save on a bit of space.


Start by flattening out an area as shown below. Make sure it is far enough from the roundabout such that you have room to build properly graded slip roads:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg580.imageshack.us%2Fimg580%2F4775%2Fflatteningforexpressway.jpg&hash=f54df81f9db99c2345d67ea368eb20d0b28c334d)


Now drag roads to create the gentle-ish slopes required between the ramp and flyover/roundabout:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg515.imageshack.us%2Fimg515%2F4409%2Fpresmoothingramps.jpg&hash=827d41c8e248f83e404d1fc6f41d2f0dc68f012f)


Now replace these with your ramps and with the RHW:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg594.imageshack.us%2Fimg594%2F8563%2Fexpressway3lsrramps.jpg&hash=fd3d31be59213c45e5b97704f0e3f42ce34eb3b6)


On the east side, it's a bit trickier, because we have a city tile boundary getting in the way. So all we can do is build the slip roads and put the ramps on the next tile over.


The good news is it's nothing complex. Prepare the slope as before:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg546.imageshack.us%2Fimg546%2F8329%2Feastside3lsrrampterrafo.jpg&hash=300a9812f60bc3c915fb0892f33d4ba6ee34607e)


Now drag out the ramps and carriageways, and plop neighbour connector pieces as shown below:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg94.imageshack.us%2Fimg94%2F2194%2Feastside3lsrramps.jpg&hash=b7fc172c8ec46a58ad995caf0aac57c1ecc1aa9b)


We'll come to do the ramps when we build the expressway in the next lesson.


Now, with all the ramps and carriageways finished, you'd think we were done, wouldn't you? How very wrong you are.


To finish off the interchange, we're going to use some Exit Lane Marker pieces on the RHW-4 and 6S. They are found under the RHW Cosmetic Pieces menu. Plop them as you see below:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg97.imageshack.us%2Fimg97%2F5615%2Fcosmeticexitlanemarking.jpg&hash=2e0f38348f5af8b7d452b5aed7871f3f6c333ff3)


Really there should be arrows as well, but the interim Euro Texture Mod I'm using doesn't support LHD arrow texture pieces, so we'll just have to leave them for now until mrtnrln releases his completed version (which, as I understand it, he'll be doing very soon).


OK, now we've completed our interchange. Let's step back and admire our work:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg26.imageshack.us%2Fimg26%2F5214%2Fcompleted3lsr.jpg&hash=0af6c419ff3b16166e449de2a575648d6c9aa5ed)


This can be prettied up with trees, road signs and other eyecandy - but that is something for another lesson.


Right now our focus is on building this motorway. Like with railways, you need to pick your route carefully so that it takes the flattest route through the terrain. That will require you to build curves, for which there is a technique to use.


Start, as always, by flattening:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg444.imageshack.us%2Fimg444%2F4240%2Fflatteningformotorwaycu.jpg&hash=4d21175775a98077313a5deb6f9e6b50892d7ebc)


Now drag out the curve, and a bit of motorway beyond it to ensure we keep the RHW-4 after we build the curve piece:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg14.imageshack.us%2Fimg14%2F9163%2Fdraggedrhwcurve.jpg&hash=da969238a5e01dfb2b01b723ce502a7803738b99)


Now plop an RHW-4 Double Curve piece over the top of the dragged curve:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg827.imageshack.us%2Fimg827%2F6350%2Fsmoothrhwcurve.jpg&hash=08d73ff039b37ac030b323df29f3ff9448e5c3ef)


I think you'll all agree that that's much better. Now, take your motorway along its path, going between hills and keeping the course as flat as you can:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg806.imageshack.us%2Fimg806%2F6397%2Froutingmotorway.jpg&hash=446a6e2649c4a53dc1099d54c0bf3a505a48f253)


At this point, we've managed to run into our STR branch line, so we need to build a flyover to cross it.


You know how to start:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg836.imageshack.us%2Fimg836%2F7677%2Fflatteningforstrflyover.jpg&hash=efe198ce128d4ddfed290f9eb73b1dc10610c4fa)


And what to do next:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg593.imageshack.us%2Fimg593%2F2381%2Fstrflyoverstubs.jpg&hash=4b8f472b61c31da41d8d5e21caadc87c770e9379)


Now, the ERHW-4 / STR intersection needed here isn't supported yet, so we have to temporarily revert our STR back to regular rail with the STR - Dual Track Short Transition piece. Place one on each side, as shown here:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg683.imageshack.us%2Fimg683%2F6808%2Fpassingloopforflyover.jpg&hash=31677bfc3bd37f446b7b0e7faeae07782ac6b23f)


Finish by connecting everything up:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg163.imageshack.us%2Fimg163%2F1576%2Fcompletedstrflyover.jpg&hash=747c1735178f7f988a3b91065920af0638b5fb08)


Now we progress to the end of the motorway, where it ends at a flat roundabout.


You learnt how to do this in Project 1. If you've forgotten, go back there and read up on it. It will teach you to do this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg838.imageshack.us%2Fimg838%2F3237%2Fflatroundabout.jpg&hash=c5a7ff651153f24c8094ab094378da1450acce5b)


Now, that fountain in the middle is part of the piece. It indicates that there is a north-south FLUP underpass running underneath the roundabout. We don't need to finish this underpass for now, but we'll keep the infrastructure in case we want to install the underpass later.


And that is all for this lesson.


Next time we'll build the expressway.


See you then,
Chris

^^ The cosmetic pieces with model arrows are actually standard included in the RHW mod and thus my mod will work with an LHD version of the game. Only the TuLEPs would not be fully supported.

Anyway, nice tutorial, although I would use another interchange setup, like a cloverleaf or a cloverturbine...

Your tutorial about railroads is very interesting :) . I guess it can be very useful for also monorails and trams, right? ;D
As about the highways, I prefer to mix the Maxis highways with the double decker R.H.W.. It takes less space and it's still very effective. Of course my favourite way of connecting cities is by subways ;D

Excellent. I recently have had the urge to build an expressway, just for the sake of practice.

Good job !

Hey guys. I thought I'd just do a quick replies post, if you don't mind, because you haven't heard from me in a while and the expressways lesson still needs some work before it's ready (mainly due to my typically temperamental laptop).


mrtnrln: In the lesson I was using the interim V5 textures. Since then, they've been replaced with your more complete version and I must say it is excellent. I've yet to see if the arrows work but I know you wouldn't release it if they didn't.


As for the interchange, I would not use a cloverleaf myself, due to the weaving, the space and the fact that there are only 2 in the whole of Britain. I know they're the norm in Holland and Germany, but they're unheard of here, and remember, I can only teach you what is realistic to me - i.e. how it is here.


A cloverturbine is a good idea and wouldn't be too hard to make - but it's more suited to inter-motorway interchanges than motorway-expressway interchanges like the one built here.


Terring7: I'm sorry to say that monorails and trams are rather different, because they have different uses to railways. I guess in terms of routing it's fairly similar, but that's it.


Maxis motorways might be compact, but they don't come close to the standard achieved with the RHW. Try it - you'll find that you can actually make very good interchanges in a relatively small space.
I can see why you like the DDRHW, it is cool, but for realism, it needs to be kept to urban areas, and even there it should only be used occasionally.
Remember that real-world examples of double-decker motorways are very rare (there is only one in England and it is a very short section).


You say you use tubes to connect cities? A good idea, seeing as how you don't have to make room for them. It doesn't fit my style, purely because I like building roads and railways and the challenge of building them, but if you like using subways then it's well worth sticking at it. Your cities, your rules.


Risu: An excellent idea. I'll be keeping a close eye on the 'Show us your intersections' thread, should you post something there. And feel free to show it here if you'd like some pointers.


ricardomiranda: Thanks.


So that's it for now. Like I said, this was no more than a replies post. The lesson will come when it is ready. Thanks for being patient, and remember the timeless maxim - "Good things come to those who wait".


Oh wait, I almost forgot something:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg814.imageshack.us%2Fimg814%2F115%2Fcompleteddumbbell.jpg&hash=6c608a46211b6f9a9cdea248967ec1d5ecef6d05)


I'll just leave you to , er, wonder as to how this was made...


Chris

I know exactly how that was made.

It was made by someone whose not forgotten, and actually engineered some better highway setups then I have seen in the states. However, since someone like me is used to a flipped driving direction, and you would not want someone like me turning down the wrong way at a high rate of speed to a head-on, due to no direction signs. You can trust me when I tell you that type of thing has happened here in my reality for me to witness way too many times, and by far is not a laughing matter. I guess its possible the signs down there are just not visible from this high up. I forgot if Do Not Enter signs automatically appear or don't when connecting MIS ramp to the roundabout.

I'm happy to say that the expressways lesson is now ready. But first I must run through proper procedure:


j-dub: Well then, you should find this lesson easy. And so should everyone else, because the methods used in it are easy.


Of course, proper signage is essential for realistic results - we'll cover that in a later lesson. If people are going down the wrong slip road then that has 3 potential causes:


a) unusual design - how many dumbbells are there in the US?


b) poor signage / road markings - inevitably lead to a wrong turn, if one is not used to the layout


c) incompetent drivers - let's face it, there are some people out there who really should not be allowed anywhere near a driver's seat, and who couldn't correctly navigate a junction for toffee.


To ensure these problems don't happen in SC4, you'll need to use proper signage lots and proper turn lanes, in a prototypical design, and put schools down so you have less bad drivers.


And finally, do No Entry signs appear when linking MIS to a roundabout? From what I've seen, no. They would not be hard to add, though, and I've already scratchbuilt some for that purpose.


Now, time for the lesson.


Lesson 7 Part 2 - Expressways


IMPORTANT: As before, this guide is for LHD users. Where left and right are involved, RHD users should do the opposite of what I say here.


Firstly, what is an expressway? For the purposes of this MD, it is not a motorway. Instead it is a road that is built close to the standards that you would expect to see on a motorway - BUT is legally classed as an all-purpose road.


A motorway has a legal designation as such, and only certain traffic types are permitted to use it. There are also laws that specifically prohibit certain actions on motorways, such as stopping, reversing and U-turns.


Expressways do not have these restrictions.


They are dual-carriageway and feature grade-separated junctions, although they are a bit less sophisticated than motorway junctions. They can also slope more and curve more than motorways.


So now that you know what an expressway is, how do you build one?


We've already built a bit of it in the 3-level stacked roundabout we did last lesson. So it would make sense to start there, heading west as we have all of that city tile to cover.


The first problem we come to is this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg703.imageshack.us%2Fimg703%2F6967%2Fexpresswayoverrailemban.jpg&hash=031398cafdc23fafec14ee5beadfae7b7c93d165)


We need to get over the railway line, and curve the expressway (coming from the east) so that it runs parallel with the railway to the southeast.


In this case, as you can see, I had to build a rail tunnel, first by clearing the area, then raising it 15m with hole digger lots, then dragging the tunnel through and replacing any catenary masts that got demolished. You know how to do all of this, so this is a useful technique for dealing with difficult crossovers.


With simpler setups, it should be possible to build a flyover like we've done before.


Afterwards, it's just a case of dragging out the expressway curve over the top. We're using RHW-4 for the expressway, and we covered building curves with the RHW-4 in the last lesson.


Hence you should be able to get from that last picture to this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg84.imageshack.us%2Fimg84%2F3623%2Fcompleteexpresswayoverr.jpg&hash=d4502a29e1c9ba92b00da3d5eccc40e479cde82c)


Moving on, the next interesting thing we come to is a roundabout interchange with a road (see the plan from Lesson 5).


You know how to build a roundabout interchange, because we did it in Project 1. If you can't remember, go back and have a look, because I'm going to assume you do remember and therefore will be able to create this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg515.imageshack.us%2Fimg515%2F280%2Froundaboutinterchange.jpg&hash=5eb7b3d3645f4f195c9344c65acf5a8c33cb8064)


(You do the flyover like always. The ramps are the RHW-4 Wide Ramps.)


Now, you can see that on the surface road we've got an avenue, when we want a road. You could drag a road straight out on either side, but the result isn't that appealing visually.


Enter the NWM and, more specifically, the AVE-4 - AVE-2 and AVE-2 - Road transitions:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg407.imageshack.us%2Fimg407%2F6894%2Froundabouticroadlinks.jpg&hash=050c5f301d865f0f2532a19ae92994c8e4a99fda)


The picture tells you all you need to know. Pay particular attention to the orientation of the transitions - inbound traffic gets the curvy path.


From there, it's just a case of dragging to the edge of the city tile.


East of the junction with the motorway, we start by completing those ramps on the east side that had to go into the next tile.


It's a simple matter - prepare the terrain, plop the RHW-4 Wide ramps, drag out, and remember to put in your neighbour connector pieces:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg43.imageshack.us%2Fimg43%2F6231%2Feastside3lsrramp.jpg&hash=e60dd5f572239ddb5af261877241364c3f2374f6)


It's important that, like with motorways and railways, you pick the best route through the terrain, as far as possible.


There is one thing about this that's a little different with expressways (and regular roads), which we'll cover at the end of the lesson.


For now, let's move on and build the dumbbell interchange that I leaked a couple of weeks ago.


I wonder how you should start?
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg703.imageshack.us%2Fimg703%2F666%2Fflatteningfordumbbell.jpg&hash=631ae6aa327c651ca43c3a4526040aafb819858b)


Note that this is the exact layout you should use for your single tiles and hole diggers.


Now raise two squares of 4 tiles up by 15m, starting from the digger lot and going up and away from the junction, like so:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg826.imageshack.us%2Fimg826%2F8049%2Fstubsfordumbbellflyover.jpg&hash=7bd5721b22f56b4bc7248668927623312edd9928)


Now run a road through the middle and put in 2 one-way roundabouts where the 3x3 flat squares are:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg705.imageshack.us%2Fimg705%2F7006%2Fdumbbellsurfaceroads.jpg&hash=f14036d3a03be16f48b6f3f8685d952087a23d11)


Make sure you drag the one-way road the right way round - clockwise here, anti-clockwise for RHD users.


Now build a flyover over the middle using ERHW-4:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg197.imageshack.us%2Fimg197%2F9825%2Fdumbbellflyover.jpg&hash=39c489c3bdfe22bdd5be32e24e12a30e7b1d5573)


Flatten out an area for the ramps that is far enough away from the flyover for the slopes to be gentle (10 tiles should be fine) on either side, and then use Rail to create smooth slopes for your expressway:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg813.imageshack.us%2Fimg813%2F2990%2Fdumbbellramppreparation.jpg&hash=3d9e22a8a73f0758f07a036d7547e7a7662acfef)


(We're using rail because it has a stricter slope restriction than the RHW.)


Now you can connect everything up. You can even drag MIS straight into the roundabouts, so there's no need to put stubs on first:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg252.imageshack.us%2Fimg252%2F1694%2Fmisintoroundabout.jpg&hash=ea21e34825b2bf7fb5a67c3271888b1d93583c5c)


Et voila! You should now have something like this to marvel at:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg580.imageshack.us%2Fimg580%2F115%2Fcompleteddumbbell.jpg&hash=6ccf2d01be2d171979c91fd5a9aad732c25fc9ef)


Now, there's one more thing I want to cover before the end of the lesson:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg811.imageshack.us%2Fimg811%2F2062%2Frhwoverhill.jpg&hash=43088e483af716388c287799af828e719966334e)


You can see here that the expressway goes straight over the hill rather than around it.


This illustrates an important aspect of building expressways and regular roads - they can, do and should go straight over hills or through valleys provided that the slope is appropriate.


This is not the case with motorways and railways, which require a relatively flat course to be taken. Building expressways and surface roads like you see above will save on time and expense and will provide a more realistic result, believe it or not.


I'll finish up by showing you how our major road network looks right now:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg861.imageshack.us%2Fimg861%2F5840%2Fcompletedexpresswaysyst.jpg&hash=f3c7cb58384f1c095eae07b58e3666f4f1826551)


That's it for now. Next up is roads.


Chris

Geez, no one is asking questions? o.o" Hum. Must be they either know everything already, OR you made your instructions quite clear.

Nice work, but I'd recommend using the FAR ramps and curves for MIS, as well as adding some acceleration lanes.  ;)

Thank you for your job !

smileymk, firstly, thanks for a great beginners tutorial.  I've been reading my way through, slowy.  I've read further than I've practised, but have turned my hand to terraforming.  What do you think:-

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fgeek-alchemist.com%2Fimg%2Fsc4-2012-02-21_1.png&hash=13a3f3b8fa825af4d13bcbddda2b6549f3fa2c19)

Quote from: Risu on February 11, 2012, 06:38:04 PM
Geez, no one is asking questions? o.o" Hum. Must be they either know everything already, OR you made your instructions quite clear.

Well, if it is well explained, why ask questions? ;)

Btw smileymk, well done and quite interesting, even for a longtime experienced player like me! Bravo.

mrb

Quote from: mrbisonm on February 21, 2012, 07:25:27 PM
Well, if it is well explained, why ask questions? ;)

What I meant by that is; it's kinda aquard when nobody replies to an MD entry. Even a simple oneliner is enough affirmation to encourage them to continue. Otherwise it could be seen as tho' nobody cares, or that it's uninteresting, or something.

OK, time to build some surface roads. But first...


Risu: I think the techniques I've shown are known by quite a few people (as is, and will be, the case for some things we do here), but the reason I show it anyway is to give people the chance to learn alternative techniques, and also to teach those who don't yet know how these things are done the tried, tested and simple methods that can be used to create something that they'll be proud of.


I do put a lot of thought into what I write, especially in response to comments where it's all too easy for someone unsociable like me to offend someone!


In the lessons, I make sure to write in a clear, understandable way - and that means using correct spelling and grammar throughout as well as lots of paragraphs.
I also use as many pictures as necessary to document every step of the procedures used, keep the text in between as short as possible, and avoid jargon as much as possible.


Finally, you hit the nail on the head with regards to comments. I can only judge how well the MD is doing by the response you guys give. If there's no response, it does give the impression that nobody's interested. So keep those lovely comments coming!


riiga: I would completely agree with that suggestion, and it has been added to the list of improvements to make at the end of the project - but only for motorways. Expressways (remember my definition) are built to a slightly lower standard, rendering FAR ramps and acceleration lanes excessive.


ricardomiranda: Thanks a lot. It's clear from your frequent posts that you're finding this helpful, so thanks for coming and I'm happy to be of service.


mrbisonm: Thanks for the kind words. As to why people would want to ask questions, well it could be that they want to know if the techniques could be used for other things, or otherwise deepen their understanding of what's been covered. They might also have some ideas for what they want to do and want a second opinion on their work.


n1md4: Generally very good. I like the river and the rolling hills, and also the tree placement and density inland.
A few pointers though:


- Your river gets very wide for a short distance at the top of the picture. I would put some extra land in, either by extending the peninsula on the other side or creating an island / land bridge in the middle so that the water is of consistent width.


- There needs to be a lot more trees alongside the river, to the extent where the river's almost surrounded by trees. If God Mode's giving you a hard time, then use some Mayor Mode trees, which are a lot less fussy. You can also download a lot of Mayor Mode trees and plants off the STEX and LEX to add some variety.


- I'd get a water mod. There's a lot for you to choose from on the STEX and LEX so take your pick. Believe me when I say that your water will look far better for it.


- A presentational matter - hide that menu by using the little white square button at the bottom-left, and also get rid of the clouds. They get in the way and shatter the illusion you've worked hard to create.


Right, before I begin the lesson, I just want to emphasise that the tips I gave about writing posts and tutorials in response to Risu's comments apply to everyone.


Seriously guys, I've seen far too many huge blocks of text that are littered with jargon and/or 'text speak' or are written in a way that's hard to comprehend - and they all just make me think 'What???' when I read them.


Take the time to write properly and in small, clear sentences and paragraphs, and it will help everyone to understand exactly what you're saying enormously, save everyone time and effort, and help them to respond in the right way.


Now, with that in mind, let's learn how to build roads (and if you spot any instances where I haven't written properly, you're more than welcome to bring me to book for it (politely of course)).


Lesson 8 - Roads

Road construction is easily one of my favourite parts of city-building. It's fun, easy, quick (usually) and produces very pleasing results.


It's always best to work from existing infrastructure to start with and go from there, and that's what we're doing here.
You might remember building a flat roundabout in Lesson 6 to end our motorway - that's where we're going to start.


Being an important and busy junction, we want to ensure that traffic flows smoothly through the roundabout - and that means we need avenues to branch off the roundabout, like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg36.imageshack.us%2Fimg36%2F9961%2Fcompletedmotorwayflatro.jpg&hash=814034dfad7cb377c3a45e2d83e0c53999268d4e)


Creating the avenues is just a simple matter of dragging them out.


As you can see in the above picture, we also need to add turn lanes using the TuLEP pieces that come with the NAM. This will ensure that the cars aren't weaving between lanes on the roundabout, increase capacity and provide a better visual appearance.


It's not a perfect fit - the centre arrow should really be pointing straight on and the right turn lane texture stops when it hits the roundabout, but these are minor niggles and are barely noticeable even in Zoom 4. The setup still looks much better with the turn lanes.


An important rule I need to mention now is that urban roads should be more or less straight, except where they need to curve due to terrain or obstructions.


We're going to continue with the westbound avenue now, where we run into a hill we have to go around.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg163.imageshack.us%2Fimg163%2F6008%2Fsettingupavenuecurves.jpg&hash=97f3eee4ef6c70f23e7d6fce85485caa10e21291)


You can see I've marked out where I want the avenue to end up by dragging it. I've then plopped smooth 45-degree avenue curves down. (Plop one first, then follow the grid diagonally to make sure that the other curve is in line.)


It may seem like the next step is to simply connect everything up - but first we have to sort out that lumpy curve at the bottom.


All we need to do is demolish the curve and then smooth out the area using Rail:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg594.imageshack.us%2Fimg594%2F8954%2Fsmoothingforavenuecurve.jpg&hash=f9ff8524ea91ba1c2276c8e65c96fc8532d08148)


(Note that we do NOT need to flatten here. Just smoothing the terrain will produce a good result in the end.)


Then fill in the avenue gaps - but do NOT build the curve itself:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg543.imageshack.us%2Fimg543%2F3913%2Fconnectingavenuecurves.jpg&hash=69110b0482cea21e07c2c7810bd7bbe5dc140f00)


Now you can rebuild that avenue curve, and marvel at the improved result:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg580.imageshack.us%2Fimg580%2F2619%2Fcompletedavenuecurves.jpg&hash=fa2f68e194a9a4f13c0ab56df61282f7e9b10011)


The next obstacle we have to cross is the main railway line, which we're going to do with a flyover.


The first job is to prepare the ground and plop the 15m ground lifter lots:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg252.imageshack.us%2Fimg252%2F4345%2Faverailflyoverpreparati.jpg&hash=b3f4bb83e7798358b2c16d632481fbf2d51ea9b3)


You can see that I've also had to demolish the railway infrastructure in the immediate area to do this, due to the terrain. Don't worry, it'll be rebuilt soon enough.


Now lift up that ground and create your stubs (they should be 2 tiles wide (because we're dealing with a 2-tile network) and at least 2 tiles long):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg37.imageshack.us%2Fimg37%2F2829%2Faverailflyoverstubs.jpg&hash=99532b65ed80a8f4c6749bd098f076a34df6c11f)


Now rebuild the railway (pre-flattening the terrain if necessary) and drag the avenue to your stubs:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg526.imageshack.us%2Fimg526%2F51%2Faverailflyoversetup.jpg&hash=3b150ed2a90483ef9a66c244d940c7aee851f2b1)


Now you can build the flyover:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg32.imageshack.us%2Fimg32%2F5869%2Faverailflyover.jpg&hash=390b1dd1336ee2171bd7f5ef528e061de594b2c1)


Then rebuild the catenary masts:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg833.imageshack.us%2Fimg833%2F5002%2Fcompletedaverailflyover.jpg&hash=37f9e00b97bc07dcc345ecbfb012a1ae8aef7988)


Note that there should be catenary masts on the tiles immediately next to the flyover.


Northwest of here, the plan is to end the avenue at an avenue roundabout, where 3 roads will run off it.


Although it is not possible to drag roads directly from the sides of an avenue roundabout (you can drag road from the corners), there's a little trick you can use to make it look like the road runs into the roundabout.


First, plop the roundabout and drag out avenue along the planned path of your roads. These avenues need to be as short as the game will let you make them:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg96.imageshack.us%2Fimg96%2F7341%2Faveroadroundaboutsetup.jpg&hash=5cfcc6316ff86233a9f815d01367998788ca077a)


Now you can drag out roads from these avenue stubs. It's important that you drag them from the correct side, and you'll see why in a moment.


The tiles you need to drag from are shown below, and they differ according to what side of the road your cars drive on:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg17.imageshack.us%2Fimg17%2F621%2Faveroadconstruction.jpg&hash=c511da302e3bf40195343ef5bb3c50cb4b004491)


LHD users need to drag from the tiles highlighted in red (like what you see here.)
RHD users need to drag from the tiles highlighted in green.


You can see from the picture above why it's important to drag from the right side. The roads only curve on one side, and that should be the side where the traffic needs to slow down - hence the curve should be on the inbound side of the road.


Now you can drag out your roads as planned:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg594.imageshack.us%2Fimg594%2F3328%2Fcompleteaveroadroundabo.jpg&hash=fc247c19b721997b5ef2199f999025fda1782b5e)


(Remember that urban roads should be mostly straight.)


If we extend the road to the north, we'll eventually run into the roundabout interchange that we built during Lesson 7 Part 2. But the road connections to the interchange are slightly out of line with the road we've just built.


The solution is to use the FAR pieces. They can be found in the Wide Curves tab ring in your Road menu.


All we need here is a Road - 18.4-degree FAR Transition at either end, and FAR Straight pieces in the middle:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg834.imageshack.us%2Fimg834%2F6821%2Fusingfar.jpg&hash=36ed1f984978c940c5727941dad348361e7589b8)


You can see that FAR has allowed us to bring the two vertical roads in line smoothly, whilst keeping the road more or less straight. It also breaks the Maxis grid, giving a much more realistic appearance to your road network.


Our last job on this road is to build a oneway roundabout to make provision for a yet-to-be-built access road for the city's power plant:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg442.imageshack.us%2Fimg442%2F8345%2Fpowerplantroundabout.jpg&hash=b64196452714606b51c20ddaab6b4d75b63a9242)


So now we move to the avenue that runs southbound from the roundabout in the first picture, which will run to the coast.


The first obstacle to cross is the railway - but this time the railway is diagonal, the terrain is challenging and the avenue can't go too far out of its way, so a flyover will be difficult to construct. We're also well into town now and can't afford to take up too much space.


The solution is to use FLUPs, which have the advantage of being able to curve under networks.


First, you need to flatten the terrain for the FLUP ramps, otherwise some funny things will happen when you try to build them:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg815.imageshack.us%2Fimg815%2F3815%2Faverailfluppreparation.jpg&hash=6ac34318e0c7cad74b053bf0e7bd3ac9dd162d23)


I've also demolished some catenary masts to make way for the new underpass. As before, they'll be rebuilt in time.


You can see why we need to use FLUPs - the avenue to the east has got to go north east to meet the motorway, and the avenue south has got to continue south to run to the CBD and the coast.


So now you need to build your FLUP underpass, and rebuild the catenary masts as best you can:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg571.imageshack.us%2Fimg571%2F4673%2Fcompleteaverailflup.jpg&hash=77be29556cda8e74462bed70ad42803fb3019d2b)


So now we have an effective, realistic solution to quite a tricky problem. Yes, the road zigzags underground, but nobody will know that or see that, so you can pretend that you've got a wonderful smooth 90-degree curve running underneath your railway.


So now we can continue the avenue south to the coast. Just before the coast, I've built some FA-Avenue in exactly the same way as the FAR so that the avenue meets the coast where I planned it to:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg840.imageshack.us%2Fimg840%2F8975%2Ffaave.jpg&hash=e6ea9a64184be0306ce89a718cb2af030bae974e)


You'll also see that I've built a junction with a road that will run to the main rail station to the east and the avenue roundabout to the northwest we built a few pictures ago. Being in the heart of the city, we have to use a flat junction here because we just won't have room for a roundabout once all the buildings go up.


But that junction just doesn't look right at the moment. It needs turn lanes:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg141.imageshack.us%2Fimg141%2F5645%2Faveroadflatjunction.jpg&hash=a36ff9dff66013556171c63235b4fdeec03d2ab3)


Much better. Now we can turn our attention to a road that is planned to run along the coast.


First, we need to interface it with the avenue, and the tool for that is a 2x2 road roundabout:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg837.imageshack.us%2Fimg837%2F730%2Faveintoroadroundabout.jpg&hash=4bd8e39f78c0b61d503eaa5348886d8830e246b3)


Now, within the town we need to make space for a beach we're going to build. To do that, we need to route the road so that it is a consistent distance of 5-7 tiles from the shore. This will require you to use FAR and wide curves:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg33.imageshack.us%2Fimg33%2F909%2Fcoastroad.jpg&hash=c1e9c1d810d77711190a3fd72e452a52b1465317)


Towards the west, we can get a bit closer to the coast, as we're moving into the suburbs and out of town and hence don't need to keep a space for a promenade.


That road sticking out to the north now needs to meet the road that intersects the avenue at that flat junction we built.
When 1-tile roads meet in the suburbs or out of town, a oneway roundabout is the ideal choice to bring them together:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg856.imageshack.us%2Fimg856%2F5497%2Fusingowrroundabout.jpg&hash=6c3bfd3eb304438fe24d4bf4eeec88a1073db2e3)


The road north of this junction runs into some big hills, so we have to violate our rule on keeping urban roads more or less straight.
Instead we have to route the road around the terrain, using smooth curves where appropriate:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg850.imageshack.us%2Fimg850%2F9048%2Froutingroads.jpg&hash=57ab6a7378c44b9e174389ae76e6cc5cd1bbb27f)


Moving northeast, there's still one obstacle to deal with - the STR branch line, which a road connecting the expressway dumbbell interchange with the marina and historical district has to cross.


This intersection is comfortably in the suburbs, so we have room to build a flyover. For added complexity, a street will run from the flyover stub to the branch station.


Start by creating your stubs:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg832.imageshack.us%2Fimg832%2F9342%2Froadoverpasspreparation.jpg&hash=fe64af28006be1b06d520fb43335a202bf5c14fc)


Now you can build the flyover. You'll need to use the STR-Dual Rail Short Transition piece on either side of the flyover:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg201.imageshack.us%2Fimg201%2F2927%2Fcompleteroadrailflyover.jpg&hash=593f753a3f954ddd7fd9fd7015be33de794fc190)


I used the T on Slope pieces here so that I could drag out a street to the left. The slopes to the stubs were pre-smoothed using the Rail tool.


And that is all you need to know about building roads.


In Lesson 9 we'll build some infrastructure for our buses, such as a central bus terminal and park-and-ride facilities.


Until then,
Chris

I have to disagree with this picture:

Quote(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg36.imageshack.us%2Fimg36%2F9961%2Fcompletedmotorwayflatro.jpg&hash=814034dfad7cb377c3a45e2d83e0c53999268d4e)

How can you have three lanes entering a two-lane roundabout? Madness I say! Also, the right turn lane makes no sense, since a roundabout is a one-way road going clockwise (counter-clockwise in RHD).

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg141.imageshack.us%2Fimg141%2F5645%2Faveroadflatjunction.jpg&hash=a36ff9dff66013556171c63235b4fdeec03d2ab3)

How are people supposed to go straight at this intersection when every lane is a turn lane only?

After reading through the whole thread and being inspired i decided to start my own region called Ayr which is loosely based on my hometown and loosely based on your own plan.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg259.imageshack.us%2Fimg259%2F8683%2Fayrshire.jpg&hash=2d976a1faecf90e673ed6242ebbf3bca82ede392)

Ive included a river running through the area which the CBD spans, the river is slightly wider than the one you had in project 1 but i like it just slightly wider.
The car park for the stadium doubles as a park n ride on non game days.
There will also be an industrial dock and a marina that aren't marked on the plan.

Purple=Minor roads that i needed to show.
Grey= Major Roads
Green= Dual Carriageway (Expressway in your plans)
Blue= Motorway
Red=Railroad

Quote from: riiga on March 07, 2012, 08:44:38 AM
How can you have three lanes entering a two-lane roundabout? Madness I say! Also, the right turn lane makes no sense, since a roundabout is a one-way road going clockwise (counter-clockwise in RHD).

With regards to the right turn late approaching a roundabout it's quite common where i'm from. I can think of 4 or 5 major roundabouts in different areas of scotland that have them.

Good job ! &idea

Quote from: riiga on March 07, 2012, 08:44:38 AM

How can you have three lanes entering a two-lane roundabout? Madness I say!

Might have a point there.

Quote from: riiga on March 07, 2012, 08:44:38 AM
Also, the right turn lane makes no sense, since a roundabout is a one-way road going clockwise (counter-clockwise in RHD).

It's because the roundabout is oneway that it makes sense, it's a "get in lane" approach to roadabouts in the UK, and I travel them ever day :)

Arguably, it should have a straight ahead arrow too though.

Hey guys. Once again, thanks for your patience.


riiga: Like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg198.imageshack.us%2Fimg198%2F4012%2Fnorthgraftonroundabout.jpg&hash=03e8144da884cb74c1e33dbb51d4d935a71d2378)


Or like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg861.imageshack.us%2Fimg861%2F3849%2Fscreenshot20120405at135.jpg&hash=42dc0b3fcf6e092472424b5f29f6407ba108986c)
Notice how an extra lane forms immediately before the roundabout on the approach sides. The idea is simple - left lane to turn left, right lane to turn right, middle lane to go straight on.
This setup doesn't go on for very long, I'll grant you, but because of the grid in SC4, 2 tiles are needed to replicate this as closely as possible.
Of course, this only shows how it is in the UK - other countries are bound to do things differently. This is why it's vital to take a look around your area (and I'm talking to everyone here) and see what happens in real life for yourself, so you can copy it in SC4 and get good results.


mike3775: Because the piece we need to do that junction correctly, a rough sketch of which I've drawn here:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg525.imageshack.us%2Fimg525%2F9717%2Fturnlanereply.jpg&hash=53015dda5ed65f937ca101d49a3de77b35b3f603)
has yet to be implemented into the NAM. But, as you've seen from the real-life screenshots, to recreate a British city there should be arrows on all 3 lanes. So therefore we have to compromise for the time being.
That said, I might change the setup to A1 TuLEPs, which only have an arrow on the right turn lane, as an improvement - if the above piece, or something similar, isn't released between now and the Improvements lesson.


dwilso35: I find it brilliant that this MD has inspired you. I'm quite impressed with that plan - it looks very interesting and the land use structure (i.e. where your suburbs/industry/etc. will go) is very realistic. The terraforming is also good.


A couple of things I would change though:
- Widen the estuary a little bit, so that it is obviously wider than the river. Rivers always widen as they progress towards the sea.
- The road between the expressway and the stadium would be better if it were a continuation of your main road from the CBD. Otherwise, when Celtic or Rangers come to town and you get a sell-out crowd, there will be major gridlock.
- The railway branch to the power station should branch from the north side - not the south as you've got marked down. With your setup, freight trains would have to reverse at the terminus to deliver the goods - which will cause major headaches for Network Rail as they try to fit a busy passenger service around this.


Of course, these are just minor points which take very little away from what looks set to be a very good project. You're in the best position to make changes and improvements, so take the advice, keep going, I wish you the very best of luck, and don't forget that we'd all be happy to see your work in the 'Show us Your...' section at some point in the future.


ricardomiranda: You're becoming a bit of a regular now! It's very much appreciated, so thank you. Once more I've seen some very kind words from you, so thanks.


n1md4: See my response to riiga's comment. Thanks for pointing out the 'get in lane' philosophy to everybody. Again, the lack of a straight arrow is because we don't have the pieces to facilitate that yet.


Thanks for all those kind and sometimes intriguing comments - keep them coming! Debates, acknowledgements and constructive criticism really add to the thread in a way that the lessons can't.
Now, lesson time.


Lesson 9 - Buses


IMPORTANT: As always, this guide is for LHD users. Where directions are involved, RHD users should do the opposite of what is shown here.


In this lesson, we'll learn how to construct a park-and-ride facility, as seen around the edges of many medium-sized towns (such as Cambridge and Oxford), and the basics of constructing a central bus station to go in a CBD.


First, the park-and-ride terminal.


Location is critical - the terminal must be easy to get to, or it won't see any use. It needs to be placed on or near to a major road into your city. In many places, it's the first thing you drive past when you come into town.
Here we've gone for a location just west of the end of the motorway, as close to the junction as we can get.


The first stage is to provide the access roads. From your main road, drag an avenue out 4 tiles, and add turn lanes and slip lanes to the resulting junction:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg823.imageshack.us%2Fimg823%2F4787%2Fparkandrideturnlanes.jpg&hash=8913b7adbd224d834ef447eb1a21cd8771592a64)


We're going to follow the standard layout of park-and-ride terminals, i.e. a turnaround lane for the buses in the centre, together with the building, and the car park around it.


So it makes sense to start with the turnaround lane. We first have to flatten an area to accommodate it:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg836.imageshack.us%2Fimg836%2F9006%2Fflatteningforturningcir.jpg&hash=57f5d30a53110376928c9d2486d363759b5ec138)


That's an area 10 tiles wide and 8 tiles long, which will give room for the turning circle with a little bit to spare as a reference for the car park and building.


Now you can drag the turning circle using one-way road. Make sure you drag it the right way round - clockwise for LHD users and anti-clockwise for RHD users:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg190.imageshack.us%2Fimg190%2F6739%2Fparkandrideturningcircl.jpg&hash=1f3f27b8c729b62762808768d5da3853b14958ad)


I've left the road tiles there so you can see the dimensions you need to use.


Now you need to extend the flattened area to cover the car park and the building. The car park should be 3 tiles wide and go around the sides and back of the site. The building should go at the back of the turning circle.


Be sure to allow enough space at the back for both the car park and the building. You will also need to add some street corners and oneway stubs to provide access to your car park, like you see below. Do this after flattening:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg18.imageshack.us%2Fimg18%2F1579%2Fflatteningforparkandrid.jpg&hash=8de93388df6160b6d03ea4d5fe0b338af926c9e9)


Now you can demolish all of those tiles and place your building at the back of the turning circle. The building should be of modest size, no more than 2 storeys tall, and should not be too flamboyant in its design.
Above all, it also needs to work as a bus stop. Here, I've used the Trier Station (http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/files/file/21666-trier-station/) by jasoncw. Yes, I know it's really a tube station, but it also works for buses and it looks the part, so:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg152.imageshack.us%2Fimg152%2F8615%2Fparkandridebuilding.jpg&hash=09cb5065ec4fdcef88b506d92aa2af524fe5cfb1)


The next stage is to build the car park. I'm using Hooha47's Modular Parking lots (http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/files/file/22528-hh-modular-parking-black-version-2/), which really do look the part, but you are free to use your preferred lot or set of lots.
As stated earlier, you need to make the car park 3 tiles wide (which will give you 6 rows of parking, perfect for a park-and-ride terminal), and have it run around the sides and back of the site:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg703.imageshack.us%2Fimg703%2F1571%2Fparkandridecarpark.jpg&hash=674d951cb321bd701fe7db39e47c301d02699696)


You'll see from this image that we have some empty spaces, which we need to fill.


In real life, they're filled using concrete or grass, in an unspectacular fashion.
To reflect this, I've filled the gaps either side of the building using the Cobble Stone Ped Mall piece, and the area inside the turning circle using the RMIP Grass lots and Glenni's generic roundabout filler with rails:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg140.imageshack.us%2Fimg140%2F9674%2Fcompletedparkandride.jpg&hash=a990785672343c8c2ff50f04c7abfaa9b98172a3)


Of course, you can use any suitable lot that you have on your system.
You can also go for the aesthetic approach and fill the gaps with trees, plants, fountains and suchlike. It won't be realistic, but it will look much nicer.
This is one of those occasions where you have to choose between realism and aesthetics, and act accordingly - and that's a choice only you can make.


So that's how you build a park-and-ride terminal. Onto the central bus station.


This is very straightforward - you just have to choose a good lot*, plop it in your CBD where it is within easy reach of main roads (but NOT actually on them), and then drag streets to connect everything:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg94.imageshack.us%2Fimg94%2F2408%2Fcentralbusstation.jpg&hash=9f2f64d2a214cd45026649ca398cafb61697f341)


I've zoomed out so you can see the placement. You can see that it's very easy to get to from the main roads, very central, and note as well the street at the back, where the building is, to allow pedestrians to use your station.


* The lot should be fairly small, and should have the capacity to hold at least 8 buses. Beyond that, it's up to you.


You'll notice that the buses have to drive over the pavement to get to the station, yet there are 2 gaps either side of a fence on the east side which appear to be an entrance and exit.
This suggests that the lot might be transit-enabled. I found out that that, sadly, is not the case.


However, we can modify the lot to make it transit-enabled, which will allow us to connect the station to the street, so that the buses don't have to drive over the pavement.
But that is something for another lesson.


And it isn't the next one. The next one will be about pedestrian walkways.
(For those who are wondering, if things go according to my current plan, we'll cover basic transit-enabling, as well as adding driveways to lots, in Lesson 19.)


See you next lesson,
Chris

Yeah thats the thing with the tulips, there isn't enough different things to make it very realistic, which isn't a bad thing at all, just sometimes you need to sacrifice realistic on some things when it comes to them. 

Still this is looking damn good though, I have started incorporating things from this "guide" into the way I do my cities though  :)

Pedestrian walkways, something that I really need some advices &dance
The best way to connect the lot with the road is by overpathing props like BLaM Overpath Props (http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/18253-blam-overpath-props-volume-1/). Having too much transit enable lots will make using puzzle pieces really tricky.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.simtropolis.com%2Frepository%2Fscreens%2Fmonthly_04_2011%2Fthumb-3f857d3f310aed929caeb2673552c961-pic1.jpg&hash=31796fc76bab3342cc90cd99a7e709856541fb53) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.simtropolis.com%2Frepository%2Fscreens%2Fmonthly_04_2011%2Fthumb-3f857d3f310aed929caeb2673552c961-pic2.jpg&hash=4d094bb2eca4d3214319befbf9cb7e998cd01f64)

Quote from: Terring7 on April 08, 2012, 03:24:14 PM
Having too much transit enable lots will make using puzzle pieces really tricky.

Each transit connection is treated like stop light or stop sign. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it will eventually have an adverse affect on travel time.

<edit> Just remembered something.. The PEG chichen ranch farm has two transit connections. I had a situation once where a fire truck could not cross the transit connection to reach a fire down the road. I had to change the street to a road before fire trucks could drive by the ranch.

<edit 2> SimGoober has (or had) a couple of small farms with a transit connections. Drawing a diagonal road across the transit switch caused my game to CTD. Other folk may have different results but I did some re-lotting.

Blam overpaths, those really came in handy. These days though, when widening a road in areas with existing driveways, if rebuilding with either 3 or 4 lanes, on a single tile road, the driveway may just be hanging into traffic.

I like this very much. After reading all 10 pages I have gained some invaluable tips and information. Would love to eventually see this in the Classics and really can't wait to under take the final project- The region one! I have always embraced plan before you build and watching your planning has given me some advice to add to mine. On the TE of the lot do you intend of having the 2 entry/exits as one way roads as to give dedicated entry and exit points? Or do you plan on using the overhanging props? Either way I think will look great.

EDIT: The new SAM bridges on the STEX might come in handy. There's one bridge per texture bar SET 1 as that would be kinda weird!

Nice park and ride facility! You have a great eye for realistically scaling your facilities.

Regarding TE'ing that lot, instead you could follow this tutorial:

Quote from: pilotdaryl on February 12, 2008, 03:49:46 PM
This is a tutorial I wrote back in late-2006.  Hope you guys like it!  I also made a few revisions.
From ST's "Post your tutorials" thread:

Here is a simple tutorial on how to make 'street connections' to non-transit enabled lots.

You'll need the NAM which can be found in the Mods and Downloads (http://www.simtropolis.com/modding/index.cfm?page=1&view=all) section.

Remember to be careful not to place any puzzle pieces next to or on transit-enabled lots, as this may cause the game to crash.  It is recommended you re-plop any nearby transit-enabled lots after you do this.

First, find the el-rail dual-network puzzle pieces in your menu, and plop the el-rail over road (or any network that you don't want to use)one tile back from where you want to make the eye-candy connection:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg60.imageshack.us%2Fimg60%2F1981%2F01ue7.jpg&hash=5669848b4e12f8a56b88781244530afb6ff3c24f)

Then plop an el-rail over street(or any network that you want to make the connection with) piece, in this case street, next to the road piece.    The game will not crash when this happens.  I have found it to be a bug-free solution.  ;)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg217.imageshack.us%2Fimg217%2F591%2F02gp3.jpg&hash=f90d57a091fe0337ce7f2f0dd08628d0245bf997)
Note: To do this with a one-way or avenue, you may have to place the road piece a few tiles back and use the overpass puzzle pieces, as those are the ones available.

Now demolish the el-rail over road piece and you get this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg145.imageshack.us%2Fimg145%2F8951%2F03gz9.jpg&hash=003c52baf1f9907040b204cdc460d370a3725b35)
You may now connect it as you wish.  ;D
But this tutorial is not complete yet.  You say you've been having trouble creating T-intersections with this?  Here's the solution.
Drag the end of the street you don't want to connect one tile away from the street tile:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg217.imageshack.us%2Fimg217%2F3849%2F04ha2.jpg&hash=a302b395aec21500d1799cb199a35caa9730ef63)

Then demolish that tile of street:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg130.imageshack.us%2Fimg130%2F4517%2F05yi0.jpg&hash=9e5e7a1a408f8b7692d689bedfcf9b42eaf713c1)
Now you can connect it to a network and play with it as you wish. ;) Dragging any network over the tile will not harm the street.

This is how it turned out for me:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg181.imageshack.us%2Fimg181%2F599%2Fparkingplazark3.jpg&hash=e425e1c2fbb671087ad3119ecbfc812a496d69a4)
Be creative, and have fun!!!

Tutorial by Pilotdaryl

Neat trick, but you need to do it before placing the building.

Blimey, now that's a reaction to an update! Thanks for your comments guys, keep this up.


Speaking of which, I've noticed that we're getting close to 200 replies, and, whilst there is no rush to reach this milestone and it won't get this MD promoted or anything like that, it would be nice to get to the mark. So any contributions towards this milestone will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.


mike3775: Sadly that's true. But, on the other hand, sometimes it can be good to sacrifice realism to make your city look better, and I'd encourage doing that where appropriate.
That said, things like TuLEPs need to be as close to the real thing as you can get them, but if you don't have the parts, well, you're just going to have to make the best of a bad job (proverbially speaking).


Terring7: Thanks for the suggestion. I do have that file, but my intention was to use it to improve the look of facilities and some lots that have driveways (you'd need a few to cover the bus station entrance), and TE the station entrance. We aren't using too many puzzle pieces there - only the odd SAM starter, so there shouldn't be too many issues...


You'll be interested to know that I plan to show how to TE lots and add driveways using the overpath props in Lesson 19, so hold tight.


jmyers2043: The bus station will be connected to the street by means of an entrance and exit which won't be connected in the lot. So all through traffic will use the street like they're supposed to, and it should not have too much of an effect on travel time.


With the examples you mentioned, it could just be a problem with the lots themselves, or they could be being used incorrectly (e.g. dragging a diagonal road into a transit connection which could well be straight), or some quirk in the system. I can't say I've had those kind of problems with TE lots before - but then I've never used PEG's Chicken Ranch or those diagonal farm lots. If they don't work then my best advice is to delete them.


j-dub: I see the potential for them too, and that's why they'll be the subject of part of Lesson 19.


Durfsurn: I'm glad you're finding this useful, and I'm happy to be of service. Obviously reaching the Classics board is my goal too - if you could help get us up to 200 posts it would be a good start!
I'm afraid you'll have to wait a bit for the 4th project, it'll take at least a year and maybe 2 (depending on several factors) to get that far. But do stay with us for the duration, you'll learn lots of useful stuff in between.


Like I said, I'm going to TE the bus station, with a oneway entrance on the left and a oneway exit on the right, unconnected within the lot. That way there will be a dedicated and functional entrance and exit, as you see in many bus stations in the real world.


As for the SAM bridges, thanks for pointing those out, and I have downloaded them. I assume you're referring to the street bridge we did in Project 1 - I won't come back to that, because that project's finished and done as far as I'm concerned, we've got to move on. The download may well be used in the future, though...


turtle: I knew about that, but never thought of it. It's a very good suggestion. I'll say again, the plan is to TE the bus station so you know how to do it, but I might adopt that technique to other lots.


Are we all here now? Then I'll start the lesson.


Lesson 10 - Pedestrian Walkways


This will be a very short, very simple lesson, covering pedestrian pathways that you typically find in suburbs, the purpose of which is to connect neighbouring estates. In practice, many of these paths are connected in a substantial network within one city, enabling pedestrians and cyclists to cross town quickly and easily (the redway network of Milton Keynes is a very good example).


The walkway we're going to build will run between the junction station and the yet-to-be-built football stadium, in the northwest city tile of our region, and we're going to use the Ped Mall tiles to do it, so make sure you've got the NAM.


First, you need to mark out the route which your walkway will take. You do this with ordinary road. Drag a route that's direct yet avoids the steepest slopes, using rail to pre-smooth slopes where necessary:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg32.imageshack.us%2Fimg32%2F4289%2Fbasicrouting.jpg&hash=dbe1b1dd07cc279934c2991527efb7ca8fa45c22)


Now, many real pedestrian paths have branches that connect to streets in the estates where they lie, providing useful shortcuts to the locals. So if we want realism, we should incorporate these branches into our work. Mark them out with road, keep them to <=3 tiles, and spread them out:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg42.imageshack.us%2Fimg42%2F3002%2Fspurstosuburbs.jpg&hash=fe542cb7d34db4ce00749a6cbd1684cb07820e9c)


Now, when I begun to do this lesson, I thought you could plop Ped Mall tiles directly onto a road. It turns out that you can't, so we need to demolish the road before building the path.
But if we just whip out the bulldozer, we won't know where the path needs to go. So, to make sure that we do know what to do, we place single road tiles at the end of each branch, opposite t-junctions, and around curves and crossings:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg3.imageshack.us%2Fimg3%2F9418%2Fmarkingoutpedmall.jpg&hash=78168389ebb4736eb29417afbd9fef9142b21828)


Now we can replace the road with ped mall, using the Mountain Trail pieces. (The others are too wide, and you'll have to pretend that it's a concrete surface). Keep your single tile markers until you finish the path, then delete them:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg407.imageshack.us%2Fimg407%2F717%2Fpedmallpath.jpg&hash=649a941e9f7026337391843f694d264827d77503)


That's more like it! However, we're not finished yet. We can make this path functional - but to do it, we have to stick a transit-enabled lot next to it - and what could be better than a road top bus stop?
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg15.imageshack.us%2Fimg15%2F3958%2Froadactivationbusstop.jpg&hash=887c454cc8a05165f3f1fa2c74bd5ce7b615cfcd)


It also makes sense to place a bus stop where the path meets the avenue to the south. Because the avenue is a busier and higher-speed thoroughfare than the road, we can't force our pedestrians to cross it. So we use the FLUP pieces to create an underpass:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg824.imageshack.us%2Fimg824%2F9391%2Favenueactivationbusstop.jpg&hash=28221e7ead964004fa302b4cf2941c292fc65495)


And that completes our pedestrian pathway. Simple, right? Later on in the project we'll learn to add some details to the path to make it a bit more visually pleasing.


But that's enough about pedestrian walkways for now.
Next time we'll cover something far more exciting - power stations.


Until then,
Chris

Some really excellent updates recently, I may have to use a thing or two from what I've learnt here. :) :)


Also, in order to make the mountain trail ped-malls look better in an urban environment, might I suggest using this mod by deadwoods? (http://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2604) It replaces the mountain trails and also adds a couple of lots which can encourage more pedestrians to use them. ;)

smileymk, Completely understand your point 100%. 

When you first started this guide/journal, I stated that I implemented some things from it, and I will say it again.  I don;'t really care for realism in my cities, but I have adapted usage of many of the things you pointed out in this as well whenever I play.  I have noticed that simply placing parking lots near mass transit stations(RTMP) have increased bus ridership, placing them near GLR stations has shown an increase, and even train stations have shown an increase.  SO that is one thing you have shown to do that I did adapt to the way I play the game. 

I have also started doing more elevated RHW's with various styles of interchanges thanks to this guide, and I have started doing more "main drags" where I funnel all the traffic to them to lead to other faster methods of commutes as well. 

This journal/guide is great for new players or even older players such as myself

Hello. I'm afraid this is just going to be a quick replies post, because as things stand, there's no way the power station will be finished before the 45-day deadline, and I don't want you guys to feel like I'm ignoring you.


apeguy: I do have that mod, but for some reason can't seem to get it to work. It's probably due to where it is in the Plugins folder, so I'll have to play around with the files a bit. Otherwise, thanks for the kind words.


mike3775: Some interesting points there, which will be helpful to a lot of people. It's not too surprising that you got those results, since what you saw is what the game engine is designed to make you see.


The idea of having 'main drags', is, on the whole, a pretty good one, and should prove both effective and realistic. But I would include one or two 'back routes' as well, else your arteries will probably get severely congested, the exact opposite of what you built them to do.


Right, I'll show you where we are with the power station as of last night (Monday 21st):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg805.imageshack.us%2Fimg805%2F4229%2Frailloop.jpg&hash=afe436b864480b8486e20c71e761beaec982033f)


You can see that the foundations are there, such as the building, road access and rail terminal/access loop, but there's still lots to add, like car parks, cooling towers, transformers, snack vans, and a boundary fence with security gate.


I don't know when it'll be ready, so you'll just have to be patient as usual. Don't worry, I'll soon have a new laptop with a modern-day spec (i.e. Core I7 processor, Windows 7, 6GB RAM, etc.) so I'll be able to do lessons much faster.


Until then, though, I have to make the best of what I've got.


See you in Lesson 11,
Chris

Where did you get those tunnels entrances?

Hello.



If you've read my updated signature, you'll notice that you can now contact me on Facebook, where I will be more than happy to discuss any and all things SC4 (or any and all things anything) with you guys in a light-hearted manner.


The link can be found in my signature, at the bottom.


(Obviously you need a Facebook account to see the page! You will also need to send me a Friend request if you want to see my wall. Please make your screen name clear somewhere on your page if you do this so I know it's you, otherwise I won't accept the request.)


Now, back to topic:


cmdp123789: I believe that they are somewhere on Simtropolis. I'm sorry to say I've been unable to find them despite an extensive search.


Now, lesson time.


Lesson 11 Part 1 - Power Stations


I don't think these need too much introduction, suffice to say that it makes sense to construct your power supply first as you can't construct any water supplies or estates without it.


In this lesson we're going to build a basic coal-fired power station, as seen throughout the world. The coal supply will be delivered by rail, but the power station will be accessed by road.


We begin by placing the building. As with so many things in SC4, your choice of building is everything. The only real requirement here, however, is size. It's got to be big - far bigger than the Maxis offerings. I found this example from the Japanese site Somy (http://members3.jcom.home.ne.jp/somy000/) to be perfect for our needs:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg99.imageshack.us%2Fimg99%2F4840%2Fpowerstationbuilding.jpg&hash=1bc3baf992c1545c7acf64a75d268c87189e2ba6)


You'll see that I've flattened the ground around the power station so we can build a road around it.


I've said already that this power station is going to be supplied by rail, so we need a freight terminal to serve this. Nothing elaborate is needed here, but I've also used Bripizza's snow covers to represent the area where the coal is dropped off the trains:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg98.imageshack.us%2Fimg98%2F4913%2Fcoalfreightterminal.jpg&hash=6f0bad5c9a45386fed6e90deb63f6081bd2c1509)


Oh, forgot to mention - this is a single-track (STR) terminal. That's quite important. Trains will be very infrequent so nothing more is needed.


I'll say now that we're going to cheat a little bit and assume that the coal is brought to the power station by means of an underground conveyor, which will save having to model an overhead conveyor around a freight terminal and across unforgiving terrain.


Now, this terminal is no use whatsoever unless we have some means of accessing it by rail, so we need to build a rail line that loops back on itself (known in the trade as a 'return loop') to link back to the main line to the north.


We're going to use STR to do this, and for maximum realism, we need the wide curves. We also need to accomodate a street underpass to provide access to the coal store, which will go to the left of the terminal.


The first job is to do the preparatory terrain levelling:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg856.imageshack.us%2Fimg856%2F1552%2Ffreightterminalapproach.jpg&hash=18de0140ced9b1f790a6bfcae2c3e1b113ce90f4)


This rail loop also has to go over our access road, so we need to build an underpass for the access road. This also requires preparatory terrain work, which is probably easier to explain if I show it to you first:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg706.imageshack.us%2Fimg706%2F4502%2Faccessroadunderpassprep.jpg&hash=d3e2a7b926bdb74486fdeb5a5ab7448c4b79530f)


Firstly, I've dragged out the rail so I know where that's going to go. Then, since I know that the access road is going to go left from the one-way roundabout, I replaced that section of rail with single road tiles to 'mark out' the access road, and ensure that the underpass is at the correct depth. Then I've just stuck a 10m hole digger on the side which will give us a depression of the correct depth to use with the underpass pieces I'm using.


Now the underpass can be built. The easiest way is 'cut and cover', in other words, build the ditch by dragging road through the hole digger, extend it all the way through using single road tiles, replacing the original single road tiles, and then using the rail tool to go over the top.


When done, you should have two flat depressions either side of the rail line. You can then build the underpass as shown:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg204.imageshack.us%2Fimg204%2F6305%2Faccessroad.jpg&hash=ab5e17141cbcb8ff1cbe45122b483d50fa628e66)


Also note my use of SAM-7 (asphalt textures) for the access road, which gives a more realistic appearance.


We now need to build a second underpass on the other side of the complex, this one serving the coal store. The procedure is exactly the same:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg507.imageshack.us%2Fimg507%2F1582%2Fcoalstoreunderpass.jpg&hash=479b9f96b68a96c3c410191539643d9768ea8383)


With the underpasses done, we can turn our attention to actually building the rail loop itself. We use STR to do this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg225.imageshack.us%2Fimg225%2F4229%2Frailloop.jpg&hash=8c97e43a8a6d0acfa0b0adceee5b909ce1e5092a)


(We covered using STR in Lesson 6 so I'm not going to go over it again, suffice to say don't forget those wide curves!)


At the top of the loop, we're going to convert to double-track so we can a) build a flyover over the main road and b) link back to the main line efficiently.


This arrangement requires the use of the dual-STR short transition piece together with the 45-degree STR off double track piece:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg210.imageshack.us%2Fimg210%2F110%2Frailloopend.jpg&hash=ba9e82d5444197a995c54192492ed7df54904544)


Make sure you flatten everything first. That also applies to our next step - creating the flyover:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg688.imageshack.us%2Fimg688%2F4899%2Frailaccessflyover.jpg&hash=f868a12d5ca5605afc98a7ba0e1fdeb56e084fe6)


You should already know how to do this - we've covered it enough times and it's exactly the same as it is for roads and motorways.
We'll assume that the junction with the mainline is to the north, outside of our region - this saves us having to try to build a railway over a rather large hill.


Now we can turn our attention to finishing off the power station itself. We'll start by building a couple of small car parks on either side of the main building:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg684.imageshack.us%2Fimg684%2F2647%2Fcarparks.jpg&hash=f4adfb72963f918e5483012291383a491a1daccc)


Next is the transformers, for which I've used PEG's lots. Don't forget to flatten beforehand for best results, and to provide road access:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg838.imageshack.us%2Fimg838%2F9747%2Ftransformerr.jpg&hash=9a34fc9eed433510bfe7b413dd21df732028f959)


The next thing to build is the coal store, for which I'm going to take inspiration from Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station and use this lovely tailings pile (http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/19978-bistagne-coal-tailings-pile/):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg13.imageshack.us%2Fimg13%2F5158%2Fcoalpile.jpg&hash=d68acfd37e2899fc70f420a33e01ae7500f4053a)


Now you need to build some cooling towers. You need at least 3, preferably 4 or 5, for best results. They should be together, but place them wherever you can find room. They need to be huge - this offering (http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/27375-cooling-tower/) is currently the only thing available online that does the job:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg137.imageshack.us%2Fimg137%2F6642%2Fcoolingtowers.jpg&hash=60c7cc95fed5b38403b2a159f0240c84bc8beee4)


Don't worry about the retaining walls - there simply isn't the room to avoid them, and they don't look too bad. (And yes, I know about the missing dependency.)


You'll also notice I've built a security fence, to guard the plant from chavs and terrorists - but there's still an easy way for them to get in, and that's through our access road.


To stop this, we need a security gate - and, in the absence of suitable lots, this SAM-7 toll booth is the perfect substitute:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg404.imageshack.us%2Fimg404%2F8051%2Fsecuritygate.jpg&hash=35a462199c78f1c446b67d16c1eb37ede9d58c72)


And that's your power station complete.


However, it's no use if we don't have some means to transport the electricity the station produces - power lines. We will cover the construction of these in Part 2.


Until then,
Chris

Hey guys. It's time for Part 2.


Lesson 11 Part 2 - Power Lines


Even though power is distributed through underground cables in towns, that power still needs to get to the towns somehow - and it would be prohibitively expensive and impractical to bury the thousands of miles of high-voltage cables required to do so beneath the surface.


So we build the cables overhead instead, and connect them to transformers when they hit the towns, running them at lower voltages underground from there.


But this presents the problem of where to put the power lines. Like your transport networks, the routing of your power lines needs to be done carefully. We don't want a huge, ugly set of power lines running through the middle of a suburb or in the inner city. It's unrealistic, looks horrible and is a waste of space.


The solution I will adopt, and one you should consider adopting, is to run the main cables along main transport routes. This will keep them away from houses and shops.


So let's do that. You'll remember from Part 1 that there's an expressway that runs south of the power station and across our region, so it makes sense to route it along that:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg713.imageshack.us%2Fimg713%2F9462%2Fstartingpowerlines.jpg&hash=9ac8304f1de61f755478376e63c752cf0bf0b9e8)


Notice we have 3 sets of lines. Each set is going to go off in a different direction, so that the power station covers a wide area beyond our region.


You just need to continue the lines down this main road, keeping as close to it as practical - but at the same time, keep the lines as straight as possible:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg266.imageshack.us%2Fimg266%2F8238%2Fextendingpowerlines.jpg&hash=7d310290c734ba584cafbb54b45a6662498696ca)


Yes, the lines curve to follow the expressway, but notice how they stay dead straight either side.


We now come to the railway line, which you'll notice is electrified. It needs to take its power from somewhere! And we need to provide power to the north of the city, so it makes sense to have the northernmost set of power lines split off from the 3 and carry on north alongside the rail line:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg818.imageshack.us%2Fimg818%2F4246%2F32split.jpg&hash=19c964b17bf63fe345ba2ffdc98957687c604e9c)


Run that 'branch line' off to the edge of the tile. When that's done, we need to construct a transformer to connect the power line to the railway catenary wires, and to reduce the voltage to railway levels (anything from 600V - 25kV, depending on where you are):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg684.imageshack.us%2Fimg684%2F6044%2Frailsubstation.jpg&hash=ab135545453d8c479b7d05970b8ffc6c5793e424)


Now we can just carry on the main set of lines, now reduced to 2 sets, until we hit the motorway, where the southernmost set of lines will split and branch off down the motorway, into our town, where we will build another transformer:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg528.imageshack.us%2Fimg528%2F1577%2F21split.jpg&hash=ccf0ae83a8acf10fee7a0b72ed8a595134295f85)


We'll focus our attention on the branch to the town now, the other branch being routed to the edge of the tile to be extended later. Continue the town branch down into the town.


When you reach the end of the motorway (or at some suitable point not too far into your town), stop the line and flatten a 4x4 area for a transformer:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg256.imageshack.us%2Fimg256%2F4889%2Fflatteningfortransforme.jpg&hash=f30976def89d45c6d20848d45cf8f9ef20f88f80)


Then build the transformer and run lines into the adjacent tiles to provide them with power (ideally we'd make these connections 'underground' but there's no way to do this):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg849.imageshack.us%2Fimg849%2F6875%2Fcentraltransformer.jpg&hash=96c9e76ff404d80e98d3ed05c48d7dd87f1caac9)


And that's the power lines done for this tile. Time to move to the next one, to the east, where we have an instant problem:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg825.imageshack.us%2Fimg825%2F1223%2Finitialcornerpowerlines.jpg&hash=1806b6deeb55495795370b252298913e4941aeea)


We want this line to curve to the south, to cover that tile. Now we could just drag from the easternmost pylon, but that would leave a 'hole' of space which we can use for a couple of houses. So instead, we're going to drag down from the first pylon:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg411.imageshack.us%2Fimg411%2F6953%2Fconstructingcornerpower.jpg&hash=0429f651d28cdcfa2f134e8f5cde01921acad2f3)


THEN you can demolish that pylon on the right:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg225.imageshack.us%2Fimg225%2F1664%2Ffinalcornerpowerlines.jpg&hash=e663d315d4955389913d53f1359da0c8997e1b9c)


If you try to do this the other way round, i.e. demolish the rightmost pylon first, you will demolish the first pylon as well, taking the connection out with it. So you'll just have to build it again and do it the correct way round.


That's done, now to complete the lines we just have to carry our main set eastwards along the expressway, but we again hit on a problem:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg821.imageshack.us%2Fimg821%2F6706%2Finitialcityedgepowerlin.jpg&hash=c0ed20b7ba3169a163220779b714c72f03492244)


We have a needless pylon in the third tile, with just 2 tiles between the 2 edge pylons. It's not far enough.


The solution: just take out that middle pylon and rebuild the connection by dragging from the 10th tile to the edge:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg821.imageshack.us%2Fimg821%2F6184%2Ffinalcityedgepowerlines.jpg&hash=42332180650afe28dd5b6d19191ea120e554cff8)


Looks much better doesn't it? Now we can just continue the line along the expressway, all the way to the eastern edge of the tile where it will leave our region for other towns:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg51.imageshack.us%2Fimg51%2F9432%2Feastwardmainpowerlineex.jpg&hash=faa709df0bf6d7d3b289e3d7bebb63f93dc1559b)


One last step - you need to arrange the neighbour deals so that all of the tiles in your region receive power from the tile with the power station:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg823.imageshack.us%2Fimg823%2F7206%2Fneighbourdeals.jpg&hash=b969bc37927ef796c277a157a25a1bee5b85a1f6)


For this 4-tile region, you'll only need to go into 2 tiles (the power station tile and one connected tile) to set up the  arrangements to send power to all 4 tiles.


And with that, you should be able to create a realistic power distribution system in your region.


In Lesson 12 we'll learn how to do something equally important - water systems.


Until then,
Chris

This is excellent, Chris! And by far one of the most useful tutorial ever. Really inspiring and well done. Everything presented is looking fantastic and realistic.

And congrats on 200+ replies, you really deserve them. Now up to many more!

Hello.


art128: Thank you very much. (I should have known I wouldn't get away with passing the 200 barrier unnoticed...)
And up to many more indeed! Only 299 posts to the Classics section...


...which now becomes 298 with this lesson.


Lesson 12 - Water


In this lesson you'll learn how to construct a reservoir to supply your region with water. You'll then learn a realistic way to lay out water pipes.


We'll start with the reservoir - and the first thing you need to know about these is that they need to be huge. We're talking anywhere between 50-100 tiles long and 15-25 tiles wide. They should also be flat, else they won't look right at all.


So you need to find a suitably large flat-ish area, and flatten it completely with single road tiles. It's best to start with the edges:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg641.imageshack.us%2Fimg641%2F3788%2Freservoircontours.jpg&hash=a90eb6a65145534300ea3e9903d4b392ab8d72f5)


You should use the grid to determine where your reservoir boundary should go. You don't want big cuttings or embankments.


And if this looks small to you, it is. We're going to pretend that the reservoir extends north of the tile/region boundary, enabling us to use an area that is outside of the town itself (the town being everything south of the expressway), and also to give the impression that there is a world beyond the boundary, creating more realistic results.


Now fill in the gaps and create a road border around the flattened area:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg856.imageshack.us%2Fimg856%2F238%2Freservoirpreparation.jpg&hash=531e02f0323390f63d360a89c046d1577b6308b7)


Then you need to place the water itself, for which you need a suitable water MMP, such as the PegPond set or Jeronij's transparent water. The choice, as always, is yours - I've used Peg's set but you don't have to.


The technique for plopping the water is as follows:


- Demolish the single road tiles but NOT the border.
- Keep the gridlines on.
- Place 1x1 water MMPs into every complete grid tile inside the road border. Click once and only once in each square.
- Place additional lots as necessary to fill in any small gaps.
- Demolish the road border, taking care not to take out the water with it (i.e. single-click on the road tiles only).
- Use 1/4 tile MMPs (again with single clicks) to smoothen out the edges.


When done, you should get a result like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg805.imageshack.us%2Fimg805%2F986%2Fcompletedreservoir.jpg&hash=ad320f19e63863d3e3d2a50a6780717ff951e0d6)


Oh yeah. You can (and should) detail this further with other MMPs, but this is something for another lesson entirely. For now our focus is on making this reservoir a useful source of water for our city.


To do this you need to place a suitable lot adjacent to your reservoir. The lot needs to function as a water source in the game, and it should look the part. I found this lot from Somy to be a good tool for the job:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg28.imageshack.us%2Fimg28%2F6830%2Fmainwaterbuilding.jpg&hash=0c321a10e947a5d08f1f9a9b79b2bcb7dde3deed)


Oh yeah - don't forget to a) flatten out the right area of ground beforehand unless you really want massive concrete retaining walls, and b) make sure that your water source is connected to the power grid, otherwise it won't work.


You then need to prepare the terrain for a water treatment facility and a 3x3 electrical substation. These should be adjacent to the water source itself. You also need to provide road access, and if you used a lot that doesn't incorporate car parking unlike this lot, a small car park:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg26.imageshack.us%2Fimg26%2F2774%2Fflatteningforancillarie.jpg&hash=02d04a96bfbe31b88120fdac8e8b80f0a4486592)


Then you need to place down these facilities:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg685.imageshack.us%2Fimg685%2F5254%2Fancillarybuildings.jpg&hash=6fca34d53f90c27825fd05a8311a58e3a7ff2064)


And that is your water source complete. (You can, if you want, also add a security fence.) Now it's time to connect it to the region.


The strategy for laying water pipes is to lay them down along roads. This makes them easy to get at for maintenance, and saves you money because you only lay down water pipes as you build roads, so you only build pipes as and when you need them. Don't forget to take the pipes outside the regional boundaries, remembering that this source will serve a good few towns as well as our own:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg812.imageshack.us%2Fimg812%2F7177%2Fstartingpipes.jpg&hash=4ed126f4d1e72b8275c0ea27c0c1e13ae5bd40a8)


Notice that I haven't laid pipes along the expressway. Imagine the chaos that would be caused if the expressway had to be dug up to maintain the pipes. Digging up lesser roads should have a less profound impact.


This next image illustrates laying pipes down in the city - you need to follow roads and streets, building pipes only as you build roads:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg560.imageshack.us%2Fimg560%2F9308%2Fpipelineextension.jpg&hash=a80182ed92c400a3b7bc5505230d2f9a5235d29c)


Once your pipe layout is complete, finish off by setting up the neighbour deals to supply the other city tiles with water:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg842.imageshack.us%2Fimg842%2F3610%2Fwaterneighbourdeals.jpg&hash=546848d402374866ebce5ff5d89650872646f1ed)


And that is your water supply completed.


In Lesson 13 we'll look at waste disposal facilities - i.e. recycling centres.


See you then,
Chris