NAM Traffic Simulator Development and Theory

[z]

I'm intrigued by the new views for subway and zones.

These are just the current new views that were introduced in the June NAM; there's just a little extra degree of control over them here.

[Girafe]

It looks like amazing, impatient to try it

[SC4BOY]

So here's the new version of Simulator Z.  I think that RHW users will especially like it - you'll finally get to fill up all those lanes.  Enjoy!

Just used your new simulator dl from your message link. I made no other changes to the city and let it run for some time.. a couple or three years.. The result was a HUGE increase in commute times. My previous version was the one distributed with the NAM (z-medium). I replaced it also with the medium.

[z]

Just used your new simulator dl from your message link. I made no other changes to the city and let it run for some time.. a couple or three years.. The result was a HUGE increase in commute times. My previous version was the one distributed with the NAM (z-medium). I replaced it also with the medium.

First of all, although in percentage terms that's a large increase, the graph shows an increase from a little under two minutes to a little under five minutes.  This is not a long commute.  But still, this could be cause for concern unless you understand the peculiarities of the Commute Time graph.

The following quote is from a post on ST by Tropod, one of the greatest SC4 traffic experts of all time.  It is from August 16, 2004.

About the Commute Graph; ignore it. It serves no real purpose really, especially more so if you have neighbour connections.  The fact that there might be such a low [or high] Commute according to the Commute Graph, is pointless really, as it is by no means accurate nor indicative of the actual Commute Times undertaken by individual Sims. All it is, is a city average.  Also; Mass Transit will typically increase commute times, not decrease it.

A lot of experiments on my part have simply confirmed what Tropod says.  The accuracy of the scale of the commute time graph can vary greatly between traffic simulators, and even using the same simulator, it can vary a lot between cities.  Even within the same city, it will vary over time for reasons that have nothing to do with commute time.  Hence Tropod's advice.  The version of Simulator Z that is distributed with the current NAM is v1.1.1; the version you downloaded is v2.2.  The change in the major version number means that these are essentially different simulators; there were four intermediate releases of Simulator Z between these two.  So commute time graphs between these two versions of Simulator Z simply aren't comparable.

If you thoroughly understand how the commute time graph works (and doesn't work), some useful information can occasionally be obtained from it.  You can find a description of my experiments with it in this post, starting with the paragraph that begins "Ah, commute time."  But there are almost always much better tools available for seeing how your Sims' commute is working.  I have found that the best ones available for this purpose are the Route Query Tool for checking out individual commutes, and the Traffic Data Views and the Traffic Volume Graph for checking out commuting as a whole.  Keep in mind that the Traffic Volume Graph shows number of trips, though, and not commuting time.

[z]

The Simulator Z customization program, tentatively titled the Traffic Simulator Customization Tool, is coming along well.  I should mention what most of you who recognized the "SSP" logo in the previous screenshot of the program have already guessed, which is that the programming of this tool has been done completely by Stefan79 (Stefan Wertich), based on the detailed specs that I gave him.  Stefan is also the author of the SSPTool, which is so useful in creating DAMN menus, and he has been doing his usual fantastic job with this new tool, which is gradually nearing completion.  Without his participation in this project, there is no way it could have come so far at this point.

Meanwhile, I've been working on the documentation for the tool, and I've finished the first draft.  I thought that while Stefan is working on finishing up the tool itself, I could present the documentation here for feedback.  I would like to know first of all what people think of the documentation (Is it complete?  Is it easily understandable? etc.).  Secondly, having read the documentation, do people think that this tool offers everything they want in simulator customization?  I have tried to include all the useful simulator properties that can be changed without harming the traffic simulation.  Specifically, with this new tool it should be possible to emulate the functionality of any of the existing traffic simulators.  In general, the properties that have been left out of this tool are either ones that few people are interested in, or are properties that are set to approximately optimal values, and which will degrade the simulation if they are changed.  (For example, I have not included properties that will always increase abandonment due to commute time when changed, or that will always decrease the desirability of residences or businesses.)  However, which properties these are may not be obvious, so if there's something you'd like to see, please mention it.

I am also most of the through an article entitled "A Guide to the Operation of the Traffic Simulator," which will be posted on the "NAM How-Tos and Tutorials" board when it is finished.  I'll post a notice here when it's done.

So for now, here's the first draft of the User's Guide for the Traffic Simulator Customization Tool.  I have reposted a screenshot of the tool itself at the beginning, so you can easily see to what the guide is referring.  The last two fields mentioned in the guide are not fully implemented, so you won't see them in this screenshot.  Also, in the screenshot the labels for "Freight Truck" and "Train" are reversed; this is being fixed.

Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool

User's Guide

The Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool (TSCT) is a powerful tool for adjusting the configuration of Simulator Z and its associated data views to your liking.  Only those aspects of the simulator that are completely safe for the player to modify are included in the TSCT; if you follow the instructions here, you don't have to worry about unexpected side effects, no matter what settings you use.  Nevertheless, changing the settings available in the TSCT can have a big effect on your game, ranging from changing your city's income or expenses to changing the congestion levels of traffic, which in turn can have many secondary effects.

The TSCT can be used to update your current copy of Simulator Z to the latest version, change your settings in Simulator Z and its associated data views, or switch your traffic simulator to Simulator Z from a different simulator.  Although Simulator Z is generally used with the NAM, it does not require the NAM, so the TSCT can also be used to install Simulator Z and optionally its data views in a game that is not running the NAM.

This User's Guide will describe the procedure of selecting a traffic simulator to modify, how all the fields in the TSCT work on the selected simulator, what effects these various fields have, and the various ways of saving your changes.  It will start with the Base Network Capacity and the Network Capacity Multiplier, which are generally the most heavily used fields in the TSCT.  After that, it will describe the fields in the order in which they appear in the main TSCT window.

Starting the Program

When you first start the TSCT, it tries to find your NAM folder.  If it succeeds, it looks for an existing copy of Simulator Z; if it it finds one, it loads it and displays its settings in the main window.  If it doesn't find an existing copy of Simulator Z in your NAM folder, it displays a message to this effect and loads settings for a standard version of Simulator Z.

If the TSCT can't find your NAM folder when it starts up, it displays a message saying so, and gives you a choice to either look for your NAM folder via a file dialog box, or simply to to start out with a standard version of Simulator Z, which you can modify and then save wherever you want.  The relevant data views will automatically be saved in the same folder as the simulator.

Program Operation

As mentioned above, first the Base Network Capacity and the Network Capacity Multiplier will be described, followed by the other fields starting from the top of the main window.

Base Network Capacity:  If you want to change to one of the other standard capacity versions of Simulator Z, use the drop-down box labeled "Base Network Capacity" to choose the capacity you want.  (This box is located near the left, about two-thirds of the way down the window.)  Capacities range from Classic (the lowest) to Ultra (the highest).  Generally, you would use Classic for rural areas and towns, while Ultra is generally recommended only for cities of many millions of Sims.  The other levels (Low, Medium, and High) provide intermediate capacities; which one of these you choose depends on the size of your city, how much mass transit you have, and how much congestion you're prepared to deal with.  Cities with a lot of mass transit need less network capacity than cities with little mass transit.  Once you make your selection, the network capacities used for that level are displayed in the row of boxes directly above the drop-down box.

You can change you simulator's capacity at any point in your city's development without penalty.  The game must not be running at the time, however.  (This last point applies to all simulator and data view changes.)  If you just want to build big cities and want a capacity that will handle that comfortably without ever having to change it, using the default High capacity should work fine.

Network Capacity Multiplier:  If you want to use a capacity level that is in between the five main levels, or outside the range of these levels, you can use the Network Capacity Multiplier.  This field multiplies the base capacity by the number in the spin box, which may range from 0.1 to 2.0.  If you change the number in the spin box, you will immediately see the network capacity numbers in the row of boxes above this field change accordingly.

For proper operation of the traffic simulator, the proportion of the various network capacities at a given base network capacity is fixed.  However, this proportion varies slightly among the various base capacities, with rails having proportionately higher capacities as the base network capacity increases.  You can use this information along with the Network Capacity Multiplier to create capacity spreads to your liking.

For most capacity levels, the background color in the row of boxes labeled "Capacities" will be green.  However, at higher capacity levels, some boxes will turn yellow, and at even higher capacities, some boxes will turn red.  There is nothing wrong with using these higher capacities, but the different colors are used to signify a warning about the display of the Traffic Volume Data View.  Although the amount of traffic that can flow through a network is effectively unlimited, the Traffic Volume Data View (which shows the traffic for a single commute period) cannot display values higher than 64K - 1 (65,535).  Normally, the Traffic Volume Data View will display up to 300% of the network capacity for a given commute period (which is half of the standard network capacity), at which point it displays solid red.   However, if this 300% number is greater than 64K, the full range of volumes cannot be displayed, and the color range of the Traffic Volume Data View is adjusted so that its maximum is just under 64K.  (This limitation affects the Route Query Tool as well when it is positioned over a network.)  For these situations, the background color of the capacity box in the TSCT program will be shown as yellow.  If the capacities are set so high that even 200% of the network capacity for a commute period (in other words, the full network capacity for a single day) is greater than 64K, then the background color of the capacity box in the TSCT program will be shown as red.  Again, the operation of the game is not affected, as SC4 keeps track of volumes greater than 64K, and even uses them to correctly display the Traffic Congestion Data View; this is simply a limitation on the display in the Traffic Volume Data View and the Route Query Tool.

Mass Transit Usage:  This drop-down box controls the preference of Sims for mass transit over cars.  There are six selections here, including five fixed options that range from Low to Very High.  The Medium selection corresponds to what is typically found in large American cities with fairly comprehensive mass transit systems, while the High selection corresponds to many large European cities with even more comprehensive mass transit systems.  The actual preference of each type of Sim (R$, R$$, and R$$$) for mass transit in each of these five levels is reflected in the grayed-out array of nine boxes to the right of the drop-down box, which changes whenever the selection in the drop-down box is changed.  The first column in this array represents the percentage of Sims who prefer to use mass transit, the second column represents the percentage of Sims who prefer to use cars, and the third column represents the percentage of Sims who prefer to use whichever travel method is fastest.  Note that these are only preferences, and do not specify which travel method the Sims will actually use.  If the travel times for the two methods are close, then the Sims will use the preferred method.  But if one travel method is significantly faster than the other, then the Sims will use that one.

It is also possible to modify the travel method percentages directly by choosing the Custom entry in the drop-down box.  If this is done, then the array is no longer grayed out, and it is possible to change the individual entries in the spin boxes.  Since the entries represent percentages, each row must add up to 100.

Highway Bus Lanes:  This field increases the speed of buses on highways slightly, with the corresponding result that the number of Sims taking buses that travel on highways will also increase.  This is similar to what happens with real-world highway bus lanes.  The automata aren't changed, however, in that cars will still be present in all lanes, although the number of buses should be somewhat greater.  From a visual point of view, you can consider that the bus lanes also allow high occupancy traffic of other types as well.

Park & Ride:  This field changes the way the game works so that cars cannot take the Sims directly to their workplace.  Instead, they are useful only for taking them to parking facilities  where they can either walk the rest of the way to work, or (most usefully) parking facilities where they can take mass transit to work.  In the second case, you need to build such parking facilities near mass transit stations; putting them at the edge of residential zones can be especially useful.  If this option is checked and sufficient parking facilities are not built, the Sims will end up driving all the way to work and then discover that they have no place to leave their car.  As a result, they don't make it to work, they get fired, and they leave town, leaving behind an abandoned residence.

Parking facilities that are included in the models of various buildings generally don't count for the purposes of Park & Ride, because these parking facilities are generally just eye candy.  However, parking facilities that are part of mass transit stations (such as the standard Maxis train station) almost always are functional, and therefore work well in Park & Ride systems.

Monthly Fares per Sim per Tile:   These boxes specify how many simoleons your city collects each time the named travel type passes over a single tile.  These are called "fares" because by default, only mass transit travel types have these set to nonzero values.  By raising or lowering these numbers, you can raise or lower the fares for any travel type.  The Sims don't actually pay the fares; the city just collects them.  This is a limitation of the simulation.  Also, raising or lowering the fares has no effect on the Sims' travel habits.  Instead, it can either be used as a device for generating more revenue for your city's treasury, making the game easier, or for subsidizing the Sims' mass transit use, which generates less revenue for the city and makes the game harder.

This feature works in an interesting way in that the fares for a given travel type are permanently attached to a network tile when it is built.  This means that if you change all the fares and then start up your game, you will find no immediate change in your monthly income.  However, any new network tiles you build will have the new fares attached to them.

This property allows fares to be used in an interesting way.  Suppose you want to build a toll road, but instead of clunky toll booths (they're so 20th century), you want sensors in the road to automatically detect vehicle travel and collect tolls automatically, according to the distance traveled.  Furthermore, you want different tolls for cars, buses, and trucks.  Using this field, this is easy to do.  You set the bus fare to the normal bus fare plus what you want the toll for buses to be, and you set the car and truck fares to what you want their tolls to be.  Then you start the game, build your toll road, save the game, exit, and reset the fares for buses, cars and trucks to what they were before.  Now you have a special toll road in your game that collects the tolls you specify whenever anyone drives over it.  No slowing down of traffic, no traffic jams - just silent toll collection.

There are many other possibilities here.  You can even charge pedestrians to walk on your toll roads.  And you can create toll bridges, toll tunnels, and toll streets, among other things.  You can even create municipal parking lots or garages where the Sims pay the city to park. Just set them one tile back from the road, and connect them with a street or road tile that has its fares set to be the parking costs you want.  You collect both when the Sims enter and when they leave.

Monthly Costs per Network Tile:  These boxes specify how much the city's treasury is charged each month for a single tile of each network type.  Unlike Monthly Fares per Sim per Tile, changes to these costs take effect the next time you start the game.  Normally, these costs are considered maintenance costs.  But they can also be considered to incorporate construction costs as well, especially since construction costs aren't directly available to the traffic simulator.  In reality, governments don't pay cash for large transportation projects; why should your city?  Instead, governments will often issue bonds.  So you can consider that the monthly costs also cover the cost of interest-only bonds that your city has issued to pay for the network.  Since these bonds are interest-only, payments on them continue forever (or at least until the network is demolished).  As with Monthly Fares per Sim per Tile, changes to this field provide a simple way to make the game either easier or more difficult.

Intersection Effect Multiplier:  SC4 simulates the speed reductions caused by stoplights, stop signs, and turning traffic by reducing network capacity at intersections and the two squares approaching them.  This means that at intersections with heavy traffic, congestion will occur and slow down the traffic.  Due to the way the simulator works, it can delay the traffic for no more than about six seconds, which is shorter than any standard stoplight cycle.  However, even to do this much, network capacity has to be reduced to the point where the two squares approaching an intersection show up as red in the Traffic Congestion Data View.  By default, Simulator Z has this effect set so that the maximum delay occurs only at very busy intersections.  Wherever you see all green surrounding an intersection in the Traffic Congestion Data View, traffic is not slowing down at all; there is effectively no traffic control at that intersection.

This field allows you modify the strength of the intersection effect by changing the amount of capacity reduction.  Making the number in this field larger reduces the capacity around intersections further, strengthening this effect; making the number smaller reduces the effect.  The effect can be essentially turned off by reducing the number in this field to .2, which is as low as it will go.  The reason it doesn't go all the way to zero is that there is always some effect in the intersection itself.  It is necessary to keep at least that small effect in order to maintain compatibility with NWM, where many types roads appear to the game to be a continuous series of intersections.

Commute Time Graph Scaling Factor:  Please note:  The Commute Time Graph was not implemented properly in SC4, and as a result, it is impossible to configure it to give consistently correct readings.  Nevertheless, many people like to use this graph, and on occasion, it can provide useful information.

The original Maxis traffic simulator (as well as all versions of SImulators C, D, and E) allowed the Sims a mere six minutes to get from their homes to their jobs.  This obviously seemed awfully short even to Maxis, who multiplied this number by 25 in the original Commute Time Graph.  This ratio of 25:1 is also reflected in places such as the Prima Guide, which claims that the Sims have 2.5 hours to reach their jobs - exactly 25 times six minutes.  You can restore this original factor to the Commute Time Graph display by setting this field to 1.  However, you will get some ridiculously high numbers on your graph, since Simulator Z does not limit commute times to six minutes.

You might expect that to see the actual commute time, you would simply set this scaling factor to 0.04, which is the decimal equivalent of 1/25.  This actually works in small cities that have no neighbors.  There are some anomalies in the way that commute times are computed, though, and these start to show up in larger cities.

The whole picture changes if you have neighboring cities, though.  The average commute time starts increasing in proportion to the amount of traffic you have between cities.  This may sound reasonable in theory, but in practice you can end up with one-way commute times of twelve hours or more, even with a scaling factor of 0.04.

For these reasons, the scaling factor in Simulator Z has been set to 0.015.  This results in commute times that are too short if you have just a small, single city, but it gives commute times that are too long if you have a big city with a large amount of intercity traffic.  For average size cities with an average amount of intercity traffic, it gives commute times that are approximately correct.  You may still see commute times vary greatly from one city to the next, though, even though the two cities may be very similar in everything except the amount of traffic going in and out of them.

In any case, the scaling factor is now available for you to adjust to whatever value seems to make sense to you.  You may still want to adjust it from one city to the next, though, even in the same region.

In general, to get reliable information about the commuting habits of your Sims, the Route Query Tool, Traffic Data Views, and Traffic Volume Graph will be much more helpful than the Commute Time Graph.  (Note that the Traffic Volume Graph shows the number of trips, and not commute times.  Also, Sims who take multiple forms of transportation to get to work will show up in multiple places on this graph.)

Vehicle Air Pollution:  This field specifies the fraction of normal air pollution that vehicles emit when the Clean Air Act is enabled.  Normally, the unmodified Clean Air Act doesn't affect vehicle air pollution at all; even stranger, neither does the Automobile Emission Reduction Act.  Instead, both of these ordinances affect all types of air pollution except vehicle air pollution.  Each of these ordinances reduces all other air pollution by 10%; the effect of these two ordinances is additive.

Some people may have noticed that even in the unmodified Sim City 4, vehicle air pollution can get so bad that you can actually use the air pollution data view to see a street map of your city.  With the addition of custom content that provides the possibility of much denser cities, along with greater traffic higher-capacity traffic simulators to support such cities, this problem only becomes worse.  This is why in Simulator Z, enabling the Clean Air Act reduces vehicle pollution by 60%.

However, you may think that's too much of a reduction. Or, you may want to get rid of vehicle air pollution completely as part of an effort to run a "green" city.  This field allows you to adjust the amount of vehicle air pollution to your liking.  You can drop it all the way down to zero, or you can raise it all the way up to two, giving you twice the vehicle air pollution of the standard game.  This last option can be useful when building cities where pollution controls are unheard of.

Use new Subway View:  Starting with the June 2009 NAM, the Subway View (where you build subways) automatically shows the traffic volume for the subways, using the same colors as the Traffic Volume Data View.  It also shows essentially all subway stations.  This can be helpful in deciding where to build new subway lines.  However, some people may not like this feature.  Unchecking the box in this field turns it off.

Use new Subway Building View:  Starting with the June 2009 NAM, the Subway Building View (where you build subway stations) has been drastically changed.  The biggest change is that in the new Subway Building View, buildings are not displayed, making it easier to place subway stations in high-density sections of your cities.  To return the the original Maxis Subway Building View, uncheck the box in this field.

Display Subway / El Rail / GLR Volume:  This field is available only when Use new Subway Building View is checked; otherwise, it is grayed out.  When this option is checked, the subway, el rail, and GLR volume is shown for those networks, just as it is in the Traffic Volume Data View.

Use new Zones View:  Starting with the June 2009 NAM, the Zones View has been modified to display much more than just the zones.  It now displays what the new Subway Building View displays, except without the rail volume.  To use the original Maxis Zones view, uncheck the box in this field.

Show Subway Lines:  This field modifies the new Zones View; when the Use new Zones View field is unchecked, this field is grayed out.  Normally, subway lines are part of what is shown in the new Zones View.  When the box in this field is unchecked, they are no longer shown.

Show Props:  This field also modifies the new Zones View; when the Use new Zones View field is unchecked, this field is grayed out.  Normally, props are part of what is shown in the new Zones View.  When the box in this field is unchecked, they are no longer shown.

Saving Changes

When you are finished making modifications to your simulator, click the Save button.  The modified simulator will be saved in the same folder from which the original simulator was loaded.  If any of your data views were changed, they will be automatically saved as well.  If you changed the Network Capacity Multiplier from its standard value of 1.0, this will automatically generate new Traffic Volume Data Views, and they will be included in the save.  If there is a standard traffic simulator already in this folder, it will be deleted; if there is a custom simulator (i.e., one created by this program), it will be renamed to have a ".sav" extension, possibly followed by a number.  The same procedure is followed if your Traffic Volume Data View file has been changed.

If you didn't specify a NAM folder or an initial simulator to modify at the beginning, pressing the Save button will bring up a folder dialog box that  will allow you to select a folder in which to save your changed files.  You can also use the Save As  command in the File menu to force the program to allow you to choose a folder to save your changed files.

If you make changes to your simulator and then decide you don't like them, you can click the Reset button.  This will set all fields in the program to what they were when your simulator was loaded or created, or when it was last saved, whichever is more recent.

[CaptCity]

Z,

I think this guide explains the purpose and function of the new tool's settings very well. And it looks like a wonderful tool to have. Can't wait to try it out.

Trying to put myself into the shoes of someone not familiar with simulator configuration (which pretty much means my normal state  ), I think there might be a couple questions. First, the third paragraph in the Network Capacity Multiplier section mentions various numbers and colors. I followed the discussion okay, and you mentioned the limitations of the Traffic Volume Data View and explained what that limitation was. You also mentioned the same limitation affected the Route Query Tool, but I was unsure of the effect. Is this something that needs explained or am I just not getting it (a very real possibility)?

A second observation deals with the "Monthly Cost" and "Monthly Fare" settings. I am assuming that the values displayed upon running the tool the first time will be the game's default settings? I tried to see if it was mentioned, but I didn't see it. I'm thinking that someone who may not want to mess around with the fares may be concerned that the cities' finances will undergo unwanted changes if nothing is done. Letting the reader know that the displayed settings are what is in place currently in the game may help alleviate that concern. Again, maybe it's there and I just missed it.

Well, other than those two things, I think the document covers the bases very well.

[catty]

Have had a quick read before heading off to     will come back and re-read in the morning, but it all seems to make sense

Well done Stefan79 and Z and thank you for your hard work the Traffic Simulator Customization Tool looks like a great addition to the game




EDIT:

Having now re-read it and it still makes sense     you may want to emphasize that if you are using something other than Simulator Z then your settings will be altered to match Simulator Z default settings, I know you say it at the beginning of the user's guide ... maybe bold it or something and perhaps include a extra couple of lines that tells them what those default settings are?

[pierreh]

A quick note from my self-imposed exile, to say how impressed I am with the coming new tool. It will indeed be a great addition to the game, and allow yet more interesting usage of the Simulator. Many thanks to Stefan79 and to z for this excellent work!

(My 'exile'  is used to correct, or alleviate, or prevent from getting worse, the infamous 'eternal commuter' syndrom, which was shown to play a large role in my cities' traffic patterns. I am changing my cities by removing most external connexions, this is a slow process because I am trying to preserve as much of the built-up areas as possible; it is also a quite interesting challenge. Sofar two cities have been modified, the results are mixed, I am working on a third city and I will have 3 more to do. So the exile is bound to last a while longer, but like a famous general, 'I shall return'. Most likely with some questions.)

[tamorr]

   Wow, that is pretty indepth explanation, and what I wanted to see personally... Although there is only a few properties I would only even consider modifying, as I actually like the Euro Medium version... Fares, Pollution, and the Data View stuff would probably be the only things I would truly want to modify. That is all that interests me for the most part. However it is good to see so many options that I could have a possibility to mod with this program.
  I do find this Document to be well laid out and very understandable & clear. At least to me it all is. Then again I kind of think in technical terms in the first place. I like the fact you posed a few examples throughout some of the important sections. That helps even more to visualize what will be affected. So I am happy to say it is a great draft for the upcoming program...
   Thanks to you and Stefan79 for making this possible.

[z]

A Guide to the Operation of the Traffic Simulator is now complete.  A while ago, I said that I would publish a complete description of how the destination finder works.  This explanation forms a section of the guide.

As for the User's Guide for the Traffic Simulator Customization Tool, I want to thank everyone for their comments.  I have some responses:

@CaptCity:  In the sentence that mentions the limitation on the Route Query Tool, I added the phrase "when it is positioned over a network" at the end.  Hopefully, this should clarify things.

A second observation deals with the "Monthly Cost" and "Monthly Fare" settings. I am assuming that the values displayed upon running the tool the first time will be the game's default settings? I tried to see if it was mentioned, but I didn't see it. I'm thinking that someone who may not want to mess around with the fares may be concerned that the cities' finances will undergo unwanted changes if nothing is done. Letting the reader know that the displayed settings are what is in place currently in the game may help alleviate that concern. Again, maybe it's there and I just missed it.

This is an interesting point.  On one hand, I'm assuming that users of this tool have a bit more knowledge of the game in general than most users; otherwise, they probably shouldn't be using a tool such as this.  You're correct that I don't say anything specifically about these fields, but I do refer to the program's using a standard version of Simulator Z elsewhere.  Because of this, I wouldn't think that there would be any reason for users to think that there were any extraneous changes to these fields.  These fields are almost identical to those in the original Maxis simulator, with one exception:  The monthly cost for subway tiles is six times higher.  This difference is documented in the main informational post in the Simulator Z support thread, as well as the NAM Readme files (though the number there may need updating), and as this tool does not change that number, I didn't see a need to restate it here.  But if people think that more elaboration on this point will be helpful, I will add it.

Having now re-read it and it still makes sense     you may want to emphasize that if you are using something other than Simulator Z then your settings will be altered to match Simulator Z default settings, I know you say it at the beginning of the user's guide ... maybe bold it or something and perhaps include a extra couple of lines that tells them what those default settings are?

I think that the settings that are easily understandable are those that show up in this tool, so it should be easy to see at a glance what they are.  The other settings in Simulator Z are much more complicated; this is why I wrote the guide at the beginning of this message.  That guide is so long that it wouldn't fit in a single post, and a major portion of what it describes in Simulator Z is different from what it is in other simulators.  The main thing is that if you use the Simulator Z that is loaded by the tool and modify the things that you want in the way that the instructions specify, you will get something that works quite well.  In fact, almost the only way you can really mess up your city with the tool is if you set the Park & Ride option and then fail to build additional parking facilities.  But this is such an important point that it is mentioned in the main window of the tool itself.  Obviously, if you change the fare and/or network cost fields too drastically, you can cause major problems as well.  But that's really no different from the rest of the game; if you set your tax rates all to zero, you're going to get into trouble too.  And of course the Reset button is there to restore the default settings (assuming you started with the standard simulator) if you get confused about what you've done.

Basically, when dealing with a tool like this, I think that some intelligence on the part of the user has to be assumed.  Part of this means that users need to be smart enough to be careful when using this tool.  But again, much of this goes for the rest of the game as well.  So for these reasons I think the current documentation is sufficient here; I also can't think of a simple way to expand it that would really make it clearer without making it much longer.  And the longer the documentation is, the greater the chance is that people won't read it.  Does this make sense?  If there's something specific that you would suggest I add, I'd be happy to consider it.

[Stefan79]

Hi together,

thank you for your opinions, ideas and "Thanks" of my tool "Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool"!
But I also want to thank Z, who asks me to program this tool and gives me the information about the Simulator.

Although I'm the author of this tool, please post any bugs, etc. to Z's Forum.
Because he knows the Simulator better than me; he finally tells me, if there is something to do.

Regards,
Stefan

[z]

I am happy to report that the first version of the Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool is now finished.  (Thanks, Stefan!  )  This is still a beta version, though.  However, I have tested it fairly thoroughly, and I have found no functional bugs.  Nevertheless, I would appreciate as much additional testing as possible.  If you are willing to test this program, please send me a PM with your email address, and I will email a copy of the program to you.  No commitment for any minimum amount of testing is required, in the same way that downloading the versions of Simulator Z posted in this thread implied no commitment.  However, I would appreciate any feedback you are willing to give, at whatever level of detail you want to supply.  All feedback should be posted in this thread, since this is the development thread.  If you have any interest in traffic customization, I think you will really like this tool, so I encourage you to give it a try.

[daeley]

looks like a nice program although I'd prefer it in System or Nimbus Look-and-feel. I personally dislike the old Metal Look-and-feel, it's getting a bit old.

edit: this is Windows Vista (System) look&feel

looks pretty nice, only a pity that some things are misaligned

Nimbus (Cross-platform) Look&Feel doesn't really work

which is a pity as I like this one more than Metal if you want a cross-platform L&F

but I guess I'm just nitpicking... the visuals are probably less important than the functionality

[z]

looks pretty nice, only a pity that some things are misaligned

Which things do you think are misaligned?  That type of thing is easily corrected.

[RickD]

I did only a brief test of the tool yesterday. But the first issue I noticed was that it did not find my traffic simulator file because it was located in the Plugins Subfolder and not in the NAM root folder.

[z]

The tool doesn't search your whole Plugins hierarchy for traffic simulators; doing that thoroughly in a way where it would be guaranteed to find your active one is a bit complex, and the vast majority of people leave their traffic simulator in the NAM folder.  (Such a search feature could be added if there's enough demand for it, though.)  However, the tool should have popped up a folder dialog box allowing you to navigate to your simulator's folder, which the TSCT would then remember after the first time.  Did it do that?

[RickD]

No, there was only a message box telling me that no traffic simulator file was found and standard values would be loaded.

[z]

I see the problem now.  You get the folder dialog box if the program can't find your NAM folder.  If it finds it, it assumes the simulator is in there.  If it's not, the program does what you saw.  Instead, it needs to put up a folder dialog box.  I'll pass this along to Stefan.  Thanks for the report!

[Jack_wilds]

SC4 Traffic Simulator Tool

Hello Z, Jack wilds here...

About the only thing to say beyond the TSCP-UI is the pop-up asking  where the NAM folder is and not apparently remembering it... my thoughts about TSCP seem to center around the UI at the moment... something for thought at any-rate... also is there a way of getting the 'TSCP-Readme' thats better that cut and paste...

Mass Transit Usage section:

'Mass Transit Usage' to be the main title of MTU section
title in blue, sized the same as existing text on the drop down box
everything directly related to the MTU section in common box and framed together

mass transit usage drop down box:

renamed: Transit Use Level, Degree of Use or similar,
same font size as other text, color black
Place 'options' check boxes under drop down box a little better, so the options appear to be with/to/for Transit Level

custom box:
rename 'custom options' or 'custom configurations'
cause the 'box' to highlight when drop down box custom option chosen grayed when its not; not just the data fields -doable?

Monthly Fares per Sim per Tile section:

Is this part of the MTU section or can it be considered independent of MTU
Re-title section, Transit Costs or User Fees or similar
explanation in text inside box
the fares to the Sims can also be considered 'Sim-taxes', Sim tolls, fares, Sim User Fees -SUF

Monthly Costs per Network Tile/Network Traffics Capacities: section
consider renaming section to 'Network Capacities', in blue sized same as the existing blue text on the drop downs, explanation inside section (existing title) below new title

Base Network Capacity -BNC, drop down box: title sized/colored same as other text, possible rename 'Basic Capacities',

Data View section:

Title recolored/sized same as the other section titles, realign so check boxes same margin/alignment, sort to rank and function

OVERALL UI assessment:

looks good, horizontal alignment, and data fields in good places however vertical alignment and data grouping needs some refinement

decent separation of use and function however needs further simplification, simpler titles for sections, refine rank order of use and function,

is base network capacity and Sim-costs related directly... perhaps maybe separate if its indirectly related to Sim-costs

number boxes resize or numerals centered or margin bigger so the numbers can be read better within their respective data fields

overall I think its functional, just needs some refining for simpler use, quick easier to 'intuitively' use 
As stated before, just thoughts... don't want to be not out line

Jack 

[z]

Thanks, Jack, for your testing and extensive report!

First, to answer some points and questions that you raised:

About the only thing to say beyond the TSCP-UI is the pop-up asking  where the NAM folder is and not apparently remembering it...

Could you be more specific here?  I just verified that I can move NAM folder around arbitrarily, and once I tell the program where it is, it remembers, including across sessions.

also is there a way of getting the 'TSCP-Readme' thats better that cut and paste...

The current Readme setup is just temporary.  The final Readme will contain information for the TSCT, the traffic simulator, and the data views, and will be in a more traditional style.  It will also exist as a separate HTML file in the zip archive.

The Monthly Fares per Sim per Tile section is independent of the Mass Transit Usage section; I think that visually it appears that way as well.

As for your other suggestions, we will certainly consider them.  A key question here is:  How many other people think that these would be good changes to make?  If enough people think that a given change would improve the program, we will definitely do it.  The UI has not changed much since the screenshots I displayed on the last page, so even people who aren't testing the program can decide what they think.

Thanks again for your time and feedback.