NAM Issues Thread - PLEASE POST YOUR NAM QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS HERE

[jondor]

You can actually go see the thread where I developed the mod, prior to my involvement with the NAM team (in fact, that mod got me onto the NAM team  ) --> http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=11430.0

If you look at some of the development shots where I still had the red highways, you can see how ugly they looked.  I'm well aware that highways are traditionally red on maps, but I was limited by the quirks of the game engine, and to be honest it's something of a miracle I got the RHW to show up as well as I did.

It's an optional plugin, so feel free to remove it if you prefer your highways red, or you can have a go at editing it in the reader for your own use.

[b22rian]

You can actually go see the thread where I developed the mod, prior to my involvement with the NAM team (in fact, that mod got me onto the NAM team  ) --> http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=11430.0

If you look at some of the development shots where I still had the red highways, you can see how ugly they looked.  I'm well aware that highways are traditionally red on maps, but I was limited by the quirks of the game engine, and to be honest it's something of a miracle I got the RHW to show up as well as I did.

It's an optional plugin, so feel free to remove it if you prefer your highways red, or you can have a go at editing it in the reader for your own use.

Jondor,

What you did here is fantastic.
Amishish, appreciates the mod a great deal as as I do.
He came into a room I created called "Help Desk" over at simtropolis chat
and had brought this great mod of yours to my attention.
He and/or you guys can correct me if I am wrong here, but the
consistency of the cities transit map within his region, would
be caused by the idea -
.. you first have to enter  each map square before the mod changes
take effect per city.
Is this correct Jondor ?

Thanks, Brian

[z]

.. you first have to enter  each map square before the mod changes
take effect per city.
Is this correct Jondor ?

Yes, except that you actually have to save the city as well.

[jondor]

.. you first have to enter  each map square before the mod changes
take effect per city.
Is this correct Jondor ?

Yes, except that you actually have to save the city as well.

You not only have to enter each city and save it, but you also have to open any of the data views before you save it, presumably to initialize something.  My modified transport map uses the traffic volume data view data to draw out all the car networks, then the regular transport map draws the roads and streets over that.

If you don't open any data views, it paints the traffic volume on top turning all your car networks black.  This is all spelled out in the readme, by the way. 

[b22rian]

Thanks ,

.. both Steve and Jondor for your replies.
I would think both Amishius and I should have
full understanding now of what needs to be initialized
and how the mod works for us.

Regards, Brian

[kassarc16]

Two questions, one has probably been answered in the past, but I'm not sure.

First, I've noticed a problem with the white FLUP-under-Pedmall pieces

As you can see, the tree in the plaza is getting cut off, and I've seen it happen to skyscraper BATs (ironically it refused to display when trying to get a picture). It only seems to happen on the two closest zooms (5-6).

Edit: Caught the building problem, same zooms, all directions.


Secondly, I still notice that StreetxRoad intersections seem to have stop paths for the roads; the road traffic will act like there is a stoplight at the intersection. I brought this up a long while back, but can't remember if it was looked into.

[jdenm8]

Looks like weird S3D settings on either the straight FLUP or the props/buildings mentioned.

[j-dub]

No, it is the FLUP, I had this happen to me with Maxis buildings.

[amishius]

Thanks ,

.. both Steve and Jondor for your replies.
I would think both Amishius and I should have
full understanding now of what needs to be initialized
and how the mod works for us.

Regards, Brian

Indeed- thanks Brian and thanks Jondor and Steve!

I think I can rock it!

[CahosRahneVeloza]

Hey guys, as jdenm8 told me when I asked those questions regarding NAM 30's compatibility with some other mods that I use that they'd still work but might develop compatibility issues, he was right 

First off... Moonlight-san's El-R Facelift Mod....



Wow four pillars! (upper left track of El-R) Now that track SHOULD withstand earthquakes or car crashing on them due to drunk driving 



Woah! Ghost El-R train tracks!

And since I posted this here, may I ask, is that how the first Extended GLR Starter piece (the second one from the left which is what you get on the top level of the starter piece ring when you click on the button for it in misc. transport menu & you do not press TAB) is supposed to look like or am I missing a dependency for the base?

Next up, Under El-Rail Facelift Mod by MIncroabl:



Wow! How can the El-R track be held up by that one pillar on the far left & the pillars of the station at the other end? The trees perhaps?

And last...



If I recall correctly, that prefab custom interchange didn't have that many (dare say I huge) pillars from NAM29. As for this one, if at all a mod is causing that interchange having those pillars I can't tell which mod would be causing that as I tried pulling out moonlight-san's shinkansen & El-R Facelift mods, the under El-R Mod & the Asphalt Maxis highway textures mod, but that interchane still looks like that? I hope it's not the ground heavy rail catenary mod that's doing it

[jdenm8]

That interchange PP has always been a mess of those quite ugly pylons.

I took this screenshot back with NAM 28.



As you can see, the number of pylons hasn't changed.

As for the other questions, I've answered them in a post in the other thread (and I've made multiple edits, it'd be worth refreshing the page for).

[CahosRahneVeloza]

@Jdenm8: So I guess my mind was just playing tricks on me. Anyway, I've started using the RHW now so those Maxis highway interchanges can just sleep tight in the depths of the highway tools menu 

Thank you for being so patient with my questions, I really appreciate it

And oh, too bad "spoiler" tags do not work here as that image I posted is indeed too big & I apologize for that.

[jondor]

For the issue with the ELR pylons and the Draggable GLR extension plugin, it seems that either the T21s were built with bad flip and rotation properties, or they were corrupted at some point.  I've started checking them over and hope to have a patch out sometime tonight.

[ssquicci]

I am not sure if anyone else had this problem, but when I first installed the new NAM, RHW, and NWM and loaded one of my cities, a brick texture came through at all of the one way road and avenue start/on-slope pieces and at intersections created by using puzzle pieces.  Once I removed the Japanese under NAM mod (this may not be the correct name, because I am going from memory as I am not on my computer that has SC4 on it) it was fine.

[CahosRahneVeloza]

I am not sure if anyone else had this problem, but when I first installed the new NAM, RHW, and NWM and loaded one of my cities, a brick texture came through at all of the one way road and avenue start/on-slope pieces and at intersections created by using puzzle pieces.  Once I removed the Japanese under NAM mod (this may not be the correct name, because I am going from memory as I am not on my computer that has SC4 on it) it was fine.

You're probably talking about the Japanes Facelift mod for the NAM Overpasses, or Moonlight-san's El-R Facelift mod as both those add textures other than the green grass under the puzzle pieces.

[Kevin1a]

I'm not sure if it is the new NAM or something else I did that caused my problem. (I did recently add a lot of custom content). 

I had a good size city and commute times were very low.  0.5h or so probably.  All I had was a bus system and a lot of mixed use neighborhoods to encourage pedestrian traffic.  I was using a custom park and ride simulator that gave relatively high preference to "mass transit" and "fastest."  In short, everything was groovy.

Now I know it's a dumb thing to change a simulator in the middle of a city, but all I did was un-check the park and ride.

Are these symptoms synonymous with traffic simulator change, or could my problem lie elsewhere, i.e. parts of old nam still stuck somewhere in my folders.

- Commute times look like a seismograph.  Used to be around 0.5, now jumping back and forward between 8 and 14h though it once made it as high as 35. (that's a long commute)
- Constant distressing and later revitalizing of buildings.
- When I built a new subway line, commute times actually increased! (maybe the fare cost variables and wealth levels created more distress due to commute times?)
- Slow initial development and almost immediate stagnation on a new city started in the same region as a test. (though commute times here were alright, demand was the problem)

I'm not too worried about the city.  It was nice, but most of the work I invested in it was terraforming, so there's no reason I can't blow it up, lay a new grid, and build it even better the second time around.

[z]

Now I know it's a dumb thing to change a simulator in the middle of a city...

This is a common myth.  There's nothing wrong with changing your traffic simulator in the middle of a city (especially if you're working with the NAM traffic simulator); it may just take your city a number of years to adjust to the new traffic patterns.  No long-term damage should result.  Of course, if you do something like reduce the maximum commute time to one minute, the previous assurance does not apply.

...but all I did was un-check the park and ride.

I assume here that you had it on and turned it off.  This will result in a big change in traffic patterns, but it still follows the rule I just mentioned, and you should be fine.  However, turning on Park & Ride in a city that is not prepared for it is one of the few exceptions to this rule - it can cause serious and lasting problems to a city until either Park & Ride is turned off or sufficient parking facilities are built.

- Commute times look like a seismograph.  Used to be around 0.5, now jumping back and forward between 8 and 14h though it once made it as high as 35. (that's a long commute)

The commute time graph is inherently broken, and cannot be fixed by us.  Please ignore it.  The really useful information can be obtained from the Route Query Tool and the Traffic Data Views.

BTW, a long commute in the NAM traffic simulator is 400 minutes, or a commute that involves travel to another city, or a commute that has failed to complete.  For this reason, there are no successful long commutes within a single city - all such commutes are short.

- Constant distressing and later revitalizing of buildings.

Undoing the Park & Ride option is counted as a "major change" by the traffic simulator, so it may take up to eight years for things to settle down after that.  Did you run your city that long?

- When I built a new subway line, commute times actually increased! (maybe the fare cost variables and wealth levels created more distress due to commute times?)

It is a known bug of the commute time graph that increased use of mass transit, even rapid transit, may lead to increased commute times being reported by this graph.  They're bogus.  This is one of the reasons you should ignore this graph.

- Slow initial development and almost immediate stagnation on a new city started in the same region as a test. (though commute times here were alright, demand was the problem)

This would not be related to your Park & Ride change.

[Kevin1a]

Thanks for the quick reply.  I ran it for quite a while, but I'll run it longer to see if it stabilizes.  After things went bad and it didn't adjust quickly I made even more changes thinking that my simulator config was the problem.  I just wish I could turn off the pop ups so it could run without me sitting there clicking OK every ten minutes.

[jacksunny]

So I recently downloaded the diagonal bridge enabler, great mod! However, it doesn't seem to lower the sea level like it says. I have to lower it myself using the setsealevel cheat. Everything else works fine. So what am I doing wrong?

[kassarc16]

So I recently downloaded the diagonal bridge enabler, great mod! However, it doesn't seem to lower the sea level like it says. I have to lower it myself using the setsealevel cheat. Everything else works fine. So what am I doing wrong?

Do you use a terrain mod? I used the Italia mod and it either refused to remove the water or crashed, and that was with an old mod, the Diag Bridges Mod, AND the cheat. Try removing any terrain mod you have; it should be safe as I could still load my cities.