How to grow corner lots

[nattemorris]

I'm sure there must be a thread about this, but after much searching I still couldn't find it.

Now I wonder - desparately - what methods, what tips, tricks or exploits people here have for making corner lots grow when you really want them to, and efficiently so.

I'm building a city where I intend a great deal of corner lots - for instance Gascooker's Uk terraced and Debussyman's. It's not that I can't grow the lots at all; it's just that it takes a tremendous amount of time for them to grow in some locations, if they grow at all. Frankly, I'm getting sick of demolishing, waiting, demolishing, waiting, demolishing waiting. By this rate I'll have grown the desired lots 15k sc4 years!

The city currently has 100k citizens it has a healthy RCI demand for all zone types, is well connected to other cities and has no significant transportation issues (in other words I'm not a complete noob .

I'd really appreciate help with this! Thanks!

Cheers / N

[vortext]

The most effective way would be to edit the lot files and specifically the LotConfigPropertyRequiredRoads (or something similar, going from memory here). This can be done with the SC4PIM.

The default value is 0x08, i.e. road acces in front of the lot. For corners use 0x0C and 0x09, right and left corner respectively.

Though bear in mind this isn't a hard science. Editing the lot file increases the chance of a corner lot actually growing at a corner since there're other variables which determine growth as well (demand, desirability, etc). In other words, you'll still have to put up with some occasional bulldozing.

Oh and make sure to mark corner buildings historic! We don't want them overgrown later on, do we? 

[Simcoug]

vortext is right, that is definitely a good way to increase the likelihood of getting a lot you want.  Another trick I use is to manually adjust the 'building tileset'.  For example - using the SC4PIM, switch all of the corner lots that you want to grow to the "European" tileset - then when you are in the game and want to grow one of your corner lots just click the 'building tileset' expansion arrow and check the 'European tileset' box (uncheck all the other sets), and you've increased your chances of growing a specific lot even further.   

[nattemorris]

Thanks vortext and thanks Simcoug for your quick response!

A couple of questions though. The corner lots I am referring to are currently not growing anywhere else than in corners. Doesn't that mean they already have the setting you suggested? Or is this some kind of additional setting that would make it even more likely for them to grow even if they already only grew in corners?

I thought all or most custom made lots belonged by default to the European tileset, which also would include all non-corner lots. Are you suggesting that I go in and change all the non-corner lots to other tilesets? Actually, that's quite a good idea when I think about it, albeit a bit cumbersome. Doing that in combination with use of the No Maxis Buildings mod would do the job!

Cheers

[jdenm8]

The corner lots I am referring to are currently not growing anywhere else than in corners.

That's what that property Vortext mentioned earlier does. It only allows that lot to grow on a corner.

Doesn't that mean they already have the setting you suggested? Or is this some kind of additional setting that would make it even more likely for them to grow even if they already only grew in corners?

It means that, since they only ever grow on corners, they have that property set to either 0x0C or 0x09. If you want it to grow on straight sections, change that to 0x08. In my own cities, I've noticed a bias toward corner lots when a zone is on a corner. From that experience, Corner lots have a better chance of growing on corners than a lot with that property set to 0x08 simply because they can't grow anywhere else.

[vortext]

The corner lots I am referring to are currently not growing anywhere else than in corners. Doesn't that mean they already have the setting you suggested? Or is this some kind of additional setting that would make it even more likely for them to grow even if they already only grew in corners?

They probably already have correct settings indeed. If the problem is corner lots seem harder to grow than regular lots; that's because they sit on a smaller lot (typically 1x1) compared to orthogonal buildings (typically 1x2) which requires a higher growth stage. For instance an orthogonal building may be stage 3, whereas a corner building from the same set could be stage 4 or even 5. I'm growing a w2w city as well and noticed development on corners usually stays a bit behind compared to the surrounding buildings, for this reason. 

[nattemorris]

I installed SC4PIM, set the corner lots' tilesets to Chicago, the non-corner lot's tilesets to European, and in combination with the No Maxis Buildings mod - it worked out just like I wanted to! Brilliant!

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

Cheers!