NAM Traffic Simulator Poll - Please Vote!

[z]

The NAM Team is currently looking at the various traffic simulators, and we would find it very helpful to know exactly what the usage of these traffic simulators is.  You can help us out by letting us know which traffic simulator you use.  Please vote carefully, as for this poll a vote cannot be changed once it is cast.

It would also be extremely helpful if you could add a post to this thread, as short or long as you want, explaining why you chose the traffic simulator you did.  It would also be extremely helpful if you would mention which other traffic simulator(s) you have used.  If you want to skip the explanation part, and simply list the traffic simulators you have used, that's fine too.  And the whole post is optional, of course; the most important thing is to vote in the poll.  Thanks!

[Tarkus]

Z Low at the moment.  I had been using Simulator A Hard, and the initial "Alpha" of Simulator B Hard before that. 

-Alex

[woodb3kmaster]

I'm using Z Medium 1.1 right now. I haven't played all that many of my older cities since installing it, but I can definitely say that I've seen far fewer No Job Zots (though they've started coming back in my central city quad).

[Korot]

I use simulator Z, for it is said that is the best one to use with CAM installed. Why exactly is this poll? To eliminate a couple of Simulators? In that case, at least allow players to still use the game default one, if they, for some reason, like it.

Regards,
Korot

[Mad_genius]

I'm using Z high with park&ride.

The park&ride feature adds some realism while the high capacities go well with the CAM.

[RickD]

I switched from A Hard to Z low just last week. In some cities I did hardly see any change and in other cities commute time went up and bus usage and pedestrians increased.

[z]

Commute time is erroneously calculated in Simulators A and B, so it's not comparable to the commute time reported by Simulator Z.  Even in Simulator Z, commute time is not completely accurate due to a game bug that is not fixable.

[b22rian]

Hello...

     I have used and tested just about all the above mentioned traffic sim's at one point or another. Currently
im using traffic sim Z in my game some place between low and medium difficulty settings. For multiple reasons...
traffic Sim Z is clearly the best of all the traffic sims ever created, and trust me folks second place isnt close..
Especially for those users using the CAM like myself, you would be clearly out of your mind and know very little
about how traffic sims work, if you didnt use traffic sim Z with the CAM..

       I could not thank Mr. Z enough for all the time and hard work he has invested in making the most efficient
and high quality traffic Sim that this game has ever see,,

Thanks, Brian

[choco]

Z medium.....but i have to admit that i haven't really played the game since i started modding. 

[Korot]

choco: And that was how many years ago? 

Regards,
Korot

[deathtopumpkins]

Sim Z Low for me! 

[Jonathan]

Z here, not the park and ride though

Jonathan

[Gringamuyloca]

I use z medium, mainly because I am planning on downloading CAM.... (and I'm a middle of the road kinda gal, hence the medium selection)

  Big bouquets of thanks for all that you do to keep this game developing far beyond Maxis/EA's wildest dreams!!   

[Blue Lightning]

Simulator Z Medium (or was it High? I don't remember ) BTM version.

[projectadam]

Not like I would be the one having this problem but where might one go to find which traffic simulator they have in their plugin folder?

[deathtopumpkins]

projectadam: Plugins\Network Addon Mod\Plugins, and it should be named something like "NetworkAddonMod_Traffic_Plugin_[letter]_[Low/Med/High/etc.].dat"

[projectadam]

Thanks deathtopumpkins, I do not want to get off the original reason why this was posted but thought that I should address this now since it is directly related to this post.

I have another folder in my plugins named "NAM" and contains files such as (NetworkAddonMod_Rural_Roads_SAM_Plugin.dat, RuralHighwayMod.dat, zz-RHW_3.24_PathFix.dat, NetworkAddonMod_Automata_Plugin_Automata24.dat, and .../Traffic_Plugin_A,Z mediums and highs). I am guessing that I created this folder to put in the extra content that is related to the NAM and am guessing that this might lead to problems so I am wondering what the best fix for this would be. If you can help me out, please respond with a PM so that this topic does not hijack the original thread and I can delete this out of the message once someone has answered this.

Getting back to the topic, I use Z Ultra. The reason I did this is that I am unhappy with the way that SC4 did the transportation layout. To me roads should be used more like highways and streets should be the primary thing used even in CBD. Avenues seem more like BLVDs or major streets in a city and should be used sparingly as major traffic corridors. I believe that Z Ultra allows streets to be used much more frequently and mirrors somewhat of a real life application. I also believe that pedestrians should be willing to walk a lot further than the Maxis traffic simulator allows.

[Andreas]

I haven't played a whole lot lately due to the lack of time, but I'm still using a modified "Better Pathfinding" simulator that was introduced with one of the first NAM versions. What I changed was tripling the street capacities to 300, doubled the max. allowed commute time and (more recently) changed the "dirt road" (aka RHW) properties to the values that were suggested in one of the newer simulators (probably A, I don't remember anymore). I learned to build my cities properly and rarely have any abandonment or excessive traffic problems, and mass transit is used heavily, if placed properly. I haven't tried any of the other simulators yet, and looking at my free time, I doubt I have time to do that ever, even if I'd be intrigued to see if another simulator works even better. As I said, so far my modified "Better Pathfinding" simulator works fine for me, and there is no real need to change it.

[SimNation]

I have been using A-Medium ever since it was created in NAM. My sims can travel everywhere inside the city tile they live in and it will only report medium transit time (depending on the fast route they take). Travel to a neighbor city til automatically gives long commute time but they seem not to abandon their homes often at all. I have only noticed a very small amount abandon after a certain period of time. Only things they travel to another city tile for are usually for Dirty Industry or Agriculture since I do not let either grow with a city with sims living in it.

[Chrisim]

I used the standard Maxis traffic simulator from 2003 to 2007. Most of my cities are build with this simulator and they work fine. Since 2007, I use "Perfect Pathfinding with double capacity", because the other tested simulators caused problems for my existing cities. I am not sure which letter it is, maybe E?