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GLR & Tram-Avenues Gameplay: Basics & Tricks

Started by Chrisim, May 11, 2008, 04:53:35 PM

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pierreh

The first possibility was indeed the case: I found the file \BSC_SFBT_glr_light_rail_... and removed it. Tram automata started immediately to run; actually they are long 'trains' of up to 6 cars, but I will deal with that later and experiment with other skins. Thanks a lot for the help - by the way I found out later last night that there is a support thread for GLR and tram-avenues, where I should have posted my request.

I seize then the opportunity to express how much I appreciate this site and all its contents, especially its forums. It is really great to benefit from the knowledge of so many experienced users. Many thanks and congratulations to all!

ramseyazad

I have learned that holding ctrl while zoning allows me to zone after building the glr/ave network.   I don't know if this works for you all, but I hope it's helpful to some.

mike3775

It does work sometimes, but other times at may not

I have found that as long as there is not another road/street/ave above and to the side of where you are zoning it will allow you to zone, but if you have an intersection it will screw it up unless you leave the immediate area next to the intersection blank

mitch9521

can someone send me the link for this mod. ive looked everywhere for it and cant find it.  >:(

lf420

Quote from: mitch9521 on April 29, 2009, 03:59:15 PM
can someone send me the link for this mod. ive looked everywhere for it and cant find it.  >:(

It's not a stand alone mod. It's a part of the NAM.

aaaling

Quote from: Chrisim on May 11, 2008, 05:25:30 PM
Often a confusing and annoying (even painful) topic.
Problem 1: Crashs to desktops (CTD)

Approach to Problem 1: Be careful to avoid crashes. Save the game very often (it's a good idea to use Daeley's Save Alarm Mod).
CTD happen when a puzzle piece of a certain network is moved over a TE-lot that is transit enabled for the same network.
Note: when you select a puzzle piece, simply by chance the cursor may be located over a TE-Lot - Boom
When you use draggable GLR, the only used puzzle pieces are the starter pieces. So the chance of CTD is low - but it will happen if you are not careful.

Alternative technique, not recommended: Placement between GLR puzzle pieces
You cannot plop a station on top of GLR puzzle pieces (top left figure, below). You must leave a gap of 5 tiles (station length plus one tile at each end). Plop the station in the center of the gap (top right figure). Be extremely careful when plopping GLR track puzzle pieces on the tile to the left and right of the station (bottom left figure) - without touching the station, otherwise the game will crash !!!
Finally you have to activate the station (bottom right figure): use the el-rail tool and draw it "through" the station (along all tiles of the station) to ensure that tram automata can pass the lot. Alternatively, save the city and exit it (to region), after re-start the tram automata will work.



For Cogeo's stations, you CAN plop them on puzzle pices.

allan_kuan1992

Now those stations are from the pre-draggable era so you might have issues using them in combination with draggable GLR.

- Allan Kuan

Urbane Planner

I have a problem with draggable GLR.  I cannot make T-junctions or 90-degree turns with it, even after I delete the starter piece.  What do you think may be the problem?

Andreas

It's a bug in the current controller that will be fixed with the next update. As a workaround, use the puzzle pieces. :)
Andreas

Chrisim

#29
Tram-in-road and tram-on-street stations exist, but there are apparently no tram-on-road stations. Well, in fact there are dozens (if not hundreds) of tram-on-road stations:
 
TramOnRoadStop1.jpg...

Yes, these are normal GLR/tram stations. They can be used for tram-on-road due to this NAM puzzle piece:
TramOnRoadStop0.jpg


First plop a tram station:
TRAM22.jpg
Next plop the puzzle piece on both ends:
TRAM33.jpg
Drag onewayroad outwards and back inwards as shown on the next two pictures:

TRAM34.jpg TRAM35.jpg
Connect by onewayroad:
TRAM36.jpg
Bulldoze the outer part of the onewayroad
TRAM37.jpg
and repeat these steps on the other side.

You cannot directly connect the avenue on the side, but you may connect avenue via two onewayroads:

TRAM38.jpg TRAM39.jpg
You can build similar stops for the tram-in-road, and you can create such a roundabout:

z

Quote from: Chrisim on March 06, 2010, 01:00:53 PM
Tram-in-road and tram-on-street stations exist, but there are apparently no tram-on-road stations.

There are quite a few ready-made tram-on-road stations in the RTMT Interim T-RAM Stations pack.  SimFox is brewing up more as I write this...

You can also take any tram-in-road station and convert it to a tram-on-road station by taking the puzzle piece that's at the beginning of the tram-on-road tab ring and placing it at each end of the station.



Chrisim

In real life, I live in an area with many tram-in-road, tram-on-road and tram-on-street stations, and those game stations I created or helped to create have a counterpart in real life. The tram-on-road system has two road lanes in each direction, and cars on both lanes drive fast and can't easily stop. Therefore, real tram-on-road stations are separated from the road system, either the way I described (widening to three tiles with tram station and two onewayroads) or as Z described:
Quote from: z on March 06, 2010, 01:17:12 PM
You can also take any tram-in-road station and convert it to a tram-on-road station by taking the puzzle piece that's at the beginning of the tram-on-road tab ring and placing it at each end of the station.
The latter exist in my real life - and the reduction to one car lane does often create traffic jams (unfortunately for me - I am a car driver usually).

I am not aware of real life counterparts of the type of tram-on-road stations from the RTMT pack (with two car lanes running straight through a tram station). I believe that they are considered too dangerous in my country. It explains why I do not use these game stations and I had forgotten about them, sorry. Well, there is much diversity in this world, and probably real counterparts exist somewhere, and the SC4 player who lives in such an area will like them ...

WC_EEND

Quote from: Chrisim on March 06, 2010, 02:06:57 PM
I am not aware of real life counterparts of the type of tram-on-road stations from the RTMT pack (with two car lanes running straight through a tram station). I believe that they are considered too dangerous in my country. It explains why I do not use these game stations and I had forgotten about them, sorry. Well, there is much diversity in this world, and probably real counterparts exist somewhere, and the SC4 player who lives in such an area will like them ...

There's actually a version of one of those stations not far from where I live (only one car lane passes trough the station though, the other passes next to it and speed is restricted to 30kph so it's quite safe actually)
RIP Adrian (adroman), you were a great friend

My LOT thread                                    

SCAG BAe146/Avro RJ Project

z

Yes, Chris, what you describe is the way it's done in sane cities.

And then there's Boston.  This is Huntington Ave. from Google Maps; it's just a few blocks from where I used to live.



In other shots, you can actually see the trams, right in the middle of traffic.  There is no change to the layout of the streets or the tracks at stops.  The stops are marked only by signs on the sidewalk.  This is actually more dangerous than the RTMT stations, as the cars aren't really sure where the tram stops are.  And the pedestrians have to risk life and limb to cross Boston traffic to board and get off the trams.

But that's Boston for you.  ::)

LoneWolfiNTj

First of all, thanks to Chrisim for this fascinating and useful tutorial.
I have a few things to add, though, based on my experiences over
the last few days (as of Dec 24, 2010).

Firstly, there are some non-obvious things that can stop GLR from working.
(You can place stations and rails, but the paths won't connect.)  One of these,
I found the hard way.  I just started using GLR in my SC4 cities a few days ago.
For the first 2 days, I couldn't get any paths to connect.  (In U-Drive-It, the
trains would just go up *to* a station then disappear.)  I tried everything,
to no avail.  In desperation, I tried DLing and adding stuff at random: props,
textures, plugins, etc.  Nothing helped, until I DLed and ran the "SC4BAT"
update (I think I found it on the EA site, if I remember right).  Suddenly my
GLR started working!  Apparently this update is absolutely essential for GLR.

Another thing: most of the instructions say "drag EL rails from GLR rails
through the GLR stations".  But for most stations, this just will not work!
If you try, the cursor turns red and says "unsuitable location to build
network".  I've found that most of the stations I've tried work OK if you
just build rails up *to* the station, provided you then "Save and Exit To
Region" before testing them (with traffic-query arrow or U-Drive-It).
You'll find that the connections then work fine.

Also, I've found that some stations (eg, the Tonkso GLR station, which
I like a lot both for its simple looks and ease of plopping) only work with
puzzle pieces, not dragged rail.  You can use dragged in your system,
but the tiles that touch the station need to be puzzle pieces.  You can
either plop the station and put GLR puzzle pieces up to them (but don't
move cursor over station, or game will CTD and you lose you work, as
Chrisim pointed out!)...  or, MUCH preferred, build all the rails first,
with puzzle pieces on the spots you want the stations, then just plop the
stations right on top of rows of 3 straight puzzle pieces, save and exit
to region, and reenter city.  Easy as pie!  That's my preferred way to build
GLR of the methods I've tried so far.

(Or, you can use mostly dragged GLR, cut holes for stations, plop the
stations in the holes.  But this can cause a whole host of other problems,
such as rails reverting from GLR to EL.  And for some stations, this
approach simply doesn't work.  Personally, I don't like or recommend
this approach.  Though perhaps for some stations it works better than
others.)

Oh, and one last thing: the ground at the ends of GLR stations must be
very level.  If it's even slightly bumpy, the rails won't actually connect.
I've found that on a couple of my stations, nothing worked until I
demolished the station and surrounding rails and flattened the land
with the "Level" tool.  Then the GLR station/rail connections worked.

fatjuice

Hi guys!

The part 7.! about the GLR avenue station - the other stations show just fine and everything works, but when i plop as instructed, the staion doesnt show... ? thankx

Rexregum

 :) Thanks for all the great work in both creating the NAM and explaining how to use it.  I do have one question about intercity connections for TRAM in AVE.  How can I create such a connection?  Currently, at the border of towns I use the avenue tram to subway tool to make the connections.  That is the avenue connects as normal to the other city while the TRAM becomes a subway connects to the other city and then pops back up from subway to tram in the neighboring city.

I have included a map of the old Los Angeles Pacific Electric rail lines, that were GLR in the streets.  When driving in LA you occasionally drive across the old abandoned lines.  These lines were bought and destroyed by the tire and petrol companies in Southern CA.  Sadly the old system is far superior to what we have today in LA.


nannette sarile


art128

Quote from: nannette sarile on November 02, 2015, 05:11:59 AM
Why are the images not available?

That's because image hosting websites either died or deleted all the pictures. Not much we can do except hope for someone's backup..
I'll take a quiet life... A handshake of carbon monoxide.

Props & Texture Catalog

nannette sarile

Quote from: art128 on November 02, 2015, 05:52:56 AM
Quote from: nannette sarile on November 02, 2015, 05:11:59 AM
Why are the images not available?

That's because image hosting websites either died or deleted all the pictures. Not much we can do except hope for someone's backup..

Thanks for the reply!

The last time I checked this tutorial, maybe last week, the images are still available. But upon checking today, all of them are deleted.