God didn't make the earth flat.

[Dreamcat]

Kind of an odd request here, but I think the main problem with my cities is that they're very very flat.

No hills whatsoever.

So can somebody help me overcome that problem, somehow?  What's the best way to make rolling hills and mountains?  SC4 Terraformer, or summat?  Well, I already have a region picked out, I just want it not to be so...flat.

Also, where are lore hills and mountains usually located, like, mostly out in the farmlands?  Or are there any hills in, say, metropolises or suburbs?

[Diggis]

SC4 Terraformer is your best bet, it's on the LEX and allows you to terraform your whole region at once.  Alternatlivly, you could find a PreMade map off the LEX too.  NHP have done some good ones.

Finally, Mountains are where you put them.    Plenty of large cities are built into hillsides although it is more common to find them in River Deltas and harbours due to transport links.

[joelyboy911]

If you're thinking about city building, you can see that it makes sense that most major world cities are built next to waterways, mostly the ocean, where ports can be built due to the necessity for trade and commerce. In cases where there are deepwater ports, often there are mountainous areas near the coast (makes sense, right? steep underwater, steep above the water), therefore some cities like San Francisco, California and Wellington, New Zealand, are built into fairly hilly areas. However, many major cities are bult in flat, inland areas on fertile plains where they are centres for agricultural regions, examples of this are anywhere in the American Midwest (other places as well of course) many of these are on rivers, for obvious reasons. Other cities are built on flat land near the coast, and some are near no waterways at all. There aren't many cities in mountains ranges, but there are some.

In short, you can put a city anywhere, but in simcity, flat is easy, but hilly can be more fun.

The terraformer is good, but can't run on vista. The maps made from real life terrain information by Blade2k5 are really good too, and there are a huge number of them on the STEX and LEX. You need the SC4Mapper to use them (Its on the LEX too). It is also a tool for making your own maps by making a greyscale image of the terrain you want and importing it to the games map form.

To use terraformer or mapper, you will have to start a new region, but you can of course add hills to existing cities the old fashioned way, with the god mode terrain tools. 

[ponnie]

The terraformer is good, but can't run on vista.

Terraformer works fine for me, and my machine runs on Vista. I can't remember if I made any changes to it, but you can always check out its thread here at the forums.

[joelyboy911]

Hmmm.... I'm not concerned at the moment, as I have a map I am very happy with (see my MD for more info), but that is very interesting. I'll need to find out more.

[FrankU]

WHAT's WRONG WITH FLAT MAPS? (feeling insulted)

I live in a country that's almost completely flat!

Well, the differences in heigth, that are in fact important, are so small that you cannot reproduce them in SC4.
So I usually play with flat maps. It's easy. On the other hand I can see that, if you live in a hilly country, you would think that flat areas are boring.

[ponnie]

WHAT's WRONG WITH FLAT MAPS? (feeling insulted)

I live in a country that's almost completely flat!

Hi there, fellow Dutchman,

I'm glad you put the 'almost' in that sentence. Keeps me from being insulted  .

[Diggis]

Seeing as there is only 327m of difference between your highest and lowest points, and that 6 of those are below sea level, I'd say you're pretty flat 

[Nardo69]

Well, Diggis ...

The village I grew up is appr. 280m high, my University (Karlsruhe) 114m - I studied civil engineering and after 12 months of geodatic exercises in and around the University I guess I never forget that height!    -

The highest Point of the bycicle route from my parents house to Karlsruhe was appr. 310m. So there are appr. 200m heigt distance on  distance of 25 km. If you ever did such a bike trail (when I was young and pretty I did this 1-4 times a week, but today I an only pretty) you would never say 200m height difference is flat ...

OK, Karlsruhe is flat as it lies in the Upper Rhine Valley which IS flat. But the area to its left and right is rather hilly (though not high enough for real mountains ... )

[Diggis]

So you are saying all the hills are in the same place and the rest of the country is flat? 

Checked wiki, highest point is 322.3m above sea level and lowest is 6.7 so that gives you 329m of difference.

[WC_EEND]

So you are saying all the hills are in the same place and the rest of the country is flat? 

Checked wiki, highest point is 322.3m above sea level and lowest is 6.7 so that gives you 329m of difference.

Pretty much like Belgium then , most of the hills are in the same place (south-east) and aren't actually that high (highest is 622m)

[Nardo69]

I am just saying that 200-300m of a height difference (z ordinate) can be flat or steep depending on the distance between them (x+y ordinate) - and you can feel it, especially if it is less than 100m per 10 km and if you go by bike from the lower to the higher point ... 

[ponnie]

I am just saying that 200-300m of a height difference (z ordinate) can be flat or steep depending on the distance between them (x+y ordinate) - and you can feel it, especially if it is less than 100m per 10 km and if you go by bike from the lower to the higher point ... 

And since our climate is pretty crappy, it's usually raining and windy when going up a hill. Heck, it feels like Everest sometimes .

[Dreamcat]

ANYWAY BACK TO THE TOPIC!!!!!

Listen, dudes...I'm fine with flat places.  But completely smooth/uninterrupted places just get my goat.

I don't really want to download a new map, I have something awesome here, just a little flat.

Is there anybody here or is there anywhere I could find somebody to make a few adjustments to this map?  Basically just a few mountains and hills and uneven ground here and there.

[Diggis]

Mate, SC4 has some pretty good tools built in, and the terraformer is worth a look. No need to get someone else to do it for you.

[SC4BOY]

Your best bet is to do your own terraforming if you have some special objective (ie looking like a certain place or fitting into some idea you have) .. But there also a TON of pretty darn nice maps ranging from gentle rolling hills along a waterway all the way to giant mountains. Take a look at some of the NHP maps.. but there also are many others that should suit your fancy..