i've just had an idea (and it hasnt been tested at all):
(we all know that) with the Reader/SC4tool you can:
chose the tileset content can live in - YES
chose the density that it can grow in - YES
chose the growth stage it will appear - YES
so with the 3 above rules, in theory we should be able to:
- place 3 different sub themes within a single tileset?
(if you place a single theme, into a single density, and control the growth stages).
so, if my theory is correct:
an example:(and chosen randomly)
you could hypothetically use the chicago tileset, and then seperate (for example) Chicago into 3 sub-themes
- W2W - Low
- Paris - Med
- New York - High
then, in New York tileset:
Mediterranean - Low
Middle Eastern - Med
Dutch W2W - High
Houston tileset:
HKABT: - Low
Futuristic - Med
Japanese - High
and so on...
im asking if anybody has tried this, or if some of the game modding experts in the community have tried this and seen it work. if this rule can work, would it not allow for 12 themed tilesets to be inserted into the game side by side?
thank you
This is an interesting idea.
You mean that we do not use the density zoning tool for densities anymore, but just for tilesets? Because growht stages control the densities of the lots that appear we could indeed work without the three densities for our cities. It then is just not possible anymore to keep low densities low: no suburbs next to a skyscraper neighbourhood on one city tile. I guess that all lots on one tile will show lots of more or less the same growht stage.
The idea does work.
Another issue would be switching styles. Say a W2W grew, but now you want a Paris building. This means re-zoning to mid-density. Since your W2W can only be on a low density zone, your rezoning will demolish it.
If you rarely switch building styles, and are very careful about zoning (so, as FrankU mentions, a skyscraper doesn't grow in your suburbs), you should be fine.
More practical to me, set the Min Slope of any lot that you do not want to grow to a very large number. If your various styled lots are all datpacked, this can be a quick thing (Tutorial Link (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=12518.0)).
thanks for replying to that, and i have thought about it a little bit more:
yes, this idea would mean no longer using densities. you would use the densities for sub-tilesets, and rely on growth stages only.
today i thought about a cleaner way to organise it, and what i would do is use the densities as timelines i would happily re-zone tilesets if that is what would be necessary to change the tiles from (for example) a medieval theme to a 19th century W2W.
sub-tilesets used a timeline in this method would allow for you to start a city for example as a medieval city, then evolve it all the way up to a 21st century city, with several detailed layers in between. not having densities is not the end of the world, you would just have to smartly into a decent growth stage..
and with CAM, and 15 stages that would allow for enough of an architectural spread to create a good sense of realism.